Archived material Access restricted Article
Rantburg

Today's Front Page   View All of Sat 03/11/2006 View Fri 03/10/2006 View Thu 03/09/2006 View Wed 03/08/2006 View Tue 03/07/2006 View Mon 03/06/2006 View Sun 03/05/2006
1
2006-03-11 -Short Attention Span Theater-
Jesus in a pasta dish
Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.
Posted by Jackal 2006-03-11 18:49|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 and the mental problem you've had from birth? how is that doing?
Posted by Spinesh Grosing2566 2006-03-11 19:04||   2006-03-11 19:04|| Front Page Top

#2 Human brain is wired to see potential patterns. So it's not surprising that some people will find meaningful patterns where others see nonsense.

BTW, it appears that other mammals mostly experience all the discrete sensory details around them, whereas we first and foremost see general patterns. The difference between their brains and ours is that ours has a much bigger frontal and pre-frontal cortex, with a lot more interconnections. The cortex actually suppresses a lot of sensory input in the process. It's not just that dogs have much better equipped noses, for instance - it's also that we don't pay attention to what our noses DO smell, much of the time.

My source on this is a variety of studies that track brain activity while people and animals perform various tasks / are presented with various stimuli. For an interesting and non-academic-ish book that talks about this (and a bunch of other things) try Temple Grandin's Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior. She's the famous animal behaviorist who works miracles in redesigning feedlots, cattle ramps etc. and who is also a high-functioning autistic. Unlike the majority of people who think in words, she thinks in pictures and discrete memories of smells etc., i.e. in ways that she believes are a lot closer to the 'mental' activity of other mammals.

Sorry for the long comment ... it's a topic that not only plays into my professional work, but also interests me as a dog lover.

Posted by lotp 2006-03-11 19:26||   2006-03-11 19:26|| Front Page Top

#3 Your long comments are your best.
Posted by Nimble Spemble 2006-03-11 19:28||   2006-03-11 19:28|| Front Page Top

#4 BTW, it appears that other mammals mostly experience all the discrete sensory details around them, whereas we first and foremost see general patterns. The difference between their brains and ours is that ours has a much bigger frontal and pre-frontal cortex, with a lot more interconnections. The cortex actually suppresses a lot of sensory input in the process.

Right, lotp. One of the first "Oh, wow, man!" effects of hallucinogenic drugs is often the suppression of that human ability to filter out "noise." Very mundane things become very vivid and important. Later effects often over-stimulate the human ability to see patterns, creating many, if not most, hallucinations ... er, or so I've been told.
Posted by xbalanke 2006-03-11 20:09||   2006-03-11 20:09|| Front Page Top

#5 I think the important question here is: why manicotti? Given the wide assortment of Italian cuisine, selecting a specific manicotti must have meant something. Of course, it also depends whether it was, say, a Napolini manicotti or a Sicilian manicotti; vegetarian, beef, chicken or ham--noting of course that there is no mention of chicken in the KJV bible at all.
Posted by Anonymoose 2006-03-11 20:24||   2006-03-11 20:24|| Front Page Top

#6 I saw Satan in a Ziti...does that count?
Posted by Frank G">Frank G  2006-03-11 21:04||   2006-03-11 21:04|| Front Page Top

#7 I saw Satan in a Ziti...does that count?

Depends on the sauce.
Posted by xbalanke 2006-03-11 21:20||   2006-03-11 21:20|| Front Page Top

#8 What year and model Ziti... two door sports coupe or four-door sedan?
Posted by Sgt. Mom">Sgt. Mom  2006-03-11 21:39|| www.sgtstryker.com]">[www.sgtstryker.com]  2006-03-11 21:39|| Front Page Top

#9 The cortex actually suppresses a lot of sensory input in the process.

Probably explains why my senses of hearing and smell get acute when I have a migraine...
Posted by Pappy 2006-03-11 22:38||   2006-03-11 22:38|| Front Page Top

23:55 Zhang Fei
23:55 2b
23:44 Zhang Fei
23:42 trailing wife
23:39 Jules
23:32 phil_b
23:28 trailing wife
23:21 doc
23:16 Zhang Fei
23:13 Bobby
23:12 Sherry
23:02 Anonymoose
22:59 Zhang Fei
22:56 Silentbrick
22:50 trailing wife
22:45 Pappy
22:42 Fred
22:39 BA
22:38 Pappy
22:31 Phil
22:30 Listen To Dogs
22:30 Zhang Fei
22:25 Zhang Fei
22:24 gromgoru









Paypal:
Google
Search WWW Search rantburg.com