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See singer Sting's brain in upcoming documentary about the musical brain

The fMRI of Sting must have been of great interest to Dr. Daniel Levitin, musician turned neuroscientist. In a documentary "The Musical Brain" on January 31, Levitin and others explore the brain on music, looking at how the brain shapes music and how music shapes the brain. For this documentary, Sting underwent an fMRI and viewers of the show will see how music affects his brain.

Dr. Levitin designed four MRI tests for Sting. From "The king of 'brain'" (St. Catharines Standard):

Dr. Levitin, whose dream it was to scan the brain of a great musician, designed the MRI tests. The idea was to scan Sting's brain as it was actively doing something related to music.

In the first test, Levitin asked Sting to imagine a favourite melody. Even though there was no music playing, his toes moved to some inaudible beat.

Says [documentary writer and director Christina] Pochmursky: "We respond to imagined music the same way as we respond to music we hear."

The second test involved listening to different genres of music. Tango. Jazz. Classical. Even Muzak. Levitin mapped the response of Sting's brain.

Seems the only genre that prompted a different brain reaction was Muzak. It was, quite simply, too boring for his brain.

"The brain is like a kitten," says Pochmursky. "It's always curious. It always wants something it's never seen before. Then it perks right up."

In the final test, Levitin asked Sting to compose a melody he's never thought of before. Inside the MRI, Sting hums the beginnings of a song as his brain activity is recorded.

Unfortunately it looks as if you will not be able to see this documentary unless you are in Canada. Know of any way those of us outside Canada can view it? I would be happy to be wrong.

Note: Books by Levitin: This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession and The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature.

Note (added January 27, 2009, 8:30 AM Mountain): Good news! Received this from Dr. Levitin this morning:

The documentary debuts in Canada this Saturday, but broadcast in the rest of the world has been sold.  You'll be able to see it in Europe on  National Geographic television and in the US on PBS, both before summer.  It should also be available for sale on DVD eventually.

Image credit: BBC.

Happy Chinese New Year! 10 great places to welcome prosperity and the Year of the Ox

Maybe this is a good sign? Today we enter the Year of the Ox and that Ox "is the sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work." (We are exiting the Year of the Rat.)

Happy New Year to you.

More:

10 places to welcome in the New Year.

Famous people born in the Year of the Ox:

Eddie Murphy, Walt Disney, George Clooney, Richard Nixon, Dennis Rodman, Vincent Van Gogh, Tori Spelling, Margaret Thatcher, Will Smith, Robert Redford, Jim Carrey, Adolph Hitler, Don Johnson, Saddam Hussein

Image credit: buddhadog.

Blog Glob: "Past the tipping point: is the law firm pyramid an unstable structure?"

Excerpt:

IN MAY, WE PUBLISHED a small chart showing the five most "leveraged" firms in The Am Law 100, based on the ratio of all lawyers to equity partners. At the time, the list seemed mildly interesting, but not of great importance.

Today, as we cower amidst the debris of a shattered financial world, the list looks eerily prescient. The five firms on the list are Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft (8.49 lawyers per equity partner), White & Case (6.63), Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe (6.26), Thelen (6.13), and Bingham McCutchen (5.95). The first three have announced layoffs, and Thelen is dissolving. If we extend the list to ten firms, seven of them have publicly acknowledged cutbacks.

Over the last couple decades, high leverage--the practice of having each equity partner supported by three or more associates or income partners--was accepted as a basic tenet of profitability. A firm billed out these junior lawyers at significantly more than it paid them, often getting billings that were triple the lawyer's salary. It seemed like a sure-fire way to make money. But high turnover and rocketing salaries ate into profit margins. Now, the whole pyramid model is looking fragile.

Click to read the rest of "Past the tipping point: is the law firm pyramid an unstable structure?" (American Lawyer).

Recommendations for 5 good books on irrational decision-making

Think you are rational? Especially If you are a lawyer, you may think you have a good handle on rational decision-making. If so, reading these books may cause that opinion to change.

Jonah Lehrer has reviewed for The Wall Street Journal five books on the rationality of our thinking (or lack thereof). Click "Books on Irrational Decision-Making" to read his full reviews. I have included excerpts of the reviews of

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (first published in 1841)

There is nothing modern about financial bubbles. In this classic work, Charles Mackay compiled an exhaustive list of the "schemes, projects and phantasies" that are a recurring theme of economic history.

Judgment Under Uncertainty (1982)

It's hard to overstate the influence of this academic volume, which revealed many of the hard-wired flaws that shape human behavior.

How We Know What Isn't So (1991)

Thomas Gilovich is an eminent psychologist at Cornell University, but he is also a lucid writer with a knack for teaching the public about its own mental mistakes.

The Winner's Curse (1992)

In addition to documenting how bidders at auctions operate, Thaler ... examines other anomalies, such as ... the surprising unselfishness of people playing economic games. When given $10 and told to share the money with someone else, most people don't keep it all, or even most of it. Instead, they tend to split the cash equally, which is neither selfish nor rational.

Predictably Irrational (2008)

Dan Ariely is a mischievous scientist: He delights in duping business students, getting them to make decisions that, in retrospect, seem utterly ridiculous.

You might also enjoy Mistakes Were Made (but not by me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts (my blog post about the book).

Image credit: pixblix.

Blog Glob: "Old age, death ... and dying"

Excerpt:

In theory, I approve of death for the old. You live as long as you can, and then you die. I accept that the balance of nature requires the inevitability of death -- and that war, infant/childhood/teen diseases, accidents and murder aside, the system works out to be essentially fair.

...

...My parents go to a lot of funerals. They've become eulogy connoisseurs. They know where the bathrooms are at the funeral homes their crowd favors. ...

...

One thing I've learned, though, watching my tribe die off, is that there's no tidy line. One guy can be circling the drain, round and round, when -- zip! -- someone else, totally unexpected, darts out of place and takes cuts. Some of the most unlikely people end up dying that way, all out of order.

...

I hear the resignation in my mother's voice. I can picture her shrug, "Even Sylvia, so slim with all her yoga and vegetarianism."

I want to say, "Listen, Ma, just because everyone's doing it ... I mean, if all your friends were smoking crack ... ."

Click to read the rest of "Old age, death ... and dying" (Los Angeles Times).

CLE - Looking Inward: An Introduction to Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction for Lawyers

At the Web site of the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education, you may purchase this program in a variety of formats. Also at the site is the course's Table of Contents [pdf] and a bio of the program's author Valerie Brown.

Image credit: Kevin Connors.

Law prof responds to Jordan Furlong's post about law school debt and lawyer earnings

Professor Larry Krieger posted a message on a legal education listserv after I sent the group a link to Furlong's The crossed purposes of legal education. Krieger wrote (and I quote with his permission):

Thanks to Stephanie for posting this.  It touches on something I’m really troubled about, personally, in part because it is so devastating to students, and in part because it would be SO EASY to remedy (well, SO SIMPLE, if not so easy . . .).  That is the disparity between pre-law student earnings expectations and the actual salaries of most new graduates; somewhat compounded by ignorance of the size of law school debt at one’s chosen or prospective  school.  As the realities dawn on students, they are typically into their second year or late in the first, and feel locked into the course they’ve chosen even if it now looks unwise.  And this compounds the problem of a ‘crowded legal profession’, if it is that, and the need for high earnings once in the profession – all substantial problems now.
 
The real rub, unless I’m missing something, is the simplicity of the fix, which is also cost-free (direct costs, not costs in lost tuition revenue . . ): What would it take for the ABA or AALS to mandate each law school clearly post on its website the average debt of its graduates for the past 3 (or so) years; the average income of its new graduates for the same period, and the 20th and 80th percentile (or whatever you prefer) of such earnings?  Some will, some desire for fair disclosure to prospective students, and some courage that the truth is a good thing and students, making informed decisions about their future, will over time if not immediately, benefit the schools, the associations, and the profession.  The effect on the students is a bonus overall, and we know there are a number of students who ‘don’t really know what i want to do, and picked law school because  . .. . fill in the blank, who would not make the same choice if they knew the financial realities and the debt hole they would be in for a long time.
 
Any reason this would not work, for disclosure purposes at least?  And if it would work, any idea about how to start moving toward such a mandate, or other ways to make fair disclosure happen?  Larry

Your thoughts on Larry's proposal?

Added on January 24, 2009: Law professor Jennifer S. Bard adds her thoughts (quoted with permission):

I wanted to add my voice to Larry’s excellent suggestion about disclosing: 

What would it take for the ABA or AALS to mandate each law school clearly post on its website the average debt of its graduates for the past 3 (or so) years; the average income of its new graduates for the same period, and the 20th and 80th percentile (or whatever you prefer) of such earnings?

That would be so much more meaningful than the “employment rate” figure which is so vague that it provides no helpful information.  What I’d add, though, is given all the data coming out about bi-modal salary distribution it would be most helpful to break-out the salary data (rather than allow averages) so that prospective students could see the real range of salaries within a class.  That way they could see what their chances were of making the huge salaries which they all anticipate.   Again, what a great idea that would really tell students what they want, need and deserve to know before they go into debt.  How does something like this go from “idea” to “proposal?”

Your thoughts?

Oh, dear! PETA calls for a brain scan of Michael Vick

Yes, you read that right. From Stanford Center for Law & the Biosciences Blog:

Officials from PETA [People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals] sent a letter to the NFL commissioner today saying that Vick should be checked to see if he is a psychopath or sociopath before he can return to the NFL.  And the method that they specifically suggested?  Brain scans.  PETA wants Vick to undergo a full psychiatric evaluation and a brain scan to determine whether he has anti-social personality disorder or psychopathy.  Excuse me, what?

Of course, this is an absurd idea.

Functional brain imaging cannot be used to diagnose psychiatric illnesses.  Full stop.  Not yet. 

Or never.

You can guess the people I think need psychiatric evaluations, can't you?

Have you seen PETA's project to change "fish" to "sea kitten"? I think they are serious. They believe people are less likely to eat a sea kitten than they would a fish.

Image credit: Image*After.

New book: Another one on designing your own funeral

Grave Expectations: Planning the End Like There's No Tomorrow is what the title says: A book on how to plan your end-of-life event. Since I have written a book on that topic too, I like to follow what comes out on funeral designing. When I wrote my book over a decade ago, many people thought I was eccentric at best. Now that boomers are getting a tad bit older, I am guessing we will see more create-your-own-funeral books being published.

Click for a list of benefits of planning your own funeral.

Read an excerpt from the new book at "Funky funeral? ‘Recipes’ for your remains" (msnbc.com).

Note (added January 27, 2009, 11:30 AM Mountain): The book's Web site.

Now here's an example of what "elder mediation" should mean

"Elder mediation" as we have begun to use it here in the US is demeaning to the older person. I have already blogged about that. (See too the comment to my post from Canadian Arnold Zeman.) Take a look at how "elder mediation" is used in Ethiopia. It refers to mediation done by elders bringing to the conflict their experience and wisdom! Think about that. What has happened here that elders are a problem instead of facilitators of solutions? Perhaps a cultural self-fulfilling prophecy?