thinkness - January 2004 Archives

January 2004

Genius in a small package - Could rabies be any smarter? Animals get it, they go crazy, bite other animals, and pass the disease through their saliva. It's frickin' genius! I thought of that after I saw 28 Days Later, a great movie. Why I thought... Posted in emergence | 4 Trackbacks | 119 Comments

Humble before God - While researching some of the modern intersection of religion and science I came across The Humble Approach Initiative, a remarkable project to expand spiritual understanding through scientific exploration. This is not a watered-down effort to re-explain religion in a subservient... Posted in | 2 Trackbacks | 189 Comments

Biotech insects pt ii - A recent report on GM mosquitoes shows that they're less fit than regular mosquitos. A central argument of the pro-biotech crowd has been that genetic engineering can very specifically bring about narrow, intended changes in organisms. If so, then why... Posted in evolution by and for the people | 0 Trackbacks | 192 Comments

Biotech insects - This Yahoo! News story [I always feel a little corny using the Yahoo! exclamation point] isn't really news so much, but a little check-up story on GM insects. I suspect that biotech everythings will be popping up over the next... Posted in evolution by and for the people | 4 Trackbacks | 173 Comments

Where do men come from? - This geneticist Spencer Wells, profiled recently in National Geographic, is popping up in a lot of places now. He does pretty interesting research looking at the Y chromosome, finding out when people went to different parts of the world. I... Posted in evolution | 1 Trackbacks | 182 Comments

Literal watch strikes back - Part I: I was at a meeting last week in which one presenter said a former art teacher told him, "The paint literally explodes off the canvas." Wow. Art rocks. Part II: Paul Krugman says, "Mr. Bush has, of course,... Posted in language , the lethal literal | 2 Trackbacks | 272 Comments

Risky assumptions - The Globe Ideas section did a story on risk assessment a few weeks ago [I know, haven't blogged in a while]. Essentially, the risk assessment folks set a price tag on human life based on how much money people will... Posted in psychology & consciousness | 1 Trackbacks | 229 Comments

Meta-evolutionary competition - mindtangle involves an interesting factor regarding thinkness' first criticism of The Red Queen, in which I said that Ridley was substantially underestimating the importance of culture for humans, which turned out to be a big part of my criticism of... Posted in emergence | 6 Trackbacks | 266 Comments

Everybody needs a mami - Susan points me to this bit in the NYTimes, in a good article about a revolution in Japanese food in NY: 'Also shared by Japan and France is a national cult of ingredients. At Kai, the menu proudly states that... Posted in ooh mommy | 7 Trackbacks | 207 Comments

Dewey or doney love me? - So mindtangle has an anecdote relating to that great passage from Eugenides' Middlesex: 'I randomly ran across a book in Thailand whose cover promised to help me "transcend the boundaries of language." Well, it ended up being a self-help book,... Posted in monkey vs robot | 8 Trackbacks | 211 Comments
Cheering for Lindh - David Edelstein, the Slate movie reviewer, has a spookily incisive point about The Last Samurai: "...The Last Samurai, in which remorseful Native American killer Tom Cruise joins forces with another mystical tribe, the samurai, against the genocidal American capitalist conglomerate... Posted in psychology & consciousness | 1 Trackbacks | 106 Comments