god, dopamine, 3-dimensional space...,

What are God and Heaven doing up in the clouds?

neuropolitics | Space. The final frontier. And when it comes to religiosity, it just might be. Out of the clouds, Fred Previc has constructed an ingenious theory of religiosity based on the multiple mechanisms employed by the brain to map and direct its behaviors in 3-dimensional space. As we shall see, Previc's theory of religiosity has many similarities with Brack's hemisphericity theory of political orientation, both of which propose a key role to the dopaminergic system in the modulation of religiosity (and in our case, political conservatism).

 

Although our theories were derived independently, Previc's original manuscript, The role of extrapersonal brain systems in religious activity, predates the introduction of our theory (via the web) by several months. Although it does not specifically address political disposition, it is such a theory by proxy, via the strong relationship between religiosity and political conservatism. While Previc's theory makes full use of the large volume of literature implicating the dopamine system in religious behavior, it is a quantum leap in the theory of religiosity, and centered upon the various mechanisms on how the brain behaves in the four 3-dimensional spatial realms it has constructed for itself, and how time itself has become enmeshed with the brain's rendering of space.

Fred Previc knows something about space. Previc was the lead of the United States Air Force's Spatial Disorientation Countermeasures Task Group, which studied pilot spatial disorientation in flight, a major cause of aeronautic accidents. How he has subsequently woven his research and theories on the brain's rendering of space into a theory of religiosity is one the great insights in the history of neuropsychology. But what exactly is Previc's theory?

dopamine hegemony depends on the wattles...,

oulu.fi | via Northrup Grumman Information Technology - most fascinating data source research funder...., The neuropsychology of religious activity in normal and selected clinical populations is reviewed. Religious activity includes beliefs, experiences, and practice. Neuropsychological and functional imaging findings, many of which have derived from studies of experienced meditators, point to a ventral cortical axis for religious behavior, involving primarily the ventromedial temporal and frontal regions. Neuropharmacological studies generally point to dopaminergic activation as the leading neurochemical feature associated with religious activity. The ventral dopaminergic pathways involved in religious behavior most closely align with the action-extrapersonal system in the model of 3-D perceptual–motor interactions proposed by Previc (1998). These pathways are biased toward distant (especially upper) space and also mediate related extrapersonally dominated brain functions such as dreaming and hallucinations. Hyperreligiosity is a major feature of mania, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, temporal-lobe epilepsy and related disorders, in which the ventromedial dopaminergic systems are highly activated and exaggerated attentional or goal-directed behavior toward extrapersonal space occurs. The evolution of religion is linked to an expansion of dopaminergic systems in humans, brought about by changes in diet and other physiological influences.

believer brains vs. non-believer brains - a smidgeon of interesting data...,

plosone | Background - While religious faith remains one of the most significant features of human life, little is known about its relationship to ordinary belief at the level of the brain. Nor is it known whether religious believers and nonbelievers differ in how they evaluate statements of fact. Our lab previously has used functional neuroimaging to study belief as a general mode of cognition [1], and others have looked specifically at religious belief [2]. However, no research has compared these two states of mind directly.

Methodology/Principal Findings - We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure signal changes in the brains of thirty subjects—fifteen committed Christians and fifteen nonbelievers—as they evaluated the truth and falsity of religious and nonreligious propositions. For both groups, and in both categories of stimuli, belief (judgments of “true” vs judgments of “false”) was associated with greater signal in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, an area important for self-representation [3], [4], [5], [6], emotional associations [7], reward [8], [9], [10], and goal-driven behavior [11]. This region showed greater signal whether subjects believed statements about God, the Virgin Birth, etc. or statements about ordinary facts. A comparison of both stimulus categories suggests that religious thinking is more associated with brain regions that govern emotion, self-representation, and cognitive conflict, while thinking about ordinary facts is more reliant upon memory retrieval networks.

Conclusions/Significance - While religious and nonreligious thinking differentially engage broad regions of the frontal, parietal, and medial temporal lobes, the difference between belief and disbelief appears to be content-independent. Our study compares religious thinking with ordinary cognition and, as such, constitutes a step toward developing a neuropsychology of religion. However, these findings may also further our understanding of how the brain accepts statements of all kinds to be valid descriptions of the world.

just say no...,

NYTimes | One afternoon a few months ago, a 45-year-old sales representative named Mike called “The Dr. Harry Fisch Show,” a weekly men’s health program on the Howard Stern channel on Sirius XM Radio, where no male medical or sexual issue goes unexplored. 

“I feel like a 70-year-old man in a 45-year-old body,” Mike, from Vancouver, British Columbia, told Dr. Fisch on the live broadcast. “I want to feel good. I don’t want to feel tired all day.”

A regular listener, Mike had heard Dr. Fisch, a Park Avenue urologist and fertility specialist, talk about a phenomenon called “low testosterone” or “low T.” Dr. Fisch likes to say that a man’s testosterone level is “the dipstick” of his health; he regularly appears on programs like “CBS This Morning” to talk about the malaise that may coincide with low testosterone. He is also the medical expert featured on IsItLowT.com, an informational website sponsored by AbbVie, the drug maker behind AndroGel, the best-selling prescription testosterone gel. 

Like many men who have seen that site or commercials or online quizzes about “low T,” Mike suspected that diminished testosterone was the cause of his lethargy. And he hoped, as the marketing campaigns seem to suggest, that taking a prescription testosterone drug would make him feel more energetic. 

“I took your advice and I went and got my testosterone checked,” Mike told Dr. Fisch. Mike’s own physician, he related, told him that his testosterone “was a little low” and prescribed a testosterone medication. 

Mike also said he had diabetes and high blood pressure and was 40 pounds overweight. Dr. Fisch explained that conditions like obesity might be accompanied by decreased testosterone and energy, and he urged Mike to exercise more and to lose weight. But if Mike had trouble overhauling his diet and exercise habits, Dr. Fisch said, taking testosterone might give him the boost he needed to do so.

“If it gives you more energy to exercise,” Dr. Fisch said of the testosterone drug, “I’m all for it.”

Recommendations like Dr. Fisch’s and the marketing of low T as a common medical condition helped propel sales of testosterone gels, patches, injections and tablets to about $2 billion in the United States last year, according to IMS Health, a health care information company. In 2002, sales were reported to be a mere $324 million; around that time, Solvay Pharmaceuticals, which was then marketing AndroGel, began using the term “low T,” replacing a previous euphemism for male aging, “andropause.” Today the low-T trend is global. From 2000 to 2011, there was “a major and progressive increase” in testosterone use in 37 countries, according to a recent study published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

the ways of lust

NYTimes | In 1780, Immanuel Kant wrote that “sexual love makes of the loved person an Object of appetite.” And after that appetite is sated? The loved one, Kant explained, “is cast aside as one casts away a lemon which has been sucked dry.” 

Many contemporary feminists agree that sexual desire, particularly when elicited by pornographic images, can lead to “objectification.” The objectifier (typically a man) thinks of the target of his desire (typically a woman) as a mere thing, lacking autonomy, individuality and subjective experience. 

This idea has some laboratory support. Studies have found that viewing people’s bodies, as opposed to their faces, makes us judge those people as less intelligent, less ambitious, less competent and less likable. One neuroimaging experiment found that, for men, viewing pictures of sexualized women induced lowered activity in brain regions associated with thinking about other people’s minds.

The objectification thesis also sits well with another idea that many psychologists, including myself, have defended, which is that we are all common-sense dualists. Even if you are a staunch science-minded atheist, in everyday life you still think of people as immaterial conscious beings — we inhabit fleshy bodies, but we are not ourselves physical. To see someone as a body is in opposition to thinking of her as a mind, then, and hence a heightened focus on someone’s body tends to strip away her personhood. 

But this analysis is too simple. It’s not literally true that women in pornography are thought of as inanimate and unfeeling objects; if they were, then they would just as effectively be depicted as unconscious or unresponsive, as opposed to (as is more often the case) aroused and compliant. Also, as the philosophers Martha Nussbaum and Leslie Green have pointed out, being treated as an object isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Imagine that you are sitting outside on a sunny day, and you move behind someone so that she blocks the sun from your eyes. You have used her as an object, but it’s hard to see that you’ve done something wrong. 

The real worry that people have with pornography — and with lust more generally — is that the targets of the arousal are seen as losing certain uniquely human traits. They are thought of as lower-status beings, stripped of dignity, more like animals than people. This attitude is well expressed by the misogynist hero of the Kingsley Amis novel “One Fat Englishman” who says that his sexual aim is “to convert a creature who is cool, dry, calm, articulate, independent, purposeful into a creature who is the opposite of these: to demonstrate to an animal which is pretending not to be an animal that it is an animal.” 

now you just KNOW the pope is on the right track...,

HuffPo | Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh slammed Pope Francis' stance on social justice in his apostolic exhortation "Evangelii Gaudium," calling the document "pure Marxism" on his show.

Limbaugh went viciously on the attack with the show, titled, "It's Sad How Wrong Pope Francis Is (Unless It's a Deliberate Mistranslation By Leftists)." He began:

You know, the pope, Pope Francis -- this is astounding -- has issued an official papal proclamation, and it's sad. It's actually unbelievable. The pope has written, in part, about the utter evils of capitalism. And I have to tell you, I've got parts of it here I can share with you. It's sad because this pope makes it very clear he doesn't know what he's talking about when it comes to capitalism and socialism and so forth. Wait 'til you hear it.

Though "Evangelii Gaudium" has been lauded by many for its sharp stand for social justice, equality, and economic equity, Limbaugh expressed his disagreements with it, commenting:

Pope Francis attacked unfettered capitalism as 'a new tyranny' and beseeched global leaders to fight poverty and growing inequality, in a document on Tuesday setting out a platform for his papacy and calling for a renewal of the Catholic Church. ... In it, Francis went further than previous comments criticizing the global economic system, attacking the 'idolatry of money.'"

I gotta be very careful. I have been numerous times to the Vatican. It wouldn't exist without tons of money. But regardless, what this is, somebody has either written this for him or gotten to him. This is just pure Marxism coming out of the mouth of the pope. Unfettered capitalism? That doesn't exist anywhere. Unfettered capitalism is a liberal socialist phrase to describe the United States. Unfettered, unregulated.

in praise of greed, envy, IQ...,

guardian | Boris Johnson has launched a bold bid to claim the mantle of Margaret Thatcher by declaring that inequality is essential to fostering "the spirit of envy" and hailed greed as a "valuable spur to economic activity".

In an attempt to shore up his support on the Tory right, as he positions himself as the natural successor to David Cameron, the London mayor called for the "Gordon Gekkos of London" to display their greed to promote economic growth.

Delivering the annual Margaret Thatcher lecture, Johnson also called for the return of a form of grammar schools.

He qualified his unabashed admiration for the "hedge fund kings" by saying they should do more to help poorer people who have suffered a real fall in income in recent years. But he moved to forge his own brand of Conservatism, which contrasts with the early modernising of the prime minister, by claiming that it was "futile" to try to end inequality.

In highly provocative remarks, Johnson mocked the 16% "of our species" with an IQ below 85 as he called for more to be done to help the 2% of the population who have an IQ above 130.

"Whatever you may think of the value of IQ tests it is surely relevant to a conversation about equality that as many as 16% of our species have an IQ below 85 while about 2% …" he said as he departed from the text of his speech to ask whether anyone in his City audience had a low IQ. To muted laughter he asked: "Over 16% anyone? Put up your hands." He then resumed his speech to talk about the 2% who have an IQ above 130.

Johnson then told the Centre for Policy Studies think tank, which helped lay the basis for Thatcherism in the 1970s: "The harder you shake the pack the easier it will be for some cornflakes to get to the top."

from dust-to-dust...,

telegraph | American scientists have made an unsettling discovery. Crop farming across the Prairies since the late 19th Century has caused a collapse of the soil microbia that holds the ecosystem together. 

They do not know exactly what role is played by the bacteria. It is a new research field. Nor do they know where the tipping point lies, or how easily this can be reversed. Nobody yet knows whether this is happening in other parts of the world.

A team at the University of Colorado under Noah Fierer used DNA gene technology to test the 'verrucomicrobia' in Prairie soil, contrasting tilled land with the rare pockets of ancient tallgrass found in cemeteries and reservations. The paper published in the US journal Science found that crop agriculture has "drastically altered" the biology of the land. "The soils currently found throughout the region bear little resemblance to their pre-agricultural state," it concluded.

You might say we already knew this. In fact we did not. There has never before been a metagenomic analysis of this kind and on this scale. Professor Fierer said mankind needs to watch its step. "We really know very little about one of the most productive soils on the planet, but we do know that soil microbes play a key role and we can't just keep adding fertilizers," he said.

The Colorado study has caused a stir in the soil world. It was accompanied by a sobering analysis in Science by academics from South Africa's Witwatersrand University. They fear that we are repeating the mistakes of past civilisations, over-exploiting the land until it goes beyond the point of no return, and leads to a vicious circle of famine, and then social disintegration.

pretending it's not fukushima...,

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

can capitalists afford recovery - the presentation

bnarchives | Theorists and policymakers from all directions and persuasions remain obsessed with the prospect of recovery. For mainstream economists, the key question is how to bring about such a recovery. For Marxist and heterodox critics, the main issue is whether sustained growth is possible to start with. 

But there is a prior question that neither seems to ask: can capitalists afford recovery in the first place?

This presentation is the first in a four-part Speaker Series on the Capitalist Mode of Power, which is organized by capitalaspower.com and sponsored by the York Department of Political Science and the Graduate Programme in Social and Political Thought.

Video duration: 2:03 Hours

we are suffering a slow-motion nuclear war...,

eurasiareview |  As staff member of the Hiroshima Peace Institute you are first-rank witness of the severest nuclear catastrophe of modern times. Fukushima typifies several dangers of all things nuclear: The difficulties to control the technology, the recklessness of administrations, both private and public, and the fact that radioactivity does not respect national borders. How do you see the catastrophe?

RJ: I see the catastrophe as absolutely horrifying and ongoing. There is no discernible end in sight to this tragedy, radiation will continue to seep into the Pacific Ocean for decades. I think that there were many instances of negligence that facilitated the disaster. The design of the reactors and site was bad. The maintenance of the plant was neglected for decades. Adequate emergency procedures were never designed or enacted. In many ways, this highlights the problems not just of nuclear power but especially of privately run, for profit, nuclear power plants. In this case profits are raised by lowering costs, a process which both facilitated and accelerated the disaster. TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) notoriously has neglected its nuclear plants in honour of increasing profitability.

Beyond this, I would say that we also see illustrated here that the decisions to build nuclear plants are national ones, but when they have problems they are always global in scale. When one considers the time scale of some of the radionuclides that enter the ecosystem from nuclear disasters, they will stay in the ecosystem for thousands of years (as will the radionuclides in the spent fuel rods when they operate without a meltdown). These radionuclides will simply cycle through the ecosystem for millenniums. These toxins will remain dangerous for hundreds of generations and will disperse throughout the planet. At Fukushima the benefits of the electricity generated by the plants will have lasted barely longer than one generation while the sickness and contamination resulting from the disaster will last for hundreds.

‘Cold shutdown’ catastrophe

How do you evaluate the government’s handling of the catastrophe, for instance, the fact that only 12 square kilometres around the site have been evacuated?

RJ: The government’s handling of the disaster is a second disaster. Virtually every decision has been driven by two things: money and public relations. The decision to evacuate only 12 square kilometres was driven by concerns of cost and not by concerns of public health. When the government mandates evacuation they incur financial responsibilities. This is why they limited it to 12 km. They made a “suggested” evacuation area of 20 square kilometres.

Why the difference? Mandatory vs. suggested? The area between 12 and 20 km where evacuation is suggested means that the government bears no fiscal responsibility for those evacuees. If they evacuate, it is their own decision, and must be done at their own cost. These people are in a terrible bind. They know that they must evacuate because of the levels of radiation, but they will receive no assistance. Their homes are now worthless and cannot be sold. They are on their own. They have become both contaminated and impoverished. The other thing guiding decision making by the government is public relations.

While they knew that there had been a full meltdown on the first day of the disaster, and three full meltdowns by the third day, they denied this for almost three months. The reason this was done was to control perceptions. They managed to keep the word “meltdown” off the front pages of the world’s newspapers during the period when they were focused on Fukushima.

When the government acknowledged the meltdowns almost three months later the story was on page 10 or page 12 of international papers. This is a success for them. At the end of 2011 they declared the plants in “cold shutdown.” This is insane. The term cold shutdown refers to the activities of an undamaged and fully functional reactor. A reactor whose fuel has melted and is now located somewhere unknown beneath the reactor building, and that must have water poured on it for years to keep it cool are not in cold shutdown. This was just a way of saying to people that the event was over and everything was under control–absolute conscious lies. These concerns, costs and perceptions have guided the government’s response far more than public safety has.

the god father of ecstasy...,

DIRTY PICTURES is a documentary about Dr. Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin, the rogue chemist who discovered the effects of MDMA (aka Ecstasy) and over 200 other mind-altering drugs. Shulgin's alchemy has earned him the title "The Godfather of Psychedelics," and a reputation as one of the great chemists of the 20th century.

Working from a lab in his home, and using himself and his wife Ann as test subjects, Shulgin's discoveries have brought him into conflict with the law but made him a worldwide underground hero. The two books they co-authored, "Pihkal" and "Tihkal", have built a foundation for cutting-edge neuroscience and medical research. DIRTY PICTURES examines the impact of Dr. Shulgin's lifelong quest to unlock the complexities of the human mind.

{Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin is the scientist behind more than 200 psychedelic compounds including MDMA, more commonly known as Esctasy. Considered to be one of the the greatest chemists of the twentieth century, Sasha's vast array of discoveries have had a profound impact in the field of psychedelic research. By employing unorthodox methods; testing his creations on himself, working from a makeshift lab in his home, Shulgin has gained the reputation of a modern day alchemist within the scientific community}

making a killing

This video provides the facts about psychotropic drugs and the huge profits they create for the pharmaceutical industry. These drugs are not safe and have not been on the market long enough to provide sufficient long term studies regarding their effects. These drugs do cause addiction, however most "doctors" would call this dependence because you do not have to take an increasing dose over time. They are completely fine with you being addicted to the same amount of any given drug on a daily basis. Over half of the people that commit suicide in the United States are prescribed to psychotropic drugs. (Ex: Paxil (Paroxetine), Zoloft (Sertraline), Prozac, Wellbutrin (Bupropion), Effexor, Seroquil, Ultram (Tramadol), etc.

if psychiatric motives were benign, why didn't psychiatry dismantle the war on drugs and fully explore entheogens?

wikipedia | Psychiatry: An Industry of Death is a museum in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA, as well as several touring exhibitions.^[1] It is owned and operated by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), an anti-psychiatry organization founded by the Church of Scientology and psychiatrist Thomas Szasz. The museum is located at 6616 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California and entry to the museum is free.^[2]

The opening event on December 17, 2005,^[3] was attended by well-known Scientologists, including Priscilla Presley, Lisa Marie Presley, Jenna Elfman, Danny Masterson, Giovanni Ribisi, Leah Remini, Catherine Bell, and Anne Archer.^[4]

The museum is dedicated to criticizing what it describes as "an industry driven entirely by profit" and provides "practical guidance for lawmakers, doctors, human rights advocates and private citizens to take action in their own sphere to bring psychiatry under the law."^[5] It has a variety of displays and exhibits that highlight physical psychiatric treatments, such as restraints, psychoactive drugs, shock therapy and psychosurgery (including lobotomy, a procedure not used widely as a treatment since the early 1970s) with which psychiatrists have attempted to treat mental problems.

maturana and varela: the biology of cognition

enologaia | Living systems exhibit a sort of circularity in their form and structure. This is evident when we examine the way organisms are constituted by their components. These components are interconnected so as to make up a single whole structure. No single component is either a starting or ending point for this set of structural connections, because this set cannot be reasonably described as a linear series of dependencies. Instead, it is a web of interdependencies in which each component is mutually dependent on all the others in 'adding up' to the entirety of a viable structure. If you were to start with any given component and trace its structural dependencies on neighboring components, then trace the dependencies of those neighbors to their neighbors, etc., you would eventually come back to the first component as something upon which one or more other components are themselves reliant. Because this brings you back to the original point, the structure evidences 'circularity' with respect to its structural constitution.

Living systems are not just static structures. We ascribe 'life' to them because they're dynamic. We can find another sort of circularity in their internal operations. These internal operations are 'circularly' interconnected in the same sense that the components are. There is something about the identity and unity of a living system which is maintained by these internal operations -- something which can be influenced by events in the living system's environment, but which is specific to the living system itself. You can move the living system to another environment, but (so long as it can successfully survive) this circularly-interconnected network of internal operations will persist. These operations evidences no intrinsic 'purpose' beyond maintenance of the living system's constitutional and configurational integrity.

The course of actions ('responses') observed for a given living system exhibits a sort of circularity in the sense it is (at least partially) repetitive. The exact trajectory of these courses of action is mediated 'internally' by the organism's capacities for action. In other words, what the organism will do (and remain living) will be circumscribed by the range of things the organism can do. Because these capacities are in turn qualified by the living system's circularities of form, configuration and internal operations, similar circumstances will result in similar actions.

Correspondingly, the course of situational transitions affecting the organism ('stimuli') is mediated 'externally' by those potentials the world affords. Even though it is the organism's own configuration which determines its capacities for action (and hence its specific actions), the 'environment' influences the overall course or trajectory of the situations encountered, and hence the series of resulting actions. As such, there is a 'circularity' in the reciprocal interplay between the living system and its 'environment'.

The 'circle' of this interplay cannot be reasonably said to have a starting point (except the point at which the living system originates). It cannot be said to have an ending point (except the point at which the living system ceases to be living). As such, we cannot predict the living system's course of activities based on 'first' or 'last' causes.

Because of this, the course or trajectory of reciprocal engagement between a living system and its observed 'environment' is not reducible to exclusive determination by one or the other.

the neverending eugenic quest...,

sciencedaily | "Williams offers us a window into how the brain works at many different levels," says Bellugi. "We have the tools to measure the different cognitive abilities associated with the syndrome, and thanks to Julie and Debbie we are now able to combine this with studies of the underlying genetic and neurological aspects."

Suspecting that specific genes might lie at the origins of brain plasticity, functional changes in the brain that occur with new knowledge or experiences, and that these genes might be linked to the unusual proficiencies of those with Williams, the team enrolled individuals of various ages in their study. They drew from children, adolescents and adults who all had the full genetic deletion for Williams syndrome and compared them with their non-affected peers. Their study is additionally significant for being one of the first to examine the brain structure and its functioning in children with Williams. And, as Korenberg predicted, a critical piece of the puzzle came from including in their study two adults with partial genetic deletions for Williams.

Using highly sensitive sensors to measure brain activity, the researchers, led by Mills, presented their study participants with both visual and auditory stimuli in the form of unfamiliar faces and spoken sentences. They charted the small changes in voltage generated by the areas of the brain responding to these stimuli, a process known as event-related potentials (ERPs). Mills was the first to publish studies on Williams syndrome using ERPs, developed the ERP markers for this study, and oversaw its design and analysis.

Mills identified ERP markers of brain plasticity in Williams syndrome in children and adults of varying ages and developmental stages. These findings are important because the brains of people with Williams are structured differently than those of people without the syndrome. In the Williams brain, the dorsal areas (along the back and top), which help control vision and spatial understanding, are undersized. The ventral areas (at the front and the bottom), which influence language, facial recognition, emotion and social drive, are relatively normal in size.

It was previously believed that in individuals with Williams, the ventral portion of the brain operated normally. What the team discovered, however, was that this area of the brain also processed information differently than those without the syndrome, and did so throughout development, from childhood to the adult years. This suggests that the brain was compensating in order to analyze information; in other words, it was exhibiting plasticity. Of additional importance, the distinct ERP markers identified by Mills are so characteristic of the different brain organization in Williams that this information alone is approximately 90 percent accurate when analyzing brain activity to identify someone with Williams syndrome.

Other key findings of the study resulted from comparing the ERPs of participants with full Williams deletion with those with partial genetic deletions. While psychological tests focused on facial recognition show no difference between these groups, the scientists found differences in these recognition abilities on the ERP measurements, which look directly at neural activity. Thus, the scientists were able to see how very slight genetic differences affected brain activity, which will allow them identify the roles of sub-sets of Williams genes in brain development and in adult facial recognition abilities.

By combining these one-in-a-million people with tools capable of directly measuring brain activity, the scientists now have the unprecedented opportunity to study the genetic underpinnings of mental disorders. The results of this study not only advance science's understanding of the links between genes, the brain and behavior, but may lead to new insight into such disorders as autism, Down syndrome and schizophrenia. "By greatly narrowing the specific genes involved in social disorders, our findings will help uncover targets for treatment and provide measures by which these and other treatments are successful in alleviating the desperation of autism, anxiety and other disorders," says Korenberg.

black sun rising in the land of the rising sun...,

asahi | Finance Minister Taro Aso’s comment about the Nazis in connection with debate on constitutional revision has caused wide repercussions.

On Aug. 1, Aso retracted his remark, saying “(it) has caused misunderstanding of my real intentions.” But he has not made a clear apology and continues to avoid explaining the essence of his remark.

In Europe and the United States, if Cabinet ministers make remarks that can be construed as being positive about the Nazis, their jobs would be immediately put on the line. Aso, who served as prime minister and foreign minister and currently doubles as deputy prime minister, is a heavyweight in the administration of Shinzo Abe.

Aso’s remark not only hurt people who can never forget the Holocaust and are trying to overcome that history of aggression, but it also caused great misunderstanding about Japanese attitudes toward history in the international community. His responsibility is grave.

At a symposium on July 29, Aso said he doesn’t want debate on Japan’s constitutional revision to be held “amid a frenzy.” He stated: “One day, (the Germans) found that the Weimar Constitution was changed to the Nazi Constitution. It was changed without being noticed by anyone. Why don’t we learn from that technique?”

If we take his remark at face value, we have no choice but to think he wants Japan to learn from the Nazi example. There is also a problem with his recognition of facts.

Adolf Hitler used his charismatic oratory to incite the German people and rose to power amid a frenzy. Once he became chancellor, he enacted the Enabling Act that gave the government the power to create laws without the consent of the parliament. As a result, the Weimar Constitution effectively ceased. But that does not mean a “Nazi Constitution” was established.

Either way, such a thing as changing the Constitution without anyone noticing must never be tolerated. Moreover, Aso’s comment about Hitler and the implication that his example should be followed are utterly unacceptable. The remark is not something that Aso can get away with by simply retracting it.

In Germany at the time, frequent issuance of emergency presidential directives caused the emasculation of the parliament and gave rise to Nazi dictatorship, which led to numerous calamities. There is no way anyone who understands the history of how constitutionalism was rendered toothless can thoughtlessly make reference to the Nazis in discussing constitutional affairs.

fukushima spurs approval of japanese secrecy law...,

AP | Japan's more powerful lower house of Parliament approved a state secrecy bill late Tuesday that imposes stiffer penalties on bureaucrats who leak secrets and journalists who seek them, despite criticism the government is making a heavy-handed effort to hide what it's doing and suppress press freedom.

The public is concerned because the government won't say exactly what becomes secret. Critics say the law could allow the government to withhold more information and ultimately undermine Japan's democracy.

The bill was approved after hours of delay due to protests by opposition lawmakers. The ruling block and its supporters hope the weaker upper house will pass the legislation next month.

The ruling party says the law is needed to encourage the United States and other allies to share national security information with Japan. With the creation of a U.S.-style National Security Council in his office, it is part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to strengthen Japan's role in global security and create a more authoritarian government at home.

"This law is designed to protect the safety of the people," Abe said, promising to relieve citizens' concerns through further parliamentary debate.

The bill allows heads of ministries and agencies to classify 23 vaguely worded types of information related to defense, diplomacy, counterintelligence and counterterrorism, almost indefinitely.

Critics say it might sway authorities to withhold more information about nuclear power plants, arguing they could become terrorist targets. Or they warn that officials may refuse to disclose key elements of free trade talks to protect concessions that would make Tokyo or a partner look bad.

The move is welcomed by the United States, which wants a stronger Japan to counter China's military rise, but raises fears in Japan that the country could be edging back toward its militaristic past, when authorities severely restrained free speech.

Some experts say the legislation would ease the way for Abe's drive to revise Japan's U.S.-drafted pacifist constitution to give more power to the government and stress civil duties over basic human rights.

"My biggest concern is that it would be more difficult for the people to see the government's decision-making process," said Kyouji Yanagisawa, a former top defense official who was in charge of national security in the Prime Minister's Office in 2004-2009. "That means we can't check how or where the government made mistakes, or help the government make a wise decision."

At a public hearing in Fukushima on Monday, the only one held before the vote, lawyer Hiroyasu Maki said the bill's definition of secrets is so vague and broad that it could easily be expanded to include radiation data crucial to the evacuation and health of residents in case of another nuclear crisis. Opponents said that Tuesday's vote despite unanimous opposition by the seven local officials invited to the hearing already shows the Abe government's high-handed approach.

Ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers say Washington has repeatedly said it feels insecure about sharing top-secret information with Japan due to its lack of legal protection for secrets. The U.S. is worried about leaks to China, they say.

could tepco's removal of fuel rods from unit 4 be a complete charade?

carolynbaker | Reposted From Enformable Nuclear News

 

Complete transcript from Nuclear Regulatory Commission Website

Editor’s Note:  This morning I received a call from Mike Ruppert who had obtained these documents from a Facebook reader. At this point, I see the links and sources for this story as legitimate. The Enformable Nuclear News website seems quite reliable. I concur with Mike who says:

It is my prayer and deepest heartfelt wish that somehow what follows can be shown to be incorrect. If it is correct, however, then in my estimation ONLY two important questions remain to be asked. They are, “Exactly how much radiation has been released and how many human beings have already been fatally exposed and in what regions of the Northern Hemisphere?” And, “As radiation continues to spread – especially for more dangerous isotopes like plutonium – is this then an eventual life-terminating release of radiation for the entire planet?”

This is not a spoof. This is not “The Onion” on steroids. If these documents are valid, we are in deep, deep trouble…CB

lack of replacement is a nation killer...,

Towards the end of the documentary, the BBC reporter interviews a fluent English speaking medical worker. The key take away from this documentary is that the current velocity of money leading to economic growth has led Japan to a certain level of national assets and liabilities. If we reduce the ability to grow the assets, then the liabilities (in this case, the very real problem of an overabundance of Japanese Government debt) is not going to be serviced. 

Who will buy Japanese bonds? How will Japan be able to get the workers it needs to fulfill exports which are Japan’s bread and butter?

There is also talk about mass immigration in this same segment of the documentary - and the Japanese will have none of it.

Water, energy, pollution - the unspeakable - are all acute problems for Japan - BUT it is the finances which will not support resolution of these fundamental problems. With the globe all interconnected financially these days, and not likely to change, it is a problem which the Japanese will not be able to overcome.