Rats rule

Rats rule
(Globe and Mail)

But attitudes and the treatment of lab rats have changed as we become more aware of the complexity of the rodents’ behaviour and have more respect for the animals, Prof. Whishaw says.

“There was a time when people thought animals were the equivalent of machines and humans were different because they had a soul. It would be hard to find a person in that category any more. We now realize that animals are much more complicated than that. They are much more like us than less like us,” he says.

And vice versa.

You won’t fool the children of the evolution

You won’t fool the children of the evolution
(Sunday Herald)

Dawkins’s own intolerance for religion began when he was in his teens and a pupil at Oundle public school in England. “Intolerance isn’t quite the word I would use,” he says, correcting me. “My disbelief in religion began at about 15.” And the cause? “I grew up and became old enough to think.”

He cites a recent survey in Nature magazine, which examined religious belief in elite American scientists. It showed that 90% of the members of the National Academy (the US equivalent of the Royal Society) described themselves as atheists.

I ask him if he thinks science and religion can co-exist at all. He thinks a form of religion can, as long as it follows what he calls Einsteinian principles. “When Einstein used the word God he most definitely didn’t mean any kind of supernatural person or being. He was using the word as a poetic signifier for that which we don’t yet understand,” he says.

“I would say I belong in Einstein’s camp. We both believe in a sense of awe and reverence for the deep mysteries of the universe but we don’t believe in anything supernatural.”

Amen.

Reflections on mirror neurons

Reflections on mirror neurons
(Baltimore Sun)

In another study, Iacoboni found that subjects who displayed high levels of empathy in a psychological questionnaire fired more mirror neurons when viewing people in emotional states than test subjects whose responses showed less empathy. He plans to present the findings of his empathy study at a conference for autism researchers in Boston this month.

Iacoboni and other neuroscientists believe that mirror neurons were a major factor in our evolutionary development and that as we learn more, their importance to psychology will rival DNA’s role in biology. They argue that being able to read the intentions of others is one achievement that separates us from the great apes.

And sociopaths.

Scientists Inseminate a Whale

Scientists Inseminate a Whale

Aquarium scientists, with help from their peers at Sea World, artificially inseminated Kela, a 24-year-old beluga, on Thursday morning.

After giving the whale hormones to induce the release of an egg into the reproductive tract, workers used a crane to lift Kela out of the water and place her on a mat. Frozen sperm from a Sea World beluga was then inserted. The process took only a few minutes.

Yes, the title is misleading. His name was Todd, not Jonah. No, there were no sperm whales involved. And no, it didn’t have anything to do with humpbacks. Happy now?

An Inquiry Concerning the Design and Function of the Xbox 2

An Inquiry Concerning the Design and Function of the Xbox 2, with Remarks Concerning its Origins
(Ars Technica)

It is clear, upon the evidence furnished by the clever composition of the many minute interlocking parts of the machine, that the Xbox 2 was quite deliberately fashioned in its full perfection by the skilled hand of a single craftsman, to whom all the credit for the miraculous nature of the device is due. Those irrational fools who, in the grip of a vain and atheistic theory concerning the origin of this present cosmos, have suggested that the device has somehow arisen by the vagaries and vicissitudes of chance (atoms colliding in the void as it were) are clearly in error. For surely if one were to have come across such a contraption on a deserted island, one would most logically infer the prior existence of men on that island. How could one think otherwise? The burden of proof therefore rests upon the man who suggests that the Xbox 2 arose by chance.

Would you Adam and Eve it?

Would you Adam and Eve it?
(BBC)

Where do Boris and his fellow dinosaurs fit into this worldview?

Many were killed off in Noah’s flood and became fossils. Others hung around to scare our ancestors who called them dragons. Bill Cooper, a council member of CSM, argues the 8th Century poem Beowulf records a genuine encounter with a Tyrannosaurus rex.

The chairman, Dr David Rosevear, says even non-Christian visitors often accept their claims, “in spite of the brainwashing they get from the media.”

“Typically,” he says, in a statement that would make arch evolutionist Richard Dawkins’ blood run cold, “a mother will bring her children round in the holidays and say to me ‘Yes, that’s pretty much what I always felt’.”

The silent majority is speaking up. It’s too difficult to let go of cherished notions. Sometimes I feel this is a lost cause.

UFO snafus

Extraterrestrial UFOs never land on earth’s surface to avoid interference in their electromagnetic flux–but accidents happen
(India Daily)

According to computer models based on the UFO flight patterns in the world; a new finding is coming to light. According to the model, UFOs never land on the earth’s surface. They always float above the ground. Like Hoover craft they can literally float few inches above the ground.

So it isn’t fancy tractor beams they use for abductions, but plain ol’ suction. I bet they have various attachments and nozzles for their anal probes too.

Related: All human beings receive extraterrestrial UFO mind control signals.