...The bleakness of this thought process helps explain why, according to the Yale psychologist Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, people with “ruminative tendencies” are more likely to become depressed. They’re also more likely to become unnerved by stressful events: for instance, Nolen-Hoeksema found that residents of San Francisco who self-identified as ruminators showed significantly more depressive symptoms after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. And then there are the cognitive deficits. Because rumination hijacks the stream of consciousness — we become exquisitely attentive to our pain — numerous studies have found that depressed subjects struggle to think about anything else, just like Wallace’s character. The end result is poor performance on tests for memory and executive function, especially when the task involves lots of information. (These deficits disappear when test subjects are first distracted from their depression and thus better able to focus on the exercise.) Such research has reinforced the view that rumination is a useless kind of pessimism, a perfect waste of mental energy. [more]
On Language: Webinar
Lewis Carroll famously called blends like Webinar “portmanteau” words because they’re two words packed into one. (A portmanteau was essentially a suitcase with two compartments folded together.) Carroll made up several such words for his poem “Jabberwocky” (1871), including chortle (chuckle + snort) and galumph (gallop + triumph). Chortle has stayed with us, while galumph appears to have gone the way of gyre and gimble. Why? Because chortle is so handy and so onomatopoeically evocative (think of the laugh of a portly chum). [more]
Justice Dept. Reveals More Missing E-Mail Files
...But it discovered that many e-mail messages to and from John C. Yoo, who wrote the bulk of the legal opinions for the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, were missing. The office disclosed the missing messages in a footnote to its final report, which was released last week.
“We were told that most of Yoo’s e-mail records had been deleted and were not recoverable,” officials from the Office of Professional Responsibility said in the footnote. .... [more] (I've mentioned this before, but I believe it bears mentioning again: Is this how you would set up the email system for the Justice Dept.?)
Why Psychiatry Needs Therapy
So in DSM-III there was a lot of horse-trading. The biologically oriented young Turks got a depression diagnosis—major depression—that was divorced from what they considered the psychoanalytic mumbo-jumbo. And the waning but still substantial number of analysts got a diagnosis—dysthymia—that sounded like their beloved "neurotic depression," that had been the mainstay of psychoanalytic practice. Psychiatry ended up with two brand-new depression diagnoses with criteria so broad that huge numbers of people could qualify for them. [more]
'529' Plans: Why So Many Flunk Out
...Inherently, saving for college is challenging because we only have a fixed number of years before the bill is due. So no matter how disciplined we are, timing and luck will play a big role. But that often is ignored by investment firms and state and federal policy makers, who have pushed 529 plans as the answer to soaring tuition costs.[more] (My new college savings plan is my life insurance.)
Rogers Quits White House Post
... A senior administration official said Friday that Democratic fundraiser Julianna Smoot, a veteran campaign operative who helped Mr. Obama build a grassroots contributions juggernaut, was the leading contender to succeed Ms. Rogers.Ms. Rogers's job was to work with First Lady Michelle Obama and the East Wing staff to organize every social event at the White House, including state dinners and birthday parties. [more]
(Frankly, I knew she was doomed from the time I saw this picture in November 09 Vanity Fair magazine and learned that Ms. Rogers has two Hermes notebooks, each one worth more than my car. That level of conspicuous consumption in the White House, or any public post won't be tolerated.)
London Sips a Different Cup
The championship made Mr. Davies something of a cult figure, and he’s using that notoriety to champion other accomplished baristas around town by offering the mischievously named Dis-loyalty Card: get coffee at eight different establishments he admires, and he’ll make the ninth drink for free at his nameless pushcart at the Whitecross Street Market (whitecrossstreet.co.uk). [more]
Hey, Waiter! Just How Much Extra Do You Really Expect?
... Yes, I know you’re all underpaid. But guess what? So am I. When I get $500 for an article that I think is worth $1,000, you won’t see me e-mail the editor, saying, “Just so you know, service isn’t included.” Do I ask you to come into my workplace and supplement my meager income? No, I don’t. [more]
The Free-Appropriation Writer
Maybe that’s one reason for the flurry of attention recently about a teenage German novelist, Helene Hegemann, whose book about Berlin’s club scene was named a finalist for a prestigious literary prize to be awarded next month in Leipzig. After a blogger and fellow novelist announced that Ms. Hegemann had blended sizeable chunks of his own writing into hers, Ms. Hegemann, instead of following the plagiarism-gotcha script of contrition and retraction so familiar in recent years, announced that appropriating the passages from that book and other sources was her plan all along. [more]
