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The two sides of the coin outstanding debt

"Every fact is a coin with two faces, which must be seen to be understood" Aesop

Sunday was one of those epic days for skepticism, or what seemed to me. For a long time, we had to endure that from the mass media reach us a number of strange stories about what happened in an Andalusian village, the famous case of the Faces of Bélmez.
died since the owner of the house, we had to endure a series of newspaper stories, radio and television: This does has been an Operation Trident. Sunday
But things changed: first, in an environment of large circulation, particularly World, denounced the possibility that perhaps Bélmez faces were a fraud.
Never mind that from media (mainly internet pages) skeptics take years announcing the manipulation that has been around the phenomenon, to no media was interested in the opinion of these spoilers. Was perhaps more beautiful, dreamy, believe the opinion of the manufacturers of paradoxes. It is this ability to charm, with the complicity of the scientific ignorance of many journalists, which have long been used to sell a series of pseudo-mysteries.
Before the woman died of faces, we had to endure such categorical statements as: the greatest mystery of parpsicología has no solution, CSIC studies revealed that they are a supernatural phenomenon, etc etc ... Since died, we had to support the emergence of new "faces" (the former are more currades, but is that new designs are no more than water) which is invoked on television as "experts" on the subject to some reputable people known (euphemism with which I intend to say that your resume does not say much to his credit), which be given her toddler to a number of assumptions air pseudoscientific guise of science, ...
Bélmez On the issue of not intend to speak at this very moment, what he wanted to talk before I go around the bush it was this Sunday, and more of that after giving a note that I can not leave off.
Since long time the press has been selling esoteric idea that in the 90s, CSIC researchers concluded that after the sides had a paranormal phenomenon. Nothing is further from the truth. It happened in 1991, a "parapsychologist" Rev. Pilon gave some concrete examples of the house, for study, to 2 researchers from the Institute of Ceramics and Glass, Ruby Valley and Martin Fuentes. Several things happened: the samples were so meager that they were insufficient for mineralogical analysis. The samples were provided in a coffee bar on!. And added to all this, there was no control on sampling, so we will never know whether the samples actually came from the house or the right place at hand, there were no control samples. As a result, any conclusion drawn is invalidated. Do not forget the rule of all scientific study: samples unreliable, are equally reliable results.

Now, step by commenting on my impressions on the Sunday.
happens, which on Sunday published an article appears in the world, signed by Javier Cavanilles where Bélmez question the phenomenon. After that, we begin to see how the mystery radio programs rags are thrown at each other, we have to see how Bruno Cavanilles Cardeñosa faces in "La Rosa de los Vientos", we must see as within their own movements " parascientists "begin to emerge dissidents and critics within the field, ...
What has happened to this only by forming an item? In my opinion, is very simple. For many years, the "paradoxes" were of the opinion gained public. The media gave them ancha.Tenían manga all the press, radio and television monopoly of the idea that the faces were a challenging phenomenon. It happened with the circus that was mounted after her death, this trust was abused.
of little matter that long ago that circulate on the Internet an article which was dismantled Fernando Frias lying about Bélmez. It mattered little to the media the excellent special "digital Skeptic" devoted entirely to Bélmez. It mattered little the 248 signatures collected from blogs skeptics quality information.
But Sunday, something changed.
For the first time since a media powerful (only came to appreciate the quality of the newspaper in question in other topics, it is not my intention to argue, or stray to other subjects), was broadcast a part of history, which until then had been closed, inaccessible, the average citizen. For the first time gave the other side (pun intended, lol) of money I was talking about Aesop.
This explains the immediate reaction in the esoteric scene: yes you've set up a circus, if your the other .. If the other has committed fraud. What if I do not think it's true Bélmez.
And in the world of the para, the shadow of Ummo is long ....
Yes, hopefully yes, this part of the truth begins to gain more time on radio and television, it is possible that many of these vendors in mystery fall dragged to the stake along with the entire phenomenon. So many have wanted to be on the safe and then say, if all the fraud comes to light, they have always been rigorous.
should calm down. Unfortunately, as of Bélmez is just one case. And although the truth comes out, many people continue to prefer believing stubborn stories to be sold from esoteric journals, radio programs, ... much more suggestive, that the truth behind these lies.

In summary. A great day hopefully not fall on deaf ears. It has won the battle, but still "the world is possessed by many demons" (the great Carl Sagan).

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After much questioning, the novice in computer issues has been done, after much suffering (and a few rattles a monitor, keyboard, and CPU) that this blog has links section. Espaviento Discretita and not much, but you can not ask the impossible, do not give for more
so I could settle an outstanding debt to many people. First on the links section I decided to put the addresses of the blogs of people who signed for the first time in my blog. Excellent blogs "Mitica" and "Reasons to doubt, much more worth visiting," The Gallows ". Put them in alphabetical order (to avoid problems, lol). Then, put a series of pages that seem very good, according to an order imposed by my report that I wrote. Probably (probably not right, it's probably more correct), I missed one. Over time I go agreeing. I advise you to visit them because they are very good pages. If someone has fallen here, and never has been, to leave my blog immediately and go to them, which surely will like more. And it's an order!.
nothing else, I say goodbye.
to another!

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A grandfather Snowflake

A Friday again the world of paleoanthropology strikes again with an amazing find.
barely been two weeks of the "Florida" shock of women dwarf Indonesia, Meike Köhler, Salvador Moya-Sola and other scientists at the Institute Crusafont Miquel de Sabadell, announced in Science that during construction of a road in the Catalan town of Pierola Hostalets were found in 2002 the fossil remains of an anthropoid ape about 13 million years old.
The fossil is in exceptional condition, and has a face evocative, perfectly conservado.Pero in this case, the wonderful thing is not only its excellent state of preservation, but also their age: the fossil is from the middle Miocene, a period that, to get an idea has been called on other occasions " black hole "of human evolution. This allows us to imagine and the importance of the find.
is an extraordinary discovery: a well-preserved skeleton, very complete, an adult male weighing about 35 kilos and 1.20 m in height. Is assigned to a new species, which has been named as Pierolapithecus catalanicus , and as usual in paleoanthropology, the specimen was familiarly dubbed as "Pau".
seems, according to the discoverers, it is "a kind mosaic that shows the evolutionary transition between the typical way to move the monkeys (as macaques, baboons, ...) and brachiation (hanging from the trees as do orangutans), the schema that fits the anatomy of apes. The anatomy of the chest body Pau is adapted to climbing trees and half upright posture of great apes (gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans and humans), although the architecture of the wrist would not allow them suspended from the trees, as do orangutans . This suggests, again according to the authors, the different features of the body of the Apes emerged separately, not once.
Its discoverers put it at the crossroads between men, gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans, and speculated that its origin is African, and that it had spread to Europe through the Middle East.
In my humble opinion, it is still early to say exhaustively.
What is undeniable is the significance of the finding, as several researchers have pointed out very reputable, and Pilbeam or Begun.
regards as Pau lived: it seems that living in a lush forest, along with elephants, rhinoceroses, and several species of reptiles. Come on, a very different road from which fu removed.

Also these days, the thread of the theme of human evolution, in "Nature" has been published a work which is put forward the idea that the anatomy of the genus Homo developed as an adaptation to long-distance race.

Anyway, that's it for now. On Friday we are spoiled. To know that is what we are reserving paleoanthropology for the next ...

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Giving the knife edge ... Occam

Occam and his razor

Swiss mid-fourteenth century, a theologian and philosopher, William of Occam, formulated what could be call a principle, a principle of thought, which has passed into history of philosophy of science. It's called the "principle of economy of thought" or "principle of parsimony" or more commonly, "Ockham's razor." In its original formulation, this rule says "entia non sunt sine multiplicands necesitate" that those who know Latin, which translates as saying that "entities should not be multiplied if necessary."
has also been reformulated many times as "the simplest explanation is always the best" or "reasoning involving fewer steps are the most effective." How to define simplicity can be controversial, I believe that the intentions of this article, the most appropriate formulation is the original.
A simple idea is this principle, but it has and has had enormous implications. Actually, there is neither a beginning nor a scientific law, but it is a powerful tool, which guides the thought process can produce fruitful results. Under this principle, if we have 2 scientific models to explain a phenomenon, one that is more "simple" is worthy of further consideration. In fact, this is not true. As the scientific method requires, must be the experimental verification, the empirical verification, which must decide between the 2 models. But in many cases, the complexity of the phenomenon to be studied effectively prevents empirical testing, or the same experimental evidence can not decide between the different models.
is then shown the sharp knife to cut the cake ideas.
Throughout the history of science we have many examples in which the knife of Occam has made an appearance (often without the scientists had noticed it.)
The absence of the forces of inertia, the principle of special relativity proposed by Einstein, which led to the banishment of the idea of \u200b\u200bether, the unification of the concept of wave electromagnetic and the concept of particle in cuantón, in quantum mechanics, ... All are examples of moments in the history of science in which the knife has appeared doomed to prick.
When studies of evolutionary relationships between different groups of organisms using biochemical (as was done with modern man, using mitochondrial DNA) are produced phylogenetic trees (those graphs that relate to different groups) is the parsimony principle that governs the choice of the most significant trees. And is that among all possible paths, the evolution always chooses the shortest. Even
up science crystals we see the influence of the knife: the principle of economy applied to the crystal chemistry tells us that the number of constituent parts (atoms, bonds, ...) in a crystal tends to be minimal. The crystal structures tend to be simple and orderly.

There is a development of very sophisticated tool, prepared according to the theory of information. Step to try to explain. In science, the aim is to establish correlations between the phenomena observed (in the laboratory, in nature, ...) in order to develop a generalization that allows us to explain that fact that we observed, and at the same time, predict new ones.
however, agree with this, there may be many theories to explain the same.
The idea of \u200b\u200btheory is equivalent to that in information theory called "algorithm (an algorithm is a set of rules that allow us to solve a problem with a finite number of" steps "). Moreover, the amount of information of a message is measured in "bits" (a bit is the smallest unit of information, which contains the information necessary to decide between two alternatives, yes or no, 0 or 1 -). An algorithm will be more useful, the smaller number of bits it contains. This, applied science has come to mean as follows: to explain a set of facts, the algorithm - the theory - the least amount of information it contains, will be most effective (explains the same with less content).
A simple analogy would be this: if scientific theories were computer programs, and we had 3 "programs" to explain the same, we are left with the occupying less space on our computer.
This could be, therefore, a more elaborate formulation, or closer to a formalization of the famous principle.

far we have seen the importance that may come to mean to take into account the parsimony when formulating a scientific theory. It is understood that the razor can be considered as a utility knife. Without doubt, Occam was the "MacGiver" of thought.

The knife and pseudo

In pseudoscience, often gives the impression that they forget that weapon of thought that is parsimony.
When it comes to ethereal beings, aliens, or entities alleged, we are multiplying the number of entities.
is inherent human curiosity and the desire to know more, but these two issues in a lot of times we play very dirty tricks.
When we see something strange or something that catches the eye, immediately turn to ask ourselves what is the cause that produces it. But often our ignorance of the process, or simply that we were not aware of the circumstances in which it occurred, or if we speak of empirical experience, which does not adequately delimiter conditions of experience, all this determines that we could succeed him find an explanation. This gap, this gap is filled by the imagination, and that's when we resort to fanciful explanations or scientific theories.
I'll try to give an example which I think is enlightening: suppose that we see in the night sky with a strange light, makes movements that are implausible. To many, the ignorance will bring to mind the subject of flying saucers and alien visitation, and there are people who come to defend vehemently. But think. If someone were to ask, are you absolutely sure, 100%, that you saw was not a star? Are you segurazo it is no meteorological phenomenon, the type of ball lightning or the "fire of the Andes"? Can you say categorically that we saw in the sky is not due to any known cause, but your ignorance prevents you from understand? Are you able to say that there is no artifact of human origin type plane? In short, you have scientific or technical knowledge sufficient and necessary to affirm in an exhaustive manner that you saw, has extraterrestrial origin?
I guess the answer that anyone would give this hypothetical interlocutor is the same: no, I can not say one hundred percent.
is this gap, this gap in our knowledge, this gap which has to take the principle of Occam, beyond any belief or pseudo-scientific statement. In this example, we see the prince, who in his original formulation tells us that we should not multiply the number of bodies if necessary, is revealed in all its grandeur and portentous conceptual power.
The conservative explanation, really the only valid, though perhaps the least satisfactory, following our example, it states that would not know is that light. On the contrary, any theory that the light has its origin in extraterrestrial artifacts would violate the principle of economy, multiplying the number of entities.
This occurs at all levels, from ordinary life to scientific theories.
In our daily lives, very often we find events that raises concern us. Sometimes we seem to see that objects are not where we left, we see strange shadows Sometimes we come across strange coincidences ... There are things we all have passed, but ultimately reveal our ignorance, not only of a scientific or explanatory, but our ignorance of the facts themselves. Or perhaps we can certainly describe the circumstances in which we held that aroused curiosity? Can we say, for example, on air, if anyone else ...?
often happens that these facts are surprising to us because, in part, happen without us knowing it, immediately, without notice. This feature and prevents us from being able to specify the conditions of that time, we can not nor deny anything for sure, and this vagueness is the source of our confusion arises. This is where Occam tells us that we must be careful that we not increase the number of entities, using explanations with no basis, and for which we have only afimación as proof of our experience (engaging in circular reasoning.)

Whiting devouring its tail

A level of "grand theories" pseudoscientific, Occam has leeway to inflict fatal stab with his knife.
And that is the essential feature of these theories is, so to speak, the number of entities increase exponentially.
If we make a logical level analysis of these theories see acting as the medieval scholastic philosophers called a "begging." This with less arrogance, in circular reasoning.
to see if I present my ideas in a clear way.
Suppose we observe a curious phenomenon, apparently inexplicable. Scholars of the pseudo quickly propose a dramatic explanation.
But if we ask that evidence presented in favor of this explanation, we realize that these are reduced essentially to explain the phenomenon since the beginning of the chain. That is, we are including in order to explain in the explanation.
is seen more clearly in dialogue form:
- What do you explain?
-
The paranormal phenomenon - what explanation you give?
-A
paranormal explanation - What tests to show that explanation?
"The paranormal phenomenon from the beginning.

defined in the definition. Pseudo-scientific version of the poor dog, desperate chases his tail.
This form of reasoning is not valid formally speaking. It is a form of reasoning inconsistent from a logical standpoint, and as such should not be considered in science nor in any system of thought lovers. To be worthy of being taken into care, the explanation we give to the phenomenon has to have additional independent verification of the event under study.
We will proceed to discuss a few specific cases.
Let's start has been been called phenomenon of "Bélmez faces." In the 70
in an Andalusian town house Bélmez de la Moraleda, began to emerge on the wall stains, stains that had apparently shaped faces. The explanation given from the realm of the paranormal was that these faces were produced by entities called "beyond", manifested in this way.
I will move on to analyze the thought process followed in these theories. First, note that I will not discuss the veracity of the premises, ie I will not comment on whether the faces are or are not such expensive, as it would to great length and exceeds the goals I I have raised in this article.
part of a sentence: we have a face-shaped spots on the wall of the house, and apparently did not respond to anything known. What explanation do we give? The faces are manifestations of disembodied. What evidence or clues were provided in favor of this theory? The very expensive, and savings of EVP. Which to explain the resort faces to faces, is a perfect example of circular reasoning, and reveals the weakness of this reasoning.
the EVP testing requires a little explanation. The EVP is a matter, at least, very controversial. If starting as an argument for a theory employ weak and controversial evidence, the conclusions they draw are therefore weak and controversial at par.
Many times since the area is said to be skeptical explanations require arguments amazing just amazing. We can not support a hypothesis spectacular weak evidence, for then the consistency will be as weak as test. Resort to a very good example: in a room is 3 people, and is killed. Would it make sense that the trial is offered as evidence the testimony of one blaming the other?
something similar happens here.

Another case might be to discuss UFOs (understood as all the phenomenology related to the ET hypothesis). From the UFO cases are often reported, it seems, of phenomena in the sky difficult to explain. Let's follow the same steps as before. What explanation do we give? Artifacts are piloted by extraterrestrials. What evidence do we have to say this? The lights of heaven. Whiting that
biting its tail, obvious.

The same is happening in these two cases, it happens in our daily lives, when we witness things that we can not explain. Quickly, because we are constantly seeing on television and radio, or because we heard similar testimonies from people you know, we use explanations of the same nature as the previous.
is important not to get carried away, and we are able to realize how wrong we are when we proceed in this way. I have tried to say that this way of thinking represents a logical fallacy, and that such reasoning must be avoided in any form of knowledge.
The critical spirit the method and the economy of thought must not be forgotten in such cases.

EPILOGUE: Curiosity and its collateral damage

is well worth the curious at what surrounds us, and wanting to find an explanation for everything we observe. That ennobles our character and makes us human. But this insatiable desire to want to see more can not blind us and lead us into logical traps, or get carried away with inconsistent ideas formulated by others, which are very ornate and attractive result. It is better to acknowledge ignorance, or having to give an explanation, even if it represents a dissatisfaction that use amazing explanations devoid of method or formal structure, the only thing where we are, is our worst perception of natural events.

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Does anyone care?

last few days has jumped to light the issue of war looming in Ivory Coast.
It reminds us that there is a continent called Africa.

AFRICA, THE FORGOTTEN CONTINENT

In Africa, you can admire beautiful landscapes huge: from the majestic landscapes of the Sahara desert and the Kalahari, the South African coast, through the jungles of central African.
This variety of landscapes is home to an equivalent variety of wildlife and people.
In the lands of this continent saw its origin the human race and the modern man, we are all children of Africa. If the words of the biblical account, God created man from clay, this clay was clay Africa.
However, some children are very ungrateful, we have abandoned the land we were born, and quickly we have forgotten.
lie, we have forgotten its people, but we remember much of their wealth.
Much of the rivalry between ethnic groups in the continent, are promoting in the majors who want to exploit natural resources. There are many examples
. The most famous is perhaps that of coltan. Coltan is short for tall column-tantalite, two minerals that form a series of solid solution (alloy), from which niobium and tantalum are extracted, very tasty chemicals in the telecommunications industry for its microelectronics applications. Since the batteries of mobile devices, to the International Space Station, through missiles, PDAs, computers, ... need these valuable components.
The large deposits of Australia and Brazil where he got these two elements have been exhausted, and today, 80% of world reserves of these two resources are located in the area of \u200b\u200bCongo. Will happen conflicts of this region, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, ... that have already claimed millions of innocent victims? Rhetorical question.
This wealth has prompted a number of multinational consortia that promote ethnic conflicts in these areas, in order to ensure control over large areas to meet their demands for coltan. After the fratricidal war, is disguised war between multinationals. That does not prevail any international law or even logic or morality. Only the nonsense, inhumanity, greed, and money seem to be right to roam. While in the West play the machines, millions of innocent victims, refugees, children ... do not look or even have the right to live. Not only is
Congo, if not all of Africa, in Sierra Leone and Angola, are conflict diamonds, valued in jewelry and laser technology, the real reason for the deaths of millions of person. In Sudan, Darfún region, the situation is so extreme, that after ethnic cleansing and slaughter, after the war of religions, lies in fact it is very regrettable, the struggle for water.
This year much of Africa has been devastated by locusts and drought, which has destroyed cereal crops that sustain. Pests that here could be reduced with little money, there have devastating effects, with no country of the North has moved a finger to help.
It is a continent plagued by AIDS. But AIDS in the West. AIDS in Africa is another. And while this, in South Africa to impose constraints that can not provide affordable drugs to its population, it is to prevent local companies to manufacture and distribute generic drugs at low cost. This promoted by large pharmaceutical companies, who are not willing to cede one iota of their pretensions and their despotic rule, even when it represents the loss of human life.
New diseases arise, not in the West come to be aware of them; diseases such as Buruli ulcer, which are being charged and millions of lives. Other well-known diseases such as cholera, dysentery, tuberculosis, continue to wreak havoc ....
All this leads to the devastating conclusion that Africa, unfortunately, no one cares.

Meanwhile, in the West using our computers, sending messages to cell phone, or watching on television the latest news from the tabloids. But this misunderstanding will end up costing us dearly. We can not live a long time a house, locked in our room without being bothered by the noise from the next room. We are doomed, for better or worse, to be confined in this little pale blue dot in the solar system, whether we are African or European. We are part of the same crew going aboard the same boat. The Port waterways, equally affect those of us on starboard. Someday, when climate change brings the tropical conditions at higher latitudes, we affect diseases that affect them. They know no borders. Someday, the African people will get tired, and obviously will rise.

But until that comes, today in Africa are dying of AIDS, wars, what is more sad, hunger and thirst. Meanwhile, the West remains oblivious. West looks away as if it did not go with him, that if not before putting weapons.

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The man who spoke on behalf of the Earth * Just an illusion

In my daily journey through the Internet, in my usual visit to the excellent blog of "Luis Alfonso Gámez" I remembered something I had heard several days ago an article of Javier Armentia: today, Carl Sagan, would have turned 70 years old, born prematurely did not tell leukemia 8 years ago.
On this day 70 years ago saw the light a singular figure, Carl Sagan.
Excellent communicator, had it not been for their active dissemination of science, probably would not have marked both. Many critics have said the figure was a scientist just mediocre. Great mistake.
A personality like his, which he displayed a prodigious scholarship, could not be a bad scientist. Sagan
be considered, with permission of Eugene Shoemaker, a parent of what is now known as planetary science. Committed to the scientific exploration of space from the very beginning of the space race, driving the Mars program, a student of the climate of Venus, the first to propose with Mullen a solution to the paradox of the cold sun, president of the Planetology Section of the American Geofísca Union ... all are reason enough to be considered a notable scientist. As part of the reason may have its detractors, is that based solely on its merits as a scientist, probably would not have reached significance reached.
But is that what Sagan did for science beyond their field of study, overshadows all the above and any work done by other scientists for many years. And is that Sagan was, first and foremost a communicator.
Buried in his idea of \u200b\u200bbringing science to the general public achieved something that very few scientists were able to: break through the barriers of science to become a social icon of his era, the Space Age. His thin body, his broad smile and carefree air became the stereotype of science for those born under the sign of the great exploits space, carving his name in golden letters in the collective memory of generations of a society, whose welfare rests in part on the technological achievements made in the insistent search beyond our Earth. In life
criticized by many, admired by many after his death enshrined and remembered with nostalgia and melancholy of all, this is a dignity only attainable for geniuses into its own.
Criticized by some because their deeds were too simple, very simplified, because it contained no complicated theories, because when talking about controversial subjects exposed only the prevailing theory, ignoring alternatives ... You're right. But you speak so clear because it has no real concept of what is popular science. His books were not intended for scientific audience, because they do not need training. His books were intended for the man in the street, the street person. In all that vast majority of people who did not have enough scientific knowledge, and therefore, did not look good eye to the incomprehensible (in part due to the inability of scientists to connect to the layman) science, they were giving back to science, taking refuge in superstition, in the ideas disseminated by, he called, "manufacturers of paradoxes. "As he took care to remember, was that scientists debt owed to the taxpayer, whose money for the continuity of scientific research. In this sense, like all artists, Sagan's literary creation is the daughter of his time, but also, as in the great geniuses of literature, his works were capable of transcending the barriers of space and time, surviving, even today with virtually the same effect 30 years ago. His works exude the smell of known better, but do not use their superiority to humiliate, but to help others achieve their status. He did not write books about science with the aim of seeking notoriety, or to stand out on their colleagues, but to bring science to a society that depended on it but, paradoxically, regarded her with suspicion.
His rhetoric, his language, his ability to introduce the reader squarely in what he said and awakening passion for science, its enviable eloquence, his overwhelming eclecticism, making it a unique artist with an ability to captivate've only never seen, sensed, in the work of two great geniuses of the disclosure, as were Isaac Asimov and Stephen Jay Gould.
of human formation, thus enjoyed a body of knowledge and a vision of his time hardly achievable by a scientist of the current science "ultraespecializada." He made science a way of understanding life, and spreading a contagious allegation of his ideas and attitude.
was a founding member of CSICOP, the first company skeptical world in which warfare, among others, Gould, Gardner and Asimov. And one of the problems that worried him most was the term they were getting into society as pseudoscientific and the lack of critical thinking in society. This concern gave us great jewels such as "Broca's Brain" or "The Demon-Haunted World." The explanations offered in the first of these books to the premonitory dream, or replication makes the wild theories of Velikovsky have no waste. He became a bastion of critical thinking, and the rejoinder of the skeptical movement figures like Von Daniken or Kolosimo.
Father "ideological" SETI, it is therefore not surprising that NASA would entrust to him the purpose of preparing a message to possible alien civilizations, to incorporate into the probe "Voyager", the first device human leave the Solar System. Founder of the Planetary Society, in the pages of the magazine of the organization held a discussion with the biologist Ernst Mayr about the appropriateness or otherwise of the SETI project, which came out triumphant and victorious with an admirable elegance. Say
Carl Sagan, is science talk in capital letters, and talk about his death, is talking about the death of a very important part of the thinking of the late twentieth century.
In short, Sagan's greatest achievement may not be his important work as a scientist, not even his enormous literary creation. Probably the most important have been all those hundreds, perhaps thousands, perhaps billions scientists, it is because children were amazed at the words so captivating that came from the mouth of this charismatic character.
Finally, as not believe I can express myself better than him, this humble disciple goes to one of his teachers: "The most exciting time, satisfying and stimulating to live is one in which we move from ignorance to knowledge of these fundamental issues , the time we begin to understand and finish marveling. In the 4000 million year history of life on our planet, within the 4 billion year history of the human family, there is one privileged generation that can experience this unique moment of transition: our "**
And this generation has been blessed with an exceptional writer. His name was Carl Sagan. -------------------------------------------------

------ * The idea of \u200b\u200bthe title is taken from Francisco Anguita, the title of the last chapter of the book "Chronicles of the Solar System, Ed Sirius.
** "Broca's Brain Carl Sagan, Ed Critica. Translated by D. Brgadà and J.

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today are becoming paranormal phenomena, in part, by everything that surrounds the phenomenon of Bélmez. I've decided to take advantage of this now, to make a few comments on a phenomenon that always caught my attention, the EVP. This exercise also helps me to put some order in my cluttered brain.
In this strange "demonstration" (the EVP, of course) I have always aroused curiosity 2 innocent details, but in my opinion are full of venom, as they reflect the enormous burden of subjectivity that surrounds the phenomenon: the first one , is that I always was curious what these so-called "voices" to be understood better when I communicated beforehand what was to be heard, the second of the facts is that not everyone who hears a sicofonía to agree on what it says, or even that not everyone can hear.
These two features are much more intriguing to me that the phenomenon itself, and in my opinion, put on the trail of what actually is. Therefore, they will be the cornerstone on which I will build this text. Ignoring
fraudulent cases, which are unfortunately many cases and "investigations" that EVP is not in bad faith, in my view suffer from a double fault: of form and substance. That is, they fail both in method and in concepts.
Then I'll explain that I intend to say with this by first highlighted the problems of method, then go on to ramble on about the lack of conceptual basis.

DISCOURSE ON THE METHOD

The method, or at least one of the methods that better provides for capturing EVP, basically consists in making use of a radio, which are disabled tuning systems for "track" in a high bandwidth, so use white noise as a support for obtaining the voices.
perhaps worth making a stop on the way, and recall some concepts that are interesting.
Noise is the result of overlapping a set of vibrations which are inconsistent with each other, and are concurrent with a useful signal. Has an amplitude and wavelength of irregular but constant frequency. The noises have different causes, and some may be external (fall or fluctuations in voltage, for example), while others may be internal, caused by the device itself (the thermal agitation of electrons, the noise due to resistance, ... .) This applied to sound, meaning that the noise is a superposition of sound vibrations are not harmonic with each other. White noise is a noise characterized by a spectrum in which all frequencies have the same energy density. Comes be something like a white light similar to the audible spectrum (as if made up of all the sounds in the audible band, all with the same "amount" of energy).
Well, this is the support that is used to capture EVP, these fluctuations represent white noise. To register, used a tape recorder whose microphone is placed near the radio speaker.
Here is a first failure of experimental sepsis: a microphone is used, which is a device designed to amplify sounds in a certain frequency. That is, a microphone can capture sounds that we hear and we did not go unnoticed.

Another drawback related to the above, is that when you leave the recorder running without any insulation, you can record sounds that need not necessarily correspond to the noise of the radio, which are allegedly in the EVP evidence. These two faults
method, apparently, some "psychics" more advanced, the correct in some cases, directly connecting the recorder to the radio, so only keep record of noise emitted by the radio, and in other cases, isolated external sound equipment through specially designed boxes.
But still, can not help that radio remains under the influence of waves Hertz, which can be captured by the radio giving the impression that we have captured an anomaly.
If the aim is a rigorous and methodical, the computer should be placed inside a Faraday cage (a hollow conductor, so that its interior is "protected" from the influence of any electric field external).

Moreover, the very design of experiences is incorrect. Not employ any control sample, when studying the EVP does not take any precautions to avoid prejudice, etc ... In science, when doing a study on something that may have preconceived ideas, are designed what is called blind studies, with samples (sample understood the purpose of study) to study, similar samples are introduced but we already know (what are called control samples) and labeled each with a key, so that the author of the study did not know if you are studying a sample of control, or conversely, the study sample. Thus, minimizing the influence of possible bias. This is how we proceed in the pharmaceutical industry to test the efficacy of new drugs in development, was designed to study the dating of the Shroud, etc ...
This is a necessary step if you are looking for objectivity, and however, not carried out when studying EVP.

also draws attention to how to study. Is a person in charge of hearing the recordings, and try to find something "abnormal." And this is subjective in the highest degree. To be precise, which would have to study the spectrum of sound recording, looking for any abnormalities, not relying on the ear of "researcher."
On the other hand, if what is done is that when you find something "abnormal" is "cleaned" of noise to be heard better, and so in successive steps until we have a clean sound, we'll be getting an artificial sound, previously did not exist. We will "make up" a fluctuation in the noise to find what you wanted to find from the beginning. With a kind of "natural selection noise," we will have created a sound.
Another part would be how they report the results of a "study" on EVP. As the sad and ludicrous manner in which this would be for for a long paragraph, I've missed.
far I have explained why I believe that EVP research is wrong in the method. It might be objected, however, that it may simply be a problem of poor experimental design, but the phenomenon itself is real.
Well, that's what we discuss next. In the following paragraphs I will try to explain why I think the study of EVP suffers from an underlying problem, a failure of concepts.

TREE TO THE RADIO

time ago, ElPez (ciberseudónimo Javier Armentia) published an excellent article on his blog "By mouth dies the fish" commented where an event called "pareidolia ". The pareidolia implies that stimuli are perceived poorly organized, very clear, leading to an illusion. This pairedolia is what allows us, for example, recognize shapes in the clouds or the mountains.
And given the fact that our senses, and in particular, our eyes are not perfect.
In psychology of perception has long been known that our brain does not like the images completely chaotic or disorganized. Thus stimuli that are near, the brain tends to group them as a group perceived as a continuing stimulus to have a certain similarity. This will generate visual illusions, perceptions created by our brain.
These illusions are engendered in both the physical part of our sensory devices, as in the abstract. It is a problem both hardware (I referring to the sense organs: eyes, eardrums ...) and software (the brain),
A good example of illusion created by the very nature of the eye is this: let's get a picture of a face, and let's move quickly from left to right, giving the impression of drawing the eyes are moving. This illusion occurs because the retina retains the visual impression of the images for a short space of time.
Examples of optical illusions created by the brain, is as follows. Read the following sentence
up:
THE BOOK OF THE JUNGLE



Probably many people have said "The Jungle Book" omitting the second "the."
In a recent issue of the journal "Research and Science" published an interesting paper appeared on geometrical illusions ("Geometric Illusions" by Jacques Ninio). That article described many of geometric illusions, and the author commented that after the visual perception, hide fine principles of brain processes of perception, and explain these optical illusions.

Well, the same with the vision, applies to other senses. Our bodies
the senses have filters that allow us to select the information that comes to the brain while the brain has its own filters to "modify" the information so that it is comprehensible to us. This leads to a better understanding of what surrounds us, but the price we pay is that occasionally have to experience sensory illusions and paradoxes. In his book

Amalur, the eclectic Juan Luis Arsuaga and Ignacio Martinez, commenting on a study by the Center for Evolutionary Psychology at the University of California, which stated that the first 3 things that our brain tries to determine the observing a new face are age, gender and ethnicity. That is, when our brains see a new face trying to figure out you see. This also reminds me of a recent study (which I can not remember where I read it) saying that after 5 minutes, I think it was, to see for 1 st time to a person of the opposite sex, our brains already know what kind of relationship we establish with it.

words, our sensory instruments are bias and have filters, and establish hierarchies in information processing.
And that man is an animal, and we have not enough time detached from the influence of nature, as we have canceled all our evolutionary history. STILL
our sense organs are instruments necessary for our survival, to help us to process information from abroad, have been under the influence of natural selection.
The human being is a primate, and primates are primarily social animals, social animals. Man is a social animal ("a single human being is a human being"), and therefore our whole body will be molded to the development under this social nature.
order to develop an active life in a group, the primates have developed strong systems of communication between individuals within a group. Communication among primates is mainly based two types of stimuli: verbal communications (voice), and gestures of the face (much of the communication among primates is based on the interpretation of facial gestures).
To the extent that it depended on the survival, evolution will have made our eyes and our ears have been developed for better refinement in the uptake of these stimuli.
primate's life takes place in the jungle, the jungle is full of noises, bird songs, noises from the trees to move ... To overcome this problem, the evolution of primates has provided a sense of ear, that among all the background noise and annoying, is "trained" to "crawl" the sounds made by their peers. The ear is like an antenna, which captures all the signals that arrive, but the filters, keeping only what interests you: who are the messages sent by a peer group. As we heard him come all the sounds that fall in its frequency band, but the brain as a filter, it ignores the information that is not interested in (the sound of wind, a bird singing in the branches that are stepping, ...) and gets the information that really matters (a fellow carado announcing a fruit tree, is warning that a predator, ...).
Roughly speaking, our brain has very clear ideas from the start: he seeks voices, nothing else will matter.
It's like the lions, that among all the songs of the herd, the mother is able to recognize who belongs to her offspring and calculate distances and go to where the puppy.
With humans the same thing happens. The vowels i, Uya are universal voice, that are present in all languages. They are the sounds that best distinguishes the human being, and the facility to listen is what allows us to be able to hold conversations in environments full of noise, or that we can know that two people talking in another language are talking, even when do not know that language.
With the theme of the hearing goes something like this: our brains have been refined in the search for gestures on the faces, and our babies are born predisposed to recognize faces.

After all this, probably someone already has made a wonder, and rightly so, what does all this with the EVP?

I hope you know me understand the answer.
When we record EVP, there are two conditions: firstly, we use an incoherent noise as a carrier, on the other, we prone to hearing voices.
When we spend some time listening to the noise, our brains, as we have seen not like disorganized stimuli, try to find something they're familiar. We have seen above that our brains are designed to discriminate the noise, looking for human voices, so try to find some fluctuation in the noise and assimilate with one voice. If we add a touch of suggestion, which we all, if we are going in advance predisposed to find a voice, all the "alarm systems" of our brain will "alert" searching for that, a voice.
If once you hear something that looks like a voice, to hear it again, this time we will hear better, but for pure preconditioning. This is repeated until finally we "cheat" and we have just heard very clearly a voice that is not present. If then we present that to someone else, but we tell you beforehand what needs to hear, after hearing it a few times, that person will not cost you hear the EVP.
to all this, we add also a process of cleaning the recording to remove noise and enhance the voice, in the end we will have created an EVP that there was or was not more than one oscillation in the noise.
This I explained to the EVP, also applies to cases of a virgin faces in everyday objects, or water stains with suspected facial shape that have announced few days ago in Bélmez.
Something that I find very striking is that the EVP phenomenon is readily available (anyone who proposes it, it seems, can get them), and that always capture EVP in the same language spoken by " research "that record. Why never capture EVP of dogs barking or birds, or EVP of prehistoric men?

Ultimately, I think after the EVP does not hide anything real, or at least, no reality beyond playing tricks on us sometimes our brain.

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Women should not be

This week we received a bombshell report from the world of paleoanthropology: the distant and unknown to many island of Flores in Indonesia, they found remains belonging to a new hominid species that inhabited the island will be about 18,000 years.
Before commenting on the findings, I will give brief reports on the island.

BEAUTIFUL ISLAND WITH UNKNOWN NAME

Flores Island is an island of Indonesia, part of the Sunda Archipelago, situated in the southern part of the Flores Sea.
With an area of \u200b\u200bsome 14000 square kilometers and a population estimated at around one million and a half inhabitants, the island of Flores is a natural paradise. Among its varied fauna include by popularity, the Komodo dragon.
The fact that it is an island and there has been no communication with the ground emerged from long ago (as opposed, for example, the next island of Java) has to develop a fauna.
is a volcanic island, with basalts and andesites, in which soil, its people (mostly of Malaysian origin) grow maize and tubers. It has a number of active volcanoes and earthquakes are not uncommon. The relief of plateaus, and the highest point is in the 2400 meters.
Shortage rain occurs frequently famines and disasters are not, unfortunately, absent. In 1992 an earthquake left 2000 dead. And this year, the alarms have jumped to arouse Egon stratovolcano located in the east of the island.
This makes me feel a bit cynical: the island has always been there, and we only noticed it when we did this discovery, forgetting that what matters are the problems of its inhabitants.

A BIT OF HISTORY ON FINDINGS ON THE ISLAND OF FLOWERS

Flores Island is located immediately to the right of the so-called Wallace Line.
In the second half of nineteenth century, Alfred Russel Wallace biogeographer (famous for being, along with Darwin, who first proposed the model of evolution by natural selection) established an imaginary line between Bali and Lombok, which separated the faunas of Asian origin and source Australian.
As between the islands to one side or another has always been water (to be deep, even in times of low sea level, have always been separated), has always argued that there was never any exchange of faunas naturally between the two margin. This statement was made, of course, extend to humans before the development of navigation (ie, about 50000 years).
However, 100 years later this vision for humans began to change. In 1968 Vehoeven
made the discovery of stone tools, dated around 750,000 years, associated with mastodon fossils on the island of Flores. Further
dating, refined this time to 850,000 years.
In 1998, in Nature, Morwood and colleagues turned to put the tools of the island to the fore.
The rough cut of the tools made many calling into question the anthropogenic nature of the stones. Interestingly

take a look at the oldest fossils in Southeast Asia, because they can be related to the current finding.
And there's also controversial.
To Carl Swisher, the "boy Modjokerto", discovered in Java in 1936 would be around 1.8 million years. However, subsequent authors have taken issue with this dating and do not take more than one million two hundred thousand years the occupation of the island of Java.
Anyway, it seems clear that Southeast Asia was already occupied a million years ago by residents of singular morphology: cranial capacity about 800 cc, cranial walls thick, bone in the neck flanges, protruding brows, the middle region of the face pointing outward, and no Chin.

"EXCLUSIVE" IN NATURE: a hominid OUT OF PLACE AND TIME

What we are announcing in Nature as indicated above, along with PeterBrown Michael Morwood of the University of Armidale (Australia) and Bert Roberts, Wollolong University (Australia) is this: the individual has found a hominid female, five feet tall with a brain volume of 380 cc, dated the stunning age of 18000 years ago, and what is even more curious, on the island of Flores and associated with stone tools that otherwise would have been assigned to Homo sapiens.
Come on, that the news has it all.
I know that giving of it is still early, and that so far as they send the royalties, there must be a distant and skeptical stance.
But the temptation is very strong, I can not ramble, and these speculations I will translate them into the next paragraphs (warning: they are nothing serious, it is a vagary):
- First, on the islands is common for evolutionary rates are high. In the islands, having more opportunities for newcomers, the trend may accelerate the effects of genetic drift is increasing, and so it is not surprising that new species arise.
Moreover, the islands offer a number of advantages (there large amounts of food and resources, and lack of predators and competitors), along with other disadvantages (risk of storms and other disasters, difficulties in avoiding the few predators, ...)
Thus, the evolution leads to strange things: when it is scarce a resource on an island, the smallness of size may be a good solution for better resource sharing among members of the population. This is common in mammals, and we have many examples: the pygmy elephants that were in many islands in prehistoric times, small monkeys Madagascar, ... There are even examples among the dinosaurs.
Sometimes the opposite happens and animals become "versions" increased: think of the giant tortoises of the Galapagos or the same Komodo dragon. However, this is not normal in high metabolic rate animals such as mammals, where the norm is usually decreasing in size.
What happens is that this fact has never been found in humans. Can be, and this is already my reflection, this discovery dissipate a bit more the differences between humans and other mammals.
- We know the peopling of Southeast Asia since at least a million years ago. And we have some evidence that the island of Flores was inhabited 800,000- years.
- To have only 18000 years, I am surprised that so far we have not had evidence of the existence of this species. I am surprised that, despite its "youth" had not been found before. That confirms to me on the assumption that Homo floresiensis is a unique endemism of the island

With this in mind, I can not speculate on the following idea: could it be that the first inhabitants of Java, managed to get by knowledge or by chance, the island of Flores, and that experience evolved relatively quickly, that would lead to these special forms? The small brain would be a strategy to reduce consumption energy, even when he held all neural connections.
I leave there my "contribution". It UNPOC early to tell, because there is still dimorphisms details as possible, or whether the issue is no exception, and learn more about this unique relative.
I'm surprised at the barrage of speculation that we have submitted this news, did not have enough time for some people to say that this finding strengthens the argument of those who think that the legends of Sasquatch, Big Foot and Yeti, are real . Anyway, everyone sees on the news what you want.
That is all.
A greeting.

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Edges of dust ... star?

I read in the press, that such a Korschinek Gustaf and other researchers at the Technical University of Munich, announced in the "Physical Review Letters, which have found evidence of a supernova explosion in Pacific sediments, south of Hawaii.
specifically say they found about 5000 meters deep layers dated to 2.8 million years, rich in iron-60 isotope to look "weird" on Earth, and that they believe came from the issuance of a supernova .
The anecdote of the story is that aim to relate this finding to the origin of man: this issue had led to increased cosmic rays that would have caused an increase in the temperature of the Earth (again according to these authors), resulting in the extension of the sheets which is apparent at this time to Africa.
So this sounds very nice. But in my opinion, it seems to me that they want to brew for a ride. With the aim of striking a story can do, which otherwise would not be much (people give a damn about the sediments, even iron-60 which have, or are very star within the world of geology sediments , lol), I relate to the origin of man always attractive, and we happen to have some stories a bit strange.
First, the rise in temperatures in Africa (and the resulting extension of the sheets) based on climate models suggested was a response to the early development of glaciers in the northern hemisphere. So the increase in global temperatures, nothing.
Moreover, the human race and had originated much earlier, and was bipedal humans before. Although I must admit that this point should read the original article, then comments that "this was the time when hominids came down from the trees" and the like, I see them almost certainly more characteristic of journalists who commented on news that scientists who have done the study.
Anyway, The study is interesting because it is of the first times that recognizes an astronomical event of its kind in the geologic record. With what I can not agree is with the ways that seek to sell. A custom (that of ambiguity, selling what it studies is not to make them more attractive to the media) that is quite common in science, often causing confusion and inappropriate comments.

Anyway, that's when we all come from a powder ... but no stars.