There was not much interesting listed under the "Public Safety" section of our local town paper, but it looks like the police were called a few times for very serious occurances. How do they train for all this stuff?

• A sick raccoon was reported under the porch in the 17500 block of Schalit Way.
• A large dead squirrel was removed from the roadway on the 1000 block of C Avenue.
• Responding to a report of "blood all over the kitchen walls", a police officer found, instead, cranberry juice all over the walls.

Last night this site was offline for about 4 hours. The family was scattered about the house when the lights went off at about 6pm. Soon, we were all together in the kitchen lighting candles and fixing dinner on the gas stove. We had dinner by candle light and finished the evening by playing Uno. (It's hard to tell the difference between green and blue with just the light of a few candles.)

The power returned at 10pm after my son took a shower by candle light. We could now all go off to our separate rooms and finish the evening by the steady shine of electric light.

The News in Brain and Behavioural Sciences Newsletter is full of fun stuff this week:

• The fraction of left-handed people today is about the same as it was during the Ice Age
• People with a history of the digestive disorder celiac disease are three times more likely to develop schizophrenia than those without the disease
• The ability to appreciate other people's agony is achieved by the same parts of the brain that we use to experience pain for ourselves
• Just missing breakfast makes you more sensitive to sweet and salty tastes
• Changes in hormone levels cause many women to be more critical of other women, according to a recent study [this is one of those "duh" things -- women, and the men who live with them, have known this for years. --MB]
• Human beings are the only animals that have asymmetrical brains
• A new study of young mothers by researchers at University College London (UCL) has shown that romantic and maternal love activate many of the same specific regions of the brain, and lead to a suppression of neural activity associated with critical social assessment of other people and negative emotions. The findings suggest that once one is closely familiar with a person, the need to assess the character and personality of that person is reduced, and bring us closer to explaining why, in neurological terms, 'love is blind.'
• Researchers have identified areas of the brain where what we're actually doing (reality) and what we think we're doing (illusion, or perception) are processed.

The always interesting News in Brain and Behavioural Sciences Newsletter this week pointed to an Edmonton Journal article where an McMaster University evolutionary psychologist claims to have found that the length ratio of a woman's ring to index finger points to her sexual behaviour -- from fantasies to the number of partners she might have.

It has been known for a century (really?!) that the ratio between the length of the second finger (2D) and the ring finger (4D) varies between men and women and that a shorter 2D is the more masculine characteristic. Put your right hand flat on a table as see whether your ring finger (4D) is longer then your index finger (2D).

Well, the finding is that shorter 2D (more male'ish) is coorelated with higher prenatal testosterone levels and that more male-like 2D:4D ratios on the right hand were linked to higher SOI scores -- standard seven-item questionnaire called the Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI), which measures "a person's" willingness to engage in casual, uncommitted sex. That is, high prenatal testosterone levels lead to 'male-like' short-term mating tactics. These tests were given to woman -- shorter 2D indicated a woman engages in more "short-term mating tactics".

So ladies, is your 2D shorter than your 4D?

Having been raised an Episcipalian (which is essentually a Catholic without the Pope and with no Latin) I missed most of the odd corners of Christian beliefs. Everything from Kabalistic numerology to speaking in tongues has been outside my upbringing.

Now, all of a sudden, the rapture is showing up. A few days ago I was looking for something to listen too while driving. Our city library had Left Behind by Tim Lahaye and Jerry B. Jenkins -- the first in the series of novels that hypothesize what happens after the rapture.

And then I was reading Amy's Living Reflection of a Dream blog and she mentions a Pentagon report that predicts catastrophic weather changes in the next 20 years (a report supressed by the American admintration and only finally <a href="http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1153513,00.html"reported by the British Guardian</a> ).

But, in her lament over the head-in-the-sand response by the American government, she says that everyone in the current administartion is probably figuring they will be saved by the rapture.

Ok, it's just a coincidence. But I don't think the topic has come up once in the last 10 years of my life. And now, this super Christian-centric, magical, cataclysmic event comes up twice in one week. The believers would say God is "speaking to me". The rational would say that many people are looking for supernatural solutions to humanities continuing tough problems. I think I'm more in the latter camp -- I need to continue doing God's work and not rely on Him bailing me out when things get hairy.