A mind of one's own Soul Dust: the Magic of Consciousness Nicholas HumphreyQuercus, 288pp, £25 Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain Antonio DamasioWilliam Heinemann, 384pp, £25 The republic of letters is in thrall to an unprecedented scientism. The word is out that human consciousness - from the most elementary tingle of sensation to the most sophisticated sense of self - is identical with neural activity in the human brain and that this extraordinary metaphysical discovery is underpinned by the latest findings in neuroscience. Given that the brain is an evolved organ, and, as the evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky said, nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution, the neural explanation of human consciousness demands a Darwinian interpretation of our behaviour. The differences between human life in the library or the operating theatre and animal life in the jungle or the savannah are more apparent than real: at the most, matters of degree rather than kind.
Peanut Butter is Green Save to del.icio.us — tags food peanutbutter environment Add to Stumbleupon One of the daily decisions we all face is what to eat. How do we eat well and in a way that’s good for the environment — and at the same time have meals that are easy to fix and taste good? One food that fits all this is the simple Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich. Eating a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich instead of a grilled cheese or chicken sandwich saves 2.5 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. I bet you didn’t realize that eating three Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches could have the same environmental impact as switching your showers to a low-flow shower head. This is the type of information we want to share. In addition to being better for the environment, they’re also very healthy as long as you don’t eat too much. According to the WebMD article, “It is hard to believe that something so wonderful could also be good for you.” Again, according to Bonci, the serving size is 2 tablespoons. Next Actions:
wiki : The Noosphere and The Gaian Mind The only truly natural and real human unity is the spirit of the Earth.—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin The noosphere can be seen as the "sphere of human thought" being derived from the Greek ("nous") meaning "mind" in the style of "atmosphere" and "biosphere". In the original theory of Vernadsky, the noosphere is the third in a succession of phases of development of the Earth, after the geosphere (inanimate matter) and the biosphere (biological life). The word is also sometimes used to refer to a transhuman consciousness emerging from the interactions of human minds. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin became enthralled with the possibilities for humankind, which he saw as heading for an exciting convergence of systems, an "Omega point" where the coalescence of consciousness will lead us to a new state of peace and planetary unity. To this end, he suggested that the Earth in its evolutionary unfolding, was growing a new organ of consciousness, called the noosphere. See Also
Celsius & Fahrenheit Origins A Straight Dope Classic from Cecil's Storehouse of Human Knowledge December 15, 1989 Dear Cecil: Everybody knows 0 degrees on the Celsius scale is the freezing point of water and 100 degrees is the boiling point. — Leslie, Montreal, Quebec Cecil replies: Researchers have gone to their graves trying to figure out what old man Fahrenheit was up to, Leslie. Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686-1736) was a German instrument maker who invented the first practical mercury thermometer. Romer had decided that the boiling point of water should be 60 degrees, which at least had the strength of numerological tradition behind it (60 minutes in an hour, right?). D.G., simple soul that he was, thought this cockeyed system was the soul of elegance. By and by Fahrenheit got ready to present his scale to London's Royal Society, the scientific big leagues of the day. Later Fahrenheit established that the boiling point of water came in at 212 degrees. Now for a little bonus info. — Cecil Adams
Cosmic consciousness Cosmic consciousness is a book published by Richard Maurice Bucke in 1901, in which he explores the phenomenon of Cosmic Consciousness, "a higher form of consciousness than that possessed by the ordinary man", a consciousness of "the life and order of the universe". History[edit] In 1901 Canadian psychiatrist Richard Maurice Bucke published Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind, in which he explores the phenomenon of Cosmic Consciousness, "a higher form of consciousness than that possessed by the ordinary man", a consciousness of "the life and order of the universe". Bucke discerns three forms or grades of consciousness: Simple consciousness, possessed by both animals and mankind;Self-consciousness, possessed by mankind, encompassing thought, reason, and imagination;Cosmic consciousness, a consciousness of "the life and order of the universe", possessed by few man, but a next step of human evolution, to be reached by all in the future. According to Juan A.
10 Minutes Of Staring at Boobs Daily Prolongs Man's Life by 5 Years Listen, guys, now we know why Pamela Anderson made her transplants: to make us healthier. "Angels of mercy" like Jordan just prolong our life and Hugh Hefner knows it. A German research published in New England Journal of Medicine and Weekly World News said that men staring at women's breasts in fact prolong their lives with years. "Just 10 minutes of staring at the charms of a well-endowed female such as Baywatch actress Pamela Lee is equivalent to a 30-minute aerobics work-out," said author Dr. The team led by Weatherby was made up of researchers at three hospitals in Frankfurt, Germany, and found this results after monitoring for 5 years the health of 200 male subjects, half of whom were asked to look at busty females daily, while the other half had to abstain from doing so. For five years, the boob oglers presented a lower blood pressure, slower resting pulse rates and decreased risk of coronary artery disease. "Sexual excitement gets the heart pumping and improves blood circulation.
Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain by Antonio Damasio - review Consciousness has become a hot topic for brain scientists. Once, we were content to leave the interminable mind/brain problem to philosophers and theologians. Speculation remained a CLM – a career-limiting move — for ambitious young researchers. Neuroscientists, especially those of us trained in the Anglo-American tradition, tend to be as mechanically materialist as was "Darwin's bulldog", Thomas Huxley, in the 19th century, when he remarked that mind is to brain as the whistle is to the steam train – a mere epiphenomenon. Consciousness is a term with multiple meanings. For biologists though, consciousness, if not an accidental epiphenomenon, must be an evolved property with a function of some benefit to its possessor. It is these issues that Antonio Damasio, a neurologist now based in California, has wrestled with in a series of books over the past two decades. This, briefly summarised, is the latest version of Damasio's theory.
Floating City on Venus Hellish Venusian surface. Courtesy NASA.gov (Note: this is a part of The Space Colonization Series)When space colonization is mentioned many things come to mind: Mars, the Moon, the future, terraforming, and even occasionally asteroids. The Idea The concept is actually based on a rather simple premise--buoyancy. Bespin from the movie Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Other than the extreme density of Venus' atmosphere providing buoyancy, it also provides many important resources necessary for food and oxygen. The Reason Obviously research of the planet is one simple and arguably lame reason to visit. Before the runaway greenhouse effect, was early Venus temperate? [NOTE: pdf file is currently down so to view a transcript of the file I have decided to host it here.]There are many other reasons to colonize Venus. In terms of flight time, Venus is closer to the asteroid belt than either the Earth orMars. OK, but there are still problems right? Of course there are. Related Articles:
Unconscious purchasing urges revealed by brain scans - life - 09 You spend more time window shopping than you may realise. Whether someone intends to buy a product or not can be predicted from their brain activity – even when they are not consciously pondering their choices. The ability to predict from brain scans alone what a person intends to buy, while leaving the potential buyer none the wiser, could bring much-needed rigour to efforts to meld marketing and neuroscience, says Brian Knutson, a neuroscientist at Stanford University in California who was not involved in the research. Neuromarketing , as this field is known, has been employed by drug firms, Hollywood studios and even the Campbell Soup Company to sell their wares, despite little published proof of its effectiveness. Rather than soup, John-Dylan Haynes at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience in Berlin, Germany, attempted to predict which cars people might unconsciously favour. First impressions Secret desires More From New Scientist Promoted Stories Recommended by