(via Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW2zZFLPLM8)

The news of Irrfan's death has left both the film industry and his fans in shock and mourning. As we grieve the loss of this extraordinary artiste, we look back at his rich career path that bears a testimony of his struggles, triumphs and consistent brilliance over three decades.

A new question for the jury: Did my brain implant make me do it? « The Jury Room

We’ve written as lot about “brain malfunction” [aka “did my brain make me do it?”] defenses here but this is a new twist on the neurolaw question. Deep brain stimulation (“DBS”) is a well-accepted treatment for a number of serious and treatment resistant neurological conditions from Parkinson’s Disease to depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. As effective as DBS can be, there are also concerns about how, in some patients, it changes one’s personality to cause “undesirable or even deviant behavior”. The behavioral/personality changes depend on the location of the deep brain stimulation (and the functions carried out by that portion of the brain). 

So. You have a condition for which everyday treatment is ineffective or causes side-effects worse than the condition itself. Your doctor suggests a brain implant to offer deep brain stimulation (DBS). You are unfortunately, one of those for whom DBS creates behavioral reactions and you do something illegal. Are you responsible? Or is it your brain implant? […]

The article is very complex and the ideas in it are provocative. We cannot do justice to the questions raised by these writers in a brief blog post. It’s a very serious question.

"When you agree to a cutting-edge treatment and you are informed that for some people, behavioral changes may occur, do you thereby accept responsibility for any actions you take under the influence of that treatment?

"Or, since the behavior is completely different than anything you have previously displayed  and is thus believed due to the treatment (which can be shut off) is it fair to deny responsibility?

"And if you encounter aberrant behavioral effects but decide to not shut off the DBS because you appreciate the ways in which it helps you function, are you then more responsible for any illegal act you committed since you are choosing to continue down the same path?"

Yes. This is a new question. Not, “did my brain make me do it?” but “did my brain implant make me do it?”. Ultimately, however, the larger question remains the same. Where does our personal responsibility end?

Video: Starving on the Streets

Nicholas Kristof travels to South Sudan, where a famine brought on by drought and civil war threatens five million people.

Nicholas Kristof travels to South Sudan, where a famine brought on by drought and civil war threatens five million people.

Untitled by Ivana Stojakovic Via Flickr:

Elif Shafak on multiculturalism, the power of stories and making the pol...

Emily Roebling, the female engineer secretly behind the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge – one of the greatest engineering feats of all time – which began on December 3, 1870.

Fall colors blaze out in concentric rings from a lake in eastern Pomerania, Poland. The region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea is largely covered with farmland and vast swaths of forest.

Source ((Travel 365, National Geographic)

On View: Imran Qureshi’s Rooftop Installation at the Metropolitan Museum

Pakistani artist Imran Qureshi’s installation And How Many Rains Must Fall Before the Stains are Washed Clean in The Metropolitan Museum of Art‘s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Rooftop Garden is as arresting as it is unconventional. Delicate floral designs sprawl out across the museum’s rooftop, painted like a mural on the floor. The painstakingly-rendered flowers are drowned in crimson paint. The work’s delicate beauty becomes bittersweet, tainted by the violence of the red stains. Qureshi created the installation as an expression of sorrow for violence across the world; the floral patterns amid the blood-like splatters speak to a hope for regeneration. Take a look at some photos of Qureshi completing the work as well as the finished installation courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Hyla Skopitz. The installation is on view at the Metropolitan Museum through November 3, weather permitting.

MORE: http://hifructose.com/2013/07/11/on-view-imran-qureshis-rooftop-installation-at-the-metropolitan-museum/

Raven Taylor - "How To Survive Being A Black Girl"

REVISITING NATIONALISM - 1

REVISITING NATIONALISM – 1

REVISITING NATIONALISM  – 1      

Prasanna K Choudhary

NATION, NATION-STATES AND NATIONALISM

1648.The Thirty Years’ (1618-1648) European War ended in the Treaty of Westphalia. In this devaststing war, fought in the background of the Reformation, the…

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