MonDie

It will take me a while to incorporate this new territory, but initial reading suggests relevance of oxytocin. Oxytocin increases both mentalizing and in-/out-group favoritism, both of which are correlates of religiosity. Sniffing around oxytocin: review and meta-analysis of trials in healthy and clinical groups with implications for pharmacotherapy (Bakermans-Kranenburg, Jzendoorn, 2013) Oxytocin promotes human ethnocentrism (Dreur, Gleer, Kleef, Shalvi, Handgraaf, 2011) Oxytocin has a mixed effect on hypnotizability and perhaps religiosity. So far I think it looks as though oxytocin increases hypnotizability only in certain tasks and perhaps only for low hypnotizable people. Oxytocin as a moderator of hypnotizability. (Bryant, Hung, Guastella, Mitchell, 2012) Oxytocin Enhances Social Persuasion during Hypnosis (Bryant, Hung, 2013) impedes hypnotizability sometimes Oxytocin impedes the effect of word-blindness post-hypnotic suggestion on Stroop task performance (Parris, Dienes, Bate, Gothhard, 2013) pro-religious Religion priming and an oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) polymorphism interact to affect self-control in a social context (Sasaki, Mojaverian, Kim, 2015) Anti-spritual in Japanese? An association between belief in life after death and serum oxytocin in older people in rural Japan (Imamaura et al, 2017) Oxytocin also seems to be related to psychopathic traits. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24059811 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24059750 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25411990 Edited to add that, oxytocin being involved in bonding, sexual reproduction and childbirth, a connection to religiosity would also help to explain the relationship of religiosity to fecundity. Religiosity and Fertility in the United States: The Role of Fertility Intentions (Hayford, Morga, 2014) It's linked to autism too. This stuff just keeps coming.

It is far from comprehensive, but I just came across the Environmental Protection Agency's "Climate Leadership Awards". https://www.epa.gov/climateleadership/climate-leadership-awards New awards were given just this March. https://www.epa.gov/climateleadership/2017-climate-leadership-award-winners

I have a few reasons for wanting to know: to take pride in hard work; to know the company's culture, attitudes of superiors and recruiters. Regarding sustainability I could only find articles published on news sites that may be politically biased and/or paid off. I would prefer government data.

With nothing better to do, I investigated whether hypnotizability might be related to religiosity and/or mentalizing (theory of mind). There is a theory called the "Empathic Invovlement Theory of Hypnosis", but no link between empathy and hypnotizability has been established and, indeed, autistics may be equally hypnotizable to neurotypicals. Hypnosis Without Empathy? Perspectives from Autistic Spectrum Disorder and Stage Hypnosis (Reid, 2016) Instead I focused on a psychological trait called "absorption", which probably corresponds to the "fantasizer subtype" of the hypnotizable person, rather than the "dissociater subtype", but is probably related to dissociation regardless. I encountered something opposite to my expectations, finding that absorption may be related to higher openness and also to secondary psychopathic traits, which would imply an inverse relationship with religiosity. However, I found that absorption may be positively related to religiosity, but perhaps more specifically to new age spiritual beliefs. This is somewhat consistent with the mixed relationship of religiosity to openness and the stronger relationship of openness to "spirituality", which I posted about on Page 11. Hypnotizability and facets of openness. (Glisky, Kihlstrom, 1993) Validating Female Psychopathy Subtypes: Differences in Personality, Antisocial and Violent Behavior, Substance Abuse, Trauma, and Mental Health (Hicks, Vaidyanathan, Patrick 2011) Validation of the Narrative Emplotment Scale and its correlations with well-being and psychological adjustment (Hill, Terrell, Hladkyj, Nagoshi, 2009) Disorganized attachment, absorption, and new age spirituality: a mediational model.

I think people would form competing groups regardless. We have competition within groups and competition between groups, and we always will. Religion is an interesting case because we aren't competing over the pragmatic utility of a consumer product or government system, but the pragmatic utility, regardless of accuracy, of certain beliefs about the nature of reality. Perhaps it can be useful to look at religious beliefs this way, as valuing pragmatic utility over accuracy, but are the same beliefs that were useful one- or two-thousand years ago still useful today? Look at the conflict between creationism and environmentalism for example. I actually came in to post the chimapnzee research that I failed to link to earlier (the second, bottom hyperlink). They explain the hierarchical nature of personality, i.e. how you can analyze it at the level of two factors, three factors, five factors, etc. Chimpanzees might have a personality dimension called "dominance" that roughly corresponds to honesty-humility in human personality. Agreeableness fuses with Conscientiousness to form a three-factor dimension called disinhibition/constraint, which then combines with (most of) Neuroticism to form a two-factor dimension called "alpha". I pointed out that the "modesty" facet of Agreeableness, which corresponds to honesty-humility along with the straightforwardness facet, is also correlated and anti-correlated with Neuroticism and Extraversion, respectively. Parts of the following publication read to me as suggestions that the Chimpanzee "dominance" factor follows a similar pattern to honesty-humility, which seems consistent with the low honesty-humility Narcissists being frequently found in positions of leadership. Personality in Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): Exploring the Hierarchical Structure and Associations with the Vasopressin V1A Receptor Gene For a more general overview of the hierarchical structure of personality in both humans and chimps, see: The contribution of genetics and early rearing experiences to hierarchical personality dimensions in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) note: DIS=disinhibition, and NEM=negative emotionality which more or less corresponds to Neuroticism. I suppose the question then is why psychopaths, particularly impulsive, deviant psychopaths, tend to be less religious except perhaps when the emphasis is on these dishonest-arrogant (-dominant ???) traits, whether these differences were always present throughout the history of religion, and how they might have influenced religious teachings and institutions throughout history. It might be interesting to add that men tend to be less Agreeable, less Neurotic, and more Narcissistic.

Not only does suicide indicate a loss of life and life value, but it's probably economically relevant too. I've only had significant formal study of biological science, but I found the possibility interesting and decided to post some data here. I quickly gathered what information I could regarding the suicide rates of immigrants and also how family disruption (such as that due to deportations) might be conducive to suicide. As it turns out, Mexican immigrants do have higher suicide rates. Immigration and Suicidal Behavior Among Mexicans and Mexican Americans As the tables show, there is no difference in suicide attempts between Mexicans of families without an immigration history and "labor immigrants" who visit temporarily nor "Mexican-born future immigrants" who haven't migrated yet. However the rates are higher for migrants and relatives of migrants. Note that suicide attempts is a more objective, behavioral measure that is probably less susceptible to reporting bias than "suicidal ideation" or "suicide plan". Table 1: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2661474/table/tbl1/ Table 3: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2661474/table/tbl3/ Here is more data showing that Mexican-born immigrants and un-documented immigrants in the US tend to hold occupations that are associated with higher suicide risk. Figure: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/source_images_oldsite/mex_spotlight_graph2.gif Source: Mexican Immigrants in the U.S. Labor Force (MigrationPolicy.org) In summary: Data is from 2000. Farming forestry and fishing oocupations: Native (0.5%), Foreign born (2.0%), Foreign born from Mexico (6.5%) Construction, extraction, and maintenance occupations: Native (9.3%), Foreign born (10.4%), Foreign born from Mexico (18.9%) https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/majority-of-undocumented-immigrants-work-in-low-skill-jobs-report-finds/2015/03/26/dada9f2a-d3bc-11e4-a62f-ee745911a4ff_story.html?utm_term=.9dc941f0d75c Suicide Rates by Occupational Group - 17 States, 2012 (CDC report) Regarding suicide and family disruption, I was able to find this free-to-read publication, which gives an overview of findings in its introduction. Adult Suicide Mortality in the United States: Marital Status, Family Size, Socioeconomic Status, and Difference by Sex

Listening to folk singer Elliott Smith's "Either/Or" and "Rose Parade" caught my attention.

I just wanted to add links to these publications of which I have just read the extremely exciting abstracts. Psychopathy and the ability to read the "language of the eyes": Divergence in the psychopathy construct https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4282377/ "For Factor 1 psychopathic traits (interpersonal and affective), we found positive associations with discrimination of neutral mental states, but not with the positive or negative mental states. Factor 2 traits (antisocial lifestyle) were found to be negatively associated with discrimination of mental states." The Relationship Between Narcissistic Exploitativeness, Dispositional Empathy, and Emotion Recognition Abilities http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10919-013-0164-y "Across two studies we find that narcissistic exploitativeness is indeed associated with increased emotion recognition, but in some cases the confounding effects of mood need to be considered (Study 1)." In review, i.e. why this is so exciting to me, read on. Remember that the non-religious might have relatively unimpaired honesty-humility (A2 and A5) and that this trait is most impaired in the narcissist. Remember that the primary psychopath (the Factor 1 psychopath) is thought to be more similar to a narcissist while the secondary psychopath more similar to a borderline. As we can see in this final link, borderline is somewhat more common in people with Asperger's syndrome, but aspies might have similar or perhaps lower rates of antisocial or narcissistic personality. In some cases borderline patients have enhanced mind-reading abilities, but the etiology of this is still under investigation.

Shaming the guilty, or punishing the guilty? Punishment generally requires an objective, standardized trial system that relies on thorough, informed investigation with extensive oversight. Shaming as a punishment can subvert this system. One shames those who don't conform to one's own mores, often assuming that people with different mores simply lack moral concern altogether and thereby gratifying their own egos through a lack of critical self-examination. Shaming in the natural, anarchic setting only facilitates groupthink, deindividuation, and the preconception that things are always as they appear. Shaming inhibits free inquiry and progress toward the truth, and knowing the truth is necessary to knowing what is moral. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deindividuation#Classic_theories

Regarding the Christian God. Any god would likely be in contact with all human societies, and strict adherence to any particular religion over the others requires an either/or, all-or-nothing mode of thought that is likely to result in error. Pascal's wager doesn't work when you consider that you have the option to continue asking questions. In the absence of one overwhelmingly likely possibility, it is better not to conclude and to continue inquiring. The problem of evil. God must know right from wrong. On the other hand, I appear to be accessing some sort of subconscious or alternate-hemisphere thoughts, and maybe I'm grasping what women mean by "intuition". It is a peculiar thing that could be interpreted as evidence of a higher power since it does sometimes look like communication from another consciousness. Thus this experience has unsettled my atheistic attitudes somewhat.

The fetus probably doesn't feel pain until very late in the pregnancy. The secular argument is that there is a loss of a life that otherwise would have been. From a strictly utilitarian standpoint this is most basic argument against murder, that living is lost. However, even utilitarianism cannot explain why the moment of fertilization is relevant, and it seems more rational to consider that abortion involves lost time, lost labor, lost investment, etc.

Audioverbal hallucinations (AVH) are a very important criterion for diagnosing psychosis, which generally has a poor prognosis. However "attenuated psychotic symptoms" are useful in predicting who will go on to develop psychosis (as part of a psychotic disorder). This probably includes milder forms of "hearing voices" where there is a verbal component to it even though it is not perceived as external (i.e. not hallucinatory). Google: "prodrome to psychosis schizophrenia site:nih.gov" https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=prodome+to+psychosis+schizophrenia+site%3Anih.gov&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

It might prevent some abortions in cases where the female is uncertain she wants one, but late-term abortions would probably increase as access to such services becomes more difficult. It would probably prevent some abortion cases wherein the female is uncertain she wants one, but more and more abortions would be late-term abortions as access to services becomes more difficult, so late-term abortions could go up or down. For those seeking an intuitive, discrete marker for the beginning of life, the time of conception actually does have one equally appealing contender: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1377672/

I had this thought for the first time. If there are ways to induce abortion against the mother's will, it might be easier to get away with this under pro-life laws. Google https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=slipping+hte+morning+after+pill&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 She would be more reluctant to report it since she could be found guilty. She would be more likely to deny it whether she did it or not. Unorthodox methods would be more common without specialized clinics. /EDIT/ She might intentionally make it look like somebody else did it to get away with it.

Allegedly they're telling these organizations not to post to twitter, and it began (or was escalated) when the National Park Service posted photos of Obama's and Trump's inauguration audiences side by side to show the small audience. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jan/25/national-park-service-resistance-team-launches-ant/ http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/federal-agencies-trump-information-lockdown-234122 Unless I see somebody from these organizations saying that this is not happening, I would presume that it is.

I tried to refine the scenario and in the process I spotted some problems. I came up with a capitalist version. The criminal is restrained from committing further offenses while being used for profitable labor (whereas death penalty disposes of a potentially productive person). Thus it does reform the offender in a sense, by placing the prisoner in circumstances where offending is impossible. Whereas most workers can change jobs, the prisoners can only get out through suicide, and it is hoped that the right to painless suicide keeps it from becoming torture. The prison doesn't want to lose workers to suicide, and yet they must leave the option of painless suicide on the table. The overarching problem is that some people will refuse to commit suicide even under extreme duress, and it could become torture for these people if they are targeted with especially cruel treatment compared to the rest. Some such people might be religious people who fear damnation for the sin of killing oneself, and yet others may fear retribution after their death: not retribution against them but against their friends.

I'm wondering whether the death penalty adds anything unique to punishment / intervention. Punishments reduce the quality of one's life. With enough punishment life will be deprived of all its value, and it is at this point that death becomes desirable. At this point it will be punishment to prevent suicide. Hypothetically, if the prisoner's life were to lose all value under conditions of forced labor that are profitable enough to pay for the offender's own detainment, then what would the death penalty have over such a system? It is at least as punishing, it's nearly as restrictive in terms of preventing future offenses, it's at least as cheap, and it's superior in that it allows innocents to later be released. As barbaric as it may sound, we might be able to test the severity of the punishment with a suicide test. Release a prisoner by a cliff, and if he jumps then the regime has become too cruel.

This might be over simplified. There are the persistent traits of an individual that dispose to such conduct (i.e. personality traits), and then there are social circumstances that can make normally good people act out of character. This is the domain of social psychology: group behavior. However, whatever the quality of the person on trial, punishment still expresses disapproval and discouragement of the action taken. In that vein, it would be interesting to see how much homicidal behavior could be accounted for, or predicted by, measurable personality traits, or "abnormal personality" traits for that matter.

Indeed the meaning of "exist" is debated by philosophers. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/existence/ I know that I can only talk about things that I perceive, so it is my opinion that all meanings, including the meaning of "to exist", must hinge on the potential to perceive the effects of the thing "existing". The answer seems obvious at first. If the cat has the potential to exist, that is the cat has the potential to produce cat-like effects, then it still exists. Perhaps things become more complicated though when you consider that the cat might remain a cat or else become a pile of ash. Do the cat and the pile of ash both exist until the quantum mechanics resolve, or should we refer to the cat/ash potential differently?

In retrospect this post was ironic in a few ways, but only now do I finally respect the power of music.

I don't think this site is dangerous, but anyone with concerns should know about Ubuntu Live. Ubuntu and other Debian/Linux-based operating systems will run off a flashdrive, preferably USB 3.0 for speed. It should be quite easy since putting it onto the flashdrive is actually the first step to installing it. When booted from the flashdrive the operating system is read-only (unless you make it "persistent"), so no security threats should persist on the system unless they infect the flashdrive's firmware (highly unlikely). In fact you don't even need a working harddrive, and the only reason to use an adblocker would be to compensate for low bandwidth on a slow connection. If you can get Lubuntu on a falshdrive, it is designed to run on old computers with out-of-date hardware and limited RAM, which could make your primary system even more untouchable. P.S. Installing programs is a little more complicated in Live since you need to edit the sources file.

It might be somewhat off-topic except regarding the problem of criminals escaping prison, but I have been pondering some of the limitations of the standard punishment system that expresses severity of sentence as length of sentence. I think this system assumes that punishment is the only solution. The sentence should be intended to prevent future offenses, especially with offenders whose crimes can be predicted. Furthermore, it should be as effective as possible while only being as restrictive as we can justify per their offense. For example, in the case of a pedophile who commits a very mild offense but in doing so reveals his potential, this could involve tracking, libido reduction, et cetera. This would still be a life-sentence like the death penalty, but it could be cheaper and it lets us reverse false convictions. Come to think of it, this would make false convictions a near non-problem. Since the punishment is distributed over a longer period of time, less of the punishment will have occurred by the time innocence is discovered. It's actually the opposite of the death penalty in that way.

By the way I have no expertise in any science, and I've had no formal study in psychiatry. But my brain contains relevant information: Regarding the effectiveness of delaying psychosis in UHR individuals, it occurred to me that psychosis frequently has its onset in response to "psychosocial stressors". Perhaps low serotonin, which is to related to Neuroticism traits described by excessive worrying, makes people more susceptible to the effects of stress, and the stress in turn induces problems such as depression or psychosis onset. Another problem related to stress, PTSD, has a strong relationship to depression, so depression does appear to occur in response to stress. Furthermore, there does appear to be heritable variation in susceptibility to stress. Even borderline personality and dissociative disorders are related to childhood trauma. And yet, much like the other personality disorders, borderline personality is highly heritable: your genetics play a large role in your susceptibility to its development. In psychopathic personality, the "primary psychopath" is a psychopathic subtype with lower rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide (i.e. less Neuroticism), and this subtype mainly differs in the Factor 1, Fearless Dominance/Affective-Interpersonal traits. The psychopathy Fearless Dominance (FD) subscale describes lower vulnerability to stress, and this subscale is specifically correlated with holding high risk professions. That is, the primary psychopath exposes himself to more stress while experiencing fewer stress-related effects. Thus it seems that there are heritable variations in the vulnerability to the effects of stress. The question then becomes: are serotonergic abnormalities and Neuroticism simply the outcomes of stress exposure to which some of us are more susceptible, or could some of these differences actually be heritable differences that exist prior to the stress and influence our susceptibility to it? The research on lithium in UHR individuals appears to be evidence for the latter. The conclusion would then be that it isn't serotonin per se, but the protective effect of serotonin against stress that may be important to preventing depression, depression being an outcome that is predicted by and preceded by Neuroticism. For occupational findings: Correlates of psychopathic personality in every day life: results from a large community study https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4106400/ For differences between primary and secondary: Psychopathic Personality Traits and Environmental Contexts: Differential Correlates, Gender Differences, and Genetic Mediation https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3387315/