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POPSThinking the way animals do
Temple Grandin Ph.D. is an assistant professor of animal behaviour at Colorado State Uni. She suffers from a form of autism, and describes the way she thinks as thinking in pictures. This has helped her understand the way Animals think, with direct association, rather than a logical process. A significant statement which can apply to most people, is the fact that originally as far as she was aware everybody thought the same way. Until she asked people and found this was not the case. She describes a radio station person who said she had no pictures, in her mind, but thought in terms of emotions or words. I'm sure I can understand my dogs. They seem to think in a manner that is simple, and straightforward, it can just be a matter of associating cues with behavior, and remembering Pavlov. I think in Pictures and sounds. There is music I can 'hear' in my mind that not only has the same 'quality' as the original, but there is a remarkable capacity to edit. Perhaps something like Auti
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POPSYour life is Perfect. We often don't know if we want something until we get it, and then find it wasn't what we wanted. Through that discovery, we can start to believe we really wanted something else, and the chase continues, turning goals into hurdles. Often confusing improvement with change. Perhaps another angle could be learning what we need to, but also trying to improve what we can already do well, without neglecting the opportunities to learn from what we can consider to be failures. We can change situations, but changing who we are may not be possible, and if it is we don't have the foresight to make it a likely improvement.
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POPSFounding Fathers Planned Religious Openness Jon Meacham commentary that founding fathers wanted no state religion; wanted freedom of religion. They refuted the "Old World" practice of state sponsored and dictated religion which caused so much bloodshed.
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POPSBush: 'God told me'. ...BBC TV program Where's his god now? What a nut. Don't they lock up religious freaks like this in America? Surely a snake-oil salesmen have more credibility now. When will they ever learn? I'm embarrassed every time I hear him speak. What must it be like to have been a one time Bush-lover? God! More from the BBC program... Bush is quoted as telling the two, "I feel God's words coming to me: 'Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East.' And by God, I'm gonna do it." Mr Abbas remembers how the US President told him he had a "moral and religious obligation" to act. ...BBC
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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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POPSChomsky: If US was a true Democracy!
On all these topics, White House policy is completely at odds with what public opinion wants. But the media rarely publish the polls that highlight this persistent public opposition. Not only are citizens excluded from political power, they are also kept in a state of ignorance as to the true state of public opinion. There is growing international concern about the massive US double deficit affecting trade and the budget. But both are closely linked to a third deficit, the democratic deficit that is constantly growing, not only in the US but all over the western world. The US press sometimes publishes even my work, and the US is not a totalitarian country. But anyone who fails to fulfil certain minimum requirements does not stand a chance of becoming an established commentator. One of the big differences between the propaganda system of a totalitarian state and democratic societies go about things. Exaggerating slightly, in totalitarian countries the state decides the official li
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POPSFascism: How It's System And Society Works In this article, we'll look closely at fascism, find out what the term really means and how the ideology has been used to unite nations and divide the world. Prominent Fascist Regimes * Fatherland Front, led by Engelbert Dollfuss, Austria (1934-1938) * National Fascist Party, led by Benito Mussolini (1924-1943) * National Socialist German Workers (NAZI) Party, led by Adolf Hitler, Germany (1933-1945) * National Union, led by Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, Portugal (1934-1968) Fascist regimes use violent suppression to maintain control of the State. Mussolini inspects the "Shock Troops" of the Fascist Militia during celebrations in Rome.
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POPSCool map The map renames each state with a country that has approximately the same GDP as that state.
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POPS How modern evangelicals are ignoring their own history Today's Christian conservatives often note that Jefferson's famous line declaring that the first amendment had created “a wall separating church and state” was not in the Constitution but in a private letter. But in that letter, Jefferson was responding to one sent to him by a group of Baptists in Danbury, Conn. We usually read Jefferson's side of that exchange. It's worth re-reading what the Danbury Baptists had to say because it reminds us that for the 18th-century evangelicals, the separation of church and state was not only required by the practicalities of their minority status, but was also demanded by God. “Religions is at all times and places a matter between God and individuals,” the Baptists wrote, warning that government “dare not assume the prerogatives of Jehova and make Laws to govern the Kingdom of Christ.” Government had no business meddling in the affairs of the soul, where there is only one Ruler.
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POPSFundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Date Saints Followers Rape Teenage Girls (added after the seventh comment below): the accommodation test: for Christian or 'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' try substituting X or Y, e.g. atheist, buddhist, conservative, hindu... Editing, narrating, conjoining words, a few words, though based on 'facts' can stir outrage, pain, offence etc.
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POPSHuckabee: cover up for son's cruel deed reflects dad's ethics Mike Huckabee allegedly covered up for his son David's cruelty to a dog. Do we want a person with Huckabee's lack of ethics in the White House? A bit more from the article (but please read even more at the source): "David Huckabee did not respond to requests for comment. (In April of this year, he was arrested—and paid a fine—when he forgot to remove a loaded gun from his carry-on luggage at Little Rock airport.) His father told NEWSWEEK THAT his son did not engage in "intentional torture." "There was a dog that apparently had mange and was absolutely, I guess, emaciated."A campaign official says David "regrets" the incident and notes that he later made Eagle Scout. Congrats on attaining Eagle Scout rank, David. :roll:
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POPSWhen can empathy move us to action? And so cognitive empathy alone is not enough. We also need what Ekman calls "emotional empathy"—when you physically feel what other people feel, as though their emotions were contagious. This emotional contagion depends in large part on cells in the brain called mirror neurons, which fire when we sense another's emotional state, creating an echo of that state inside our own minds. Emotional empathy attunes us to another person's inner emotional world, a plus for a wide range of professions, from sales to nursing—not to mention for any parent or lover.
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POPSWe Are At War!...and don't you forget it!....clipable A summation of Bush's "State Of The Union" address that gives a well thought out critique of the deeper meaning of his words and statements. One thing that I didn't notice was his refusal to use the word "Democratic" instead of "Democrat"...may sound trivial, but this is exactly how this administration operates.
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POPSMore bad news for alarmists For example, the recent summary by Fred Singer and 22 expert contributors to “Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate” makes some extraordinary statements about computer models. (In addition to the many excellent contributors, this summary also contains 167 references to the scientific literature). This is important since computer models are being improperly, yet extensively, used by state legislatures as the basis of policies for greenhouse gas mitigation, rather than using actual climate data taken from the real world. These statements include: Computer models do not consider variations of irradiance and magnetic fields of the sun Computer models do not accurately model the role of clouds Computer models do not simulate a possible negative feedback from water vapor Computer models do not explain many features of the Earth’s observed climate. Computer models cannot produce reliable predictions of regional climate change.
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POPSChina's All-Seeing Eye This is an example of the dangerous combination of information technology, and totalitarian non democratic regimes.
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POPSIs Helium 3 Exploitation China's Hidden Lunar Agenda? UN Treaties in place state that the moon and its minerals are the common heritage of mankind, so the quest to use Helium-3 as an energy source would likely demand joint international co-operation. Hopefully, exploitation of the moon's resources will be viewed as a solution for the world, rather than an out-moded nation-state solution.
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POPSTrapped in a Living Hell "Then a Cambridge neuroscientist put her in a special kind of scanner and performed an unprecedented experiment. It revealed evidence of fluctuating levels of brain activation when she was presented with pictures of her parents....."
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POPSThis Day in History-July 21 'Infamous Monkey Trial' "To show up fundamentalism,""to prevent bigots and ignoramuses from controlling the educational system of the United States." said Darrow. So what has changed after 80 years of intellectual backwardness?! Would this case be out of place in Bush's America - in the land of the 'free and home of the brave', mired in debt and death of its own making? Where now is the shinning beacon of liberty? What country has made 'democracy' a dirty word. What county elects an AWOL drunk as commander-in-chief, TWICE? Where is the KKK a white sheet away from power and the noose? What country is still loved even by it pseudo enemies?
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