05.16.08
Neural buddhism, and software/hardware
Scienceblogs links to ‘Neural Buddhism’, see also Douthat & other links there.
David Brooks’ essay was a fishing expedition Read the rest of this entry »
Our ‘Managed Democracy’
Chalmers Johnson on Our ‘Managed Democracy’By Chalmers Johnson
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Richard Dawkins Interview on TVOntario
Richard Dawkins Interview on TVOntario
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Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing, ed. Richard Dawkins
The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing, ed. Richard Dawkins
by Independent UK
Thanks to SPS for the link.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-oxford-book-of-modern-science-writing-ed-richard-dawkins-828939.html
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Academic freedom bills
Evolution Academic Freedom Bill Submitted in South Carolina is Sixth this Year
South Carolina Senator Mike Fair has submitted an Academic Freedom Bill into the South Carolina State Legislature. This is now the sixth academic freedom bill submitted this legislative session, as other bills have been submitted in Florida, Missouri, Michigan, Alabama, and Louisiana.
Parallel Olympics
Let the 2008 Tibetan Olympics begin
Phayul[Friday, May 16, 2008 20:47]
By Phurbu Thinley
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Rumors of war
Bellicosity and Hypocrisy in Tel Aviv
Lies of Aggression
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
On May 15, the White House Moron, in a war-planning visit to Israel, justified the naked aggression he and Olmert are planning against Iran as the only alternative to “the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.” Read the rest of this entry »
Propaganda machines
via Common Dreams
Published on Friday, May 16, 2008 by the McClatchy Newspapers
Propaganda and the Media
by Joseph L. Galloway
Once upon a time, it was widely believed that one of the greatest sins the U.S. government or its temporary political masters could commit was to turn a propaganda machine loose on the American people.
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Regime-Quakes
via Common Dreams
Published on Friday, May 16, 2008 by The Nation
Regime-Quakes in Burma and China
by Naomi Klein
When news arrived of the catastrophic earthquake in Sichuan, my mind turned to Zheng Sun Man, an up-and-coming security executive I met on a recent trip to China. Zheng heads Aebell Electrical Technology, a Guangzhou-based company that makes surveillance cameras and public address systems and sells them to the government.
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Obesity and common chemicals
Exposure in the womb to common chemicals used to make everything from
plastic bottles to pizza box liners may program a person to become
obese later in life, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080514/sc_nm/obesity_chemicals_dc;_ylt=AuAfiia0B2DYRXDZxnywjOAhANEA
Genetics and prostate
Genetic differences may explain why white men have a higher prostate
cancer risk than Hispanic men, information which may help doctors
identify men who are more likely to develop the disease, U.S.
researchers say.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/15/AR2008051502365.html
Monkey climb
Using a rope treadmill, researchers have revealed that tiny species
use no more energy climbing vertically than they do walking on the
ground, a find that bolsters theories about the earliest primates.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/05/080515-primates-climb.html
Pandora’s box of flies
Rather than just six, a group of tropical flies contains at least 52
species, suggesting that tropical environments are even more diverse
than thought
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13913-dna-tests-open-a-pandoras-box-of-flies.html
The orgasmic mind
Achieving sexual climax requires a complex conspiracy of sensory and
psychological signals—and the eventual silencing of critical brain areas
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-orgasmic-mind
Tortured law on torture
From R-G
by Robert Scheer
truthdig.com (May 13 2008)
Ah, yes, those torture confessions have proved so useful. Read the rest of this entry »
Oil strike in Brazil, peak oil still inevitable
From R-G
Big Oil Strike in Brazil has Tongues Wagging, but We Continue Towards
Peak Oil
By Pedro Prieto, Tlaxcala. Posted May 7, 2008.
Since the 1980’s, the world has discovered less oil than it has consumed
every year.
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SW news
Here’s what’s new at SocialistWorker.org…
http://socialistworker.org
________ Read the rest of this entry »
EI update
_______________________________
UPDATE FROM THE
ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
http://electronicIntifada.net
_______________________________ Read the rest of this entry »
05.15.08
Science and philosophy
Comment on Experimental philosophy:
The question is: do philosophers need to be scientists (specialists) beside being philosophers?
I think the dilemma is false, and a sign of the age of specialization we live in. And of the attitude of reductionist scientists who arrogantly think they have transcended philosophy. There is no absolute division between philosophy and science. The easiest way to consider that is in terms of Kant, whose response to Newtonian physics was to consider the hidden metaphysical premises latent in science itself. And the inability of science to create the correct foundation for a discourse on freedom and ethics in the context of causal science. His resolution of the problem in the framework of transcendental idealism should be understood by all scientists, instead we see this extremely limited attitude of scientism adopting the posture of omniscience with respect to all knowledge. The result is a betrayal of science, what to say of its incomprehension of philosophy.
Darwin bluff
Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini interview, from Telic Thoughts
I think that abandoning Darwinism (or explicitly relegating it where it belongs, in the refinement and tuning of existing forms) sounds anti-scientific. They fear that the tenants of intelligent design and the creationists (people I hate as much as they do) will rejoice and quote them as being on their side. They really fear that, so they are prudent, some in good faith, some for calculated fear of being cast out of the scientific community.
Designer’s emulation
From UD: Emulating the “Appearance” of Design in Nature
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Is Science Killing the Soul?
Is Science Killing the Soul?
by Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker, Edge
This is an old debate from 1999, but we didn’t have it on the site yet.
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Evolution in reverse gear
Rapid, Dramatic ‘Reverse Evolution’ Documented In The Threespine Stickleback Fish
ScienceDaily (May 15, 2008) — Evolution is supposed to inch forward over eons, but sometimes, at least in the case of a little fish called the threespine stickleback, the process can go in relative warp-speed reverse, according to a study led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and published online ahead of print in the May 20 issue of Current Biology.