To the best of my understanding. I am doing this as an attempt to articulate the ideas and see where my knowledge base needs improvement. The premises, will be followed by the argument and then possibly some examples/thought experiments. If you feel that anything is missing, unstated, or unclear; please comment so I may clarify.
The Premises:
Creatures Reproduce
Creatures Die
Some traits breed true (inheritance)
Children are not exactly like their parents (variation)
Children are somewhat like their parents (inheritance)
If a creature dies before it can reproduce it wont have children
Not all creatures of the same "type" are identical (variation)
If none of a type of creature successfully breeds, we call this extinction.
If one variation of a "type" of creature is more successful (in breeding) than another variation then more of the next generation will resemble it.
Existing generations are replaced by their offspring (survival) or not at all (extinction).
Monday, January 30, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
SOPA PIPA response.
Here is the first response that I got on the bill from any of the people I emailed. It reads like a form letter, but that's OK. I made a form letter and sent it to them. I expect that I will receive a few similar ones.
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Wednesday, January 18, 2012
SOPA PIPA Letters
I decided to write a form letter that you can use to write the President, your Senators and Congressperson. Please also use it to write the Presidential Candidates that are currently running for the Republican Nomination if you are so inclined. Please make sure to use their names and replace my signature name with your own. If you find it odd to call yourself a copyright holder, please keep in mind if you took a picture, or video you own the copyright to that; It is automatic.
Wikipedia gave us a nice link to look up the name and contact information of our Congressional Representative. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:CongressLookup?zip= and here is the best way to email the President http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments
#1
Dear Mr. President,
There are currently two Bills H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act commonly called SOPA and S. 968 Protect IP Act commonly called PIPA in the House and Senate respectively. As a citizen and copyright holder I urge you to speak out against these Bills and Veto them if necessary.
Sincerely,
Philip Aitken
#2 There are two senators and you will need two of these.
Dear Senator ___________
There is currently a Bill in the Senate S. 968 Protect IP Act commonly called PIPA. As a citizen and copyright holder I urge you to speak out against this Bill and Vote against it and its counterpart in the House of Representatives H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act commonly called SOPA.
Sincerely,
Philip Aitken
#3 For your Congressperson in the House of Representatives (you only get one)
Dear Representative ___________
There is currently a Bill in the House H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act commonly called SOPA. As a citizen and copyright holder I urge you to speak out against this Bill and Vote against it and its counterpart in the Senate S. 968 Protect IP Act commonly called PIPA.
Sincerely,
Philip Aitken
#4 This one is for the Republican Candidates running for the 2012 nomination
Dear Mr ____________
There are currently two Bills H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act commonly called SOPA and S. 968 Protect IP Act commonly called PIPA in the House and Senate respectively. As a citizen and copyright holder I urge you to speak out against these Bills in your bid for the White House.
Sincerely,
Philip Aitken
Wikipedia gave us a nice link to look up the name and contact information of our Congressional Representative. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:CongressLookup?zip= and here is the best way to email the President http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments
#1
Dear Mr. President,
There are currently two Bills H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act commonly called SOPA and S. 968 Protect IP Act commonly called PIPA in the House and Senate respectively. As a citizen and copyright holder I urge you to speak out against these Bills and Veto them if necessary.
Sincerely,
Philip Aitken
#2 There are two senators and you will need two of these.
Dear Senator ___________
There is currently a Bill in the Senate S. 968 Protect IP Act commonly called PIPA. As a citizen and copyright holder I urge you to speak out against this Bill and Vote against it and its counterpart in the House of Representatives H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act commonly called SOPA.
Sincerely,
Philip Aitken
#3 For your Congressperson in the House of Representatives (you only get one)
Dear Representative ___________
There is currently a Bill in the House H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act commonly called SOPA. As a citizen and copyright holder I urge you to speak out against this Bill and Vote against it and its counterpart in the Senate S. 968 Protect IP Act commonly called PIPA.
Sincerely,
Philip Aitken
#4 This one is for the Republican Candidates running for the 2012 nomination
Dear Mr ____________
There are currently two Bills H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act commonly called SOPA and S. 968 Protect IP Act commonly called PIPA in the House and Senate respectively. As a citizen and copyright holder I urge you to speak out against these Bills in your bid for the White House.
Sincerely,
Philip Aitken
Friday, December 16, 2011
Christopher Hitchens.
Christopher Hitchens has died. I was saddened by this news. He has been one of my favorite thinkers on the subject of religion and discourse. I was sad that I would never get to meet him. And then he told me that I would. Not in some vague way of some supposed afterlife, but right here and now. His works are at my disposal to learn from or fail to do so as I choose.
Monday, December 12, 2011
On Literacy: Part 1
One of the indicators used for determining the health of an education system is literacy rates. But what does Literacy (as it relates to educational value) really mean?
Literacy is typically thought of as having the ability to read and write. So much so that all dictionaries I checked claim that to be the case. However there is a broader definition gaining popular use which is "competence in a given field." And of course we have different degrees of the normal use of literacy, such as the idea of reading on an adult level versus reading (or writing) in a less competent manner. But I would like to explore the other idea, the one of competence. The one that allows us to discuss being scientifically literate, or media literate. To be well versed in something is to have received regular exposure to it, thus we can say that Madam Curie was well versed in radiation, but by then it was too late. Puns aside, I would like to say that having a regular exposure to an idea is not enough to have a true understanding, to be as it were, literate. Literacy is both reading and writing and these are separate yet related skills. Both however assume understanding.
For example, when asked the shape of the earth and how we know it. Round vs flat. An illiterate answer would be that you learned that in school (appeal to authority). Literate answers might mention ships on the horizon, lunar eclipses, time differences, photos from space, etc. This is not to say that the illiterate answer could not be correct, just that the method of knowing would be flawed and not allow the person to pursue knowing and differentiate between wheat and dross.
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Nearly one-third of American adults don't know how long it takes the Earth to revolve around the Sun, according to the National Science Board.
Literacy is typically thought of as having the ability to read and write. So much so that all dictionaries I checked claim that to be the case. However there is a broader definition gaining popular use which is "competence in a given field." And of course we have different degrees of the normal use of literacy, such as the idea of reading on an adult level versus reading (or writing) in a less competent manner. But I would like to explore the other idea, the one of competence. The one that allows us to discuss being scientifically literate, or media literate. To be well versed in something is to have received regular exposure to it, thus we can say that Madam Curie was well versed in radiation, but by then it was too late. Puns aside, I would like to say that having a regular exposure to an idea is not enough to have a true understanding, to be as it were, literate. Literacy is both reading and writing and these are separate yet related skills. Both however assume understanding.
We could possibly use this as the definition:
The idea of being able to understand the information as well as sort relevant and irrelevant information.
For example, when asked the shape of the earth and how we know it. Round vs flat. An illiterate answer would be that you learned that in school (appeal to authority). Literate answers might mention ships on the horizon, lunar eclipses, time differences, photos from space, etc. This is not to say that the illiterate answer could not be correct, just that the method of knowing would be flawed and not allow the person to pursue knowing and differentiate between wheat and dross.
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http://www.physorg.com/news204569793.html
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Literacy, the mere act of reading and writing, while transformative is not enough. Critical thinking is required. Because many things are read and written spoken and heard. There are many ways of thinking, some good some bad. But interestingly you can become very skilled at either. You can become proficient at thinking poorly. This idea is difficult to understand and has to do with what can be termed cognitive blind spots. Think of them like the blind spot of your eye (which you can't see but can be demonstrated) but for your thinking. acknowledging that you have these blind spots will make you less prone to mistakes but this discussion belongs under a different post.
Critical thinking as a skill is a prerequisite. However Literacy also means competence in a given area. Once basic competence is addressed there is the issue of transferring and using skills to combine in new and exciting ways.
_______________________________________________________________
Subjects Where Literacy is Attainable? Is this stretching the concept too far? Am I just replacing the term competence with literacy?
Languages
Math
Science
Art
Music
Politics/current events
History
Law
Expression of the Human Body (such as dance, martial arts and other sports and athletic pursuits)
Philosophy
Technology
http://www.regrettheerror.com/2011/01/20/bullshit-detection-101-why-universities-need-to-teach-the-new-literacy/
http://www.charliebeckett.org/?p=3899
http://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2011/06/summer-solstice-and-science-literacy.html
"There is a gap between 'knowing' and 'defining'."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Literacy, the mere act of reading and writing, while transformative is not enough. Critical thinking is required. Because many things are read and written spoken and heard. There are many ways of thinking, some good some bad. But interestingly you can become very skilled at either. You can become proficient at thinking poorly. This idea is difficult to understand and has to do with what can be termed cognitive blind spots. Think of them like the blind spot of your eye (which you can't see but can be demonstrated) but for your thinking. acknowledging that you have these blind spots will make you less prone to mistakes but this discussion belongs under a different post.
Critical thinking as a skill is a prerequisite. However Literacy also means competence in a given area. Once basic competence is addressed there is the issue of transferring and using skills to combine in new and exciting ways.
_______________________________________________________________
Subjects Where Literacy is Attainable? Is this stretching the concept too far? Am I just replacing the term competence with literacy?
Languages
Math
Science
Art
Music
Politics/current events
History
Law
Expression of the Human Body (such as dance, martial arts and other sports and athletic pursuits)
Philosophy
Technology
http://www.regrettheerror.com/2011/01/20/bullshit-detection-101-why-universities-need-to-teach-the-new-literacy/
http://www.charliebeckett.org/?p=3899
http://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2011/06/summer-solstice-and-science-literacy.html
"There is a gap between 'knowing' and 'defining'."
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
The Weekest Links
UPDATE: As of 2012 Jan 18 I am migrating all of these posts to http://weekestlinks.blogspot.com/ I found them to be distracting from both the purpose and visual appeal of this blog. Sorry if you had linked to any.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Human Resources
I received an email from Human Resources the other day, because I chose not to fill out the race section of my employee profile. Below you can see the original email, and my response.
-----Original Message-----
From: XXXXXX XXXXXXX
Sent: Monday, July 25, 2011 5:21 PM
To: XXXXXX XXXXXXX
Subject: FW: Important HR Communication
XXXXXX is required by law to report the ethnicity of each of its employees to the federal government once per year. Currently, we have no record of your ethnicity on file and our reporting deadline is coming up. So that we can accurately report your ethnicity, please take a moment to indicate in a reply email the category(ies) relevant to you.
1 - White (Not Hispanic or Latino): A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.
2 - Black or African American (Not Hispanic or Latino): A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa.
3 - Hispanic or Latino: A person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race.
4 - Asian (Not Hispanic or Latino): A person having origins in any of the peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian Subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand and Vietnam.
5 - American Indian or Alaska Native (Not Hispanic or Latino): A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America), and who maintain tribal affiliation of community attachment.
7 - Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (Not Hispanic or Latino): A person having origins in any of the peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.
If you choose not to reply to this email, XXXXXX will still have to report your ethnicity to the government. To ensure the accuracy of that information, we ask for your assistance.
Thank you.
XXXXXX XXXXXXX Manager HR Operations
XXXXXX, XXXXXX XXXXXXX
-----Original Message-----
From: Philip Aitken
Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2011 10:02 AM
To: XXXXXX XXXXXXX
Subject: RE: Important HR Communication
Hello XXXXXX,
Thank you for your email. Unfortunately I will be unable to assist you. I do not recognize the distinction of race as described in your email to be a valid one; or to be based on any firm scientific basis. On my census form I put the term, "human" when asked for race. Any other distinction based on the region where people of a similar skin color lived before globalization (unless their descendants speak the Spanish language) is at best meaningless and more likely harmful to the creation of a unified and peaceful world. If you chose to misrepresent me to the federal government, by suggesting my identity is tied to skin tone rather than internal character that is your own decision. I understand that your are required to do so by law, and do not wish to cause you undue difficulty, however, I cannot with good conscience participate. Thank you for your consideration in this matter.
Sincerely,
Philip Aitken
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The names of both the person and company involved have been removed because I feel that not publishing information belonging to others should always be the default stance if it is irrelevant to the point you are making.
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