Scientists looking at the effects of LSD in the brain have made an
unexpected discovery that could lead to improved treatments for
schizophrenia, according to a study published Sunday.

While investigating how hallucinogens change brain chemistry, a team
of researchers led by Stuart Sealfon at the Mount Sinai School of
Medicine in New York noticed that the neural pathways affected, as
well as key symptoms, were very similar to those in schizophrenia
patients.

Schizophrenics often hear voices, and may believe that other people
are reading their minds or controlling their thoughts. These
frightening experiences can cause social withdrawal and extreme
agitation.

There is no known cure for the chronic disorder, which affects
approximately one in 200 people, emerging in men in their late teens
and early 20s, and a decade later in women, according to the World
Health Organisation.

Created by a Swiss chemist in the late 1930s as a possible treatment
for neural and respiratory troubles, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD)
emerged the 1950s and 1960s as a popular recreational drug.

Do apes have imagination?

ScienceDaily (Feb. 24, 2008) -- Do apes have imagination? How do they
understand pictures? A years-long study of apes performed by cognitive
scientist Tomas Persson shows, among other things, that it doesn't
take a human brain to understand pictures as being a representation.
Persson's dissertation, which is now being submitted at Lund
University, is the first one in Sweden to focus entirely on the
thinking of apes.

When humans compare a picture with reality, it's often necessary to
fill in information that is missing in the picture. For instance, how
do we know that a person in a picture is running, as opposed to being
frozen in a position?

How do we know that that bright orange thing on Donald Duck is a beak?
How do we recognize the motif of pictures we have never seen before?
The answer is: we interpret.

Many animals have no trouble recognizing the content of realistic
pictures, such as photographs, but can they relate a picture to
reality in such a way that they can recognize a drawing? The answer is
yes, with reservation.

see

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoons/ASAYC/2008/ASAYC20080222_low.jpg

See

http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/arts_cultures/literature/human_knowledge

A quote from the above:

"The example suggests that - paradoxical as it may sound - it is
through honesty and humility about what we do not know that we are
able to speak with greater authority. If we ignore what we do not know...

Here is a definition someone offered of a psuedo science. Do you think
it is adequate? What should be included?

"First a provisional definition of science (especially empirical
science):
An area of knowledge where theories put forth and rigorously weeded
out by empirical testing.

"Now a proposed definition of pseudo-science:
Claiming a theory is justified because it is "scientific" particularly
in the case where empirical testing is systematically avoided.

"Thus to be pseudo-scientific there needs to be at least three
elements:
1. A claim that a theory is scientific.
2. A claim that because it is scientific it is justified.
3. The theory must also be worded in such a way as to avoid empirical
testing."

Lance

Is it still correct to talk of reptiles as a class of animals? I
gather that crocodiles are now thought to be more closely related to
birds than to other members of the reptile group. Further the
distinction between snakes and lizards seems to be collapsing - they
all have poison glands for example, even if some do not have fangs for
delivering the stuff. So What, if anything, are reptiles other than a
bunch of snake/lizards? (I suppose tortoises and tutles have to fit in
somewhere too).

And what does this do the [hrases such as 'The age of reptiles'?

Lance

All members of uk.philosophy.humanism

The UK is one of only five European members that still allow animal
snares to be used. Ireland, France, Spain and Belgium have far
stricter snare rules compared to the UK. Almost 70 per cent of animals
caught in snares are not the intended targets.

All snares are indiscriminate, inherently cruel and injure and kill a
wide range of animals, including domestic pets, livestock and
endangered species.