Unrealistic technological optimism inhibits technological progress

"A regenerative medicine specialist has called for a crackdown on the increasing number of doctors offering unproven stem cell treatments, as skepticism about the practice threatens a potentially groundbreaking clinical study."

Another newspaper story describes the details:

World-first Australian stem cell marvel that regrows damaged cartilage could make joint surgery unnecessary.

These headlines speak for themselves. Premature application of breakthrough medical technology can result in legal complications that may slow down the research. If the research area is discredited by premature application, future funding for the area may become more limited. 

Unfortunately, this same dynamic is seen in the life-extension area. In particular, cryonics has been promoted for a long time as a potential method to extend life. However, those in favor of a truly scientific approach feel that current methods discredit serious researchers. 

Kenneth Hayworth comments:

A rush to human application may sound humanitarian, but I believe it will only result in further delaying the eventual, inevitable embracing of cryonics (and other methods of brain preservation) by mainstream science and medicine. Simply put, rushing to human application will, in my opinion, only result in many more lives lost over the long run.

Admissions of Lack of Consensus by prominent “alarmists” in the climate change debate

Even prominent “alarmists” in the climate change debate admit there is noconsensus. Phil Jones, director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, when asked if the debate on climate change is over, told the BBC, “I don’t believe the vast majority of climate scientists think this. This is not my view” (BBC News, 2010). When asked, “Do you agree that according to the global temperature record used by IPCC, the rates of global warming from 1860–1880, 1910–1940 and 1975– 1998 were identical?” Jones replied, Temperature data for the period 1860-1880 are more uncertain, because of sparser coverage, than for later periods in the 20th Century. The 1860-1880 period is also only 21 years in length. As for the two periods 1910-40 and 1975-1998 the warming rates are not statistically significantly different (see numbers below). I have also included the trend over the period 1975 to 2009, which has a very similar trend to the period 1975-1998.
So, in answer to the question, the warming rates for all 4 periods are similar and not statistically significantly different from each other.
Finally, when asked “Do you agree that from 1995 to the present there has been no statistically-significant global warming” he answered “yes.” Jones’ replies contradict claims made by IPCC.

Mike Hulme, also a professor at the University of East Anglia and a contributor to IPCC reports, wrote in 2009: “What is causing climate change? By how much is warming likely to accelerate? What level of warming is dangerous? – represent just three of a number of contested or uncertain areas of knowledge about climate change” (Hulme, 2009, p. 75). He admits “Uncertainty pervades scientific predictions about the future performance of global and regional climates. And uncertainties multiply when considering all the consequences that might follow from such changes in climate” (p. 83). On the subject of IPCC’s credibility, he admits it is “governed by a Bureau consisting of selected governmental representatives, thus ensuring that the Panel’s work was clearly seen to be serving the needs of government and policy. The Panel was not to be a self-governing body of independent scientists” (p. 95). All this is exactly what IPCC critics have been saying for years. 

Richard "Selfish Gene" Dawkins has increased the religious belief that he makes a business of opposing

Paul states that greater social and economic instability is expected to produce greater religiosity. He points to the neo-liberal policies of Thatcher and Reagan. These economic policies have been used to transfer wealth to the rich. 

Richard "Selfish Gene" Dawkins developed a following of libertarians pushing social darwinism as their religion. While the term "Selfish Gene" itself is not used in the professional literature, the individualism implied has played a major role in, for example, the debates about group selection in evolutionary theory, in Friedman's and related economic theories, in certain lines of research in artificial intelligence, such as genetic algorithms, etc. So, the concept has served as a lens through which many of the “soft” science questions have been viewed over the last thirty years. Therefore, it is Dawkins' devotion to extreme individualism that has led to the increase in religious belief that he makes a business of opposing.  

See the book "Unto others" for support of group selection on an intro. level.

For a more advanced treatment, see for example:

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100825/full/news.2010.427.html

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7310/full/nature09205.html

"I regard Henry Ford as my inspiration," Hitler told Detroit News

"The relationship of Ford and GM to the Nazi regime goes back to the 1920s and 1930s, when the American car companies competed against each other for access to the lucrative German market. Hitler was an admirer of American mass production techniques and an avid reader of the antisemitic tracts penned by Henry Ford. "I regard Henry Ford as my inspiration," Hitler told a Detroit News reporter two years before becoming the German chancellor in 1933, explaining why he kept a life-size portrait of the American automaker next to his desk.

Although Ford later renounced his antisemitic writings, he remained an admirer of Nazi Germany and sought to keep America out of the coming war. In July 1938, four months after the German annexation of Austria, he accepted the highest medal that Nazi Germany could bestow on a foreigner, the Grand Cross of the German Eagle. The following month, a senior executive for General Motors, James Mooney, received a similar medal for his "distinguished service to the Reich."


Documents show that the parent companies followed a conscious strategy of continuing to do business with the Nazi regime, rather than divest themselves of their German assets. Less than three weeks after the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, GM Chairman Alfred P. Sloan defended this strategy as sound business practice, given the fact that the company's German operations were "highly profitable."

Three More Global Warming Stories Media Don't Want You To See

First is a peer-reviewed paper showing that only 36% of 1,077 geoscientists and engineers surveyed believe in the man-made global warming crisis as defined by the United Nations' Kyoto model.

Better Meetings with MyTurn

Better Meetings

Meetings can be notoriously difficult and unproductive

MyTurn is a meeting facilitation application that you can use to:

: stop domination of discussion by a single person (Microphone control in premium)

: stop intimidation by those not allowing people to finish their statements

: experience superior task performance and reach more favorable decisions

: ensure that people’s names are remembered

MyTurn for Mobile Phones works with most web browsers (http://MyTurn.mobi). 
It says “My turn" for you by projecting your name to other’s phones.
Your name is displayed until you release the “My Turn” button or until your Turn Time runs out. 

If there are conflicting requests to speak, the person who has spoken the least has their name displayed. 
No information is transmitted, if your name doesn’t appear. 
The transition from speaker to speaker is protected, since the responsibility for either cutting off an over-time speaker or rejecting a pending request is shared by the group.

Our motto: Promote, Protect, Perform

Promote participation: 

Participation is balanced through application of an Equal-time Resolution Rule. 

(This is a key feature.) 

Protect the speaker: 

Inappropriate requests to speak are never revealed. 

(There are several other protective functions).

Perform: 

Performance of groups using the Equal-time Resolution Rule is superior. 

(This is a published experimental result.)

The MyTurn Web application is available at: http://MyTurn.mobi/

The instructions and other documentation can be found at: http://doc.MyTurn.Mobi

The beneficial results from using this program were proven in rigorously-controlled computer-administered experiments at the University of California and at Stanford University.
The research was supported in both cases by US government agencies.

Julian Assange calls for a "new Christianity," rejects High-tech liberalism' ideology

Europe is Kaput. Long live Europe! 
- Slavoj Žižek, Yanis Varoufakis and Julian Assange - full event

There is no ideological alternative being proposed: Isis vs. the West. What can occupy the middle ground? There needs to be a new European left movement. A type of 'Christianity', a preaching of love and unification. 
When you speak to senior figures in Silicon Valley such as Google's Chairman they have frightening worldviews. There is a real 'poverty' there, in that respect. There is a 'High-tech liberalism' ideology, which you can see references to in Google's book mentioning a 'new digital age', with Washington already going to Silicon Valley for information and solutions. They, as corporations have great experience in managing sheer scale, and with competency. They even have influence in some local governments. When you go to India and China and ask young people about their futures they say they want to work for Facebook, or if they're radical, start their own Facebook. Beyond this, Silicon Valley also 'rebrands' when it's abroad. For instance, to be "Doing it the Chinese/Indian way", but there's no choice, there's no 'China/India' involved - it's just a rebranding of Silicon Valley's ideology. And there's no growing competition.