Jewish Fun

The Hebrew Hammer, which borrows characters from the biblical Book of Esther, is perhaps the zaniest, brainiest example of the new wave. Adam Goldberg plays Mordechai, an Orthodox Jewish stud called to action when Damien, the twisted son of Santa Claus, tries to do away with the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. With his friend Mohammed, head of the Kwanzaa Liberation Front, and a sexy and dangerous woman named Esther, Mordechai fights to thwart the evil plan and save Hanukkah.

From this article.

Genetics in the brain

Further to earlier statements on genetics and brains, I was reading an interesting piece of the current spate of articles concerning autism on kuro5hin. I was reminded of the Wired article on the geek gene, which was fascinating.

Someone posted, upholding the blank slate theory of the mind (i.e. that the mind is a blank slate, with almost no preprogramming) and there's been a variety of different responses. I particularly like this one.

I have to say that the idea that any part of the brain is not subject to evolutionary forces is mystefying to me, but I also believe that our experiences provide an absolutely vast amount of our attitudes. Any explanation that doesn't take both into account is not going to be anywhere near accurate, in my opinion.