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Aha! Maybe now we men will konw why that lady in front of us blushing.



Ker Than
Special to LiveScience
LiveScience.com Wed Apr 27,10:24 AM ET

Empathy allows us to feel the emotions of others, to identify and understand their feelings and motives and see things from their perspective. How we generate empathy remains a subject of intense debate in cognitive science.

Some scientists now believe they may have finally discovered its root. We're all essentially mind readers, they say.

The idea has been slow to gain acceptance, but evidence is mounting.

Mirror neurons

In 1996, three neuroscientists were probing the brain of a macaque monkey when they stumbled across a curious cluster of cells in the premotor cortex, an area of the brain responsible for planning movements. The cluster of cells fired not only when the monkey performed an action, but likewise when the monkey saw the same action performed by someone else. The cells responded the same way whether the monkey reached out to grasp a peanut, or merely watched in envy as another monkey or a human did.

Because the cells reflected the actions that the monkey observed in others, the neuroscientists named them "mirror neurons."

Later experiments confirmed the existence of mirror neurons in humans and revealed another surprise. In addition to mirroring actions, the cells reflected sensations and emotions.

"Mirror neurons suggest that we pretend to be in another person's mental shoes," says Marco Iacoboni, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine. "In fact, with mirror neurons we do not have to pretend, we practically are in another person's mind."

Since their discovery, mirror neurons have been implicated in a broad range of phenomena, including certain mental disorders. Mirror neurons may help cognitive scientists explain how children develop a theory of mind (ToM), which is a child's understanding that others have minds similar to their own. Doing so may help shed light on autism, in which this type of understanding is often missing.

Theory theory

Over the years, cognitive scientists have come up with a number of theories to explain how ToM develops. The "theory theory" and "simulation theory" are currently two of the most popular.

Theory theory describes children as budding social scientists. The idea is that children collect evidence -- in the form of gestures and expressions -- and use their everyday understanding of people to develop theories that explain and predict the mental state of people they come in contact with.

Vittorio Gallese, a neuroscientist at the University of Parma in Italy and one of original discovers of mirror neurons, has another name for this theory: he calls it the "Vulcan Approach," in honor of the Star Trek protagonist Spock, who belonged to an alien race called the Vulcans who suppressed their emotions in favor of logic. Spock was often unable to understand the emotions that underlie human behavior.

Gallese himself prefers simulation theory over this Vulcan approach.

Natural mind readers

Simulation theory states that we are natural mind readers. We place ourselves in another person's "mental shoes," and use our own mind as a model for theirs.

Gallese contends that when we interact with someone, we do more than just observe the other person's behavior. He believes we create internal representations of their actions, sensations and emotions within ourselves, as if we are the ones that are moving, sensing and feeling.

Many scientists believe that mirror neurons embody the predictions of simulation theory. "We share with others not only the way they normally act or subjectively experience emotions and sensations, but also the neural circuits enabling those same actions, emotions and sensations: the mirror neuron systems," Gallese told LiveScience.

Gallese points out, however, that the two theories are not mutually exclusive. If the mirror neuron system is defective or damaged, and our ability to empathize is lost, the observe-and-guess method of theory theory may be the only option left. Some scientists suspect this is what happens in autistic people, whose mental disorder prevents them from understanding the intentions and motives of others.

Tests underway

The idea is that the mirror neuron systems of autistic individuals are somehow impaired or deficient, and that the resulting "mind-blindness" prevents them from simulating the experiences of others. For autistic individuals, experience is more observed than lived, and the emotional undercurrents that govern so much of our human behavior are inaccessible. They guess the mental states of others through explicit theorizing, but the end result is a list -- mechanical and impersonal -- of actions, gestures and expressions void of motive, intent, or emotion.

Several labs are now testing the hypothesis that autistic individuals have a mirror neuron deficit and cannot simulate the mental states of others.

One recent experiment by Hugo Theoret and colleagues at the University of Montreal showed that mirror neurons normally active during the observation of hand movements in non-autistic individuals are silent in those who have autism.

"You either simulate with mirror neurons, or the mental states of others are completely precluded to you," said Iacoboni.

April 28 Birthday Celebs: I don't think you want to do the Lambeth Walk with Hussein, but maybe Jack Nicholson will oblige. He seems game for anything.

1758 James Monroe, 5th president of the United States (Westmoreland County, VA; died 1831)
1871 Louise Dilworth Homer, opera singer (Sewickley, PA; died 1947)
1878 Lionel Barrymore, actor (Philadelphia, PA; died 1954)
1926 Harper Lee, author (Monroeville, AL) (To Kill A Mockingbird)
1929 Carolyn Jones Amarillo TX, actress (Morticia-Addams Family) died 1983
1937 Saddam Hussein, Iraqi president (Takrit, Iraq)
Jack Nicholson, actor (Neptune, NJ)
1941 Ann-Margret, actress/dancer/singer (Stockholm, Sweden)
1948 Marcia Strassman, actress (New York, NY)
1949 Bruno Kirby, actor (New York, NY)
1950 Jay Leno, TV personality/comedian (New Rochelle, NY)
1952 Mary McDonnell Wilkes-Barre PA, actress (Sneakers, Independence Day)
1966 John Daly, golfer (Carmichael, CA)

Raggedy, Jack Nicholson it is, then:

Any time you're Lambeth way,
Any evening, any day,
You'll find us all
Doing the Lambeth Walk.




Every little Lambeth gal,
With her little Lambeth pal,
You'll find them all
Doing the Lambeth Walk.




Everything's free and easy,
Do as you darn well pleasy,
Why don't you make your way there
Go there, stay there.




Once you get down Lambeth way
Every evening, every day,
You'll find yourself
Doing the Lambeth Walk.




Originated in the Limehouse district of London

Lambeth Walk gave its name to a Cockney dance first made popular in 1937 by Lupino Lane. The song from the 1937 musical Me and My Girl. (Book and Lyrics by L Arthur Rose and Douglas Furber, Book revised by Stephen Fry, Music by Noel Gay). The story line is about a Cockney barrow boy who inherits an earldom and almost loses his Lambeth girlfriend.

Bob, that is astounding news that the cognitive folks have come up with. let's hope that the data can be used to help autistic children. I loved your remark about that "person" blushing. Are you a mentalist?

I remembered another "walk" that was familiar to me because of Claude DeBussy's famous melody, but was stunned to find that the thing was totally racist. I recalled it as Pollywog Cake Walk, but it was Gollywog cake walk and when I tried to find out what a Gollywog was, the online dictionary declined. YIKES! What a surprise.

(edited to get Claude's sir name spelled correctly)

Humming along:

I am as well, Raggedy, but to a different tune:


An instrumental played by Jerry Garcia with the Great American String Band. "Limehouse Blues" is a jazz standard, though it was originally written with lyrics:

And those weird China blues
Never go away
Sad, mad blues
For all the while they seem to say

Oh, Limehouse kid
Oh, oh, Limehouse kid
Goin' the way
That the rest of them did
Poor broken blossom
And nobody's child
Haunting and taunting
You're just kind of wild

Oh, Limehouse blues
I've the real Limehouse blues
Can't seem to shake off
Those real China blues
Rings on your fingers
And tears for your crown
That is the story
Of old Chinatown

Rings on your fingers
And tears for your crown
That is the story
Of old Chinatown

How Lovely To Be A Woman

by Ann-Margret


When you're a skinny child of fourteen,
Wide with braces from ear to ear,
You doubt that you will ever be appealing.
Then Hallelujah! You are fifteen
And the braces disappear
And your skin is smooth and clear
And you have that happy grown-up female feeling.
How lovely to be a woman,
The wait was well worth while;
How lovely to wear mascara
And smile a woman's smile.
How lovely to have a figure,
That's round instead of flat;
Whenever you hear boys whistle,
You're what they're whistling at.
It's wonderful to feel
The way a woman feels;
It gives you such a glow just to know
You're wearing lipstick and heels!
How lovely to be a woman
And have one job to do;
To pick out a boy and train him
And then when you are through,
You've made him the man you want him to be!
Life's lovely when you're a woman like me!
How wonderful to know
The things a woman knows;
How marvelous to wait for a date
In simply beautiful clothes!
How lovely to be a woman
And change from boys to men,
To go to a fancy nightclub
And stay out after ten.
How lovely to be so grown-up and free!
Life's lovely when you're a woman like me!

Would that be the same Limehouse Blues
Written by Philip Braham
Sung by Harriet Lee
Danced by Fred Astaire, Lucille Bremer, chorus in
Ziegfeld Follies

"Bally" (not belly) is another word for "bloody" in the UK. The singer is indicating that he is having trouble in fastening his lowest button (probably because he has had too much to eat), in the way that a Cockney would say it, and swearing because he is getting annoyed, hence :-

"I Can't Do Me Bally Bottom Button Up"?

<later edit> Full lyrics on next page. Translation carried out at a small fee.

Well, since most blues got different lyrics, here's a slightly different version (and when you get vocals on jazz recordings of this, you can find more different words :wink: ):

LIMEHOUSE BLUES
Words - Douglas Furber

VERSE
In Limehouse,
where the yellow chinkies love to play.
In Limehouse,
where you can hear those blues all day.
And they seem all around,
like a long, long, sigh.
Queer, sob sound,
Oh Honey Lamb they seem to cry.

CHORUS
Oh! Limehouse kid, Oh! Limehouse kid,
going the way that the rest of them did.
Poor broken blossom and nobody's child,
haunting and taunting you're just kind o' wild, Oh! Oh!

Oh! Limehouse blues, I've got the real Limehouse blues,
learned from the chinkies, those sad China blues.
Rings on your fingers and tears for your crown,
that is the story of old China town.

VERSE
Oh! Dearie,
right here in orange blossom land.
I'm weary,
'cause no one seems to understand.
And those weird china blues,
never go away.
Sad, mad, blues,
for all the while they seem to say.

CHORUS
Oh! Limehouse kid, Oh! Limehouse kid,
going the way that the rest of them did.
Poor broken blossom and nobody's child,
haunting and taunting you're just kind o' wild, Oh! Oh!

Oh! Limehouse blues, I've got the real Limehouse blues,
can't seem to shake off, those sad China blues.
Rings on your fingers and tears for your crown,
that is the story of old China town.

Bally Bottom Button

Buttons are a blinkin bally nuisance you'll agree,
Buttonin' bally buttons is a blinkin' bore to me,
If I had no bally buttons on my clothes I know,
I could put more dinners where good dinners ought to go,
Supper is the only decent meal I ever get,
And I do enjoy my suppers by the way,
For I undo my buttons but each morning when I wake,
I always call the missis up and say.

I can't do my bally bottom button up,
Can't do my bally bottom button up,
And it's so tight and it serves me right,
Must have eaten too much grub last night,
I can't do my bally bottom button up,
And though you think it's fun,
What's the use of buttoning the other bally buttons,
When the bally bottom button's undone.

What's the use of buttoning the other bally buttons,
When the bally bottom button's undone.

Now in the street one afternoon I heard the preacher say,
If you've only got the will you'll always find the way,
Don't say you can't do a thing just try until you do,
Others have done great and mighty deeds why shouldn't you,
Then he said just look at that intelligent young man,
When the crowd all looked at me I got a shock,
Says he there's nothing in the world a chap like him can't do,
And I replied oh yes there is old cock.

(repeat chorus)

Now I became a burglar once as it was rather tame,
But I found that burgling was a very risky game,
By mistake I broke into a turkish bath one night,
I was in the women's section lummee what a sight,
Then I saw a lady with her eyes all full of steam,
And in my direction she began to grope,
She took me for a maid and asked if I would wash her back,
I said I shan't 'cos if my hands get in the soap.
My bally bottom button up I cannot do.

My bally bottom button up I cannot do,
My bally bottom button up I cannot do,
Grub I must have eaten to much of last night,
And it serves me right because it fits so tight,
My bally bottom button up I cannot do,
And though I know that fun you think it is,
What's the use of having an unbuttoned bottom button,
When the other bally buttons are all did.

Sorry, listeners. Had some paper work to do.

Raggedy, I didn't know about that movie, but I did know Limehouse Blues, so I thought it fit nicely in the program slot. Thanks, my friend, for showing us the pix.

Walter, and thank you for the alternative lyrics. It's nice to know both sides of a song, right listeners?

And for his Lordship, we appreciate the clarification on the words and the lyrics also. Sooooo "bally" is another word for "bloody". You Brits have almost as many ways to say things as we Yanks.

Continuing with our oriental music:
Verse:
When the town is fast a sleep, and it's mid -night in the sky,
That's the time the fes -tive Chink Starts to wink his oth -er eye,
Starts to wink his dream -y eye, La -zi -ly you hear him sigh.

Chorus:
Chi -na -town, my Chi -na -town, Where the lights are low,
Hearts that know no oth -er land, Drift -ing to and fro,
Dream -y dream -y Chi -na -town, Al -mond eyes of brown,
Hearts seem light and life seems bright In dream -y Chi -na -town.

Time for a station break:
This is cyberspace, WA2K radio.

Thanks, milord, for help with the clash of cultures; I was going to try to get the words to that bally song this evening, an' ye've only gorn an' beaten me to it! Congratters, old chap.

McTag, do Brits really say, "Old Chap"? ellpus lives up to his moniker, does he not?

Thought for Today: ``The world does not require so much to be informed as reminded.'' - Hannah More, English religious writer (1745-1833).



04/27/05 20:00

And here's a rather gruesome reminder:













Headlines

U.S.:

Missing Jogger Case Now Called Criminal

By KRISTEN WYATT

DULUTH, Ga. (AP) - A 32-year-old woman disappeared just days before she was to be married, and authorities said Thursday they are treating her case as a criminal investigation.

Jennifer Wilbanks was reported missing Tuesday night by her fiance, John Mason, who said the bride-to-be was last seen hours earlier leaving her home to go jogging on her one-mile route, police said.

Friends and relatives have told police that Wilbanks seemed happy and said she was looking forward to her wedding Saturday. Her keys, cash, credit cards and identification also were found in her home. Her fiance said she left with only her radio and the clothes she had on.

``All of her friends and family said this is totally uncharacteristic of her,'' police Maj. Don Woodruff said Thursday after it was announced that police were treating her disappearance as a criminal investigation. ``We don't believe it was a case of premarital jitters. She did not get cold feet.''


Despite this, Duluth Police Chief Randy Belcher said hours later, ``It's a very real possibility she did get cold feet. I mean, how many husbands have gone out for a pack of cigarettes and not come back.''


The wedding was expected to be a big bash, with 600 invitations sent out and 14 bridesmaids and 14 groomsmen, according to Mason's mother, Vicki.


The ceremony was to be held at Duluth First United Methodist Church followed by a reception at the Atlanta Athletic Club. The groom's father, Claude Mason, a former Duluth mayor and municipal judge, was to be the best man.


Gifts have poured in for the wedding, according to the couple's bridal registry at Macy's, which listed Lenox dinnerware and Waterford crystal among the items bought for the bride and groom.


``She was so in love. The wedding is huge. It's the talk of the town. Everybody knows her, and was so excited,'' said Killie McCauley, of Gainesville, who went to high school with Wilbanks. McCauley was at the police station to find out how she could help find her friend, she said.


On Thursday, about 100 police officers were expanding a search a quarter-mile deeper into the nearby woods. Police had not asked anyone to take a polygraph test, but her fiance has volunteered to do so, Belcher said.


The woman is a daily runner and police downplayed the five hours it took for her fiance to report her missing. Many of those who routinely saw her jogging cannot remember if they saw her Tuesday, Blecher said.


Woodruff said the FBI and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation have offered assistance in the search.


Hundreds of volunteers searched the area Wednesday for Wilbanks. Authorities called off the volunteer search late in the day but continued canvassing door-to-door in this northeastern Atlanta suburb seeking clues in the disappearance.


Police checked the banks of the nearby Chattahoochee River and the state Department of Natural Resources searched the river, Woodruff said.


Wilbanks is described as 5 feet, 8 inches tall, 123 pounds, with shoulder-length dark brown hair. She was wearing a gray sweat shirt and blue sweat pants, police said.

Let us hope, listeners, that this doesn't turn out to be another Lacy Peterson situation.

Further to the Cockney Rhyming slang, as mentioned in my last post, if you want to understand what an "East End" Londoner is saying, next time you're down Lambeth way, have a "Gander", or "Butchers" (both mean look) at this :-

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/cockney.htm

It covers only a small part of the Cockney Dictionary (Cockney is the term used to describe any person said to be born within the sound of the Bow Bells - the bells of St. Mary-Le-Bow Church, "Bow Church" - in Cheapside, London EC2.)

Quite a few Cockney expressions have now come into common usage throughout the UK, with the emergence of popular TV/Radio shows, set in London, which use these phrases regularly.

You know, Ellpus, I understand "have a butchers". It means have a butchers hook; hence look. There used to be a Londoner on this site, oldandknew, who dragged me through the cockney rhyme thing, which to this day, I have never understood because so many things can rhyme with the given words. He explained that cockney was an attempt at code among the street people, and I thought of the book of Revelations in the Christian bible. Many have theorized that John, exiled to the Isle of Patmos, wrote that as a code to beleaguered Christians who were in hiding at the time.

I have always been fascinated with secret languages, and we have many in America, one of which has become "rap".

Musicians also have an argot, especially black musicians, and I think we understand that all too well.

Among the many pronunciations that are different in the U.S. and in England and other places, are the words "status" and "process"

May I say, that the ability to understand and communicate with our friends around the world, is the nuances that so many Americans do not understand, and vice versa.

Incidentally, listeners, Walter has explained the mystery of the popping toads. It seems that the Einstein bird is the culprit. What wonders have we bought to this site, and what beautiful opportunities to truly delve into the minds of those who are different, but oh, so much alike.

Yes, Bob, and that is why we call the crow, the Einstein bird.

I was trying to remember the poet who observed, "I think I could turn and live with animals"...Whitman?

You know, listeners, In looking through all the posts today in the land of A2K, I am amazed at the varying creations.

Some come in sublimation,
Others come in contemplation,
Others dare to tread the ground
That is forbidden in their town.

and hence comes the oft quoted line, "Forbidden fruit".

Does anyone here remember "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall"?

It's that time of night, again on WA2K radio.

The Jilting of Granny Weatherall



By Katherine Anne Porter

(1930)

http://people.morrisville.edu/~whitnemr/html/The%20Jilting%20of%20Granny%20Weatherall.htm