“OMG!!” Todd Feinberg, a professor of clinical psychiatry and neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, wrote in an e-mail. “Absolutely fantastic. Unbelievable. Unprecedented as far as I know.”

Great story. Feinberg would know he wrote the book [on it] Altered Egos: How The Brain Creates The Self which is an excellent read btw.

While the thalamus is involved in consciousness it is more accurately the cortico-thalamic complex. That is the meshwork of reentrant mapping between the thalamus and the neo-cortex (particularly the frontal lobes). This may explain that although they share some information they maintain different perspectives and preferences. A complete assimilation into one self has not occurred, although one might suspect an internal struggle of them to maintain their own identities. They are young still and a lot can change to tie them closer together or perhaps separate them (neurologically).

"If you cut classes because your teachers bore you, then you should be dropping those classes, not piddling away your GPA."

Or realize that the content itself has its own share of stimulation for the intellect. Drop the sensation-consuming attitude and get to work.

I make $30k/year which to many may seem a tad low. But I'm not measuring my success in monetary value. I have been able to comprehend (somewhat) the brain! Economics. Philosophy. Hell, I unlocked the secrets of the universe and liberated my self from seemingly impenetrable anxiety and busted through the layers of deluded values imposed on me by society. If that isn't worth something, I don't know what is.

While for some happiness may appear to be a 7.5M/year income. For me it is developing myself to the point where I don't need anything to be happy. Including the $30k/yr I earn now. That is just gravy.

An egoism a deux as Fromm calls it. While you can break love down to various chemical processes including phenethylamine, oxytocin, norepineprhine, testosterone and estrogen. It is probably more profitable to talk about it in the common tongue. When a man loves a woman she is like a divine presence. His sense of self-worth becomes chained to her opinions and attitudes. i.e. "Self-representation" and "Attention". While these are certainly benefits to the common form of mental disorder known as egoism, they are not by any means beneficial to humanity or reality as a whole. This type of finite and selfish consumption of one's own neurochemicals may only serve to make on more arrogant and myopic while attempting to lay claim ("self-representation") to a completely external element (one's mate).

But as is implied, there is love that doesn't equate to elated self-satisfaction, narrowed mindedness and hours of staring into each others eyes trying to find the other's elusive soul (which doesn't exist in any case). The kind of love you feel when you help someone genuinely in need and don't even get the slightest recognition for it, but you are okay with it because you love the person and that's why you did it.

Rather, watch how quickly this shallow form of finite love turns into a screaming match, shouting "What have you ever done for me?" and "I loved you more than anyone could." etc... etc... The other kind of love is more often than not painful because it consistently implies loss in the form of self-sacrifice. Whose neurochemical correlates are probably more akin to that of being physically injured.

Almost all shifts in crime rates comes down solely to reporting and statistics methods or what is and is not classified as a crime. There is sufficient reason to believe that deterrants, whether they are longer sentences or taser-weilding cops, don't reduce crime. Criminologists generally classify violent criminals in one of three categories:

Premeditated - wherein the criminal plans ahead of time and does not expect to be caught at all.

Passionate - wherein the criminal reacts spontaneously to circumstance and does not consider the consequences

Compulsive - wherein the criminal is compelled to act due to some inner and involuntary compulsion

The reduction in crime rates could be something as mundane as an aging baby-boomer population. Violent crime, they say, is the vice of youth and the best cure for it is a 30th birthday. This is the theory proposed by Criminologist John Conklin.

"Infinite are the reasons men give for doing the things that their instincts bid them do. All depends upon the strength of the instinct and the character of the machine; the restrictions and habits formed; and many other factors of which the man knows nothing. In fact, all depends upon his endowment and the outside forces that move to action, and for none of these is he in any way to be praised or blamed." - Clarence Darrow, United States Civil Liberties Lawyer in Crime Its Cause and Treatment

I read a study in Sciam Mind a few years ago that found that women were attracted to male ego, as in this study, when they were prowling for sexual attention. However, when women are in a relationship with a man they prefer humor and loyalty over assertiveness and pride. Additionally their focus on physical features shifts from muscularity and thick jaws to baby-faced men with low stature.

In this way, women can go on the hunt and bag a man that is great for the first few months but then becomes unworthy of trust and otherwise unsatisfactory. She can then ditch him and go back on the prowl for another egomaniacal playa she'll ditch in another 3 months when her hormones shift.

Did they test him for gastroesophogeal reflux or just HDL?

I had some brutal acid reflux, stomach pains, vomitting and blood. I got a blood test, it said I didn't have H. Pylori. Back to KFC.

The west coast is notorious for high rates of violent crime. A large majority of infamous killers hail from California and Washington. What is staggering is the swiftness which these people are shuffled through the 'justice' system and the fact that they keep springing up like weeds. Perhaps in some distant future a direct relationship between culture and crime will be identified that will explain why things are so bad out west.

Kind of calls into question the notion of a developed aesthetic sense.

We need people like this; just as we are incapable of recognizing pleasure in the absence of pain, without capricious, irrational and wild speculation we would not be able to identify reason, logic and truth. Harold Camping is the incarnation of a probability carved out in duality resting on the under-shoot of rationality.

This guy cares a lot about nothing. I mean it really matters to him.

It's obscurantism for the sake of being cool. Like the tattoo good have just said "Hold On".

Personally, I like Good Charlotte, particularly "Girls and Boys" but hey, I also love Roger Whittaker.

Apparently para-phenylenediamine or PPD (sometimes known as Black Henna) is a dye used in textiles, perfume, hair-dye, eye-shadow and occassionally tattooing. However, some people are allergic to it and develop a rash. Also it causes an increased sensitivity to compounds containing para-phenylenediamine. Maybe it is something like that.

Perhaps to some extent, though it is unclear how the olfactory system led to the kind of architecture we see in the frontal lobes of primates, dolphins and dogs. It seems reasonable to speculate that if increased olfactory sensation leads to incresed neuronal mass handling olfaction then the causative correlate of large frontal tissue would be the need for more predictive power.

Oops, I linked you the Animation from the lecture

Here is the segment on Planarians http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/stemcells/planarian_regen.html

The full lecture on stem-cells: http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/stemcells/lectures.html

Thank God I'm not a Planarian! LOL

Although it would be cool to be able to regenerate, being cut and diced by inquisitive minds is probably a big bummer.

For those interested here is an HHMI lecture on Newt and Salamander limb regeneration: http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/stemcells/newt_regen.html