Thomas J. Webb’s Ecology Blog

Men will look like women and women will look like girls.

Just wanted to share the settings I used to get it working (because discussion boards are full of things that don’t work, and most people are jerks who never share that they got something working).

Using KNetworkManager (haven’t gotten it working using if-up)

Click on KNetworkManager icon (it’s the one that looks like a globe) in the taskbar. Go to “New connection…” and select ttyUSBX from the submenu (X may be 0, or something higher if you have a USB-RS232 converter like I do). Then, enter these settings:

Number: #777
Username: YOURVERIZONNUMBER@vzw3g.com
Password: vzw

Baud Rate: 230400
Data bits: 8
Parity: None
Stop bits: 1
Send delay: 0

Make sure “no authorization” is checked. Also, in the last screen, you might want to check “auto connect”.

Similar settings should work with Sprint’s usb card, which is pretty much identical.

これは日本のアイヌのことの番組である。アナウンサーは英語で調べてるけど、会見はだいたい日本語である。

日本人さん、アイヌのことどう思っていますか？

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYEhubSOtcI

• JLPT system to be change
• Revision of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test: Second Progress Report

It seems I was a little slow to pick up this news, but basically all the things I (and, apparently, countless others) have put in the suggestion box year after year for JLPT are finally being realized. If I don’t pass lvl. 2 this Winter, I’ll be able to take it again middle the following year, instead of having to wait until Winter. The only complaint I don’t see addressed is the lack of timeliness in grading my tests. This is the computer age, people!

Another thing that is cool, that would have helped me this year or would’ve helped last year, but will likely be too late for me, is they’re adding a new level in-between 2 and 3. The gap is HUGE, I tell ya! 3 is easy, and 2 is suicide. I’m taking suicide level this year, and would’ve appreciated N2. Oh well. One minus that I actually kinda understand is they won’t be publishing the answers anymore. Oh how I loved taking the tests in those pastel-colored booklets. Enjoy them while they last, kiddies.

When looking at decent with modification over time, we often see structures that began serving one purpose being changed to serve another purpose (as well, or instead; the important thing is the structure can outlive it’s original purpose) In this way, highly complex structures can evolve that simply could not have, were nature more single-minded. An examples of this is how the jaw of primitive synapsids slowly was repurposed into the inner ear bone, giving mammals much more sophisticated hearing than any other vertebrate [1]. Evolutionary psychology is a field that looks at the evolutionary/adaptive significance of behaviors. I would say that there is a weakness in this science as it doesn’t consider the aspects of evolution that are random, or side effects to other evolutionary change. Here, I present an example of how evolutionary psychology can be extended into looking at the mechanisms of mental evolution, by seeing behaviors as structures.

Let’s analyze grieving over the dead as an example. Evolutionary psychology as it stands today will tell us (correctly) that there is clear adaptive significance in having a painful emotion associated with a loved one dying. Those who feel sorrow at the loss of a loved one will go through much greater ends to prevent said loss, passing on their gene through kin selection. But wait, how did such a complex behavior come to be in the first place? The disservice evolutionary psychology does is in often stopping here, which is almost understandable since most psychologists aren’t biologists and vice versa (and I’m neither, just a biologist-in-study and a fake psychologist). It’s also understandable, sadly, because the mind doesn’t fossilize. Harking back to the days of structural psychology, evolutionary psychologists could (and should) investigate what this emotion is exactly made up of. Which structures exactly were extended or repurposed.

Humans are paedmorphic due to neoteny [2], which is to say that our species differentiated from our ape-like ancestors in large part through retarded development. Many of what were once juvenile characteristics in our tree-climbing ancestors (and still are in our tree-climbing relatives), are retained into adulthood in our species. This is generally speaking, naturally. I won’t go into the different theories about how humans became paedomorphic. All we need to know is that some selective pressure made our species increasingly paedomorphic by slowing down development. So, some childhood behavioral characteristics also carry over to adulthood, such as play behavior, something that doesn’t tend to last to adulthood in non-human animals, at least not with the strength it does in our species. As Desmond Morris points out [3], much of what we think of as “work” is really play. Think about the hilarity of this sentence: “I work in the entertainment industry.”

The instinct of an infant towards attachment to the parent is the precursor to attachments to others that lasts to adulthood in our species. This behavior was selected for obvious reasons - for a child, to lose contact is to lose safety. Through the random process side-effect evolution, childhood attachments lasts until adulthood. Whatever the initial reason for structural neoteny (some say it was actually to get larger brains in the first place [2]), the side-effects of delayed maturation remains. If these attachments were maladaptive, they would be selected out. Random evolution isn’t like “the restaurant decided I’m going to have the soup of the day.” It is more like, “I might have the soup of the day. It’s the first thing on my mind because the waiter mentioned it.” So, something else not only kept adulthood attachments, but something strengthened it further. A behavior was repurposed (since the parent is no longer important in an adult’s life for survival). That thing was the selective pressures for grieving I just talked about above. The attachments that go into the pair bond, something that has become even more important since human infancy and adolescence lasts so long, also owe their origin to this same structure

So, evolutionary psychology shouldn’t be limited to looking at adaptive significance of behavior, but can also, drawing from the more mad-scientist aspect of nature, look at the randomness and how existing emotions can be repurposed in much the same way physical structures are in change over time. This would mean that symbolic looks at psychology like Freud may have some truth to them. The problem is that they are often 1% of the story since it is absurd to think introspection can truly reveal the workings of the subconscious (that would require Freud’s preposterous theory that civilization pushed our conscience below the surface - a notion that evolutionary psychology handily rejects - to be true).

Anyway, just an idea. What do y’all think?

1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synapsid#Characteristics yes, I cite Wikipedia. Gotta problem w/ that, bitch?
2: Ontogeny and Phylogeny, by Stephen Jay Gould See particularly the last chapter, though early chapters are rife with examples of people overdoing analogies to [largely incorrect] biological theories, such as Haeckle’s recapitulation
3: The Naked Female, by Desmond Morris

Download the .tar.gz plugin (even if you’re using an .rpm-based distribution), untar and:

nspluginwrapper -i libflashplayer.so

You don’t have to copy the file first or anything. If that command doesn’t work, install nspluginwrapper, but any self-respecting x86_64 distro will install that plugin by default for your browser.

Looking for a keyboardist who has the ability to create his own parts for our songs. Bonus points if you can songwrite/compose as well. More bonus points if you have a good understanding of music theory (and can teach me some of it, heh).

We are a new band (though in some senses a reincarnation of a previous band of mine) and our goal is to practice 1-2 times a week for a long time, then release an album and tour regularly, playing our original songs (and maybe a few covers here and there, but our goal isn’t to be a party band).

I have a good set of synth gear (including a Roland AX-7 keytar, a Korg MS-2000, a Yamaha DX-200, a Kaoss Pad and more..) that will be available for your use as a member of our band.

Our sound shall be full of texture and flavor, sometimes quite harsh. Not silly little synth tricks of our time that sound dated as soon as their recorded. Some influences (don’t worry if you haven’t heard of very many of these as long as you do have broad influences…): Skinny Puppy, Throbbing Gristle, Brian Eno, Pixies, Christian Death, NON (Boyd Rice), Tangerine Dream, NIN, Joy Division, New Order, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk, Leather Strip, Laibach, Boards of Canada, …

Creativity is more important than skill, but you need to have some skill, heh. Our music is highly electronic, so you will be the star in some sense and will make or break our sound. Up for the task? E-mail me or leave a message at 760-912-1856 if I don’t answer.

because I slow down when I know an empty cop car is coming up

…isn’t ecocentrism. It’s just that the ecosphere is too damn strong.

Yes, anthropocentric “stewardship” type thinking can learn from ecocentrism. For example, between two species that are facing undue (anthropogenic…but why isn’t it undue if it’s aviogenic? hmmm) early extinction, we find that environmental movements go for the more charismatic species, rather than the one that is more important in its ecosystem or that can be saved with fewer resources (though it may be easier to drum up support, getting funds for more charismatic species).

This is why I’m ecocentric (at least up to a point), but believe the primary reasons for environmentalism are anthropocentric. There are very few things we could do that would severely put life as a whole on serious jeopardy. Countless terrestrial natural disasters have failed to wipe the slate completely clean and, if anything, created the opportunities needed for our species to come into existence. But it would be terrible if our population growth decreased each individual’s quality of life and robbed humanity of untouched natural habitats to heal individuals who wish to partake. It would be terrible if all the cute animals went extinct.

But more than just “it being terrible if life quality dropped and there were no more hiking trails,” call me a homo sapiens chauvinist, but I don’t want us to go extinct. We’re exactly the kind of animal that is at risk here… and that is why “we are stewards” is absolutely wrong thinking. If we’re in control, then a better analogy is we’re steering a ship and even a sense of self-preservation shall make us want to make sure we don’t hit a rock (one good thing about this analogy.. we can do better than nature! the ecosphere has failed repeatedly to prevent asteroids, but our missiles and nukes might fill in).

おかしい夢を見ましたk。

僕がカリコゴーストタウンと言うところで優しい一家に付き合いました。その家族は僕が好きになりました。たくさんたくさん話しました。両親も、お兄さんと妹がいました。その家族が「好きだから、娘とデートしてね」って言いました。確かに可愛かったけど、その娘が１４歳ぐらいでした！だから、僕が「だめだよ。そんな若い子とデートできないよ」って言って、娘ちゃんがすぐ怒りました！息子も両親もちょっとだけ怒って、仲間はずれました。けっきょく、また息子と話すようになったけど、娘から「あんた嫌い！！」とかのメールばかりもらいました。おかしいことは息子はDemon Huntersと言う最低だおかしいなBムービーからのキャラクターにそっくりでした。