THE BRAIN IS A Believing MACHINE

Dr. Andrew Newberg is using brain imaging technology at the U of Pennsylvania to study the relationship between Religion & Science.

Newberg states that;

"the Brain is a believing machine because it has to be...

Beliefs affect every part of our lives,

They make us who we are.

They are the essence of our being.

The mind and the body are the flip side of the same coin".

Apparently prayer and meditation increase levels of Dopamine which is the brain's pleasure hornymone.

I for one am excited about mapping the path to Bliss except that once they find it they will mass produce a synthetic accelerator that will keep us all deleriously excited about paying more taxes.

A Professor at the U of Calgary, Michael Keren,

has written Blogosphere: The New Political Arena.

He maintains that;

"Bloggers are isolated, lonely souls who bare their souls in cyberspace instead of forming real relationships or helping to change the world!

Bloggging is melancholic and as illusionary as Don Quixote tilting at windmills!

Blogging as a form of self expression brings on feelings of loneliness for

Bloggers who aren't lucky enough to reach celebrity status.

Bloggers are people with nicknames who can express enormous support but disappear the next minute."

Well I for one am delighted that my believing machine allows me the opportunity to meet with all of you isolated, melancholic, lonely, people with nicknames.

My believing machine has me convinced that Bloggers are real people...and once Dr Newberg proves that with his brain scans I am going to Calgary to tell Professor Keren that he is totally wrong.

BREAKING away from 24/7 NEWS

Once upon a time I was a NEWS junkie.

I would surf through the Canadian & American NEWS channels in the morning while I read the local NEWSpaper and perused Google News, watch Local TV News at noon, tehn on to more North American & International TV NEWS at suppertime, and then repeat the process again in the evening....

why oh why oh why?

I kept watching even though I realised that the same stories appeared in my Newspaper, my TIME magazine, my Wife's Celebrity Mags, Local TV reports, National TV reports and International TV reports...
a swirling vortex of Infotainment rehashing the same stories over and over and over.

The cumulative effect of trying to retain all of the nominally useful information was stress and anxiety.. because

BAD NEWS is the best kind of NEWS
in the NEWS Business.

If you are inundated with terrible NEWS from all over the world you cannot help but feel overwhelmed.

These days the line between Entertainment and NEWS has been erased.

I believe that this has happened because humans are simply physiologically incapable of handling that much negative information, even if it is Infotainment. It is much easier to digest the trivial details of Celebrity's frivolous activities.

These days the NEWS is made more palatable by having more photogenic announcers.



America has gone from Cronkite to Couric.

Katie makes more money in one year than Walter probably made in his lifetime. why..because she is as big of a 'item' as the actual NEWS.



Here in Canada we prefer our NEWS 'missionary style' but nevertheless we will soon witness Ian (Handsomemanthing) Hanomansing replace Peter (Everyman) Mansbridge.

As a child I watched footage of the War in Viet Nam on TV every night and it just seemed to be scenes from a Movie...forty years later I worry that I am so desensitized that the horrific images on TV lose much of their impact.

Even 9/11 footage is slowly entering that realm due to the hundreds of occasions that I have been exposed to those images.

Natural Disasters such as the terrible images of a Tsunamic wave bursting over a Tropical resort is also losing its impact..and I am troubled that this particular disaster received such overwhelming response because of the fact that so many of the victims were vacationing Europeans and Americans..

unfortunately this item would not have been such a BIG story if only local inhabitants were killed...

otherwise it would have been another "over there" story and there is something seriously wrong with that.


Let's face it, NEWS is competing for your eyeballs and advertising dollars the same as all of the other crap on TV.

I still try to stay selectively informed but now I prefer my NEWS 'old school' like Detective Joe Friday on Dragnet,
"Just the facts please Ma'am."

How do you deal with 24/7 NEWS.

I SWITCHED TO THE NEW GLOOggLER

Like a SUCKER I caved in because 'everybody is doin' it' and I thought that this would help make my Blog more Hip n'Happenin'..

but now I can't seem to be able to view half of your fun Avatars and you must leave your name with your comments...

WHAT HAVE I DONE??!!

AARRRGGHHH!

CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHY THEY JUST DON'T GET IT OVER WITH AND RENAME THE WHOLE FRICKINTHING GLOOggLER?

GREAT SUCCESS!
You like very much Yes?

There are several excellent reasons for watching BORAT.

We need to understand that our present era of Political Correctness is a mirage that has failed miserably and may actually be strengthening prejudice and ignorance.

The blatant anti semitic, homophobic, sexist and xenophobic demons that live in our day to day world are brilliantly exposed in this film.

The tender, vulnerable, underbelly of the status quo are eviscerated with the skill of a surgeon's scalpel by Sacha Cohen's character Borat.

This movie is a wake up call to all of us even if
Borat shone a very harsh, bright, light in the not-so-dark corners of the American Heartland. The cultural cockroaches that scurried out were very disturbing..
most of which are still ((sigh)) unfortunately universally practised around the entire planet.

Before you blow a gasket I realise that most Americans are not guilty of being the dumbass rednecks revealed in the film.
The fact that there are so many of them is what may be terrifying to some..
but it is the worst kept secret on the planet.

Cohen's defense of such outlandish parody is that indifference is one of the culprits.
He is the grandson of a Holocaust survivor and rationalised his approach during an interview in which he stated that apathy is a devious enabler that allows these old hatreds to fester beneath the surface..and as he has proven whether through his alter egos Bruno, Ali G or Borat, that it doesn't take much to release them.

Perhaps this comedic expose may help clean up the collective denial concerning some Americans and their refusal to comprehend why the rest of the world 'does not prefer' to be subjected to Uncle Sam's interference in their domestic affairs...
never mind the imposition of 'American' values which they view as the Pot calling the kettle Black.
Critics of the film are aghast with indignation and will probably never be able to understand why the rest of the world displays such contempt for the US?

It also revealed that in this Information Age, the YouTubian 24/7 world of instantaneous ego parades, that you and your stupid ideas are all fair game. Nobody is exempt from making a complete ass out of themselves.

Several scenes deftly reveal how both pretentious pseudo-respectability, manic spiritualism, and blatant, jawdropping, 'good-old-boy' ignorance all deliver well deserved embarrassing retribution to their creators...
that they can never take back.

That includes all of the knuckleheads that have launched lawsuits against the Producers of Borat..
you made your bed and no amount of money will ever restore your dignity..Neener!

Lets be honest, putting any culture or country under a microscope is as dangerous as it is depressing.
The reason that the disrobing of the 'U.S.and A.' is so rewarding should be obvious. The shameful veneer peeling of the Nation in which many, certainly not all, of its citizens consider themselves God's Gift to the rest of the world is UBER schandefreude!

If you have ever wondered how a transparent Trojan Horse like the 'great warlord' George W. Bush was elected to the highest office of the greatest Civilization in History.... TWICE??.... watch this film.

WELCOME TO PORT MANTEAU

It's another day in Paradise..
HOT and SUNNY with a nice breeze whispering off of the Ocean.

Stroll out to the end of the pier... have a seat and order your favorite drink. Aaaahhh!
OK clear your head and forget about tomorrow....

What we like do out here is to create, share and discuss Portmanteau ...
which is a fancy schmancy term for a word like
smog, woman (womb man), cyborg, motel or brunch, that

fuses two or more words or parts of words to give a combined meaning.

Although many of us try to protect our beloved English I am reminded that it snuck its way to the top by being a whore and a bandit. English did not even exist when Julius Caesar landed in Britain 2,000 years ago but today English (Englishes) has become the first global language.

Out here in the Blogosphere the English Language is morphing again so we might as well get in on it.

OMG how that Teenager Text Messaging Lingo drives me crazy but WTF can I do to stop it? I mean aside from never using it... ROFLMAO!

So I have decided to stop kvetching and thought that we should chillax,

enjoy the scenery, the company and have some fun with it.

I would also encourage you to submit your brilliant portmanteaux to the urbandictionary.com to entertain millions, and attain the wealth, fame and prestige that you so richly deserve!

So, let's hear it..name a P'orman's d'oh or txtmsg that you LOVE, HATE, or CREATED.

IT ISN'T A MIRACLE!
I bring good tidings of great joy for all adherents of virgin births.

At long last we have scientific proof that you can screw yourself thanks to an 8 year old Mother in Manchester, England. Her name is Flora and she gave birth to five little boys..without being fertilised by a male. Imagine being single gal, minding your own business, and then poof you're pregnant and they are all boys!

Flora is a Komodo Dragon, one of only 4,000 left in the entire world. The virgin birth was achieved through an asexual process known as parthenogenesis which has been recorded before in other reptiles.

Congratulations Flora!
There are two eggs left to hatch and I am willing to bet that they are also both males.

Now this adaptation to overcoming scarce reproductive partners obviously begs the question:
If this happened on an isolated corner of her native Indonesian Island would Flora then reproduce with her boys (eeeew)
or could she make a batch of females for them (eeeew)
...either way it is quite incestuous.

Reptiles generally only produce males if environmental circumstances are favorable.

Flora will need some names for her boys.
Here in Whateverpeg the most popular names of 2006 were:
Aidan, Alexander, Dylan, Ethan, Joshua, Liam, Logan, Mathew, Noah & Owen

If the last two eggs are girls (doubters):
Abigail, Alexis, Ava, Chloe, Emily, Emma, Hailey, Hannah, Madison & Sarah.

TIKTAALIK:
PUTTING THE WIN BACK IN DARWIN

In the ongoing debate about our origins between Creationists and the Darwinians like myself, TIKTAALIK cannot be ignored.
Discovered on Ellesmere Island,(Go Canada), the fishapod fossil is a crucial missing link between the creatures that swam in the primordial seas and all of the land-lubbin' verterbrates alive today.
Like you and me.

The discovery of TIKTAALIK's primitive wrist and 5 finger like bones hidden within the fins is a significant piece of evidence.

This transitional species, from fish to tetrapod, should shift the debate back to the future again.
Perhaps? Unfortunately the diehard dogmaholics will probably reject it. Lil'Miss Eve O'Lution, she's so misunderstood.

Creationists must come to grips with the fact that they need a better alibi for their hereabouts. Every culture has a fantastic Creation Myth and it is important to examine each one of them with our allegorical goggles. We should celebrate our universal fascination with the

Who,What,Where,When and WHY we are here.

The Creation Myths fundamentally examine the purpose and responsibilities of mankind. The unique burden of having knowledge of good and evil has been a both a blessing and a curse.

Creationists need to choose their battles a little more carefully. So what if Genesis or any other Creation Myth is metaphorical, that alone doesn't invalidate your version of God or undermine the reality about His or Her existance.

That mother of all questions is scientifically impossible to prove or disprove. Besides, that dilly-of-a-pickle belongs to the Philosophers and Theologians and they can have it!

For the vast, bewildered, majority of you comfortably sitting on the fence, this tempest in a teapot must smell a little fishy.
Let's just call it
one small step for TIKTAALIK,
one giant leap for DARWIN.

In the pond of public opinion, TIKTAALIK is putting the WIN back in DARWIN.

THE EYEFULL POWER

Do you remember when Chopper would say "Close yer eyes Yakky 'cause you shouldn't oughtta see what's gonna happen"...

well we all see things, certain things that we should never see...
and they get stuck in our brains.

No matter how hard you try you can't forget them.

These unforgettable images are almost exclusively Life&Death images..beautiful babies being born or horrible auto accidents or accidentally viewing our parents when they are nekked..eeewww!.


Sometimes you get the eyefull power of seeing something so spectacular that you don't ever want to forget it. These one in a billion chance events usually occur during a hole in the space/time continuum when all of the planets are perfectly aligned.

Say for instance a spur of the moment skinny dip on a hot summer night under a full moon with a living goddess right out of a Frank Frazetta illustration!.
Like a scene out of a movie you want to pinch yourself (sort of)..am I dreaming..is this really happening.. and time stands completely still..
while your aperture is wide open and set on surreal!

Hopefully most of us get to experience atleast a handful of those rare opportunities..
a chance to witness something so spectacular that your brain makes about 1 million copies and 'squirrels' them in every corner of your brain.

Unfortunately your brain makes this new space available by throwing all of the 'whatever' memories overboard and permanently deleting the ability to remember useless crap such as where you just put your car keys five seconds ago.

Who f*#ing cares...
all of that crap is joyously jettisoned so that you will never, ever, ever, ever, forget that precise moment in time...
when the universe was perfect,
and you were exactly where you always dreamed of being.

*Speaking of Eyefulls here is a synopsis of when YOU will be reading this:
Hourly Visitors Report for Jan 14 to Jan 23:

12AM: 6.3%

1AM: 2.5%
2AM: 1.3%
3AM: 0.0%

4AM: 0.0%
5AM: 0.0%
6AM: 0.0%

7AM: 6.3%
8AM: 8.8%
9AM: 7.5%

10AM: 1.3%
11AM: 2.5%
12PM: 16.3%

1PM: 1.3%
2PM: 0.0%
3PM: 1.3%

4PM: 2.5%
5PM: 3.8%
6PM: 2.5%

7PM: 11.3%
8PM: 6.3%
9PM: 7.5%

10PM: 5.0%
11PM: 6.3%

MONDAYS SUCK!
Once upon a time I hated Sunday more than any other day of the week. Getting dragged off to church was absolute, sheer, cruel and unusual torture...
this picture pretty much sums it up...

Of course once I entered the workaday 9 to 5 world I switched to hating Mondays.
The song Friday On My Mind by The Easybeats (I prefer the Bowie/Pinups version) summed up my general disposition at the start of every week ...

"Monday morning feels so bad,
Ev'rybody seems to nag me
Coming tuesday I feel better,
Even my old man looks good,
Wednesday just don't go,
Thursday goes too slow,
I've got Friday on my mind"

"Do the five day drag once more,
Know of nothing else that bugs me
More than working for the rich man,
Hey I'll change that scene one day,
Today I might be mad,
Tomorrow I'll be glad,
I've got Friday on my mind"

That being said now that I am past the halfway mark I realise that none of us can afford to wish away or waste one single day of our lives.

So from now on I will refuse to allow the enormity of the guaranteed catastrophic global destruction of our planet and the accelerated systematic eradication of our species bother me on Monday Morning.

I'm changing my point of view.

... pffft!
Why on Earth should I worry about all of this other nonsense if nobody else is..
AS IF the world is going to hell in a !