Blindsight and Terri

On the one hand, Terri was able to follow objects with her eyes. On the other hand, her visual cortex was nearly destroyed. (Another way to look at that news is that the damage to the rest of her brain wasn't enough to emphasize.) The lack of a visual cortex appears to mean she was blind, except there is the odd phenomenon of blindsight, in which someone who's cortically blind can locate objects visually.

There's more than one vision center in the brain. That shouldn't surprise us. After all, birds can see quite well without much in the way of a cerebral cortex. (If the antitubists want to start calling Terri a “birdbrain,” I can't stop them and it's a less insulting term than “vegetard.”)

Speaking of insults … How did the meme of “The Right-Wing Must Apologize” get started? It seemed to be almost everywhere within a few hours of the release of the autopsy … almost as though somebody were organizing it. If the demands for an apology are a dime a dozen, who is supplying the dimes?