History, Evolution, and the Darwin Debate
Powerful New Painkiller With No Apparent Side Effects or Addictive Qualities, May Be Ready in a Year
ScienceDaily (Jan. 28, 2011) — A powerful new painkiller, which was developed on the basis of the research conducted at Stony Brook University and with no apparent side effects or addictive qualities, may now be only a year or two from the consumer market.
Gene ‘Relocation’ Key to Most Evolutionary Change in BacteriaScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2011) — In a new study, scientists at the University of Maryland and the Institut Pasteur show that bacteria evolve new abilities, such as antibiotic resistance, predominantly by acquiring genes from other bacteria.
Published on Sunday, January 30, 2011 by the Independent/UK
Egypt: Death Throes of a Dictatorship
Our writer joins protesters atop a Cairo tank as the army shows signs of backing the people against Mubarak’s regime
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/01/30-1
Published on Sunday, January 30, 2011 by Democracy Now!
Live From the Egyptian Revolution
by Sharif Abdel Kouddous
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/01/30
CAIRO, Egypt — I grew up in Egypt. I spent half my life here. But Saturday, when my plane from JFK airport touched down in Cairo, I arrived in a different country than the one I had known all my life. This is not Hosni Mubarak’s Egypt anymore and, regardless of what happens, it will never be again.
Published on Sunday, January 30, 2011 by The New York Review of Books
Obama, Incorporated
by David Bromwich
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/01/30-0
Published on Sunday, January 30, 2011 by CommonDreams.org
The Torture Career of Egypt’s New Vice President: Omar Suleiman and the Rendition to Torture Program
by Stephen Soldz
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/01/30-2
Published on Saturday, January 29, 2011 by CNN
Saudi Arabia Slammed Protesters in Egypt as “Infiltrators”
Arab governments in the region are wary of demonstrations spreading to their countries.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/01/29-1
Published on Sunday, January 30, 2011 by Al Jazeera
Egypt Shuts Down Al Jazeera Bureau
Network’s licenses cancelled and accreditation of staff in Cairo withdrawn by order of information minister
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/01/30
Learn More Quickly by Transcranial Magnetic Brain Stimulation, Study in Rats Suggests
ScienceDaily (Jan. 28, 2011) — What sounds like science fiction is actually possible: thanks to magnetic stimulation, the activity of certain brain nerve cells can be deliberately influenced. What happens in the brain in this context has been unclear up to now. Medical experts from Bochum under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Klaus Funke (Department of Neurophysiology) have now shown that various stimulus patterns changed the activity of distinct neuronal cell types. In addition, certain stimulus patterns led to rats learning more easily. The knowledge obtained could contribute to cerebral stimulation being used more purposefully in future to treat functional disorders of the brain.
A question about self-consciousness: my point is related to the rubric of Bennett: being, function, and will. Bennett reverses the terms and makes self-consciousness consciousness and consciousness ‘vital energy’. In any case, he usually reverts to the original meanings, so we can set that issue aside: consciousness and will are different categories, as is the ‘life energy’ that makes us call something ‘alive’.
When certain authors say that the ‘cosmos’ is alive, or something to that effect, they confuse the issue. Bennett easily solves this question by showing how the entire universe has an aspect of ‘will’, which on its lower end manifests as the ‘laws of nature’ at play.
Too much discussion focusses on consciousness in isolation, but, as Bennett points out, there is a frequent confusion of will and consciousness. Consciousness, to Bennett, is the subjective aspect of being, while matter is its objective aspect. Function is the abstraction Bennett uses to replace ‘matter’ as that is subsumed under being. Will, therefore, as with Schopenhauer is the wild card of the discussion, and is almost like the mathematical equations of physics, and existing something somehow in way different from material existence.
The point then is that the power of attention, to Bennett, is an act of will that evokes a state of consciousness to come into being.
It is a beautiful way to divide the pie, confusing at first, and weakened by Bennett’s disguise of his use of Schopenhauer, and his abandonment of the distinction of phenomenon and noumenon.
It is hard to grasp this at first, mostly because the literature is non-existent in the public domain.
The term self-consciousness is not used by Bennett, who instead switches the terms, cf. the discussions at The Gurdjieff Con.
This may leave you more confused than before. In general, trying to understand these issues gets worse before it gets better.
Schopenhauer is helpful as one starting point.
http://darwiniana.com/2011/01/15/booknotes-the-10k-year-explosion/comment-page-1/#comment-356193
Good comment, and you raise a difficult issue. The question of the eonic effect and the eonic sequence is not in principle required to give a pat on the back to all cultures. It is a master sequence of developmental acceleration in a series of isolated regions which then globalize greater wholes via diffusion. It always jumps to a new region outside of its previous zone, and we can see that modern Europe falls into that pattern. It is so exact that we see modernity emerge not in ‘Europe’ but in the precise crescent zone at the fringes of the Roman Empire that were on its frontier: Germany, Holland, England, France and Spain.
We can see that the process starts at the center of gravity of Eurasia in the Middle East and proceeds from there.
The next Axial Age is confusing because it is a broad spectrum in parallel. Any globalizaling process of this type would produce lateral branches on its way to a univalent global culture.
The question of the New World is ambiguous: the emergence Maya is in exact synchrony with the Axial Age in the Old World. Plus there is clear evidence of diffusion from that Old World.
As to Africa, we simply lack evidence. But it is forgotten that Africa, as the source of human evolution, was occupied by the peoples related to the San (Hottentots) and/or Pygmies until historical times. Let me note that the Neolithic is part of the eonic effect, but still too fuzzy to analyze properly. With the right data we would very likely see the direct connect to the eonic effect in the spread of Neolithic agriculture throughout the continent from West Africa via the Bantu and other peopes. We often forget the direct connection thus of Africa to the mainline of Eurasian history. Next, Egypt was African! fact. And, the elements of African culture from the southern continent entered the mixmaster in the emergence of Egyptian civilization, and its continuation. In fact, the Nubian element was evident in the last phase of Egyptian history. So, while the impression is of a lack of African connections, that can be misleading. We may be lacking a lot of important data from the Neolithic.
It is also important to remember that most non-African travellers to that continent were dead from disease in a matter of weeks in most of its sub-Saharan territory, greatly delaying many diffusionist influences (as opposed to the New World case where the indigenous populations died off catastrophically confronted with European diseases).
Recall the extreme difficulty of nineteenth century explorers in simply trying to nagate across Africa, Livingstone et al.
A close look shows that African cultures of the Bantu type (which includes a complex of differing linguistics, but non-San) have all the elements of a basic Neolithic substrate culture and beyond, making them members of the master sequence of emergent civilization in good standing. The problem is mostly imaginary therefore, and caused by the impossible difficulties of constructing complex civilizations at the level of state formation in the sub-continent.
Again, the eonic effect shows energy minimalization: it proceeds in a few core areas and lets the results diffuse. The Axial Age is misleading in that respect because it seems like a balance of cultures. But it is only a balance of regions, to ensure a balanced diversity prior to full globalization.
A further discussion of the influence of Islam on Africa, and its diffusionary function. We forget that high sufism existed in Africa long before the idea diffused to America! So appearances can be misleading.
The eonic effect is not about any particular culture, but the differential time-slices of cultures in the direct path of the eonic sequence. The result, in spite of the confusing case of the Axial Age, develops the whole via the part. The result may leave those in its wake thinking they are superior, but most of their achievements appear only in relation to the mainline. Mozart and Beethoven: the whole western musical modernity (classicism) is a direct correlate of the eonic action and wanes immediately in the late nineteenth century as the transition sequence interval is over.
So I think that WHEE is a means for many to defend themselves against Eurocentrism.
Richard said,
January 29, 2011 at 1:53 pm ·
I don’t mean to ignite something controversial, but can’t your ideas be used to justify some sort of discrimination between Eurasians and non-Eurasians. WHEE admits that all of the action happened/is happening in Eurasia.I’m certainly not racist, but it must be admitted that we see no significant cultural achievements among those of African descent (full admission: I enjoy jazz, but it is a minor 20th century invention…nothing comparable to Beethoven, Mozart, etc.). Are we supposed to display a patronizing compassion for African culture? I only say this because it is always easy to expose a politically correct facade (see the infamous link below). What are your views on this topic?
http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2007/10/james-watson-tells-inconvenient-truth_296.php
Richard said,
January 29, 2011 at 9:53 am · How the government cooks the books when we most likely are in a depression:
http://voxday.blogspot.com/2010/02/interview-with-john-williams.html
http://history-and-evolution.com/whee4th/chap6_5_1.htm
Nietzche’s confusion over the ‘last man’, reflected in Fukuyama’s ‘Hegel’, threatens to make the delusion of genocidal eugenic pseudo-evolution a sure way to destroy the real evoluton of man, and modern man.
Harris has lost perspective on his subject, the moral landscape. But if we look at Darwinism and its treatment of the evolution of ethics we find a truly savage mathematical theory of altruism, whose main intent seems to be to destroy morality, especially the hated altruism that might interfere with capitalist economy.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-harris/a-response-to-critics_b_815742.html
These strictures now weigh heavily on me, because I recently published a book, The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values, which has provoked a backlash in intellectual (and not-so-intellectual) circles. I knew this was coming, given my thesis, but this knowledge left me no better equipped to meet the cloudbursts of vitriol and confusion once they arrived. Watching the tide of opinion turn against me, it has been difficult to know what, if anything, to do about it.
Harris’ complaing is a bit odd, perhaps a sign his critics are having an effect. Harris’ views are a source of potential harm to public understanding of the issues of morality, so he has absolutely no grounds for feeling sorry for himself. People are afraid of science nihilism, and should be, as the tide of reductionist science puts on a science face and ends up with social darwinism and much else coming from the woodwork.
Harris work on morality is a lazy hack that doesn’t even reference the history of the discussion of the subject, and the reason for that seems to be the wish to dominate the discussion with a narrow view that can do what Darwinism does: energize the science groupies to a post-religious and post-ethical culture.
The question is easy: Harris can’t discuss free will, and therefore can’t discuss morality.
All these discussions seem to be PR fronts for Nietzschean nihilism, and the public has a right to be afraid of that. The results, disguised by confused sholarship, were totally dreadful.
http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/expensive/2011/01/24/the-new-theists-narrow-worldview/
http://www.daily49er.com/opinion/new-atheism-does-not-prevail-over-other-religious-beliefs-1.2445816
By LISA GROSSMAN – WIRED SCIENCE
Added: Saturday, 29 January 2011 at 12:51 PM
http://richarddawkins.net/articles/585674-in-the-blink-of-bird-s-eye-a-model-for-quantum-navigation
European robins may maintain quantum entanglement in their eyes a full 20 microseconds longer than the best laboratory systems, say physicists investigating how birds may use quantum effects to “see” Earth’s magnetic field.
Quantum entanglement is a state where electrons are spatially separated, but able to affect one another. It’s been proposed that birds’ eyes contain entanglement-based compasses.
Conclusive proof doesn’t yet exist, but multiple lines of evidence suggest it. Findings like this one underscore just how sophisticated those compasses may be.
“How can a living system have evolved to protect a quantum state as well — no, better — than we can do in the lab with these exotic molecules?” asked quantum physicist Simon Benjamin of Oxford University and the National University of Singapore, a co-author of the new study. “That really is an amazing thing.”
Many animals — including not only birds, but some mammals, fish, reptiles, even crustaceans and insects — navigate by sensing the direction of Earth’s magnetic field. Physicist Klaus Schulten of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign proposed in the late 1970s that bird navigation relied on some geomagnetically sensitive, as-yet-unknown biochemical reaction taking place in their eyes.
Research since then has revealed the existence of special optical cells containing a protein called cryptochrome. When a photon enters the eye, it hits cryptochrome, giving a boost of energy to electrons that exist in a state of quantum entanglement.
One of the electrons migrates a few nanometers away, where it feels a slightly different magnetic field than its partner. Depending on how the magnetic field alters the electron’s spin, different chemical reactions are produced. In theory, the products of many such reactions across a bird’s eye could create a picture of Earth’s magnetic field as a varying pattern of light and dark.
‘Extraordinarily stable’ orangutan DNA may offer insight into human health
America’s Moral Crisis
The Return to Social Darwinism
By DAVID ROSEN
The Great Recession of 2007-2009 was more than a financial and political crisis. At root, it was a moral crisis.
http://www.counterpunch.org/rosen01282011.html
Bernie Madoff and a handful of other racketeers were prosecuted, but all those actively or passively involved in the financial scam were not exposed, let alone legally dealt with. Read the rest of this entry »
Study: Most high school biology teachers don’t endorse evolution
By Valerie Strauss
The central theory of biology is evolution, yet a new study shows that most high school biology teachers are reluctant to endorse it in class.
DNA Caught Rock ‘N Rollin’: On Rare Occasions DNA Dances Itself Into a Different Shape
ScienceDaily (Jan. 29, 2011) — DNA, that marvelous, twisty molecule of life, has an alter ego, research at the University of Michigan and the University of California, Irvine reveals.
Cow Rumen Enzymes for Better BiofuelsScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2011) — When it comes to breaking down plant matter and converting it to energy, the cow has it all figured out. Its digestive system allows it to eat more than 150 pounds of plant matter every day. Now researchers report that they have found dozens of previously unknown microbial enzymes in the bovine rumen — the cow’s primary grass-digestion chamber — that contribute to the breakdown of switchgrass, a renewable biofuel energy source.
Cancer Drug Aids Regeneration of Spinal Cord After InjuriesScienceDaily (Jan. 28, 2011) — After a spinal cord injury a number of factors impede the regeneration of nerve cells. Two of the most important of these factors are the destabilization of the cytoskeleton and the development of scar tissue. While the former prevents regrowth of cells, the latter creates a barrier for severed nerve cells. Scientists of the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried and their colleagues from the Kennedy Krieger Institute and University of Miami in the United States, and the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, have now shown that the cancer drug Taxol reduces both regeneration obstacles.
Published on Saturday, January 29, 2011 by CNN
Saudi Arabia Slammed Protesters in Egypt as “Infiltrators”
Arab governments in the region are wary of demonstrations spreading to their countries.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/01/29-1
Russell Mokhiber: Corporate Crime and No Punishment
http://act.commondreams.org/go/4237?akid=360.96588.MCK1a0&t=36
Ronnie Cummins: The Organic Elite Surrenders to Monsanto
http://act.commondreams.org/go/4234?akid=360.96588.MCK1a0&t=30
Michael Winship: The Bush Legacy Strikes Out American Justice
http://act.commondreams.org/go/4233?akid=360.96588.MCK1a0&t=28
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