Toadfish Monastery

I don't know if this is for real or not, one of my friends called me this afternoon and told me to watch NOVA on PBS this Tuesday Night.

The show is entitled Family That Walks On All Fours.

It profiles a family of five Turkish adults who walk in a manner that the human body is no longer built to do.  The scientist who discovered them calls them "genetic throwbacks". 

As I said, I don't know what this is all about, but it sounds like an interesting episode of NOVA.

Henry Waxman is slated to lead the Government Reform Committee when the Dems take over in January.

He will investigate the Bush Administration's running of the government.  Waxman says there are so many areas of possible wrongdoing; his biggest problem will be deciding which ones to pursue.

Needless to say, I am skeptical about the purported "show of unity".

I have a hard time believing also that Bush will just "forget" (for the sake of the country) all of future Speaker of the House  Pelosi's negative remarks.

I am a little concerned that due to Bush's history of surrounding himself with yes men and not taking advice from anyone that has the audacity to disagree with him, we will have massive gridlock during the next two years.

Don't get me wrong; I applaud the takeover of the House and Senate by the Dems.  For too long we have lacked the system of checks and balances that the architects of our Constitution envisioned when the three branches of government were constructed.  For too long we have had the executive and legislative branches working together to promote the Bush Agenda. And with the appointments of Alito and Roberts, the judicial branch has been in his pocket as well. 

Does anyone think that the Dems will be able to pass any legislation that has been on their platform, health coverage for children, increasing the minimum wage, etc.?

 In my newspaper today was an article stating that Donald Rumsfeld is expected to be accused of war crimes in a lawsuit to be filed in Germany next week.

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) will file the suit on behalf of a group of Iraqi detainees as well as the so-called 20th hijacker, who is currently being held at Guantanamo Bay.

Michael Ratner, President of CCR said, ""The former secretary actually authorized a series of interrogation techniques.  They included the use of dogs, stripping, hooding, stressed positions, chaining to the floor, sexual humiliation and those types of activities."

Ratner says that these "techniques" are torture and violate the Geneva Conventions.

Ratner will be traveling to Berlin next week and plans to file the suit on Tuesday. The suit is being brought in Germany because a "universal jurisdiction" law there allows German courts to claim jurisdiction over war crimes even if they were committed outside that country's borders.

He also wants to put the U.S. interrogation policy on trial.

I am a little confused though as to why Ratner thinks that there will be success this time.  CCR is the organization that filed a similar lawsuit in Germany two years ago charging Rumsfeld, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior officials for the torture of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.  The suit was dismissed though because German prosecutors said the case had no connection to German citizens or to events that took place in Germany.

So, has this "universal jurisdiction" law just been recently passed?  Is this why Ratner is pursuing the culprits again in Germany? Why does he believe that he will be successful this time?  Anyone?

I would like to both snark and rant about daylight savings time.  I cannot stand the thought of it becoming darker an hour earlier.  I don't understand why we do it anyway.  What is the purpose?  Is it supposed to save energy?

Now, it will be dark both going to and coming home from work.  Being in a state of continual darkness is depressing.  I know several people whom suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and need to use phototherapy or bright light therapy (in order to suppress the brain's secretion of melatonin) to deal with this seasonal disorder.

This time change also causes a shift in our "biological internal clocks" or circadian rhythm.   This can cause our biological clocks to be out of "step" with our daily schedules.   I know that I can really feel a difference.

The only good thing is that you get one extra hour of sleep tonight, other than that it is a lose-lose-lose situation as far as I can tell.  I hate it!

 I needed to vent a little today about The Westboro Baptist Church.  This week in my neck of the woods, my entire community was affected by an unspeakable tragedy.  Our loving, peaceful, private neighbors were the victims of unconscionable violence.  Every one of us that lives here has shared in their anguish.  Five, beautiful, sweet and loving girls had their lives snuffed out and five are now fighting for their lives.

Today, four of the little girls will be buried.  Thankfully, now their families will be able to bury them this morning without fear of protest.  This small blessing came yesterday when the Westboro Baptist Church called off its plans to picket the funerals as a form of protest against our governor.  This past June our governor signed into law a bill that was designed to restrict the activities of this so-called "church" by making it a crime to demonstrate within 500 feet of a funeral or memorial service in PA.   Yesterday, the governor took to the airwaves and called them all "insane".  The "church" planned to protest at the funerals in retaliation for their claim that Gov. Rendell has "slandered, mocked and ridiculed" them and for using his power to "destroy" the church and "silence" their message.

Nationally syndicated radio talk show host Mike Gallagher came forward and offered an hour of airtime to them in exchange for dropping their "protest" at the funerals.  Gallagher said he negotiated the deal with Shirley Phelps-Roper who will fly to NY today for the 10 am show.   Gallagher states he made the offer because he, like the rest of us found it unfathomable that they would want to hurt these people more than they have already been hurt.  He said that the show would be difficult this morning, but that it will be worth it if he can keep these people away from the Amish.

To have these people outside the homes of the Amish as the funerals commence and then at the burial plot would have caused overwhelming anguish and indignity to an intensely private, solemn and peaceful people.

There is just no end to the hate-filled insanity of these people.  Let us just hope that Phelps-Roper keeps her end of the bargain and her group stays far away from PA today.

 I miss the word association game...  let's start it up again....

Coffee

Well there is hope in PA.  Five weeks to go and Casey is still leading Santorum in the polls despite all of Santorum's sleazy, skanky, (yes, he is a skank) tricks.  He calls Casey "Bobby" in all of his ads in an attempt to belittle him.  It was in the paper though that it appears (through polling) that all of his negative attack ads have backfired on him, that the ads are actually turning people against Santorum.

So, after his campaign team realized that the negative ads were backfiring on them, they pull out the 9/11 card.  This week they have Rudy Giuliani supposedly talking to a room of first responders (police, fire, EMT's, etc.) telling them that Santorum is THE leader in the war against terrorism and a stalwart defender of first responders.  The funny thing about this ad though (and I hope my fellow Pennsylvanians are savvy enough to see it) is that it appears that he might be talking to an empty room, and that the video of the crowd of first responders is edited in.

I would be interested in hearing about the campaign ads in the state that you live in.  What type of ads are the Republicans running?  Are the negative ads particularly vicious where you live?  Are any other Republican candidates playing the 9/11 card?  Are they distancing themselves from Bush the way Santorum is trying to?  I say trying because Casey keeps playing video from the past of Santorum and Bush together.

PS:  Interestingly enough the spell check tool kept trying to change Santorum to Sanitarium. 

I loved Singi's game, let's start  it up again.

Baby Hold On
Eddie Money

Baby hold on to me
Whatever will be, will be
The future is ours to see (at The Toadfish Monastery)
So baby hold on to me

Baby, what's these things
You've been sayin' about me
Behind my back
Is it true you might want a better life
Is it true you think
These things are lies, now
think about it baby
I'm gonna take you to the top

So baby hold on to me
whatever will be, will be (for sure)
The future is ours to see (at The Toadfish Monastery)
When you hold on to me

Hey-ey baby
You know the future's lookin' brighter (at The Toadfish Monastery)
Every morning' when I get up
Don't be thinkin' 'bout what's not enough, now baby
Just be thinkin' 'bout what we got (at The Toadfish Monastery)
think of all my love, now
I'm gonna give you all I got

So baby hold on to me
Whatever will be, will be
the future is our to see (at The Toadfish Monastery)
When you hold on to me

Oh-oh, rich man, poor man, now
Really don't mean all that much
Mama's always told you, girl
That money can't buy you love

So baby hold on to me
Whatever will be, will be
The future is ours to see (at The Toadfish Monastery)
When you hold on to me

Yeah,eh
Baby hold on to me
Whatever will be, will be
The future is ours to see (at The Toadfish Monastery)
When you hold on to me

I say Uh! Hold on
Uh- hu! Hold on to me tighter
I'm never gonna leave ya now (my fellow Toadfish)
Can't you please believe now
Never gonna let you go
So hold on to me tighter

Baby hold on to me
Whatever will be, will be
The future is ours to see (at The Toadfish Monastery)
When you hold on to me

(Baby) Baby hold on to me
(Baby) Whatever will be, will be
(Baby) the future is ours to see (at The Toadfish Monastery)
(Baby) When you hold on to me

Hold on!

I posted this in the other forum that I participate in occasionally (my apologies to Bob because I know that he already read it over there).  I thought that it was very interesting as it showed how scientists were trying to study the evolution of our cognitive development.

While reading neuroscience news headlines today, I found this article that describes how researchers showed that human infants displayed the same
preferences as all other great apes in their strategies for remembering where things are, but that these preferences shift as humans develop.

Fossils tell us nothing about our ancestor's cognitive processes so studies like this one are invaluable in assisting us in the insights of their cognitive structures.

This research attempted to trace the evolution of human cognitive abilities and tendencies by comparing them with the skills of our nearest cousins in order to identify what we likely have inherited from our common ancestor."Daniel Haun and his colleagues have carried out the first research of its kind into the cognitive preferences of the five species of great apes- orangutans, gorillas, bonobos, chimpanzees and humans - to establish which cognitive strategies they prefer in order to uncover hidden characteristics. The researchers worked on the assumption that if all five species share particular preferences, these are very probably a part of the evolutionary legacy of our most recent common ancestors, who died out some 15 million years ago."

There are two basic strategies for trying to remember the location of something:
One, remember the features of the item, or two, remember the spatial placement, left, right, etc.

All animals who have been previously tested seem to employ both tactics, though different animals show a preference for one strategy over the other.

In the experiment the researchers hid objects using the two different strategies, place and feature. In the place strategy, the item remained in the same place where it was previously hidden, but under a different object. In the feature strategy, the object remained the same but was put into a different place.

It was shown that all four great ape species and one-year-old children actually use the location as a way of finding something hidden, even if it is hidden under a completely different object. This outcome suggests that this preference has been part of our cognitive structure for 15 million years.

The researchers then investigated three-year-old children and discovered a difference: Unlike younger children, they considered the object under which the item was hidden to be the most reliable indication of its whereabouts, even if the location had changed completely.

The scientists had sufficient evidence to conclude that 1-year-old children and great apes do not lack the capability to develop a feature-based strategy, but simply prefer to use a place-based strategy. Evidently, humans reassess these preferences as their cognitive development continues."This change in cognitive preference indicates a uniquely human developmental trajectory when compared to the cognitive development of other great apes, and it informs our general understanding of which aspects of our cognitive development have evolved within the human lineage."

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.p...

http://www.current-biology.com/