04.27.10
Peak oil estimates narrow
Estimates on the timing of peak oil have narrowed dramatically, and now center on the 2012-2015 time frame. Even the US Joint Forces command agrees …
Lottery Economy
Published on Tuesday, April 27, 2010 by CommonDreams.org
Lottery Economy
by Paul Buchheit
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/04/27-3
Does limited government mean allowing one man to take $4 billion from the economy in one year? Hedge fund manager David Tepper did this in 2009, making enough money to pay the salaries of every police officer, firefighter, and public school teacher in Chicago.
Shadow banking system
The Shadow Banking System Blew Up
What Really Triggered the Financial Crisis?
By MIKE WHITNEY
Most people still don’t know what caused the financial crisis. They know it had something to do with subprime mortgages and Lehman Bros, but beyond that, it gets rather hazy. Unfortunately, Congress appears to be in the dark too, which is why their attempt to regulate the system is bound to fail and pave the way for another crisis in the next few years. [Financial crises occur on average every seven years. Eds.]
Observing movement
gnxp
A recent study found that voters assess a politician’s health from his movement, which, in turn, affects votes.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/04/25/something_in_the_way_he_moves/
Bad habits and age
gnxp
Four common bad habits combined — smoking, drinking too much, inactivity and poor diet — can age you by 12 years, sobering new research suggests
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100426/ap_on_he_me/us_med_bad_habits_survival
Mammal opiate factories
gnxp
Mammals could have opiate factories
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100426/full/news.2010.202.html
Gulf rig spewing oil
Louisiana Gulf Rig Spewing 1,000 Barrels (42,000 gallons) of Oil per Day
http://act.commondreams.org/go/355?akid=33.96588.DypfEI&t=7
Cyberwar
Cyberwar. A Conflict without Footsoldiers, Guns, or Missiles
http://act.commondreams.org/go/359?akid=33.96588.DypfEI&t=16
Sowing hate and reaping death
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=39545
18 April 2010
By Rami Elhanan
Booknotes: new book on Chernobyl
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2010/2010-04-26-01.html
Chernobyl Radiation Killed Nearly One Million People: New Book
NEW YORK, New York, April 26, 2010 (ENS) – Nearly one million people around the world died from exposure to radiation released by the 1986 nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl reactor, finds a new book from the New York Academy of Sciences published today on the 24th anniversary of the meltdown at the Soviet facility.
The book, “Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment,” was compiled by authors Alexey Yablokov of the Center for Russian Environmental Policy in Moscow, and Vassily Nesterenko and Alexey Nesterenko of the Institute of Radiation Safety, in Minsk, Belarus.
The authors examined more than 5,000 published articles and studies, most written in Slavic languages and never before available in English.
Return of Christian terrorism
http://religiondispatches.org/archive/religionandtheology/2432/the_return_of_christian_terrorism________/?page=entire
Religion Dispatches April 8, 2010
The Return of Christian Terrorism*
By Mark Juergensmeyer
Threats of right-wing violence have doubled in the past year. What is behind
the latest upsurge in the movement to create a Christian theocratic state?
04.26.10
Reviving the Humanities, and the bad science education behind Darwinian scientism
Book Review–Troy Jollimore on Why Democracy Needs the Humanities
Review of Martha Nussbaum’s Not For Profit
By Troy Jollimore
Nussbaum’s book looks interesting and I will track it down stat.
I think, however, that the situation calls for something more than trying to revive the Humanities. As culture reaches the final stages of existence in the Iron Cage, more is needed than mere literary flourishes. We need a full blown collision of dialectic between the Geisteswissenschaften and Naturwissenschaften, a Romantic Movement rasied from the dead, German Classical Philosophy using assault and (philosophic) battery on the mindless generation of idiots raised in the Flatland of scientism.
We could have a kickoff with Kantians taking on the Darwinists, followed by further such collisions routing the Know Nothings of contemporary Big Science.
And a reform of education might help. That is part of the reason why science is stuck on Darwinism, unable to see where the problem is, and why the New Atheists have muddled both religion and atheism with an ignorance of the history of religion that is almost puzzling, next the bad to awful theories of the evolution of religion. People overspecialized in science training, with no other exposure to educational resources, should be considered suspect of bad thinking, the kind we see at work in the evolution debate, and the debates over the ‘god gene’, etc… Such people are overvalued and armed-and-dangerous.
As a professor in a large state university system, I am quite familiar with the current state of American liberal arts education, at least in our public institutions of higher learning. And I am here to tell you: The news is not good. The public universities in general are in a sorry state, languishing under constantly dwindling funding and lack of public support. Class sizes are growing even as instructors are being let go. Funds for research and other intellectual activities are rapidly disappearing. Many instructors are not being paid their full salaries. And many universities have responded to the situation, or are considering responding, by slashing if not entirely eliminating humanities and arts programs—programs frequently regarded as expensive, nonessential luxuries, in a world increasingly focused on the economic bottom line.
As a result, an ever smaller number of students have at any point during their university careers the special, indeed irreplaceable experience of sitting in a room with a small number of their colleagues and discussing difficult ideas—ideas, in many cases, that are foundational to our civilization—with an instructor who is willing to challenge them and who has the time and energy to take their thoughts seriously. The anonymity and alienation of the large lecture hall or the online course has largely replaced the person-to-person interaction that was once considered the apotheosis, if not indeed the core, of the college experience.
Individual students often fail to realize, of course, just how much of a raw deal they are getting compared to their predecessors; since they spend only four years or so on campus, they are not aware of how much more crowded their classrooms are, or how much less attention their work and intellectual progress receive from their ever more put-upon instructors. But we professors, who tend to stay around for longer, are more vividly aware of the steepness of the decline. It has been true for a while, sadly, that quite a few students were pretty much illiterate when they entered public universities. What is becoming more and more true is that many students are still essentially illiterate when they leave.
The theism/atheism debate, yawn…
Given the durability and predictability of the arguments involved,” says Ross Douthat, “it’s hard to come up with something interesting to say on the question of Christianity versus the ‘new’ atheists.” True enough. But …
Smart idiots to the defense (of Darwinian fundamentalism ad infinitum)
I do feel sorry for the many highly intelligent students of evolution who are fanatic Darwinians because of the nature of their education. High IQ types get kidnapped early on via the way they excel in academic course work and get the strong feedback of high praise that makes them addicted to Darwinian fundamentalism, and to the talk.origins phoney science that is the grist for the endless online debates where such people hone their debating skills with the Darwin cliche talking points. I have watched it happen to people at all stages since the nineties, and it is a pitiful way to exploit intelligence by constricting it with ‘sugar conditioning’, the booby prize routines of meritorcracy. To destroy the intelligence of smart people and suppress the chance to learn real dialectic is reprehensible, but the common course in science education.
One result is the sheer tenacity of defending natural selection Darwinism ad infinitum. It is almost embarrassing to watch the debates.
Is it really such a big deal to challenge the claimed mechanism of Darwinists?
At this point, as Fodor/PP make clear in their What Darwin Got Wrong, it is time to move on, time for some critical thinking, time to wake up and realize that the lowliest Bible Belt religionist seems to grasp the faults of Darwinism better than the scientists.
This syndrome is also present in economics, with a vengeance, and we have seen the remarkable cases of ‘smart idiots’ like Greenspan, et al, very smart, yet unable to think critically about economic junk theory, or Ayn Rand (!).
Forgive me, I have to say it: a lot of these smart idiots (but not all) are Jewish.
Meanwhile, Dawkins has done immene harm to the intelligence of two science generations with his simplistic junk science, designed to make the smart people embrace stupidity, thinking it smart to do so.
Watch the way it happens, and you will see how the game works. Out the top end come smart idiots like Coyne.
Chapter 2 of Lovtrup’s Darwinism: Retutation of a Myth
Here’s the next chapter of Lovtrup’s book, Darwinism: Refutation of a Myth, on the four theories of evolution, too often scrambled by Darwinists (and creationists). The scanned text is fairly good (indent for new paragraphs got lost in transfer, sorry…)
The Introduction from last week is here:
Introduction to Lovtrup’s Darwinism: Refutation of a Myth
The Four Theories of Evolution
-
Extravagant theories, however, in those parts of philosophy, where our
knowledge is yet imperfect, are not without their use; as they encourage the
execution of laborious experiments, or the investigation of ingenious deductions, to confirm or refute them, Erasmus Darwin
On sait que toute science doit avoir sa philosophie et que ce n’ est que par cette
voie qu’ elle fait des progres reels, 2
J,-B. de Lamarck
There are two ways, fundamentally antithetic, to account for the
occurrence of life on our planet. It may be the creation of God or
some other supernatural power, or it may have arisen spontaneously
in some relatively simple form of matter, being subsequently
perfected in a process of organic evolution. Read the rest of this entry »
Separate truths?
Separate truths
It is misleading — and dangerous — to think that religions are different paths to the same wisdom
Interesting article, and no doubt right, up to a point: but a lot of religious discourse does have a common denominator.
Consider issues common to Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism. Seeing the core similiarities and keeping in mind the differences is important.
Fourth edition on its way
The Fourth Edition of WHEE is on its way, so download the files from the 3rd before they disappear: A glimpse of evolution
Re: The Improbablity Pump
Subject: Re: The Improbability Pump
SCIENCE-FOR-THE-PEOPLE@list.uvm.edu
(S. Newman)
Dawkins and Coyne are the most intellectually sclerotic of all the
evolutionists. Neither of them have any appreciation of new developments in
evolutionary developmental biology, including recognition of the role of
epigenetic and extragenetic mechanisms of organismal change, plasticity and
saltation, preferred directions on evolutionary change (orthogenesis) via self-
organization and other inherent organismal properties, and niche construction.
They either deny that mechanisms other than natural selection are of any
significance, or incorrectly claim that everything is already part of Darwin’s
theory.
Evidence of organisms having evolved, which Coyne uses to support Dawkins
and argue against Fodor and Piattelli-Palmarini (who, by the way, have no
doubts about evolution), are just that, it is not equivalent to evidence for
natural selection, which is just one of several mechanisms of evolutionary
change.
It’s not unexpected that scientists who have pinned their entire careers on an
increasingly marginal notion will continue to adhere to it. It’s particularly sad,
however, that The Nation consistently seeks out the most conventional
perspectives when dealing with biology and biotechnology.
Exhuming Newman
Violating Cardinal Newman’s wishes
by Peter Tatchell
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/04/catholicism.gayrights
The Vatican plans to exhume and rebury Cardinal John Henry Newman in a new tomb in Birmingham Oratory church, in preparation for him being made a saint later this year.
The Vatican is embarrassed that Newman is currently buried in the same grave as the man he shared much of his life with, Father Ambrose St John. Although inseparable in life and buried together for 118 years, the Catholic Church wants to now tear them apart.
Heal thyself
Heal thyself
Researchers are examining mice and salamanders for keys to regeneration in humans.
Molecular computing
Brain-Like Computing on an Organic Molecular Layer
ScienceDaily (Apr. 26, 2010) — Information processing circuits in digital computers are static. In our brains, information processing circuits — neurons — evolve continuously to solve complex problems. Now, an international research team from Japan and Michigan Technological University has created a similar process of circuit evolution in an organic molecular layer that can solve complex problems. This is the first time a brain-like “evolutionary circuit” has been realized.
Sensing temperature
How We Can Sense Temperatures: Discovery Could Lead to Novel Therapies for Acute and Chronic Pain
ScienceDaily (Apr. 26, 2010) — Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute and the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) have shed new light on the molecular mechanism that enables us to sense temperature
Pressure-cooking algae
Pressure-Cooking Algae Into a Better Biofuel
ScienceDaily (Apr. 26, 2010) — Heating and squishing microalgae in a pressure-cooker can fast-forward the crude-oil-making process from millennia to minutes.
Reich on Wall Street
Published on Monday, April 26, 2010 by Robert Reich’s Blog
The Importance of Getting Wall Street Out of Washington, and Washington Out of Wall Street
by Robert Reich
Washington’s relationship with Wall Street is growing more schizophrenic by the day. On the one hand, Congress is trying to show how tough it can be on the financial sector by enacting a law ostensibly designed to prevent another near-meltdown and taxpayer-supported bail-out. As the mid-term election looms, a staggering number of Americans remain unemployed or underemployed, and most Americans blame Wall Street (whose top bankers are raking in almost as much money as they did before the crisis). The lawsuit launched by the Securities and Exchange Commission against Goldman Sachs for alleged fraud only confirms the view held by many that the economic game is rigged.
Hedges: The New Secessionists
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_new_secessionists_20100426/
Ayn Rand influence on Wall Street
mxmail
http://www.alternet.org/story/146611/
Taibbi: The Lunatics Who Made a Religion Out of Greed and Wrecked the
Economy
By Matt Taibbi, The Guardian
Posted on April 26, 2010, Printed on April 26, 2010
So Goldman Sachs, the world’s greatest and smuggest investment bank, has
been sued for fraud by the American Securities and Exchange Commission.
Legally, the case hangs on a technicality.
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