10 FEB 2018 by ideonexus
How Literacy Impacts Reading and Gaming
For Ellie, that charade contributed to her waning interest in computer games and simulations fi-om its highpoint in middle childhood. Reasonably versed in computer technologies and a fan of emerging online forums such as Tumblr, she agreed to talk about her play in virtual worlds not as an enthusiast, but as something of a philistine. She enjoyed Second Life—but only up to a point. "The imaginative part stopped for me when I stopped designing my avatar," she told me.
Further opportunities... 1 
notes
notes16 MAR 2013 by ideonexus
The Critical Path
H UMANITY IS MOVING EVER DEEPER into crisis—a crisis without prec¬ edent.
av upon completely transforming omnidisintegrated humanity from a complex of around-the-world, remotely-deployed-from-one-another, differently col¬ ored, differently credoed, differently cultured, differently communicating, and differently competing entities into a completely integrated, comprehensively interconsiderate, harmonious whole.
Second, we are in an unprecedented crisis because cosmic evolution is also... 1 notes
notesIt's all about energy, power, and innovation. Buckminster's clever perspective on human history.
25 DEC 2012 by ideonexus
Should Smallpox be Made Extinct?
A few decades from now, we may make a brutal,calculated decision to totally eradicate a particular form of life. We already are 99 percent of the way along that path.
Even conservationists, who publicly deplore the extinction of innumerable species of animals and plants through neglect, ignorance, or financial greed, have applauded this conscious, murderous act to be carried out by a UN agency.
I speak of smallpox virus. Since 1967, the World Health Organization (WHO) has been systematica... 1 notes
notes1978 article on the state of the smallpox virus, driven to extinction by the United Nations, asks whether it should be preserved in deep freeze for science?
21 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Are Humans Still Evolving?
Anybody who teaches human evolution is inevitably asked: Are we
still evolving? The examples of lactose tolerance and duplication of the
amylase gene show that selection has certainly acted within the last few
thousand years. But what about right now? It’s hard to give a good
answer. Certainly many types of selection that challenged our ancestors
no longer apply: improvements in nutrition, sanitation, and medical
care have done away with many diseases and conditions that killed our
ancestor... 1 notes
notesCulture has removed many of the selective pressures from human survival, allowing harmful mutations to build up in the genepool; meanwhile, people living in third-world countries continue to experience selective pressures from droughts, famines, and disease.
16 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Design As Evidence of Evolution or Creation
It’s important to realize, though, that there’s a real difference in what
you expect to see if organisms were consciously designed rather than if
they evolved by natural selection. Natural selection is not a master engineer,
but a tinkerer. It doesn’t produce the absolute perfection achievable
by a designer starting from scratch, but merely the best it can do with
what it has to work with. Mutations for a perfect design may not arise
because they are simply too rare. The African rhinoce... 1 notes
notesThere's a big difference between how species would look if they were designed or engineered versus how they would look if they evolved. Evolution works with pre-existing traits, and engineer works from scratch.
28 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
The Disparity Between Mothers and Fathers in Raising Chil...
Women spend a whopping 39 hours per week performing work related to child care. Today’s dad spends about half that—21.7 hours a week. This is usually couched as good news, too, for it is triple the amount of time guys spent with kids in the ’60s. Yet no one would call this equal, either. It is also still true that about 40 percent of dads spend two hours or less per workday with their kids, and 14 percent spend less than an hour.
This imbalance in workload—along with financial confl... 1 notes
notesIf a Mother were paid for the hours she put into childcare, she would make a six-figure salary.
29 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
Weening Among Human Ancestors
Archaeologists have discovered that since the Pleistocene, humans lave always suckled infants for several years. Using biochemical analysis given human population when its children moved from breast milk to other foods. In one group of skeletons from South Dakota dated between 5500-2000 b.c., children were apparently depending on food other than mother's milk by the time they were twenty months of age.^' Recorded history also tells a similar story. Middle Eastern groups in 3000 B.C. were brea...Folksonomies: evolution breastfeeding
Folksonomies: evolution breastfeeding
1 A survey of ancient cultures and estimates of when they weened their children onto other foods.
03 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Two Sexes is Inefficient
Many fungi are sexual, but they do not have males. They have tens of thousands of different sexes, all physically identical, all capable of mating on equal terms. but all incapable of mating with themselves. Even among animals there are many, such as the earthworm, that are hermaphrodites. To 3e sexual does not necessarily imply the need for sexes, let alone for just two sexes, let alone for two sexes as different as men and women. Indeed, at first sight, the most foolish system of all is two... 1 notes
notesFungi have thousands of different sexes, making almost everyone a potential partner, for humans, 50% of people are not potential partners.
