07.28.11
I Want You To Join Me
Tim DeChristopher: I Do Not Want Mercy, I Want You To Join Me
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/26-13
07.27.11
Hubble Constant
Hubble Constant: A New Way to Measure the Expansion of the UniverseScienceDaily (July 27, 2011) — Using a measurement of the clustering of the galaxies surveyed, plus other information derived from observations of the early universe, researchers have measured the Hubble constant with an uncertainly of less than 5 percent. The new work draws on data from a survey of more than 125,000 galaxies.
Evolution, science, and space/time frameworks
A Certain Strangeness: Beyond Space and Time?
The assumption that evolutionary science is standard is probably false: the evolutionary may require a new kind of science that stands beyond space/time frameworks.
Atheism and the modern transition
If we study the onset of ‘secularism’ in the early modern we see that atheism was almost an afterthought, or sideshow to the main set of effects. The point is that the original diversity (‘dialectic’) is the key, not one of its narrow spinoffs, like atheism. And it is important to distinguish the natural ‘atheism’ that arises as the tenets of Xtian tradition seem unbelievable, from the brittle new belief system taken on faith: the explicit ‘Bertrand Russell’ style atheism that seems to have overtaken the new atheists.
Harris and the new atheist cult
The previous piece double-linked Hedges’ and Harris.
I am critical of Harris myself, but on different grounds. I am not a theist (in the simplistic senses common), nor much of an atheist (the question of god is not amenable to discussions over ‘his’ existence), but I think that the new atheism has produced a hopelessly flawed nexus now wishing to usurp the name of ‘secularism’. Atheists outstanding sense they have no place in this new cult, where scientism, darwinism, fundamentalist neuroscience, and, with Harris, a dubious strain of anti-buddhist, ‘killing buddhism’, (the issue of Islam remains unclear, even given Harris’ protest against Hedges’ unfair characterization).
A more intelligeent ‘atheism’ needs to move on from this narrow brand peddled by Harris, Dawkins, Hitchens, etc…
The question has been discussed here multiple times, and there is a need to reboot on the atheism question. We need a better public movement than the ‘new atheists’ could ever provide.
Harris has made the confusion worse with his very poor take on morality in his later ‘The Moral Landscape’, a dishwater utilitarian ‘mass consumption’ brand of moral reasoning. Beyond that the suspicion always lingers that new atheists are ‘reformed Nietzscheans’, sophmoric fans of that confusing and deadly philosopher later taking up a revised version with better PR, but the same mentality in the background.
In general, the future of the new atheist movement is likely to be compromised by this ambiguity, and we should be wary of the tide of nihilism overtaking the successors to this movement, in the downhill inevitable in such cults.
It is always good to reboot and restart such movements, to coopt the cultic ‘fundamentalism’ threatened. In any case, the shock value has passed here, and the dreary mediocrity of Harris et al. begins to stand out.
Harris, and the later Stephen Batchelor with his ‘secular buddhism’, seem determined to destroy the legacy of that religion. But the core elements of buddhism are the one thing that could have enriched and made viable the hopelessly oversimplified ‘new atheism’.
‘Fundamentalism kills’
Fundamentalism Kills
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/fundamentalism_kills_20110726/
By Chris Hedges
The gravest threat we face from terrorism, as the killings in Norway by Anders Behring Breivik underscore, comes not from the Islamic world but the radical Christian right and the secular fundamentalists who propagate the bigoted, hateful caricatures of observant Muslims and those defined as our internal enemies. The caricature and fear are spread as diligently by the Christian right as they are by atheists such as Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. Our religious and secular fundamentalists all peddle the same racist filth and intolerance that infected Breivik. This filth has poisoned and degraded our civil discourse. The looming economic and environmental collapse will provide sparks and tinder to transform this coarse language of fundamentalist hatred into, I fear, the murderous rampages experienced by Norway. I worry more about the Anders Breiviks than the Mohammed Attas.
Harris link in response:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/sam_harris_responds_to_chris_hedges_fundamentalism_kills_column_20110726/
Debt Madness Was Always About Killing Social Security
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/debt_madness_was_always_about_killing_social_security_20110727/
Onset of darwinism
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2011/07/how_was_darwins_theory_accepte048791.html
Flannery refuses to accept the evidence the ‘theory’ was really the work of Wallace.
No antibiotics for forces of Darwinism
http://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/No-antibiotics-for-forces-of-Darwinism-1605637.php
Are Cancers Newly Evolved Species?
Are Cancers Newly Evolved Species?ScienceDaily (July 27, 2011) — Cancer patients may view their tumors as parasites taking over their bodies, but this is more than a metaphor for Peter Duesberg, a molecular and cell biology professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
Tipping Point for the Spread of Ideas
Minority Rules: Scientists Discover Tipping Point for the Spread of Ideas
ScienceDaily (July 26, 2011) — Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have found that when just 10 percent of the population holds an unshakable belief, their belief will always be adopted by the majority of the society. The scientists, who are members of the Social Cognitive Networks Academic Research Center (SCNARC) at Rensselaer, used computational and analytical methods to discover the tipping point where a minority belief becomes the majority opinion. The finding has implications for the study and influence of societal interactions ranging from the spread of innovations to the movement of political ideals.
Fluorescent Protein
Newly Developed Fluorescent Protein Makes Internal Organs Visible
ScienceDaily (July 26, 2011) — Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have developed the first fluorescent protein that enables scientists to clearly “see” the internal organs of living animals without the need for a scalpel or imaging techniques that can have side effects or increase radiation exposure.
Jeffrey Sachs
http://www.vxec.com/2011/07/jeffrey-sachs-budgetary-deceit-and-americas-decline/
Excerpt:
Who runs America today? The rich and the multinational corporations. Who
runs the White House? David Plouffe, whose job it is to make sure that ever
word, every action of the president is calculated for electoral gain rather
than the country’s needs. Who runs the Congress, on both sides of the aisle?
The lobbyists, who win in every negotiation. And who loses? The American
people, who have said repeatedly that they want a budget that sharply cuts
the military, ends the wars, raises taxes on the rich, protects the poor and
the middle class, and invests in America’s future not just in Obama’s
speeches but in fact.
America needs a third-party movement to break the hammerlock of the
financial elites. Until that happens, the political class and the media
conglomerates will continue to spew lies, American militarism will continue
to destabilize a growing swath of the world, and the country will continue
its economic decline.
Defense Cuts?
Mark Engler: Defense Cuts? Don’t Believe Them Until You See Them
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/26-0
Ideological Inebriation
Ralph Nader: Ideological Inebriation on Capitol Hill
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/26-7
The Coming Economic Disaster
Mike Davis: The Coming Economic Disaster
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/26-2
Medicare for All
Johnathon Ross: Medicare for All: Fair, Frugal, and Inclusive
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/26-8
Armadebtdon 2011
Armadebtdon 2011 – Nonfiction Captain America
http://www.commondreams.org/video/2011/07/26-0
The Scourge of ‘Peak Oil’
The Scourge of ‘Peak Oil’
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/07/26-0
Racial Wealth Gap
Study Shows Racial Wealth Gap Grows Wider
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/07/26-2
EPA Ozone Action
US Chamber, Big Oil, GOP Thwart EPA Ozone Action
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/07/26-5
War Powers Act Controversy
Whatever Happened to the War Powers Act Controversy?
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/07/26-4
Tim DeChristopher’s Courageous Bid
Peter Yarrow: Tim DeChristopher’s Courageous Bid to Save Our World
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/26-11
07.26.11
The Origin of Malaria
The Origin of Malaria: The Hunt Continues
ScienceDaily (July 25, 2011) — The agent of malaria has been found in the greater spot-nosed monkey, also known as putty-nosed monkey (Cercopithecus nictitans), a small African primate derived from a line different to that of humans, gorillas and chimpanzees. This discovery challenges current thinking on the origin of the parasite and introduces a key element in the fight against malaria: knowing how it has adapted to the human species will make it possible to target its weaknesses.
The dominance of market mythology
Capitalist mythology, buttressed by Darwinism, has been a huge success: the entire population is brainwashed, including most of academia, and unfortunately most of the left.
Observation, and fake theories
The limits of observation: the catch-22 with theories of evolution is very simple: observational complexities.
The real reason for natural selection obsessions is to mask this fact, and interpolate an ideologically useful fake.
Peak oil
Published on Tuesday, July 26, 2011 by Al Jazeera English
The Scourge of ‘Peak Oil’
When demand for oil consistently surpasses supply, experts warn that our lives will look “very differently”.
by Dahr Jamail
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/07/26-0
Islam, Europe, multiculturalism
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-tutt/european-crisis-over-isla_b_907860.html
Why on earth bring in Nietzsche here??
The issue here is not complex: Moslem should be welcomed, but limited to a reasonable level! That’s not hard.
Europe is undergoing an identity crisis and Islam has been put at the center of it. The recent terrorist attacks in Norway by a deranged man who harbored anti-Muslim sentiments and sympathized with far right wing anti-immigrant political ideologies has brought this crisis once again to the surface.
Grotesque legacy of Judaism: animal sacrifice
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-david-wolpe/animal-sacrifice-defense_b_907405.html
It is hard to believe what one is reading here, and its shows up the sad fact that Judaism is an archaic monstrosity that never made it past the progression of religion beyond animal sacrifice.
It is important to stand up to this kind of nonsense: it is NOT anti-semitic to do so.
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