Non-human Persons

Since the bottle-nosed dolphin has a brain that is second only to the human brain, perhaps they need to be considered to be non-human persons. They can recognize themselves in a mirror and use the mirror to view hard-to-see portions of their own bodies. A wild dolphin was taught to tail-walk in captivity. When released it taught others in the wild to tail-walk. They teach each other to use sponges to protect their snouts as they root for spiny fish in the seafloor.

Killer whales may be a different matter...

Can I Sell You a Quake-proof Bridge?

An alloy of nickel and titanium called nitinol can deform then pop back into its original shape. In shake tests bridge models using this material have been built that can experience a 6.9 quake and remain standing.

Pole on the Move

From National Geographic:

"The magnetic north pole had moved little from the time scientists first located it in 1831. Then in 1904, the pole began shifting northeastward at a steady pace of about 9 miles (15 kilometers) a year.
In 1989 it sped up again, and in 2007 scientists confirmed that the pole is now galloping toward Siberia at 34 to 37 miles (55 to 60 kilometers) a year."

Sex and shopping behavior

A recent study indicates that having sex on the brain increases conspicuous consumption in males and conspicuous charity in females. Interesting.

Seeing things differently

In his book, "The Big Questions" Steven Landsburg explains why colors are not perceived the same by different species or even different individuals. To paraphrase, we see color because objects reflect various frequencies of light differently. Furthermore, regardless of the full spectrum of color reflected by an object, the eyes and the brain can't really process it all. So as a compromise groups of nearby frequencies get average into a single frequency. Say, for example, a flower reflects light in 7 distinct frequencies. Your brain can only process 3 frequencies simultaneously. The eye distills the 7 frequencies into 3 by averaging the nearby frequencies into a single signal. If a different flower reflects different frequencies that also average to the same 3 frequencies distilled from the first flower our brains will see two different flowers with exactly the same color even though the real reflected spectrums may be quite different.

Different species and even different people whose eyes use different averaging rules will see different colors than most humans do. An eagle sees colors that are unimaginable to humans. Humans see colors that are unimaginable to dogs. Some humans whom we call color-blind simply have slightly different average processes. The color combinations that would effectively camoflage an object to regular humans are not at all effective on "color-blind" individuals. In such a case one could say the latter actually have better visual acuity.

Tis the Season

With all the holiday philosophy being tossed about this time of year perhaps it's time to bring to mind three goals that will truly make this a world worth living in.
1. Environmental sustainability
2. Population stability
3. Ending extreme poverty

Yellowstone in Washington?

A recent gravitational study shows that the Yellowstone magma plume is much deeper than originally thought. It also indicates that same plume may have been the source of the Columbia River flood basalts some 17 million years ago.

Wondering

I'm just wondering what it is that the climate change deniers really want? Do they want to just continue consuming fossil resources until there is nothing left when we have what it takes to develop either renewable or much more plentiful resources? Do they want to keep running up greenhouse gas concentrations until it is too late? Or do they want other people to change but for them to just keep consuming and polluting just as they always have?

50 reasons

A British newspaper published a list of 100 reasons why global warming is natural. The New Scientist website takes a look at the first 50 of those reasons. They are all bogus. There's no reason to think the last 50 are any less bogus.

Bachmann Invokes 'Charge Of The Light Brigade'

This really par for the course. She likens her crowd of supporters to the heralded Light Brigade. During the Crimean War a snafu sent a detachment of British cavalry against a well-entrenched artillery position. The artillery tore them to shreds. But maybe that's what she expects from her people. To ride without question into the valley of death in her name and be annihilated. Sounds about right for people like her.

New Look at Climate Change

It turns out that a great number of climate change criticisms that have been gaining popularity of late in the wake of email scandal are themselves highly suspect. Given the slippery nature of making predictions about the climate future, the best way to improve the model is to subject them to rigorous criticism. Unfortunately, when the criticism is so flaky it just lead the climate change folks to do work that is less than the best.

Sensing without nerves

Some people who don't have the typical nerve endings in the skin to sense pain, heat, and pressure seem to be able to live a fairly normal life. That's because a second sensory system is in play. It turns out the nerves in blood vessels and sweat glands that we thought only regulated things actually contribute to sensation. This may be the mechanism involved in unexplainable pain conditions like migraines and fibromyalgia.

Al Franken

In a bit of video watch Al Franken in action. He calls John Thune (R-SD) to task for completely misrepresenting the facts about the health care bill. Minnesota has a damn fine senator there.

Rick Warren

Rachel takes a look at the celebrated Rick Warren. On the one hand he says:

During the whole Proposition 8 thing, I never once went to a meeting, never once issued a statement, never once even gave an endorsement in the two years Prop 8 was going.

But there's that pesky tape in which he says:

Let me just say this really clearly, we support Proposition 8, and if you believe what the Bible says about marriage, you need to support Proposition 8. So, I urge you to support Proposition 8 and pass that word on.

So much for his respect for the truth.

Palin And Huckabee Will Never Be Serious

Isaac Chotiner points out the obvious reason why neither Palin nor Huckabee should ever be let near the White House. The reason they are popular with much of the grassroots is that they quite happy in their ignorance.

"The first problem with this argument is that, er, Palin is unlikely to become a policy wonk because she is not very smart. What's more, Douthat's argument is tautological. Sure, it would be nice for the GOP if Palin and Huckabee were interested in policy. But if they were interested in policy, then they would not be so appealing to the GOP base. In other words, the problem is that a large part of the right has no interest in a policy wonk, and sneers at intellectuals and elites and the types of people Douthat would like to see running the party. A candidate who was interested in learning the ins and outs of the welfare state and health care policy is unlikely to ever achieve Palin/Huckabee levels of popularity with the grassroots."

Paul Krugman Debunks the Debt Scare

While the Republican chicken littles are trying to scare us into not finishing the job on getting employment back up Paul Krugman bursts their bubble.

The way out of Afghanistan

As President Obama ponders what to do with the mess that is Afghanistan it seems that a way out has been placed at our feet. In 1993 Greg Mortenson was lost in the Karakoram mountains after having failed in his attempt to climb K2. Dehydrated atd disoriented he stumbled into a village that was about as remote as one can get. While he recovered overnight the villagers sent word to where the rest of his team were waiting in vain for him in another village miles away. As he waited for his comrades he watched a group of children practicing their multiplication tables by scratching figures in the dirt with sticks. They were so eager to learn that they worked hard to show progress to a teacher who could only see them a couple of times a week. He had wanted to place an amber necklace on the top of K2 in memory of his deceased little sister but the mountain attempt had failed. Now he could see a bigger and better memorial in front of him. He was going to build these earnest children a school. To make a long story short that school was just the start of an amazing adventure that has now empowered hundreds of villages in Pakistan and, yes, Afghanistan to take charge of their future by giving their children a basic education.

We have all heard about well-meaning, do-gooder efforts at "helping" the less fortunate that have become disasters. But almost miraculously, Greg seems to have come upon a formula that actually works. It has two key features. He goes where a relationship has been established. No just dropping out of the sky. The leaders of the village provide resources and manpower to build the schools and other projects. The sweat equity makes all the difference in the world. And he focuses on educating the girls. They tend to stay in the villages and pass what they learn to future generations more effectively than the boys.

So I invite you to check out the Central Asia Institute and learn more about it. Greg has a new book called Stones Into Schools coming out at the beginning of December. I think it will show a genuine way to final peace in Afghanistan and many other troubled places in the world.

Texas outlaws marriage

In their zeal to ban gay marriage in Texas the lawmakers manage to ban all kinds of marriages. Par for the course I say.

Prelude to the Coming Abortion Nightmare

The Stupak amendment could very well end funding for medically indicated abortions across the board. It's too bad we can't make two sets of laws, one for the folks who want to turn back the clock to the days when every pregnancy could be a threat to a woman's life and another set for the rest of us. In the recent fooforall about the permit for a local Planned Parenthood clinic one woman testified that the life of her unborn child was so important that she continued her pregnancy against her doctor's recommendation. I'm sure she had insurance that covered the heroic medical care that kept her and her baby alive. That unborn child was more important to her than being a live mother of the two children she had already. I think that was a stupid choice but I didn't try to make laws that deprived her of that choice. But these anti-abortion activists are making laws to deprive others of the kind of choice they themselves are permitted to make. They want to deny funding for certain medical procedures with which they don't agree. By taking these procedures off the table they are making sure that only the rich can have them. The rest will just have to suffer and potentially die. Somehow that doesn't seem very "Christian" to me.

It Ain't Just CO2

While working to reduce CO2 and methane emissionns is commendable, there are a number of other industrial chemicals that could strongly contribute to global warming.