New test for consciousness in \’comatose\’ patients
New test for consciousness in \’comatose\’ patients.
It’s an old question, I hope: What if “fred” is declared dead in polity A where death occurs with heart stoppage, but is deemed alive in polity B, where death is all about the brain and more particularly about the ability to express thoughts or act on commands. And then comes this more focused examination, which looks to what was previously pretty much obscured by the meat of the matter.
All of which is to highlight the very ancient and now–to me, quite problematic–notion of death itself, the couple of life. We are not our thoughts alone, the pattern of sparks between and among synaptic neurones; our bodies, however defined, constitute us, too. And elements of that body are in constant creation/discreation. Death then is a continuing process, and I wonder if it really even ought to be called death at all.
I suppose the extension of this is not that by this equivocation, or perhaps biological evasion, I seek to pluck death’s thorns. Hardly: mourning, the anguish over the loss to death, sometimes enters with the slam of the closing door, sometimes silently, creeping, and you discover, in retrospect, that it’s been with you all along, the dimming reflection of your parent, your friend, your child.
ClickToPlugin HTML5 replacements
ClickToPlugin HTML5 replacements.
Speed is good and HTML5 is very good, especially on OS X. As to what makes something speedier than another thing? Architecture. The more modern, the more it takes advantage of the new ways of thinking what apps do and what is required to produce results other apps can leverage, the better.
Toronto News: Raw milk advocate enters hunger strike after charges – thestar.com
Toronto News: Raw milk advocate enters hunger strike after charges – thestar.com.
i find it misguided that most of the US and Ontario make it nearly impossible and illegal to obtain raw milk. As the data indicate, far more danger lies in the practices and equipment used to further process milk (into cheeses, etc.) than in the source. And if there are doubts: look to France, where raw milk is easily obtained in many stores. There is no significant die off of French milkdrinkers (milquetoasts?). There are the occasional outbreak of this or that bovine disease in humans. But these are rare. Rather, there is a strong and rigorous interest in keeping things clean.
By outlawing raw milk Ontario shifts the burden of responsibility to the dairy farmer and away from the real source of anxiety, the mass-industrial processing of milk into consumer products.
Caving to Washington? \
These issues are not trivial. Copyright rules and laws affect the ways we think of doing knowledge–its discovery as well as transmission. And it seems that the trend is for a regime where the rich have infinite access, for they can afford it, and the rest do not.
Canadian Arctic nearly loses entire ice shelf
Canadian Arctic nearly loses entire ice shelf.
And…. Welcome to the future. The issue is not just that hell has come to us, a reward for our impatience, but that there will soon enough be wars–diplomatic, silent, and also noisy and bloody–over the waterways now opening. Sporadic news on this. But not enough, as the present drowns the news of near tomorrow.
Revealed: Secret world of global oil and mining giants: TBIJ
Revealed: Secret world of global oil and mining giants: TBIJ.
It’s rather worrisome. Transparency, accountability–not the same thing, but related–are important, especially when it comes to evaluating the economies of scale discussed in the article and when considering the nature of the goods being extracted: fossil fuels, necessary minerals and metals. That is, those elements that form the basis for modern society and industry. If we, those who depend upon these things, are deprived of insight into this commodity industry so important to today, how can we, as a people governed by our peers, make reality-based decisions–let alone rational ones? The “secret jurisdictions”–places where corporate details can be kept secret–affect not only regions of extraction but the world at large. An analogy: the subprime mortgage mess worked for so long because it was shrouded in financial mystery and confusion; no one auditing it knew what was really going on, and the precise nature and value of the assets at stake–or, if they did, they did not let on. We continue to live with the consequences of this immense confusion.
Cookery masterclass: Alain Ducasse | Life and style | The Observer
Cookery masterclass: Alain Ducasse | Life and style | The Observer.
An interesting account of Ducasse, who seems inclined to Alice Waters’ style and quite opposed to molecular cuisine. There is, I suppose, a kind of sociology to the intervention of technology: to perfect nature, to present nature in its Platonic form, or to go beyond the boundaries of nature altogether, and to use nature as a springboard.
CMO’s To Increase Spending On Social Media But Integration Still Lacking
CMO’s To Increase Spending On Social Media But Integration Still Lacking.
This does raise the interesting point. How relevant to a campaign is social media, especially social networking? To me, who is both skeptical of and consumed by online social networks, and who has accounts in all the best places (sigh…), to see ads, marketing pitches, etc. in my favorite spaces is simply unwelcome. But those are personal spaces. Suppose we look at something like TirpAdvisor, or any other travel network; even the eBay ones, or, to extend, any of the consumer networks. There, it matters hardly at all, I think, if the network is sponsored by or enabled by a company or group, provided that we, the members, are permitted to post relevant items without censure and to engage in topical discourse without the sense that what we do is purely in the service of the company.
In that case, it makes sense to have a program and campaign. But then, implementing it so that it can be done and done without throwing large amounts of money into a seemingly bottomless pit–only to give up after a short while in disgust….. And it also helps, as with any campaign, to have specific goals and specific boundaries. Otherwise, what counts as “relevant’ and “on topic” and permissible, is nearly impossible to articulate, let alone maintain, and soon enough, the whole point of the effort, to engage a consumer community, is lost.
newspeak 