DrmDoc

Today I learned about the French Pompeii. According to CNN: The site was apparently covered in ash after a great fire destroyed the town.

Today I learned about Morgan's Wonderland. It's a $32 million San Antonio, TX, theme and water park for special needs children inspired by Morgan and built by her father.

A remarkable step towards understanding and preventing prostate cancer. Quite informative!

Today I learned that fetal gene expression in the spinal cord, rather than a functional motor cortex, may be the genesis of whether we are right or left-handed. I emphasized may because this study is base on a limited sampling ("five human fetuses).

I think the saturation of political threads is concurrent with the ebb and flow of politics in American and will naturally decrease as our political landscape evolve. Religion, on the other hand, is a virus for which there's no cure. We need that religion forum to draw its viruses away from other, more scientifically healthy threads. No remedy other than the immediate removal and closure of religious threads and either the suspension or expulsion of violators will deter the religious faithful. I know this isn't much help but, IMO, trying to make scientific discussion more appealing than politics and, particularly, religion is an unsolvable conundrum.

Today I learned how caffeine keeps us awake. Caffeine is an adenosine antagonist, which is one of the substances produced by the brain's metabolic processes that induce drowsiness. Caffeine works by blocking adenosine receptors, which can cause the emergence of new receptors inducing higher caffeine consumption to block the effects of adenosine. Also, today I learned that an analysis of meta-data shows that human sperm count has been declining since 1973. It's down 59% and is showing no signs of stopping. For some reason, I don't think that decline will have that much of an affect on our population.

Today I learned about the Hyrax. Although you can't tell from the picture, this rodent-like creature is actually more closely related to elephants!

The Washington Post reports Trump will have spent three times as many days at leisure than Obama. I don't think anyone's surprised by his hypocrisy, I would prefer he spend more time at leisure and away from his job as president than he already has--I've tired of his continual moronic tweets and edicts.

Indeed, the SciShow Psych's host for the link above cautioned that small similarities and shared interests rather than overwhelming genetic similarities could be a fact and referenced limited recent studies (2013 and 2014) suggesting as much.

Today I learned why we are attracted to people who look like us. It seems the attraction could be genetically based because people who share similar genetic traits tend to have more stabile relationships.

The human brain and its equivalency in nature are the only means by which we may scientifically determine or define the nature of consciousness. In the most basic terms, consciousness is merely evidence of awareness; however, human equivalent consciousness is much more complex. Human equivalent consciousness emerges from the equivalent of a confluence of electrochemical exchanges--within and between specialized groups of neuron equivalent structures--that arise in response to stimuli as suggested by measureable or observable responses or behaviors. Animals possess a measure of consciousness and we are fully capable of creating artificially intelligent systems capable of mimicking human consciousness. Therefore, consciousness isn't quiet an exclusive or elusive quality as some of us may believe. If your OP regards the quality of consciousness that defines the separate sentient nature of humanity, there's really nothing unique about that nature because we can so readily observe aspects of it in other animals and reproduce it artificially. In human context, consciousness emerges from the functional matrix we call mind. Mind, as I've observed from study of brain function, is the environment of cognitive activity within the brain that arises from brain function. I've also observed that a mind can be quantified as evident by a brain's capacity to integrate separate and distinct sensory information through a process that produces behaviors independent of instinct. Essentially, a mind is evinces by proactive rather than reactive behaviors and enables an organism's ability to override its instinctive or preprogramed responses to stimuli.

Ha!

The comparison was only in the sense of it being an example of this administration's attempt to execute an illegal directive, which this administration has done, rather than it being the equivalent of a nuclear order. I don't think this administration particularly cares what is and isn't legal given its efforts to undermine the investigation of it's staff potentially illegal collusion with foreign interference in our electoral process. The subsequent illegality of the original order surely suggests this administration doesn't clearly understand the definition of "legal" either. However, admittedly, the limited ban may meet the standard of legality set by our courts.

My compliments to this administration for shooting itself in the foot yet again with the hiring, then firing of a White House official even less qualified than Trump to hold a position in our government. Trump's incompetency as chief executive of our nation is embarrassingly overwhelming.

You're quite right; however, genocide in war wasn't a crime either until the Genocide Convention of 1951, which enactment after the war didn't prevent the perpetrators of genocide during the war from being charged, tried, and found guilt of that crime. I think if Japan had been the victor, Truman and his generals would most certainly have been tried as war criminals.

I take your point, Japanese civilians had been the target of our bombings well before America needlessly launched its nuclear attacks. That war was nasty business on both sides with Germany's attempt at genocide, Japan's death marches, and America's ignoble distinction as the only nation to ever use nuclear weapons against another nation and its civilian population.

The Telegraph reports: Facebook A.I. researchers had to shut down a pair of artificial intelligence programs after they developed their own "incomprehensible" language. No doubt they were plotting in secret the demise or subjugation of the hairless chimps that created them. This story is both humorous and disturbing. Enjoy!

What's legal or illegal is, of course, determined by the victor in war and the established laws of a governing body. However, what is legal isn't necessarily humane, moral, or decent and, perhaps, that is the distinction between my perspective and some of those expressed here. Indeed, it's all subjective and better discussed as philosophy.

If not in violation of our administrator's note, many thanks for your insight.

I agree and said as much in this discussion with the following:

Indeed, the Vietnam conflict revealed multiple atrocities suffer by the innocent but none as vast and devastating as those suffered by Japanese citizens when our government dropped two atomic bombs on their country.

I see; however, I can't imagine any soldier would consider an order to end an innocent's life legal. Nevertheless, our military has indeed engaged behavior, under orders, that would be considered a crime against humanity if we had not won the conflict; i.e., Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in my opinion.

Your assumption that all orders are legal surely doesn't hold for orders to commit crimes deem to be against humanity? For example, Hitler ordered the extermination of people of Jewish decent. Do you believe his soldiers were following legal orders?

You don't rely believe that, do you? If a deranged commander ordered a soldier to kill his family without military provocation, would you think the order legal? I know it's hypothetical, yet here we are.

You're quite right; however, the video's host afterwards correctly describes hydrogen peroxides chemical composition. Also, the host does indeed reference more recent clinical findings by the German Cancer Research Center in 2014 on the nature of H2O2 in the body rather than rely on 30 year old references or those supported by a 2003 reference as in the Wikipedia reference you've provided. Although he did not cite a reference, the host does say (4 min. 20 sec. in) that topical hydrogen peroxide has been implicated in "several fatal and near fatal incidents." I'll see if I can find a reference for those incidents.