Want inner peace? Have a stroke.

Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroscientist, had a stroke that effectively shut down the left hemisphere of her brain. It took her 8 years to fully recover. In this video she shares her experience of entirely losing her sense of herself as an individual being.

Mystics, meditators, and psychadelic explorers have been to that “place;” a bleeding brain took her there. To her it felt profoundly spiritual but also underscored her understanding of the vastly different roles of the left and right hemispheres of the brain.

Are we spiritual beings capable of having physical experiences or physical beings capable of having spiritual experiences? I think the way that we’re “wired” prevents us from being able to know which is true. Does such a dichotomy even serve us?

Science continues to demonstrate how electrical impulses and chemicals interact to create our perception, which can include vast experiences of consciousness. If we truly are nothing more than extraordinarily complex machines, does that really matter? We do know that what matters in our relation to others and the world is what we do in the physical realm.

[via Open Culture]

Students’ and Renters’ Votes Shouldn’t Be Counted?

Republican Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen is suing the Government Accountability Board to check all voter registrations back to Jan. 2006. A discrepancy that would make a voter appear ineligible to vote is mentioned in this Isthmus article: a difference in addresses between the voter registration and the DOT database.

The address on my driver’s license (renewed every, what, 7 years?) isn’t current. It has changed at least 3 or 4 times since I registered with the DOT. So I suppose I could expect to have my vote thrown out with no warning if I don’t go down to the DMV and update it. Is my vote “fraudulent” because of this mismatch?

What about students and other renters that move every year? Is it likely that their DOT address record matches their voter registration?

How do you wipe out large numbers of votes from young people and those that aren’t wealthy enough to own a home? Van Hollen knows.

Van Hollen is also the co-chair of McCain’s campaign in Wisconsin. Do you see a conflict of interest?

EDIT: Go to Voter Public Access to check your voter registration status.

National Priorities

Using the figures from Death and Taxes I calculated that over the last month I personally contributed over $100 to the Global War on Terror. Over the same period about $36 went to the Department of Education.

The federal budget for 2009 is $1182 billion. $189 billion (16%) of that goes to the GWOT. $59 billion (5%) goes to Education. How much did you pay for each this month?

The Difference Between Obama and McCain’s Tax Proposals

This graph shows how each candidate plans to distribute his bribes if elected.

[Washington Post via gruber]

Review of tick, tick… BOOM!

Lindsay Christians’ review of tick, tick… BOOM! appeared today in 77 Square. Most of the fault is found with the show itself, which I think would have benefited from further workshopping before being published. I was mentioned by name (a first for me):

Jordan Peterson, playing primarily Jon’s best friend Michael, [...lends] his pleasant baritone to songs like “Real Life” and “Johnny Can’t Decide.” Peterson is animated in the entertaining “No More,” a song about his new apartment and the bohemian life he left behind, and believable as a successful executive who travels to escape his loneliness.

Props are given to the excellent band: Chris (keyboard & director), Mark (bass), Rocky (guitar), and Sean (drums), as well as Paul’s excellent lighting design and Meghan’s staging and costume design. It was a good opening weekend, and it’ll be over in a flash…only two more performances: Friday and Saturday. Our first rehearsal was just over 3 weeks ago; I’d say it’s going pretty well.