Jun 23 2009

The Next Great Awakening, Part 7: Whither the primordial soup? I thought soup required a chef.

Category: science,theology — harmonicminer @ 9:17 am

The previous post in this series is here.

Long odds on space viruses seeding life

LIFE on Earth is unlikely to have come from space, says a new study on viruses. If life is ever found on another planet, however, the findings could help us judge whether it arrived from space or not.

What’s funny here is that scientists have come so close to giving up on the “spontaneous origin of life on Earth” theory that anyone who challenges the notion of “panspermia” is actually seen as being adventurous and contrary to an emerging scientific orthodoxy.

meta-message: Scientists have no fuzzy clue where life came from, or WHEN life came from… except that it appears on earth in a geologic eye-blink after the “late heavy bombardment”, and there was no era of “billions and billions of years” in the primordial soup — which never existed, anyway — for some lucky amino acids to form a little DNA, or RNA, or protein, or much of anything except simple acids and bases.

What we know is that life on Earth appeared at least 3.8 billion years ago, maybe 3.9 or even sooner…. and the Earth had barely cooled enough not to kill anything that was alive.

“Aunt Matilda, I think you accidentally dropped some living proto-cells on Earth on that last fly-by. Do you want to go back and get them? Or just leave them there?  Won’t they rot?”

And atheists accuse theists of “god of the gaps” theories. As if “somehow life began, somewhere, somewhen” and “someday we’ll figure it out” is anything other than a “science-of-the-gaps” explanation, what Karl Popper called “promissory materialism.”

Personally, I think life was seeded on Earth, and maybe only on Earth, by an extra-dimensional, super-intelligent being, one not bound by local laws of time and space, one who knew just what amino acids to jiggle and juggle just so, for the purpose of spending 3.8 billion years creating a biosphere and resources for some relatively weak, big-brained primates.   I think this creative super-intelligent being continued to “stir the pot” now and then, and every now and then invented a new recipe just for the joy of it.   Why would this super-being do such a thing?   Maybe for the same reason the amino acids were made in the first place, as well as the conditions in which they stayed amino acids, instead of breaking down to simpler things.   Time doesn’t seem to mean much to this being, who was perfectly fine with waiting around for 9 billion years or so after starting the whole thing off, until it was time to start cooking up some life in the first place.   A brand new kitchen (solar powered) was designed for this particular production.

Does it make sense that after starting a recipe like this, the creative super-being would stop watching the pot and walk away and just let it happen?   Seems more likely to me that this is one of those recipes where ingredients have to be added at just the right times, temperature adjusted, some of the ingredients moved from the broiler, to the oven, to the stove top, and back, maybe even refrigerated over night and then mixed with something else and baked again…  sort of like twice-baked potatoes, if you’ve tried those.   Instead of running down to the corner supermarket, this particular super-intelligent being just creates what’s necessary, either out of stuff that was already there which had already been made, or completely out of “whole cloth,” or out of nothing…. as necessary.  We’re talking cooking from scratch.

It would have been possible, I suppose, to just open a can, or pull something out of the freezer and nuke it, but the joy of cooking is very, very old.   And for those of you who like simple answers, it might be wise not to insult the chef by comparing the outcome to fast food, after all this loving care was taken in preparation.

The piece de resistance seems to be….  us.

Perhaps some clues have been left here and there, clues which only people who look in the right way will see.

You can ask, if you ever meet (not that hard to do, surprisingly).  I have heard that this particular extra-dimensional, hyper-intelligent, hyper-powerful being is interested in being known, once visited here on an extended missions trip, still hangs out here a lot, and likes to talk, if you’re interested in listening.

That’s my experience, for what it’s worth.

The next post in this series is here.

Jun 22 2009

Michael Yon on the war in the Philippines

Category: Islam,terrorism — harmonicminer @ 8:57 am

Michael Yon has a really unique perspective on the US military and the war on Islamic terror in the Philippines. Here are several articles, with LOTS of photos, in the order he posted them. This is a war where US forces rarely fight, yet play a crucial role in helping and training local forces, and building bonds with the local citizenry. This, too, is the war on terrorism.  As usual, I’m very proud of our military.

If you want to have more background on this type of mission for our military, check out the book “Imperial Grunts” by Robert Kaplan.  In the meantime, hot off the presses from Michael Yon, with LOTS of fascinating photos at the links below:

Continue reading “Michael Yon on the war in the Philippines”

Jun 22 2009

Parents, Education & Choice

Category: education,Obama — amuzikman @ 8:00 am

Part and parcel of a living in a free society is the ability to make choices. For example, at election time our citizenry is allowed to choose between various political candidates running for public office. In countries where there is no freedom, so called “elections” are a sham because there is no choice, the ballots have but one candidate.

Here in the United States there is an ongoing battle over choice in education. On the one side there are those who seek greater freedom of choice for parents. Among the choices currently offered to a greater or lesser degree in various parts of our country are home schooling, school vouchers, and charter schools. On the other side there are those who seek to reduce or eliminate a parents right to choose the way they want their children educated. These seek to make public school attendance mandatory for ALL children.

Each of the alternatives I have mentioned are different. Each has been promoted or discouraged to greater or lesser degree at various times and places but to a parent, taken as a whole they represent choice in education. Each time one of those options is eliminated somewhere it can be said that a parent’s right to make choices concerning the education of their children has been negatively affected.

I believe our current president is no friend of school choice for parents. I have several points to mention in support of this statement. First is the Washington DC. school voucher plan the Obama Administration ended. In case you are unfamiliar with the story read this article.

This is a direct assault on freedom of choice in education. It is an action taken by Arne Duncan, President Obama’s selection for Secretary of Education. It can and should be cited as a concrete example that our current president does not favor choice in education.

Which leads me to my second point, and one which was mentioned in the article I quoted above. I think one of the reasons Obama has and will continue to demonstrate resistance to choice in education is that both he and the Democratic party are financially beholden to teacher unions in a big way and will not oppose the wishes of those unions in the area of educational choice. From the above-cited article:

It’s clear, though, from how the destruction of the program is being orchestrated, that issues such as parents’ needs, student performance and program effectiveness don’t matter next to the political demands of teachers’ unions. Congressional Democrats who receive ample campaign contributions from the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers laid the trap with budget language that placed the program on the block. And now comes Mr. Duncan with the sword. (emphasis mine)

It has been rightly said to get a true sense of what an organization supports one need only to follow the money. Just a cursory glance at the political contributions made by the NEA shows the virtual political alignment of that teacher’s union and the Democratic party. (read this article) And given the money spent by this union in support of an almost entirely Democratic slate is it unreasonable to assume our current president and Democrat-controlled congress will seek to do their bidding?

From the article cited in the previous paragraph let me point out the following quote:

There’s been a lot in the news recently about published opinion that parallels donor politics. Well, last year the NEA gave $45,000 to the Economic Policy Institute, which regularly issues reports that claim education is underfunded and teachers are underpaid. The partisans at People for the American Way got a $51,000 NEA contribution; PFAW happens to be vehemently anti-voucher.

The extent to which the NEA sends money to states for political agitation is also revealing. For example, Protect Our Public Schools, an anti-charter-school group backed by the NEA’s Washington state affiliate, received $500,000 toward its efforts to block school choice for underprivileged children.

So the NEA has contributed money to groups that are both anti-voucher and anti-charter schools. Given the Obama administrations stated support of charter schools elsewhere this can at best be considered a mixed message though I doubt anyone would think of it as a ringing endorsement of parental choice in education. ( I acknowledge the WSJ article is more than 3 years old, but does anyone want to make the claim that the NEA zebra has recently changed its stripes?)

Point three and potentially most pernicious is President Obama’s support of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. (See harmonicminers earlier blog on this subject) While not yet adopted by the US, the potential for elimination of parent choice in education is there if this is embraced by the current administration. (If you have any doubt about Obama’s willingness to accede to the demands of the United Nations, even at the cost of our sovereignty, read this article about his sponsorship of Senate bill 2433). Of note too is the author cited by harmonicminer. He is co-founder, chairman and general counsel of the Home School Legal Defense Association. This organization did not come about because our government has a track record of embracing homeschooling (as an educational choice), and this current president has shown time and time again he favors greater governmental intrusion and control over almost everything. One might say it has the potential of a perfect storm, brewing on the horizon for parents who wish to exercise freedom of choice in the education of their children.

Jun 21 2009

You have to read this

Category: Iran — harmonicminer @ 6:29 pm

Neutrality Isn’t an Option by Mark Steyn

You always have a dog in the fight, whether you know it or not.

I refuse to summarize this, because every paragraph is worth your time to read. But here’s the money line (don’t use this an excuse not to read it all). Regarding Obama’s attempt to cut the Islamist government some multi-cultural slack, by making presidential comments of “concern” without any tinge of real criticism of the treatment of peaceful protesters, Steyn characterizes the response of the “Supreme Leader” of Iran this way:

Offered the world’s biggest carrot, Khamenei took it and used it as a stick.

Now go read it all.

Jun 21 2009

All’s well that ends well… especially in car crashes

Category: family — harmonicminer @ 2:44 pm

Today, as she was turning into our church parking lot, my mother-in-law was rear-ended by a 16 yr old girl (in her 2nd crash, already…  probably on her cell phone). My 11 yr old daughter was in the car with her, sitting in the front seat for the very first time…. just as well, it may have protected her a bit. I think my mother-in-law’s car is totalled, but no obvious injuries today, although I’m expecting she will have some stiff muscles and aches tomorrow.  This happened on Father’s Day, of course, and so I spent most of the day so far dealing with the crash, getting the car towed, etc. 

It is a happy day.  No one was seriously hurt. 

For some reason, this all reminded me of a post I wrote last year about this time, and because I have nothing really better to say, I’ve linked to it here.

Today I sat in church with my 10 yr old daughter. Her mom is usually playing the piano, and so my daughter often sits between her grandmother and me. That way, we can both hear her sing. I don’t think the small vocalist knows that we sometimes just listen to her. She probably just thinks we’re tired by the second verse, if she thinks about it at all. Sometimes grandma and I make eye contact. We both know what we’re doing. We don’t talk about it.

Now, not to knock the sermon today; it was great, on Psalm 42. But attention can drift. I expect somebody dozed off during the Gettysburg address, or while Paul was waxing eloquent about unknown Gods. Especially while Paul was going on about unidentified deities. So my mind can wander now and then.

But partway through, I noticed an odd looking purple pen in my daughter’s hand. I don’t know where she got it.

She took my arm, and prepared to write something on it. I thought, oh great, now I’m going to have ink on my arm… But Dads will do anything for love of a child, pretty much, so I let her write. She seemed to write a short word, but apparently the pen wasn’t working… No ink, I supposed, or it was dried up or something.

I shrugged to her, and returned my attention to the sermon. She was doing something beside me, but I wasn’t paying lots of attention… Kids get squirmy in church sometimes, and she wasn’t making noise. Then she tapped my arm, until I looked down. She had turned on a small light on the end of the funny looking pen, and was shining it on my arm, the miracle of “black light”. In kid-scrawl letters, my forearm said, all in lowercase, “dad”.

Well.

I know this is probably silly, but the moment took on a luminescent meaning for me. There we were, father and daughter, bonded in many different ways, each partly defining ourselves in terms of the other. She was naming me for what I was to her, and applying the label… But only she could read it. And she wanted me to see the label, too. It was our secretly acknowledged non-secret.

Being metaphorically minded, I could not help but reflect on the invisible bonds in our lives. These chains bind us as surely as titanium steel twisted cable, as unexpectedly powerful as light-weight carbon fiber-reinforced Kevlar. We can stretch our bindings. But they’re still there, drawing us together.

As a father, I have tremendous freedom of action, befitting the responsibility that is mine. There are a thousand ways to be a good father, and about a million ways to be a bad one. It may be odd to say, and it is not usually expressed this way, but I am also her servant, working for her and for the One who put her in my charge, for a little while. Perhaps it is good for servants to wear invisible identification.

Her yoke is easy.

Jun 20 2009

Obama, stalwart defender of freedom… well, maybe not

Category: Iran,Obama — harmonicminer @ 8:29 am

Discussing Obama’s apparent plan to negotiate with the Iran government as if there was no possibility of regime change, Charles Krauthammer says that Obama is Clueless on Iran (all worth reading)

Even from the narrow perspective of the nuclear issue, the administration’s geopolitical calculus is absurd. There is zero chance that any such talks will denuclearize Iran. On Monday, Ahmadinejad declared yet again that the nuclear “file is shut, forever.” The only hope for a resolution of the nuclear question is regime change, which (if the successor regime were as moderate as pre-Khomeini Iran) might either stop the program, or make it manageable and nonthreatening.

That’s our fundamental interest. And our fundamental values demand that America stand with demonstrators opposing a regime that is the antithesis of all we believe.

And where is our president? Afraid of “meddling.” Afraid to take sides between the head-breaking, women-shackling exporters of terror — and the people in the street yearning to breathe free. This from a president who fancies himself the restorer of America’s moral standing in the world.

When Obama was invited to speak at Notre Dame, and given an honorary doctorate by the university, I asked what Obama would have to have done not to be invited.  Now I have a different question:  what would the leadership of Iran have to do in order for Obama to declare them unfit negotiating partners, or at least to challenge them directly on their behavior, tell them to stop shooting their citizens for peacefully demonstrating, etc.?

Obama is, of course, acting like the perfect multiculturalist.  There is, after all, no actual right and wrong in the world.  No culture is better than any other.  America should not attempt to impose its values on the world.  Just because we believe in a society of parts doesn’t mean the rest of the world must.  If Iran wants to have a government that kills demonstrators who challenge election results, that’s purely an internal matter, isn’t it?  Who are we to challenge the way they do things?  Aren’t we imperfect, too?  Who are we to judge?

Freedom is just a word.

Jun 19 2009

Confessions of a green-car driver

Category: humor,society — harmonicminer @ 9:13 am

I admit it.  I own a Prius.  It has 130,000 miles, and is humming along nicely.  The three hamsters, the flashlight battery, and the lawnmower engine that make it go are still doing their jobs.

Even though I am ideologically opposed to the entire concept of car pool lanes, I drive in them.  I got my sticker for $8, back when they were still available.  The car does produce remarkably low emissions.  I have heard tales of depressed liberals in Philadelphia trying to commit suicide by running the car in a closed garage, and waking up in the morning with a bad headache….  which was probably no worse than their typical hangover from a night of carousing with other lefty cheese-steak eaters.

One of my favorite things is that, in parking lots at slow speed, the gas engine shuts off, and it’s quieter than a golf cart as I sneak up on hapless searchers for lost cars.  You pull up to about two feet behind someone who doesn’t see you, or hear you, and honk the horn.  It’s great.  Keep your windows rolled up and the doors locked, though.

It hurts my feelings, a little, when Rush bashes my car.  Has he ever been in one?  They’re not so bad, and all Prius drivers are not preening, self-righteous prigs….  just most of them.

You can talk to a Prius, and it will respond, after a fashion.  It knows a few hundred voice commands… more than I can remember.  Once, when I had just pushed the “talk” button to ask the car to find the closest Mexican restaurant for me, my wife coughed.  The car immediately said, “Now displaying hospital icons on the navigation system.”  A car with a sense of humor.  What’s next?  A car that does psychotherapy?

It bugs me when people assume I’m a lefty because I drive a Prius.  I see all the bumper stickers on Prii (the proper plural form of Prius, according to one user group —  I actually saw another Prius driver sniff disdainfully when I referred to “Priuses”).

“ECOMOM”
“I love solar power and I vote.”
“Obama-Biden 2008”
“No War For Oil”    (Did we bring any of the oil home?)
“Keep Abortion Safe and Legal”  (safe for WHO?)
“Visualize world peace”  (I do, often…  it’s just that there are some people missing from the visualization — which may be why it’s so peaceful)

I have thought about a few more bumper stickers that I think I might like more:

“No War for Electrons!”
“Save the gay baby internal combustion engines!”
“Don’t blame me, I voted for McCain”
“My other car is a Volvo…  or used to be”
“Get a Prius, gas hog!”
“Save the BORG!”

For awhile, I displayed a US flag in the rear window.  I noticed other Prius drivers giving me disapproving glances, and occasional rude gestures, en passant.  Patriotism is just so….  twentieth century.

Historically, I seem to have a problem choosing politically appropriate cars.  For years, I had two Volvos….  the preferred transportation of the New England Yuppie Liberal.  And now I have this poster-car for global warming amelioration.  I think I want my next vehicle to be the preferred mode of transportation for all eco-activists who really care about the environment — a Gulfstream V, luxury edition, complete with private pilot.

I suspect the Prius produces all kinds of mysterious radiation.  I wonder if I could cause fruit flies to mutate just by driving around with them for awhile in a jar.   Have you ever driven a car in which the radio static goes up when you step on the brakes?  When I pull up next to people at stop lights, I see them lunge for their radios, not knowing I’m the cause of the static.  I once set my key chain down on top of the electric motor while checking the oil.  The USB flashdrive on the key chain was erased, more or less.

And here I used to hate truckers with CB radios messing up my radio reception.

Maybe you become that which you hate.

I observe that people in older pickups and SUVs sneer at me when I drive into the gas station.  It’s as if they think I represent all the things they disdain in life, from small cars to liberals.  I pump the gas as fast as possible, and slink back into my car without meeting their eyes, fearing their judgment.

I take secret comfort in the fact that the Prius is less eco-friendly, overall, than the Hummer.  A man should leave his mark on the world.

Tomorrow, as I blow by you in the car pool lane at 84 MPH, uphill (those hamsters are STRONG), remember, I’m doing my bit for Al Gore, Savior of Earth, even if he is an ignorant jerk, while your emissions are bringing us a little closer to species extinction (sorry, I was just auditioning for the Huffington Post).  I meant specious extinction.

Proves I’m open minded.

Jun 18 2009

You can’t make this stuff up

Category: humor,society — harmonicminer @ 9:36 am

PETA Condemns Obama Fly-Swatting Incident

The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants the flyswatter in chief to try taking a more humane attitude the next time he’s bedeviled by a fly in the White House.

PETA is sending President Barack Obama a Katcha Bug Humane Bug Catcher, a device that allows users to trap a house fly and then release it outside.

“We support compassion even for the most curious, smallest and least sympathetic animals,” PETA spokesman Bruce Friedrich said Wednesday. “We believe that people, where they can be compassionate, should be, for all animals.”

During an interview for CNBC at the White House on Tuesday, a fly intruded on Obama’s conversation with correspondent John Harwood.

“Get out of here,” the president told the pesky insect. When it didn’t, he waited for the fly to settle, put his hand up and then smacked it dead.

“Now, where were we?” Obama asked Harwood. Then he added: “That was pretty impressive, wasn’t it? I got the sucker.”

Friedrich said that PETA was pleased with Obama’s voting record in the Senate on behalf of animal rights and noted that he has been outspoken against animal abuses.

Still, “swatting a fly on TV indicates he’s not perfect,” Friedrich said, “and we’re happy to say that we wish he hadn’t.”

Deputy press secretary Josh Earnest said the White House has no comment on the matter.

Jun 17 2009

Caroline Glick’s assessment of Obama vs. Netanyahu, and other things

Category: Fatah,freedom,Hamas,Iran,Israel,North Korea,Obama — harmonicminer @ 9:38 am

Writing in the Jerusalem Post, Caroline Glick says that Obama’s statements on Israel/Palestine, North Korea and Iran are irrational because they ignore facts on the gound:

Netanyahu’s speech was an eloquent, rational and at times impassioned defense of Israel. For Israeli ears, after years of former prime minister Ehud Olmert’s and former foreign minister Tzipi Livni’s continuous assaults on Israeli rights, and their strident defenses of capitulation to the Palestinians and the Syrians, Netanyahu’s address was a breath of fresh air. But it is hard to see how it could have possibly had any lasting impact on Obama or his advisers.

To be moved by rational argument, a person has to be open to rational discourse. And what we have witnessed over the past week with the Obama administration’s reactions to both North Korea’s nuclear brinksmanship and Iran’s sham elections is that its foreign policy is not informed by rationality but by the president’s morally relative, post-modern ideology. In this anti-intellectual and anti-rational climate, Netanyahu’s speech has little chance of making a lasting impact on the White House.

Of course, there is hardly such a thing as a “fact” to the more extreme post-modern moral relativists, and certainly no such thing as “right and wrong,” except when it comes to carbon cap and trade, of course.

Read the whole thing, where Ms. Glick very clearly makes her case.

Jun 16 2009

Machines watching with gimlet eyes

Category: humor,society,technology — harmonicminer @ 8:49 am

Security officials are exploring the use of computer processed cameras to spot suspicious behavior and refer it to humans for verification. They are Asking a Machine to Spot Threats Human Eyes Miss

Using a mock-up of an Airbus, the researchers tested camera systems that would identify threats inside passenger planes. Some of the cameras on board, Ferryman said, focused on a passenger’s face and upper torso, looking for telltale signs that someone may be up to no good _ heavy sweating, for instance.

Hmmm… I see lots of heavy sweating every time I give a final exam. I knew some of those guys were up to no good.  Of course, some of them may think I’m a terrorist.

As time goes on, I think we’re heading for the world predicted by David Brin in Earth.  Pretty much everybody will soon be carrying around video cameras on their phones, pdas and handheld video games, and pretty much every business, home, street light and power pole will have a video camera connected to a computer somewhere that is deciding whether to alert humans to review some footage (a term which itself will continue to exist for some time, but soon no one will remember where it came from).

Stop light cameras are just the beginning.  Everyone will be watching everyone, all the time.

I think there will be a whole new line of “stealth clothing,” which will be something that reflects light in ways difficult for computers to process.  Lots of folks will start wearing fedoras scrunched down to obscure their faces, and bizarrely glittery and deceptive clothing.  Of course, we see that at the Oscars every year.  Look for lines of facial makeup that obscure video pickup…  think glitter on steroids, producing images that the human eye can process, but are hard for computers to identify.  It’ll give Victoria’s Secret a whole new meaning.

And we haven’t even talked about satellite surveillance yet.   It won’t be long before every country with a little excess change will have its own satellites, watching each other and everyone else.  Look for Google Earth to start showing current military resolutions of imagery (classified, but rumored to be able to read license plates), as miltary resolutions increase to the point of reading the labels on your clothing.

From Music to Watch Girls By

“The boys watch the girls while the girls watch the boys who watch the girls go by,
Eye to eye, they solemnly convene to make the scene.”

Your video processing software ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Privacy and anonymity are so….  20th century.

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