Brain science: Great articles about experimental neuroscience, conjoined brains, and everlasting consciousness. - Slate Magazine

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">Though many mysteries of the brain remain unsolved, advances in medicine and technology are bringing us closer to understanding exactly how it functions. Here are stories on brain breakthroughs, the scientists who made them, the patients who experienced them, and the ethics behind it all:<a href="http://www.esquire.com/print-this/henry-molaison-brain-1110?page=all" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; "><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; "></strong></a></div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; "><a href="http://www.esquire.com/print-this/henry-molaison-brain-1110?page=all" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; "><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; ">The Brain That Changed Everything</strong></a><br>Luke Dittrich • <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">Esquire </em>• October 2010<br></div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">When a neurosurgeon cut in to Henry Molaison's brain in 1953, his life changed forever. So would everything that science ever knew about memory.</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">"Brain surgery is an ancient craft — there is a four-thousand-year-old hieroglyphic text describing successful operations — and among my grandfather's most interesting artifacts was a collection of premodern and tribal neurosurgical instruments. As a kid, I found those picks and blades fascinating and terrible to contemplate. It wasn't just the age of the tools, it was the acts they were intended for. Brain surgery, whatever the era, always requires at least two frightening qualities in its practitioners: the will to make forcible entry into another man's skull, and the hubris to believe you can fix the problems inside."<br></div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; "><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/magazine/could-conjoined-twins-share-a-mind.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all&" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; "><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; ">Could Conjoined Twins Share a Mind?</strong></a><br>Susan Dominus • <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">New York Times Magazine</em> • May 2011<br></div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">On the shared life of Tatiana and Krista Hogan.</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">"Twins joined at the head—the medical term is craniopagus—are one in 2.5 million, of which only a fraction survive. The way the girls' brains formed beneath the surface of their fused skulls, however, makes them beyond rare: their neural anatomy is unique, at least in the annals of recorded scientific literature. Their brain images reveal what looks like an attenuated line stretching between the two organs, a piece of anatomy their neurosurgeon, Douglas Cochrane of British Columbia Children's Hospital, has called a thalamic bridge, because he believes it links the thalamus of one girl to the thalamus of her sister. The thalamus is a kind of switchboard, a two-lobed organ that filters most sensory input and has long been thought to be essential in the neural loops that create consciousness. Because the thalamus functions as a relay station, the girls' doctors believe it is entirely possible that the sensory input that one girl receives could somehow cross that bridge into the brain of the other. One girl drinks, another girl feels it"<br><br></div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; "><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/30/080630fa_fact_gawande?printable=true" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; "><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; ">The Itch</strong></a><br>Atul Gawande • <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">The New Yorker</em> • June 2008</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">What the sensation of an uncontrollable itch can tell us about how the brain operates.</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">"Contemplating what it's like to hold your finger in a flame won't make your finger hurt. But simply writing about a tick crawling up the nape of one's neck is enough to start my neck itching. Then my scalp. And then this one little spot along my flank where I'm beginning to wonder whether I should check to see if there might be something there. In one study, a German professor of psychosomatics gave a lecture that included, in the first half, a series of what might be called itchy slides, showing fleas, lice, people scratching, and the like, and, in the second half, more benign slides, with pictures of soft down, baby skin, bathers. Video cameras recorded the audience. Sure enough, the frequency of scratching among people in the audience increased markedly during the first half and decreased during the second. Thoughts made them itch."<br></div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; "><a href="http://chronicle.com/article/The-Strange-Neuroscience-of/132819/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; "><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; ">The Strange Neuroscience of Immortality</strong></a><br>Evan R. Goldstein • <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">The Chronicle of Higher Education</em> • July 2012<br></div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">How some scientists are turning to connectomes—maps of the brain's neural circuitry—to make the case for brain preservation, mind uploading, and eternal life.</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">"Among some connectomics scholars, there is a grand theory: We are our connectomes. Our unique selves—the way we think, act. Feel—is etched into the wiring of our brains. Unlike genomes, which can never change, connectomes are forever being molded and remolded by life experience. Sebastian Seung, a professor of computational neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a prominent proponent of the grand theory, describes the connectome as the place where 'nature meets nurture.'</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">"Hayworth takes this theory a few steps further. He looks at the growth of connectomics—especially advances in brain preservation, tissue imaging, and computer simulations of neural networks—and sees something else: a cure for death.<br></div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; "><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2011/07/the-brain-on-trial/308520/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; "><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; ">The Brain on Trial</strong></a><br>David Eagleman • <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">Atlantic</em> • July 2011</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">Should the discovery of a brain disease or disorder excuse a person from prosecution? How recent advancements in brain science are changing understandings of volition.</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">"As our understanding of the human brain improves, juries are increasingly challenged with these sorts of questions. When a criminal stands in front of the judge's bench today, the legal system wants to know whether he is <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">blameworthy</em>. Was it his fault, or his biology's fault?</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">"I submit that this is the wrong question to be asking. The choices we make are inseparably yoked to our neural circuitry, and therefore we have no meaningful way to tease the two apart. The more we learn, the more the seemingly simple concept of blameworthiness becomes complicated, and the more the foundations of our legal system are strained."<br></div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; "><a href="http://www.nature.com/news/the-split-brain-a-tale-of-two-halves-1.10213" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; "><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; ">The Split Brain: A Tale of Two Halves</strong></a><br>David Wolman • <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">Nature </em>• March 2012<br></div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">How a radical surgery intended to separate the right hemisphere of the brain from the left impacted both researchers and patients.</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">"But what Vicki could never have known was that her surgery would turn her into an accidental superstar of neuroscience. She is one of fewer than a dozen 'split-brain' patients, whose brains and behaviours have been subject to countless hours of experiments, hundreds of scientific papers, and references in just about every psychology textbook of the past generation. And now their numbers are dwindling.</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">"Through studies of this group, neuroscientists now know that the healthy brain can look like two markedly different machines, cabled together and exchanging a torrent of data. But when the primary cable is severed, information — a word, an object, a picture — presented to one hemisphere goes unnoticed in the other."</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; "><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2001/08/13/010813fa_FACT?currentPage=all" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; "><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; ">As Good as Dead</strong></a><br>Gary Greenberg • <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">The New Yorker</em> • August 2001</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">Is there really such a thing as brain death?</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">"When I spoke to Nick's parents, they still had trouble with the notion that, to become a donor, it was not enough for their son to die with his body more or less intact. He would have to have the right kind of death, with the systems in his body shutting down in a particular order. 'I'm so confused about this part of it,' his mother said. 'I don't understand why, if his heart stops beating, they can't put him back on a respirator." Rick, too, was confused about the moment at which "the plug will be pulled.' In reality, there is no moment when the plug is pulled; to keep the organs viable, the respirator is left operating—and the heart keeps beating—until the surgeon removes the organs.</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">"Confusion about the concept of brain death is not unusual, even among the transplant professionals, surgeons, neurologists, and bioethicists who grapple with it regularly. Brain death is confusing because it's an artificial distinction constructed, more than thirty years ago, on a conceptual foundation that is unsound. Recently, some physicians have begun to suggest that brain-dead patients aren't really dead at all—that the concept is just the medical profession's way of dodging ethical questions about a practice that saves more than fifteen thousand lives a year."</div></div></div><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/life/longform/2013/05/brain_science_great_articles_about_experimental_neuroscience_conjoined_brains.html?">http://www.slate.com/articles/life/longform/2013/05/brain_science_great_articles_about_experimental_neuroscience_conjoined_brains.html?</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

Brain science: Great articles about experimental neuroscience, conjoined brains, and everlasting consciousness. - Slate Magazine

Though many mysteries of the brain remain unsolved, advances in medicine and technology are bringing us closer to understanding exactly how ...

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weekend recap

Oy! I hope you all had as much fun this past weekend as I did. It was the perfect mix of shopping, projects, family and good food. Fun was had by all.<br /><br />Here are some peaks into the last 72 hours.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4hjC1cLtLrbPkzhrEmUBxgcvXphyphenhyphenC1aBkWr8xuQj2xsEKoOPlrWJTF-DyWueT91TYxv7fIz3P0iMir38y_1V1bN6HbMrCGD2SyBmuu5cZo9ltXczb0n0PAhU7FYwwcqBq_DheuEQ4TDXJ/s1600/IMG_1489.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4hjC1cLtLrbPkzhrEmUBxgcvXphyphenhyphenC1aBkWr8xuQj2xsEKoOPlrWJTF-DyWueT91TYxv7fIz3P0iMir38y_1V1bN6HbMrCGD2SyBmuu5cZo9ltXczb0n0PAhU7FYwwcqBq_DheuEQ4TDXJ/s400/IMG_1489.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />We took pictures of each other taking pictures of each other.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVpf8XfsSeu3l-dV9g3IKghVFbVRa52cg0sYzQjz1VL1TPFU447MHS7WsYZAnWJoyYT8b-fLoIEp9h4Rd7ls31vnd3PRvuWIa7me_LYmHyHapB6gx0hXggKIYoh8WmQwt34Aj2FeAIt9L8/s1600/ribboncurtain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVpf8XfsSeu3l-dV9g3IKghVFbVRa52cg0sYzQjz1VL1TPFU447MHS7WsYZAnWJoyYT8b-fLoIEp9h4Rd7ls31vnd3PRvuWIa7me_LYmHyHapB6gx0hXggKIYoh8WmQwt34Aj2FeAIt9L8/s320/ribboncurtain.jpg" width="261" /></a></div><br />I got out some ribbon and my glue gun.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlSbhk0zH28aQoWNalZDt5ANH2veunPY4H3sHrQxRqEsHkzLMdpq51bpwx8ho-v4-P1fPuZJixFVky5F4YB0MMJVN9SWXjmPey3TEpXZbD4OqRlXFy7FxyLz3XI-TyDYpiYNjh4equ1Yci/s1600/pagodatop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlSbhk0zH28aQoWNalZDt5ANH2veunPY4H3sHrQxRqEsHkzLMdpq51bpwx8ho-v4-P1fPuZJixFVky5F4YB0MMJVN9SWXjmPey3TEpXZbD4OqRlXFy7FxyLz3XI-TyDYpiYNjh4equ1Yci/s320/pagodatop.jpg" width="230" /></a></div><br />Did a bit of shopping/research. Sadly this hot little number didn't come home with me but I'll keep my eye on it. Wouldn't she be saucy in a bathroom holding all types of pretty hand towels and jars of pretty soaps? I miss her already.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhObUZJ4bKTPug58P7S6m3Whsj7uZRV6zc1ci0UzzN3DMKRvXcK6pTuiLokO6FjM5dxk8VJLSRv9uxdFWiIATSq9s2EUPQcB_sV7TauFKcX8y3BXZcbo5vPDq_YHORTPViT47QTnCltKdiQ/s1600/IMG_1533.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhObUZJ4bKTPug58P7S6m3Whsj7uZRV6zc1ci0UzzN3DMKRvXcK6pTuiLokO6FjM5dxk8VJLSRv9uxdFWiIATSq9s2EUPQcB_sV7TauFKcX8y3BXZcbo5vPDq_YHORTPViT47QTnCltKdiQ/s320/IMG_1533.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />But this little tray did come home with me. I'll have to take another shot of the top - think dragons and billowy smoke. Look for that on <a href="http://instagram.com/littleblackdoor/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEQumXKlNtF4i4iFQnNelcMiUilUOV07kpgbDXhLAGY0-4YcCOt0uTulfnIq9palxiBm3UvHVRpq2VO0K0-uUvSNnaj54IU2rfZaOzDUA-_0z67dIrwvpCGQApLhJ-V06tqFh6vSMMv9JP/s1600/IMG_1507.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEQumXKlNtF4i4iFQnNelcMiUilUOV07kpgbDXhLAGY0-4YcCOt0uTulfnIq9palxiBm3UvHVRpq2VO0K0-uUvSNnaj54IU2rfZaOzDUA-_0z67dIrwvpCGQApLhJ-V06tqFh6vSMMv9JP/s320/IMG_1507.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />Finished up one project.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin59wWPeTaw3hOPCr056j41PiazEVMi8OlNktvRoNgPMc27Qk3Cx28_Mmg5CGG5gNHnq6X5FTbKIqj1wNJBrrQFmAdGUf_OwgcS8v0wGNQ3R0BeN0ER7GDT833mfXddDSshA5fV-Hlzott/s1600/consoletablebefore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin59wWPeTaw3hOPCr056j41PiazEVMi8OlNktvRoNgPMc27Qk3Cx28_Mmg5CGG5gNHnq6X5FTbKIqj1wNJBrrQFmAdGUf_OwgcS8v0wGNQ3R0BeN0ER7GDT833mfXddDSshA5fV-Hlzott/s320/consoletablebefore.jpg" width="237" /></a></div><br />And started another.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8HYC2croRaZQbZcq6oewzB0Lv4yvrU3IJeMJB0v9HloAZuYjMFA_CXoUPUByboQc9229CzVSOGFieApH9k4W5WNhsQqGBOX4-W17BgsDNp-Q_hucNi3aSDkVB2Q_cZs1DPwKwgIL7T_ZU/s1600/familyselfie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8HYC2croRaZQbZcq6oewzB0Lv4yvrU3IJeMJB0v9HloAZuYjMFA_CXoUPUByboQc9229CzVSOGFieApH9k4W5WNhsQqGBOX4-W17BgsDNp-Q_hucNi3aSDkVB2Q_cZs1DPwKwgIL7T_ZU/s320/familyselfie.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />All was wrapped up with an attempt at a family selfie. Mouths full of cookies have some sort of power to make the girls look at the camera. Go figure.<br /><br />Stay tuned for more info on those projects, and make sure to come back on Wednesday for another client before and after!

weekend recap

Oy! I hope you all had as much fun this past weekend as I did. It was the perfect mix of shopping, projects, family and good food. Fun was h...

Read more »

START punching fear in the Face and escape average @jonacuff

I'm wrestling with a book right now. Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan, old fashioned smack down wrestling. I heard <a href="http://www.jonacuff.com/blog/" target="_blank">Jon Acuff </a> this past week and picked up his new book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1937077594/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1937077594&linkCode=as2&tag=httpwwwbrighc-20" id="static_txt_preview" style="background-color: white; color: #996633; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: center;" target="_blank">Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters</a>. The questions in the back and questions on every page have me a bit uncomfortable but in a way that I need.<br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTo10forsDxsh8GYpi071uobbdcOYzDinpKSJmIEyWQI3gfYncaJv2MW_yiMy5iQFD8ogolNve1_0loHQYHPpxDhw_1azXlc_KbjHJAFh-RgD1AvD1JUeq3DNtZYCqaMwEiPKKDMyB8jav/s1600/bigstock-Words-On-Stones-5269230.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTo10forsDxsh8GYpi071uobbdcOYzDinpKSJmIEyWQI3gfYncaJv2MW_yiMy5iQFD8ogolNve1_0loHQYHPpxDhw_1azXlc_KbjHJAFh-RgD1AvD1JUeq3DNtZYCqaMwEiPKKDMyB8jav/s320/bigstock-Words-On-Stones-5269230.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">How do you focus your time?<br />How do you work on what matters?<br />How do you overcome your fears?<br />This is all in <a class="g-profile" href="http://plus.google.com/105621609679680229778" target="_blank">+Jon Acuff</a> 's<br />book "START" which I highly recommend.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />I have a lot of purpose in my life - I'm a teacher, after all. But fears, like the mermaids & kelp around Harry Potter's legs as he dove into the lake to save his friend, those fears can pull me down.<br /><h2>Punch fear in the face.</h2>Fears that have told me to please people so maybe, they'll like me. Fears that grew out of quite a few years of childhood when no one wanted to be my friend. When I became more attractive, people wanted to be my friend. Brains didn't matter, attractiveness was all that did. Now that I'm getting older, I'm finding those fears returning,<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">"You're not beautiful any more, no one will like you." -or-</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">"If you can't look like a model, no one is going to want you to speak for them anymore." </blockquote>The desire to please people and be liked is a dangerous path to self-hatred because there are some people who will never like you or me. They will not be happy until we self destruct or die and do we really want to go to that length to please them?<br /><br /><h3>Critics Math</h3>Jon makes the point in the book to beware of critics math: 1 criticism + 1,000 compliments = 1 criticism. Most of us, all we see is the criticism and that is unhealthy.<br /><br /><h2>Escape Average.</h2>It is the end of the school year.<br /><br /><b>Hyperventilation hyperdrive </b>- if you could picture a woman in a space suit trying to dock a space ship with 1,000 screaming children on board while coming out of light speed and hyperventilating at the same time -- that is what the end of the school year is like. <br /><br />I've let my weight slide right back on up. Sure, I've got an exceptionally hard work load, but I do have a life to live. I'm settling in too many places in my life in the land of average and it is time to pack my bags and go. To do this, I have to deal with my fears of not being liked. Learn to say no, and edit my life to include the most impactful areas... and START on the journey.<br /><br />I don't want to stay or be average in any area of my life but wallow there far too long. I love the activities at the end of the book that help you work through this.<br /><h2>Do work that matters.</h2>So much matters to teachers. Every single precious baby matters. Every child. Every parent. They are human beings and they are IMPORTANT. I want to teach the children and encourage the parents to parent well and love their kids even when those kids aren't perfect. These are important things.<br /><br />But for me, the question is -- what is the work that matters that I was made to do? Can I cull out things that don't matter so much or work that isn't adjacent to the land of purpose for me?<br /><br />Can I actually learn to say no?<br /><h2>Questions & Actions</h2>The most purposeful people don't get there by accident. They question everything. They question their lives and find answers. They take time for introspection. They self-examine.<br /><br />But the purposeful people I know also act upon these answers. They START.<br /><br />I highly recommend this book if you're ready to get serious about living your life with purpose. If you're wanting meaning and to get back 'on track' pick it up and START.<br /><br />I wish I'd had this book when I first started blogging or at the beginning of my career. It would have saved a lot of heartache. Great book for graduates and Jon is awesome to hear in person.<br /><br /><div id="blogsy_footer" style="clear: both; font-size: small; text-align: right;"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Written by Vicki Davis, author - Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds - Posted with Blogsy from my iPad" height="20" src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" style="margin-right: 5px; vertical-align: middle;" width="20" />Written by Vicki Davis, author - Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds - Posted with Blogsy from my iPad</a></div>

START punching fear in the Face and escape average @jonacuff

I'm wrestling with a book right now. Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan, old fashioned smack down wrestling. I heard  Jon Acuff  this past w...

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By 2020 Samsung launches 5G technology

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmyFm9Dcj6U3M5lMxyBvCpdTWKIhi4PeXMPJVusLWevpTCx6T1E7ZSJRn0rxhx-E46J-YhyphenhyphenwlfZLQvA8g2yQ66sz0oqZc10-b7wcH6OI3-PpnQVPm4Rg4QFELyLlWlfHn43KFQ2t_tnMU/s1600/samsung-glass-door-logo-635a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="193" mwa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmyFm9Dcj6U3M5lMxyBvCpdTWKIhi4PeXMPJVusLWevpTCx6T1E7ZSJRn0rxhx-E46J-YhyphenhyphenwlfZLQvA8g2yQ66sz0oqZc10-b7wcH6OI3-PpnQVPm4Rg4QFELyLlWlfHn43KFQ2t_tnMU/s320/samsung-glass-door-logo-635a.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div> <strong>Super-fast fifth-generation (5G) wireless technology</strong> has been successfully tested by samsung, that would eventually allow users to download an entire movie in one second.<br /><br />The South Korean giant said the test had witnessed data transmission of more than one gigabyte per second over a distance of two kilometres.The new technology, which will not be ready for the commercial market <strong>before 2020</strong> at the earliest. <br /><br />Users can "transmit massive data files including high quality digital movies practically without limitation". The test used <strong>64 antenna</strong> elements, which the tech titan said overcame the issue of "unfavourable propagation characteristics" that have prevented data travelling across long distances using the bands.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.pc-gadgetworld.com/2013/05/samsung-unveils-galaxy-s4-zoom-16-mp.html">samsung</a> launches already many devices for people . Today samsung is the Top leading company in the mobile world!.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>Published by <br /><a href="https://plus.google.com/112865615030946176397" rel="author">Priyanka</a>

news By 2020 Samsung launches 5G technology

  Super-fast fifth-generation (5G) wireless technology has been successfully tested by samsung, that would eventually allow users to downlo...

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Dillingers

My sister chose Dillingers again for dinner on Saturday night<br />(what a shock - not!). We went there about 6pm with no reservation and would you believe they were practically full. Luckily they were able to squeeze us in at a tiny overflow counter at the bottom of the restaurant.<br /><br />Here's something that I only discovered during the week. "Mint" which was one of Dublin's few Michelin starred restaurants was in the spot where Dillingers is now. Ran by Chef Dylan McGrath, Mint was featured on RTE Television in a one off programme. There was a huge outcry about the treatment of the staff in the kitchen by the head chef.<br /><br />But back to the other night, Amy had the chilli with a vodka and diet coke. Her chilli was good but she said the corn bread was too dry - perhaps it was a batch from the day before.<br /><br />I had a special of 3 lamb patties on flatbread with a spicy sauce and also a yoghurt dressing. It was delicious along with a glass of merlot. Afterwards, we went to Birchalls for one drink. I should also mention that we saw Boyzone's former manager, Louis Walsh, in the closing down sale of "Laser Discs". We were home and back in the hot tub by 9pm. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJaM1UpJ-Rq9RstBLj73VFj8IaabpoVLDgk1osq1N4uvBMQwDoJOSMdcKMnAIaWAM8xfzBSIJRs5ztGO9VNSNBlAWfaoHiaM8SXKcMpcB1fH-7vgSBPr8ZgylO7waTn7yeBbya8iKZIeVt/s640/blogger-image--694631869.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJaM1UpJ-Rq9RstBLj73VFj8IaabpoVLDgk1osq1N4uvBMQwDoJOSMdcKMnAIaWAM8xfzBSIJRs5ztGO9VNSNBlAWfaoHiaM8SXKcMpcB1fH-7vgSBPr8ZgylO7waTn7yeBbya8iKZIeVt/s640/blogger-image--694631869.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeny7DObkgMYpchk27qTyHboMzP_eme9elrMiyrZdtnfa2eS7cCctzfUs0iezvRgH-2rCCDsLR_A2RlSuvm_UUMvqCGxjxWmzdHVZrl9Hj3UYoYMl8lMYUPeh1waoBbqL_32TXU_xbCeB1/s640/blogger-image-2101724272.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeny7DObkgMYpchk27qTyHboMzP_eme9elrMiyrZdtnfa2eS7cCctzfUs0iezvRgH-2rCCDsLR_A2RlSuvm_UUMvqCGxjxWmzdHVZrl9Hj3UYoYMl8lMYUPeh1waoBbqL_32TXU_xbCeB1/s640/blogger-image-2101724272.jpg" /></a></div>

Dillingers

My sister chose Dillingers again for dinner on Saturday night (what a shock - not!). We went there about 6pm with no reservation and would y...

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Sony unveils Xperia ZR waterproof phone

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJPDG_DDXVBIXupfziTOL32Qm9U_GI8ruNXeWCGCY-VT5phRFCRJfiD5nGWFrlrozSS050XZ5pX_QJ4BfsmkpRdOYD13MCCOKNzKOC5Lv4lhx8wjLARCwM8K_NxDAAIbcKKYS3tn1Vv8U/s1600/xperia-zr-1a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" mwa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJPDG_DDXVBIXupfziTOL32Qm9U_GI8ruNXeWCGCY-VT5phRFCRJfiD5nGWFrlrozSS050XZ5pX_QJ4BfsmkpRdOYD13MCCOKNzKOC5Lv4lhx8wjLARCwM8K_NxDAAIbcKKYS3tn1Vv8U/s320/xperia-zr-1a.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sony has officially announced the <strong>Xperia ZR Waterproof</strong> <strong>mobile</strong>. After two weeks the phone's specifications unveiled on the Internet.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Before this Device, <a href="http://www.pc-gadgetworld.com/2013/05/xperia-z-sony-phone-review.html">Xperia Z reviews</a>of the customer are very good for sony company.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></div></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> The Xperia ZR features the highest level of water-resistance and can capture photos and full-HD videos underwater, with IP55/ IP58 rating. One can keep it submerged in 1.5 meters of fresh water for up to 30 minutes. The phone has a 4.6-inches HD reality display sporting a resolution of 720x1280 pixels.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Powered by a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 quad-core processor, the Xperia ZR has 2GB of RAM and internal storage of 8GB expandable up to 32GB via microSD card. It sports a 13-megapixel fast-capture camera with Exmor RS featuring 16x digital zoom with auto-focus and a VGA front facing camera.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Sony Xperia ZR will launch across the gobble from Q2 2013, with availability varying depending on the market.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Here are the devices core  specifications at a glance:-</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><ul><li>4.6-inch HD reality display with a resolution of 720x1280 pixels</li><li>1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 quad-core processor</li><li>2GB RAM</li><li>8GB internal storage expandable up to 32GB via microSD</li><li>13-megapixel Exmor RS autofocus camera with LED flash </li><li>VGA front camera</li><li>3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, EDGE, GPRS, GPS, LTE</li><li>Android 4.1 (jelly Bean).</li></ul><br /><br /></div>Published by <br /><a href="https://plus.google.com/112865615030946176397" rel="author">Priyanka</a>

mobile news Sony unveils Xperia ZR waterproof phone

Sony has officially announced the Xperia ZR Waterproof mobile . After two weeks the phone's specifications unveiled on the Internet. Be...

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Way Post Partum Bullshit

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWbQU8ZjgfvkXeftrux7_LPvbPy-uNMbKMajBRWQb4ZVMcAGwzrV7a0GJasNYdGgjE-PnVbVJ3stzTzzgYoaOJYDA1oHqKovoLelRyAuwR5Y1M-XkIxRi3p6BB9MT2b1qFnEY33Ycb5mg/s1600/Bullshit.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWbQU8ZjgfvkXeftrux7_LPvbPy-uNMbKMajBRWQb4ZVMcAGwzrV7a0GJasNYdGgjE-PnVbVJ3stzTzzgYoaOJYDA1oHqKovoLelRyAuwR5Y1M-XkIxRi3p6BB9MT2b1qFnEY33Ycb5mg/s400/Bullshit.png" width="400" /></a>Cheeeeeers and Greetings my friends!!<br /><br />Allow me to tell you what the hell is sticking in my crawl…I mean, aside from my persistent and virulent case of crabs…<br /><br />Rudeness, Self-Absorption, and otherwise, “all about me syndrome” is sticking in the nether regions of Schmoop’s  underwear my that I call, my pants...<br /><br />Now I know that some of you are thinking that this post is about me, but dig it…it isn’t about me…entirely.<br /><br />There are very few times that I get MAD…And I mean upset to the point where something or someone affects me to the degree where I can’t think straight.  Well, I have reached one of these said and salient points…<br /><br />And yes my friends…you can NOW say, it does affect me…but not only me, AND more than affecting me…it perplexes the hell out of me.<br /><br />I’m talking…what is this irrational, illogical, alternate universe thinking type of lack of thinking thing going on?  I know…That last sentence, while correct, was grammatically awkward, yet it still shines as a beacon and testimony to my greatness of, and master over, Englishisity.<br /><br />Anyhoo…Today?  I am talking manners, so let’s hit it…<br /><br />I find it to be nice manners for person to think outside their ego box and over themselves, and yet, evidently I have a sister who doesn’t think that way, and maybe you do too.<br /><br />My sister who hasn’t been to a family Christmas, 4th of July, or Show Me Your Boobs Family party since 1999, yet sends her daughter to said parties, is finally coming out and celebrating, a <i>“My daughter is graduating and the thrill is mine!!”</i> party.<br /><br />The only problem is…my brother and his wife were going to throw a joint bash for my son and the aforementioned daughter in June, and now?  Nothing.<br /><br />Here’s the thing IWS readers and listeners…<br /><br />Why, after all these years of staying home herself, and sending her daughter only to the Mahoney family parties, does my sister want to have one of her own parties rather than have one thrown for her daughter?<br /><br />I have analyzed, surmised, rectified, and sanctified, and the only answer I can come up with is…<br /><br />She’s a dick!!<br /><br />Annnnnnnd, while I am sad that we won’t be having a joyous family party in June, I am glad that my sister’s daughter will be getting a college degree in four years and getting the hell out of her mom’s lazy, yet firm grasp.<br /><br />For this…I pray.<br /><br /><i>Cheers!!</i><br /><br />Matt-Man<br /><span style="color: blue;">mattmaniws@ymail.com</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">@mattman_iws</span><br /><br />Jayman and I did have one helluva good radio show yesterday as we celebrated moms, MILFs, and our special guest, Sherri.  So to listen in the archives, you can listen below:<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="370" src="http://player.cinchcast.com/?show_id=4825645&platformId=1&assetType=single" width="400"></iframe></div><div style="font-size: 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;">Listen to <a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/">internet radio</a> with <a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/im-with-stupid">IWS Radio</a> on BlogTalkRadio</div></div>

Way Post Partum Bullshit

Cheeeeeers and Greetings my friends!! Allow me to tell you what the hell is sticking in my crawl…I mean, aside from my persistent and virule...

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Today's archidose #674

Here are a few photos of the <a href="http://www.paulderuiter.nl/en/projectens/temporary-car-park-morspoort/">Temporary Car Park Morspoort</a> (2012) in Leiden, Netherlands, by <a href="http://www.paulderuiter.nl/">Paul de Ruiter Architects</a>, photographed by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/klaasfotocollectie/">Klaas Vermaas</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/klaasfotocollectie/8721605903/" title="leiden parkeergarage morspoort 02 2012 de ruiter p_bk cops p (morswg) by Klaas5, on Flickr"><img alt="leiden parkeergarage morspoort 02 2012 de ruiter p_bk cops p (morswg)" height="427" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7325/8721605903_3a265a76d5_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/klaasfotocollectie/8722727158/" title="leiden parkeergarage morspoort 01 2012 de ruiter p_bk cops p (morswg) by Klaas5, on Flickr"><img alt="leiden parkeergarage morspoort 01 2012 de ruiter p_bk cops p (morswg)" height="427" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7440/8722727158_1fcebfcdda_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/klaasfotocollectie/8721605479/" title="leiden parkeergarage morspoort 04 2012 de ruiter p_bk cops p (morswg) by Klaas5, on Flickr"><img alt="leiden parkeergarage morspoort 04 2012 de ruiter p_bk cops p (morswg)" height="427" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7347/8721605479_ac668b8fb3_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br />To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:<br /><blockquote>:: Join and add photos to the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/archi-dose/">archidose pool</a>, and/or<br />:: Tag your photos <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/archidose/">archidose</a></span></blockquote>

Today's archidose #674

Here are a few photos of the Temporary Car Park Morspoort (2012) in Leiden, Netherlands, by Paul de Ruiter Architects , photographed by Kla...

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Cup of Joe

<p>I hold my hands up to the fact that I am addicted to Starbucks.  It's my little treat to myself my quiet time in the middle of my hectic days. </p><p>I love Starbucks. I like the way they are consistent in how my drink is made.  I like their free WiFi.  I like their brownies. </p><p>I was so surprised when I found <a href="http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/">this website</a>.  From what I can see it is full of Starbucks baristas venting about their customers (or disgustomers as one forum poster calls them).  Lol!</p><p>Below is a picture of Starbucks at the<a href="http://www.thewrightvenue.ie/"> Wright Venue.</a>  Very funky!</p><p><a href="http://db.tt/B1xQ0ES7">Starbucks pic</a></p><div class='separator' style='clear: both; text-align: center;'> <a href='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD1fOrHFArtIjG2pYEHAmV9WW3ndhkalZwVf8kETTrQsZNKGO6C7JJ2F10iKCGHZCAFGDPZ_JVCQ4YMRYigzAS463rCRov_y5AvNCKxHd8sd9ts7kGOFQYYV6inbbexK1hyphenhyphenSuKQj4IsnOi/s1600/2013-05-12%25252013.33.30.jpg' imageanchor='1' style='margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;'> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD1fOrHFArtIjG2pYEHAmV9WW3ndhkalZwVf8kETTrQsZNKGO6C7JJ2F10iKCGHZCAFGDPZ_JVCQ4YMRYigzAS463rCRov_y5AvNCKxHd8sd9ts7kGOFQYYV6inbbexK1hyphenhyphenSuKQj4IsnOi/s400/2013-05-12%25252013.33.30.jpg" /> </a> </div>

Cup of Joe

I hold my hands up to the fact that I am addicted to Starbucks.  It's my little treat to myself my quiet time in the middle of my hectic...

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Nokia launched Lumia 928 in the US

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0l9SOm5XyfntC2-xU3_Wgs_liyu5urE0dNWjs3WaX6xNyh4N2OR2GEiImwY8-ryepONYbgWKQmx2Dyy6zY1Ay00qYRO0jfMeahBW32ciWKvlrCRdP7fn09X3VHOVHLFa3i5Ls2EBLVk0/s1600/nokia-lumia-635.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" mwa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0l9SOm5XyfntC2-xU3_Wgs_liyu5urE0dNWjs3WaX6xNyh4N2OR2GEiImwY8-ryepONYbgWKQmx2Dyy6zY1Ay00qYRO0jfMeahBW32ciWKvlrCRdP7fn09X3VHOVHLFa3i5Ls2EBLVk0/s320/nokia-lumia-635.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.pc-gadgetworld.com/2013/05/nokia-has-announced-launch-of-lumia-925.html">Nokia</a> doesn't seem like one of  those manufacturers who likes to stay out of the news for too long, seeing as it has now launched <strong><a href="http://www.pc-gadgetworld.com/2013/04/nokia-lumia-with-different-color.html">Lumia</a> 928</strong>, the  new high-end smartphone through U.S. carrier Verizon Wireless.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The new Lumia 928, priced at $99 if customers mail-in a $50 rebate and agree to a two-year deal with Verizon Wireless , is similar to the 920 model currently sold through AT&T , but is lighter and slightly different in appearance.It's light weighs 162 grams compared  with 185 grams for the 920.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 928's 4.5-inch screen.The new models also come in black and white compared with the colourful options of the earlier Lumia range.Most other features, such as a 8.7 megapixel camera and 1.5-gigahertz dual core processor by Qualcomm, are the same as the 920's.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 928 is the latest in Nokia's Lumia range of smartphones which use Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 software.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong><u>Lumia 928 Best key  specifications:-</u></strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>    priced :  $99</strong> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">     -   New high-end smartphone through U.S. carrier Verizon Wireless.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">     -   light weight 162 grams </div><div style="text-align: justify;">     -   Screen 4.5-inch </div><div style="text-align: justify;">     -   Camera 8.7 megapixel </div><div style="text-align: justify;">     -   1.5-gigahertz dual core processor by Qualcomm</div><div style="text-align: justify;">     </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Nokia is due to reveal its new Lumia strategy at an event in London  next Tuesday.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div>Published by <br /><a href="https://plus.google.com/112865615030946176397" rel="author">Priyanka</a>

mobile news Nokia launched Lumia 928 in the US

Nokia doesn't seem like one of  those manufacturers who likes to stay out of the news for too long, seeing as it has now launched Lumia...

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Flamingo crossing!

<p>I was in Ikea today and picked up these tropical Summery glasses - they're flamingos!  I like these glasses, they're fun and they remind me of Key West.  The drinks practically taste better out of them!</p><p>Theses glasses are short (sort of like a little old-fashioned) but they did have taller high balls with pineapples on them.  They were nice too!</p><div class='separator' style='clear: both; text-align: center;'> <a href='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwDjciopb8_G5EXon3dixWMhe3P6zn4-tgXLgaAn77PP6TUMA_FkSvhUBkrNEsJFSu0qvPusljSm8h_IYrgGsIU00Y5HM96VCLUylI2zR4ZQ-rMBHmJrOcVVrvkBMiklIKae5EhXmxHha7/s1600/20130512_164825.jpg' imageanchor='1' style='margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;'> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwDjciopb8_G5EXon3dixWMhe3P6zn4-tgXLgaAn77PP6TUMA_FkSvhUBkrNEsJFSu0qvPusljSm8h_IYrgGsIU00Y5HM96VCLUylI2zR4ZQ-rMBHmJrOcVVrvkBMiklIKae5EhXmxHha7/s400/20130512_164825.jpg" /> </a> </div><br /><br />I want to go back and buy the pineapple ones!!! <br /><br /><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIMvue2Igezb2lEIkma5S72BTxbofLHohZYIhiRCaIAbvsFJiF-S3OJ9Scw1NfyNKg-qwUyyfPZ_iFXTBFjei8QnkT0gba3hpXg3uwtBIcqRWaIZPUDOja4abfEZifKBicJe4peAWSxKo_/s640/blogger-image--1458232312.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIMvue2Igezb2lEIkma5S72BTxbofLHohZYIhiRCaIAbvsFJiF-S3OJ9Scw1NfyNKg-qwUyyfPZ_iFXTBFjei8QnkT0gba3hpXg3uwtBIcqRWaIZPUDOja4abfEZifKBicJe4peAWSxKo_/s640/blogger-image--1458232312.jpg" /></a></div>

Flamingo crossing!

I was in Ikea today and picked up these tropical Summery glasses - they're flamingos!  I like these glasses, they're fun and they re...

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ISRAEL, IRAN and the BALKANS Part 5

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font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style><![endif]--> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFT9ch_RL-b-589PkLSs0rmbGWhgavgFHUhJG_MUX3j_Dj-ilhInzqN4MKMMkV83QQl_FI59jVMBVlD24-o6dV1zwac-SinecZu-tc1fF2kZbx3hnQSTCSkyFR0sPJ6SN8ZHHGeSP5hGnc/s1600/kosovo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFT9ch_RL-b-589PkLSs0rmbGWhgavgFHUhJG_MUX3j_Dj-ilhInzqN4MKMMkV83QQl_FI59jVMBVlD24-o6dV1zwac-SinecZu-tc1fF2kZbx3hnQSTCSkyFR0sPJ6SN8ZHHGeSP5hGnc/s320/kosovo.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">ISRAEL’S SECURITY CONCERNS IN THE BALKANS. SERBIA AND KOSOVO</span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Adapted by Geopolitical Analysis and Monitoring from the original article written by Chris Deliso </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">SERBIA AND KOSOVO: A TRULY COMPLICATED SITUATION </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The most complex diplomatic situation in the BALKANS today remains that of SERBIA and KOSOVO. This has unsurprisingly led to a knotty situation for the international relations of ISRAEL, IRAN and these BALKAN states.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">While archrivals ISRAEL and IRAN can’t seem to agree on anything, they have so far both agreed on not recognizing KOSOVO as an independent state. After Prishtina’s February 2008 unilateral declaration of independence, the ISRAELI government was concerned that the Palestinians could use this as a precedent, and chose not to recognize KOSOVO, though they did realize the importance of fostering good relations. Humorously enough, in January 2009 <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_wires/2009Jan22/0,4675,EUKosovoImageCampaign,00.html"><span style="color: blue;">the task of nation-branding KOSOVO</span></a> to win more international recognitions was awarded to Saatchi & Saatchi, the Israeli subsidiary of France’s Publicis.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For their part, the IRANIANS perceived the KOSOVO independence process as a US-backed project, which it certainly was, and as such remain happy to oppose it. Thus Tehran’s own sectarian archrival, SAUDI ARABIA, is along with QATAR and TURKEY in a much stronger position among Muslim countries when it comes to KOSOVO. IRAN’S support for SERBIA was also a legacy from the days of YUGOSLAV leadership in the non-aligned movement under Tito. In fact, Tito cut off diplomatic relations with ISRAEL when the Six-Day War of 1967 occurred; they would only be renewed on January 31, 1992, when Milosevic was in charge in Belgrade and the other republics were breaking away in the various wars. ISRAEL understood then that its IRANIAN rivals were supporting the BOSNIAN Muslims against the SERBS.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Since both ISRAEL and IRAN do not recognize KOSOVO, it has been difficult for either to advance institutional relationships in key areas, though both nations are believed to have key ‘agents of influence’ among the local business and political elite. The other major power interested in SERBIA is RUSSIA (that sometimes ally of both IRAN and ISRAEL), which of course brings the US and NATO states into the game as well.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Considering that both SERBIAN and KOSOVAR authorities claim to want EU membership, all of these competing interests makes the situation very complex. SERBIA has somehow managed to fairly successfully balance its relations with all parties, inviting IRANIAN investment and even allowing IRAN Air flights to refuel in Belgrade between March and June 2011, until alleged US pressure forced its stop. At the same time, Belgrade and ISRAEL are trying to develop deeper diplomatic and economic relations, and the number of SERBIAN tourists visiting ISRAEL continues to rise year-on-year. The sheer complexity of SERBIA’S balancing of interests makes for a situation that is both very interesting and very difficult to read.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It can be reasonably assume that IRAN will not risk its entrenched interests in SERBIA by trying to conduct any operations on its territory. And while reliable intelligence sources revealed the presence of at least 120 (Sunni) Muslims from KOSOVO, SERBIA and MONTENEGRO among SYRIA’S rebel ranks, these fighters are opposing the IRANIAN-supported SYRIAN government. So, even if they are deeply anti-ISRAELI, they are in some way on the ‘ISRAELI side’ in this very complex and constantly-shifting conflict. The real question for the future is how ISRAELI and IRANIAN approaches to SERBIA and KOSOVO will shift in the long term, after the latter two come to some sort of eventual compromise.</span></div>

ISRAEL, IRAN and the BALKANS Part 5

ISRAEL’S SECURITY CONCERNS IN THE BALKANS. SERBIA AND KOSOVO Adapted by Geopolitical Analysis and Monitoring from the original article writ...

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As a Gift to Our Mothers and Daughters, Consider You May Be Wrong About the Doctrine of Male-Only Authority in the Church

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Jc2Wit2dxFpvue5B2SLAkzollGKr80Ex0XQqmREbAGsaNMPPAhB2ssX6SUQROSzHT1w5BBGKMb4LTxHIQOTu7Dt7Eg58eh5Ek9hQ6q_-hqJz3u7sXy9Ra72rOSWi0RV9gSNttQvK5ZPW/s1600/womansilhouette.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5604249640848239778" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Jc2Wit2dxFpvue5B2SLAkzollGKr80Ex0XQqmREbAGsaNMPPAhB2ssX6SUQROSzHT1w5BBGKMb4LTxHIQOTu7Dt7Eg58eh5Ek9hQ6q_-hqJz3u7sXy9Ra72rOSWi0RV9gSNttQvK5ZPW/s400/womansilhouette.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 400px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 300px;" /></a><i>Readers: Below is a re-posting of my 2011 Mother's Day post. Enjoy!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>------------------------ </i></div><br />Happy Mother's Day to all of you WD-reading Mothers! I hope your day is filled with love and joy!<br /><br />I want to take this Mother's Day as an opportunity to encourage all men who read this blog - for the good of your mothers, wives, daughters, and granddaughters - to consider that you just might be wrong about what the scriptures say about women and their subordinate role they must play in the church.<br /><br />I know that the prevailing thought based on scriptures such as 1 Timothy 2 and the account of the fall in Genesis 3 is that women should be subservient to men, and that men should have authority over women, and that women are forbidden from teaching men, or holding certain offices in church.<br /><br />I know, because I was taught that in Southern Baptist Churches my entire Christian life. I've been taught it by people in my family and by my baptist pastors for over two decades. It was when I heard of the firing of Dr. Sheri Klouda by Paige Patterson that I first considered that perhaps this doctrine that led to this tragic action taken by Patterson was wrong. I read a good portion of Patterson's deposition in the Klouda case a couple of years ago, and the absurdity of statements made by Patterson under questioning of Klouda's lawyer, Gary Richardson, further led me to believe that this doctrine of male authority in the church is counter to scripture and the will of God and required my further investigation.<br /><br />And I have to say one of the turning points that caused me to dig even deeper, is last year when I came across Ergun Caner's "joke" at the <a href="http://fbcjaxwatchdog.blogspot.com/2010/04/ergun-caner-growing-up-i-learned-about.html">2007 Ohio Free Will Baptists Men's Retreat</a> when he said that he believed women should be behind the pulpit...how else could they get back there to vacuum....and his jokes about "mutant granddaughters" barking like dogs. It made me sick that this sort of thing came from one of the most popular baptist preaching-circuit personalities.<br /><br />So after much reading and research I have come to the conclusion that I was wrong, that in fact the bible does NOT teach that God's plan is for men to have authority over women, and that the Bible does NOT teach women are exempted from having leadership positions over men in the church. I may explore this topic in future posts as to the particular arguments for what I believe, but I want to in this post simply implore men to consider an alternative view by a conservative teacher that can be trusted in this area. His name is Jon Zens.<br /><br />Jon Zens is a preacher and author that has spoken around the world, but mostly outside the institutional church which is why many Southern Baptists have not heard of him. He is a pastor of a church, but does not draw a salary. He has taught and lived out for years a different model of pastor, not of a pastor having authority over people, but of serving and being amongst the congregation as a servant. You can read Jon's bio <a href="http://housechurchresource.org/expastors/gradual-zens.html">here</a>. Jon is a good friend of author Frank Viola ("Pagan Christianity"), and also of Cal Thomas who uses Jon as a reviewer and editor of his work. Jon and his wife Dottie are sweet Christians who in recent years have been involved in traveling to the Philippines to help women and children<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcypMEyr9wso76XvgE2iegISQ40EP2zlKca7hh_0u2E0MqBsi77qvbzvxuJRFvCEqlz97hyphenhyphenO8gZidE4yVHExL-pNQ_t1SFlis4se52xvWLkt63E7LvDX4Nf3uZDmeCzkLqSKMOi7Bd1sgR/s1600/JohnZens.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5604263579568904258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcypMEyr9wso76XvgE2iegISQ40EP2zlKca7hh_0u2E0MqBsi77qvbzvxuJRFvCEqlz97hyphenhyphenO8gZidE4yVHExL-pNQ_t1SFlis4se52xvWLkt63E7LvDX4Nf3uZDmeCzkLqSKMOi7Bd1sgR/s320/JohnZens.png" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 211px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 249px;" /></a> get out of the sex-slave trade.<br /><br />I had the privilege of meeting Jon for lunch last September when he was in Jacksonville to do some teaching at a home church group here in Jacksonville, after which he traveled down to Gainesville to meet his friend Frank Viola and minister in that city. We talked over lunch about my family's experience at First Baptist, the journey I have traveled through my blog, and my views on tithing which Jon has written about for quite some time. Jon graciously shared with me a bag full of books and other materials related to topics I was writing about on my blog that he had written about.<br /><br />What I would recommend for men (and women!) who are willing to just possibly consider they have been taught wrongly what the bible say about women is to listen to Jon Zens' 8-part teaching series he delivered at Wade Burleson's church last September. Click <a href="http://www.winterlive.com/Emmanuel-Enid/login.php">here</a> to go to Emmanuel Baptist Church's video archive, and scroll down to September 2010 to see this teaching series. Also, Jon has written a book entitled <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Whats-Paul-Women-Jon-Zens/dp/0976522292">"What's With Paul and Women"</a>, and another one out this year entitled <a href="http://www.amazon.com/No-Will-Own-Patriarchy-Personhood/dp/0982744633">"No Will of My Own - How Patriarchy Smothers Female Dignity and Personhood"</a>. Read Wade Burleson's forward to this latest book <a href="http://kerussocharis.blogspot.com/2011/05/connection-between-christian-patriarchy.html">here</a> at Wade's blog.<br /><br />Let me give you a quote from Wade Burleson's foreward he wrote for Jon's book "What's With Paul and Women": <br /><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">"The viper known as 'the doctrine of male authority' has bitten the church. the toxin emitted by this errant teaching affects the females within our assemblies. It debilitates their God-given gifts, denigrates their Spirit-led ministry, and downplays their role as new Covenant priests. Those of us who have seen the church bitten need assistance, and help has arrived. This book will help you suck out the venom of male-only authority within the church. It will do so by helping you be able to articulate Jesus' view of the equality of women and then revealing for you how Paul's words in 1 Timothy 2 are consistent with Jesus' own teaching and ministry. You will be able to point out to others how the modern institutional church has misconstrued and misinterpreted Paul's writings on the subject, while at the same time ignoring Jesus' words and life on the same subject."</span></blockquote>So I hope this Mother's Day you will commit to at least consider the possibility that you have learned wrongly what the Bible says about women, and do further investigation starting with Jon Zens' bible teachings in this area. I believe this is so very, very important. I believe this wrong teaching that has infected our churches for so long is why we are reading about so much sexual abuse and cover-ups in our churches as Christa Brown has chronicled for years. I also firmly believe that the absence of women from any serious positions of leadership in the Southern Baptist Convention or in our churches is why there is no movement at all toward reaching out at a denominational level to victims of pastoral abuse or establishing a database of credibly accused ministers to keep predator pastors from freely moving from church to church. Many of the problems we see in the SBC, I believe, are related to having women on the outside of the leadership circle.<br /><br />So Happy Mother's Day...and please, men....as a gift to the women in your life, be open to what God might speak to you in this important area.

As a Gift to Our Mothers and Daughters, Consider You May Be Wrong About the Doctrine of Male-Only Authority in the Church

Readers: Below is a re-posting of my 2011 Mother's Day post. Enjoy! ------------------------ Happy Mother's Day to all of you WD-rea...

Read more »