Night of the Falling Stars

Readers of Dissent may recognize the moniker of occasional commenter, Special Needs Mama, aka the professor, aka Vicki Forman, dear friend of Red and Reb’s, writer, teacher of creative writing at USC, powerful advocate of children with special needs, student, mother, and most recently, winner of the Bakeless Prize for her book “This Lovely Life,” a memoir. She serves on the board of Lanterman Regional Center. She is a person whose life and works have already made a difference. Her blog, speak softly, is on our blogroll.

Rebel Girl learned earlier this week that Vicki's young son Evan, the focus of her prize-winning memoir, passed away suddenly.

Vicki pens a monthly column at Literary Mama, whose site today offered this reflection:

Evan David Kamida, July 30, 2000 - July 24, 2008

All of us at Literary Mama are so stunned and saddened to learn of the death of columnist Vicki Forman's son, Evan. Most of us never met Evan, but we loved learning about his strength and spirit through Vicki's gorgeous writing. We will never forget the image of him playing music:

Although he cannot talk, Evan can sing at least four songs, on key and straight through to the end. If I begin one of those songs, "Jingle Bells," for instance, he will pick up where I left off, then finish it up for me. His riffs on the harmonica have made him into a favorite among his kindergarten friends at school. And the piano playing is beyond compare. He’ll stand at the keyboard for half an hour at a time; every session includes a clearly recognizable composition of his own making, one that becomes more involved with each passing day. He practices distinct sections of the composition, one at a time, and then goes on to play the piece whole. If a friend overhears him while I am on the phone, the friend will nearly always say, "Wow, that kid knows what he’s doing."

Rebel Girl wishes she could be there for her friend but she is here instead, high in the high Sierra where news like this from home seems unreal against the sky and rock but at the same time seems inevitable too somehow, in this season of loss, as California burns and the valley fills and empties of smoke with the winds.

Vicki was once here with Reb, years ago, at this same time of year. One night they lay stretched out on their backs, along a driveway, waiting for the Perseid meteor shower while others partied in the nearby house. Rebel Girl imagined she could feel the curve of the earth under their spines. Rebel Girl remembers that they talked a bit about what they wanted in life, both of them up there with pages that they hoped would grow into books, both of them moving out of graduate school toward what came next. They waited that night for the stars to fall, to streak across that broad cold sky.



UPDATE: Here's a link to a past post by Vicki, a lovely meditation on Evan's hands. Click here.


Hat-tip to Marla at her blog.

How we know that homeopathy doesn't work

• IRVINE HISTORIAN & ARAB HEADBANGERS.
.....I finally got around to reading that interview in yesterday’s OC Reg with UCI historian Mark Levine (UCI historian plunges into Middle Eastern underground), and it’s actually damned interesting. The hairy Professor LeVine (the Reg reporter calls him “hirsute-headed”) has spent some time hanging out with headbangers (aka “heavy metal” fans) in the Middle East—even in Baghdad—and he’s got lots to say about it. Check it out. (See also an interview with UCI anthropology professor Leo Chavez : Are Latinos a threat to the U.S.?)

• CANCER GOOFBALL.
.....Perhaps you’ve heard that the head of a major cancer research center (University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute) has sent a warning to staff to limit their use of mobile phones, owing to the risk of cancer. (Limit mobile phone use, cancer expert tells staff.) Meanwhile, many health authorities say there is no reason to suppose that there is a risk.
.....Yesterday, our pal (well, he did email me once) Bob Park (What’s New) wrote that (Pittsburg director) Ronald Herberman’s concerns are “nonsense.”

All cancer agents act by disrupting chemical bonds. In a classic 2001 op-ed, LBL physicist Robert Cahn explained that Einstein won the 1905 Nobel Prize in Physics for showing that cell phones can't cause cancer. The threshold energy of the photoelectric effect, for which Einstein won the prize, lies at the extreme blue end of the visible spectrum in the near ultraviolet. The same near-ultraviolet rays can also cause skin cancer. Red light is too weak to cause cancer. Cell-phone radiation is 10,000 times weaker.

• GUARDIAN ON HOMEOPATHY.
.....Lemme make a pitch for the Guardian’s Science page, which seems to do a good job covering science news. For instance, on Monday, they offered a fine article about UK pharmacists, who persist in handing over homeopathic “remedies” to customers without comment, despite their own ethical guidelines, which compel them to inform customers of relevant info.
.....What’s the relevant info? That these homeopathic remedies have nothing in them (“no biologically active agents”) and, in study after study, they have been shown to be no more effective than sugar pills.
.....How come they have nothing in them? Well, according to homeopathic theory, you start off with the active ingredient (say, arsenic), but you don’t want to actually give that to people, cuz it’s toxic. So what do you do? You dilute it. As you dilute it, say the homeopaths, it becomes stronger as a medicine.
.....But they don’t just dilute it. They dilute it to the point that likely not one molecule of the ingredient is left (they acknowledge this). That’s when it’s really powerful.
.....What’s the matter with people?

• MINDLESS GASOHOL SKEPTICISM GROWING.
.....Meanwhile, as a New York Times article (In Gas-Powered World, Ethanol Stirs Complaints) explains, lots of people in those parts of this country where “gasohol” is available, have come to believe that the stuff seriously cuts fuel economy and causes poor performance, so they pay extra for “pure” gasoline.
.....Now, I’m not a big fan of ethanol (not at least the kind that comes from corn), but this looks like another classic case of people believing exactly what they want to believe, despite any evidence to the contrary. Things happen; exaggerated stories are told; paranoia sets it—it’s a kind of Americana, like lovable coots sittin’ around the local hangout, telling Bigfoot or UFO stories, and blaming the government for the whole dang thing.

• HOW WE KNOW THAT HOMEOPATHY DOESN'T WORK.
.....Which reminds me. Why should we pay attention to clinical trials and similar tests?
.....Well, it’s like this. Scientists believe (roughly speaking) that nature is very regular. It’s not the kind of place where X causes Y irregularly or on certain days. No, if X causes Y under conditions C, then that’s the pattern, period.
.....Now, if nature weren’t regular in this way, NASA could never send off one of its rockets and hit the right spot in space every time. Science and technology depend on nature's regularity.
.....Here’s the good news: the fact of regularity means, among other things, that you can find out if an alleged cure works. Whether something works isn’t really a matter of opinion. It’s a matter of demonstrable fact. You’ve just got to do the right tests.
.....Let’s say that someone asserts that eating goofballs cures cancer. Here’s what you do (and it’s expensive): you set up a study in which lots of people with cancer are eating goofballs over here and lots of (very similar) people with cancer are eating fake goofballs over there.
.....It’s important that none of these people knows whether they’re in the real or the fake goofball group because of the phenomenon that the very thought that one is receiving a cure will cause improvement (this is the placebo effect, which is somewhat controversial). That’s why you’ve got to have two groups and compare ‘em. If you just give people goofballs and see what happens, some might get better, but how do you know that isn’t the placebo effect? You don’t. So you compare these two groups. If both groups improve, you know it isn’t the goofballs doing it. It’s the placebo effect.
.....Now, remember, nature is regular. You don’t get to say that, “Yeah, goofballs work, but maybe not for you, cuz you’re a skeptic and a Democrat.” Either goofballs cause improvement or they don’t. You don’t get to be an asshole about this.
.....So now, if you’ve done everything right, and if it turns out that there’s no difference in improvement between the two groups, then you’ve got prima facie evidence that goofballs don’t work on cancer. If others repeat the experiment and get the same results (that’s called “replication”), then you’ve pretty much sealed the deal.
.....And that’s why we know that homeopathic remedies don’t work.

Back in November, we held a caption contest, but I don't believe we ever announced a winner! (Age of Stupidity) So here it is. Imagine a drum roll: