Mind Shadows

The Curious Case of the Benjamin Button Jelly Fish

2013-05-21T04:15:00.000-04:00

Is immortality worth it? What if you could turn off the aging clock? You see your loved ones die around you as you keep your fresh face. Or, is there another way to look at all this?
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The Axe Murderess's DNA Lives On

2013-05-14T04:15:00.000-04:00

Consider this. You are a neuroscientist with a special interest in the brains of psychopaths. Knowing your interest, your mother suggests you check your own family tree for skeletons in the closet. Some of your ancestors were strange indeed, she says. You do that and discover that, among other psychos, Lizzy Borden, the Axe Murderess, is in your family tree. You check DNA in your immediate family and are astonished at what you find.
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There I Was, Minding My Own Business When Socrates Spotted Me

2013-05-07T04:15:00.000-04:00

To sharpen my wits, sometimes I imagine myself in ancient Athens queried by Socrates. But suppose this, I ask myself--suppose he has been asking people very tough questions so when I see him I try to duck out of sight, but it is too late. He spots me on a street corner.
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She Has No Fear, Which Is Dangerous

2013-04-30T04:15:00.000-04:00

Near the opening of David Lean's epic movie, Lawrence of Arabia, we view Lawrence with non-coms in the mapping room of British HQ, Cairo, during WWI. As if damning the British class-system, Lieutenant Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) strikes a match to light a corporal's cigarette, then very slowly closes his finger and thumb upon the flame. His face is very attentive while the sergeant and corporal watch, fascinated, as Lawrence extinguishes the flame. The corporal then tries the trick with a burning match but drops it in pain. He complains that it hurts, to which Lawrence answers, "Certainly it hurts."

"Well what’s the trick then?" asks the corporal.

"The trick," says Lawrence, "is not minding if it hurts."

The scene serves as a metaphor of what neuroscience has learned about pain.
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Around the World in a 1928 Graham-Paige

2013-04-23T04:15:00.000-04:00

Top speed 40 mph. After driving their way through Africa, the Zapp family has another continent on their to-do list--Europe. "For the last 13 years, Herman and Candelaria Zapp have traversed the coasts of South and North America, Asia, Australia and Africa in their 85-year-old vehicle which has also been their home. Along the way they have covered almost 200,000 miles and visited more than 40 countries. Oh and they've also had four kids--all born in different countries.
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In the Middle of Siberia the Train Left Him Behind

2013-04-16T04:15:00.000-04:00

True story. You are a Frenchman riding on the Trans-Siberian railway and you find some Russians who befriend you and ply you with drinks. The drunker you get, the more you like these guys. They are great pals. Then your pals tell you that there is no more vodka. At the next whistle stop they push you, thoroughly soused, off the train to buy more. You are dressed in pants and T-shirt and you don't know where you are. You look at the departing train as you shiver. It is thirteen degrees below zero (-25C). Far away, now, speeding down the track, your pals have taken the money from your wallet and flushed the billfold down the toilet. You speak no Russian and are in the middle of nowhere. What are you going to do? More

It's Not A Reality In Russia

2013-04-09T04:15:00.001-04:00

"The fundamental premise for most Western reality shows is what people in the industry call ‘aspirational’: someone works hard and is rewarded with a wonderful new life." They have tried reality shows in Russia and things are different.
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The Lonely Crowd of The 21st Century

2013-04-02T04:15:00.001-04:00

"Americans, plugged in and on the move, are confiding in their pets, their computers, and their spouses. What they need is to rediscover the value of friendship. . . .

. . . today 'friends' are everywhere in our culture—the average Facebook user has 130—and friendship, of a diluted kind, is our most characteristic relationship: voluntary, flexible, a 'lite' alternative to the caloric meshugaas of family life.

But in restricting ourselves to the thin gruel of modern friendships, we miss out on the more nourishing fare that deeper ones have to offer. . . .
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Want To Get Rich? Found Your Own Religion

2013-03-26T04:15:00.000-04:00

What do these Tinsel-Townees have in common?: Kelly Preston, John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Issac Hayes, Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley, Katie Holmes, and Tom Cruise.
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Can An Expert Violinist Pick Out A Stradivarius? No

2013-03-19T04:15:00.000-04:00

Can You Pick The Strad? In a double-blind test by professional violinists, most couldn't determine by sound alone which violin was an original Stradivarius and which was a modern instrument.
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Bastøy: Prison That Promotes The Responsibility of Freedom

2013-03-12T04:15:00.000-04:00

There are two kinds of freedom, each defined by its preposition: freedom to, and freedom from. To implies responsibility (freedom to do); from implies security (freedom from fear or want). This prison emphasizes freedom to. The island of Bastøy in Norway is one of the most liberal prisons in the world. With hardened criminals, there are no walls, no bars on the windows and no regimentation of prisoners' lives. The idea is to teach them how to manage their time themselves.
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Randomness or Purpose In The Universe?

2013-03-05T04:15:00.000-05:00

"Despite the noisy atheists, two trends in spirituality and science have started to converge. One is the trend to seek God outside the church. This has given rise to a kind of spirituality based on personal experience, with an openness to accept Eastern traditions like meditation and yoga as legitimate ways to expand one's consciousness. . . .

We are conscious beings who live with purpose and meaning. It seems unlikely that these arose form a random, meaningless universe. The final answer to where they came from may shake science to its core. I certainly hope it does." More

What You Eat When You Eat Poultry

2013-02-26T04:15:00.000-05:00

"A turkey chick is fighting its way into life, hatching somewhat more slowly from its shell than the others. Its egg, perhaps, was a little too far from the top.

There are 125 others, all hatchlings looking at their new world for the first time. Their nest is a plastic box, 85 by 60 centimeters with narrow slits in the sides -- the legs and beaks of those buried further down stick out.

The chicks are thrown out of the box onto a steel chute, from which they fall onto a conveyor belt . . . .
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Does the Universe Care about Us?

2013-02-19T04:15:00.001-05:00

Steven Pinker sneered at ‘the shoddy reasoning of a once-great thinker’. The Guardian called it ‘the most despised science book of 2012’.
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Jim Webb: Women Can't Fight

2013-02-13T04:15:00.000-05:00

Here is the well-known article by Jim Webb, Naval Academy graduate, novelist, senator, Secretary of the Navy, and combat officer in the Marines during Vietnam. He was wounded twice and has the decorations to show for his experience and courage. His article has raised controversy for years. He says women can't fight and he explains why.
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Matthieu Ricard, Happiness, & Buddhist Meditation

2013-02-07T04:15:00.000-05:00

What is happiness, and how can we have it? Biochemist turned Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard says we can train our minds in habits of well-being to generate a true sense of serenity and fulfillment. He has been dubbed the "happiest person in the world" by popular media.
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Which Universe Are You In?

2013-01-29T04:15:00.000-05:00

"Get used to the idea of an infinite number of universes, says superstring theorist Brian Greene in his new book, The Hidden Reality. . . .
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David Chalmers: The Easy and Hard Problems of Consciousness

2013-01-22T04:15:00.000-05:00

The following discussion is from David Chalmers' site. His page remains but the link I had for this material no longer exists.

"Consciousness poses the most baffling problems in the science of the mind.
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Scott Atran on Rationalist Sam Harris & Talking To Terrorists

2013-01-14T04:15:00.000-05:00

Unlike Sam Harris, Scott Atran has a sympathetic view of religion, although an atheist.
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Michael Gazzaniga: The Mind's Past

2012-12-03T04:15:00.000-05:00

In The Mind's Past, Gazzaniga reminds me of age-old teachings in Buddhism and Advaita. Of course in this he is not out of tune with other neuroscientists. I am reminded of Benjamin Libet, I am also reminded of neurophilosopher Thomas Metzinger, who publishes opinions reminiscent of ancient Eastern views of self and mind. (Not that neurophilosphers intend it, although some borrow from the teachings without acknowledging their sources.) Neuroscience also provides evidence that corroborates some of the teachings.
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The Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson

2012-11-27T04:15:00.000-05:00

Oral Roberts told his television audience that God would call him home if he didn’t raise $8 million in donations. Roberts didn't raise it and God let him hang around another 22 years. Long before Oral, Aimee Semple McPherson was a media evangelist before the term was invented.
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Pancho Villa's Finger

2012-11-20T04:15:00.001-05:00

Pancho Villa's Finger for Sale in a Texas Pawn Shop?
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Barack Obama: A Profile

2012-11-13T04:15:00.000-05:00

Even after his parachute opened, Tyler Stark sensed he was coming down too fast. The last thing he’d heard was the pilot saying, “Bailout! Bailout! Bail—” Before the third call was finished, there’d come the violent kick in the rear from the ejector seat, then a rush of cool air.
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With Orthodox Conservative Values, I Vote Left

2012-11-06T04:15:00.001-05:00

The outcome of this election may prove to be a total surprise, but I doubt it. I say that while not allowing for voter fraud or statistical bias. Regarding bias, the photo for this piece has Truman gloating over the Chicago Daily Tribune's failed scoop. Its editors believed the data. The Tribune's expectations in the 1948 election were based on faulty Gallup polls. The problem was that Gallup had surveyed a specific sector of citizens—such as those who read Literary Digest, an upscale magazine of the era—rather than a cross section, and now in 2012 Gallup's lop-sided current data again shows it out of step with other polls.
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Consciousness Remains

2012-10-09T04:15:00.000-04:00

"As a neurosurgeon, I did not believe in the phenomenon of near-death experiences. I grew up in a scientific world, the son of a neurosurgeon. I followed my father’s path and became an academic neurosurgeon, teaching at Harvard Medical School and other universities. I understand what happens to the brain when people are near death, and I had always believed there were good scientific explanations for the heavenly out-of-body journeys described by those who narrowly escaped death." More Also see this.