In what sense is it true that, had the past been in some way different, an aspect of the present would be more substantial?

Counterfactual history is a literary genre, not a mode of scientific argument, so it was a (pleasant) surprise to come upon the following in a thoughtful and provocative article entitled "Default positions: how neuroscience's historical legacy has hampered investigation of the resting mind" by F. Callard, J. Smallwood, and D.S. Margulies, which appears in Frontiers in Psychology:

"... a compelling body of literature – largely unknown or disregarded ... – ... documents various methods to investigate the processes characterizing activities pursued during so-called “idle time” ... what we now refer to as self-generated mental activity including daydreaming, fantasy, mind-wandering, and dissociation. It is not difficult to see that if these research domains had flourished ... rather than been neglected, our vocabulary for describing self-generated thought would have been richer; our methods to investigate such thought more creative; and hence our capacities to interpret the psychological meaning of different forms of spontaneous neural activity in different systems, including the mental life and associated neural systems of the [Default Mode Network], more substantial."

"Citizens Ask Court to Enforce Law, Protect Park."

An update is available at SaveRockCreekHillsPark.org

"How strange is the lot of us mortals!"

"Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people — first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving." 

- Albert Einstein.


h/t: Andrew Sullivan

"To be a successful soldier you must know history."

Today is the 75th anniversary of George S. Patton's anticipation of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

On June 3, 1937, Patton filed a report that foresaw the attack that would take place on December 7, 1941.

Happy Galileo's Birthday!

"There will be opened a gateway and a road to a large and excellent science into which minds more piercing than mine shall penetrate to recesses still deeper."

- Galileo Galilei (1564–1642)


[h/t: The Writer's Almanac]

Hey Porter!

The opening sentence of the four-page article on Porter, written by Horst Dornbusch and Garrett Oliver, in The Oxford Companion to Beer, edited by Garrett Oliver:

"Porter, a type of dark beer that first saw life in the 1700s, built London's greatest breweries, slaked the thirsts of America's revolution-minded colonists, and then traveled the world, morphing as it went to meet the changing needs of time and place."

(Post title refers to this.)

Zip Code 10048.

[Photo by Jon Thaler; Nikon 35mm f/2 on D700.]

"The Hero of Saratoga"

When NeuroCooking last reported on David Kosizek in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, he was reading a letter home from the Korean War. Yesterday, we caught up again there with Mr. Kosizek – or should we say with General Benedict Arnold, conquerer of Ticonderoga, hero of Saratoga, and commander of West Point:

In a small theater in the museum, General Arnold defended his record to audience members who arrived more familiar with certain later events, such as, um, his attempt to sell to the British the plans to West Point, in order to ensure its capture.

The Smithsonian's TrailBike.

We rarely see bikes of any kind in museums, let alone trendy artisanal bikes featuring custom steelwork and wooden accessories. Today though, in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, we came upon this twin-forked Ho Chi Minh Trail bike:

Apparently though, these bikes were not ridden, but pushed:

"Ho Chi Minh Trail

The North Vietnamese dispatched troops and tons of supplies along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a series of rough roadways and footpaths that led through the highland jungles of Laos and Cambodia to South Vietnam. Civilian porters pushing overloaded bicycles transported everything from boxes of ammunition to bags of rice."

Once upon a time...

[View from a Southbound Amtrak train, yesterday.]

Made in Japan by Mr. Shin-ichi Konno.

We've never seen a bike quite like this Cherubim that was on display over the weekend in Austin, Texas at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show (here's another view, with its creator).

"Second Amendment remedies"

"Only our surprise that the unforeseen was fated allows the arbitrary to disappear."

-Philip Guston (1913 – 1980)

Because NeuroCooking is read in 70 countries, we would like to try to put recent tragic events here into context, especially for our friends outside the USA.

The Second Amendment to the US Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights, introduced in 1789 and approved in 1791. The amendment says:

"A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

Here "arms" means guns.

Ms. Sharron Angle, recently the Republican candidate in the general election for a US Senate Senate seat in the State of Nevada, said:

"... if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying my goodness what can we do to turn this country around? I'll tell you the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out."

Now, this call for the assassination of an incumbent US Senator came from a major-party general-election nominee. Similarly, it was Republican US Representative from Minnesota Michele Bachmann, not some random nut-job in a dirty anorak, who said:

"I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back."

Former half-term Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin (who was the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate in 2008) distributed widely this graphic, featuring rifle cross-hairs, under the heading "Don't retreat – instead, reload!":

Here is the Hon. Gabrielle Giffords commenting, presciently, on that map:

Thank you, NeuroCooking friends, for letting us take a moment this morning to share with you these recent examples of the rhetoric of violence. It's not a pleasant topic – but, as recent events have shown, it is important.

on intercourse & distinctions

"Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions."

-from Common Sense by Thomas Paine, 1776.

Seasonal blogging.

[first fire of the season]

No, what time is it, really?

In the 19th century, Captains in the British Navy who could not afford their own marine chronometer (used to determine longitude by celestial navigation) were issued one by the Navy, but Captains who provided their own were issued two, so that they would have three chronometers aboard ship – because you need three to know which one has gone wrong.

We weren't "built for" anything.

Living beings are products of evolution – that is, random mutation & natural selection – they were not "built for" or "built to do" anything. The false belief that organisms are made for a purpose is known as teleology, from "the Greek τέλος - telos, root: τελε-, 'end, purpose.'"

And the same holds for the components of living things. It is true that you walk on your feet, but that does not mean that feet were "made for" walking. It is true that your brain is a prediction machine, but that does not mean that brains were "made for" predicting.

This distinction is important, because if we mistakenly adopt the teleological view, we deprive ourselves of the insights that come from an evolutionary perspective – in fields as different as ecology, comparative anatomy, & medical genetics.

Be here now, or be sad?

Just the final sentence from "A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind", by Matthew A. Killingsworth and Daniel T. Gilbert, from the 12 November 2010 issue of Science:

"The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost."

"A healthy shove ..."

Time-traveling with Mark Trail does create a sense of responsibility: If we can see the future, aren't we obligated to act upon it? Which is why we say, today, regarding tomorrow: "Look out, Mark!"

[If you get a "permission denied" message, then click on this link, and then on the "Look out..!" link above. Cookies, I guess.]

Time-traveling, again.

We've noted here previously that we can travel into the future with Mark Trail.

With that in mind, we'd like to direct your attention to some excitement that will take place this Saturday!

"deny & imply"

A brief passage from Gary Shteyngart's remarkable new novel, "Super Sad True Love Story":

.... A tank rolled over to us, and the nine first-class Americans instinctively raised our hands. The tank stopped short; a single soldier in T-shirt and shorts popped out of the hatch and planted a highway sign next to it, black letters against an orange background:

IT IS FORBIDDEN TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE EXISTENCE OF THIS VEHICLE ("THE OBJECT") UNTIL YOU ARE .5 MILES FROM THE SECURITY PERIMETER OF JOHN F. KENNEDY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT. BY READING THIS SIGN YOU HAVE DENIED EXISTENCE OF THE OBJECT AND IMPLIED CONSENT.

– American Restoration Authority,

Security Directive IX-2.11

"Together We'll Surprise the World!"