Smoking is a filthy, disgusting habit

No corn plants exist in the wild. If man stopped cultivating corn it would die out in only a few years

Survival of the Kindest

AN ALTERNATIVE TO “NATURE, RED IN TOOTH AND CLAW.” CAN A VISION OF A MORE EMPATHIC WORLD CHANGE THE WAY WE BEHAVE TOWARD EACH OTHER?

“Selfishness beats altruism within groups. Altruistic groups beat selfish groups. Everything else is commentary.”

Altruism vs. Selfishness

THE IDEA THAT EVOLUTION EXPLAINS SELFISHNESS WELL AND ALTRUISM POORLY IS STARTING TO STINK. CAN WE PLEASE BURY IT NOW?

Evolution helps explain all behaviors.The idea that evolution explains selfishness well and altruism poorly is so dead that it is beginning to smell. Can we please bury it now? Evolution explains the full range of behaviors, from extreme selfishness to extreme altruism. What evolves in any particular case depends upon the underlying environmental conditions, which are fairly well specified by now. No one should be surprised anymore by the raw fact that kindness exists in nature. The frontier of science has moved on to a more refined set of questions.Altruism is only locally disadvantageous.Darwin clearly understood the fundamental problem associated with the evolution of altruism: It is locally disadvantageous. Place an altruist and a selfish individual next to each other and the selfish individual wins. How can a behavior evolve in the total population when it is never at a local advantage?Darwin also clearly understood the nature of the solution: Altruism is advantageous at a larger scale. Groups of altruists out-compete groups of non-altruists, even if altruism is selectively disadvantageous within each group. This is the theory of multilevel selection, in which different traits are favored at different levels. The term multilevel selection wasn’t coined until later, but the whole point of group selection theory was to solve the problem posed by a conflict between levels of selection.

Frans de Waal on Political Apes, Science Communication, and Building a Cooperative Society | The Primate Diaries, Scientific American Blog Network

cool interview on some themes that I find really interesting. Namely the relationship we have with the inherent qualities of our nature as primates and the flexible changing nature of culture. or in other words what do they mean when they say that ‘the roots of politics are older than humanity.’

one particular question i the interview seemed to frame what I found interesting and framed my interest into the two views of human nature as one side viewing humans as ever combative, violent and power seeking while the other notes the seemingly contradictory cooperative and altruistic behavior

Johnson: Where does Peter Kropotkin fit into this history of animal behavior?

De Waal: Ah, Kropotkin. That’s much earlier, of course. Kropotkin was a naturalist, he was also a prince, and an anarchist. He was many things. Kropotkin believed that the roots of solidarity and cooperation could be found in nature. He argued that survival of the fittest could result, not only by competing with others, but also by cooperating with others. He was inspired by his research in Siberia where animals experience very harsh conditions and where cooperating was essential to survival.

In that sense he was very different from Thomas Henry Huxley. Kropotkin loved Darwin but he opposed Huxley because the latter presented a very narrow view of Darwinism, one that is still with us today. The modern day Huxley is Richard Dawkinswho is also a combative atheist, like Huxley was, and who portrays nature as a field of combat where the strongest wins and where everything is regulated by self-interest. Huxley couldn’t imagine how morality could have evolved, even though Darwin himself wrote extensively on the topic. So Huxley was a much more pessimistic and narrow-minded Darwinist. Kropotkin opposed him for that reason because Kropotkin saw a great deal of cooperation in nature just as Darwin had.

but why is it important to know our "roots" and the way we behave and interact in the natural world before we had technology oozing from every pore of our society? becuase as noted by De Waal this should help you better understand the environment in which our biology is most familiar with

 You should know as much as you can about the human species if you have a hand in designing human society. Of course, I’m not saying that you can derive moral rules from nature – that’s deriving an ought from an is, as the philosophers say – but you do need to know what kind of animals we are if you want to design a stable society. 

also there was some interesting commentary on American culture from De Waals who originally hails from Holland and only recently gained citizenship

When I came to this country I was struck by the amount of violence on TV and in the movies. It was a much higher level of violence than I was used to but people seemed very comfortable with it. Then there’s the puritanism, this extreme obsession Americans have with sex. There’s not less sex in American society than in European society, but people are more obsessed with it. As soon as there’s a naked breast on TV half of the U.S. faints apparently and need to write their senators about it. But, on the other hand, people are very helpful and less jealous of your success. Holland is a very small country, an egalitarian country, where if you want to be successful you have to hide your ambition. That’s also true for Japan. In the U.S. if you’re successful it’s appreciated, even rewarded. In that sense they’re much more generous than many European countries are. But then if you don’t mention what you have done in your life people in the U.S. think you’ve done nothing. It’s a very different way of operating in the two societies.

on the our sense of fairness and equality which has been show to be remarkably similar in higher primates we can draw parallels to our own political and cultural landscape

I think the sense of fairness in humans is very strongly developed and that’s why we react so strongly to all the bonuses received by Wall Street executives. We want to know why they deserve these benefits. The anger we have towards Wall Street is probably a very old primate reaction that relates to cooperation. If you are a cooperative animal you need to watch what you get. If you, or even a whole community, invest in something but then a few individuals receive a much larger return, it’s not a good arrangement. If it happens consistently, it’s time to look for an arrangement that is more beneficial. That’s why we’re so sensitive to how rewards are being divided.

Johnson: You would argue, then, that a sense of fairness and equality is an innate feature of our species. How does that get sidelined? Is it beaten out of people through propaganda?

De Waal: Yes, to some degree that is happening. You justify the inequalities by saying some people are just better and smarter than others and the strong should survive and the poor can die off.
Johnson: That sounds nearly identical to what Herbert Spencer said in the nineteenth century; that the poor were a drag on a nations economy and should die off.
De Waal: Yes, he claimed it would be better if they died because he thought that’s what happens in nature. This view came to be called Social Darwinism, though this is really a misnomer because Darwin himself rejected it. I have two problems with that whole viewpoint which is so popular among conservatives in the United States. They claim you need to organize a society based on competition because the strong will advance and the weak, well, that’s their problem. They assume that the way natural selection operates is the way that society should be structured. I’m not sure that society should be structured along the lines of natural selection. So that’s the first problem.
The second problem is the assumption that nature is purely driven by competitive processes. Darwin himself understood that this was not the case when he wrote that “struggle for existence” needed to be taken in a very broad sense. It may mean that an individual has a better immune system than another and that’s why they survived to leave more offspring. Instead of direct combat, which is the terminology that Spencer and Huxley used, it is more about who is smarter, who detects the predator earlier, who has better ears and eyes, etc. All of these things play a role, it is not necessarily combat between individuals. The conservative view of how nature operates and how we need to apply that to society is extremely distorted. It is a very deficient ideology in my opinion.

and on the future he notes

Johnson: Given all of the problems that we face today as a species, are you hopeful?
De Waal: I’m hopeful about most of the issues except for the environment. I’m hopeful about the social issues. I think we can handle six billion people, or whatever it’s going to be, because of the increasing integration in the world community. But as far as the environment is concerned, I am becoming pessimistic because I do not see anybody stepping up and taking the long view approach. It seems like we’re stuck in a tragedy of the commons where everyone is trying to contribute as little as possible to get out of this situation. On issues such as global warming and the deterioration of the environment, I just don’t see the steps taken that need to be taken at this point. But if we can solve these problems I think we have a chance.

Ladybug Metamorphosis

went out to do some much needed reading on the new hammock we got, but found it to be covered in ladybug larve! they look just like these

Twilight Festival: Explosions In The Sky

I will have to say this probably wasn't my most favorite concert that I have been to. Lost of moshing and pushing! I can't handle that stuff I am just a tender guy who wants to enjoy some music without having to worry about falling over and getting stomped on.
Hopefully the next twilight concert will be a little more relaxed

Math

Ugh this class will be the end of me. I feel like I have been working all day to try and get caught up but I have seriously under estimated how long it would take. I am not worried that I won't be able to get caught up in time for the upcoming test on friday, I just wish I was caught up with all the homework last tuesday.
For the past duration of the class I have been "sitting in" but now that I have decided that it would be a better deal for me to stay @ UVU for another semester or so I need to get UVU to allow me to register and get much needed credit.
As for the class I am learning what I need to be learning but there are a few things that kinda suck
1) this class is every day
2) it is @ 9am
3) the homework while not conceptualy challenging is alot of repitition which is what I need I suppose.
Now I just need the tenacity to stick with math for the rest of my university experience so I don't get behind in my math skills.

Am I on the right platform?

posts like this and this make me think if I am on the right blogging platform. Do I really own this blog? could I take it down on a whim and place it somewhere else?
it makes me think how hard would it be to just build my own website, i think I would enjoy doing that and it would teach me alot of cool skill. the only drawback I see is that it would be really difficult to integrate some of the mobile features such as SMS to blog or email to blog which seem like needed features.

or I could just come to the reality that nothing is forever and I should just chillax and blog more (instead of post links which I should probably just use FB or G+ for links)

BBC Nature - A rare he-she butterfly is born in London's NHM

A line down the insect's middle marks the division between its male side and its more colourful female side.

Failure of the butterfly's sex chromosomes to separate during fertilisation is behind this rare sexual chimera.

If this doesn't make you feel small nothing will

Provo Municipal Council Meeting

Jake and I attended today's council meeting and would have to say that it was somewhat more enjoyable than expected. The first half an hour or so was spent recognizing an employee of the month in the parks and rec department along with recognizing the beautiful homes the the Edgemont  neighborhood.
while this wasn't very exciting some time was set aside in the meeting for some public comments which resulted in some very engaged citizens concerned about a new ordinance in Provo and some potential ethics violations against councilman Steve Turley.
I was glad I went because I was able to hear these public comments about topics I was not aware of. I am grateful I live in a community that has a least a few concerned citizens that are willing to take the time and present complaints and concerns to a seeming open city council.
While I don't have many thoughts due to ignorance on my part of the issues involved on the allegations against councilman Steve Turley I do have some opinions of what I could gather from the comments on the residential ordinance passed.
from what I could gather I understand this ordinance allows property owners more leeway in allowing how much paved surface is allowed on their property. while this sounds like a pretty mundane topic this had citizens of the Joaquin neighborhood rightly concerned in my mind. From my understanding this has the potential to decrease property values and remove needed green space all for some extra parking. From my perspective the parking issue of the Joaquin neighborhood involves two major players, BYU and the Residents of the neighborhood. I would like to make the distinction of certain residents of the Joaquin neighborhood as there are the families and longtime residents along with the sizable BYU student population which shrinks and swells during the school year.
One of the issues that was not mentioned in the public comments was BYU's parking policy, I see BYU's policy as a large player in determining the issue of parking in these neighborhoods. From what I have seen (which I will admit is not much) is the BYU has not made a substantial effort to reduce the amount of student traffic. From my recollection BYU has consistently lacked an effort to sway students to use alternative forms of transportation which would in turn reduce the need for large, expansive and expensive parking facilities on and off campus. BYU does not offer enough of a subsidization on bus passes for students leaving little incentive to shell out the cash for one. As a cycling advocate the whole issue of on street parking v.s. on property parking is not a problem that is easily tackled with one solution such as the one proposed by the city council. Transportation issues such as these can easily be alleviated even if only a slight amount by incentivising alternative forms of transportation such as bicycling or transit which could easily reduce the number of cars seeking to park in the Joaquin neighborhood especially when it is so close to campus.
while I do admit a degree of ignorance on my part please excuse me if I am misinformed on this topic. I understand that these are complex issues that can be difficult to try and hash out on a keyboard in a few minutes. for instance I realize I offer no solution to the students who may choose to bicycle or use transit while in Provo but also have a car. also I recognize that for some bicycling or transit is simply not an acceptable solution for some, all I seek to express is a desire to see this issue as not of car drivers v.s. Joaquin residents v.s. BYU students but as an issue that is more inclusive of low impact transportation such as bicycling or transit.

When will we face the fact that no one will ever cost us more jobs than Wall Street did in 2008-2010, no one will ever kill more Americans than the 45,000 who die every year for lack of insurance. Our enemy is corporate greed and those pretend that such greed is patriotism.

search book reviews from bloggers

yet another reason why google is a better company than facebook

Why why I quit my job: one reporters expereinces of leaving a dream job for his beliefs

Teller Speaks!