Author Archives: Jeff Porten

  • Melody Joy Kramer:
    What is a good visual that illustrates common but woefully misguided advice on how to communicate science?

any 10% of brain demo.

  • Bob Lannon:
    it must be a special kind of hell when you’re the word “semantic” and you’ve begun to lose all meaning and reference.

Literally says, “join the club.”

PA: “The mentally ill? Fuck ’em.”

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Apparently, if I go without tweeting for a few months and my last Foursquare check-in was in Philadelphia, I’d appreciate if someone could pick up the phone and ring Pennsylvania:

An investigation by the Department of Justice found that a Pennsylvania state prison had been unconstitutionally holding inmates with serious mental illness in solitary confinement for months or years at a time. The practice, which has been deemed torture, cruel and unusual, and worse than being held hostage in Iran, involves holding prisoners in isolation for 23 hours a day in a small, often windowless cell with a steel door.

I’d be curious to know what the criteria are for tossing somebody into a locked room and throwing away the room. Somehow, it’s interesting if you actually need to have a transient psychotic break before you’re put in isolation for decades, or if a simple history of mental illness is enough for them to pro-actively put you in isolation for decades.

Probably doesn’t make a whole lot of difference: I’ve personally never had a transient psychotic break, but if I were going to guess my most likely place to have my first, it’s after I’ve been cut off from meds and treatment and thrown into a prison.

One thing does stand out: the DOJ is criticized for “warehousing” prisoners. That’s not a fair accusation. A warehouse is a place where you spend a lot of money because you want a high chance of keeping your stuff in good shape.

Suggested edit: “landfilling” prisoners.

How Singing With Others Changes Your Life

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Fun NPR interview on Talk of the Nation. Direct MP3 download link.

When writer Stacy Horn was 26 years old, she was divorced and miserable. So she decided to audition for the Choral Society of Grace Church in New York. Horn made the cut and joined the community choir as a soprano.

She chronicles her 30 years with the group in a new memoir, Imperfect Harmony: Finding Happiness in Singing With Others. She talks with NPR’s Ari Shapiro about how singing made her life more bearable.

Daniel Levitin, psychology professor at McGill University, and author of This Is Your Brain on Music, joins the conversation to explain the science of group singing.

“@BoobsRadley: STAN RIZZO TOPLESS OH MY GOD OH MY GOD” // Don’t know who this is, but probably better than Frank Rizzo.

  • Jesse Spector:
    I see they’ve re-numbered some of the gates at JFK. That’s not even lipstick on a pig. More like mascara on a dung beetle.

Well, it’s NYC. Always better to keep your metaphors kosher.