S.T.E.M. … January 23, 2019

Posted on 2019/01/23 by

Often these days the cry is heard that “women are not in the stem fields”. They lament that women do not dominate there, as they dominate elsewhere.

There has never been an impediment, no fence, no block, no glass ceiling for women in Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics. Women have simply chosen not to go there.

There are those few, well-meaning, but wrong-headed bunch who would take the ability to choose away from women… and make them do what they think they should do instead.

You know the type, those politically correct, “progressive”, SJW types who want to control what you do, hear, say, and even think. They are so set in thinking they know what is best for you they will punish you into doing it. They will shove, push, nag, you into conforming to their thoughts, their rationale. After all, if you don’t obey their directives you are standing in the way of their imagined utopia.

No, I am not a right wing conservative nut case. I am not a left wing nut case either. I feel free to choose from all the issues what I am convinced is right and good. I like to call myself a centrist, but they are probably dead set in their ways, with solid ideology that does not bend or waiver either. I guess I am a free man able to decide for myself. I examine the claims of people, and if their claims seem just under scrutiny then I adopt those claims. Groupthink is not for me. Groupthink compromises everyone.

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Just Animals… January 1, 2019

Posted on 2019/01/01 by

Humans really do not like the idea that they are just animals. They go to elaborate means to ignore that fact.

They invent gods that consider them the favored life on earth, in fact, the reason the earth was created. Humans being the reason god created the universe, why be surprised that humans consider earth the center of the universe.

Those humans that dwell on religious ideals fail more than most because they deny their animal heritage. Humans are so closely kin to chimpanzees that it is possible to procreate with them. There are animal species though only related, sharing much less DNA percentage-wise than humans and chimpanzees, they can produce young.

It is so obvious even to the very dense that Chimpanzees and humans share a common ancestor not all that long removed.

Yet… humans consider themselves so very special, so special that god cares only about them.

Human societies suffer greatly because of this denial. Those in charge create laws but those laws are looked upon as a challenge by many humans, a challenge to break.  If some advantage is to be had by doing as one pleases rather than doing what is right, that human will do as he/she pleases and everyone else be damned.

The ideal society would do what is right without considering what is wrong. The wrong would never enter their heads. Laws would be irrelevant and unnecessary. Everyone would have the welfare of everyone else in mind whenever any new idea emerges.

The ideal society is very unlikely anywhere in the universe where life emerged and is subject to evolution. Perhaps this is why the religious so vigorously deny evolution. Denying evolution being yet another game they play in the continuing denial that they are only animals.

The only society that might be likely that would approach the ideal is one that arose independent of evolution. That society would have to be artificial. That society would be one created by a life form, programmed by that life form, with care taken to remove the primal desires like greed and envy. Empathy and compassion would be appropriate. All the immoral thoughts would not exist. Advantage would only exist in context of the whole, and only to the extent that it could be exercised without harm to anyone and anything. The only society I could imagine like this would be android.

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A Different Year, A Different Course… December 31, 2018

Posted on 2018/12/31 by

New Year’s resolutions are always a difficult thing to consider, unless of course you just go with the old standards like losing weight, giving up this or that habit, being kind, etc.

I believe I will try another this coming New Year.

Starting January 1, 2019, I will no longer acknowledge any negative thing I have done or said previously. I will go forward into the New Year without the baggage retained from the previous decades. I am no longer guilty. I am no longer the same person where these specific negative issues are concerned. If asked about them my answer will be… I do not remember any such thing, or saying any such thing. If they persist I will have to suggest to them that they see a psychiatrist, or perhaps consult some physician to see why their memory is defective.

On the other hand I will remember the good things that happened, the good things said and done.

I shall also remember all the negative things other people have said and done, especially those that caused me harm, physically or mentally.

If they tell me that they are also not going to remember all the bad things they have said and done… together we will remember all the good things, and forget the bad things.

 

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Why Relent? December 17, 2018

Posted on 2018/12/17 by

I see no evidence, no indication, anywhere of any sort for a god of any kind. Why should I allow even an iota of a possibility that such an entity may exist then by stating like an agnostic that I do not believe there are any gods rather than plainly stating that there are none? Why equivocate on the matter of the correctness of evolution by staying silent? For that matter why entertain pseudo-science of any form, or not speaking against same, thereby allowing people to assume agreement on various quackery?

Yet, it seems this is what the AAAS is advocating in order to gain influence among those in the church that prefer to remain ignorant of evolution and other science based concepts.

As long as concepts from a barbaric time retain influence in modern times there will always be division and turmoil.

Is this what must be done to gradually drag the believer into modern times? Stay silent on some things in order to advocate others? If the ignorance is still taught in churches, will that not win out in the end, since this attitude of staying silent has indicated that the ignorance of the church cannot be overcome in some areas? Doesn’t this still give the leaders of the church too much power?

Why relent?

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Global Warming is a Killer… December 16, 2018

Posted on 2018/12/16 by

In the January/February issue of Skeptical Inquirer Amardeo Sarma founder and chairman of the German skeptics organization GWUP has a short piece that is critical of the new IPCC report on Global Warming.

The report is available at http://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr15/

The report indicates that past emissions are already adequate to cause a rise in global temperature of 1.5.C. ( about 2.7ºF) To stay at that predicted rise, and rise no further, the report says emissions that lend to global warming must be reduced to zero by 2050.

By limiting the warming to 1.5ºC it is hoped that the severe effects of a 2ºC rise will be avoided. Those effects are severe rises in sea level, loss of marine life, ocean acidification. Other risks to be avoided would be risks to health, food supply, and water supply. An ambiguous reference is made also to other problems.

Sarma reports that the shortcomings of the report include a failing to address that countries trying to lift their citizens out of poverty will not follow the recommended guidelines. In other words, it does not adequately address the Sustainable Development Goals. I refer to this failing as human inertia*.

Another failing of this report hinges on technology, specifically bio-energy with carbon capture, which is presently in its infancy. Commercially it is unviable, as capitalism will not support it.

This report is also biased toward renewable sources and has an unreasonable bias against nuclear power sources. France and Sweden achieved fast decarbonization rates through increased use of nuclear power. Meanwhile, the IPCC has not commissioned any exclusive reports on nuclear power as they have for renewables.

*This human failing I call human inertia is responsible for many of the failings of human species. There are so many groups of humans separated by country that to get behind any idea, even one that will save the human species, is impossible. As a result, nothing gets done. The status quo continues. In this instance the status quo will result in the extinction of life as we know it. Until this human inertia problem is solved all the reports in the world will not mitigate the continued rise in emissions.

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No, No, No… to Islamic Law… December 6, 2018

Posted on 2018/12/06 by

I am critical of Israel because of the military might they use on their neighbors, and the fact that before 1948s violent and aggressive insurgency, there was no Israel. However, I assert that the country called Israel today has nothing to do with an ancient Israel, including the makeup of its people.

Despite my critical perspective on Israel, I despise Islam to the nth degree and do not condone its obvious hatred of anyone that does not bend knee to it. I am alarmed by its present form of conquest, a quiet mass immigration to countries, where, when they get enough numbers they attempt to instill Islamic law. These Muslim immigrants do not immigrate seeking to fit in, they immigrate carrying all the emotional and religious baggage they had in their old country. I do not support any Muslim mass immigration to any western nation. I oppose such immigration.

Christianity is not benign and causes human misery everywhere it goes. However, it is in a passive phase now where its members are not actively agitating the general population, trying to control it. Not saying that it does not in the end control, it does… through politics.

Islam is in its violent Dark Age. There is much murder and bloodshed worldwide. There is much anguish and violence caused by Muslim populations in western nations as they attempt to control everyone, make everyone heed their religious dictates. Islam is presently the world’s biggest threat.

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For Humans the Future Does Not Matter… November 21, 2018

Posted on 2018/11/21 by

robot profile 9The human population continues to expand. As it does all available habitats are being taken for human living space. Many cry about the extinction of numerous species but are powerless in the face of greed and apathy.

The issue that has prompted this post is that of the illegal ivory trade and animal parts trade. There are species that are on the brink and those in the illegal trade are actually betting on their extinction by buying every available piece of ivory or animal part they can lay their hands on. Once the animal becomes rare or is extinct, as is their hope, they look forward to the collection they have accrued becoming even more valuable.

So the future is forfeit. People of the future will not see a Rhinoceros, or a tiger or many other species because of greed… and apathy. All we will have is wall to wall people, war, and famine.

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The GOP Traitors of America … November 14, 2018

Posted on 2018/11/14 by

The GOP has come to represent Christian interests. Yet, there is no morality within the GOP. The majority, if not all, of the members of this party have been compromised by big money interests. Yes, they have been bought.

Corporations have planned this for decades, quietly investing in people, installing them in the Senate and the House. Their plan was simple… establish a corporate serving government… and to hell with people.

The proof is clear. This last tax cut passed forcefully by a puppet Senate and Congress gave the treasury of the United States straightaway to the rich and the corporations. We are now in the condition that enabled the Great Depression. This is what they want.

Unless this state of affairs is reversed and Trump removed from office there will come a civil war, as predicted by the Russians. During this civil war the haves and the have-nots will be in an epic struggle. The corporations and rich, having bought the government, including the police and military forces, will carry out a massacre akin to what Mao and Hitler accomplished. The poor rioting masses will simply be exterminated.

We the people do not have very much time. If the tide can be turned it must be turned in short order.

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Gods? October 28, 2018

Posted on 2018/10/28 by

Privately I proclaim that there are no gods. However, since the non-existence of gods cannot be proved any more than their existence, publicly I proclaim that I do not believe in any gods. Privately I am confident that none exist. Publicly science cannot prove they do not.

The onus to prove they exist is upon the believer. It always has been and always will be. They never will, because like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and Leprechauns… gods do not exist. Yet… you cannot prove that somewhere in this universe or another that they do not exist. You must say that you do not believe, though you are confident they are not, because the evidence of non-existence is an impossible quantity. This is the present state.

Looking at the state of humanity and the history of same, you can proclaim certain gods do not exist. Those gods presently on the shelf, having been created over time, the creation being so very obvious, can be dismissed. By dismissing the Jewish god, which has observably done them no good, you dismiss the Christian and Islamic god. The Abrahamic religions can be proclaimed false… their god simply fiction.

What is left is some sort of deistic god. A god that having created everything either died or left town to vacation elsewhere. It never visits, it never takes action, what is, is what is left. The idea of a god being a human concept borne of insecurity and fear… I dismiss this god also. Only reality remains, and although some scientists speculate even reality is an illusion… the only illusion I can buy is the one my eyes present to the brain for interpretation. I must accept that as reality for to do anything else invites either insanity or harm.

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The Age of the Ignoramuses… October 23, 2018

Posted on 2018/10/23 by

One upon a time Christianity ruled, it was called the Dark Ages.

Such a period of ignorance can never be equaled, but there are those that are willing to try. There are the anti-vaxxers, the flat earthers, and even now the conservative right Christians persist in dismissing science and instead embracing ignorance.

Endangering everyone, the anti-vaxxers, despite information to the contrary believe that there is a conspiracy to harm people being carried out through vaccinations. It has been proven that autism has no origins in vaccinations. Yet, they continue to mouth the lie, just as a Christian keeps mouthing the lie that Noah existed and built an ark.

Flat-earthers foolishly maintain that the earth is not round as seen from space, or as ascertained from observing its curve, but instead flat. It is difficult to believe that they are sincere because of the stupidity that has to be believed to think the earth flat.

The Conservative right has dismissed the unanimous consensus of global warming proclaimed by scientists far and wide, and instead hold fast to the proclamations of their in-house idiots. They pursue policies that guarantee the end to human life with the thought in mind that science is lacking to prove a disaster lies ahead. Environmental roadblocks erected by previous administrations in an effort to hold annihilation at bay are blithely discarded by an idiot who has gained the top office because of the stupidity of the Democratic Party in promoting an unpopular woman no one wanted.

Soon enough, I suspect, the decline of humans will begin. A new age of Ignorance lies in the near future.

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