colors 3.col.001 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

In the peculiar world of synesthesia, people experience an involuntary joining of different sensations. These individuals may, for example, feel intense facial pressure when listening to music or see vivid colors in response to spoken words. http://web.mac.com/lousheehan

"Colored hearing," probably the most common form of synesthesia, arises in the brain through a process similar to that responsible for hallucinations of colors, according to brain-imaging data in the April Nature Neuroscience. In these cases, a genetic mutation may foster the development early in life of an unusually direct connection between auditory and visual brain regions, theorize neuroscientist Jeffrey A. Gray of the Institute of Psychiatry in London and his colleagues.http://web.mac.com/lousheehan

Synesthesia runs in families and occurs more often in women than in men. This pattern suggests that a sex-linked genetic disturbance yields jumbled sensory experiences, the researchers say. However, other investigators argue that healthy brains mix senses together in the early, unconscious stages of perception. In their view, individuals with synesthesia somehow become conscious of these sensory blends.

Whatever the case, the new findings cast doubt on theories that dismiss synesthesia as the product of overactive imaginations and instead "lend such phenomena an authenticity beyond reasonable doubt," Gray's group says.

The scientists used functional magnetic resonance imaging to track blood-flow changes in the brains of 13 women who reported seeing colored patterns and shapes while listening to people talk and 28 women who had no such experiences.

These scans provide an indirect measure of surges and declines in brain activity.

While listening to strings of spoken words, only women with colored-hearing synesthesia showed pronounced activity in a part of the visual system known to orchestrate color identification, the researchers say. Conscious perception of colors may only require activation of this "color center," Gray theorizes. Other visual areas, including those that initially handle incoming visual information, remained calm during colored-hearing trials.

In contrast, women without synesthesia exhibited little activity in the brain's color center while listening to words, even after they received training to visualize colors in response to spoken words. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire . http://web.mac.com/lousheehan

fugitives 4.fug.00100 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire . Jun Wang dumped fuel from his tanker trunk into Little Beaver Creek in Kettering, Ohio. Allesandro and Carlos Giordano, a father and son team, imported and sold cars that didn’t meet U.S. emissions standards. http://louis2j2sheehan2esquire2.wordpress.com These are just some of the characters on the Environmental Protection Agency’s new “Most Wanted” list of environmental fugitives.

The list is posted on the agency’s website and includes mugshots of 23 people along with their alleged violations and suspected whereabouts. And the EPA wants your help in capturing them. The Web site has information on who to call if you see any of the suspects—it’s usually the Criminal Investigation Division office in the city where they were charged. http://louis2j2sheehan2esquire2.wordpress.com There are also Wanted posters you can print out.

But don’t, they warn, take green justice into your own hands:

“Do not attempt to apprehend any of these individuals,” the Web site declares. In case you’re in Utah, watch out especially for acid-dumping fugitive Larkin Bagget—he’s believed to be armed and dangerous “due to the large amount of weapons in his possession at the time of his arrest.” Most of the fugitives, however, appear to have fled the U.S. and are hiding out abroad, from Belgium to China to the Philippines. http://louis2j2sheehan2esquire2.wordpress.com

According to the site, only two environmental fugitives were captured in 2008. Maybe they would have more success if they posted a reward—or created a spinoff TV show hosted by John Walsh.

Walter D. James III, an environmental lawyer, doesn’t think the site will do much to stop the environmental criminals of tomorrow: “It’s like telling John Gotti he is a bad man,” he said. “Is that going to matter to John Gotti?”

logging 77.log.11091 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

In Libby, Mont., mining of asbestos-contaminated vermiculite—a natural insulating material—sickened or killed many workers and townspeople in recent decades. Now, a study finds that even 16 years after the vermiculite mine closed, area trees hold substantial amounts of asbestos, rendering them hazardous to a separate group of workers.

Logging is a major employer for people around Libby. With asbestos a potential contaminant in dust, Tony J. Ward of the University of Montana in Missoula and his colleagues wondered whether asbestos from the mining operations might have settled on local trees. http://louis_j_sheehan.today.com

Ward, an atmospheric chemist, notes that his team found between 40 million and 530 million asbestos fibers per gram of bark on trees within 4 miles of the mine—"concentrations that are pretty staggering." Even 15 miles from the mine, but near a railway siding where trains took on vermiculite, tree bark holds up to 19 million fibers per gram, his team reports in the Aug. 15 issue of Science of the Total Environment. http://louis_j_sheehan.today.com

Not only loggers but also locals who cut and burn wood for home heating face a risk from the fibers, Ward worries. He and his colleagues say that the findings also suggest that people who live far away from Libby but along former transportation routes for the vermiculite might face a health threat. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire