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Huh? The Coleman/Franken recount is still in progress...

It's kind of odd to think of the hippocampus (as a sort of unrecognized pattern buffer) being activated purely by evocation and combination of memory, but of course that's the case... we can generate our own novel patterns completely from contemplating our own memories.

About a decade ago our city rolled out some pretty large-scale upgrades to the mass transit system here, including light rail. The system sees a great deal of use and is generally considered a success. If conditions are right, "if you build it they will come" does apply to mass transit systems.

It's actually heat and the thermal gradient that matters, not temperature. The effect on vertical wind shear is also of utmost importance. Changes which decrease vertical wind shear increase the strength of hurricanes.

Here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/us/politics/07radio.html?pagewanted=all Obama plans a "vast infrastructure program, which also includes work on schools, sewer systems, mass transit, electrical grids, dams and other public utilities. The green jobs would include various categories, including jobs dedicated to creating alternative fuels, windmills and solar panels; building energy efficient appliances, or installing fuel-efficient heating or cooling systems." It would also "expand broadband Internet access, to make government buildings more energy efficient, to improve information technology at hospitals and doctors’ offices, and to upgrade computers in schools." He wants to get the legislation through Congress before taking office, as well. Personally I think this sounds awesome, especially in the wake of 2 million jobs lost in the past year... but I'm sure sentiments about the New Deal are mixed around here.

Like Penrose, Searle pedals his own brand of neutral monism (he calls it "biological naturalism") which makes extensive use of false analogies to make his arguments, such as the Chinese Room. What part of the room did the thinking? The gestalt.

Because reptiles don't have a neocortex or a structure which performs a similar function.

Apparently this plan was crafted hand-in-hand with the US

Let's examine Alex Chiu's claims really quick: http://alexchiu.com/eternallife/index.html'>http://alexchiu.com/eternallife/index.html Yes, these "immortality rings" work on "chi", the supernatural mystery force central to eastern medicine which so far science has been unable to detect or quantify. Given that, there's no scientific basis for these claims. That's not to mention that http://alexchiu.com is something of a joke. It's got all sorts of brazen signs of crackpot, such as an image on the front page comparing him to Edison, Tesla, and Einstein.

Yes. And not to be a blowhard, but most likely my computer science background far exceeds your own. A feeling is a specific type of noumenon, to use Kantian phraseology. However, that statement makes no more sense than the statement "to make a person 'feel' would first require defining what a feeling is". Humans feel regardless of hard definitions. In regard to consciousness we have a working reference implementation, the human brain. All that's required is porting it to different substrate. Brains are made out of matter but there's no reason we can't build a working model of a brain in a computer. The brain is just a physical system, and we've had great success at building models of other physical systems inside computers.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/12/04/iraq.security/index.html?eref=rss_topstories The Iraqi government ratified a plan which would see all U.S. combat troops withdrawn from Iraqi cities and towns by June 30, 2009, and all U.S. troops out of Iraq by December 31, 2011. I'm really glad to see this happening. It's really starting to feel like our long national nightmare may finally be over soon.

Increases in manufacturer costs are certainly vested upon the consumer. You'll have a lot harder time making that argument regarding cost decreases being passed onto the consumer. That was the plan behind Reaganomics and Bush Sr.'s policies, and it didn't work out so well in reality. By the time they were done, the national debt had skyrocketed, the financial sector had melted down, and we were in a recession. But at least taxes for the top 1% had been cut substantially. Hey! Deja vu!

That's just another example of an infinite regression, which doesn't require a deity to be a plausible explanation

Talking Points Memo reports that Coleman's lead has narrowed to 13 votes

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/02/georgia.senate/index.html?eref=rss_topstories The Democrats will not have a filibuster-proof 60 seat majority, as the Democrat running for the Senate seat in Georgia conceded today. The only seat still up for grabs is the Franken vs. Coleman battle in Minnesota. I would've liked for the Democrats to have a 60 seat majority, but I'm not majorly disappointed that they don't. It's still reassuring that only one Republican needs to break party lines for a cloture vote. That said, I expect things to remain polarized as ever and foresee many Republican filibusters kept alive only by all Republican senators being firmly united. What do you think? (an aside to people outside the US: does it actually help if I stick US in the thread title or do you not really care?)

While I'll happily admit these charges were bogus, they do nothing to dissuade me of my opinion that both these individuals, and Bush, have committed criminal acts and should be held accountable, regardless of if it's politically expedient or not. I'd rather the political gridlock continue than setting a precedent that a President can give the middle finger to the Constitution, Geneva convention, federal law, etc. I guess I think justice is more important than politics, but perhaps you see this desire for justice as more "partisanship". Clinton lying about a blowjob? Trying to impeach him for that is a brazenly partisan affair. Bush outing undercover CIA operatives because of a personal vendetta, authorizing the torture of prisoners, and spying on Americans without warrants? I find it hard to see how wanting to hold him accountable for those things is "partisan". But I won't blame Obama if he prevents pursuit of criminal charges against Bush, Cheney, etc. We've been through two years of political gridlock. In the time the Democrats were sitting around getting the lowest approval ratings in Congressional history and not passing legislation, they could've been pursuing these charges instead. It would've been a more opportune time.

The neocortex and thalamus are the two primary areas involved in consciousness, creativity, imagination, etc.

And the charges against Cheney and Gonzales were unsurprisingly dismissed: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=6371489

Ignorance is next to godliness... or is that cleanliness... one of the two

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/01/AR2008120101277.html Well, at least we can put that one to rest. What's funny is how contentious and polarizing the issue of whether or not we were in a depression actually was. I'm reminded of this clip of Peter Schiff repeatedly issuing warnings about the state of the economy only to have them downplayed, ignored, or laughed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I0QN-FYkpw Is this another issue of one side being blinded by political polarization, or was much of the country just not paying attention?

Dunno, perhaps causality is circular, or an infinite regression (turtles all the way down)

I find the Neo-Laffer Curve to be a bit more realistic:

Well, in other news, the Wall Street Journal reports that, according to Bush Administration insiders, Bush doesn't plan to grant clemency to officials involved in the administration's alleged crimes: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122756675347954409.html

How about we set a deadline... say 1 year after Obama's inauguration... if Obama pardons Bush before then you win, if he doesn't I win