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Monkey See, Monkey Do...Good

Illustration by Edel Rodriguez based on source material from Frans de Waal

FROM THE NYT

Some animals are surprisingly sensitive to the plight of others. Chimpanzees, who cannot swim, have drowned in zoo moats trying to save others. Given the chance to get food by pulling a chain that would also deliver an electric shock to a companion, rhesus monkeys will starve themselves for several days.

Biologists argue that these and other social behaviors are the precursors of human morality. They further believe that if morality grew out of behavioral rules shaped by evolution, it is for biologists, not philosophers or theologians, to say what these rules are.

Moral philosophers do not take very seriously the biologists’ bid to annex their subject, but they find much of interest in what the biologists say and have started an academic conversation with them.

The original call to battle was sounded by the biologist Edward O. Wilson more than 30 years ago, when he suggested in his 1975 book “Sociobiology” that “the time has come for ethics to be removed temporarily from the hands of the philosophers and biologicized.” He may have jumped the gun about the time having come, but in the intervening decades biologists have made considerable progress.

READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE

Parrot Vocabulary Leaves Scientists Speechless

From the BBC

Feathered prodigy: N'kisi leads the field

 

The finding of a parrot with an almost unparalleled power to communicate with people has brought scientists up short.

The bird, a captive African grey called N'kisi, has a vocabulary of 950 words,  and shows signs of a sense of humour.

He invents his own words and phrases if he is confronted with novel ideas with which his existing repertoire cannot cope - just as a human child would do.

N'kisi's remarkable abilities feature  in the latest BBC Wildlife Magazine. 

N'kisi is believed to be one of the most advanced users of human language in the animal world.

85 years in 40 seconds

We are the Aliens - Mysterious Red Rain Suggests Humans Evolved from Another Planet

All those die hard evangelicals swear up and down that we didn't evolve from apes despite hundreds of studies worldwide that prove the exact opposite. They say that humans were created in the form of God, and God is certainly no monkey. Fine, how about an alien?

The point is we don't just know how long we've been evolving but we should keep our minds open to the data that science provides. Remember, if the evangelicals had it their way, Earth would still be at the center of the universe.

Based on new findings surrounding a mysterious red rain that fell in July of 2001 in southern India, some scientists believe microbes from space may have invaded our atmosphere. This raises the possibility that life does exist out there in the heavens. It also raises the intriguing possibility that if life first originated on another planet then it must mean all Earth organisms, including humans, evolved from alien life.

Locals believed that it foretold the end of the world, though the official explanation was that it was desert dust that had blown over from Arabia.

But one scientist in the area, Dr Godfrey Louis, was convinced there was something much more unusual going on. 

Not only did Dr Louis discover that there were tiny biological cells present, but because they did not appear to contain DNA, the essential component of all life on Earth, he reasoned they must be alien lifeforms.

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE FROM THE BBC

"This staggering claim is that this is possibly extraterrestrial. That is a big claim I know, but all the experiments are supporting this claim," said Dr Louis.

His remarkable work has set in motion a chain of events with scientists around the world debating the origin of these mysterious cells.

The main reason why Dr Louis's ideas have not been immediately laughed out of court is because they tie in with a theory promoted by two UK scientists ever since the 1960s.

The late Sir Fred Hoyle and Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe have been the champions of "Panspermia", the idea that life on Earth originated on another planet.

They speculate that life was first brought here on the back of a comet. Over the last decade, Panspermia is being taken ever more seriously.

The US space agency (Nasa) is now increasingly interested in searching for extra-terrestrial life.

A new robotic submarine is being developed to explore the oceans of one of Jupiter's moons. This submarine is on test at the moment in a lake in Texas.

Finding life elsewhere in the Solar System would be a vital bolster to the Panspermia theory.

Another section of Nasa is devoted to the study of bacteria found on Earth that can survive extreme conditions.

Finding these types of bacteria makes it more likely that micro-organism could survive the hardships of travelling through space on the back of a meteoroid.

Professor Wickramasinghe explained: "Bacteria have got to endure the extreme cold of space, the vacuum of space, ultraviolet radiation, cosmic rays, X-rays.

"That sounds like a tall order but bacteria do that. From what we know survival out in space is more or less ensured. Bacteria seem to me to be born space travellers."

Last summer, Horizon had exclusive access to a trip taken by Professor Wickramasinghe to India to investigate at first hand the red rain phenomenon.

He met Dr Louis and together they visited the people who had witnessed the red rain.

He was able to see the recent work of Dr Louis which shows that the red rain can replicate at 300C, an essential attribute of a space micro-organism that might have to endure extreme temperatures.
All this has convinced Professor Wickramasinghe that the red rain is a form of alien life.

"Before I came I had grave doubts as to whether the red rain was really an indication of life coming from space; new life coming from space," he said.

"But on reflection and after talking to Godfrey, I think I would now fairly firmly believe that it did represent an invasion of microbes from space."

Many scientists remain highly sceptical, however, but if Wickramasinghe and Louis are correct it will be the strongest evidence so far that the theory of Panspermia might be true.

Horizon - We Are The Aliens is broadcast on BBC Two on Tuesday 14 November at 2100 GMT

 

Second Life Marketing Director Gives Tips for Small Business Success

Second Life continues to intrigue me. This time on the commercial side. Once you settle down and get past the fact that you can fly (it took me 3 weeks) the notion of what it means to exist in an alternate dimension with other humans snaps into focus. A little thing called the invisible hand. It only makes sense that good ole Adam Smith would be such an early resident of a digital world that already boasts a population over one million. Get all those people together and you can almost smell the supply and demand. Think about it, the upside is fantastic. Imagine being able to buy the equivalent of Manhattan in pixels. The big brands are already moving there so buying up entire islands (like GM just did) or thousands of acres of land for big cities is really a no brainer. Buy now or forever hold your lease.

Beyond the obvious real estate opportunities though, people are starting companies that provide an SL service. You get paid in Lindens which goes into your real world Paypal account where it's converted to dollars. Currently the rate is 270L Linden dollars to $1 US dollar.

The entrepreneurs are already diving in. There are fashion designers example that make and sell digital outfits. Not to far off I can see new locations for brands we already know like GAP SL, JCREW SL and Banana Republic SL. Maybe BR will give away free SL outfits that match your own when you buy them online? It's all possible, and probable.

What will work in terms of SL success? Here's some advice from someone who should know, Catherine Smith, marketing director at Linden Lab, creators of Second Life. The original article is from silicon.com

"If you are not authentic and do not offer anything to the community, you are likely to be ignored, at best. However, those firms who commit to a long-term, creative presence in Second Life have an opportunity to interact with their community in new and innovative ways," she said.

Companies should learn about Second Life and experience it before plunging in commercially, she added. "Keep it fresh, build the foundation and let your customers join in creating the experience, keep them involved, offer social context (discussions, parties, games, etc.), create connections to the real world - website, content uploads, social tools for connecting and sharing successes."

For companies that get it right there is the chance for tighter engagement with their customers, she said: "As both the number of Second Life residents and the amount of unique content grows, the overall experience will become increasingly rich for businesses and individuals alike."

See Haggard the Hippocrite in Jesus Camp

In the documentary "Jesus Camp" about the brainwashing of evangelical kids across this once great land of ours, our overly-friendly hypocrite Haggard appears. When I saw the film here in NYC over the summer, Haggard stuck out. Even among the other bible beaters and mega men of God he had that Xfactor, but in a dirty old troll kind of a way. His appearance in the film hasn't been talked about just yet but I'm sure more clips will show up on You Tube soon.

This guy represents all that's wrong with the evangelical movement. In the clip below (about 60% of the way through) he states "If the evangelicals vote, they determine the election", and if they party with escorts they determine their own fate and if we're lucky, the fate of their own twisted religion. 

GODFIGHT :: Hear Dawkins on the Ropes

David Quinn, a well known Catholic commentator and journalist in Ireland debated Richard Dawkins on Irish radio last week on the reasonableness of religious belief. Dawkins is a formidable debater, but David Quinn absolutely embarrassed him – he had Dawkins on the ropes from the outset. It is a rare moment when Dawkins is left speechless and is well worth listening to.

The debate can be downloaded by going here....  The debate starts at 7min 57 seconds into the programme and lasts for about 18 minutes.

We are the web

original ARPANET Sketch, 1960's by Larry           Roberts.

The web has long been hailed as a technological revolution, which of course it is. In the coming 20 years however, the base technology we've all integrated into our lives will fuel an evolution in how we humans communicate, learn, work and play. This is the real story. This is the shift that changes everything. For the first time in history we're all playing on the same field and the knowledge build has begun. That potential of this "techni-stenstial" database is exactly why the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Southampton will establish a research center focusing on the social and technological implications global web adoption.

This kind of a research facility is long overdue. All we need now is for Google and Microsoft to jump on board to polish up the reflection of who we really are as a species.

FROM SILICON.COM

The universities intend to raise money from corporations for the project, dubbed the Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI), to establish a research centre that will sponsor PhD students and ultimately create undergraduate curricula in web science. The multidisciplinary initiative already has financial backing from Google and IBM.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the basic software of the web and is director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards group, as well as being one of this year's silicon.com Agenda Setters, said: "The web is basically a web of people. It's a way that social people interact. Because it's something we created, we have a duty to make it better."

The universities intend to combine several disciplines, including social sciences, psychology and life sciences, with technology development.

The social aspect of the web - and the internet's huge impact on society - demands that a field separate from computer science be explored, organisers said. For example, eBay is interesting because it relies on the involvement of millions of people. Similarly, Google used a mathematical algorithm that examines how millions of individuals link to other pages to improve search results.

Wendy Hall, a professor of computer science at the University of Southampton, said: "We want to throw some light on forecasting what these new technologies might lead to in the human sense, in the community sense - and in the business."

Social scientists can help analyse online communities, and experts in life sciences can help web scientists understand how complex systems like the human body - or the web - operate, she said.

Fishin' Gone

A sad state of affairs from the NEW YORK TIMES

"If fishing around the world continues at its present pace, more and more species will vanish, marine ecosystems will unravel and there will be “global collapse” of all species currently fished, possibly as soon as midcentury, fisheries experts and ecologists are predicting."

The Evolution Debate is Over - Chuck Norris Speaks

For all of you pursuing the greater truths to the source of our own existence, your intellectual and spiritual journey has come to end. One of the greatest minds and souls of our time has finally set the record straight. Chuck Norris has declared evolution "not real".

For all those countless times when you've thanked God for Chuck Norris, now you can thank Chuck Norris for validating the very notion of God himself. Finally a sensible voice is heard to end to the evolution debate. Thank you Chuck, thank you.

FROM THINK PROGRESS
Actor and high-profile conservative Chuck Norris became an internet phenomenon last year after a website called “Chuck Norris Facts” attracted over 150 million hits. Some sample facts: “Guns don’t kill people. Chuck Norris kills people.” Another: “Chuck Norris wins Connect Four in three moves.”

Now, the right-wing website World Net Daily has given Chuck Norris a regular weekly column. In his first column, he takes on an “alleged” Chuck Norris fact:

Alleged Chuck Norris Fact: “There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live.” It’s funny. It’s cute. But here’s what I really think about the theory of evolution: It’s not real. It is not the way we got here. In fact, the life you see on this planet is really just a list of creatures God has allowed to live. We are not creations of random chance. We are not accidents.

You can keep up with Chuck Norris’s columns HERE.