In recognition of Presidents’ Day and Black History Month, we should never forget that historical attitudes never really go away. Prejudice is belief left unchallenged, and we never lack unchallenged beliefs. The video below attempts such a commentary. Historical clips come from the PBS American Experience presentation of “Eyes on the Prize: The American Civil [...]

In my previous post I mentioned “abstracting” in the context of how the brain works, and briefly speculated as to its relevance related to how different people on either side of the political divide would respond to the president’s speech on Afghanistan. Last night, both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert made my point better than [...]

[pun alert!] Part 2 of the Charlie Rose brain series (watch online at: www.charlierose.com/view/collection/10702) focused on vision. I call your attention to two excerpts, especially in the context of President Obama’s announcement regarding the war in Afghanistan expected tonight. 1. In the first clip (6:42), his panelists (co-host Eric Kandel, Edward H. Adelson, Nancy Kanwisher, [...]