• Searching the Brain for the Roots of Fear

You are taking a walk in the woods ― pleasant, invigorating, the sun shining through the leaves. Suddenly, a rattlesnake appears at your feet. You experience something at that moment. You freeze, your heart rate shoots up and you begin to sweat ― a quick, automatic sequence of physical reactions. That reaction is fear.

A week later, you are taking the same walk again. Sunshine, pleasure, but no rattlesnake. Still, you are worried that you will encounter one. The experience of walking through the woods is fraught with worry. You are anxious.

• The Corporate State Will Be Broken

I spent Friday morning sitting on a wooden bench in a fourth-floor courtroom in the New York Criminal Court in Manhattan. I was waiting to be sentenced for “disturbing the peace” and “refusing to obey a lawful order” during an Occupy demonstration in front of Goldman Sachs in November.

• 30 famous writers talk about God

Here is the latest video compilation [25:40] by Dr Jonathan T. Pararajasingham, a British neurosurgeon. I’ve previously posted two of his compilations, “20 voices of belief” (academics and theologians) and “100 voices of unbelief” (academics). Here are 30 famous writers expressing their atheism. My favorite is Ian McEwan, who perfectly expresses the gulf between scientific and religious “ways of knowing.”

Supreme Court holds warrantless GPS tracking unconstitutional

All nine justices of the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that police officers violated the Fourth Amendment rule against unreasonable search and seizure when they attached a GPS device to a suspect's car and tracked it for 28 days without a warrant. But the court was split down the middle on the reasoning. Four justices focused on the physical trespass that occurred when the police attached the device, four focused on the violation of the suspect's "reasonable expectation of privacy," and the final justice, Sonia Sotomayor, endorsed both theories.