Yahoo! News - Massachusetts Stem Cell Bill Gets Veto-Proof Vote: "A bill that would allow embryonic stem cell research in Massachusetts cleared its second big legislative hurdle on Thursday with enough support to withstand a near-certain veto by the state's governor."
Good!
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Two-thirds of world's resources 'used up'
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Two-thirds of world's resources 'used up'
Another piece on the recent report of the consequences of exponentiation against limits.
What can be done about this problem when most of humanity not only fails to see it, but rejects the information out of hand when it's brought to their attention?
Another piece on the recent report of the consequences of exponentiation against limits.
What can be done about this problem when most of humanity not only fails to see it, but rejects the information out of hand when it's brought to their attention?
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Study highlights global decline
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Study highlights global decline
The most comprehensive survey ever into the state of the planet concludes that human activities threaten the Earth's ability to sustain future generations.
Well, duh...
I wonder what Steven Pinker thinks the odds are of humanity undergoing dieoff, like any other organism that outgrows, consumes and fouls its environment. Surely the answer to why humanity can't acknowledge limits despite the obviously finite extension of its environment falls into his scope.
The most comprehensive survey ever into the state of the planet concludes that human activities threaten the Earth's ability to sustain future generations.
Well, duh...
I wonder what Steven Pinker thinks the odds are of humanity undergoing dieoff, like any other organism that outgrows, consumes and fouls its environment. Surely the answer to why humanity can't acknowledge limits despite the obviously finite extension of its environment falls into his scope.
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Depopulation
Here:
Q&A with Dr. Ken Alibek
Who the heck is Dr. Ken Alibek? Come again?
This paper always blows me away.
How could it be otherwise?
Q&A with Dr. Ken Alibek
Who the heck is Dr. Ken Alibek? Come again?
This paper always blows me away.
How could it be otherwise?
Monday, March 28, 2005
Hmmm...
S. Korea bars secret video of the North | csmonitor.com: "We need to focus on what is effective, not what we think we should say."
Well... Ok...
Smarter people than me...
Well... Ok...
Smarter people than me...
Easter Charade
Easter Charade - There's no resurrecting Terri Schiavo. By Christopher Hitchens
Finally! Maybe there's hope after all.
... united in eternal bliss with the man-child Elián González.
... vortex of irrationality and nastiness that generates its own energy.
...(unwise to burst in) but only because it might set a precedent for the rescue of living people on Death Row.
... arrogantly ventriloquized by clerical demagogues and self-appointed witch doctors
... The end of the brain, or the replacement of the brain by a liquefied and shrunken void, is ... if not the absolute end of "life," the unarguable conclusion of human life. (My emphatic emphasis.)
... hysteria from the morbid and the superstitious. It is an abuse of our courts and our Constitution to have judges and congressmen and governors bullied by those who believe in resurrection but not in physical death.
... {Religious fanatics} have gone too far, and they should be made to regret it most bitterly.
Hear! Hear!
Finally! Maybe there's hope after all.
... united in eternal bliss with the man-child Elián González.
... vortex of irrationality and nastiness that generates its own energy.
...(unwise to burst in) but only because it might set a precedent for the rescue of living people on Death Row.
... arrogantly ventriloquized by clerical demagogues and self-appointed witch doctors
... The end of the brain, or the replacement of the brain by a liquefied and shrunken void, is ... if not the absolute end of "life," the unarguable conclusion of human life. (My emphatic emphasis.)
... hysteria from the morbid and the superstitious. It is an abuse of our courts and our Constitution to have judges and congressmen and governors bullied by those who believe in resurrection but not in physical death.
... {Religious fanatics} have gone too far, and they should be made to regret it most bitterly.
Hear! Hear!
Sunday, March 27, 2005
A more sensible Catholic attitude on Schiavo case
I like this man's approach. It doesn't require that we agree on the nature of the soul. If the losing side in the Schiavo controversy agree with this man, perhaps the whole controversy could be addressed in the context of the previous post.
Naaaaaaa..... Probably not.
The Seattle Times: Local News: 5 Times columnists consider issues of faith in Schiavo case: "
The Rev. Patrick J. Howell is a Jesuit priest and dean of Seattle University's School of Theology and Ministry.
The Rev. Patrick J. Howell
Q: What would you do if you were making the decision in Schiavo's case, and to what extent is this decision driven by what your faith says on end-of-life issues?
A: The Roman Catholic Church has a consistent 400-year-old tradition that says nobody is obliged to undergo extraordinary means to preserve life.
This is Holy Week, when the Christian tradition is saying, 'We understand that life is not an absolute good and death is not an absolute defeat.' The whole story of Easter is about the triumph of ultimate life over transitory death. Catholics have never believed that biological life is an end in and of itself. It is a gift of God, and we are ultimately destined to return to God.
As far back as 1950, Gerald Kelly, the leading Catholic moral theologian at the time, wrote, 'I'm often asked whether you have to use IV feeding to sustain somebody who is in a terminal coma.' And he said, 'Not only do I believe there is no obligation to do it, I believe that imposing those treatments on that class of patients is wrong. There is no benefit to the patient, there is great expense to the community, and there is enormous tension on the family.'
I have been blessed in my own family with a great deal of practical realism. My parents both made it very clear 30 years ago that they did not want extraordinary means or an artificial prolonging of life through nutritional tubes. My mother, now 89, has a degenerative heart condition and has made it very clear through a living will she does not want emergency resuscitation or any other extraordinary measures should her heart fail.
The situation with Terri Schiavo is truly tragic. I hope her family and especially her parents will have the support and care they need to grieve her loss."
Naaaaaaa..... Probably not.
The Seattle Times: Local News: 5 Times columnists consider issues of faith in Schiavo case: "
The Rev. Patrick J. Howell is a Jesuit priest and dean of Seattle University's School of Theology and Ministry.
The Rev. Patrick J. Howell
Q: What would you do if you were making the decision in Schiavo's case, and to what extent is this decision driven by what your faith says on end-of-life issues?
A: The Roman Catholic Church has a consistent 400-year-old tradition that says nobody is obliged to undergo extraordinary means to preserve life.
This is Holy Week, when the Christian tradition is saying, 'We understand that life is not an absolute good and death is not an absolute defeat.' The whole story of Easter is about the triumph of ultimate life over transitory death. Catholics have never believed that biological life is an end in and of itself. It is a gift of God, and we are ultimately destined to return to God.
As far back as 1950, Gerald Kelly, the leading Catholic moral theologian at the time, wrote, 'I'm often asked whether you have to use IV feeding to sustain somebody who is in a terminal coma.' And he said, 'Not only do I believe there is no obligation to do it, I believe that imposing those treatments on that class of patients is wrong. There is no benefit to the patient, there is great expense to the community, and there is enormous tension on the family.'
I have been blessed in my own family with a great deal of practical realism. My parents both made it very clear 30 years ago that they did not want extraordinary means or an artificial prolonging of life through nutritional tubes. My mother, now 89, has a degenerative heart condition and has made it very clear through a living will she does not want emergency resuscitation or any other extraordinary measures should her heart fail.
The situation with Terri Schiavo is truly tragic. I hope her family and especially her parents will have the support and care they need to grieve her loss."
Yahoo! News - Docs Say Schiavo Videotapes Can Mislead
Yahoo! News - Docs Say Schiavo Videotapes Can Mislead: "To understand the emotional reaction to the tapes of Terri Schiavo, one need only spend a few minutes with Kismet.
People who spend time with the robot at a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (news - web sites) lab walk away feeling like they've made a new friend. Kismet is nothing but a mechanical head made out of metal and plastic, but it has been cleverly programmed by scientists to mimic human social interactions.
Sit down across from Kismet and it gives you a pleasant smile. Step too close and it jumps back with a startled expression on its face. Introduce yourself and it waits patiently for you to finish talking, then replies with a few syllables of speech that sounds like a higher-pitched version of the language spoken by the teachers in 'Charlie Brown' cartoons.
Kismet is no more conscious than a dishwasher or a microwave oven. But its vaguely human behavior has a powerful effect on brains that are predisposed to attach meaning to gesture, facial expression and vocal tone.
'This ... system that we have is so automatic and so powerful, sometimes it ends up being triggered by things that aren't people and don't have minds at all,' said Martha J. Farah, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania. 'It's very hard to suppress the impression that there's somebody there.'
People in persistent vegetative states are no more aware than Kismet, but they retain a handful of primitive reflexes that are naturally misinterpreted as conscious behavior."
People who spend time with the robot at a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (news - web sites) lab walk away feeling like they've made a new friend. Kismet is nothing but a mechanical head made out of metal and plastic, but it has been cleverly programmed by scientists to mimic human social interactions.
Sit down across from Kismet and it gives you a pleasant smile. Step too close and it jumps back with a startled expression on its face. Introduce yourself and it waits patiently for you to finish talking, then replies with a few syllables of speech that sounds like a higher-pitched version of the language spoken by the teachers in 'Charlie Brown' cartoons.
Kismet is no more conscious than a dishwasher or a microwave oven. But its vaguely human behavior has a powerful effect on brains that are predisposed to attach meaning to gesture, facial expression and vocal tone.
'This ... system that we have is so automatic and so powerful, sometimes it ends up being triggered by things that aren't people and don't have minds at all,' said Martha J. Farah, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania. 'It's very hard to suppress the impression that there's somebody there.'
People in persistent vegetative states are no more aware than Kismet, but they retain a handful of primitive reflexes that are naturally misinterpreted as conscious behavior."
Saturday, March 26, 2005
Hear! Hear! On Bullshit
"I think that the tendency to bullshit is encouraged and promoted by the fact that it's a widespread view in a democratic society that a responsible citizen ought to have an opinion about everything. Well, you can't know very much about everything, and so your opinions are likely to be based upon ...pause... bullshit."
Harry Frankfurt
Princeton University Professor of Philosophy Emeritus
Author of "On Bullshit" in a taped interview
Harry Frankfurt
Princeton University Professor of Philosophy Emeritus
Author of "On Bullshit" in a taped interview
Still missing the implications of a dead upper brain
The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Morality and Reality
I like David Brooks. He's a sensible, well-spoken, regular commentator on The News Hour and a New York Times columnist. In this piece he describes the contrast between social conservatives and social liberals with respect to issues of life. Brooks has the social conservatives coming from a morals perspective and the social liberals reflecting concerns about process.
But both of the groups Brooks describes seem to come, more fundamentally, from a mistaken definition of life. What differentiates human life from other life is the human soul. The distinction I'd like to press has to do with the nature of that soul, and when it is present and relevant.
Both of the groups Brooks discusses think there is a soul separate from the uniquely human functions of the brain, and that the presence of this spirit soul is what defines the live human being.
That's where both of Brooks' groups are mistaken. Whereas the live human being IS defined by the human soul, both groups fail to link this human soul to the human brain, and to realize that when the brain dies there is no human soul and all that remains is a shell, not a live human being.
The human soul is the emergent property of the complex human brain. When the brain dies, there is no soul.
Terri Schiavo is dead. She has been dead for 15 years. The tragedy of her death is only compounded by the present repercussions of dogma about spirit souls.
I like David Brooks. He's a sensible, well-spoken, regular commentator on The News Hour and a New York Times columnist. In this piece he describes the contrast between social conservatives and social liberals with respect to issues of life. Brooks has the social conservatives coming from a morals perspective and the social liberals reflecting concerns about process.
But both of the groups Brooks describes seem to come, more fundamentally, from a mistaken definition of life. What differentiates human life from other life is the human soul. The distinction I'd like to press has to do with the nature of that soul, and when it is present and relevant.
Both of the groups Brooks discusses think there is a soul separate from the uniquely human functions of the brain, and that the presence of this spirit soul is what defines the live human being.
That's where both of Brooks' groups are mistaken. Whereas the live human being IS defined by the human soul, both groups fail to link this human soul to the human brain, and to realize that when the brain dies there is no human soul and all that remains is a shell, not a live human being.
The human soul is the emergent property of the complex human brain. When the brain dies, there is no soul.
Terri Schiavo is dead. She has been dead for 15 years. The tragedy of her death is only compounded by the present repercussions of dogma about spirit souls.
Friday, March 25, 2005
Hear! Hear! Is There Really a 'New Diagnosis' for Terri Schiavo?
TCS: Tech Central Station - Is There Really a 'New Diagnosis' for Terri Schiavo?
The medical reality of Ms. Schiavo's case is this: She has been in what is medically referred to as a "permanent vegetative state" for the past 15 years, ever since her heart temporarily stopped (probably due to the severe effects of an eating disorder), depriving her brain of oxygen. Brain scans indicate that her cerebral cortex ceased functioning -- probably just after she experienced cardiac arrest in 1990. Ms. Schiavo's CAT scan shows massive shrinking of the brain, and her EEG is flat. Physicians confirm that there is no electrical activity coming from her brain. While the family video repeatedly shown on television suggests otherwise, her non-functioning cortex precludes cognition, including any ability to interact or communicate with people or show any signs of awareness. Dozens of experts over the years who have examined Ms. Schiavo agree that there is no hope of her recovering -- even though her body, face and eyes (if she is given food and hydration) might continue to move for decades to come.
The body being wrangled over is exactly that: a body. The former occupant died 15 years ago. The soul stopped when the mind stopped, which stopped when the brain stopped.
The medical reality of Ms. Schiavo's case is this: She has been in what is medically referred to as a "permanent vegetative state" for the past 15 years, ever since her heart temporarily stopped (probably due to the severe effects of an eating disorder), depriving her brain of oxygen. Brain scans indicate that her cerebral cortex ceased functioning -- probably just after she experienced cardiac arrest in 1990. Ms. Schiavo's CAT scan shows massive shrinking of the brain, and her EEG is flat. Physicians confirm that there is no electrical activity coming from her brain. While the family video repeatedly shown on television suggests otherwise, her non-functioning cortex precludes cognition, including any ability to interact or communicate with people or show any signs of awareness. Dozens of experts over the years who have examined Ms. Schiavo agree that there is no hope of her recovering -- even though her body, face and eyes (if she is given food and hydration) might continue to move for decades to come.
The body being wrangled over is exactly that: a body. The former occupant died 15 years ago. The soul stopped when the mind stopped, which stopped when the brain stopped.
Thursday, March 24, 2005
World divided on ethics of Terri Schiavo case | csmonitor.com
World divided on ethics of Terri Schiavo case | csmonitor.com
Good article.
"The Catholic church, however, remains strongly opposed..."
Screw the church.
Good article.
"The Catholic church, however, remains strongly opposed..."
Screw the church.
The Volokh Conspiracy - Cass Sunstein & Adrian Vermeule for the Death Penalty:
The Volokh Conspiracy - Cass Sunstein & Adrian Vermeule for the Death Penalty:: "Recent evidence suggests that capital punishment may have a significant deterrent effect, preventing as many as eighteen or more murders for each execution. This evidence greatly unsettles moral objections to the death penalty, because it suggests that a refusal to impose that penalty condemns numerous innocent people to death."
Monday, March 21, 2005
The New Republic Online: Preaching to the Choir
The New Republic Online: Preaching to the Choir
For those of you just back from Mars (tell Peter Jennings; he'll invite you on the evening news to talk about extraterrestrials), Ashley Smith is the 26-year-old Georgia woman taken hostage by Brian Nichols, the 33-year-old man accused of rape who had just killed a judge, a court reporter, and two law-enforcement agents in and around an Atlanta courthouse and was running for his life.
...
Prostitution is legalized in two places in America: in Nevada and on the airwaves. One of the biggest whorehouses is CNN (you don't expect integrity from Fox), which swung into action.
...
For those of you just back from Mars (tell Peter Jennings; he'll invite you on the evening news to talk about extraterrestrials), Ashley Smith is the 26-year-old Georgia woman taken hostage by Brian Nichols, the 33-year-old man accused of rape who had just killed a judge, a court reporter, and two law-enforcement agents in and around an Atlanta courthouse and was running for his life.
...
Prostitution is legalized in two places in America: in Nevada and on the airwaves. One of the biggest whorehouses is CNN (you don't expect integrity from Fox), which swung into action.
...
Blog shmog
OK, I've been playing with this blog for a few days now. It's been pretty interesting. I've formed a picture of the global brain in action. There are connected neurons like Volokh and Dooce. From what I've seen, Volokh is brilliant and Dooce is in a different category that did not attract my attention. Then there are blogs like The Angry Atheist that reflect high intelligence but are apparently not highly connected. Then there are the millions of little blogs like mine. In the aggregate they (millions of blogs) seem to model a crude brain of sorts. Maybe there is a Global Brain.
It's been interesting, but I don't think it something I give that much of a shit about. I already know that nobody give a damn what I think, secular bad person that I am. On top of that, I'm not that smart, or that energized or interested.
Fact of the matter is, I think the odds of a civilization-endangering meteor striking the earth, in the form of humanity bumping up against the walls of its petri dish, are very high. I am pretty damned sure there not a thing anyone can do in the face of dieoff, so why try? Trying is not why I did this blog, though. I just thought I'd check out the blogsphere. Now I have, and now I think I'm done.
Or maybe I'm just tired. Tired of politicians milking Shiavo. Tired of religious delusion driving events and humanity toward its limits. Tired of the stupidity of moral legislators, anti-death-penatly activists, anti-nuclear-activists, anti-war activits, activists in general.
It's been interesting, but I don't think it something I give that much of a shit about. I already know that nobody give a damn what I think, secular bad person that I am. On top of that, I'm not that smart, or that energized or interested.
Fact of the matter is, I think the odds of a civilization-endangering meteor striking the earth, in the form of humanity bumping up against the walls of its petri dish, are very high. I am pretty damned sure there not a thing anyone can do in the face of dieoff, so why try? Trying is not why I did this blog, though. I just thought I'd check out the blogsphere. Now I have, and now I think I'm done.
Or maybe I'm just tired. Tired of politicians milking Shiavo. Tired of religious delusion driving events and humanity toward its limits. Tired of the stupidity of moral legislators, anti-death-penatly activists, anti-nuclear-activists, anti-war activits, activists in general.
Sunday, March 20, 2005
Legislative Grandstanding
Why Schiavo is a cause celebre | csmonitor.com
GOP leaders in both houses describe this case as having to do with the "culture of life" theme expected to be central in the 2006 congressional races. "Their gamble is that the general public will be divided on the issue and will not vote on the subject come 2006, but that the Republican-base ... group of conservative Christians will remember this vote forever," says Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
...
"It would appear to be the kind of legislative grandstanding that Chief Justice Rehnquist, if he were up to speed and in good health, would swat away in an instant," says Patrick Gudridge, a law professor at the University of Miami.
GOP leaders in both houses describe this case as having to do with the "culture of life" theme expected to be central in the 2006 congressional races. "Their gamble is that the general public will be divided on the issue and will not vote on the subject come 2006, but that the Republican-base ... group of conservative Christians will remember this vote forever," says Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
...
"It would appear to be the kind of legislative grandstanding that Chief Justice Rehnquist, if he were up to speed and in good health, would swat away in an instant," says Patrick Gudridge, a law professor at the University of Miami.
Unsung Hero - Boris Smeds
Feature Article
Titan Calling
How a Swedish engineer saved a once-in-a-lifetime mission to Saturn's mysterious moon
There are some very smart people in this world. Maybe there is some hope for humanity after all.
Titan Calling
How a Swedish engineer saved a once-in-a-lifetime mission to Saturn's mysterious moon
There are some very smart people in this world. Maybe there is some hope for humanity after all.
Saturday, March 19, 2005
Mirror of Justice: Volokh on Pain, Punishment, and Vengeance
Mirror of Justice: Volokh on Pain, Punishment, and Vengeance
The notion of "inherent human dignity" (third paragraph of the linked post, and other posts there) is foreign to me. It is derived from the poster's faith, which I do not share.
Most people in the US (something like 95%, apparently) claim to believe in God. This is not surprising since humans are apparently hard-wired for belief. We are hard wired for faith due to the selective advantage that the capacity for unwarranted belief confered upon the human species and the human individual in the evolutionary scheme of things.
Dignity is evident in many humans, including all of those I have read on this topic, but the inherent nature of dignity in all human beings isa fantasy dogma related to the illusion of a soul. This illusion is of the mind, itself in turn an emergent property of a complex human brain.
There is nothing inherent about human dignity. Some human life is worthless. John Evander Couey, for example. I wonder if little Jessica Lunsford's father would want to torturously execute this son of a bitch. I hope not, but I'd certainly understand if so.
The notion of "inherent human dignity" (third paragraph of the linked post, and other posts there) is foreign to me. It is derived from the poster's faith, which I do not share.
Most people in the US (something like 95%, apparently) claim to believe in God. This is not surprising since humans are apparently hard-wired for belief. We are hard wired for faith due to the selective advantage that the capacity for unwarranted belief confered upon the human species and the human individual in the evolutionary scheme of things.
Dignity is evident in many humans, including all of those I have read on this topic, but the inherent nature of dignity in all human beings is
There is nothing inherent about human dignity. Some human life is worthless. John Evander Couey, for example. I wonder if little Jessica Lunsford's father would want to torturously execute this son of a bitch. I hope not, but I'd certainly understand if so.
She's been dead for 15 years
BBC NEWS | Americas | US patient's feeding tube removed
The poor woman has been dead for 15 years already. She died when her brain died. All that's left is an artificially sustained shell.
The mind is what the brain does. The soul is an illusion created by the mind. Before she died she told her husband she would not want to be sustained this way. Let her body go.
This is all about the interests of institutions, not about one woman's body's state of life.
The poor woman has been dead for 15 years already. She died when her brain died. All that's left is an artificially sustained shell.
The mind is what the brain does. The soul is an illusion created by the mind. Before she died she told her husband she would not want to be sustained this way. Let her body go.
This is all about the interests of institutions, not about one woman's body's state of life.
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