• Read the full story

Data taken from NationalPriorities.org

• Current cost of war on terror (including Iran and Afghanistan) – $915.1 billion through 2009

  • $130 billion requested for 2010
  • Greater than $1 trillion spent by 2011
  • The war on terror has been funded by taxpayers for 8 years now (2001-2009).

• Cost Obama proposed for his health care plan during 9/10/09 speech – $900 billion over 10 years

  • He also claimed the savings would reduce our deficit by $4 trillion, and would not be funded by taxpayers. Read the full story

Known for his role in psychology, Sigmund Freud’s word paved the way for much of today’s research in psychoanalysis. Take a moment to read and learn about Freud!

From: http://www.freudfile.org/

“My life is interesting only if is related to psychoanalysis”, Freud said, giving thus us to understand that the events of his biography are not interesting in a biographer’s view, but just his activity on the realm of psychoanalysis. But a different reading of this assertion suggests us something else: the fact that applying Freud’s method to the study of the biographical events could bring forward another biography, which less cares about the biographical “truth”, but particularly cares about the meaning and significance of the biographical events in the light of Freud’s discoveries, among which we should first of all mention Oedipus complex . With Octave Mannoni’s words: “The confessions Freud made about his youth are like a derived product of his discovery.” (O. Mannoni, “Freud”, Du Seuil, 1968)

Sigmund Freud was born in Freiberg, in Moravia, on 6th of May 1856. People from here were Czechs, but Jewish people were talking German and were mostly assimilated to the Austro-Hungarian ruling class. His father, Jacob Freud, was a textile dealer. He married for the first time when he was seventeen and had two children: Emmanuel and Philipp. After he became a widower, he remarried in 1851 or 1852 with a certain Rebecca, about whom we don’t know if she died young or she was repudiated, and for the third time with a young woman of twenty, Amalia Nathansohn (1835 – 1930), whose first child will be Sigmund. He will be succeeded by Julius, who died at eighteen months, Anna, Rosa, Mitzi, Dolfi, Paula and Alexander.

Sigmund Freud inherited from his father the sense of humor, the skepticism before life incertitude, the habit of exemplifying by a Jewish anecdote when he wanted to bring out some moral feature, his liberalism and free thought. From his mother he would have taken “the sentimentalism”, an ambiguous word in German, which would mean that Freud was capable of intense emotional feelings.

Freud enjoyed the unrestrained love of his mother, Amalia, who called him “my golden Sigi”. This unconditional love will make Freud notice: “When you were incontestably the favorite child of your mother,  you keep during your lifetime this victor feeling, you keep feeling sure of success, which in reality seldom doesn’t fulfill”.

Read more: http://www.freudfile.org/childhood.html

Chronology

1856 – 6 May: Sigismund Freud is born (to change his name to Sigmund at 22). According to custom, he is also given a Jewish name: Schlomo. His birthplace is Freiberg (nowadays Pribor) in Moravia (the Czech Republic). His father Jacob is 41 and has two children from a previous marriage: Emmanuel and Philippe. Sigismund’s mother is 21 and this is her first born.

1859 – The economic crisis ruins Jacob’s business. The family settles in Vienna, in Leopoldstadt, the Jewish neighborhood (February 1860).

1865 – Sigmund is admitted to the Gymnasium (secondary school) a year ahead his time.

1870 – He receives Ludwig Borne complete works; reading these books will influence him greatly.

1872 – He returns to Freiberg to spend his holidays.

1873 – He receives a summa cum laudae award on graduation from secondary school. He is congratulated on his style in German. He is already able to read in several languages. Under his colleague’s Heinrich Braun influence, he plans to study law but finally decides in favor of medical school, after having attended a lecture on Goethe’s essay On Nature. Start his studies at Vienna University.

1874 – While at university, he discovers anti-Jewish prejudices and declares his place is “with the opposition”. Attends Brentano’s lectures.

1875 – Travels to Manchester, Britain, to see Philippe and his niece Pauline.

1876 – His first personal research in Trieste, on sexual glands of anguilas. Joins Brucke’s laboratory.

1877 – Publishes the result of his anatomical research on the central nervous system of a specific larva.

1878 – His research in Brucke’s laboratory bring him to a step’s distance from the discovery of the neuron (called as such by Waldeyer in 1891). Becomes a friend of Breuer, his 14 years senior, who provides him moral and material support.

1879 – Attends Meynert’s courses in psychiatry. His sole interest is the neurological aspect of issues under debate.

1880 – A year of military service. Breuer provides treatment to Bertha Pappenheim (Anna O.). Freud translates 4 essays by Stuart Mills. He is not willing to dedicate himself to medical practice but rather to research or teaching. .

1881 – A delayed award of a doctor’s degree in medicine.

1882 – Given the material difficulties he is undergoing, Freud cannot dedicate himself to a career in research. He meets Martha Bernays (of family of Jewish intellectuals) and intends to get married with her. In November, Breuer talks to him about the Anna O. case, which had been interrupted in June.

1883 – Joins Meynert’s service in the Psychiatric Hospital.

1884 – Discovers the analgesic properties of cocaine. Carl Koller is the one publishing a successful study in that respect. Freud himself uses cocaine as a tonic but prescribes it to his friend Fleischl who was morphine addicted, thereby aggravating his situation. He is criticized in medical circles. He starts treating “nervous” disorders by means of electrotherapy and applies W. Erb’s method. He at the same time devised a method for coloring neurologic preparations (for the microscope) and publishes an article in that respect as well as a monograph on coke.

1885 – Hold a temporary position in a private clinic where hypnosis is used. He destroys all his documents in April. He is appointed Privatdozent, then is awarded a grant for a study tour and chooses to go to Paris, to visit Charcot at the Salpetriere Hospital. He is able to observe the manifestations of hysteria and the effects of hypnosis and suggestion here. Charcot leaves him with special impression. Freud volunteers to translate his lectures.

Einstein is quoted as having said that if he had one hour to save the world he would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem and only five minutes finding the solution.

This quote does illustrate an important point: before jumping right into solving a problem, we should step back and invest time and effort to improve our understanding of it. Here are 10 strategies you can use to see problems from many different perspectives and master what is the most important step in problem solving: clearly defining the problem in the first place! Read the full story

Now this is interesting. CNN has an article (click to read) on their website that “debunks” rumors about the health care bill (found here)….There’s one problem though….they aren’t being completely honest.

Here’s the opening paragraphs from CNN.com’s article:

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A woman asked Rep. Allen Boyd at a town hall meeting the other day if health care reform proposals would force people to let the government access their bank accounts.

“That’s not true,” the Florida Democrat responded. “When someone sends you something on the Internet that sounds crazy, how about just checking it a little bit?”

The CNN Truth Squad, which fact-checks political claims, has debunked the bank-access rumor as false. Yet that claim, and others that have been disproved, keep coming up in the national debate on health care reform, inflaming an already emotional issue.

Representative Allen Boyd, I agree with your suggestion that each citizen should check what they hear to prove fact or false. When you start calling something “crazy”, maybe you, sir, should read the actual bill and do some checking yourself.

Let’s flashback to Peter Parker’s post about health care: Why should you care about the Health Care Bill?

Peter touched on this topic already.

Page 59, lines 21-24 of the Health Care Bill:

21 ‘‘(C) enable electronic funds transfers, in

22 order to allow automated reconciliation with the

23 related health care payment and remittance ad

24 vice;

So….its still just a crazy internet rumor….right? Representative Boyd, I suggest you do your own research. CNN might also want to write a new article “debunking” the current one they have up.

CNN’s “Truth Squad” is looking more like the “Propaganda Squad” right now.

Today’s fact is found on History.com

The three colors of Mexico’s flag hold deep significance for the country and its citizens: green represents hope and victory, white stands for the purity of Mexican ideals and red brings to mind the blood shed by the nation’s heroes.

The flag’s dramatic emblem is based on the legend of how the Mexicas (or Aztecs) traveled from Aztlán to find the place where they could establish their empire. The god Huitzilopochtli advised them that a sign—an eagle devouring a serpent atop a Nopal cactus—would appear to them at the exact spot where they should begin construction. On a small island in the middle of a lake, the Mexicas came upon the scene exactly as Huitzilopochtli had described it. They immediately settled there and founded the city of Tenochtitlán, which is now Mexico City, the country’s capital.