DrmDoc

They are a decadent pleasure for which I bear no shame or remorse. Try one...just one... Ha!

Perhaps it was an exaggeration...but I do have a weakness for a certain sweet confection (Swedish Fish) that I, sparing no expense, buy in bulk and simply must have daily and often. In your garden you say? Hmmm...what a likely lovely place for them to live.

As you may know, 2 Senators per state was by design of our nation's founding fathers to give equal power to states with lower populations. Conversely and on balance, the number of Congressional Representatives states may elect was made contingent on the size of a state's population, which was a primary bases for the establishment of our decennial census. It's a system of government that greed and wealth will ultimately doom to failure though, hopefully, not within the desperately short years of my quickly vanishing lifetime.

Yeah, sugar intake doesn't increase hyperactivity but it can and does enhance mental acuity, which could translate into a more alert and active child. 150 to 250 years ago, sugar was a more precious commodity. Here in the states, the wealthy kept their sugar stocks under lock and key. As to our average yearly sugar intake, I think mine is more like 300 lbs....I think a lot, so I require a bit more than average.

Indeed, what they were from Lincoln thru Eisenhower has changed considerably and unfortunately for the state of our nation.

Ever wonder, How Your Brain Powers Your Thoughts? Well, today's your lucky day. That link is to a DNews Seeker video, which describes the process and how a protein (Glut4) in our neurons extract glucose from our bloodstream as we engage thought. Enjoy!

Fundamentally, the Republicans believe that it's not the government's job to care for its citizenry beyond the security of our nation which, in my opinion, is a fallacy. How can our nation be secure when its citizens aren't secure about their health, their ability to feed their families, their future, their environmental safety, etc.? These are all the things this administration seem to care very little about in favor of big business, Wall Street, and the wealthy. The effect will likely be more crime, more protest and violence against our government with more suffering and higher death rates among the poor and vulnerable. Mid-term elections can't come soon enough!

Really? You have empirical evidence in science of "Consciousness in other brains after someone dies"? I invite you to post that evidence here, I'm very interested in reviewing it. I haven't received or reviewed any credible evidence, from legitimate scientific sources and investigations, suggesting its possibility; therefore, no, I do not believe reincarnation is possible.

This, seemingly, final post here suggests that you had at least this chance to provide your evidence but chose not to do so. Nevertheless, I wish you well.

Although I do not claim to know or understand the opinion you are trying to convey, I do know that how you perceive or interpret our comments is a subjective aspect of your reality. What this means is that how you understand and receive our comments may not be what we are actually conveying to you. Your understanding or interpretation of our comments is under you control, not ours. Trying to prove something doesn't exist when there's no evidence that it ever has existed is what is meant by an inability to prove a negative. Rather than asking the readers of your comments here to prove you're wrong--if that is the reason for all of this--the onus is on you to prove you're right. Proving you're right requires evidence in science that can be independently verified. If you find no agreement with or acceptance of your opinion or perspective, it's more likely that you have not provided sufficient or convincing evidence in support rather than the ignorance of your audience--in my opinion.

To answer your question, first we have to make sure we both agree on some basic definition of consciousness. Basically, consciousness is merely awareness of experience and evidence of that awareness as suggested by perceived behavior. Second, we should agree that consciousness is a product of brain activity and function; therefore, consciousness can exist so long as there is evidence of brain activity and function. However, not all brain activity produces evidence of consciousness. There are stages in sleep that produce little to no evidence that the sleeper is aware of experience, physical or otherwise. Evidence of awareness in sleep is primarily suggested by the stages of sleep wherein rapid eye movement (REM) occurs. REM is usually coupled with the experience of dreaming, which is an alter state of wakeful activity in brain function. During REM, some brain areas can and frequently do reach levels of activity that exceed our conscious or wakeful levels. Those wakeful levels and our recall of dreams combine to suggest a consciousness or awareness in sleep, primarily during sleep's REM stages. The short answer to your question is that consciousness still exist in sleep because consciousness is a product of brain activity and that activity doesn't stop even in sleep. The truest evidence of consciousness nonexistence occurs at brain death when minimal to no brain activity is detected. Regarding sensory "pick up" or detection in sleep, their is experimental evidence that suggest our brain is able to detect sensory stimuli through all phases of sleeps.

Being wrong is exceedingly easy to be and hard to admit. Nevertheless, accepting and admitting that one is wrong is perhaps, IMO, the clearest measure of character and intelligence.

I agree with CharonY, they're just pronounced folds in the skin on the tips of your fingers. There are folds at your finger joints and other, less pronounced folds within the segments below your tips. From one of my many esoteric interests many, many years ago, I believe you probably inherited that trait from your mother while your fingertips shapes were likely inherited from your father.

Very interesting indeed.

Indeed, I agree. The Wizard Of Crap strikes again!

Syria enjoys the full support of Russia, so it's very unlikely that Trump is willing to escalate a Syrian conflict to Iraqi levels. I believe it likely that Putin was informed well ahead of this attack on an airstrip previously used by Russian military support in Syria. It's curious that this bombing excluded, according to an ABC News report, the buildings near this location where the Syrians are believed to be storing their chemical weapons.

Here's a link to the original article in Science. A fascinating read with compelling insights. NOTE: Apologies, just notice that access to the full Science article requires membership. Still, the original BBC article is very informative.

No, I don't think it's anything of that sort presently...but there is a case I've been following suggesting that potential to a lesser degree. There is individual, who prefer to remain private for good reason, who has routinely discussed his dream experiences with me. When he believes he has had a precognitive dream, he shares that dream with me prior to the event. He's an avid Sudoku player and enjoys playing the lottery. He only plays one type of lottery regularly to the exclusion, or so he says, of all others. Recently, he described a dream wherein he remembered seeing a odd subway exit sign that read "99999". He told me that he understood those number to represent the primary payoff number in the singular lottery game he was about to play that evening. He played five separate cards with 9 as the primary number and, as we watched that evening lottery drawing, that number was indeed drawn and all five cards were winners. To be fair, the odds of selecting the winning payoff number is 1 in 15 and he has had dreams with numeric content that did not yield the same results. In fact, his win record is markedly less than chance but I find his occasional win, based on dream content, intriguing. It's intriguing because he averages about one win per month (out of 8 drawings per month) based on his dreams and most frequently within the last two weeks of the month. Although his dreams are clearly not that OMG-precognitive type in my opinion, the ones he has shared prior to his winning experiences do appear to be related to his mindset amid those experiences.

I understood and I understand your perception that evolution hasn't selected for that ability; however, it's my belief that evolution has been and is selecting for precisely that ability through our mundane mental efforts towards readiness for future eventualities. I believe these effort are having an extraordinary affect on our perceptual abilities and brain development.

While living that close to a nuclear power plant, it's likely that you've had several power plant related dreams that didn't result in an actual event, which would be more convincingly coincidental evidence. Such dreams can occur as an expression of your fears while living so close but not be precognitive. Also, there were probably several other earthquakes happening that day that didn't receive as much attention. If so, what connected that one specific location to your dream and not to any other that might have occurred? As I understand, there's a earthquake happening in the world somewhere almost everyday that receive little to no attention. The point I'm trying to convey is that your initial effort in assessing your dreams should involve ruling-out the probability of coincidence rather than an immediate precognitive pronouncement. Be skeptical and try to associate your dream experience to thoughts you may have had prior to that dream. When you do, you'll find that the content of your dreams most likely reflect the ongoing thoughts and concerns that disturb your sleep rather than some future event.

For some 40 years or so, I've studied dreams and the dreaming brain as part of my interest in understanding the nature of mind and consciousness. It's exceedingly difficult, from my experience, to prove precognition in dreams beyond mere coincidence even when dream content precisely depicted some transpiring event. As I see it, the problem with claims of precognitive dreams is that those who experience them lack sufficient understanding of dreams and objectivity in interpreting their relevance. For example, given the number of nuclear power plants around the world, there was likely a high statistical probably that your nuclear plant dream might coincide with some imminent power plant incident elsewhere. That doesn't make your experience precognitive, just coincidental. Although many of us may not understand or accept, dreams occur for specific reasons applicable to the mind of the dreamer and events directly related to the dreamer's life. Primarily, dream content is a synthesis of thoughts uppermost in the mind of a dreamer amid the arousal caused by our brain's metabolic needs during sleep. Our brain consumes about 20% of our body's energy uptake, which occurs even in sleep. Our brain activity increases to wakeful levels during sleep because of its energy needs and it's that wakefulness that precipitates dreaming. Therefore, dreams are more descriptive or interpretive of thoughts rather than deeds or physical/material experience. As interpretations of thought, dream content likely describes something other than it's faux physical/material depictions. It's more likely that your nuclear power plant dream conveyed or interpreted thoughts related to events directly affecting your life rather than it being a precognitive experience of events elsewhere and unrelated to your life. I agree, no solid evidence in empirical science has proven precognition; however, I can't say that I agree with your evolution argument. The survival of our species has and continues to be dependent on our preparedness for future events. Albeit based on observations and experience, our mental ability to predict future needs and forecast future events (e.g., weather forecasting) is indeed evidence that evolution has been selecting for such a leap in our perceptual assessments. Essentially, precognition is merely the bastard child of forecasting--such as the weather--that has yet to credibly mature.

I think an annual physical fitness requirement is essential for active military service members. Alas, that sort of physical regimen for me, a civilian, is far in my very distant past. Nowadays, ,the measure of my fitness is managing a leisurely stroll in the park with frequent park bench respites. .

Perhaps your right, but this one might have missed a few steps...or maybe he's just missing a little something upstairs. Apologies.

Indeed, I'm surprised he broached the subject of time dilation again after it was closed. It just a maniacal carousel.

I simply refuse to go down that rabbit hole with JohnLesser again! Either he's trolling or willfully ignorant.