Humanity’s most important image

This is a lovely video. Brings home just how big our universe is. And that’s without consider possible other parts of an even larger universe.

Really gets you thinking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcBV-cXVWFw

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NZ’s largest science blog network goes live

You will notice a rash of new science blogs based in New Zealand. Maybe you have already.

This press release explains it all.

The Science Media Centre today launches a major new science communication effort with the arrival of Sciblogs, a network of science blogs covering everything from clinical health to climate change.

Sustainability and ethics

Review: Strong sustainability for New Zealand : principles and scenarios, by Sustainable Aotearoa New Zealand Inc. (SANZ).
ISBN 978-0-9582784-1-6
NZ Publisher: Nakedize Limited
NZ RRP: NZ$19.99
Binding: paperback
Pages: 52

PDF available for download here. Briefing (with audio) here.

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I think almost all of us will admit, in our more honest moments, that we can’t go on as we are. “Business as usual” is just not a long-term alternative – ethically as well as economically.

Most attention these days focuses on climate change. But, this is just part of a wider problem resulting from our influence on the environment. Climate change, the undermining of biological diversity, the problems of waste production and resource depletion.

Sustainable economics seems the obvious way of confronting these problems. But what this is, and how to do it, can be controversial.

NZ blogs sitemeter ranking – September ’09

Currently I have found 113 NZ blogs with publicly accessible sitemeter stats. This is about 20% of the total on my database.

The blogs are listed in the table below, together with daily visits and page view numbers averaged over the previous 7 days. The data was that given by by the NZ blog ranking tool on September 26th.

This can be seen at NZ blogs average daily visits

The naked emperor

It’s interesting how a simple word, a name or a book title can cause twitching in the knee area. I predicted we would see a rash of this syndrome with the publication of Richard Dawkins new book The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. We are going to see more of the syndrome as the book reviews and other publicity appear in our newspapers and magazines.

One of the most common symptoms of the knee jerking goes right back the Terry Eagleton’s early review of Dawkins’ previous book, The God Delusion. That is the charge that Dawkins had no right to produce that book because he is not a religious philosopher or theologian (see Do you believe in a god?).

From the keyboards of scientists…

This from the Science Media Centre NZ:

Are scientists blogging in New Zealand? They sure are – but it is relatively tricky to find them.

That will change on September 30 when the Science Media Centre launches Sciblogs.co.nz, a blogging network bringing together some of the best science blogs in the country and launching a good few new ones.

Sciblogs will kick off with 25 bloggers from universities, CRIs and private research institutions covering everything from healthcare to climate change. Our bloggers know their stuff – they have two dozen PhDs between them and they aren’t afraid to tackle the big science-related issues affecting society.

Sciblogs will become an online hub for discussion of scientific topics and will grow to include other bloggers. If you would like to enquire about hosting a science blog on Sciblogs, contact the SMC.

Sciblogs will be live on Wednesday September 30 and you will be able to keep tabs on our Scibloggers via RSS, email updates and by following Sciblogs on Twitter.

Also – notice how many more commenters here have their own avatar. I think that’s something to do with their involvement in Sciblogs.co.nz

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• NZ science bloggers – new opportunity (openparachute.wordpress.com)
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Depressed? Anxious? Aren’t we all?

I’m currently reading Zoltan Torey’s book The Crucible of Consciousness: An Integrated Theory of Mind and Brain. It’s fascinating and I will put up a review some time soon.

In the model he proposes for the self aware mind (consciousness) he deals with problems the mind has to confront.  Reflective awareness can lead to chronic anxiety, fretting and anticipation of danger. Human reflective awareness has given us unique and powerful abilities but they “are not altogether a blessing. Or at least blessing that have to be paid for very dearly indeed.”

Saving the planet with condoms

A recent study suggests that condoms can help us combat anthropogenic climate change (see Condoms save the Planet). I guess it’s obvious really. Fewer people, fewer problems.

But I think this illustrates that many of the solutions to humanity’s problems come down to human rights issues. In particular the rights of women in many countries. If  women in these societies got the human rights they deserve, including reproductive choice, we would probably see a decline in excess population growth, terrorism and civil wars. Religious and cultural intolerance, which victimise many women, could be reduced. We could tackle problems of disease, water quality and standards of living with more chance of success. And the proliferation of human rights would no doubt improve the economies of these countries.

Nobel prize winner Murray Gell-Mann made these points in his excellent book, The Quark and the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple and the Complex. Perhaps I am showing my own bias here (after all I am not a woman) by drawing attention to another aspect of human rights Gell-Mann discussed. This is the rights of the aged. Particularly the provision of social security for the aged.

Social provision for income for the aged would take that responsibility away from their children. This would be another factor restricting the need for large families.

Download the report (pdf): Reducing Future Carbon Emission by Investing in Family Planning.

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Get in the sack!

Whoops! I know this has a slightly risque meaning in New Zealand. But I am using it here in the way that Irish comedian Dara O’Briain does. It’s what he suggests for all those who carp on about the supposed deficiencies of science.

Have a watch of these brief videos to get the full meaning.

Dara O’Briain – If science knew all the answers it would stop!

Dara O’Briain and Frankie Boyle on religion and creationism

Theistic evolution?

This term gets used a lot – but what does it mean?

In a recent discussion a local supporter (I think) of theistic evolution put it this way: Both “theistic evolutionists” and “atheistic evolutionists” accepts Darwinian evolution as true. Nevertheless – he describes these as two alternatives “theories.” But he admits: “the empirical evidence . . .  will not provide reasons for one position over another. The two positions have to be decided then on other grounds.”

I think this person, and probably most other people who use the “theistic evolution,” label are confused. They are not talking about scientific theories. They are talking about their own religious beliefs. These “other grounds” are religion.

All these people are saying is: “I accept evolutionary science but I am still a theist.”