Tuesday, December 29, 2009

James Beard Meatloaf; nothing better

I have used this recipe for more than 50 years. This is basic meatloaf. Note there is no tomato gunk over the top.

The changes I make are probably not significant.
1. Microwave the veggies first to soften
2. Panko breadcrumbs
3. Forget the bacon. Gave that up in the 1970's
4. I use 3 lbs meat. Just enough to fill Pan Loaf.
5. Over night chill.
in reference to: astray recipes: James beard's meatloaf (view on Google Sidewiki)

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

An Expert can Miss the Point

Accept Defeat: The Neuroscience of Screwing Up | Magazine: "Modern science is populated by expert insiders, schooled in narrow disciplines. Researchers have all studied the same thick textbooks, which make the world of fact seem settled. This led Kuhn, the philosopher of science, to argue that the only scientists capable of acknowledging the anomalies — and thus shifting paradigms and starting revolutions — are “either very young or very new to the field.” In other words, they are classic outsiders, naive and untenured. They aren’t inhibited from noticing the failures that point toward new possibilities."

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Cocaine addiction may be solved in another decade; oops!

12 years after I had published with Richard Rothman, an employee of NIDA that cocaine addiction could be immediately stopped by the predecessor of PURSOR, Eric Nestler, using NIDA grant money stated:
"Effective medications for treating cocaine addiction will eventually be developed, and the best strategy for progress in this area is to target neurobiological mechanisms, such as those described above. Although the process takes a very long time—it can take 10 to 20 years to advance from identification of a disease mechanism to development of a new treatment—this work is in progress and represents the best hope for those who are addicted."

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Decreased Frontal Lobe Activity in Addicted and Attention Deficit


 Nora Volkow, the current director of the National Institute on Drug Addiction (NIDA),  reviewed in 2005 the various protocols that are in use today to evaluate brain function in the addicted subject.
Modern imaging techniques enable researchers to observe drug actions and consequences as they occur and persist in the brains of abusing and addicted individuals.
The frontal cortex (blue in the image) is a brain region that supports logical thinking, goal setting, planning, and self-control. Numerous studies have documented that addictive drugs cause volume and tissue composition changes in this region and that these changes are likely associated with abusers’ cognitive and decisionmaking problems.
Incidentally, similar changes occur in the brains of those suffering from ADD and ADHD.

The addicted individual must abstain from drugs for weeks to months before the frontal hypofunction resolves.  It would be of interest to see whether such resolution occurs shortly after the administration of the PURSOR protocol and the resultant resolution of craving.