Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” - Mark Twain

/////////////Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” - Mark Twain


//////////////////Old Love Poem
If you love something
Set it free.
If it comes back, it was and
Always will be yours.#



/////////////////////What may be done at any time will be done at no time.-- Scottish Proverb

3 o'clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do.-- Jean-Paul Sartre



///////////////////Hyperthymesia or hyperthymestic syndrome is a condition where the affected individual has a superior autobiographical memory. As first described in the Neurocase article "A case of unusual autobiographical remembering," the two defining characteristics of hyperthymesia are "1) the person spends an abnormally large amount of time thinking about his or her personal past, and 2) the person has an extraordinary capacity to recall specific events from their personal past".[1]



//////////////////SAD DEMISE OF THE SIGN PAINTERS OF INDIA



//////////////////Samantha Abeel struggles with a learning disability calledDyscalculia. She has trouble telling time, counting change, and doingbasic level math. Dyscalculia affects a small number of students,teachers say. However, math anxiety affects a very large number.Teaching these students math has become a challenge for educators.This issue was front and center today at a meeting of educators andcity leaders for "Learning Differences Week" in Colorado Springs.read more >>http://weta.convio.net/site/R?i=WkKgbOa9geNjaxe8Emgiiw..


//////////////////GREGARIOUS OR SOLITARY



///////////////////The Future of Humanity new
This paper discusses four families of scenarios for humanity’s future: extinction, recurrent collapse, plateau, and posthumanity. [In New Waves in Philosophy of Technology, eds. Jan-Kyrre Berg Olsen and Evan Selinger (Palgrave McMillan, 2007) [pdf]



////////////////The Future of Human Evolution
This paper explores some dystopian scenarios where freewheeling evolutionary developments, while continuing to produce complex and intelligent forms of organization, lead to the gradual elimination of all forms of being worth caring about. We then discuss how such outcomes could be avoided and argue that under certain conditions the only possible remedy would be a globally coordinated effort to control human evolution by adopting social policies that modify the default fitness function of future life forms. [In Death and Anti-Death, ed. Charles Tandy (Ria University Press, 2005)] [pdf html]


////////////////////New discovery proves 'selfish gene' exists
A new discovery by a scientist from The University of Western Ontario provides conclusive evidence which supports decades-old evolutionary doctrines long accepted as fact.
Since renowned British biologist Richard Dawkins ("The God Delusion") introduced the concept of the 'selfish gene' in 1976, scientists the world over have hailed the theory as a natural extension to the work of Charles Darwin.
In studying genomes, the word 'selfish' does not refer to the human-describing adjective of self-centered behavior but rather to the blind tendency of genes wanting to continue their existence into the next generation. Ironically, this 'selfish' tendency can appear anything but selfish when the gene does move ahead for selfless and even self-sacrificing reasons.
For instance, in the honey bee colony, a complex social breeding system described as a 'super-organism,' the female worker bees are sterile. The adult queen bee, selected and developed by the worker bees, is left to mate with the male drones.
Because the 'selfish' gene controlling worker sterility has never been isolated by scientists, the understanding of how reproductive altruism can evolve has been entirely theoretical – until now.
Working with Peter Oxley of the University of Sydney in Australia, Western biology professor Graham Thompson has, for the first time-ever, isolated a region on the honey bee genome that houses this 'selfish' gene in female workers bees.
This means that the 'selfish' gene does exist, not just in theory but in reality. "We don't know exactly which gene it is, but we're getting close."
"This basically provides a validation for a huge body of socio-biology," says Thompson, who adds the completion of Honey Bee Genome Project in 2006 was crucial to this discovery.
###
The research will be published in the July issue of Genetics.
For more information, please contact Graham Thompson at 519- 661-2111, ext. 86570 or via email at graham.thompson@uwo.ca



///////////////////Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.~John W. Gardner~




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Inflation Promises a Belt-Tightening EraDavid DapiceYaleGlobal, 17 June 2008Vaporizing jobs and surging fuel prices may just be the beginning of bigger problems for the US and global economy


//////////////////////"Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough." -- Og Mandino



//////////////////The Taiping Rebellion---mass murder in the name of Jesus's crazy little brother [denialism blog]
Posted: 18 Jun 2008 07:09 PM CDT
A number of years ago, I saw an older physician reading a book with an intriguing title---God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan, by Jonathan Spence. Like most Americans, I know very little about Chinese history. I certainly had no idea that there was a massive civil war in 19th century China that by most estimates killed around 20 million people. Twenty. Million. People.
By comparison, the American Civil War, which took place in roughly the same time period, took around 700,000 lives (military, disease, civilian, etc.). I'm not a historian, and I read the book a long time ago, but this story sticks with you.
The leader of the Rebellion, Hong Xiuquan, was a failed civil service aspirant, from a non-dominant ethnic group. After failing his civil service exam multiple times and listening to some Christian missionaries, he had a vision that he was the younger brother of Jesus, and somehow used his insanity to capitalize on existing ethnic and economic tensions. He amassed a remarkably large, brutal, and fanatical army, replace existing religious restrictions with his own, and enforced morality where he held control.
This maniac took over most of south and central China. His "Heavenly Kingdom" ruled millions of people, and had it's capital in Nanjing. In one battle for Nanjing 100,000 people were killed.
So, basically in modern times, out of the minds of most Westerners (who were admittedly preoccupied with killing each other), a wacko religious visionary managed to take over most of China, causing the deaths of millions of people. How do we not know about that?
Like many theocracies led by charismatic rulers, when he died, things fell apart. Military support from the West helped the Qing dynasty recapture most of the country.
The Qing re-instituted their brand of oppression (which was probably marginally better than Hong's) and things went back to "normal" after a decade or so.
Normal.
A middle-class guy declares himself Jesus's brother, takes over the biggest country in the world, millions die. He also declared women equal, stopped foot binding, and women served in his army. Traditional Confucianism relied strongly on subjugation of women, and one thing this nut-job saw clearly was that half the population was available for recruitment.
It makes you wonder---where else are there large, poor, oppressed populations waiting for a delusional theocrat to come along and harness their power?Read the comments on this post...



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