Select Page ::

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity – TEEB

Posted on July 24, 2015 by Danzig

#TEEBAgFood: All the info about TEEB for Agriculture & Food

Do you still value me? From the Arctic, with love

TEEB Multi-Stakeholder International Workshop in Beijing

Feeding the World, Sustaining the Global Food Economy

TEEB study to demonstrate the value of mangroves for Liberia

Natural Capital Accounting at the World Parks Congress

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) is a global initiative focused on making natures values visible. Its principal objective is to mainstream the values of biodiversity and ecosystem services into decision-making at all levels. It aims to achieve this goal by following a structured approach to valuation that helps decision-makers recognize the wide range of benefits provided by ecosystems and biodiversity, demonstrate their values in economic terms and, where appropriate, capture those values in decision-making.

Since the launch of the TEEB reports various countries have initiated TEEB studies to demonstrate the value of their ecosystems and to encourage policy-making that recognizes and accounts for their ecosystem services and biodiversity.

TEEB seeks to provide a deeper analysis of the myriad values provided by biodiversity and ecosystems, either at the biome level, or more globally to better assess their value to specific economic sectors, and wider impacts on ecosystem and human well-being.

Read the original:

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity - TEEB

Dover Beaches North, New Jersey – Wikipedia, the free …

Posted on July 24, 2015 by Danzig

"Normandy Beach" redirects here. For the beaches involved in the World War 2 invasion of Normandy, see Normandy Landings.

Dover Beaches North is an unincorporated community and census designated place (CDP) located within Toms River, in Ocean County, New Jersey, United States.[7][8][9] As of the 2010 United States Census, the CDP's population was 1,239.[3] The CDP includes the communities of Ocean Beaches 1, 2 and 3, Chadwick Beach, Chadwick Island, Seacrest Beach, Monterey Beach, Silver Beach, Normandy Shores and half of Normandy Beach. Dover Beaches North is situated on the Barnegat Peninsula, a long, narrow barrier peninsula that separates Barnegat Bay from the Atlantic Ocean.

Toms River Township is split by the United States Census Bureau into three CDPs; Toms River CDP on the mainland including over 95% of the township's population, along with Dover Beaches North and Dover Beaches South.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP had a total area of 1.587 square miles (4.111km2), of which, 0.922 square miles (2.387km2) of it was land and 0.665 square miles (1.723km2) of it (41.92%) was water.[1][10]

At the 2010 United States Census, there were 1,239 people, 702 households, and 364.3 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 1,344.2 per square mile (519.0/km2). There were 4,071 housing units at an average density of 4,416.6 per square mile (1,705.3/km2). The racial makeup of the CDP was 98.71% (1,223) White, 0.24% (3) Black or African American, 0.40% (5) Native American, 0.32% (4) Asian, 0.00% (0) Pacific Islander, 0.16% (2) from other races, and 0.16% (2) from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 1.94% (24) of the population.[3]

There were 702 households, of which 6.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.4% were married couples living together, 4.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 48.1% were non-families. 43.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 24.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.76 and the average family size was 2.36.[3]

In the CDP, 6.1% of the population were under the age of 18, 2.7% from 18 to 24, 11.5% from 25 to 44, 36.2% from 45 to 64, and 43.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 62.6 years. For every 100 females there were 88.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.6 males.[3]

As of the 2000 United States Census[4] there were 1,785 people, 974 households, and 529 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 703.3/km2 (1,821.8/mi2). There were 4,119 housing units at an average density of 1,622.8/km2 (4,203.9/mi2). The racial makeup of the CDP was 100% White.[11]

There were 974 households out of which 9.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.7% were married couples living together, 5.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 45.6% were non-families. 42.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 24.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.83 and the average family size was 2.44.[11]

In the CDP the population was spread out with 9.0% under the age of 18, 3.6% from 18 to 24, 18.2% from 25 to 44, 30.7% from 45 to 64, and 38.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 58 years. For every 100 females there were 90.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.0 males.[11]

John Holdren, Obama’s Science Czar, says: Forced abortions …

Posted on July 23, 2015 by Danzig

John Holdren, Obama's Science Czar, says: Forced abortions and mass sterilization needed to save the planet Book he authored in 1977 advocates for extreme totalitarian measures to control the population Forced abortions. Mass sterilization. A "Planetary Regime" with the power of life and death over American citizens.

The tyrannical fantasies of a madman? Or merely the opinions of the person now in control of science policy in the United States? Or both?

These ideas (among many other equally horrifying recommendations) were put forth by John Holdren, whom Barack Obama has recently appointed Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, and Co-Chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology -- informally known as the United States' Science Czar. In a book Holdren co-authored in 1977, the man now firmly in control of science policy in this country wrote that:

Women could be forced to abort their pregnancies, whether they wanted to or not; The population at large could be sterilized by infertility drugs intentionally put into the nation's drinking water or in food; Single mothers and teen mothers should have their babies seized from them against their will and given away to other couples to raise; People who "contribute to social deterioration" (i.e. undesirables) "can be required by law to exercise reproductive responsibility" -- in other words, be compelled to have abortions or be sterilized. A transnational "Planetary Regime" should assume control of the global economy and also dictate the most intimate details of Americans' lives -- using an armed international police force.

Impossible, you say? That must be an exaggeration or a hoax. No one in their right mind would say such things.

Well, I hate to break the news to you, but it is no hoax, no exaggeration. John Holdren really did say those things, and this report contains the proof. Below you will find photographs, scans, and transcriptions of pages in the book Ecoscience, co-authored in 1977 by John Holdren and his close colleagues Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich. The scans and photos are provided to supply conclusive evidence that the words attributed to Holdren are unaltered and accurately transcribed.

[UPDATE: Make sure to read the new statements issued by the White House and by John Holdren's office in response to the controversy raised by this essay -- you can see them below following the Ecoscience excerpts, or you can jump directly to the statements by clicking here.]

This report was originally inspired by this article in FrontPage magazine, which covers some of the same information given here. But that article, although it contained many shocking quotes from John Holdren, failed to make much of an impact on public opinion. Why not? Because, as I discovered when discussing the article with various friends, there was no proof that the quotes were accurate -- so most folks (even those opposed to Obama's policies) doubted their veracity, because the statements seemed too inflammatory to be true. In the modern era, it seems, journalists have lost all credibility, and so are presumed to be lying or exaggerating unless solid evidence is offered to back up the claims. Well, this report contains that evidence.

Of course, Holdren wrote these things in the framework of a book he co-authored about what he imagined at the time (late 1970s) was an apocalyptic crisis facing mankind: overpopulation. He felt extreme measures would be required to combat an extreme problem. Whether or not you think this provides him a valid "excuse" for having descended into a totalitarian fantasy is up to you: personally, I don't think it's a valid excuse at all, since the crisis he was in a panic over was mostly in his imagination. Totalitarian regimes and unhinged people almost always have what seems internally like a reasonable justification for actions which to the outside world seem incomprehensible.

Direct quotes from John Holdren's Ecoscience

Go here to read the rest:

John Holdren, Obama's Science Czar, says: Forced abortions ...

Applied behavior analysis – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Posted on July 23, 2015 by ev1

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is defined as the process of systematically applying interventions based upon the principles of learning theory to improve socially significant behaviors to a meaningful degree, and to demonstrate that the interventions employed are responsible for the improvement in behavior.[1] Despite much confusion throughout the mental health community, ABA was previously called behavior modification but it revised as the earlier approach involved superimposing consequences to change behavior without determining the behavior-environment interactions first. Moreover, the current approach also seeks to emit replacement behaviors which serve the same function as the aberrant behaviors.[2][3][4] By functionally assessing the relationship between a targeted behavior and the environment as well as identifying antecedents and consequences, the methods of ABA can be used to change that behavior.[3]

Methods in applied behavior analysis range from validated intensive behavioral interventionsmost notably utilized for children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD)[5]to basic research which investigates the rules by which humans adapt and maintain behavior. However, ABA contributes to a full range of areas including: HIV prevention,[6] conservation of natural resources,[7] education,[8]gerontology,[9]health and exercise,[10]organizational behavior management (i.e., industrial safety),[11]language acquisition,[12] littering,[13]medical procedures,[14] parenting,[15]psychotherapy, seatbelt use,[16]severe mental disorders,[17] sports,[18]substance abuse, and zoo management and care of animals.[19]

ABA is defined as an applied natural science devoted to developing and analyzing procedures that produce effective and beneficial changes in behavior.[1] It is one of the three fields of behavior analysis. The other two are radical behaviorism, or the philosophy of the science; and experimental analysis of behavior, or basic experimental research.[5] ABA is also based on operant and respondent conditioning and social learning theory. While radical behaviorism forms the conceptual piece for behavior analysis and acknowledges the presence of cognition and emotions, methodological behaviorism only recognized observable behaviors; the latter was the basis behind behavior modification throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

Contrary to popular belief, behavior analysts emphasize that the science of behavior must be a natural science as opposed to a social science.[20] As such, behavior analysts focus on the observable relationship of behavior to the environment, including antecedents and consequences, without resort to "hypothetical constructs".[21]

Although deriving from a similar philosophy, behavior modification only changed behavior by superimposing consequential procedures; instead, ABA seeks to understand environmental contingencies.[2][3] More specifically, it analyzes the function of behavior, such as what prompts that behavior (the antecedent) as well as promoting replacement behaviors and consequential strategies.[4] Typically, ABA is based on data collection and assessments to accurately examine a behavior's function and to discover the procedures that will produce measurable behavioral changes.

Much of the beginnings of ABA can be traced to a group of faculty and researchers at the University of Washington including Don Baer, Sidney Bijou, Bill Hopkins, Jay Birnbrauer, Ivar Lovaas, Todd Risley, James Sherman, and Montrose Wolf.[22] In the 1960s, Baer, Hopkins, Risley, Sherman, and Wolf became faculty in the Department of Human Development and Family Life at the University of Kansas.[23] They and their colleagues began a concentrated effort at developing and perfecting the application of behavior analysis to address a wide variety of human problems. They also founded the Journal of Applied Behavioral Analysis in 1968 which publishes research examining the application of behavior analysis to socially relevant behavior.

ABA is a science used in a wide range of fields to change behavior with various subtypes, such as organizational behavior management, positive behavior support,[24][25][26] and clinical behavior analysis (including contingency management, acceptance and commitment therapy, and habit reversal training). Most of the time people use the subtype term early intensive behavioral intervention (including discrete trial teaching), a treatment procedure used for young children with autism, interchangeably with ABA. However, the latter is a distinct psychological science.[5]

Ole Ivar Lvaas is considered a grandfather of ABA and developed standardized teaching interventions based on those behavioral principals. Lovaas devoted nearly a half a century to groundbreaking research and practice aimed at improving the lives of children with autism and their families. In 1965, Lovaas published a series of articles that therapeutic approaches to autism. The first two articles presented his system for coding behaviors during direct observations and a pioneering investigation of superimposed antecedents and consequences that maintained a problem behavior.[27] The subsequent articles built upon these methods and reported the first demonstration of an effective way to teach nonverbal children to speak, a study on establishing social (secondary) reinforcers, a procedure for teaching children to imitate, and several studies on interventions to reduce life-threatening self-injury and aggression.

Lovaas was cited in his early career to use low dosages of electroshock therapy to children with extreme self injurious behavior.[27] In 1973, Lovaas published a long-term follow-up for the behavior modification intervention and was dismayed to find that most of the subjects had reverted to their pre-intervention behaviors. After these findings, Lovaas and his colleagues proposed several ways to improve outcomes such as starting intervention during the children's preschool years instead of later in childhood or adolescence, involving parents in the intervention, and implementing the intervention in the family's home rather than an institutional setting. Subsequent articles like the 1987 "Behavioral Treatment and Normal Educational and Intellectual Functioning in Young Autistic Children" reinforce this proposal of early and intensive interventionwithout the use of aversives (such as electric shocks)paired with continual therapy yields the most effective results for children with autism.[27] Lovaas highly believed that the support and involvement in parents applying therapy at home contributed to a higher success rate. Lovaas dedicated his life to the study of autism and was a strong advocate for people with autism even co-founding what is today the Autism Society of America.[27]

Baer, Wolf, and Risley's 1968 article[28] is still used as the standard description of ABA.[29] It describes the seven dimensions of ABA: application; a focus on behavior; the use of analysis; and its technological, conceptually systematic, effective, and general approach.

More here:
Applied behavior analysis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Positive and Negative Liberty (Stanford Encyclopedia of …

Posted on July 22, 2015 by Danzig

Imagine you are driving a car through town, and you come to a fork in the road. You turn left, but no one was forcing you to go one way or the other. Next you come to a crossroads. You turn right, but no one was preventing you from going left or straight on. There is no traffic to speak of and there are no diversions or police roadblocks. So you seem, as a driver, to be completely free. But this picture of your situation might change quite dramatically if we consider that the reason you went left and then right is that you're addicted to cigarettes and you're desperate to get to the tobacconists before it closes. Rather than driving, you feel you are being driven, as your urge to smoke leads you uncontrollably to turn the wheel first to the left and then to the right. Moreover, you're perfectly aware that your turning right at the crossroads means you'll probably miss a train that was to take you to an appointment you care about very much. You long to be free of this irrational desire that is not only threatening your longevity but is also stopping you right now from doing what you think you ought to be doing.

This story gives us two contrasting ways of thinking of liberty. On the one hand, one can think of liberty as the absence of obstacles external to the agent. You are free if no one is stopping you from doing whatever you might want to do. In the above story you appear, in this sense, to be free. On the other hand, one can think of liberty as the presence of control on the part of the agent. To be free, you must be self-determined, which is to say that you must be able to control your own destiny in your own interests. In the above story you appear, in this sense, to be unfree: you are not in control of your own destiny, as you are failing to control a passion that you yourself would rather be rid of and which is preventing you from realizing what you recognize to be your true interests. One might say that while on the first view liberty is simply about how many doors are open to the agent, on the second view it is more about going through the right doors for the right reasons.

In a famous essay first published in 1958, Isaiah Berlin called these two concepts of liberty negative and positive respectively (Berlin 1969).[1] The reason for using these labels is that in the first case liberty seems to be a mere absence of something (i.e. of obstacles, barriers, constraints or interference from others), whereas in the second case it seems to require the presence of something (i.e. of control, self-mastery, self-determination or self-realization). In Berlin's words, we use the negative concept of liberty in attempting to answer the question What is the area within which the subject a person or group of persons is or should be left to do or be what he is able to do or be, without interference by other persons?, whereas we use the positive concept in attempting to answer the question What, or who, is the source of control or interference that can determine someone to do, or be, this rather than that? (1969, pp. 12122).

It is useful to think of the difference between the two concepts in terms of the difference between factors that are external and factors that are internal to the agent. While theorists of negative freedom are primarily interested in the degree to which individuals or groups suffer interference from external bodies, theorists of positive freedom are more attentive to the internal factors affecting the degree to which individuals or groups act autonomously. Given this difference, one might be tempted to think that a political philosopher should concentrate exclusively on negative freedom, a concern with positive freedom being more relevant to psychology or individual morality than to political and social institutions. This, however, would be premature, for among the most hotly debated issues in political philosophy are the following: Is the positive concept of freedom a political concept? Can individuals or groups achieve positive freedom through political action? Is it possible for the state to promote the positive freedom of citizens on their behalf? And if so, is it desirable for the state to do so? The classic texts in the history of western political thought are divided over how these questions should be answered: theorists in the classical liberal tradition, like Constant, Humboldt, Spencer and Mill, are typically classed as answering no and therefore as defending a negative concept of political freedom; theorists that are critical of this tradition, like Rousseau, Hegel, Marx and T.H. Green, are typically classed as answering yes and as defending a positive concept of political freedom.

In its political form, positive freedom has often been thought of as necessarily achieved through a collectivity. Perhaps the clearest case is that of Rousseau's theory of freedom, according to which individual freedom is achieved through participation in the process whereby one's community exercises collective control over its own affairs in accordance with the general will. Put in the simplest terms, one might say that a democratic society is a free society because it is a self-determined society, and that a member of that society is free to the extent that he or she participates in its democratic process. But there are also individualist applications of the concept of positive freedom. For example, it is sometimes said that a government should aim actively to create the conditions necessary for individuals to be self-sufficient or to achieve self-realization. The negative concept of freedom, on the other hand, is most commonly assumed in liberal defences of the constitutional liberties typical of liberal-democratic societies, such as freedom of movement, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech, and in arguments against paternalist or moralist state intervention. It is also often invoked in defences of the right to private property, although some have contested the claim that private property necessarily enhances negative liberty (Cohen, 1991, 1995).

After Berlin, the most widely cited and best developed analyses of the negative concept of liberty include Hayek (1960), Day (1971), Oppenheim (1981), Miller (1983) and Steiner (1994). Among the most prominent contemporary analyses of the positive concept of liberty are Milne (1968), Gibbs (1976), C. Taylor (1979) and Christman (1991, 2005).

Many liberals, including Berlin, have suggested that the positive concept of liberty carries with it a danger of authoritarianism. Consider the fate of a permanent and oppressed minority. Because the members of this minority participate in a democratic process characterized by majority rule, they might be said to be free on the grounds that they are members of a society exercising self-control over its own affairs. But they are oppressed, and so are surely unfree. Moreover, it is not necessary to see a society as democratic in order to see it as self-controlled; one might instead adopt an organic conception of society, according to which the collectivity is to be thought of as a living organism, and one might believe that this organism will only act rationally, will only be in control of itself, when its various parts are brought into line with some rational plan devised by its wise governors (who, to extend the metaphor, might be thought of as the organism's brain). In this case, even the majority might be oppressed in the name of liberty.

Such justifications of oppression in the name of liberty are no mere products of the liberal imagination, for there are notorious historical examples of their endorsement by authoritarian political leaders. Berlin, himself a liberal and writing during the cold war, was clearly moved by the way in which the apparently noble ideal of freedom as self-mastery or self-realization had been twisted and distorted by the totalitarian dictators of the twentieth century most notably those of the Soviet Union so as to claim that they, rather than the liberal West, were the true champions of freedom. The slippery slope towards this paradoxical conclusion begins, according to Berlin, with the idea of a divided self. To illustrate: the smoker in our story provides a clear example of a divided self, for she is both a self that desires to get to an appointment and a self that desires to get to the tobacconists, and these two desires are in conflict. We can now enrich this story in a plausible way by adding that one of these selves the keeper of appointments is superior to the other: the self that is a keeper of appointments is thus a higher self, and the self that is a smoker is a lower self. The higher self is the rational, reflecting self, the self that is capable of moral action and of taking responsibility for what she does. This is the true self, for rational reflection and moral responsibility are the features of humans that mark them off from other animals. The lower self, on the other hand, is the self of the passions, of unreflecting desires and irrational impulses. One is free, then, when one's higher, rational self is in control and one is not a slave to one's passions or to one's merely empirical self. The next step down the slippery slope consists in pointing out that some individuals are more rational than others, and can therefore know best what is in their and others' rational interests. This allows them to say that by forcing people less rational than themselves to do the rational thing and thus to realize their true selves, they are in fact liberating them from their merely empirical desires. Occasionally, Berlin says, the defender of positive freedom will take an additional step that consists in conceiving of the self as wider than the individual and as represented by an organic social whole a tribe, a race, a church, a state, the great society of the living and the dead and the yet unborn. The true interests of the individual are to be identified with the interests of this whole, and individuals can and should be coerced into fulfilling these interests, for they would not resist coercion if they were as rational and wise as their coercers. Once I take this view, Berlin says, I am in a position to ignore the actual wishes of men or societies, to bully, oppress, torture in the name, and on behalf, of their real selves, in the secure knowledge that whatever is the true goal of man ... must be identical with his freedom (Berlin 1969, pp. 13233).

Those in the negative camp try to cut off this line of reasoning at the first step, by denying that there is any necessary relation between one's freedom and one's desires. Since one is free to the extent that one is externally unprevented from doing things, they say, one can be free to do what one does not desire to do. If being free meant being unprevented from realizing one's desires, then one could, again paradoxically, reduce one's unfreedom by coming to desire fewer of the things one is unfree to do. One could become free simply by contenting oneself with one's situation. A perfectly contented slave is perfectly free to realize all of her desires. Nevertheless, we tend to think of slavery as the opposite of freedom. More generally, freedom is not to be confused with happiness, for in logical terms there is nothing to stop a free person from being unhappy or an unfree person from being happy. The happy person might feel free, but whether they are free is another matter (Day, 1970). Negative theorists of freedom therefore tend to say not that having freedom means being unprevented from doing as one desires, but that it means being unprevented from doing whatever one might desire to do.

Some theorists of positive freedom bite the bullet and say that the contented slave is indeed free that in order to be free the individual must learn, not so much to dominate certain merely empirical desires, but to rid herself of them. She must, in other words, remove as many of her desires as possible. As Berlin puts it, if I have a wounded leg there are two methods of freeing myself from pain. One is to heal the wound. But if the cure is too difficult or uncertain, there is another method. I can get rid of the wound by cutting off my leg (1969, pp. 13536). This is the strategy of liberation adopted by ascetics, stoics and Buddhist sages. It involves a retreat into an inner citadel a soul or a purely noumenal self in which the individual is immune to any outside forces. But this state, even if it can be achieved, is not one that liberals would want to call one of freedom, for it again risks masking important forms of oppression. It is, after all, often in coming to terms with excessive external limitations in society that individuals retreat into themselves, pretending to themselves that they do not really desire the worldly goods or pleasures they have been denied. Moreover, the removal of desires may also be an effect of outside forces, such as brainwashing, which we should hardly want to call a realization of freedom.

Original post:

Positive and Negative Liberty (Stanford Encyclopedia of ...

Cato @ Liberty

Posted on July 22, 2015 by Danzig

Here we introduce a new feature from the Center for the Study of Science, On the Bright Side. OBS will highlight the beneficial impacts of human activities on the state of our world, including improvements to human health and welfare, as well as the natural environment. Our emphasis will typically focus on the oft-neglected positive externalities of carbon dioxide emissions and associated climate change. Far too often, the media, environmental organizations, governmental panels and policymakers concentrate their efforts on the putative negative impacts of potential CO2-induced global warming. We hope to counter that pessimism with a heavy dose of positive reporting on the considerable good humans are doing for themselves and for the planet.

According to Piao et al. (2015), the reliable detection and attribution of changes in vegetation growth are essential prerequisites for the development of successful strategies for the sustainable management of ecosystems. And indeed they are, especially in todays world in which so many scientists and policy makers are concerned with what to do (or not do) about the potential impacts of CO2-induced climate change. However, detecting vegetative change, let alone determining its cause, can be an extraordinarily difficult task to accomplish. Nevertheless, that is exactly what Piao et al. set out to do in their recent study.

More specifically, the team of sixteen Chinese, Australian and American researchers set out to investigate trends in vegetational change across China over the past three decades (1982-2009), quantifying the contributions from different factors including (1) climate change, (2) rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations, (3) nitrogen deposition and (4) afforestation. To do so, they used three different satellite-derived Leaf Area Index (LAI) datasets (GLOBMAP, GLASS, and GIMMIS) to detect spatial and temporal changes in vegetation during the growing season (GS, defined as April to October), and five process-based ecosystem models (CABLE, CLM4, ORCHIDEE, LPJ and VEGAS) to determine the attribution.

Read the rest of this post

More here:

Cato @ Liberty

Cayman Islands – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Posted on July 22, 2015 by Danzig

The Cayman Islands ( or ) are a British Overseas Territory in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, located south of Cuba and northwest of Jamaica. The Cayman Islands are considered to be part of the geographic Western Caribbean Zone as well as the Greater Antilles. The territory is often considered a major world Offshore Financial Haven for many wealthier individuals.[3]

The Cayman Islands remained largely uninhabited until the 17th century. While there is no archaeological evidence for an indigenous people on the islands, a variety of settlers from various backgrounds made their home on the islands, including pirates, refugees from the Spanish Inquisition, shipwrecked sailors, and deserters from Oliver Cromwell's army in Jamaica.[4]

The first recorded permanent inhabitant of the Cayman Islands, Isaac Bodden, was born on Grand Cayman around 1661. He was the grandson of the original settler named Bodden who was probably one of Oliver Cromwell's soldiers at the taking of Jamaica in 1655.[5]

England took formal control of the Cayman Islands, along with Jamaica, as a result of the Treaty of Madrid of 1670. Following several unsuccessful attempts at settlement, a permanent English-speaking population in the islands dates from the 1730s. With settlement, after the first royal land grant by the Governor of Jamaica in 1734, came the perceived need for slaves.[6] Many were brought to the islands from Africa; this is evident today with the majority of native Caymanians being of African and English descent. The results of the first census taken in the islands in 1802 showed the population on Grand Cayman to be 933 with 545 of those inhabitants being enslaved. Slavery was abolished in the Cayman Islands in 1833. At the time of abolition, there were over 950 enslaved Blacks of African ancestry enslaved by 116 white families of English ancestry.[7]

The islands continued to be governed as part of the Colony of Jamaica until 1962, when they became a separate Crown colony while Jamaica became an independent Commonwealth realm.[8]

The Cayman Islands historically have been a tax-exempt destination. On 8 February 1794, the Caymanians rescued the crews of a group of ten merchant ships, including HMS Convert, an incident that has since become known as the Wreck of the Ten Sail. The ships had struck a reef and run aground during rough seas.[9] Legend has it that King George III rewarded the island with a promise never to introduce taxes as compensation for their generosity, as one of the ships carried a member of the King's own family. While this remains a popular legend, the story is not true.[10]

However, whatever the history, in practice the government of the Cayman Islands has always relied on indirect and not direct taxes. The islands have never levied income tax, capital gains tax, or any wealth tax, making them a popular tax haven.[11]

On 1112 September 2004 the island of Grand Cayman, which lies largely unprotected at sea level, was hit by Hurricane Ivan, creating an 8-ft storm surge which flooded many areas of Grand Cayman. An estimated 83% of the dwellings on the island were damaged including 4% requiring complete reconstruction. A reported 70% of all dwellings suffered severe damage from flooding or wind. Another 26% sustained minor damage from partial roof removal, low levels of flooding, or impact with floating or wind driven hurricane debris.[12] Power, water and communications were disrupted for months in some areas, as Ivan was the worst hurricane to hit the islands in 86 years.[13] Grand Cayman began a major rebuilding process and within two years, its infrastructure was nearly returned to pre-hurricane status. Due to the tropical location of the islands, more hurricane or tropical systems have affected the Cayman Islands than any other region in the Atlantic basin; it has been brushed or directly hit, on average, every 2.23 years.[14]

The Cayman Islands are in the western Caribbean Sea and are the peaks of a massive underwater ridge, known as the Cayman Ridge (or Cayman Rise). This ridge flanks the Cayman Trough, 6,000m (20,000ft) deep[15] which lies 6km (3.7mi) to the south.[16] The islands lie in the northwest of the Caribbean Sea, east of Quintana Roo, Mexico and Yucatn State Mexico, south of Cuba and west of Jamaica. They are situated about 700km (430mi) south of Miami,[17] 750km (470mi) east of Mexico,[18] 366km (227mi) south of Cuba,[19] and about 500km (310mi) northwest of Jamaica.[20]Grand Cayman is by far the biggest, with an area of 197km2 (76sqmi).[21] Grand Cayman's two "Sister Islands", Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, are about 120km (75mi) east north-east of Grand Cayman and have areas of 38 and 28.5km2 (14.7 and 11.0sqmi)[22] respectively.

All three islands were formed by large coral heads covering submerged ice age peaks of western extensions of the Cuban Sierra Maestra range and are mostly flat. One notable exception to this is The Bluff on Cayman Brac's eastern part, which rises to 43m (141ft) above sea level, the highest point on the islands.[23]

See the rest here:

Cayman Islands - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

genetic engineering | Britannica.com

Posted on July 22, 2015 by Danzig

genetic engineering,the artificial manipulation, modification, and recombination of DNA or other nucleic acid molecules in order to modify an organism or population of organisms.

The term genetic engineering initially meant any of a wide range of techniques for the modification or manipulation of organisms through the processes of heredity and reproduction. As such, the term embraced both artificial selection and all the interventions of biomedical techniques, among them artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization (e.g., test-tube babies), sperm banks, cloning, and gene manipulation. But the term now denotes the narrower field of recombinant DNA technology, or gene cloning (see Figure), in which DNA molecules from two or more sources are combined either within cells or in vitro and are then inserted into host organisms in which they are able to propagate. Gene cloning is used to produce new genetic combinations that are of value to science, medicine, agriculture, or industry.

DNA is the carrier of genetic information; it achieves its effects by directing the synthesis of proteins. Most recombinant DNA technology involves the insertion of foreign genes into the plasmids of common laboratory strains of bacteria. Plasmids are small rings of DNA; they are not part of the bacteriums chromosome (the main repository of the organisms genetic information). Nonetheless, they are capable of directing protein synthesis, and, like chromosomal DNA, they are reproduced and passed on to the bacteriums progeny. Thus, by incorporating foreign DNA (for example, a mammalian gene) into a bacterium, researchers can obtain an almost limitless number of copies of the inserted gene. Furthermore, if the inserted gene is operative (i.e., if it directs protein synthesis), the modified bacterium will produce the protein specified by the foreign DNA.

A key step in the development of genetic engineering was the discovery of restriction enzymes in 1968 by the Swiss microbiologist Werner Arber. However, type II restriction enzymes, which are essential to genetic engineering for their ability to cleave a specific site within the DNA (as opposed to type I restriction enzymes, which cleave DNA at random sites), were not identified until 1969, when the American molecular biologist Hamilton O. Smith purified this enzyme. Drawing on Smiths work, the American molecular biologist Daniel Nathans helped advance the technique of DNA recombination in 197071 and demonstrated that type II enzymes could be useful in genetic studies. Genetic engineering itself was pioneered in 1973 by the American biochemists Stanley N. Cohen and Herbert W. Boyer, who were among the first to cut DNA into fragments, rejoin different fragments, and insert the new genes into E. coli bacteria, which then reproduced.

Genetic engineering has advanced the understanding of many theoretical and practical aspects of gene function and organization. Through recombinant DNA techniques, bacteria have been created that are capable of synthesizing human insulin, human growth hormone, alpha interferon, a hepatitis B vaccine, and other medically useful substances. Plants may be genetically adjusted to enable them to fix nitrogen, and genetic diseases can possibly be corrected by replacing bad genes with normal ones. Nevertheless, special concern has been focused on such achievements for fear that they might result in the introduction of unfavourable and possibly dangerous traits into microorganisms that were previously free of theme.g., resistance to antibiotics, production of toxins, or a tendency to cause disease.

The new microorganisms created by recombinant DNA research were deemed patentable in 1980, and in 1986 the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved the sale of the first living genetically altered organisma virus, used as a pseudorabies vaccine, from which a single gene had been cut. Since then several hundred patents have been awarded for genetically altered bacteria and plants.

Continue reading here:

genetic engineering | Britannica.com

Fashionising: Futurism and Sci-Fi: Futuristic Fashion …

Posted on July 22, 2015 by Danzig

Futurism. Its something of a paradox. The future cannot be predicted; but in envisioning it, we can create self-fulfilling prophecies. You could go crazy just thinking about it so instead lets just say that the dawn of a new decade has sent 2010s fashion trends into sci-fi and futurism overdrive.

So how do we define futuristic fashion? As a Spring 2010 fashion trend it seems to be less about gadgetry and more about future environments. Were faced with collections that contemplate dystopia or evolutionary change. Topics of science fiction are woven into the threads of some designers clothing, while others base their designs on more traditional views of futurism.

Futuristic fashion at Alexander McQueen Spring 2010

The futuristic influences upon fashion in 2010 are far and wide. Weve seen everything from the re-interpretation of 1960s views of space age fashion (like the raised collars and metallic fabrics at Louise Goldin), through to reptilian eco-evolutionary creatures at Alexander McQueen and Julien MacDonald; while the likes of Karl Lagerfeld had metallic foil detailing which more called to mind the abstract art of the original early 20th century futurists, who revered technology and speed.

If anything the continual thread through it all is a deep contemplation about what the future might hold. Theres wonder more so than excitement; and, for some, trepidation. Science, technology, and the environment and humankinds effect on the world are playing upon many minds. But its not all doom and gloom. Futuristic themes can be fun and playful, as well as stark and fierce.

A subset of the futurism trend is the future warrior; a fierce and forwards-looking collision of the military and tribal trends. Ancient civilisations come to life with a futuristic twist, in leather tunics, metal plating, and war paint. Unequivocally fearless and with room for endless creativity, the main criteria for the modern warrior is confidence. Click to read more about the future warrior trend.

Again this trend spans multiple styles and influences, but here are some of the significant common elements weve seen appearing:

Louise Goldin Spring 2010

This is one trend for which the runway interpretations were spectacular especially the likes of Alexander McQueen, who put together an entire evolved look. But if you dont want to look like an Avatar creature from the world of Pandora, or a twisted faun that belongs in Pans Labrynth, maybe the whole horn-hair and prosthetic gills things isnt for you. Were not surprised.

McQueens dresses translate well to the street, however, once you leave all that stuff behind; as do many others of the sci-fi inspired looks. The key is to be bold and embrace things a little strange and, well, alien. But you can also play them down by pairing futuristic pieces with more classic ones. Just remember that when it comes to the future, were dealing with something that doesnt exist yet and so, the possibilities are endless.

Follow this link:

Fashionising: Futurism and Sci-Fi: Futuristic Fashion ...

Serengeti – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Posted on July 22, 2015 by Danzig

The Serengeti () ecosystem is a geographical region in Africa. It is located in northern Tanzania and extends to south-western Kenya between 1 and 3 degrees south latitudes and between 34 and 36 degrees east longitudes. It spans approximately 30,000km2 (12,000sqmi). The Kenyan part of the Serengeti is known as Maasai Mara.

The Serengeti hosts the largest terrestrial mammal migration in the world, which helps secure it as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa[1] and one of the ten natural travel wonders of the world.[2] The Serengeti is also renowned for its large lion population and is one of the best places to observe prides in their natural environment.[3] The region contains the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania and several game reserves.

Approximately 70 larger mammal and 500 bird species are found there. This high diversity is a function of diverse habitats, including riverine forests, swamps, kopjes, grasslands, and woodlands.[4]Blue wildebeests, gazelles, zebras, and buffalos are some of the commonly found large mammals in the region.

There has been controversy about a proposed road to be built through the Serengeti.[5]

Serengeti is derived from the Maasai language, Maa; specifically, "Serengit" meaning "Endless Plains".[6][7]

Much of the Serengeti was known to outsiders as Maasailand. The Maasai are known as fierce warriors and live alongside most wild animals with an aversion to eating game and birds, subsisting exclusively on their cattle. Historically, their strength and reputation kept the newly arrived Europeans from exploiting the animals and resources of most of their land. A rinderpest epidemic and drought during the 1890s greatly reduced the numbers of both Maasai and animal populations. The Tanzanian government later in the 20th century re-settled the Maasai around the Ngorongoro Crater. Poaching and the absence of fires, which had been the result of human activity, set the stage for the development of dense woodlands and thickets over the next 3050 years. Tsetse fly populations now prevented any significant human settlement in the area.

By the mid-1970s, wildebeest and the Cape buffalo populations had recovered and were increasingly cropping the grass, reducing the amount of fuel available for fires.[8] The reduced intensity of fires has allowed Acacia to once again become established.[9]

Each year around the same time, the circular great wildebeest migration begins in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area of the southern Serengeti in Tanzania. This migration is a natural phenomenon determined by the availability of grazing. This phase lasts from approximately January to March, when the calving season begins a time when there is plenty of rain-ripened grass available for the 260,000 zebra that precede 1.7 million wildebeest and the following hundreds of thousands of other plains game, including around 470,000 gazelles.[10][11][12]

During February, the wildebeest spend their time on the short grass plains of the southeastern part of the ecosystem, grazing and giving birth to approximately 500,000 calves within a 2 to 3-week period. Few calves are born ahead of time and of these, hardly any survive. The main reason is that very young calves are more noticeable to predators when mixed with older calves from the previous year. As the rains end in May, the animals start moving northwest into the areas around the Grumeti River, where they typically remain until late June. The crossings of the Grumeti and Mara rivers beginning in July are a popular safari attraction because crocodiles are lying in wait.[10] The herds arrive in Kenya in late July / August, where they stay for the remainder of the dry season, except that the Thomson's and Grant's Gazelles move only east/west. In early November, with the start of the short rains the migration starts moving south again, to the short grass plains of the southeast, usually arriving in December in plenty of time for calving in February.[13]

About 250,000 wildebeest die during the journey from Tanzania to the Maasai Mara National Reserve in southwestern Kenya, a total of 800 kilometres (500mi). Death is usually from thirst, hunger, exhaustion, or predation.[2]

The rest is here:

Serengeti - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

DNA nanotechnology – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Posted on July 21, 2015 by Danzig

DNA nanotechnology is the design and manufacture of artificial nucleic acid structures for technological uses. In this field, nucleic acids are used as non-biological engineering materials for nanotechnology rather than as the carriers of genetic information in living cells. Researchers in the field have created static structures such as two- and three-dimensional crystal lattices, nanotubes, polyhedra, and arbitrary shapes, as well as functional devices such as molecular machines and DNA computers. The field is beginning to be used as a tool to solve basic science problems in structural biology and biophysics, including applications in crystallography and spectroscopy for protein structure determination. Potential applications in molecular scale electronics and nanomedicine are also being investigated.

The conceptual foundation for DNA nanotechnology was first laid out by Nadrian Seeman in the early 1980s, and the field began to attract widespread interest in the mid-2000s. This use of nucleic acids is enabled by their strict base pairing rules, which cause only portions of strands with complementary base sequences to bind together to form strong, rigid double helix structures. This allows for the rational design of base sequences that will selectively assemble to form complex target structures with precisely controlled nanoscale features. A number of assembly methods are used to make these structures, including tile-based structures that assemble from smaller structures, folding structures using the DNA origami method, and dynamically reconfigurable structures using strand displacement techniques. While the field's name specifically references DNA, the same principles have been used with other types of nucleic acids as well, leading to the occasional use of the alternative name nucleic acid nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology is often defined as the study of materials and devices with features on a scale below 100 nanometers. DNA nanotechnology, specifically, is an example of bottom-up molecular self-assembly, in which molecular components spontaneously organize into stable structures; the particular form of these structures is induced by the physical and chemical properties of the components selected by the designers.[4] In DNA nanotechnology, the component materials are strands of nucleic acids such as DNA; these strands are often synthetic and are almost always used outside the context of a living cell. DNA is well-suited to nanoscale construction because the binding between two nucleic acid strands depends on simple base pairing rules which are well understood, and form the specific nanoscale structure of the nucleic acid double helix. These qualities make the assembly of nucleic acid structures easy to control through nucleic acid design. This property is absent in other materials used in nanotechnology, including proteins, for which protein design is very difficult, and nanoparticles, which lack the capability for specific assembly on their own.[5]

The structure of a nucleic acid molecule consists of a sequence of nucleotides distinguished by which nucleobase they contain. In DNA, the four bases present are adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T). Nucleic acids have the property that two molecules will only bind to each other to form a double helix if the two sequences are complementary, meaning that they form matching sequences of base pairs, with A only binding to T, and C only to G.[5][6] Because the formation of correctly matched base pairs is energetically favorable, nucleic acid strands are expected in most cases to bind to each other in the conformation that maximizes the number of correctly paired bases. The sequences of bases in a system of strands thus determine the pattern of binding and the overall structure in an easily controllable way. In DNA nanotechnology, the base sequences of strands are rationally designed by researchers so that the base pairing interactions cause the strands to assemble in the desired conformation.[3][5] While DNA is the dominant material used, structures incorporating other nucleic acids such as RNA and peptide nucleic acid (PNA) have also been constructed.[7][8]

DNA nanotechnology is sometimes divided into two overlapping subfields: structural DNA nanotechnology and dynamic DNA nanotechnology. Structural DNA nanotechnology, sometimes abbreviated as SDN, focuses on synthesizing and characterizing nucleic acid complexes and materials that assemble into a static, equilibrium end state. On the other hand, dynamic DNA nanotechnology focuses on complexes with useful non-equilibrium behavior such as the ability to reconfigure based on a chemical or physical stimulus. Some complexes, such as nucleic acid nanomechanical devices, combine features of both the structural and dynamic subfields.[9][10]

The complexes constructed in structural DNA nanotechnology use topologically branched nucleic acid structures containing junctions. (In contrast, most biological DNA exists as an unbranched double helix.) One of the simplest branched structures is a four-arm junction that consists of four individual DNA strands, portions of which are complementary in a specific pattern. Unlike in natural Holliday junctions, each arm in the artificial immobile four-arm junction has a different base sequence, causing the junction point to be fixed at a certain position. Multiple junctions can be combined in the same complex, such as in the widely used double-crossover (DX) motif, which contains two parallel double helical domains with individual strands crossing between the domains at two crossover points. Each crossover point is itself topologically a four-arm junction, but is constrained to a single orientation, as opposed to the flexible single four-arm junction, providing a rigidity that makes the DX motif suitable as a structural building block for larger DNA complexes.[3][5]

Dynamic DNA nanotechnology uses a mechanism called toehold-mediated strand displacement to allow the nucleic acid complexes to reconfigure in response to the addition of a new nucleic acid strand. In this reaction, the incoming strand binds to a single-stranded toehold region of a double-stranded complex, and then displaces one of the strands bound in the original complex through a branch migration process. The overall effect is that one of the strands in the complex is replaced with another one.[9] In addition, reconfigurable structures and devices can be made using functional nucleic acids such as deoxyribozymes and ribozymes, which are capable of performing chemical reactions, and aptamers, which can bind to specific proteins or small molecules.[11]

Structural DNA nanotechnology, sometimes abbreviated as SDN, focuses on synthesizing and characterizing nucleic acid complexes and materials where the assembly has a static, equilibrium endpoint. The nucleic acid double helix has a robust, defined three-dimensional geometry that makes it possible to predict and design the structures of more complicated nucleic acid complexes. Many such structures have been created, including two- and three-dimensional structures, and periodic, aperiodic, and discrete structures.[10]

Small nucleic acid complexes can be equipped with sticky ends and combined into larger two-dimensional periodic lattices containing a specific tessellated pattern of the individual molecular tiles.[10] The earliest example of this used double-crossover (DX) complexes as the basic tiles, each containing four sticky ends designed with sequences that caused the DX units to combine into periodic two-dimensional flat sheets that are essentially rigid two-dimensional crystals of DNA.[15][16] Two-dimensional arrays have been made from other motifs as well, including the Holliday junction rhombus lattice,[17] and various DX-based arrays making use of a double-cohesion scheme.[18][19] The top two images at right show examples of tile-based periodic lattices.

Two-dimensional arrays can be made to exhibit aperiodic structures whose assembly implements a specific algorithm, exhibiting one form of DNA computing.[20] The DX tiles can have their sticky end sequences chosen so that they act as Wang tiles, allowing them to perform computation. A DX array whose assembly encodes an XOR operation has been demonstrated; this allows the DNA array to implement a cellular automaton that generates a fractal known as the Sierpinski gasket. The third image at right shows this type of array.[14] Another system has the function of a binary counter, displaying a representation of increasing binary numbers as it grows. These results show that computation can be incorporated into the assembly of DNA arrays.[21]

See more here:

DNA nanotechnology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Negro Project and Margaret Sanger

Posted on July 21, 2015 by Danzig

The Negro Project Margaret Sanger's Eugenic Plan for Black Americans By Tanya L. Green posted at Concerned Women of America

May 10, 2001

'Civil rights' doesn't mean anything without a right to life! declared Hunter. He and the other marchers were protesting the disproportionately high number of abortions in the black community. The high number is no accident. Many Americansblack and whiteare unaware of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger's Negro Project. Sanger created this program in 1939, after the organization changed its name from the American Birth Control League (ABCL) to the Birth Control Federation of America (BCFA).1

The aim of the program was to restrictmany believe exterminatethe black population. Under the pretense of better health and family planning, Sanger cleverly implemented her plan. What's more shocking is Sanger's beguilement of black America's crme de la crmethose prominent, well educated and well-to-dointo executing her scheme. Some within the black elite saw birth control as a means to attain economic empowerment, elevate the race and garner the respect of whites.

The Negro Project has had lasting repercussions in the black community: We have become victims of genocide by our own hands, cried Hunter at the Say So march.

Margaret Sanger aligned herself with the eugenicists whose ideology prevailed in the early 20th century. Eugenicists strongly espoused racial supremacy and purity, particularly of the Aryan race. Eugenicists hoped to purify the bloodlines and improve the race by encouraging the fit to reproduce and the unfit to restrict their reproduction. They sought to contain the inferior races through segregation, sterilization, birth control and abortion.

Sanger embraced Malthusian eugenics. Thomas Robert Malthus, a 19th-century cleric and professor of political economy, believed a population time bomb threatened the existence of the human race.2 He viewed social problems such as poverty, deprivation and hunger as evidence of this population crisis. According to writer George Grant, Malthus condemned charities and other forms of benevolence, because he believed they only exacerbated the problems. His answer was to restrict population growth of certain groups of people.3 His theories of population growth and economic stability became the basis for national and international social policy. Grant quotes from Malthus' magnum opus, An Essay on the Principle of Population, published in six editions from 1798 to 1826:

Malthus' disciples believed if Western civilization were to survive, the physically unfit, the materially poor, the spiritually diseased, the racially inferior, and the mentally incompetent had to be suppressed and isolatedor even, perhaps, eliminated. His disciples felt the subtler and more scientific approaches of education, contraception, sterilization and abortion were more practical and acceptable ways to ease the pressures of the alleged overpopulation.5

Read the original here:

The Negro Project and Margaret Sanger

How Eugenics Began | Roger Sandall

Posted on July 21, 2015 by Danzig

Scheduled to read a paper at a meeting of the British Association in 1866, Galton felt ill, excused himself, arranged to have the paper read for him by another, and hurried away. It would be not until 1869 that he was once more entirely right in the head.

We know how it ended. But what was Sir Francis Galton thinking of when eugenics began? What led from the quiet book-lined study of a Victorian scientific worthy, loved by his family and admired by his peers, to the charnel houses of the Nazi era? Did he in fact have a crack-up, and did this lead inexorably step by step to the mother of all cultural crack-ups in Germany?

He had that rarest of all things human, an original mindand it developed early. By age six he had learned the Iliad and the Odyssey well enough to correct his elders. When his fathers friend Leonard Horner visited one day and tiresomely quizzed the child on their fine points, Galton replied: Pray, Mr. Horner, look at the last line in the Twelfth Book of the Odyssey, and scampered off. This translates as But why rehearse all this again? For even yesterday I told it to them and thy noble wife in thy house: and it liketh me not twice to tell a plain-told tale.

But there were early signs of mental fragility too. An erratic school career led eventually to Trinity College, Cambridge, but the strain of the Mathematics Tripos proved too much. Affected by dizziness and other symptoms of mental stress when trying to concentrate, he settled for a pass degree, and for six years dropped out of academic and intellectual life almost entirely. The time from 1844 to 1850 was spent adventuring in Africa and the Middle East and socialising with the hunting set back home.

When The Origin of Species appeared in 1859 it was a turning point. Charles Darwin was a cousin. Coming at a critical stage of both his scientific career and his domestic life, Darwins book shattered Galtons religious beliefs and turned him towards biological research. He always had what he called a hereditary bent of mind, and from 1859 he proceeded to investigate, he said later, matters clustered round the central topics of Heredity and the possible improvement of the Human Race.

But the two topicsheredity and racial improvementare not inseparable. Why was it that the human race needed to be improved? How was it that for Galton the central topic of heredity became indissolubly associated with the biological improvement of human kind, a worthy enough project in the abstract, but ethically hazardous in the extreme?

Doubtless there was more than one cause, but my argument here is that it mainly originated in the private grief of childlessness. Although his cousin Charles Darwin fathered several children, Galtons marriage was infertile, and as each year passed without issue he developed a growing obsession with heredity, fertility, procreation, and the need for a controlled and managed caste system that would ensure the reproduction of people like himself.

Between the idle years after university from 1844 to 1850, and the publication of The Origin of Species in 1859, Galton built a considerable reputation as an explorer, geographer, and travel writer. David Livingstone had reached Lake Ngami from the south and east, and in 1850 Galton proposed to approach it from the west through todays Namibia, a route of some 550 miles from Walvis Bay. With African experience in the Sudan behind him, he had the support of the Royal Geographical Society, and took the precaution of visiting Drury Lane for theatrical supplies before he left. There he bought beads and belts for trade-goods, along with a nice little crown.

This came in handy in Ovamboland. There, King Nangoro expected Galton to stand still while he (the king) spat well-gargled water all over his guests face. This was to discourage any lurking evil spiritsand no doubt it did. When Galton declined to submit to this ritual, however, the king retaliated by refusing to let the expedition continue. There matters stood for some time until Nangoro hospitably offered his daughter Princess Chipanga as a temporary wife. Galton found her installed in his tent largely naked except for a covering of

red ochre and butter, and as capable of leaving a mark on anything she touched as a well-inked printers roller. I was dressed in my one well-preserved suit of white linen, so I had her ejected with scant ceremony.

View post:

How Eugenics Began | Roger Sandall

Libertarianism versus other Political Perspectives

Posted on July 20, 2015 by Danzig

In simplest terms the primary difference between libertarianism and other political philosophies involves beliefs about the amount of authority government should have over peoples' personal and business matters.

Liberals want government to focus on doing what is "good," including providing what is often referred to as "social justice." To do that, among other policies, liberals expect government to: a)tax corporations and "wealthy" and "high income" citizens heavily to pay for the social justice programs and b)regulate business and personal behavior to the extent necessary for social justice.

Conservatives want government to control "bad," offensive, and immoral behavior, even if that behavior brings no harm or danger to non-participants. Most often bad is defined based on the prevailing interpretation of Judeo-Christian rules. And, though conservatives tend to express a belief in small government, they usually cannot resist government programs that serve their agenda such as "family values."

Liberals and conservatives both believe that government's mission is some combination of: a)making the world better, b)providing moral leadership, and c)protecting people from themselves. Of course conservatives and liberals tend to disagree about what is good and what is moral. And whether or not you agree with those objectives, you are forced to pay for them with your money and/or your liberty. Ironically you pay for liberal and conservative programs, rules, and regulations -- with your money and your liberty.

Libertarians believe that goodness is voluntary, morality is personal, human nature cannot be legislated away, and only harm to others should be illegal.

And, though libertarians believe in limited government, as described in the U.S. Constitution, they do not want chaos. Libertarians recognize that government has a clear and critical mission: preserving and enhancing liberty. To achieve that goal government must: a)protect citizens from foreign enemies, b)arrest, try, and punish people that harm or endanger others, and c)make some judgment calls when peoples' liberties conflict.

When considering where to locate your politics on the Nolan Chart first ask yourself: "How much should government do to make my preferences mandatory?" Then ask yourself, "How much should government control what I do based on what other people think, believe, or want?"

View post:

Libertarianism versus other Political Perspectives

Jeremy Benthams Attack on Natural Rights | Libertarianism.org

Posted on July 20, 2015 by Danzig

June 26, 2012 essays

Smith discusses the utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham and why it so alarmed the defenders of natural rights.

In my last four essays, I discussed the ideas of Thomas Hodgskin. No discussion of Hodgskin would be complete without considering his great classic, The Natural and Artificial Right of Property Contrasted (1832). But in order to understand and appreciate this book, we need to know something about the doctrine that Hodgskin was criticizing, namely, the utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). I shall therefore devote this essay to Bentham and then resume my discussion of Hodgskin in the next essay.

Natural-rights theory was the revolutionary doctrine of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, being used to justify resistance to unjust laws and revolution against tyrannical governments. This was the main reason why Edmund Burke attacked natural rightsor abstract rights, as he called themso vehemently in his famous polemic against the French Revolution, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790). Burke later condemned the French Constitution of 1791, which exhibited a strong American influence, as a digest of anarchy.

Similarly, Jeremy Bentham, in his criticism of the French Declaration of Rights (1789), called natural rights anarchical fallacies, because (like Burke) he believed that no government can possibly meet the standards demanded by the doctrine of natural rights. Earlier, a liberal critic of the American Revolution, the English clergyman Josiah Tucker, had argued that the Lockean system of natural rights is an universal demolisher of all governments, but not the builder of any.

The fear that defenders of natural rights would foment a revolution in Britain, just as they had in America and France, alarmed British rulers, causing them to institute repressive measures. It is therefore hardly surprising that natural-rights theory went underground, so to speak, during the long war with France. Even after peace returned in 1815 a cloud of suspicion hung over this way of thinking. Natural rights were commonly associated with the French Jacobins Robespierre and others who had instigated the Reign of Terror so a defender of natural rights ran the risk of being condemned as a French sympathizer, a Jacobin, or (worst of all) an anarchist.

Thus did British liberalism don a new face after 1815, as an atmosphere of peace resuscitated the movement for political and economic reforms, and as many middle-class liberals embraced a non-revolutionary foundation for economic and civil liberties. The premier theory in this regard, which would become known as utilitarianism, was developed by Jeremy Bentham and popularized by his Scottish protg James Mill (the father of John Stuart Mill) and by many other disciples.

Bentham did not originate the utilitarian principle of the greatest happiness for the greatest number; we find similar expressions in a number of eighteenth-century philosophers, such as Hutcheson, Helvetius and Beccaria. For our purpose, the most significant feature of Benthams utilitarianism was its unequivocal rejection of natural rights.

Natural rights, according to Bentham, are simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense, nonsense upon stilts So-called moral and natural rights are mischievous fictions and anarchical fallacies that encourage civil unrest, disobedience and resistance to laws, and revolution against established governments. Only political rights, those positive rights established and enforced by government, have any determinate and intelligible meaning. Rights are the fruits of the law, and of the law alone. There are no rights without lawno rights contrary to the lawno rights anterior to the law.

The significance of Bentham does not lie in his advocacy of social utility, or the general welfare, or the common goodfor this idea, by whatever name it was called, was regarded by many earlier classical liberals as the purpose of legislation, in contradistinction to its standard.

Original post:

Jeremy Benthams Attack on Natural Rights | Libertarianism.org

Palm Islands – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Posted on July 20, 2015 by Danzig

For the islands in Lebanon see Palm Islands Nature Reserve

Palm Islands are two artificial islands, Palm Jumeirah and Palm Jebel Ali, on the coast of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. As at November 2014, only Palm Jumeirah has been completed. This island takes the form of a palm tree, topped by a crescent. When complete, Palm Jebel Ali will take a similar shape; both islands will be host to a large number of residential, leisure and entertainment centres and will add a total of 520kilometres of non-public beaches to the city of Dubai. The creation of the Palm Jumeirah began in June 2001. Shortly after, the Palm Jebel Ali was announced and reclamation work began. A third island was planned and construction started, but this project was later remodelled and renamed to Deira Island.

The Palm Islands are artificial islands constructed from sand dredged from the bottom of the Persian Gulf by the Belgian company, Jan De Nul and the Dutch company, Van Oord. The sand is sprayed from dredging ships, guided by a Global Positioning System, onto the required area. The spraying process is known as rainbowing because of the rainbow-like arcs produced in the air when the sand is sprayed. The outer edge of each palm's encircling crescent is a large rock breakwater. The breakwater of the Palm Jumeirah contains over seven million tons of rock; each rock was placed individually by a crane, its position signed off by a diver, and given a Global Positioning System coordinate.[citation needed]

The Jan De Nul Group started working on the Palm Jebel Ali in 2001 and had finished by the end of 2006. The reclamation project for the Palm Jebel Ali includes the creation of a four-kilometer-long peninsula, protected by a 200-meter-wide, seventeen-kilometer long circular breakwater. There are 210,000,000cubic meters of rock, sand and limestone that were reclaimed (partly originating from the Jebel Ali entrance channel dredging work). There are approximately 10,000,000cubic meters of rocks in the Slope Protection Works.

The Palm Jumeirah ( Coordinates: 250628N 550815E / 25.10778N 55.13750E / 25.10778; 55.13750 ) consists of a tree trunk, a crown with 16 fronds, and a surrounding crescent island that forms an 11kilometer-long breakwater. The island itself is five kilometers by five kilometers. It adds 78kilometers to the Dubai coastline.

Residents began moving into Palm Jumeirah properties at the end of 2006, five years after land reclamation began.

A Monorail opened in 2009, but is not connected to other public transport.

The Palm Jebel Ali began construction in October 2002 and was expected to be completed in mid-2008.[1][2]

The construction of the Palm Islands has had a significant impact on the surrounding environment, resulting in changes to area wildlife, coastal erosion, alongshore sediment transport and wave patterns. Sediment stirred up by construction has suffocated and injured local marine fauna and reduced the amount of sunlight which filters down to seashore vegetation. Variations in alongshore sediment transport have resulted in changes in erosion patterns along the UAE coast, which has also been exacerbated by altered wave patterns as the waters of the Gulf attempt to move around the new obstruction of the islands. [3][4]

Dubai's megaprojects have become a favorite cause of environmentalists. Greenpeace has criticized the Palm Islands for lack of sustainability, and Mongabay.com, a site dedicated to rain forest conservation, has attacked Dubai's artificial islands aggressively, stating that:

Here is the original post:

Palm Islands - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Health Financing | SAMHSA

Posted on July 20, 2015 by Danzig

The delivery and financing of health care has changed in response to recent legislation that aims to improve health care while also making it less expensive for individuals, families, and business owners. SAMHSA works to educate consumers about those efforts and help providers adapt to the new health care environment.

In March 2010, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, together referred to as the Affordable Care Act. This health care law makes health insurance coverage more affordable for individuals, families, and small business owners. It also includes prevention, early intervention, and treatment of mental and/or substance use disorders as an essential health benefit (EHB) that must be covered by health plans that are offered through the Health Insurance Marketplace.

The Affordable Care Act in conjunction with the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) of 2008 has already provided an opportunity for new or expanded behavioral health benefits to approximately 60 million Americans and has created programs designed to help states and communities prevent illness and promote health. Under the Affordable Care Act, most health plans must also cover certain preventive services without a copayment, co-insurance, or deductible.

MHPAEA has also contributed to expanding health coverage. The law requires health insurers and group health plans to provide the same level of benefits for behavioral health services that they do for primary care. SAMHSA works to ensure that behavioral health services covered by the Affordable Care Act and the MHPAEA are managed no differently from services for surgical and general medical issues.

SAMHSA helps providers integrate behavioral health services into the broader health system to ensure that mental, addictive, and physical conditions are treated similarly. That effort also includes encouraging the increased use of health information technology for integrated health care. Learn more about health care and health systems integration.

SAMHSA serves as a key subject-matter expert to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on policy issues related to the financing and delivery of behavioral health services. It also develops unique research, analysis, and primary data on financing, including national spending projections for treatment and services.

Learn more about:

Go here to see the original:

Health Financing | SAMHSA

Futurism Technologies – Custom Offshore Software …

Posted on July 20, 2015 by Danzig

Futurism Technologies

Is most sought after leading advanced custom software development and IT Solutions, Services & Consulting Partner. We are committed to establish a cost-effective quality end to end Information Technology Business Solutions and Services alternative for the entire spectrum of businesses worldwide.

Futurism Technologies enable you to uncover exciting new insights by Rapidly capturing, aggregating, organizing, and analyzing data generated via multi-party sources to maximize your sales potential.

Futurism Technologies has experience with cloud computing categories such as SaaS, PaaS and IaaS. We possess extensive experience in cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BPOS Suite, Google Apps & more.

Futurism Technologies can help you manage and take decisions based on real-timie data. Work anywhere, at any time, via any device.

Iterative and incremental development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams.

Futurism Technologies helps you devise your BI strategy by turning complex number-crunching into lucid data for easy reporting and analysis using BI Technologies such as MS SQL SSAS, MS, SSIS, and MS SQL SSRS.

Expertise over multiple domains means that you can expect a robust, flexible, and scalable enterprise application irrespective of the industry you belong to.

Futurism Technologies implements specialized tools and methodologies for software QA services. Our software testing services translate into decidedly superior preformance and prevent costly operational breakdowns.

See the article here:

Futurism Technologies - Custom Offshore Software ...

FUTURISM AND DISPENSATIONALISM – Christian eschatology

Posted on July 20, 2015 by Danzig

CHRISTIAN ESCHATOLOGY | home

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FUTURISM AND DISPENSATIONALISM

" (1) The time of the end in Daniel begins with the violation by "the prince that shall come" (i.e. "little horn," "man of sin," "Beast") of his covenant with the Jews for the restoration of the temple and sacrifice Daniel 9:27 and his presentation of himself as God; Daniel 9:27; 11:36-38; Matthew 24:15; 2 Thessalonians 2:4; Revelation 13:4-6 and ends with his destruction by the appearing of the Lord in glory. ; 2 Thessalonians 2:8; Revelation 19:19,20.

(2) The duration of the "time of the end" is three and one half years, coinciding with the last half of the seventieth week of Daniel. Daniel 7:25; 12:7; Revelation 13:5."

So the "time of the end" isn't supposed to begin until the middle of the 7-year tribulation at some point in the future, which would be 3-1/2 years after Christians are to have been removed from the earth, during the "pre-tribulation" "rapture". Here's how Daniel's book closes:

Daniel 12:4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, [even] to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

Daniel 12:9 And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words [are] closed up and sealed till the time of the end.

Since the book of Daniel was "shut up" and sealed until the "time of the end", and Scofield suggests that time is not supposed to begin until the middle of some seven-year period yet in the future, then how could any 19th century interpretation of the figurative language of Daniel's prophetic vision from prior to the "time of the end", be considered other than hopelessly compromised? Yet the seven-year tribulation - upon which Darby's eschatological scheme is based, as held throughout the 20th century futurist church - comes directly from John Darby's early 19th century interpretation of Daniel's 70th week, which is the most contentious and hotly debated element in the book of Daniel! Was John Darby given an exclusive franchise and access through the seal on the book of Daniel in the early 19th century, prior to when futurists themselves are expected to believe the book will be unsealed yet in the future?

"CHAPTER V

Visit link:

FUTURISM AND DISPENSATIONALISM - Christian eschatology

Anti-Aging Medicine – LIFEWORKS WELLNESS CENTER

Posted on July 19, 2015 by ev1

Anti-aging medicine is the application of medical technology for the early detection, prevention, treatment and reversal of the three age-related Ds-dysfunction, disorders and diseases.

As an extension of preventive health care, anti-aging medicine it is the next great model of health care for the new millennium.

According to the American Academy for Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M), the three rules of anti-aging medicine are:

The longer you live, the better your chances are for living even longer. Medical knowledge doubles every 3.5 years, so a time will come when perhaps we will know how to stop aging, put it on hold and even eventually reset the clock mechanism of life itself.

If you have had your cholesterol tested, had a thermogram, or taken bio-identical hormones, you have experienced anti-aging medicine. 90% of all adult illness is due to the degenerative processes of aging. This includes heart disease, most cancers, adult-onset diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, autoimmune disease, glaucoma, and Alzheimer's.

With early detection and appropriate intervention, most of these diseases can be prevented, cured, or have their downward course reversed.

Anti-Aging Medicine in Tampa Bay

Anyone over the age of 30- or 40 years knows that they cant perform the way they used to. This is often true both physically and mentally. It is a rare person who can do more or better at age 50 that they could at 30. But all do wish for that.

Excerpt from:
Anti-Aging Medicine - LIFEWORKS WELLNESS CENTER

Select Page ::