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A Rebroadcast of Charlie Rose Brain Series Episode Six, a discussion of the Aging Brain with Brenda Milner of McGill University, Larry Squire of the University of California San Diego, John Hardy of University College London, and Scott Small of Columbia University. Co-hosted by Eric Kandel of Columbia University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
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JohnGelles 09/01/2010 05:50 AM Report
On Monday, August 30, 2010 and the next day, the Brain Series was repeated on Los Angeles Channel 28. The great work in medicine and science reported and explained in the series inspiring to the whole audience.
On Tuesday, August 31, before the Series continued, the audience if they cared was treated to President Obama, speaking from the Oval Office.
I found the President's speech every bit as good as this great Series. But the pundits I listened to after it, were far less enthusiastic.
I do not know what the pundits wanted. The President explained the "steel" in the national spine supplied by our armed forces protected us as he spoke and, impliedly, as our science establishment, featured on Charlie Rose, sought to know more and more about the origins of thought and intellectual power.
The President mentioned favorably his previous president, Bush and General Petraeus, who has served them both.
The President mentioned favorably our economic foundation on which both General Petraeus and our steel spine, and science (the most powerful tool in our national treasure), were aligned to produce a future in which American leadership would be both needed and tested.
The pundits were critical of the speech and doubtful of our leadership. We had fallen behind economically, intellectually and morally, in the nine years that followed the attack on New York and Washington by Al-Quaeda on 9-11-2001. China and Iran had moved ahead in the same period: China in manufacturing, Iran in pursuit of evil possession of WMD's. The President appeared to be aware of whatever threat was posed by our falling behind and others moving ahead.
Or not? Maybe that was why the pundits were uneasy. They knew brain science was making progress. Economics and reduction in the threat of WMD's showed no progress.
There is a connection between economics and the threat of WMD's. We cannot reduce the threat without spending trillions of dollars for that purpose. We have the money, in the form of unused and underdeveloped capacity to prevent ownership of the worst weapons by the worst nations an non-state actors. But we do not have that money in any other form.
The President and Charlie Rose seem not to know enough about this last sentence. Because without putting that money to work, we risk Obama's being our last elected president (democracy will never survive a successful WMD attack). And without democracy, brain science will be put to evil use.