Nature generates more data than the internet … for now

From PopSci.com (Sept. 22, 2023):

Is Earth primarily a planet of life, a world stewarded by the animals, plants, bacteria, and everything else that lives here? Or, is it a planet dominated by human creations? Certainly, we’ve reshaped our home in many ways—from pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to literally redrawing coastlines. But by one measure, biology wins without a contest.

In an opinion piece published in the journal Life on August 31, astronomers and astrobiologists estimated the amount of information transmitted by a massive class of organisms and technology for communication. Their results are clear: Earth’s biosphere churns out far more information than the internet has in its 30-year history. “This indicates that, for all the rapid progress achieved by humans, nature is still far more remarkable in terms of its complexity,” says Manasvi Lingam, an astrobiologist at the Florida Institute of Technology and one of the paper’s authors.

But that could change in the very near future. Lingam and his colleagues say that, if the internet keeps growing at its current voracious rate, it will eclipse the data that comes out of the biosphere in less than a century. This could help us hone our search for intelligent life on other planets by telling us what type of information we should seek.

To represent information from technology, the authors focused on the amount of data transferred through the internet, which far outweighs any other form of human communication. Each second, the internet carries about 40 terabytes of information. They then compared it to the volume of information flowing through Earth’s biosphere. We might not think of the natural world as a realm of big data, but living things have their own ways of communicating. “To my way of thought, one of the reasons—although not the only one—underpinning the complexity of the biosphere is the massive amount of information flow associated with it,” Lingam says.

Bird calls, whale song, and pheromones are all forms of communication, to be sure. But Lingam and his colleagues focused on the information that individual cells transmit—often in the form of molecules that other cells pick up and respond accordingly, such as producing particular proteins. The authors specifically focused on the 100 octillion single-celled prokaryotes that make up the majority of our planet’s biomass.

“That is fairly representative of most life on Earth,” says Andrew Rushby, an astrobiologist at Birkbeck, University of London, who was not an author of the paper. “Just a green slime clinging to the surface of the planet. With a couple of primates running around on it, occasionally.”

As all of Earth’s prokaryotes signal to each other, according to the authors’ estimate, they generate around a billion times as much data as our technology. But human progress is rapid: According to one estimate, the internet is growing by around 26 percent every year. Under the bold assumption that both these rates hold steady for decades to come, the authors stated its size will continue to balloon until it dwarfs the biosphere in around 90 years’ time, sometime in the early 22nd century.

What, then, does a world where we create more information than nature actually look like? It’s hard to predict for certain. The 2110s version of Earth may be as strange to us as the present Earth would seem to a person from the 1930s. That said, picture alien astronomers in another star system carefully monitoring our planet. Rather than glimpsing a planet teeming with natural life, their first impressions of Earth might be a torrent of digital data.

Now, picture the reverse. For decades, scientists and military experts have sought out signatures of extraterrestrials in whatever form it may take. Astronomers have traditionally focused on the energy that a civilization of intelligent life might use—but earlier this year, one group crunched the numbers to determine if aliens in a nearby star system could pick up the leakage from mobile phone towers. (The answer is probably not, at least with LTE networks and technology like today’s radio telescopes.)

On the flip side, we don’t totally have the observational capabilities to home in on extraterrestrial life yet. “I don’t think there’s any way that we could detect the kind of predictions and findings that [Lingam and his coauthors] have quantified here,” Rushby says. “How can we remotely determine this kind of information capacity, or this information transfer rate? We’re probably not at the stage where we could do that.”

But Rushby thinks the study is an interesting next step in a trend. Astrobiologists—certainly those searching for extraterrestrial life—are increasingly thinking about the types and volume of information that different forms of life carries. “There does seem to be this information ‘revolution,’” he says, “where we’re thinking about life in a slightly different way.” In the end, we might learn that there’s more harmony between the communication networks nature has built and computers. [source]

Interesting. I guess the data race is on.

Octopus punches fish in the head (just because it can)

From Live Science.com (Dec. 23, 2020):

Why do octopuses have eight arms? The better to punch fish with, new research reveals.

These brainy cephalopods sometimes team up with fish to find food; hunting collaboratively like this allows them to cover more area, and it increases their chances of catching prey. However, when big blue octopuses (Octopus cyanea), also known as day octopuses, are displeased with their fish partners, they demonstrate their ire by suddenly punching the fish in the head.

The octopus lashes out using "a swift, explosive motion with one arm," in an attack "which we refer to as punching," scientists wrote in a new study.

Temporary hunting alliances between octopuses and coral reef fish have been documented for decades and can involve multiple participants of various species, the study authors reported Dec. 18 in the journal Ecology.

Sometimes, fish and octopuses will work together for more than an hour, with different species scouting different locations. Octopuses pursue prey that dart around rocks and into tight spaces in the reef, while bottom-feeding fish such as the yellow-saddle goatfish (Parupeneus cyclostomus) scour the seafloor, and other fish species patrol the water column, according to the study.

But those collaborations don't always work out so well for the fish, the new study shows. Between 2018 and 2019, researchers observed eight incidents while diving in Eilat, Israel, and in El Quseir, Egypt, in which octopuses suddenly punched out their supposed partners.

"I laughed out loud, and almost choked on my own regulator," said lead study author Eduardo Sampaio, a Ph.D. student at the University of Lisbon and the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior. His later reactions were more subdued, "but I still marveled at it every time I saw it," he told Live Science in an email.

"The fish would get pushed to the edge of the group, or would actually leave the group. Sometimes after a while it would return, other times it would not return at all. The octopus would leave the fish alone after displacing it," he said. Though octopuses were previously known to throw defensive punches when attacked by damselfishes or while fighting over food, this is the first time their punching has been scientifically described and linked to collaborative hunting, Sampaio said in the email. [read more]

Maybe, the octopus was annoyed by the fish. Then again, maybe the octopus was just being mischievous. Who knows.

Study: 44 Percent of Dems OK With Violence to Stop Trump

From Newsmax.com (Sept. 27):

A quarter of American adults — including 44% of self-identified Democrats — say they support the use of force to prevent President Donald Trump from being president, according to a new survey's findings described by University of Chicago political scientist Robert Pape.

Pape is also warning that the 2026 midterm elections could produce a level of political violence not seen in the U.S. in decades — and, under a worst-case scenario, could become "the most violent election in American history."

"We haven't seen this level of violence, political violence, since the 1960s," Pape said in a recent interview.

Pape is director of the Chicago Project on Security and Threats, or CPOST, which has been tracking Americans' attitudes toward political violence since 2021.

CPOST conducts nationally representative surveys with NORC (National Opinion Research Center) at the University of Chicago.

Pape said his concern about November is heightened because several pressures are converging at once: deep partisan hostility, rapid demographic and social change, economic anxiety, and an electorate in which significant minorities tell pollsters that political force can be justified.

In his interview last week with podcaster Chris Williamson, Pape said his latest University of Chicago survey found that 25% of American adults supported using force to prevent Trump from being president, equivalent to about 65 million adults.

Among self-identified Democrats, Pape said the figure was 44%.

"This is a stunning number," he said. "This is not just another turn of the data."

Pape said broad support for political violence increases the likelihood of violence.

He said his team has tried to determine what respondents mean by "force" through focus groups and survey experiments.

Pape said that among respondents endorsing force against Trump, 55% associated it with lethal violence such as assassination, while others envisioned riot-style violence.

He said his surveys also found support for coercive force on the other side.

Pape said 16% of Americans supported Trump using the military to suppress Democrat protesters in his latest polling.

For Pape, however, Election Day itself is not necessarily the most dangerous moment. His greatest concern is the period beginning when votes are counted and extending through the seating of the winners in January.

"That's the real danger zone," he said.

The critical question, he said, is whether losing candidates and their supporters accept defeat or conclude the election was stolen.

Pape also points to additional economic stress.

Behind all of this is Pape's broader theory of "violent populism." He argues that social media amplifies political anger but does not create its underlying causes. [read more]

That percentage is way too high. ☹️ Should be closer to zero. Then again they and their collaborators in the artificial news say the President is Hitler. So, there is that.

Trump Praises Boeing Jet That Survived FlyDubai Attack

From Newsmax.com (Oct. 1):

President Donald Trump on Thursday commended Boeing for building a plane that withstood a dramatic midair incident on a flight headed to Israel.

Shortly after midnight, Trump praised the Boeing 737 MAX after the FlyDubai aircraft survived a violent cockpit altercation and a dramatic plunge before making an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.

"Congratulations to the GREAT Boeing Company for producing a plane, the 737 Max, that was able to withstand G Forces and Strain far beyond what it was designed and expected to do," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump called the incident an "amazing show of precise and powerful structural planning and design" and said Boeing deserved credit for the aircraft's "incredible 'genius!'"

He also congratulated Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg and the company's employees.

FlyDubai Flight FZ1073 was traveling Wednesday from Dubai to Tel Aviv with 174 people aboard when the co-pilot allegedly stabbed Capt. Smit Machchhar and tried to crash the aircraft, according to Israeli officials.

Most of those aboard were Israelis.

Flight-tracking data showed the Boeing 737 MAX 8 plunging thousands of feet during the emergency.

The aircraft reportedly sustained rudder damage and endured an exceptionally steep descent before control was restored.

Despite being seriously wounded, Machchhar reportedly managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew to confront the alleged attacker.

Passengers reportedly helped overpower the suspect, and other FlyDubai crew members aboard the aircraft ultimately took control and diverted the plane to Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the suspect, an Omani national, was detained in Saudi Arabia.

Netanyahu praised those who intervened, saying they prevented a major disaster.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz described the incident as an attempted terrorist attack, although authorities had not publicly established a motive.

The passengers later boarded a rescue flight to Israel, where Netanyahu welcomed them at Ben-Gurion Airport.

Machchhar, an Indian national, was hospitalized and reported in stable condition.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed him as a hero for continuing to protect those aboard despite his injuries.

FlyDubai has suspended flights to and from Israel while authorities investigate the incident.

The UAE's aviation regulator also opened an investigation into what it described as a security incident.

Trump's praise marked a high-profile endorsement of Boeing and its 737 MAX following years in which the aircraft manufacturer faced intense scrutiny over safety and quality control issues. [source]

Bravo to all those heroes who saved the plane from the terrorist. Prayers and thoughts go out to the pilot who got  attacked. A speedy recovery for him.

More on the story:

• Israel PM Hails Indian Pilot of Rerouted Flight for Averting Disaster
• Netanyahu says Flydubai attacker had 'Islamist radical indoctrination'
• Omani copilot’s social media ‘talks about killing Jews’; Israel will take part in probing him — official
• Flydubai hijacker researched airlines, planned killing pilot, crash into Tel Aviv skyscraper
• What If Those Passengers Had Stayed In Their Seats? [video]

Is DEI biblical?

From Ben Kissling on Christian Post.com (Feb. 2, 2024):

Christian academic institutions have fallen on hard times. I get it. I have three relatives/close friends who until recently worked at such institutions. Two of them were laid off. One because his entire college closed its doors for good. The other left her position in part due to the heavy workload she was being expected to handle.

So, I understand in a very personal way why the leaders of such institutions as the one I currently attend, Biola University, might decide it’s a bad time to pick a fight with a powerful state government over Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

When I was in high school, my church went through a split with my family on the losing side in the sense that we had to leave the church that I’d grown up in, a church whose building I literally helped build with my own two hands. For several years, our elders had decided to use volunteer labor to save money on our new building. My dad volunteered more hours on that thing than anybody but the pastor, and I spent a lot of 12 to sometimes 16-hour Saturdays helping him. Long story short, the elders and the pastor split, and the elders were faced with a choice of either taking the pastor to court over the by-laws or leaving the church. They chose to leave because of a single verse in the Bible which said we are not to take our fellow brothers in Christ to court. And just like that, everything we worked for and donated money towards for years was gone because of one verse.

What lessons do you think that taught me as a young believer? Maybe that our faith is worth sacrificing for. 

Is DEI compatible with Christianity? This is a different question than whether it violates some essential doctrine of the Christian faith. Not taking a brother to court is not an essential doctrine either, but I believe it is the right thing to do. The question is not “Can an individual be a Christian and also adhere to DEI?” The question is whether or not over time, adherence to the assumptions inherent in DEI will undermine Biola as an orthodox Christian institution. I believe the answer to the latter question is yes, and in the long run that is a far more serious question for Biola than the current financial situation.

There are some very basic, intuitive contradictions between DEI and Christianity, specifically Christian morality. Christianity is already inherently anti-racist, and as a Christian institution Biola does not need DEI. But it is worse than that, because DEI is not simply benign either. It is not simply an institutional program to combat racism. DEI is a moral system whose foundations are different than Christian morality, and as a result lead to different moral judgments than Christianity does. Once accepted by a Christian institution, DEI will replace the Christian morality of any institution which accepts its premises, which Biola has already done in March 2021 when President Corey instituted the Division of Diversity and Inclusion.

The key difference between DEI morality and Christian morality is simply that DEI flips the worldly, socio-economic standard upside down, while Christianity replaces it with an entirely different, other-worldly standard. In James 1:9-10, we see a clear example of the relation between Christian morality and socio-economic status: “Now the brother or sister of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position; but the rich person is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away” (NASB). At first glance, it might seem like James is reversing the socio-economic standard. After all, he says the poor are in a high position while the rich are in a low position, when presumably judgments according to a socio-economic standard would have the rich high and the poor low. But why would James say each one should glory in their respective positions if one is truly high and the other truly low? If the rich actually were in a low position, then they cannot glory in that position. They should rather be ashamed of their low position and seek a higher one! But that is not what James says for them to do. [read more]

DIE is based on Marxism. Marxism is atheistic. So, the answer is no. Good article.

The Chinese Cultural Revolution’s Witch-Hunts

In 1978, the sociologist Albert Bergesen wrote an essay titled “A Durkheimian Theory of ‘Witch-Hunts’ With the Chinese Cultural Revolution of 1966–1969 as an Example.” Bergesen used Durkheim to illuminate the madness that erupted in Beijing in May 1966, when Mao Zedong began warning about the rising threat of infiltration by pro-capitalist enemies. Zealous college students responded by forming the Red Guards to find and punish enemies of the revolution. Universities across the country were shut down for several years.

……..

Bergesen notes that there are three features common to most political witch hunts: they arise very quickly, they involve charges of crimes against the collective, and the offenses that lead to charges are often trivial or fabricated. Here’s how Bergesen puts it:

They arise quickly: “Witch-hunts seem to appear in dramatic outbursts; they are not a regular feature of social life. A community seems to suddenly find itself infested with all sorts of subversive elements which pose a threat to the collectivity as a whole.

……..

Crimes against the collective: “The various charges that appear during one of these witch-hunts involve accusations of crimes committed against the nation as a corporate whole. It is the whole of collective existence that is at stake; it is The Nation, The People, The Revolution, or The State which is being undermined and subverted.”

Charges are often trivial or fabricated: “These crimes and deviations seem to involve the most petty and insignificant behavioral acts which are somehow understood as crimes against the nation as a whole. In fact, one of the principal reasons we term these events ‘witch-hunts’ is that innocent people are so often involved and falsely accused.”

To Bergesen’s list we’ll add a fourth feature, which necessarily follows from the first three:

Fear of defending the accused: When a public accusation is made, many friends and bystanders know that the victim is innocent, but they are afraid to say anything. Anyone who comes to the defense of the accused is obstructing the enactment of a collective ritual. Siding with the accused is truly an offense against the group, and it will be treated as such. If passions and fears are intense enough, people will even testify against their friends and family members.

Source: The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure (2018) by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt.

The Chinese Revolution was truly evil. Then again all communism is.

Sheep binge on 600 pounds of pot: ‘They found green stuff to eat’

From NY Post.com (Sept. 25, 2023):

They’ve been very baaaad.

A flock of sheep near the town of Almyros in Thessaly, Greece broke into a greenhouse and devoured 600 pounds of medical cannabis, reported Newsweek.

The sheep were seeking refuge from flooding after the aftermath of Storm Daniel.

The storm hit parts of the central and eastern Mediterranean, leading to extreme flooding in Libya as well as Turney, Bulgaria, and Greece, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

In spite of the floodwaters, the sheep appeared to have found greener pastures. Although, the sheep were unable to pull the wool over their Shepard’s eyes. The Shepard said that after consuming Mary Jane, his sheep started exhibiting jumping higher than goats

The owner of the legal cannabis plant was dumbfounded by the event.

“I don’t know if it’s for laughing or crying. We have the heat; we lose a lot of production. We have the floods; we lose the rest. And the best: After all this, a herd of sheep, which I don’t know how to get back, entered the facility and started eating what was left,” he told TheNewspaper.gr.

“I don’t know what to say, honestly,” he added.

Farm owner Yannis Bourounis told a local radio producer: “They found green stuff to eat” and “jumping higher than goats, which never happens,” Newsweek reported.

Weed has been legal in Greece for medicinal purposes since 2017 and the country welcomed their first medical cannabis plant this year. While weed can have medicinal uses for humans, it’s dangerous for animals.

Cannabis poisoning among dogs is on the rise — especially in the US. There was an 11% percent uptick in cases last year and a 300% increase in the last five years, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Ever since pot dispensaries opened up in NYC, dogs have been poisoned after eating stoners’ stray joints and edibles. [source]

Jumping higher than goats? I bet. The rumors aren't true that afterwards the stoned sheep wandered into a Frito Lay factory.