I’ve received a number of questions about the significance of the US$ Index.
The US Dollar Index is an average of six foreign currencies, weighted in accordance with somebody’s perception of their relative importance in the year 1973, when the world’s major nations first let their currencies start to float “freely” against one another:
Watch this. Keep in mind that this is an American politician—a Republican mayor of San Diego. And not only does he come out in support of gay marriage (that’s only civilized, I figure), but never in his speech is there any religious reference. Amazing.
Why do some species, like honeybees, exhibit altruistic behaviour like giving up sex and even their own life for the colony? This week’s Science podcast helps cast light on this question. You can listen to it here.
The Podcast addresses the findings in this paper, entitled “Wasp Gene Expression Supports an Evolutionary Link Between Maternal Behavior and Eusociality” by Amy L. Toth et. al.
Below are a few excerpts from the transcript of the podcast.
Interviewee – Amy Toth
We are interested in trying to understand the origins of social behavior in animals. And the reason that is so interesting is because it’s really been a long standing mystery that has intrigued many biologists — even since Darwin — because typically you think in evolution any animal’s goal in life is to survive and reproduce, so how do we explain something as extreme as, for example, a honeybee, that stings and loses its life to defend its colony. And so basically the question we are asking is where does this type of unselfish or altruistic behavior come from.….Interviewer – Robert Frederick
Okay, so what was your hypothesis going into this experiment, then?Interviewee – Amy Toth
We hypothesized that there would be a similar biological basis underlying maternal behavior and altruistic or worker behavior in a social insect. And so if those two behaviors were related in an evolutionary sense, then you might expect them to have very similar types of underlying biological basis.….Interviewer – Robert Frederick
So, what kind of overlap was there then between the paper wasp and the honeybee?Interviewee – Amy Toth
Yeah, that’s a good question. So, we can’t answer that definitively because we handpicked our genes. And so what we would really need to do is pick a random set from wasps and a random set from bees to get an unbiased estimate of what the overlap was. And so what we can say is based on the 32 genes that we did look at — and we probably picked genes that are more interesting and potentially more likely to show differences — we saw about 62% of those showed differences in the wasps that were associated with behavior. So, a very high percentage were showing interesting differences in gene activity in the brains of the wasps.Interviewer – Robert Frederick
Did the expression of these genes backup what had been observed in the wasp as far as how it was different than the honeybee in terms of the rearing behavior of the wasps?Interviewee – Amy Toth
So, a lot of them did, I would say follow up with an expectation we had. So, as I had mentioned before some of the genes that we chose were associated with foraging behavior in honeybees, and, in fact, a big part of being a worker or being a maternal foundress in these wasp colonies is foraging. And so we actually saw quite a few of the genes that were associated with foraging in honeybees. They also appeared to be turned on or turned off in specific ways in the brains of wasps that were foraging. And this foraging is an essential part of being maternal or being a worker.
Cheers,
Colin
It is in experiencing what is here in this moment that you find unconditional love and happiness.
Unfortunately, the habit is to avoid this moment, thus creating stress and unhappiness.
Everyone is seeking the same thing. You can say either they are seeking happiness or to get out of their pain.
The thing about it is, like a fly caught in a spider web, the more you try to get out of your pain, the more stuck in the pain you become.
That is where desire is born. Where seeking is born. You look here and there to try and find a way out of your pain, to find happiness and love. Most people are not even aware of their pain. Yet if you look, you will see how you are constantly seeking something to take you out of this moment, to keep you from experiencing what is here. There is a discomfort here, the need to be distracted by something in order to feel good. But you have gotten used to this discomfort, and you have gotten really good at avoiding it. The main way you avoid it is through thinking.
There are layers and layers of mental activity on top of that pain, there are a million tasks and distractions that keep you from ever becoming consciously aware of that pain.
If you really look at why you do the things you do, it is that they give you some sort of pleasure or relief. You want to win the race because it feels good for a short time that you won. You want an icecream because while you are eating that ice cream, there is a certain amount of pleasure. You may even want to be angry at someone, because you get a certain amount of relief by focusing that anger at someone.
If you are bored, you seek any means to overcome that boredom. Because all boredom really is, is the state where you have run out of ways to distract yourself from this moment.
So you seek to fulfill desires. First it may be instant gratification desires like sex and drugs. Then there are material desires, or desires for success, to find a relationship. Then desires to improve yourself.
Ultimately, you come to the conclusion that none of these things fulfill you. So you have spiritual desires. You want enlightenment. You enter meditation to get bliss or to be free from your pain.
All of this is the natural progression of the ego. It is how it is supposed to be.
But then you come here, you come to a place that can teach you true meditation, as a path to enlightenment. As a way to be free from your pain, to fill you with bliss.
And you find bliss for a time, you find freedom from pain to an extent temporarily. But still, although better than everything else, it still does not fulfill you.
So if you want to be free from all of this seeking, from this pain, if you really want to experience true unconditional happiness, if you really want to learn true meditation as a path to enlightenment read this closely:
1. Realize, that there is pain, there is unhappiness, discomfort. Most people never stop and experience what they are avoiding in this moment. They say “I am happy.” Yet they are constantly seeking something to fulfill them. Just in seeing that you are looking to be fulfilled means you are not fulfilled now. This very realization will bring your great freedom.
Most people do not believe that it is possible to be happy and blissful. They do not believe what all of the meditation masters have said and that your natural state is peace, bliss and love. That it is possible to live in such a state.
Because if you really look in this moment, if you stop all of your action in this moment, and experience what is here in this moment, without getting lost in your thinking, you will probably find peace. This is good.
But then if you stay with it, you will feel the pain you are always avoiding, and very quickly, you will get lost in your thinking again to avoid feeling what is here in this moment.
So you have to be willing to feel what is here. To see that in every moment, you are avoiding this moment, you are resisting experiencing this moment. To become aware of this habitual resistance is great freedom already.
2. Second thing to do is don’t call what is here unhappiness or pain, simply allow yourself to feel it completely. Accept yourself completely as you are without defining it, judging it. Forget the mind all together. Just allow yourself to feel what is here in this moment as sensation. Notice the sensations you feel of existing in this moment. Surrender to how you are, without trying to change it, improve it or define it. Just feel and breathe.
3. In the beginning, use a technique to help keep you present. Because you will get lost in your thinking again and again. Getting lost in your thoughts is simply the habit to avoid being present and experiencing what is here. It can be as easy as noticing the feeling of your breath moving in and out of your nose. Or silently repeating “I am” with every breath, keeping your attention on this feeling of “I am” or being, beyond the mind.
4. You need enlightened presence. When you sit with someone who has mastered the meditation path all the way to enlightenment, their enlightened presence washes through you, cleaning out your energy channels and awakening that same enlightened presence in you. The easiest way to do this is to meditate The Calling CDs for Spiritual Awakening. Simply by listening to the CD, you are given what is known as shaktipat/deeksha/grace. It awakens your natural state in you in the same way as sitting with an enlightened teacher.
5. In accepting yourself as you are, in allowing yourself to experience what is here in this moment, you naturally become aware, present. Meditating with the Calling CDs spoken about above will make this process very easy and provide a lot of bliss and peace along the way to make it a delicious journey.
6. Be responsible. Stop blaming others for your anger or sadness. Stop hurting others, stop seeking justice or to be right.
In order to awaken to your true nature, you must simply experience what life gives you. This is karma. Allow life to be as it is instead of constantly trying to change everyting and everyone around you. In being present in this, without fighting it, you move very quickly into high states of awareness.
7. Intensify the awareness. Become a witness to your thoughts, really, in every moment in meditation, be absolutely present. Sometimes it is necessary to give up the bliss to be present, at some point, bliss also must be surrendered, so a greater freedom and bliss emerges.
8. You, as a person, as the knower, the wanter, the doer, the one in control, you as an ego is the problem, is the suffering. The more you feed this ego and empower it, the more you will separate yourself from the love that you are. So practice humility. Become aware of how you are always trying to be right, to know everything, to be noticed, to be loved, to be accepted by others. Become aware of the ego’s need to be all of these things. In the awareness of it, you move beyond it.
Beyond ego, beyond mind identification, there is simply awareness, more and more subtle levels of awareness. This is what you truly are, this is where freedom lies.
9. In two words, be present. Completely be here in this moment.
This is true meditation, the path to enlightenment. It is about giving up your fantasies and your memories and living in the now. It is about bringing your attention back to this moment again and again every time you get caught up in your thoughts.
Then life gets really beautiful. Everything begins to be taken care of. You become happy, loving, peaceful, blissful. Not as an ego. But as bliss itself, as love itself. You become a channel for the divine. This is true meditation, the path to enlightenment.
Blessings,
Kip
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Following on from my previous post… I read with interest this BMJ News item on the most important medical milestone since 1840. 150 milestones were short-listed, including the discovery of antibiotics and the development of anaesthesia. And 11000 BMJ readers voted. And which milestone was voted #1, with 15.8% of the votes? The sanitary revolution. Here is a brief excerpt:
The work of the 19th century lawyer Edwin Chadwick, who pioneered the introduction of piped water to people’s homes and sewers rinsed by water, attracted 15.8% of the votes, while antibiotics took 15%, and anaesthesia took 14%. The next two most popular were the introduction of vaccines, with 12%, and the discovery of the structure of DNA (9%).
Johan Mackenbach, professor of public health at Erasmus MC Medical Center, Rotterdam, who championed the cause of sanitation, said, “I’m delighted that sanitation is recognised by so many people as such an important milestone. The general lesson which still holds is that passive protection against health hazards is often the best way to improve population health.
….”The original champions of the sanitary revolution were John Snow, who showed that cholera was spread by water, and Edwin Chadwick, who came up with the idea of sewage disposal and piping water into homes.
Inadequate sanitation is still a major problem in the developing world. In 2001, unsafe water, sanitation, and hygiene accounted for over 1.5 million deaths from diarrhoeal disease in low and middle-income countries. Clearly, sanitation still plays a vital role in improving public health now and in the future.”
There is something perverse about the current fad for bottled drinking water when clean, safe piped water is available. It is so easy to lose our perspective of our priorities.
Cheers,
Colin
This post is Part 2 of an earlier post and brings together a few of the thoughts I have been pondering lately. And the issue concerns the primacy a theory of justice ought to place on healthcare rather than health itself. So is healthcare “special”?
I just read an excellent paper in the latest issue of The Journal of Political Philosophy. It was Shlomi Segall’s “Is Health Care (Still) Special?” and he got me thinking about these issues again. Segall’s goal is to take issue with Normal Daniels’s argument that healthcare is special because it has strategic importance in facilitating the pursuit of our life plans. Segall offers two arguments against Daniels. Firstly, Daniels’s specialness account is too narrow (it cannot justify treatment to the elderly). Secondly, it is too wide (many of the opportunities the account depends upon lie beyond the reach of healthcare). I found both of Segall’s arguments persuasive.
Segall also invoked the following useful taxonomy of views:
(1) Most Important: health care resources should be allocated in line with health being the most important good.
(2) Special: health care resources should be allocated in isolation from the distribution of other social goods.
(3) Separate Sphere: health care resources should be allocated in line with the purpose of health care, which is only to promote health.
He also differentiates between two versions (weak and strong) of the Special view:
Strong version: the fact that a person possesses Y ought not affect how much of X she receives.
Weak version: the fact that a person possesses Y ought not determine how much of X is allocated to her.
And it is the weaker version of the specialness account that Segall targets.
I have always been struck by what I see as the paradoxical nature of debates about healthcare reform in Canada. Someone defending the status quo will invoke the specialness account and say something like the following: “Canadians are pretty egalitarian. We (unlike Americans) don’t believe that the rich should be able to buy better healthcare. So we should resist the move towards [more] private healthcare.”
What always puzzles me about this is that those who have such a view do not seem troubled by the fact that Canada has no inheritance tax (nor are lottery winnings taxed ) while the US does (though it is under threat). Furthermore, since the 1990’s family income inequality has risen substantially in Canada (see this). I suspect the dismissal of such facts- facts which I think debunk the myth of Canada’s supposed egalitarian commitments- occurs because many Canadians believe that healthcare (unlike wealth and income) is “special”.
So how egalitarian does a commitment to (2) really make a society? And most importantly (since I’m not an egalitarian), how *just* does a commitment to (2) really make a society? Sadly this question seems, in my opinion, to be largely ignored. Canadians take it for granted that the virtues of (2) are self-evident. But I do not believe they are.
What is the problem with treating healthcare as “special”? Segall echoes the concern of Dan Brock (in his excellent KIEJ 2000 article “Broadening the Bioethics Agenda)- that it ignores the broad range of factors that have an influence, and often a greater influence, on our health prospects. These factors include our genetic endowments, stress at work, familial nurture in early life, diet, etc. These are the kinds of factors that I emphasized in my previous posts on Taking People as They Really Are (Parts 1 and 2).
So if healthcare is special to our health prospects then so is the family, education, our diet, etc… And thus singling out heathcare itself for special treatment is really not very helpful (indeed it could do more harm than good). For such a strategy impairs our ability to adopt the “big picture perspective” of these issues.
Who will help Canadians inspire a public debate that transcends the narrow limitations of the “healthcare is special” mantra? Will it come from our political leaders? (I’m not holding my breath!) Perhaps the concerns of the medical profession will help inspire this debate. Or the concerns raised by the Supreme Court.
At least the latter has had the courage to stick its neck out and tell Canadians the reality of the current situation. That is better than simply burying our heads in the sand and pretending that there are no serious problems here.
Healthcare reform is of course much more complex than simply prohibiting or permitting private insurance companies to cover core physician and hospital services (as this informative article argues). ). But by treating healthcare as special we really obstruct the likelihood that any informed, reasoned debate could gain any real steam. And that is why I do not believe that a fair and humane public ethic should treat healthcare as “special”; where “special” means treating healthcare as noted above- by no means am I suggesting that universal healthcare is not important. To continue to treat healthcare as “special” is to fail to give due attention to the other important goals we should be promoting. Goals that also greatly influence the health prospects of our citizens.
Let me conclude by just noting how the issue of healthcare illustrates another point I have been making at various stages on this blog. And this is the point that the principles appropriate for the distribution of anything cannot be determined solely by appeals to “first-best conceptualism”. And that is precisely what the Daniels position does. It takes an abstract principle (in this case Rawls’s principle of fair equality of opportunity) and applies it to one particular good (healthcare). But the problem with this tactic is that a determination of whether or not that is sage advice is not something we can establish by simply pondering what the ideals of equality require. Rather it requires us to do the difficult, complex empirical work needed to get a sense of the kinds of factors that really influence health outcomes. And so it is not surprising that an empirical examination of these issues take us in a direction very different from an idealized, abstract analysis. And this further reinforces how impoverished ideal theory actually is.
Cheers,
Colin
If, as I suspect, we are close to a global economic crash, it makes sense to ensure one is prepared.
When I published my first website in 2003, I included an extensive section on what can be done to prepare for any eventuality. This post takes a slightly more holistic view of how to prosper in a contractionary economy. Rest assured that economic contractions have happened many times before. Millions before us have lived through periods of depression. Almost all managed to survive and some of them really prospered. It was those with the right mindset that did particularly well.
The U.S. Senate today approved a bill to raise the national debt limit by 850 billion U.S. dollars to 9.815 trillion dollars.
The debt limit increase bill was passed in the Senate by a 53-42 vote, and has been sent to President George W. Bush who is expected to sign it by Oct. 1, when the new fiscal year starts and the government hits its current borrowing ceiling of 8.965 trillion dollars.
The House approved an increase in the national debt limit in May this year.
Earlier this month, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson urged quick actions from the Democrats-controlled Congress to raise the national debt limit, saying the U.S. government will hit the current debt ceiling on Oct. 1.
The national debt is the total accumulation of annual budget deficits, which must be financed with borrowed money.
(Hat tip to Ed Babinski, who found this at the Wittenburg Blog. The music is titled “Det snurrar i min skalle” and is from a Swedish group called Familjen–they’ve got several other songs on YouTube.)
I found an apposite quote about this in an Economist article published last year titled “Christianity reborn”:
“A Pentecostal service is an unforgettable experience, part religious service, part spectacle, part rock ‘n’ roll rave. … Harvey Cox, a professor at Harvard, points to two things that have put wind into the movement’s sails. One is the fact that it reconnects people with primitive religion: it taps into a deep substratum of primal spirituality, filling the ‘ecstasy deficit’ left by cooler religions. The movement’s emphasis on experience rather than doctrine gives it a remarkable ability to absorb other faiths, from spirit possession in the Caribbean to ancestor worship in Africa, from folk healing in Brazil to shamanism in Korea. As the Pentecostals say, ‘the man with an experience is never at the mercy of the man with a doctrine.’”
I’ve written a detailed explanation of Blake’s basic use of the Bible and of the meaning it had for him. Go to Finally the Bible.
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