perfidy

I've run across a few sciency links that caught my interest.

• E.O. Wilson, famous scientist, inventor of sociobiology and proponent of the kin selection theory that attempted to explain the selflessness of ant workers has changed his tune.
  

  The researchers offer their own alternative theory, based on standard natural selection, but with a twist: After starting with a focus on a single founder, selection moves to the level of colony. From this perspective, a worker ant is something like a cell — part of a larger evolutionary unit, not a unit unto itself.

  “Our model proves that looking at a worker ant and asking why it is altruistic is the wrong level of analysis,” said Tarnita. “The important unit is the colony.”

  The researchers propose a theoretical narrative that begins with a primordial, solitary ant — perhaps something like the ancient Martialis heureka — that lived near a food source and developed genetic mutations that caused it to feed its offspring, rather than letting them fend for themselves. Called progressive provisioning, such nurture is widespread in insects.

  Another mutation could result in offspring that stayed near the nest, rather than leaving. They would “instinctively recognize that certain things need to be done, and do them,” said Nowak, describing real-world examples. “Put two normally solitary wasps together, and if one builds a hole, the other puts an egg in it. The other sees the egg, and feeds it.”

  That would be enough to form a small but real colony — and from there, eusociality could emerge from an accumulation of mutations that led to a hyper-specialization of tasks, limited reproduction to queens alone and favored the colony’s success above all else. Within this colony, a queen would be analogous to a human egg or sperm cell — a unit that embodies the whole. Worker self-sacrifice is no more nonsensical than that of a white blood cell.

  The researchers called this series of steps a “labyrinth,” one that isn’t easily navigated. Hence the rareness of eusociality, which is believed to have arisen just 10 to 20 times in history. But their theory explains everything that kin selection does, plus what it doesn’t.

  “There is no need whatsoever to invoke kin selection or inclusive fitness,” said Corina — not in eusociality, not in any cooperative behavior.

  Interesting in that kin relationships (while not unimportant) are subordinate to evolutionary changes that allow cooperative behavior.  The relevance to HBD, and evolutionary changes that may have altered human patterns of socialization over the past few millenia, will deserve some pondering.

• I'm curious as to why this report gets mainstream coverage without a hint of disdain, when other plasma theorists are ridiculed.  It's the same thing.  But still, good that the researchers are using real experiments rather than computer models to try and figure something out.
• The Younger Dryas was a period of intense cold almost 13,000 years ago.  Overall, there's been continuous warming since the end of the last ice age - the Younger Dryas period is a sharp, and rather long, exception to that trend.  Some have speculated that a (relatively small) cometary impact may have caused the cold.  This period also saw the extinction of megafauna in N. America, and the demise of the Clovis culture.
  

  In sedimentary deposits dating to the beginning of the YD, impact proponents have reported finding carbon spherules containing tiny nano-scale diamonds, which they thought to be created by shock metamorphism or chemical vapor deposition when the impactor struck.
  The nanodiamonds included lonsdaleite, an unusal form of diamond that has a hexagonal lattice rather than the usual cubic crystal lattice. Lonsdaleite is particularly interesting because it has been found inside meteorites and at known impact sites.

  But, another team of researchers has reported that they found no diamonds in YD boundary layer material.  Instead, they say, it's graphite.

  “Of all the evidence reported for a YD impact event, the presence of hexagonal diamond in YD boundary sediments represented the strongest evidence suggesting shock processing,” Daulton, who is also a member of WUSTL’s Center for Materials Innovation, says.
  However, a close examination of carbon spherules from the YD boundary using transmission electron microscopy by the Daulton team found no nanodiamonds. Instead, graphene- and graphene/graphane-oxide aggregates were found in all the specimens examined (including carbon spherules dated from before the YD to the present). Importantly, the researchers demonstrated that previous YD studies misidentified graphene/graphane-oxides as hexagonal diamond and likely misidentified graphene as cubic diamond.
  The YD impact hypothesis was in trouble already before this latest finding. Many other lines of evidence — including: fullerenes, extraterrestrial forms of helium, purported spikes in radioactivity and iridium, and claims of unique spikes in magnetic meteorite particles — had already been discredited. According to Pinter, “nanodiamonds were the last man standing.”
  “We should always have a skeptical attitude to new theories and test them thoroughly,” Scott says, “and if the evidence goes against them they should be abandoned.”

  Of course, that attitude is also required for existing theories. But nevermind. The fact that there is a YD boundary layer, and it's composed of a thick layer of carbon - well, that should be indicative of something bad going on, like perhaps lots of things burning. I'd be curious to hear what the YD impact proponents have to say about this.

• The Burgess Shale is a fascinating bit of meaty science - and now, there is another.  The new fossil beds are only a few miles from the Burgess deposits, but scientists have already discovered eight taxa previously unknown to man.  Pretty cool.

I've been busy.  In fact, I am still busy, and am sacrificing my work for your benefit right now.  Because I love you, and you're just that cool.

So, from the now defunct blog Seasons of Tumult and Discord, there's this bit that caught my eye.  Since you can't go to the blog anymore I'll post the whole thing and italimacize the part that caught me:

Guilt is a luxury by Talleyrand

Specifically white guilt.  People assume that white guilt will continue until they are completely dominated.

Keep telling yourself that lie if it makes you feel better.

Whites have been feeling guilty for the past, because they can afford to feel guilty about the past.  Does it matter if the government discriminates against them in good times?

Nope, they can do well somewhere else.

But in the lean times that are coming, it will matter and it will matter more and more.

Just as feminism will never be satisfied if men have any power or autonomy, because any power a man has by its very nature diminishes the power of women, so too do racists view any power a white man has as limiting the power of minorities.

Some of my faithful readers probably read racist and got a little confused because the word racist wasn’t used to describe white folk.

The word racist itself is beginning to lose its meaning, because everything a white person does is deemed racist.  And although whites have rolled over for decades, because they could afford to roll over, when it becomes an obvious issue of survival, whites aren’t going to care about being a racist.

In fact, if I were hazard a guess, in ten years there will be politicians that will embrace that they are “racist” and it will work in their favor, that is the kind of shift that I see coming, and it won’t be a pretty one.

Those that see the next century as asian, I’m telling you right now that the Chinese empire will fall as surely as that gigantic dam they built will collapse in the next ten to twenty years causing widespread destruction and upheaval.

Whites aren’t behaving ferally tribal... yet.  But they will be the way things are going.  When there is a huge societal shift, the behaviors of yesterday get repudiated and the pendulum swings in the other direction hard.

And the last time they were that way, the whites conquered most of the world and subjugated native people everywhere.  Is this really the sleeping giant that we want awakened?

Apparently it is.

You wouldn't like me when I'm angry. The whole western world going hulk-smash would be a bad thing, to be sure. But there ain't a lot the rest of the world could do to stop it, no matter how many more of them than us there are.

Well, this is fascinating. It appears that solar flares have an effect on radioactive decay rates here on Earth:

On Dec 13, 2006, a solar flare sent a stream of particles and radiation toward Earth. Purdue nuclear engineer Jere Jenkins, while measuring the decay rate of manganese-54, a short-lived isotope used in medical diagnostics, noticed that the rate dropped slightly during the flare, a decrease that started about a day and a half before the flare.

Long-term observation of the decay rate of silicon-32 and radium-226 seemed to show a small seasonal variation. The decay rate was ever so slightly faster in winter than in summer.

If this apparent relationship between flares and decay rates proves true, it could lead to a method of predicting solar flares prior to their occurrence, which could help prevent damage to satellites and electric grids, as well as save the lives of astronauts in space.

All well and good - flare warnings would be of great benefit. But it seems to me that the article is missing something very important: if radioactive decay rates here on Earth are subject to variation based on electromagnetic activity from the Sun, what does that mean for all our radiometric dating techniques? The Carrington Event back in 1859 was orders of magnitude more powerful than the flare in '06. The Sun was quiescent for centuries in the Little Ice Age. What other changes in our electromagnetic environment have occurred in the past 50000 years? If they were strong enough, they could have a significant effect on the calculated age of archaeological finds.

Also, I remember being taught that radioactive decay was a constant.  Why was I lied to?  Or is this really that ground shaking a discovery?

In other Sun news,

• Solar cycles have been detected in another star. They're much shorter than ours, though, less than a year. Interesting.
• Shocking news:  "Large changes in the sun's energy output may drive unexpectedly dramatic fluctuations in Earth's outer atmosphere."  You think?  Why would that be unexpected?  Or is it unexpected like each month's unemployment numbers?
• And, bonus vaguely sun-related link: Bull-killer, Sun Lord, about Mithraism in the Early Roman Empire.  I think my neighbor is a Mithraist.  He was in the army, and he doesn't like the Chicago Bulls.

Interesting piece on what hyperinflation in the US might look like.  The prelude is a description of the hyperinflation in Chili under Allende:

Apart from what happened with the Weimar Republic in the 1920’s, advanced Western economies have no experience with hyperinflation. (I actually think that the high inflation that struck the dollar in the 1970’s, and which was successfully choked off by Paul Volcker, was in fact an incipient bout of commodity-driven hyperinflation—but that’s for some other time.) Though there were plenty of hyperinflationary events in the XIX century and before, after the Weimar experience, the advanced economies learned their lesson—and learned it so well, in fact, that it’s been forgotten.

However, my personal history gives me a slight edge in this discussion: During the period 1970–’73, Chile experienced hyperinflation, brought about by the failed and corrupt policies of Salvador Allende and his Popular Unity Government. Though I was too young to experience it first hand, my family and some of my older friends have vivid memories of the Allende period—vivid memories that are actually closer to nightmares.

The causes of Chile’s hyperinflation forty years ago were vastly different from what I believe will cause American hyperinflation now. But a slight detour through this history is useful to our current predicament.

To begin: In 1970, Salvador Allende was elected president by roughly a third of the population. The other two-thirds voted for the centrist Christian Democrat candidate, or for the center-right candidate in roughly equal measure. Allende’s election was a fluke.

He wasn’t a centrist, no matter what the current hagiography might claim: Allende was a hard-core Socialist, who headed a Hard Left coalition called the Unidad Popular—the Popular Unity (UP, pronounced “oo-peh”). This coalition—Socialists, Communists, and assorted Left parties—took over the administration of the country, and quickly implemented several “reforms”, which were designed to “put Chile on the road to Socialism”.

Land was expropriated—often by force—and given to the workers. Companies and mines were also nationalized, and also given to the workers. Of course, the farms, companies and mines which were stripped from their owners weren’t inefficient or ineptly run—on the contrary, Allende and his Unidad Popular thugs stole farms, companies and mines from precisely the “blood-thirsty Capitalists” who best treated their workers, and who were the most fair towards them.

Allende’s government also put UP-loyalists in management positions in those nationalized enterprises—a first step towards implementing a Leninist regime, whereby the UP would have “political control” over the means of production and distribution. From speeches and his actions, it’s clear that Allende wanted to implement a Maoist-Leninist regime, with himself as Supreme Leader.

One of the key policy initiative Allende carried out was wage and price controls. In order to appease and co-opt the workers, Allende’s regime simultaneously froze prices of basic goods and services, and augmented wages by decree.

At first, this measure worked like a charm: Workers had more money, but goods and services still had the same old low prices. So workers were happy with Allende: They went on a shopping spree—and rapidly emptied stores and warehouses of consumer goods and basic products. Allende and the UP Government then claimed it was right-wing, anti-Revolutionary “acaparadores”—hoarders—who were keeping consumer goods from the workers. Right.

Meanwhile, private companies—forced to raise worker wages while maintaining their same price structures—quickly went bankrupt: So then, of course, they were taken over by the Allende government, “in the name of the people”. Key industries were put on the State dole, as it were, and made to continue their operations at a loss, so as to satisfy internal demand. If there was a cash shortfall, the Allende government would simply print more escudos and give them to the now State-controlled companies, which would then pay the workers.

This is how hyperinflation started in Chile. Workers had plenty of cash in hand—but it was useless, because there were no goods to buy.

So Allende’s government quickly instituted the Juntas de Abastecimiento y Control de Precios (“Unions of Supply and Price Controls”, known as JAP). These were locally formed boards, composed of loyal Party members, who decided who in a given neighborhood received consumer products, and who did not. Naturally, other UP-loyalists had preference—these Allende backers received ration cards, with which to buy consumer goods and basic staples.

Of course, those people perceived as “unfriendly” to Allende and the UP Government either received insufficient rations for their families, or no rations at all, if they were vocally opposed to the Allende regime and its policies.

Very quickly, a black market in goods and staples arose. At first, these black markets accepted escudos. But with each passing month, more and more escudos were printed into circulation by the Allende government, until by late ’72, black marketeers were no longer accepting escudos. Their mantra became, “Sólo dólares”: Only dollars.

Hyperinflation had arrived in Chile.

In the aftermath of the mortgage company deciding to sell my house with out, you know, letting me in on the secret; I decided that this was in fact a perfect moment to pause and take stock of my situation.

So I did.

In many areas of my life, things are groovy.  I'm down 20lbs.  I'm exermacizing.  I've got a decent job.  I've got great kids, and a great wife.  Even my dog and cat are well above average.  I've no credit card debt, I'm current on all my bills.  There's just one gaping, gangrenous sore on the face of my happiness, and that is the house situation.  And it occurred to me, after consulting runes, oracles and qualified professionals, that my current housing situation was not only not all that great it is unlikely in the extreme to improve anytime in the near future.  Given my recent unpleasantness in the job market, and the general unpleasantness still extent in the housing market, the likelihood of getting a decent refinance on my home is vanishingly small.  So until the housing market rebounds (which might happen before the world ends in 2012, but I'm not betting on it) I am stuck paying a large mortgage on a house that is worth less than that mortgage, and said mortgage is a much larger fraction of my monthly income than it was when I bought the place.

Since I want to enjoy my last couple years before the world ends, and since I want to get some petty vengeance on my mortgage company for stabbing me in the back, I'm moving.  It seems that now I can get a house twice as big and almost as nice as the current one for 2/3 the price I paid four years ago.  Such is modern life.  So, the next few months will be consumed with the vast logistical enterprise that is relocating a household consisting of a pregnant wife, three kids seven and under, a dog, a cat, and all the crap we've accumulated with the efficiency of a black hole sucking in light.  Packing, looking at houses, trips to the dump, dealing with realtors and finance, and a thousand other tasks large and small will consume most of the time I don't spend working or sleeping.

So blogging will be light for the near future, as it has been for the last couple weeks. I do intend to finish up a couple nearly finished drafts on formalist type issues.  I'll throw up some links now and again.  (Isegoria seemed to disagree with my last bunch being labeled, "Of mild interest.")  And I'll probably steal some time away from work or sleep to get things off my chest. 

o assuage your pain, here is teh funny:

Boing Boing has a gallery up of artist's conceptions of space stations from back in the 70s.  I've seen most of these before, but it's always fun to look at pictures of space stations.  Always.

Sadly, I don't think that anything like that will ever be built, barring a truly vast change in our technological capabilities.  We can make space travel more affordable in the short term, to be sure - the current inefficiencies of NASA-style space travel are truly retarded.  Private space travel could bring costs down to (best case) the cost of air freight, as the fuel cost of a jaunt to orbit for a modest-sized vehicle are on par with a antipodal aircraft flight.  But that is a hard lower bound.

To get costs lower, you need new technology.  Nanotech diamond rocket engines burning exotic fuels, maybe.  Whole ships made entirely of ultralight diamondoid materials might get costs lower.  Real fusion torch drives, and a billion ecological impact statements might also do the trick.  A spacehook or elevator doing the indian rope trick would also significantly lower costs.

And costs need to get down to sea or rail freight levels, and they would need to be a thicker pipe.  Low cost, and large bulk lifting would be necessary to construct space stations.  Because, despite the availability of extraterrestrial materials in the belt and on the moon, you first need to lift an industrial complex into orbit to be able to process and move that material.  Colonies in space will need ecosystems, and the only known supply of livable ecosystem is at the bottom of an uncomfortably large gravity well.

The only way around that limitation that doesn't involve better earth to orbit technology is von Neumann machines, sending a small seed colony of self-replicating robots to the moon, or the belt, and having them construct the infrastructure that people could then travel to.  And is that really a good idea?

XKCD

As I catch up from the recent chaos, and prepare for yet more chaos, here's some mildly interesting links I've collected over the last few days:

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I have achieved a milestone in personal fitness.  I now weigh less than 1/8 ton.  I have not seen the sunny side of 250 since somewhere in 2002, about which time I was settling into the sedentary lifestyle of the knowledge worker and eating at the all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet across the street from my office nearly every day for lunch.

Since I started my diet on July 5th, with the encouragement and assistance of the Monkeybrains google group founded by Aretae, I have lost 18 pounds, net.  That's an average of three pounds a week over six weeks.  But the average is lying to you, as it often does.  I went to Ohio for two and a half weeks and over that time progressively fell off the diet, and ended up nearly ten pounds heavier when I returned than when I left.  So the total weight loss is closer to 26 lbs, over a period of four weeks.

How did I achieve this?  I've mentioned the Paleo diet here before, and that is it.  The best summary I've seen of the methodology of paleo dieting is right here, and here's the twelve commandments:

1. Eliminate sugar (including fruit juices and sports drinks) and all foods that contain flour.
2. Start eating proper fats - Use healthy animal fats or coconut fat to substitute fat calories for carbohydrate calories that formerly came from sugar and flour. Drink whole cream or coconut milk.
3. Eliminate gluten grains. Limit grains like corn and rice, which are nutritionally poor.
4. Eliminate grain and seed derived oils (cooking oils) Cook with Ghee, butter, animal fats, or coconut oil.
5. Favor ruminants like beef, lamb and bison for your meat. Eat eggs and some fish.
6. Make sure you are Vitamin D replete. Get daily midday sun or consider supplementation.
7. 2 meals a day is best. Don't graze like a herbivore.
8. Adjust your 6s and 3s. Pastured (grass fed) dairy and grass fed beef or bison has a more optimal 6:3 ratio, more vitamins and CLA. A teaspoon or two of Carlson's fish oil (1-2 g DHA/EPA) daily is good compensatory supplementation if you eat grain-fed beef or no fish.
9. Proper exercise - emphasizing resistance and interval training over long aerobic sessions.
10. Most modern fruit is just a candy bar from a tree. Go easy on bags of sugar like apples. Stick with berries and avoid watermelon which is pure fructose. Eat in moderation.
11. Eliminate legumes
12. Eliminate all remaining dairy including cheese- (now you are "Orthodox paleolithic")

The good doctor also points out:

If you can do step 1, that is about 50% of the benefit and alone a huge improvement on the standard american diet (SAD) By about step 6 you are at about 75% , by step 9 about 80% and at 10 you are at 99% for most people. These are just estimates, of course.

So right now, I'm obeying the first ten of the twelve commandments and thus am 99 44/100 pure paleo.  I don't think I'll ever cut the beans and cheese completely - they round out the meat and vegetables.  And by obeying those commandments, I'm losing a pound a day eating as much as I want.  Sunday, I was particularly hungry, I had 4 eggs and 4 slices of bacon for lunch, two glasses of whole milk, most of a bag of beef jerky, a handful of peanuts, a single strawberry, and a two large helpings of a tasty Indian lamb dish my wife made.  That had to be a few thousand calories.  But next morning, another pound and a half gone.

My goal is to lose another 20 pounds in each of the next two months.  That will put me at about 210 - a weight I haven't seen since my mid twenties.

Looking back at the last six weeks, I find that I'm really rather surprised at how easy it has been.  Aside from the trip, where I was at times not really free to pick the food that I wanted, and some alcohol consumption along with it; I've been able to keep to the diet remarkably well.  Being able to consume mass quantities is a huge help - every caloric restriction diet I went on in the past drove me nuts, and led to binge eating.

If you want to lose weight, I recommend this diet unreservedly - and read Good Calories, Bad Calories to understand why it works.