M.I. Lastman's Blog, page 18
February 28, 2015
Aforementioned: aphorisms and questions for 2015
Gratuitous testosterone: the modern @opiateofthemasses
February 27, 2015
Aforementioned: aphorisms and questions for 2015
Love moderates testosterone; we should keep that in mind.
It is a surprising fact that testosterone levels in men go down when they fall in love and up a little in women when they fall in love. The effect apparently lasts only about three years. Still, it is interesting.
It is a surprising fact that testosterone levels in men go down when they fall in love and up a little in women when they fall in love. The effect apparently lasts only about three years. Still, it is interesting.
February 26, 2015
Aforementioned: aphorisms and questions for 2015
"Our father who art in heaven": a sad part of the great testosterone hoax. "Our mother?" 
February 25, 2015
Aforementioned: aphorisms and questions for 2015
On average, women rulers with real power have had an outstandingly good record.
Wu Zetian 625-705 
Isabel la Catolica 1451-1504 
Queen Elizabeth the First 1533-1603 
Angela Merkel 1954 The point is that not that women will invariably be better leaders than men. However, it is undeniably true that for those who have exercised power, the record of women has been infinitely superior to that of men. The first three rulers pictured above led their nations in the best years of their histories - Golden Ages. Angela Merkel may not lead Germany to a golden age but she is doing a great job so far. We are heading towards some very bad times indeed and our almost universally male leaders have done nothing substantive to turn the situation around. Can we learn something from this?
Wu Zetian 625-705 Isabel la Catolica 1451-1504 Queen Elizabeth the First 1533-1603 Angela Merkel 1954 The point is that not that women will invariably be better leaders than men. However, it is undeniably true that for those who have exercised power, the record of women has been infinitely superior to that of men. The first three rulers pictured above led their nations in the best years of their histories - Golden Ages. Angela Merkel may not lead Germany to a golden age but she is doing a great job so far. We are heading towards some very bad times indeed and our almost universally male leaders have done nothing substantive to turn the situation around. Can we learn something from this?
February 24, 2015
Aforementioned: aphorisms and questions for 2015
Unlike beauty and truth, life depends on death-death is too valuable to squander as mankind does.
Beauty and truth are entirely subjective concepts. Life carries on perfectly well without either of them. Life without death is impossible. To begin with, without death we would all starve.
The death explicit in all of the trophic interactions depicted in the first picture are inherently economical and even parsimonious. In the second picture the death, all of it engineered by humans, is extremely wasteful. Most of it here only served convenience and greed. That death was destructive to everything that it touched. In a balanced ecosystem, death enhances life.
It's all about ethics.
There is no planet B
Beauty and truth are entirely subjective concepts. Life carries on perfectly well without either of them. Life without death is impossible. To begin with, without death we would all starve.The death explicit in all of the trophic interactions depicted in the first picture are inherently economical and even parsimonious. In the second picture the death, all of it engineered by humans, is extremely wasteful. Most of it here only served convenience and greed. That death was destructive to everything that it touched. In a balanced ecosystem, death enhances life.
It's all about ethics.
There is no planet B
February 23, 2015
Aforementioned: aphorisms and questions for 2015
Tangled with the truly trivial, testosterone ignores the real threats. 
February 22, 2015
Aforementioned: aphorisms and questions for 2015
We‘ve always ignored obvious warning signs and followed false prophets to our doom. We are at it again. There’s no planet B 
We all know what came of following the prophecies of Hitler, and it seems that the people of Easter Island were persuaded by their prophets to cut their forests to roll statues into place, with predictable catastrophic results. Our most worshipped modern prophets are those who argue that we can grow and build ourselves out of our problems. Then there are those modern prophets who prophecy salvation through science and technology. The trouble with this is that the stakes are much, much higher today - nothing less than the biosphere itself. The result is that our hubris has grown to match the magnitude of the stakes.
We all know what came of following the prophecies of Hitler, and it seems that the people of Easter Island were persuaded by their prophets to cut their forests to roll statues into place, with predictable catastrophic results. Our most worshipped modern prophets are those who argue that we can grow and build ourselves out of our problems. Then there are those modern prophets who prophecy salvation through science and technology. The trouble with this is that the stakes are much, much higher today - nothing less than the biosphere itself. The result is that our hubris has grown to match the magnitude of the stakes.
February 21, 2015
Aforementioned: aphorisms and questions for 2015
Giants of fossil fuels (eg. Dick Cheney) and maniacal terrorists (eg. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi) are brave men, unafraid of Venus's climate. 
February 20, 2015
Aforementioned: Aphorisms and questions for 2015
We must wean ourselves from carbon energy, but we won't soon. Instead let's break the habit of unequal distribution of carbon power/wealth.
It is foolish to imagine that we will suddenly walk away from carbon energy (coal/petroleum/natural gas/methane) as much as that would be the sane thing to do. On the other hand, it is hard to see why we continue to put up with the hoarding of carbon wealth and power. The prospects for short-term personal gain are so great that the hoarders of carbon wealth and power cannot stop themselves from devastatingly unethical behaviour which can only lead to deadly consequences for the biosphere.
It is foolish to imagine that we will suddenly walk away from carbon energy (coal/petroleum/natural gas/methane) as much as that would be the sane thing to do. On the other hand, it is hard to see why we continue to put up with the hoarding of carbon wealth and power. The prospects for short-term personal gain are so great that the hoarders of carbon wealth and power cannot stop themselves from devastatingly unethical behaviour which can only lead to deadly consequences for the biosphere.
