Reinforcements ordered in the war on brains

I am not a regular viewer of Rachel Maddow, but thanks to @darwinsbulldog I saw this and had to share it.

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Reinforcements ordered in the war on brains, posted with vodpod

Find beauty wherever you look

Featured in a new “roll call” of life from 25 key ocean regions, marine oddities oscillate, swim, and skitter to an ocean “chorus.” The animals are all on the Census of Marine Life’s newly released species inventory of 25 key areas of the world’s oceans. Each area averages more than 10,000 known forms of life, including jellyfish, octopus, sharks, and crustaceans.© 2010 National Geographic, Census of Marine Life

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Sea-Creature Discoveries Spawn Music Video, posted with vodpod

Is it time for the Phone Call to die?

Having spent most my working life at the mercy of the telephone, I now have learned to ignore its melodic cries for attention. The only people who call on the telephone anymore are telemarketers, charities and pollsters. Family and friends will call out of the blue once in a while. But, most of the time we know what calls to expect when. The rest go to voice mail.

“This generation doesn’t make phone calls, because everyone is in constant, lightweight contact in so many other ways: texting, chatting, and social-network messaging. And we don’t just have more options than we used to. We have better ones: These new forms of communication have exposed the fact that the voice call is badly designed. It deserves to die.” Read full story

via Clive Thompson on the Death of the Phone Call | Magazine.

When will people understand?

The truth is so simple and yet so complex we are all connected. When it comes to the Oceans I just said it on July 28th. What happens in the oceans effects every living organism on the planet. How many times do I have to say that? It doesn’t matter how many times I say it. No one is listening to me. However, great people have been saying it for centuries, probably even eons.  John Delaney of Interactive Oceans said it again at TED. Please watch this amazing TED talk about the new technologies wiring an interactive ocean.

Turbulent the sea
Stretching across to  Sado

The Milky Way

-Basho 1689

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always—
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.

-T. S. Eliot

Will the Biological Universe Trump Physics?

This is a short article that pretty closely says what I have been trying to articulate for so long. I would appreciate any of comments, insight, and re-tweets.

“most of the comprehensive theories universe are no more than stories that fail to take into account one crucial factor: we are creating them. It is the biological creature that makes observations, names what it observes, and creates stories. Science has not succeeded in confronting the element of existence that is at once most familiar and most mysterious—conscious experience.” Please read full article»

via Will the Biological Universe Trump Physics?.

Beginning and End of the Universe

Universe History

* The diagram below outlines the major Eras of the Universe according to the Big Bang Theory. Click the picture for many more details and a larger image. The one line in the article that caught my attention the most was at the end.

“One important point is that since everything that we learn about the Universe comes from light (photons), if there are no photons there is no information. Thus, before the end of the era of nuclei, we have no information since the photons were trapped. We will never see this era of the Universe with photons, but maybe gravity waves (?).”

That is a point that has been bothering me. Since we can’t “see” most of the Universe why do some (not all) scientists cling so tightly to one theory to the exclusion of all others? Isn’t it possible the standard model is wrong? Or, Isn’t is possible string theory is wrong? or M-theory? or even the Big Bang Theory? People use to think the theory of a geocentric universe was true. We agreed to get over that. Well, most of us did. I am just saying Science is about keeping an open mind about the facts. And the facts are, at the moment, most of the Universe is still invisible.

via Astronomy 309: COSMOLOGY.

We are never ever alone

PZ Myers is still writing.  Get ready for some poop.

“It is our conceit to regard ourselves as individuals of Homo sapiens, a body of cells clonally derived from a single human cell. It’s not true. It turns out that each one of us is actually a whole population of species, linked by our evolutionary history and lumbering through the world as a team.”

Read the entire article on Panda’s Thumb “No metazoan is an island“

Can Science Explain Everything?

This was ‘The question‘ posed by Andrew Brown, of the Guardian. Every week the Guardian poses a question and their panel of experts speak their minds.  Susan Blackmore’s response was insightful and inspiring.

The question: Can science explain everything?

“Science explains, not describes

The experience of consciousness seems incommunicable and ineffable. Yet science can hope to explain how it arises

When Andrew Brown first posed this week’s question to me he asked “Can science describe everything?”. My instant, unreflective reply was “No”. He implied that this might be a less restrictive question than “Can science explain everything” and yet my instant reaction to this one was “Yes”. I’d like to explore this curious difference….”  Please click here to read the rest of her post.

Are you letting your ideas have sex?

This is a ‘must see’ TED Talk. I almost had a brain-gasm I was so excited. It is so amazing to me still, that people I have never heard of know exactly what I have been trying to articulate. Once again I have to say to someone Thank you Matt Ridley for saying what I have been thinking but did not have the words to say.

At TEDGlobal 2010, author Matt Ridley shows how, throughout history, the engine of human progress has been the meeting and mating of ideas to make new ideas. It’s not important how clever individuals are, he says; what really matters is how smart the collective brain is.

Ideas can only be shared if you have the freedom to share them. We have the First Amendment in the United States but do you use it to share ideas or to suppress ideas of people who don’t agree with you? Before you answer that question consider the speech Phil Plait gave at TAM8 called “Don’t Be A Dick”

Big Bang Big Boom

“BIG BANG BIG BOOM: Sorry, I could not embed the video. Click the link to the left.

an unscientific point of view on the beginning and evolution of life … and how it could probably end.

direction and animation by BLU

http://www.blublu.org

production and distribution by ARTSH.it

http://www.artsh.it

sountrack by ANDREA MARTIGNONI

many thanks to (in random order):

xm24 bologna, csoa mezzacanaja, ericailcane, robert rebotti, andrea bagni, paper resistance, studiocromie, rifrazioni festival, sasso passo, sibe, festival de cine experimental de maldonado (uruguay), gianluigi toccafondo, orilo, maria de brea, bs as stencil, run don’t walk, franco fasoli, modo infoshop, pietro and icone festival, doma, cesare romani, popup festival and all the blu’s family

Are you conscious now?

I just finished reading the first chapter of Dr. Susan Blackmore’s book Consciousness: An Introduction. She seems to be posting it in one chapter at a time in pdf form on her website.  There is no way I could afford $53 for a paperback book.  Maybe someday she will do an audio book version for us visually impaired. It has helped me so much and confused me so much more. Which is great, it made me think and it is only the first chapter after all. I was also right about Dr. Blackmore being good place to start my search for information on Consciousness. I can’t wait to read chapter two. I think I should sleep first.

One of the many helpful people mentioned in her book is Professor David Chalmers. He is a philosopher at the Australian National University, a Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Consciousness, a Visiting Professor of Philosophy at New York University. He works in the philosophy of mind and in related areas of philosophy and cognitive science. He Is especially interested in consciousness, but is also interested in philosophical issues about meaning and possibility, in the foundations of cognitive science and of physics, and a bunch of other things. (According to his website). He introduce the “Hard Problem” That Dr. Blackmore discussed in the video on my blog 7/6/2010.

Our Queer Universe

This is one of my favorite TED talks by Richard Dawkins. It is a very beautiful way of explaining the way we evolved to look at the world.