Neural Basis for McLuhan?

Boing Boing: Monkeys treat robot arm as bonus appendage

Here's a neat story via Boing Boing that suggests that McLuhan's view of media as extensions of ourselves is literally reflected in the structures of our brain. Monkeys fitted with robotic arms develop the capacity to control the artificial appendage without losing any existing function. In other words, the brain learns to see media as actual extensions of the self.

This view is not dissimilar to my own experiences with media, such as my computer keyboard. I hardly think of my fingers when I'm typing - I think of the words, and my hands just do their thing. Same thing when I'm playing the guitar - I don't think of the guitar as an instrument to be manipulated, it more closely resembles a part of my body, in that most of what happens when I play is unconscious. Once you get the hang of it, playing guitar (or swinging a golf club, or knitting a sweater) can become just as unconscious as bodily functions. The brain doesn't think, "arms, hands, fingers" when you're strumming a chord - it thinks, "C chord", as if the guitar were a part of your body.

Another Brick in the Wall: Real ID passes in US Senate

Boing Boing: Real ID passes in US Senate

Congratulations, America, on your new National ID card! And not a moment too soon, I say. When will Canada follow your shining example? Americans will soon be able to use a single card for almost all their daily activities, ensuring that their every move is tracked and stored for future reference. And with the Patriot Act, the federal government has the legal right to tap into all the millions of datasources that will surely spring up with your Real ID number attached. Terrorists beware! It's now only a matter of time before the terror warriors will be able to tap into your library records, video rentals, gym memberships, driving records, Quiznos orders, and perhaps even your tanning schedule! You can run, but you can't hide.

what do the bushies say now?

Blair hit by new leak of secret war plan - Sunday Times - Times Online

So now it is finally officially known that the US had intended to invade Iraq regardless of the lack of legal or other justification. All the stories that I knew were just lies to gain public support for war were exactly that, and over the next while it will continue to become clearer and clearer that we (the traitorous left) were right all along.

My question to the world is this: What do the Bushies say now? I mean, all those people who believed in the WMD story, the smoking gun/mushroom cloud story, the 45 minute launch story, the Uranium yellowcake story, the aluminum tube story, the mobile-weapon labs story, the links to al Qaida story -- how do they justify continued support for the war? All of those stories...lies, and yet no outrage. The scientist who spoke out about the "sexed up" case for war in the UK...dead. The CIA agent who's husband spoke up about the yellowcake story...cover blown.

The truth has been subjugated and beaten down like the prisoners at Abu Graib, and I hold every person capable of rational thought partially responsible for this atrocity. I can't believe how far we've sunk, in a matter of 5 years.

When the war train started rolling, I knew this day would come, the day when it had become obvious to those blinded by 9/11 and anthrax letters and media hysteria that they'd been duped, but I never expected it to be so anti-climactic. I guess I expected to be able to say, "I told you so", but now I figure if I did, the response would be, "yeah, so what?" And they'd be right. So what, indeed.