Germany, along with at least 20 other EU member states, has voted down a European Commission attempt to have Austria and Hungary lift bans on growing genetically modified (GM) maize. 

EU environment ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday, March 2, voted against forcing Vienna and Budapest to allow US biotech giant Monsanto's MON810 GM maize grain to be grown in their countries.

Only four EU nations -- Britain, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden -- supported the commission's effort to have the Austrian and Hungarian bans lifted.

The outcome of the vote reaffirmed Austria's and Hungary's assertion that it is their sovereign right to prohibit GM crops, Austria's Environment Minister Nikolaus Berlakovich told a news conference after the vote.

"We have completely prevailed," he said. "This is for me as if Austria won the European football championship."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was the EU leader who travelled the most in 2008, but it is UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown whose trips produced the most greenhouse gas.

Last year Mr Brown generated more than 8,400 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) on international and domestic flights, travelling almost 158,000 kilometres, Terra Eco, a French environmental monthly, reported on Monday (2 March).

Mr Sarkozy (l) travelled almost as much as Ms Merkel (m) and Mr Brown (r) put together in 2008, but was responsible for fewer greenhouse gas emissions

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was second, with some 7,400 tonnes for 174,440 kilometres over the course of 75 trips, most of which (44) were within Germany.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who traveled 324,595 kilometres, or the equivalent of flying eight times around the Earth, produced 7,100 tonnes of CO2.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero came fourth, with 6,700 tonnes of CO2 for 175,495 kilometres.

The number of unemployed people in Spain jumped by 154,058 in February, as the deepening recession forced companies to lay off more workers.

The total number of people out of work in Spain now stands at almost 3.5 million, official figures show.

It means the number of unemployed has risen by more than 10% in the past two months alone, and 50% in a year.

Although the rise is smaller than that in January, analysts expect many more Spaniards will soon be out of work.

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has again refused to enter a plea at The Hague, where he is facing charges of war crimes.

Prosecutors at the United Nations tribunal had re-drafted the charges and Mr Karadzic now faces two counts of genocide instead of one.

He also faces nine charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

His refusal to enter a plea prompted the court judges to lodge an automatic plea of not guilty on his behalf.

Appearing in court, Mr Karadzic said he was "not going to enter a plea at all."

"This tribunal does not have the right to try me," he said.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama sent a secret letter to Russia's president last month suggesting that he would back off deploying a new missile defense system in Eastern Europe if Moscow would help stop Iran from developing long-range weapons, American officials said Monday. Skip to next paragraph Enlarge This Image Dmitry Astakhov/RIA Novosti, via Associated Press

Moscow has not responded to the letter that was hand-delivered to President Dmitri A. Medvedev, above, three weeks ago. Readers' Comments

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The letter to President Dmitri A. Medvedev was hand-delivered in Moscow by top administration officials three weeks ago. It said the United States would not need to proceed with the interceptor system, which has been vehemently opposed by Russia since it was proposed by the Bush administration, if Iran halted any efforts to build nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles.

The officials who described the contents of the message requested anonymity because it has not been made public. While they said it did not offer a direct quid pro quo, the letter was intended to give Moscow an incentive to join the United States in a common front against Iran. Russia's military, diplomatic and commercial ties to Tehran give it some influence there, but it has often resisted Washington's hard line against Iran.

"It's almost saying to them, put up or shut up," said a senior administration official. "It's not that the Russians get to say, `We'll try and therefore you have to suspend.' It says the threat has to go away."

Gordon Brown is to reject pleas from colleagues to admit to mistakes in his handling of the economy when he addresses both Houses of Congress tomorrow.

In a stance that appeared to put him at odds with Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, who has called for ministers to show more humility, Mr Brown maintains his insistence that the recession was created by the banking crisis and not, as with previous recessions, by high inflation and high interest rates.

Some ministers are known to be privately urging Mr Brown to go beyond his expression of regret over the 10p tax rate fiasco and use his speech tomorrow to apologise for other possible errors, notably in regulation.

In an interview today Mr Darling said: "The key thing that went wrong was that a culture was allowed to develop over the last 15 years or so where the relationship between what people did and what they got went way out of alignment, especially at the top end.

A new trial has started against former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The case, which opens a year and a day after President Dimitry Medvedev was elected, is being seen by some as a test of his commitment to reform.  

Khodorkovsky faces fresh charges of embezzlement and money laundering that would leave him facing another long jail sentence, if he is found guilty.

"This case of immense importance because of what it will say to all of us about where Russia is going," Robert Amsterdam, a defence lawyer for Khodorkovsky, told Reuters news agency before the hearing.

Khodorkovsky's supporters have long alleged that he was arrested at the behest of the then President Vladimir Putin and his backers. The oil tycoon had openly funded opposition parties such as the liberal Yabloko faction in the run-up to 2003 parliamentary elections to the Kremlin's displeasure.  

The former Yukos boss, who is currently serving an eight-year sentence, has said that corrupt officials also wanted to carve up his business empire, which produced more oil than OPEC member Qatar.

Spain and Russia are set to sign a broad agreement for energy cooperation, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said on Monday.

"Tomorrow our states will sign a broad agreement on energy cooperation ... in developing, exploiting, transporting and selling energy resources, both renewables and traditional," Zapatero said.

Zapatero was speaking to journalists alongside Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on the first day of the leader's state visit to Spain.

Anti-treaty group Libertas has hired US election campaigner Joe Trippi to head its June European election campaign, the Irish Times reports. Mr Trippi organised Democrat Howard Dean's 2004 campaign. Libertas leader Declan Ganley announced the move at the launch of his party's German platform Monday.

Britain's Prime Minister arrived in Washington for key talks with the US President Tuesday. The plummeting economy and the conflict in Afghanistan top the agenda. Gordon Brown will also address US Congress. 

Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown is meeting US President Barack Obama on Tuesday, March 3 to discuss a "global new deal" to rebuild the world economy.

In an article for the British newspaper The Sunday Times ahead of his visit, Brown said the two leaders would discuss a deal "whose impact can stretch from the villages of Africa to reforming the financial institutions of London and New York." Brown's choice of words is reminiscent of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal policies, which were aimed at lifting the US out of the Great Depression in the 1930s.

"Now is the time for leaders of every country in the world to work together to agree the action that will see us through the current crisis and ensure we come out stronger," Brown said.

The talks are being seen as preparation for the London Summit on April 2, when leaders of the world's major economies and global economic financial institutions will be gathering in the British capital to address the worldwide financial crisis.

Poland has vowed to shrug off the economic crisis and press ahead with its plans to join the eurozone in a move to separate itself from other failing economies in Central and Eastern Europe.

Warsaw has announced it will not allow the recession to change the country's timetable to join the euro by 2012, including entry to the single currency's ERM-2 exchange-rate mechanism in June.

Polish ministers hope that the euro will offer Poland's economy a safe haven from the economic crisis that has left the economies of other Eastern European Union member states in tatters.

"The key element of Poland's strategy to get out of this crisis is by first joining ERM-2 and then the eurozone," said Polish finance minister Jacek Rostowski.

Poland had come under pressure to reaffirm its commitment to the European single currency after the Polish zloty plunged in value against the euro.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Union is able to help any member of the euro area that defaults on debt repayments, economy commissioner Joaquin Almunia said on Tuesday (3 March), adding that a rescue plan has already been drawn up, but that it would not be "clever" to reveal such solutions in public.

Economy commissioner Joaquin Almunia said: "There is a solution" for struggling euro-area countries

"If a crisis emerges in one euro area country, there is a solution before visiting the IMF," he said during an address to the European Policy Centre, a Brussels based think-tank.

"You can be sure that there is a solution. And you can be sure that it is not clever to tell you in public what the solution is. But the solution exists ... we are equipped intellectually, politically, and economically to face this crisis scenario."

Later in the day a commission spokesperson referred to the balance of payments facility that has been used to support both Latvia and Hungary.

That's whatcha call a leading indicator of co-ordinated trans-Atlantic pooblic policy.

Fed Eliminates Compensation Limits | Bloomberg | 3 March 2009

The rules won't apply to the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility out of "desire to encourage market participants to stimulate credit formation and utilize the facility," the New York Fed said in a document on its Web site today. The government separately said it will expand the TALF to support vehicle-fleet leases and loans for business, construction and farm equipment.

The change suggests the government doesn't intend to apply compensation limits beyond firms that receive direct investments from the Treasury's $700 billion bailout fund. Officials have yet to announce whether such requirements will be imposed on firms participating in a separate effort to remove as much as $1 trillion of distressed assets from banks' balance sheets. ...

Under the October bailout law, recipients of rescue funds are subject to compensation limits when the Treasury has a "meaningful equity or debt position in the financial institution as a result of the transaction." The law prohibits golden- parachute payments to a departing executive and allows a company to recover any bonus paid to an executive based on statements that are later shown to be "materially inaccurate."

Alabama Senator Richard Shelby, the ranking Republican on the Banking Committee, said compensation requirements should be applied where government funds are "involved."

"I think where federal money is involved, that we should put some limits on it," Shelby told reporters today in Washington when asked about the TALF change. "If it's ordinary private enterprise, that's none of my business." ...

Some companies that may securitize loans for the TALF, such as GMAC LLC, may already be subject to executive-compensation requirements because they are receiving separate funding from the financial-stability plan.

The Fed and Treasury didn't mention the change on executive compensation in a news release today. It was included on page 15 of the "Frequently Asked Questions."

The Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury eliminated executive-compensation limits for companies that bundle loans accepted under a new $1 trillion program, indicating the rules may have hampered efforts to start the plan.

The rules won't apply to the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility out of "desire to encourage market participants to stimulate credit formation and utilize the facility," the New York Fed said in a document on its Web site today.

The Treasury and Fed also today reiterated that they will seek legislation to give the Fed "additional tools" to manage its balance sheet. The effort stems from concern that taking on longer-term assets will make it more difficult for the central bank to raise interest rates once the economy recovers.

Possible legislation may allow the Fed to issue its own debt or let the Treasury issue bills for Fed use that are exempt from the federal debt ceiling, JPMorgan Chase & Co. economist Michael Feroli said.

Hat tip gjohnsit.

WASHINGTON - House Democrats, under pressure from a group of moderates in their ranks and the banking lobby, agreed Tuesday to narrow legislation that gives bankruptcy judges the power to force lenders to rewrite mortgages for debt-strapped homeowners. The compromise legislation was expected to come to a vote in the House as early as Thursday.

Under the terms of the agreement, judges would have to consider whether a homeowner had been offered a reasonable deal by the bank to rework his or her home loan before deciding whether to take judicial action to lower the interest rate or principal.

-Skip-

Mortgage lenders who mounted a costly and successful effort last year to kill the measure, which they call the "cramdown," have been lobbying intensely to restrict the bill. They argued that mortgage adjustments made in bankruptcy would raise mortgage interest rates for all consumers and create a wave of bankruptcy claims.

Their opposition helped derail the legislation last week, even after leading Democrats had agreed to restrict it to people who had tried other means of reworking their mortgages and those who couldn't afford their home loans.

The industry has "been giving it everything they've got," said Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., an architect of the legislation. "They still have remarkable influence."  Still, Miller and some other backers of the idea said they support the new plan.

The difficulties the authorities face in dealing with AIG spilled into the open on Tuesday as Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman, expressed anger with the company in an appearance before the Senate budget committee.

"If there is a single episode in this entire 18 months that has made me more angry, I can't think of one other than AIG," he said[, stamping his feet impotently]. "There was no oversight of the financial products division. This was a hedge fund basically that was attached to a large and stable insurance company."

The crisis at AIG stemmed from its activities in the market for credit default swaps - derivatives that function as debt insurance. AIG was particularly active in providing guarantees for securities known as collateralised debt obligations, bonds backed by debts such as subprime mortgages.

Plagued by recession, the world's sole remaining superpower is reinstating realpolitik and seeking to improve relations with other countries, especially rivals China and Russia. But Washington still plans to take a tough approach toward the Taliban and al-Qaida, both in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama: The president realizes that the world does not consist of good and evil, but of countries with varying interests and values. If there is one thing that the key players in Democratic and Republican foreign policy have in common, it is the rings under the eyes of the respective secretaries of state. Madeleine Albright wore them like badges of honor, and so did Condoleezza Rice. With the transfer of the State Department's official Air Force Boeing 757, the rings are now Hillary Clinton's.

After only a month in office, Clinton already looks exhausted. She has just returned from Japan and China, and now she is on her way to the Geneva to meet with the Russian foreign minister. But her current trip takes her to the Middle East first, where, as she says flatly, "I'm looking for results."

Before her departure from Washington, Clinton is scheduled to give a talk on human rights. The US government's annual report on human rights, all 100 pages of its, is sitting on her desk. It contains a plethora of demands, wishes and potential appeals to the Chinese and Russians, and to the Pakistanis, Somalis, Syrians and a whole list of the world's human rights rogues.

Pen holder made of same wood as President's desk symbolises 'historic ties'

Gordon Brown will attempt to win the backing of the world's most powerful man today for his blueprint to rescue the global economy from the worst recession for half a century.

Mr Brown arrived in Washington early today for talks with Barack Obama, determined to renew the "special relationship" between Britain and the US. He brought with him a gift of a pen holder, carved from the timbers of HMS Gannet, built in Chatham shipyards 130 years ago. Timber from its sister vessel, HMS Resolute, was used in the Oval Office desk. Downing Street said the gift was designed to symbolise "historic ties" between the two nations.

Before he left for the US, Mr Brown said of Mr Obama: "You cannot but be impressed by his demeanour, his determination, not just his fluency but his sympathy for the causes he represents. The impression he has given of America to the world is transformative, because he is a black man who has won the presidency, who is living in the White House that was built by slaves."

Cuban President Raúl Castro has replaced several members of his cabinet, putting his own stamp on government in Havana one year after assuming power from his older brother Fidel.

In a sign that he is emerging from the shadow of former president and revolutionary icon, Castro, 77, fired Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque and cabinet chief Carlos Lage, two long-time lieutenants under the elder Castro.

In making his first major cabinet shuffle since assuming power one year ago, the Cuban leader cited the need for greater efficiency and a consolidation of the country's unwieldy democracy, saying that the shake-up would lead to "a more compact and functional structure."

The move most notably replaces Perez Roque, Havana's chief diplomat since May 1999 with a by a vice minister, Bruno Rodriguez.

Lage, meanwhile, retains his post as one of Cuba's vice presidents of the Council of State, but has been replaced by General Jose Amado Ricardo Guerra as cabinet chief.

Billions of dollars in aid to rebuild Gaza will be wasted unless there is a peace deal which stops it being attacked by Israel, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has said.

The president told international donors that money was "insufficient" without a political solution.

He said: "We are all conscious that the reconstruction and development efforts will remain insufficient, powerless and threatened in the absence of a political settlement."

He spoke as representatives of donor countries gathered in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh to pledge their assistance in reconstruction following the recent Israeli operations.

Among the 45 foreign ministers attending was Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, who told the group that the American aid being pledged - almost $1 billion - was part of US policy to push aggressively for a peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, has said that Washington is committed to Israel's security and demanded an end to Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.

The former first lady made the remarks as she met Israeli leaders on Tuesday as part of her first visit to the Middle East since joining the US administration.

"It is important that the United States always underscores our unshakeable, durable and fundamental support for the state of Israel," she said after holding talks with Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, on Tuesday.

However, she also set Washington on course for a possible disagreement with Benyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister-designate, who has spoken of Palestinian self-government but avoided conceding a two-state solution.

Pakistani police are hunting gunmen who attacked a convoy carrying Sri Lanka's cricket team in the city of Lahore.

The masked men opened fire, killing six policemen escorting the Sri Lankans and a driver. Seven players and an assistant coach were wounded.

The team later flew back to Sri Lanka. There is no word on the identities or motives of the gunmen, who escaped.

However officials said the incident bore similarities to deadly attacks in Mumbai in India last November.

China is planning to build 59 reservoirs to collect water from its shrinking glaciers as the cost of climate change hits home in the world's most populous country.

The far western province of Xinjiang, home to many of the planet's highest peaks and widest ice fields, will carry out the 10-year engineering project, which aims to catch and store glacier run-off that might otherwise trickle away into the desert.

Behind the measure is a desire to adjust seasonal water levels and address longer-term concerns that downstream city residents will run out of drinking supplies once the glaciers in the Tian, Kunlun and Altai mountains disappear.

For Bavarians, the fasting period of Lent is a favorite time to drink beer. This year, though, suds lovers may be out of luck, with brewery employees threatening to go on strike. It's just one of many such labor disputes brewing in Germany.

Fasting during Lent is, of course, relative. The Catholic faithful may forego meat for the 40 days before Easter, but there are plenty of other ways to keep one's calorie count up.

Beer, for example. Indeed, many in Bavaria actually look forward to Lent. White sausage and pork roast are -- for the faithful, at least -- taboo, but the season is made tolerable by a beverage known as "Starkbier," a slightly stronger and much more nourishing beer brewed for just a few weeks each spring.

This year, though, may be an exception. Bavarian beer brewers this week have staged warning strikes in a number of the southern state's leading breweries, including Augustiner, Spaten, Franziskaner and Löwenbräu. And if the breweries don't make concessions to union demands, brewery workers are threatening to walk out indefinitely. Should that happen, Bavarian beer supplies could dry up.

You may already be giving up chocolate or alcohol for Lent, but the Roman Catholic Church in Italy has come up with an even more challenging act of abstinence and self denial: stop all that texting.

The appeal to Italians not only to stop sending SMS messages but also to forswear Facebook, computer games and iPhones on Fridays during Lent - and on other days if possible - partly stems from Pope Benedict XVI's recent warning to the young not to substitute "virtual friendship" for human relationships.

The "stop texting for Lent" campaign began in Modena, Bari and Pesaro but has now spread to other parts of Italy. Italians send the highest number of texts in Europe after Britain, with the average mobile phone user sending at least 50 SMSs a month.

Monsignor Benito Cocchi, the Archbishop of Modena, said renouncing SMS messages was a way of helping to tackle the roots of a Third World conflict as well as an act of self-denial.

The building housing Cologne's municipal archive collapsed on Tuesday, bringing parts of some surrounding structures down with it. At least two people are missing. Some of the documents housed in the archive date back to the year 922.

First they heard loud creaking noises. Then, workers in the Cologne city archive building were ordered to get out as quickly as they could. Shortly afterwards, the entire structure collapsed, bringing down parts of neighboring buildings along with it.

The disaster on early Tuesday afternoon took place right in the heart of the city. Eyewitnesses reported huge clouds of dust as the rubble from the building completely covered the street. "The entire intersection was covered in a dark fog," Paraskevi Oustampasiadi, a local shopkeeper, told the German news agency DPA. "It looked like Sept. 11."

Some 200 fire fighters rushed to the scene. It was unclear whether anyone had lost their lives in the collapse. A police spokesman told SPIEGEL ONLINE that a married couple, who was said to have been in a neighboring building which partially collapsed, is missing. Police dogs are currently searching the rubble.

In the afternoon the Municipal Archives building in Cologne collapsed. Fortunately ominous cracking in the building motivated most of the people in the building to flee it in time (three are still missed, however).

The building has apparently been sucked into the tunnel for a new subway which is currently being built –
now one is pouring concrete into the hole to prevent the rubble from sinking further.

Now at least the many Turkish inhabitants of Cologne can feel more at home ;-)

An asteroid which may be as big as a ten-storey building has passed close by the Earth, astronomers say.

The object, known as 2009 DD45, thought to be 21-47m (68-152ft) across, raced by our planet at 1344 GMT on Monday.

The gap was just 72,000 km (44,750 miles); a fifth of the distance between our planet and the Moon.

It is in the same size range as a rock which exploded over Siberia in 1908 with the force of 1,000 atomic bombs.

Pink dolphin appears in US lake - Telegraph

Pinky the rare albino dolphin has been spotted in Lake Calcasieu in Louisiana, USA Photo: CATERS NEWS

Charter boat captain Erik Rue, 42, photographed the animal, which is actually an albino, when he began studying it after the mammal first surfaced in Lake Calcasieu, an inland saltwater estuary, north of the Gulf of Mexico in southwestern USA.

Capt Rue originally saw the dolphin, which also has reddish eyes, swimming with a pod of four other dolphins, with one appearing to be its mother which never left its side.

He said: "I just happened to see a little pod of dolphins, and I noticed one that was a little lighter.

"It was absolutely stunningly pink.

"I had never seen anything like it. It's the same color throughout the whole body and it looks like it just came out of a paint booth.

"The dolphin appears to be healthy and normal other than its coloration, which is quite beautiful and stunningly pink.

Pinky the rare albino dolphin has been spotted in Lake Calcasieu in Louisiana, USA Photo: CATERS NEWS

Charter boat captain Erik Rue, 42, photographed the animal, which is actually an albino, when he began studying it after the mammal first surfaced in Lake Calcasieu, an inland saltwater estuary, north of the Gulf of Mexico in southwestern USA.

Capt Rue originally saw the dolphin, which also has reddish eyes, swimming with a pod of four other dolphins, with one appearing to be its mother which never left its side.

He said: "I just happened to see a little pod of dolphins, and I noticed one that was a little lighter.

"It was absolutely stunningly pink.

"I had never seen anything like it. It's the same color throughout the whole body and it looks like it just came out of a paint booth.

"The dolphin appears to be healthy and normal other than its coloration, which is quite beautiful and stunningly pink.

MARSEILLE, France: After years of struggling and study and success in several other cultural disciplines, the French have finally mastered the art of the television soap opera.

On a lavish set, with an intricate town square built around a café bar in Marseille, French public television churns out the most popular program on the screen -- a nightly soap, "Plus Belle la Vie," that is watched by nearly a fifth of the French population. Some 13 million people tune in at least once a week to follow the convoluted fates of various families in the multicultural confusion of Marseille, France's second largest city.

There is the Marci family, which owns the Bar du Mistral; the Nassri family from Algeria; the Torres family from Spain; the Lesermans, whose matriarch survived the Holocaust and is a Communist; the wealthy Frémonts with their shady business dealings and lesbian daughter; the Chaumette family, transplanted from Paris; the Estèves, with their son, who divorced, has a daughter and loves a man; and the Castellis, who, as the show's Web site says, are "living to forget the past."

Apart from the potential offence they could cause Mr Brown, the remarks are likely to embarrass Mr Sarkozy, who has sought to mend fences with the Prime Minister after recently trumpeting that his bid to kick start the UK economy by lowering VAT was "a mistake".

The French president is said to be piqued at Mr Brown becoming the first European leader to meet the new US President, Barack Obama, despite Mr Sarkozy's best efforts to get there first.

He tried unsuccessfully to meet Mr Obama before he was sworn in after the G20 summit in Washington last November - even stationing a French military plane on 24-hour standby nearby to whisk him to Chicago should the then US president-elect change his mind.

He had also hoped Mr Obama would agree to a meeting before attending the G20 summit in London on April 2, reportedly to no avail.

While Mr Brown is in Washington to bolster Britain's relations with the US, Mr Sarkozy has had to make do with meeting Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, at an international aid donor conference for Gaza in Egypt.

I did one news roundup diary once and toyed with the notion of making it a regular thing. I didn't. I quickly realized that it was more work than I'd bargained for - enormously time consuming. And here you are, doing a far better job of it than I ever could have. I hope you have help producing this.

"It Can't Be Just About Us"
--Frank Schnittger, ETian Extraordinaire

Bad brain science: Boobs caused subprime crisis

The article which inspired this train of commentary is `Sex and financial risk linked in brain,' by Seth Borenstein, who probably needs some sort of award for this piece. I'll let you decide:

A new brain-scan study may help explain what's going on in the minds of financial titans when they take risky monetary gambles -- sex. When young men were shown erotic pictures, they were more likely to make a larger financial gamble than if they were shown a picture of something scary, such a snake, or something neutral, such as a stapler, university researchers reported. The arousing pictures lit up the same part of the brain that lights up when financial risks are taken.

"You have a need in an evolutionary sense for both money and women. They trigger the same brain area," said Camelia Kuhnen, a Northwestern University finance professor who conducted the study with a Stanford University psychologist.

I am not alone.

(I'm deleting some of the paragraph returns in these quotes. Like with many internet news sources, the authors or editors seem to think that a paragraph should ideally be two sentences. It just makes everything hard to read onscreen in our blog, I think. If your attention span is two sentences, reading Neuroanthropology is gonna be frustrating.)

BWAHAHAHAHA...

The abstract from NeuroReport of the original article is far more interesting, in my opinion, than the shonky (that's Australian for `crap-tastic') science reporting. The abstract:

In functional magnetic resonance imaging research, nucleus accumbens (NAcc) activation spontaneously increases before financial risk taking. As anticipation of diverse rewards can increase NAcc activation, even incidental reward cues may influence financial risk taking. Using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging, we predicted and found that anticipation of viewing rewarding stimuli (erotic pictures for 15 heterosexual men) increased financial risk taking, and that this effect was partially mediated by increases in NAcc activation. These results are consistent with the notion that incidental reward cues influence financial risk taking by altering anticipatory affect, and so identify a neuropsychological mechanism that may underlie effective emotional appeals in financial, marketing, and political domains.

Wait! Where's the stuff on evolution, and the `financial titans' thinking about naked women when they drove the financial system off road into tarpits? That's right, the study does NOT show that men are thinking about sex when they take financial risks. I don't know who came up with this interpretation, but it's clear that Kuhnen, the finance professor on the study, thinks that we `have a need in an evolutionary sense' for both money and sex (of course, they only studied 15 university-aged men). So is this how we got from the experiment to an `evolutionary need' to a full-blown evolutionary explanation for this?

In fact, this article undermines a key point in neoclassical economic theories of the actor; if an actor were purely `rational,' he (or she) would not be affected on decisions to gamble by irrelevant stimulation like soft porn pictures. That is, the risks and potential rewards of the game of chance are the same with or without the erotic pictures, so the behavioral differences in the experiment are `non-rational' in the microeconomic sense....

I AM NOT ALONE!!

So why discuss this shoddy piece of science writing? Well, when I'm not hatin' on twin studies, I'm hatin' on evolutionary psychology.

etc etc <wipes tears>

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Hilarious !!

h/t dKos - David Plouffe

keep to the Fen Causeway