Daimonie's Blog

Introduction These are the basics of Shiva's monologues. In October 2016, the Monsanto Tribunal, to hold Monsanto accountable for human rights violations, crimes against humanity and ecocide, takes place in The Hague. That sounds scary and official, doesn't it? The organic movement is organising a fake trial, set up deliberately so that people might take it seriously. For such weighty issues, it was announced early - more than a year before the event takes place. Even then, people got confused and needed to be explained that this was merely theatre .  Their victims of course genuinely care for the future of humanity and the planet we inhabit. There is a rumour that the 'Modern Revolutionary' and 'Brilliant Scientist' Vandana Shiva is only  asking for a first class flight and a 40 thousand speaking fee. A true bargain, and you can see how much she cares ( source ). The budget for the tribunal is 400 thousand euro  (source)  or 500 thousand euro  (s...

Introduction A while ago, I was alerted to an article by "four physicists" in a "scientific journal". Apparently, these authors had "shown" that the conspiracy is real. Behold: A European scientific study has concluded that on September 11, 2001, the Twin Towers were brought down by a controlled demolition. The study, conducted by four physicists and published in Europhysics Magazine, says that “the evidence points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that all three buildings were destroyed by controlled demolition.” (your news wire)  We discussed the article briefly, mostly dismissing it because it is not a scientific study , nor is it by four physicists, and its conclusions do not follow from the evidence. However, the conspiracy crowd seems real happy with it. The Credible Hulk, for instance, had several `truthers' all over his page ( here ). I decided that, as a physicist, it would perhaps be interesting to write a rebuke of this article. Now...

Introduction While reading my delightful new book - which I will name at the end - I realised how only a small part of people realises all implications of natural selection. It was Charles Darwin, in the Origin of species (By means of natural selection) that first postulated an explanation of evolution by a one mechanism of heritability and another of variability. We know both mechanisms; they are in our DNA. DNA is the mechanism of heritability, and copying errors and sexual reshuffling are the mechanism of variation. Not too long ago, breeding was invented. By this I do not mean merely the breeding of livestock, but the deliberate selection of offspring so as to produce some sort of phenotypical change. The result are the many 'races' of dogs and cats we are familiar with.  The first chapter of the Origin is `variation under domestication', and is essentially about breeding or artificial selection. From there, Charles Darwin leaps onto 'variation under Na...

Introduction A somewhat heated discussion started on the page Cats in Space Quoting Scientists . They had shared the image to the right, and someone had responded. She stated that this trend is further engendered by science becoming dogma. This is actually something that is said rather often, and fringe scientists are paraded around by antis for this reason.  In this particular case, some heated responses were made and she posted a video to back her up. That video being a TedX talk by Dr. Rupert Sheldrake, a former plant biologist that went into the realm of woo somewhere in the 1980s. He has since published parapsychology nonsense in some pay-to-play journals and as is common for woo-peddlers, he buffs up his credentials for people that do not double-check it. For the record, he hasn't published any peer-reviewed science nor does he hold a academic position, at all. The person that started the conversation asked that we address the ideas an evidence of Rupert Shel...