Food for Thought

What I eat has a dramatic affect on my mood and motivation. I need to start eating healthier.

WTF

We have split the atom, sent men to the Moon and probes to Mars and beyond, created the microchip, unraveled the Gene, developed the Theory of Relativity and the Theory of Evolution. We have looked at galaxies from the beginning of time and particles from seconds after the big bang.

So, why the hell can't I go out and buy an electric car today?

The Brain

Have you ever been in a conversation, say at a party, and not been able to make out what someone just said, only to figure it out just as you asked them what they just said? I just found out what the mechanism for this is.

The brain (your brain) has the ability to playback things that just happened. It can literally replay the sensory impulses a second time, so that it can be better comprehended.

I just thought this was amazing. It explains a lot, for me at least.

Self Audit

I'm feeling a strong urge to create something, in the arts or sciences, but I find myself increasingly getting caught up in the daily routine. I need to figure out someway of breaking the habits that I am developing and find some outlet for my ambition. So far, I've been wasting the most productive years of my life on useless and meaningless pursuits in an attempt to satisfy my ego with superficial activities.

I feel, that if I don't reach out, if I don't start taking a real interest in things, if I don't start taking risks, if I continue to isolate myself, if I keep on this path of short term gains, that I will end up in a job that doesn't challenge me, in a life that doesn't interest me and with a feeling of lost opportunities.

I need to dive head first, run full speed, to be complete engrossed by something or I will self-destruct.

Humans are Naturally Polygamous

(I just thought this was interesting)

The history of western civilization aside, humans are naturally polygamous. Polyandry (a marriage of one woman to many men) is very rare, but polygyny (the marriage of one man to many women) is widely practiced in human societies, even though Judeo-Christian traditions hold that monogamy is the only natural form of marriage. We know that humans have been polygynous throughout most of history because men are taller than women.

Among primate and nonprimate species, the degree of polygyny highly correlates with the degree to which males of a species are larger than females. The more polygynous the species, the greater the size disparity between the sexes. Typically, human males are 10 percent taller and 20 percent heavier than females. This suggests that, throughout history, humans have been mildly polygynous.

Relative to monogamy, polygyny creates greater fitness variance (the distance between the "winners" and the "losers" in the reproductive game) among males than among females because it allows a few males to monopolize all the females in the group. The greater fitness variance among males creates greater pressure for men to compete with each other for mates. Only big and tall males can win mating opportunities. Among pair-bonding species like humans, in which males and females stay together to raise their children, females also prefer to mate with big and tall males because they can provide better physical protection against predators and other males.

In societies where rich men are much richer than poor men, women (and their children) are better off sharing the few wealthy men; one-half, one-quarter, or even one-tenth of a wealthy man is still better than an entire poor man. As George Bernard Shaw puts it, "The maternal instinct leads a woman to prefer a tenth share in a first-rate man to the exclusive possession of a third-rate one." Despite the fact that humans are naturally polygynous, most industrial societies are monogamous because men tend to be more or less equal in their resources compared with their ancestors in medieval times. (Inequality tends to increase as society advances in complexity from hunter-gatherer to advanced agrarian societies. Industrialization tends to decrease the level of inequality.)

The Root of the Problem

In a recent article in 'Psychology Today', Alan S. Miller, PHD, discusses ten evolutionary theories that do a lot to explain human behavior, but is also very politically incorrect.

In the seventh theory, she discusses what Bill Gates and Paul McCartney have in common with criminals. The main point is that men peak in creativity, drive and expression in their early adult hood, usually around age 26. This is attributed to the time in which men need to work the hardest in order to obtain enough status and materials in order to attract a mate and have children. Shortly after this, their productivity drops off.

"Paul McCartney has not written a hit song in years, and now spends much of his time painting. Bill Gates is now a respectable businessman and philanthropist, and is no longer a computer whiz kid. J.D. Salinger now lives as a total recluse and has not published anything in more than three decades. Orson Welles was a mere 26 when he wrote, produced, directed, and starred in Citizen Kane."

Although, this is very interesting, he goes on to make this point,

"The similarity between Bill Gates, Paul McCartney, and criminals—in fact, among all men throughout evolutionary history—points to an important concept in evolutionary biology: female choice."

"Women often say no to men. Men have had to conquer foreign lands, win battles and wars, compose symphonies, author books, write sonnets, paint cathedral ceilings, make scientific discoveries, play in rock bands, and write new computer software in order to impress women so that they will agree to have sex with them. Men have built (and destroyed) civilization in order to impress women, so that they might say yes."

There it is ladies. Stop asking for so much from men and settle for less and you can stop all that is evil in the world.

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From Life, Comes Life

As a whole, we are evolving intelligence. The signs are beginning to show themselves.

From the position of a being observing the planet from far away, we are beginning to show the first signs of intelligence. It is only a matter of time before the creature known as earth becomes self-aware.

Life emulates Life. From life, comes Life.

The Facebook Generation

Where in our parent’s generation there was a separation that took place between friends due to marriage, moving and/or children, I don’t see that happening to our generation. Our parents lacked the social networking tools that we have today. It is much easier to keep in touch with an old friend if all you have to do is look them up on Facebook/MySpace, rather than trying to find their phone number in a phonebook. It is also much easier to reopen a dialog, either through e-mail, instant messages or messaging over Facebook/MySpace.

There was an article in The Washington Post today that discussed the possibility of Facebook replacing yearbooks in high school. I don’t know if that will ever happen, but when you think about it, Facebook is much better in terms of making photos and interests of old classmates available.

Web 2.0

I'm not sure if I should upgrade to Web 2.0 or wait until they release the next service pack an and get Web 2.1.

Any Opinions?

Inside the Mind of a Suicide Bomber

Inside The Mind Of A Suicide Bomber

Science Daily — Suicide bombers are not mentally ill or unhinged, but acting rationally in pursuit of the 'benefits' they perceive from being part of a strict and close-knit religious enterprise, according to a University of Nottingham academic.Research by Dr David Stevens, of the School of Politics and International Relations, suggests that the widely-held view of suicide bombers as brain-washed religious fanatics, vulnerable through youth and poverty, is not an accurate one.

Dr Stevens argues that while religion plays a central role — there are few instances of non-religiously motivated suicide attacks — the suicide bomber is also driven on another level by a rational thought process. This is the desire to be part of a group that engenders strength and solidarity from strictness, and encourages members to submit totally to the collective aims of the group.

Being part of an exclusive group with very strict beliefs requires intense commitment, and engenders a deep belief in shared experience and self-sacrifice, according to a recent paper by Dr Stevens.

Suicide bombers are thus motivated by a “simple cost-benefit analysis”, in which the 'benefits' of self-destruction outweigh the cost. The benefits are perceived by the terrorist to be so great — in terms of membership of the group, achievement of collective goals, the promise of benefits in the after-life, and so on — that they outweigh the cost.

In this way there is a 'marriage' of violence and religion, via the suicide bomber's participation in the group, Dr Stevens suggests.

“Seen in this light, suicide bombing is explicable in terms of rationally motivated actions, and not in terms of theological and/or irrational motives,” he said. “To gain the collective benefits of participation in a strict group requires self-sacrifice, often of extreme levels.

“Suicide bombing is just an extension of this self-sacrifice — the ultimate extension. The benefits are perceived to be so great as to justify the action. Fortunately this is so only in extreme instances, under certain circumstances.

“But then suicide bombing is in actual fact very rare. Rare, that is, when it is remembered that extreme religious groups make up only a tiny fraction of religious groups as a whole, and 99.99 per cent of those groups are in fact peaceable.

“Statistically, then, finding one or two people willing to make such a sacrifice is incredibly rare. However, given the nature of suicide bombing, it only takes one or two.”

The attractions of intense solidarity don't only apply to fringe Islamic sects, but also to other extreme religious groups, Dr Stevens said. Many members of other such groups — from the Moonies to the Branch Davidians — explain their decisions to join, and as importantly to leave, in terms of the costs and benefits of participation rather than in the context of a 'brainwashing' process.

Dr Stevens also argues that contrary to popular opinion, poverty, isolation and lack of education are not typical features of the bomber profile. Mohammad Sidique Khan, for example, who blew himself up in London on July 7, 2005, murdering six people in the process, was a 30-year-old with a young family of his own and a job working in primary schools with special needs children.
Likewise it is a common misconception that suicide bombers are mentally ill or irrational, Dr Stevens argues — because it would make them a liability to the terrorist groups with which they were involved.

He said: “From purely an organisational point of view, working with deranged individuals is extremely hazardous. Terror organisations go to extreme lengths to keep their activities and set-up secret. The costs of discovery are immense for all involved.

“Under such circumstances, who would want to work with someone completely unpredictable — a maverick, a loose cannon — someone likely to give the game away at any stage through an act of sheer madness? Even terrorists don't want to work with those with a death-wish — you achieve very little that way.”

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University of Nottingham.

Link to Original Story

Happiness in a Pill

If there were a drug that had no other affects other then to make you feel happy and content, no matter what happens in your life, would you take it?

Major

I'm in the wrong major.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/80

Grey's Anatomy

Some excerpts from the New York Times article on the show,

"Everything wrong with “Grey’s Anatomy” and its soon-to-be spun spinoff is the fault of 'Ally McBeal.'"

"It wouldn’t matter, since the show is admittedly over-the-top escapist fantasy for women, except that it is troubling that even in escapist fantasies, today’s heroines have to be weak, needy and oversexed to be liked by women and desired by men."

"People complain that hip-hop stars use obscene lyrics and lewd music videos to demean women. Sometimes, so do even the most bourgeois women’s television shows."

Does anyone out there who watches the show even know what the title is a reference to?

Solar Heat

Sorry, but this just peaked my interest.

Plus de poissons ?

The worlds fisheries will be gone by 2050 if the current trends in fishing continue.

At least someone is trying to stop it.

Microfinance

I think this is a fantastic idea.

Self-deception

"Self-deception has been uncovered in a wide range of situations, says Robert L. Trivers, an evolutionary biologist at Rutgers University who has studied the phenomenon. Before the Challenger explosion, for example, NASA engineers noticed that one of the O-rings on the space shuttle had been eaten a third of the way through. Since the shuttle had flown and returned to Earth, the engineers concluded that it was not a problem. Surveys show that four in five high school seniors believe they have exceptional leadership ability, and nearly every single professor in the country believes he or she is above average."

The Media and the War in Iraq.

I only saw the second half of it, but I believe that that is a show worth watching.

Sex Photographs

Researchers analyzing the viewing patterns of men and women looking at sexual photographs were surprised to find that men are more likely than women to first look at a woman's face before other parts of the body, and women focused longer on photographs of men performing sexual acts with women than did the males. These types of results could play a key role in helping researchers to understand human sexual desires and its ultimate effect on public health.