In a recent exchange in this post William J. Murray said to frequent commenter Bob O’H: all you (and others) are doing is avoiding the point via wordplay. We all act and expect others to act as if these things are objective and universally binding, the ability to imagine alternate systems notwithstanding. That is precisely correct, as illustrated by my exchange with goodusername in the same post.  First, at comment 12 GUN professed to not even know what the word “right” means: GUN:  “What would it even mean to give a “right” answer to a morality question?” I decided to test this: Barry @ 13: Suppose the following exchange: GUN: Hey, Barry is is evil to torture an infant for Read More ›

From Mindy Weisberger at LiveScience: Three species of raptors — predatory birds with sharp beaks and talons, and keen eyesight — are widely known not only for lurking on the fringes of fires but also for snatching up smoldering grasses or branches and using them to kindle fresh flames, to smoke out mammal and insect prey. … From their reports, a behavioral pattern emerged: Firehawks (also described as kitehawks, chickenhawks and, on several occasions by non-Aboriginals, s—hawks) purposely swiped burning sticks or grasses from smoldering vegetation — or even from human cooking fires — and then made off with the brands and dropped them into unburned areas to set them alight, presumably to drive out more prey. More. Also, from Read More ›

William Voegeli on why liberals don’t care whether the programs they push so relentlessly actually work to reduce suffering: Even where there are no material benefits to addressing, without ever reducing, other people’s suffering, there are vital psychic benefits for those who regard their own compassion as the central virtue that makes them good, decent, and admirable people—people whose sensitivity readily distinguishes them from mean-spirited conservatives. “Pity is about how deeply I can feel,” wrote the late political theorist Jean Bethke Elshtain. “And in order to feel this way, to experience the rush of my own pious reaction, I need victims the way an addict needs drugs.” It follows, then, that the answer to the question of how liberals who Read More ›

True, the rumors distract from real science. From Elizabeth Howell at AirSpaceMag: The attention given to such stories has some scientists worried, especially as social media amplifies claims of alien contact over other, more prosaic explanations. “Currently, most SETI-related news seems to be interfering with conventional scientific discoveries, stealing the limelight—without following basic rules of science,” wrote Dutch exoplanet researcher Ignas Snellen of Leiden Observatory, on a Facebook exoplanets discussion group for professional astronomers. Although he has “great respect for SETI scientists,” Leiden wrote, “there is no place for alien civilizations in a scientific discussion on new astrophysical phenomena, in the same way as there is no place for divine intervention as a possible solution. One may view it as Read More ›

From Toni Airaksinen at Campus Reform: A math education professor at Brooklyn College contends in a recent academic article that “meritocracy” in math classes is a “tool of whiteness.” … To mediate this, Rubel recommends that math teachers incorporate more social justice issues into math lessons, but warns that even “teaching for social justice” can be a “tool of whiteness” if teachers are not sufficiently attuned to the experiences of minority students. This is because even social justice-minded professors may inadvertently hold the “belief that effort is always rewarded, [which corresponds] to various tools of whiteness, like the myths of meritocracy and colorblindness,” Rubel writes. More. It certainly sounds like a roundabout way of saying that getting the right answer Read More ›

AFP tells us regarding the current Consumer Electronics Show (CES): >>Tech is the new religion, offering hope of salvation in a troubled world as industry leaders converge in Las Vegas this week. Technology will not just help us communicate better and give us bolder and brighter screens. It is promising to end urban congestion, treat cancer and depression, and help us live fitter and more productive lives. As tech industry players large and small converge for the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show, an overriding theme is that gizmos, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and super-fast internet connections hold answers to many if not all ills, the new religion.>> Now, let us cross that with some concerns UD President, BA, has just drawn Read More ›

Yes, re this recent item (paper, public access), Rob Sheldon, our physics color commentator writes, — I’m no chemist, my last class being Organic Chem in college, but I’ll take a stab at this paper. Like most of these Origin-of-Life papers, the chemistry is awesome, the interpretation, well, a bit pretentious. OOL Theories: Among the favorite materialistic origin stories, there is “DNA-first”, “RNA-first” and “Metabolism-first”. I suppose we might add “protein-first” and “cellwall-first” to the list as well. Once a self-replicating structure of your favorite model was in place, then the magic of natural selection would automatically add wings to your pig, and Voila! OOL. The Problem: that first self-replicating system is a real pain. It has to be simple enough Read More ›

From ScienceDaily: An international group of researchers has discovered a new phenomenon that occurs in identical twins: independent of their identical genes, they share an additional level of molecular similarity that influences their biological characteristics. The researchers propose a mechanism to explain the extra level of similarity and show that it is associated with risk of cancer in adulthood. The results appear in the journal Genome Biology. “The characteristics of an individual depend not only on genes inherited from the parents but also on epigenetics, which refers to molecular mechanisms that determine which genes will be turned on or off in different cell types. If we view one’s DNA as the computer hardware, epigenetics is the software that determines what Read More ›

One of the recurring themes on this blog is moral subjectivism vs moral objectivism. Subjectivists argue that morals are fundamentally subjective in nature – akin to personal preferences, although very strongly felt. Let us agree for the sake of argument that they are not the same as simple preferences like flavors or fashion or colors and exclude that comparison from the conversation. All perceptions of any kind are acquired and processed subjectively. That’s not the question; the question is whether or not it is better, more logical, or even necessary to think and act as if what one is referring to is objective in nature. Even though we all perceive what we call the “outside” world subjectively, I’m sure we’d Read More ›

Rafi Letzter at LiveScience tells us it is called M77232917 (represented in digits, in art, below): Its only factors are itself and the number 1. That’s what makes it prime. So how big is this number? A full 23,249,425 digits long — nearly 1 million digits longer than the previous record holder. If someone started writing it down, 1,000 digits a day, today (Jan. 8), they would finish on Sept. 19, 2081, according to some back-of-the-napkin calculations at Live Science. … Primes that are one less than a power of 2 belong to a special class, called Mersenne primes. The smallest Mersenne prime is 3, because it’s prime and also one less than 2 times 2. Seven is also a Read More ›

A few days ago, frequent commenter Dionisio noted: >>http://www.ranking.com/ Web Rank Biblegateway.com 168 MIT.edu 7,280 HARVARD.edu 7,246 Nature.com 7,449 Desiringgod.org 10,105 Answersingenesis.org 11,865 Gty.org 15,018 Icr.org 19,037 Religionnews.com 22,188 Rzim.org 35,858 Samaritanspurse.org 40,274 Truthforlife.org 49,862 Royalsociety.org 53,686 Evolutionnews.org 58,755 Jamesmacdonald.com 60,164 Reasons.org 65,259 Uncommondescent.com 80,763 Pandasthumb.org 106,377 Kodugamelab.com 668,032>> I took a look, especially at the question of how many web sites are out there. That is a hard question, but the reasonable and somewhat conservative number looks like about the billion, with 75% inactive in one way or another, i.e. the active web overall is 250 million sites or so, maybe up to several times more depending on how you count and when. I then responded: “[T]here are over Read More ›

From Suzan Mazur at HuffPost: Steve Benner is a self-described “crackpot synthetic biologist to some extent” (i.e., he thinks outside the box). As an entertainer, he’s got perfect timing. His father was an inventor and engineer and his mother a musician. But Benner’s wit is uniquely his own. For instance, one way he’s raising money for origins research is through the sale of origins jewelry, as FfAME, his non-profit foundation, advertises: Benner gets support from Benner gets support from Templeton and indirectly from the Simons Foundation (the latter hosts OOL events). From his interview with Mazur: Steve Benner: There is a shortage of ideas plus there’s a shortage of funding to pursue the ideas that we do have. It’s an Read More ›

From ScienceDaily: A million years ago, a species of tiny worms called Caenorhabditis briggsae evolved the ability to breed via selfing. As a result, most C. briggsae are hermaphrodites with both male and female sex organs. Haag’s group, which focuses on the evolution of sex, has long studied C. briggsae because of their unusual reproductive behavior. … To study how selfing shaped the evolution of C. briggsae, Erich Schwarz, an assistant research professor of molecular biology and genetics at Cornell University and co-corresponding author of the study, sequenced the genome of Caenorhabditis nigoni, the closest relative of C. briggsae. C. nigoni always reproduce by mating with other individuals, or outcrossing. By comparing the genomes of the two species, the researchers Read More ›

From Ross Pomeroy at RealClearScience: With the publication of his exhaustingly researched and skillfully reported article, “LOL Something Matters,” science writer Daniel Engber convincingly demonstrated that the “backfire effect,” the notion that contradictory evidence only strengthens entrenched beliefs, does not hold up under rigorous scientific scrutiny. Bluntly stated, the “backfire effect” probably isn’t real. Of course the backfire effect “probably isn’t real.” It probably never could have been real. Market discipline, for example, requires people to change their minds frequently about the goods and services they use. If they did not do so, innovations would be rare instead of common. What’s really happening in many situations is that people decline to believe ideological or otherwise imposed “truths” that violate their Read More ›

Har Gobind Khorana (January 9, 1922 – November 9, 2011) was an Indian American biochemist.  He shared the 1968 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Marshall W. Nirenberg and Robert W. Holley for research that showed how the order of nucleotides in nucleic acids, which carry the genetic code of the cell, control the cell’s synthesis of proteins. The relationship Khorana and his colleagues discovered is NOT a chemical affinity based on law-like mechanical necessity.  The genetic code is just that — a code.   Blind natural forces do not create codes.  What is the sole known origin of codes?  Intelligent agents of course.