OVO

Science Daily: Fortified Cassava Could Provide A Day's Nutrition In A Single Meal [LINK-ZUM]

Scientists have determined how to fortify the cassava plant, a staple root crop in many developing countries, with enough vitamins, minerals and protein to provide the poor and malnourished with a day's worth of nutrition in a single meal. The researchers have further engineered the cassava plant so it can resist the crop's most damaging viral threats and are refining methods to reduce cyanogens, substances that yield poisonous cyanide if they are not properly removed from the food before consumption. The reduction of cyanogens also can shorten the time it takes to process the plant into food, which typically requires three to six days to complete. Studies also are under way to extend the plant's shelf life so it can be stored or shipped.

[Article continues at link. When was the last time religion did something comparable? Who are held up as heroes of humanity, scientists or clergy? Here is science offering an actual solution to an actual problem. Religion offers imaginary solutions (salvation) to imaginary problems (sin). All praise to the scientists - practical moralists and hands-on philosophers - who are achieving this real-life miracle. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: religion, science

Trevor Blake: E-Mail 29 June 2008 [LINK-ZUM]

[From an e-mail message to a friend...]

I don't claim to have any answers on this one, specifically any always-applicable answers. But I have benefited from adopting a note of caution any time I find myself thinking of 'tipping points' in history.

Over and again I've thought 'there's no way that the bad guys can keep getting away with it, this time they've gone too far, the tipping point has arrived.' And I've been wrong every time.

When I apply that steady record of error to past events, I think it holds. It is easy to look back and say where tipping points where in history, but it is so easy that I wonder if it isn't me imposing a pattern that didn't really exist at the time. I can see the pattern in what you wrote about Mussolini and Hitler [they were supported by their nations but eventually there was a popular / middle class strike against them], but the pattern is so clear that I wonder if it is the filter I'm looking through rather than seeing something as it was.

Tipping point thinking fits in with my lefty/conspiracy background, something else I've grown to trust less. It came from a time when some part of me thought history was (a) going somewhere and (b) something I/we/someone could drive like a wagon train. Now I think history is going, but not going anywhere in particular. I want to to be going towards empowerment of the individual, but it isn't - it's just going where it's going. I want to think I/we/someone can nudge history a little tiny bit, but that's a far cry from seizing the reigns and plowing a path towards utopia.

Fascist Spain didn't have a turning point, as far as I know. It changed, but there wasn't a popular / middle class strike against it. The tyranny in North Korea and elsewhere goes on and on. This is evidence of another old belief of mine being in error - that oppression leads to rebellion. It doesn't, not consistently.

I have [fewer and fewer] answers as I get older. And less sense that my opinions have any influence in the world. What a relief!

Labels: trevorblake

Economist's View: Women's Rights, What's in it for Men? [LINK-ZUM]

Our theory suggests that the historical advance of women's rights in the West wasn't due to a sudden enlightenment of mankind after millennia of patriarchy. Rather, it was driven by old-fashioned self-interest deriving from men's concern about their daughters' welfare and their descendants' education. [...] If our theory is correct, it implies that men in today's developing countries can be given a stake in women's rights. Ultimately, inducing developing countries to improve women's rights on their own accord may be a more promising strategy than trying to impose gender equality from the outside.

[Those wicked values of the West - pluralism, secularism and capitalism - are what the world needs much more than the religion of peace or any other superstition. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: atheist, christianity, islam, money, sex

David Blair: The Telepathic Motion Picture of "THE LOST TRIBES" [LINK-ZUM]

The creator of WAX or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees has many other films, including The Lost Tribes.

Labels: video

Lisa Sandberg: Court reverses judgment against church in exorcisms [LINK-ZUM]

A North Texas Pentecostal church should not be held liable for emotional trauma a former parishioner suffered as a youth when church members physically restrained and touched her during two exorcism attempts in 1996, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday. [Laura] Schubert was 17 at the time when fellow parishioners at the Pleasant Glade Assembly of God Church in Colleyville, in an attempt to rid her of evil spirits, held her down and "laid hands" on her body as she struggled to break free. [...] In her original suit against the church, Laura Schubert said she suffered lasting emotional trauma in 1996 when, on two separate occasions in one week, church members held her down and "laid hands" on her while she cried, kicked, clenched her fists, gritted her teeth and made guttural noises. She said the ordeal left her deeply depressed and suicidal and needing psychiatric help. She dropped out of high school.

[...] "The key point of this ruling is that we don't have a right to have our standards of reasonableness foisted upon some other religion," Dallas attorney David Pruessner said. "None of our religious beliefs can be examined when they are emotionally disturbing to other people."

[Article continues at link. So there you have it. See a teenage girl you want to 'lay hands' on? Maybe hold her down against her will while she struggles to escape? And do it a few times, you and your buddies? Just do it in the name of religion and down Texas way you won't even have to pay the legal fees. Any loathesome behavior can be excused when committed in the name of an invisible monster that lives in the sky. If you falsely imprison and abuse a teenage girl in the name of an invisible monster that lives in the sky then no one has a right to have their standards of reasonableness foisted on the act. No superstition can be examined when it is emotionally disturbing to other people - not in Texas, anyhow. Can you think of any activity other than superstition that exempts one from the rule of law so thoroughly? When was the last time - if ever - that you read a similar story about those can't-be-moral atheists? - Trevor Blake]

Labels: christianity, theocracy

Trevor Blake at Technoccult [LINK-ZUM]

Labels: blog, portland, synergetics, trevorblake

Pat Condell: A Secular World is a Sane World [LINK-ZUM]

Labels: christianity, islam, theocracy, video

Virginia Bridges: Judge dismisses woman's religious drug-use argument [LINK-ZUM]

For years Brenda Williams Shoop struggled in a journey to get closer to God, she told a judge Thursday. And then she found a textbook that discussed a marijuana side effect, and later discovered a church that classifies the illegal drug as a key ingredient to a sacrament essential to becoming a Christian, she said. "It opens up someone's mind and helps apply (Christian) missions," Shoop said of marijuana's effects. [...] The Shoops were charged with drug trafficking in December 2006 after authorities found about 28 marijuana plants growing in their backyard, according to Baldwin County Sheriff's Office Lt. Neil Holcombe. [...]

Brenda Shoop said Thursday that she grew up in a Southern Baptist church. In recent years, she has struggled to find the spiritual fulfillment she has been looking for while exploring other denominations. Her religious belief and understanding, however, hit a turning point in nursing school when she read about marijuana's disassociation side effect, she said. That side effect, she said, helped her get closer to God as it quieted all the voices in her head and helped her "rise above the mundane and see that you are part of a bigger picture."

The Shoops argued that since their arrest they have started a ministry in their Robertsdale home and serve as missionaries for Universal Orthodox Church, which is based in Atlanta. The Christian denomination believes marijuana has biblical origins and was a key ingredient in holy anointing oil of Moses and the christening oil of Jesus Christ, according to testimony and court documents.

[Article continues at link. My preference would be for the government to get out of both the religion business and the drug business. Let competent adults believe whatever they want, providing they do not harm others who may not share that belief. Sometimes what they will believe will be in error, but the freedom to be in error cannot be divorced from the freedom to innovate (which sometimes results in error). Let competent adults entertain themselves as they want, providing they do not harm others who may not wish to be so entertained. Sometimes the way they will entertain themselves will be counterproductive, but the freedom to be counterproductive cannot be divorced from the freedom to own (which sometimes results in wasted resources). My preference would be for an end to theocracy and prohibition. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: christianity, prohibition, theocracy

Kevin Kelly: The Unclear Origins of Oil [LINK-ZUM]

Crude oil is almost $140 per barrel. By now you'd think we would know where it comes from. No one really knows. The conventional wisdom is that oil descends from algae from eons ago. Lots and lots of algae. Unimaginable mounds of dead algae in quantities no longer found on this planet, pressed, and cooked into hydrocarbon liquids. Thus: fossil fuel. Others, notably the Russians, have an alternative theory that oil comes from non-biological carbon compounds deep in this planet, like the methane oceans we find on other planets. [...] An emerging third theory is that bacteria living within rocks produce oil. In this theory there is a biological component (the bacteria) which constitute the oil-generating process, but the originating material in not degraded organic material, but rather geological carbon gases. The path is carbon gas --> bug --> oil.

[Article continues at link. My father has been talking about this for years. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: science, transportation

Trevor Blake: Rand Abdel-Qader and Leila Hussein [LINK-ZUM]

Sadie Gray - Girl, 17, killed in Iraq for loving a British soldier: A 17-year-old Iraqi girl was murdered by her father in an honour killing after falling in love with a British soldier she met while working on an aid programme in Basra [...] Rand Abdel-Qader was stamped upon, suffocated and stabbed by her father, then given an unceremonious burial to emphasise her disgrace. Police released her father without charge two hours after his arrest. 'Not much can be done when we have an honour killing case,' said Sergeant Ali Jabbar of Basra police. 'You are in a Muslim society and women should live under religious laws. The father has very good contacts inside the Basra government and it wasn't hard for him to be released and what he did to be forgotten.'"

Afif Sarhan and Caroline Davies - 'My daughter deserved to die for falling in love': "For Abdel-Qader Ali there is only one regret: that he did not kill his daughter at birth. 'If I had realised then what she would become, I would have killed her the instant her mother delivered her,' he said with no trace of remorse. Two weeks after The Observer revealed the shocking story of Rand Abdel-Qader, 17, murdered because of her infatuation with a British soldier in Basra, southern Iraq, her father is defiant. Sitting in the front garden of his well-kept home in the city's Al-Fursi district, he remains a free man, despite having stamped on, suffocated and then stabbed his student daughter to death. Abdel-Qader, 46, a government employee, was initially arrested but released after two hours. Astonishingly, he said, police congratulated him on what he had done. 'They are men and know what honour is,' he said. [...] Though her horrified mother, Leila Hussein, called Rand's two brothers, Hassan, 23, and Haydar, 21, to restrain Abdel-Qader as he choked her with his foot on her throat, they joined in. Her shrouded corpse was then tossed into a makeshift grave without ceremony as her uncles spat on it in disgust. 'Death was the least she deserved,' said Abdel-Qader. 'I don't regret it. I had the support of all my friends who are fathers, like me, and know what she did was unacceptable to any Muslim that honours his religion,' he said."

Afif Sarhan and Caroline Davies - Mother who defied the killers is gunned down: "Leila Hussein lived her last few weeks in terror. Moving constantly from safe house to safe house, she dared to stay no longer than four days at each. It was the price she was forced to pay after denouncing and divorcing her husband [...] Though she feared reprisals for speaking out, she really believed that she would soon be safe. Arrangements were well under way to smuggle her to the Jordanian capital, Amman. In fact, she was on her way to meet the person who would help her escape when a car drew up alongside her and two other women who were walking her to a taxi. Five bullets were fired: three of them hit Leila, 41. She died in hospital after futile attempts to save her. [...] It was two weeks after Rand's death on 16 March that a grief-stricken Leila, unable to bear living under the same roof as her husband, found the strength to leave him. She had been beaten and had had her arm broken. It was a courageous move. Few women in Iraq would contemplate such a step. Leila told The Observer in April: 'No man can accept being left by a woman in Iraq. But I would prefer to be killed than sleep in the same bed as a man who was able to do what he did to his own daughter.' [...] Mariam [a woman who had been helping Leila escape] has moved out of her home. But within hours of speaking to The Observer a close friend went to her new address to deliver a message that had been left for her at her front door. It read: 'Death to betrayers of Islam who don't deserve God's forgiveness. Speaking less you will live more.' She believes it was sent by Leila's killers. 'They want this story to be buried with Leila,' she said. 'But I cannot close my eyes to all this.'"

[Much of the Muslim world is skilled at closing its eyes to these stories. Muslims around the world will riot in the streets for weeks if a newspaper prints the wrong sort of cartoon, but laugh and shrug if an outsider is shocked at how they brutalize real live human beings. Whatever Islam may have been, it has lost its way. Islam must be secularized or abandoned. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: islam, sex, theocracy

Trevor Blake: Alan Turing (23 June 1912 - 7 June 1954) [LINK-ZUM]

Today is the seventh of June, the anniversary of the death of Alan Turing. I recommed the book Alan Turing: the Enigma by Andrew Hodges to learn more about this hero of the modern age.

Labels: biographic

Trevor Blake at Technoccult 4 June 2008 [LINK-ZUM]

"For even more on Buckminster Fuller, come to Esozone for Trevor Blake's presentation 'The Approximately Omnidirectional Ephemeralization of Richard Buckminster Fuller.'"

This is, I believe, the first public announcement of my lecture.

Labels: portland, synergetics, trevorblake

Trevor Blake: The Bleeding Head of Arnold Palmer [LINK-ZUM]

This photograph was made in 1985.

Labels: art, subgenius, trevorblake

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