Random Reaction

Dark Energy Could Be Einstein's Cosmological Constant | Wired Science from Wired.com Aside from being an interesting article, and aside from confirming the impressiveness of Einstein's theory, this made me wonder whether the rate of expansion will make it even harder to reach/communicate with other worlds in the future.  I didn't see anything that indicate the rate of expansion, but presumably it will mean that the features and bodies of the universe will be farther away and therefore more difficult to reach and/or communicate with.  That would be unfortunate, but if the expansion is very slow, it may not matter anytime in the next million or even billion years.  And if we figure out how to travel via wormholes or space-time warping, then perhaps it won't make that big of a difference either, provided the wormholes remain stable long term despite the expansion.  My deep thought for the day.

There are just good ideas that have not penetrated main stream thought, even if they are over 100 years old! Darwin and Havel’s Unified Planet Theory - Dot Earth Blog - NYTimes.com Not surprisingly, someone of Darwin's genius had already fleshed out the concept that I "attributed" to Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek. Not that I necessarily thought that Gene had originated the concept per se, but I just thought that he presented it in such a compelling way. Although the first time I saw it specifically talked about was in First Contact , at which point Gene had already died.  Kudos to Chris Berman et al for carrying on that part (the most important one IMO) of Gene's legacy and being specific about how the "era of peace" was initiated. I still think that inherent personality traits will prevent humans from coming together in such a way (barring an alien encounter!).  I think the bellicosity inherent in much of the political right wing is driven by personality.

Senate Approves Telecom Amnesty, Expands Domestic Spying Powers | Threat Level from Wired.com "The 68 to 29 vote puts an end to more than a year of debate over whether the government should be able to collect millions of e-mails and phone calls daily from U.S.-based communication switches without any probable cause. It also answers whether Congress believes the nation's telecoms and president had a duty to follow the rules set out in 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which was passed after the abuses of the 1950s and 60s." First, thanks to Wired for at least mentioning what I would think should be the main issue here, which is that these lackeys in Congress have authorized Bush-Cheney to keep wiretapping without warrants. I just cannot believe that a Democratic Congress is allowing this. A friend suggested that there might be information that we don't have that is causing them to vote this way. I suppose that is possible, but I think it is more likely th

Idea Lab - How Are Humans Unique? - Intelligence - Evolution - Idea Lab - NYTimes.com This article basically says that one of the main reasons humans are unique is the cooperative group structure. This obviously has offered tremendous value to the evolution of our species, but, as the article says: "Of course, humans beings are not cooperating angels; they also put their heads together to do all kinds of heinous deeds. But such deeds are not usually done to those inside “the group.” Recent evolutionary models have demonstrated what politicians have long known: the best way to get people to collaborate and to think like a group is to identify an enemy and charge that “they” threaten “us.” The remarkable human capacity for cooperation thus seems to have evolved mainly for interactions within the group. Such group-mindedness is a major cause of strife and suffering in the world today. The solution — more easily said than done — is to find new ways to define the group." Among ot

I wanted to get this down as a placeholder for a more in depth discussion later. I am wondering whether there is an intersection or commonality between a lot of the mystic, religious, new age, eastern arts, neuroscience and the placebo effect. I mean, what the placebo effect has proved time and again is that the mind has the power to heal on its own if it "thinks" it should. It seems to me that this could also explain much of reports of people being helped by various types of energy work, mysticism, fortune telling, etc. If someone believes they are being helped by these modalities, then perhaps the placebo effect is what is really happening. Ditto the healing effect of prayer. Laughter is the best medicine. Et cetera. What these various placebo effects studies do not seem to be telling us is why and how the placebo effect actually works. How is it that the mind can effect a cure on the body? Likely some sort of sophisticated body chemistry. But isn't that wha

This whole discussion of immunity for collaborators with the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping is important, yes. But I am amazed that there doesn't seem to be much discussion of what I consider the main issue, which is the warrantless wiretapping itself . No, the companies should not get off scot-free for breaking the law, but why are we allowing the warrantless wiretapping in the first place?! A friend suggested it might be because we have some super secret and powerful tool to monitor communications, and they don't want that brought out into the public. If so, I suppose that is OK, but I want to know that it is not just a free-for-all, and someone besides the fox is watching the hen house.

In listening to the primary and election coverage, I am amazed (re-amazed?) that we have a system that is so complicated that the news anchors don't even try to explain it, or make some half-hearted attempt before saying that the bottom line is that Clinton and Obama are effectively tied. Is it just me, or shouldn't we have a system that is easily explainable to the general public? Really it should be easily explainable to a 5th grader (or whenever it is that they are first exposed to civics). Super-delegates who have no responsibility to cast their ballots with the popular vote? Huh? Not to mention the Electoral College! How unbelievably stupid and undemocratic are these institutions? We tell people that their votes count and that they should vote because their votes matter. But unless you are in a closely contested state, your vote really doesn't matter. So in the primaries, we have a system that is too complicated for media to explain to the public, and then we