May 31, 2009 by mike.

So, how does it happen that apparently intelligent people fail to follow basic sound intellectual processes to come to obvious conclusions?

Well, I think politics and profit play a part.  No doubt there are also human beings out there whose intellectual processes get shut down by emotion and fear and these fragile souls are so unnerved by the fear of an impending terrorist attacking them that all higher brain function shuts down and simple equations cannot be solved.  There is only fear and plenty of fear mongers to play on that fear to sell plastic sheeting, duct tape and worse.

But I think there is also some element of evolutionary neurological function at work in these abject intellectual failures.  Human beings evolved to sense imminent danger (sorry, I think Darwin’s theory of natural selection makes more sense than the 6,000 year old earth creation theory).

We are spooked by things that might be moving in the dark near us.  We evolved with a neurological system that has been honed by natural selection.  A neurological system that was a little slow at spotting a hungry predator became lunch instead of a parent.

Our neurological system did not need to evolve in a way that would recognize slow moving threats.

Be patient, we are getting close to the frog’s eye and what it tells the frog’s brain.

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May 31, 2009 by mike.

I watch a lot of stuff in US culture today and am amazed at what I see and hear.  The television talk shows are full of debates on whether the US should torture people.

Let’s review, shall we.  The US has signed numerous treaties that bar torture, including the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture.   The US has prosecuted interrogators who waterboarded US soldiers for war crimes.

Is there need to do more analysis?  Are we country of laws or a country of liars, cheats and hypocrites?

Waterboarding is torture.  Investigate the people who did this, indict them, prosecute them and put them in jail.

Res ipsa loquitor.

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May 31, 2009 by mike.

If you think that the scary guys in black suv’s are simply a Hollywood team that appear in movies like Conspiracy Theory, read this story from the Washington Post.

clipped from www.washingtonpost.com Metro Dig at Tysons Stirs Underground Intrigue By Amy Gardner Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, May 31, 2009 This part happens all the time: A construction crew putting up an office building in the heart of Tysons Corner a few years ago hit a fiber optic cable no one knew was there. This part doesn’t: Within moments, three black sport-utility vehicles drove up, a half-dozen men in suits jumped out and one said, “You just hit our line.” “The construction manager was shocked,” Georgelas recalled. “He had never seen a line get cut and people show up within seconds. Usually you’ve got to figure out whose line it is. To garner that kind of response that quickly was amazing.” “Every time we dig a hole, we run into issues that we didn’t expect,” he said. Goguen, the engineer with the Dulles rail project, laughs at the stories of past encounters but has no desire to meet up with the men in the black SUVs. High Anxiety Over Top-Security Cable

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