10.30.08
Posted in In the News at 3:25 pm by nemo
The New Neo-Con Reality
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
“We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
–Bush White House aide explaining the New Reality
The New American Century lasted a decade. Financial crisis and defeated objectives in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Georgia brought the neoconservative project for American world hegemony crashing to a close in the autumn of 2008.
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Posted in you've got mail at 3:19 pm by nemo
mxmail
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http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n21/mish01_.html
Rise of the Rest
Pankaj Mishra
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Posted in you've got mail at 3:15 pm by nemo
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[1]http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20081029/wl_csm/odu1028_1;_ylt=AodsI3Gy
Ov.r58A8lPjwMMUBS5Z4
Christian Science Monitor October 29, 2008
In strikes on US in Afghanistan,Taliban reveals new potency
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Posted in you've got mail at 2:49 pm by nemo
Zombie Jamboree in Texas
By Glenn Branch
http://www.talkreason.org/articles/?http://www.beaconbroadside.com/broadside/2008/10/zombie-jamboree.html
Glenn Branch of the National Center for Science Education writes about creationists in Texas plotting to undermine science education in public schools.(Off-site link.)
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Posted in you've got mail at 2:47 pm by nemo
Torture Decision Trumps Bush’s Kangaroo Court
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/10/29-11
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Posted in you've got mail at 2:45 pm by nemo
sciftp
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44508
CUBA-US: A Thaw Fuelled by Oil?
By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA, Oct 29 (IPS) – The discovery of a significant offshore oilfield in Cuban waters in the Gulf of Mexico could persuade the United States to modify its policy towards the Caribbean island nation, experts say, while warning that this possibility could also entail risks.
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Posted in you've got mail at 2:39 pm by nemo
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http://www.alternet.org/story/105062/
The Nasty Truth: Free Trade Agreements May Scuttle Green Jobs Plans
Many of the promises the candidates make on the stump would have trouble passing muster with the WTO — that’s the whole point of “free trade” deals.
By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
Posted on October 30, 2008
If Barack Obama wins the White House, his administration will face potentially irreconcilable conflicts between his signature proposals — like transforming the American economy into a 21st century “green-collar” job engine — and the dictates of the “free trade” regime that both major parties have advanced with unbridled zeal for the past quarter century.
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Posted in you've got mail at 2:37 pm by nemo
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http://www.counterpunch.com/worthington10272008.html
CounterPunch October 29, 2008
A Bitter Blow to the Government
The Collapse of Omar Khadr’s Guantánamo Trial
By Andy Worthington Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in you've got mail at 2:36 pm by nemo
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http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/102708.html
consortiumnews.com October 27, 2008
Bush’s Looming Defeat in Iraq
By Robert Parry
John McCain continues to talk about a U.S. victory in Iraq and Sarah
Palin baits Barack Obama for not using the word win when he discusses
the war. But the hard reality facing whoever becomes President is a
looming strategic defeat.
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Posted in you've got mail at 2:34 pm by nemo
sciftp
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/30/garden/30haunted.html
October 30, 2008
Supernatural Cleaning Methods
By JOYCE WADLER
THE chill of autumn has arrived, and it’s time to make your home cozy and snug. Replace those broken shingles, seal the window frames, start the water boiling and throw in some scented nutmegy things, or a rabbit if you’ve been disappointed in love.
But what to do about that ghost that has been making such a racket, scaring the guests and making it impossible to sleep? Sure, you can kid yourself that it’s a squirrel on the roof or a rattling pipe or a fog that comes up from time to time. (On Narragansett Bay? Sure, pal, that’s credible.) But eventually, when guests and family members become truly frightened, something must be done.
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10.29.08
Posted in The Eonic Effect at 6:58 pm by nemo
The public is beset with two extremes on the evolution question, the reductionist Darwinism in the context of scientism, and the various brands of creationism or ID. And neither of these perspectives can really resolve the evolution mystery. What is the source of the problem? Failure to properly observe evolution in fine enough grain to be able to grasp the mechanism. And the ID gambit is simply a metaphysical cover story. Look at the claims for the Great Explosion in the descent of man. The claims are equivocal, and the data too thin, to produce certainty. But the data does suggest that something crucial to our understanding occurred, and in a short time-frame, something we are missing.
On the part of science the failure to properly observe evolutionary intervals in sufficient detail is fatal to its claims on evolutionary mechanism (though not for the fact of evolution). And the clear observability of ‘natural selection’ in our present is completely misleading: we do see that, and confuse it with evolution. Note how statements/generalizations about ‘how evolution happens’ are routine by scientists about intervals of time millions of years long. What if an evolutionary dynamic, crucial to real evolution, occurred at high speed in time frames from 50K years, to 10K years, to 1k years, to centuries, to decades? A fatal possibility for any hopes of correct observation, hence a theory of dynamics. This may or may not be a crucial problem for the earliest stages of evolution (the problem could be restated in terms of 1 to 10 million year intervals).These data sets are virtually empty. And yet somehow this doesn’t seem to matter to biologists, the reason being that if they were held to a real scientific standard, they wouldn’t have a theory.
The eonic effect shows us a way out:
Since we can’t observe evolutionary intervals in deep time, we must be wary of jumping to conclusions.
Our only recourse is to retreat to history, where the data is ample to the 1K to centuries, even decades, level. Once we do that, we ask, what is the relation of history and evolution?
We can deduce at once that there must be a kind of transition between the two, perhaps incomplete, and that, therefore, the ‘data for evolution’ must be present in history, if we know what to look for.
We hit paydirt almost at once, if we start looking for some kind of macroevolutionary factor in history itself. The eonic effect.
This pattern of data is transparent. You may not like the term ‘eonic effect’, set it aside and simply study the various elements of structure that arise from systematic periodization. The clue to evolution in a late stage slowly comes to light.
And our suspicions about the Great Explosion are confirmed, that is, we suspect that something crucial is missing at the dawn of modern man. Perhaps the eonic effect shows us something like what it might be. Whatever the case, we need to restrict our judgements about man to what we observe in history and stop the confused and dangerous regime of reducing culture, man, and everything else to natural selection reasoning, which is false and pernicious.
http://eonic-effect.net
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Posted in Evolution at 5:49 pm by nemo
In all these debates over ID, and now the brain/mind question, it is always between extremists, the narrowest of scientific behaviorists and near-fundamentalist Christians. Why on earth is the debate so dominated by these two groups? The academic world is filled with a score of scientific, and especially humanist disciplines that could contribute to the discussion. Are there no philosohers who could at least present the history of dualism from Descartes, etc…?
The reality is that these disciplines are operating behind a wall of silence, since they know perfectly well that their discourses don’t really square with Darwinization or behaviorism, and that, so far, and contrary to the case with Dawkins rooting out fairy tales, they are ‘safe’ behind the walls of their disciplines, public be damned.
And they know what would happen if they spoke up. The ‘loons’ at science blogs, figures like Myers, and the cohorts of attack dogs, would put their academic careers at risk.
Since we mention Kant here a lot, one might ask, where on earth are the Kant scholars in all these debates.
And no, Kant was NOT a Darwinist, and he had a distinctly profound discourse on the issues of the post-Descartes culture we have inherited.
And yet we hear nothing from these grourps.
The job is left to outsiders, as with this blog.
And these ‘asphyxiators’, ID or Darwinist, know well the falseness of their position, and are absolutely paranoid about the outer culture that they can only dominate with deceptions.
It’s a telling statistic, this blog has had almost 13000 posts, and yet it has never had a single link from Science Blogs, or the ID sites. Such people won’t even exchange an email, or respond in any way to an outsider. Each side is desperate to reduce the debate to the ‘two alternatives’, failing the hope of reducing it all to a single outcome, theirs. Anyone else doesn’t exist.
Moral: if you want to get to the bottom of these issues, you are on your own.
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Posted in neuroscience at 5:10 pm by nemo
The Battle For Your MInd
Much of the criticism of current scientism, here on the brain/mind question, is well-taken, but what finally is the alternative proposed? The best argument that the scientists have, it seems, is not that ‘materialism’ is scientific, but that reductionism cleared the air of a host of confused views on mind, soul, etc…
At that point the tide begins to turn, and the crucial question is the next step/
There a kind of Kantian critique of metaphysics stands in the way of going backwards toward reinjecting religious or theological views into the mind/brain void. The battle for the mind is prejudiced on both sides.
In any case, neither side has really resolved the engima of the brain. Materialism or not, there is something missing in our understanding there.
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Posted in Science at 4:55 pm by nemo
Harry Potter fails to cast spell over Professor Richard Dawkins
Harry Potter has become the latest target for Professor Richard Dawkins who is planning to find out whether tales of witchdraft and wizardy have a negative effect on children.
Dawkins seems to actually wish to carry out the last stages of the project of domination via scientism, by taking it to children, the front lines of worldview domination in a system of social propaganda. Actually, in the article, he seems unsure, but the logic of his position is inexorable, and a bit silly.
It should be said that the genre of wizards and magic no doubt has gone to an extreme recently, and it is a perfectly good question, what place does mythological thinking have in the education of the young.
But the instincts of children, in some ways, are still intact, as creatures of the species homo sapiens, and the extirpation of this innocent ‘wisdom’, a species characteristic, will surely backfire.
Debating science flocks on evolution brings home just how obtuse scientists are, with a view of reality that has deviated from ‘common sense’, however fallible. The reason, of course, is that the great findings of physics are the object of false imitation in other fields, and premature grounds for universal statements about reality.
Meanwhile, a work like Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings has a curious riddling significance that seems beyond the ken of those subjected to the Dawkins regime.
At least Harry Potter fans get a warning
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Posted in Evolution at 2:50 pm by nemo
Why Children Like to Share
by Scientific American
Reposted from: Dawkins site
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=why-children-like-to-share
Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in Evolution at 2:44 pm by nemo
Cave Bear Mitochondrial Genome Sequenced, Provides Clues to Bear Evolution
NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Cave bears belonged to a sister group to modern day polar bears and brown (grizzly) bears, according to phylogenetic analyses of the newly sequenced cave bear mitochondrial genome.
A team of researchers from France and the Netherlands sequenced ancient mitochondrial DNA extracted from skeletal fragments of an extinct cave bear, Ursus spelaeus, found in a cave in southern France. The work, appearing online last night in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that cave bears’ ancestors diverged from those of brown bears and polar bears some 1.6 years ago. It also highlights the feasibility of analyzing cave bear DNA — a task that has proven challenging in the past.
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Posted in you've got mail at 2:35 pm by nemo
Common Dreams
Like, Socialism
by Hendrik Hertzberg
Sometimes, when a political campaign has run out of ideas and senses that the prize is slipping through its fingers, it rolls up a sleeve and plunges an arm, shoulder deep, right down to the bottom of the barrel. The problem for John McCain, Sarah Palin, and the Republican Party is that the bottom was scraped clean long before it dropped out. Back when the polls were nip and tuck and the leaves had not yet begun to turn, Barack Obama had already been accused of betraying the troops, wanting to teach kindergartners all about sex, favoring infanticide, and being a friend of terrorists and terrorism. What was left? The anticlimactic answer came as the long Presidential march of 2008 staggered toward its final week: Senator Obama is a socialist.
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Posted in you've got mail at 2:27 pm by nemo
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http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44479
ENVIRONMENT: Massive Shift to Clean Energy Could Start Tomorrow
By Wolfgang Kerler
NEW YORK, Oct 28 (IPS) – An aggressive shift towards renewable power generation and energy effiency could save the world from the most devastating impacts of climate change, and at the same time create a multi-billion-dollar industry and save trillions of dollars in future fuel costs, experts say.
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Posted in you've got mail at 2:09 pm by nemo
gnxp
Is a stock market bubble a medical condition?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7684118.stm
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Posted in you've got mail at 2:09 pm by nemo
gnxp
In a twist worthy of a Halloween horror movie, Siberian moths have
acquired a taste for blood, and scientists believe they’re seeing
evolution in action. With video.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/10/081027-vampire-moth-evolution-halloween-missions.html
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Posted in you've got mail at 2:08 pm by nemo
gnxp
The two emotions light up most of the same brain regions, say
researchers – but a key difference explains why hate is calculatingly cold
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn15060-brain-scans-show-the-difference-between-love-and-hate.html
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Posted in you've got mail at 2:06 pm by nemo
sciftp
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/29/us/29lab.html
October 29, 2008
Bio Lab in Galveston Raises Concerns
By JAMES C. MCKINLEY JR
GALVESTON, Tex. – Much of the University of Texas medical school on this island suffered flood damage during Hurricane Ike, except for one gleaming new building, a national biological defense laboratory that will soon house some of the most deadly diseases in the world.
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Posted in Evolution at 2:04 pm by nemo
_______________________________
UPDATE FROM THE
ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
http://electronicIntifada.net
__________________________ Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in you've got mail at 2:04 pm by nemo
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Thais to barter rice for oil with Iran
Thailand on Monday said it planned to barter rice for oil with Iran in
the clearest example to date of how the triple financial, fuel and
food crisis is reshaping global trade as countries struggle with high
commodity prices and a lack of credit.
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Posted in you've got mail at 2:02 pm by nemo
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World will struggle to meet oil demand
Output from the world’s oilfields is declining faster than previously
thought, the first authoritative public study of the biggest fields
shows.
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Posted in you've got mail at 2:01 pm by nemo
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Hamish McRae: Can we avoid the years of stagnation suffered by Japan?
There has been virtually no increase in Japanese living standards for 20 years
Wednesday, 29 October 2008
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Posted in you've got mail at 1:58 pm by nemo
Here’s what’s new Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in you've got mail at 1:53 pm by nemo
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http://embassymag.ca/page/view/margolis_book-10-29-2008
Margolis on Why Afghanistan is a Martyr Nation
by Jeff Davis
Published October 29 2008
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Posted in you've got mail at 1:52 pm by nemo
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Aljazeera Magazine 28/10/2008
Hope destroyed, justice denied: the rape of Palestine Read the rest of this entry »
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