I'm starting new sections on this blog devoted to discussing specific topics. Check out the Evolution Debates section which will be devoted to various discussions on that particular topic. First page completed (although ongoing) is a debunk of the multiple-website-owning creationist Harun Yahya and his mislabeled pictures of alleged Cretaceous era mammals. See the comparisons that show how ineptly these images are misidentified (and/or forged) and that Yahya shouldn't be taken seriously as a credible information source.
So our endless winter has decided to dump more than a foot of snow on the area. By midweek, temperatures will rise and there will be widespread flooding. I'm surprised that the cities haven't thought of an enterprise that involves vacuuming up the snow off the streets and shipping it (melted) by rail to Los Angeles. They can have it...
The Trap, yet another Adam Curtis documentary, examines game theory, anthropology, evolutionary psychology and the notion of perceived freedom. Can human beings, as social creatures, ever truly attain individual freedom? As one system of control and heirarchy is phased out, another steps in to take its place. Part 1Part 2Part 3a3b 3c
This film explains that "survival of the fittest" does not necessarily mean "...of the strongest", but of the perpetuation of the most successful reproductive strategies.
Most of us are familiar with the whimsical children's stories of Dr. Seuss, but before he embarked on his career as a famous children's author, he had been a political cartoonist as well as a writer for "Private Snafu", a series of Warner Brothers cartoons created for the U.S. Army. Given Seuss' background in politics, it's really no surprise that many of his stories also play out as sociopolitical commentary.
Seuss was ahead of his time -- in this story, identifying memetic trends and clique behavior before the term was even coined. Note how he's distinguishing bird-brained mentality vs. the more clever manipulator, portrayed as a primate.
(I didn't produce this video, by the way. It was either this or the longer song-and-dance animated production that was posted on YouTube).
