jlc

To quote: "Because today’s DNA testing seems so compelling and powerful, increasing numbers of Native Americans have begun to believe their own metaphors: “in our blood” is giving way to “in our DNA.” In Native American DNA, Kim TallBear shows how Native American claims to land, resources, and sovereignty that have taken generations to ratify may be seriously—and permanently—undermined."

from https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-divis...

Recall that my assertion is that discoveries in paleoanthropology can effect our modern world. I do not say anything about 'should' or 'logic'...just that they 'do'.

Jan

It may not make a difference to you or me, but it does make a difference in the real world: The claims of the Indians were undermined by discovery that they were not the original inhabitants.

And yes, I agree that science is worthwhile per se. Technological advancement may eventually make Hillary and her ilk moot (and us too).

Jan

Interesting. Thank you.

Jan

Actually, I was thinking of this, "...Mal’ta genome [from 24,000 years ago]..., which shows a possible Siberian conduit for mixture between the ancestors of today’s Europeans and indigenous New World populations." (John Hawks' blog)

(Mal'ta is in Siberia; not the Malta in the Med.)

Jan

I do not disagree with your concern. But I still enjoy wallowing in the myriad genetic details of paleoanthropology...just for fun.

Jan, wallowing

Well, it is important to my life in an intellectual sense. Paleoanthropology fascinates me. And the knowledge of how we got to where we are, both mentally and physically, can send reverberations into the modern world.

Example: a tribe of Indians would not release a skull to archeologists for examination. The feared - correctly - that when the archeologists did genetic testing on the bones they would determine that the Indians were not the 'original settlers' of their land, but had replaced an earlier group of different genetic heritage. This impacts the sense that we 'owe' American Indians for the land we took from them by force...the truth turns out to be that the current Indians occupying the land took it from someone else by force as well.

So, if you are looking only at a practical use for such knowledge, knowing these things can effect our modern lives. Aside from that, though, intellectual pursuits are worthwhile for their own sake.

Jan

The rate of decay is constant. You do not have to measure more than a fraction of the output of an isotope in order to calculate its half-life. This is the same as not needing to measure the entire point-to-point travel of a car in order to know its velocity; you can measure a few feet of that distance and calculate the (assumed constant) velocity from that.

Jan

You are correct to question the constancy of the production of C14. Since, as you state, solar radiation initiates most of the C14 production, changes in solar output will alter the atmospheric C14 load. C14, as well as any of the other isotopic dating systems (there are a dozen major ones) need to be calibrated. C14 is generally calibrated my measuring the C14 content of tree rings and using that figure to calibrate the C14 reading taken from some other object, such as a deer bone.

Good article: http://c14.arch.ox.ac.uk/embed.php?Fi...

Jan

Ahh... the 666 problem with barcodes. No, that is not what I was talking about. There was a huge furor in the 1970s about the introduction of scanning at grocery stores.

And the standardized unit is needed whether you are dealing with cash or virtual money (though not so much with metals).

Jan

You do not see cash being used on the Starship Enterprise. The movement to virtual transactions is inexorable, though it is best that it move with glacial slowness so that people can get use to it. What money does is track a unit of work in an nominal format and electronic transactions do a better job of that than coin or cash.

The concern about being tracked via electronic transactions is completely valid - but it is a separate topic. (We need to be concerned about being physically tracked via our phones and likewise tracked via video cams as well. This is a topic about surveillance in general, not really about money.)

Do you remember the over-the-top reaction to grocery stores introducing scanning of barcodes instead of people entering the items manually? This was an endoftheworld topic for a while; now it is a trivial fact of life. I think that electronic transactions are in the same category of reaction: This is not 'the way it used to be'.

Change happens. And now it happens all the time, not every 10th generation.

Jan

That is very cheering to hear, SarahMontalbano. Thanks for sharing a moment of good news with all of us.

Jan

I agree, though they still had humans do the dogfighting nav and firing. Considering the difference in reaction times between humans and computers, it makes sense for the pilot to establish general tactics - and provide for an occasional anomalous decision - and leave the fighting to the firing computer.

I did like the 4th season. I especially liked that the answer was not "The Vorlons were Right", the answer was "Both of You: Get Out of Our Playground".

Jan

Yes! That was terrific.

Jan

If your brain is a library, it is appropriate for Emotions to be the supervisor of the Art and Aesthetics section. Rationality is the head librarian, however.

Jan

B5 is a superb show, and Garabaldi was excellent in it - probably tops after J'kar and Londo. There is great potential for a good remake, eliminating some of the weak 'topical' episodes, and bringing back into the plot arc some of the groundwork laid for the final battles - groundwork that went unused because the show was cancelled...and then reinstated at the last minute. (This forced 2 seasons into 1 (the 4th) and made the 5th season pretty 'empty'.)

When I saw Jupiter Ascending I thought that the effects in that movie hinted at how B5 should be remade.

Jan

Interesting observation. I would not have made that connection, but I think you are right.

Jan

Chang Kai-shek came to prominence in China after Sun Yat-sen's death as a result of being kidnapped and held hostage in a cave by bandits for a couple of weeks. (It did not hurt that he was also Sun Yat-sen's close friend and married to his wife's little sister.) People who were knowledgeable about that situation have suggested that Kai-shek hired the kidnappers.

So, this sort of thing has happened before and it is certainly not beyond conception that it occurred in Turkey.

Jan

It is not our business to support or overthrow the leaders of a foreign country; we are not the world's police. It is quite possible the Erdogan staged the coup himself, but Occam's Razor says that it is more likely that disaffected officers (perhaps influenced by Gulan's moderate philosophy, but not necessarily directed by him) attempted it on their own.

Gulen is legitimately present in the US and we should not extradite him unless Turkey can prove criminal involvement. We are not pawns of Turkey.

Jan

This is a conversation I frequently have. Older societies - bronze age and before - had 'braggadocio' as a required virtue for alpha type leaders. The thought of honor being an aspect of quiet integrity vs virtue display was quite novel...and we still get confused about it. Both models are correct in their own times and societies, but we use the same modern words to describe them.

Jan

Good points.

Jan

Many rigorous experiments have been carried out on Darwinian evolution: bacteria, fruit flies, mice, foxes. There is no lack of hard data on Darwinian evolution. Here is a wiki overview article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experim...

It seems to me that, reading the responses on this thread, people are going far into the topic 'how you do good science' and not 'what is science'. A good example of this is 'publication': Publication has nothing to do with whether or not you have rigorously examined the nature of reality and discovered a new facet of it - it just determines if you communicate this. (Of course, no one else can test your discovery or build on it if you do not communicate it, but that is part of the process of science not the discovery itself.) I agree with most of what is said about how to do good science, btw, but do not want to drop the concept of discovery per se.

My mind also boggles at an attempt to figure out how a Tarot Deck could be used to discover reality (except perhaps as a generator of statistics) but, again, I am trying to distinguish between the process of doing good science (how) and the essence of science (what). If someone brighter than I can figure out how to use a Tarot Deck to do science, I will be willing to include that as a valid tool...but it makes my brain leak out of my ears to think of how to accomplish that.

Jan

Many points for cloning cloning! Evil Herb - biscuit.

Jan

I ended up teaching 'the new math' to my 8th grade class because the doddering old nun we had as a teacher was totally adrift - and Wm can affirm how bad I am at math! If the 'bar' is really low (old nun and disinterested students), sometimes it is easy to excel.

I note that the daughter is now majoring in Bio/BioMed. This puzzles me, because she obviously had a talent for math...and Bio is where you head if you love science and are not good at math (did that myself). I suspect that 'the system got to her' eventually.

I thought it was superb that the father took the matter to national level and insisted that all the other answers be marked wrong because many of those students and their parents will now be upset at Common Core!

Jan

Bravo.

Jan

The eggs are not red to symbolize Jesus' blood - they are red to symbolize the sun. As many people have noted, this is a custom that is not native to Christianity, but was co-opted from pagan religions (as was Christmas and Halloween/All Saints Day). If you follow allosaur's link and read about the pysanky you will get the best view of 'what Easter eggs originally were'.

Jan