STP

How does it smell? If you can handle it then you should be able to eat it.

I believe that there are different ways of knowing. Take art, for instance (Van Gogh's "A Pair of Boots"). But what it says is not static in reference to narrative. [video:youtube]qe6gWsklnh0

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I hear DARPA is interested in an automated system (robot) that will probably eliminate this sort of mistake from happening. I suppose as long as the officer was responding consistent with his training then he will be absolved. Here's an interesting related note: The Six-Letter Word That Changes Everything I remember seeing the Rodney King video and the effect it had on me. Incidents such as this can lead to widespread disruptive events as was seen in Greece. With the presence of cameras and transmission capabilities there seems to be no way of preventing these triggers short of blocking the transmission.

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I don't have any problems with your view of the world. Something about it though reminded me of a former practice applied to people who espoused ideas contrary to the establishment. As they said: "most frequently, ideas about a struggle for truth and justice are formed by personalities with a paranoid structure,"...

I wouldn't know about caping but all of us got TARPed.

I found alpine a good way to clear the cobwebs or least cut through the thatch. More effective than flatland walking meditation. Sometimes I wonder if it wasn't borderline hypothermia and/or fatigue.

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Contrast that with the scene in Oakland and the public's perception of racism. [video:youtube]i8_TGixgoLw An officer is trained to shoot at center body mass to increase the chance of hitting the target, but not necessarily to kill.

Viruses as facultators of transpecific or transgenic change? In the traditional conception, for example, allopatric speciation, mutations have to occur on population level (because one hopeful monster has to have a mate to pass on the beneficial mutation). Usually there's a large scale impetus over time like plate tectonics. A period of global change should see extinctions, adaptations radiation into emptied niches, and speciation. Do viruses provide some kind of mechanism for a 'stealth' change to occur that appears to arrive 'suddenly'? Seems I recall reading about a researcher (female at UW) who several years ago posited a hypothesis about the male genome originally acting as an invader (the egg reacts as if it is repelling a foreign body).

Perhaps we should be wary against extremism in whatever form it takes. Yet, the human spirit in history appears guided by some numinous agent that finds expression or manifestation through radical change. It's a counterculture problem. What if, we were to find that morality actually does arise from the mammalian expression? Does that give mainstream respectability or legitimacy to animal rights? At what cost?

It seems as though the only predermined grand design for non sentient life is that it will continue to obey the few simple rules that drive evolution. Habitable niches will be filled, hierachical complexity will increase as much as the environment allows. What that looks like at any given point is not predictable. Sentient life, with it's ability to make decisions, is different, in that it can attempt to seek a desired future state. The purpose for doing so is self defined, and therefore subjective, although it may also be advantageous from an evolutionary standpoint...or not. This is particularly true for superorganisms like human societies. The actualization of such an evolution is still not predictable, of course, and the lack of consensus as to what that purpose is is always an inhibiting factor. In the end, however, regardless of where life goes along the way, nature always gets the last word: an asteroid strikes, the sun goes nova, the universe flies apart, everything ends. Is there a purpose to a universe destined for such a cold, dead future? Biological evolution does not appear to have teleos (absence of teleos is the postmodern condition) but you can observe progressive change in response to environmental conditions. For instance, look at the evolution of terrestrial plants and of vertebrates. The basis pattern has been the origination of gymnosperms ('naked' seed) followed by the angiosperms (flowering plants). Another way to look at that is as a chemical system (c3 plants followed by c4 plants). So essentially you're seeing the increasing efficiency of the carbon fixation mechanism. Caveat: Even though there is innovation, representatives of a precursor lineage still exist. Now, terrestrial vertebrates. External birth (eggs) followed by live birth. These appearances appears to be correlated with environmental change such as co2 buildup or o2 buildup and their consequent, myriad changes. So my understanding focuses on innovations in reproduction so that the gene vehicle is more protected from environmental threat. But that's not the complete picture or perhaps not representative of what is really going on. As mentioned above, we're still surrounded by representatives of the 'past' so maybe we need to look at this from an ecosystem approach with us as the leading edge. If you look at vertebrates, the mammalian innovation is revolutionary with respect to the next stage. Live birth engender neoteny or a long period of gestation. Ergo, larger brain (but you don't want it too big!). Also, with certain humans you see a longer period of maturation. So here, cultural evolution appears to begin to take precedence over biological evolution (some suggest organic life followed by inorganic beings). It's like a journey away from our mortal coils and what appears to be driving it is the propagating force of information...We are a bridge.

Personally, I believe that the focal point is closer to the West Bank area, specifically Jerusalem. Yeah, the action is on the outskirts but like the proverbial shell game you gotta keep your eye on the ball.

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Ha,ha,ha….curiosity. Don’t you have it? Besides do you understand the meaning of the word, cosmos? In a world of increasing specialty characterized by research teams, it’s refreshing to look at the life of one of the last great cross-disciplinarians: Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky and his Revolutionary Theory of the Biosphere and the Noosphere BTW, have you heard about Terence McKenna’s hyper-dimensional elves? He postulates alien intelligence with communication perhaps mediated by fungal agency (The Mushroom Speaks). Craziness? Sure, considering he was tripping on DMT. But what’s important is the experiential nature of these entities, they exist inasmuch as other projections exist, things like dreams and visions which do affect conscious life.

Oh give it up! Can't you see you've been trolled? It wouldn't truly be a reprise unless massive deregulation also occurred.

I definitely agree that empiricism should be a common basis for knowing and for understanding. But consider this: Although one might see religion to be grounded in an irrational basis it contains a certain amount of rationalism or, more correctly, legalism. Isn't a certain consistency of logic characteristic of two theologians of different beliefs arguing to each other the rightness of their particular religion or ideology? The particular issue that comes to my mind is the Temple Mount. I don’t recall if it was Gershom Gorenberg who made the observation that value judgments are instrumental in solving the problem presented by this issue but several years ago I recall reading or hearing his explanation of it. The facts alone are not enough to solve the problem. His point was that one has to consider the value judgments of both sides and treat them as ~equally true. Don’t ask me how he proposed to perform that balancing act! I suppose my fear of cold logic is its systematization so that something along the lines of that described in Hannah Arendt’s Banality of Evil is allowed to flourish. BTW, I believe in inoculations although I reserve judgment on some aspects of commonly accepted modern life.

Way to wiggle out of a higher moral responsibility, politicians. Heh, he reads Nietzsche? Paraphrase: He who cannot command himself cannot command others.

I don't feel I'm adequate to do justice in responding fully or expanding on your posts but I gotta say that the strength of your logical consistency is almost frightening. But here's where the problem lies. It would be simpler if we were logic machines. If solutions were based solely and objectively on facts then more problems would be resolved. Perhaps value judgments are more important than facts alone in evaluating a problem, at least with social problems. Even though value judgments can be examined in isolation, to make more sense it seems they have to viewed in their totality (or in some framework) since value judgments figure into a person's worldview. Thus, my current obsession with sanity. It is subjective in a sense despite the DSM IV. And more importantly, as pathology can the individual be held ultimately responsible? So there's that--sanity from society's POV and then there's sanity from the individual POV. There's also some philosophical crossover with the Death with Dignity issue. Does a higher standard of living or life longevity mean a higher sanity?

sort of an aside...just a little time for this one post. Don't have time to expand on it. This counterculture doesn't seem to be influenced by fringe beliefs alone. Mainstream personalities like Senator Orrin Hatch inadvertently helped the movement for alternative medicine by persuading the FDA not to regulate herbals. Also, the populist movement for medical marijuana (low cost alternative to high cost prescription medication) provides input. The confluence of these developments together with the rising cost of health care AND the medium provided by the Internet suggest that what you predict is true. Concerning the latter: The Constant Gardener [video:youtube]RkieOtnzgA0 Wim Wender's Until the End of the World [video:youtube]G3kFngoVO4s Does life imitate art? Dreams may no longer be secret with Japan computer screen SELF AWARENESS: THE LAST FRONTIER

I agree with you on one level. It just stands to reason what is right, what is wrong, what is good, what is evil. You might disagree with that stark categorization but it seems to come across based on the comparative number of deaths (or premature deaths, anyway). Dostoevsky said, “Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him.” So it’s about good and evil but also about what it means to be sane. I suggest it’s something more than tacit rejection of science. Let’s call it the lesser evil syndrome. Some people in the anti-vaccine movement appear to be motivated by the belief that components of modern life cause the body to be more susceptible to illness. So maybe it’s not so much the rejection of science but instead of the orthodoxy, of authority, of the establishment… Perhaps they believe that theirs is the lesser evil. It’s a different calculus for them. Do you believe that what plagues Africa cannot be cured by medicine alone? That was part of Mbeki’s message concerning poverty. So yes, HIV can lead to AIDS but what ails them is greater than viral infection. And again, maybe that's the woman’s message. Although her thinking may have been flawed perhaps it was an attempt to remedy what she perceived as the modern illness, one larger than infection, maybe in an odd way to address the question of sanity. Was the character in “Into the Wild” insane because he hastened his own death? Maybe he stood the definition on its head so that what appears to us as insanity actually is sanity.

Jubilee!