The human brain

Hmm, when Micheal asked the question, I remembered a doco I saw on hydrocphelics who had full function with only 10% of the brain intact. A quick google search turned up:
http://www.h2net.net/p/nslade/Papers/how.html
Hardly authoritive, and the fact it is 30 year old research does not inspire much confidence.

> Glad to answer the questions. About the 10%.
> I learned it straight out of my Psychology
> Studies textbooks. If you care to go back
> about 40 years you might be able to find the
> textbook. :o)

> About Phonics. Phonics is the old-fashioned
> style of learning to read by sounding out
> letters and combinations. Accuracy is
> higher, as is retention and comprehension
> according to tests done by several
> universities when the controversy occurred
> over the 'new' (old actually) method of
> look-say teaching of reading occurred.

> Phonics is the 'natural reader' method that
> people who self-teach themselves to read use
> unconsciously. I taught myself to read at
> age 2-1/2 years since I had already learned,
> like most children do, the sounds of the
> letters "A is like apple". It's a
> simple step to put sounds together and read.

> Look-say is just what it says it is. The
> student is supposed to recognize words by
> their over all shape. I was investigating
> look-say vs Phonics years ago when I was
> trying to find a proper school for a
> youngster who wasn't doing so well in the
> public school system.

> One teacher sat down and drew a bunch of
> triangles upside down and right-side up
> interspersed with a bunch of circles and
> told me what it 'said'. I asked her to
> explain and she couldn't. She said 'we just
> teach them to know what it says'. I asked
> what they did if they came across an
> unfamiliar word and she said they figure it
> out in context. Uh-huh. No, thanks!

> My husband was taught look-say method and he
> often does not read what something actually
> does say despite the fact that he has come a
> long way since he's been trying phonics.
> Yes, you can teach an old dog new tricks but
> the real trick is to undo the habits of a
> lifetime.

> An interesting point: in the post-cold war
> era it came out that both the United States
> and Russia had been doing experiments in
> ESP. The Russians began before the USA did
> and had progressed to doing lots of things
> like telekinesis and mind-reading
> experiments both with people and other
> animals.

> Many Russians (and some US citizens) had
> been taught how to do certain types of
> extrasensory perception things. Even at the
> height of this the tests indicated that the
> brain was very minimally involved compared
> to its potential.

> Oddly, the more highly developed the
> primitive centers of the brain are, the more
> accomplished people are at remote viewing,
> telekinesis, healing, and so on.

> For all those who think space is the final
> frontier, you might like to look a little
> closer to home. What we DON'T understand
> about the human body, and the brain in
> particular, would fill a library and then
> some.

> Hope this clarifies a few things. I don't
> have time or inclination to spend looking up
> very old references or even new ones but if
> you feel so inclined, please share with the
> rest of us.

> Sandi