Grief and Pleasure
Sun, 22 Jun 2008 03:47:05 -0700 (PDT)
Study shows that chronic grief activates pleasure areas of the brain
Findings could change how health professionals treat the disorder.
Grief is universal, and most of us will probably experience the pain
grief brings at some point in our lives, usually with the death of a
loved one. In time, we move on, accepti ...
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Of Plankton and Plastic
Sun, 22 Jun 2008 03:39:47 -0700 (PDT)
NYT
June 22, 2008
Sea of Trash
By DONOVAN HOHN
Off Gore Point, where tide rips collide, the rolling swells rear up
and steepen into whitecaps. Quiet with concentration, Chris Pallister
decelerates from 15 knots to 8, strains to peer through a windshield
blurry with spray, tightens his grip on the wheel and, l ...
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Facial expression not arbitrary signals - they have an evolutionary
logic
Sun, 22 Jun 2008 03:26:55 -0700 (PDT)
The Importance of Being Frightened
By Gisela Telis
ScienceNOW Daily News
16 June 2008
Why do we wrinkle our noses in disgust or widen our eyes with fear? A
new study
shows that doing so might help keep us alive.
The idea that facial expressions confer a survival advantage was first
posited,
perhaps not surp ...
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TAM6 Call for papers: James Randi - blaspheming atheist fraud and his
army of robot zombie followers
Sun, 22 Jun 2008 00:02:15 -0700 (PDT)
Thanks for 911, James Randi
http://www.aske-skeptics.org.uk/AwardList.html
Please shutdown these *paranormal challenges* before any further
tragedies occur. It is obvious you *little frauds* would never pay up
even Jesus himself smacked you in the face.
______________________________
_______
I piss ...
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Destroying natural altruism
Sat, 21 Jun 2008 07:44:01 -0700 (PDT)
The economics of nice folks
A basic tenet of economics is that people always behave selfishly, or
as the 18th century philosopher economist David Hume put it, "every
man ought to be supposed to be a knave."
But what if some people aren't always knaves?
Sam Bowles argues in Science June 20 that economics wil ...
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hundreds of biological differences between the sexes when it comes to
gene expression in the cerebral cortex
Sat, 21 Jun 2008 07:37:23 -0700 (PDT)
Researchers have determined that there are hundreds of biological
differences between the sexes when it comes to gene expression in the
cerebral cortex of humans and other primates. These findings,
published June 20th in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics, indicate
that some of these differences arose a very lo ...
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No such thing as global warming?
Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:28:10 -0700 (PDT)
http://www.philosophynow.org/issue35/35blackburn.htm
Now let?s turn to something different. In a recent talk to Philosophy
For All, you said that you believed there was no such thing as ?global
warming?. Well, that is a controversial remark. Could you briefly
explain what convinced you that it is the case?
Ye ...
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Philosophy of Mind Grinds to a Halt
Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:26:42 -0700 (PDT)
From:
http://www.philosophynow.org/issue35/35blackburn.htm
... the philosophy of mind which has a central metaphysical (perhaps
the central metaphysical) focus. I think thirty years ago there was a
lot of optimism that some combination of functionalism, maybe some
ideas from Wittgenstein, some ideas left over ...
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Obesity and discrimination
Thu, 19 Jun 2008 02:20:03 -0700 (PDT)
Study shows 'being fat in today's world' invites social
discrimination
Obese people feel "a culture of blame" against them, which they say
has been made worse by media reports about the health risks of
obesity, a new study from Australia found. The results will be
presented Tuesday, June 17, at The Endocrine So ...
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Self control and mental time travel shown in great apes?
Thu, 19 Jun 2008 02:10:00 -0700 (PDT)
Great apes think ahead
Apes can plan for their future needs just as we humans can ? by using
self-control and imagining future events. Mathias and Helena Osvath's
research, from Lunds University Cognitive Science in Sweden, is the
first to provide conclusive evidence of advanced planning capacities
in non-human ...
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