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Brain Differences In Liberals and Conservatives

Seen on Slashdot:

“Scientists from NYU and UCLA report in Nature Neuroscience that the brains of Democrats and Republicans process information differently. This new study finds that the differences are apparent even when the brain processes common information, not just political topics. From the study, liberals were more likely to be accurate and showed more brain activity in the region associated with analyzing conflicts. A researcher not affiliated with the study stated, liberals ‘could be expected to more readily accept new social, scientific or religious ideas.’ Moreover, ‘the results could explain why President Bush demonstrated a single-minded commitment to the Iraq war and why some people perceived Sen. John F. Kerry… as a flip-flopper.'”

Very interesting. I think we all knew some of this though. That’s why Conservatives are unable to accept things such as gay marriage, religious tolerance (didn’t Jesus preach love for everyone?), the planet being more than 6000 years old, etc.

Dirty Acres- The Excitement is Building

dirty acres
Many of you know I am a huge fan of an underground rap group called CunninLynguists. Their last album, A Piece of Strange was pure genius. I loved the album so much, I created (and unfortunately didn’t keep up with) a companion site (whatisapos.com) made up of fan’s insights and thoughts into the album, as well as producer Kno’s own words behind the story. They are such a talented group that anytime they drop a new song I am instantly pumped and craving more. A song from their new album, Dirty Acres, was recently released. From the QN5 Blog:

Fresh off 2006’s A Piece of Strange, an album that XXL Magazine compared to “vintage UGK and Dungeon Family“, the Kentucky-Georgia hip-hop hybrid CunninLynguists are back with the first shot from their upcoming 4th album, Dirty Acres. The song, entitled “Yellow Lines”, features Phonte of Little Brother and Witchdoctor, of the aforementioned Dungeon Fam, trading verses with CL’s Natti over a smooth, live guitar assisted beat produced by Kno. Deacon The Villain’s syrupy Kentucky drawl ties it all together on the hook, making this definite ‘must-add’ to your late summer soundtrack. Roll the windows down, notch the volume up…but watch those “Yellow Lines”.


Listen to the song and download it from here.

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Thoughts on Emo

I was talking to a friend of mine, who shall remain nameless (ok, it was Lisa), about the musical genre emo. She was saying that because a songs lyrics are similar to lyrics to an emo song, then that band is emo. The example she used was Blink 182, saying they were emo because the themes in their songs were the same as emo themes. I disagreed. If that was the case, 99% of every pop song ever made would be considered emo, because emo songs are all about not getting the girl or broken hearts, etc. The lyrics, and lyrics alone, don’t classify an artist into a genre. If a rocker had the same type of lyrics and themes as a rap song they wouldn’t be rap, they’d still be rock. A genre is about the lyrics, the style, and the image put forth by the artist. Blink 182 doesn’t put forth the same image of “I hate my life now let me write crappy poetry and put it on Myspace so my other emo friends can read it and complain that we have no friends because we’re outcasts, now let’s go to The Gap and buy tight girl’s jeans (even though I’m a guy) and black turtlenecks” as emo kids do. Yes, that is a stereotype and yes I’m making fun of them. If I don’t then they might not be emo. They should be thanking me for that. Anyway, back to my original thought. Lyrics do not act alone in the genre classification. Lisa was wrong.

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Best Comment Ever

I was reading an article on Digg about the great-grandson of L. Ron Hubbard speaking out against Scientology on a radio show. I didn’t watch the video but one comment drew my attention. It is quite possibly the best comment ever.

It sounds like the short, fat DJ, who keeps calling the guy on the phone “Jackass”, is attacking Scientology while defending Christianity.

So lemme get this straight, its NOT ok to believe in a made up religion where alien beings from a planet called “Xenu” implanted their souls into volcanoes,

BUT it IS ok to believe that a mythical anthropomorphic, self paranoid ego-manic “Bible-God” impregnated a virgin in order to give birth to himself in order to be sacrificed to himself in order to sit beside himself in order to save the world from himself as some kind of sadistic experiment in self replicating redemption by fillings the heads of precious innocent impressionable children with disturbing stories of hell and damnation and devils and eternal suffering.

Are magical invisible green elephants who control the universe from their homes inside doorknobs any less real in the minds of psychopaths in insane asylums?

All these psychotic nutbags need to seek professional help.