|Posted on Wednesday, October 29, 2008 - 07:22 pm: |
This is a continuation of Post Scripts, so let us know what you think, or where you're from if just visiting. This page will remain open when forums are archived. Of if shy, send an email: email@example.com
Posted From: 184.108.40.206
|Posted on Saturday, November 01, 2008 - 11:24 am: |
Postcard from Robinson Crusoe's island:
Dig finds camp of 'real Crusoe'
My favorite story as a child first learning to read... in French.
Cairo's Al-Azhar Park
Posted From: 220.127.116.11
|Posted on Tuesday, November 04, 2008 - 12:03 am: |
Old Cairo's Darb al Ahmar coming back to life.
Scenes from Old Cairo, Darb al Ahmar
I visited this area of Old Cario with a friend back twenty years ago, where we got one of those famous Egyptian haircuts, very short, finished off with a razor sharp string treatment to remove facial hairs... Ouch! It hurt! But I have a fond memory of it all, and am so glad to see it being restored from what once was the poorest section of Cairo into an area of rehabilitation, thanks in part to the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, which was instrumental by Lord Aga Khan in creating a beautiful green People's Park over what once was a 500 year old dump for the city, the 74 acre Al-Azhar Park. Here are some more street scenes in Darb al Ahmar:
The People's Park, for a small fee, is available for all visitors from Cairo, or outside. Along its western boundary is an important archeological site, the ancient 13th century wall, now restored, as part of the Citadel.
Located on the western side of the park are the old Fatimid city and its extension Darb Al Ahmar, with their wealth of mosques, madrasas and mausolea, signaled by a long line of minarets. To the south are the Sultan Hassan Mosque and its surroundings, as well as the Ayyubid Citadel. On the eastern side is the City of the Dead with its many social welfare complexes sponsored by the Mamluk Sultans and dignitaries, which became an area that developed into a dense neighborhood of its own. This area was indeed in great need of an open green space. The hilly topography of the site, formed by debris accumulated over centuries, now provides elevated view points dominating the city and offers a spectacular 360° panorama over the townscape of historic Cairo.
(interactive - Al Maridani mosque)
The Citadel of Cairo
In a city that today is home to some 17 million people, this green park and revitalization going on is an important development for Egypt and its people.
[A note of caution: Crime is not generally a problem in Cairo, but western women may be molested, which is annoying and disrespectful, as was our experience; also radical extremists have their own evil agenda, so be careful when visiting this fascinating city.]
Posted From: 18.104.22.168
|Posted on Friday, November 14, 2008 - 09:07 pm: |
ePostcard from a friend, Hong Kong
Click in image, slide and see difference, like night and day!
ePostcard from a friend
Ancient Rome 3-D
|Posted on Saturday, December 06, 2008 - 01:53 pm: |
Ancient Rome in 3-D
See it in 3-D with Google Earth
Forum Romanum, National Geographics 3-D
Visit ancient Rome as if you're there.
Merry Christmas 2008
|Posted on Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - 12:13 pm: |
Beautiful Earthrise, 40 years ago on Christmas Eve of 1968.
(interactive - BBC)
The first Earthrise to be witnessed by a human
Back in 1948, the British astrophysicist Sir Fred Hoyle predicted that when spaceflight enabled us to see the whole Earth from space, the view would change us forever.
He was right. When we see the whole Earth from space, she is beautiful and only filled with light and peace.
Merry Christmas 2008, in Peace.
Slave girl shame
|Posted on Monday, December 29, 2008 - 12:15 pm: |
This pretty little Egyptian girl was a slave in America.
(interactive - Huffington Post)
Her employers were not satisfied, she said. "Nothing was ever clean enough for her. She would come in and say, 'This is dirty,' or 'You didn't do this right,' or 'You ruined the food,'" said Shyima.
She started wetting her bed. Her sheets stank. So did her oversized T-shirt and the other hand-me-downs she wore.
While doing the family's laundry, she slipped her own clothes into the load. Madame slapped her. "She told me my clothes were dirtier than theirs. That I wasn't allowed to clean mine there," she said.
A Childhood in Slavery (includes video and pictures)
IRVINE, Calif. (Dec. 29) -- Late at night, the neighbors saw a little girl at the kitchen sink of the house next door. They watched through their window as the child rinsed plates under the open faucet. She wasn't much taller than the counter and the soapy water swallowed her slender arms.
To put the dishes away, she climbed on a chair.
Read it all. What civilized culture would allow such a vile slavery? A barbaric shame this happens in the 21st century.
|Posted on Saturday, January 03, 2009 - 01:39 pm: |
We are at war with those who would coerce us against our freedoms: http://www.humancafe.com/discus/messages/88/94.html#POST1491
"Freedom of thought, freedom over our bodies, freedom of sexual orientation, freedom of belief; all these must be put aside as issues (in my opinion they shouldn't even be issues, anymore than teaching evolution in schools), because fighting over these inherently innate freedoms interfere with the war into which we had been suddenly cast. There should be no question these freedoms are to exist. Freedom to coerce, on the other hand, must not be allowed anywhere, stopped completely, so those who would stop us in our beliefs, and our civil liberties, who would even kill us, must be stopped."
Resist coercions with all your strength, fight all coercions against your human rights, for the right to fight coercions is your God given right. This war the Islamo-Barbarians cannot win.
This is war they cannot win, and may not win, but this final war against the barbarians we must win for Freedom.
|Posted on Saturday, January 17, 2009 - 12:28 pm: |
ENRON - how markets failed the Fraud Test.
See the whole of it, but here are the trailer videos:
Enron the smartest guys in the room - Trailer
Enron traders conversation recorder
Markets fail two tests for Fraud if these two rules are violated:
1. Fraud when trust is broken through coercive collusion destroying the normal price function of exchange.
2. Criminal behaviors which coerce and deceive the markets are deregulated or otherwise not restricted by law.
In the chapter on market exchange of Habeas Mentum, it says:
"Through time, the reality that defines the then value of exchange also changes to suit the subjective and constantly shifting tastes and desires of demand, and the existing and changing ability to satisfy these demands. These changes, which result in constantly shifting market prices, are difficult to appraise without the entry of competitors eager and able to gain an advantage from the opportunities created by them. Thus, the advantage of a competitive exchange over one that is always decided upon by two individuals is that it allows other individuals to enter into the constantly shifting state of exchange and improve upon it to, in effect, contribute additional individual assessments of market conditions as they are then. The reward of this introduction of competitive assessments is that those assessments, which are most correct in relation to demand and how that demand can be most realistically and profitably satisfied, are those that will result in exchange. The price at which this exchange will take place is, consequently, that price that is most competitive and that cannot be improved upon, as assessed by all the participants involved and reduced from their individual decisions. Because it is the best possible price, or at least because it tends that way though it may not be perfect, it is also the most efficient price in relation to how things were then and to how the mind assessed them to be. An exchange is always a subjective human act judged by those individuals directly involved in it either by virtue of their demand or their ability to satisfy this demand; it is a price arrived at that is most relevant and correct then and there, to them. As in the case of our original two traders, because our knowledge is not always perfect, the competitive market environment tends to fill in those gaps that result from our failure to perceive all in our individual assessments. What we cannot see can be seen by another, as seen in another way or from a more advantageous perspective, and acted upon to correct our unintentional omission. That other, either through being more clever or better positioned, then contributes a price of exchange that is more advantageous and, thus, more an expression of real market value. Thus, without the need for superhuman intelligence, the competitive market is able to improve upon our individual shortcomings and arrive at a comparably efficient price at all times. Its constantly changing price then reflects the constantly changing aggregate of human decisions as these are made in response to their individual realities and to how these realities seek each other in agreement. The result is an agreed upon and correct state of exchange.
So, for markets to be efficient, they do not have to be composed of many participants, but they do have to be free from coercion. A market in which exchange is restricted, because entry is prohibited or because the costs of exchange are too great, is a market in which will not be reflected the greatest price efficiency. When free from this coercion, whether or not the price then reflected is optimum will be determined by whether or not the conditions of exchange are then optimum. If there is undue risk, such as from theft or currency instability or from confiscatory measures, then the price will also reflect the concern for this risk; the price mark up will be higher as insurance compensating for this risk. Then, if the price so arrived at appears to be less than optimum, it is only a reflection of conditions as they then are; the market cannot be improved upon if the conditions of exchange are negative. Exchange by agreement, when free from coercion, only reflects the state of things as they are between individuals. It is the property of free markets that, when allowed to work efficiently, they always reflect things as they are; if these conditions are constructive and unrestrictive, then they reflect efficiently our human effort and productivity; if they are negative and coercive, plagued by undue risk and by disregard for the rights of the individual, then they reflect human inefficiency as forced from coerced labor. If we are not pleased with our results, the blame does not rest with the exchange mechanism; a free market reflects only human agreements. The correction of those conditions lies in correcting what the market is reflecting and not in correcting the market itself. If, however, it is the market that is being hindered from its free function as a reflection of agreements, then it fails as an efficient tool of interhuman exchange and as a reflection of things as they are; individuals must be free to form agreements. Coerced, it expresses reality only darkly and the myth that forces it to work poorly then becomes the new reflection of our social reality. That myth is then the attempt to change the reality of our human condition by forcing that which describes it for us; it is a form of social camouflage which masks what the aggregate of our human agreements is telling us. Then, through our social error, the market ceases to be an efficient social tool. A market not free cannot be efficient.
That includes a market "not free" from criminal behaviors and fraud. Once a market fails the Fraud Test, as happened in the Enron electricity market manipulations in California, then the market price is no longer reflecting the reality of the supply and demands of the market place. In the end, the whole market fails, and when the fraud is exposed, the participants behind the deceits and manipulations, or mythical profits, fail with the whole structure built up on fraud crashing down into bankruptcy. Why have we not learned our lessons from Enron in the recent banking crisis meltdowns? It was financialization run amok. The market in the end will always win.
Criminal fraud can never be deregulated.
|Posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2009 - 01:40 pm: |
The Battle of Gaza: http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/024601.php
"The Gaza Operation and its Aftermath Read it all...
Hamas, learning from the HIzballah experience, turned Gaza into a civilian trap. It turned its children, journalists, foreign workers and innocent citizens into its shields, and its foreign institutions, mosques, schools and hospitals into arms depots. It turned Gaza’s underground into a complex web of tunnels which began or ended inside houses, and innocent-looking apartment buildings into deadly booby-traps. The tragic death of so many non-involved civilians and the destruction of so many non-military targets did not emanate from the will of the Israeli army to devastate them, but from the necessity to put an end to that rain of missiles which were launched from those houses. Israel set out to destroy depots of illegally smuggled in weapons, of ammunition and missiles, and the launching pads of the missiles. And if they happened to have been placed, purposely, by the Hamas in mosques, schools or apartment buildings, then those were hit and destroyed.
Many media reports tried to evaluate the relative guilt on both sides of the divide by measuring the tragic amount of devastation, coming to the conclusion that since many more Palestinians lost their lives and much more Palestinian real estate was demolished, that meant that Israel was guiltier, acted “out of proportion”, and was even accused of genocide. It was as if after the German blitz on London and Coventry, the British would be blamed for flattening the city of Dresden on Valentine's Day, 1945, since in doing so they killed more “innocent” citizens and destroyed more real estate than did the Germans. To kill more does not make one a culprit, and to be killed more does not make one innocent. The judgment has to be made by the volume of fire and by the intention of its shooters. When the Hamas pointed those 7000 missiles to Israel, they were intended to fall in the center of cities and towns, and to kill whomever was hit. Most fell in the open, by chance or failure, not by design, and when their targets were hit, they found the citizens, who had been trained by frequent alerts, in the shelters which were built and prepared to protect them. That made for a minimum of casualties and of damages.
In Gaza, all the millions were invested in weapons, not one penny for shelters. No provision was made to alert people or warn them. Hence the inordinate disproportion between the parties -- not the evil of the one and the innocent victimhood of the other. Quite the contrary, those who claim innocence were guilty of a priori sacrificing their civilian population, and those who are accused of wanton destruction took all the necessary precautions and risks of battling from house to house, instead of simply razing entire areas by artillery and air-force without taking any risk. A reporter of Al-Arabiya was caught on tape telling her editors on the telephone from the rooftop of the foreign correspondents building in Gaza that she saw a missile fired from the lower levels of the building. But her station only reported the denial of the foreign correspondents association to the effect that their building was hit by design of the Israelis. The same went for the UNRWA building."
- by Raphael Israeli
When will we ever learn? Human shields shield no one, but are a crime against humanity.
|Posted on Friday, February 06, 2009 - 01:46 pm: |
Natural born believers?
Is it any wonder Earth's pantheistic religions are universal?
Here is the NewScientist article: Born believers: How your brain creates God
WHILE many institutions collapsed during the Great Depression that began in 1929, one kind did rather well. During this leanest of times, the strictest, most authoritarian churches saw a surge in attendance.
This anomaly was documented in the early 1970s, but only now is science beginning to tell us why. It turns out that human beings have a natural inclination for religious belief, especially during hard times. Our brains effortlessly conjure up an imaginary world of spirits, gods and monsters, and the more insecure we feel, the harder it is to resist the pull of this supernatural world. It seems that our minds are finely tuned to believe in gods.
Religious ideas are common to all cultures: like language and music, they seem to be part of what it is to be human. Until recently, science has largely shied away from asking why. "It's not that religion is not important," says Paul Bloom, a psychologist at Yale University, "it's that the taboo nature of the topic has meant there has been little progress."...
Read it all, very interesting. We are born believers?
|Posted on Saturday, February 07, 2009 - 02:23 pm: |
Universe thinking itself as the Logos?
Is Habeas Mentem's "interrelationship" the same as the ancient Heraclitean "Logos"?
The weeping philosopher, Heraclitus
Logos need not be the "word of God" in the modern Judeo-Christian sense, nor does it mean necessarily "divine animating principle" of the Stoic philosophers; it fits better as a modern western philosophical idea first proposed by Heraclitus, "as meaning both the source and fundamental order of the cosmos." Take another look at "What is the form of interrelationship", Ch.3, and you will see that any totality of interrelationship forms a definition for its internal parts in terms of the totality image, so nothing can be defined as a "fundamental source and order" other than its place in time within that totality interrelationship image, that which defines its particular things within it. (This is better explained in Ch. 2, "Let us created an idea" of Habeas Mentem.) So if an idea such as interrelationship can from its totality image define, or "think" itself, then it becomes the "Logos" as sought after through the ages. What was missing was an ancients understanding that philosophically the Logos was not in our reason alone, nor some mystical universal principle, but already existed independently of us as a universal principle of "interrelationship": a self sustained mechanism that we in time were able to identify in our minds as the Logos, the source and fundamental order of the universe, and all in it.
Taking the Logos out of the pantheism of religions and placing it back in the fundamental principles of the universe, "one true belief system based upon real evidential proofs" that are verifiable, is what the basic concept of Interrelationship does. That it is then also an "animating principle" of all life, or the Totality that is the "word of God" follows naturally, of course. Does that make sense?
|Posted on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 - 01:16 pm: |
More Woo-woo Universe Big Bang stuff.
New Model of the Early Universe (Space.com -interactive)
New computer simulations reveal how the early universe would have appeared 500 million years after the theoretical Big Bang.
According to the standard Big Bang model, the universe was born about 13.7 billion years ago in a burst of inflation, growing from something smaller than the size of an electron to about golf-ball size within a fraction of a second. In its early stages, the universe was flooded with energy, which congealed into particles and the lighter atoms. Over time, as the cosmos continued to expand on a vastly greater scale, these atoms clumped together into stars and galaxies.
Helloo? Dr. Who? Are we there yet?
|Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 06:30 pm: |
Totally different take, on a non-expanding Universe can be found here, at Mining Deep Space Gravity:
No woo-woo here?
Plasma axial jets
|Posted on Monday, February 23, 2009 - 12:27 pm: |
Follow up on Matsumoto simulation where axial jets were recreated with rotating plasma, 2000
Single jet recreated in a lab, 2005
Operating in a vacuum chamber, Bellan's group was able to make jets up to a third of a metre long that travelled at between 10 and 50 kilometres per second. Bigger jets would require a bigger power supply.
A different approach was used here, 2009, to recreate plasma 'burping' astrophysical jets:
Jets of charged particles have been created in successive bursts for the first time in the laboratory. The work could shed light on the behaviour of astrophysical jets from stars and galaxies.
Astrophysical jets are among the largest and most energetic objects in the universe. The matter inside them travels at nearly the speed of light from colossal black holes at the centres of galaxies. Smaller jets spew at lower speeds from young stars surrounded by discs of gas and dust.
However, we are still a very long way from understanding galactic black hole axial jets, or how this newly released plasma energy can be used in the future, such as suggested by applying the Axiomatic Equation (SMBH):
Any hot rotating plasma, or star energy, will result in a vortex center where all electromagnetic energy lambda cancels on a point, which per Axiomatic, is where this canceled electromagnetic hot energy will re-release primordial extreme gravity, where G=c, such as witnessed in a black hole.
The above article does not make it clear these plasma jets are from the same phenomenon first simulated by Matsumoto, however, so they may not be same genre.
If this is a modifiable event that can be re-created artificially, then it may be a usable future source of energy, or in effect, "gravity in a bottle" type energy. Stay tuned for further research, especially in plasma physics.
No woo-woo here either?
|Posted on Tuesday, February 24, 2009 - 12:03 pm: |
Gravity Probe B (GP-B) Relativity Mission - latest update, maybe last.
Science Results -- NASA Final Report
(image: Spacetime warped and twisted by the mass and spin of the earth)
This is the first of five connected papers giving details of progress on the Gravity Probe B (GP-B)
Relativity Mission. GP-B, launched on 20 April 2004, is a landmark physics experiment in space to test
two fundamental predictions of Einstein’s theory of general relativity, the geodetic and frame-dragging
effects, by means of ultra-precise cryogenic gyroscopes in Earth orbit. Data collection began 28 August
2004 and science operations were completed 29 September 2005. The data analysis has proven deeper
than expected. Patch effect anomalies on the gyro rotor and housing have given rise to two mutually
1) A changing polhode path affecting the calibration of the gyroscope scale factor Cg against the
aberration of starlight
2) Two larger than expected manifestations of a Newtonian gyro torque due to patch potentials on
the rotor and housing.
In earlier papers, we reported two distinct methods, ‘geometric’ and ‘algebraic’, for identifying and
removing the first Newtonian effect (‘misalignment torque’) and also a preliminary method of treating
the second (‘roll-polhode resonance torque’). Central to the progress in both torque modeling and Cg
determination has been an extended effort from January 2007 on “Trapped Flux Mapping”. A new
turning point came in August 2008 when it became possible to include a detailed history of the roll-
polhode resonance torques into the computation. The frame-dragging effect is now plainly visible in the
processed data. The current statistical uncertainty from an analysis of 154 days of data by the algebraic
method is 6 marcsec/yr (~15% of the frame-dragging effect). The systematic error will be added to this
statistical uncertainty using the methods discussed in an accompanying paper by Muhlfelder et al. A
covariance analysis, incorporating the impact of patch effect anomalies, indicates that a 3 to 5%
determination of frame-dragging is possible with a more complete, but computationally intensive data
Did they find what they were looking for? Was Einstein right (again)? The report seems to indicate the 'frame-dragging' was visible but still inconclusive, so an additional layer of measurement parameters need to be explored and analyzed.
A “simple” strategy of the GP-B data analysis has evolved in the complex two-floor structure after on-
orbit discoveries of the changes in the rotor’s polhode period and path, and of patch effect torques. Direct
modeling of the readout scale factor at the 1st Floor, and the misalignment and roll-resonance torque
modeling at the 2nd Floor, allowed us to separate the relativistic drift from the drift induced by classical
torques. A cascade of four interconnected estimators applied to the GP-B science data has demonstrated a
consistent determination of the geodetic and frame-dragging effects for all GP-B gyroscopes, as well as
fidelity of the physical models used.
Time to put it to bed... Relativistic drift may be no more than classical momentum transfer, same as Mercury's precession?
space time question/BAUT
|Posted on Thursday, February 26, 2009 - 01:49 pm: |
Some questions of space-time expansion discussed at BAUT ATM thread. Not part of discussion, just posted for your info.
Modern Cosmology: Science or Folktale?
Read it all, and add your comment to question.
Editor's note: the above questions were posed on Humancafe in the Modern Universe in G-flat pages, Sept. 1, 2007, same referenced article; above is post on universal Logos as interrelationship.) - FYI
Whose time 2?
|Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 12:08 pm: |
Who's Time are we talking about?
This was asked on the "Who's time" entry (that thread closed due to spam attacks). But Whose Time are we really talking about? Obviously it is Einstein's Relativity, which has been such an alluringly paradoxical idea that we cannot stop talking about it. Is it really true for more than the observer?
This is all it is, just a time-dilation equation, as seen by the observer. So if t or t', it is all up to the observer whose measurement of light c based observations will be modified by time-dilation 'proper time'. From whose point of view is all.
Move along... nothing to see here... just time-dilations
|Posted on Friday, March 06, 2009 - 12:12 pm: |
Mars Opportunity rover update.
This is a follow-up to Mars density post earlier, Feb. 4, 2009, where Mars Rover Opportunity had descended into Victoria Crater (see photo), where it had spent over a year exploring. Since then this hardy little robot rover has climbed out by retracing its tracks, and about to engage Endeavour Crater, some 12 km away.
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity climbed out of Victoria Crater following the tracks it had made when it descended into the 800-meter-diameter (half-mile-diameter) bowl nearly a year earlier. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
This journey to Endeavour Crater, traveling about 100 meters per day, could take two years:
Let's hope this trusty little robot with a troubling forward wheel will make its hazardous journey intact.
The Endeavour crater, a bowl 13.7 miles (22 km) across, should offer the chance to study a much deeper stack of rock layers than those Opportunity saw in Victoria Crater.
"I would love to see that view from the rim," Squyres said. "But even if we never get there, as we move southward we expect to be getting to younger and younger layers of rock on the surface. Also, there are large craters to the south that we think are sources of cobbles that we want to examine out on the plain. Some of the cobbles are samples of layers deeper than Opportunity will ever see, and we expect to find more cobbles as we head toward the south."
Also see: Curiosity Mars Rover, incredible panorama scan (interactive)
|Posted on Monday, March 09, 2009 - 01:11 pm: |
A couple of good GR papers, FYI
General Theory of Relativity: Will it survive
the next decade? (2006)
common misconceptions of cosmological horizons and the superluminal expansion of the universe (2003)
Are we about to see Einstein's GR modified or unseated as the basis for our understanding of cosmology and astrophysics?
Read it all.
|Posted on Monday, March 16, 2009 - 12:13 pm: |
Modified Gravity? Maybe 'variable G' too?
(BBC - interactive)
1. Goce senses tiny variations in the pull of gravity over Earth
2. The data is used to construct an idealised surface, or geoid
3. It traces gravity of equal 'potential'; balls won't roll on its 'slopes'
4. It is the shape the oceans would take without winds and currents
5. So, comparing sea level and geoid data reveals ocean behaviour
6. Gravity changes can betray magma movements under volcanoes
7. A precise geoid underpins a universal height system for the world
8. Gravity data can also reveal how much mass is lost by ice sheets
There is an exotic re-interpretation taking place in the mysterious world of infinite scale gravity, though not as simple as to say a variable gravity G is simply an electro-magnetically modifiable force with distance from a hot star. But it, like MOND, is a start.
Observational Evidence for Cosmological-Scale Extra Dimensions
We present a case that current observations may already indicate new gravitational physics on cosmological scales. The excess of power seen in the Lyman-alpha forest and small-scale CMB experiments, the anomalously large bulk flows seen both in peculiar velocity surveys and in kinetic SZ, and the higher ISW cross-correlation all indicate that structure may be more evolved than expected from LCDM. We argue that these observations find a natural explanation in models with infinite-volume (or, at least, cosmological-size) extra dimensions, where the graviton is a resonance with a tiny width. The longitudinal mode of the graviton mediates an extra scalar force which speeds up structure formation at late times, thereby accounting for the above anomalies. The required graviton Compton wavelength is relatively small compared to the present Hubble radius, of order 300-600 Mpc. Moreover, with certain assumptions about the behavior of the longitudinal mode on super-Hubble scales, our modified gravity framework can also alleviate the tension with the low quadrupole and the peculiar vanishing of the CMB correlation function on large angular scales, seen both in COBE and WMAP. This relies on a novel mechanism that cancels a late-time ISW contribution against the primordial Sachs-Wolfe amplitude.
The full NewScientist article dealing with the above physics paper can be found at: Gravity may venture where matter fears to tread
Another on 'dark matter' is on Space.com: Galaxies Protected by Dark Matter
It gets odder yet: Telescope Captures Grouping of Oddball Galaxy and Supernova
Another 'variable gravity' potentials? Experimental Tests of General Relativity: Recent Progress and Future Directions, by Slava G. Turyshev , Jan.18, 2009.
Considering gravitation and fundamental physics, our solar system is the laboratory that offers many opportunities to improve the tests of relativistic gravity. A carefully designed gravitational experiment has the advantage to conduct tests in a controlled and well-understood environment and can achieve accuracies superior to its ground- based counterpart. Existing technologies allow one to take advantage of the unique environments found only in space, including variable gravity potentials, large distances,...
Read it all.
Life on Mars
|Posted on Friday, March 20, 2009 - 12:53 pm: |
Not if, but when, Life is found on Mars.
If these three articles are correct, then subsurface mud pools will harbor microbial life on Mars. Here is the lineup:
1. Is life bubbling up in Mars mud? (NewScientist) If this is correct, then the warm water mud pools may be the base for bacterial life.
2. Scientists find new bacteria species (CNN) If so, then ultraviolet light resistant bacteria high in Earth's atmosphere may be distant cousins of Martian bacteria.
3. Life's Crystal Code (Space) If this is true, then we are made of 'clay' after all, and Life is universal wherever it can find a foothold. Mars now offers very good odds that there is life in our neighborhood.
Quartz crystals that grew out of mineral-rich solutions in large rock cavities
Think of 'interrelationship' as the basic building blocks of Life... and Mind.
|Posted on Sunday, March 22, 2009 - 12:02 pm: |
The Universe is Simple, et al.
Universum - C. Flammarion, Woodcut, Paris 1888
Welcome to Humancafe forums! An anthology of thinkers who brought together a vast pantheon of ideas into logical simplicity.
Watch this space for future paper on the absolute economy of the Universe, which is simplicity itself, so even I understand it.
|Posted on Friday, March 27, 2009 - 12:45 pm: |
RELATIVITY+ by John Duffield - now available at Amazon.com
Visit this page for details on book
This is a followup of an earlier post, October 11, 2008, on the forum.
Very fine book review.
Sum, ergo sum
|Posted on Thursday, April 02, 2009 - 12:59 am: |
"Cogito, ergo sum."
"I think, therefore I am," is Rene' Descartes.
In neo-Descartes "I Am, therefore I am."
"Sum, ergo sum."
Is this the post-Cartesian world of the universe according to the Universe is Simple?
|Posted on Saturday, April 04, 2009 - 11:24 am: |
Here's a postcard from space "The Hand" - NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory
Red represents low-energy X-rays, the medium range is green, and the most energetic ones are colored blue. The blue hand-like structure was created by energy emanating from the nebula around they dying star PSR B1509-58. The red areas are from a neighboring gas cloud called RCW 89. Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/P.Slane, et al.
Tiny and dying but still-powerful stars called pulsars spin like crazy and light up their surroundings, often with ghostly glows. So it is with PSR B1509-58, which long ago collapsed into a sphere just 12 miles in diameter after running out of fuel.
The star now spins around at the dizzying pace of seven times every second -- as pulsars do -- spewing energy into space that creates the scene...
How does a twelve mile diameter star spinning seven rotations per second hold together? Extreme G, of course.
|Posted on Sunday, April 05, 2009 - 01:19 pm: |
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
|Posted on Wednesday, April 08, 2009 - 12:54 pm: |
Expanding-space-contraction of galaxies?
This is a follow up on an earlier post on expanding space by Aladim and successive posts on how the universe is expanding, though with colliding galaxies it is also 'contracting'. Now comes this 'postcard' from space:
Nearby Galaxy Looks Bigger in Infrared -Space.com
The Spitzer Space Telescope image of M33. Stars are blue, and in the image several are actually foreground stars in our own galaxy. Dust rich in organic molecules glows green. Diffuse orange-red glowing areas indicate regions where stars are forming. Small red flecks outside the spiral disk of M33 are most likely distant background galaxies, astronomers figure. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Ariz.
A new infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveals the colorful M33 to be surprising large -- bigger than its visible-light appearance would suggest, astronomers said in a recent statement.
With its ability to detect cold, dark dust, Spitzer sees emission from cooler material well beyond the visible range of M33's disk. Exactly how this cold material moved outward from the galaxy is still a mystery, but winds from giant stars or supernovas may be responsible, Spitzer astronomers said.
What is intriguing is that the cold dark dust surrounding this M33 galaxy is in fact 'visible' in the infrared band. Could this be the Cold Dark Matter sought after, only cold dust in higher G per Axiomatic Equation? If so, there is no space expansion, and galaxies are free to collide gravitationally as expected.
Not to worry, a light-year is 10 trillion kilometers, so it may take a while.
M33, the third largest galaxy in our group, is also moving toward the Milky Way (which is about 100,000 light-years in diameter). Nothing to worry about, however. This galactic cousin is presently some 2.9 million light-years away in the constellation Triangulum.
Cosmo-constant, which one?
|Posted on Friday, April 10, 2009 - 11:04 am: |
The Cosmological Constant in an 'Expanding' Universe. where 'empty' space itself is filled with this vacuum energy.
"The cyclic universe model is a simple mechanism for solving the cosmological constant problem" - 19 Sep, 2006
The cosmological constant is a surname for what we call vacuum energy, the energy of empty space. What we mean by empty is without particle, radiation, or any object. There can still be energy, there can still be fields, like electric or magnetic fields, in it but all particles or objects are missing from it.
Even though it’s empty, there can still be energy, and that’s what we call the cosmological constant.
Based on the observation, what have we learned about this cosmological constant?
The cosmological constant, because the value is so small, because it doesn’t change with time, has almost no observable consequences, except for one thing: it affects the expansion of the Universe. If the vacuum energy is greater than all the other forms of energy, like the energy of the matter or radiation, then it causes the expansion of the Universe to speed up. This effect has been observed. When we look at the motion of distant galaxies compared to more nearby galaxies, we can observe that the expansion of the Universe has been speeding up the last 4 or 5 billion years. That’s the sign that there is a small and positive vacuum energy. ....
This above is how the universe is understood today. Contrast it with the Simple Universe idea here: http://www.humancafe.com/discus/messages/1177/1872.html - March 26, 2009
Energy in modern physics is always Energy , which means E=E in all its forms, such as kinetic energy, work energy, heat energy, or electromagnetic energy. This Energy equivalence also applies to the famous de Broglie E=hf equation, where Energy equals Planck's constant times electromagnetic frequency, the basis of Quantum physics. However, where all mechanical and electromagnetic energy may be interchangeable, gravity stands out as something different. Gravity may have more to do with inertial mass than electromagnetic energy , and in fact may prove to be inversely proportional. In effect, where today's Cosmology is based on Gravity as a universal constant, taken from Newton's gravitational constant G, and enhanced relativistically with Einstein's General Relativity mathematics; this universal constant may not be as now postulated, but is likely a variable constant, a constant on a curve .
This means some universal constants, which are measured and true in our region of space, may be variable elsewhere; in particular gravity's Newton G, which may be “constant” on a curve  with distance from our Sun or any hot star. Per force, this means the interaction within Quantum theory's E=hf and gravity theory  become paradoxical because they are both constants and variables. What this means in the end is that gravity is not a "universal constant" as now believed, but dependent inversely upon the Energy density where G is measured, so the universe may be "isotropic and homogenous" at gravity levels far greater than now assumed ....
Is there a Dark Energy pushing all the galaxies apart? Or is there a gravitational redshift in deep space causing all distant light to appear as if it were Doppler-space-expanding? Which is it?
Universe is this 'simple'?
How will history remember this? How close are we to learning the truth?
|Posted on Sunday, April 12, 2009 - 12:10 pm: |
Galileo's Legacy, 400th anniversary
Galileo's Telescope (1610)
WITH all the attention on Darwin this year, one could almost overlook the 400th anniversary of one of the most significant events in the history of science: the first time Galileo peered through his telescope and provided conclusive evidence that the Earth circles the sun. Two exhibitions are marking the occasion, though, both in conjunction with the Institute and Museum of the History of Science (IMSS) in Florence, Italy.
The impressive section on Islamic cosmology includes a small, stunning 15th-century spherical astrolabe - the only known example of its kind. From there we see the Christianisation of astronomy: the addition of more complex epicycles to the Ptolemaic system in order to maintain Earth's centrality and regular, circular movements of the heavens.
Galileo famously came into conflict with the Church: his Dialogo was placed on the Vatican's Index of Prohibited Books and he was called before the Inquisition and forced to abjure his views - a scene depicted in Cristiano Banti's 1857 painting Galileo Before the Inquisition.
Whether Galileo ever uttered the apocryphal E pur si muove ("And yet it moves"), he was, of course, proved right. The power of his observations in supplanting religious ideology is best captured in a single arresting image: Galileo's finger, detached from his remains in 1737, encased in glass and gilt and pointing heavenward. It is a scientific reliquary for a secular saint.
Four centuries later, Galileo continues to impress, proven right again for our age of religious ideology conflicts and reconciliations; or secular resolutions.
Also see: Galileo almost right?
Galileo's complaint - a short (fiction) story
|Posted on Friday, April 17, 2009 - 12:15 pm: |
More on Galileo's legacy postcard, go tell it on the mountain.
One of the most famous 'Wacky Ideas'..? - by Seth Shostak
But even an unrefereed publication – indeed even that icon of immodesty, a self-published book – will buff your idea to a better gloss. Consider: When Galileo made his telescopic discoveries of the moons of Jupiter and a few other important things, he felt the need to get them typeset and bound ASAP (he was worried about being scooped by competitors). Rather than wait around 285 years for the Astrophysical Journal, Galileo rushed into print with his own, small book. Smooth move.
Data are valuable. Ideas, on the other hand – like phone calls and e-mail – are cheap. Your creative genius may have hatched a truly revolutionary idea. Indeed, you probably think so. But no matter what your opinion of your hypothesis might be, if you hope for someone to fly you to Stockholm and hand you a check, don't just call me up and lay out your case. Do something better: write it up and tell the world.
SETI call Home - interactive
Or just write it up, kick up your heels, and sit back. Who cares?
New gravity physics?
|Posted on Monday, April 20, 2009 - 12:21 pm: |
New gravity physics called?
Experimental Tests of General Relativity: Recent Progress and Future Directions
- pg 13
Given the magnitude of this problem, a number of authors have considered the possibility that cosmic acceleration is not due to a particular substance, but rather that it arises from new gravitational physics (see discussion in [112, 113, 114]). In particular, certain extensions to general relativity in a low energy regime [114, 115, 116] were shown to predict an experimentally consistent universe evolution without the need for dark energy . These dynamical models are expected to explain the observed acceleration of the universe without dark energy, but may produce measurable gravitational effects on the scales of the solar system.
Getting there, metric millimeter by tensor metric?
|Posted on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - 11:26 am: |
I think the mistake in Turyshev's paper is here, pg. 18:
[mG/mI]SEP = 1 + n(E/mc2)
where E is gravitational self-energy, mc2 is total mass-energy, and n is a dimensionless (variable?) constant for SEP violation.
The answer will always be =1, regardless if E and G are directly or inversely proportional. This is a null result equation.
Editor's note: The reason behind "This is a null result equation" in the above is most simply explained, per email exchanges, as follows:
On the right side (E/mc2), there is a modifier kg'/kg which corresponds with E and G as either fixed or variables; this modifier may then be expressed as n on the right side,
I.e., (E/mc2) kg'/kg, will reflect either:
1) E and G are fixed, so m is fixed within the parameters of the equation, so E and m are not affected by G, and kg'/kg remains constant = 1, or
2) E and G are variables, so m per equivalence is G proportional to some variable value of E, so in kg'/kg there is an inverse relation, whereby:
3) If kg' is greater due to greater G, which would happen per Axiomatic in lower E, then the kg'/kg value is greater in proportion to kg, but where the G-local-units of kg' is < than m in kg.
4. E/mc2 must always equal to =1, by definition.
For example, on Mars where G is about 1.5 times that of Earth's, hypothetically per Axiomatic, then its kg' locally is higher than Earth's kg, which means it would take fewer kg' on Mars to equal one kg on Earth (not yet clear by how much, until empirically tested), so lower E and higher G would balance out on the right side of above equation with kg'/kg adjusted. The end result is null, so mG/mI remains =1 in all cases, where n=kg'/kg.
(Note: Nordvedt's equation (1968) in Equivalence Principle for Massive Bodies, II is predicated on the assumptions that mg/mi=1.)
The only way to adequately prove a variable G, given that the above equation will yield null results of =1, is to check for local densities of known chemical compositions. If we know the density of water on Mars, based on local gravity (which is known), we can then calculate based on this density the local G-units (which are unknown) by the relative variable density of water on Earth (which is known). This would apply to any other substance, including water ice, or gases, including the atmosphere; as also found in Martian 'clumpy' soil.
See Anisotropy of kg/kg mass, posted Mar. 2, 2008, on "The Modern Universe in G -flat" thread, for further explanation and linked references.
SEP violation, or violation of Strong Equivalence Principle, per Einstein's, is best reflected in local chemical densities, thermal ice and vapor densities, and atmospheric densities, per the above. -- Eds.
|Posted on Saturday, April 25, 2009 - 10:11 am: |
At first glance, I can't say Nordvedt's equation (1968) makes sense to me, as used by Turyshev, because it seems to assume G is a universal constant; so the [mG/mI]SEP side of the equation assumes gravity G constant and Inertial mass variable. That makes no sense, since they are always proportional, so =1 per Einstein's proof. If G is a variable, there is only one way i can imagine, just intuitive gut feeling, how the equation should read:
n[mG/mI]SEP = (E/mc2)kg'/kg
where 1+ drops out (redundant) and n as a representation of kg'/kg moves to the left. Does this really mean anything? Only if we find G is variable, IMHO. Thanks.
In the dark about dark energy
|Posted on Monday, April 27, 2009 - 12:36 pm: |
And the fantastic theories continue...
We are so in the dark about 'dark energy' that it borderlines absurd.
As if the discovery of dark energy weren't bizarre enough, it has stirred up a whole host other issues. For example, dark energy adds fuel to the fire of believers in multiple universes, or the idea that our own existence is just one of countless worlds in which the constants and conditions are different. There might be other universes in which dark energy doesn't exist, and the universe does slow in its expansion, cosmologists say.
Heavy local concentrations of 'invisible' gases followed by more distant concentrations yield different gravitational redshifted densities of space dust and gas (very high G), which leads to an 'accelerating' space-expansion [sic], as now believed. Any dissenters, or are all lulled by the same fantastic story?
What is Dark Energy?
Impact Lab - Dark Energy site
Addendum: And it gets bigger yet...
Space Explosion Is Farthest Thing Ever Seen By SPACE.com Staff
A stellar explosion has smashed the record for most distant object in the known universe.
The gamma-ray burst came from about 13 billion light-years away, and represents a relic from when the universe was just 630 million years old.
Astronomers in the U.S. and UK quickly scrambled to follow up on the stunning discovery. They found that the infrared light of the afterglow had the highest redshift ever measured, meaning that the wavelengths had been very stretched out during their long journey.
Swift's new find may indicate an active early universe, even as scientists still try to understand what existed so close to the start of it all.
"We now have the first direct proof that the young universe was teeming with exploding stars and newly-born black holes only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang," Berger said. ...
How big is the universe? The next deep redshift coming above z~9 will let the cosmic cat out of the bag. It's much much bigger than 13.7 billion light years 'old'... How big is 'infinity'?
'She's too beautiful'
|Posted on Wednesday, May 20, 2009 - 12:41 am: |
She's so beautiful, a post card from space.
Earth seen from space is a beautiful thing.
(interactive -Space.com article)
Sinai Peninsula and the Mediterranean Sea. The Red Sea is just out of frame at bottom right.
We humans are blessed. Let's not turn a blessing into a curse.
UFO or 'Klingons'?
|Posted on Saturday, October 03, 2009 - 12:19 pm: |
UFO - or Kllingon vessel? See the video, weird sound with it.
Picture of strange orbiting object taken from space
It doesn't looks like space junk, has three clear lights on one end, maybe windows on the other, so what was it? I had seen strange UFOs in the past, but this one really is weird. Who is 'watching' our beautiful planet?
Are they friendly? (click image for more details in 5 min video) Just visiting?
See more UFOs on this page at PostScripts.
More Planetary Society news and blog.
Shuttle image from space
|Posted on Wednesday, February 17, 2010 - 01:17 pm: |
Nope, not Klingons - just our Space Shuttle.
Stunning Space Photo Shows Shuttle in Silhouette - Space.com
This one's ours
What Aliens would see
|Posted on Wednesday, September 29, 2010 - 09:31 pm: |
Our Solar System a 'dust ball'?
Space.com: What Aliens Would See When Spying On Our Solar System - article
Computer simulations of Kuiper Belt dust
Is this what Aliens would see looking down on us?
Comet coma gassing
|Posted on Monday, November 08, 2010 - 01:55 pm: |
Long Period Comet Ikeya-Murakami "gassing out" at Saturn's cold region?
It seems too early to be "gassing out" at such cold regions as Saturn's orbit, but this is what is happening for this long-period comet, as seen in this photograph.
Comet Ikeya-Murakami (click image for more)
However, if this comet comes in from the deep cold of the far outer solar system where Newton's gravity G is orders of magnitudes greater than on Earth, and its 'compacted' accumulated dust and matter is now 'decompacting' closer into the Sun where G is lower, then this Saturn regional 'coma' is totally natural and 'expected'.
Stay tuned... until they check for Variable G in outer solar system.
This more recent Space.com article on Comet Hartley-2 seems to support, without stating so, the hypothesis presented here, that comets are 'compacted' far out in the solar system where gravity-G is greater than for the inner solar system, and then 'de-compact' when swinging closer in to lower G.
Comet Pelted NASA Probe with Bits of Ice During Flyby (Nov. 18, 2010).
More than just 'passing gas' at Hartley-2 flyby: Comet caught throwing basketball-sized snowballs.
More on 'long distance comets' coming from the Oort Cloud regions: Giant Stealth Planet May Explain Rain of Comets from Solar System's Edge By Charles Q. Choi. However, rather than a 4X Jupiter sized planet there, it is more likely to be a smaller body with much higher gravity-G making mass appear 'as if' it were so much larger, if it in fact exists.
You' lost boy!
|Posted on Saturday, November 27, 2010 - 01:54 pm: |
Is this pre-Big Bang-theory now 'Mainstream' science?
Concentric circles in WMAP data may provide evidence of violent pre-Big-Bang activity:
(interactive -BBC article)
Could all these "circles" observed on specific points of the CMB be no more than "gravitational lensing" artefacts?
Also see: New look at microwave background may cast doubts on big bang theory (2005)
"You' lost boy!"
Is Earth's G seasonal?
|Posted on Sunday, May 01, 2011 - 01:24 pm: |
What if gravity-G changes with the seasons?
As the Earth orbits the sun, the strength of its gravity could vary because of interactions with an undiscovered force, nicknamed the "X-field".
Echoes of seasonal planetary spin?
(See: http://www.humancafe.com/discus/messages/88/185.html#POST4580 for earlier discussions.)
Okay, here is the line-up as how this 'seasonal-G' should play out:
1. In a variable-G environment where gravity 'constant' grows at the rate of 1G per 1 AU, it should register slightly greater at planet's aphelion, and slightly smaller at perihelion in its orbit around the Sun.
2. This (slightly) variable-G phenomenon should register in a Cavendish type gravity experiment; it should show these (very small) seasonal variations, where G will be slightly greater at aphelion and slightly smaller at perihelion.
3. As a phenomenon of variable planetary spin, this same variation should show up as slightly faster spin (shorter day) at aphelion (northern hemisphere summer), and slightly slower spin (longer day) at perihelion (northern winter).
4. As a 'seasonal-G' variable, these slight differences at perihelion and aphelion should be measurable consistently, and annually.
This is only a slightly variable phenomenon because the Earth-Sun system of gravity and spin equal out nearly totally: Orbital velocity accelerates slightly at perihelion, but slows at aphelion; counter to where spin accelerates slightly in (higher G aphelion), and slows slightly in (lower G) perihelion.
But these things are all measurable, and if Newton's G is a variable as hypothesized (and perhaps confirmed by Pioneer Anomaly), it should show up in our measuring instruments when clocking both gravity-G and planetary spin, seasonally. If so, then we have one more chink in the search for understanding gravity, that it is not a 'universal constant' (as Einstein, Newton, Strings Quantum-G, et al thought), but a variable G, which changes our understanding the universe totally... We're inching closer on this mysterious "X-field".
|Posted on Wednesday, June 01, 2011 - 12:23 pm: |
Postcard from Yosemite National Park
I got 'blessed' by this large waterfall at Yosemite Valley, reminiscing on 'Adam's original sin' on Memorial Day visit to the park, May 2011, when I took this short video clip from under the falls.
Bridalveil Fall, Yosemite
The wind shifted and the waterfall came on top of me! Was I wet, cold, but happy.
Post card Gobi
|Posted on Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - 07:47 pm: |
Copy and paste these coordinates into Google Maps: 40.458679,93.31314
Then zoom in as much as you can. Here is the article that describes this pattern in China's Gobi Desert:
Did Neanderthals hibernate?
|Posted on Sunday, February 26, 2012 - 01:35 pm: |
Was "human hibernation" partial cause in Neanderthal man's extinction?
Profile of Neanderthal woman, reconstruction
It seems that bears become torpid in winter and slow down their metabolism, but are not true hibernators, since their body temperature remains more constant than dropping as in other hibernators.
Physicians already are using temperature cool-downs to reduce their patients' metabolic rate, and most researchers assumed that bears naturally operated under the same principle for their winter hibernation. Past studies with other species, such as ground squirrels, have shown that metabolic rates are typically reduced by 50 percent when body temperature drops 18 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius).
But when researchers conducted their experiment with five black bears who were captured in Alaska as nuisance animals, they were surprised by the results. The bears' temperatures fluctuated over the course of two- to seven-day cycles, between nearly the normal level (about 98.6 degrees F or 37 degrees C) and a minimum of 86 degrees F (30 degrees C). And yet their metabolism rate still fell to just 25 percent of the norm. The bears typically hibernated for five to seven months without eating, drinking, urinating or defecating, and roused themselves in the spring with no ill effects.
Could something like this been part of Neanderthal winter survival during the last Ice Age, where they largely became torpid during their winter months? Were Neanderthals quietly 'hibernating' in their caves, same as the (then) extinct Ice Age cave bears? Interesting how the depth of the last Ice Age seems to coincide with Neanderthal extinction, about the same time as Homo Sapiens were populating their regions. Could a hibernating Neanderthal be easy pickings for the Cro-Magnon of the area? And if so, what happened to their bodies? Could saw and cut marks on their bones give clue? Not theirs but ours? Did we 'eat' the competition during the last Ice Age? Sobering thought, though gruesome if so.
Neanderthal or Neanderthal 'hybrids'?
Habeas Mentem evolution
|Posted on Sunday, February 10, 2013 - 02:14 pm: |
HABEAS MENTEM evolution
These may have been the first use of this term meaning "man has a right to his own mind" :
"Creative Health and the Principle of Habeas Mentem" by FILLMORE H. SANFORD, Ph.D. (1955)
Aldous Huxley used the term in his Brave New World Revisited, 1958
More follow up posts:
Man in All that Is (Habeas Mentem),1986 (PE Randall Publisher)
Conscious vs. Unconscious-ness -Humancafe dialogue, 2002
Habeas Mentem Applied -Habeas Mentem essays/Humancafe (2002-5)
A Letter to My Students by Frank Trujillo, teacher (1987)
Is there proof of universal consciousness (other than human) - references to examined Humancafe dialogue (2001) by Paul Haseman
Humanitarian fundamentalism by Danilo Zolo (2007)
The juridical guarantee of the fundamental rights to liberty for citizens with uncertain identities and little autonomy risks being devoid of meaning: this is particularly true in today's high-tech societies. In such societies the exercise of fundamental rights is necessarily linked to what could be called the fundamental "new right" upon which the effectiveness of all other fundamental rights increasingly depends: habeas mentem, that is an individual's capacity to manage, screen and rationally interpret the growing flow of multimedia information inundating him or her.
12 Keys to Understanding Habeas Mentem (1998)
Habeas Mentem is a total all encompassing, universal system held together by 'interrelationship' as the unifying principle. Its full spectrum defines Who we are personally at the micro level, and manifests as Agreement in interpersonal exchange at the macro level. The more conscious humanity, the more universal this principle becomes in our reality, because we 'have the mind'. It is inherent in our human evolution that the more conscious we become, the more natural this mind awareness will be, someday as common as a smile on our face.
As Aldous Huxley and other pioneers undoubtedly understood, habeas mentem disempowers all totalitarian regimes both present and future. But we are still in the very early stages of that natural evolution.
Where Labor Unions?
|Posted on Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - 03:01 am: |
Where to Labor Unions: Public good or Private interest?
Implicitly the Public good is served by the political process, especially within a democratic, constitutional framework of laws and regulatory bodies to protect the public good. Conversely, Private or corporate public interests are best served by the market mechanism, provided the markets are free of coercions and fraud; albeit this insurance per force falls into the 'public good' sector of laws and regulations. Consequently, we cannot 'deregulate' markets to the point where fraud and market manipulations go unchecked; by same reason we cannot 'privatize' government functions serving the public good. But the lines between public good and private interest are often blurred in the popular mind.
This distinction is especially blurred as it concerns Labor Unions. Are unions in the private interest sector, or for the public good? Are they a Capitalism function, or a Socialism function? If private interest, then unions fall under the same rules governing market systems, which includes globalization of capital and labor (where money and jobs go to most efficient producers, at loss to less efficient), and answer to the impersonal forces of market mechanism determining price and distribution. But if unions fall under public good label, then they are made to answer to the same rules and regulations that concern the public good (including social restrictions on market forces affecting price and labor distribution), so Unions become a quasi government function. But this had never been adequately addressed in the public mind, the result of which confuses what role unions play in the economy (with consequent confusions over globalization, communism, capitalism, etc.), so no meaningful dialogue and debate between labor and capital can evolve. But if better defined, as to whether Labor Unionism is a Public good or Private interest, then some of this confusion can clear up, and the role of Unions be better defined. Very likely, in the end, Unionism will fall into the government category for the 'public good' as opposed to 'private interests', so market functions are suspended for the public good rather than for market efficiencies on a global scale. And if so, then Labor Unions are a political process rather than market dominated one, which means they must be structured within constitutional and democratic principles to be fair and effective, for the Public good.
Lost Coast Review essays
|Posted on Thursday, August 08, 2013 - 01:28 pm: |
Lost Coast Review - culture, philosophy and literature from the left coast (by Casey Dorman and editorial staff)
This periodical offers interesting insights into the state of our social world and mind, including psychology. Read the essays and short stories, poems and other commentary. Very nicely put together by thoughtful minds. For example:
An Encounter with Moral Relativism by Casey Dorman
Even restriction of speech based upon the value of sanctity is not uncommon in many parts of the world. In nearly all countries with a Muslim majority, including such disparate nations as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia, blasphemy against Islam is forbidden by law. Furthermore, this pattern is not confined to Muslim countries. Greece prohibits blasphemy against God, the Greek Orthodox Church and “other tolerated religions.” Malta forbids blasphemy against the Roman Catholic Church and Italy forbids “vilification of religion.” The guarantee of nearly absolute freedom of speech is a unique position taken by the United States.
I could not convince myself to approve of violence as the method of protesting violation of one’s moral values (although there are several moral outrages that routinely provoke violence in the United States). But I could no longer condemn the Middle Easterners for their reaction to the insulting video.
The final test of my newfound tolerance and understanding came with the infamous statement by Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, that, “life is that gift from God. And, I think, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen." I had to wade through the onslaught of hype by my fellow liberals who deliberately distorted Mourdock’s remarks to imply that he was saying that a rape itself was intended by God when he clearly was referring to the pregnancy resulting from the rape.
But could I give credence to someone’s opinion that a fetus conceived as a result of a rape was a “gift from God?” Mourdock’s premise was that, as a religious person, he believed that all human life was created by God. A significant proportion of the world’s population would probably agree with him. I doubt if most of them would view God as capable of making a mistake and creating a child by accident or believe that unborn babies fell into two groups: those created by God and those not created by God. So Mourdock’s point of view made sense, given his assumptions.
I had become a moral relativist.
But is moral relativism really desirable or even possible? Aren’t there some absolute values, which shouldn’t be forsaken no matter what? Haidt listed six moral dimensions. Which of these is mandatory? An argument can be made that liberty, fairness, loyalty, authority and sanctity can each be interpreted so differently by different cultures (or even by different factions within the same culture) that none of them can be considered a bottom line value that cannot be overridden by another. But what about the harm/care dimension? Nearly every culture subscribes to the idea that an innocent person should not be harmed, that an injured person should be helped. Are these values often overridden in the name of other values? Certainly, cruelty exists. Certainly, innocents are often slaughtered in the name of some other value (authority, liberty, sanctity, loyalty, even fairness when it is defined as revenge. It’s not hard to think of examples). Certainly, “do not harm another,” is violated in practice everyday, in every society.
A country such as the United States is built upon a philosophy which holds some values higher than others. I think it is fair to say that liberty and fairness are at the heart of the American value system and I believe that even a cursory reading of either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution would support my claim. But that doesn’t make such values a universal priority to which everyone else in the world must subscribe. Even within our American system there is ample room for argument regarding the limits of liberty. When does it conflict with the value of not harming others? When does it conflict with loyalty or obedience to authority? And, as we have seen in the argument over Romney’s 47%, fairness may be in the eye of the beholder and may come in conflict with the moral dimension of caring.
Read it all. Lost Coast Review, Vol 4 No 4, August 2013, including Short Stories (The Day the Seagulls Flew by Ivan D. Alexander)
Can Putin win Ukraine?
|Posted on Wednesday, March 05, 2014 - 03:24 pm: |
Can Putin win on Ukraine?
Putin's Russia is not a Western state, so his unfolding maneuvers in Ukraine's Crimea cannot be viewed in the same light as would any modern, democratic Western nation handle the perceived problem in Ukraine. Putin's response to Ukraine's popular uprising against their corrupt President Yanukovych, who has since fled seeking Russian protection (with some $70 billion missing Ukrainian public funds) was to send in troops to guard key Russian interests in Crimea and (unfolding) in the predominantly Russian speaking Eastern Ukraine. The situation is further complicated by Ukraine's below average performance for former Soviet Republics, where economic interests had sided more with Russia and its natural resources; like natural gas for Europe passing through Ukraine, its 'leased' air and naval bases in Crimea, and the large Russian speaking, and largely Russian leaning, population within the country, especially south and eastern regions like Crimea; rather than siding with the economies of the West. So sending in Russian troops (unmarked, like a private army of Mafia boss goons) to protect what Putin felt was Russia's interests within Ukraine can be understood more in 19th century Czarist Russia terms more than in modern 21st century European Geopolitics. Putin sees Ukraine as a 'client state' to be protected from its own anarchic developments, so feels justified in his military actions.
(interactive -Ukraine crisis)
Putin observing military control of Crimea
However, Ukraine is a separate nation, not a client state of Russia, no matter how deep the cultural, historic, and economic ties with Russia. The rest of the world sees it this way, that Putin's maneuver is a military invasion of a sovereign state, so there is little world sympathy for what Russia is doing at present. Western nations and the American administration clearly condemn Putin's actions. Ukrainians had strongly voiced their preference for siding with Europe's economic developments than Russia's, as the demonstrations since last November, when Mr. Yanukvych canceled Ukraine's efforts to join the European Union and accepted Russian financial aid instead. This would have costs, mainly that Ukraine's economic and political independence would be compromised by Russian interests there. Now that Ukraine's Treasury is broke, these economic interests have become even more pressing. Europe and the US have pledged aid of some $17 billion to relieve the financial stress of Mr. Yanukovych's corrupt government (Russia's promised $15 billion aid had been stopped), but this does not solve the problem of Putin's troops in Crimea. And the problem runs deeper, as the country has not yet proven able to rid itself of politicians of graft and corruption, as the public funds stolen attest. So whether or not Putin was justified in sending in troops to protect Russian interests in Ukraine, the other real problem is whether or not Ukraine is able to muster the strength to rid itself of such corrupt, oligarchic practices and define itself as one Ukrainian whole and democratic western nation, and not one divided by oligarchic pro-Russian sentiments. In this latter, the West is largely exempt from Ukraine's future developments, except to offer financial aid and watch. A military response, by either Ukraine or the West, to Putin's military troops is not really an option as this time. Rather, better a solution diplomatically, as it would be in both Russia's and Europe's best interests.
Ukraine's language divide, all East Slavs
Putin cannot win militarily in Ukraine. He and Russia would lose too much. Not only economic and financial sanctions, but loss of all other cooperation with the West, military cooperation, visa and travel cooperations, technological cooperations, political cooperations, intellectual and scientific, medical cooperations, etc. All these would be put on hold, with as much pain for Russians as it would generate for the West, perhaps more. The Russian Ruble has already suffered loss, and this may be but the tip of it all. From history, we know Russia can stand a lot of pain, but is it necessary to repeat such past in the present? Probably not in the long run, and that is Putin's weakest hand here: they need us more than we need them. So even if Russian troops were able to take control of Ukrainian military bases by force, they would lose in the end by Russia paying a too high political price for their hollow victory. Economic sanctions against Ukraine makes no sense, so not even considered here. Nor is Ukraine Russia's Chechnya, where a religious led fanaticism feeds separatism to form an Islamic state. Ukraine and Russia share a common religious heritage, so while Russian military actions make sense in the Caucasus, they are senseless in Ukraine. Not the cost of lives at stake, but the costs at all levels in a modern world interconnected by instant communications, social networks, instant news and Tweets, and international financial flows. Russia would have too much to lose, so it cannot win militarily. Putin made a bad move.
Protests outside Russian embassy, Washington DC
Internationally, Ukraine has a right to its nationhood unmolested by a large overbearing neighbor. It is not size or military might that calls this, but a right of nations to exist as self determined by their people. The solution must fall within those parameters, that Ukraine has a right to exist. Whether it will be truly Ukrainian or quasi-Russian as a nation will be determined by its people and future, not by Russia. So the only open road ahead for resolving the issues at hand in Crimea, and Eastern Ukraine, is diplomatic, where all parties at risk sit together and work it out. The naval and air bases of Crimea are first priorities for Russia, if troop deployment priority considered, so they should be resolved first. Strengthen the leases, make better and clearer agreements on how the Russians are to use the bases, and what compensations are to be paid for them. For example, a 99 year lease like Britain had with China in Hong Kong could be a model. Next, work out whether Crimea is a Russian protectorate or a Ukrainian state; the same must be resolved on Eastern Ukraine with large Russian speaking populations. Which interests are better served there, by Russia or Ukraine, to secure the livelihood and safety and well being of the people, regardless of nationality, language, or religion? These are basic fundamental human rights, and it is the duty of government to protect those rights for its people. Whose people are they? Who do they wish to be? The diplomatic resolve must not shy away from offending historical Russian sentiments of Empire; we live in a different world now, and 'czar' Putin cannot enter another nation, whether Ukraine or Poland or Estonia or Lithuania, guns blazing. The world will not accept that and will isolate Russia, to her loss. There is much to be gained diplomatically, if good agreements are made between nations, better than by pushing troops within their borders. Treaties of friendship between Russia and her neighbors will have far greater positive effects in the long run, if not in the short. It would behoove Ukraine to follow through on its desire to lean West, negotiate peace with Russia, and join the EU. It would behoove the Russians to let her do so, and in time even join themselves. All benefit, and for another reason: China is watching.
Also see: Analysis: Why Russia's Crimea move fails legal test - BBC News, 7 March 2014.
According to a UN definition of 1974, the use of foreign armed forces on the territory of a state in contravention of the agreement governing that presence amounts to aggression. Still, under present conditions an "armed attack", which is the trigger point in the UN Charter for the application of the right to self-defence, has probably not yet occurred.
Ukraine crisis: EU signs association deal -BBC
Update, 60 days later:
Putin may have taken a bishop, Crimea, but he lost the queen, Ukraine. If he loses his knights, and his oligarchs turn against him, then it is game. 'Checkmate.'
The Russian banditry in eastern Ukraine, whether or not complicit with Moscow, should be cleaned up. Same for Ukraine's internal corruption. Those are Ukrainian internal affairs. Putin played a good hand at the start, an easy win, but it cost him the game. Gaining Crimea cost him world prestige. It isolated Russia, which means it now becomes a second rate power; and the economic sanctions from the West, the EU and USA, are working. It also means Ukraine will gravitate towards Europe to enjoy same benefits seen in other former Soviet Eastern European republics, outside Russia's orbit. In time Ukraine will also become part of NATO. 'Check.'
What's Russia's alternative? War with First World? ...Time to call his bluff.
Also see: Why we have to win in Ukraine -Kiev News
Ukraine, 120 days later
Bloomberg: Ukraine Army Advances as EU Plans Tougher Putin Sanctions
Since Putin took control of Crimea, the incursions of Russia separatist rebels into Eastern Ukraine are ongoing. The missile downing of Malaysian flight MH17 has galvanized the world's negative opinion of these events, with addition sanctions by EU and US further isolating Russia's economy and its key oligarchic players. The Russian currency is down, inflation up, and the central bank has ratcheted up interest rates. This will hurt, but the fighting supported by Moscow continues, perhaps intensified with increased clandestine support for the separatists in Eastern Ukraine. Russia's response has been weak, complaining of the West 'slandering' Russia, while weapons and military activity moves closer the the border and missiles are fired from Russia on Ukrainian military. Overall this signals weakness on the Russian side. The sanctions hurt, especially now that oil exports are being targeted. At some point the oligarchic structure around Putin will be frightened, they have a lot to lose. To what end? What will they gain from invading Eastern Ukraine and supporting their separatists? Do they even have control of events, or is this anti-Ukraine rebellion taking on a life of its own? How much Russian treasure and world prestige must be sacrificed? And for what elusive gain? These are question still left unanswered as any perceived gains are overshadowed by the costs.
Crimea was a cake-walk. Eastern Ukraine, with Poroshenko's military defenses to secure Ukraine's territorial integrity, has proven problematic for Russia. No clear gains in Moscow's support of the separatists, or gangs, seem evident. Donetsk is now the key focus of operations, where Ukrainian forces are about to take control. For Russia, short of a full invasion of Eastern Ukraine, there is no possible victory. Ukraine's ambitions are to join with the West, with which they are already allied psychologically and culturally, as it wants to become more a part of Europe. This leaves Russia's empire with the East, cementing relations with China and Iran, the Caucasus and possibly North Korea, further turning Russia away from Europe. The world of Pushkin, Dostoevsky, and Tchaikovsky is being pushed away from Europe. To their loss as Ukraine, after centuries of Russian association, most of it uneasy, is finally able to break free. Russia moves East, while Ukraine heads West.
Update, 22 August, 2014:
Russia could have chosen transparency and peace in eastern Ukraine, instead it chose duplicity and pain. The white trucks allegedly used to delivery aid have now entered Ukrainian territory, so have trespassed into a sovereign state without approval from Ukrainian authorities, raising the question of 'invasion', and without cooperation with international oversight of the Red Cross. Earlier inspections by reporters showed some of the trucks arrived near empty, which is puzzling. Why would half empty trucks, without bills of lading, be sent to the breakaway rebel held part of the country, except perhaps to evacuate personnel and equipment? In effect, these white trucks are now rogue, their contents still unknown, so may get caught in the cross-fire as Ukrainian military fights to regain control in the region. Also, why hasn't Ukraine sent in humanitarian aid to reconquered areas affected?
Further condemnation of this rogue action may mean added punishing sanctions adding to the pain Russians already feel from frozen bank accounts, travel restrictions, and economic embargo. This pain will especially be felt by the Russian oligarchs who are most affected by the sanctions. How much pain can they, and the people affected, stand in isolation as the West tightens sanctions? What will Moscow have gained from its duplicity, except further scorn proving Russia is an unreliable partner, both to its friends and trading partners? It's not a positive development, unless Russia decided to cut its losses and use the white trucks to evacuate. But at this time the breakaway rebels are unlikely to comply, which further raises the question of who is in charge. Perhaps Russia's support of the rebels in eastern Ukraine was a bet on the wrong horse? Sending in decoy white trucks may be a stalling tactic, hoping they get fired on so Russia can intervene militarily? Duplicity is thick in this cynical maneuver.
Russia's Putin would have gained more from a stable Ukraine, both politically and economically, so to have a viable partner. But he chose duplicity instead, and now the world will watch Russia's next moves with cold narrowed eyes. How much pain can they stand? Nobody wins, as Russia drifts further east into deeper isolation.
Also see: We Need To Tell The Truth About What Russia Is Doing In Ukraine
As the Ukraine crisis has intensified over the past six months, Russia has been developing a new form of warfare – inserting special forces, provoking, and slowly, deliberately escalating the conflict.
Russian actions flout international law and the agreements that have assured stability in the post-cold war world.
The NATO summit in Wales this week offers the best, and perhaps last, opportunity to halt aggression in Europe without major commitments of NATO forces.
But to do so requires a deeper understanding of the situation and much more resolute allied action.
First, Vladimir Putin’s actions against Ukraine haven’t been “provoked”.
They are part of a long-term plan to recreate a greater Russia by regaining control of Ukraine and other states in the “near abroad”....
Six months on, in Putin's bid for Ukraine - 4 September, 2014
The trouble with being an alpha wolf is that when the wolf pack spots weakness, they turn on you. This may be happening in Russia now, where Putin's war on Ukraine is souring as the West rejects his duplicitous 'non involvement' by Russian forces bolstering the eastern Ukraine pro-Russian separatists, Ukrainian forces putting up a heroic fight, NATO pressuring, and new sanctions by EU and US are about to be imposed on his cronies. Now he wants to negotiate 'peace', or at minimum a cease fire. Other than taking Crimea, his Ukrainian adventure to rebuild the Russian empire is stalling, without clear gains. The wolf pack is feeling the pinch of sanctions, where large wealth is lost, the oligarchs are starting to nip at his heels. They are unhappy, their wives are unhappy, and new economic sanctions will enlarge the unhappy pack; at any moment they can turn on him. This is bad for Putin, so he needs to 'negotiate' with Kiev.
This undeclared, proxy war by Russia on Ukraine is failing to achieve its goals. Rather, the losses to Putin's oligarchic cronies are beginning to feel greater than the gains. Their alpha pack leader is weakening. While the West readies its next round of sanctions, travel bans, canceled contracts, frozen assets, financial restrictions, and generally treating Russia as a backwards pariah state (with nuclear weapons like Pakistan and North Korea), the pack is getting restless. That is the real Achilles heel in the Russian adventure on Ukraine. Whether or not the pro-Russia separatists in Donetsk understand this is immaterial. Once they lose support of Moscow, it is game. And once Ukraine is accepted into NATO, it is game over.
How will it end? As Putin said, he cannot forecast the ending outcome. But be may have meant his own.
22 November 2014: Steady as she goes...
West seeks 'regime change' in Russia? Not realistic, sounds like cracks of panic.
Jus Gentium - Law of Nations
|Posted on Thursday, July 31, 2014 - 02:51 pm: |
Jus Gentium - The Law of Nations
Roman law - Jus Gentium
In classical antiquity, the ius gentium was regarded as an aspect of natural law (ius naturale), as distinguished from civil law (ius civile).The jurist Gaius defined the ius gentium as what "natural reason has established among all peoples":
"Every people (populus) that is governed by statutes and customs (leges et mores) observes partly its own peculiar law and partly the common law of all mankind. That law which a people established for itself is peculiar to it and is called ius civile (civil law) as being the special law of that civitas (state), while the law that natural reason establishes among all mankind is followed by all peoples alike, and is called ius gentium (law of nations, or law of the world) as being the law observed by all mankind. Thus the Roman people observes partly its own peculiar law and partly the common law of all mankind."
The idea of a Universal Law carried over from the Roman period into Europe's Medieval legal theory based on canon law, later adopted by the West, as the international Law of Nations. The ideas originating in Classical times were further codified by Emmerich de Vattel in his Law of Nations, which led to modern ideas of International Law, here summarized as:
International law is the set of rules generally regarded and accepted as binding in relations between states and between nations. It serves as a framework for the practice of stable and organized international relations. International law differs from state-based legal systems in that it is primarily applicable to countries rather than to private citizens. National law may become international law when treaties delegate national jurisdiction to supranational tribunals such as the European Court of Human Rights or the International Criminal Court. Treaties such as the Geneva Conventions may require national law to conform.
As in American philosopher and historian Will Durant's "The Story of Civilization: Part III, Caesar and Christ, A History of Roman Civilization and of Christianity from their beginnings to A.D. 325":
Non-citizens in Rome were not entitled to the privileges and protections afforded to the citizen under Roman Law. The institution of citizenship placed the individual on a status coequal with the state. The alien or "denizen" was placed on a different level. The ius Civile, or Roman Civil Law, absolutely excluded non-citizens from the "nexum" or mode of contract and conveyance, rendering the foreigner incapable of dominium. He could not have the benefit of Quiritarian law. He could not sue by the Sacramental Action, (a mode of litigation.) Necessity in adjudicating conflicts involving foreigners required the creation of a separate body of law.
The concept of Universal Law is that it applies equally to all people of the world, according to their status as citizens of a state, or alien visitors to that state. Though both have equal access to just laws, they are treated as separate entities regarding their respective rights according to the laws of the land. Where citizens are placed as co-equal with the state, non citizens are treated as subjects of the state. Both have rights of protecting their persons and property, including their natural human rights, but the obligations of the state towards either must differ. Citizens may sue the state, for example, whereas alien visitors may not. This same principles carries over to international affairs, in principle, where nations may sue each other as equals, but they may not violate the right of the state to exist. Violation of this principle would necessitate for states to presuppose the rights of some states to be greater than that of others. Same as an alien visitor cannot sue the state, nor can a foreign state challenge its right to being a state. All this carries over into modern inter-state conflicts, such as now witnessed in Ukraine or Israel.
The origins of nations in Earth's turbulent history are complex. Though some are formed by treaty, most had been formed by war and conquest, where the victors defined their boundaries. What holds nations together, besides political will, are the commonalities of language and culture. These may include ethnicity and religions, where the people of a nation feel part of a common weal. If diverse cultures and languages are brought together, as witnessed in the Americas, then a common ethos and legal governance will bond the people into a nation. Either way, whether by treaty or conflict, the people will feel themselves better served as a common nation by its resulting structure and governance, than by being subject to a foreign power. This is especially true of Ukrainians who prefer to preserve their union as a common people, without interference from foreign power, in particular of its powerful neighbor, Russia. The same exists in Israel, though its history be very different, as the nation was formed by mandate of the United Nations, that they now feel themselves a common people. Their Arab state neighbors, most also formed by mandate, do not feel inclined to accept Israel's nationhood or territorial integrity, especially territory lost to them through war. It matters not that the original Arab lands were conquered by them in Islam's early gains through expansion by war; this is conveniently forgotten, that all these lands were once Christian states fallen to Mohammed and his armies. Arabs now feel themselves a common Umma bonded by language, culture and religion, the nation states being a recent post-Ottoman creation; the exception is the Palestinian Arab territories, which were left pending in limbo, so no natural state emerged. Today's Palestinian refugees are essentially a people without a nation, belonging to neither Egypt, Jordan, nor Syria, so they are citizens of no state.
Under a natural Law of Nations, Ukraine and Israel have international legitimacy as states; the Palestinian Arabs kept in perpetuity as refugees do not. There is the crux of the problem in the Middle East, where warring factions, including in Iraq and Syria, have not accepted the sovereignty of nations as formed. The newly self-declare Caliphate, the Islamic State, feel themselves subject to no law, nor International Law, as they have declared their own law dictated by the Koran and Sharia, so do not respond to any benefits perceived as being part of an established state. They instead envision an international state without borders, where their laws dominate throughout the world, though such is untenable, as it has no common bond with the people's of the world. None would feel themselves better served, in a Jus Gentium sense, neither is there a common weal that would serve humanity except in the very narrow interest of imposing a Medieval brand of Islam on its subjects. The gains perceived would be illusory, and the peoples of the world would feel themselves ill served if it were imposed on them by force. Modern human rights would be systematically violated, as there would be no freedom of speech, freedom of belief, freedom of conscience, equality before the law, gender equality, nor protection for minorities. In effect, the Islamic Caliphate, as now envisioned, is impossible. It violates every principle of the Law of Nations.
This leaves resolution of Middle Eastern conflicts to force, as there can be no treaties amongst unequals, so the victors will decide the boundaries of future states. Were there a Palestinian state, systematically rejected by the leaders of the refugees at Gaza and West Bank, there might have been a possibility of resolving the conflicts by mandate. But as the existence of Israel is consistently rejected by the Arab states, especially by Hamas, which has in its constitution the mandate to destroy Israel's Jewish state, so no such treaty of co-existence is forthcoming. This is the tragic failure of all efforts to bring the warring sides to negotiations, as the natural Law of Nations does not exist for them. Israel will not negotiate with those who would seek its destruction and not recognize it a state; Palestinians will not negotiate because they refuse to exist as a natural state. Tragically, there is no possible outcome that would lead to optimism.
In the case of Ukraine there is prospect for peace, though it would require Russia abandoning its ambitions of making it a client state, that Ukraine is not a 'foreign visitor' state within Russia. Peace is possible if, and only if, the Ukrainian people feel themselves better served by their union as a common nation rather than subject to a foreign interest. This demands reforms from within, economic and political stability, and observance of natural human rights. It also means making peace with its more domineering neighbor. Or in the words of de Vattel:
Nations being composed of men naturally free and independent, and who, before the establishment of civil societies, lived together in the state of nature, — Nations, or sovereign states, are to be considered as so many free persons living together in the state of nature.
It is a settled point with writers on the natural law, that all men inherit from nature a perfect liberty and independence, of which they cannot be deprived without their own consent. In a State, the individual citizens do not enjoy them fully and absolutely, because they have made a partial surrender of them to the sovereign. But the body of the nation, the State, remains absolutely free and independent with respect to all other men, and all other Nations, as long as it has not voluntarily submitted to them.
The same is true for Israel, that it exists not as a 'foreign state' within Arabia, but as its own nation. It would also apply, if it ever abandons belligerence to become a state, for the existence of the nation of Palestine. Then both can be part of the Universal Law of nations.
Also see: Opus Rex - HumanCafe, on Universal Principles
Thinking with Reason rather than Emotion
Winning war on terror
|Posted on Thursday, August 28, 2014 - 03:24 pm: |
The modern war on guerrilla insurgencies, world wide terrorism; and cancer - how it can be won.
This is a fight to win, not to contain. The war on so-called 'popular' wars involving rebel insurgencies, guerrilla war, and fanatical religious terrorism, is to fight it as if it were a War on Cancer. Quote Wikipedia:
The War on Cancer refers to the effort to find a cure for cancer by increased research to improve the understanding of cancer biology and the development of more effective cancer treatments, such as targeted drug therapies.
This approach to fighting cancer, or insurgencies, can be compared to a pincer strategy, where they are attacked on two fronts simultaneously. One fight is from above, where the source of fuel is suppressed. For cancer, this normally means to restrict blood flow to the cancer affected area; for insurgencies it means suppressing financial and material support. This strategy aims to stop the spread of cancer, or insurgency, by starving it. The lower pincer is at the grass roots, where cancer cells are targeted specifically with medication, or the 'popular' support for insurgency is quelled at its source. The cancer is fought with radiation, chemotherapy, and genetic pre targeted therapy; for insurgencies, it is to monitor and suppress preaching that inflames the passions of the insurgents, to combat propaganda. Both pincer approaches must be further supported by research (as in quote above), where the causes and reasons for the disease are understood in depth, and where this understanding is used with intelligence to prevent its spread, or stop it at its source. These three methods combined in a concerted effort to combat the pathology must be pursued consistently until all traces of its development are halted.
On a world stage, the guerrilla insurgencies find root in poorly functioning societies. The rebels in eastern Ukraine, or Boko Haram in Nigeria, or the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, or Al Shabab, Al Qaeda, Taliban, Hezbollah, etc., are all made possible by weaknesses exploited in the host societies. Poorly led government, confused national policy, and economic failures all give fertile soil in which these insurgencies can take root and grow; in cancer, the host body's immune system is compromised, so cancer can develop. These pathologies exist with us all the time, where the body's immune system eliminates cancerous cells continually; in healthy societies, there are checks and balances in government, market economies, and intellectual debate that keep such pathologies at bay. Without a strong underlying system in place, whether biological or societal, the host is at risk. For this reason, intelligence and research are paramount to combat these pathologies.
The commonality of fighting both cancer and insurgencies is that both need support from outside sources as well as 'popular' acceptance from the local source. Governments must focus their attention on what is brewing beneath the surface, whether from preachings at the mosque to inflame insurgents, or 'popular' sentiments to aid and abet them (such as seen in present day recruitment of jihadis in Europe and the West); doctors must identify when patient lifestyles, such as obesity or unhealthy diets, lack of exercise (especially in an aging population), puts persons at risk for cancer. Intelligence is key, if these pathologies are to not take root. Outside sources in cancer may include environmental pollutants; in insurgencies it usually involves foreign powers. Clearly in Ukraine, Russia is the source. In North Africa or the Middle East, the foreign support is more shadowy, most likely stemming from Iran, the United Arab Emirate, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. These foreign supports must be confronted if the insurgencies be prevented. Stopping of funding and transfer of weapons is paramount in combating the rebels and their guerrilla wars. Funding of hostile minorities in host countries, whether from financial support for rebel groups or funding mosques preaching religious war, is the other root cause that must be addressed. Both pincers must be proactive at the start, if guerrilla styled insurgencies are to be stopped.
When nations fight nations and armies are mobilized, the enemy is clearly identified. Not so when fighting guerrilla insurgencies, or cancer, as the enemy is shadowy without clear markings or borders. Therefore, diplomatic solutions are limited, containment only temporary. This war is fought to win.
In sum, there are 6 key weapons against such war fronts, both social and medical, which must be met if there is hope of conquering these worldwide pathologies:
1. Stop all outside sourcing and empowerment of conditions.
2. Address underlying grievances or pathological conditions.
3. Monitor conditions at their basic root source.
4. Intelligent understanding of underlying causes, what fuels them.
5. Quarantine or isolate conditions when necessary.
6. Persistence and continuance.
With persistence and consistent pressure the world can win against these modern pathologies. The rest of the solution is military.
See also: Islam needs a 'Council of Nicea'