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Buy Misoprostol Online Without Prescription, A while ago, I wrote on the hypothesis that humans have essentially stopped evolving genetically, because of our cultural emphasis on keeping all humans alive, no matter how disadvantaged. The New York Times reports today on the opposite idea: that human culture...

Peanut Butter and “Culture Jamming” Sandwich

Rick Bookstaber, author of “A Demon of Our Own Design” and Senior Policy Adviser at the SEC has hit the nail on the head as far as the bank reform goes – Breaking the Banks (via Infectious Greed): “It is not the case that the largest banks are the same as other banks, just bigger“ “The...

Comments on Human Cultural Transformation

This is a followup to Ben's post on Human Cultural Transformation Triggered by Dense Populations.  Too many links for this to be accepted into the comments directly... In thinking about these questions, it helps me to remind myself of the difference between evolution and emergence. Evolution happens...

Human Cultural Transformation Triggered by Dense Populations

Biologically,modern humans first appeared 160,000 to 200,000 years ago. But the transition to complex human societies, with art, music, advanced tools, occurred a good deal more recently, and moreover, occured at different times in different parts of the world. An article in June's Science magazine (see a...

“Bad people do bad things”

In listening to this account of Hemant Lakhani, convicted in 2005 of illegal arms dealing, I was reminded of another This American Life episode about Brandon Darby.  Underlying both stories are accounts of seemingly incompetent, misguided, would-be bad guys who were actualized on a path of evildoing by...

Violence on the Decline

From Monday's Washington Post: The District, New York and Los Angeles are on track for fewer killings this year than in any other year in at least four decades. Boston, San Francisco, Minneapolis and other cities are also seeing notable reductions in homicides. Full article is here, in which more sensible...

Nature Minus Humans?

From the "nothing is quite so simple" department, a Boston Globe article this week points out a hidden legacy of the conservation movement: The expulsion of native peoples from their land. Starting with Yosemite in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the pattern of forcing indigineous civilizations...

Placebo Effects: Marijuana and the "Contact High"

Many users, and friends of users of marijuana report experiencing a "contact high." That is, they purport to experience some of the effects of marijuana simply by being in contact with or around those using marijuana. Virtually all users wrongly attribute this experience to the inhalation of second hand...

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

A few articles on the economy that were sent my way recently. The Good: After Capitalism (Geoff Mulgan) "The era of transition that we are entering will be disruptive—but it may bring a world where markets are servants, not masters."  I urge you to read this entire article, and leave your ideological...

Tribes

Tribes are hot. Kevin has referred more than once to the famous Dunbar number for limits on optimal human tribe size. One of my favorite books recently is Seth Godin's book on leadership, called -- you guessed it -- Tribes. Yesterday I heard a great talk by David Logan, co-author of Tribal...

How to Change the Climate in 3 Years

Oh, and re-grow the rainforrest, strengthen the social, political and economic climate, save endangered species and increase biodiversity and resilliance all at the same time without any...

Two Sociology Books You Should Read

As you've probably figured out by now, I prefer to base decisions on statistically significant evidence.  However, in order to gather such evidence, you must have hypotheses in the form of testable models.  If the models you try to test are divorced from reality on the ground, your results will be useless...

Twitter vs. Psychoanalysis

In this Times Online article, two psychologists and an author weigh in with their view of Twitter users as narcissistic and infantile: The clinical psychologist Oliver James has his reservations. “Twittering stems from a lack of identity. It’s a constant update of who you are, what you are, where you...

Red Pill or Blue Pill?

As we approach the inauguration of a new leader who trying to be truly post-partisan, I think Jonathan Haidt's TED brilliant talk is apropos: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs41JrnGaxc] Haidt posits a sobering reality that we will all have to overcome if Obama is to achieve his goal: Our Righteous...

Homelessness

This is a picture of what Food on Foot did on Christmas.  It's a larger version of what they do every week, which is feed and cloth homeless and give them an opportunity to get back on their feet themselves.  If you graduate from the program, you end up with an apartment, a job and a bank account. ...

The Return of Public Discourse

We are living in a time wherein the sound bite is the modal and most influential form of public discourse.  Which is unfortunate because of its unidirectional, one-to-many nature.  I'm happy to report though that I see the signs of a return to more meaningful conversation in the form of online video. This...

Complex Systems Concept Summary

I figured it was time for a reset and so the following is a summary of much of the foundational posting that I've done on this blog so far.  As always, a work in progress, subject to refinement and learning... I see there being at least two types of emergence, autocatalytic and cooperative. Emergence...

Response to "Thoughts on Ants, Altruism and the Future of Humanity"

[ This is an edited version of a blog comment on Brandon Kein's Wired Science post here ] The question of whether we will "break through" to a superorganism or collapse through any number of spiraling cascades or catastrophic events is the subject of Ervin Laszlo's book, The Chaos Point, which I highly...

TED Talk: Susan Blackmore

Memes and "temes" Apropos of Kevin's post yesterday on the "Singularity", we need to be taking more seriously cultural agency (which includes technological and socio-technological agency): [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ_9-Qx5Hz4] Click here for Discussion...

Dangerous Media, part 2

I have talked about some of the dangerous aspects of main stream media in the past.  Recently I was reading The Black Swan, in which the author argues that watching TV news, listening to news on the radio, and even reading newspapers actually makes you less informed (and dangerously so) than if you were to...

TED Talks: Wade Davis

Endangered cultures [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bL7vK0pOvKI] Click here for Discussion...

Notes from TED

Here are some notes that I took at TED 2008.  I have a bunch more on each of the speakers individually which I may post as time permits.  Let me know if you want me to expand any of the notes below into a full post. Themes TED sessions have their own explicit themes, but I detected a few implicit themes...

World's Best Powerpoint Presentations

Some people would say "Best" and "Powerpoint Presentation" are oxymoronic in combination.  But I disagree.  Powerpoint and its digital slideshow ilk (e.g. Keynote) are a relatively new medium, and it is the job of the slideshow creator and the presenter to make the presentation kick ass.  Al Gore proved...

Is Obesity Contagious?

Science News reports that a 2005 study of obese and normal-weighted people found that "30% of the obese group showed signs of previous adenovirus-36 infection, while only 11 percent of the lean group did". Recent research showed that the virus induces long-term changes in how stem cells develop, causing...

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