Tag: Grand Blueprint
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Tech gene question
Returning to the subject of tech genes. Here’s an odd question that doesn’t seem to have an easy explanation. Horse-powered vehicles had wheels with iron rims, and continued to have iron rims after automobiles were common.** Horseless carriages had pneumatic rubber tires from the start, even when they were made by the same company. Studebaker […]
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Curling
I’m back to animations of embryonic development, after a brief break for Steinheil’s ground. Today I’m setting up a cochlea model and trying to match the shape changes with the actual timepoints. We’ve got rain today, fortunately warm rain instead of snow or ice. Nice relief after a month of solid ice and cabin fever. […]
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Hardwired doesn’t need marks
This is intriguing but dubious. Researchers looking closely at some cave paintings of elk and antelope have been puzzled by periodic markings around the animals. These researchers see a correlation between the 13 months of the lunar calendar and the mating cycles of the animals. First: When people are intensely interested in a set of […]
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Worth reading
Crux publishes Benedict’s short summation of faith and grace. He wrote it in 2006, soon after he was appointed, at a “late hour in his life”, and then lasted 16 years longer. Wasn’t so late after all! Nevertheless, it’s a perfect short letter from a man of grace and gratitude and SCIENCE. The sciencey part: […]
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Good knockdown of a silly idea!
This article on the origin of language is sensible but sort of surprising. Apparently the idea that language started from gestures is becoming more common, and might even be the consensus assumption now. The first paragraph is eloquent: Some say language evolved by firelight, with our ancestors sharing stories deep into the night. Others suggest […]
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Tech genes and epigenes
I just finished pulling together the Morse prototype and the Endicott experiment into a single Poser set, released on ShareCG. Gathering up and debugging a set always stirs thoughts. The obvious thought is that both are experimental setups featuring a sender and receiver and controller. Here’s a more random and disorganized thought. Technology and life […]
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Missed the best part
At MindMatters: A surprising find for evolutionary neuroscientists is that a tiny life form that lived more than half a billion years ago had a brain. Creatures like Cardiodictyon were not supposed to have had brains. MindMatters sort of ‘buried the lede’ on the actual article. Early arthropods were already known to have brains, but […]
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Alien beeings
Latest research on bees and charge: For about three minutes, part of the migrating swarm passed over the electric field monitor. This revealed a net positive field intensity of 100 volts per meter at peak density. This effect was not observed in a second control meter positioned in the open field 50 meters away from […]
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Easy answer
Evolution News asks if there’s a way to bring back Aristotle’s PURPOSE in a scientific and testable way. Easy. Negative feedback. A loop always has a goal variable. Loops are observable in action, and the simpler loops can be seen physically as neural pathways or mechanical or hydraulic systems in the organism. Inanimate objects can […]
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Caste rears its head
Watching a few minutes of the long funeral ceremonies for the queen. Brits know how to queue. Charles is the champion queue-er, patiently waiting his turn for 70 years. Last night people were filing past the coffin with perfect order and silence at all times. Most people just walked past the coffin without looking, but […]
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Imitating or implementing?
This morning while walking home from the store I passed a neighbor who was taking out the trash. She called out and I responded in exactly the same notes and then I heard a THIRD voice singing the same notes in the same rhythm. It was a bird, who had undoubtedly been singing those notes […]
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Literal underground communication
Sixth and last in a vaguely defined series on obscure spy tech, after SCR-268 and Tenzor and Peilempfänger and Kleinstpeilempfänger and Keinpeilempfänger. = = = = = Encryption and secrecy are the natural default for language. We communicate with our family or tribe or army, and we DO NOT WANT other families or tribes or […]
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Barnacle Bill the Spider
Male spiders jump away with maximum G force after mating, leaping the human equivalent of 1000 feet in a second. The female stores the sperm until she determines that the male is strong enough to get away. If he gets away, she ingests the sperm and fertilizes her eggs. If he doesn’t get away, she […]
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No transitionals
Evo News has yet another article on the failure to find ‘transitional fossils’. Since I’ve been reviewing and condensing old blog into new blog lately, I’ve acquired a feel for the strata of my viewpoints. There aren’t any transitional fossils in this record either. When I crystallize a new understanding, the viewpoint shifts abruptly. A […]
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Katydids part 1, reprint
I wrote this item in 2012. A new piece of related research spurred me to revise and expand. First the 2012 version: = = = = = START REPRINT: Wonderful example of what can happen when you decide to look closely at something, instead of fucking around with numbers and potentialities and apocalyptic religious delusions. […]
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