Group items tagged

This is incredibly interesting, especially considering society looks down on mental illness.  

this is an interesting statement to make...perhaps it can be considered possible that all of the research did create this kind of illness, which really says something about the human mind

The things people watch and witness are going to be on their mind and more likely change the things he or she is watching for. For example, a person who has just watched a scary movie is more likely to hear footsteps or feel cool air against their neck even if there is nothing there. 

Exactly. The things that we experience cary through the day. We also like to come up with explinations to make things make more sense or even give them more value. Just as the Greek and Romans did when they told the tales of the Gods who did the things they could not other wise explain. An example being Helios who pulled the sun across the sky by charriot.

I think that this is some sort of sense that is second nature to most people. We like to have order so sometimes someone might go to the extreme and try and find some sort of order in complete chaos.

This is true and I like what mark said above...we are always trying to make order out of chaos...not sure why but that is what we always do,

I agree. I guess that's why there is the saying, "Everything happens for a reason." We like to give reasons and meaning to life, to our everyday living. I think Mark was spot on in his comment. We like feeling in control of many situations in life, especially with the unexplainable. 

I agree with everyone this makes sense. We are always trying to find the meaning in life so we constintly make patterns. I think that this author is correct in asserting that making patterns is natural and important and consequently there may be some truth in conspiracys for certain people.

When i hear random noises, ofter there are certain tones that can make me think of a certain song. I usually turn random sounds into a song. Certain pitches can remind of certain melodies that i know. 

We're all correct and I'm proud of everyone's findings. There's not really much more to be said on this besides that it's true.. How that affects political policy and using it to the advantage of bettering society is what we need to figure out

I think that we like for things to be relatable, we prefer to have things in common than to label it as the complete polar opposite of us, hence we see faces in windows and figures in clouds, and even sounds that make no sense we try to label as intelligible, because we want to have an understanding for our environment. We like patterns, because things remain constant that way, adapting to change is not really our favorite thing to do.

in my english class as well we discussed how humans naturally make patterns to make stuff more simple and nderstand it more even if there is no pattern or relation. its called paradolia and we do it to simplify everything then make and find meaning in it. its a natural response and is seen as beneficial sometimes in order to understand things but can distort reality to make it understandable

I know I have seen this countless times before, with people making connections between things that are completely unrelated. It seems that there is trouble with believing the simple answer, and feel that there needs to be a deeper meaning.

Or perhaps you connect point A with point B because point B holds specific significance to you. Like when people so 9/11 was a conspiracy. Maybe that person was dissatisfied with Bush and in order to justify his dislike for him needs to come up with a patternicity that supports his feeling.

I agree with Edmund. I think much that we decide with our brains has to do with importance/ significance to us. This might explain why people think that certain things are real when they aren't such as a type I error or vice versa with a type II error that believes something is false when it is really real. Humans emotions and feelings I feel make their argument make sense in their heads. 

i beleive that type II error, or a false negative would only make sense if the person had a mental disability. A lot of people who believe in things like UFOs known deep down that they are false. These people choose to not recognize real patterns, and by doing this in turn they are recognizing them.

Ever since I was in pre-school I remember connecting the dots, it's something children have been taught and doing their whole life.

I agree with Shermer's argument. We humans do see things out of certain patterns. Such as finding shapes in the clouds or a monster from your window at night, when it really was a branch in the wind. I find it entertaining when people sell the image of the Virgin Mary on a piece of toast. These patterns fascinate our brains and link to creativity.

Someone who claims they hear things can be because of past experiences that has had a great impact on them. I think experiences can influence what a person believes or doesn't believe. 

Absolutely it can.  People can be easily be molded not matter the circumstance

I believe that the reason we see faces and other things in inanimate and amorphous objects is because either we are either searching way too hard (over analyzing) or just to accustomed to the object we are seeing.  Many of us see faces in random things and I believe that it is due to the fact that we deal with many faces each and every day.  And since we are not all clones, there is room for slight differences and changes so when we come across two spots and a sideways parentheses we associate it with a face.  

I think this is a very interesting article. This article reminds me of the story about a biologist and a businessman. They are walking together. Suddenly, the biologist hears the sound of an extremely rare insect that he hes been looking for a long time. The businessman does not hear anything. Later, the businessman hears a sound of a quarter just hits the ground. And of course, the biologist does not hear it. So i think it is very similar to this article because people can find things that they are interested in easier than things that they never want. By getting interested in something, the brain or our mind will create like a pattern inside, and it keeps telling and seeking from everything around us that might be related of what we are looking for or what we are interested in. 

What it really comes down to is how the brain wants to interpret in coming information. For example, if you are a businessman you'll hear quarters or as in the article if you are a paranormalist you will hear dead people talking to you through the radio. How you interpret information is based according to your personality.

I couldn't comment on the highlight under this, but that's exactly what I thought of when I read this, Pascal's wager. It is true, if the cost of believing something is comparably better than not believing it and risking the consequences that you may be wrong, regardless of whether it is true or not, it may be advantageous to us that we've evolved this way. 

I really like this point. We are socialized at a young age to see things certain ways. Like a kid born and raised in feudal Japan would be a lot different that a kid born today in Britain. Seeing these patterns we are also trained at a primordial level to interpret them independent from what we are taught. Being educated by nature and society are two different things that come together to make our reality.

"pattern-recognition machines": I'm pretty sure we can all think of times when we've heard our named called out somewhere, but really someone just said something that sounded similar to our names. Our brains are constantly on alert, trying to make sense of the world around us. We feel comfortable with things we know, and so we try to fit new experiences into what we already know. This works like schemas. 

More than 1 per day

With doctors in such high demand there is no reason why doctors shouldn't request so much money. Lester Dyke a cardiac surgeon is on the run trying to keep up with all his patients, therefore his expertise is going to become very pricy with the huge demand. 

This is very anecdotal. Inner city hospitals are rarely as good as the one described here. Rural, middle america, hospitals are also often lacking in quality compared with the one described here. Not to mention the Mayo Clinic, UCLA medical center, NYU hospital, etc will always beat out small poor town centers. 

I agree! We even read a different article about the lack of adequate health car during birth in some countries. Granted, that was also referring to a third world country rather than cities in America. 

I also agree...i mean how believable does this even seem for his argument? It lacks credibility.

I agree, this was not the case in Braddock, PA.  They are currently having trouble keeping the hospital open there despite being very close to Pittsburgh.  i am sure that is not the only place as pointed out by the posts above.

This makes sense.Hispanic Americans tend to have less insurance coverage than white Americans and receive less regular medical care. The level of insurance coverage is directly correlated with the level of access to healthcare including preventative and ambulatory care.Because most minorities are without insurance, they are most likely to not have medical care, and are unable to provide themselves with prescriptions medicine. It is no secret that minority groups have insurance coverage at a lower rate than whites determined by income and welfare. Because of the high cost, many families have cancelled their insurance and now pay out of their pockets; meaning they only go to the doctor when there is an obvious sickness. Like, Mike Freida highlighted, the rich towns have the things they need and the poor dont. Why is that?

I suppose this a good reason against health care. These people don't take care of themselves, forcing other people's tax dollars to cover their health costs. They are the reason people are against a good idea. Because health care is smart and a good idea if no one is taking advantage of it, such as these people.

I agree this is one reason why people are against setting up a national plan as they do not want to take care of other people with their earned money, especially when people do not take care of themselves and it leads to having to need healthcare in the first place.

These people are disrespecting the system and their country. If they changed simple aspect of their lifestyle, such as sodium ad sugar intake, they would significantly reduce the amount of medical attention they need. People like this should not be allowed to rely on health care because they are lazy and choose to be unhealthy. Healthcare should be used for the individuals who need it, not who chose to be sick and use other people's money. 

I think all of this is true. Healthcare should have it's greatest emphasis on people who are suffering from diseases that could not have been prevented, like cancer. Yes, diabetes can come from family history and not just from having to great of a sugar intake, but if they were not evening taking any preventive measures then it changes the whole jist of the situation. 

I think that the people in McAllen are taking advantage of the health care and they kind of deserve to have high health insurance rates

I also agree that it doesn't seem fair, like Lauren said, that people's hard earned money should go to people who are being lazy about their health. If people aren't exercising or eating healthy, then it seems unfair. Now I agree that healthcare should be used for those people who are sick and are either working really hard to become healthy again, or who are in a situation where there is not much that they can do with their situation. When it comes to diabetes, type 2 can go away if you change your lifestyle habits, but you have to be active about it. Having said that healthcare should be used for those who really need it, I think that may be a bit difficult when it comes to actually determining the specific people that it should and shouldn't go to.

Healthcare in McAllen is very expensive. Why would you go somewhere to pay for higher healthcare? Why wouldn't you just go to get cheaper healthcare? Is the care better? Is the care worse? These are all issues we are having to deal with. I think that all healthcare prices should stay the same throughout. If all healthcare prices stayed at a steady rate, people would know what they want and how to get it. Healthcare is a topic that has remained in discussion for many years. We must find a solution together. 

It is maybe not the main reason, but it is probably one of the top reasons. McAllen's health-care seems to have their costs so high to make profits from the large amount of people who have health problems.

I can't argue with that^. It's a big state with a huge population, and unhealthy living habits of its residents can't be helping the situation its in with health care costs. But then again, there are unhealthy people all over the country with the same habits, so it can't be all that's contributing to the problem.

Sounds like a very nice hospital to me. It leaves me thinking, however, because McAllen has the lowest household income in the country. 

If the area is generally healthier why would they have such high health care costs? Shouldn't they be lower because not many people really need them

For how high high their health care market it is... it is ridiculous to think that the people their are unhealthy. The high health care expenses are attributing to their high drinking rates and their unhealthy diets. 

For some reason I can't comment on the highlighted portion.  I agree that the deficit and healthcare go hand in hand.  They are not separate.  If they were separate, we would have much bigger problems.

our healthcare cost more then everyother country because America has a much higher standerd of living. the individual person has more money here. To compare the two is wrong.

why should people be spending this much money on health care? i think that the government takes too much of peoples money and spends it in correctly. I think the budget just needs to be redirected, and i think that government should stop increasing taxes.

I agree here. The idea of providing healthcare is necessary, but having the large amount of money solely directed towards it is unnecessary. The governments spending is obviously controversial, but it still has to happen. People who say that we should do different things often don't actually perform full information searched to determine the actual benefits of the spending we have now. Phrasing this spending as one of every six dollars seems ridiculous, but is it really? Without full investigating to the topic and knowing everything about it, we can not make the strong statements that we tend to make.

I think that this is a great point as well. Having a mother that has worked in the health care system for the past 25 years I have been hearing for years about the impact of health care costs and how it affects this country. I think with this knowledge it is obvious that our health care system is in desperate need for a reform.

I do not think this is true in a large portion of impoverished areas. This situation, in my experience, may be more of an exeption.