Short film produced at the New York Film Academy and directed by Stephen o'regan. (...)
They're Made Out of Meat is a Nebula Award-nominated short story by Terry Bisson. It was originally published in OMNI. It consists entirely of dialogue between two characters, and Bisson's website hosts a theatrical adaptation. A film adaptation won the Grand Prize at the Seattle Science Fiction Museum's 2006 film festival.
The two characters are sentient beings capable of traveling faster than light, on a mission to "contact, welcome and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in this quadrant of the Universe." Bisson's stage directions represent them as "two lights moving like fireflies among the stars" on a projection screen. They converse briefly on their bizarre discovery of carbon-based life, which they refer to incredulously as "thinking meat." They agree to "erase the records and forget the whole thing," marking the Solar System "unoccupied."
The story was collected in the 1993 anthology Bears Discover Fire and Other Stories, and has circulated widely on the Internet, which Bisson finds "flattering." It has been quoted in cognitive, cosmological, and philosophical scholarship.
Matt Ridley, an Oxford-educated zoologist, turned to journalism in 1983 when he got a job as The Economist’s science reporter. He soon became the magazine’s Washington correspondent and eventually served as its American editor.
Ridley has written several acclaimed books that combine clear explanations of complex biology with discussions of the science’s implications for human society. In the reason.tv interview, Ridley discusses some of the themes in The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature; The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation; Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters; and Nature via Nurture: Genes, Experience, & What Makes Us Human; as well as his forthcoming book which seeks to understand how and why human progress happens.
Paul Feine and Alex Manning interviewed Ridley in the Milton and Rose Friedman Reading Room at Chapman University in Orange, California.
My name is D to the I to C to the K, Yeah I'm the Dickie D, I gots my PhD and comin' your way on the Youtube to bust your world view so just listen to me and don't you argue.
You see, this battle's been ragin' since Zeus was on the bottle,'tween Science like Democritus and Faith like Aristotle, who said the mover was unmovin' like some magic trick but that's no good logic, my posse is far too quick for this religious sthick.
Cos science is the only way to know y'all, you stand with me y'all, or you can fall y'all
So go ahead and take your pick...
ES: Yeah you tell him Rick ... Darwin : Cos if you don't know me ...
RD: YOU DON'T KNOW DICK!!
Chorus : Yeah he's the Dick to the Dawk to the PhD, he's smarter than you he's got a science degree! Yeah he's the Dick to the Dawk to the PhD, he's smarter than you he's got a science degree!
SH:On the shoulders of midgets we built up this machine, DD:YEAH!!!
RD: Science silenced that watchdog wingnut Paley growing stronger and harder almost daily, storming Wilber by force as we framed the discourse that faith and science are split in schismatic divorce.
Then Darwin took to the seas to see what no one had seen, and ever since then we've been increasingly keen, they may never adore us, but they'll no longer ignore us, give it to 'em PZ hit these BLEEP with the chorus!!!
Chorus : Yeah he's the Dick to the Dawk to the PhD, he's smarter than you he's got a science degree! The Dick to the Dawk to the PhD, he's still smarter than you he studied biology!
Then there was Darrow dukin' it out with the straight and the narrow, a ragin' bull in the ring, he did his thing, and took it on the chin like he was Bobby De Niro.
We might have lost at Scopes, beaten down by the dopes, and the stooges of popes, but in losin' we coped, becomin' more than we hoped, creationists slipped on the soap of their own slippery slope.
What was impossible, improbable, is now wholly unstoppable untoppleable, the Dick Doc'll roll up as you creationists foldup
you haters talkin' bull, don't you know that this Dick is un-cock-frickin' blockable ...
Chorus : Yeah he's the Dick to the Dawk to the PhD, he's smarter than you he's got a science degree! The Dick to the Dawk to the PhD, he's still smarter than you he studied biology!
Now the machine of our making, sees culture ripe for the taking,
Cos I'm the rappinest, rabidest atheist who unlike the Catholic, Muslim or even the Jew, believes that no God but science could ever be true, hell if I was dyslexic I'd even hate "dog" too.
Time to open your eyes, get yourself wise, the age of science will rise to be religion's demise, and while you churchies all cry, shouting 'why God oh why,' I'll still be poppin' my collar earning more dollars than Allah.
Hollah!
Chorus : Yeah he's the Dick to the Dawk to the PhD, he's smarter than you he's got a science degree! The Dick to the Dawk to the PhD, he's still smarter than you he studied biology!
Chorus : Yeah he's the Dick to the Dawk to the PhD, he's smarter than you he's got a science degree! The Dick to the Dawk to the PhD, he's still smarter than you he studied biology!
Michael Shermer discusses his book "Mind of the Market" as part of the Authors@Google series.
How did we evolve from ancient hunter-gatherers to modern consumer-traders? Why are people so irrational when it comes to money and business? Bestselling author Dr. Michael Shermer argues that evolution provides an answer to both of these questions through the new science of evolutionary economics. Drawing on research from neuroeconomics, Shermer explores what brain scans reveal about bargaining, snap purchases, and how trust is established in business. Utilizing experiments in behavioral economics, Shermer shows why people hang on to losing stocks and failing companies, why business negotiations often disintegrate into emotional tit-for-tat disputes, and why money does not make us happy. Employing research from complexity theory, Shermer shows how evolution and economics are both examples of a larger phenomenon of complex adaptive systems. Along the way, Shermer answers such provocative questions as: Do our tribal roots mean that we will always be a sucker for brands? How is the biochemical joy of sex similar to the rewards of business cooperation? How can nations increase trust within and between their borders? Finally, Shermer considers the consequences of globalization and what will happen if nations allow free trade across their borders.
Author Robert Frank discusses his book "The Economic Naturalist: In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas" as a part of the Authors@Google series. This event took place on July 23, 2007 at Google headquarters in Mountain View, CA. (...)
Robert Frank is the Henrietta Johnson Louis Professor of Management Professor of Economics at Cornell University's S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management. He is a monthly contributor to the "Economic Scene" column in The New York Times.
This is the breathtaking story of Daniel Tammet. A twenty-something with extraordinary mental abilities, Daniel is one of the world’s few savants. He can do calculations to 100 decimal places in his head, and learn a language in a week. This documentary follows Daniel as he travels to America to meet the scientists who are convinced he may hold the key to unlocking similar abilities in everyone. He also meets the world’s most famous savant, the man who inspired Dustin Hoffman’s character in the Oscar winning film ‘Rain Man’ (2005).
"Battle at Kruger" is a viral video posted on YouTube in 2007 which was widely praised for its dramatic depiction of life on the African savannah. It is one of YouTube's most popular videos, with more than 5,800,000 views and 7300 comments as of June 2007. It was also the subject of an article in the June 25, 2007, issue of Time Magazine. Taken by a group of safari-goers at a watering hole in Kruger National Park, South Africa, the video depicts a confrontation between a herd of Cape Buffalo, a small pride of lions, and a pair of crocodiles. Taken from a vehicle on the opposite side of the watering hole, the video begins with the herd of buffalo approaching the spring, unaware of the lions resting nearby. The lions charge and disperse the herd, picking off a young buffalo and knocking it into the water. While trying to drag the buffalo out of the water, it is grabbed by a pair of crocodiles, who fight strenuously for it before giving up and leaving it to the lions. The lions sit down and prepare to eat, but are quickly surrounded by the reorganized buffalo, who move in and start kicking at the lions. After a battle which includes one lion being tossed through the air, the baby buffalo (who is miraculously still alive) escapes into the herd. The emboldened buffalo chase the remainder of the lions away.
Nobel laureate James Watson opens TED2005 with the frank and funny story of how he and his partner, Francis Crick, discovered the structure of DNA. The tale is full of colorful details: How Watson had planned to be an ornithologist until Schroedinger's book What Is Life? transformed him into a geneticist. The painful rejections he suffered along the way, first from Caltech and then from a certain girl. And finally, how the basic DNA model ultimately came together in just a few hours. Watson finishes with one of the topics currently making him tick: the search for genetic bases for major illnesses.
Genomics pioneer Craig Venter takes a break from his epic round-the-world expedition to talk about the millions of genes his team has discovered so far, in their quest to map the ocean's hidden biodiversity. (Quite a task, when you consider that there are tens of millions of microbes in a single drop of sea water.) He updates the TED audience on his discoveries, from the 2,000 photoreceptor genes found in the Sargasso Sea to the thrill of being under house arrest in French waters. After touching on the potential of environmental genomics to monitor the safety of air, water and offshore drilling, Venter ends with his vision for engineered species that can replace the petrochemical industry by creating clean energy.
Why Darwin Matters: The Case against Intelligent Design - Featuring the author, Michael Shermer, Director, Skeptics Society; With comments by Jonathan Wells, Senior Fellow, Center for Science and Culture, Discovery Institute.
Debates over evolution range from Pennsylvania to Kansas to the University of California. Michael Shermer, a former evangelical Christian and creationist, argues that "intelligent design" theory appeals to a human predisposition to look for a designer behind life's complexity. But in fact the theory of natural selection is supported by the scientific evidence and is the foundation on which modern biology rests. Conservatives and Christians should accept evolution because it explains family values, social harmony, human nature, and the origins of morality. Jonathan Wells, author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design, disagrees with Shermer.
Richard Dawkins is Oxford University's "Professor for the Public Understanding of Science." Author of the landmark 1976 book, The Selfish Gene, he's a brilliant (and trenchant) evangelist for Darwin's ideas. In this talk, titled, "Queerer Than We Suppose: The strangeness of science," he suggests that the true nature of the universe eludes us, because the human mind evolved only to understand the "middle-sized" world we can observe.
Statistician Peter Donnelly explores the common mistakes humans make in interpreting statistics, and the devastating impact these errors can have on the outcome of criminal trials. Donnelly is a statistics professor at Oxford University who collaborates with biologists, applying statistical models to genetics, with the hope of shedding more light on evolutionary history and the structure of the human genome.
UCSD cognitive scientist Martin Sereno takes you on a captivating exploration of the brain's structure and function as revealed through investigations with new advanced imaging techniques and understandings of evolution. Series: "Grey Matters"
In this 1986 video, Richard Dawkins, author of the book, The Selfish Gene explains how natural selection can favour co-operation in nature - so long as it is of benefit to the selfish gene. His search for stable co-operate strategies, which remain unaffected by cheating and exploitation involves an extraordinary game known as the Prisoners' Dilemma, normally used by psychologists to study human behaviour. In their attempts to earn real money, players must wrestle with a dilemma - whether to follow their natural instincts of co-operation or the dictates of reason and behave selfishly.
