Blogs

Beauty is often viewed as a sore topic to debate over because it is an element with no fixed definition. In society, beautiful people are often viewed as more successful, more popular, and overall as happier people. Endeavors towards achieving the ideal of physical perfection are significant because they demonstrate not only a cultural but a biological influence on the brain geared towards survival. Among others, a major question becomes apparent; what makes beauty, or the perception of beauty, such a variable factor in the human brain? Scientists have attempted to define a more scientific reasoning for beauty perception based on various neurological experiments.

Addiction:

Compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; broadly: persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful (1).

 

The concepts of specification and generalization are an unavoidable and innate part of human nature that have a high cognitive and social importance. However, they also have limitations which reduce our accuracy as we move up and down the orders of magnitude. In this paper, the biological and perceptual limitations of generalization and specification will be analyzed and critiqued with relation to the anatomy of the human species and then applied to the usefulness, application, and accuracy of literary genres.

Web Paper 1

Presented here is some evidence for biological factors involved in homosexual orientation and behavior, including microanatomy, psychoendocrinology, and genetics, though much of the research literature supports the view that it is due to an interaction of biological, psychological, and social or factors, as is the current understanding of much human behavior. I do not aim to fully endorse either a biological or environmental explanation for homosexuality, but merely to present some evidence for the influence of both on sexual orientation.
Background

About a year ago, I found myself laid flat on my back on the dusty wooden floors of a Pem East dorm room while by best friend and current roommate quietly directed me to envision a vast lake pooled in the center of my stomach. She asked me to “feel” myself there, to “go” there, to “be” there, there in the center of my stomach staring into my own reflection, originating form there. At this point I remember bursting into hysterical peals of laugher at the tingling, ticklish sensation I got from trying to “be” there in my stomach, an idea which my head just couldn’t seem to wrap itself around. In retrospect, the observation that I just couldn’t get my

            We have all had those moments where we find ourselves in a situation that we consciously know we have never been in; yet, there is a strange familiarity that creeps into the back of our heads. The phenomenon known as déjà vu was first used by French philosopher and psychic, Emilie Boirac, in his book, L'Avenir des Sciences Psychiques (3).  A French phrase for “already seen”, many who experience déjà vu have the feeling that they have actually experienced the same event or situation at a previous date.  This sense of familiarity can be eerily unsettling. 

It all started during one of my father’s parties for the teachers at his psychiatric institute and their recently graduated students. As usual I was bored out of my mind and had fled to hide in my room listening to music in my ball gown. I had to run downstairs for a few minutes every hour or so or else my mother would realize I was gone, but before I even hit the bottom of the stairs I realized something was very very wrong. All the guests were lying on the ground of the dinning room, completely still.  My sister, Jessa, was sobbing in the corner repeating of and over again “I didn’t mean to do it”,while my mother pulled the bodies out to t