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POPSLook Closely, Doctor: See the Camera? Psychiatrists say that other movies whose characters are living in a unreal world or being watched by malevolent forces, including “The Matrix,” “Edtv” and even the film based on George Orwell’s “1984,” have come up in conversations with psychotic patients. But the premise of “The Truman Show” (“What if you were watched every moment of your life?” according to a promotional blurb) is strikingly similar to what patients describe as their own experiences. Reinforcing their beliefs is the fact that in the movie, Truman is right about being watched and recorded at all times. Every other character is part of the conspiracy.
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POPSAnother Beatles Legacy - CAT Scans Interesting little story how the Beatles revenues for EMI allowed a scientist to invent CAT Scans. And here I thought their only contribution to the world was great music...
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POPSDeath in the Waiting Room The report said Sabock sat, unattended, in the room for four work shifts. The report also found that Sabock, formerly of Roanoke Rapids, ate nothing the day he died and had little food in the three days preceding his death. The 47-page report also said workers were supposed to be closely monitoring Sabock's condition and may have forged documents that said they had. A patient in New York died in June after she waited in a hospital's mental ward waiting area for nearly 24 hours. Security video showed her writhing on the floor. It was nearly an hour before someone else flagged down a staff member who got help for the unresponsive woman.
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POPSThe Last Hero of Tiananmen After I left his apartment, though, I decided it was unfair to expect the elderly doctor to continue standing up to the party. He had already achieved more than most and paid a price for it. I doubted the government would ever let him visit his daughter and grandson, but how could anyone expect him to give up that hope?There was only so much one man could do, and only so much a nation could ask of him.
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POPSA Painkiller With Big Risks In my line of work, I see many people addicted to methadone and I must confess that it is simply shocking to me that doctors addict these people so lightly. I don't mean to make light of the personal responsibility of the patient, but it just boggles my mind and it is so sad; sad beyond belief. I see 40 year olds that I know won't live another 10 years.
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POPSIntelligence and Empathy He stresses that the human mind does not qualify as a completely ‘General Intelligence’ but lies somewhere on the spectrum between AGI on one end and ‘Narrow AI’ on the other. This is one of several reasons why he does not expect AGI to be achieved by mimicking the workings of the human brain. He describes how our brains fool us into believing that we understand our actions and decisions when we don’t. And why modeling an AI too closely on the human brain might make it too, vulnerable to false notions. He also says, ‘I think virtual worlds are going to be absolutely critical to the development of Artificial General Intelligence.’ As well as ‘Right now connecting AI’s to virtual worlds is probably the best way to get an AI to have a general human-like embodied experience.’
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POPSTen reasons why Bigfoot's a bust. Go to the site for an informative slideshow. 1.) The Empty Fossil Record 2.) Forget Fossils, Where Are the Bones? 3.) Where Do Bigfoot Babies Come From? 4.) Your Lying Eyes 5.) The Ever-Mysterious Blobsquatch 6.) Doctor Who? 7.) The Case of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker 8.) This Katydid Couldn't Hide 9.) If It Walks Like a Hoax ... 10.) The Case of the Missing Footprint
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POPSIt's a Lawn Baby Mary Claire was born at 5 pounds, 11 ounces and was doing fine at St. Jude Medical Center, Higgins said.
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POPSGotta Stop Smoking Before That Face Lift Maybe someone should tell these chicki's that you might be able to postpone that face lift if you don't START smoking? Now, THAT could be motivational; forget the heart or lungs! Then again, one could always have a Post-mortem face lift and leave a hell of a good looking corpse!
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POPSAdmiral: Scrap Enlistment Age Limits Here, here! I agree! I hear Rush Limbaugh has gotten himself into shape, this would allow him the chance to make up for avoiding Vietnam! Ted Nugent too, I heard an interview where he expressed regret for showing up with urine and fecal matter in his pants to avoid being drafted for Nam! He's in pretty good shape for his age.
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POPSFinding A Personality "In the midst of all this — the comebacks, the wisecracks, the flapping mouth — I had a dim idea of what I was doing. I wanted to be someone, a recognizable personality, a full-blooded, memorable human being, and not just a cancer patient. I had already lost the person I used to be, that healthy, energetic 45-year-old woman. I wasn’t capable of losing more. “A critical illness is like a great permission, an authorization or absolving. It’s all right for a threatened man to be romantic, even crazy, if he feels like it. All your life you think you have to hold back your craziness, but when you’re sick you can let it go in all its garish colors.” YES!!!!!!!!!
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POPSMasturbational INSANITY The mind too is attacked. The thrall to self-pollution “can no longer look people squarely and frankly in the face, but seeks to avoid meeting people, pulls down his cap to hide his eyes and goes about with a shy and guilty bearing. His memory fails him. His mind begins to lack grasp and grip. He slowly but surely ceases to be positive and self-reliant. Imbecility and insanity may, and often do come as the inevitable result.” When a boy injures his reproductive powers so that when a man his sexual secretion shall be of inferior quality, his offspring will show it in their physical, mental and moral natures, shaping the history and destiny of the nation.
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POPSPolitical Interference of the Surgeon General (No way!) Surely they are lying! There is no way they controlled free speech! I am astonished that they would even suggest such things! Like this: On the increasing politicization of the Surgeon General's position: -Previous Surgeon Generals agreed that: "never had they seen Washington, D.C. so partisan or a new Surgeon General so politically challenged and marginalized as during my tenure." -" he reality is that the nation's doctor has been marginalized and relegated to a position with no independent budget, and with supervisors who are political appointees with partisan agendas. Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological, or political agenda is ignored, marginalized, or simply buried." - "Politicians in the late 1960s decided that the Office of the Surgeon General should be disempowered and its authorities placed within offices of Department of Health and Human Services political appointees."
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POPSMoving to the Right? I understand this is arguably the most polarizing topic on peoples minds yet without productive conversation it will not be resolved.
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POPSWomen With the horror of the recent "honor" killing in Georgia as the backdrop, I'm inspired to remind everyone that women die at the hands of male family members every day in the US. In fact, 4 times a day. I'm tired of the Right acting like they really care about women and gender equality. The only mention of women in the 2004 Republican platform is their insistence that if a woman gets pregnant, by law she'll stay that way until delivery. I went to a number of right wing websites and typed the words "violence against women" into their search engines. If any stories were listed at all, they were about honor killings in the Muslim world. The Right wrap their "concern" for women in the cloak of anti-Islamic rhetoric concerning honor killings and are dumb, deaf, and blind to all else. Enough. Islam is not the problem. Patriarchy is.