Friday, January 3, 2014

Weekend Rebel Science Excursion - 26

Dr. James Hansen "rewarded" for truth telling
In the previous post we rebelliously took a look at the "scientific" madness around "dark matter" in physics.

In another post we took a look at the same incompetent "scientific" ideology concerning "dark matter" in genetics (The Uncertain Gene - 3).

Obviously, "dark matter" is the "scientific" way to bloviate about the unknown, a form of primal beating the chest to signal "we got this" when "we don't got this."

Today, let's focus on the Human Genome Project with its pants down, an example of the failure of a moth of scientific endeavor that flew too close, with wings of imagination, to the flame of reality, thus crashed and burned.

The video at the bottom of today's post is of a President of the United States who should have been talking about our map of human genes within the context of "dark matter", but instead he was sabotaged by ignorance and ended up calling ignorance enlightenment (he along with millions of other folks).

To cut to the chase, notice that human genes are less "big dog" than was expected at that time:
There was nothing extraordinary about the Japanese canopy plant — that is, until Pellicer analyzed the stained cells using flow cytometry, a high-throughput technique to detect features of cells suspended in liquid. To Pellicer’s eye, the balls of DNA inside P. japonica’s nuclei looked “really, really big,” he recalls. Soon, he confirmed that P. japonica carries the largest known eukaryotic genome on the planet, with a whopping 150 billion base pairs — 50 times the size of the human genome. “We were astonished,” says Pellicer. Plants in general are known to have sizable genomes, often as a result of whole-genome duplications, so “we were expecting to find big genomes, but nothing that big.”
(The Scientist, Genomes Gone Wild, emphasis added). That "feeling of surprise" was explained more "succinctly" in another place, as pointed out in a previous Dredd Blog post:
The Human Genome Project’s most startling finding was that human genes, as currently defined, make up less than 2 percent of all the DNA on the genome, and that the total number of genes is relatively small. Scientists had predicted there might be 80,000 to 140,000 human genes, but the current tally is fewer than 25,000 — as one scientific paper put it, SOMEWHERE BETWEEN that of A CHICKEN AND A GRAPE. The remaining 98 percent of our DNA, once dismissed as “junk DNA,” is now taken more seriously. Researchers have focused on introns, in the gaps between the coding segments of genes, which may play a crucial role in regulating gene expression, by switching them on and off in response to environmental stimuli.
(One Man's Junk Gene Is Another Man's Treasure Gene?, emphasis added). This would not be all that unexpected to the famous evolutionist Dr. Ernst Mayr.

Dr. Mayr is the one who famously said that human intelligence is a lethal mutation (What Kind of Intelligence Is A Lethal Mutation?).

I am reminded once again that DNA is a molecular machine, i.e. it is not alive (Putting A Face On Machine Mutation - 4).

I am also reminded that our cells, therefore our selves, are also composed of machines, molecular machines (The New Paradigm: The Physical Universe Is Mostly Machine) wrapped in a capsid of organic flesh a la cyborgs.

The evolution of machines also comes to mind (ibid).

Have a good weekend!

The previous post in this series is here.

Concerning the human genome, called "the map" by President Clinton:
President Clinton was sabotaged by his speech writers who were sabotaged by genetic scientists who were in the "dark matter" about genetics, but who did not know it.
Thus, they misled President Clinton, resulting in his misinformed official declaration about a map with very little, if anything, on it:
"Without a doubt this is the most important most wondrous map ever produced by humankind."
Little wonder, then, that any such map is in The W Direction.



Thursday, January 2, 2014

The New Paradigm: The Physical Universe Is Mostly Machine

Why not start the new year out with a shock, or at least an update, to our scientific understanding?

Or at least an update to ourselves about a new paradigm that scientists are warming up to?

The 17th century view of cognition a la Descartes (Cartesianism) was challenged by an entirely new view of cognition by Lakoff (e.g. Embodied Mind).

This new paradigm shift I am thinking of today is more Earth shaking than that paradigm shift, and many others like it, so hang on, because here for your close perusal is the paradigm shift at issue:
A new paradigm exists for understanding how cells function. Scientists are recognizing that the cell is a highly integrated biological factory with a modular architecture. Each modular unit acts as a molecular machine. These machines have highly specialized functions and are large assemblies of proteins and nucleic acids. They range in size from about 10 - 150 nanometers (10-9 m) [10-9 m] and provide environments in which chemical species can interact in a highly specific fashion. Molecular machines also function as mechano-chemical energy transducers, converting chemical free energy into mechanical energy for cellular processes. They operate cyclically, and can reset themselves.

With the genetic information gained from the U.S. Human Genome Project and DOE's Microbial Genome Program, scientists now have the raw information with which to observe, manipulate, characterize and, ultimately, replicate these large protein assemblies. Using conventional and newly developed microscopy techniques, PBD researchers, through an initiative called Microscopies of Molecular Machines (M3), are creating a toolkit for probing the inner workings of these molecular machines.
(Molecular Machines, Lawrence Berkley National Lab, DOE, emphasis added). Regular readers know that I have been advocating that we acknowledge that machines make up the largest percentage of the known universe.

With that goes the acknowledgement that machine evolution has taken up most of evolution as scientists know it.

Cells, including microbial cells, make up a large part of organic life. Microbes greatly outnumber "purely human" cells in our bodies (The Human Microbiome Congress).

Microbes are the most prolific life form on Earth, especially when we remember that viruses and virions are also microbes.

Cells are substantially made of molecular machines, as are planets, stars, and interstellar dust.

The following is a sample sequence of Dredd Blog System posts discussing, among other things, the underlying cyborg, machine-nature of 1) the cosmos, 2) microbes, 3) humans, and 4) all carbon based organic life forms:

2009:
Putting A Face on Machine Mutation
Which Came First - Cyborg Or Robot?
Putting A Face on Machine Mutation
Will Humans Evolve Into Machines?

2010:
The Tiniest Scientists Are Very Old

2011:
Which Came First - Cyborg Or Robot? - 2
Are Toxins of Power Machines or Organisms?

2012:
Putting A Face On Machine Mutation - 2
Do Molecular Machines Deliver Toxins of Power?
Did Abiotic Intelligence Precede Biotic Intelligence?
Putting A Face On Machine Mutation - 3
The Life and Death of Bright Things

2013:
Weekend Rebel Science Excursion - 17
The Uncertain Gene thru The Uncertain Gene - 8
If Cosmology Is "Off," How Can Biology Be "On?"
Putting A Face On Machine Mutation - 4

2014

On the Origin of the Genes of Viruses - 5
On the Origin of the Genes of Viruses - 6

Today's post is the first of this type of material of the new year, but in light of the new paradigm, there will be more.

Enjoy the paradigm shift.

The next post in this series is here.



Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

A Tale of Coup Cities - 7

Regular readers know that in this series we have been doing an "autopsy", a forensic autopsy, using some facts and some common sense.

In so doing, we have learned that it does not take much effort to comprehend the reality of an ideological policy coup (which has clearly taken place in the United States).

However, it does take quite a bit more effort to discern exactly when that coup began.

That is because it did not happen all at once, rather, it happened piecemeal, and in fact that coup is still in progress.

This is just to say that the coup has not been completed, so, in today's post we will follow some money, your money, my money, and our fellow citizens' money, in the form of our tax dollars.

That is, we will use the technique of "follow the money" as one dynamic of the autopsy, but we may just throw in some of "that other technique" too, which is "follow the immunity."

Further, we may even throw in a new technique "follow the impunity."

Thus, in this series, our autopsy of national events will look at money, immunity, and impunity to discern the type of coup that has taken place, and then point to a source, that is, point to the perpetrators of the coup.

But, before we continue on with doing that, let's review some of the autopsy techniques and results up until this post.

The modus operandi of this autopsy up until this post has been to take certain traditional American values (e.g. Constitution, law, foreign policy, environment), determine what position government takes on them now, and compare that to historical positions the government has taken.

In the first post of this series, we analyzed certain events in the sense of national direction, observing the trend of the people to say that we as a nation are going in an uncharacteristic, wrong direction (A Tale of Coup Cities).

In the second post of this series, we noted public statements by a General who was told specifically by Pentagon Officials that no one was going to tell them what to do, which that General concluded was the essence of a coup (A Tale of Coup Cities - 2).

In the third post of this series, we noted that the definition of a "coup d'état" is "a sudden and decisive action in politics, especially one resulting in a change of government illegally or by force", and then quoted a prior cabinet member saying that he observed changes which were tantamount to that definition (A Tale of Coup Cities - 3).

In the fourth post of this series, we noted the total change in the behavior of the military NSA with regard to its world-view as to spying on Americans, and how that had changed as much as night and day, i.e., had completely changed (A Tale of Coup Cities - 4).

In the fifth post of this series,  we took a look at the notion of "follow the immunity", and linked to a post (Follow The Immunity) which considered that notion by noting who was "too big to jail" even for committing wrongs such as torture, which reflected the essence of a coup, in the sense that torture had long been considered to be a crime in our nation.

But, we went beyond that example, noting that a certain complete nation was immune from our accountability, even for its taking a part in 9/11 (A Tale of Coup Cities - 5).

In the sixth post of this series we contemplated three events that could be considered as evidence and indications as to when the coup began, or at least when it intensified or progressed (A Tale of Coup Cities - 6).

As to following the money, following the immunity, and following the impunity as methods for detecting symptoms of a coup, let's begin by taking a look at the landscape of 1998 as portrayed by a book of that time:
This book doesn't read like a polemic, but the sheer weight of its facts makes it one: we are spending $250 billion a year on defense, we don't know why and it's not enough. It is the kind of book that leaves a reader agitated and indignant, and should by all rights ignite an urgent national debate. Why, to cite one recent example, did Congress have a knockdown battle over $1 billion in Federal funding for more teachers, yet add more than $9 billion in ''emergency'' defense spending with hardly a peep of public discussion?

William Greider, best known as the journalist to whom David A. Stockman, the first Reagan Administration's budget director, bared his soul, and the author of books on the Federal Reserve and global capitalism, begins ''Fortress America'' by wondering what happened to the ''peace dividend'' -- capital freed from military spending by the collapse of the Soviet threat. After touring our military establishment, he concludes not only that there hasn't been one, but that our ''vast arsenal will become increasingly incoherent and hollow -- mismatched against the new global realities.''
(Tanks and Planes. Cheap. Barely Used, reviewing "Fortress America"; cf. Fortress America excerpts). Way back in 1998 the public was outraged at the spending of a mere $250 billion a year on warmongering?!

Today, some 15 years later, the budget is close to 4 times that amount, especially if you consider the cost of vast spy networks now used to spy on innocent Americans (Homeland Security Happy Daze - 2).

This totalitarianism was not likely foreseen by the author of "Fortress America", as a possibility, or perhaps, even as a probability:
Fortress America remains mobilized to fight the big one but justifies itself now with vague threat scenarios that envision fighting two wars at once, twin regional conflicts that will be smaller in scale but simultaneous. Instead of a robust debate over new priorities or skeptical questioning of these fanciful premises, the political elites in both parties have settled into denial and drift - a status quo that argues only over smaller matters, like which new weapon systems to fund and where they will be built. Defense spending, as one strategic analyst put it, has become "the new third rail of American politics." Most politicians are afraid to touch it.

It seems improbable that Americans will wish to spend more on a peacetime mobilization, not when federal spending is being cut for nearly everything else. Indeed, the public is inclined right now to stand clear of foreign engagements, especially ones that might involve American casualties. Despite the official projections, most analysts expect defense spending to remain flat or even decline further.

But unwilling or unable to adapt to the new circumstances, the armed forces and their allied manufacturers are proceeding with ambitious plans based on the assumption that the reduction in defense spending is only temporary and that Pentagon budgets will soon begin rising robustly again. (The Clinton administration assumes the same: its five-year projections call for another $30 billion and a 40 percent increase in the procurement budget, while Republicans seek even more.)

Until more money arrives, the defense apparatus is literally feeding on its own parts, pinching this and that, scrimping here and there, in order to keep the same Cold War force structure in place and the same lineup of new weapons moving through the pipeline of development. During the Cold War era, the military institution acquired a reflexive appetite for growth that it's now unwilling to give up. Instead, it lumbers toward a self-induced crisis of malnourishment, as when an addict's starving body eats its own liver.

Some smart people, in and out of the Pentagon, see what's coming and have proposed various blueprints for fundamental restructuring and drastic reduction. Radical alternatives are shrugged off by political and military leaders, however, not to mention the defense industry. It is not necessary to study the mind-numbing budget projections to see the problem. The outlines are visible in the routine facts of military life, the daily burden of maintaining the best and biggest army, navy, and air force in the world.
(Fortress America, excerpts; emphasis added). The writing was on the wall for a military that was getting what was considered to be an excessive $250 billion for its annual budget.

But something happened to change all that, something happened to quadruple the military budget within a relatively short amount of time.

That "something" was 9/11,  and combined with certain foreign relationships, it was said to have "changed everything", according to the official propaganda scripts (Fighting Terrorism For 200 Years - 4).

It is reasonable, when considering before and after comparisons on issue after issue in this autopsy, to conclude that the evidence points to a coup having taken place incrementally over time.

And that the coup is still in progress at this date (cf. American Feudalism).

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

Conspiracy Theory
(Nick Jonas & The Administration)




White Rabbit
(Jefferson Airplane)



Monday, December 30, 2013

The Fleets & Terrorism Follow The Oil - 5

Don't Say That -It's The Season
Regular readers know that we started a series that points out how the fleets of destruction have been securing oil for Western powers for a century now.

The first post was made on today's date in 2009, progressing to the 4th post (The Fleets & Terrorism Follow The Oil - 4) a couple of years later.

Just recently we took a look at the origins of this policy of about century ago (Viva Egypt - 2 and The Universal Smedley - 2) just so we could inform Dredd Blog readers of a fair share of reality.
here
As we contemplate this today, nothing has changed.

The fleets are still stationed where the oil is at this very moment, loaded with enough nuclear weaponry to destroy all life on Earth quite easily.

Here is the text of the first post:

The 5th Fleet together with troops are in the Middle East where there is lots of oil.

The 4th Fleet has been reactivated after 58 years of being moth balled, and has been sent to Central / South America where there is also lots of oil.

A website of the federal government tells us:
"Oil is the lifeblood of America’s economy."
(Department of Energy [they removed it, so here is The Wayback Machine copy of that page: Department of Energy]). Which is the same thing as saying you are economically dead without your blood, your oil.

The struggle for economic life then, would be the struggle for oil would it not?

Bush II put it in the cowboy language during a state of the union address to congress, saying that "America is addicted to oil".

Alrighty then, here is a digest of our dealers who supplied us with the petroleum drug for the years 2003-2008:
===============================
OPEC countries (12,385,349) (42.8%)

non-OPEC countries (16,553,830) (57.2%)
------------------------------------------------------------
All countries (28,939,179) (100%)
===============================
===============================
Break it down:

Persian Gulf countries (5,141,389) (17.8%)
Canada (5,002,249) (17.3%)
===============================
Americas:

Mexico (3,466,520) (11.98%)
South / Central Americas (4,656,426) (16.1%):
Argentina (172,464), Belize (1,434), Bolivia (3,934), Brazil (372,205), Chile (18,862), Colombia (393,349), Costa Rica (4,450), Ecuador (501,895), El Salvador (6,296), Guatemala (33,659), Panama (695), Peru (63,662), Uruguay (4,432), Venezuela (3,079,089)
===============================
(Department of Energy, compilation at bottom of page). The OPEC and non-OPEC percentages equal the total percentages that add up to 100%. (The Persian Gulf & Americas figures are just sections, so they will not add up to 100%.) Also note that some of the Americas are OPEC members and some are non-OPEC.

The narrow Strait of Hormuz, a strategic oil drug gateway, has the nation of Iran on one side, the UAE and Oman on the other side where headquarters for CENTCOM has several HQ bases.

Lately "the terrorists" who take up most GE news coverage are said to be controlled from al-Queda in Yemen which controls the other critical oil drug gateway, the narrow Strait of Bab el-Mandeb where the oil drug also passes through.

Clearly the fleets, the soldiers, and terrorism seem to be centralized where the oil drug is found or transported from (for some "mysterious" reason).

In Dredd Blog's most recent post we pointed out the ongoing lies to try to cover up this reality (The Death Juice of The Worried Revolution).


If I was a Terrorist:


The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.