THE FLASHLIGHT, March 17-23, 2007
The Iraq War
CBS 3-18. On the fourth anniversary of the Iraq War, the US estimate of Iraqi civilian deaths is 59,000+ but other estimates are much, much higher.
Opposition to the War in Britain has risen to 82%.
CNN 3-19. In the US, opposition among the general public is 68%, while among Democrats only it is 91%. Of Iraqis, 71% are against the war.
` 3-19. A new Stanford Anti-War coalition announced an end to silence with a vigil for the military and civilian war dead.
3-19 ABC. Ross (Rocky) Anderson, Mayor of Salt Lake City, called for the impeachment of Pres. Bush and Vice-Pres. Cheney. He is a Democrat and a lapsed Mormon.
Demographic Crisis in China
China, once burdened with an excess of births, followed by a policy of one child only per couple, is now facing a glut of retirees. This glut will have to be supported by a dwindling group of working age young people. The total population, 1.4 billion, will have 200 million retires in 2015, and 430 million (one-third of the total population) in 2050.
Now 30% of college graduates are unemployed a year after graduation. Half a billion rural Chinese are not protected by social security in any form.
This situation is threatening, both economically and politically. Already, the age of retirement has been raised.
Science: Anthropology
` Geneticists and neuroscientists have been making rapid progress in understanding the brain and reconstructing the human past. They no longer have to rely on stones and bones dug up from the ground. The evidence is found in genetic samples from living people and MRI pictures of the brain.
CBS 3-22. The specific part of the brain where personal moral choices are made is the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. It has been known as the conscience or the superego. This is where the “still small voice” speaks.
Book Review. Nicholas Wade, Before the Dawn; Recovering the Lost History of our Ancestors. 2006.
Geneticists now believe that human speech began with a mutation in the muscles of the face and mouth which occurred in about 50,000 b.c. in Ethiopia. From that location, the 5,000 original humans migrated over the whole globe. (They are no longer believed to be descendants of Homo erectus).
Since then human evolution has continued with further mutations. These mutations were specific to certain regions inhabited by different races. Race is no longer defined by skin color, but by continent of birth. Caucasians are found in Western Eurasia, the Middle East, North Africa, and a large part of India. There skin color varies from white to almost black. Chinese, Japanese, et al. are in East Asia.
Two genes influence brain functioning but scientists do not yet know just how. The microcephalic gene appeared 37,000 years ago and is widespread among Caucasians and East Asians. It is less frequent among sub-Saharan Africans.
The ASPM gene appeared 6,000 years ago. It is common among Caucasians, less common among East Asians, and non-existent among sub-Sahara Africans.
Scientists now believe before 15,000 b.c. warfare was chronic among all human populations. The human skeleton and cranium were heavier than they are now. Around 15,000 b.c., when human began to leave the hunting-gathering lifestyle and settle down in the Fertile Crescent (Near East), the human skeleton and cranium became lighter, more “gracile.” Scientists think that this was correlated with more conciliatory, cooperative behavior that enabled people to live more peacefully.
The discoveries of the geneticists run contrary to the thesis of Jared Diamond in Guns, Germs, and Steel, 1997. He attempted to explain the difference in human achievement and progress in terms of environmental factors, such as the availability of animals fit for domestication, and the distribution of lethal germs.
Authors of world history have long recognized that the most important inventions prior to the twentieth century occurred almost entirely in Western Eurasia and East Asia. (e.g. Mary K. Matossian, Shaping World History. 1997.)
The results of tests of cognitive ability in the US show marked differences in the performance of different ethnic groups. But up to now, these differences have been attributed to environmental differences. Reputable scientists have rejected as “racist” the work of writers like Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, The Bell Curve, 1994, who suggested that genetic differences may play an important role in cognitive ability.
[The above findings run counter to the belief in equality as often understood. They also run counter to the belief in the peaceful character of primitive peoples and the ancestors of civilized peoples. However, growing scientific knowledge and the ability to modify genes suggests that improvement may be possible.]
The Iraq War
CBS 3-18. On the fourth anniversary of the Iraq War, the US estimate of Iraqi civilian deaths is 59,000+ but other estimates are much, much higher.
Opposition to the War in Britain has risen to 82%.
CNN 3-19. In the US, opposition among the general public is 68%, while among Democrats only it is 91%. Of Iraqis, 71% are against the war.
` 3-19. A new Stanford Anti-War coalition announced an end to silence with a vigil for the military and civilian war dead.
3-19 ABC. Ross (Rocky) Anderson, Mayor of Salt Lake City, called for the impeachment of Pres. Bush and Vice-Pres. Cheney. He is a Democrat and a lapsed Mormon.
Demographic Crisis in China
China, once burdened with an excess of births, followed by a policy of one child only per couple, is now facing a glut of retirees. This glut will have to be supported by a dwindling group of working age young people. The total population, 1.4 billion, will have 200 million retires in 2015, and 430 million (one-third of the total population) in 2050.
Now 30% of college graduates are unemployed a year after graduation. Half a billion rural Chinese are not protected by social security in any form.
This situation is threatening, both economically and politically. Already, the age of retirement has been raised.
Science: Anthropology
` Geneticists and neuroscientists have been making rapid progress in understanding the brain and reconstructing the human past. They no longer have to rely on stones and bones dug up from the ground. The evidence is found in genetic samples from living people and MRI pictures of the brain.
CBS 3-22. The specific part of the brain where personal moral choices are made is the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. It has been known as the conscience or the superego. This is where the “still small voice” speaks.
Book Review. Nicholas Wade, Before the Dawn; Recovering the Lost History of our Ancestors. 2006.
Geneticists now believe that human speech began with a mutation in the muscles of the face and mouth which occurred in about 50,000 b.c. in Ethiopia. From that location, the 5,000 original humans migrated over the whole globe. (They are no longer believed to be descendants of Homo erectus).
Since then human evolution has continued with further mutations. These mutations were specific to certain regions inhabited by different races. Race is no longer defined by skin color, but by continent of birth. Caucasians are found in Western Eurasia, the Middle East, North Africa, and a large part of India. There skin color varies from white to almost black. Chinese, Japanese, et al. are in East Asia.
Two genes influence brain functioning but scientists do not yet know just how. The microcephalic gene appeared 37,000 years ago and is widespread among Caucasians and East Asians. It is less frequent among sub-Saharan Africans.
The ASPM gene appeared 6,000 years ago. It is common among Caucasians, less common among East Asians, and non-existent among sub-Sahara Africans.
Scientists now believe before 15,000 b.c. warfare was chronic among all human populations. The human skeleton and cranium were heavier than they are now. Around 15,000 b.c., when human began to leave the hunting-gathering lifestyle and settle down in the Fertile Crescent (Near East), the human skeleton and cranium became lighter, more “gracile.” Scientists think that this was correlated with more conciliatory, cooperative behavior that enabled people to live more peacefully.
The discoveries of the geneticists run contrary to the thesis of Jared Diamond in Guns, Germs, and Steel, 1997. He attempted to explain the difference in human achievement and progress in terms of environmental factors, such as the availability of animals fit for domestication, and the distribution of lethal germs.
Authors of world history have long recognized that the most important inventions prior to the twentieth century occurred almost entirely in Western Eurasia and East Asia. (e.g. Mary K. Matossian, Shaping World History. 1997.)
The results of tests of cognitive ability in the US show marked differences in the performance of different ethnic groups. But up to now, these differences have been attributed to environmental differences. Reputable scientists have rejected as “racist” the work of writers like Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, The Bell Curve, 1994, who suggested that genetic differences may play an important role in cognitive ability.
[The above findings run counter to the belief in equality as often understood. They also run counter to the belief in the peaceful character of primitive peoples and the ancestors of civilized peoples. However, growing scientific knowledge and the ability to modify genes suggests that improvement may be possible.]
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