nerdgirl

Exactly what alternative scientific explanations have scientists not been allowed to investigate? Alternative explanation, which is just as potentially viable: they’re not good grant writers. Counter-example: A research group with which I was affiliated a number of years ago got funding from DARPA nominally under a program to investigate cold fusion via sonoluminescence (changing sound into light). The PI used the funding partially to disprove some of assertions about ‘desktop nuclear fusion’ and partially to fund scientifically-sound research. It’s something of the inverse of the film’s claim, but it shows that if a PI is a good enough grant writer one can get funded. VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

The DNI released transcript of 24 April “Background Briefing with Senior U.S. Officials on Syria’s Covert Nuclear Reactor and North Korea’s Involvement.” Observations (no specific conclusions or analysis, yet): -- “Iran” appears 13 times in the 16 page transcript. -- “Cash” is put forth as DPRK motivation. Excerpts: “SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: With respect to Iran, the Syrian episode reminds us of the ability of states to obtain nuclear capability covertly and how destabilizing the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the Middle East would be. And obviously everyone is concerned about that with respect to Iran, and we hope that disclosure will underscore that the international community needs to rededicate itself to ending Iran’s nuclear enrichment activities, and needs to take further steps to ensure that Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons. And countries can start by the full implementation of the U.N. Security Council resolutions already dealing with Iranian nuclear activities, which are not being implemented as aggressively and fully as they should.” “SENIOR INTELLIGENCE OFFICIAL 1: Can I just make a comment on Iran because I know that’s eventually, if we stayed long enough, you’re eventually going to get there. [Who says senior spooks don’t have a sense of humor or wicked cynical streaks? – nerdgirl] And I think it’s useful to talk about nuclear weapons and Iran in this context because this all is potentially interrelated. “There are a couple of ways to get to nuclear weapons. One, we’re describing how North Korea did it. The path that Iran is choosing to pursue is different…. On DPRK motivation: “SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: …And what is the intention of North Korea’s cooperation here? Is it cash-motivated? Are they looking to get plutonium themselves for their own reprocessing?” “SENIOR INTELLIGENCE OFFICIAL 1: Cash.” “SENIOR INTELLIGENCE OFFICIAL 2: It’s cash.” Anyone else find irony that one of the last remaining communist nations is motivated by cold hard cash? Free market at work: Syria wants to buy something, DPRK wants to sell something. Unanswered questions (only thing that there might be more of are rampant speculations): Former-Los Alamos National Laboratory Director, now-co director Stanford’s Center for International Security & Cooperation (where SecState Rice started her Stanford career), Sig Hecker noted on his recent visit to the Yongbyon fuel fabrication plant that it has not been made functional again since the Agreed Framework shutdown, i.e., the DPRK could not supply fuel to Syria (or anyone else). This is a good thing, very good thing. One the ‘rampant speculation’ front: the analysis is being done through a lens of 20th century nuclear proliferation, which of course includes Pakistan’s AQ Khan. Total speculation (one w/which VP Cheney would not oppose, but that’s not reason alone to dismiss it): 21st century nuclear proliferation may be transglobal in ways that even AQ Khan could not have imagined, in which activities are dispersed in different locations in different countries or non-recognized regimes/sub-state actors. Resources are shared, knowledge instantaneously available, and the output (nuclear weapons) shared. No activity in any individual state overtly appears too suspicious alone. That would require an (almost ?) unprecedented level of trust between perilous states. As I wrote, speculation. … VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

That's what I say. Leave the creationists alone. I guess I'm easily confused today - that seems like both a non sequitor, as well as innacurate suggestion of the behavioral vector. Or are you being sarcastic? VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Processes that underly all physiological 'life' on Earth -- from viruses to trees to mammals -- occur because carbon is small and multi-valent. Are you trying to build a teleological argument? If you are sincerely interested in understanding evolutionary theory, I would suggest a fantastic resource, which was partially funded by your tax dollars through an independent agency created by President Lincoln: the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) updated booklet "Science, Evolution, and Creationism" released in January. You may find particularly interesting Chapter 3 & some of the other sidebars (e.g., pp. 13-15) that includes comments by Pope John Paul II, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Presbyterian General Assembly, and the Clergy Letter Project disputing the assertion that evolution is inherently in conflict with religious belief. I’m hearteded to see that minister at my church has signed. VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

There’s no more of an “atheist consensus” than there is a “theist consensus.” There have been historically more creationism stories than individual religions. VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

What’s wrong with idealism & hope? 'Reality' (whoever is getting to define it) is no more the exclusive domain of the cynics than it is the idealists. Well-executed idealism & hope can change the world ... even if one by-product was creating a unipolar world. /Marg "And whatever else history may say about me when I'm gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears, to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty's lamp guiding your steps and opportunity's arm steadying your way. My fondest hope for each one of you is that you will love your country, not for her power or wealth, but for her selflessness and her idealism. May each of you have the heart to conceive, the understanding to direct, and the hand to execute works that will make the world a little better for your having been here. ... And finally, my fellow Americans, may every dawn be a great new beginning for America and every evening bring us closer to that shining city upon a hill." –President Ronald Reagan at the 1992 GOP Convention Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Thanks for the additional information on the Zimbabwe elections and subseqeunt events. VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Yes, squid type DFPase. Been investigated as therapeutic countermeasure and active part of decontaminants for Soman (GD) and Sarin (GB) nerve agents (breaks the P-F bond). IIRC, it was originally isolated from squid saliva (produced in the salivary glands as well giant axon). VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

While references are always welcome and most-definitely appreciated, that's not the crux. As I wrote, the speculative sources of ambiguity you proposed are reasonable within a general discussion. The assertions, however, are neither accurate nor precise w/r/t the experiment and reported results cited. The system (i.e., the brain) is neither as simple nor is the specific experiment as ambiguous. And again, it's an example that fulfills the criterion of experiments that "credibly offer doubt" ... because we're not proving a negative. All of the speculative extrapolations -- mine, yours, or anyone else's -- to the implications for theological, philosophical and legal arguments are just that - speculative. Give this work the 70 years that Huxley-Hodgkin’s work has had, and it may be of undergraduate curricula, or it may be a footnote. W/r/t (speculative) policy implications, one does not need Haynes et al.'s work to find examples: Neuroscience and the Law: Brain, Mind, and the Scales of Justice. VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Good point, ASEAN as another example. It's just a lot more complex world than the old Cold War model. VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

While the muscle memory analogy works in popular conversation, the experiment was designed so that it was proof of concept test of conscious decision-making process: "we directly investigated which regions of the brain predetermine conscious intentions and the time at which they start shaping a motor decision." Do you really think the researchers didn't think of mitigating possible subconscious influences? What you are proposing was part of the criticism of Libet's hypothesis from the 1970s - that's what is so notable about this work. VR/Marg p.s. please provide your counter-explanation w/r/t the actual experiment, i.e., the observations, correlations, significance, and time elements of activity in the brain's supplementary motor area (SMA), the primary motor cortex, the frontopolar cortex, & the precuneus/posterior cingulate. Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

European Union. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the EU was posited as a metaphorical counter-weight to US influence, w/r/t balance of power. VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Before we could jump to that conclusion, we would have to determine the value of the perception of free will, assuming, for argument's sake, that free will doesn't exist. Still, there is much to be said for happiness being the single most important thing in life, the real measure of how well one has lived. Hmmm ... fMRI can be used to 'measure'/correlate emotions, brain activity, and even location of brain activity associated with certain emotions, e.g., one study and another & one more. One could design a test to ask (hypothesis) do the more "happy"/more hedonistic areas of the brain respond faster (i.e., greater degree of conscious 'free will') than the other areas of the brain? Thereby potentially demonstrating the happiness & hedonism requires more conscious 'free will' than other pursuits. Think I'm going to have to pull out a jacket w/leather patches on the elbows and a glass of scotch (or whatever philosophers are 'supposed' to drink ) VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

You’re right, because as we know it’s hard to prove a negative. It does provide information that challenges (or “credibly offer(s) doubt”) on the conception of free will, particularly the popular conception of free will as a supra-natural (not “super-”) process or trait. The research cited offers insight into the cognitive and neurological processes underlying decision-making processes. It suggests what are potentially more incendiary challenges to teleological arguments (i.e., ‘divine’ purpose or order as evidence of a supernatural deity) than evolution. (Of course, if one asserts that the ultimate creative power the Universe sparked the Big Bang & let the physical processes unfold & flow from there under constraints of physical law, neither evolution nor the implications of Haynes et al.'s work are irreconcilable with theism.) Yes, the underlying neuroscience is incredibly complex (10^11 neurons) and neuronal connections (synapses, 10^14 in a human brain) have to be formed at some point and synapses can/do reform (“plasticity”). The basis for the understanding of neurochemistry came out of work on giant squid axon – a species of Atlantic squid that literally has a really big neuron. No one’s is going to argue that the neurochemistry of a squid, even one with one really big neuron, equals the complex neurochemistry of the mammalian brain. It was, however, a squid neuron that led to understanding of ion channels, actions potentials, i.e., almost everything that underlies modern neurochemistry. Similarly, no one (I hope!) is going to argue that a “button push” test (the underlying neurological process may not be so ‘simple’) equals the complexity of deciding what to have for lunch, much less weighing ethical decisions. It's actually a great proof of concept test, as the ambiguities are minimized. For proof of concept one needs to start with a simple system, i.e., control the independent & dependent variables. And the test has precedent in other neurological experiments, i.e., other data for comparison. Andrew Huxley (half-brother of Brave New World’s Aldous) and Alan Hodgkin began their 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine winning research on the giant squid axon before WWII; Haynes, et al.'s work was published last week. Today Huxley-Hodgkin is today taught in the first week or two of an upper division undergraduate intro to neurobio/neurochem class. It’s fascinating from a perspective of offering physical, testable information to query against the theological and philosophical arguments. Are there degrees of free will? If “free will” is a physiological product, what does that say w/r/t the rights of animals, particularly those whose brain structure is close to ours? There also are ponderous and real policy question at the intersection of emerging technology and security/international affairs that the kind of research I posted further illuminates. More information allows a more informed decision-making process ... perhaps ironically (?) VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Of course! My frequent edits are due to correcting grammatical and spelling errors. I make speculative predictions; being wrong is an inherent risk of that endeavor. We all misspeak/mis-type, e.g., an anecdote I wrote about some months ago: couple years back I accidently said “Czechoslovakia” at an international meeting, when I should have said the “Czech Republic.” Very not good. VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

I don't suppose you have a link for that? There’s actually been a fair amount of evidence collected over the last twenty years or so, most notably due to the introduction of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), i.e., better instrumentation that can show both 3-D structure & activity (rather than just one). The May 2008 issue of Nature Neuroscience has section devoted to research on decision-making and the brain. Among the published papers is one entitled “Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain.” (PM me if you want the full text version for educational interest.) Haynes has published previously on the topic, including a article last year in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Write-up on Haynes' work from Science: “Case Closed for Free Will?” The underlying neuroscience is complex and neuronal connections (synapses) have to be formed at some point and synapses can/do reform ("plasticity"). The potential implications extend far beyond Judeo-Christian theology to law, ethical norms, and the great debates of the last 2000+ years of philosophy. One example from the February 2008 issue of Cornell Law International Law Journal: “Brave New World: Neurowarfare and the Limits of International Humanitarian Law,” which explores some of the international legal issues surrounding soldier & state culpability w/r/t human augmentation, advanced neuropharmocology, and brain-computer interface. VR/Marg ~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~ Popular press account from Wired Science: “Brain Scanners Can See Your Decisions Before You Make Them” “In a study published Sunday in Nature Neuroscience, researchers using brain scanners could predict people's decisions seven seconds before the test subjects were even aware of making them. “The decision studied -- whether to hit a button with one's left or right hand -- may not be representative of complicated choices that are more integrally tied to our sense of self-direction. Regardless, the findings raise profound questions about the nature of self and autonomy: How free is our will? Is conscious choice just an illusion? “‘Your decisions are strongly prepared by brain activity. By the time consciousness kicks in, most of the work has already been done,’ said study co-author John-Dylan Haynes, a Max Planck Institute [for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences] neuroscientist. “Haynes updated a classic experiment by the late Benjamin Libet, who showed that a brain region involved in coordinating motor activity fired a fraction of a second before test subjects chose to push a button. Later studies supported Libet’s theory that subconscious activity preceded and determined conscious choice -- but none found such a vast gap between a decision and the experience of making it as Haynes’ study has. “In the seven seconds before Haynes’ test subjects chose to push a button, activity shifted in their frontopolar cortex, a brain region associated with high-level planning. Soon afterwards, activity moved to the parietal cortex, a region of sensory integration. Haynes’ team monitored these shifting neural patterns using a functional MRI machine. “Taken together, the patterns consistently predicted whether test subjects eventually pushed a button with their left or right hand -- a choice that, to them, felt like the outcome of conscious deliberation. For those accustomed to thinking of themselves as having free will, the implications are far more unsettling than learning about the physiological basis of other brain functions. “Caveats remain, holding open the door for free will. For instance, the experiment may not reflect the mental dynamics of other, more complicated decisions. ‘Real-life decisions -- am I going to buy this house or that one, take this job or that -- aren't decisions that we can implement very well in our brain scanners,’ said Haynes. "Also, the predictions were not completely accurate. Maybe free will enters at the last moment, allowing a person to override an unpalatable subconscious decision. “‘The unease people feel at the potential unreality of free will, said National Institutes of Health neuroscientist Mark Hallett, originates in a misconception of self as separate from the brain. ‘That's the same notion as the mind being separate from the body -- and I don't think anyone really believes that,’ said Hallett. ‘A different way of thinking about it is that your consciousness is only aware of some of the things your brain is doing.’ "Hallett doubts that free will exists as a separate, independent force. ‘If it is, we haven't put our finger on it,’ he said. ‘But we're happy to keep looking.’” Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Eh-hem ... no "e." Hard "g" sound, please. Thank you.

I don't understand why or to what end you keep asserting an equivalency between atheism and science? (And to be fair, you are not the only poster to do so.) Your profile indicates you are a doctor of veterinary science. Multiple scientists on this list have written (sometimes eloquently & with patience) about active participation in organized Christian religion, in other religious practices, or in pursuit of spiritual truths. (Some others don't or don't care.) I have on my desk last Sunday's order of service from my church next to last week's issue of Science open to a perspectives piece on nueroscience. At the same time many atheists or non-theists have nothing to do with science: Hemingway, Huxley, Hume, Ayn Rand, Diego Rivera, George C. Scott, Frank Zappa. Frank Lloyd Wright said "I believe in God, only I spell it Nature." Why the forced dichotomy, e.g., the part of your post I referenced above? VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

One could argue that after the 30 June 2004 cessation of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the US-led war against Iraq ceased, i.e., sovereign power was transferred to a transitional Iraqi Administration. If (when) the US implements a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with Iraq (like the US has w/some 90+ other nations, e.g., from Japan, Germany, ROK (South Korea), the Czech Republic, East Timur), cessation of war is implicit. Once the USG has a in place (ratified through the US Senate) a bilateral or multi-lateral agreement (i.e., NATO) between a sovereign government and the US for US uniformed service members to be stationed or on the other state’s territory implicitly one is not at war with a state. If you’re asking about the end of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) and what constitutes cessation of that … uh, someone more erudite than I will have to speculate on that answer. VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

While I would not have chosen to phrase it the way [kallend] chose to, it does capture the underlying sentiment. A couple weeks ago I spoke with one of Sen Saxby Chambliss’ (R-GA) staffers. He couldn’t address the merit issue – he struggled but acknowledged that he couldn’t explain how voting against the bringing the bill to the Senate floor for debate could be in line with the principle of meritocracy nor could he explain endorsement of the implicit acknowledgement of significant amounts of prior (& ongoing)discrimination (as I outlined in my response to [lawrocket] above). I never even received any response from Sen Isakson’s office (R-GA). What do you think is really going on? VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Does "business owner lawrocket" practice discriminatory compensation & pay practices? If he doesn't (which is what I would suspect), he should not have anything to worry about. How many other things is "business owner lawrocket" more likely to be sued for that have more than a 180-day filing limit? Or does "business owner lawrocket" compensate his employees based on the caliber of their work and the benefit their work brings to his business? I'm going to bet the latter. ------ ------ If as Sen Mitch McConnell (R-KY) suggested the concern by some -- but not all -- Senate Republicans (as the House version passed last July)was that the bill would "produce a flood of lawsuits," does that argument not imply acknowledgement of a large (enough to yield a "flood") amount of past discrimination, i.e., failure to reward merit? One could ask where is the responsibility for one's behavior? VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

I saw the vote in quite the opposite terms: tacit assertion that merit was not really important. Pursuit of equal pay/compensation for equal work or equal pay for better work was not valued when it was a woman who was being paid less. Instead the vote reinforced an undue burden – a double standard – that severely limits the time to pursue legal redress. Most private employers do not have to share salary or compensation information. Federal, state, & local employers that do disclose salary information are frequently 1 year or more behind in publication of that information. What happened to the usual assertion of meritocracy being valued? And, yes, of course, I am cognizant of the argument of those who voted against the bill: it’s just an excuse to further perpetuate pay discrimination. VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

This morning SecDef Gates announced that GEN Petreaus will replace ADM “Fox” Fallon as head of CENTCOM. (Discussion of ADM Fallon’s removal resignation here.) Speculating w/r/t impact on Afghanistan and (especially) Iran policy: CENTCOM does not equal ‘IRAQCOM.’ LTG Ray Odierno is being tapped to replace GEN Petraeus as head of Multinational Force Iraq (MNF-I). Odierno has had significant experience in Iraq, altho’ he comes as relatively recent proponent of counter-insurgency (COIN) strategy, as opposed to Petraeus, who literally helped write the book. VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

What about the Ford Ranger EVs? Folks ended up camping out in Sacramento because Ford recalled them to crush (as in physically destroy) and the drivers wanted to buy them. Can you buy one? VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

I will admit to having thought, on more than one occasion, about taking a flower of hue that particularly appealed to me, sticking it in the UV-Vis spectrometer to find out the specific wavelength of reflected light; isolating the components that caused the color (probably some conjugated macrocycle or transition-metal containing complex) and running it through a mass spectrometer. Never did it, but thought about it. Just to better understand – through other ways of knowing than my basic physical senses – of what that flower was made. VR/Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying