Saturday, August 12th, 2017
Rich Haridy , - New Atlas
Stephan: As I have said several times recently, there are a large number of major trends gaining momentum that are getting almost no attention, yet are poised to change human cultures worldwide. One is the Homo Superior Trend, another is the Chimera Trend, blending human genes with those of animals. All of this has been made possible by a gene editing technology known as CRISPR. Here is one exemplar, pig to human, illustrating this trend.
There are many good things that are going to come from this technology, but there are also deep ethical issues that should be addressed before the only response is reaction. To begin with: how many human genes does a chimera have to have to be considered a human?
The field of xenotransplantation – implanting organs from one species into another – has accelerated dramatically since the discovery of the CRISPR gene editing tool a few years ago. Hurdles that previously seemed insurmountable are now not so daunting. The latest landmark development in the field comes from a team of scientists who successfully created genetically modified piglets free of 25 retroviruses that are generally present in pigs but thought to cause harm to humans.
There are several obvious problems scientists must overcome before successfully being able to transplant pig organs into humans. Despite pig organs posing as prime candidates for human transplantation considering their similar size and function, they generally, and unsurprisingly, trigger significant immune rejection responses in humans.
This first problem is being tackled by several scientists including pioneer transplant researchers Joseph Tector and David Cooper, both currently based at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Both scientists have made major breakthroughs in identifying key genes in pigs that trigger human immune rejections. Using CRISPR they created pigs with those key genes suppressed and believe human trials using these implanted […]
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Friday, August 11th, 2017
Stephan: I don't know about you, but I have long been interested in why a woman would join the Christofascists -- alt-right in euphemistic terms. The movement is based on controlling women, making them subordinate, limiting social services, and the list goes on. Why would a woman ever consider becoming involved in such a movement? This essay attempts to answer that question.
Credit: Illustrations by Tavis Coburn
A month after Donald Trump took office, an activist named Lana Lokteff delivered a speech calling on women to join the political resistance. “Be loud,” Lokteff said in a crisp, assertive voice. “Our enemies have become so arrogant that they count on our silence.”
Lokteff, who is in her late thirties, addressed an audience of a few hundred people seated in a room with beige walls, drab lighting, and dark-red curtains. The location, a building in the historic Södermalm neighborhood of Stockholm, Sweden, had been secured only the previous night, after several other venues had refused to host the event, billed as an “ideas” conference. Lokteff wore a white blouse and a crocheted black shawl over her trim figure, with a microphone headset fitted over her long blond hair. In addition to the attendees seated before her, she spoke to viewers watching a livestream. “When women get involved,” she declared, “a movement becomes a serious threat.”
Illustrations by Tavis Coburn
Since Trump’s election in November, that same […]
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Friday, August 11th, 2017
Stephan: Because the madness of Donald Trump is sucking up all the media's attention all sorts of things are going uncovered. I wish I had a staff and more funding to cover what is happening because things are taking place that are going to diminish and degrade life in the United States for years if not generations.
One of the things that most concerns me is the growing Christofascist pushback against the evidence of science, particularly as it concerns climate change and women. The Christofascists are organizing a deliberate and concerted effort to hide evidence of climate change and the poor health outcomes of Christofascist policies, or to confabulate and and confuse what cannot be hidden. Here is one of the very few reports I have seen so far on how this trend is developing.
We are 200+ days into the dismantling of America, what do you think our society will be like 15,330 days from now when the 2020 elections occur. If you are not working to block and oppose what is happening you are part of the problem.
James O’Keefe
Credit: Twitter
While much of the media obsesses over a pointless debate about whether “free speech” should protect an employee who abuses his co-workers with outrageous claims masquerading as “science” (the answer is no), there’s a serious assault on real science underway. Conservatives, including those in the Trump administration, are now trying to undermine the ability of scientists and activists to communicate ideas to the public. Climate change, unlike the supposed intellectual inferiority of women, is a genuine scientific finding with a strong consensus behind it. That’s likely why the right is increasingly looking to McCarthyite tactics to demonize and suppress information about it.
On Tuesday, Jane Mayer of The New Yorker reported that James O’Keefe, the notorious right-wing hoaxer who tries to pass off his disinformation campaigns as investigative journalism, may have been caught trying to run one of his scams on the League of Conservation Voters. League officials have filed a complaint alleging that O’Keefe’s team at the Veritas Project created an […]
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Friday, August 11th, 2017
Bobby Azarian, Science Writer - The Raw Story
Stephan: Almost every commentary and analysis you read or see as I have been telling my readers for years is wrong because the assessment begins and ends at the political level, which is the effect not the cause.
What is really happening in the United State is a religious fascist movement that has been decades in the making, created by people who have, like me, been reading the neuroscience literature. As I have written at length I believe at its core we are seeing the operationalization of the psychophysiology of politics. This is the source of the Great Schism Trend.
Now it appears I am not alone in my assessment.
Supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump wait for him to speak at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia on January 18, 2016
Credit: AFP/Nicholas Kamm
The lightning-fast ascent and political invincibility of Donald Trump has left many experts baffled and wondering, “How did we get here?” Any accurate and sufficient answer to that question must not only focus on Trump himself, but also on his uniquely loyal supporters. Given their extreme devotion and unwavering admiration for their highly unpredictable and often inflammatory leader, some have turned to the field of psychology for scientific explanations based on precise quantitative data and established theoretical frameworks.
Although analyses and studies by psychologists and neuroscientists have provided many thought-provoking explanations for his enduring support, the accounts of different experts often vary greatly, sometimes overlapping and other times conflicting. However insightful these critiques may be, it is apparent that more research and examination is needed to hone in on the exact psychological and social factors underlying this peculiar human behavior.
In a recent
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Friday, August 11th, 2017
, - Case Western Reserve University/Science Daily
Stephan: Here is further insight into what is going on in our society, and why the fake news of the Christofascists is so effective.
Citation: Jared Parker Friedman, Anthony Ian Jack. What Makes You So Sure? Dogmatism, Fundamentalism, Analytic Thinking, Perspective Taking and Moral Concern in the Religious and Nonreligious.
Journal of Religion and Health, 2017; DOI:
10.1007/s10943-017-0433-x 
Reverend Pat Robertson
Credit: The Business Standard News
Dogmatic individuals hold confidently to their beliefs, even when experts disagree and evidence contradicts them. New research from Case Western Reserve University may help explain the extreme perspectives, on religion, politics and more, that seem increasingly prevalent in society.
Two studies examine the personality characteristics that drive dogmatism in the religious and nonreligious. They show there are both similarities and important differences in what drives dogmatism in these two groups.
In both groups, higher critical reasoning skills were associated with lower levels of dogmatism. But these two groups diverge in how moral concern influences their dogmatic thinking.
“It suggests that religious individuals may cling to certain beliefs, especially those which seem at odds with analytic reasoning, because those beliefs resonate with their moral sentiments,” said Jared Friedman, a PhD student in organizational behavior and co-author of the studies.
“Emotional resonance helps religious people to feel more certain — the more moral correctness they see in something, the more it […]
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