Peruse NT & Digest the World. Knowledge and Understanding for the Progressive Mind. “Comments” are turned off. NT is for the reader who craves more then what the “mainstream media” offers.
LSD is a drug that produces fear in people who don’t take it. –Timothy Leary
It’s now almost half a century since that day in September 1961 when a mysterious fellow named Michael Hollingshead made an appointment to meet Professor Timothy Leary over lunch at the Harvard Faculty Club. When they met in the foyer, Hollingshead was carrying with him a quart jar of sugar paste into which he had infused a gram of Sandoz LSD. He had smeared this goo all over his own increasingly abstract consciousness and it still contained, by his own reckoning, 4,975 strong (200 mcg) doses of LSD. The mouth of that jar became perhaps the most significant of the fumaroles from which the ‘60s blew forth. (more…)
In case you had any doubt, the last nail was just placed in the coffin of intelligent design (ID). And, in case you had any doubt, that last nail joins many others that have been in place for quite some time.
The latest attack appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) and provides conclusive evidence that the design of the human genome is incredibly imperfect, or, in other words, very far from being intelligently structured. As John Avise, a University of California-Irvine biologist, noted in the paper, his focus “is on a relatively neglected category of argument against ID and in favor of evolution: the argument from imperfection, as applied to the human genome.”
The basic concept of intelligent design comes in two parts and is as simple as it is satisfying for those unwilling to think deeply about the natural world, science, or the nature of religion. Part one, stretching way back to the ancient Greeks, notes that nature is so perfectly integrated that it must have been designed just as we see it. Part two, largely attributed to Lehigh University biologist Michael Behe, says that while some aspects of nature might certainly have changed (evolved?) over time, others are so complex that they must always have existed in the form we find them in today. Indeed, he coined the term “irreducibly complex” to explain such structures. Change anything at all in these irreducibly complex structures and they fail to work.
side note: I was listening to conservative radio on my lunch break (I find its outrage humorous), and this was the topic of conversation. Evangelicals were calling in citing this as proof that W. had tricked them from the beginning and that this is why his presidency was so awful. In other words, Bush is not a real Christian and *that’s* why he was a bad president. They finally have a reason for his incompetency; their choice of W. wasn’t their mistake. They voted for him based on deception.
US President George W. Bush said in an interview Monday that the Bible is “probably not” literally true and that a belief that God created the world is compatible with the theory of evolution.
“I think you can have both,” Bush, who leaves office January 20, told ABC television, adding “You’re getting me way out of my lane here. I’m just a simple president.”
But “evolution is an interesting subject. I happen to believe that evolution doesn’t fully explain the mystery of life,” said the president, an outspoken Christian who often invokes God in his speeches.
“I think that God created the Earth, created the world; I think the creation of the world is so mysterious it requires something as large as an almighty and I don’t think it’s incompatible with the scientific proof that there is evolution,” he told ABC television.
Asked whether the Bible was literally true, Bush replied: “Probably not. No, I’m not a literalist, but I think you can learn a lot from it.”
“The important lesson is ‘God sent a son,’” he said.
side note: this man certainly had an effect on my life course. Once you see the other side of weird, what is normal?
Albert Hofmann
Jan 11, 1906 – Apr 29, 2008
Albert Hofmann was born in Baden, Switzerland in 1906. He graduated from the University of Zürich with a degree in chemistry in 1929 and went to work for Sandoz Pharmaceutical in Basel, Switzerland. With the laboratory goal of working towards isolation of the active principles of known medicinal plants, Hofmann worked with Mediterranean squill (Scilla maritima) for several years, before moving on to the study of Claviceps purpurea (ergot) and ergot alkaloids.
Over the next few years, he worked his way through the lysergic acid derivatives, eventually synthesizing LSD-25 for the first time in 1938. After minimal testing, LSD-25 was set aside as he continued with other derivatives. Four years later, on April 16, 1943, he re-synthesized LSD-25 because he felt he might have missed something the first time around. That day, he became the first human to experience the effects of LSD after accidentally ingesting a minute amount. Three days later, on April 19, 1943, he decided to verify his results by intentionally ingesting 250 ug of LSD. This day has become known as “Bicycle Day” as Hofmann experienced an incredible bicycle ride on his way home from the lab. (more…)
side note: Thanks J for sending my way. this is messed up. just watch, and then pass it along to a friend.
http://scienceblogs.com
Watch this appalling video of homeschoolers misusing the Denver museum to promote creationism. Aside from the general pattern of lies from the tour guides, two things jumped out at me. (more…)
Eric Roston
http://www.huffingtonpost.com
Three Republicans raised their hands at a recent presidential debate when asked if they do not recognize evolution. The obvious joke here is that the act of raising their hands will eventually be proof of natural selection as they are whisked from the national stage.
A reasonable follow-up question to the troika would have been, “Do you believe the Earth is several thousand years old, and if so, do you also acknowledge the implication that nuclear weaponry does not and has never existed?” The science of the two are more closely linked than you might expect.
The Earth is 4.54 billion years old, give or take 100 million years. Physicists determined this date by studying the uranium and lead composition of dozens of terrestrial rocks and meteorites. (more…)
side note: this is a great rebuttal video. Kirk Cameron appears on Bill O’Reilly’s show to talk about creationism, and also to shoot down evolution. Big Bill of course is on his side, but the individual who made this video, stops to actually explain things. great vid!
Side note: This is some scary shit. I’ve been watching the headlines about this Colony Collapse Disorder and they’re not improving (first saw it about a month ago). It’s now caught the attention of scientists in Europe as well as here in the US, and from the data here it damn well should.
By Gunther Latsch
Spiegel Online
A mysterious decimation of bee populations has German beekeepers worried, while a similar phenomenon in the United States is gradually assuming catastrophic proportions. The consequences for agriculture and the economy could be enormous.
Walter Haefeker is a man who is used to painting grim scenarios. He sits on the board of directors of the German Beekeepers Association (DBIB) and is vice president of the European Professional Beekeepers Association. And because griping is part of a lobbyist’s trade, it is practically his professional duty to warn that “the very existence of beekeeping is at stake.”
The problem, says Haefeker, has a number of causes, one being the varroa mite, introduced from Asia, and another is the widespread practice in agriculture of spraying wildflowers with herbicides and practicing monoculture. Another possible cause, according to Haefeker, is the controversial and growing use of genetic engineering in agriculture.
As far back as 2005, Haefeker ended an article he contributed to the journal Der Kritischer Agrarbericht (Critical Agricultural Report) with an Albert Einstein quote: “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.” (more…)
By Carey Gillam
Reuters
http://today.reuters.com
The Kansas Board of Education on Tuesday threw out science standards deemed hostile to evolution, undoing the work of Christian conservatives in the ongoing battle over what to teach U.S. public school students about the origins of life.
The board in the central U.S. state voted 6-4 to replace them with teaching standards that mirror the mainstream in science education and eliminate criticisms of evolutionary theory.
“I’m glad we’ve taken this step. If we are going to have a well-educated populace, this is important,” said board member Sue Gamble.
Similar efforts to weaken the teaching of evolution in public schools have occurred throughout the United States including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Kentucky and Georgia.
But Kansas has been in the forefront of the debate since 1999, when the board voted to sharply reduce the emphasis of evolution in science instruction. A public backlash ultimately led to a reversal of that revision. (more…)
Side Note: Plain and simple, sooner or later demand will overtake supply (probably sooner). Considering the world’s oil consumption is increasing exponentially, what do we expect will happen when this beast can’t be fed anymore? If our energy dependence doesn’t evolve we will dry up with the oil wells…or should I say, die fighting over the remaining scraps. It’d be another excuse for war though, so at least we’ve got that going for us.
By Tom Whipple
Falls Church News-Press
As the year draws to a close, it is a good time to look back at what has happened and what clues we can discern about 2007.
The most notable event affecting the advent of peak oil during 2006 was, most likely, the great summer price spike. Oil started the year around $62 a barrel, steadily increased to just below $80 and then fell to close out the year about where it started. Now there are a number of observations that can be made about this spike.
First it drove average US gasoline prices from $2.21 in late December 2005 to a high of over $3.00 per gallon during the summer. This was significant in that it caught a lot of people’s attention for the first time that there just might be a problem out there. At the height of the spike, Congressmen were running around like rabbits proposing new laws and making pious speeches about how they were doing something about gasoline prices. Although the US economy as a whole seems to have held up pretty well under $3 gasoline, Detroit took a hard hit. Sales of low-mileage vehicles that had been the bread and butter of the US auto industry plunged, tens of thousands of auto workers lost their jobs, and dozens of factories closed. By year’s end Toyota was poised to become the world’s largest automotive manufacturer.
From the public’s point of view and unfortunately most of the media’s, peak oil seems to be only about gasoline prices. Above $3 a gallon there is concern. Let gasoline sink back towards $2 and we are back in Camelot. (more…)
Evolutionary biology has vanished from the list of acceptable fields of study for recipients of a federal education grant for low-income college students.
The omission is inadvertent, said Katherine McLane, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, which administers the grants. “There is no explanation for it being left off the list,” Ms. McLane said. “It has always been an eligible major.”
Another spokeswoman, Samara Yudof, said evolutionary biology would be restored to the list, but as of last night it was still missing. (more…)
Washington, DC – Recent studies strengthen the evidence that exposure to fine and coarse particulate matter can cause serious health problems, including premature death, according to a review released Friday by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Environmentalists and public health advocates hope the new assessment will convince the Bush administration to tighten federal rules for particulate matter, but some Senate Republicans remain unconvinced the evidence justifies more stringent regulations. (more…)
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer
yahoo.com
Finches on the Galapagos Islands that inspired Charles Darwin to develop the concept of evolution are now helping confirm it — by evolving. (more…)
a degree in chemistry in 1929 and went to work for Sandoz Pharmaceutical in Basel, Switzerland. With the laboratory goal of working towards isolation of the active principles of known medicinal plants, Hofmann worked with Mediterranean squill (Scilla maritima) for several years, before moving on to the study of Claviceps purpurea (ergot) and ergot alkaloids.
