Tuesday, 17 November 2020

The Divided States of America?

Time for red America and blue America to part ways?

How to split the USA into two countries: Red and Blue

Progressive America would be half as big, but twice as populated as its conservative twin.

FRANK JACOBS

14 November, 2018

Image: Dicken Schrader

America's two political tribes have consolidated into 'red' and 'blue' nations, with seemingly irreconcilable differences.
Perhaps the best way to stop the infighting is to go for a divorce and give the two nations a country each
Based on the UN's partition plan for Israel/Palestine, this proposal provides territorial contiguity and sea access to both 'red' and 'blue' America

If more proof were needed that the U.S. is two nations in one, it was offered by the recent mid-term elections. Democrats swept the House, but Republicans managed to increase their Senate majority. There is less middle ground, and less appetite for compromise, than ever.

To oversimplify America's electoral divide: Democrats win votes in urban, coastal areas; Republicans gain seats in the rural middle of the country. Those opposing blocs have consolidated into 'red' and 'blue' states decades ago.

Occasionally, and often after tight-run presidential elections, that divide is translated into a cartographic meme that reflects the state of the nation.

Jesusland vs. the U.S. of Canada

Canada annexes the entire West Coast and borders Mexico.
Image: Strange Maps

In 2004, this cartoon saw the states that had voted for Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry join America's northern neighbor to form the United States of Canada. The states re-electing George W. Bush were dubbed Jesusland.

Trumpistan vs. Clintonesia

Trumpistan is a perforated continent, Clintonesia is a disjointed archipelago.
Image: The New York Times.

In 2016, these two maps disassembled the U.S. into Trumpistan, a vast, largely empty and severely punctuated land mass; and Clintonesia, a much smaller but more densely populated archipelago whose biggest bits of dry land were at the edges, with a huge, empty sea in the middle.

Soyland vs. the FSA

Following state borders, a line separates 'red' America (in the south) from the 'blue' half of the country.
Image: Jesse Kelly

Writing in The Federalist, Jesse Kelly in April this year likened America to a couple that can't stop fighting and should get a divorce. Literally. His proposal was to split the country into two new ones: a 'red' state and a 'blue' state.

On a map accompanying the article, he proposed a division of the U.S. into the People's Republic of Soyland and the Federalist States of America (no prizes for guessing Mr Kelly's politics).

It's a fairly crude map. For example, it includes Republican-leaning states such as Montana and the Dakotas in the 'blue' state for seemingly no other reason than to provide a corridor between the blue zones in the west and east of the country.

Mr Kelly admitted that his demarcational talents left some room for improvement: "We can and will draw the map and argue over it a million different ways for a million different reasons but draw it we must," he wrote. "I suspect the final draft would look similar (to mine)."

Partition, Palestine-style

A county-level division between red and blue, with contiguous territories for both.
Image: Dicken Schrader.

"No, this map won't do," comments reader Dicken Schrader. "It's too crude and would leave too many members of the 'blue' tribe in the 'red' nation, and too much 'red' in the 'blue' state."

Agreeing with the basic premise behind Mr Kelly's map but not with its crude execution, Mr Schrader took it upon himself to propose a better border between red and blue.

Analyzing election maps from the past 12 years, he devised his own map of America's two nations, "inspired by the original UN partition map for Israel and Palestine from 1947." Some notes on the map:

To avoid the distortions of gerrymandering, it is based on electoral majorities in counties, rather than electoral districts.
As with the UN partition plan for Israel/Palestine, all territories of both states are contiguous. There are no enclaves. Citizens of either state can travel around their nation without having to cross a border.
The intersections between both nations are placed at actual interstate overpasses, so both states have frictionless access to their own territory.
In order to avoid enclaves, some 'blue' islands had to be transferred to 'red', and some 'red' zones were granted to the 'blue' nation. "This exchange is fair to both sides, in terms of area and population".
Both nations have access to the East, West and Gulf Coasts, and each has a portion of Alaska.

Red vs. blue

Washington DC would remain part of 'blue' America, and its capital.
Image: Dicken Schrader

Some interesting stats on these two new nations:

Progressive America (blue)

Area: 1.44 million sq. mi (3.74 million km2), 38% of the total U.S.
Population: 210 million, 64.5% of the total U.S.
Pop. Density: 146 inhabitants/sq mi (56/km2), similar to Mexico
Capital: Washington DC
Ten Largest Cities: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Diego, San Jose, Jacksonville

Conservative America (red)

Area: 2.35 million sq. mi (6.08 million km2), 62% of the total
Population: 115.4 million, 35.5% of the total
Pop. Density: 49 inhabitants/sq mi (19/km2), similar to Sudan
Capital: Dallas
Ten Largest Cities: Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth, Charlotte, Nashville, Oklahoma City, Louisville, Kansas City, Omaha, Colorado Springs.

What about the nukes?

The partition would not create enclaves, but allow citizens of either nation frictionless access to the entire territory of their state.
Image: Dicken Schrader

'Blue' America would be roughly half the size of 'red' America but have almost double the population.

In terms of area, 'blue' America would be the 13th-largest country in the world, larger than Mexico but smaller than Saudi Arabia. 'Red' America would be the 6th-largest country in the world, larger than India but smaller than Australia.

In terms of population, 'blue' America would now be the 5th-most populous county in the world, with more population than Brazil but less than Indonesia. 'Red' America would be the 12th, with more population than Ethiopia but less than Japan.

For those who think this divorce would end the argument between both tribes, consider that both countries would still have to live next to each other. And then there's the question of the kids. Or, in Mr Schrader's translation to geopolitics: "Who gets the nukes?"

Many thanks to Mr Schrader for sending in this map.

Strange Maps #948

Got a strange map? Let me know at strangemaps@gmail.com.

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Saturday, 1 August 2020

Prophet of the new gods?

How Much of Today’s Anarchic Nihilism Can Be Laid at Darwin’s Feet?

David Klinghoffer

There’s a pervasive sense afoot that something has gone wrong, in a very serious way, in our culture. Just in 2020, problems that were of, let’s say, an outpatient nature in their gravity have gone to full-scale emergency — a cytokine storm of trouble, is one way of putting it. But why? I’ve watched the once-beautiful city where I live, Seattle, pummeled by violent protests, the police undermined by those above them in the government. The city watches endless chaos as the mob rampages, and no one in authority seems willing to stop it. Neighboring Portland is worse. Such things are happening across the country. It is anguishing.

What Is Going On?

We’ve seen things that were previously unheard of. A random example: as others have pointed out, you may have noticed from the videos of urban anarchy that it’s now women, not just young men, who are assaulting police officers and otherwise creating mayhem. It used to be that males had a monopoly on protest violence. Not anymore. What drives the astonishing anarchism, the nihilism of the young? What has drained the confidence of the adults, who should be the ones acting to assert order?

That there might be something unique, exalted, and worth defending about human lives, about our traditions of moral and spiritual belief, about institutions like marriage or the family or about property, about our freedom or our equal dignity, about our privileged place in the cosmos — all these ideas, once agreed on across the culture, are eroding, with a gathering speed, before our eyes.

A Powerful Myth that Shapes Us

Of course I’m not saying everything can be laid to Darwin’s feet. But see how much nihilism has been justified and advocated by some very smart and influential people in the name of evolutionary theory. This is not just a scientific theory of biological origins. It’s a powerful myth. That observation alone doesn’t make Darwinism false science. A myth could be true. It only means that Darwinism conveys a vision of reality that can’t help but shape us deep within. The malignancy of it has been building for more than a century and a half. Something wrong in the way Americans are shaped reached a critical threshold this year.

If you want to understand how that happened, because you want to know how it could be reversed, it’s not possible without considering the role of evolution advocacy, which begins in school and continues to bombard us into adulthood. Take three minutes and see if you agree with me.

Friday, 17 July 2020

The death of higher Ed.?

Mining red gold?

Wednesday, 8 July 2020

On the boundaries of evolution.

Mistakes Our Critics Make: Limits of Evolutionary Processes

Brian Miller

In previous articles, I demonstrated how substantial quantities of biological information cannot emerge through any natural process (see here and here), and I described how such information points to intelligent design. Now, I am addressing the mistakes typically made by critics who challenge these claims (see here, here, here, and here). See my post from Wednesday, here, on misapplying information theory; and yesterday, here, on misinterpreting research related to protein rarity.

Another very common error is to assume that evolutionary processes can generate large quantities of new information. Often evolutionists appeal to such mechanisms as gene duplication, lateral gene transfer, gene fusion, gene fission, and de novo origination. Unfortunately, no hard evidence exists that either these or any other mechanism can produce more than inconsequential amounts. In contrast, all experiments and all studies on the genetic variation in species demonstrate that natural processes either degrade information or only make trivial modifications to it, and arguments to the contrary consistently rely on circular reasoning (see here, here, here, and here).

Small Targets in an Immense Space

The fundamental challenge is that viable proteins and other biological structures represent fantastically small targets in an immense space of possibilities. And, no mechanism or search strategy can substantially increase the efficiency of finding a target above that of a random search. This conclusion has been proven by the No Free Lunch theorems and the research I described in my previous article (see here and here).

To fully appreciate the challenge, imagine taking the text of Macbeth and attempting to rearrange and duplicate sentences and randomly change letters until the first few sentences of the book Lord of the Flies appears. Generating such a large quantity of new information would be impossible by any undirected means. For the same reason, the chance of any novel protein evolving with a complexity comparable to or greater than β-lactamase is beyond remote.

Moreover, the evolution of many novel complex traits, such as echo location in whales, requires the modification or creation of numerous proteins, physical structures, and neural connections. Such a feat is only possible through intelligent design.

Monday, 29 June 2020

On the origin of information.

The Information Enigma: A Closer Look

Brian Miller

The first video in our Intelligent Design YouTube Festival, “The Information Enigma,” consolidates the research and writing of Stephen Meyer and Douglas Axe into a 21-minute video. The presentation demonstrates how the information present in life points unambiguously to intelligent design. This topic is central to intelligent design arguments and the ID research program. Here I will flesh out in greater detail the concept of biological information, and I will explain why significant quantities of it cannot be generated through natural processes.

A Primer on Information

A pioneer in the field of information theory was Claude Shannon^⁠ who connected the concept of information to the reduction in uncertainty and to probability. As an example, knowing the five-digit ZIP Code for an address eliminates uncertainty about a building’s location. And, the four-digit extension to the ZIP Code provides additional information that reduces the uncertainty even further. Conversely, randomly generating the correct five-digit ZIP Code corresponds to a probability of 1 in 100,000, while generating the correct nine-digit ZIP Code corresponds to a probability of 1 in a billion. The latter is much less probable, so the nine-digit code contains more information.

Shannon quantified the amount of information in a pattern in what he defined as the Shannon measure of information. In the simplest case, the quantity is proportional to the log of 1/p, where p is the probability of a pattern occurring by chance.^⁠ For the five-digit code, p would be 1/100,000, and 1/p would be 100,000. This measure can be thought of as the minimal number of answers to Yes-No questions that would be required to identify 1 out of N choices. To illustrate, imagine attempting to identify a pre-chosen famous actor out of eight possible people. If the answer to each question about the mystery individual eliminated half of the options, the correct answer could be determined with three questions. Therefore, learning the answer corresponds to acquiring 3 bits of information. Note that 2 to the power of 3 is 8, or conversely, log (base 2) of 8 is 3.

Information and Biology

Information theory has been applied to biology by such figures as Hubert Yockey. In this context, Shannon’s definition had to be modified to distinguish between arbitrary patterns and those that performed some function.^⁠ Shannon’s measure was modified to quantify “functional information.” The measure of functional information corresponds to the probability of a random pattern achieving some target goal. For instance, if 1 in 1024 amino acid sequences formed a structure that accelerated a specific reaction, the functional information associated with that sequence would equate to 10 bits since 10 Yes-No questions would have to be asked to select 1 entity out of 1024 possibilities.

Mathematically, 2 to the power of 10 is 1024, or log (base 2) of 1024 is 10. More advanced measures for functional information have been developed including algorithmic specified complexity and the more generalized canonical specified complexity. They follow the same basic logic. These measures help relate the information content of biological molecules and structures to their functional capacities.

Information and Proteins

The information content of a protein’s amino acid sequence directly relates to its ability to control chemical reactions or other processes. In general, the higher the information content, the higher the level of fine-grained control over outcomes and the greater the capacity for elaborate molecular manipulations. For amino acid sequences with higher information content are more specified, so they can fold into three-dimensional shapes of greater precision and complexity. In turn, the higher specificity requirement corresponds to proteins being more susceptible to mutations — a few amino acid changes will often completely disable them. Functional sequences are consequently less probable, which is another signature of greater information content. This connection between information, sequence rarity, and complexity of function has profound implications for Doug Axe’s protein research.

Axe demonstrated that the probability for a random amino acid sequence to fold into one section (domain) of a functional β-lactamase protein is far too small for it to ever occur by chance. Therefore, the information content is too great to originate through a random search. Yet β-lactamase performs the relatively simple task of breaking apart an antibiotic molecule. In contrast, many of the proteins required for the origin of life perform much more complex operations (see here, here, and here).

The same holds true for many proteins required in the construction of new groups of organisms (e.g., animal phyla). Therefore, these proteins’ information content must be even greater. So the probability of their originating through a random search is even smaller.

Information and Design

This conclusion is deeply problematic for evolutionary theory since no natural process can generate quantities of information substantially larger than what could result from a random search.

The limitation results from No Free Lunch theorems as demonstrated by the research of Robert J. Marks, Winston Ewert, and William Dembski (see here and here). It is further supported by theorems derived from research in computer science. For instance, computer scientist Leonid Levin demonstrated the “conservation of independence” in information-bearing systems. He stated the following:

The information I(x:y) has a remarkable invariance; it cannot be increased by random or deterministic (recursive) processing of x or y. This is natural, since if x contains no information about y then there is little hope to find out something about y by processing x. (Torturing an uninformed witness cannot give information about the crime!)

The conservation law simply means that the information, I(x:y), present in one system, x, coinciding with another, y, cannot increase through any natural process. A nearly identical conclusion comes from information theory in what is known as the data processing inequality. It states that the information content of a signal cannot be increased by any local physical operation.

In terms of evolution, the first system (the signal) could be a duplicated gene or a nonfunctional section of DNA freely mutating, and the second could be any functional protein sequence into which the gene/section could potentially evolve. The theorems mandate that a DNA sequence (x) could never appreciably increase in functional information, such as more greatly resembling a new enzyme (y). This constraint makes the evolution of most novel proteins entirely implausible.

In the video, Stephen Meyer 6explains how information points to intelligent design by the same logic used in the historical sciences. In addition, the information processing machinery of life demonstrates unmistakable evidence of foresight, coordination, and goal direction. And, these signatures unambiguously point to intelligent agency. The same arguments hold true to an even greater degree for the origin of life.

The only pressing question is to what extent critics can continue to allow their philosophical bias to override biological information’s clear design implications.

Primeval tech v. Darwin again.

Intricate, Optimized Designs in Insects Beg a Question

Evolution News | @DiscoveryCSC

The pesky housefly buzzing around your head as you reach for the swatter didn’t design its own aeronautical expertise. The ants trailing into your kitchen as you reach for the spray didn’t design their own navigational systems. And the brilliant butterfly you see in the garden as you reach for the camera didn’t design its own structural colors. Insects, the most numerous and diverse of all animal groups, frustrate people and arouse their admiration. We can’t eliminate them; we might as well understand them.

Bed of Nails

A daredevil lying down on a bed of nails doesn’t suffer harm, because the weight is distributed over a large number of nails spaced close together. Spreading them farther apart and making them bigger would definitely hurt! Some species of flying insects, like cicadas and dragonflies, use this strategy against bacteria. The photo above shows an unfortunate bacterium lying dead on the nano-nails of a biomimetic cicada wing, like a scene from a horror movie.

Interestingly, the nano-nails do not always split the bacteria open and make their innards fall out, scientists at the University of Bristol found (see also independent findings from the University of Illinois). Instead, they deform and penetrate the membrane, and also “inhibit bacterial cell division, and trigger production of reactive oxygen species and increased abundance of oxidative stress proteins.” In other words, they turn the microbe’s own stress signals against it, suspending the germ above the wing and preventing it from dividing. The scientists were able to mimic this behavior using titanium nanopillars, and found that it also combats biofilm formation.

Now we understand the mechanisms by which nanopillars damage bacteria, the next step is to apply this knowledge to the rational design and fabrication of nanopatterned surfaces with enhanced antimicrobial properties. [Emphasis added.]

See the open-access paper by Jenkins et al. in Nature Communications, “Antibacterial effects of nanopillar surfaces are mediated by cell impedance, penetration and induction of oxidative stress.” Killing bacteria structurally without antibiotics, sprays, or hand sanitizers would be a desirable strategy in many medical situations. It’s not likely a bacterium will develop resistance to this method of defense. The Bristol team believes it may also be possible for the pillars to discriminate between bacteria and stem cells, allowing therapeutic implants to work without infection.

Armored Butterflies

The paper-thin wings of butterflies don’t conjure up images of combat, but these delicate creatures face battles of their own: projectiles in the form of raindrops. To butterflies, raindrops are like cannonballs coming at them at 10 meters per second, threatening to shred their wings. What if a soldier could hold up a shield that instantly shatters an incoming missile into tiny pieces? That’s like what butterfly “armor” does to raindrops, researchers at Cornell University found. Scientists knew that wing scales are covered with microscopic bumps. In the Cornell Chronicle, Krishna Ramanujan describes what they saw in high-speed films of water droplets landing on the wing surface.

“[Getting hit with] raindrops is the most dangerous event for this kind of small animal,” he said, noting the relative weight of a raindrop hitting a butterfly wing would be analogous to a bowling ball falling from the sky on a human….
In analyzing the film, they found that when a drop hits the surface, it ripples and spreads. A nanoscale wax layer repels the water, while larger microscale bumps on the surface creates holes in the spreading raindrop.

The micro-bumps are like needles to a balloon. A shattered raindrop instantly spreads out, providing more than one benefit to the delicate insect.

This shattering action reduces the amount of time the drop is in contact with the surface, which limits momentum and lowers the impact force on a delicate wing or leaf. It also reduces heat transfer from a cold drop. This is important because the muscles of an insect wing, for example, need to be warm enough to fly.

It’s not hard to think of ways this kind of two-tiered structure could improve artificial armor both against rain and against impacts of other kinds. For the physics details, see the paper by Kim et al. in PNAS, “How a raindrop gets shattered on biological surfaces.” The authors note that bird feathers, insect wings, and plant spores all make use of this trick. Some fungi can use those raindrop ‘cannonballs’ to launch their spores out into the environment.

Fruit Fly Sensing

“Can you imagine looking for a destination without a GPS, visual landmarks, or even street signs?” So asks Drexel University about how fruit flies find food. Consider the hardware and software packed into these tiny insects that are hardly visible except in swarms. First, they have olfactory sensory neurons, as do most animals, both vertebrates and invertebrates. The data from those neurons must be translated into actions. Drexel researchers determined that the flies have a primary system and a backup system. They can use their internal compass for path integration, but they can also measure the effect of hard turns and velocity changes on signal quality.

Tracking fly movement in these zones, the team measured the interplay between orienting, non-orienting, and the ‘internal compass’ used by flies to get to their destination.
“This study shows how non-orienting movement can be an effective mechanism for finding resources when directional cues are absent,” said senior author Vikas Bhandawat, PhD, an associate professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems. “Non-orienting movements are also found in expert navigators, such as desert ants. Once they are near their home, they depend on these movements to get there. Using fruit flies, we are finally gaining ground on tracking these movements alongside other techniques used and how environments and information can alter them.”

Sea Skaters

One of the few insects that has made the open ocean its habitat is the “sea skater,” a type of water strider that walks on sea water and can even leap and somersault off the surface. Phys.org brings news from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, where researchers find sea skaters to be “a super source of inspiration” for improving water repellant materials. Contributing to the research were scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in Southern California.

A combination of waxy surface, small body size and shape in the legs and feet contribute to keeping these insects high and dry. When wet, they can leap high above the surface to shake off extra water droplets. The team had difficulty recording their movements in the lab; “We spent hours trying to capture their natural behaviors on film because they jump around a lot.”

The researchers used high-resolution imaging equipment, including electron microscopy and ultrafast videography, to study the insects’ varied body hairs, grooming behavior and movements as they evaded simulated rain drops and predators. The insect’s body is covered in hairs of different shapes, lengths and diameters, and it secretes a highly water-repellant waxy cocktail that it uses to groom itself.
“The tiniest hairs are shaped like golf clubs and are packed tightly to prevent water from entering between them. This hairy layer, if the insect is submerged accidentally, encases it in an air bubble, helping it to breathe and resurface quickly,” says co-author Lanna Cheng, from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.

Further investigation showed that only 5 percent of the leg touches the water surface, meaning that the bug is “practically hovering on air.” The scientists were also amazed at how fast it can jump.

“While taking off from the water surface, we observed H. germanus accelerate at around 400 m/s²,” says Thoroddsen. “Compare this with a cheetah or Usain Bolt, whose top accelerations taper off at 13 m/s² and 3 m/s², respectively. This extraordinary acceleration is due to the insect’s tiny size and the way it presses down on the water surface, rather like using a trampoline, to boost its jump.”

Studying the hairs, waxy coating, and body shape is giving scientists plenty of inspiration for designing “greener and low-cost technologies for reducing frictional drag and membrane fouling” in artificial water-repellant materials.

All the Buzz

That’s all the buzz for today. But consider the fact that none of these insects designed their own engineering marvels. They use them, but they did not invent them or “evolve” them. Bringing together the components of complex, integrated systems requires foresight and planning. Biological designs are supplied to organisms big and small by an intelligent cause, so that each being can flourish in its respective habitat, contributing to our rich and diverse biosphere.

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