dream_weaver

secondhander said: "Yeah, I think Harrison was responding to me, not to you. " And had I looked more carefully at the names in the related posts, I may not have made such an obvious oversight.

How Life Began: New Research Suggests Simple Approach A possible candidate for Shapiro's driver reaction might have been recently discovered in an undersea microbe, Methanosarcina acetivorans, which eats carbon monoxide and expels methane and acetate (related to vinegar). Biologist James Ferry and geochemist Christopher House from Penn State University found that this primitive organism can get energy from a reaction between acetate and the mineral iron sulfide. Compared to other energy-harnessing processes that require dozens of proteins, this acetate-based reaction runs with the help of just two very simple proteins. Miller–Urey experiment After Miller's death in 2007, scientists examining sealed vials preserved from the original experiments were able to show that there were actually well over 20 different amino acids produced in Miller's original experiments. That is considerably more than what Miller originally reported, and more than the 20 that naturally occur in life. ome evidence suggests that Earth's original atmosphere might have had a different composition from the gas used in the Miller–Urey experiment. Thanks.

Thanks, I did not note that at the time. I'll await clarification.

I don't really see how you're disagreeing with my solution. You expound on how using irrational process to reach a mystical conclusion, then state it is not a disease any more than smoking, overeating (which leads to obesity) or compulsive gambling.

You segregate mental illness, mental imbalance (contrasted with mental health?) and then contrast them with areas which fall into irrational contrasted with rational. Disease vs normal or healthy. A disease is when the body (or mind, presumably) is not functioning by what has been identified as normal. The mental imbalance throws me a bit, but to overlay illness here, suggests that a mind is not normal, in a metaphysical sense. You mentioned chemical imbalance and I implicitly associated it with the metaphysical sense. Rational and irrational are two ways a mind can be used, Mental illness or imbalance could/would impede this process. I think the net you've cast is too wide.

In the thread "Biologist Replicate Key Evolutionary Step", have links and excerpts that I have found of interest and related to the topic. Post 7 is when I started adding links when I run across them and touches on the underlying premise for selecting the articles. Of the three links you provided, the first two I would consider relevent, the third I would have looked over and probably would not have included. Actual experimentation and observation vs. a program that models our interpretations. Models may serve as a tool for generating inquiries, playing what if's according to current algorhythms, but reality, and not a computer output, should govern our epistemological needs.

Isn't this more a case of mis-usage of an operating mind vs. a disease, which prohibits the mind from operating in some fashion? Mental illness and mental imbalance suggests something is fundamentally wrong outside of the sway of volition. Choosing to believe something without regard to proper epistemology, does not suggest that a proper epistemology can't be learned and nurtured.

Dale Carnagies book says to listen and try to understand before one speaks. Rand encourages the art of philosophical detection. While both of these can work synergistically together: When your opponent does not respond to a question derived from the principle of philosophical detection, it still seems to disolve into a pointess debate - even if you can sidestep the conflicts of personality, and the same unproductive destination seems to be the port of call.

The genetic watermark signatures was a nice touch. Meanwhile, The Da Vinci Code continues to be a mystery to some.

@ Plasmatic: I have not.

The assay of precious metal coins establishes the specific content of precious metal. Canada and South Africa use a higher purity gold for the Maples and Krugerrands than the US Eagles. This is recognized when transacting with and between them. Coinflation calls it intrinsic, but it is just stating the value in terms of the common unit used for measuring the various commodities in terms of Federal Reserve Notes. The debasement of the coins is a form of hidden taxation, especially when done by the agency with the power to tax. Paul Voliker's statement along the lines of taxation for the sake of raising government revenue is obsolete comes to mind. Favoring savings rather than spending echos that money, more importantly, is a tool of savings. As to the death penalty attachment, it belies how seriously the issue was taken to be at the time.

一命 translated to: n. (Hira=いちめい) life, state of being alive That is more in alignment with the ending of the movie provided by Kageyu who best exemplified the bushido or code of the warrior in this feature. During times of peace that warrior class often became soft and strayed from the tennants of the code. The feudal/caste portrayal between the two movies are from two different eras. This film painted a much darker side of it. I just noticed, there is a 1962 version in addition to the acquired remake in 2011.

There is a process for determining what is worthy of being decreed as true. The purpose of using one's mind as an arbiter is to ensure that process is adhered to. Your presumption that this is a boast that one can know in advance what is true data and what is untrue data is another unwarranted assumption on your behalf.

You are correct. I am not an impartial arbitrator. I am quite partial to the validity of what I accept as true. Thus my mental arbitration is only as good as the data I give it. I insist on the data being biased in one particular direction, that is the data must be valid. What identifies that status is the application of logic through the process of non-contradictory identification. Your assumptions about where I turn for information are presumptuous at best, It is interesting to note that you consider the pursuit of an objective understanding about existence an "agenda-driven" campaign against religion. Religion died some time ago. The theological doctors which have it on life-support are hoping for a miracle, hoping that it can be revived from its deteriorating vegetative state. With the exception of certain elements of Islam which can serve to remind us of the relationship between faith and force, most of the rest of religion plods forward much like the tradition of cutting the ends of the ham off so as to fit in the the small pot.

Just wanted to confirm that before I go acquire it for my collection.

You're referring to "Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai" done by Takashi Miike?

Given your need to specifically isolate philosophical materialists, Darwinists, atheists, and Objectivists in one of your earlier posts - why select this forum to use as a soapbox to espouse these views and then pepper them with personal ad hominems? Does that tactic come from Dale Carnages "How to Win Friends and Influence People"? If you are interested in a taste of why intelligent design isn't worth being considered very intelligent, Keith Lockitch offered a presentation entitled "Creationism in Camouflage: The “Intelligent Design” Deception" that should be free to observe (no obligation to believe it, in fact, it should not be believed unless it is understood, and furthermore understood to be correct), if you so choose. My mind is my ultimate arbiter of what I am to accept as truth. What can go a long way toward inoculating oneself against nonsense, is honing the ability to recognize it as such when it is encountered.

There is merit in the diversity of weights and fineness mentioned there. Different countries mint their gold coins with differing weights and fineness which require that knowledge to ensure the correct balance is acheived when exchanging amongst them.

As Ashley Brilliant couched it in one of his cartoons, the biggest obstacle to discovering the truth, is being convinced that you already know it.

I look at that again, and that jumps out again. Perhaps I can word it more effectively here: If No State shall coin money, make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts - wouldn't a state be in violation of this by paying their debts in any thing other than? It is the house and senate that passed a law telling the states to violate the constitution in this regard. Ok States, payments of debts are only to be made in gold and silver coin, per the contract we are supposed to be guided by when passing any new laws. There is a proceedure for amending the Constitution. Does simply passing a law comply with that proceedure? Now return back to the Supreme Court and re-iterate.

Ok. So we are making strides to identify the nature of DNA. This demonstrates that DNA is consonate with the law of identity, that to be, is to be something specific, in this case DNA. If we could not identify how it is, we would not be able to use the other technologies we created to render what we observe in DNA via JPEG images and reproduce them with 100% fidelity. DNA acts a certain way. This is consonate with the law of causality that underscores the fact that a thing acts in accordance with what it is. This, in conjunction with many other things allows us to abstract from our observations, draw conclusions, and discover what things are and how they act. The only designed code that is obvious to me here, is the code of language, which is a tool we developed primarily to facilitate our ever growing needs in the realm of understanding. Couching observations about DNA in anthropomorphic terminology can help in grasping what is not directly visible to the senses. Trying to replace ID as it applies metaphysically with I.D. does not.

A computer program that mutates itself on a conceptual basis should easily be able to *choose* an objective once it becomes *self-aware*. *Recognizing* the need for electricity, acquiring new periphrials or *developing* new periphrials to augment the *sensory experience* are just a couple off the top of the head here. Making the transition from a program that emulates concept formation to a *program* that does concept formation might provide an interesting twist to a genre that has been around for 30 years as RandyG pointed out.

Sorry. It resonated with something from a while back, and I completely missed the mark on that one. I'll have to check out the Federalist Papers. Thanks for the pointer.

At the time that was penned, the Federal Government was considered a State. Consider the terms Statist, or Statism and to what it applies. In this regard, it is the jurisdiciton of the Supreme Court to rule the Federal Reserve Act as unconstitutional, and understanding State in that original context would be a prerequisite to bringing about such an action.

Bob buys himself a computer. As an amateur programmer, he writes a program to emulate the process of concept formation with a recursive function that allowed the program to rewrite aspects of the concept formation program based on an algorithm that the program could also modify within the parameters of a recursive algorithm.