Mirror Neurons: Not Relevant Yet

From Slate, an article by Alison Gopnik on how the term "mirror neuron," used to describe the activities of particular cells observed in Rhesus monkeys, is mostly bunk when applied to humans. Excellent and fascinating read, particularly because Scientific American has been taken in by the "mirror neuron myth" repeatedly. Also compare the Wikipedia page (particularly notice that it inappropriately conflates "mirror regions" with "mirror neurons"). Important moral: when Wikipedia is wrong, it is often wrong in ways that are simultaneously important and hard to detect.

A Detailed Explanation of How Sh*t Happens

Barry Ritholtz over at The Big Picture posts an Onion-style humor article about crazy Wall Street debt instruments, and how they get sold. Check it out if you're interested in financial stuff - very funny. A teaser:

"He said to me, 'what's wrong with you, its quadruple A rated, just buy it, what
are you a pussy?' He also said it was going into 'an index', although he didn't
say which one, but I felt that I had to buy it. And that was good enough for me,
bro'."

UBL's Idea Man: Azzam the American

This is what passes for an American, apparently, in the mind of al Qaeda:

The Telegraph reports that U.S. intelligence has singled out Adam Gadahn (the only American formally charged with treason in connection with the GWoT) as the speechwriter for UBL's latest video. That's why it reads like the script for a campus rally or an Edwards campaign appearance rather than an Islamist diatribe. This is, again, good news. If you need the douchie pictured above to come up with ideas for you, you are not a credible threat - period. There are many other credible Islamist threats, but the release of this hokey jokey video may mark the point where we may stop worrying about UBL himself.

Everyone Must Read This

I agree word-for-word with every single thought in this article by Fred Kaplan. It is an extremely well-argued piece on the worst single failure of this president, the most galling single indictment of him - his total, baffling failure to enforce his own personal order regarding the disbanding of the Iraqi army. This was a particularly awful failure because it did not involve any difficult decision, any complicated issue, any substantive facts: having already made a crucial presidential decision, when it was publicly reversed he took no action. This is objectively incompetent.

New UBL Video: What Year Is It?

Osama, as has been widely reported, has a new video. Over at Hot Air, Allahpundit has a transcript. A particularly relevant line:

This is why I tell you: as you liberated yourselves before from the slavery of monks, kings, and feudalism, you should liberate yourselves from the deception, shackles, and attrition of the capitalist system.

OK, what year is it again and what enemy are we facing here? Is UBL honestly appealing to, um, Socialism and Enlightenment?? This is actually encouraging news. First, socialism lost. Repeatedly. Nothing could make me happier than Osama hitching himself to that wagon. The spectacle of an Islamist reminding the West that it threw off the chains of theocracy is also encouraging. Both of these appeals reflect a shocking and heartening stupidity on the part of Osama: he claims to be on the side of Socialism, which lost; and he claims to be on the side of "freedom from monks," which was indeed the winning side; but he isn't on that side, but on the side of the mullahs. It's nice to be reminded by the architect of the Islamist war that civilized nations have a habit of shaking off the dominance of monks and mullahs.

With all the griping we do about the stupidity and apparent insanity (that is, detachment from reality) of our own leaders, it's nice to get a hint sometimes that maybe the other side's leaders are even more afflicted. (See also this Slate piece about laughably bad modern Russian propaganda).