Tom Paine's Ghost

Skeptical of "Quantum Biology"

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Paine's Ghost) — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 12:47:00 +0000

Here, for your thinking pleasure, is the re-play VIDEO of the Quantum Biology Panel at the 2012 World Science Festival. Just click on the icon of the shiny green leaf below to view. I am highly skeptical of this potentially woo-woo topic discussed as "science" If Paul Davies is saying that quantum particle that happen to be part of "living" matter might be different than quantum particles part of "dead" matter I call BULLSHIT. There are very well understood forces at play in bringing something to life. The hydrogen bonds between base-pairs of DNA are in no need of a quantum-hand-wave from the Deepak Chopra crowd. Watch if you dare and share your thoughts questions comments. Follow the conversation on twitter using #quantumbio

~Cheers

Video streaming by Ustream

Brian Greene and Lawrence Krauss discuss Higgs field

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Paine's Ghost) — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 21:28:00 +0000

I select Baba Brinkman!

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Paine's Ghost) — Thu, 31 May 2012 19:25:00 +0000

WOW! is all I have to say about the newly released Evolution Rap; a guide to artifical selection. This video was specially released to coincide with the World Science Festival for which I am happily blogging, tweeting, opinionating away. Tom Paine's Ghost proudly presents - Baba Brinkman. Read Baba's full write up over at the WSF group blog!

This post comes to you direct from the north reading room at the lovely New York Public Library. When you visit the city I would put this place on your list for a nice free place to stop and rest :)

Good for Goodness' Sake?

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Paine's Ghost) — Mon, 28 May 2012 15:27:00 +0000

I have decided to focus my "homework" leading up to the World Science Festival on E.O. Wilson and his recent change of mind regarding a long-held tenet of evolutionary biology - inclusive fitness. The theory of inclusive fitness provides a logical and mathematical framework to rationalize kin-selection. Kin-selection explains why behavioral traits such as self-sacrifice come to be in certain species. Although it appears an organism is sacrificing their life for the "greater-good" they are really just behaving that way so that their genes can be passed on through their relatives who they are trying to help survive. Wilson has abandoned the idea that altruistic behavior emerges out of the struggle for existence as previously explained by a simple equation championed by none other that HIMSELF at an earlier stage in his life. The equation is rB>C. In which r is a relatedness factor B is the fitness Benefit to the altruistic organism and C is the Cost of genetic fitness to the organism for carrying out the act of altruism. This equation was put forth and formalized by the British evolutionary biologist W.D. Hamilton in the 1960's.

So why has Wilson changed his mind about inclusive fitness? In a 2010 paper in the prestigious scientific journal Nature Wilson, along with colleagues Martin Nowak and Corina Tarnita claim there is not enough evidence in the real world of organisms who display altruistic behavior that follow the rule rB>C. They go further to say that the factors in the equation, B and C are too difficult to quantify. Wilson admits the equation is simple, elegant, and alluring however he maintains that it is too simple and needs revision.

Wilson's flip-flop (btw, I am not using flip-flop in a negative way here as I think in science changing one's mind is a virtue not a vice) has caused an uproar in the scientific community drawing heavy criticism from some of the most vocal evolutionary biologists including Jerry Coyne and Richard Dawkins. Wilson's critics have said he is using his authority to make assumptions without backing up his claims with real-world data (though Wilson does cite termite and ambrosia beetle societies). Wilson fires back at them with the same criticism, saying they have a lack of data on their side (though they do cite sawfly, wasp and bee societies). This makes for the juiciest kind of intellectual debate, one that sends scientists out in the field in search for more evidence.

Meanwhile, Wilson's apparent embrace of "group-selection" has opened the flood-gates for scholars from the humanities to jump on board the cooperation-train and use "group-selection" to explain social phenomenon like the persistence of religion in human society and the rapid growth of social networks. Among these are psychologist Jonathan Haidt and social commentator David Brooks. The worry here is that the scientific debate over evidence will be overlooked by the hungry mobs of humanitarians so eager to extract rationale for morals out of biology.

I am excited to go into this debate and try as I might to filter out the wheat from the chaff when it comes to sound-science. It gets particularly noisy when morals get involved. I have seen this before at the World Science Festival as I covered the last "Faith and Science" discussion panel in 2010. My big worry is that the conversation will devolve into a silly argument about the participants underlying motives as the festival is in large part funded by a controversial organization called the John Templeton Foundation. Compounding this fear of mine is that Matin Nowak (the Austrian born, Harvard mathematician, and co-author of E.O.Wilson's) has received many millions of dollars form the Templeton foundation for his research. Indeed, many of the intellectuals in the Wilson camp are notorious in the scientific community for receiving money from Templeton (Jonathan Haidt winning the Templeton prize in 2001.) My hope is that the conversation can stick to the science and not get railroaded by money and politics.

Please stay tuned for what should be a raucous debate! Wilson will deliver a special address at the World Science Festival this Saturday, June 2nd, 1:00 PM Eastern Time.

Cheers

What is the World Science Festival?

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Paine's Ghost) — Mon, 28 May 2012 15:02:00 +0000

MISSION OF THE WORLD SCIENCE FESTIVAL

To cultivate and sustain a general public informed by the content of science, inspired by its wonder, convinced of its value, and prepared to engage with its implications for the future. The World Science Festival takes science out of the laboratory and into the streets, theaters, museums, and public halls of New York City, making the esoteric understandable and the familiar fascinating.

So said my volunteer handbook last year anyway. I am excited to be going back this week for a third consecutive year of blogging the World Science Festival. Please have a look at the event list and help me decide where to focus my attention while on Manhattan. My love affair with this smörgåsbord of science continues to mature. From my first year of volunteering where I darted back and forth over the island, via bus, subway, or taxi carrying VIP packages to festival speakers, to last year's adventure blogging about the nature of uncertainty, the Moth Story-telling series at the Player's Club, and the troubled history of portrait two chemists. The ubiquity of the maestro overseeing it all - Brian Greene - like a symphony conductor with an entire city as his stage, has been a perpetual pleasure to observe. I have no doubt that this year will be filled with as many new connections, dialogues, and overall syntheses as year's past.

Bonus! This year I will be there for the famed Manhattanhenge! Score :)

Stalagmite from HELL

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Paine's Ghost) — Sat, 19 May 2012 16:04:00 +0000

Is that sulfuric acid in your sugar, or are you just happy to see me :)

The Paradox Behind the PRKCA Gene

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Paine's Ghost) — Sat, 19 May 2012 01:56:00 +0000

A guest-post by Phillip Moore

The PRKCA gene is a paradox of sorts in that it has been identified by European researchers to improve memory, but also to increase the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The magazine Nature just recently released a fascinating article that highlights the curse of possessing a good memory in certain traumatic situations. Let's examine the important details of this study conducted by Dominique de Quervain of the University of Basil in Switzerland and then explore future work that must be done to better understand the PRKCA gene.

Brief Details of 3-Part Study

Dominique de Quervain and his colleagues recruited 700 healthy young European volunteers in order to obtain their DNA samples to analyze the sequence of their PRKCA gene. This gene is just one of many known to impact our emotional memories. The researchers displayed emotionally disturbing images to the participants and then soon after asked them to write brief descriptions of the images. The participants either carried two copies of the A allele or two copies of the G allele, both of which are variants within the PRKCA gene. Those participants who carried two copies of the A allele remembered the most details about the traumatic images, while participants who carried two copies of the G allele remembered the least.

The researchers then recruited 394 other participants to perform the same task while undergoing brain imaging. The study also confirmed that variations in the PRKCA gene impact emotional memory. The brain imagine scans revealed that the A allele was affiliated with enhanced activity in the lateral and medial prefrontal cortex, both of which are regions involved in the encoding of memories.

Finally, the researchers explored the distribution of the A allele among the 347 survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide who fled the civil war. This results of this study were consistent with the other two studies in that survivors who possessed two copies of the A allele were almost twice as likely to suffer from PTSD.

Moving Forward

The PRKCA gene is just one of many known to influence our emotional memories. It is important to examine the role that other genes play in shaping our memories. Massive genomic studies will likely reveal a multitude of other gene variants associated with the greater risk of developing PTSD. Also, more research must be done to understand exactly why the A allele leads to differences in brain activity during the process of memory encoding.

The research conducted by Dominique de Quervain and his colleagues really demonstrates that a good memory can be both a blessing and a curse.

Phillip Moore is an online instructor and coordinator for The College City. As a molecular biologist, Phillip was very interested in this European based study and wants to conduct his own research on the PRKCA gene.

Brian Greene asks - what is space?

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Paine's Ghost) — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:11:00 +0000

Watch The Fabric of the Cosmos: What Is Space? on PBS. See more from NOVA.

Ken Burns on Telling Stories

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Paine's Ghost) — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:04:00 +0000

Corn, Beans, and Squash - Three Sisters

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Paine's Ghost) — Mon, 14 May 2012 18:18:00 +0000

Planted together corn, beans, and squash form a "holy trinity" of cooperative growth. By living in close quarters they provide each other with physical protection and nutritional abundance. As the corn emerges high above the others the stalk provides a living scaffold the beans can coil their vines around as they seek the sun. Meanwhile at ground level the squash act as living mulch by preserving moisture under shady leaves and monopolizing sunlight that might otherwise go to nefarious weeds. The prickly stems of the squash provide a defense system against raccoons and other pests that might otherwise "help" harvest the corn.

Underneath the soil the balancing act continues. The beans are legumes - famous for their ability to reduce nitrogen to nitrates by using their root nodules filled with nitrogen fixing bacteria. Corn is notorious for sucking nitrates from soil at a high rate. In the context of large scale farming, corporations get around this by dumping tons of nitrate fertilizers on the corn fields. To fix nitrogen artificially fertilizer producers need to use copious amounts of fossil fuels. This demonstrates that our current food supply relies on ever-evaporating cheap fossil fuels. Another pressing reason to remember and respect the wisdom of the three sisters.

The origin of this wisdom is not a university laboratory but the pre-Columbian fields of present day New York State. The Iroquois or Ho-de-no-sau-nee stumbled upon this beautiful triumvirate sometime during the millenia they lived and played there. So central was this horticultural combination to their sustenance that it became intertwined with their spiritual world-view.

Lewis Henry Morgan writes in League of the Iroquois (First published 1851).

"These plants were regarded as a special gift of Ha-wen-ne-yu (The Great Spirit); and they believed that the care of each was entrusted, for the welfare of the Indian, to a separate Spirit. They are supposed to have the form of beautiful females, to be very fond of each other, and to delight to dwell together. This last belief is illustrated by the natural adaptation of the plants themselves to grow up together in the same field, and perhaps from the same hill. Their apparel was made of the leaves of their respective plants; and in the growing season they were believed to visit the fields, and dwell among them. This triad is known under the name of De-o-ha-ko, which signifies Our Life, or Our Supporters. They are never mentioned separately, except by description, as they have no individual names."

Depending on where you live the time to plant these varies but on average the span between April 20th and mid May marks the optimal planting window. As an added bonus cultivating a garden in your yard or containers in your apartment with your children boosts their veggie intake and physical activity.

Did you like this article? If so please help out my blog however you can. You can donate as much or as little as you like, even just a few pennies. By supporting Tom Paine's Ghost you are helping me bring interesting topics to your beautiful eyes :) Click the MuCash button below. Thanks!

For a much more in-depth look at the practical aspects of cultivating the three sisters see this article by the homesteader John Vivian.

Tom Vilsack can't be all bad if he appreciates this wisdom.

HERMANN, J., PARKER, S., BROWN, B., SIEWE, Y., DENNEY, B., & WALKER, S. (2006). After-School Gardening Improves Children’s Reported Vegetable Intake and Physical Activity Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 38 (3), 201-202 DOI: 10.1016/j.jneb.2006.02.002

Fair & Balanced? Good Grief!

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Paine's Ghost) — Wed, 09 May 2012 21:10:00 +0000

The bias in this headline is far too blatant to let Fox get away with using their "fair and balanced" tag-line ever again. Check out the editors trying to tone down the "war on" catchphrase since their rhetoric is coming back to bite them. Obama and his press people are proving to be skilled in the art of rhetorical Judo - claiming "Obamacare" as a positive phrase and using the fox "war on" as a battle cry. Nice work.

Extra Soma, Extended Phenoptype

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Paine's Ghost) — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:04:00 +0000

How do you think technology projects our respective genotypes? Is this blog part of my extra soma? My extended phenotype? If you comment is it part of yours?

Thanks be to Matteo for showing me this video and introducing me to Jason Silva.

Thanks beto<br>

Talking with the Devil

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Paine's Ghost) — Sun, 06 May 2012 18:29:00 +0000

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Charter Schools - Opinion

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Paine's Ghost) — Sun, 06 May 2012 17:39:00 +0000

By Kristopher Hite

When I say I do not like charter schools I mean it. I mean it because I see their proliferation as a shift towards privatization in general. I perceive privatization as an all-encompassing ideological philosophy of many politicians; Margaret Spellings, George W. Bush, and Donald Rumsfeld to name a few. I agree with the Democrats who were outraged at W for slipping in "school vouchers" to his last re-signings of No Child Left Behind (NCLB).

From the Washington Post -

"Democrats in Congress assailed the plan -- which also would allow low-performing schools to override union contracts or become charter schools despite state laws limiting their creation -- and expressed concern that the politically charged proposals could delay the reauthorization, which is scheduled for this year." ~ from July 2007.

I see school vouchers as a more extreme version of charter schools - a move away from public schooling as traditionally understood. While reading about NCLB I came across several provisions of the act leading to increased number of charter schools.

"A fifth year of failure results in planning to restructure the entire school; the plan is implemented if the school fails to hit its AYP targets for the sixth year in a row. Common options include closing the school, turning the school into a charter school, hiring a private company to run the school, or asking the state office of education to run the school directly."

It seems as though all roads out of NCLB lead to a privatized world which upsets me. To me, many of the most powerful Republicans somehow swoon over the teachings of a man with whom I vehemently disagree - Milton Friedman.

From the school voucher wiki -

"Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman argued for the modern concept of vouchers in the 1950s, stating that competition would improve schools and cost efficiency. The view further gained popularity with the 1980 TV broadcast of Friedman's series Free to Choose for which volume 6 was devoted entirely to promoting "educational freedom" through programs like school vouchers. In some Southern states during the 1960s, school vouchers were used as a method of perpetuating segregation. In a few instances, public schools were closed outright and vouchers were issued to parents. The vouchers, in many cases, were only good at privately segregated schools, known as segregation academies. Today, all modern voucher programs prohibit racial discrimination."

This brings me full circle to my stance on charter schools vouchers and NCLB in general. I perceive NCLB as a well intentioned act of congress carrying a Trojan horse filled with little pro-privatization Milton Friedman time-bombs. I see these privatization ideals as detrimental to communities throughout our educated democracy.

Did you like this article? If so please help out my blog however you can. You can donate as much or as little as you like, even just a few pennies. By supporting Tom Paine's Ghost you are helping me bring interesting topics to your beautiful eyes :) Click the MuCash button below. Thanks!

Maher on Mitt and Mormon "charity"

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Paine's Ghost) — Sun, 06 May 2012 17:25:00 +0000

As a country I think it is time we redefine "charity."

Multi-level selection

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Paine's Ghost) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 16:21:00 +0000

I've been watching with great anticipation as one of the oldest battles in evolutionary biology is being born anew this year thanks to E.O. Wilson and his mathematical comrades Martin Nowak and Corina Tarnita. The trio lead by the old sage - Wilson - has in essence capsized the boat when it comes to the debate between group-selection and kin-selection.

As a bright-eyed college freshman I was made to read the selfish gene by Richard Dawkins. In this book Dawkins lays out a strong case for kin-selection and the rugged individual as embodied by "the gene." This world-view provides the logical starting point when building an argument for "kin-selection." E.O. Wilson was in the kin-selection camp for decades, indeed he was there close to the birth of the concept. But now looking back at his long career he has made an epic flip-flop (which consequentially I think is a high virtue in science despite being maligned by politicos the country over).

Wilson's flip-flop is away from kin-selection and towards group selection. I learned more about his opinions regarding this philosophy in this rough-cut interview with Carl Zimmer. A core concept Wilson acknowledges is not well developed is multi-level selection. Mult-level selection is a more nuanced approach to understanding group-selection. Wilson suggests multi-level selection ought to be fleshed out in order to replace what he considers the erroneous inclusive-fitness theory.

I had not grasped what "multi-level" selection meant until I got to 9:00 in the following TED talk by Jonathan Hiadt. Here he explains in basic terms what multi-level selection theory looks like using a crew-team to illustrate his point. I immediately thought of the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque. One of the continuous themes is the hatred the main character and all of his fellow soldiers feel toward their commanding officer. One of the most gruesome scenes in the book is an ambush of the officer his own men orchestrate. They beat him to within an inch of his life to let him know he does not control them. This internal conflict is more nuanced than the conflict with the enemy and also illustrates one layer in multi-level evolution theory. Please watch the video and let me know what you think.

Animals feel. Common sense. Right?

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Paine's Ghost) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 06:44:00 +0000

An interview with Bernard E. Rollin University distinguished professor of Philosophy at Colorado State University and University Bioethicist in residence.

Retaining a thick Brooklyn accent Bernie (as he is known by his students) is a force to be reckoned with. A proud weightlifter and connoisseur of Harley Davidson motorcycles, you might not peg him as a Columbia-educated University distinguished professor. My first encounter with this giant of animal welfare came as he guest-lectured a bioethics class I was taking in the fall of 2006. His plea for students to embrace logic, critical thinking, and practice “weight-lifting with your mind” was imprinted on us with his use of punctuating profanity as he lectured. He is what you would consider a “Rock Star” professor on par with Temple Grandin in reputation among students.

Bernie has published several widely read books including Animal Rights and Human Morality (1981), which helped set up a logical framework for the animal rights movement. For nearly a decade between the mid 1970’s and early 80’s he worked to make key amendments to the U.S. Animal Welfare Act. The amendments concern treatment of research animals; such as controlling pain and prohibiting repeat use of animals like cats for research procedures at vet schools and research institutions. Up until these amendments passed students in vet school were required to operate on the same dog or cat up to 20 times. The animals were kept alive and “worked on” over the course of several weeks with little to no attention paid to pain relief or after-care. Much focus was placed to the nuts-and-bolts of animal anatomy with little to no attention paid to minimizing animal suffering. In a particularly gruesome lab exercise cats were fed cream and later their intestines sliced open, while conscious, to instruct students how food passed through the digestive tract. The cats were given ketamine at a low dose to render their brains dissociated from sensation; mostly to prevent flinching during surgery. However the drug wore off and the pain would be fully felt by the animal for days until it’s next round of surgery. Bernie’s 1985 amendments to the Animal Welfare Act ended this and other horrific practices in vet schools and research labs around the country. His current work has been focused on the welfare of farm animals, an organic transition at an institution with deep roots in agricultural understanding. His most recent book Putting the Horse before Descartes is an autobiography that chronicles his 41 years at Colorado State and his wielding of the battle ax for animal-welfare awareness.

After years passing since my first encounter with Bernie I felt it time to go to his office and sit down and have a joint “weight-lifting” session on these issues. So, one week before classes started for the fall semester of 2010, I did just that.

Kristopher Hite: After watching Food Inc. and other “foodie” themed documentaries, and reading the Omnivore’s Dilemma, I’m wondering what your perspective is on how animal treatment in the meat industry is portrayed by these authors and producers.

Bernie Rollin: There’s a certain bias but it’s basically true. We’re in a transitional moment because part of the (meat) industry, I’d say 25%, has taken heed to things like prop 2 in California – that was the thing three years ago that was passed 2 to 1. The proposition made it illegal to raise chickens in cages, pigs in boxes, or veal calves in boxes. It passed by considerably more than anything else on the ballot and that was the year that Obama got elected. It tells you that, at least in California, Arizona, Michigan, Ohio (after a bunch of posturing) and Florida (which had a referendum that capitulated) that the industry is becoming aware. I just talked to an industry guy for this new book I’m writing and he said “we made a serious mistake when we gave each chicken 48 inches.” You see they’re beginning to get it. You wouldn’t have heard that five years ago from an industry person.

KH: Do you think that this “Real Food” advocacy has had an influence?

BR: Oh yeah, it’s all had an influence; the animal welfare movement has had an influence too.

This book we’re doing is very interesting and it wouldn’t have been done before the PEW commission. Do you know about the PEW commission?

KH: No

BR: Write this down “P – C – I – F – A – P, Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production dot ORG.”

KH: Briefly, what is the PEW charitable trust?

BR: They are the SUN oil company fortune; 6 billion dollars plus or minus. You wouldn’t expect these studies from oil money, but they are fairly left wing. They did a study on “biotech,” they did a study on the pollution of the oceans, all this kind of stuff. Shit, maybe ten years ago they were approached by John’s Hopkins who had done some Delaware, Maryland, Virginia epidemiology of microbes in the soil in the water and they found all kinds of shit; fluoroquinolones in drinking water – these are cutting edge anti-biotics, you know, kind of the last resort for hospital nosocomial infections and things like that. And Hopkins has a good relationship with PEW and so they said “Why don’t you fund a commission looking at industrial agriculture “ so they funded a $3 million commission. There were 15 of us on the commission including the former secretary of agriculture, former governor of Kansas, dean of a vet school, two deans of public health, an executive from Cargill, and we all looked at the affect of industrial agriculture on the environment, on human health, on animal health, on animal welfare, and on rural community health. And we had specific, very specific indictments of industrial agriculture. In fact I couldn’t believe that the other 14 people didn’t know anything about animal welfare. But by the time the commission finished in 3 years they voted unanimously to demand the abolition of animal confinement in 10 years. Which just fuckin’ amazed me.

This report is available online and since its publication in 2007 it has had an enormous influence on congress, because PEW does, and they are going to phase out antibiotic use in animal feeds. So that is a good place to start reading if you want to understand the major criticisms of industrial farming. And as I said, I think about 25% of the industry has already taken heed. We had 800 editorials in response to the published commission report. Of the 800 two were negative. The two that were negative were puppets of the industry.

We know they’re fighting a losing battle, so I think you’re going to see a change in industrial agriculture. This book I’m doing is being done by two icons in animal science, old guys, very senior. They were trying to do kind of a “response” to the PEW commission, but they didn’t know what the hell they were doing and so they called me up and they said “will you help us?” Well I looked at the thing and realized there was a theme they couldn’t articulate. Namely, how does the industry respond to these concerns? But not how do they whine about it, but how do they change in response to it. I figured if I could get in there and turn the book in THAT direction, it would be fairly subversive, you know. The first thing I did was try to find industry people to provide responses, but none of them could or none would. Not a single one in any of these areas. I said fine. I went to the people on the PEW commission and said, Would you indicate what the problems are and make some suggestions for immediate progress, not pie in the sky, and they all said yes. So essentially, this will be a mainstream industry book with a bias in the direction change. I was sort of proud of orchestrating that. I imagine the book will be out within two years. I was happy about doing this because there’s absolutely no fucking reason that you have to raise animals the way they do.

KH: That brings me to my next question. If the operating mantra of all corporations in the United States is money, money, money – sell what the “free market” wants to buy, how much of the responsibility of this change in the meat industry falls on consumers and their being more conscientious? One statistic that slapped me in the face from Food Inc. was that the average American eats 200 lbs of meat every year. If the goal is to reduce animal suffering, then how much responsibility falls on us?

BR: A lot of it. A lot of it is general taste. But, if you try to take Americans’ hot dogs away you’re going to get a revolution. You can give them all the data you want on rat shit and carcinogens. One way to ensure something happens in America is to tell Americans – NO. In Marin County, California they passed a “no breeding without a license” law. Breeding immediately proliferated. You don’t tell Americans what to do. You motivate them. We have a huge tradition of freedom in this country. To me, the emblem of this is bikers. If you travel like I do all over the west people greet you. “God bless you young man” that kind of shit, because they see bikers, however pathetic that may be, as continuing the tradition of freedom.

There was a guy 15-20 years ago who was poaching small game in Utah. Didn’t have a license and didn’t believe he had to have a license. He was kind of a mountain man, lived off nature. He was caught by a game warden and he killed the game warden… And he was a hero in Utah. He wasn’t a villain. They wrote songs about him. People told him about the cops coming. That is huge and people don’t fucking get it. The left wing liberals don’t get that independence is a wild streak in America. It’s a crazy streak. It’s not like Sweden.

KH: I just watch the Documentary - Gonzo - about the life of Hunter S. Thompson, and I was amazed at the people who sat down to interview and discuss his life, Jimmy Carter, George McGovern, Jimmy Buffett and so on. I bring up this film as it pointed out how he got his start in journalism spending time with the Hell’s Angels biker gang all over California in the 60’s. I realized how intertwined the “freedom” carried by the Hell’s angels was intertwined with the Merry Pranksters and how that association kind of led to the reemergence of the “freedom movement.” But, from my perspective, being born in the 1980s, I see the back end of all that, the residual energy from that movement being co-opted by the sell-outs.

BR: That’s classic though. See you didn’t live through the 60’s and I did. The 60’s created a counter-culture like psychedelic art, Peter Max, that kinda shit. Well, within a year 7-up had psychedelic commercials. It’s very much like Hinduism, the history of Hinduism. It doesn’t fight intruder religions. It swallows them. My colleague, Jim Boyd had a tapestry in his office of a lot of the Hindu gods, and one of them is Jesus. You see, capitalism is very clever that way. You don’t beat ‘em you join ‘em.

KH: Where is the forefront of the fight for farm animal welfare?

BR: The Ag lobby wields much more power ($) than the research lobby and so federal action is not feasible for political candidates. Big dairy and pig businesses are billion-dollar-a-year industries and waging battle with them would be political suicide for current or potential federal congress people.

KH: What is the driving force behind state referenda such as the famous prop 2 in California?

BR: The Humane Society of the United States - HSUS. They campaign and inform people about current industrial farm animal production practices then assist bringing forth reforming referenda for state-wide voteWhen this was attempted in Colorado then-Governor Bill Ritter did not want language like "No hog houses allowed in Colorado" to show up as an amendment to the State Constitution (unfortunately that is how Colorado's referenda process works: only constitutional amendments can be voted on by the public). BUT, it ended up alright because Senate bill 201 was passed in 2008 in lieu of the constitutional amendment. This came to be after the humane society came together with the ag lobby and hashed out the terms of senate bill 201.

The passage of this bill in Colorado set a precedent for the rest of the country showing that both sides (animal rights activists, and industrial farming operations) can work together whereas many times people say there is no room for compromise on farm animal welfare issues.

END of interview - see summary of a follow-up conversation below.

A more market-driven change-maker Bernie brought to my attention is the Global Animal Partnership or GAP. Bernie was just appointed to the board though he has not attended any meetings yet. GAP is the organization Whole Foods uses to rank its meat in terms of animal welfare, the 1-5 scale you see in their butcher shop. A detailed outline of criteria used to judge an animal’s lifelong welfare is available in the GAP pamphlets at whole foods butcher-shops. Mostly, these criteria involve maximum transport time, frequency of electric prod use in beef raising, clipping of beaks in chickens, and tail removal in pigs. At a minimum, animals must have enough space to move freely without in obstruction according to their “natural behavior” to make it onto the bottom rung of this scoring ladder. One point Bernie emphasized about this scale is that any animal raised on a ranch automatically gets a four out of five ranking. Considering they are not confined and have freedom to move as they please for the majority of their lives. The practices that get a piece of meat from a 4 to a 5 on the scale have to do with the branding and castration policies of the respective ranch, and the top score goes to the animal who spend their entire life on the same farm including slaughter.

Perhaps it is naïve for me to assume that the general taste Americans have for meat consumption will change which I think is what Bernie was trying to tell me throughout our conversations. According to the Humane Slaughter Act passed in 1958 all cattle, calves, horses, mules, sheep and swine must be rendered “insensible to pain” before being chopped up into pieces. This really is as far as we have come on a national level to agreeing on any kind of “animal welfare.” When I consider that this act does not apply to chickens, and that chicken meat makes up nearly 90% of overall meat consumption in the US I see we have really come nowhere on a national level. These facts are discouraging and make me lose hope that less per-capita meat consumption can somehow be legislated. But, perhaps we the people CAN be motivated to acquire alternative tastes by public criticisms and indictments such as documentaries, books, national commissions and publically visible interviews with subversive insiders like Bernie. In a recent lecture presented by one of Bernie’s animal welfare compatriots – Temple Grandin – mentioned something that might truly revolutionize the way meat consumption happens in the United States. Real-time streaming video at all stages of farm animal production to facilitate USDA auditing. As chief justice Louis Brandies once said “sunlight is the best disinfectant” so too might transparency and the open-access philosophy lift the proverbial curtain on the more dubious practices inherent in current industrial farm animal production.

The Superior Human?

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Paine's Ghost) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 06:21:00 +0000

Obama and Yellowstone

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Paine's Ghost) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:20:00 +0000

Underneath the Waterfall

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Paine's Ghost) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Matteo is with us. The magic of reality is pouring through this video. I hope his energy rubs off on you on this fine spring day here on our pale blue dot!

Lucretius - on the nature of things

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Paine's Ghost) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 02:20:00 +0000

Christopher Hitchens - a giant of a man

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Paine's Ghost) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 01:36:00 +0000

Here is an absolutely exquisite tribute to the late Christopher Hitchens. This was presented last weekend at the 2012 Global Atheist Convention. Thank you Margaret Morgan for pointing this out as a highlight of the convention.

DANGER! Church in State!

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Paine's Ghost) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 20:22:00 +0000

John Shimkus a US congressman who currently sits on the Committee on Energy and Commerce is (in my opinion) INSANE!!!

He has gone on record on the floor of congress completely ignoring scientific evidence and replacing it with trust in mysticism and dogma. He has continuously painted scientists as conspirators in a global movement to take away money and jobs from the US economy. His votes affect us. How did "we the people" elect such a man? A man so completely in breech of the wall of separation Thomas Jefferson so bravely erected between church and state.

He is openly spitting on reason and reality and I will not be silent about it!

Essentially Rep. Skirmus has publicly said - we don’t have to worry about climate change, global warming, and CO2. Why? Because, in the bible, God said we don’t have to worry about a flood anymore, he promised it wouldn’t happen. And besides, god is also going to end the world soon, so it’s out of our hands.

If this kind of reckless political leadership does not scare you please email me at kristopherhite@gmail.com because we need to have a serious conversation as fellow Americans.

James Randi on Carl Sagan

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Paine's Ghost) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 07:59:00 +0000

Drano for your heart?

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Paine's Ghost) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 06:29:00 +0000

There is a growing number of people around the world who believe they have found an alternative treatment for clogged arteries. The idea is to use a kind of molecular Drano and slowly remove the plaques that line the artery walls. It is called chelation therapy.

Is there any evidence that shows this treatment is good or bad?

Almost...

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has completed data collection on a large-scale double-blind clinical trial to assess the efficacy of chelation therapy to treat coronary artery disease (CAD). This study is called the Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy or TACT. Though the trial itself has had its own trials and tribulations the study is now complete and the results are being mulled-over by the primary researchers at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine with the intention of publishing results within this calendar year - 2012.

Why am I interested in this? Doesn't this study pang of "alternative medicine" aka - quackery?

I await the results with extreme anticipation because of my father.

My decision to go into science and complete a PhD in biochemistry was made in direct response to my father and his seemingly unreasonable evangelism of chelation therapy as treatment for clogged coronary arteries. My father is a firm believer that chelation therapy saved his life. I think he perhaps got lucky somewhere amid the myriad "alternative" treatments he underwent with no scientific way to assess whether the chelation therapy helped or harmed him. The reality is that until this point there has not been a sufficient study to make a scientifically sound assessment of this treatment.

While I was in high school in the late 1990s my father (now 80 years old) had heart problems - namely congestive heart failure and arrhythmia. He was a lawyer-turned-vitamin salesman and had it in his head that he did not want to end up dead like many of his contemporaries. I watched as many of his life-long buddies had open-heart surgery only to die weeks or months later from pneumonia, MRSA or other illnesses brought on by their chest cavities having been cracked open.

After having a spiral CAT-scan of his heart at age 65 my father was told he had up to 80% blockage in some of his coronary arteries. His cardiologist suggested bypass surgery but my father did not want his chest opened up. He had heard through friends in Erie, PA that he could try an alternative treatment with no surgery. He signed up and against the advice of his cardiologist began to receive weekly doses of intravenous EDTA and tetracycline in order to remove the plaque from his arteries. He repeated this every week for many months. After the initial intravenous treatment he switched to a maintenance program of monthly EDTA suppository that he has been on ever since.

The idea that EDTA or ethylene diamine tetraacidic acid injected in a person's blood could wrestle away calcium deposits (aka apatite) from the walls of hardened arteries seemed to-good-to-be true to me. This was until I went to the dentist's office in graduate school. I had and still have a orthodontic retainer behind my lower front teeth (I am now 29 years old). Every 6 months I have to have the accumulated plaque removed from the back of my lower front teeth which builds up due to higher concentration of dead and dying bacteria there due to the retainer. While I was in graduate school visiting the school dentist the dental hygienist told me that keeping plaque cleared from a person's gums helps fight heart disease by keeping plaque in their coronary arteries low. I was flabbergasted. Here I had a direct link between bacterial plaque and coronary artery disease. I could understand that calcium deposits on the tooth enamel were similar to calcium deposits in hardened arteries. I saw that injecting high concentrations of EDTA would impose Le Chatelier's principle on the calcium ions present in a clogged coronary arteries and thus reduce the size of the atherosclerotic deposits. Despite this theoretical comprehension I was and still am highly skeptical of EDTA chelation therapy. I see my father's success with the treatment as anecdotal. Perhaps he was not as likely to have a heart attack as his vital statistics would have him believe. My skepticism remains.

Beyond the chelation therapy, my father has for as long as I can remember advocated "preventive medicine" like vitamins and various concoctions sold by his former company - Rexall Showcase International (Now called Unicity). My father had unfortunately fell into a pyramid scheme run by a bunch of crooks in the early 90s. I could see right through this bullshit when I was 12 years old! A company named "Sundown" acquired the brand-name "Rexall" in 1985 and used it to lure in "sales associates." Think AMWAY for vitamins. Rexall Drugstores had a shining reputation with old-timers like my father who remembered the good-old-days when Rexall Drugstores were synonymous with root-beer floats and grandpa's heart-burn remedies. Sundown bought the company and used the brand-name (with no connection to the remaining chain of Rexall drugstores) to sell vitamins and weight loss products in big package deals to "sales associates" who could then sell the product to whomever they could convince. I recall the most touted of the panacea powders my father peddled was called BiosLife 2. A disgusting chalky version of what we know as "Emergen-C." But, as Rexall Showcase International's stock tanked, my father's enthusiasm for the brand waned.

In addition to Rexall my father has also evangelized the writing of Julian Whitaker MD. Dr Whitaker as Dad so fondly calls him, writes a weekly newsletter lauding the new advances in "alternative medicine" and telling all subscribers exactly where they can purchase all the new supplements - FROM HIM.

As much as all this bothered me as an adolescent what really bothered me was that I could not have a rational conversation with my father - a very reasonable man. I love my father and I could not understand how he was so sucked in to to all this crap. I have a hypothesis that he so desperately wanted to be healthy and live a long time so he could be with us into old-age, that he would believe anything. I can't say that he was wrong as he has survived several bouts of congestive heart failure and a mini-stroke. But the fact that he was so manipulated by executives at Sundown/Rexall Showcase International fills me with an uncontrollable animosity towards these snake-oil salesmen.

I am admittedly skeptical of most of my father's self-prescribed therapies. But as for TACT I have my mind open as "THERE WILL BE DATA!" The pricipal investegator in this study is Gervasio A Lamas, M.D. of Mount Sinai School of Medicine. I have heard that the results will be published and made publicly available around June 2012. Please join me in the assessment of said data! Finally I can have a rational discussion with my father grounded in data on a subject quite literally near and dear to his heart.

Lamas, G., Goertz, C., Boineau, R., Mark, D., Rozema, T., Nahin, R., Drisko, J., & Lee, K. (2012). Design of the Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT) American Heart Journal, 163 (1), 7-12 DOI: 10.1016/j.ahj.2011.10.002

Ernst, E. (2000). Chelation therapy for coronary heart disease: An overview of all clinical investigations American Heart Journal, 140 (1), 139-141 DOI: 10.1067/mhj.2000.107548