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Positive Atheism – search for “Magic To Science” when you get to the site. I did a little light reading at lunchtime today. I got a real giggle out of this quote. We see in these perceptions the first appearance of a kind of science — the seeking of causal explanations for the phenomena of the world. In today’s physics classes, the first thing students learn about is motion. However, they are taught that motion at constant velocity does not require the action of a force; a force is needed only for changes in velocity, acceleration. This observation is expressed by Newton’s second law of motion: F = ma , where F is the force on a body, m is its inertial mass, and a is the resulting acceleration (the rate of change of velocity). In other words, movement does not require a mover, only a change in movement does. And if no mover is seen, then one does not have to invent one that is unseen. The ultimate prime mover, which Aristotle and Aquinas defined ...

Trademark registration number 74485223 . Description of Mark: The mark consists of the exhaust sound of applicant’s motorcycles, produced by V-Twin, common crankpin motorcycle engines when the goods are in use. It almost makes sense. You pay your hard-earned American dollars to get that distinctive Harley-Davidson sound . You don’t want some Southeast Asian company copying it into their rice-burners. It seems that the USPTO operates only in the visual mode. If Harley-Davidson had called the sound of a V-Twin “music” they could have copyrighted it and collected royalties. I think I’ll send them an email.

Virtual Talmud: Principle, not Expediency Jewish tradition is based on the principle of eilu v’eilu — that conflicting positions each have standing and integrity in their own right, provided that the argument at hand is made for the sake of heaven.

Referring back to Shamanism and Talking to Dog . We have the ability to perceive *everything* until our society teaches us to block out of our minds what’s happening on the other side of the door. Privacy is how it starts. Later it becomes political. This is the definition of sanity, sharing a world-view. My cat always has a complete aural picture of the world outside the house because her hearing is much better than mine. Her visual concept of the world is limited to what she can see by running from window to window – a very disconnected picture of the world, don’t you think? Now substitute the word “psychic” for “aural” and “sensory” for “visual.” There is nothing mystical about it. You know what you are taught to know and you de-reify what you aren’t taught. I have no problem with concepts that lie outside the limitations of our technology. Not until some shady character tries to take my money. New Age p...

Thought for the Day: “Back in school I treated schizophrenics who were anywhere from clearly on-the-surface very different, but there were others with whom everything would seem normal until they began discussing the area of their reality that parted from everyone else’s. Sort of like talking to a neoconservative.” — DocShiva, from an email. Quoted with permission.

Bipolar Disorder Daily News Blog: New South Asian (India) Film on Bipolar Disorder Hiding Divya is an English-language film about the stigma against the mental ill in New York/North Jersey Philipino-Indian communities. It’s a must-see.

Anosognosia (impaired awareness of illness): A major problem for individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder . As the years go by, I am less and less impressed with NAMI . I think their agenda is to improve the family’s comfort at the expense of the patient’s autonomy. They teach the rather disturbing idea that a large percentage of mentally ill people have no self-awareness, no insight into ourselves. Like the lower animals. Anosognosia, they call it. The article I’ve linked to above has some glaring logical errors and has terrible ramifications for the mentally ill. I’ll list some of them. The article lumps bipolars together with schizophrenics as if we are all one big, happy family. We aren’t. Bipolar disorder is cyclic, often with long periods of remission in between episodes. This is not the case with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is associated with unremitting cognitive deficits. In either case, there is no “awareness of illness...