Friday, March 11, 2011

Today's Thought

Recently I've been posting News files in which I share news from the web. I've been making a new one each month. Now I think I'll similarly post a Thought of the Day page.

What may be true in the long run lacks bearing on those of us in the short run.

The society says the cops are there to protect the weak: but the lynchers know that the cops are there to protect them: the lynchers.

What does Big Brother want us to think? ( ie, to pretend to think.)
I know, That we're Individuals! That we're intelligent! That we're honest!

Church: a conspiracy against god, to allow humans to declare that their group is saved, pretending to speak for god. Jesus couldn't get a word in edgewise with the Temple. Other angels can't get a word in against the claimant groups. (Similarly a citizen cannot get a word into a democracy: unless it's clear to all that he displays the prescribed delusions.)

Tuesday, March 01, 2011

News

News for March Mating game: Too much choice will leave you lonely Scientists have made a surprising discovery: The more options you have for choosing a lover, the likelier you are to end up with no-one. British investigators, in a new study released on Wednesday, looked at the strange dynamics of choice in speed-dating, a fashionable way for singles to meet. Speed-daters race through a rota of one-on-one meetings, judging each person for suitability after a conversation of a few minutes that ends when a bell sounds. Assessing large numbers of candidates was not a problem in itself, the researchers found. In fact, many speed-daters found more potential partners when they were able to cast their net into a larger pool. But this advantage only worked when the available candidates were all broadly similar. When candidates were too dissimilar, speed-daters became confused by many conflicting factors -- and often failed to choose anyone. "There are models of human 'rationality' which posit that variety is a good thing," said researcher Alison Lenton at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. "What will be surprising to some people is that our results suggest that increasing option variety leads to chooser confusion. People are more likely to choose no-one at all when faced with greater variety." In short, variety is fine... but in manageable doses. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110302/ts_afp/sciencesexlifestyle;_ylt=AgSbziOT64DPyshG_bxI0iAPLBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTJoZnQxNDhiBGFzc2V0A2FmcC8yMDExMDMwMi9zY2llbmNlc2V4bGlmZXN0eWxlBHBvcwMzBHNlYwN5bl9tb3N0X3BvcHVsYXIEc2xrA21hdGluZ2dhbWV0bw--


The above reminds me of shopping for clothes when I was a teen. My mother would take me to Robert Hall in Hempstead, there were hundreds of suits, I couldn't prefer one to another. I first became a good salesman when it occurred to me that the same problem might be preventing my prospect from making up her mind and getting out her checkbook. There were six graphics on the display wall, all by the same artist. Two were large, they were the same price. I just picked on arbitrarily, said "I think you'll see this best in better light," and carried it to the front window. That's all it took. Separated from the wall, separated from the display group, my customer saw that it was removable, transportable. It became clear to her that it could be hers: should be hers. From the window I carried it to the wrapping counter for her. I had broken its, and her, "suction."


Scientists skeptical of meteorite alien life claim Mar 7 Yahoo, links not working today WASHINGTON – NASA and its top scientists are distancing themselves from a space agency researcher who concludes that he found alien bacterial life in meteorites that were collected many decades ago.

pk adds: a pair of young German scientists examined meteorite fragments in the 1940s and reported finding marks that suggested fossils of bacteria-like things. (Sir Fred Hoyle told the story, repeatedly.) That was the end of their careers. 
Things haven't changed since Galileo, human societies all still belong with Lilliput. Universities bear all the earmarks of human hubris, arrogance, not letting the other idea get heard.



Are the long nights and financial burdens of parenting really worth the emotional benefits? New research is saying no: When confronted with the real economic costs of having children, most parents will exaggerate their happiness to validate their choice to have children.
"Many people believe that to be truly fulfilled in life, it is necessary to experience the joys of parenthood. Children are considered an essential source of happiness, satisfaction, and pride,"  Richard Eibach and Steven Mock of the University of Waterloo, wrote of their study in the March 2 issue of the journal Psychological Science. "However, the idea that parenthood involves substantial emotional rewards appears to be something of a myth."
But, times are changing. Since the 1920s, the economic value of having children has been dropping fast. Children can no longer work on farms or bring home paychecks, and they demand more financial support than ever before, the researchers say.
As children's economic value has plummeted, their perceived emotional value has skyrocketed, becoming, "the economically worthless but emotionally priceless child," as Princeton sociologist Viviana Zelizer wrote in her book, "Pricing the Priceless Child" (Princeton University Press, 1994).
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20110307/sc_livescience/momdadkidthemselvesoverthejoyofparenting;_ylt=AsI2FauerUp9zDkRVzQcHhAPLBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTNlcm1scmwyBGFzc2V0A2xpdmVzY2llbmNlLzIwMTEwMzA3L21vbWRhZGtpZHRoZW1zZWx2ZXNvdmVydGhlam95b2ZwYXJlbnRpbmcEcG9zAzQEc2VjA3luX21vc3RfcG9wdWxhcgRzbGsDbW9tZGFka2lkdGhl

Elephants naturally understand when to lend a helping trunk much as people know when to lend a helping hand, displaying a complex level of cooperation confirmed only in humans and our closest relatives until now.
Elephants are widely regarded as possessing advanced brains, displaying levels of intelligence seen only in humans, dolphins, chimpanzees and others capable of higher forms of thinking. For instance, elephants recognize themselves in mirrors, learning that such reflections are images of themselves and not others, behavior apparently unique to species that show complex empathy and sociality.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20110307/sc_livescience/elephantscooperateprovinghowsmarttheyreallyare;_ylt=Ag9kBfEbPHtxZo2bZdlLusEPLBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTNzM3JuYmNqBGFzc2V0A2xpdmVzY2llbmNlLzIwMTEwMzA3L2VsZXBoYW50c2Nvb3BlcmF0ZXByb3Zpbmdob3dzbWFydHRoZXlyZWFsbHlhcmUEcG9zAzYEc2VjA3luX2FydGljbGVfc3VtbWFyeV9saXN0BHNsawNlbGVwaGFudHNjb28-

Volunteers who took a 100-minute nap before launching into an evening memorization task scored an average of 20 percentage points higher on the memory test compared with people who did the memorization without snoozing first.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20110308/sc_livescience/whynapsmakeyousmarter;_ylt=Av9WkenWXZgoA.ClhJkuU3EPLBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTJycmZtOGc5BGFzc2V0A2xpdmVzY2llbmNlLzIwMTEwMzA4L3doeW5hcHNtYWtleW91c21hcnRlcgRwb3MDNQRzZWMDeW5fbW9zdF9wb3B1bGFyBHNsawN3aHluYXBzbWFrZXk-

Hundreds of disaffected Anglicans left the Church of England to become Roman Catholics on Ash Wednesday, the Christian day of penance.
The day set by the church to welcome converts wishing to join the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, a unique grouping created by Pope Benedict XVI for Anglicans left feeling isolated since the Church of England decided in 1992 to ordain women as priests.
seach Yahoo for the URL. I've been meaning to do something on the subject, I'll get to it:
briefly: should a church conform to the culture? or lead the culture to a standard?
The question conflexifies when we know that the church has altered and misrepresented evidence of the early church since the beginning; Specifically: Paul's epistles are far from honest about the role of women in Christianity. Now: do we want to conserve lies? do we want to stick up for choreographed oppression? apparently. Make sure that the religion can't be corrected, dissipate the feedback, repress, forget facts.
Christians pretend to believe in God, but are all atheists. We believe we can get away with anything!
We believe that an omniscient god couldn't possibly correct us! It's bad people who need correction, not the kleptocrats who stole the universe.