Hazy Recall as a Signal Foretelling Depression

The task given to participants in an Oxford University depression study sounds straightforward. After investigators read them a cue word, they have 30 seconds to recount a single specific memory, meaning an event that lasted less than one day. 

Cues may be positive (“loved”), negative (“heartless”) or neutral (“green”). For “rejected,” one participant answered, “A few weeks ago, I had a meeting with my boss, and my ideas were rejected.” Another said, “My brothers are always talking about going on holiday without me.” 

The second answer was wrong — it is not specific, and it refers to something that took place on several occasions. But in studies under way at Oxford and elsewhere, scientists are looking to such failures to gain new insights into the diagnosis and treatment of depression. They are focusing not on what people remember, but how. 

The phenomenon is called overgeneral memory, a tendency to recall past events in a broad, vague manner. “It’s an unsung vulnerability factor for unhelpful reactions when things go wrong in life,” said Mark Williams, the clinical psychologist who has been leading the Oxford studies. 

Some forgetting is essential for healthy functioning — “If you’re trying to remember where you parked the car at the supermarket, it would be disastrous if all other times you parked the car at the supermarket came to mind,” said Martin Conway, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Leeds in England. But, a chronic tendency to obliterate details has been linked to longer and more intense episodes of depression.

Now researchers at Oxford, Northwestern University in Illinois and other universities are conducting studies with thousands of teenagers to determine whether those with overgeneral memory are more likely to develop depression later on. If so, then a seemingly innocuous quirk of memory could help foretell whether someone will experience mental illness. 

“Based on everything we know of memory specificity and depression, there’s a good chance we will find these effects,” said Dirk Hermans, a research psychologist at the University of Leuven in Belgium who collaborates with Dr. Williams.

There are already some clues in this direction. In lab experiments Dr. Williams has induced an overgeneral style in subjects by coaching them to recall types of events (“when I drive to work”) rather than specific occasions (“when I drove to work last Saturday”). He found they were suddenly less able to solve problems, suggesting that overgeneral memory is capable of producing one symptom of depression.

And an unusual paper suggests that overgeneral memory is a risk factor for post-traumatic stress disorder. Scientists at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, assessed 46 firefighters during their initial training and again four years later, when all had experienced traumatic events like seeing comrades injured or killed. Those who could not recall the past in specific detail during the first assessment were much likelier to have developed the disorder by the later one. 

“People with P.T.S.D. tend to ruminate at a very categorical, general level about how unsafe life is, or how weak I am, or how guilty I am,” said the lead author, Richard Bryant. “If I do that habitually and then I walk into a trauma, probably I’m going to be resorting to that way of thinking and it’s going to set me up for developing P.T.S.D.”

Dr. Williams stumbled across overgeneral memory by chance in the 1980s. He had asked research subjects to write down the memories elicited by certain cues, and when they left the page blank he thought he had given unclear instructions. Soon he began to wonder about the significance of the omissions.

Usually people seeking a particular memory traverse a mental hierarchy, Dr. Williams said. They begin by focusing on a general description (“playing ball with my brother”) and then narrow the search to a specific event (“last Thanksgiving”). Some people stop searching at the level of generality, however and are probably not conscious of having done so. 

This is sometimes a helpful response, which is perhaps why overgeneral memory exists in the first place — it can be a useful way to block particular traumatic or painful memories. Researchers at Leuven discovered that students who did poorly on exams and were more specific took longer to recover from the disappointment than those who were more general. The overgeneral students thought less about the details of what happened and so fared better, at least in the short term.

Similarly, overgenerality has been found to be prevalent in Bosnian and Serbian teenagers exposed to the traumas of war. “Some people will discover at a certain stage that being overgeneral is a way of dampening emotional effects,” Dr. Hermans said.

But these researchers say problems can arise when overgenerality becomes an inflexible, blanket style.

Without detailed memories to draw upon, dispelling a black mood can seem impossible. Patients may remember once having felt happy, but cannot recall specific things that contributed to their happiness, like visiting friends or a favorite restaurant. 

“If you’re unhappy and you want to be happy, it’s helpful to have memories that you can navigate through to come up with specific solutions,” Dr. Williams said. “It’s like a safety net.”

Some experts think such insights could also be helpful in treating depression. For example, Spanish researchers have reported that aging patients showed fewer symptoms of depression and hopelessness after they practiced techniques for retrieving detailed memories.

“When we have a disorder like depression, which is so common and so disabling for so many people, we need to increase the tools in our tool kit,” said Susan Mineka, a clinical psychologist working on a study by Northwestern University and the University of California, Los Angeles, that is testing for depression and anxiety risk factors, including overgeneral memory. “If we could change their overgeneral memory, maybe that would help even more people stay better for longer.” 

Dr. Williams has found that specificity can be increased with training in mindfulness, a form of meditation increasingly popular in combating some types of depression. Subjects are taught to focus on moment-to-moment experiences and to accept their negative thoughts rather than trying to avoid them. It may help by making people more tolerant of negative memories and short-circuit the impulse to escape them, which can lead to overgenerality. 

Meditation means that for some, the past is no longer such a heavy burden.

“I always tried to forget the past, the very bad past that made me depressed when my husband died,” said Carol Cattley, 76, who attended a mindfulness course here taught by Dr. Williams. “I’m much more interested in it now.” 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/health/research/10depression.html?_r=2&hpw

Catholic Church Blames "Society" For Sexually Abusive Priests (such a crock)

A study commissioned by Roman Catholic bishops ties abuse by Roman Catholic priests in the U.S. to the sexual revolution, not celibacy or homosexuality, and says it's been largely resolved. The findings are already under attack.

Sister Mary Ann Walsh, Karen Terry of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and Bishop Blase Cupich, from left, take part in a Washington news conference releasing the findings of a study on clergy sex abuse. 

Sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests in the United States is a "historical problem" that has largely been resolved and that never had any significant correlation with either celibacy or homosexuality, according to an independent report commissioned by Catholic bishops — and subjected to fierce attack even before its release on Wednesday.

The report blamed the sexual revolution for a rise in sexual abuse by priests, saying that Catholic clerics were swept up by a tide of "deviant" behavior that became more socially acceptable in the 1960s and '70s.

As that subsided, and as the church instituted reforms in the 1990s and 2000s, the problem of priests acting as sexual predators sharply declined, according to the study by John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

"The abuse is a result of a complex interaction of factors," said Karen Terry, a John Jay criminal justice professor who led the research team. One major factor, she said at a news conference in Washington, was social turmoil in the 1960s and '70s that led some priests "who had some vulnerabilities" to commit child sexual abuse. She said Catholic seminaries had done a poor job of preparing priests "to live a life of chaste celibacy," as their vows demanded.

The report found no evidence, however, that celibacy itself contributed to sexual abuse. "Given the continuous requirement of priestly celibacy over time, it is not clear why the commitment to or state of celibate chastity should be seen as a cause for the steady rise in incidence of sexual abuse between 1950 and 1980," it said.

It also found no evidence that homosexuality was to blame. While more boys than girls have been abused, the report said, that is probably because priests had greater access to boys. In fact, it said, the incidence of sexual abuse in the priesthood began declining not long after a noticeable rise in the number of gay men entering Catholic seminaries in the 1970s.

News of the report's findings leaked out late Tuesday with an account by Religion News Service, and reaction from critics was swift and harsh. Advocates for victims of child sexual abuse expressed outrage that the report emphasized social factors, which they saw as an attempt to shift blame. A conservative Catholic group objected to the report's exoneration of homosexuality as a cause of the abuse.

William Donohue, the outspoken president of the conservative Catholic League, noted on the group's website that the report found that 81% of abuse victims were male and 78% were beyond puberty. "Since 100% of the abusers were male, that's called homosexuality, not pedophilia or heterosexuality," he said.

Anne Barrett Doyle, co-founder of the website BishopAccountability.org, which chronicles abuse cases and acts as an advocate for victims, said the report failed to take the church hierarchy to task for the abuse crisis, and seemed intended "to decriminalize the bishops' response to child molestation."

"But I guess what is surprising me," she said, "is the fact that they're also chalking up the rape and abuse of tens of thousands of children to a vulnerable priesthood responding to social turmoil."

Speakers at the Washington news conference, held by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said church leaders did not try to shape the research, and that the report did not let anyone off the hook.

"None of what is included in this report should be interpreted as making excuses for the terrible acts that occurred," said Diane Knight, a Milwaukee social worker and chairwoman of the bishops' National Review Board. "There are no excuses. There is much that the church has to learn from this report and much of it is difficult. The bottom line is that the church was wrong not to put children first for all those years, all those decades."

David Finkelhor, a sociologist who directs the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, said he briefly reviewed the report Wednesday morning and was largely impressed by the breadth and depth of research.

However, he said, "I do think they are unfortunately going to get lambasted on some things, and it may be more of a question of tone and emphasis than actual substance." Chief among those things, he said, is the lack of emphasis on "the terrible mishandling of this whole phenomenon by the bishops and the church hierarchy."

Finkelhor said he accepted the report's finding that child sexual abuse by priests had dramatically declined in recent years. Some U.S. dioceses have done a good job of instituting programs to safeguard children, and society as a whole has gotten better at dealing with sexual abuse, he said.

While critics argue that the abuse being committed today simply hasn't been reported yet, and might not be for decades, Finkelhor said he thought that was much less likely than in the past.

"I think frankly we're much better now at flushing out abuse early on," he said. "I think young people feel much more comfortable coming out and talking about it."

mitchell.landsberg@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-0519-catholic-abuse-20110519,0,4312608.story

I Simply Remember my Own Cinema Paradisio!

What is your favorite movie? Your favorite cinema?

When asked to recall one of my favorite childhood movies, I cannot help but smile as I recall my mother and sister and I skipping hand in hand down the sidewalk of our lakeside town toward downtown Ashtabula, away from our gingerbread clapboard house singing, “Climb Every Mountain,” from the tops of our lungs. We clasped two quarters each in the palm of our hands, ready to plop down our money at the Shea’s Theater to see The Sound of Music. I am saddened to think that young theatergoers today will never be able to appreciate the grandeur of the old time theaters---five hundred and ninety two theaters in Ohio alone which have been closed, remodeled, or sadly---demolished.

 

And like many other theaters across the country, our theater was grand! Modeled in a combination of Spanish and French Baroque and Rococo styles, the lobby of the Shea movie theater was designed to resemble the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. Years before I was born, the $850,000 theater opened in 1949 with the June Allyson and Mickey Rooney musical, Words and Music. This was at a time when a new house could be bought for $3000 and a new Model A Ford for $1000. The theater had a Wurlitzer organ, crystal Czechoslovakian chandelier, and a snack area with the standard greasy popcorn and raisinettes. The theater staged local musicals such as The King and I, but it also aired movies like the The Three Stooges and Black Beauty. It was heaven.

By 1968 however, it seemed that movie directors and moviegoers, and society in general, were expecting something different than a movie like the Sound of Music---A story about a failed nun turned governess who falls in love with an Austrian
soldier, a widow and father of eight who plan an escape from their own war ridden country. Horror movies, like Rosemary's Baby became the new trend in movies. A young married couple, trying unsuccessfully to conceive, finally have it happen when the husband strikes a deal with the devil worshippers next door. All of this is unbeknownst to the poor wife/mother who soon realizes she could be having Satan's child. I believe this movie brought about the first parental guidance warning at the ticket booth. “Ah, the times they are a changin,”
Bob Dylan sang in the sixties.

Interestingly enough, one of my all time favorite movies as an adult would have to be a Sicilian movie (1990) entitled Cinema Paradisio which follows along with my theme of old time cinematic movie theaters like Shea giving way to the new. The movie is about a famous film director, Salvatore, who returns home to a Sicilian village for the first time after almost thirty years as he reminisces about his own hometown theater---The Cinema Paradisio---where Salvadore, under the influence of Alfredo, falls in love with the theater and film making. The film brings the audience through the changes in cinema and shares the dying trade of traditional film making, editing, screening, and theaters! It explores a young boy’s dream of leaving his little town to foray into the world outside.

When I try to make a connection between The Sound of Music and  and Cinema Paradisio I see the similarities in the growth of the characters as they are forced to move forward in their lives---The VonTrapp family moves from Austria and Salvatore leaves Rome---
the forces of war and economic development creating changes that prompt people to tap into creating new personal narratives for themselves. And, so it sadly follows that the grand theaters of those days, all across the United States, would also undergo change.

Yet, there is always hope to climb every mountain until you find your dream, whether it is viewing a story of escaping a country to avoid war, a horror movie,or a tale about revisiting a country or city after many years. But I like to think that maybe
the majestic theaters that celebrated the imagination of decades, those great masterpieces with marble floors and Czechoslovakian chandeliers and Wurlitzer organs, guarded by young smiling men dressed in suits and ties who took our tickets and directed us down to our seats with a flashlight---all served a purpose. It gave us a place to go that wasn’t the world outside. And sadly, now it is not the grand dame of the past but multiplex theaters with surround sound systems and air conditioning, not glamour and
fans.

Ah well, if it’s all the same to the reader: I think I’ll close my eyes and simply remember a few of my favorite things.

And then, I don’t feel so bad.

Kathleen Gallagher

Akron, OH
kathleengal@hotmail.com

Planets Vastly More Numerous Than Believed

Researchers say that millions of Jupiter-sized planets are wandering in our galaxy far from any star. The findings suggest that there may be twice as many planets as stars in the Milky Way, perhaps several times as many. The Milky Way galaxy may be filled with millions upon millions of Jupiter-sized planets that have escaped their solar systems and are wandering freely in space, researchers said Wednesday in a finding that seems certain to make astronomers rethink their ideas about planetary formation.

Scientists had previously thought that about 20% of stars had massive planets attached to them, but the new results reported in the journal Nature suggest that there are at least twice as many planets as stars, and perhaps several times as many.

The finding "is a revelation in the sense that it looks like a quintupling of the number of gas giants in the universe," said astronomer Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution for Science, who was not involved in the research.

Scientists have long speculated that some planets may be vagabonds in interstellar space, but with these observations, "for the first time, we have fairly strong evidence that indeed this is happening," said Caltech astronomer David Stevenson, who also was not involved in the research.

The discoverers of the wandering planets speculate that the orphan bodies were ejected from formative solar systems soon after they condensed from the interstellar dust that also formed the stars.

"If they are ejected, it's a real puzzle as to how that happened because you have to be kicked out by something bigger than you," Boss said.

The finding will have "theorists scratching their heads and sharpening their pencils for some time to come," he added.

The orphan planets were discovered by an international team of astronomers headed by Takahiro Sumi of Osaka University in Japan. The team used the 5.9-foot telescope at Mount John University Observatory in New Zealand to regularly scan the innumerable stars at the center of the galaxy to search for so-called gravitational microlensing events.

When a massive object passes between the Earth and a distant star, the gravity of that object bends the light waves around it, acting like a magnifying lens to make the star appear brighter. How long the object remains brighter is a measure of the mass of the intervening body. Stars can cause the distant object to appear brighter for weeks, and Jupiter-sized objects produce a similar effect for days.

The Japanese team reported that it observed 10 Jupiter-sized objects, each about 10,000 to 20,000 light-years from Earth. Close examination of the data showed that there were no stars within a billion miles or so of the planets, about the distance from our sun to the outer solar system. The team therefore concluded that the objects are in orbits much larger than any previously observed or that they are wandering freely through interstellar space.

Their observations were independently confirmed by a second group of scientists using a 4.2-foot telescope in Chile.

Because researchers were observing only a very narrow slice of the sky — and because observing the objects requires a very precise alignment of star, object and Earth — they extrapolated that the objects are quite numerous, outnumbering the billions of stars in the galaxy by a ratio of at least 2 to 1.

The authors' preferred explanation is that the objects were ejected from orbit around the stars where they formed. And if so many large objects were ejected, they concluded, then a much larger number of smaller, more easily ejected planets are also out there. Such planets, the size of Earth or smaller, would be very difficult to detect because they do not emit light and are too far from stars for any reflected light to be visible.

"The implications of this discovery are profound," astronomer Joachim Wambsganss of the University of Heidelberg wrote in a commentary accompanying the study.

Researchers are now lobbying for the construction of an orbiting telescope dedicated to continuing the search for orphan planets.

thomas.maugh@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-orphan-planets-20110519,0,3758656.story

What Went Wrong With Katie Couric and 'CBS Evening News'?

 

Couric makes her debut broadcast on CBS in 2006.

A marquee star proved not to be what viewers of the venerable newscast wanted. Her nearly five-year reign ends Thursday.

Katie Couric has poise, good looks, smarts and the kind of warmth on camera that a lot of other news people would love to duplicate. She also had the distinction of serving as anchor of the "CBS Evening News" as it became stubbornly locked into its position as least favored of the three nightly network newscasts.

As Couric prepares to sign off Thursday night for the final time, one can't help but wonder what went wrong. Nothing more, it appears, than misplaced priorities, unrealistic expectations and an underestimation of how dangerous it can be to remake a venerable franchise.

In moving Couric into its celebrated anchor desk, CBS forgot that its most loyal viewers were less interested in a marquee star than in a stolid news brand. News executives aimed at broadening their audience when they should have been concerned, first, with preserving what they had. They bet that a ray of morning sunshine would appeal in the more steely evening landscape.

It's easy to pick apart those mistaken assumptions today, but the impending challenges seemed far less obvious before Couric took over in September 2006. Why wouldn't the network newscasts want to broaden their demographic, rather than passively watch viewers slowly march off to the great Nielsen household in the sky? Who wouldn't have thought Couric, longtime ratings champ as host of NBC's "Today" show, had a chance of transferring her appeal to the nighttime?

So CBS chief executive Les Moonves and the network set about selling Couric and, incidentally, the brand that was more dependent on hundreds of faceless producers and writers, along with a cadre of veteran correspondents. Even under an uber-authority like Walter Cronkite, an anchor's primary duty was to pitch to colleagues in the field, who filled the bulk of airtime.

"She fell victim to the warped emphasis we place on celebrity," said Judy Muller, a longtime correspondent at CBS and ABC and now a professor at USC's Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. "There is this personality-driven anchor syndrome. In Britain they call them 'news readers' and that's about as it should be."

By bringing on Couric at a reported $15 million a year, CBS expected an older audience to accept a woman (unusual, though not unprecedented for evening news shows) who also was not a familiar face on the network and who initially headed up a newscast remade in her image. Producers worked hard to jazz up "CBS Evening News" in Couric's initial months, with more features, more interviews (a Couric strength) and guest commentaries.

"These audiences are a very tricky, fickle thing. The changes were perceived as a shock to the system," said one former CBS executive, who lived through the beginning of the Couric era. "The week she started, the tune-in was huge. And the drop-off was also huge after that. I don't think they were ever able to get them back."

As of last week, "NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams" led the nightly race with more than 9 million total viewers, compared with ABC's "World News With Diane Sawyer" at just under 8 million and the CBS newscast, lagging at 5.8 million. Despite popular perception that cable news dominates TV news, the network nightly news shows still draw substantially larger audiences than any single program on Fox, CNN or MSNBC.

The old saw about first impressions enduring became a harsh reality for CBS, whose audience seemed just fine, thank you, with its post-Dan Rather fill-in, the endlessly unflashy Bob Schieffer. A change-averse viewership doubtless greeted the initial formatting changes for Couric's "Evening News" as confirmation that "America's Sweetheart," straight from her sunny a.m. perch, didn't have the gravitas for the job.

Actually, those impressions had little to do with the newscast that emerged over Couric's five-year tenure. Independent network news analyst Andrew Tyndall said his tracking showed that CBS led the three nightly newscasts last year in time devoted to sober topics, such as U.S. foreign policy, economic coverage and the midterm elections.

"She leaves the 'CBS Evening News' with no problems in terms of delivery, story selection [and] reputation for hard news," Tyndall said.

Her series of interviews with Sarah Palin, in which the vice presidential candidate appeared evasive and under-informed, will doubtless go down as her single most memorable story.

As much as she sought the CBS job to forever banish her morning-lite persona, the 54-year-old Couric acknowledged when she announced her departure that the anchor desk has been a "pretty confining venue." She wants a new job, more in her "wheelhouse," where she can conduct long-form interviews. An announcement of her own syndicated daytime show is awaited.

CBS, meanwhile, will return to its own ranks for a successor. Scott Pelley, 53, has spent 22 years at CBS News and been best known in recent years for his reporting on "60 Minutes," still the most-watched news program on TV. Pelley has said he wants the nightly news to be driven by, er, news, not his personality or any new flourishes.

His most telling gesture prior to his June 6 start came when Pelley told his bosses that he would prefer his name be dropped from the "CBS Evening News With Scott Pelley." They told their fledgling anchor that Cronkite and all those who followed had their names in the title. So would he.

Still, Pelley had made his point. As much as possible, he wants his news show to be as little about him as possible.

So, in an era of endless opinion making and personality-driven reporting, a return to basics promises a certain retro allure.

james.rainey@latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-onthemedia-20110518,0,108228.column

Three Bizarre Food and Sex Combinations for Your Next Dinner Party

Food and sex compliment each other, but some people are taking the combination to a whole new level of weird.

 

Food sex immediately brings to mind strawberries dipped in chocolate, flavored body paint and whipped cream. Sometimes mayonnaise and cold cut meats. No? Just me?

But there are a few questionable examples of food and sex combinations that leave me wondering how people make these discoveries in the first place.

Semen as the main ingredient

There’s a whole cookbook dedicated to cooking with semen. The description says that semen is nutritious, has a great texture, and is “commonly available in many, if not most, homes and restaurants.”

The book covers drink, desserts, appetizers, sauces, and main courses. This means you could host your very own ejaculate dinner party, with Man Made Oysters to start, Roasted Lamb with Good Gravy for the main dish, and top it all off with Creamy Cum Crepes.

Bonus: invite guests over early to “lend a hand” with dinner preparations.

Placenta lasagne, anyone?

Placenta recipes relate more to what happens as a result of sex. It’s practically a delicacy – how often do you get to eat your own placenta, the mass which connects your baby to your uterus? Put a little salt on that thing, pepper to taste, and voila. First class meal.

Or why not try a placenta cocktail? Take a ¼ cup of fresh placenta, some V-8 juice, two ice cubes and ½ cup of carrots, throw it all in a blender and blend at high speed for 10 seconds.

There’s also placenta spaghetti bolognese, and roast placenta.

Or instead of cooking it, you can dehydrate your placenta and just add it to any meal.

Simply cut off the chord and membranes, steam the placenta, and add lemon grass, pepper and ginger to the water. Test if it’s done by piercing it with a fork: if it doesn’t bleed, it’s good. Then cut it up, and bake at low heat until it’s dry and crumbly. You can then crush it into a powder, if desired.

Your mouth is watering, isn’t it?

Chocolate vaginae

Moulding a chocolate vagina might just be the best way to express love for your vagina, or your partner’s vagina. Did anyone else not realize that the plural of vagina is “vaginae”? Thanks, Twitter followers, for looking that one up.

The kit comes with everything needed, just add water! Plus everything’s been medically tested, and it’s “completely safe for the novice moulder.” Perhaps the more experienced moulder would prefer a complex recipe, dress it up a bit with sauces and candy.

There’s no description of the directions though, but the site stresses that it’s strictly for the outer portion of the vagina.

Ladies, nothing speaks romance like having your man unwrap a giftbox containing your carefully placed chocolate vagina. 

http://matadornetwork.com/life/three-bizarre-food-and-sex-combinations-for-your-next-dinner-party/

Strap In For New Adventures At Southland Theme Parks!

There's a lot more than pixie dust swirling through the air at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure as construction crews, earth-moving excavators and towering cranes work on several theme park rides set to debut this summer and beyond.

 

Riders will fly high on WindSeeker, shown in a rendering, at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park.

The headliner is the $100-million Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure, scheduled to open June 3 at California Adventure. The elaborate dark ride will take visitors on a family-friendly musical underwater journey based on "The Little Mermaid," the 1989 animated movie.

The Anaheim park will also reopen a kiddie coaster with a new Goofy Sky School theme at the same time.

California Adventure visitors should be forewarned that the construction dust won't settle until 2012, when the 12-acre Cars Land and the main entrance makeover are completed.

Across the way at Disneyland, the long-anticipated reboot of the classic Star Tours motion simulator attraction also is set to open June 3, with riders experiencing 54 possible story lines resulting in a different beginning, middle and end for each journey.

On May 27, the music-centric Mickey's Soundsational Parade is to make its debut on Disneyland's Main Street USA with dancers, drummers and two dozen Disney characters.

Southern California's other theme parks are planning a series of new attractions to counter Disney's continuing $1.1-billion expansion project.

Six Flags Magic Mountain will reclaim the "Roller Coaster Capital of the World" title in mid-June with the addition of a first-of-its-kind ride in the U.S. The Green Lantern vertical coaster will feature suspended trains that rock back and forth on the straightaways and rotate head over heels as the cars plunge over freefall drops.

The Valencia amusement park reopened the revamped Superman: Escape From Krypton shuttle coaster in March with new trains that rocket riders backward at 100 mph.

The 301-foot-tall WindSeeker will change the Knott's Berry Farm skyline when the $5-million spinning swing ride debuts at the Buena Park theme park in late June or early July. WindSeeker will carry 64 riders in twin-seat gondolas to the top of the tower, where the ride's metal arms will extend at a 45-degree angle and spin at 30 mph for one minute.

At Legoland California in San Diego County, the new Star Wars Miniland renders epic battles, iconic cityscapes and massive machines in an intimate 1:20 scale. The new "Star Wars" attraction, which opened in March at the Carlsbad park, uses 1.5 million Lego bricks to build a visual timeline stretching from the first film in the series to the latest television cartoons based on the space fantasy.

On Memorial Day weekend, SeaWorld San Diego will launch a new Shamu killer whale show after the death of an animal trainer in 2010 at its sister park in Orlando, Fla., forced a reworking of the signature attraction.

The conservation-themed "One Ocean" show will feature fountains, underwater imagery and orcas performing in unison against a new backdrop of giant LCD screens.

The most jaw-dropping new ride of 2011 belongs to San Diego's Belmont Park. The Octotron, which opened in January, simulates a looping roller-coaster experience over an undulating track.

Sitting two abreast in roller coaster-style seats, riders control the forward and backward direction of the spinning car as it rotates around a circular course. The easily nauseated need not apply.

http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-amuse-20110515,0,7843319.story

Princess Beatrice's Wedding Hat For Sale On E-Bay!

Princess Beatrice's royal wedding hat is officially going once, going twice on EBay. The terrible topper she wore to her cousin Prince William's wedding to Kate Middleton landed on the auction block Thursday.

The starting bid: 5,000 British pounds -- that's about $8,229, with only one bidder so far in the 10-day auction. We'll try not to pass too much judgment on this person's fashion sense (or common sense) since the sale is benefiting a good cause.

"I'm amazed by the amount of attention the hat has attracted," the princess said in a statement. "It's a wonderful opportunity to raise as much money as possible for two fantastic charities. I hope whoever wins the auction has as much fun with the hat as I have."

The proceeds on the world-famous, custom-made Philip Treacy hat, which has its very own Facebook page, will go to UNICEF and the British charity Children in Crisis, Buckingham Palace said.

"I've been surprised by the overwhelming response to 'the hat!' I'm delighted, flattered and touched by HRH Princess Beatrice's decision to donate the hat to charity," said designer Treacy. "I hope that people all over the world will be generous and that this hat will benefit many. 'A hat is a symbol of positivity.' "

Beatrice's mother, Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York and ex-wife of Queen Elizabeth II's son Prince Andrew, also made the announcement on Wednesday's Oprah Winfrey show.

The heinous headpiece is, of course, preowned. But shipping is free (probably because the flesh-toned beast is capable of sprouting wings and flying to its new owner) and will arrive within 10 days after the buyer's payment clears. 

But buyers, beware: "No returns accepted." Drat. There's also no word on whether the atrocious eyesore will give the wearer mystical powers of a bovine nature.

Bidders who really want the cockamamie concoction, er, festive fascinator, must e-mail the seller in order to be placed on a pre-approved list. Bidders have only until May 22 before it's going, going, gone.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/gossip/2011/05/princess-beatrice-royal-wedding-hat-auction-ebay-philip-treacy.html

Gay Rights & The Church's Evolving Role

Religious institutions in this country that object to homosexuality have nothing to fear from the gay-rights movement. Freedom of religion constitutionally protects them from having to perform same-sex marriages or elevate gays and lesbians to the clergy.

Brian Symonds,center, hopes to become the first openly gay person ordained by the Pacific Presbytery.

Yet as society opens itself to new viewpoints over time, those perspectives influence people of faith. So it was that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) this week voted to allow the ordination of gay ministers, elders and deacons. In doing so, it joined three other mainstream churches, including the Episcopal Church.

In the legal sphere, there is supposed to be a bright line between church and state. The relationship between the two is far more complicated, though, when it comes to the realities of social evolution. Americans' views on gay rights have been undergoing a rapid and dramatic change toward acceptance. That change is reflected in public policy shifts that have the U.S. military moving away from the troubling days of "don't ask, don't tell," that allow adoption by same-sex couples in many states and that, in a few, provide official recognition of gay and lesbian unions. It was inevitable that religious congregants, affected by the more tolerant viewpoints in the secular world, would begin asking questions about long-held beliefs in their houses of worship.

Tuesday's stamp of approval from a venerable institution will further influence public opinion. No doubt, some people of faith will never accept homosexuality, and they have that right. But this welcome move by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) indicates that religion has a role to play in this nation's lurching progress toward gay rights. 

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-presbyterian-20110512,0,3480459.story

Top Ten Wild Places to Hike (Before You Die!)

Backpacking the Grand Canyon's
South Rim, Arizona. Photo by Tony Fuentes

 

Which of the world's wild places should every hiker try to experience at least once in their lifetime?

Here's our unofficial "bucket list" of not-to-be-missed favorites in Alaska, Hawaii, the Lower 48, and beyond. Click on each destination to read more about a Sierra Club trip that's headed there soon.

Want to know where we're headed in the future? Sign up for our Explorer newsletter for monthly roundups of the very best new and featured trips.

1) Acadia National Park, Maine

The Northeast's only national park boasts an extensive system of foot trails leading to incredible views of islands, valley lakes, Frenchman Bay, and the Atlantic Ocean.

2) Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska

This jagged landscape is home some of Alaska's most spectacular and challenging mountains, as well as grizzlies, wolves, dall sheep, musk ox, and caribou.

3) Dolomites, Italy

Don't miss this sunny corner of the Alps packed with dramatic and colorful mountains, jutting peaks, fertile valleys, and a diversity of local cultures.

Italy's Dolomites. Photo by Gene Goldberg

 

4) Grand Canyon National Park,
Arizona

One of the world's most enduring natural wonders and a hiking paradise, this ancient and brilliantly-colored chasm is rich in human, geologic, and natural history.

5) Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee and North Carolina

Choose from a multitude of hiking
options in the last large piece of the
southern Appalachian forest which
contains some of the richest biological diversity in the U.S.

6) John Muir Wilderness, California

Visit the wilderness wonderland named
after Sierra Club founder, John Muir,
dotted with alpine lakes, glaciers, towering granite peaks, and lush green meadows.

7) Kauai, Hawaii

A trip to Hawaii's "Garden Isle" means diverse trails, breathtaking views, lush
flora and fauna, and a refreshing dip in
warm surf at day's end.

The rugged North Cascades,
Washington. Photo by Sascha Paris.

 

8) North Cascades National Park,
Washington

"America's Alps" offer jagged peaks, ice fields, brilliant lakes, alpine meadows, and a variety of hikes from densely-forested trails to ridge routes with panoramic views.

9) Patagonia, Chile

Embark on one of the world's classic hikes, the "W," through this massive, untamed wilderness teeming with turquoise lakes, snow-capped volcanoes, and calving glaciers.

10) Wind River Range, Wyoming

Cascades, wildflower meadows, sprawling glaciers, and lakes filled with trout make "the Winds" a favorite for destination for outdoor enthusiasts. Don't forget your fishing pole!

BONUS! Your own backyard

Discover a variety of trails near you on one of the Sierra Club's many local outings!

http://www.sierraclub.org/outings/national/features/bucketlist.aspx

Whitney Houston In Rehab For Alcohol, Drugs

Whitney Houston has enrolled in an outpatient rehabilitation program to deal with drug and alcohol issues, her rep confirmed Monday.

This comes after the singer struggled last year while on tour overseas, prompting whispers she'd possibly fallen off the wagon.

"Whitney voluntarily entered the program to support her longstanding recovery process," Team Whitney told People on Monday in a statement.

TMZ, which broke the story, said the singer checked in about 10 days ago -- and then a week ago, the singer was spotted at a Prince concert, rocking out with daughter Bobbi Kristina.

Houston has been through rehab several times and has in the past admitted using cocaine, marijuana, alcohol and pills. Her drug woes go back a while, including her 2000 bust at a Hawaii airport with a bag of marijuana.

 http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/gossip/2011/05/whitney-houston-rehab-alcohol-drugs.html

Dick Acts Like A Dick

Comedian Andy Dick arrested for public intoxication at Marie Callender's

In yet another brush with the law, comedian and actor Andy Dick was booked on suspicion of public intoxication Tuesday after Temecula police responded to a disturbance at a restaurant, department officials said.

Officers were called to the Marie Callender's restaurant in the 29300 block of Rancho California Road shortly after 9 p.m. after a caller reported an "intoxicated male subject who was causing a disturbance inside the restaurant."

When they arrived they found the 44-year-old comedian in the bar area displaying "symptoms associated with alcohol intoxication" and noted "he was unable to care for his own safety," according to a statement released by Temecula police. Dick, who was cooperative, was booked on suspicion of public intoxication.

The arrest Tuesday was the latest in a long line for Dick. Last year, the comedian was arrested in Huntington, W.Va., on suspicion of felony sexual abuse after two people complained he groped them at a bar.

In 2008, Dick was arrested for drug possession and sexual battery after police were called to a disturbance outside a Murrietta restaurant.

Murietta police said the heavily intoxicated comedian grabbed and fondled the breast of a 17-year-old girl before pulling her top down in the parking lot of the Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar. His friends escorted him to a truck, which was then stopped by police near a Sam's Club store.

Dick eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery and marijuana possession and was ordered to  wear an alcohol-monitoring bracelet for one year.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/05/andy-dick-arrested-marie-callenders-temecula.html

Missing Disney Cruise Employee; New Clues Surface

There is a new clue in the disappearance of a of a 24-year-old British crew member from the Disney Cruise ship "Wonder."

Rebecca Coriam, 24, of Chester, England was reported missing back in March after failing to show up for her job as a youth activities coordinator, Disney spokeswoman Christi Erwin Donnan said.

According to the UK's Daily Mail, Rebecca Coriam mother received an e-mail from her daughter's bank reporting financial activity on her account in the weeks after her disappearance.

Coriam was reportedly last seen when the vessel was in Cabo San Lucas, en route to Puerto Vallarta. Coriam made a call to a friend shortly before she vanished, according to her family.

Passengers say cruise officials immediately notified them about Coriam's disappearance through an announcement on the loudspeaker.

"They said they wanted to let everyone know they were looking for a crew member," passenger Joe Simpson told KTLA.

"They would update us pretty regularly... letting us know that they were continuing with that search, and that their concern was the safety of the crew member," passenger Wendy Simpson said.
  Crew members searched the ship multiple times.The U.S. Coast Guard, the Mexican navy and the Bahamas Maritime Authority also participated in the search and investigation.

The FBI is not involved because it does not have jurisdiction, as the ship was off the coast of Mexico flying under a foreign flag, said spokeswoman Laura Eimiller, of the agency's Los Angeles office.

http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-missing-disney-cruise-employee,0,4774313.story

Should Fido Have Rights???

Why Animal Rights?

Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. Many of us bought our beloved “pets” at pet shops, had guinea pigs, and kept beautiful birds in cages. We wore wool and silk, ate McDonald’s burgers, and fished. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved. For whatever reason, you are now asking the question: Why should animals have rights?

In his book Animal Liberation, Peter Singer states that the basic principle of equality does not require equal or identical treatment; it requires equal consideration. This is an important distinction when talking about animal rights. People often ask if animals should have rights, and quite simply, the answer is “Yes!” Animals surely deserve to live their lives free from suffering and exploitation. Jeremy Bentham, the founder of the reforming utilitarian school of moral philosophy, stated that when deciding on a being’s rights, “The question is not ‘Can they reason?’ nor ‘Can they talk?’ but ‘Can they suffer?’” In that passage, Bentham points to the capacity for suffering as the vital characteristic that gives a being the right to equal consideration. The capacity for suffering is not just another characteristic like the capacity for language or higher mathematics. All animals have the ability to suffer in the same way and to the same degree that humans do. They feel pain, pleasure, fear, frustration, loneliness, and motherly love. Whenever we consider doing something that would interfere with their needs, we are morally obligated to take them into account.

Supporters of animal rights believe that animals have an inherent worth—a value completely separate from their usefulness to humans. We believe that every creature with a will to live has a right to live free from pain and suffering. Animal rights is not just a philosophy—it is a social movement that challenges society’s traditional view that all nonhuman animals exist solely for human use. As PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk has said, “When it comes to pain, love, joy, loneliness, and fear, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. Each one values his or her life and fights the knife.”

Only prejudice allows us to deny others the rights that we expect to have for ourselves. Whether it’s based on race, gender, sexual orientation, or species, prejudice is morally unacceptable. If you wouldn’t eat a dog, why eat a pig? Dogs and pigs have the same capacity to feel pain, but it is prejudice based on species that allows us to think of one animal as a companion and the other as dinner.

http://www.peta.org/about/why-peta/why-animal-rights.aspx

Is Graffiti 'Art'???

'Art in the Streets' has earned the museum accolades from the art world. But in glorifying graffiti, it celebrates a crime that destroys the city's vitality.

The Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Los Angeles is celebrating graffiti, but not on its own property. MOCA's pyramid-topped headquarters on Grand Avenue is conspicuously tag-free. In Little Tokyo, the museum has always painted over the graffiti that appears occasionally on the outside walls of the Geffen Contemporary, its satellite warehouse exhibition space. And now that its latest show — proudly billed as the first major American museum survey of street art — has triggered a predictable upsurge of vandalism in the area, MOCA is even cleaning up graffiti on neighboring businesses.

Why is that? "Art in the Streets" suggests no answer. The exhibition honors such alleged high points in graffiti history as the first cholo tag on the Arroyo Seco parkway and the defacement of L.A.'s freeway signs, without the slightest hint that graffiti is a crime, that it appropriates and damages property without permission and that it destroys urban vitality.

In fact, MOCA's practice of removing graffiti from its premises represents cutting-edge urban policy. Over the last three decades, urban theorists have come to understand the harmful effects of graffiti on neighborhood cohesion and safety. An area that has succumbed to tagging telegraphs to the world that social and parental control there has broken down. Potential customers shun graffiti-ridden commercial strips if they can; so do most merchants, fearing shoplifting and robberies. Law-abiding families avoid graffiti-blighted public parks, driven away by the spirit-killing ugliness of graffiti as much as by its criminality.

But MOCA's hypocrisy in glorifying a crime that it would never tolerate on its own property is easily matched by the two-faced behavior of graffiti vandals themselves. They often dress up their egotistical assault on other people's property with defiant rhetoric about fighting corporate power and capitalism. (How spraying your tag on a bodega on Cesar Chavez Boulevard weakens corporations is never explained, of course.) But what happens when these scourges of profit and bourgeois values see an opportunity to get rich? They turn into unapologetic capitalists.

Britain's Banksy sells his stencils for thousands of pounds at auction. Sticker and poster vandal Shepard Fairey widely promotes his extensive line of clothing and collectibles. Saber, lionized by MOCA for having painted what is reputed to be the largest-ever tag on the "banks" of the Los Angeles River, near where the 5 Freeway meets the 10, has sold designs to Levi's, Hyundai and Harley-Davidson.

"Art in the Streets" co-curator and longtime graffiti promoter Roger Gastman vaunts the corporate clients that he brands with graffiti chic. None of these lucrative arrangements would be possible without a stable system of property rights, which graffiti vandals respect only when their own wealth is involved.

Good luck to parents trying to keep their children away from a tagging lifestyle, now that word is out that a fancy downtown museum has honored graffiti with a major exhibit. And those children who visit the show will learn that MOCA thinks tagging is cool — just look at that life-size, animatronic tagger endlessly spraying his tag high up on a wall!

It might have been possible to mount a show that acknowledged the occasionally compelling graphic elements of urban art without legitimizing a crime. Such an exhibit wouldn't include glamorizing photos of freeway, subway or L.A. River vandalism — and would unequivocally condemn appropriating someone else's property without permission. "Art in the Streets" does not come close to that standard.

Schoolchildren who deduce from the show that graffiti is a route to fame and contracts with Nike will have about as realistic an understanding of their career odds as boys who think they don't have to study because an NBA contract awaits them. Every hour that a student is out tagging is an hour not spent studying, attending school or getting crucial sleep — all activities essential to future success.

In January, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's top financial advisor recommended cuts to the city's graffiti-abatement budget. City Council members and the mayor himself rose up in protest.

"Art in the Streets" gives no clue why Angelenos should care so much about graffiti eradication. Indeed, if graffiti is the boon that "Art in the Streets" suggests, why should taxpayers shell out $7 million a year to have it painted over? If, however, the public is right to demand its removal, why is MOCA promoting it? I asked MOCA Director Jeffrey Deitch whether Los Angeles should suspend its graffiti removal efforts. "I don't know," he responded.

The ultimate responsibility for "Art in the Streets" lies with MOCA's buzz-hungry trustees, from Eli Broad on down. When Deitch first proposed a graffiti exhibit, any conscientious trustee should have asked himself: "Would I welcome unauthorized 'street art' by some Saber wannabe on my immaculate mansion or business?"

In case the answer is not obvious, let's listen to the taggers themselves. "I've never written on my own house," a former tagger from Gardena's Graffiti Bandits Krew told me. He was waiting to get his tattoos removed at Homeboy Industries downtown. "I wouldn't like it if someone else did it on my house."

Another ex-tagger from Graffiti 'N' Drugs in Pico Rivera finds my question about whether he would tolerate graffiti on his home silly. "Why would you want to [ louse] up your own house?" he asked me. "That's why you go out and mess up other people's cities."

MOCA's administration shares a defining trait with the graffiti vandals whom the museum is celebrating: self-indulgence. The graffiti criminal combines the moral instincts of a 2-year-old with the physical capacities of an adult: When he sees a "spot" that he wants to "mark," he simply takes it. Deitch and his trustees can toy with graffiti's "outlaw vibe" (as co-curator Aaron Rose euphemistically puts it), knowing full well that their own carefully ordered lives will be untouched by graffiti's ill effects.

But large swaths of Los Angeles and other urban centers are not so protected. "Art in the Streets" has already earned MOCA accolades from the art world, but it will only increase the struggles of Los Angeles' poor communities — and its not-so-poor ones too — to enjoy the security and order that the wealthy take for granted.

Heather Mac Donald is a contributing editor with the Manhattan Institute's City Journal

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-macdonald-graffiti-20110501,0,6348978.story

In Case You Missed 'Inside Job'

“Inside Job,” the Oscar-nominated documentary directed by Charles Ferguson, takes a piercing look at the financial crisis. Told through the lens of economists like Nouriel Roubini and investors like George Soros, the film lays much of the blame on Wall Street and a revolving door of regulators, many of whom came straight from the big banks.

• Andrew Ross Sorkin of DealBook caught up with Mr. Ferguson to discuss what Wall Street thought of his work, regulatory reform and the filmmaking process. What follows is an edited version of the discussion.

Q.

What type of reaction have you gotten from Wall Street?

A.

Most of the people with whom I’ve spoken on Wall Street have reacted positively to the film.

Q.

Despite the dim view that it often takes of Wall Street?

A.

Yes, I would say actually because of the dim view that it takes of Wall Street. Of course, I am sure there are people who are very displeased by the film. But they haven’t spoken with me, I guess.

Q.

Have you had any encounters with people who were in the film?

A.

I had a rather interesting encounter with William Dudley, who is now the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York actually requested a screening of the film, and a meeting with me. He attended.

Q.

What did he say?

A.

Well, he said that he was broadly happy with and in agreement with the film, which surprised me a little bit. But he was in front of a bunch of his employees. That may have had an effect on the way he conducted himself. I don’t know.

Q.

One of the criticisms you hear about the film is that it focuses somewhat conspiratorially on Wall Street but doesn’t lay any blame on individuals like homeowners. How do you respond to that?

A.

It’s there in the film, briefly. Perhaps it deserved another five minutes in the film, I don’t know. That’s a kind of subjective thing. I guess my own view was that it wasn’t the core of what occurred, and therefore wasn’t the focus of the film.

Q.

Many of those who are on the police force today arguably were at the scene of the crime at the time — whether it be the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner; the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke; or others. When you look at the environment today, after the passage of regulatory reform, do you feel any better?

A.

Not much. I think it is a very disturbing situation, and that says something very disturbing about the condition of American politics. There has been very little change. Many people when they voted for Barack Obama and Congress thought that this problem would be dealt with.

But it hasn’t been, and in fact, the people running economic and regulatory policy in the Obama administration are in many cases people who contributed to causing the crisis. In some cases, there’s fairly clear evidence that they conducted themselves in very, very unethical ways.

Q.

What is the single issue that you worry about most today?

A.

Well, I think that I would name two. One of them is that in another 10 years this could happen again. The other — which is related but in some ways even more disturbing — is that there has been no justice.

Q.

What do you think now of Wall Street’s compensation practices, an issue that seemed to pervade much of the film?

A.

I don’t have a problem with people getting wealthy if they work hard, contribute to society and do valuable things. There are people in Silicon Valley who are enormously wealthy. But for the most part they are enormously wealthy because they did something useful and valuable.

The problem here is that in finance people can get enormously wealthy by causing enormous damage to many other people. And that hasn’t been stopped. That’s part of why I am concerned that this could happen again in another decade.

Q.

One of the most striking moments in the film involved Glenn Hubbard, formerly the chief economic adviser to President George W. Bush and now the dean of Columbia Business School. In the scene, you ask Mr. Hubbard rather pointedly about his consulting relationships with financial firms.

Since the movie has come out there has been a lot of discussion about such relationships and about creating a new code of ethics for academics and economists. Has progress been made?

A.

There has been a lot of conversation about it, and there is some progress in that regard. And that does make me happy that there has been that progress. The progress so far is very limited and very incomplete, but at least things are going in the correct direction.

Q.

With contentious interviews like the one involving Mr. Hubbard, do subjects ever get the feeling there’s been a bait and switch?

A.

There was no bait and switch. Essentially, everyone interviewed for the film was given the same information. We told them who we were. A few people asked for my C.V., or information about me, which we supplied. We said that we were making a documentary. We described the subject of the documentary.

Some people had further detailed questions. Most didn’t. Glenn Hubbard did not. We asked him to be interviewed. He agreed to be interviewed.

Q.

Any reaction afterward?

A.

Obviously, some of those people were extremely unhappy. But, you know, too bad.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/after-expose-filmmaker-sees-little-change-on-wall-street/