Mind Games

Positively reptilian...

From Salon.com:

A study to be published next year at University College London suggests that conservative brains are structured differently than the brains of other people. The investigation, led by Geraint Rees, focused on 92 individuals in the U.K. -- 90 students and two members of Parliament.

Specifically, the research shows that people with conservative tendencies have a larger amygdala and a smaller anterior cingulate than other people. The amygdala -- typically thought of as the "primitive brain" -- is responsible for reflexive impulses, like fear. The anterior cingulate is thought to be responsible for courage and optimism. This one-two punch could be responsible for many of the anecdotal claims that conservatives "think differently" from others.

Huh. Size does matter. Wrap your mind around more here.

Tweet

Keeping It Unreal

Reality, Starring Stephen Hawking.

"What could define God [is thinking of God] as the embodiment of the laws of nature. However, this is not what most people would think of that God," Hawking told Sawyer. "They made a human-like being with whom one can have a personal relationship. When you look at the vast size of the universe and how insignificant an accidental human life is in it, that seems most impossible."

More here from ABC News.

Dr. Ernest Otherford Blinds You With Science.

Beck: Climate Change Deniers Are Today's Galileo.

No, really...

Palin To Gore: Can I Call You Al?

So Sarah Palin mouths off about global warming and now her right-wing enablers are floating the idea of a debate with former Vice President Al Gore.
Sarah Palin debating about a scientific matter? Will they put it on pay-per-view?
Jesus Christ.
Anyway, poor l'il Sarah is striking her pre-emptive victim pose, and the audio with fellow dipshit Laura Ingraham is here:

He's Just Not That Into You.

Maybe he's on the line with a scientist.

From Frank Rich in the New York Times:

     The religious right is even more in denial than the Republicans. When Obama nominated Kathleen Sebelius, the Roman Catholic Kansas governor who supports abortion rights, as his secretary of health and human services, Tony Perkins, the leader of the Family Research Council, became nearly as apoplectic as the other Tony Perkins playing Norman Bates. “If Republicans won’t take a stand now, when will they?” the godly Perkins thundered online. But Congressional Republicans ignored him, sending out (at most) tepid press releases of complaint, much as they did in response to Obama’s stem-cell order. The two antiabortion Kansas Republicans in the Senate, Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts, both endorsed Sebelius.

     Perkins is now praying that economic failure will be a stimulus for his family-values business. “As the economy goes downward,” he has theorized, “I think people are going to be driven to religion.” Wrong again. The latest American Religious Identification Survey,published last week, found that most faiths have lost ground since 1990 and that the fastest-growing religious choice is “None,” up from 8 percent to 15 percent (which makes it larger than all denominations except Roman Catholics and Baptists). Another highly regarded poll, the General Social Survey, had an even more startling finding in its preliminary 2008 data released this month: Twice as many Americans have a “great deal” of confidence in the scientific community as they do in organized religion. How the almighty has fallen: organized religion is in a dead heat with banks and financial institutions on the confidence scale.

OMG!

(There goes another GOP wedge issue...)

It's A G-Nome Thang.

In honor of science's return after an eight-year absence, let's regulate us some genes!

According to Reuters, that's Stanford University human biology instructor Tom McFadden and junior Derrick David. It's "Regulatin' Genes," a parody of Jay-Z's "Money Ain't A Thing."

Evolution jams and Darwin was an Original G.

Welcome Back, Science!

We haven't seen you in a while.