terça-feira, 30 de novembro de 2010

CARTA: Neurobiology Neurology and Art and Aesthetics


UCtelevision

In this edition of CARTAs Evolutionary Origins of Art and Aesthetics Series, two world-renowned scientists, neurologist Vilayanur Ramachandran and neurobiologist Jean-Pierre Changeux share their insights into the neurobiology that mediates our perception of universal qualities essential to the human experiences of aesthetics and creativity. Series: CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny

Aesthetic Universals and the Neurology of Hindu Art


Calit2ube

Guest Speaker: Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, UC San Diego
Director, Center for Brain and Cognition

This lecture is part of the Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and Archaelogy (CISA3) new exhibition entitled 'Masters of Fire: Hereditary Bronze Casters of South India'. CISA3 is part of the California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2).

V.S. Ramachandran is Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition and Professor with the Psychology Department and Neurosciences Program at the University of California, San Diego, and Adjunct Professor of Biology at the Salk Institute. Ramachandran initially trained as a doctor and subsequently obtained a Ph.D. from Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. Ramachandrans early work was on visual perception but he is best known for his experiments in behavioral neurology which, despite their apparent simplicity, have had a profound impact on the way we think about the brain. He has been called The Marco Polo of neuroscience by Richard Dawkins and The modern Paul Broca by Eric Kandel.

VS Ramachandran: The neurons that shaped civilization


http://www.ted.com

Neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran outlines the fascinating functions of mirror neurons. Only recently discovered, these neurons allow us to learn complex social behaviors, some of which formed the foundations of human civilization as we know it.

National Psychological Association For Psychoanalysis | The New School


thenewschoolnyc

National Psychological Association For Psychoanalysis: Ninth Annual Oscar Sternbach Award
This year's recipients of the Oscar Sternbach Award are Dr. Mark Solms and Dr. Jaak Panksepp.

THE NEW SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH | http://www.newschool.edu/nssr

Jaak Panksepp Ph.D: "Ancestral Memories: Brain Affective Systems, Ancient Emotional Vocalizations, and the Sources of Our Communicative Urges." Over the last 35 years, Dr. Panksepp has almost singlehandedly created the field of affective neuroscience. His book, Affective Neuroscience: The Foundation of Human and Animal Emotions, is the definitive textbook for the field. He is the Baily Endowed Chair of Animal Well-Being Science at Washington State University, an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Psychology at Bowling Green State University, and the author of A Textbook of Biological Psychiatry.

Mark Solms Ph.D: "A Neuropsychoanalytic Approach to 'The Talking Cure.'" Mark Solms is the director of the Arnold Pfeffer Center for Neuro-Psychoanalysis at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute; a lecturer at the University College Londons Department of Psychology; a consultant in neuropsychology at the Anna Freud Center in London; and an honorary lecturer in the Academic Department of Neurosurgery at St. Bartholomews and the Royal London School of Medicine. Over the last 15 years, Dr. Solms has been the driving force in establishing the new field of neuro-psychoanalysis, which brings together the fields of neuroscience and psychoanalysis.

Dr. Carl Jacobs, the chair of the Program Committee at the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysts, hosts the evening.

THE NEW SCHOOL | http://www.newschool.edu

Cosponsored by the Department of Social Sciences at The New School for General Studies and the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis.

THE NEW SCHOOL FOR GENERAL STUDIES | http://www.newschool.edu/generalstudies

LIVE from the NYPL: Antonio Damasio & Marina Abramovic


The New York Public Library

In his new book, Self Comes To Mind, Antonio Damasio, who directs the USC Brain and Creativity Institute and is the 2010 winner of the prestigious Honda Prize for scientific excellence, discusses how the brain uses emotion and feeling to create a sense of self in animals in humans, and how the elaborate version of the human self opened the way for creating the tools of culture. The admired neuroscientist, provocative lecturer and best-selling author will be in conversation with Marina Abramovic, the celebrated, spirited and controversial artist who, since the beginning of her career, has pioneered performance as a visual art form in a quest for emotional and spiritual transformation.

Marina has long tested the relationship between the audience and the ego of a performer. Her last exhibition/retrospective in New York, staged at the Museum of Modern Art, was “The Artist is Present," a 736-hour and 30-minute static, silent piece, in which she sat immobile in the museum’s atrium.

Marina's considers each public appearance an experiment and she never rehearses. This conversation with Antonio Damasio will be a revelation to the participants as well as the audience.

segunda-feira, 29 de novembro de 2010

WHAT DID YOU DO IN THE WAR, DADDY?


WHAT DID YOU DO IN THE WAR, DADDY? from Green Turtle Films on Vimeo.

Clive Hamilton is an Australian author and public intellectual who has written extensively on Climate Change, exposing the hypocrisy and corruption behind the climate change denialists. This short film has been produced by Green Turtle Films to highlight Clive's work and to give greater voice to those fighting climate change denialism. We all have to change our own lifestyles, and more importantly, have to pressure our governments to take real and immediate action on this most urgent of issues.

Thousands Protest Irish Nightmare Economy


TheRealNews

Leo Panitch: U.S. created financial crisis and European banks turned the Irish Miracle into a nightmare

Leo Panitch is the Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy and a Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science at York University in Toronto. Panitch is also the author of "Global Capitalism and American Empire" and his most recent release "American Empire and the Political Economy of International Finance".

domingo, 28 de novembro de 2010

How does the brain generate consciousness?


ANUchannel

Baroness Susan Greenfield CBE Hon FRCP, Member, House of Lords, United Kingdom, Professor of Synaptic Pharmacology, Lincoln College, Oxford University presents this lecture: How does the brain generate consciousness? This video was recorded at The Australian National University on 30 August 2010, and was the keynote speech at a John Curtin School of Medical Research symposium: New Perspectives in Clinical Neuroscience and Mental Health.

Susan Greenfield was both an undergraduate and graduate at Oxford, but has subsequently spent time in postdoctoral research at the College de France, Paris, with Professor J Glowinski and at the New York University Medical Centre, New York, with Professor R Llinas. As a consequence of working in both biochemical and electrophysiological environments she has developed a multidisciplinary approach to exploring novel neuronal mechanisms in the brain that are common to regions affected in both Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. The basic theme of her research is to develop strategies to arrest neuronal death in these disorders.

She is also co-founder of a university spin-out company specialising in novel approaches to neurodegeneration, - Synaptica Ltd In addition, Professor Greenfield has a supplementary interest in the neuroscientific basis of consciousness, and accordingly has written 'Journey to the Centres of the Mind Toward a Science of Consciousness' (1995) W H Freeman Co, and 'Private Life of the Brain' (2000) Penguin. Her latest book 'Tomorrow's People: How 21st Century technology is changing the way we think and feel' (Penguin 2003), explores human nature, and its potential vulnerability in an age of technology.

In addition, she is also Director of the Institute for the Future of the Mind, part of the James Martin 21st Century School, which exploits the parallels between the brains of the very young and very old, and how they are all vunerable to technology, chemical manipulation, and disease.

She has also written 'The Human Brain': A Guided Tour (1997) Orion-Phoenix Press, which ranked in the best seller list for hard and paperbacks.

She held the Gresham Chair of Physic from 1996-1999, and has received 28 honorary degrees. In 1998 she was awarded the Michael Faraday medal by the Royal Society and in 1999 was elected to an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians. She is also involved in science policy and has given a consultative seminar to the Prime Minister on the future of science in the UK. Susan has been involved in the 'Science and the Economy' seminars at No 11 and in response to a request in 2002 from the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, she produced the Greenfield Report 'SET Fair: A Report on Women in Science, Engineering, and Technology'. She was awarded the CBE in the Millennium New Year's Honour's List and Life Peerage (non-political) in 2001. In 2003 she was awarded the Ordre National de la Legion d'Honneur.

Chimeras, Cyborgs and the Moral Limits of Science



case

Series: Conversations in Bioethics
Title: Chimeras, Cyborgs and the Moral Limits of Science
Speaker: Jason Scott Robert, Ph.D.
Introductions by: Shannon E. French, Ph.D. and Joe White, Ph.D.
Location: The Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence located in the Crawford Building on the campus of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio
Sponsored by: The Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence, Department of Bioethics 'Conversations in Bioethics", Center for Policy Studies
Date: January 29, 2010

More Info on the featured speaker: Dr. Jason Scott Robert is the Franca Oreffice Dean's Distinguished Professor in the Life Sciences, and the Lincoln Associate Professor of Ethics in Biotechnology and Medicine, in SOLS. He conducts research and teaching at the intersection of bioethics and the philosophy of science. He has published extensively on ethical, conceptual, and methodological issues in developmental biology and evolution, and his current work focuses primarily on translational research in neuroscience. He is funded by the National Science Foundation and the James S. McDonnell Foundation to explore how neuroscientists do (and how they should) attempt to justify their research with non-human animals in the pursuit of findings relevant to humans. He is also interested in population and public health ethics, and in the social determinants of health. Dr. Robert directs the Bioethics, Policy, and Law Program (BPL) in the Center for Biology and Society at ASU, administering the Biology MS and PhD concentrations in BPL, as well as the Biomedical and Health Ethics track of the new MA in Applied Ethics and the Professions. Dr. Robert is also Director of the Medicine and Society theme at The University of Arizona College of Medicine Phoenix in partnership with Arizona State University, responsible for teaching and mentoring in the domains of bioethics and medical humanities, and he serves as Director of Education for the Scholarly Project at the medical school. Dr Robert is Associate Editor for public health ethics of the Canadian Journal of Public Health, a co-editor for Philosophy of Biology of the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, and a member of the editorial board of Biological Theory. He has served as program co-chair for the American Society for Bioethics + Humanities, and is active on several committees for the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology

1. Neuroscience -- Brains, Minds, and Selves:

What is it like to be a bat, and what does it matter?

NCASVideo

This is part 1 of a 7-part talk (http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=7B129DAD57967094)

Presented by James Giordano Ph.D, M.Phil., Director of the Center for Neurotechnology Studies, and Chair of Academic Programs at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, Arlington, VA.

The field of neuroscience has achieved considerable insight to the workings of the brain. While the most essential question how brains produce consciousness and mind remains enigmatic, what is becoming increasingly evident is that even simple brains enable a variety of complex functions including the capacity to think, feel pain and be self-aware. Thus, it appears that if an organism has the neurological wetware that is, a brain of some sort it is likely, if not probable that they will be able to run a program that produces a mind.

In this lecture, Dr. James Giordano, a neuroscientist and neuroethicist, argues that the cornerstone question is not if other organisms have a mind, but what kind of mind they have. He discusses whether neuroscience and technology can provide some insight to philosopher Thomas Nagels metaphorical query, what is it like to be a bat? In other words, now that science has privileged a realization that non-human minds can exist, will technology allow us to know what it is like to be another being, and what can we -or perhaps more importantly, should we do with such knowledge?

Dr. Giordano discusses key questions and issues that have arisen in, and from modern neuroscience, including: Do all brains give rise to minds?; Do all minds give rise to a self?; How much brain is required to evoke and sustain a mind or self?and How much brain must be changed to change a mind or self? He discusses how both these questions and their potential answers really do matter, as they force us to confront long-held, somewhat dogmatic views about the nature of consciousness, what it means to be, the uniqueness of humans, the ubiquity of pain, and the moral implications and consequences of our regard and actions.

Giordano addresses how things neuro can be misinterpreted, misperceived and misused by the public, market and socio-political agendas. In cautioning against such misdirection, he argues for a neuroethics that enables science and society to use current knowledge in ways that prudently inform and guide our treatment of both human and non-human selves.

Views expressed are those of the speaker and do not necessarily represent the views of the National Capital Area Skeptics

James Giordano Ph.D, M.Phil., is Director of the Center for Neurotechnology Studies, and Chair of Academic Programs at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, Arlington, VA, and is Senior Research Associate of the Wellcome Centre for Neuroethics, and Uehiro Centre for Practical Philosophy at the University of Oxford, UK. He is IGERT Professor of Science, Technology, Ethics and Policy at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Neuroscience and Neuroethics at Rheinische Friedrich Wilhelms Universität, Bonn, Germany, and is Chair of the Capital Consortium on Neuroscience, Ethics, Legal and Social Issues (www.ccnelsi.org).

Dr. Giordanos most recent books include Scientific and Philosophical Perspectives in Neuroethics (with Bert Gordijn, Cambridge University Press); Pain, Mind, Meaning and Medicine (PPM Press), and Pain Medicine: Philosophy, Ethics, and Policy (with Mark Boswell; Linton Atlantic Books). He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journals Philosophy, Ethics and Humanities in Medicine, and Synesis: A Journal of Sceince, Technology, Ethics and Policy; Associate Editor of the international journal Neuroethics, and Series Editor of Advances in Neurotechnology: Ethical, Legal and Social Issues, published by CRC Press. The author of over 130 papers on neuroscience, neurotechnology, and neuroethics, Dr. Giordanos ongoing research is focused upon the neuropathology of chronic pain, and the moral, ethical and social issues evoked by the use of novel neurotechnologies in the study and treatment of pain.

He and his wife Sherry, a naturalist, writer, and artist, commute between Old Town Alexandria, VA and Oxford, UK. (For further information, please see: www.neurobioethics.org

Eduardo Punset Conference. La Ciudad de las Ideas 2009. Re-evolution.


LaCiudaddelasIdeas

Presiende de Smart Planet y director del programa de divulgación científica en TV española: Redes. Habla sobre la memoria en La Ciudad de las Ideas.

Ranulfo Romo Conference - La Ciudad de las Ideas 2009

Ranulfo Romo habla sobre El Cerebro. Re-evolution
Ranulfo Romo Profesor de Neurociencias del Instituto de Fisiología Celular de la UNAM. Recibió su título de Doctor en Medicina de la UNAM y el título de Doctor en Ciencias en el área de Neurociencias de la Universidad de Paris en Francia. Su trabajo posdoctoral lo realizó con Wolfram Schultz en la Universidad de Friburgo en Suiza y con Vernon Mountcastle en la Universidad John Hopkins.

Decisiones inconscientes (Ranulfo Romo) (3)


Decisiones inconscientes (Ranulfo Romo) (3)   Carregado por raulespert
 
Entre los neurofisiólogos se pensaba que los procesos finos de la percepción ocurrían en regiones del cerebro denominadas zonas sensoriales primarias. Sin embargo, investigadores del Instituto de Fisiología Celular, encabezados por Ranulfo Romo, descubrieron que la percepción y la subjetividad ocurren en el área motora suplementaria, localizada en el lóbulo frontal.
Al estudiar la representación neural de una información sensorial, hemos visto dónde se guarda en la memoria, cómo se combina y cómo permite que se genere una percepción. Con esa información, la gente puede tomar decisiones, correctas o incorrectas, que es posible observar en la actividad neuronal. Asimismo, mediante sencillos modelos experimentales, hemos estudiado la lógica del porqué las neuronas en ocasiones no actúan adecuadamente, lo cual es importante porque nos permite entender la biología de los procesos mentales, que le otorgan su identidad al individuo.”

Otro descubrimiento efectuado por el equipo de Ranulfo Romo es que las neuronas deliberan antes de tomar una decisión. El cerebro recibe la información que entra por los sentidos y la compara con los referentes guardados en la memoria. Si la comparación se desarrolla adecuadamente, se produce la percepción. Sólo entonces, las neuronas toman una decisión determinada.

Ranulfo Romo: Decisiones inconscientes (2)


Ranulfo Romo: Decisiones inconscientes (2)   Carregado por raulespert
 
Todo lo que aprendemos, desde leer este texto hasta nuestro más hondo sentir emotivo, se genera en el lenguaje eléctrico que comunica a las neuronas entre sí. "En este diálogo se producen funciones específicas que nos hacen una representación mental del mundo externo", explica el doctor Romo Trujillo, quien encontró la representación de un evento visual en el lenguaje neuronal y lo puso a prueba utilizando la "teoría de detección de señales", una representación muy nítida de lo que sucede dentro del cerebro.

Conforme a lo arrojado por esta investigación, las funciones cerebrales no tienen "zonas exclusivas" como durante mucho tiempo se ha sostenido; "más bien se trata de módulos compactos de circuitos que se conectan", comenta el experto. Añade que son nodos críticos, sistemas sensoriales que registran lo que pasa a través del olfato, el gusto, la vista y los demás sentidos. De acuerdo a los resultados del doctor Romo, el placer o el dolor no se producen en un sitio preciso como el hipotálamo, sino en un flujo de señales eléctricas que van construyendo la memoria, el aprendizaje y la experiencia. Así, a través de los órganos y de los sentidos, el cerebro aprende información importante para desarrollar la experiencia.

Ranulfo Romo: Decisiones inconscientes (1)


Ranulfo Romo: Decisiones inconscientes (1)    Carregado por raulespert

Entre los neurofisiólogos se pensaba que los procesos finos de la percepción ocurrían en regiones del cerebro denominadas zonas sensoriales primarias. Sin embargo, investigadores del Instituto de Fisiología Celular, encabezados por Ranulfo Romo, descubrieron que la percepción y la subjetividad ocurren en otro lugar: en el área motora suplementaria, localizada en el lóbulo frontal del cerebro.

En esa área, de unos 5 milímetros, hay unos cientos de miles de neuronas a las que llega la información sensorial, o de los sentidos, que se combina o se compara con referentes guardados en la memoria de corto plazo, o de trabajo, para generar acciones y lo que se conoce como subjetividad.

Los investigadores universitarios descubrieron también, en el lóbulo frontal, el mecanismo mediante el cual las neuronas guardan información en la memoria de corto plazo; de este modo pudieron demostrar que la memoria tiene una representación física, no abstracta, como se creía.

Captación de información

Si una persona percibe que un alacrán camina por su brazo, sacude éste con violencia. En esta reacción se combinan la percepción y la información almacenada en la memoria.

En la piel tenemos órganos receptores que registran los cambios causados por la presión del arácnido en el brazo a medida que avanza. Esta información es transportada por los nervios al sistema nervioso central, que es como una supercomputadora que la compara con lo aprendido.

Lo mismo sucede con el sentido de la vista. La información que los receptores visuales obtienen de la imagen de un objeto es transformada por éstos en actividad eléctrica que luego va al cerebro. Como en el caso del alacrán, el cerebro compara esta información con la experiencia previa, de tal modo que podemos interpretar los objetos que vemos.

James Giordano - Neuroscience, Reverence and Moral Sense


James Giordano - Neuroscience, Reverence and Moral Sense

Carregado por NourFoundation

Presented on September 11, 2009 at the United Nations, New York

The Nour Foundation
Blackfriars Hall, Oxford University
Georgetown University Symposium Series

Technology, Neuroscience, and the Nature of Being: Considerations of Meaning, Morality, and Transcendence Toward a Common Morality

sábado, 27 de novembro de 2010

Politics of Language: George Lakoff



George Lakoff makes plain how the words used by politicians translate to the public's support for various political issues. Language matters - especially when it comes to politics.

A founder of the field of cognitive science, Lakoff takes an in-depth look at the ways in which our brains understand politics, breaking down the politics of language.

Quants: The Alchemists of Wall Street (Marije Meerman, VPRO Backlight 2010)


VPROinternational

Quants are the math wizards and computer programmers in the engine room of our global financial system who designed the financial products that almost crashed Wall st. The credit crunch has shown how the global financial system has become increasingly dependent on mathematical models trying to quantify human (economic) behaviour. Now the quants are at the heart of yet another technological revolution in finance: trading at the speed of light.

What are the risks of treating the economy and its markets as a complex machine? Will we be able to keep control of this model-based financial system, or have we created a monster?

A story about greed, fear and randomness from the insides of Wall Street.

Director: Marije Meerman
Research: Gerko Wessel

The Frinky Science of the Human Mind


StanfordUniversity

Baba Shiv delves into the surprising workings of the brain during his lecture. "Frinky", a combination of "freaky" and "funky" was an apt descriptor for the mental experiments he describes. Deftly incorporating the anatomy of the brain, Shiv makes the case that emoitional responses are vital to responsible decision making, and that -- despite popular belief -- rational thought is perhaps not all it's cracked up to be.

Author and Activist Derrick Jensen: "The Dominant Culture is Killing the Planet...It’s Very Important for Us to Start to Build a Culture of Resistance"


We speak with Derrick Jensen, who has been called the poet-philosopher of the ecological movement. He has written some 15 books critiquing contemporary society and the destruction of the environment. His many books include A Language Older than Words, Endgame, What We Left Behind, Resistance against Empire, and Deep Green Resistance. "I think a lot of us are increasingly recognizing that the dominant culture is killing the planet," Jensen says. "I think it’s very important for us to start to build a culture of resistance, because what we’re doing isn’t working, clearly."
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/11/26/author_and_activist_derrick_jensen_the

sexta-feira, 26 de novembro de 2010

Analogy as the Core of Cognition


StanfordUniversity

Presidential Lecture, cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter examines the role and contributions of analogy in cognition, using a variety of analogies to illustrate his points.
http://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/hofstadter/analogy.html

George Lakoff "The Brain and Its Politics"


UOregon

George Lakoff is the co-founder of the Rockridge Institute, a think tank for progressive politics and public policies. His talk surveys basic findings about what human reason is really like and shows why this matters in politics. Over the past 30 years, Lakoff posits, cognitive and brain sciences have shown that human reason --instead of being conscious and logical — takes place mostly below the level of consciousness and is much more interesting and complex than was once believed.

El Video Que BP, No Quiere Que Veas.


El Video Que BP, No Quiere Que Veas. from Teotl Nahualli on Vimeo.

El Video Que BP, No Quiere Que Veas, sobre el derrame de petroleo en el Golfo de México.
Pero gracias VIMEO y al Internet esta a tu alcance !!
** BP = British Petroleum

British Novelist John le Carré on the Iraq War, Corporate Power, the Exploitation of Africa and His New Novel, "Our Kind of Traitor"


Today, we spend the hour with world-renowned British novelist John le Carré, the pen name of David Cornwell. Le Carré’s writing career spans half a century, during which he has established himself as a master spy writer. His latest novel, his twenty-second, is entitled Our Kind of Traitor. David Cornwell worked in the British Secret Services from the late 1950s until the early 1960s, at the height of the Cold War. His third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, became an international bestseller. As the Cold War ended, le Carré continued to write prolifically, shifting focus to the inequities of globalization, unchecked multinational corporate power, and the role national spy services play in protecting corporate interests. "The things that are done in the name of the shareholder are, to me, as terrifying as the things that are done—dare I say it—in the name of God," le Carré tells Democracy Now! Perhaps best known among his many post-Cold War novels is The Constant Gardener, depicting a pharmaceutical company’s exploitation of unwitting Kenyans for dangerous, sometimes fatal, drug tests. In this rare US interview, le Carré also discusses Tony Blair’s role in the Iraq war, US policy toward Iran, and international money laundering.
http://www.democracynow.org/

VOICES OF A NEW ECONOMICS


Gus Speth's E. F. Schumacher Lecture from New Economics Institute on Vimeo.

30th Annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures were held November 20th
with Gus Speth, Neva Goodwin, Stewart Wallis
http://neweconomicsinstitute.org/

The global financial system has failed us in its promise, resulting in an environment and society in crisis. A movement for a new economics, one that supports people and the planet, is emerging as an inevitable response. The Thirtieth Annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures will introduce three leading voices for a New Economics:
Gus Speth, prominent environmentalist who has been at the forefront of rethinking the connection between the health of the environment and the nature of our economic system.
Neva Goodwin
, pioneer of contextual economics education at the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University.
Stewart Wallis, executive director of the influential New Economics Foundation of London.


quinta-feira, 25 de novembro de 2010

"Banks, Shadow Banks, and the New Face of Wall Street"


UChannel

Andrew Ross Sorkin, chief mergers and acquisitions reporter and columnist for The New York Times, and Gary Gensler, Chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, discussed "Banks, Shadow Banks, and the New Face of Wall Street" at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, November 22, in Bowl 016, Robertson Hall. They were joined by former New Jersey governor Jon Corzine, the John L. Weinberg/Goldman Sachs & Co. Visiting Professor at the Woodrow Wilson School. The discussion is the fifth in the School's Financial Market Regulation series.

quarta-feira, 24 de novembro de 2010

Dr. Gabor Maté on ADHD, Bullying and the Destruction of American Childhood


A spike in diagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other mental disorders has fueled an unprecedented reliance on pharmaceutical medications to treat children, with long-term effects that remain unknown. We speak with Canadian physician and best-selling author, Dr. Gabor Maté. He argues that these responses are treating surface symptoms as causes while ignoring deeper roots. Dr. Maté says children are in fact reacting to the broader collapse of the nurturing conditions needed for their healthy development.
http://www.democracynow.org/

Abe Osheroff, Bellevue 2006


Abe Osheroff, Bellevue 2006 from toddboyle on Vimeo.

Abe Osheroff, one of the last surviving veterans of the abraham lincoln brigade, the Americans who went to fight against fascism in Spain in the 1930s' Spanish Civil War.

He spoke candidly to a small group of veterans and antiwar activists in Bellevue 2006, I filmed it with my handy camcorder, released: creative commons sharalike noncommercial.

Abe Osheroff: One Foot in the Grave, the Other Still Dancing


http://www.mediaed.org/

Most people knew Abe Osheroff as an activist. For most of his 92 years - from the frontlines of the Spanish Civil War to the picket lines of the U.S. labor movement, from the struggles for civil rights in Mississippi to his work for human rights in Nicaragua - Osheroff threw himself into the fray with rare energy and enthusiasm. In this riveting and inspiring new film, Osheroff reflects on the meaning of his activism, exploring the ideas that animated his actions and sharing wisdom built up over a lifetime of commitment to the "radical humanism" that defined his politics and philosophy.

terça-feira, 23 de novembro de 2010

Herman Daly on Uneconomic Growth








WarrenWilsonELC

Herman E. Daly is currently Professor at the University of Maryland, School of Public Affairs. Previously, he was at The World Bank, where he was Senior Economist in the Environment Department, helping to develop policy guidelines related to sustainable development. While there, he was engaged in environmental operations work in Latin America. Before joining the World Bank, Daly was Alumni Professor of Economics at Louisiana State University. He is a co-founder and associate editor of the journal, Ecological Economics. His interest in economic development, population, resources, and environment has resulted in over a hundred articles as well as numerous books, including Steady-State Economics (1977; 1991), Valuing the Earth (1993), Beyond Growth (1996), and Ecological Economics and the Ecology of Economics (1999). He is co-author with theologian John B. Cobb, Jr. of For the Common Good (1989; 1994) which received the Grawemeyer Award for ideas for improving World Order. He is a recipient of the Honorary Right Livelihood Award (Sweden's alternative to the Nobel Prize), the Heineken Prize for Environmental Science from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Sophie Prize (Norway).

Bethany McLean, Author, "All The Devils Are Here"


CSPAN

Bethany McLean, author of "All The Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis," discusses life after the Enron scandal and the economic recession.

'The Rainbow Bridge' By Roger Griffin


'The Rainbow Bridge' By Roger Griffin from Wiley-Blackwell Compass on Vimeo.

'What is the Human Mind Designed for?"


'What is the Human Mind Designed for?' By Roy F. Baumeister from Wiley-Blackwell Compass on Vimeo.

Patricia Churchland - Morality and the Mammalian Brain


EdinburghUniversity

Self-caring neural circuitry embodies self-preservation values, and these are values in the most elemental sense. Whence caring for others?

Social problem-solving, including policy-making, is probably an instance of problem-solving more generally, and draws upon the capacity, prodigious in humans, to envision consequences of a planned action. In humans, it also draws upon the capacity for improving upon current practices and technologies.

Unlike other mammals, humans have developed highly complex language, and highly complex cultures. This means that our sociality, and consequently ours systems of ethical values, have become correspondingly complex.

Professor Patricia Smith Churchland is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, San Diego, and an adjunct Professor at the Salk Institute.

Her current work focuses on morality and the social brain. She has been President of the American Philosophical Association and the Society for Philosophy and Psychology, and won a MacArthur Prize in 1991 and the Rossi Prize in 2008.

How to recognise an addiction - Dr Iain McGilchrist Priory Group

The next programme in the Priory Healthcare News series looking at the subject of addictions and how to recognise when a habit becomes an addiction and requires specialist intervention.

“Filmed at The Priory Hospital Hayes Grove, a 45-bed acute psychiatric hospital offering a wide range of inpatient, outpatient, day patient and therapy services we hear from consultant psychiatrist Dr Iain McGilchrist.”

The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World


theRSAorg

Renowned psychiatrist and writer Iain McGilchrist explains how the 'divided brain' has profoundly altered human behaviour, culture and society.

http://iainmcgilchrist.com/brief_description.asp
This book argues that the division of the brain into two hemispheres is essential to human existence, making possible incompatible versions of the world, with quite different priorities and values.

Most scientists long ago abandoned the attempt to understand why nature has so carefully segregated the hemispheres, or how to make coherent the large, and expanding, body of evidence about their differences. In fact to talk about the topic is to invite dismissal. Yet no one who knows anything about the area would dispute for an instant that there are significant differences: it's just that no-one seems to know why. And we now know that every type of function - including reason, emotion, language and imagery - is subserved not by one hemisphere alone, but by both.

This book argues that the differences lie not, as has been supposed, in the 'what' - which skills each hemisphere possesses - but in the 'how', the way in which each uses them, and to what end. But, like the brain itself, the relationship between the hemispheres is not symmetrical. The left hemisphere, though unaware of its dependence, could be thought of as an 'emissary' of the right hemisphere, valuable for taking on a role that the right hemisphere - the 'Master' - cannot itself afford to undertake. However it turns out that the emissary has his own will, and secretly believes himself to be superior to the Master. And he has the means to betray him. What he doesn't realize is that in doing so he will also betray himself.

The book begins by looking at the structure and function of the brain, and at the differences between the hemispheres, not only in attention and flexibility, but in attitudes to the implicit, the unique, and the personal, as well as the body, time, depth, music, metaphor, empathy, morality, certainty and the self. It suggests that the drive to language was not principally to do with communication or thought, but manipulation, the main aim of the left hemisphere, which manipulates the right hand. It shows the hemispheres as no mere machines with functions, but underwriting whole, self-consistent, versions of the world. Through an examination of Western philosophy, art and literature, it reveals the uneasy relationship of the hemispheres being played out in the history of ideas, from ancient times until the present. It ends by suggesting that we may be about to witness the final triumph of the left hemisphere – at the expense of us all.
Some responses to The Master and his Emissary

segunda-feira, 22 de novembro de 2010

Money as Credit


publicbanking

What is the origin of money? This video, written by Ellen Brown and narrated/produced by Bob Bows, is a exploration of money as credit, how history shows us we've moved from money as a unit of account to money as a unit of value.

Activist Naomi Klein on her book "The Shock Doctrine"


AllanGregg

Nine-eleven. the Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina. According to Naomi Klein, these and other crises have been exploited by neo-conservatives to impose radical free-market policies on unwitting citizens. Klein is a journalist, filmmaker and activist, known for her bestseller No Logo. Her provocative new book is called The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.

The Corporation (A Corporação) - Parte 1 de 2


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1536249927801582119
Legendado em Português


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7123616269200477373
The Corporation (A Corporação) - Parte 2 de 2

[Shareware Version - For more info, visit: http://www.thecorporation.com/] Esse é certamente um dos melhores documentários já produzidos. De excelente qualidade, ele expõe do começo ao fim a verdadeira face das corporações. Ao lado de grandes outros filmes/documentários como "Super Size Me - A Dieta do Palhaço", "Tiros em Columbine", "Fahrenheit 9/11", Earthlings (Terráqueos), V de Vingança, "A Ilha", "Resident Evil" (só para citar alguns), ele se supera a cada momento e, como diria George Orwell, ele diz e mostra a verdade em um tempo de Farsas Universais, portanto é REVOLUCIONÁRIO! E além de tudo isso ele é duplo, recheado de extras e a edição brasileira é de excelente qualidade em todos os aspectos. A narradora deste documentário é um espetáculo à parte e merece uma menção mais do que especial: assistam e verão o porque!
[Documentário dirigido e produzido por Mark Achbar e Jennifer Abbott, baseado em roteiro adaptado por Joel Bakan de seu livro (The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, sem versão em português). O filme descreve o surgimento das grandes corporações como pessoas jurídicas, e discute, do ponto de vista psicológico que, sendo pessoas, que tipo de pessoas elas seriam.]

domingo, 21 de novembro de 2010

The Corporation (complete, chapters 1 to 23)
























  1. THE CORPORATION [23/23] Prognosis 

    Here's all 23 chapters of The Corporation which I have uploaded at the best possible quality for your viewing pleasure. Independent filmmakers need your support if they are to continue making films independently. If you support the film, please support the filmmakers too. You can make a contribution, large or small, at www.thecorporation.com, or better still, enjoy over 8 hours of excellent extras on the 2-DVD Special Edition which you can also get at www.thecorporation.com. Buying from us supports our continuing grassroots outreach efforts. Thanks!
    http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FA50FBC214A6CE87

RSA Animate - 21st century enlightenment



theRSAorg

Matthew Taylor explores the meaning of 21st century enlightenment, how the idea might help us meet the challenges we face today, and the role that can be played by organisations such as the RSA.

Matthew Taylor - 21st century enlightenment. Full edit with the audience Q&A session.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5ZjSEqWQQU

sábado, 20 de novembro de 2010

RSA Animate Matthew Taylor: Left brain, right brain


theRSAorg

Explore how brain and behaviour research is increasingly being incorporated into political and policy debate. Watch Matthew Taylor's lecture, which inspired this Animate.

Matthew Taylor - Changing minds: preparing for an era of neurological reflexivity


theRSAorg

Building on the theme of pro-social behaviour outlined in his inaugural speech in 2007, Matthew Taylor explores the policy implications of our new understanding of neuroscience and social psychology.

The Whitehouse Coup (1933)








ThisWeekInFascism

 The "Business Plot" (also the Plot Against FDR and the White House Putsch) was an alleged political conspiracy in 1933 wherein wealthy businessmen and corporations plotted a coup détat to overthrow United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1934, the Business Plot was publicly revealed by retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler testifying to the McCormack-Dickstein Congressional Committee. In his testimony, Butler claimed that a group of men had approached him as part of a plot to overthrow Roosevelt in a military coup. One of the alleged plotters, Gerald MacGuire, vehemently denied any such plot. In their final report, the Congressional committee supported Butler's allegations of the existence of the plot, but no prosecutions or further investigations followed, and the matter was mostly forgotten.

On July 17, 1932, thousands of World War I veterans converged on Washington, D.C., set up tent camps, and demanded immediate payment of bonuses due them according to the Adjusted Service Certificate Law of 1924. This "Bonus Army" was led by Walter W. Waters, a former Army sergeant. The Army was encouraged by an appearance from retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, who had considerable influence over the veterans, being one of the most popular military figures of the time. A few days after Butler's arrival, President Herbert Hoover ordered the marchers removed, and their camps were destroyed by US Army cavalry troops under the command of General Douglas MacArthur.
Butler, although a self-described Republican, responded by supporting Roosevelt in that year's election.

In a 1995 History Today article Clayton Cramer argued that the devastation of the Great Depression had caused many Americans to question the foundations of liberal democracy. "Many traditionalists, here and in Europe, toyed with the ideas of Fascism and National Socialism; many liberals dallied with Socialism and Communism." Cramer argues that this explains why some American business leaders viewed fascism as a viable system to both preserve their interests and end the economic woes of the Depression.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot

audio version is available for free using Realplayer at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/d...

"On Bullshit" & "On Truth" author Harry Frankfurt



Harry Frankfurt sits down for a feature interview in New York on The Alcove with Mark Molaro. Mr. Frankfurt is a professor emeritus in philosophy from Princeton University, and the author of the best-selling books "On Bullshit" and "On Truth". He ruminates on his philosophical ideas and works in this intriguing interview
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8001832135022218975

On Bullshit





PUPress

A conversation with Harry G. Frankfurt, author of On Bullshit, published by Princeton University Press

One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern. We have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves. And we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us. In other words, as Harry Frankfurt writes, "we have no theory."

Frankfurt, one of the world's most influential moral philosophers, attempts to build such a theory here. With his characteristic combination of philosophical acuity, psychological insight, and wry humor, Frankfurt proceeds by exploring how bullshit and the related concept of humbug are distinct from lying. He argues that bullshitters misrepresent themselves to their audience not as liars do, that is, by deliberately making false claims about what is true. In fact, bullshit need not be untrue at all.

Rather, bullshitters seek to convey a certain impression of themselves without being concerned about whether anything at all is true. They quietly change the rules governing their end of the conversation so that claims about truth and falsity are irrelevant. Frankfurt concludes that although bullshit can take many innocent forms, excessive indulgence in it can eventually undermine the practitioner's capacity to tell the truth in a way that lying does not. Liars at least acknowledge that it matters what is true. By virtue of this, Frankfurt writes, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.

Decrecimiento - Carlos Taibo


Decrecimiento - Carlos Taibo from ATTAC.TV on Vimeo.

En esta entrevista Carlos Taibo nos explica qué es el decrecimiento, nacido como crítica al crecimiento ilimitado en un mundo con recursos limitados, y como propuesta de debate social.

El decrecimiento es una corriente de pensamiento político, económico y social favorable a la disminución controlada de la producción económica con el objetivo de establecer una nueva relación de equilibrio entre el ser humano y la naturaleza, pero también entre los propios seres humanos.

Carlos Taibo es profesor titular de Ciencia Política y de la Administración en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
Fuente: http://www.attac.tv/altermedia/2010/11/796

Carlos Taibo: en defensa del decrecimiento


Carlos Taibo: en defensa del decrecimiento (1ª parte) from Andrés Villanueva Parra on Vimeo.


Carlos Taibo: En defensa del decrecimiento (2ª Final) from Andrés Villanueva Parra on Vimeo.

Conferencia de Carlos Taibo, escritor, editor y profesor Titular de Ciencia Política y de la Administración en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. En ella expone el concepto de "decrecimiento" y sus consecuencias.
La conferencia tuvo lugar en el Ateneo de Badajoz, el jueves 13 de mayo del 2010.

sexta-feira, 19 de novembro de 2010

Conférence sur la Décroissance, Barcelone 2010


Conférence sur la Décroissance, Barcelone 2010

Carregado por lachainech

"Celui qui 
croit que la croissance peut être infinie dans un monde fini est soit un fou, soit un économiste."
Kenneth Boulding (1910-1993), président de l’American Economic Association.

L’association "Recherche & Décroissance" (www.degrowth.net) met en œuvre et diffuse des études et des recherches théoriques et pratiques s’inscrivant dans le champ de la décroissance économique. R & D soutient une décroissance économique en tant que réduction collective des capacités d’appropriation et d’exploitation des ressources naturelles ayant pour objectif une société plus écologique, plus équitable, plus démocratique et répondant aux besoins humains.

En marge de la deuxième Conférence sur la Décroissance, organisée par R & D , au mois de mars 2010 à Barcelone, nous avons pu recueillir les impressions de quelques intervenant-e-s et participant-e-s. Ils nous livrent leurs analyses à chaud de la situation du mouvement de la décroissance et leurs réflexions sur les changements nécessaires pour sauver notre monde de la catastrophe.

Cette seconde conférence, s’appuyant sur le succès de la première et l’élan de chercheurs travaillant sur la décroissance, entendait se concentrer sur les nouvelles conditions amenées par la crise économique et souhaitait développer des propositions politiques claires et des stratégies d’action dans le cadre de la décroissance.

Musique : "Puerquerama" de Toluca (Etat de Mexico), "I wanna be a white trash man" "Pare de sufrir" "Cinismo al servico de la masas" - myspace.com/pqrm

Entretiens réalisés par Fabienne Gautier - Fondation pour une Terre Humaine - www.terrehumaine.org

Réalisation Stéphane Pecorini - www.lachaine.ch

Décroissance



Reportage sur la journée de réflexion sur l'objection de croissance organisée à l'ULB en février 2009.
Interviews de Serge Latouche, Daniel Cauchy, Bernard Legros, Christian Arnsperger
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-391255870606078479

Décroisance avec Pierre Lehmann


Décroissance 1/2 Pierre Lehmann



Décroisance 2/2 Pierre Lehmann Carregado por nature-boy-79

Ecologie écolo décroissance vert habitat logement vert yourte bio habitat biologique bio environnement bâtiment énergie fossile pétrole gaspillage poubelles poison toxique chalet maison building montagne espace nature respect terre villa paysans simpliste simple vie primaire aventure pavillon tente paille brique bois exotique isolation boue carton nature construction herbe fleures arbres arbrisseau altermondialiste anticapitaliste libertaire communisme économie partie déforestation énergie pétrole mode- de vie société égoïsme philosophie consommation poubelle matérialisme religion bouddha jésus jainisme saint Tibet mouton vegan veganisme végétarien végétalien légume tomate patate pomme de terre fruit corps étude primate biologie ethnologue sante neige eau couleur charpente menuiserie freegan freeganisme soleil apocalypse fin du monde enfant homme guerre politique lobby supermarché industrie argent fric travaille pauvre précaire désobéissance civile mer océans viande OGM toxique sauvage soja maïs colza bétail élevage gavage Environnement OGM- Soja, progrès écologie déforestation Amazonie désert manque Amérique du sud Europe Amérique Asie oiseau cheval fossile atlantique baleines paradis dalai lama Nicolas Hulot Greenpeace paix amour guerre nucléaire surexploitation exploitation esclave riche mondialisation entreprises profit intérêt bourse spéculation famine soja riz inde Russie socialisme communisme extrémisme délocaliser usine ouvriers précaire salaire RMI sécurité sociale chômage dette suicide mort France UMP

FIXING THE FUTURE


Watch the full episode. See more NOW on PBS.
In a one-hour PBS special airing Fixing the Future, Host David Brancaccio visits communities across America using innovative approaches to create jobs and build prosperity in our new economy.