While reading rather interesting stuff at Mind Hacks, I ran across a link to Philosopher’s Zone. Podcasts about Philosophy and Psychology? Cool!

Bill Frist was on ABC today. He responded to Clinton’s claim that no-one knew Osama Bin Laden was a threat until 9/11. Frist reminds us we were attacked in 1993, 1995, 1997 and 2001, but have not been attacked since. I am not sure I care about the attacks in 1993, 1995 and 1997.

Frist suggests that people should vote for who makes them feel the safest. I do not agree. Government is not here to prevent evil; government is here to create good — or do nothing at all. Government that limits us is not government that moves us forward.

I do not want to elect Republicans who are only interested in keeping us from fear. I do not want to elect Democrats who are here to prevent Republicans and the President from hurting the country.

I want to elect leaders who will make our country better now and for the future.

I want leaders who will search for and invest in energy technology that can wean us from the autocratic oil teat.
I want leaders who will drag our educational system out of the industrial age and into the 21st century.
I want leaders who will improve the world’s opinion of our country and way of government.
I want leaders who will trust our citizens to do good and leave them alone.

Most of all, I want leaders who are strong enough to teach our country that terrorism will happen, that we are ready to respond, and we need not be afraid.

Awhile back Robert Wright interviewed Lorenzo Albacete, an ex-Physicist turned Theologist and Catholic University president. He makes an amazing point: while science can explain how things work the way they do, science does nothing to answer the question of why. Science — at least in its present form — is not capable of addressing these problems.

Science explains things in a completely different way to the way we personally experience them. The last chapter in Phantoms of the Brain — Do Martians See Red? — addresses this conundrum. Science can explain how we see things — the cells in our eyes that respond to specific frequencies of light that then enter our brain and excite other cells that activate other cells that have stored the concept of red. But this is categorically different to how we actually see red; Science explains everything from bee dancing to color vision the way a deaf person would explain the experience of listening to Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.

Some people suffer strokes that make them blind. They say they cannot “see” anything. Ask them to put a paper into a slot that is either horizontal or vertical, studies show that a few will succeed every time. These people “see” in one sense of the term, but they damaged enough of their brain to render them incapable of experiencing seeing. These people are visual automatons.

Why do we not do everything in this automaton fashion? Why do we stand resolute, insisting against all evidence: “I exist. I am. Cogito ergo sum“?

Science cannot answer these questions. Science is not interested in these questions. Science simply concludes, “because”. Things exist; we exist; we see red; we love; this is how the world works; end of question; lets stick to answering how does all this work, how did things come to be…

But I am not here just because.

Yes, my body is here because of my parent’s DNA, the laws of Physics, the need for life to beget life.

Yes, my mind is here because of the endorphins, electrons and chemicals swirling around my brain and body.

But I am not my body.

I am not mind.

I am me. Myself.

My soul.

No one can take this away from me. No one can give this to me. It is completely personal. I created it for myself. It is made by me, for me, of me. Simply,

me.

This page will give you some laughs.

She served hamburgers to children on paper plates.
After roasting for two hours, we turned the oven off.

More fun here, including ways to avoid all common grammar mistakes.

Ars has a terrible habit of trotting out the tired line, “no matter what happens, the real winner is you”. Here is the latest offense:

I really don’t know who to root for, but I am comforted by the fact that no matter who loses, the viewer wins

Enough already. Please!

Ars Technica has a piece talking about whether adding ever increasing amounts of realism into games is a good thing. Warfare enthusiasts want developers to add clacking sounds when bullets pass nearby the user, invoking the sonic booms people will hear in real gun battles such as the following one from Abu Ghraid in 2005:

Final Fantasy XII will be released this Halloween. I am pretty excited to see what the new story is and listen to hours and hours of Nobuo Uematsu’s music.

Bill O’Reilly’s Friday Talking Points Memo asserts that our governments exist in order to protect us. This is a terrible idea because gives government officials all the wrong motivations.

A government that exists to protect us is a government that needs fear for its mandate. Job security depends on us being afraid. It is in their interest not to solve problems — or keep increasing the scope of our fears — to keep us afraid.

Creepy. Reflect on this and Remember the Fifth of November.

FoxNews interviewed President Clinton this week. He got very defensive when the interviewer asked why he had not done more to stop Bin Laden. He reminded us how little we knew about the threat: Republicans attacked his efforts as unnecessary at the time, fired the chief anti-terrorism export and held no talks on Bin Laden in the months leading to 9/11. He defended himself very well.

Update: Slate tells me I’m a Democrat.

A man has an accident and loses his ability to urinate while standing. He demands a penis transplant to restore his God-given right to pee. The psychological acceptance went poorly — partly because the wife rejected the new member. Perhaps she preferred him to sit?