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Mapping the Brain

mak2 said:
Pure science. This is a very important venture.

Obama seeks $100M to unlock mysteries of the brain - CNN.com

President Barack Obama on Tuesday unveiled a $100 million initiative to unlock the "enormous mystery" of the human brain in hopes of boosting the understanding and treatment of brain disorders.
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Great idea - it's about time someone tried to figure out what goes on in the brain of the average American voter - it's truly a mystery.
 
upsideguy said:
Um... It seems to me that White House tours do little to further the health, education or welfare of Americans whereas good science does everything to further the health, education and ultimately the welfare of Americans. It seems to me governments priorities, in this limited view of tradeoffs anyway, is spot on.
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So then what you're saying is that we should shut down every type of museum in the country and divert their funding to strictly science? You do understand that thats pretty much what a Whitehouse tour is, right? The tours generally don't include the WH residence and consist of various historic aspects of US Presidential history.
 
mak2 said:
Pure science. This is a very important venture.

Obama seeks $100M to unlock mysteries of the brain - CNN.com

President Barack Obama on Tuesday unveiled a $100 million initiative to unlock the "enormous mystery" of the human brain in hopes of boosting the understanding and treatment of brain disorders.
Click to expand...

Great undertaking. Thus far it is never the case when one knows enough about the brain and its subjective realm - the mind. For instance even the right vs left brained people (i.e., people who rely on the left more [analytic] compared to the right [creative]) concept is being challenged today (Nielsen et al, 2013). This Obama development though may bring more insight and understanding into this exciting field!

References:

Nielsen, JA., Ferguson, Z., Anderson, L. (2013). An evaluation of the left-brain vs. right-brain hypothesis with resting state functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging. PLoS ONE, ; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0071275; Retrieved from: Researchers debunk myth of 'right-brained' and 'left-brained' personality traits .
 
CanadaJohn said:
Great idea - it's about time someone tried to figure out what goes on in the brain of the average American voter - it's truly a mystery.
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Precisely what makes this a boondoggle. We already know there's nothing going on up there. This reeks of desperation.
 
mak2 said:
Which do you think is more important?
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Free tours of the White House are more important. Besides, if a group of doctors want to map the brain, get private funding for it and not public money.
 
mak2 said:
Priorities. I really did not see how anyone could be anti on this one.
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That's because you work in this field. Everyone tends to view what they do as more important than what other think.
 
The tours aren't really free.

The Man said:
That's not the question. The question is: How can the government afford $100 million for this when they can't afford FREE tours of the White House?
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They are mapping the brain. I don't understand why people keep making the point about the mind.

Fishstyx said:
Ummm....are some of you thinking this is a new idea? Neurologist have doing this research for decades. 100s of millions of dollars have already gone towards this and will continue after this. And sorry to burst some bubbles, brain mapping and mind mapping aren't exclusive. In fact, they can't be exclusive. Part of brain mapping experimentation is utilizing brain imaging while stimulating various cognitive functions. Neuroscience and psychology more often than not walk hand and hand.
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CalGun said:
Is it going to cure unemployment, help our stagnant economy, prevent our possible collapse of our economic system thanks to continued over spending? How about canceling a $billion dollar contract on something else to at least cover for it?
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$100 million isn't going to "cure unemployment" no matter what you do with it.

But it could help. See, research is a job too. Scientists work doing the research, lots of people are involved in building the equipment they use, etc. Government spending doesn't just evaporate.
As for cancelling contracts, remember when we tried to do that with DOD contractors and they started giving out pink slips? You guys freaked the **** out.
 
Texmex said:
Free tours of the White House are more important. Besides, if a group of doctors want to map the brain, get private funding for it and not public money.
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Standard right-wing, kneejerk anti-science, anti-intellectual nonsense.
 
He said he is for education. Most museums promote education and learning.

Do you think all the museums should be shut down cause we're broke?


Fishstyx said:
So then what you're saying is that we should shut down every type of museum in the country and divert their funding to strictly science? You do understand that thats pretty much what a Whitehouse tour is, right? The tours generally don't include the WH residence and consist of various historic aspects of US Presidential history.
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Fishstyx said:
So then what you're saying is that we should shut down every type of museum in the country and divert their funding to strictly science? You do understand that thats pretty much what a Whitehouse tour is, right? The tours generally don't include the WH residence and consist of various historic aspects of US Presidential history.
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What? He didn't say anything remotely resembling that. What kind of ridiculous absolutism is this?

You think we should do white house tours instead of science? What, you think we should stop doing all science research forever?
 
The only good thing that came about because of the Iraq war is that there is a much greater understanding by the medical community about the mapping of the human brain through all the head injuries and subsequent brain damage suffered by Americans fighting there.
More research into this field of study could bring help to the many thousands who have been irrevocably brain damaged by that war.
Oh but then some assholes believe that white house tours are more important.
Go figure.
 
Deuce said:
Standard right-wing, kneejerk anti-science, anti-intellectual nonsense.
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I'm not Jesus Christ, although I do worship Him, but when you disagree with me it lets me know I am on the right track.
 
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