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POPSMe, Myself and I The generally accepted linguistic explanation for the capital “I” is that it could not stand alone, uncapitalized, as a single letter, which allows for the possibility that early manuscripts and typography played a major role in shaping the national character of English-speaking countries. So what effect has capitalizing “I” but not “you” — or any other pronoun — had on English speakers? It’s impossible to know, but perhaps our individualistic, workaholic society would be more rooted in community and quality and less focused on money and success if we each thought of ourselves as a small “i” with a sweet little dot. There have, of course, been plenty of rich and dominant cultures throughout history that have gotten by just fine without capitalizing the first-person pronoun or ever writing it down at all. There have also been cultures that committed atrocities even while capitalizing “you.”
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POPSWhat is "Ask-Philosophers"? "This site puts the talents and knowledge of philosophers at the service of the general public. Send in a question that you think might be related to philosophy and we will do our best to respond to it. To date, there have been 2362 questions posted and 3069 responses"
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POPSWhy so many minds think alike? You're in a room with 10 other people who seem to agree on something, but you hold the opposite view. Do you say something? Or do you just go along with the others?
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POPSGeorgia Woman Faces Eviction Because of Decades-Old Sex Act Funny, isn’t it, how we can have an administration that destroys our economic infrastructure and violates the Constitution and escapes punishment and accountability; yet, a woman who had oral sex with her boyfriend stands to lose everything because of a few moments of mutually consensual pleasure.
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POPSWhen Human Rights Extend to Nonhumans The 300 apes in Spanish zoos would not be freed, but better conditions would be mandated. Meanwhile, even in democracies, the law accords diminished rights to many humans: children, prisoners, the insane, the senile. Teenagers may not vote, philosophers who slip into dementia may be lashed to their beds, courts can order surgery or force-feeding. Spain’s Catholic bishops attacked the vote as undermining a divine will that placed humans above animals. One said such thinking led to abortion, euthanasia and ethnic cleansing.
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POPSThe 14 characteristics of a fascist society Dr. Lawrence Britt, a political scientist, wrote an article about fascism which appeared in Free Inquiry magazine, a journal of humanist thought. Dr. Britt studied the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile). He found the regimes all had 14 things in common, and he calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism. The article is titled "Fascism Anyone?," and appears in Free Inquiry’s Spring 2003 issue on page 20.
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POPSBreaking rules makes your brain light up. They write their findings could have implications for understanding the behaviour of psychopaths. They mention the activity regarding subjects that are presented with the possibility of punishment for their actions. Should guilt be another focus of this study? Guilt is related to both the action, and the fear of punishment. There is the idea that a psychopath has a conscience that is dysfunctional, but if this research leads to means if inducing subjects to condemn themselves, for failing to comply with arbitrary regulation, what can this research contribute to the development of crowd control, and social engineering aspirations? I know this seems alarmist, but they are trying to gather what they can from the location of a thought. When we have trouble explaining consciousness. While the conscious mind may be the tip of the ice berg, we have no idea how much ice there is.
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POPSNectar of the Gods: The cultural history of Chocolate
Chocolate was again the drink the of elite, the delight of the plebeians, the bitterest of potables, the most saccharine of sweets, the iconic symbol of Mesoamerica. In A Tale of Two Cities Dicken’s shows the transitional period of chocolate, between Mesoamerican luxury to the European commoners’ pleasure, when he explains with great detail Monseigneur’s elaborate consumption of chocolate in his Paris hotel room.In Europe—during the time of the novel, and even before—the price of chocolate was a luxury because it had to be brought across the Atlantic ocean before it could be consumed. It was not until 1828 when chocolate changed from a sacred drink to a solid bar we know today, through the addition of cocoa butter. Not only did chemist Coenraad Johannes van Houten of the Netherlands create the process of manufacturing cocoa butter, but he also discovered how to treat chocolate with alkalis to remove the bitter taste that had until that point been characteristic of chocolate.
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POPSWhy the Brain Follows the Rules
Not surprisingly, the threat of punishment made people act more fairly. In the “punishment threat condition” people split the money close to equally. However, when Person B had no recourse, the people given the money acted very differently and gave away, on average, less than 10 percent of the money. When the researchers looked at the brain activity of people playing this simple game, they found a consistent pattern. One region in the frontal lobes, the orbitofrontal cortex, seemed to be responsible for evaluating the potential for punishment. In other words, it figured out whether or not violating the social norm would get us in trouble. A second brain region, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, was responsible for inhibiting the natural tendency to keep most of the money (this would be the greedy thing to do) if this action might lead to future punishment. Interestingly, these brain areas only were activated when the threat of punishment came from a real person, and not a compute
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POPS'Warrior Gene' Predicts Aggressive Behavior After Provocation The PNAS paper is the first experimental test of whether MAOA-L individuals display higher levels of actual behavioral aggression in response to provocation. A total of 78 subjects took part in the experiment over networked computers (all were male students from the University of California–Santa Barbara). The results support previous research suggesting that MAOA influences aggressive behavior, with potentially important implications for interpersonal aggression, violence, political decision-making, and crime. The finding of genetic influences on aggression and punishment behavior also questions the recently proposed idea that humans are “altruistic” punishers, who willingly punish free-riders for the good of the group.
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POPSTexas will Execute 10 Men in 30 days This is the worst place of the free world for execution, this is not just the worst place for America," he said of Texas. Before the state revised such laws in 2001, a defendant could be represented by a divorce lawyer with no experience in criminal prosecutions, and judges were not required to instruct juries of alternative punishments such as life in prison without parole, he said. Nine of the 10 to die this month were sentenced before 2001. Mr Halperin claimed "judges are very happy to get rid of these people as quickly as possible." He described a sort of year-end catch-up
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POPSThe student asked why Bush wasn't IMPEACHED, for that he was TASERED I can hear the conservatives yelling all over the blogesphere, THE NUT DESERVED WHAT HE GOT... I wonder what they would be yelling if it had happened to one of them or someone they loved. I watched the tape of the young student more times than I could stand to watch and still I could not see a reason for such a harsh punishment. Some believe we are becoming a police state with all the tasering going on by those who are suppose to protect us. I say, we're not becoming a police state ... WE ARE A POLICE STATE. I hope the American Civil Liberties Union, will get involved in this case it is just so outrageous. No one will want to allow their son or daughter to attend anything political... A closing of the minds of the young who are attending college so their minds can be opened, will be the result. It was a chilling event!
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POPS1 in 3 Female Recruits RAPED by fellow Soldiers in "this man's army"
There is a deeper problem of widespread abuse and a system that protects the criminals. Unfortunately, the abuse in the recruitment system is prescient of military service, where a third of women who serve will be raped by fellow soldiers. It's high time that girls courted by military recruiters are kept out of harm's way here at home. Compare this with highly publicized abuse cases involving Catholic priests. Recruiters given administrative punishment do not. Ironically, priests aren't fixtures in most public schools but military recruiters are. Recruiters have unprecedented access to girls thanks to the No Child Left Behind Act which demands that public schools turn over student contact data to military recruiters so they can "work their market." The majority of school districts in the country have relaxed rules that allow recruiters to come and go at will. So more young people have personal and sustained contact with recruiters. by Former Army Specialist Aimee Allison
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POPSExecution as human sacrifice A very interesting interview with historian Thomas Cahill where he argues that execution, which shows no deterrent qualities, is not punishment but is likely a deeply held, ancient behavioral need to kill that was acted out in ancient societies as human sacrifices.
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POPSIsrael Using Cluster Bombs on Gaza Cluster bombs do not "target" militants tightly, urban areas especially. "Collateral damage" is absolutely guaranteed. More evidence that Israel is not making war on just Hamas, but Palestinians in their "collective punishment" tactics. The first pic was posted on Drudge. The last link in this clipmark has posted the CNN video showing general news of the Israeli attacks on Gaza which inadvertantly captured these bombs in action. 93 nations have banned them, except for US, Russia, and Israel.
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POPSGaza goes dark. Food supplies limited. Gads: Collective punishment. Apartheid. The slow starvation of over a million people right in front of our eyes. And Bush just returned from Israel last week, with all the bull*hit words of yada yada blagh blagh peace bull*shit they've been feeding us for decades. The elections can come soon enough. Sorry Gaza. Really sorry.
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POPSProposed law to ban spanking Hooray for more government control. We can't be trusted to make any decisions anymore. I welcome the big inclusive handbook for Government Sanctioned Childrearing. Do you think NY and CA will get together and propose criminalizing feeding transfats to a child? Wouldn't it be safer and smarter to just take our kids away at birth and put them in a Government Controlled Childcare Facility? Why take a risk that parents might screw something up?
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