Top of the list; bottom of the list.

I wake up every day, and do three things even before I get up to pee. First, I check my work BlackBerry with one eye open. Then I check my personal email with both eyes open but unfocused. Then I look at the Top Ten news stories at New York Times.com, as ranked on the iPhone app, and sometimes take the full articles - not just headlines - with me for breakfast and during the morning routine.

The Top Ten on the iPhone is a blend of stories from different news sections - mostly "Top News" but a little bit of Style section, New York Regional headlines and even a Dining + Wine well-read selection from time to time.

The other morning, the first story on the list was about how the United States' military branches have had an average of one suicide per day among currently enlisted folks in 2012. That is, by the way, more than the number of people lost in combat in 2012 so far. They're killing themselves faster than they're being killed by enemy fire.

The story at the very bottom of the list was about high-end real estate agents in New York City, and what apartments they would recommend - and why - in the $30 million-and-up-price-range.

Sometimes I hate my own country. Sometimes I really, REALLY hate it.

Rattling Around

Rattling around in my head today is an article from Scientific American about this gene, called CHRM2, whose various expressions appear to be correlated with depression, unruly childhood behavior, high intelligence and alcoholism.

Wha-a-at? Yes. Fascinating.

The theory goes that when this gene is confronted with unstable, uninvolved, volatile parenting... well... it is more likely to result in alcoholism or aggression in teenagers. And when this gene is confronted with engaged, positive, nurturing and involved parenting... it results in wildly successful and intelligent citizens.

It is truly being called the orkidebarn or maskrosbarn theory (Swedish for... orchid child or dandelion child). Dandelion children are the resilient children... they can, and usually do, thrive in any kind of environment. But the orchid children - they are delicate. They have the capacity for incredible beauty, for outshining others - but they also have the capacity to wilt beyond repair without tender, careful care. They're not to be stepped on. Mistakes weigh on them.

I suspect we'll learn more and more and more in my lifetime about various genes, and the effect nurture has on them in each person, depending on the variance in the gene we happen to be housing. But isn't it fascinating!?

(More here.)

The Perception Gap

Just want to pass along that handy term for your next dinner party or stimulating intellectual discussion. It's from a David Ropeik op-ed in the Times, and he says:

... Our risk perception system, which blends thinking and feeling and mostly takes place subconsciously, often produces fears that fly in the face of the facts. Many of us are more afraid of some risks — like mercury or pesticides or genetically modified food — than the evidence warrants. And many of us aren’t as concerned about some really dire dangers as we ought to be, like climate change, particulate pollution or acidification of the ocean. The problem is, being too afraid, or not afraid enough — a phenomenon I call “the perception gap” — produces dangers all by itself. For that reason, it’s worth exploring just why our fears don’t match the facts, as a first step toward protecting ourselves from the real dangers that arise when we get risk wrong.

Some of us, ahem, miiiiight have mothers and grandmothers who routinely display (or displayed) bold illustrations of this perception gap.

And it miiiiight be influencing our own daily fears, and is worth thinking about - either doing more research and less seeking of validation, as Ropeik suggests, but also, for me, being aware of the very real consequences of long-term low-level stress, and long-term low-level fight-or-flight decision-making.

Food for thought... 'tis better to make peace with my daily choices and live calmly, than to warmly welcome my existing facts-and-feelings perception gaps, nurturing them to my own detriment...

Captain Obvious

Two news stories this week honestly have me sighing in frustration.

The media is expressing SURPRISE that 1 in 4 American women report having been sexually assaulted, harassed or stalked. Really? Have they ever had an intimate conversation with, say, 4 women during the course of their lives? Sheesh.

And then, my goodness, we find that Sheriff Arpaio in Arizona promoted, fostered and participated in a culture of bias against Latinos. You don't say!?!?

C'mon Christmas break, I'm ready!