Remembering Updike: The Gospel According to John My rules, shaped intaglio-fashion by youthful traumas at the receiving end of critical opinion, were and are: 1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt. 2. Give enough direct quotation—at least one extended passage—of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste. 3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy précis. 4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.… 5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere.
Unconscious decisions in the brain A team of scientists has unravelled how the brain unconsciously prepares our decisions April 14, 2008 Already several seconds before we consciously make a decision its outcome can be predicted from unconscious activity in the brain. Zoom Image Brain regions (shown in green) from which the outcome of a participant’s decision can be predicted before it is made. ... Brain regions (shown in green) from which the outcome of a participant’s decision can be predicted before it is made. Brain regions (shown in green) from which the outcome of a participant’s decision can be predicted before it is made. © John-Dylan Haynes In the study, participants could freely decide if they wanted to press a button with their left or right hand. This unprecedented prediction of a free decision was made possible by sophisticated computer programs that were trained to recognize typical brain activity patterns preceding each of the two choices.
WikiLeaks: Not all hypocrisies are equal The father of ancient cynicism, Diogenes, became famous for decrying human hypocrisy. The ancient Greeks were so impressed they began calling him kunikos, from which the word cynicism is derived. Nowadays, the Internet has replaced the Grecian agora; WikiLeaks has taken up Diogenes’s mantle. As the largely pedestrian nature of the documents becomes apparent, more and more pundits seem to be questioning the significance of the massive disclosure. Who could be surprised that administration officials talk one way to their international counterparts and another among themselves? Think about this in terms of your own family. Cringe. No one is surprised – yet everyone is scandalized. Because so much of human communication is strategic in nature. You curse because your sister-in-law has robbed you of the ability to deny those assumptions, which is just to say, the ability to pretend. She is sure to take the moral high ground, saying things like, “I’m sorry.
Limbic System: Amygdala (Section 4, Chapter 6) Neuroscience Online: An Electronic Textbook for the Neurosciences | Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy - The University of Texas Medical School at Houston 6.1 Amygdala - General Considerations Amygdala is the integrative center for emotions, emotional behavior, and motivation. If the brain is turned upside down the end of the structure continuous with the hippocampus is called the uncus. If you peel away uncus you will expose the amygdala which abuts the anterior of the hippocampus. Just like with the hippocampus, major pathways communicate bidirectionally and contain both efferent and afferent fibers. 6.2 Inputs to the Amygdala As was the case with the hippocampus, fibers carrying inputs to the amygdala are in virtually all cases combined with fibers carrying outputs from the amygdala. The amygdala receives inputs from all senses as well as visceral inputs. 6.3 Major Output Pathways of the Amygdala Ventral amygdalofugal pathway Stria terminalis Directly to the hippocampus Directly to the entorhinal cortex Directly to the dorsomedial nucleus of the thalamus 6.4 Ventral Amygdalofugal Pathway Ventral Amygdalofugal Pathway.
Mulholland Books The Role of the Amygdala in Fear and Panic Biology 202 1998 Second Web Reports On Serendip Doug Holt The definition of fear has proved to be an elusive mystery plaguing scientists. The amygdala is the name of the collection of nuclei found in the anterior portions of the temporal lobes in the brains of primates (4). In a related process, another responsibility of the amygdala is the suppression of the periaqueductal gray. What is known about the amygdala is that it has a dual sensory input system. Through the usage of fear conditioned rats in laboratory settings, researchers have been able to effectively map out the "fear circuit". Occasionally, there can be debilitating problems associated with hyperactivity of the amygdala. Clark's theory on catastrophic interpretations (1988) sees panic attacks as a result of maladaptive and faulty interpretation of body signals. The limbic system, especially the amygdala, has long been considered to be directly implicated in anxiety and fear stages. Works Cited 1.) 2.) 3.) 4.) 5.) 6.) 7.) 8.)
Are Stieg Larsson and Dan Brown a match for literary fiction? | Books | The Observer On my way back to London the other day, I was clawing my way toward the buffet car when I noticed with a shock that more or less the entire train carriage was reading… novels. This cheered me up immensely: partly because I have begun to fear that we are living in some kind of Cowellian nightmare, and partly because I make a good part of my living writing them. Where were the Heats and the Closers, I wondered? The Maxims and the Cosmos? Where the iPads, the iPhones, the Blackberrys and the Game Boys, the Dingoos and the Zunes? My cheer modulated into something, well, less cheerful (but still quite cheerful) when I realised that they were all, in fact, reading the same book. In terms of sales, 2010 has been the year of the Larsson. I realise we are sailing into choppy waters here. We need to be clear-eyed here because although there is much written about this subject, there is also much theatricality to the debate. So it follows that genre tends to rely on a simpler reader psychology.
Is man free? On a speech last October 29, 2012 at the Bon Mot Book Club, which I was privy to watch on Youtube, Sam Harris argued that free will is an illusion, man is not really free as he is governed by uncontrollable variables like chemicals, genes, upbringing and life experiences. According to Sam Harris, there is no evidence for free will. He cited for example the case for serial killers, whose behavior to kill people is basically beyond their control as they are determined by their genes. Brain science is a complicated endeavor and it is frankly, like the other sciences, a continuing saga into the unknown. Harris also said we cannot control our thoughts as they just appear in our consciousness. Our thoughts are complex interactions of chemical processes, I give to that. He adds, "You cannot honestly take credit for you unconscious mental life." Harris also says: "You have voices in your head that says things... it says things that are completely unconstrained at times...."
Science, the cruel stranger The secularist left was caught flatfooted in 2000, when George W. Bush's election demonstrated, in quite dramatic fashion, that the political organization of the Christian evangelical movement was paying real dividends in American politics. Ever since, there has been a rush to the cultural barricades. Figures such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens may garner all the headlines, but the real work, I would hazard, is being done in postsecondary classrooms around the world, where it has become almost obligatory to make religious fundamentalists the butt of sarcastic asides. Even though this cultural tug of war is undoubtedly an important one, for many people, especially those involved or interested in the growing field of cognitive neuroscience, there is something decidedly old-fashioned about the whole affair. Belief has itself been the object of scientific study for several decades now. I urge anyone who feels offended or incredulous to check out the research themselves.
Charles Whitman Biography Synopsis Born on June 24, 1941, in Lake Worth, Florida, Charles Whitman served as a Marine before enrolling in the University of Texas. Suffering from mental illness and acute fits of anger, Whitman killed his mother and wife and on August 1, 1966, went atop a 300-foot tower, targeting people in the vicinity. Early Life Mass murderer Charles Joseph Whitman was born on June 24, 1941, in Lake Worth, Florida. Concerns About Health After called back to active service because of poor academic performance, Whitman returned to the Marine Corps in 1963. By 1966, he was suffering from severe headaches and consulted a therapist at the university to discuss concerns he had over his mental health. Mass Murder Also in 1966, his mother finally left his father after suffering years of abuse. After killing his mother, Whitman went home. On August 1, 1966, Whitman, along with an assortment of weapons and supplies stored in a trunk, entered the University of Texas tower, wearing overalls. Death
Index of /en February 22, 2010 4:21 pm Encouraged By Rising Support From Intellectuals in China, Says His Holiness the Dalai Lama [Monday, 22 February 2010, 10:35 a.m ] His Holiness the Dalai Lama said Saturday that he is encouraged by what he sees as rising support for the Tibetan cause among Chinese intellectuals. Dharamshala: His Holiness arrived in Los Angeles on Friday and planned to spend the weekend here in support of Whole Child International, a nonprofit organization that works on behalf of orphaned and abandoned children. In an interview with Los Angeles Times, His Holiness said “there had been no progress in the latest round of talks with China over his call for genuine autonomy in Tibet”. Still, His Holiness said growing support from Chinese people could help in making progress.
WHITMAN, CHARLES JOSEPH WHITMAN, CHARLES JOSEPH (1941–1966). Charles Joseph Whitman, tower sniper, was born in Lake Worth, Florida, on June 24, 1941, the oldest of three sons of Margaret and Charles A. Whitman, Jr. He attended Sacred Heart grade and junior high schools, was an Eagle Scout at twelve, and graduated from St. Ann's High School in West Palm Beach in 1959. He enlisted in the Marine Corps on July 6, 1959, and was stationed for a year and a half at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. During the pre-dawn hours of August 1, 1966, Whitman killed his mother in her apartment and his wife at their residence. Austin American, August 1–8, 1966. The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article. Alwyn Barr, "WHITMAN, CHARLES JOSEPH," Handbook of Texas Online ( accessed April 19, 2014.