/////////////////he strange emotional power of swearing--as well as the presence of linguistic taboos in all cultures-- suggests that taboo words tap into deep and ancient parts of the brain. In general, words have not just a denotation but a connotation: an emotional coloring distinct from what the word literally refers to, as in principled versus stubborn and slender versus scrawny. The difference between a taboo word and its genteel synonyms, such as shit and feces, cunt and vagina, or fucking and making love, is an extreme example of the distinction. Curses provoke a different response than their synonyms in part because connotations and denotations are stored in different parts of the brain.
The mammalian brain contains, among other things, the limbic system, an ancient network that regulates motivation and emotion, and the neocortex, the crinkled surface of the brain that ballooned in human evolution and which is the seat of perception, knowledge, reason, and planning. The two systems are interconnected and work together, but it seems likely that words' denotations are concentrated in the neocortex, especially in the left hemisphere, whereas their connotations are spread across connections between the neocortex and the limbic system, especially in the right hemisphere.
A likely suspect within the limbic system is the amygdala, an almond-shaped organ buried at the front of the temporal lobe of the brain (one on each side) that helps invest memories with emotion. A monkey whose amygdalas have been removed can learn to recognize a new shape, like a striped triangle, but has trouble learning that the shape foreshadows an unpleasant event like an electric shock. In humans, the amygdala "lights up"--it shows greater metabolic activity in brain scans--when the person sees an angry face or an unpleasant word, especially a taboo word.
The mammalian brain contains, among other things, the limbic system, an ancient network that regulates motivation and emotion, and the neocortex, the crinkled surface of the brain that ballooned in human evolution and which is the seat of perception, knowledge, reason, and planning. The two systems are interconnected and work together, but it seems likely that words' denotations are concentrated in the neocortex, especially in the left hemisphere, whereas their connotations are spread across connections between the neocortex and the limbic system, especially in the right hemisphere.
A likely suspect within the limbic system is the amygdala, an almond-shaped organ buried at the front of the temporal lobe of the brain (one on each side) that helps invest memories with emotion. A monkey whose amygdalas have been removed can learn to recognize a new shape, like a striped triangle, but has trouble learning that the shape foreshadows an unpleasant event like an electric shock. In humans, the amygdala "lights up"--it shows greater metabolic activity in brain scans--when the person sees an angry face or an unpleasant word, especially a taboo word.
SWEAR WORDS LIGHT UP THE AMYGDALA
////////////////////////////////////////////////Creationism to be banished from Swedish schools
Published: 15th October 2007 07:57 CETOnline: http://www.thelocal.se/8790/
The Swedish government is to crack down on the role religion plays in independent faith schools. The new rules will include a ban on biology teachers teaching creationism or 'intelligent design' alongside evolution."Pupils must be protected from all forms of fundamentalism," said Education Minister Jan Björklund to Dagens Nyheter.
Published: 15th October 2007 07:57 CETOnline: http://www.thelocal.se/8790/
The Swedish government is to crack down on the role religion plays in independent faith schools. The new rules will include a ban on biology teachers teaching creationism or 'intelligent design' alongside evolution."Pupils must be protected from all forms of fundamentalism," said Education Minister Jan Björklund to Dagens Nyheter.
////////////////////////RELIGIONS ARE CREATIONISTS
////////////////////////In 1988, the surgeon general, C. Everett Koop, proclaimed ice cream to a be public-health menace right up there with cigarettes. Alluding to his office’s famous 1964 report on the perils of smoking, Dr. Koop announced that the American diet was a problem of “comparable” magnitude, chiefly because of the high-fat foods that were causing coronary heart disease and other deadly ailments.
He introduced his report with these words: “The depth of the science base underlying its findings is even more impressive than that for tobacco and health in 1964.”
//////////////////////AROUND THE WORLD IN 90 SECONDS....Turkey has warned us that if Congress passes a resolution calling the 1915 Armenian genocide a genocide, "military ties with the U.S. will never be the same again." Russia and the other states surrounding the Caspian Sea are cozying up to Iran and warning us not to even think about launching an attack against Iran's nuclear facilities. China is "furious" because President Bush is meeting with the Dalai Lama. India is having "certain difficulties" approving its nuclear deal with the U.S. Britain is pulling out of Iraq, the Iraqis are pissed off at us over Blackwater, Afghan leaders are angry over our poppy spraying program, and Pakistan continues to provide a safe haven for the Taliban.
Other than that, though, how are things going for us?—Kevin Drum
Other than that, though, how are things going for us?—Kevin Drum
////////////////////WALES POPULN=2.9 MN
////////////////////The Shock Doctrine: the Rise of Disaster CapitalismNaomi KleinAllen Lane, the Penguin Press, 512pp, £25
How can Naomi Klein top No Logo, the most influential political polemic of the past 20 years? Her first book forensically studied the bloodstains that have splashed from the developing world's factories and "export processing zones" on to our cheap designer lives - and it spurred the creation of the anti-globalisation movement. Today, she has produced something even bolder: a major revisionist history of the world that Milton Friedman and the market fundamentalists have built. She takes the central myth of the right - that, since the fall of Soviet tyranny, free elections and free markets have skipped hand in hand together towards the shimmering sunset of history - and shown that it is, simply, a lie.
In fact, human beings consistently and everywhere vote for mixed economies. They want the wealth that markets generate, but they also want them to be counterbalanced by strong government action to make life in a market economy liveable. (Even Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan were not permitted by their electorates to tinker with anything but the outer fringes of social regulation and the welfare state.) The right has been unable to accept this reality, and unable to defeat it in democratic elections. So in order to achieve their vision of "pure capitalism, cleansed of all interruptions", they have waited for massive crises - when the population is left reeling and unable to object - to impose their vision.
How can Naomi Klein top No Logo, the most influential political polemic of the past 20 years? Her first book forensically studied the bloodstains that have splashed from the developing world's factories and "export processing zones" on to our cheap designer lives - and it spurred the creation of the anti-globalisation movement. Today, she has produced something even bolder: a major revisionist history of the world that Milton Friedman and the market fundamentalists have built. She takes the central myth of the right - that, since the fall of Soviet tyranny, free elections and free markets have skipped hand in hand together towards the shimmering sunset of history - and shown that it is, simply, a lie.
In fact, human beings consistently and everywhere vote for mixed economies. They want the wealth that markets generate, but they also want them to be counterbalanced by strong government action to make life in a market economy liveable. (Even Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan were not permitted by their electorates to tinker with anything but the outer fringes of social regulation and the welfare state.) The right has been unable to accept this reality, and unable to defeat it in democratic elections. So in order to achieve their vision of "pure capitalism, cleansed of all interruptions", they have waited for massive crises - when the population is left reeling and unable to object - to impose their vision.
///////////////////The Meaning of Life begins with some preliminary philosophical spadework. Is 'What is the meaning of life?' a genuine question? If so, is it a question whose answer we can know? For there are utterances that have the linguistic form of questions but are really pseudo-questions, since it isn't clear what would meaningfully count as an answer to them. And there are also questions for which, even if we do know what would count as an answer, we have no means of discovering what that answer is - like the question 'How many children had Lady Macbeth?' We do well, in any case, to consider the nature of the questions that are posed to us, in order to get an idea of what sort of thing might count as a sensible answer.
Eagleton also spends time trying to situate the meaning-of-life question in historical terms. He sees it as a distinctively modern question: occurring to a consciousness which no longer takes the existence of God - that great, lost source of meaning - for granted; a consciousness aware of the mere contingency of our presence in the universe, of the lack of any destiny or purpose ordaining this; a consciousness, as well, of change and disorder in the world and of a great plurality of cultural meanings. If the pre-modern mind had a source of overarching meaning, and the modern mind has been thrown into doubt and therefore lured to ask what the meaning of life might be, for the postmodern mind this is a question of no interest. 'Life' is a discredited totality, like many another, and hidden essences or meanings are not to be troubled over, since there aren't any.
Eagleton also spends time trying to situate the meaning-of-life question in historical terms. He sees it as a distinctively modern question: occurring to a consciousness which no longer takes the existence of God - that great, lost source of meaning - for granted; a consciousness aware of the mere contingency of our presence in the universe, of the lack of any destiny or purpose ordaining this; a consciousness, as well, of change and disorder in the world and of a great plurality of cultural meanings. If the pre-modern mind had a source of overarching meaning, and the modern mind has been thrown into doubt and therefore lured to ask what the meaning of life might be, for the postmodern mind this is a question of no interest. 'Life' is a discredited totality, like many another, and hidden essences or meanings are not to be troubled over, since there aren't any.
NO MEANING OF LIFE-JUST FLOW ATO-BBTBR
///////////////////9% OF ENGLAND POPULN ARE ETNIC MINORITIES
//////////////////UK BANGLADESHI DESCENT=0.3 MN
/////////////////////49% OF UK WORKFORCE ARE WOMEN
///////////////////Ram-Prasad is right to point out the Indian middle-class apathy towards politics and the poor.
////////////////////Drinking water won’t have any effect in curbing your appetite, a research from Penn State unveiled. Sure, your body needs water in order to perform its metabolism but you won’t get skinny by water, the research suggested.24 lean women were asked to participate in this research and were asked to spend one day per week for four weeks. The researchers analyzed the effects of these three types of meals to these women. The meals were chicken rice casserole, chicken soup and chicken rice casserole served with a glass of water.
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