CCLE advancing freedom of thought

The Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics (CCLE) is a network of scholars elaborating the law, policy and ethics of freedom of thought. Their mission is to develop social policies that will preserve and enhance freedom of thought into the 21st century.

The CCLE is dedicated to protecting and advancing freedom of thought in the modern world of accelerating neurotechnologies. Their paramount concern is to foster the unlimited potential of the human mind and to protect freedom of thought.

The CCLE supports technological advances, and believes that the application and regulation of new drugs and neurotechnologies are best channeled by a renewed allegiance to the fundamental right to freedom of thought. Their guiding principles are privacy, autonomy and choice.

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Betting on Ruin – threats abroad and at home

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Do space aliens pose risks to Earth? One genius thinks so

Growing up I watched every Sci-Fi movie that came out. The majority of the space aliens depicted during the fifties and early sixties were threats to mankind.

But things started to change in the late seventies and early eighties and space aliens got a makeover. Instead of being threats, aliens were friends with earthlings. Think E.T., and it’s popular spawn of good space aliens that followed on the big screen.

A noted Astrophysicist, Stephen Hawkins, recently told his peers (and the press) that earthlings better avoid contact with space aliens because he doesn’t think they are going to be nice to us.

Shoot…Hawkins even suggested that if space aliens discover our world that they will probably want to colonize it.

I’m not sure how this genius (and I’m not being rude because he is a real genius) came to the conclusion he did, but the way I figure it there was always a 50-50 chance of extra terrestrial’s being good or bad. Call it universal odds. The fact is we can speculate all we want about visitors from space. Until contact is made the story won’t be told. If anyone’s still around to tell it that is!

Should the military intervene in civilian crime?

I think calling in the military to fight the violence in Chicago would be a mistake. There’s enough people angry at the federal government right now, without giving them fuel like this.

The growing violence is a problem, but the local politicians need to address it at the state level and not incite people by bringing in the military. I can see no good coming from that arrangement. 

Lawmakers: Military could quell Chicago violence

Excerpt:

“Two Illinois lawmakers say violence has become so rampant in Chicago that the National Guard must be called in to help.

Chicago Democratic Reps. John Fritchey and LaShawn Ford made a public plea to Gov. Pat Quinn on Sunday to deploy troops.

The request comes amid a recent surge in violent crime, including a night last week that saw seven people killed and 18 wounded, mostly by gunfire.”

What's therapeutic, affects moral judgment, and confuses crocks?

Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 04/25/2010 01:27:24 AM PDT

It's a comic villain's dream. The good guy is strapped down and bombarded by a powerful beam that can alter his sense of morality. It's also reality, according to a recently released report on magnets by the publication Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Scientists from MIT, Harvard University and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center got together and scrambled the moral center of some willing subjects, using magnets. No, really. It does sound kind of sinister, but these respected neuroscientists suggest just the opposite. They believe the research has useful applications that may, for example, benefit the courts.

The researchers reported they affected the “moral decision-making process” with magnetic fields. The study discovered the part of the brain that changes people's moral judgments. I don't think this new study will change our legal system soon. It's a big, clunky setup involving huge magnets. It sounds scary to me, and I hesitate to consider all the nefarious applications if it ends up in the wrong hands. That's assuming it hasn't already.

Go here to read the rest. 

PHOTO: Florida wildlife managers have taped magnets to the heads of crocodiles to try and stop them from returning to residential areas. The temporary headgear is thought to disrupt their ‘homing’ ability because the reptiles are thought to rely on the Earth’s magnetic fields to navigate. Researchers at Mexico’s Crocodile Museum in Chiapas reported they had some success with the method, using it to permanently relocate 20 of the reptiles since 2004.”                                                                     Photo source

Goldman e-mails: ‘Serious money’ to be made

This is another confirmation of how devious the Wall Street crowd is. No wonder people hate guys like Blankfein. They live in another world and consider the rest of us rubes!

Firm boasted about money it was making as housing market collapsed

PHOTO- Goldman Sachs "made more than we lost because of shorts," Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein said in a November 2007 e-mail.

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Can any political party be civil and still get out their message?

The woman who started The Coffee Party, Annabel Park, has discovered that the idea of gathering people together to civilly present an exchange of ideas, is naive. Nevertheless, she means well and keeps trying to make the idea work.

Will she be usurped by her own newly created political party for not being “aggressive enough?”  Read:

The Coffee party Heats Up

Tired of all the Tea Party talk, Annabel Park decided to throw a Coffee Party—and 200,000 people showed up.

“The question is whether Park or anyone else can hope to lead a successful movement based on civility instead of combat. There's a reason why pundits keep using the cliché that we're a deeply divided nation: there are intensely partisan minorities on the far right and the far left.”

GUEST OPINION: vote for prop 15

Candidates for office have to raise so much campaign money that they become beholden to the big-spending interests that fund them rather than to the voters who elect them.

But there's an alternative:

Proposition 15’s idea to levy a fee on lobbyists to fund political campaigns is worth a try

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Alaska dog honored for leading troopers to fire

Step aside Lassie! We have a new dog hero for the 21st Century.

Buddy appears at a news conference in Anchorage, Alaska on Friday, April 23, 2010. The German shepherd was hailed Friday as a hero for guiding Alaska State Troopers through winding back roads to a fire at his owner Ben Heinrichs' workshop on April 4. He received a commendation and a stainless steel dog dish from the troopers. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)

Read the whole story here.

Archie Comics to unveil gay character in September

Move about keeping world ‘current and inclusive,’ CEO says

Archie Comics issue "Veronica 202" will introduce a new classmate named Kevin Keller, the first gay character in the Archie Comics series. The comic will be available in September 2010.

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