David Seruyange's Radio Weblog

Thursday, November 21, 2002

Absolutely, we are not tired of Hitchens

But some people seem to be - Elizabeth Spiers heard as much in feedback on her blog. I for one say a big HURRAH for her coverage; if I can't be in New York why shouldn't I read about it?

The venue was a panel discussion on "The State of Dissent in America". You can find Elizabeth's blow by blow here.

Strangely enough, the most interesting thing in the recap for me were the statements by Samantha Power, another panelist. Power got into my radar when I saw her discussing her new book A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. Despite the awkward title, it's probably something worth looking into before it is relegated to the shelves of university libraries.

posted in [home], [prattle]

11:06:56 PM comment []

Mapping the Mind: Left or Right?

"The human brain is a marriage of two minds. Each of its twin hemispheres is a physical mirror image of the other, and if one hemisphere is lost in early life, the other may take over and fulfil the functions of both. Normally, though, the two are bound together by a band of fibre that conveys a continuous, intimate dialogue between them. Information arriving in one half is almost instantly available to the other and their responses are so closely harmonized that it produces an apparently seamless perception of the world and a single stream of consciousness."

I'm reading a chapter in Mapping the Mind entitled "The Great Divide" which focuses on the separation of the left and right brain and the differences in process therein. While the pop culture understandings of the left to be analytical and the right to be holistic shed a grain of truth, there's a lot more to it than one could speculate.

A very interesting aspect of the study of the brain is that it is done by examining exception and disease much of the time. Wilson covers many of these as she describes the different parts of the brain and they are almost as fascinating as the realizations to which they lead up.

posted in [home], [books]

10:38:20 PM comment []