Children of the Sun: Star Nation

Please take a moment to read and witness this message:

http://starnationpeople.blogspot.com/2008/10/there-is-prophecy.html

Artificial Life Forms?

A scientist is expected to announce early this next week that he has actually created the first artificial life form. By learning the language of our genetic code, now scientists are beginning to write in that code. The result, and never before seen DNA strand that will be transplanted into a bacteria cell which it will then take over.

What follows, if this proves true, is a perpetual model for countless other DNA experiments to easily follow.

Some quotes from the Guardian Unlimited story:

Mr Venter said he had carried out an ethical review before completing the experiment. "We feel that this is good science," he said. He has further heightened the controversy surrounding his potential breakthrough by applying for a patent for the synthetic bacterium.

Pat Mooney, director of a Canadian bioethics organisation, ETC group, said the move was an enormous challenge to society to debate the risks involved. "Governments, and society in general, is way behind the ball. This is a wake-up call - what does it mean to create new life forms in a test-tube?"

He said Mr Venter was creating a "chassis on which you could build almost anything. It could be a contribution to humanity such as new drugs or a huge threat to humanity such as bio-weapons".

Now, let's stop to ponder all the possibilities...

Bah, nobody has ever really thought out the consequences of using any of science we currently have, and that really hasn't harmed us has it? How bad could it be?

Mr Venter believes designer genomes have enormous positive potential if properly regulated. In the long-term, he hopes they could lead to alternative energy sources previously unthinkable. Bacteria could be created, he speculates, that could help mop up excessive carbon dioxide, thus contributing to the solution to global warming, or produce fuels such as butane or propane made entirely from sugar.

"We are not afraid to take on things that are important just because they stimulate thinking," he said. "We are dealing in big ideas. We are trying to create a new value system for life. When dealing at this scale, you can't expect everybody to be happy."

Yeah, see, we are going to get a new value system for life. So, you know, there is that trade off. I mean...what the hell does a 'new value system for life' mean?

The value of life seems to be relative to who is doing the valuing. In a world of questionable ethics and morals of those in the positions to use this new science, or more pointedly profit by it, one has to assume that those that can will. Where do we then, as a nation and as a world, put boundaries? where do we ensure that our values are not compromised in the name of money, power, or any so called quick fixes to the complicated problems that we create for ourselves. Will we use such knowledge for the greater good of all? or will we use it like a new drug to hide our symptoms, to ignore our deeper issues of how we conduct ourselves in relationship to the planet and one another. In a society more and more dependent on solutions in a pill what will the pharmaceutical corporations be selling you?

The Bear Whisperer...

...or, how one man has used food training to cross boundaries with the wild bears of Alaska. Another Treadwell? It must be an exhilarating experience, being with animals and particularly wild animals, is and can be a magical experience. The hard questions are when and how can it become a dangerous thing for the animals? we take for granted it is already dangerous for the man and that he excepts that danger as part of it. But when is it a true disservice to the wild?

Full Article

Fifty miles northwest of Anchorage, the roadless hills and swamps of the Yentna River Valley have for years hidden the secret of bear man Charlie Vandergaw.

Far from the bear-viewing spectacle of Katmai National Park — and farther still from the hype that made a celebrity of the late Timothy Treadwell, an environmentalist who lived among the park's grizzly bears for more than a dozen seasons before he and his girlfriend were killed and partially eaten by a bear in 2003 — Vandergaw has quietly transformed himself into what Treadwell only dreamed of being: a true bear whisperer.

What goes on each summer at the retired Anchorage science teacher's remote homestead is so far from the ordinary as to be almost unbelievable. Visitors tell of him petting black and brown bears, playing with grizzly cubs while sows stand by, sitting on bears and teaching them tricks.

His own photographs show even more. They capture him easing to within feet of breeding grizzlies and nursing an injured brown bear.

The Science of Fear

...so I ran across the free article today from the WSJ about the psychology of fear and how its influence over people, particularly when it comes to voting...

Snippit...

A growing number of studies offer clues as to how terrorism and other deadly events affect people's voting decisions. The latest research shows that because such violent political acts are brutal reminders of death, they make conservatives, but not liberals, more hostile toward those perceived as different, and more supportive of extreme military policies, according to a study in April in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

For 20 years, researchers have been exploring how people manage the fear engendered by intimations of mortality. Reminded of the inevitability of their own death (which happens to a lesser degree by merely walking past a funeral parlor), people try to quench or at least manage the resulting "existential terror" in several ways. They become more certain of their worldview or faith. They conform more closely to the norms of their society. They show greater reverence for symbols of their society, such as flags and crucifixes.

All of these make people feel more secure and, crucially, a part of something larger -- something that will outlive them.

Building up your own worldview requires disparaging (even unconsciously) that of others. If beliefs that contradict yours have any worth, then by definition they call into question the absolute validity of your own. The result is stronger feelings of hostility toward those with different values and beliefs.

This "worldview defense," says psychology researcher Sheldon Solomon of Skidmore College, "reduces the terror that reminders of your own death bring." These results have been replicated in some 300 lab experiments, including in cultures with very different ideas about an afterlife.

Which brings us back to the effect on voters of a terrorist attack and its brutal reminders of mortality. Although some voters would feel betrayed by incumbents who failed to protect them, researchers say, these days that trend would more likely be swamped by a surge toward candidates perceived as hawks on national security.

Interesting no? Psychology, particularly behavioral theories and practices, can be seen in use all over in media, business, and politics. This kind of psychology and tactics are aimed directly at the part of humans that is quite animal because these are such ingrained and inherint hardwired parts of being animal. It actually requires higher consciousness to overcome these simple and ingrained triggers, however it takes conscious awareness of what is happening to do so. Otherwise, by definition, it is unconsciously working on us.

Surely we overcome such impulses daily, and also we follow them daily as well. But to sway large portions of the population what does it really take? appeal, push, trigger the baser instincts that are part of our hard-wired heritage. In other words, treat people like sheep.

The results...you can begin to measure the actual conscious awareness of the population. Aint that sad. Okay, maybe that is simplification. But that is in general how I see it.

The article is saying, apply fear of death and everyone sticks to their guns more, their point of view more. That is interesting. But I think it would take more research to explain why fear of death would drive liberally leaning folks to be more liberal? for me, the effectiveness of psychological manipulation rests within the realm of self-awareness and level of consciousness within the individual and society.