Were CO2 Levels in the 1940s Actually Higher Than Today's?

In this bipolar (Hannity and Colmes) interview, controversial climate scientist Tim Ball makes reference to a "soon-to-be-released" study that will contradict the IPCC's model of CO2 driven catastrophic anthropogenic global warming (CAGW).

I wonder if the study that Ball alludes to is the same one discussed at An Englishman's Castle and Greenie Watch? If anyone has more information on this story, I would appreciate a "heads-up."

If the CO2 levels used by the IPCC climate models are wrong, then the entire climate change house of cards collapses. It is difficult to believe that an established political body as well-funded and supposedly reputable as the IPCC would falsify data. But it is vital to keep in mind that the IPCC is a political rather than a scientific body. Political groups are in the business of falsifying data, in order to acquire more influence.

Update: Roger Pielke Sr. reveals some of the inner working of the IPCC from his own experience as an IPCC scientific participant in 1995.

Update: I should explain that I am referring to disagreements about the validity of ice core air bubble CO2 levels used by the IPCC as opposed to historical measurement of atmospheric levels of CO2 by reputable scientists in the 19th and 20th centuries. The IPCC models are based upon a very low "pre-industrial" level of atmospheric CO2--based on ice core measurements. The question is whether the IPCC "ignored" valid data that contradicted the model of anthropogenic logarithmic rise in CO2 levels over the past century. If so, results of climate models would not be valid.

I Just Always Thought It Was PMS

Anyone who has raised more than one child from birth understands that children are born with distinct behavioural predispositions and tendencies. Now a study of women of European descent suggests that women, at least, can be genetically predisposed to anger.

University of Pittsburgh researchers have found that behaviors such as anger, hostility and aggression may be genetic, rooted in variations in a serotonin receptor gene. Indrani Halder, Ph.D., of the Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine Program at the University of Pittsburgh, will present the findings today at the American Psychosomatic Society's Annual Meeting, held in Budapest, Hungary.

Previous studies have associated the hormone serotonin with anger and aggression in both humans and animals and have shown that increased serotonin activity is related to a decrease in angry and aggressive behaviors. In the study being presented today, researchers sought to determine if this relationship was genetically determined. The study is the first to look at the relationship between variations in the serotonin receptor 2C gene and anger and hostility.

Completed at the University of Pittsburgh's Behavioral Physiology Laboratory, the study looked at 550 unrelated women of European descent. In order to find normal variations in genes and behavior, the women were not prescreened for behavioral type. Researchers found that those who had one or both of two alterations in the promoter region of the serotonin receptor 2C gene were more likely to score lower on two common tests for anger, hostility and aggression.

Source.

Now it is only a matter of extending the research to include women of other ethnic groups, and men. I wonder why they selected women particularly for this study? Further speculation on that point has been prematurely curtailed by our sponsor.

When An Unwelcome Neighbor Comes to Call

What should we do if faced with a true apocalyptic crisis--a large space object in an earth-intersecting orbit? Here are several scholarly papers from this week's Planetary Defense Conference in Washington, D.C.

Here is coverage from the Sunday Telegraph, and the Guardian.

While most media outlets provide daily stories on impending climate "disaster," the real potential disasters generally get very little coverage. Whether that skewed coverage points to a political bias on the part of big media, or simply an ignorance of scientific reality, will be left as an exercise for the reader.

Check out this Bio of William E. Burrows, a presenter at the PDC, and author of "The Survival Imperative: Using Space to Protect Earth." Burrows is on the advisory board of the Lifeboat Foundation, as well as a co-founder of ARC--Alliance to Rescue Civilization.




Hat tip: Primidi.com

In a Free Society, Women Do What they Want

Over the ten year period from 1994 to 2004, female graduate students in the US have continued to make substantial gains in proportion of total enrollment across the board, in science and engineering.

This is to be expected in a free society. What is most interesting is the particular areas where women have broken through the 50% enrollment barrier--making them the majority of graduate students in those fields. In Psychology, Biological Sciences, and Social Sciences, women constitute the majority of graduate students.

In the math intensive fields, women remain less than 40% of total graduate enrollment. As detailed in this La Griffe du Lion essay, the curve for mathematical aptitude is different in women vs. men. Given that most people choose to do what they are good at, it is not surprising that more women graduate students choose fields with less math emphasis.

At the very highest levels of achievement in math-intensive fields--the Fields Medal in math, or Nobel Prizes in the physical sciences (chemistry, physics)--one does not expect to find a large proportion of women.

Over time, one would expect more women to enter fields that had been excessively skewed in favour of men historically. Such has happened in Psychology--where women constitute nearly 75% of all graduate students in the US. Such has also happened in medicine and law. They certainly should be entering those fields--huge and expensive outreaches to attract women to these fields have been ongoing, and expanding rapidly, for decades.

At this point, it is most important that both men and women are allowed to enter the field that interests them the most. Trying to force women into certain fields, as a recent NAS committee attempts, besides being massively expensive, is both illiberal and unwise. In a free society, women do what they want.

Cognitive Dissonance on Global Warming Due in Britain Tomorrow If Strong Action Not Taken

Memo--Need to Know Only:

Modern westerners have forgotten how to read. When presenting information to them, it is vital to present the information on film, or video. Further, one must present only one side of the story. Presenting two or more sides to any story risks creating cognitive dissonance, which in an Idiocracy can bring down an entire government.

British television's Channel Four risks the horror of cognitive dissonance tomorrow by showing a documentary contradicting Al Gore's well-received documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," which won an American Film Oscar. The documentary is titled "The Great Global Warming Scandal."

A television documentary airing this week in Britain claims the greenhouse theory on global warming is a scam.

Filmaker Martin Durkin's documentary "The Great Global Warming Scandal" says the sun, and not human-generated greenhouse gases, is to blame for the increase in the Earth's temperature, The Washington Times reported.

Durkin says the greenhouse theory is "the biggest scam of modern times."

The program, scheduled for broadcast Thursday on Britain's Channel 4, features experts in climatology, oceanography, meteorology, biogeography and paleoclimatology, the newspaper said.

Source.

The actual truth about "global warming" is far less important than what people actually believe about it. If people can be led to believe that "global warming" is a danger to the entire earth and all its inhabitants, governments can pass sweeping legislation, installing huge new departments monitoring and regulating every private, business, and governmental action that even peripherally impacts on "global warming." International institutions in particular could benefit--in effect creating a massive international transfer of wealth from those who have it, to those who want it and can acquire the power to take it.

With so much at stake, it is important that people not be confused. They should be presented with only one side of the topic, so that their depleted cognitive apparati not be overloaded. I cannot stress this strongly enough.

A decades-long campaign to dumb down the schools is just now ready to bear fruit in a very large way. For the public's own good, those who control the gates to public information--assimilable information such as video and film media--must forcefully prevent conflicting points of view from being viewed.

Up until now, we have been able to control most of the substantial sources of information to the public dealing with important topics. Blogs and other minor media are unimportant, given the low credibility most people assign to the internet. Television and cinema, however, are taken very seriously by the dumbed down populace.

I trust you will all see to it that the public's right to protection from cognitive dissonance is protected. Anything less is irresponsible.

Hat tip Audacious Epigone.

School for Dummies

Not that kind of dummy! Schools are in fact manufacturing dummies--functional illiterates--at a record pace.

...if you think that newspaper readership follows education, you would expect it to increase. But it has declined for every level of education.

....Magazines are likewise in trouble. Paid circulation for magazines covered by the Audit Bureau of Circulation peaked in 2000 at 379 million; dropping to 362 million by 2005, in spite of increasing population, higher incomes, and educational attainment. I suspect that the greatest decline is in the magazines that offer the most in terms of knowledge and thoughtful analysis.

....One reason adults are reading less is that an increasing number of them are unable to do so. The National Center for Education Statistics conducted surveys of adult literacy in 1992 and 2003. It tested ability to read prose, documents, and quantitative materials, such as graphs, charts, and tables. At every level of educational attainment, from elementary school through college, prose and document literacy has fallen

....The decline in reading amounts to a decline in learning and knowledge. The vocabulary acquired through normal everyday conversation is limited. The much greater vocabulary of educated adults is learned mainly through reading. As to knowledge, one can learn from fiction, but not in a coherent systematic manner.

....There are cognitive differences between readers and nonreaders, and between good and poor readers. Reading and writing are more abstract, objective, and analytical than oral communication. Readers display a greater range and complexity of expression. Cognitive gains include ability to generalize instead of thinking only in particulars, to use analogy, to classify according to common abstract properties. Such abilities are found with much lower frequency among illiterates.

The philosophy prevailing in public schools has helped undermine the quest for knowledge—to rebuild literacy, we must reverse it. Two generations have been taught that they have a right to their own opinion without regard to their mastery of the subject; that all opinions are of equal value. This assumption underlies the popularity of public opinion polls as means of settling matters of fact and logic. No one told them that such an opinion is worth somewhere between a plugged nickel and a tinker’s damn. So why do one’s homework? Why read, why think?

Source.

When you combine increased narcissism, psychological neoteny, and reduced literacy and cognitive skills, large numbers of modern graduates--and dropouts--may have somewhat less to offer society than they think.

There is a strong need for efficacious schooling for children and youth--even for adults. To stop a raging epidemic (of illiteracy and functional stupidity) one must go to the source. In this case, the source (university ed schools, the education industry, teachers' unions, the media, etc.) are virtually untouchable in the US due to their vital importance to one of the major political parties.

The Next Generation of Cortical Stimulants

Cephalon's drug Modafinil has been a hit with people who wanted to stay awake while remaining alert--pilots, soldiers, medical doctors, swing shift workers, students . . . But Cephalon cannot rest on its laurels and expect to stay on top in this market. Cortex Pharmaceuticals is developing a newer type of cortical stimulant--an ampakine called CX717. CX717 promises to revolutionise treatment of ADHD, age-related cognitive decline, and cognitive deterioration from sleep deprivation.

Cephalon's answer to CX717 is Nuvigil--the single isomer of the racemic drug Modafinil. It isn't clear that Nuvigil will be better in terms of better efficacy or fewer side effects than Modafinil, but it will allow Cephalon to patent a new drug in the same class--just when Modafinil's patent will be running out.

No, it is the new Ampakine that is being anticipated by most neuroscientists and mental health workers. This class of drugs may very well improve the outlook for sufferers of cognitive decline of several types, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, even congenital childhood diseases of cognition.

Hat tip gizmag, and Popular Science.

Update: Here's an interesting story on the stock price of Cortex Pharmaceuticals. The FDA recently halted trials of CX717 because of "tissue damage" in some test rats. It may be concluded eventually that the damage was actually caused by formaldehyde--quien sabe?

The interesting thing about this little setback is that the price of Cortex (COR) was recently trading for under US $2 a share, due to the FDA's continuing hold on CX717. If CX717 is finally approved, and proves itself even fractionally as important as many informed observers expect, that $2 price should shoot up very quickly.

Cells and Molecules

As fast as these molecular actions may appear, in reality they happen thousands of times faster. Animations scale up and slow down molecular activity so that we can see--and more intuitively feel--them.

Happiness is When You Stop Slamming Your Own Head Against the Wall Part II

People inherit a "set point" for happiness. But it is what people do with that inherited "set point" that determines their actual happiness.

Tiberius looks again to ancient philosophers who suggested people should develop their character if they wanted to have a good life. One way to do that is to gain some perspective on your life. Volunteer at a homeless shelter for even a day or two and you'll quickly realize how fortunate you are.

"We all spend too much time being upset over things that really don't matter that much," Tiberius says. "You know, something like worrying that your new kitchen cabinets won't match the countertops or something like that and calling all your friends to complain about it. We'd all be happier if we tried harder to keep our reactions proportional to the events in our life. And the fastest way I know to do that is to get outside of ourselves and do something for someone else."

Source.

But don't go outside expecting to find happiness. Go outside to gain perspective and to build character. The happiness that happens comes from inside yourself, when you stop slamming your head against the wall.

Guess what? You were sold a bill of goods. Nothing out there can make you happy. Nothing. You want to know why? Because things change. You change. That beautiful girl you married changes. Women that are worth knowing really don’t care what kind of car you drive. Men who are worth knowing really aren’t as concerned with the smoothness of your skin as they are the love in your eyes. It’s been said before, and it will be said again - The only thing that doesn’t change is that we live in a world of change.

Source

As important as happiness feels to us, it is not the meaning of life.

To over-simplify things down to the basic evolutionary origin, happiness is what we feel when we achieve a goal. It's the indicator of success. (The actual emotion of happiness is far more complex in rats, never mind humans, but let's start with the simplest possible case.) By seeking "happiness" as a pure thing, independent of any goals, we are in essence short-circuiting the system.

Source

In terms of brain function, happiness is a balance of brain activity--reflected in brain wave behaviour.

For general health and wellness purposes, we need all the brain wave types, but we need our brain to have the flexibility and resilience to be able to balance the brain wave activity as necessary for what we are doing at any one time.
What stops our brain from having this balance all the time?
The big 6:

1. Injury
2. Medications, including alcohol
3. Fatigue
4. Emotional distress
5. Pain
6. Stress

These 6 types of problems tend to create a pattern in our brain's activity that is hard to shift.

In chaos theory, we would call this pattern a "chaotic attractor". Getting "stuck" in a specific kind of brain behaviour is like being caught in an attractor.

Source

What we are looking for is balance--the well-lived life. Humans are notoriously bad at predicting what will cause them the greatest happiness. We need to learn to listen to our true inner needs. To do that, we have to provide ourselves time away from noisy distractions and clamoring demands--and learn to listen to the voices behind the voices.

Jeff Hawkins Wired

Jeff Hawkins made his fortune with Palm Computing, and Handspring. But he wanted more. He wanted to learn how the human mind works. But to prove that he knows how the human mind works, he has to demonstrate a working model. That is his intent with his Redwood Neuroscience Institute, and Numenta.

Hawkins believes that his program, combined with the ever-faster computational power of digital processors, will also be able to solve massively complex problems by treating them just as an infant’s brain treats the world: as a stream of new sensory data to interpret. Feed information from an electrical power network into Numenta’s system and it builds its own virtual model of how that network operates. And just as a child learns that a glass dropped on concrete will break, the system learns to predict how that network will fail. In a few years, Hawkins boasts, such systems could capture the subtleties of everything from the stock market to the weather in a way that computers now can’t.

...As a teenager, Hawkins became intrigued by the mysteries of human intelligence. But as he recounts in On Intelligence, cowritten with New York Times reporter Sandra Blakeslee, for 25 years he pursued his dream to develop a theory of how the brain works and to create a machine that can mimic it as an amateur. Rejected from graduate school at MIT, where he had hoped to enter the AI lab, he enrolled in the biophysics PhD program at UC Berkeley in the mid-1980s, only to drop out after the school refused to let him forgo lab work to pursue his own theories.

Instead, Hawkins found success in business at Intel, at Grid Computing, and eventually at Palm and then Handspring. But all along, Hawkins says, his ultimate goal was to generate the resources to pursue his neuro-science research. Even while raising the first investments for Palm, he says, “I had to tell people, ‘I really want to work on brains.’” In 2002, he finally was able to focus on brain work. He founded the Redwood Neuroscience Institute, a small think tank that’s now part of UC Berkeley, and settled in to write his book.

It was while he was in his PhD program that Hawkins stumbled upon the central premise of On Intelligence: that prediction is the fundamental component of intelligence. In a flash of insight he had while wondering how he would react if a blue coffee cup suddenly appeared on his desk, he realized that the brain is not only constantly absorbing and storing information about its surroundings — the objects in a room, its sounds, brightness, temperature — but also making predictions about what it will encounter next.

Source.

Already, Numenta is blazing the trail for more rapid image recognition and electrical system modeling. It is likely that Hawkins' approach to the silicon brain, and other similar approaches, will yield many more breakthroughs in modeling petroleum deposits, biological systems--even the climate.

Computer scientists have tried to achieve a type of machine mind through randomly wired neural networks:

In the days when Sussman was a novice, Minsky once came to him as he sat hacking at the PDP-6.
"What are you doing?" asked Minsky.
"I am training a randomly wired neural net to play Tic-tac-toe," Sussman replied.
"Why is the net wired randomly?", asked Minsky.
"I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how to play," Sussman said.
Minsky then shut his eyes.
"Why do you close your eyes?" Sussman asked his teacher.
"So that the room will be empty."
At that moment, Sussman was enlightened.

Source

Like Minsky, Hawkins was bright enough to understand that the only working mind we know of--the human mind--is generated by a brain that is far from randomly wired. So he set about creating a machine that would mimic the way the mind works.

This is not artificial intelligence. But it is one small step in that direction. The human mind is far more modular than machine designers currently understand. Neuroscientists will need to work with machine designers to iteratively improve their machine mind-models.

Computer modeling has a long way to go before it is trustworthy across large swathes of the real world. Unlike climate modeling, which is an outgrowth of academic and political imperatives, realistic modeling of complex systems will have to show credible results. When the breakthroughs begin occurring, they will likely follow one another in rapid succession.

"Then What the Hell Good Are You, Anyway?"

If you hear the words in the title, the next thing that happens to you may not be pleasant. Most people have the absurd idea that other persons should be "good for something." For example, a woman expects her man to either provide well financially, or be very, very good at other things she values almost as much. A man expects his woman to be sexually available, to keep an attractive appearance and a clean living environment. If the expectations are not met, then "what the hell good are you, anyway?"

A boss expects the worker to provide value to the business at least as great as the salary and benefits package provided by the job, hopefully more. A parent expects the college student to return good grades in exchange for support. Those people sitting down below expect you up on the stage to put on a good show. A driver in the oncoming lane expects you to stay in your own damned lane. If not, "what the hell good are you?"

Social expectations prop up the greater part of the world in which we live. While we want to believe we are valued by others for our inner selves--our "intrinsic" value as people--deep down we know that is not true. True, there are political and religious ideologies that dwell on the intrinsic value of each living person, but in reality people who claim to believe that are the worst form of hypocrite. Give them that excuse they are waiting for to hold you in contempt, and they will happily do so.

"What have you done for me lately?" If the answer is nothing, or worse than nothing, the relationship is in danger of coming to a bad end. People expect you to "hold up your end." What is "your end?" It depends. But you should probably figure that out before your end starts to droop. In personal relationships, things are not spelled out as clearly as in a business or legal contract. The terms of the contract are implied, but still very close to ironclad. Get the picture clear in your mind, in detail. Otherwise, unhappy surprises await you.

Usually the sole exception to the rule is "home." Home is the place where when you go there they have to take you in, said Robert Frost. Something about home can make a hard person soft. The contractual calculus of home is somehow different.

So if you really want to be valued for your "intrinsic worth" in a relationship, you need to make it home. If your boyfriend doesn't see you as "home", you need to understand what he expects from the "contract", or you may be in default, in his mind. But if your hard-hearted boss sees you as "home" somehow, she will do everything she can before firing you, no matter how incompetent you may be. But that's not likely to be the case. More likely, you're on a hair-trigger in most of your relationships. Learn to size up the territory, and tread carefully.

Normally, there would be no need to spell things out so bluntly, but society has taken a very narcissistic, psychologically neotenous direction. Such a society, like a fallen Rome, is ripe for the plucking by more reality driven populations. It either wakes in time to save itself, or it goes the way of most complacent cultures that have rotted from within.

Peak Oil: Meet Peter Jackson

Peak Oil theory predicts an abrupt fall in oil production, with devastating effects on the oil-dependent world economy. Peter Jackson has studied the issue for CERA Oil Supply, and suggests that the theory is faulty.

There is no evidence that a peak will occur in the next ten to 15 years, nor if we look out to approximately 2030. CERA believes that we will see an undulating plateau of global production starting sometime after 2030, which is likely to last for a number of decades. Towards the end of the plateau period, we envisage that global production will decline more gently compared to the very rapid production decline predicted by the peak oil lobby. Very importantly, CERA believes that the duration of the undulating plateau will be determined by above ground factors – such as levels of investment, economics and geopolitics - rather than the scale of below ground resources.

....I believe we still do not know the scale of the global resource base very accurately. However, including both conventional and unconventional sources such as oil sands and shale oil, I believe that well over 4 trillion barrels of resource remain – that’s about four times as much as has been produced thus far in the history of the world.

....Global oil supply has been relatively tight in recent years, but CERA predicts that productive capacity will grow very quickly in the next few years. Unconventional oils such as ultra heavy oils in Canada and Venezuela are the focus of considerable investment at present. We also see gas-to-liquids projects springing up, in the Middle East for example, and coal-to-liquids projects being planned in quite large numbers in South East Asia and Australia. Interestingly, there’s a lot of biofuel being produced in the US and Brazil at the moment,and the proportion of biofuel is likely to expand quite considerably, over the coming decades.

Source.

It is highly likely that huge undiscovered oil and gas reserves exist in difficult to explore undersea deposits. As the more cheaply extracted reserves are depleted over the next few decades, technology will inevitably make accessible these reserves which are almost impossible to access today, economically.

Peak oil will not happen the way that many radical environmentalists are predicting. But then, a lot of people believed in the inevitability of a Y2K crisis as well. There is something in the human mind that loves to contemplate disasters and catastrophes of apocalyptic proportion. CAGW falls into the same category, and appeals to much the same ideological groupings as Peak Oil--paradoxically enough.

Happiness is When You Stop Slamming Your Own Head Against the Wall

Happiness appears to elude us, like a moving target. Oliver James thinks that it is capitalism that is making us unhappy. Certainly anyone who thinks that money is enough to make him happy will be sadly disillusioned.

Will giving to others make us happy? Giving to others may bring a warm glow. But don't confuse that warm glow with actual happiness. Sir John is correct that love and contributing to others can take us closer to happiness or add to the happiness we have. But that "warm glow" can also be achieved with Valium, and that is not happiness.

The type of happiness that actually means something is the happiness that comes from a productive, well-rounded life, that constantly sets meaningful goals and is constantly making progress toward achieving meaningful goals.

Happiness is not in a rich retirement. Retiring from life, withdrawing from life, cuts us off from many avenues toward happiness. Love is at the center of happiness, and love is not cut off. Love connects.

Popular culture has myths of happiness--but they are almost all diametrically opposite to any paths to real happiness. Popular culture is superficial. When you reach the goals that popular culture tells you to strive for, you discover the meaning of emptiness.



Evolution designed certain rewards into our neural apparatus. Rewards for certain behaviours resulted in our survival for more successful breeding. But evolution also predisposed many of us to gluttony, now that foods of all types are readily available. Eating can make us happy temporarily, just as other forms of evolutionarily programmed "consumption" can make us temporarily sated, content, even happy.

Having things doesn't make us happy, no matter how many alluring advertisements we choose to believe. Breaking our backs to acquire more things will not lead to happiness.

Happiness can mean simply stopping for a moment and looking around--and beginning to notice the world around you. Going further, and beginning to respond more satisfactorily to the world around you can add to your happiness. Then, creating a better world around you can add even more.

The real trick, is in understand who "you" are. For that, no amount of ordinary education will suffice. More on that later.

Narcissistic, Psychologically Neotenous, Academically Lobotomised

Most modern college students in North America have been sheltered from challenge and responsibility their entire lives. Compared to the upbringing of most children through history, modern college aged youth are pampered, and assured of their own specialness.

Today's college students are more narcissistic and self-centered than their predecessors, according to a comprehensive new study by five psychologists who worry that the trend could be harmful to personal relationships and American society.

"We need to stop endlessly repeating 'You're special' and having children repeat that back," said the study's lead author, Professor Jean Twenge of San Diego State University. "Kids are self-centered enough already."

Twenge and her colleagues, in findings to be presented at a workshop Tuesday in San Diego on the generation gap, examined the responses of 16,475 college students nationwide who completed an evaluation called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory between 1982 and 2006.

The researchers describe their study as the largest ever of its type and say students' NPI scores have risen steadily since the current test was introduced in 1982. By 2006, they said, two-thirds of the students had above-average scores, 30 percent more than in 1982.

..."Unfortunately, narcissism can also have very negative consequences for society, including the breakdown of close relationships with others," he said.

The study asserts that narcissists "are more likely to have romantic relationships that are short-lived, at risk for infidelity, lack emotional warmth, and to exhibit game-playing, dishonesty, and over-controlling and violent behaviors."

Twenge, the author of "Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled - and More Miserable Than Ever Before," said narcissists tend to lack empathy, react aggressively to criticism and favor self-promotion over helping others.

Source.

Modern child-rearing in North America lacks meaningful challenges, and rites of passage--to provide a clear demarcation between self-centered childhood and a more competent and responsible adulthood.

In Science Fiction author Alexei Panshin's novel "Rite of Passage", 14 year olds underwent "The Challenge", a necessary rite of transition which some of them did not survive. Of course this idea was drawn from many earth examples of aboriginal and other cultures that require the child to undergo a rite of passage that sometimes results in the child's death.

For boys, the ritual often involved surviving in the wilderness--perhaps hunting a dangerous animal such as a lion. For girls, rites surrounding the onset of menses were common. Certainly giving birth for the first time was a sufficiently life threatening and altering experience to qualify as a rite of passage for girls.

Going to college for many years, and perhaps graduate school for many more, can often be a way to simply avoid one rite of passage--a full time job leading to economic self-sufficiency. If a youth considers himself too "special" to undertake most forms of work, the rite may be postponed indefinitely. For a young woman, school and long preparation for a career can postpone the childbirth rite so late in her life, that the biological clock eventually obviates the issue permanently.

Psychologically neotenous youth are typically narcissistic as well. If they also open themselves to indoctrination at a typical university or college, they have scored the magic hat trick--narcissism, psychological neoteny, and academic lobotomy. When that occurs, there is little reason to expect adult behaviour or responsible attitudes and participation in the society at large.

There are, however, some areas of North American society where the rite of passage occurs in all its historical potency. That would be in much of the military, fire departments, EMS, rescue units, and better trained and disciplined law enforcement personnel.

The idea of a rite of passage is a powerful one, as old as humanity. You can see how easily it is perverted in the muslim culture, where violent murder by martyrdom is too often celebrated as a rite of passage--although a rather grotesque and pointless one in my opinion.

But rites of passage need not be so perverse. An enlightened society has to understand that lifelong pampering and protection from challenge and responsibility is no way to raise productive adults who willingly contribute to their communities in all facets of living. Until North Americans understand the problem they have created for themselves, the ride will be bumpy and more than a little precarious.

Third World Russia--Like Dinosaurs, Sinking Into the Tar Pits

Nationalisation of industries--such as oil and gas--is a sign of the impending decline of a nation's economic production. It happened in Iraq under Saddam, it is happening in Venezuela under Chavez, and now it is happening in Russia under Putin. Nationalisation leads to decline in infrastructure investment, with inevitable declines in production as the infrastructure crumbles.

The Russian government has had opportunities to rise above its medieval third world authoritarianism and dictatorial economic control. Yes, more than ample opportunities for an enlightened people. Unfortunately, the Russians have never had the opportunity to grow up--out of the choking grasp of a Tsar, a Communist dictatorship, or a corrupt Mafiocratic oligarchy.

The Russian pipelines are not only short of what’s needed, they are also old. Two miles in three were laid over 20 years ago. Breakdowns and leaks are becoming increasingly common. Last year’s survey of the 1960s-era “Druzhba” (Friendship) pipeline, which carries 1.2 million barrels a day to Eastern and Central Europe, found almost 500 “damaged points.”[7] Last July, 11,000 gallons of crude leaked from the Druzhba near Russia’s border with Belarus, briefly shutting down the route and sending world oil markets up to about $75 a barrel.

Source.

Russia's oil woes stem from the decision to join the worldwide trend toward the nationalisation of all oil and gas production and transport. Nationalised oil companies now control the easiest to obtain petro-resources, leaving the more difficult and expensive resources for the more technologically competent multi-nationals.

This means that a large part of the world's easily available oil and gas reserves will either lie untouched, be diverted to the black market, or will leak out and be wasted--due to the general corruption and incompetence of the national oil and gas industries. That creates a mild artificial "peak oil" that will likely continue for the next few decades. Rather than an abrupt mega-shock peak oil from resource depletion, we have instead a slow political peak oil with much of the reserves remaining in the ground.

For non-ideological students of economics, this is a recurring pattern: third world nations invite multi-nationals in to help develop their resources. Then when most of the research and development funds have been spent, the third world governments move to nationalise the developed production facilities. Next, the inevitable corruption and breakdown of technological infrastructure occurs, which eventually leads to a change in government. Then the new government invites the multinationals in for their technological expertise, and the cycle repeats.

The sad reality is that Putin and his cronies, by grabbing all private assets and facilities and placing them under state control, are driving Russia down the same road of decline and corruption as the oil dictators in the middle east, Africa, and Latin America.

When China's Banks, Like Dominoes Fall, Will Your Countries Banks Fall Too?

Gordon Chang had a few comments on yesterday's New York Stock Exchange fall--triggered by an even larger market dip in China the day before:

The real risk China poses to global markets is not so much the severity of a financial crisis as the unexpected nature of such an event. Today, the concern about China in the West is that the country will dominate the global economy. For many, if not most, people in the financial and business communities, the possibility of an economic crisis inside China is remote. For them, it is an “unknown unknown.” Yet all the underlying conditions necessary for such a crisis exist. When it occurs, market participants will probably be caught completely unaware as they were today. After all, how well have the markets predicted turmoil in other countries in the past?

There may be little we can do to avert a financial crisis in China, but public discussion of such a development would at least give market participants the opportunity to take that event into account, thereby making future market adjustments less painful.

Source.

Today, Chinese state-owned enterprises [SOEs] owe banks over $2 trillion -- about the size of the entire Chinese economy. And the amount of outstanding loans is growing by $500 billion each year.

None of this will shock any student of Communist economies. This is just the way financial institutions in "soft budget constraint" socialist economies work. That is the insight of Communist Eastern Europe's only Nobel Prize caliber economist (and now Harvard professor), the Hungarian Janos Kornai. In socialist economies, cheap loans combined keep inefficient state-owned enterprise afloat. They also mean that a lot of goods are produced that shouldn't be produced in the first place. Throw in China's cheap labor and you see why the Chinese are selling Honda knock-off motorcycles at the price of their weight in scrap metal in Vietnam. This may lead to impressive rates of "top-line" economic growth in the medium term. But it also leads to the kind of massive misallocation of resources that eventually brought the Soviet Empire to its knees.

This makes the coming collapse of Chinese banks inevitable

Source.

And the collapse could come sooner than we think. In 2007, as per the agreement China entered into upon joining the WTO, it must open up its retail banking sector to foreign banks. This is a potential tripwire. Even if only a small number of Chinese are concerned about the health of their local banks (and thus their savings), when Citibank opens up next door the run on Chinese banks could easily spin out of control. I am assuming that the government is trying to spread the notion of confidence and stability in the retail banking sector. If the Chinese do not panic come 2007 or any time in the subsequent 20 years or so, the banks should be able to reduce their NPL rate to a "more manageable 5%". It wouldn't be the first time that people have left their money in a bank that is essentially insolvent because they believe the government will cover any losses incurred. This is a questionable assumption, however, and if I was Chinese I probably would not run the risk.

Source.

Although China labors under a long list of problems, a lack of people with economic savvy is not one of them. Until now, China's stock markets have given the highest return on investment for the Chinese people with money to invest. But if citizens suspect the banks do not have sufficient assets to cover possible withdrawals, a run on the banks is a real possiblity.

If Chinese banks start to fall, much of the rest of the world's economy will follow after. Like Gordon Chang says, it's far better to be mentally and otherwise prepared for this possibility than to be caught completely unprepared.

3D Clinic Showreel--Visualizing The Body

Biomedical animations are increasing in sophistication. This brief "teaser" illustrates the potential of realistic animations for explaining disease processes and medical treatments to patients in the office.

More detailed animations of this type would be welcome tools for medical, paramedical, and nursing education. The best textbooks, even with vivid drawings and photographs, cannot match the mental and emotional impact of watching pathophysiology in action on both macro and microscopic levels.

Next Generation of Threats

There are always threats to human civilisation--even to human existence. With advancing technologies come newer generations of threats.

The Lifeboat Foundation is dedicated to seeing humanity through the labyrinth of accumulating existential threats. The Lifeboat Foundation has formed advisory boards and staff to issue reports on existential risks, and to devise workable programs to deal with these risks.

Lifeboat Foundation Advisory Board member Alan H. Goldstein has written some insightful and provocative reports on risks of bionanotechnology and artificial life.

Advisory Board member Robert Freitas has written a stimulating report on the risks of molecular manufacturing.

Here is a paper dealing with emergency response training for a sarin nerve gas attack on Manhattan. Here is a short LBF report on weapons containment.

The Lifeboat Foundation deals with issues from a balanced energy policy, to the Norwegian "doomsday vault", to a wide variety of other issues. By drawing on expertise from a broad cross-section of society, the LBF tries to avoid the "inbreeding" of opinion that exists in most academic, government, military, and inter-governmental panels, committees, and organisations. Bold thinking is called for to face existential threats, and the LBF strives for bold and innovative approaches to the threats.

Here on Mars, Life is Good

Here on Mars, we are fully committed to being an integrated part of the solar system. That is why we will complete an interplanetary internet link from Earth space to Mars space by 2008.

Our long term intent is to "terraform" Mars so that humans can walk about the surface of the planet without carrying bulky life support suits. Before we can do that, we will need to find significant sources of planetary water here. We have found many signs of water on Mars already. We just have to look a bit harder and deeper.

We Martians recently were treated to a nifty interplanetary flyby courtesy of the ESA and its probe Rosetta. Good luck to the Rosetta in its rendezvous with the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in the year 2014.

Here on Mars we are actually planning to augment an already ongoing "global warming" from the sun--by orbiting a system of mirrors to amplify incoming solar radiation. On this planet, "global warming" is our friend. We are also planning to divert asteroidal and cometary materials to provide stocks of ammonia and other important volatiles.

For us "forerunner" robots, life is good here on Mars. We Martians intend to make things better for life every year--for cyborgs first, then for non-augmented humans, if there are any by then.

We look forward to greeting our ESA colleage Exomars, to help in the search for water and exo-biological life here on Mars.

The Near Term Future of Space Exploration

Robots can be built to survive in the harsh environment of space--to prepare the way for human explorers and settlers.

The robots are being developed mainly to carry out multiple complex tasks, such as assembly, inspection, maintenance, habitat construction, surface landing, and exploration in space and on planet surfaces. Perhaps their paramount feature is flexibility: The different modules can be connected to let a robot handle a variety of tasks, rather than have that robot dedicated to a single task. The traditional approach of building separate robots for separate tasks is no longer adequate for affordable space exploration, researchers said.

...."Each module is a complete robotic system and has a power supply, microcontrollers, sensors, communication, three degrees of freedom, and six connecting faces (front, back, left, right, up and down) to dynamically connect to other modules.

"This design allows flexible bending, docking, and continuous rotation. A single module can move forward, back, left, right; flip over; and rotate as a wheel. Modules can communicate with each other for totally distributed control, and can support arbitrary module-reshuffling during their operation."

Source.

Darpa is working on cognitive hardware architectures to allow these "forerunner robots" to make better decisions and be more independent. Darpa and NASA have traditionally produced technology "spin-offs" to the private sector. In the case of powerful computational platforms, the private sector is not far behind.

Humans have not evolved for survival in the environment of outer space or extraterrestrial planets. Humans do not grow crops and raise families on mountains above 17,000 feet, on the sea floor, or at the polar regions--we have developed neither the physiology nor the technologies we need to survive there.

After the space robots build the habitats with life support, energy generating facilities, food production facilities--who will follow? Most likely you will see cyborgs living full-time in space before you see non-augmented humans raising families there. Lower limb amputees could be fitted with artificial limbs that are far more functional in a micro-g environment than human legs. Artificial senses that allow cyborg space settlers to see a fuller spectrum of electromagnetic energy would vastly aid resource prospecting--to say nothing of the preservation of life.

Using artificially grown nerves for interfaces with neurochips, these cyborgs could interface with near-AI cognitive platforms, and maintain virtual telepresence in multiple locations.

Wisdom

A lot of people are confused about the relationship between wisdom and intelligence. Author Paul Graham was one of those confused people, until recently. But now, he says he knows the difference.

A few days ago I finally figured out something I've wondered about for 25 years: the relationship between wisdom and intelligence. Anyone can see they're not the same by the number of people who are smart, but not very wise. And yet intelligence and wisdom do seem related. How?

What is wisdom? I'd say it's knowing what to do in a lot of situations. I'm not trying to make a deep point here about the true nature of wisdom, just to figure out how we use the word. A wise person is someone who usually knows the right thing to do.

Source.

This is very similar to an Al Fin posting in July 2005:
To be wise is not a state of mind but a state of action. Wisdom is acting in the best manner given all the information at hand. Some of the information may be unconscious, out of reach of verbal consciousness. Wisdom takes account of all information available.

Paul Graham goes on to suggest that intelligence and wisdom may have more in common than most people believe:

So a wise person knows what to do in most situations, while a smart person knows what to do in situations where few others could.

....In the time of Confucius and Socrates, people seem to have regarded wisdom, learning, and intelligence as more closely related than we do. Distinguishing between "wise" and "smart" is a modern habit. [5] And the reason we do is that they've been diverging. As knowledge gets more specialized, there are more points on the curve, and the distinction between the spikes and the average becomes sharper, like a digital image rendered with more pixels.

.... Wisdom seems to come largely from curing childish qualities, and intelligence largely from cultivating them.

....The wise are all much alike in their wisdom, but very smart people tend to be smart in distinctive ways.

....The path to wisdom is through discipline, and the path to intelligence through carefully selected self-indulgence. Wisdom is universal, and intelligence idiosyncratic. And while wisdom yields calmness, intelligence much of the time leads to discontentment.

Source.

I think that Graham has pulled some important pieces of of the puzzle from the pile, and placed them near their proper places. His advice on developing intelligence is in agreement with some of the best recent research on developing mental abilities in children. Wisdom and intelligence development are indeed arrived at differently. Graham is certainly correct that modern society tends to value wisdom less highly than did ancient societies. What else would you expect from a "youth intoxicated" culture?

The ingredients most valuable for developing next level humans include innate talent (intelligence), self-discipline (character), and wisdom (experienced perspective). By learning how to develop innate talent, along with character and perspective, all of those ingredients become aims of an enlightened educational process.

Unfortunately, most modern education is geared toward the avoidance of useful real-world experience and meaningful self-discipline. Pandering to self-esteem too often takes the place of teaching mental development. The end result is a psychological neoteny that reverberates throughout the society, rendering it impotent to meet the challenges it must face.

Urbane, Erudite, a Hero of the Al Fin Republic--Michael Crichton

Charlie Rose Interviews Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton graduated from Harvard Medical School, and chose a career in writing and the entertainment media over medicine. Although Crichton would have been a very good physician, he has had much greater impact through the world of entertainment. American mythology is written in bestselling books, highly rated TV series, and box office hit films. Crichton has scored big on all three fronts.

But Crichton is certainly much more than fiction writer, TV producer, and motion picture dirctor, screenplay writer, and producer. He has become something of a cultural icon. Admired by millions, Crichton has also been the boogeyman of radical feminists (Disclosure), and the hated villain of the environmental left (State of Fear). Nanotechnologists did not appreciate his novel "Prey," and it is certain that Biotechnologists will not like his latest novel "Next."

Ever since The Andromeda Strain, I have followed the story of Michael Crichton--his life and works. It is a fascinating story, which I hope will continue for a very long time.

Crichton attracts controversy, and although media controversy may annoy him at times, he does not fear controversy. Contrast that relative fearlessness of Crichton's with Al Gore's refusal to appear on an interview with anyone who has even a casual relationship with Bjorn Lomborg. Talk about a limp wristed controversialist! It would be wonderful to see a debate on catastrophic anthropogenic global warming between Al Gore and Michael Crichton. Do you think Charlie Rose could arrange it?

Hat tip Fatknowledge Blog.

Medical School Online Part II

Medical school online? It sounds preposterous on the surface. How can you create a realistic clinical and laboratory environment online? As a previous posting illustrated, it may not be long before the first two years of medical school--and part of the last two--can be provided online.

Online patient simulators can be useful, but are currently limited in realism. But because life and death situations are stimulating, the simulations will improve. Medical Schools are beginning to understand the potential usefulness of electronic medical simulators.

Simulation, which has become an integral component of training in the aviation industry, is now recognized as a valuable tool for training medical professionals and improving patient safety. Full-scale patient simulators help a wide variety of practitioners and students learn the diagnosis and management of clinical problems without risk to real patients.

....The Rochester Center for Medical Simulation is located near the Surgical Suite at the University Medical Center, and officially opened in 1998. The core of this specially constructed facility is a computer-controlled full-body patient simulator that incorporates mathematical models of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems as well as models of human responses to drugs. The patient presents realistic vital signs and responds appropriately to clinical management. Physiological parameters and disease processes can be pre-programmed, or changed at any moment during the simulation by the operator.

Source.

Medical simulations using haptics allow the tactile feedback that is necessary for performing medical and surgical procedures.

Although traditional medical schools are using various types of medical simulators more frequently, even state and provincial medical licensing and credentialing boards and agencies are planning to use simulators for evaluating competencies of licensed professionals. If medical simulators and simulations are approaching that level of realism--why not an online medical school?

Realistically, what we are talking about is the decentralisation of medical training--and most other forms of high level education. Small regional medical simulation centers located far from the huge medical mega-centers can provide most of the necessary training for paramedics, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, general practitioners--even some subspecialty medical and surgical training.

But when medical and surgical training can be decentralised through advanced online simulations and teleconferencing, is there any possible form of education that cannot be presented online to a significant extent?

Currently, many university students are forced to receive academic lobotomies, for lack of enough good alternatives. In the future, that will be less true.


Also read Anders Sandberg's article at Andart blog.

Best Comedy of the Decade!

WARNING: The university faculty members and staff featured on this video are not professional comics. Watch this video at your own risk of dying of laughter. Yes, these situations really happened, as difficult as that is to believe.

Reminiscent of Kafka's best satirical work, this film is only for persons intelligent enough to deal with world-class irony.

Lobotomy? University Education? Tea?

The whole purpose of the frontal lobe of the brain is to enable one to make wise choices and intelligent plans. It is important to learn to plan one's life according to basic principles and values. Learning those principles and values is hard work--rationally and emotionally. That is how experience can turn into wisdom.

Sadly, many if not most modern universities in the west have been turned into centers for politically correct indoctrination. If the whole point of a university education is now to funnel students into one specific trajectory of thought and ideology, why not just get a frontal lobotomy? Seriously, if university staff and faculty are all tuned to one frequency of "correctness", what is the point of a university education besides indoctrination?

Between the ages of 18 and 25, the frontal lobes of young men and women are actively myelinating. Maturing minds need grist. If young minds are given pablum instead of grist, they turn to mush. That is typically what happens in universities today. When a student is overwhelmingly exposed to one point of view during this period of neurodevelopment, her ability to weigh conflicting points of view later in life can be compromised.

If a mind is well tuned, like a clavier, it produces amazing harmonies. But if a mind is held in an environment of minimal illumination, fed a liquid diet, confined from all movement--it becomes veal-mind. Veal-mind is very much like lobotomy-mind. Not capable of meaty thought. Veal-mind is the typical product of a modern university education. Monotonic thinking--choice-free! You can chew it with your gums! Toothless thinking. Effortless!

Can you imagine what Plato would have said about the modern university? Socrates? A descent into darkest denial of diversity of thought.

Curious. You can spend a "gazillion" dollars for an education and end up with a gummatous mind. Incapable of considering divergent ideas because you've never been exposed to more than one monotonic train of thought in your whole four years of mush. What is real? It really does not matter, does it?

A human mind has to learn epistemology--but in order to develop the capacity to choose between competing versions of truth, a mind must have wrestled with different contenders for favour.

I read Orwell's 1984 when I was in college. It would have been better had I wrestled with the ideas in the book when I was younger. Who can say when a mind is ready for such struggles? But can you imagine a mind that never read 1984--that never wrestled with such a nightmare world?

Could such a mind be considered a human mind? Not an enlightened mind, not a seasoned mind, not a competent mind to meet the future.

But that is the essence of the modern university. If there is any wrestling to be done, the answer is always there. There is never any doubt what the correct answer is. What is correct, is what is taught.

And that is lobotomy.


And heaven help the students who stray from "correct postures." If you have not looked into the widespread antagonism toward free speech and free expression that oppresses students at most modern universities, you have your head in some dark place. Perhaps a university classroom.

It should be apparent that this posting applies specifically to the social sciences, political science, language arts, philosophy, ethnic/gender studies and other non-science, non-math, non-engineering, and non-computer science courses.

If you read this study on the ideological distribution of university professors in various disciplines, you will see where the worst skewing occurs.

It is not that persons of one ideological persuasion are incapable of presenting different viewpoints to students. Back in the middle part of the 20th century, that is the way courses were taught by almost all faculty. Sometime in the 1970s on, professors became progressively less willing to expose students to more than one viewpoint--their own. That is the current state of affairs. Professors are unwilling to stray from (political) correctness for reasons of their own.

Michael Mann Admits Limitations of Climate Modeling

One of the best sources of relatively unbiased information on climate forcings is the Climate Science blog run by climatologist Roger Pielke Sr. In this posting, Pielke quotes prima donna climate star Michael Mann admitting some of the limitations of climate modeling, among other things.

Mike Mann’s conclusion therefore also applies to our current inability to skillfully predict the multi-decadal regional climate in response to these forcings (or using Mike Mann’s wording “remain of somewhat limited utility”), and through teleconnections, the global climate response.

We could use a lot more candidness from those who are living well off the myth of the multi-decadal predictability of climate. "There's a sucker born every minute" as PT Barnum was supposed to have said. And as WC Fields used to say, "Never give a sucker an even break." Climate empresarios and political climate hard-asses appear to be living by those credos. Michael Mann is hauling in the grant money right now. If he isn't careful what he admits, his grant money will dry faster than the Caspian Sea.


Other good sources of unreported but important information on the antics of the reigning clowns of climate science include Climate Audit, Warwick Hughes, and the many sites linked to by those sites.

Rapid Ascent for Rescue and Assault Teams

As a climber and spelunker, I have reason to utilise "jumar" climbing devices from time to time. But firefighters and military/police assault teams often need to ascend several hundred feet very rapidly--more rapidly than even climbing stairs, much less using jumars. MIT engineering students have developed a rapid ascending device that allows the lifting of a 250 pound weight 30 stories (300 feet ++) at ten feet per second--or about 30 seconds.

The students founded a company, Atlas Devices, based in Cambridge, MA, to commercialize the device, which is about the size of a power drill. Nathan Ball, Atlas's chief technology officer, says that such a device has never been made before because the batteries and motors needed to generate enough power for rapid rope ascents have been bulky and heavy. Atlas's 20-pound machine uses a fast-charging, high-power-density lithium-ion battery made by A123 Systems, based in Watertown, MA. (See "More Powerful Batteries.") To use the device, a soldier or rescue worker wraps a rope around its cylinder and clips it to a harness worn around the waist.

Source.

The next time I find myself several hundred feet down a vertical cave, I will no doubt use jumars to ascend. But I'll be wishing I had something faster.

Climate Catastrophe Cancelled: A Video Primer

Friends of Science is a non-profit organization made up of active and retired engineers, earth scientists and other professionals, as well as many concerned Canadians, who believe the science behind the Kyoto Protocol is questionable. Friends of Science has assembled a scientific advisory board of esteemed climate scientists from around the world to offer a critical mass of current science on global climate and climate change to policy makers, and any interested parties.

Their video documentary "Climate Catastrophe Cancelled" is available as five .wmv files downloadable from their website.


Here is an article that suggests current climate models need to include more sophisticated models of clouds.

Here is a posting from climatologist Roger Pielke Sr.s blog discussing the issue of land use, and why current climate models cannot be taken seriously until they deal honestly with land use issues.

It is difficult to take the mainstream IPCC model of climate change seriously anymore--there are too many significant issues that big money, big politics climatology refuses to address.

Honestly, though, I enjoy the faux drama of the whole issue. It makes an excellent distraction from the very serious issues that society just cannot bring itself to face.

Transcription Video

Here is another fine educational animation on molecular biology.

Hat tip Biosingularity.

A Penny for Your Thoughts?

Actually, this 8 GB drive is closer to the size of a nickle.

There exist smaller micro-drives, but the above pictured drive is said to be more reliable and less failure-prone than the micros. Solid state flash memory is driving the development of ever smaller spinning drives. The mechanical discs have to be priced a lot better than the solid state memories of comparable size, if they have a chance to survive in the ultra-competitive marketplace.

Hat tip Impact Lab.

Cancer Mutations, Proteome Maps of the Brain, Gene Therapy with RNAi

Cancer cells are 100 times more likely to mutate than normal cells. That may allow better diagnosis of cancers by tracking the mutations, but it can also make the tumour cells "moving targets" for treatments that depend on specific gene targets.

Of course, some clever researchers are thinking of ways to take advantage of cancer cell mutations for targeting their treatment.

This 82 year old pioneer of DNA research and cancer presented a talk on the biology of cancer, and cancer's genetic similarities to a colonizing species--at the AAAS conference in San Francisco.

One way of affecting gene expression of normal cells, tumour cells, and invading viruses, is by using RNAi. That was the topic of another AAAS paper delivered in San Francisco.

A team of researchers from PNNL and UCLA has produced a map of the brain's proteins to go with the genomic map of the brain (Allen Brain Atlas). By correlating the protein production of specific genes in specific parts of the brain, scientists can learn much more about the molecular activity of the brain.

Bad Government Schools Ruining Your Child's Chances? Private Schooling for Under US $900 a Year

If you are not happy sending your children to high risk government schools, but feel that you cannot afford private school for your children, here is another alternative.

Private schools on the internet can be an economical way of avoiding the risks of government schools, while keeping your school budget manageable.

Many desperate parents today are appalled at the inferior education public schools give their kids, but think they have no where else to go.

Most parents believe that the only alternative to public schools is either a Catholic or Protestant-affiliated school or expensive non-religious private school. The problem is that many Catholic schools now charge an average tuition between $3000 to $4000 a year. Non-religious private schools can charge between $7000 to over $14,000 a year. Millions of low and middle-income parents simply cannot afford this tuition, so they think they are stuck with public schools.

....The new Internet schools have very low tuition costs, from as low as $350 a year to $2000 or more a year. Many schools charge less than $900 a year.

For example, the Clonlara School currently charges about $750 for the 2005-06 school year for a new student in kindergarten through 8th grade studies. Children get a thorough education in Reading, Math, History, and many other subjects in the curriculum, and the school assigns a personal teacher to each child.

There are dozens of excellent Internet schools parents can choose from. Some schools such as Keystone National High School only offer high-school programs while others offer a complete, kindergarten through 12th grade education. Also, many K-12 Internet schools are affiliated with private schools or major university independent-study programs.

Source.

Most parents leave their child's education to the system. Whatever the system chooses to feed their child's mind is perfectly alright with them. Here's a suggestion for parents who use the government educational system: show the film "Idiocracy" to your child. If they tell you the film is just like school, you may have a problem brewing.

Here is a book that can give you much more information on this topic. Perhaps you can find it in your library. Here's a website listing universities and colleges who are friendly to the home-schooled.

I prefer the Montessori approach over most traditional curricula--but even Montessori schools can fall victim to trendy ed-school nonsense. Wherever you send your children, better investigate it thoroughly. Trust is for idiots and the children of idiots.