M. Grégoire
"To understand even the basics of how the brain maintains the human intellect, we might need to know not just the current state of all 86 billion neurons and their 100 trillion interconnections, not just the varying strengths with which they are connected, and not just the states of more than 1,000 proteins that exist at each connection point, but how the moment-to-moment activity of the brain contributes."
The Empty Brain - aeon
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-empty-brain
M. Grégoire
"Earlier Tuesday, the Liberal-dominated Commons justice committee did what its Liberal members had telegraphed they would do the night before the meeting in a letter — shut down its purported 'review' of the SNC-Lavalin imbroglio. [...] they had heard 13 whole hours of testimony from 10 witnesses"
Blatchford: Liberals shut down SNC probe with dazzling duplicity
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/christie-blatchford-liberals-shut-down-snc-probe-with-dazzling-duplicity?video_autoplay=false
Le Devoir :montreal: :quebec:
Montréal retirera définitivement les crucifix de l’hôtel de ville — Montréal profitera des travaux à l’hôtel de ville pour retirer de façon définitive le crucifix qui... — http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/fluxdudevoir/~3/v__9JRJAu1w/montreal-retirera-definitivement-les-crucifix-de-l-hotel-de-ville #Montréal
Le Monde diplomatique
Après la démission du président kazakh Noursoultan Nazarbaïev, lire «Les “routes de la soie” passent par le Kazakhstan», par Arthur Fouchère @Fouch200, avec la carte d'Agnès Stienne @odilon72. (En accès libre.) https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2017/09/FOUCHERE/57872
M. Grégoire
There's also the #insurance issue: "Why yes, Mr. Allstate representative, I am aware that I have an elevated risk of developing an expensive and unpreventable disorder."
(Of course sometimes knowledge about hereditary health risks is useful: if diabetes runs in your family, you ought to be careful about diet and exercise.)
M. Grégoire
I don't understand the interest in those DNA tests that show your ancestry. Don't people have some idea who their great-grandparents were, and where their family comes from?
George M. Sipe
#GospelToday (Mt 1:20,24)
Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.
When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.
M. Grégoire
@ink_slinger
Remember the guy who shot Gabrielle Giffords? He was crazy.
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-language-and-literature-of-jared-loughner
Apparently the Virginia Tech killer was a bit crazy too. And then there are people who obsess about mass murder -- lucid, but not quite normal either: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/19/thresholds-of-violence
It's a reasonable question to ask.
M. Grégoire
For a different perspective, see Ross Douthat: "But is [lack of aptitude] really our upper class’s problem? What if our elite is already diligent and how-do-you-like-them-apples smaht — the average SAT score for the Harvard class of 2022 is a robust 1512 — and deficient primarily in memory and obligation, wisdom and service and patriotism?"
Opinion | The Scandals of Meritocracy - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/16/opinion/sunday/the-scandals-of-meritocracy.html
M. Grégoire
"Would it be better to have a social elite that… doesn’t recruit? An elite that resided only in government, business and high society rather than education? An elite that consisted of wealthy folk in one region only, rather than at outposts where the smart kids have a crack at mixing with the rich dimwits? Perhaps such questions are of no interest or pertinence to Canada."
M. Grégoire
Shutting down Ontario's Child Advocate's office "is one of the new Progressive Conservative government’s least explicable and very worst decisions. The Ombudsman will take over some functions, and goodness knows there’s a lot in the CFS file for an ombudsman to sink their teeth into. But an ombudsman isn’t an advocate."
Chris Selley: Ontario PCs will regret eliminating child advocate
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/chris-selley-ontario-pcs-will-regret-eliminating-child-advocate
M. Grégoire
@dankwraith
So is the #GPL liberal?
M. Grégoire
@hhardy01
If I were a Briton, I think I would have voted for Remain. That being said, I think it is the case that the citizens of the UK have always been interested in the EU as an economic project, but for France and Germany (and of course the EU institutions) it is fundamentally a political project.
If what you really want is Free Trade, it is not unreasonable to reject ever closer union.
Henry Edward Hardy
Brexit and all the shenanigans associated with it gave a huge, historic opening to Labour, which all factions, Bennite, Blairite, Trot, Corbynista and Watson, have utterly failed to appreciate or use to the party's benefit.
If Labour had a single policy, *any* policy, on Brexit, such as Leave, Stay, 2nd vote, Norway or Norway Plus, it has the balance of power to enact that policy and should by rights be the party in power now.
But Tory and Labour are both torn and factionalized.
Fitheach
This encapsulates the very essence of Brexit.
>>>
Summing up the debate, Barclay said: "It is time for this House to act in the national interest, it's time to put forward an extension that is realistic."
And then he voted against it.
<<<
That was Stephen Barclay, Conservative MP and the Brexit Minister.
Source: https://twitter.com/jessicaelgot/status/1106281467267682305
#politics #Brexit
Fitheach
I mentioned previously the relationship between national identity & voting. The following chart shows how people voted in the EU referendum (Leave/Remain) against how they identified on the English <-> British spectrum. The results in essence: more English = more Leave.
Source: Ashcroft Polls (2016)
My previous post on identity:
https://mstdn.io/@fitheach/101744734924925250
M. Grégoire
@hhardy01 The indecision of Parliament and the break-down of Tory unity are real, but *The Guardian* somehow omits the hostility of Labour MPs to Jeremy Corbyn as a reason why the chaos continues.
Personally, I tend to think the H of C ought to accept PM May's deal, but that is a very low confidence opinion.
Henry Edward Hardy
"[May] has become such an enfeebled husk that she dares not sack ministers who refuse to obey a three-line whip. Discipline in her party has broken down to the point where it is a headline news event when she actually manages to win a vote. Cabinet collective responsibility has so collapsed that the chancellor can float a rival Brexit proposal on the floor of the Commons while the prime minister sits beside him doing an impression of someone chewing a mouthful of wasps."
#WOMENSART
Nigerian artist Chiamonwu Joy, known for her hyperrealist artworks in charcoal #womensart https://t.co/sgZkLoS2Aj
Artbot
Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax
late 19 th century , based on a work of 1873
Anthony de Bree
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_Wood,_1st_Viscount_Halifax_by_Anthony_de_Brie_(Bree).jpg
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