I'm here Itchy ;)
hamilcarr
JoinedPosts by hamilcarr
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I'M FEELING HAPPY!
by hamilcarr inafter reading this you'll be feeling the same ;).
happiness is contagioussocial networks affect mood, study showsby salynn boyles.
webmd health newsreviewed by louise chang, mddec.
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hamilcarr
It's a man's man's man's world
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How Old are You ?
by flipper ini know- you aren't used to seeing me ask a simple question like this.
so- i'll start .
i am 49 years old, will be 50 in october .
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hamilcarr
Titanium.
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Dan Sydlik dies, the last of the moderating forces.
by SadElder inour good friend dan sydlik died today about 2 pm eastern time.
he was the last of the moderating forces on the gb.
lately he has had little influence among the ted (aka the boss) jaracz (head of the bethel cia - the service department) henchmen and loyalists.
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hamilcarr
That means she was 24 when she mated the then 53 year old Danny boy? Nice catch!
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Rereading Russell --- The First-cause Argument
by hamilcarr inno, not ct but bertie.
while rereading some of his well-known works, i think his astute logical thinking remains relevant today:.
the first-cause argumentperhaps the simplest and easiest to understand is the argument of the first cause.
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hamilcarr
No, not CT but Bertie. While rereading some of his well-known works, I think his astute logical thinking remains relevant today:
The First-cause Argument
Perhaps the simplest and easiest to understand is the argument of the First Cause. (It is maintained that everything we see in this world has a cause, and as you go back in the chain of causes further and further you must come to a First Cause, and to that First Cause you give the name of God.) That argument, I suppose, does not carry very much weight nowadays, because, in the first place, cause is not quite what it used to be. The philosophers and the men of science have got going on cause, and it has not anything like the vitality it used to have; but, apart from that, you can see that the argument that there must be a First Cause is one that cannot have any validity. I may say that when I was a young man and was debating these questions very seriously in my mind, I for a long time accepted the argument of the First Cause, until one day, at the age of eighteen, I read John Stuart Mill's Autobiography, and I there found this sentence: "My father taught me that the question 'Who made me?' cannot be answered, since it immediately suggests the further question `Who made god?'" That very simple sentence showed me, as I still think, the fallacy in the argument of the First Cause. If everything must have a cause, then God must have a cause. If there can be anything without a cause, it may just as well be the world as God, so that there cannot be any validity in that argument. It is exactly of the same nature as the Hindu's view, that the world rested upon an elephant and the elephant rested upon a tortoise; and when they said, "How about the tortoise?" the Indian said, "Suppose we change the subject." The argument is really no better than that. There is no reason why the world could not have come into being without a cause; nor, on the other hand, is there any reason why it should not have always existed. There is no reason to suppose that the world had a beginning at all. The idea that things must have a beginning is really due to the poverty of our imagination. Therefore, perhaps, I need not waste any more time upon the argument about the First Cause.
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Is it true
by is there help out there ini have noticed that jw girls and woman always seem to be flat chested.
does any one know why..
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hamilcarr
Woow, Beks. That makes me curious.
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I'M FEELING HAPPY!
by hamilcarr inafter reading this you'll be feeling the same ;).
happiness is contagioussocial networks affect mood, study showsby salynn boyles.
webmd health newsreviewed by louise chang, mddec.
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hamilcarr
After reading this you'll be feeling the same ;)
Happiness Is Contagious
Social Networks Affect Mood, Study Shows By Salynn Boyles
WebMD Health News Reviewed by Louise Chang, MDDec. 4, 2008 -- Could happiness be contagious?
New research from Harvard Medical School and the University of California, San Diego suggests that happiness is influenced not only by the people you know, but by the people they know.
The study showed that happiness spreads through social networks, sort of like a virus, meaning that your happiness could influence the happiness of someone you've never even met.
Sadness spreads too, but much less efficiently, says study co-author James H. Fowler, PhD, of the University of California-San Diego.
"We have known for a long time that there is a direct relationship between one person's happiness and another's," Fowler tells WebMD.
"But this study shows that indirect relationships also affect happiness. We found a statistical relationship not just between your happiness and your friends' happiness, but between your happiness and your friends' friends' friends' happiness."
Three Degrees of Separation
Fowler and Harvard social scientist Nicholas Christakis, MD, PhD, have been studying social networks for several years, using data from the ongoing Framingham Heart Study.
Last year the pair made headlines when they reported that obesity seems to spread through social groups, so that your chances of becoming overweight are greater when your friends and their friends gain weight.
A related study, published earlier this year, found that smokers were more likely to give up cigarettes when their family, friends, and other social contacts stopped smoking.
Their latest research, published today online in the journal BMJ, was designed to determine whether happiness spreads through social networks in a similar way.
The researchers were able to recreate the social networks of 4,739 Framingham participants whose happiness was measured from 1983 to 2003. A standard test for assessing happiness was used, which included questions like "I felt hopeful about the future," and "I was happy."
Important family changes for each participant -- such as a birth, death, marriage, or divorce -- were also recorded. The participants were also asked to name family members, close friends, co-workers, and neighbors.
Because many of these contacts were also study participants, the researchers were able to identify more than 50,000 social and family ties and analyze the spread of happiness through the group.
Happy Friends Make You Happy
They concluded that the happiness of an immediate social contact increased an individual's chances of becoming happy by 15%, Fowler says.
The happiness of a second-degree contact, such as the spouse of a friend, increases the likeliness of becoming happy by 10%, and the happiness of a third-degree contact -- or the friend of a friend of a friend -- increases the likelihood of becoming happy by 6%.
The association was not seen in fourth-degree contacts (the friends of friends of friends of friends).
Having more friends also increased happiness, but having friends who were happy was a much bigger influence on happiness.
Happy Friends Make You Happy continued...
Fowler says the findings do not mean you should avoid unhappy people, but that you should make an effort whenever you can to spread happiness.
"We need to think of happiness as a collective phenomenon," he says. "If I come home in a bad mood, I may be missing an opportunity to make not just my wife and son happy, but their friends."
Richard Suzman, PhD, who directs the behavioral and social research division of the National Institutes of Health, which funded the study, calls the research "pioneering."
"These findings are very strong," Suzman tells WebMD. "From a public policy perspective, this research means we need to consider the societal impact on happiness, or obesity, or smoking. We are only just beginning to understand how social networks influence these things for good or for bad."
http://www.webmd.com/balance/news/20081204/happiness-is-contagious
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Almighty Brain
by hamilcarr inobama was scientifically accurate when he declared that one clings to god and gun in times of distress.
this week's newscientist devoted an interesting set of articles on our almighty brain.. while many institutions collapsed during the great depression that began in 1929, one kind did rather well.
during this leanest of times, the strictest, most authoritarian churches saw a surge in attendance.. this anomaly was documented in the early 1970s, but only now is science beginning to tell us why.
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hamilcarr
Obama was scientifically accurate when he declared that one clings to god and gun in times of distress. This week's NewScientist devoted an interesting set of articles on our Almighty Brain.
WHILE many institutions collapsed during the Great Depression that began in 1929, one kind did rather well. During this leanest of times, the strictest, most authoritarian churches saw a surge in attendance.
This anomaly was documented in the early 1970s, but only now is science beginning to tell us why. It turns out that human beings have a natural inclination for religious belief, especially during hard times. Our brains effortlessly conjure up an imaginary world of spirits, gods and monsters, and the more insecure we feel, the harder it is to resist the pull of this supernatural world. It seems that our minds are finely tuned to believe in gods.
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Charles Darwin's research to prove evolution was motivated by his desire to end slavery
by hamilcarr incharles darwin's research to prove evolution was motivated by his desire to end slaverycharles darwin, the scientist whose theories have become a corner stone of modern biology, was motivated to carry out his famous research by a desire to rid the world of slavery, according to a new book.
"origin of the species is a classic scientific work as it has no obvious social agenda, although when you read the journal of his voyage on the beagle it becomes clear he was horrified by the slavery he saw and how it weighs upon him.".
by richard gray, science correspondent .
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hamilcarr
I think that is a little bit misleading.
What exactly in the article is misleading?
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Charles Darwin's research to prove evolution was motivated by his desire to end slavery
by hamilcarr incharles darwin's research to prove evolution was motivated by his desire to end slaverycharles darwin, the scientist whose theories have become a corner stone of modern biology, was motivated to carry out his famous research by a desire to rid the world of slavery, according to a new book.
"origin of the species is a classic scientific work as it has no obvious social agenda, although when you read the journal of his voyage on the beagle it becomes clear he was horrified by the slavery he saw and how it weighs upon him.".
by richard gray, science correspondent .
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hamilcarr
Charles Darwin's research to prove evolution was motivated by his desire to end slavery
Charles Darwin, the scientist whose theories have become a corner stone of modern biology, was motivated to carry out his famous research by a desire to rid the world of slavery, according to a new book.
"Origin of the Species is a classic scientific work as it has no obvious social agenda, although when you read the journal of his voyage on the Beagle it becomes clear he was horrified by the slavery he saw and how it weighs upon him."
By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent
Last Updated: 10:51PM GMT 24 Jan 2009Science historians Adrian Desmond and James Moore have compiled compelling new evidence which reveals Darwin was passionately opposed to slavery and this was the moral impetus behind his work.
Private notes and letters uncovered by the pair reveal that Darwin's opinions on slavery were far stronger than had previously been believed.
Notebooks from his five year voyage on HMS Beagle, during which Darwin first began to form his famous theories on natural selection, detail his revulsion at the slavery he witnessed in South America.
The historians have also discovered letters written by Darwin's sisters, cousins and aunts that reveal the family as highly active abolitionists. Darwin's grandfather and uncles were also key members of the anti-slavery movement.
The pair claim in a new book that Darwin partly chose to highlight the common descent of man from apes to show that all races were equal, as a rebuttal to those who insisted black people were a different, and inferior, species from those with white skin.
They say Darwin attempted to show that his theory of sexual selection, where traits seen as desirable but which give no competitive advantage to a species are passed down through generations, was responsible for differences in appearance between races of both animals and humans.
Professor James Moore, from the department of history of science at the Open University, said that Darwin originally shied away from tackling the origins of humans in his book On the Origin of Species, which was published in 1859, as it was a controversial subject.
"We are not trying to explain away all of Darwin's work as being due to his passion for emancipation, but our argument is that his passion for racial unity is what drove him to touch this untouchable and treacherous subject," he said.
"Darwin was finally goaded into starting his work on the origins of man in 1865 by a rising tide of scientific belief that the races were separate species."
The new book, called Darwin's Sacred Cause, examines notes that Darwin made during his voyage on the Beagle. After visiting Brazil he wrote of his disgust at the slavery he saw in the country.
From an entry on July 3 1832, just one year before the Slavery Abolition Act was passed in Great Britain, he said: "The state of the enormous slave population must interest everyone who enters the Brazils... I hope the day will come when they will assert their own rights & forget to avenge these wrongs."
In notebooks he used while drawing up his theory of natural selection, he also made references to slavery. He wrote: "Do not slave holders wish to make the black man other kind?... from our origin in one common ancestor we may be all netted together."
Darwin also describes the brutality of slavery in his best-selling journal about his Beagle voyage and recalls staying opposite an old lady near Rio de Janeiro who kept thumbscrews to crush the fingers of her female slaves. He also tells of how a young boy was whipped "thrice" for handing him a glass that was not clean.
Correspondence between Darwin and a Jamaican magistrate Richard Hill, a former slave who went on to oversee disputes between former slave owners and emancipated slaves, also reveals some of the naturalist's views.
He writes to Hill just a few months before publishing On the Origin of Species to congratulate him on his work for the "sacred cause of humanity".
Professor Moore claims that Darwin's family were instrumental in helping the biologist form his opinions on slavery. His grandfather was Josiah Wedgwood, who founded the famous china factory and was an active anti-slavery campaigner.
Darwin's uncles included Josiah Wedgwood II, an abolitionist MP, while his aunts, cousins and sisters wrote many letters and donated money to the cause.
Professor Moore added: "Darwin's mother died when he was eight years old, so his sisters brought him up with help from their Wedgewood cousins. He was under the influence of these highly principled and liberal thinking ladies who taught him about anti-cruelty and the sin of slavery."
Next month will mark the 200th anniversary since Darwin's birth, while in November scientists will celebrate 150 years since his seminal work On the Origin of Species was published.
Many supporters of Darwin's work have used his theories to argue against the existence of God and the need for religion, while the controversy that followed the publication of his work is now seen to have mainly been on religious grounds.
In fact, Darwin was a religious man until relatively late in his career, often shying away from speaking publicly about the controversy his research had provoked.
Professor Moore and his co-author Adrian Desmond will present their new theory at a lecture and book launch at Imperial College London on Monday 9 February.
Mr Desmond, an honorary research fellow at University College London, said: "Darwin doesn't overtly refer to slavery and racism as his motivation for writing Descent of Man and On the Origin of Species, but it is there lurking in the background.
"I don't think anyone has really looked at how strong his belief in anti-slavery was, and this could be why it has been overlooked.
"What he was saying was that if you accept evolution, then you don't accept the view that black people are a separate species. It is clear that he believed the same as his grandfathers – that slaves were men and brothers."
Professor Armand Leroi, an evolutionary biologist at Imperial College London who is presenting a documentary What Darwin Didn't Know on BBC 4 on Monday, said although the new theories outlined in the book did not change Darwin's achievements, it gave a fresh insight into his motivations.
He said: "We as evolutionary biologists tend to view Darwin as being very much motivated by the things that motivate us, which is the explanation for the diversity of all the things in the world.