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POPSGood bye Gene, Hello Dene “What makes DNA a living molecule is the dynamics of it, and a dynamic vocabulary would be helpful,” she said. “I talk about trying to verb biology.” And to renoun it as well. Writing last year in the journal PloS One, Dr. Keller and David Harel of the Weizmann Institute of Science suggested as an alternative to gene the word dene, which they said could be used to connote any DNA sequence that plays a role in the cell. So far, Dr. Keller admits, it has yet to catch on.
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POPSIs our emotions that make thought possible? "Before Damasio came onto the scene, most cognitive scientists assumed that emotions only interfered with rational thought. It was assumed that a person without any emotions would be a better thinker, since their “cortical computer” could process information without the hindrance of emotion. Damasio’s research challenged the assumption by showing that people who have suffered brain injuries which prevent them from perceiving their own feelings, are ineffective decision-makers. Most would spend hours deliberating over irrelevant details, such as where to eat lunch. Damasio’s research, among many other studies, is revealing that emotion is what enables us to make up our minds. It is pure reason- not feeling- that is the true hindrance to decision making. So take that, Mr. Spock!
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POPSMy Beautiful Blue Indiana! I am so pleased that the majority of voters in my home state of Indiana chose Obama over McCain! It has been an exciting election for us Hoosiers, who normally get little attention due to the assumption that Indiana is a dyed-in-the-wool red state. Well, not any more! Woo hoo! I was one of the Hoosiers who cast an absentee ballot this year. :)
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POPSPrediction: XXX XXX XXX Wins 281-257 From this base case (XXX XXX XXX winning with an 11 point cushion), there are a couple deviations worth mentioning, given that Virginia and Pennsylvania seem to represent the most tenuous wins for McCain. * If McCain loses Virginia (13 votes), he can still win by picking up any of the three western battlegrounds (NM, CO, or NV). Of these, at least Colorado appears plausible, so Virginia isn't necessarily a killer. * If McCain loses Pennsylvania (21 votes), he needs to pick up any two of those western states. This is a stretch, so losing Pennsylvania would appear nearly lethal. The caveat here is that McCain could lose Pennsylvania and pick up only Colorado, which would yield a 269-269 tie. * If McCain loses both Virginia and Pennsylvania, President Obama is a near mathematical certainty.
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POPSIs Health Care a Right? It is not merely the right to act--to seek medical care and engage in exchanges with providers, free from third-party interference. It is a right to actual care, regardless of whether one can pay for it.
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POPSThe Behavioral Revolution it’s just that most of the action takes place below the level of awareness. Looking at and perceiving the world is an active process of meaning-making that shapes and biases the rest of the decision-making chain. This meltdown is not just a financial event, but also a cultural one. It’s a big, whopping reminder that the human mind is continually trying to perceive things that aren’t true, and not perceiving them takes enormous effort. Very interesting, read it!
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POPSLoss Aversion Very interesting read. "In our distant past, this was an important survival mechanism, since it allowed us to protect each other from predators." The concept of loss aversion is escorting human everywhere. the prospect of losing is terrifying the human and overclouds the sense of adventure and game.
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POPSDid Barack "Spread the Wealth" Obama Just Blow the Election? My working assumption is that Obama is firmly within the mainstream of Democratic politics. But if he is as free with that sort of redistributive philosophy in private as he was on the campaign trail this week, I have no doubt that U of C professor really does figure him as a radical. And after last night's debate, a few more Americans might think that way, too. McCain's best line: "Now, of all times in America, we need to cut people's taxes. We need to encourage business, create jobs, not spread the wealth around." And by the way, I just noticed that the IBD/TIPP poll, the most accurate in 2004, has McCain down by just 3 points. If the contest is perceived by the voters as a contest between a wealth redistributor and a wealth creator, then it could be a long night come Nov. 4. This is still a center-right country, gang. Note this Gallup poll from June:
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POPSCan human consciousness survive without a brain? "Why do you think there is such resistance to studies like yours? Because we're pushing through the boundaries of science, working against assumptions and perceptions that have been fixed. A lot of people hold this idea that, well, when you die, you die; that's it. Death is a moment — you know you're either dead or alive. All these things are not scientifically valid, but they're social perceptions.How is technology challenging the perception that death is a moment?"
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POPSBanks to lend you your own money! From the Daily Mash: "Chancellor Alistair Darling said the decision had been taken in tandem with the banking industry, adding: "They used a lot of dirty words I'd never heard before and one of them had an angry looking dog."
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POPSYounger Military Families Closing Ranks Around Obama People in all branches of the service are getting tired of repeated deployments. "I think more of them will vote for Obama than McCain," said Jennings. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, deployed troops are putting their money where their mouth is: they've given four times as much money to Obama as McCain. "Any assumption that the military vote is overwhelmingly in favor of the Republican Party -- based on demographics alone -- is suspect, at the very least," said Donald S. Inbody, a retired Navy Captain who is on the political science faculty at Texas State University. This could result in a 1.2 to 1 advantage for Obama in military communities, according to Inbody, especially if the campaign "isn't tone deaf" to the inroads that are possible.
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POPSCounterintuitive physics may help everyone drive home quicker
The second concept, the Nash equilibrium, occurs when an individual cannot choose a better strategy for himself if other individuals keep their strategies unchanged (i.e. an individual can not improve his situation by changing unilaterally). In the traffic situation, say you know which routes the other drivers take, maybe because you’ve tried different routes to find out which is the fastest way to get home from work. After trying different routes, you choose the route that is fastest for yourself. Then you cannot find a faster route as long as the other drivers stick to their same routes (which they do, because they cannot find faster routes, either). But if many drivers could change their routes simultaneously, then the effect might be a decrease in everyone’s travel time, and society would come closer to the social optimum rather than languishing in the Nash equilibrium. The scientists found that modifying the network structure can sometimes lead to faster overall travel times,
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POPSOut in Hollywood: Starring Roles are Rare “The industry is persuaded that being known as gay will undermine your credibility both as romantic lead or an action star,” said Larry Gross, director of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California and author of a book on media portrayals of gays and lesbians. “They don’t test it,” he said. “We’re waiting for the Jackie Robinson moment when someone tests that assumption and discovers it’s not true.”
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POPSOutdoor pools more 'breathtaking':study
They were studying the way exposure to chlorine vapor can cause Asthma. It was believed that out door pools allowed Chlorine to evaporate more quickly. This was more an assumption than a fact. Chlorine Gas and HCl or Hydrogen Chloride, which becomes Hydrochloric Acid, when it dissolves in water as a matter of course, is best in the stomach for digestion, or with or with the Alkali NaOH (Sodium hydroxide) which becomes the neutral Salt It Does Not Belong in the Lungs. Why do we use chemical Pan Microbicides, when there is the potential to give water its own version of an immune system? Creeks, rivers and Oceans Don't need Chlorine to remain clean. Why should we think we have a better defense using Chlorine. killing all microbes can turn water Sterile and Stagnant. We need Oxygenated Water,(Waterfall) and microbes can be part of a self contained Eco=system Pools don't need Chlorine, they need things like Fish . this will also help recycle biological 'waste' we produce naturally
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POPSInactivity is ACTIVELY HARMFUL to your health "We used to think that it is healthy to be physically active, but this study shows that it is dangerous to be inactive for just a couple of weeks," said Bente Klarlund Pedersen, co-author and lead investigator of the study and professor of internal medicine and director of Centre of Inflammation and Metabolism at the University of Copenhagen. "After 14 days of reduced stepping, subjects experienced accumulation of the dangerous abdominal fat, while also developing elevated blood-lipids, a sign of -pre-diabetes and cardiovascular disease. If you choose the passive mode of transport and abstain from exercise, than your risk of chronic disease is likely to increase markedly." "When the doctor says to go and exercise, they are not just telling patients to do that to improve their health; increasing daily stepping could actually reverse a cause of chronic disease," Booth said.
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POPSThe rising cost of the Iraq 'surge' Cont.... In other words, the big-name journalists don’t want a discussion about the decision to illegally invade Iraq under false pretenses in 2003 (presumably because they almost all were cheering the invasion on), but instead they want the debate to center entirely on their latest false assumption, that the “surge” has virtually won the war. In reality, the “surge” of about 30,000 additional troops sent to Iraq appears to have been only one factor and – according to military officials interviewed for Bob Woodward’s new book, The War Within – possibly a secondary one in explaining the drop-off in the violence that had made Iraq a living hell.
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POPSThe Left's Fierce Hostility to Sarah Palin's Fecundity Every woman has the "right to choose" her own path through life, but it's a lazy assumption to take for granted that most Americans find Sarah Palin's choices as freakish as our metropolitan elites do. What was it the feminists used to say? "You can have it all." Sarah Palin is a mom, and the first female governor of her state. But the enforcers at the National Organization of Women dismiss her as "more a conservative man than she is a woman". Golly. These days, NOW seems to have as narrow and proscriptive a view of what women are permitted to be as any old 1950s sitcom dad.
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