From Mindhacks.com………

DSM-V bun fight in full swing
by Vaughan.
Posted at June 30, 2009 08:00 AM

The arguments over the forthcoming revision of the psychiatrists’ diagnostic manual, the DSM-V, have just been heated up again by an unusually acerbic response from the American Psychiatric Association attacking their main critic.The article that condemns the new diagnostic manual committee by ex-DSM chairman Allen Francis’ has just been officially published, alongside an interview where he furthers his damning criticism.

The American Psychiatric Association has apparently written a response which seems to have been leaked online, and it contains some robust responses to Francis’ points as well as a surprising ad hominem attack – suggesting he is motivated by losing money after the DSM-IV goes out of print.The APA makes some good replies to the main criticisms, defending their record of openness, their reliance on the scientific data and their proposed changes to the diagnostic process based on current best practice, but the final paragraph is quite suprising:

Both Dr. Frances and Dr. Spitzer have more than a personal “pride of authorship” interest in preserving the DSM-IV and its related case book and study products. Both continue to receive royalties on DSM-IV associated products. The fact that Dr. Frances was informed at the APA Annual Meeting last month that subsequent editions of his DSM-IV associated products would cease when the new edition is finalized, should be considered when evaluating his critique and its timing.

This line of criticism is perhaps most surprising for the fact that, as recently reported in USA Today, 68% of the DSM-V committee report financial ties with drug companies. While the committee rules require that members cannot receive more than $10,000 in drug company payments while at work on the DSM, I can’t help but thinking that they are better off not opening the Pandora’s box of conflict-of-interest criticisms.
Link to Frances article in Psychiatric Times.

Link to Frances interview in Psychiatric Times.

Link to leaked alleged APA response (via Carlat blog).

Coming Soon to a Store Near You: Mind Control – washingtonpost.com

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Blade MCX – My New Toy

My New Toy, The eflite Blade mCX. Bought it at RC Country last week. Plan on checking out Sacramento Valley Rotory Wings (SVRW), Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA), and possibly joining both. I want to get into the outdoor heli like the eflite Blade 400.

BBBike @ World – A Route Planner for Cyclists

BBBike @ World – A Route Planner for Cyclists
BBBike is a route planner for cyclists in Berlin. It is now ported to other cities around the world – thanks to the OpenStreetMap project!

“I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered! My life is my own.”

–No.6; Arrival

• Sleep Disorders: Warning Sign For Neurodegenerative Disease?

  People with a sleep disorder that causes them to kick or cry out during their sleep may be at greater risk of developing dementia or Parkinson’s disease, according to a  new study.

  ScienceDaily: Mind & Brain News / Wed, 24 Dec 2008 05:00:00 GMT

• Seven Personality Types Who Are Most Likely To Help Sick-listed Employees Back To Work

  Scientists have studied which leadership qualities could help employees return from sick leave early. Being considerate, understanding and able to maintain contact with the sick-listed are the most important leadership qualities, according to the study.

  ScienceDaily: Mind & Brain News / Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:00:00 GMT

• Societal, Economic Burden Of Insomnia Is High

  The indirect costs of untreated insomnia are significantly greater than the direct costs associated with its treatment. The study estimates that the total annual cost of insomnia in the province of Quebec is 6.5 billion Canadian dollars, representing about one percent of the province’s $228.5 billion in gross domestic product for 2002. The largest proportions of all insomnia-related expenses are attributed to lost job productivity, absences from work and alcohol used as a sleep aid.

  ScienceDaily: Mind & Brain News / Thu, 01 Jan 2009 05:00:00 GMT

• Dan Walters: New approach needed to aid poor students

  “The analyst’s report proposes an overhaul of ED mitigation programs that would simplify them and redirect resources into those underlying reasons ED students do so poorly in school and concentrating them on the students truly at risk of failure.”

  “For example,” the report says, “a school district might receive significantly less funding for a student who is an English learner from an educated two-parent household living in a relatively safe suburb than a school district would receive for an English learner student living in a dangerous neighborhood who has one parent absent and one parent with a low level of education.”

  “It makes a lot of sense. Why aren’t we doing it?“

  SacBee — Dan Walters column / Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:00:00 GMT

• Honey Bees On Cocaine Dance More, Changing Ideas About The Insect Brain
  In a study that challenges current ideas about the insect brain, researchers have found that honey bees on cocaine tend to exaggerate.
  ScienceDaily: Mind & Brain News / Fri, 26 Dec 2008 01:00:00 GMT

• 6-Year-Old Says Grand Theft Auto Taught Him To Drive

  nandemoari writes “A six-year-old who recently stole his parents’ car and drove it into a utility pole has passed the buck onto a familiar scapegoat: the video game, Grand Theft Auto. Rockstar Games’ controversial Grand Theft Auto video game has been criticized by parent groups and crusaders (or in the eyes of gamers, nincompoops) like former lawyer Jack Thompson for years (Thompson once tried to link the Virginia Tech slayings to late-night Counterstrike sessions. He’s since been disbarred). However, not as of yet has anyone under the age of, oh, ten, blamed the game for a car theft.”

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

• Spiraling Magnetic Signal Shows Up In the Cosmic Background

  pln2bz writes “Astronomers looking for confirmation for emissions from early stellar formation in the cosmic microwave background radiation instead found a signal indicating large amounts of unaccounted-for spiraling magnetic fields in space, but without any accompanying infrared emissions. The discovery possibly dredges up the claims of plasma cosmologists like Eric Lerner, who claim that the intergalactic medium is a strong absorber of the CMB with the absorption occurring in a fog of narrow filaments. These filaments are the result of plasma’s natural tendency, as observed within the plasma laboratory and in novelty plasma globes, to form braided, ropelike structures which are collimated by coiled magnetic fields.”

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

• Phishing Is a Minimum-Wage Job

  rohitm918 writes “A study by Microsoft Research concludes that phishers make very little (PDF): ‘…low-skill jobs pay like low-skill jobs, whether the activity is legal or not.’ They also find that the Gartner numbers that everyone quotes ($3.2B/year etc) are rubbish, off by a factor of 50. ‘Even though it harvests “free money,” phishing generates total revenue equal to the total costs incurred by the actors. Each participant earns, on average, only as much as he would have made in the opportunities he gave up elsewhere. As the total phishing effort increases the total phishing revenue declines: the harder individual phishers try the worse their collective situation gets. As a consequence, increasing effort is a sign of failure rather than of success.’”

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

• CRS on Climate Change
  Secrecy News from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
  Federation of American Scientists

  As a matter of policy, the Congressional Research Service does not make its products directly available to the public.  Recent reports from CRS on climate change and related topics obtained by Secrecy News include these (all pdf).

  “Global Climate Change: Three Policy Perspectives,” updated November 26, 2008.

  “Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Perspectives on the Top 20 Emitters and Developed Versus Developing Nations,” updated November 28, 2008.

  “Climate Change: Design Approaches for a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Program,” updated November 24, 2008.

  “Climate Change and the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS): Kyoto and Beyond,” updated November 24, 2008.

  “Are Carbon Dioxide Emissions Rising More Rapidly Than Expected?,” October 17, 2008.

  “Capturing CO2 from Coal-Fired Power Plants: Challenges for a Comprehensive Strategy,” August 15, 2008.

  “The Carbon Cycle: Implications for Climate Change and Congress,” updated March 13, 2008.

  “Climate Change: Federal Laws and Policies Related to Greenhouse Gas Reductions,” updated January 28, 2008.

  “U.S. Global Climate Change Policy: Evolving Views on Cost, Competitiveness, and Comprehensiveness,” updated January 28, 2008.

  Bookmark It
  

Californian Latest To File Potential Class-Action Set-Top Suit
Suit Challenges Comcast’s Equipment Rental Arrangement
By Linda Haugsted — Multichannel News, 12/24/2008
©2008 Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

excerpt….

The suits note that premium video and the set-top descramblers are two distinct products, yet the cable providers require that the hardware be rented from cable companies, rather than permitting consumers to purchase the set-top hardware in the open market.

Owing to such tying arrangements, “In a matter of months, the rental fees that the class is supposed to pay for the cable boxes … greatly exceeds their worth,” according to the California suit. The charges add up quickly if a consumer has multiple sets in the home hooked up to premium services, the suit notes.

The lawsuit also duns Comcast for touting the rental of cable boxes over the use of the CableCARD, the latter of which is to take the place of set-top hardware. Even is a consumer decides to get a CableCARD to plug into a digital set, that hardware must be rented from Comcast, too, according to the suit.