GAMES “SCIENCE” PLAYS

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/free-will-could-be-the-result-of-background-noise-in-the-brain-study-suggests-9553678.html

The concept of free will could be little more than the result of background noise in the brain, according to a recent study.

It has previously been suggested that our perceived ability to make autonomous choices is an illusion – and now scientists from the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California, Davis, have found that free will may actually be the result of electrical activity in the brain.

According to the research, published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, decisions could be predicted based on the pattern of brain activity immediately before a choice was made.

Volunteers in the study were asked to sit in front of a screen and focus on its central point while their brains’ electrical activity was recorded. They were then asked to make a decision to look either left or right when a cue symbol appeared on the screen, and then to report their decision.

The cue to look left or right appeared at random intervals, so the volunteers could not consciously or unconsciously prepare for it.

The brain has a normal level of so-called background noise; the researchers found that the pattern of activity in the brain in the seconds before the cue symbol appeared – before the volunteers knew they were going to make a choice – could predict the likely outcome of the decision.

snip

“The state of the brain right before presentation of the cue determines whether you will attend to the left or to the right,” Bengson said.

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REALLY??? REALLY???

After reading this ‘scientific’ study, my cognitive assessment of ‘science’ has lost several more points on my common sense scale and it wasn’t all that high to begin with.
This ‘study’ is so ridiculous on its face that it doesn’t even merit a place in any serious catagory, let alone the study of how the mind works. The premise is beyond absurd if their intent was to prove that free will is predictable, when all it REALLY proves is that people are prone to follow instructions…which IS predictable in a LOT of cases.

Let me proffer my own assessment of this study and YOU decide which makes more sense.

Free will is exhibited in the original sense by CHOOSING to participate in this farce. The participants DID volunteer after all for one reason or another. No one shoved them into a line or ordered them to do it. That is an example of free will.

The NEXT decision is whether you CHOOSE to follow the instructions as given. The brain is already working on that decision at that time. What if, upon receiving the instructions, you decide to turn around and walk away because it’s so silly? MY first thought was what if I don’t WANT to look right or left. What if I wait for the cue and blink instead? What if I simply ignore their cue? Will I play their game and THEN do what they don’t expect? What have they proven then?

OF COURSE the brain is actively gearing up in anticipation of doing SOMETHING while waiting for the cue…and that is ALL. What you DECIDE to do is totally UNPREDICTABLE and these ‘scientists’ were counting on the PREDICTABLE , statistically proven response to authority to give them the results they already expected…except that even THAT is wrong.

I would be willing to bet that 100% of the volunteers had already decided, long before the cue, which way they were going to look. Therefore, once again, in anticipation of the cue, the brain goes into gear to send electrical messages to the eyes to move which would ALSO increase electrical brain activity each and every time.

Free will is NOT an illusion. It is real and active in every facet of our existence. Things that influence our decisions vary from day to day and minute to minute, sometimes from nanosecond to nanosecond. The brain is a supercomputer capable of processing information at speeds rocket scientists should envy.

Free will is a woman facing death in Sudan for refusing to renounce her faith in the face of certain death.

Free will is choosing to murder or choosing the opposite.

Free will is a soldier throwing himself on a grenade to save the lives of his Brothers in Arms.

Free will is choosing to murder an unborn child out of either selfishness or convenience.

Free will is choosing to have that child regardless of the circumstances.

Free will is choosing to get up in the morning and go to work or call in sick.

Free will is choosing to replace your lost legs and learning to walk or staying in a wheelchair as a victim eliciting self-serving pity for the rest of your life.

So what was learned exactly in this ‘scientific study’? I’ll tell you what.

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. It HAS proven the old adage that there is a sucker born every minute…and that much of the ‘scientific community’ exploits that adage every whichaway but loose.

 

BERGDAHL’S GENERAL

Gen. Stanley McChrystal

http://www.businessinsider.com/gen-mcchrystal-bergdahl-2014-6

“We did a huge number of operations to try to stop the Taliban from being able to move him across the border into Pakistan,” said Gen. Stanley McChrystal in a Yahoo News interview. “And we made a great effort and put a lot of people at risk in doing that, but that’s what you should do. That’s what soldiers do for each other.”

So sayeth Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the same Gen. Stanley McChrystal who helped design obama’s new ROE for Afghanistan that has gotten more Americans killed than in all the preceding years of the war.

If Bergdahl was following McChrystal’s ‘leading by example’, he would have seen or read that the esteemed general had made it next to impossible for American troops to defend themselves anywhere anytime, and expressed his great respect for the ‘sensitivities’ of the terrorists by jogging frequently without any body armor or a helmet for protection.

His first priority was the Afghans, not the troops he was sent there to command. He commanded them to die rather than dare to defend themselves whether in convoys, under fire, ambushed or otherwise, if there was even one so-called civilian anywhere in the vicinity. They were friends that could be trusted in his presence.

I used to keep daily track of the Americans killed on his watch on what was once my Free Republic profile page, but stopped when his insufferable arrogance caught up with him and Petraeus took over. The list was huge.

So here we have the man who was in charge, who sent good men to their deaths to ‘save’ a deserter he probably encouraged, now defending the loss of lives and the terrorist trade, but couldn’t be bothered to protect ANY OF THE WARRIORS UNDER HIS COMMAND.

McChrystal on the Second Amendment

To all of this I say, a pox on you, McChrystal, and the boss you rode in on.

THE REAL OBAMA DOCTRINE

You are all in some kind of shock, dismayed by the antics of obama in trading a deserter who willingly joined the taliban for five worst of the worst terrorists in Gitmo. WHY? Anyone who doesn’t know who/what obama is is deaf, dumb, blind, and stupid and willfully so.

He has flouted his terrorist loyalty time and time again and gotten away with it when he should be standing in front of a firing squad for high treason.

Might I remind those who have forgotten that obama PERSONALLY stopped the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed? He picked up the phone and made the call himself after the trial had already begun. There was very little backlash and ksm is still getting 5 star treatment at Gitmo.

obama will find a reason, believe me, to release this demon because he knows now he can get away with it and he absolutely does not care what anyone thinks, says, or does. Nor does he care how many lives he has endangered, not just in the United States but around the world.

You might also give heed to how many Navy SEALs have been killed since they took out one of obama’s pet Somali pirates to save the life of an American ship captain by pushing a technical loophole in obama’s ‘do not shoot’ order.

He has been exacting personal revenge on the SEALs ever since.

Immediately before this so-called prisoner exchange, he outed the CIA Station Chief IN Afghanistan. How many of you believe that it was a complete accident by a nitwit aide? Please. Use your brains and realize that obama’s trip to Pakistan so long ago was not simply a vacation for a few days. It was for months and he was completely off the radar.

My personal belief is that he finished his training at a madrassa and that is where he attained the ‘gift’ he bragged to harry reid about.

What gift was he talking about?

If you have never seen a video of how an imam, (or any muslim cleric,) mesmerizes their audience, I suggest you view one. They use all the tricks obama used when he gave those speeches that caused audience members to faint, swoon, and sway with euphoria. The techniques using sound…pitch, tone, and reverb are not unique to muslims, but they teach it as high art to their clerics and obama learned it and used it HERE in ways we have not seen before. Watch any movie that features the muslim call to prayer as background sound and you will hear it.

I recall Liam Neeson saying when he first heard it, it was annoying. Then he got used to it, then looked forward to it because it was so beautiful. He thought it was so beautiful he actually considered converting to islam.

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http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/cityofbrass/2012/01/liam-neeson-is-not-converting-to-islam.html

Yes, it’s true that famed Irish (and Catholic) actor Liam Neeson said the following while filming a movie in Istanbul:

“The Call to Prayer happens five times a day and for the first week it drives you crazy, and then it just gets into your spirit and it’s the most beautiful, beautiful thing… There are 4,000 mosques in the city. Some are just stunning and it really makes me think about becoming a Muslim.”
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He didn’t follow through, but it is an example of how and why so many are taken in by it.

In all these years, obama has stood back and watched in mocking silence as muslims have murdered, mutilated, and enslaved Christians and Jews, men, women, and children, by the thousands. He has given them the money and weapons to do this and it continues as we speak.

He changed our troops’ rules of engagement to favor the terrorists and as a DIRECT result, on his watch, more Americans have been killed than in all the years of the Afghan war before he entered the White House…and his APPOINTED generals have not protested or taken any action to protect our Warriors. Not McChrystal, Petraeus, nor Allen.

obama has packed his administration with muslims and muslim sympathizers. muslims are excluded from obamacare because their ‘religion’ doesn’t permit insurance, but Christians are forced to pay for abortificents and abortions. Do you think a muslim baker would have been forced to bake a wedding cake for same sex couples?

There are so many examples of the ONE path, the ONE thing obama has been loyal to since the day he took office that it boggles my mind no one in power has dared call it treason and followed it up with anything more than passing words that drift away with the wind.

EVERYTHING obama has done since he was elected has helped muslims gain power in one way or another everywhere in the world. Literally.

So Again I ask. Why are you so surprised that he has done it yet again? 

TO OUR FALLEN WARRIORS, ETERNAL GRATITUDE

THANK YOU.

FREE REPUBLIC OR NEEDFUL THINGS?

Allow me to introduce:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/107291.Needful_Things

Needful Things
by Stephen King

Leland Gaunt opens a new shop in Castle Rock called Needful Things. Anyone who enters his store finds the object of his or her lifelong dreams and desires: a prized baseball card, a healing amulet. In addition to a token payment, Gaunt requests that each person perform a little “deed,” usually a seemingly innocent prank played on someone else from town. These practical jokes cascade out of control and soon the entire town is doing battle with itself.

I had fully intended to leave Free Republic behind as a bad dream, but the longer I am away, the more I realize that it is and was so much more. Intentionally so. The way it is structured is almost Machiavellian in nature. Like “Needful Things”, it draws in the weak and elderly, the young and naive, the lonely and sick, people looking for a place they think they belong.
And like “Needful Things” proprietor, Leland Gaunt, Jim Robinson promises that which you crave most at a dreadful price. Once you ‘belong’ you are nothing more than a hostage to the whims of a tyrant who can take your ‘home’ and separate you from your ‘friends’ anytime and any way he decides for any reason and/or excuse. You are always aware that this can happen and often does no matter how much you have contributed or how hard you have worked to raise Free Republic to a higher plane in the Conservative Movement. Jim Robinson sees to it that Free Republic stays on the fringes and will not allow any challenge to his absolute rule even if it means turning Freepers on each other.

When Free Republic was on its way to becoming a major force of nature thanks to the hard work of many dedicated people who believed in him, he stabbed every single one of them in the back rather than allow anyone to share his power. He took their money and their work and sent out his sycophants to utterly destroy them…and he succeeded to an amazing degree.

He offers you “freedom of speech” until you try to use it to disagree with him or his inner sanctum. Then either he or his designated attack vultures will find a reason for you to ride the lightning even if they have to revive a four year old statement you once made, take it completely out of context, and slowly nibble away at you to goad you into either fighting back knowing you will be banned, or just going away quietly to heal your wounds because you cannot win.
He states over and over that FR is for God and country…unless you are a Mormon or a Jew. Free Republic is his country, and the almighty dollar is his god.

He turns Freeper against Freeper…”to keep things interesting.” Usually it starts by Jim posting an opinion about something/anything, then sitting back waiting for the usual buttkissers to come running to pat him on the back with a “Yes, Boss,” or some such fawning platitude. But inevitably, someone will attempt to use that “freedom of speech” Jim is always touting to disagree with his opinion and offer one of his/her own and BAM! It’s off to the races and Free Republic goes to war with itself just like King’s Castle Rock. Should the battle appear to subside on its own, Jim, like Leland Gaunt, will step back in and make a remark about how it’s his board and if you don’t like the way he runs HIS board, (even though YOU pay for it,) you can go somewhere else…and the battle reheats. A purge ensues and there can be three or four “zots” on that one thread. It doesn’t matter how long you have been there. You are gone.

I have been watching this Freepathon and watching the donations as they come in from people who can scarcely afford it apologizing that they can’t donate more than maybe $3.00 and it is heartbreaking, sad, and sickening.
How many of those who sent in $3.00 have the kind of bling shown in the pic of JimRob, a quarter inch wide, 18-20 inch long white and yellow gold rope chain…while THEY are deciding which prescriptions they can forgo because the copays are so high?

He says Free Republic is beholden to no one, but that is a lie.
Leland Gaunt drove a “Tucker Talisman” built specially for him.
Jim Robinson drives a fully rigged, customized van that was, or will soon be, customized even further to accommodate his new disability, (and I don’t begrudge him that,) but to say that FR is beholden to no one when it is truly beholden to everyone whose hard work and many, many contributions paid for everything he has while trying to scare people into donating what they don’t have so he can have even more of what they don’t is disingenuous at best.
He takes in $340,000 per year just from FR. That does not include Social Security or any pension he might receive. That also does not include other entities running off FR’s servers which pay him for space.
He also employs Google Analytics which, unless it is the free version, costs a MINIMUM of $50,000 per year so he knows where anyone who visits FR comes from and goes, where they spend their money and how much, what other sites they visit and when 24/7. In other words, YOU pay to have yourself followed by a corporation that takes every single bit of your personal information and uses it to profit themselves, gives it over to fed.gov upon demand, and though Jim KNOWS this, he uses it anyway so HE knows who you are and where you’ve been, consequences be damned.
Anyone and everyone who has ever had personal dealings with Jim Robinson with very few exceptions has been shafted BY Jim Robinson in one way or another.

And how does he repay Freeper loyalty? Well, unless you are a bonafide member of his CURRENT inner sanctum, you can expect not one iota of reciprocated loyalty from Mr. Robinson as he has proven time and again over many years.
As I said in an earlier post, Free Republic is a buyer beware site where the rules can change in less than a heartbeat. You pays your money and you takes your chances. Good luck with that. Leland Gaunt lives.