Minimum Wage Workers vs. Low Income Earners - Approximately 25% of US Workers Make Less Than $10.50/Hour

Any discussion about the minimum wage is surely going to include speculation about the impact increasing minimum wage would have on the economy. It is likely that at least one person is going to point out that only 1.7 million individuals, or approximately 2% of the work force, earn minimum wage in an attempt to minimize the suggested impact raising the minimum wage might have. What those attempting to make this argument fail to take into account is that there is another 2.2 million individuals that, as of 2011, had wages below federal minimum wage. This brings the number of US workers at or below current federal minimum wage up to approximately 3.8 million workers, or 5.3% (source).

Further, this line of reasoning fails to take into account those between current minimum wage and whatever we wish to propose as a new minimum wage. So, if we are going to talk about changing the minimum wage, what should we choose as our proposed new minimum?  There is a great article over at Dissent Magazine that crunches some numbers in response to Obama's State of the Union call to raise the minimum wage to $9.00/hour.  I am going to choose to use what in this article is described as "a commonly cited bench mark" that adjusts "for inflation using the basic consumer price index", $10.50. So, lets take a look at some numbers and see if we can figure out how many workers would have their earnings directly increased by increasing the minimum wage to $10.50.

Biology Based Diagnosis of Mental Illness - "Brain Disorders"

A few months ago I published a paper I had written back in graduate school about The Transition Toward More Biology Based Methodology of Diagnosis in Mental Health.  The gist of this paper was essentially that while we are not quite there yet we are certainly headed towards biology and physiology playing a much larger role in psychological diagnosis.

Dr. Thomas Insel, the current director of the National Institute of Mental Health, has made his thoughts on the subject fairly clear in recent years (I actually even cite an essay of his in my last article on this topic) However, he recently published an article to his NIMH Directors blog cementing the position of the institution on this coming transition.

Here are some key excerpts:

The Death Penalty - There Is Nothing Even Remotely Close To A Reasonable Argument In Favor Of The Death Penalty

People are scary as hell. No, I am not talking about death row inmates. I am talking about you, the average everyday human.  Seriously, many of you people you people are mind-bogglingly scary. Today a discussion broke on on Reddit after someone shared a horrible image of a man sucker punching a much older man in the side of the head. 

Eventually the discussion lead to the perpetrators ID and the fact that he is a repeat violent criminal who "wears his history of violence, assault and prison sentences like a badge of honor". When one individual suggests that the death penalty might be warranted, another exclaims "Exactly. It sickens me how we waste money imprisoning people like this who thrive on the lifestyle". This is where things take a terrifying turn.  Here are some select responses to someone pointing out that, due to the high cost of the appeals process, it actually costs more to execute someone than it does to imprison them for the remainder of their life:

Google Glass and Attraction: How psychological science and new technology will transform the dating world

More and more news has been coming out about Google Glass over the past few weeks and it really looks like an impressive product.  I am sure there are a million different things that people are going to think of applying this technology towards but the prospect that intrigues me the most is one of pairing this new technology with different aspects of psychological research. For example, let us consider attraction. 

Combining Technologies: Neuroscience - Real Time Single Cell Resolution Activity Mapping Of The Brain + Transparent Brains

Recently I came across an amazing article about new technology allowing for real time single cell resolution activity mapping of the brain: Whole-brain functional imaging at cellular resolution using light-sheet microscopy by Misha B Ahrens,Michael B Orger,Drew N Robson, Jennifer M Li & Philipp J Keller.  The above image is from their work and I find it to be astonishingly beautiful. Every little point of light is a neuron firing.  The detail is absolutely mind blowing. We are nothing but our brains, a topic I explored in a previous article When do You stop being You?, so as far as I am concerned that image is one of the best representations of life I have ever seen.

Monster Warlord - Fresh Spring Update - Patch Notes!

The other day Gamevil put out a spring update.  Here is everything I have compiled so far about the update. As always, let me know any information I am missing or have gotten wrong in the comments and be sure to leave your alliance code. I will update the post thanking you and include your code!

Max Level Increase

The maximum level in Monster Warlord is now level 320. 

New Quests - New Area and 8 Brand New Quests

Monster Warlord - Monster Farming Guide

Some more information compiled into one post for everyone. This time I focused on monster farming and the locations/monster rewards for all of the monster capture quests I had information for. As always, things are a work in progress so if you have information I am missing or notice an error please let me know in the comments and I will update/correct asap. 

Grasslands
Monster Hunting
Energy/Exp: 5
Monster: Red Eye (Uncommon) (Fire)
AT: 16
DF: 12

Scout Scum Pond
Energy/Exp: 5
Monster: Tutla (Uncommon) (Water)
AT: 11
DF: 18

Pass Final Test
Energy/Exp: 5
Monster: Battle Bee (Uncommon) (Air)
AT: 19
DF: 10

Monster Warlord: Magic Items Guide

When you complete a quest you gain a certain % mastery of that quest, when you master a quest 100% you get a nice little bonus exp/gold reward.  When you master all of the quests in an area the area will "level up" and your mastery for each quest will reset to 0 for the next level quest.   When you master all of the level 3 quests in an area you will receive a magic item for your efforts.

Android Game: Monster Warlord

Monster Warlord is an up and coming game published by GAMEVIL, grab it here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gamevil.monster.global

Once you get set up come join us on Reddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/MonsterWarlord/

This is essentially a monster collection and combat game.  The premise is pretty simple. You are navigating a strange new world guided by an NPC named Mika.  There is a long quest line (quest being a fairly generous word here) with new quests and areas opening up as you level. Some quests give high money rewards while others provide an opportunity to capture a monster.  Both types of quest give experience points equal to the energy necessary to complete the quest.

Deep Burner - WRITER ERROR (ILLEGAL REQUEST (MEDIUM NOT FORMATTED))

So I just ran into a little bit of a problem when trying to burn an ISO file to a Memorex DVD+RW disk.

I have been using DeepBurner for years and have never had any trouble. I checked my DVD burner to make sure that it was compatible with +RW disks before trying to burn my file. Unfortunately once I put the disk in, selected my file, and clicked the Burn ISO button I received the following error message.

WRITER ERROR (ILLEGAL REQUEST (MEDIUM NOT FORMATTED))
Burn failed
Ejecting

2013 State of the Union Live Blog

Hello everyone, I am going to attempt live blogging for the first time ever during tonight's state of the union.

I am currently watching the fox coverage because that is what is coming in the best over our antenna at the moment.

I will be updating as I have thoughts about what is being said.

9:02:  There was brief mention of the energy secretary being the person outside of the area in case something were to happen.  Personally, I find it silly that someone so far down the line of succession is the person in place to take over in a worst case scenario.  It should always be the VP.

9:09: A few minutes late the President starts his long walk to the podium. I really really hope that this year they are a bit more disciplined about applause but I highly doubt it.

Fact vs Theory vs Law vs Hypothesis vs Proof

There is a reasonable amount of jargon across all scientific disciplines and it is absolutely not surprising that the general public does not keep up to date on all of them, nor should they be expected to.  That being said, there are a number of scientific terms that are fairly regularly and consistently misused by the general public and the media that are fundamental to science across all disciplines.

First, lets take a look at what science actually is. According to Wikipedia: "science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe". That is pretty straightforward.  Science is a framework, or a methodology, for looking at the world around us and putting forth our best efforts to understand this crazy universe we find ourselves in. This framework can be laid out in a few simple steps outlined in this nifty little flow chart:

Neuroscience Sketches

I figured some people might be interested in these drawings I did to study for a behavioral neuroscience exam back in grad school. They came out quite nice so I scanned them and saved them. Maybe they will help someone else prepare for an exam. 

Enjoy!

Nature vs Nurture: The Debate Is Framed Wrong - It's All About Ranges

The great debate between what matters more, nature or nurture is as pervasive as ever.  For such a long time people would argue about which mattered, nature or nurture, with each side yelling at each other that one or the other is what matters for human traits and characteristics. Gradually people in the middle began pointing out that, quite clearly, it is both. That, generally speaking, both nature and nurture are responsible for human traits and characteristics. You would think that this would be the end of it but all this did was shift the goal posts a bit.  Now, rather than argue which is responsible, the argument has become which is more influential or more important. This new framing of the debate is just as silly as before in my opinion and I hope to explain why here.

Reading Comprehension - The Importance of Prior Knowledge

Daniel Kroner, M.S.

Seton Hall University

The Importance of Reading

Reading with comprehension, as described by Hume and Snowling (2011), is one of the primary goals of early education. Learning, whether in an academic setting or on one’s own tends to be highly dependent on the comprehension of information from text sources (McKeown, 1990). To quote the largest children’s literacy nonprofit organization in the United States, “Reading is Fundamental.”  Reading truly is fundamental in every academic discipline (White, 2004; Lei, Rhinehart, Howard & Cho, 2010) due to the way we share information (Tarchi, 2010). Many of the skills and strategies required for reading comprehension are already present in beginning readers in their ability to comprehend the spoken word. As with the spoken word, meaning is often deeper than a single word, single sentence, or even single paragraph.  Readers must make use of their existing knowledge to make the inferences necessary to uncover these deeper meanings (Hirsch, 2003). However, while a beginning reader might possess a reasonably advanced listening comprehension ability there remains enough difference that reading education continues well beyond their education for listening and speaking. Enough information is removed in the transition from experience and conversation to text that skills and strategies a reader might use when talking with peer or instructor are suddenly unavailable.  Because of this simply being able to decode the individual words, word meanings, and sentences (including syntax) is simply not enough to facilitate reading comprehension (Adams 1977).

Free 8 gig USB Stick

I just stumbled across this amazing promotional offer of a free 8 gig USB stick.  It takes a few moments to fill out the form and there does not appear to be any catches.  Definitely worth the time to fill it out.

Click here for free 8 gig USB drive

Short Stories That Mean A Lot To Me

Every once and a while I will run into a short story that will really make me think about my world view.  I spend a lot of time reading online, probably way more than I should. Occasionally, something sticks.  It worms its way deep into my psyche and I return year after year to re-read it. Here are some of my favorites.

The Saga Continues Part 2: My Return To EverQuest (Project 1999)

Please note: I am playing on the Project1999 emulated EverQuest server, if you are unfamiliar with this please see my previous post for more information: My Return To An Old Classic also of interest is my original article criticizing modern day MMOs which prompted my return to EverQuest, this piece can be found here: The Failures of Modern Day MMOs

After some encouragement and kind words I have decided to continue telling the tale of my adventures through Norath as I progress through the game.  Shortly after my last update I moved on from Crushbone to the infamous Estate of Unrest around level 14ish. This zone was everything I remembered and really helped to continue my trip down nostalgia lane in a positive way. People have been amazing and overall my social encounters have been tremendously positive.

Recent findings in neuroimaging and psychopathy: diagnostic, legal, and ethical implications

Given an impending return to an official diagnosis of psychopathy in the DSM-V and the advances and developments in neuroimaging over the past decades, the role of neuroimaging in the diagnosis, treatment and understanding of psychopathy is of ever increasing interest. This paper describes and combines data and discussion from recent journal articles, reviews, and text books regarding neuroimaging and psychopathy as well as touches on some of the ethical and legal implications of this work. Recent findings indicate that a return to a clinical diagnosis of psychopathy in the DSM-V is indeed warranted and that there is emerging evidence of distinct subgroups of psychopaths that may be characterized both by overt behaviors and neuroanatomical anomalies.  However, given the nature of the population and the research, it is very difficult and even unwise to begin, at this point, drawing solid cause and effect relationships between specific neuroanatomic features and any overt deviant behavior.

Happy New Years Everyone!

Before I head out for the evening I just want to wish anyone who might end up reading this a happy new year! 

Best wishes, 

Daniel