Saturday, October 30, 2010
Dream recording device 'possible' researcher claims
wow. just wow.
Amplify’d from www.bbc.co.uk
Dream recording device 'possible' researcher claims
The researchers have developed a way to record higher brain activity
A US researcher has said he plans to electronically record and interpret dreams.
Writing in the journal Nature, researchers said they have developed a system capable of recording higher-level brain activity.
"We would like to read people's dreams," says the lead scientist Dr Moran Cerf.
The aim is not to interlope, but to extend our understanding of how and why people dream.
For centuries, people have been fascinated by dreams and what they might mean; in ancient Egypt for example, they were thought to be messages from the gods.
More recently, dream analysis has been used by psychologists as a tool to understand the unconscious mind. But the only way to interpret dreams was to ask people about the subject of their dreams after they had woken up.
The eventual aim of Dr Cerf's project is to develop a system that would enable psychologists to corroborate people's recollections of their dream with an electronic visualisation of their brain activity.
"There's no clear answer as to why humans dream," according to Dr Cerf. "And one of the questions we would like to answer is when do we actually create this dream?"
Dr Cerf makes his bold claim based on an initial study that he says suggests that the activity of individual brain cells, or neurons, are associated with specific objects or concepts.
He found, for example, that when a volunteer was thinking of Marilyn Monroe, a particular neuron lit up.
By showing volunteers a series of images, Dr Cerf and his colleagues were able to identify neurons for a wide range of objects and concepts - which they used to build up a database for each patient. These included Bill and Hilary Clinton, the Eiffel Tower and celebrities.
So by observing which brain cell lit up and when, Dr Cerf says he was effectively able to "read the subjects' minds".
Dream catcher
He admits that there is a very long way to go before this simple observation can be translated into a device to record dreams - a "dream catcher". But he thinks it is a possibility - and he said he would like to try.
The next stage is to monitor the brain activity of the volunteers when they are sleeping.
The researchers will only be able to identify images or concepts that correlate with those stored on their database. But this data base could in theory be built up - by for example monitoring neuronal activity while the volunteer is watching a film.
Dr Roderick Oner, a clinical psychologist and dream expert, believes that while this kind of limited visualisation might be of academic interest, it will not really help in the interpretation of dreams or be of use in therapy.
"For that you need the entire complex dream narrative," he said.
Another difficulty with the technique is that to get the kind of resolution needed to monitor individual neurons, subjects had to have electrodes surgically implanted deep inside their brain.
In the Nature study, the researchers obtained their results by studying patients who had electrodes implanted to monitor and treat them for brain seizures.
Translating thoughts
But Dr Cerf believes that sensor technology is developing at such a pace that eventually it might be possible to monitor brain activity in this way without invasive surgery. If this were to happen it would open up a range of possibilities.
"It would be wonderful to read people's minds where they cannot communicate, such as people in comas," said Dr Cerf.
There have been attempts to create machine interfaces before that aim to translate thoughts into instructions to control computers or machines.
But in the main these have tried to tap into areas of the brain involved in controlling movement. Dr Cerf's system monitors higher level areas of the brain and can potentially identify abstract concepts.
"We can sail with our imaginations and think about all the things we could do if we had access to a person's brain and basically visualise their thoughts.
"For example, instead of just having to write an email you could just think it. Or another futuristic application would be to think a flow of information and have it written in front of your eyes."
Professor Colin Blakemore, a neuroscientist at Oxford University, believes that it is quite a jump from the limited results obtained in the study to talking about recording dreams.
Read more at www.bbc.co.uk
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Friday, October 29, 2010
Sister Wives Q & A
When I first heard of this show I was repulsed at the very idea. When I sat down to watch it I found myself in conflict with itself. On the one hand as a modern American woman I find the idea of a man married to more than one woman lawfully, religiously, or even just common law made me think the man was a pig. After watching the show I had to admit that though it's not a lifestyle I'd ever choose--they weren't crazy, evil cult like people who I couldn't understand. The most startling part was realizing that as much as I wanted to write them off as lunatic fringe types....I found myself finding a common humanity to them. I realized I was being prejudice against a lifestyle just because it doesn't appeal to me. That isn't fair to do. They have every right to live life any way they choose as long as they aren't harming others. After watching the show I couldn't tell you with any confidence that they have hurt anyone with their different choices. If you support things like gay marriage...or any alternative lifestyles at all--you have to accept this form too. Different isn't automatically BAD. Let he without sin cast the first stone. And I say that as an Agnostic more surprised than any could imagine about what that show has all ready taught me about my own prejudices for people who choose to live differently.
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The Walking Dead....
I can't wait to see if this is gonna turn out to be good =] I hope it doesn't suck! But you never know!
Amplify’d from www.cnn.com
Can 'The Walking Dead' scare up viewers?
(CNN) -- Paul Ivy will never forget his first time seeing "Night of the Living Dead."
"I was 12 years old and it was beyond cool to see zombies attacking those hapless people, smashing in windows and feasting on human flesh," iReporter Ivy remembered. "No way would my real parents let me watch that sort of thing, but it was fine with my cool comic-shop-owning hippie other parents [those parents being Jay and Helen Knowles, parents of Ain't It Cool News founder Harry Knowles]."
Ever since that day in 1976, zombie movies were one of the Olympia, Washington resident's favorite genres. Like many fans, he holds the original "Dawn of the Dead" in high regard: "Except for one silly scene involving bikers throwing pies at zombies, the whole movie has great dramatic tension and a genuine feeling of horror," he said.
Ivy isn't alone. Zombies have undergone a renaissance in recent years, starting with the remake of "Dawn" in 2004, and last year's surprise hit horror-comedy "Zombieland." Not only that, but "zombie walks" have cropped up all over the world lately, and they're not just confined to events like San Diego Comic-Con in California.
With vampires being all the rage -- with the "Twilight" movie series and also TV's "True Blood" and "Vampire Diaries" -- it seemed only natural that zombies would be next to get their own TV series. AMC, the home of Emmy darlings "Mad Men" and "Breaking Bad," has decided to adapt the comic book series "The Walking Dead," set to premiere Sunday, October 31, at 10 p.m. ET.
Ask anyone who has read the series, about a comatose Southern police officer who wakes up in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, and almost all of them will rave about it. Thus, the expectations for the series are very high.
AMC had an eye-catching display (a gruesome re-creation of a scene from the first episode) as part of their massive presence at Comic-Con. They also put on a zombie walk, which was expanded worldwide on Tuesday.
And, of course, the show has reached out to fans on social media, giving them oodles of information on the show before its debut.
So what is it that makes fans so excited about this particular take on zombies?
"I enjoy the mix of characters, with many different ages and races represented," Ivy said. "They are a cross-section of people with varying skills, not a bunch of soldiers. They must come to grips with their new world and fight to survive in it."
"I think people love the source material because no character is sacred, no character is safe, and anyone -- even the most beloved and innocent people in the comic -- could be killed at any moment," said Blair Butler, comic book expert for G4's "Attack of the Show" -- and one of many fans of the book's creator, Robert Kirkman. "I hope the show manages to capture that sense of ever-present danger."
"We're all big fans of the comics and have been reading them from the beginning," said Kyle Puttkammer of the Atlanta, Georgia, area "Galactic Quest" comic book stores. "'Walking Dead' and Kirkman's other series, 'Invincible,' sells very well in both our stores because we recommend it often." One of his employees even tried out to play a zombie on the show, which shoots on location in Atlanta.
Robert Soto of Dallas, Texas, said the series got him back into reading comics after hearing so much about it: "It did not disappoint. It was more than just zombies. The stories were about people. They have complex relationships and as a reader you really identify with them, which makes it difficult when those characters die."
Butler agrees that the humanity of the characters are what sets it apart. According to the books, "human beings pushed to the limit -- people who have been reduced to their basest instincts to survive -- are far more terrifying than any zombie," she said.
Those who have had a chance to see the show early are cautiously optimistic. "The first episode should make any fan giddy," said iReporter Keith McDuffee of Cliqueclack.com. "That's not to say that it's a shot-for-page remake of the first part of the series, but there's no doubt it's respectably faithful. In fact, I'd say the changes made in the first episode are for the better."
Praising the show's emphasis on humanity, not to mention its realistic makeup effects, Screenrant.com's Kofi Outlaw said it was "that rare adaptation which enhances everything that is great about its literary source material."
So, the question remains: Will those who aren't as familiar with the comic book or who aren't already fans of the zombie genre tune in? One thing "The Walking Dead" most certainly is (as one might imagine), is extremely gory and violent. That would probably be tough for mass audiences, although it wasn't much of a problem for "The Sopranos."
Whether the show will garner the same popularity or critical praise as "Mad Men" or "True Blood" remains to be seen. Either way, members of its devoted fan base already have their plans made for Halloween night.Read more at www.cnn.com
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Halliburton admits skipping test on Gulf well cement
Surprise surprise......
Amplify’d from www.msnbc.msn.com
Halliburton admits skipping test on Gulf well cement
Read more at www.msnbc.msn.com
Commission finds BP, partners knew formulation was unstable
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Sunday, October 24, 2010
Religion News: Survey tracks demographics of tea partiers
Amplify’d from www.poststarnews.com
Religion News: Survey tracks demographics of tea partiers
Nearly half of Americans (47 percent) who consider themselves part of the tea party movement say they are also part of the Christian conservative or religious right movement.
According to the new American Values Survey released by the Public Religion Research Institute, on many important political and social issues, Americans who identify with the tea party movement also hold views that are similar to the views of those who identify with the Christian conservative movement.
The national survey asked Americans about their views on a range of economic, social and religious issues and the upcoming elections.
"PRRI's American Values Survey found significant overlap between the tea party and the Christian conservative movement," said Dr. Robert P. Jones, CEO of Public Religion Research Institute. "Our findings challenge, more than they confirm, the conventional wisdom about the religious makeup and attitudes of Americans who consider themselves part of the tea party movement."
Other key findings from the survey:
Compared to the general population, tea party members are more likely to be non-Hispanic white, are more supportive of small government, are overwhelmingly supportive of Sarah Palin and are much more likely to report that Fox News is their most trusted source of news for politics and current events.
Among the 81 percent of tea party members who identify as Christian, 57 percent also consider themselves part of the Christian conservative movement.
Tea party members make up 11 percent of the adult population, which is half the size of the conservative Christian movement (22 percent).
Tea party members are mostly social conservatives. Nearly 63 percent say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, and less than 18 percent support allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry.
Tea party members are largely Republican partisans. More than three-fourths say they identify with (48 percent) or lean towards (28 percent) the Republican Party. More than 83 percent say they are voting for or leaning towards Republican candidates in their districts, and nearly 74 percent of this group report usually supporting Republican candidates.
The American Values Survey is a national representative public opinion survey of American attitudes on religion, values and politics. The 2010 poll is the third biennial AVS, which is conducted by PRRI every two years as the national election season gets underway.
Read more at www.poststarnews.com
Results of the 2010 AVS are based on telephone interviews conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute among a national random sample of 3,013 adults (age 18 and older) between Sept. 1 and Sept. 14, 2010.
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Saturday, October 23, 2010
Neanderthals reimagined
I found this super interesting!
Amplify’d from www.washingtonpost.com
Neanderthals reimagined
Scientists are broadly rethinking the nature, skills and demise of the Neanderthals of Europe and Asia, steadily finding more ways that they were substantially like us and quite different from the limited, unchanging and ultimately doomed inferiors most commonly described in the past. ¶ The latest revision involves Neanderthals who lived in southern Italy from about 42,000 to 35,000 year
s ago, a group that had to face fast-changing climate conditions that required them to adapt. ¶ And that, says anthropologist Julien Riel-Salvatore, is
precisely what they did: fashioning new hunting tools, targeting more-elusive prey and even wearing identifying ornaments and body painting. ¶ Traditional Neanderthal theory has it that they changed their survival strategies only when they came into contact with more-modern early humans. But Riel-Salvatore, a professor at the University of Colorado at Denver writing in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, says that was not the case in southern Italy. ¶ "What we know is that the more-modern humans lived in northern Italy, more-traditional Neanderthals lived in middle Italy, and this group that adapted to a changing world was in the south - out of touch with the northern group," he said.
"Because of this Neanderthal buffer, it seems very unlikely that the southern Italy Neanderthals learned from the more-modern humans," he said. "They needed to change, and did, apparently by themselves."
He says this finding - along with recent investigations that have determined that between 1 and 4 percent of the human genome in Europe and Asia has Neanderthal genes - means that these often disparaged humans are actually "more like our brothers and sisters than even our cousins."
ome redheads?
Handsome redheads?
Neanderthals roamed Eurasia from current-day Portugal to Siberia and from England to Jordan for almost 200,000 years. With brain sizes comparable to modern humans and bodies more barrel-chested but otherwise similar, they thrived during a time of relatively stable climate. They were not known to be advanced in toolmaking, but some argue that was because their surroundings didn't require it.
Named after the Neanderthal, the German valley where their remains were first excavated in 1856, they evolved from the African hominid Homo erectus. They were stockier than Homo sapiens and had thicker bones and protruding foreheads. Early study of Neanderthals described them as very hairy, brutish, unable to talk or walk like more-modern humans. Later discoveries overturned those views, and recent finds suggest quite a few in central Europe were handsome redheads.
More-modern humans began entering the same area from Africa 40,000 to 50,000 years ago and, within 10,000 years, the Neanderthals largely disappeared as a subspecies. This led many researchers to conclude that the Neanderthals were unable to change and compete with modern humans and as a result dwindled and died out.
More-recent thinking suggests that they faced a number of challenges between 40,000 and 30,000 years ago, not all of which came from the newcomers.
Stressful conditions
The long hot and cold cycles that had prevailed in Eurasia for centuries sped up during this time, making it more necessary and more difficult to adapt. In addition, a series of major volcanoes erupted in Italy and what is now Eastern Europe, further degrading the environment.
And finally, faced with the appearance of newcomers skilled in some ways they were not, the Neanderthals began to mate with them. Because Neanderthal numbers were low to begin with, Riel-Salvatore said, it was easy for them and their genomes to seemingly disappear into the population of more-modern humans.
"We have found no signs of conflict between the Neanderthals and the modern humans, but we do know the conditions that they lived in became more stressful," he said. "Neanderthals in southern Italy adapted well on their own for quite a long time, but ultimately succumbed."
At archaeological sites associated with the southern Italian Neanderthals, who are called Uluzzians, researchers have found pointed weapons, tools made from bones, ochre for coloring and possibly implements for fishing and small-game hunting - artifacts not previously associated with Neanderthals.
Read more at www.washingtonpost.com
Research debunking the position that Neanderthals were "cognitively inferior" comes from Daniel Adler of the University of Connecticut and Metin Eren of Southern Methodist University.
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Friday, October 22, 2010
Beware of Writer: Ten Very Good Reasons To Get Far the F**k Away From Us Writers http://amplify.com/u/dmya
Beware of Writer: Ten Very Good Reasons To Get Far the F**k Away From Us Writers
This is an AWESOME article =]
Amplify’d from terribleminds.com
Beware Of Writer: Ten Very Good Reasons To Get Far The Fuck Away From Us Writer Types
I’ve seen a meme bouncing around that reveals reasons why you shouldn’t ever date a writer. It’s true, to a point. But I think it goes even deeper than that. Frankly, you should probably get the hell away from us. Anybody. Not just the people we date. But everybody. See us in line at the grocery store? Run, don’t walk. Escape. Avoid. Awooga, awooga. On a good day, we’re eccentric troublemakers. On a bad day, we’re malevolent sociopaths. And with writers, it’s usually a bad day.
So. Here’s a little post to clarify why you should stay at least 50 feet away from us at all times, lest we sink our vampire teeth into your body and drain you of all the things that made you pure and good. See, the things that make us good writers?
They make us awful people.
Imagine a sign around our necks:
BEWARE OF WRITER.
The Glass Is Not Half-Empty, But Rather, Full Of Badger Piss
We are all pessimists, cynics, hypochondriacs and conspiracy theorists. In our fiction, the world must be broken. We must think of the worst. It’s what fuels the fire. Nobody wants to read a story about happy ponies sipping from the molasses pond and then they all dance and have all the hay they want and rainbows and bags of gold and leprechauns and *poop noise* — that’s just pap. Twee, waffling pap. Fiction demands that we go to the well and draw up the most stagnant water we can find, and so we look for the worst in the world around us. We get used to it. We accept it as the norm. We know the worst can happen. We know it because we write about it. Some dude will come up behind you on the park bench and saw your head off. Your plane? Gonna crash. That mole in your armpit? ARMPIT CANCER.
Please Ignore Our Forked Tongues
We are lying liars who lie. We have to be. Fiction is a lie. Non-fiction is, in its own way, a lie. When writing, deception is a skill. This, like so much of the thread that goes into our wretched quilt, trails into our real lives and ensures that the best writers make the most powerful liars. We can convince you of anything. We don’t mean to. It’s just — well, it’s like John Cusack’s character says in Grosse Pointe Blank:
Martin: You do it because you are trained to do it, you have the strength to do it and the courage to do it… and ultimately (pause) you get to like it. I know that sounds bad.
Debi: You’re a psychopath.
Martin: No, no, no. Psychopaths kill for no reason, I kill for money, it’s a job — that didn’t sound right.
For the record, if you don’t like that movie, you’re dead to me.
I lie to my wife all the time, by the way. Not in bad ways. I’ve learned to control my foul serpent’s tongue. Now I just see if I can convince her of truly egregious lies. Like, I once convinced her I was born with at tail? I know, horrible, right? But at least I’m not lying about, you know, real shit. That’s what I tell myself.
You Are Wrong About Everything, Even When You’re Not
We make shit up all day long, and then we must write about that made-up shit with utter authority. It is our job to write with abject confidence in the subject matter. You know in high school you’d write papers that were, as you might say, “bullshit?” And you could convince the teacher of it? Yeah. This is like that. Except we start to believe that our confidence in information extends beyond the written page.
And so we frequently believe ourselves to be right.
Like, beyond the pale.
“Yes,” you say, “I’m sure that the guy who played on the show, Frasier, is Lee Marvin’s son.”
“He’s not.”
“No, no, it’s true. I’m sure of it.”
“I really don’t think that’s right…”
“WELL YOU’RE STUPID AND YOUR HEAD IS STUPID. Remember how wrong you were about that thing seven weeks ago?” We like to do this. God forbid we’re actually ever right about something because dang will we hold onto that like a squirrel with a nut. “I’m right. I’m a writer. It’s even in the word. It used to be spelled R-I-G-H-T-E-R. It’s my job to know things.”
No, it’s your job to make shit up and pretend it’s true. But the lines? They blur.
Conflict And Misery Make For A Much Better Story!
In life, we avoid conflict. In fiction, we strive for it. Except, remember how I said something about the lines blurring? Mmm. Yeah. We get to a state where escalation and drama feel normal. We work to achieve those things so diligently that it’s hard to snap out of that mode. In a fight, we’re likelier to escalate beyond the point of rationality because — hey, whoever is up there in Never-Never-Land reading this Book Of Your Life is going to appreciate your attention to these details. “Yeah,” your imaginary cosmic reader says, “now break that plate! Do it! Kick the car door and put a dent in it! Conflict! Escalation! Drama!”
Of course, no such cosmic reader exists.
Our lives are not big books.
But don’t tell us that, or we’ll stab you in the thigh with a #2 pencil.
Ich Bin Ein Puppetmeister
We control our characters. Don’t believe the nonsense that we’re swept away the Muse and the characters control us. Pshhh. Naw. Nuh-uh. We’re the puppetmasters. And so in life, we get confused when we can’t control you and everyone else around us. Oh, I didn’t say we wouldn’t try, though.
The Writer Is A Creepy Loner
We do so well alone that we don’t always do so well with other people. If we were a dog, the warning on our kennel door would say, “Not Socialized.” Or, “Doesn’t Play Well With Others.” Or, “Will Stab You In The Thigh With A Pencil.” We don’t so much like being solitary. It’s just our natural state. So when you finally find us, we’re naked, covered in our own filth, picking bits of ham and apple pie crust out of our chest hairs. We are basically some genetic combination between “earthworm” and “Bigfoot.”
Bigworm. Or Earthfoot.
Snuggle Up With Mental Illness
When writing, a little dab of mental illness is a feature, not a bug. Our obsessions and neuroses drive us to the word count with the verve and tenacity of a crack-addled howler monkey. Our depressive tendencies, provided they allow us to get out of bed, show us a broken world, and as noted, a broken world is particularly good for our fiction. Our Narcissism and megalomania helps us get through the day by convincing us we’re actually really awesome at this, yeah, fuck yeah, woooo, and then those depressive tendencies kick in again and bring us back to earth and drive us to improve, improve, improve our shit-ass-crap-twat writing. We’re like addicts, pinballing back and forth between uppers and downers, smart drugs and hallucinogens. Thing is, when not writing, a little dab of mental illness is a big ol’ bug and not much of a feature (outside our ability to entertain others with our misery and melodrama).
Like A Photograph, We Will Steal Your Souls
Just as we are liars, we are also thieves. Your life is our fiction. Oh, no, we don’t steal it on purpose. As noted: we have compulsions. That whole write-what-you-know thing? It’s not advice. It’s a curse. Don’t worry. We won’t use your soul exactly as it has been taken. We’ll fuck with it first. Molest it with our greasy ham-hands. Of course, you’ll be reading something and say, “Is that me?”
And the writer will say, “No, no, of course not.”
Because the writer is a stinky poo-poo liar who fucking lies.
Our Writing Is A Temple: Do Not Defile It Lest You Rouse The Anger Of The Gods
We elevate our writing to sacred cosmic necessity. If you befoul the temple with your distraction — even if that distraction is, say, “Hey, I’m being eaten to death by mice over here, so if you could maybe kick a few of these guys off of me?” — you will earn our wrath. “No, I cannot help you with your bullshit flesh-eating mouse problem I TOLD YOU I WAS WRITING JESUS CHRIST YOU DON’T RESPECT ME.”
Last But Not Least, We’ll Try To Force You To Read Our Shit
“Here,” we’ll say, dropping a 50-lb. manuscript in your lap. “It’s my masterpiece.”
“Okay,” you’ll respond.
“Read it.”
“It’s awfully big.”
“Yeah, but read it anyway.”
“Okay. I have some things to take care of first like, say, getting these mice to stop boring holes in my flesh.”
“Sweet.”
Two days later, we return: “Did you read it?”
“OW THE MICE ARE IN MY BRAIN”
“I guess that’s a no.” <– insert disappointed pout.
“CHEWING MY SYNAPSES”
“Pshh. You don’t respect me and my work.”
Then we storm out.
(It’s Not All That Bad)
Okay, yeah, we’re sort of apeshit moonbat, but once we become aware of our, umm, danger signs, we can mitigate our worst behaviors. But still, let this serve as a warning. Writers sometimes seem brightly colored and fascinating, but really, those are just nature’s way of warning you off. We’re like tropical toads. Oh so pretty! Want to touch the toady! Except: poisonous skin that kills with one touch.
Beware of writer.
Read more at terribleminds.com
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Thursday, October 21, 2010
Generation Homeless: The New Faces of an Old Problem
Amplify’d from www.aolnews.com
Generation Homeless: The New Faces of an Old Problem
SEATTLE (Oct. 19) -- Twenty-two-year-old Tony Torres sags, exhausted, onto the pavement just beyond a skate park where kids from this affluent Seattle suburb, Bellevue, flip tricks off ramps to the beat of a boombox. This is a safe place to hang out until he knows whether he'll get a bed o
n this night at the nearby YMCA, which donates its rec room as a shelter for young adults at night.
His odds of getting a spot to throw a mat on the floor are about one in seven.
Torres is joined by a few other worn-out looking young people, who sling their packs down and slump against the wall. They've all been on their feet all day, moving from park to park, job application to job application, library to library -- anywhere they can hang for a few minutes before being asked to move along.
Young adults are the new face of homelessness.
It's a group driven by two large converging forces: an economy that has been especially brutal on young people, and the large numbers currently exiting foster care.
Precise numbers are difficult to pin down. But based on a study done before the economy collapsed, an estimated 2 million young people age 18 to 24 will be homeless nationwide this year.
Two cities that are magnets for mobile young adults are reporting surging numbers of homeless young people at shelters targeted at that population. Seattle and San Francisco shelter workers say they are among only a handful of cities nationwide that offer shelter just for young adults.
"We're turning people away in record numbers," said Kristine Cunningham, executive director of ROOTS in Seattle, one of the pioneering young adult shelters in the country. ROOTS expects to turn young people away more than 2,000 times this year, compared with about 200 times five years ago. This year, the 27-bed shelter expects to provide a place to sleep for 542 young adults.
In Portland, Ore., another magnet for the young and homeless, the young adult segment increased by 25 percent last year, more than double the overall increase (12 percent) in homelessness for all age groups, said Natasha Detweiler, research analyst for Oregon Housing and Community Services. Oregon counted 1,595 young people in this year's one-night snapshot of homelessness.
"And that's certainly an underestimate," she said.
Yet, of all the various segments of the homeless population, young adults probably receive the least attention, have the fewest resources applied to help them and have the least amount of policy advocacy on their behalf, according to some experts.
"Being homeless is like a picture of someone screaming, and no one coming to help," Torres said.
Difficult to Find Jobs
Many people expect 18-year-olds who aren't in school to get jobs and be self-supporting That may have been possible for their parents' generation, said Rachel Antrobus, director of San-Francisco based Transitional Age Youth Initiative, an agency that works to coordinate services for 18- to 24-year-olds. "But that's not actually realistic anymore."
Unemployment rates are higher among young adults than other age groups. In July, the youth unemployment rate edged over 19 percent, the highest July rate on record since 1948. In 2009, 80 percent of college graduates moved home after finishing school, according to job listing website Collegegrad.com, up from 77 percent in 2008 and 67 percent in 2006. Those without the training and family support of college graduates are hurting even more.
"The 30-year-olds are taking jobs from 20-year-olds, because the 40-year-olds are taking the 30-year-olds' jobs," said Mark Putnam, a consultant for Building Changes, a nonprofit focused on ending homelessness in Washington state. "These guys are truly employment victims of the recession."
Nationally, a wage-earner in a family with children has to make almost $18 an hour to afford the average two-bedroom apartment. In cities like Seattle and San Francisco, housing costs are even higher. In Seattle, for example, families must earn more than $21 an hour. California averages $25 an hour for affordable housing.
That's out of reach for many young adults, especially those with no training.
Curtis, 24, who didn't want his last name used, wound up staying at a young adult shelter after the place he was renting went into foreclosure. He hasn't been able to scrape together enough money to find a new place on his wages parking cars for a luxury hotel in Seattle. "Some places are asking like $1,500 to 2 grand for deposit," he said. "The whole situation just really sucks."
Shane Thomas, 23, is one of an estimated 1,000 young adults believed homeless nightly in Seattle. He picks up jobs on fishing boats when he can, but despite the seasonal, temporary gigs, he still winds up staying on the street and in shelters.
"The thing about being homeless -- you get stuck in one spot," he said. "Might get a little more money in your pocket the next day, but you're still going to be broke."
Out of Foster Care and Onto the Street
The economy, however, only compounds an even larger underlying problem: The largest driver of the young adult homeless population is the foster-care system.
States typically stop providing money for support of foster children at age 18. Many wind up on the street.
The majority of young people using the shelter system come from foster care, said Denise Wallace, mental health counselor at The Landing, a shelter for young adults in Bellevue, Wash.
Nationally, as the number of kids in foster care has been declining, the number of those turning 18 in the care of the state is on the rise, increasing by 41 percent from 1998 to 2005 , according to a report by Pew Charitable Trusts. About 20,000 young people a year age out of foster care.
Studies, including those done by Pew, also show that one in five of those who age out will be homeless within two years of leaving foster care. Half won't have a high school degree. Less than 3 percent graduate college. By the time they age out of foster care at age 18, 20 percent of young women are already parents themselves, according to a University of Pennsylvania report. Another 40 percent are pregnant.
For some of these young people, getting pregnant is perceived as a way out of homelessness. There's a perception among young people on the street that if you're about to give birth, you can get housing. "We've incentivized becoming pregnant," Cunningham said.
Wait lists are just as burdened for housing for young families, but having a child does make a young person eligible for services not available to childless young adults.
Families now account for about 40 percent of the homeless population, and the majority are headed by single moms.
Yet the group driving this trend -- young adults ages 18 to 24 -- is generally under-counted and under-represented when solutions are envisioned. Relatively few resources are being directed to prevent them from producing new generations of homeless families.
Meet Casi Jackson
Casi Jackson is part of the problem, and part of the solution.
At work at a homeless outreach center in a Seattle suburb, Jackson shifts her 7-month-old daughter, Tiana, on her hip and juggles a cell phone in her other hand while she fields a call from a scared-sounding mom. The mom has no place to sleep tonight. Jackson is matter-of-fact on the phone and sounds older than her 22 years. She knows what it's like to be staring down a night without shelter.
Jackson was homeless at 20. She had borne three children by 21. One died. One is now living with a grandparent, and one lives with her. She has another on the way as she struggles to make for them what she never had: a stable home with a family under one roof.
Children born to homeless mothers, or who experience multiple episodes of housing instability -- couch surfing, staying in motels or shuttling between households when they are young -- often mirror that in their own adulthoods.
Jackson's own trajectory shows how homelessness can pass from generation to generation. She was born in a California jail. Her military father was deployed when his baby daughter was discharged from the jail medical ward. She spent her childhood shuffling between relatives.
"If I had to characterize my childhood in one word, it would be chaos," she said. She now volunteers her time to help other young people, like herself, find stability and is trying to get into college to study social work.
People who don't grow up with stable homes don't develop many of the coping strategies that let them transition into stable home lives as adults, said Cunningham of ROOTS.
Many have been abused, said Wallace, the counselor who works at The Landing. "There's a lot of trauma."
Looking for Solutions
Seattle and San Francisco are ahead of the curve in providing specialized emergency shelter for this demographic. In many other cities, young people have to go to general adult shelters, or sleep outside while they wait months, or years, for housing.
"Even though it's not age appropriate to be with older shelter population, at this time, we don't have a separate option," said Josephine Pufpaff, director of Youth Link in Minneapolis, which tries to help young people transitioning to adulthood. Young people often don't feel safe or welcomed at general adult shelters, which tend to be populated by older men who have been on the street for a long time.
The lack of specialized services and shelters for this demographic is a problem all around the country and reflects a general misconception about the developmental needs of young adults, she said.
The Mockingbird Society, a foster youth advocacy group based in Seattle, lobbied successfully to get federal legislation passed to extend support until age 21. The Fostering Connections to Success Act passed in 2008 provides federal matching funds for extending foster support. But the fight now is to get states to put up their part of the money, said Public Policy Director Rose Berg.
But Torres is one of the lucky ones. He won what amounts to a housing lottery and has secured a bed for six months in a group house for young adults transitioning from the street.
Now he has a place, not just to sleep, but to dream.
"I want to go to college," he said. "Someday I want to teach history."
(InvestigateWest is a nonprofit investigative journalism center based in Seattle. For information on how you can support independent investigative reporting for the common good, go to the group's website.)
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