I'm not surprised anymore at articles such as this one. Our DNA is basically a blue print of who we are. Our limitations, strengths, etc...
While we are also a product of our environment, it's interesting to see how as we move forward in the research of the human body and mind, many of our issues which we would have deemed "environmental", are actually genetic.
I think even more interesting than this is that the current "DNA is all" mindset has actually been proving wrong, or at best misleading. Moshe Szyf at McGill has shown that behavioural environmental factors (viz. not simply being exposed to some chemical or toxin) can alter gene expression leading to behavioural changes.
I won't get into the rest of your post other than to say that the evidence for "soul" and "God" as something other than ways of talking about the world and patterns of human behaviour is...scarce.
Given all of the physics books mentioned, I'm surprised no one has brought up Steven Weinberg's 1992 "Dreams of a Final Theory". It's one of the best "popular" science books I've ever read, and a great argument for the role of "beauty" in physical theory.
I also nominate "The Atoms of Language" by Mark Baker (disclaimer: I had him as a graduate syntax prof) on linguistics as science. It's a great read, even for people trained in linguistics.
Also, John Casti's "Paradigms Lost" and "Paradigms Regained".
You *know* you're reading a geek site when the typos look like this:
[...] they will probably server a couple years in prison [...] And why do you think the justice system is so bad up here? I mean, granted, Mafiaboy didn't do much time, but I've read tonnes of comments here lamenting the blown-out-of-proportion sentencing for "computer crimes" in the States.
Can anyone recommend some non-DSL, high speed (5+ MBPS), preferably low-cost ISPs in the London, Ontario area? These folks might have what you're looking for.
My (admittedly limited) understanding of current Alzheimer's research is that the jury is still out on whether or not there's any solid proof of the relevance of amyloid plaques. I've been told (by a neuro prof who's actively involved) that there are people who have the plaques and no symptoms at all, and people who have symptoms and not the plaques. That seems like a pretty solid falsification of a hypothesis, in my book (not that I'm convinced that a Popperian approach is the right way to do science).
There's a new(ish) company here in Ottawa that's doing stuff with app virtualization, too: http://www.trigence.com/ I "attended" one of their webinars (godawful word), and it looks like they've got some pretty neat stuff going on.
You don't drink 14-espresso-shot coffees. I know because I regularly drink 4 or 5 shot lattes in a venti cup, so I know how much 4 shots fills the cup. While there *might* be room for 14 shots of espresso in a venti cup (and I'm frankly not at all certain about that), there's just no way you drink all that. At 80+ mg of caffeine per espresso, it's definitely way over the toxicity limit.
Or, to be perfectly fair, I might be talking out of my ass.
I've been running (K)Ubuntu for a while now on some lower-end hardware, and find that Bluefish (http://bluefish.openoffice.nl/) answers all of my web development needs. It's lightweight, responsive (except on some remote-editing edge cases), has a great UI, and is just generally fun to use.
There's an article that speaks to this in the current issue of SciAm Mind (a fantastic bimonthly series highlighting current and ongoing research on the mind/brain -- unreservedly recommended to anyone with an interest in this stuff). While there is perhaps a certain pathos in the 10 year old adult, the case of a 19 year old child is far worse.
It's looking more and more as though the social ills that currently viewed as being an intrinsic part of adolescence are in fact the product of what some researchers call an "artificial extension of childhood." In treating our pubescent members of society like children, we infantilize them to the point where they have little option but to act the part. The article in question (don't have the mag next to me, so I can't cite page numbers or even the title) goes on to highlight some of the achievements of current teenagers, including two teenage mayors.
I think it's important to give our kids a sense that they're able to accomplish far more than they are typically given credit for. My feeling is that they'll regularly floor us with innovations and great ideas. It's a lot easier for a social unencumbered mind to come up with something original.
[...] the types of majors that people who care about money rather than the subject go into, like computer science probably have a much higher incidence of cheating. Fixed that for you.
(For the record, I took Computer Science at McGill. It's a good program. Cheating was rampant)
From what I've seen there's a pretty big ARG subculture. The organization that I've come across that seems to do this best is http://www.mistergamer.com/. They're pretty mysterious (the so-so English on the website somehow adds to this), and the games are apparently really immersive and pretty expensive (e.g. spanning several months & countries and costing upward of $50K). If it seems like I'm using a lot of "seems" and "allegedly" it's because I got all of this information second-hand from someone who claims to have participated in one of their games, but was reluctant with details. Anyway, I've give a nut to have enough cash to do one of these.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not surprised anymore at articles such as this one. Our DNA is basically a blue print of who we are. Our limitations, strengths, etc...
While we are also a product of our environment, it's interesting to see how as we move forward in the research of the human body and mind, many of our issues which we would have deemed "environmental", are actually genetic.
I think even more interesting than this is that the current "DNA is all" mindset has actually been proving wrong, or at best misleading. Moshe Szyf at McGill has shown that behavioural environmental factors (viz. not simply being exposed to some chemical or toxin) can alter gene expression leading to behavioural changes.
These links have OK summaries:
http://www.mcgill.ca/headway/fall2006/indepth1/
http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11326195
I won't get into the rest of your post other than to say that the evidence for "soul" and "God" as something other than ways of talking about the world and patterns of human behaviour is...scarce.
Given all of the physics books mentioned, I'm surprised no one has brought up Steven Weinberg's 1992 "Dreams of a Final Theory". It's one of the best "popular" science books I've ever read, and a great argument for the role of "beauty" in physical theory.
I also nominate "The Atoms of Language" by Mark Baker (disclaimer: I had him as a graduate syntax prof) on linguistics as science. It's a great read, even for people trained in linguistics.
Also, John Casti's "Paradigms Lost" and "Paradigms Regained".
Reminds me of this, which was a great series of books...well, the first 3, anyway.
My (admittedly limited) understanding of current Alzheimer's research is that the jury is still out on whether or not there's any solid proof of the relevance of amyloid plaques. I've been told (by a neuro prof who's actively involved) that there are people who have the plaques and no symptoms at all, and people who have symptoms and not the plaques. That seems like a pretty solid falsification of a hypothesis, in my book (not that I'm convinced that a Popperian approach is the right way to do science).
There's a new(ish) company here in Ottawa that's doing stuff with app virtualization, too: http://www.trigence.com/ I "attended" one of their webinars (godawful word), and it looks like they've got some pretty neat stuff going on.
You don't drink 14-espresso-shot coffees. I know because I regularly drink 4 or 5 shot lattes in a venti cup, so I know how much 4 shots fills the cup. While there *might* be room for 14 shots of espresso in a venti cup (and I'm frankly not at all certain about that), there's just no way you drink all that. At 80+ mg of caffeine per espresso, it's definitely way over the toxicity limit.
Or, to be perfectly fair, I might be talking out of my ass.
But I still call bullshit.
I've been running (K)Ubuntu for a while now on some lower-end hardware, and find that Bluefish (http://bluefish.openoffice.nl/) answers all of my web development needs. It's lightweight, responsive (except on some remote-editing edge cases), has a great UI, and is just generally fun to use.
There's an article that speaks to this in the current issue of SciAm Mind (a fantastic bimonthly series highlighting current and ongoing research on the mind/brain -- unreservedly recommended to anyone with an interest in this stuff). While there is perhaps a certain pathos in the 10 year old adult, the case of a 19 year old child is far worse. It's looking more and more as though the social ills that currently viewed as being an intrinsic part of adolescence are in fact the product of what some researchers call an "artificial extension of childhood." In treating our pubescent members of society like children, we infantilize them to the point where they have little option but to act the part. The article in question (don't have the mag next to me, so I can't cite page numbers or even the title) goes on to highlight some of the achievements of current teenagers, including two teenage mayors. I think it's important to give our kids a sense that they're able to accomplish far more than they are typically given credit for. My feeling is that they'll regularly floor us with innovations and great ideas. It's a lot easier for a social unencumbered mind to come up with something original.
(For the record, I took Computer Science at McGill. It's a good program. Cheating was rampant)
"penultimate" means (roughly) "next-to-last", or "next-to-greatest". I think you just meant "ultimate".
From what I've seen there's a pretty big ARG subculture. The organization that I've come across that seems to do this best is http://www.mistergamer.com/. They're pretty mysterious (the so-so English on the website somehow adds to this), and the games are apparently really immersive and pretty expensive (e.g. spanning several months & countries and costing upward of $50K). If it seems like I'm using a lot of "seems" and "allegedly" it's because I got all of this information second-hand from someone who claims to have participated in one of their games, but was reluctant with details. Anyway, I've give a nut to have enough cash to do one of these.