Science & Society
Hank |
The world really stinks today. We have run out of aluminum, copper, gold, lead, mercury, natural gas, oil, silver, tin, tungsten, and zinc.
Oh wait, no we haven't.
But if you are an anti-science pessimistic hippie of the 1960s (or today, though their descendants only forecast doom for poor people, they will still have their iPads) you can be forgiven for thinking all that was going to have happened by now. Because a whole lot of people were once saying we were doomed in lots of ways. And millions still do it today but, like conservatives and Reagan, they try to validate their modern beliefs…
Hank |
If anyone still felt CNN was credible before their Boston Bomber coverage two months ago, it was only because they hadn't read their science and health coverage.
Sure, all mainstream media loves its Miracle Vegetable of the Week stories, alternated with their Scary Chemical of the Week stories, but CNN is positively Huffington Post-ish in their willingness to engage in advocacy. And in New York City, there is always something to advocate.
Active Learning Elementary School has implemented all-vegetarian meals five days a week. Like an alarming number of schools in progressive enclaves,…
Hank |
Do you like nuclear weapons?
If you respond yes to that, I think you have lost your mind. While I understand the value of an overwhelming force to end a bloody world war, it's also something that can't be unmade. We had opened "Pandora's Box", the belief went.
If you are not familiar with Greek mythology, Pandora was the daughter of Zeus, created solely to torment the brother of Prometheus, who gave mankind fire without permission from the gods. He sent Pandora to Earth to marry Epimetheus and bestowed on them a beautiful box with a heavy lock and a key - and the proviso it never be…
A new statistical estimate projects that the world population could reach nearly 11 billion by the end of the century, according to a United Nations report issued June 13 - about 8 percent more than their previous projection of 10.1 billion, issued in 2011.
Don't blame China, it's infant mortality and birth control in Africa that have defied the UN's last projection. The current African population is about 1.1 billion and the new estimates based on fertility forecasting now predict the population will reach 4.2 billion by 2100. Due to birth control and abortion, the UN had…
Social Bonding and Nurture Kinship - Compatibility between Cultural and Biological Approaches.Author – Maximilian HollandAvailable from Amazon and online at http://maximilianholland.com/
“Social Bonding and Nurture Kinship” is the author’s doctoral thesis from 2004, published in paperback form in 2012.
The aim of the thesis was to “clarify some aspects of the relationship between biology and social bonds. The central task is to demonstrate that, despite clear problems of some past approaches claiming to represent biology, there is non-reductive compatibility between the perspective…
vongehr |
Edward Joseph Snowden, a 29 year-old systems administrator, the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations and already called biggest scandal of them all, wants transparency; so might I. But is transparency even possible, and what does transparency entail?
One of Edward’s important points is the implication of all your history being recorded, as you should assume to be fact for a while already in my opinion. For whatever reason you might come into a higher power’s cross hairs, be that power a government agency or a relatively private industry, your past will be efficiently…
Law, Lies and Logic
The foundations of logical science, and of that part of law which concerns itself with logic rather than rhetoric, were laid by Aristotle, in 350 B.C.E.
His analysis of reasoning with demonstrable facts, as against appeals to "reason", came in a golden age of rhetoric. He noted that the tools of rhetoric had not been built from an analysis of how language is used, but had been built piecemeal. He, on the other hand, built his tools of logic from an observational foundation.
... on the subject of Rhetoric there exists much that has been said long ago, whereas…
Humans have long been yearning for an
immortal life and everlasting youth—to continue living freely without having to
confront death. A renowned novel written by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, reveals this desire for immortality.
Victor
Frankenstein, the fictional character in Frankenstein who is a gifted scientist, attempts to cross the boundary of science by
reviving a creature made from separate dead body parts. As abnormal as his
experiment was, it resulted in a horrifying creation, and Victor fails to take
responsibility for what he has done. Nowadays, many researchers are struggling
to…
A Tool For Etymologists
Advances in science frequently generate new words and phrases. Accordingly, a good source of etymological information can often help pin down the era in which a new discovery was made. Similarly, a knowledge of the history of discovery can help to pin down the era in which a word or phrase was coined.
It is frequently observed that, when something is very much in the public mind, the words and phrases associated with it become a kind of communal property: a meme. That fact about language can help the science historian or etymologist in his or her…
The Mousetrap Myth
Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door. The metaphor of a better mousetrap suggests that any really useful invention will be eagerly adopted. In this series of articles I trace a history of invention and discovery which shows that resistance is more likely than acceptance, even for proven life-saving inventions and facilities.
A better mousetrap ?
The history of invention and discovery shows that many of the things taken for granted by one generation were vigorously opposed by people of a previous generation, especially those who had a…