It’s called a ‘Dictatorship’ not a ‘Fannytatorship’…

Which reminds me of a joke, but that’s for another time

Dolphin loving is really not advised. True, Dolphins are among the mammals that have sex for fun, but with each other. They call it a blow hole, but please don’t try it as there is a muscle powerful enough to sever a leg… If you happen to be another bottle nose dolphin though…

http://www.nowpublic.com/environment/dolphin-blow-hole-job

Apparently this has lead to a creepy phenomenon. In the July edition of the Atlantic Nicholas Carr asks “Is Google making us stupid?”

I freely admit to not really enjoying reading at any age, although if I really concentrated I could always enjoy the movie

I have noticed over the years though that things have sped up dramatically and I constantly find myself waiting for information that I am searching for. I had just assumed I was getting old. Maybe Mr Carr is just inventing an excuse for a mid life crisis? I wonder if my missus will let my buy that Ferrari now?

Is the Internet really making us stupid, or, is it actually allowing us to “power browse” as the article suggests, and it is this phenomenon that is actually allowing us to filter out waffle. With the ability to disregard crap it means the writing style must change to a style I was introduced to that allows managers to tune out at their leisure… the headline approach: Summary and conclusion first, then discussion. With the ability to assimilate large quantities of conclusion with backup workings, would this not inevitably make us more intelligent?

The ability to immerse yourself in a book is something that was once learned or a natural process that got unlearnt, then a bit of concentration and ongoing practice will get this back. The brain will adapt to which ever you use, and would learn to adapt to both being able to switch easlily, surely this is a good thing?

Are you destined to have specific traits before you are even born, or can you develop specific traits as you mature… one of life’s age old arguments. The answer, as usual is actually a combination of both. People who argue a single model of model of psychology are idiots. The answers to life are not Freud OR Jung OR NLP, but combinations of all of them, mixed in with some stuff we don’t really understand yet.

Basically a person is born with a genetic “predisposition” to a certain trait (Nature) and how this is enhanced or repressed throughout a persons experience (Nurture) defines whether you end up axe murdering your entire family and end up living in Guam with your 13 year old cross dressing bride.

Assuming no random genetic mutation in-utero for a moment, lets discuss.

Is there a gene that classically defines “Axe murdering psychopath”? no, but there are a combination of genes that influence a persons ability to deal with events and reason, as well as a persons tendency to spontaneity. Combine this with whether a person was breast fed (well you have to really) and whether they were picked on in school (I suppose being ginger is technically a genetic trait, sorry) will influence how a person deals with what would be the “trigger event”.

In summary: a constant chain of experiences during a persons life combined with a predisposition to handle them inappropriately will create your axe murdering psychopath, not any one gene.

So to the comment I heard recently: My sister is a lesbian and I am not, since we were brought up the same is there a lesbian gene? the answer here is categorically YES – Dungarees.