predatorhaven

A NATION BEHIND BARS

2012-01-31T15:48:00.000-07:00

For most, our understanding of prison conditions comes from movies. Only a few films come close to capturing the reality ~ The Shawshank Redemption and American Me, to name two. My exposure has been more direct. Here's how it all began ~

In 1988 I entered into a long-term relationship with a woman who was about to become a JD/PhD. That is, she was an attorney who was conducting the research and analysis required for her doctoral dissertation in psychology. Her research project was massive ~ exploring the victim-offender relationship by interviewing nearly 300 inmates in the Arizona prison system, all of whom had been convicted of violent crimes. Each interview was the same ~ asking for responses to a lengthy questionnaire, in the privacy of a room with no guards present. She also had access to prison records on her subjects, so that she could compare their responses to recorded events. It was an ambitious and impressive project.

Her trust in my intellect and my judgment was such that she asked me to join her and her TAs (teaching assistants) in administering the questionnaires. The prisoners we interviewed were detained in varying security conditions, ranging from a minimum-security prison near Tucson, and in maximum and supermax conditions at the prison in Florence. It is a very creepy feeling, even as a visitor with a clearance, to walk through the maze of secure corridors, checkpoints, surveillance, and doors which close with the ominous clang of finality.

Long story short, the interviews went without incident (except for one TA who inappropriately flirted with prisoners), my partner completed her PhD, and for the next sixteen years I followed her career around the country ~ to her internship in Charleston, SC, then to positions as a professor in Criminal Justice at universities in Philadelphia, PA; Vancouver, WA; and Johnson City, TN. During that time she devoted herself not only to teaching, but to ongoing research, publishing in professional journals, and attending CJ conferences around the country and around the world. I learned much from her about criminal justice (or the lack of it) in the United States. We had numerous discussions based on her findings, and I proofread many journal articles and was her ally in academic politics.

During those years, I worked in two settings which allowed me to experience firsthand the humanity and the struggles of those who've been through the system. In Philadelphia, I worked as a teacher and counselor for at-risk youth of both genders in a private, residential school for adolescents who'd been removed by the courts from abusive or neglectful family settings. Many of my students had brushes with the law, though that was not the reason for their being remanded to the school's custody. Nearly all were diagnosed as SED, or severely emotionally disturbed. Nearly all were in regular therapy, as well as being on medication. The setting was highly structured, with the students living in on-grounds cottages that were miniature dormitories.

As I came to know more and more individuals, I concluded that the SED label was in many cases inaccurate and unfortunate. Yes, these kids were struggling emotionally, having endured abuse or hardships on top of the hormonal confusion of adolescence. But I found that if I treated my students with affection and respect (while remaining clear about rules and consequences), and if I went out of my way to make learning both challenging and fun, they responded in kind. I'm not a large man, but I never felt unsafe, even when talking with an angry young man twice my size. I related to them as I would have wanted to be related to. The only exceptions were those times when a student had to be put into passive physical restraint to prevent harm to others or to themselves. Even then, at least two trained staff took part to minimize injury, until the student had regained self-control or had been removed to a separate room for counseling.

The second setting was in Tennessee, where I worked as a security officer and de facto counselor at a DCS boys group home. The population there was very different ~ all boys, and all had been convicted and served time for crimes which, if committed by adults, would be felonies ~ ranging from burglary to grand theft auto to murder. The home was a halfway house, where the boys were taught the skills and attitudes they would need to re-enter society, whether back with their families or not. Security was strict, and runaways were common. There were far fewer passive physical restraints, and far more personal and room searches for contraband. Nearly all the boys were wannabe thugs, and some had actual gang affiliation. They put up a hardcore front, but here too, I found that I could reach most of them as individuals by simply treating them with caring and respect (for their essential selves, not for the crimes they had committed).

In addition to annual training (alongside guards from the adult prison system), I had occasion to visit a youth detention center and an adult prison. As had been true during my help with research in Arizona, I always felt claustrophobic in lockup, but at least now I had a state ID and badge to prove my identity.

Here are several similarities and differences between the two work settings. In Philadelphia, our total population was 60, with 20 being boys. Dorms were segregated by gender, but all other activities were coed. The age range was 13-18 years old. Probably one third of the kids (and staff) were black. Most had experienced urban life on the streets, yet beyond recreational drugs or petty crimes, most had no experience with serious violations of the law. To my knowledge, very few ended up in jail or prison. Some (based on academics and behavior) were allowed to attend classes at a mainstream high school, where they experienced prejudice from other students because of where they lived. Most students were with us for 1-4 years, giving us ample opportunity to get to know them and work with them to clarify their goals and provide tools for reaching those goals.

In Tennessee, our total population was 12, all boys. The group home was a single building, with living quarters (2-4 boys per room) upstairs. The age range was 14-18 years old. Roughly half or more of the boys were black. As described above, all were convicted criminals, whose release depended on their behavior and reaching their academic and work goals while in the group home. Most had off-grounds jobs, usually at fast food joints. I have no documentation, but my hunch is that a higher proportion recidivized, i.e., committed other crimes and ended up back in the system. Most students were with us for 6-8 months, giving us little opportunity to get to know them and really work with them to change their life paths.

Within the security classification system in American prisons, both settings were minimum security. Escape was not that difficult. It was important to help each young person understand that it was in their own interest to stick it out, and to leave the right way. Most succeeded.

In an actual prison, things would have been much different. There, the guard-inmate relationship is all about power, and is often predatory. U.S. prisons are, in my opinion, based on a very medieval concept of punishment and isolation from society. My onetime partner firmly felt that true rehabilitation had never been meaningfully attempted in American prisons, and I believe that. Except for minimum security facilities, prison is a grim, often violent place. It is a whole different world with its own language, status hierarchy, rules, group (gang) affiliation, and consequences for mistakes. And that's just in the context of other inmates. A prisoner's treatment by guards can be just as savage, or even more so. One study by the U.S. Department of Justice found that "at least 216,600 inmates were [sexually] victimized in 2008 alone. Contrary to popular belief, most of the perpetrators were not other prisoners but staff members ~ corrections officers whose job it is to keep inmates safe. On average, each victim was abused between three and five times over the course of the year. The vast majority were too fearful of reprisals to seek help or file a formal complaint."

According to another report, "In 1980, there were about 220 people incarcerated for every 100,000 Americans. By 2010, the number had more than tripled, to 731. No other country even approaches that. In the past two decades, the money that states spend on prisons has risen at six times the rate of spending on higher education .... The scale and the brutality of our prisons are the moral scandal of American life. Every day, at least 50,000 men ~ a full house at Yankee Stadium ~ wake in solitary confinement, often in supermax prisons or prison wings, in which men are locked in small cells, where they can see no one, cannot freely read and write, and are allowed out just once a day for an hour's solo 'exercise'. (Lock yourself in your bathroom and then imagine you have to stay there for the next ten years, and you will have some sense of the experience.) Prison rape is so endemic ~ more than 70,000 prisoners are raped each year ~ that it is routinely held out as a threat, part of the punishment to be expected."

Here's another aspect of the American penal system which I find disturbing ~ outsourcing the construction, staffing, and management of prisons (which are government functions with at least nominal government oversight) to private, for-profit companies. The stated intent is to save money, but the reverse holds true. The privatization of prisons ensures that the least qualified applicants will be hired as guards and supervisors, that staff brutality will go unreported, and that the quality (such as it is) of service provided will be poor to non-existent. It's like one of the Apollo astronauts commented to his two capsule mates just before launch, in words to the effect of "Yeah, I feel supremely confident. Here we are, sitting on top of a rocket full of fuel, made up of a million components, all assembled by the lowest bidders. What could go wrong?"

Here's one example of what could go wrong. A Justice Policy Institute report states that "the political strategies of private prison companies 'work to make money through harsh policies and longer sentences.' The report's authors note that while the total number of people in prison increased less than 16 percent, the number of people held in private federal and state facilities increased by 120 and 33 percent, correspondingly. Government spending on corrections has soared since 1997 by 72 percent, up to $74 billion in 2007. And the private prison industry has raked in tremendous profits. Last year the two largest private prison companies ~ Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group ~ made over $2.9 billion in revenue. JPI claims the private industry isn't merely responding to the nation's incarceration woes. It has actively sought to create the market conditions (i.e., more prisoners) necessary to expand its business.

"According to JPI, the private prison industry uses three strategies to influence public policy ~ lobbying, direct campaign contributions, and networking. The three main companies have contributed $835,514 to federal candidates and over $6 million to state politicians. They have also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on direct lobbying efforts."

I started this post describing my own experiences with the criminal justice and mental health systems. I expanded my comments to include broader systemic practices and policies. I'd like to conclude by taking one more step back for perspective. I just received the ACLU's winter 2012 edition of their national newsletter, Civil Liberties. The lead article shares its title with the title of this post ~ "A Nation Behind Bars". The captions of several illustrations in the article are instructive.

~ Nearly half of all state prisoners are locked up for nonviolent offenses.

~ The United States prison population rose by 700% from 1970 to 2005, a rate far outpacing that of general population growth (44%) and crime rates.

~ By 2007, states spent more than $44 billion on incarceration and related expenses, a 127% jump from 1987. Over this same period, spending on higher education rose just 21%.

Here's the single slap-in-the-face fact that should linger for any reader ~ "With an incarcerated population of well over 2 million, the United States has earned the disgraceful distinction of being the world's largest jailer, ahead of China and Russia. We have 5 percent of the world's population but 25 percent of its prisoners.

" .... How did we get to this point? Blame it on policies of the past 40 years such as the 'War on Drugs' and 'Tough on Crime', which have produced legislation such as 'Three Strikes, You're Out' and mandatory minimum sentencing, These policies ~ based not on sober scientific fact, but on fear ~ have done little to protect the public, while overcrowding prisons, burdening taxpayers, and normalizing an overly punitive mindset that turns to incarceration as a first, rather than a last, resort.

"What's more, African Americans and Latinos disproportionately bear the brunt of the over-incarceration crisis because of discriminatory laws and biased enforcement and sentencing, even though white Americans commit crimes at the same rates as people of color. A schocking one in nine young black men (aged 20-24) is behind bars.

"Another disturbing trend resulting from our nation's over-reliance on incarceration and excessive sentencing is the rise in the number of elderly prisoners ~ the fastest-growing segment of the prison population. It costs two to three times more to house elderly prisoners than younger people. At the same time, an increase in age is correlated with a diminishing risk of recidivism. So, until we change our practices, the United States will continue to waste vast resources on people who no longer pose a threat to the community.

" .... We have become a nation behind bars and a prisoner to a broken correctional system. The time for reform is now." When you treat people like animals, eventually many can't help but behave like animals. Ironically, we wouldn't even treat animals like we treat each other. Our prisons are little more than vicious crime schools, little pieces of hell. What does that say about us as a society?

EXOPLANETS

2012-01-30T14:39:00.000-07:00

NASA has announced that the Kepler Space Observatory has identified "11 new planetary systems hosting 26 confirmed planets. These discoveries nearly double the number of verified Kepler planets and triple the number of stars known to have more than one planet that transits, or passes in front of, its host star .... The planets orbit close to their host stars and range in size from 1.5 times the radius of Earth to larger than Jupiter .... The planets orbit their host star once every six to 143 days. All are closer to their host star than Venus is to our sun." For reference, Venus orbits an average of about 68 million miles from the sun, and the Earth about 93 million miles. That's a pretty tiny volume of space to be populated by so many planets, some of them more than twelve times the diameter of Earth.

Here is a link to the NASA announcement, which explains the planetary systems more fully, and comes with two embedded videos ~ one is an overhead view of all the systems with more than one planet, showing the relative speeds of planetary motion; and the other is an animation showing the difference between planetary transit timing of single and multiple planetary systems. It's fascinating stuff. Like the Hubble Space Telescope, Kepler is producing images and information that are priceless. The image above (click to enlarge) portrays Kepler's search area set within the vast reaches of our Milky Way galaxy ~ an area so small, it is not unlike exploring the ocean by examining a bucket of water on the beach. We live in marvelous times.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE BOOKSTORES GONE?

2012-01-29T15:02:00.000-07:00

It is a story told time and again in the history of commerce ~ over the past century, small local stores providing everything from food to clothing, furniture, hardware or music, have been driven out of business because they could not compete with larger store chains which buy in volume and sell for less. In recent decades entire chains have disappeared, either bought out by competitors or rendered obsolete by shifting technology.

Thus it is with bookstores. Julie Bosman writes in the NYTimes that "Inside the great publishing houses ~ grand names like Macmillan, Penguin and Random House ~ there is a sense of unease about the long-term fate of Barnes & Noble, the last major bookstore chain standing. First, the magastores squeezed out the small players .... then the chains themselves were gobbled up or driven under, as consumeers turned to the Web. B. Dalton Bookseller and Crown Books are long gone. Borders collapsed last year.

"No one expects Barnes & Noble to disappear overnight. The worry is that it might slowly wither as more readers embrace e-books. What if all those store shelves vanished, and Barnes & Noble became little more than a cafe and a digital connection point? Such fears came to the fore in early January, when the company projected that it would lose even more money this year than Wall Street had expected. Its share price promptly tumbled 17 percent that day.

"Lurking behind all of this is Amazon.com, the dominant force in books online and the company that sets teeth on edge in publishing. From their perches in midtown Manhattan, many publishing executives, editors and publicists view Amazon as the enemy ~ an adversary that, if unchecked, could threaten their industry and their livelihoods.

"Like many struggling businesses, book publishers are cutting costs and trimming work forces. Yes, electronic books are booming, sometimes profitably, but not many publishers want e-books to dominate print books. Amazon's chief executive, Jeffrey P. Bezos, wants to cut out the middleman ~ that is, traditional publishers ~ by publishing e-books directly.

"Which is why Barnes & Noble, once viewed as the brute capitalist of the book trade, now seems so crucial to that industry's future. Sure, you can buy bestsellers at Walmart and potboilers at the supermarket. But in many locales, Barnes & Noble is the only retailer offering a wide selection of books. If something were to happen to Barnes & Noble, if it were merely to scale back on its ambitions, Amazon could become even more powerful and ~ well, the very thought makes publishers queasy.

" ... These are trying times for almost everyone in the book business. Since 2002, the United States has lost roughly 500 independent bookstores ~ nearly one out of five. About 650 bookstores vanished when Borders went out of business last year. No wonder that some New York publishers have gone so far as to sketch out what the industry might look like without Barnes & Noble. It's not a happy thought for them. Certainly, there would be fewer places to sell books. Independents account for less than 10 percent of business, and Target, Walmart and the like carry far smaller selections than traditional bookstores.

" .... What publishers count on from bookstores is the browsing effect. Surveys indicate that only a third of the people who step into a bookstore and walk out with a book actually arrived with the specific desire to buy one .... What's more sales of older books ~ the so-called backlist, which has traditionally accounted for anywhere from 30 to 50 percent of the average big publisher's sales ~ would suffer horribly.

" 'For all publishers, it's really important that brick-and-mortar retailers survive,' said David Shanks, the chief executive of the Penguin Group USA. 'Not only are they key to keeping our physical book business thriving, there is also the carry-on effect of the display of a book that contributes to selling e-books and audio books. The more visibility a book has, the more inclined a reader is to make a purchase.' "

I'm sitting here, trying to imagine a world without bookstores. It is as inconceivable as a world without public and university libraries. And yet we and our institutions co-evolve. How many could have predicted thirty years ago that the Internet, personal computers, portable smart phones, wireless technology, GPS, and e-book readers would transform every corner of our lives .... and leave very few corners private?

Don't get me wrong, I love technology, when it is done well. But I do not want to see bookstores go the way of the buggy whip. When I lived in suburban Philadelphia, I was close to both Borders and Barnes & Noble stores, as well as smaller independent bookstores. In Vancouver, Washington, it was an accessible drive across the Columbia River to Portland, Oregon and Powell's City of Books, whose four floors cover a city block. Here in Missoula, Barnes & Noble is a three block walk away. Bookstores and libraries are among the first resources I locate when I move to a new place.

Nothing can replace the texture, weight, smell, and mystery of a book, preferably hardbound. Reading is the last thing I do at night before turning off the lights for sleep ~ novels, history, biography, science, aviation. It relaxes me while engaging my imagination. And no batteries are required.

IMAGES

2012-01-28T15:38:00.000-07:00

Click on any image to enlarge.

THE LIMITS OF REASON

2012-01-27T14:49:00.003-07:00

In Psychology Today, Susan Biali, M.D., sets forth definitions and strategies 'for dealing with mean or crazy people .... A difficult person in your life might not have a full-blown personality disorder. They may just have related traits that express themselves from time to time. It still takes a toll on your self-esteem and well-being to be around them."

She goes on to list some of the types of people she suggests are unreasonable ~

~ Those with whom you can't have a reasonable conversation
~ People who make demeaning comments disguised as a 'joke'
~ Those who don't respect boundaries
~ People who aren't willing to consider your point of view or listen to your side of things
~ Bullies
~ Verbal or emotional abusers
~ Manipulators
~ Liars
~ People who provoke you into acting crazy or unbalanced, when your behavior across the rest of your life is proof that you're not
~ The excessively charming who are too good to be true and have an ulterior motive

Following are strategies which minimize the danger to yourself, your days, your sanity, and your life ~

~ Minimize time with them
~ Keep it logical
~ Don't drink with them
~ Focus on them in conversation
~ Give up the dream that one day they'll be the person you wish they'd be
~ Stay away from topics that get you in trouble
~ Don't try to get them to see your point of view
~ Create a distraction

Not all relationships are worth keeping in your life. "But in some cases if the person is a family member, boss, or some other key fixture you can't cut out of your life, these tactics may prove to be lifesavers." Please see the article for a fuller explanation of each strategy.

Extending this idea, perhaps the most difficult unreasonable personality one can encounter is the full-blown racist. A number of studies have linked right-wing ideals with racism ~ they share a rigid black-and-white view of the world, an intolerance of ambiguity, and a tendency toward insecurity and degrees of paranoia. Dan Evon reports that low intelligence "is the one constant factor behind racism .... people with low intelligence tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies."

The researcher does not conclude that all conservatives are ignorant racists, merely that there is a significant tendency. He points out that "There are multiple examples of very bright conservatives and not-so-bright liberals, and many examples of very principled conservatives and very intolerant liberals .... [Nevertheless] people with low IQs may be drawn toward conservative beliefs because they offer structure. People who have a hard time understanding the complexities of the world find comfort in a simple belief system .... Socially conservative ideologies tend to offer structure and order. Unfortunately, many of these features can also contribute to prejudice."

Racism is one mindset to which the gentler avoidance strategies set forth in the first study (above) are not useful. Any behavior which harms others must be confronted. You may not be able to reason them past their prejudice, but you can certainly make it clear what the consequences will be for acting it out.

NOTE ~ Happy 124th anniversary to the National Geographic Society, whose historic mission remains "to increase and diffuse geographic knowledge while promoting the conservation of the world's cultural, historical, and natural resources." Long may you sail !

EDUCATION AND PERFORMANCE

2012-01-26T14:04:00.001-07:00

I've been gathering resources relating to how we think, how the process is changing, and what we can do to enhance our mental functioning. Here are two items of interest ~

In A Sharper Mind, Middle Age and Beyond, Patricia Cohen writes about the apparent decline in creativity, and learning capacity after about the age of 40, and memory after about the age of 50 ~ and how that perceived decline is coming under new scrutiny as we learn more about the nature of intelligence. "Many researchers believe that human intelligence or brainpower consists of dozens of assorted cognitive skills, which they commonly divide into two categories. One bunch falls under the heading 'fluid intelligence", the abilities that produce solutions not based on experience, like pattern recognition, working memory and abstract thinking, the kind of intelligence tested in IQ examinations. These abilities tend to peak in one's 20s.

'Crystallized intelligence, by contrast, generally refers to skills that are acquired through experience ans education, like verbal ability, inductive reasoning and judgment. While fluid intelligence is often considered largely a product of genetics, crystallized intelligence is much more dependent on a bouquet of influences, including personality, motivation, opportunity, and culture .... One of the brain's most powerful tools is its ability to quickly scan a vast storehouse of templates for relevant information and past experience to come up with a novel solution to a problem. In this context, the mature brain is especially well equipped, which is probably why we still associate wisdom with age.

" .... Older people make more use of higher-order reasoning schemes that emphasize the need for multiple perspectives, allow for compromise, and recognize the limits of knowledge. Most important, they discover that despite a decline in fluid intelligence, complicated reasoning that relates to people, moral issues or political institutions improved with age."

So the question becomes, can anything be done about the decline in fluid intelligence with age? The author describes several studies which explore this very question, and "The most consistent results involved education. All other things being equal, the more years of school a subject had, the better he or she performed on every mental test. Up to age 75, the studies showed, people with college degrees performed on complex tasks like less-educated individuals who were 10 years younger."

It doesn't end there. Even absent a college degree, "Into middle age and beyond, people could make up for educational disadvantages encountered earlier in life. Everyone in the study who regularly did more to challenge their brains ~ reading, writing, attending lectures or completing word puzzles ~ did better on fluid intelligence tests than their counterparts who did less."

Another study showed that "adults, particularly men, with low levels of education could also improve mental function by using a computer. Although researchers are not sure why, they speculate that computers require users to switch mental gears more frequently or process information in a new way, which quickens reaction time."

Finally, researchers "noticed other similarities among people with the strongest cognitive skills. Senior citizens who performed as well as young adults in fluid intelligence tended to have four characteristics in addition to having a college degree and regularly engaging in mental workouts ~ they exercised frequently; they were socially active, frequently seeing friends and family, volunteering or attending meetings; they were better at remaining calm in the face of stress; and they felt more in control of their lives."

More research remains to be done. For now, it is encouraging to understand that both college education and continuing education can help keep us sharp well into our golden years.

In What You (Really) Need To Know, Lawrence H. Summers suggests that while part of universities' function is to keep alive man's greatest creations, passing them on from generation to generation, it is interesting to speculate how the university experience might be different if the educational system is altered to reflect the structure of society and our evolving understanding of how people learn. He offers the following "guesses and hopes ~

~ Education will be more about how to process and use information, and less about imparting it.
~ An inevitable consequence of the knowledge explosion is that tasks will be carried out with far more collaboration.
~ New technologies will profoundly alter the way knowledge is conveyed.
~ 'Active learning classrooms' (which cluster students at tables with rearrangeable furniture and integrated technology) will help professors interact with their students through the use of media and collaborative experiences.
~ The world is much more open .... and it will be essential that students have international experiences.
~ Courses of study will place more emphasis on the analysis of data.

"A good rule of thumb for many things in life holds that things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then happen faster than you thought they could."

To be continued tomorrow ....

ACCIDENTAL AND INTENTIONAL ART

2012-01-25T15:57:00.001-07:00

From Science Now ~ "Saturn boasts one of the solar system's most geometrical features, a giant hexagon encircling its north pole. Though not as famous as Jupiter's Great Red Spot, Saturn's Hexagon is equally mysterious. Now researchers have recreated this formation in the lab using little more than water and a spinning table ~ an important first step, experts say, in finally deciphering this cosmic mystery.

"Saturn's striped appearance comes from jet streams that fly east to west through its atmosphere at different latitudes. Most jets form circular bands, but the Voyager spacecraft snapped pictures of an enormous hexagonally shaped one (each side rivals Earth's diameter) when it passed over the planet's north pole in 1988." To learn more about this enormous presence, check out the article and embedded video here.

Speaking of fascinating fluid formations, from New Science TV ~ "If four vortices were let loose in a cup of melted ice cream and chocolate sauce, what would it look like? In this simulation, mathematical artist Jos Leys illustrates the result by imagining that the two are ideal fluids, meaning that they have no viscosity and slide past each other with no resistance." Here too, don't miss the video for some breathtaking Art Nouveau effects.

Combining science and art can have unanticipated and pleasing results. Take wind turbines used to generate electricity ~ most of us have seen these towering, oddly graceful constructs that look like a giant airplane propeller mounted on a tower. Japanese engineers have improved on the design with the simple addition of a circular rim called a wind lens. Conventional designs are inherently inefficient. The lens, or brim diffuser, creates vortices on the downwind side of the rotating blades, dramatically increasing the speed of air flow through the turbine. More speed yields more power generated from the same moving air mass. A wind farm of 29 lens turbines is capable of producing the same amount of electricity as a nuclear power plant. Alternative energy just became an order of magnitude more attainable. Here is the announcement ~ again, the video provides compelling clarity. (It occurs to me that this technology has application not only in wind turbines, but also on any propellor-driven device such as an airplane or a ship. The simply addition of a circular rim can triple the rotational speed, meaning more forward motion using the same amount of fuel. Win-win.

Finally, on general principle, a shout-out to Design Milk, whose beautiful designs are elegant in their simplicity. Check out the tabs for architecture, art, home furnishings, interior design, style & fashion, and technology. Here's an example ~ a spiral staircase unlike any I've seen.

THE DESERT

2012-01-24T14:45:00.001-07:00

The scene ~ Mid-September 1967, Fort Lewis, Washington. With only a few days left in Army basic training, the members of my company (C-3-1) had gathered around Drill Sergeant Hess to hear our assignments for AIT, Advanced Individual Training. He took his time going down the roster, calling each trainee's name, his destination, and the type of training he would receive there ~ infantry, artillery, armor, vehicle mechanic, communications ~ along with any wry comments that came to mind regarding that particular Army post. At length he reached my name, looked at my assignment in silent mourning, then looked up with a grin and called out "Fort Huachuca, Arizona. That's where you can go AWOL, be gone three days, and they can still see you."

At the ripe young age of 20, this Montana boy had never traveled east of the Mississippi, and rarely south of the Wyoming Rockies. Arizona. The desert. Visions of endless Saharan sand dunes popped into my head. Amid the laughter of my friends, my thoughts ran to "Aw hell, why did I have to request radio school?"

A week or so later, after the obligatory graduation parade and ceremony, we headed for Sea-Tac airport, there to scatter to destinations around the country. My flight was to Tucson, Arizona. It was my first ride ever on a passenger jet, and being pushed back in my seat by the acceleration of takeoff was thrilling. My desert foreboding remained. We landed after dark, and were met by an Army bus driver for the ninety-minute drive southeast to Fort Huachuca. There was little desert to be seen in the inky darkness, but my discomfort wasn't improved by the news that the previous night a skunk had taken up residence beneath the in-transit barracks. Sleep was fitful, and reveille arrived much too soon.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that far from having arrived on the set of Lawrence of Arabia, the landscape surrounding the fort was actually green with desert shrubs and trees, presided over by the Huachuca Mountains to the west. An aside regarding nomenclature ~ for readers in the American east and south, what you regard in awe as "mountains" only qualify as foothills out west. But then, eastern mountains are ancient and worn down, while western mountains are geographically young and dramatic. Ask anyone who has moved to Montana, Colorado, New Mexico, or any of the other Rocky Mountain states. Once while working for the Forest Service in South Carolina, I was directed to follow a "ridge" to reach a particular red-cockaded woodpecker colony. Ridge? It took some explanation before I understood that they were talking quite naturally about a rise of ground barely three feet above the surrounding terrain. Where I grew up, it took you the better part of an hour to climb a ridge, the shoulder of a mountain. It's all in what you're used to.

I won't go into the rest of my military experience here, other than to say that I became used to the desert, this desert, very quickly. The Sonoran Desert covers part of the southwestern United States and part of northwestern Mexico. It embraces a number of climate zones ranging from desert to sub-alpine, and is home to an amazing array of plants, animals, birds, reptiles, and fish. It is a harsh land if that is what you expect. But if you take the time to learn how to be a good visitor, you'll be astonished at the beauty of the desert. It is dry (except during the monsoon seasons), it is clean (except where people insist on 'developing' the land, thereby desecrating it), it is verdant and very, very alive. It is a land of magic. Small wonder that on my copy of Edward Abbey's seminal novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, the back cover features the lament, "Desert, o my desert, yours is the only death I cannot bear."

After radio school at Fort Huachuca, radioteletype school at Fort Gordon, Georgia, and a year in southern Vietnam during that war, I was honorably discharged from the service. I spent a brief few months with my parents before moving back to the southwest, back to Tucson, back to my beloved desert. And stayed there for the next 20 years in the best of both worlds, enjoying the border culture of the city, and mother nature in the surrounding desert and mountains. I lived in many homes, enjoyed many friends and lovers, got married and sired my magnificent son, and graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. To my delight, my studies included numerous science labs (biology, chemistry, physics, mammalogy, ornithology, herpetology, comparative anatomy, island biogeography, animal behavior) and, most vividly, numerous field trips into the desert, some lasting for days.

Yes, there's the heat. The joke goes that in the desert there are two seasons, January and summer. The summer I moved to Arizona, it was 115 degrees Farenheit in the shade. Not every summer is that extreme, but anything above 85 is hot, especially when you're working outdoors with no air conditioning. Each summer I swore it would be my last summer in that heat, yet I remained. How can one leave a land of magic?

Things have changed since I moved away in 1989. Tucson has grown carcinogenically, judging from the street maps I see in bookstores. What was once virgin desert, serenaded in the clean dawn light by mourning doves, curve-billed thrashers, phainopepla, cactus wrens, and (yes) road runners, has become overrun by housing developments and paved streets. Much desert remains, of course. It is a big, big place. But life along the border has changed in other ways. At one time when I was living on a nature preserve near the border, if I saw a Mexican walking northward, I knew it was just someone looking for work. I would offer him water and see him on his way. Now the violence of drug wars and gun-running has tarnished the peace of the land. I hope that we all come to our senses and stop the trafficking in both.

Ah, but the magic remains. Why else would so many people move there, diluting the very qualities of life that they seek? I was reminded of our conflicting images of the desert by an article by Jen Patton. She says in part, "There are, according to Randall Henderson, founding editor of Desert Magazine (1937-1985) two deserts in the American imagination. One is full of 'venomous reptiles and unbearable heat .... it is the desert visualized by those children of luxury to whom any environment is unbearable which does not provide all of the comforts and services of a pampered civilization.' this is 'fostered by fiction writers who dramatize the tragedies of the Desert for [their own] profit.' By contrast, the real desert, as Henderson saw it, 'offers rare gifts, health giving sunshine .... a sky studded by diamonds .... a breeze that bears no poison' to those who come 'in friendliness and understanding.'

"There is, of course, only one desert, equally full of comfort and danger, plenty and lack. Its gifts ~ that diamond sky is real ~ are for everyone, but its history shows all America's small scars." Patton's very partial explanation of the human history of the region only goes back a few hundred years. That is another part of the magic ~ the pre-European human presence of the Anasazi, the Hopi, the Navajo, the Apache, the Yaqui, the Seri. That's a story for another day.

LEARNING TO READ ~ AT AGE 84

2012-01-23T15:20:00.000-07:00

Last night I watched one of the most wrenching and inspirational films I've ever seen. The First Grader is based on the true story of Kimani Maruge, a Kenyan man who enrolled in elementary education at the age of 84 after the Kenyan government announced universal and free education in 2003. Sounds all warm and fuzzy, right? It gets much, much deeper. Maruge (pronounced mah-ROO-gay) is a man possessed by memories. He grew up in poverty, in a family which had no money to pay for education. As a young man, he married and had a child. Then came Kenya's struggle for independence from colonial Great Britain in the 1950s ~ referred to by the white press as the Mau Mau Uprising. Many Mau Mau freedom fighters were from the Kikuyu tribe (though not all Kikuyu were Mau Mau activists). Individuals from some tribes were collaborators with the British, assisting in their cruel repression of local insurgents. As in all wars, atrocities were committed by both sides, but only Mau Mau violence received attention from the world press. Please refer to the excellent Wikipedia summary of the uprising for more cultural and historic detail.

Because Kimani Maruge took the oath of allegiance to the cause of Uhuru (the Swahili word for 'freedom'), he was singled out by the British for special treatment. I won't give too much away, in hopes that you will rent the film (available through Netflix). It is enough to know that he endured eight years of imprisonment and torture before being released by the new Kenyan government.

So the story of an 84-year-old man whose limp requires the assistance of a walking staff, whose eyesight and hearing are failing, and whose spirit has never been crushed, seeking to learn to read in a school overcrowded with children only tall enough to come up to his waist, takes on a poignancy that borders on heartbreak. Yet it is Maruge's spirit which buoys us up as his story unfolds, as he endures and must overcome unexpected obstacles to his dream ~ and an unexpected ally in reaching out to fulfill it.

Because I was once a teacher, I'm a sucker for well-made films about education. Films like Stand and Deliver, Dangerous Minds, Mr. Holland's Opus, Lean On Me, The Class, Good Will Hunting, and To Sir, With Love offer insights into the process of learning from the point of view of teachers, or from (usually) the point of view of teenage students. The First Grader is in a class by itself, the story of a complex elderly man who finds challenge and redemption among the young children who are his classmates. I would watch this film over and over.

SCIENCE FRIDAY ON SUNDAY

2012-01-22T15:17:00.000-07:00

Well, a lot has been happening, so it's time to get caught up on science news.

From the article Scientists Gear Up To Take A Picture Of A Black Hole ~ "The field of gravity around a black hole (see artist's rendition above, click to enlarge) is so immense that it swallows everything in its reach. Not even light can escape its grip. For that reason, black holes are just that ~ emitting no light whatsoever, their 'nothingness' blends into the black void of the universe. So how does one take a picture of something that by definition is impossible to see?

"As dust and gas swirls around the black hole before it is drawn inside, a kind of cosmic traffic jam ensues. Swirling around the black hole like water circling the drain in a bathtub, the matter compresses and the resulting friction turns it into plasma heated to a billion degrees or more, causing it to 'glow' ~ and radiate energy that we can detect here on Earth.

"By imaging the glow of mater swirling around the black hole before it goes over the edge of the point of no return and plunges into the abyss of space and time, scientists can only see the outline of the black hole, also called its shadow. Because the laws of physics either don't apply or cannot describe what happens beyond that point of no return from which not even light can escape, that boundary is called the Event Horizon."

" .... Even though the black hole suspected to sit at the center of our galaxy is a supermassive one at four million times the mass of the Sun, it is tiny to the eyes of astronomers. Smaller than Mercury's orbit around the Sun, yet almost 26,000 light years away, it appears about the same size as a grapefruit on the moon. To see something that small and that far away, you need a very big telescope, and the biggest telescope you can make on Earth is to turn the whole planet into a telescope."

To learn how in the world (as it were) you do that, check out the link.

From Test Tube Yeast Evolve Multicellularity ~ "The transition from single-celled to multicellular organisms was one of the most significant developments in the history of life on Earth. Without it, all living things would still be microscopic and simple. There would be no such thing as a plant or a brain or a human .... [At the cellular level], since evolution acts on individual cells, it pays off for a cell to be selfish. By hogging resources and hindering neighbors, a call can increase the odds that more of its own genes get passed into the next generation. This logic is one of the reasons it has been challenging to imagine how multicellularity arose ~ it requires the subjugation of self-interest in favor of the group's survival."

The article goes on to describe a simple but elegant experiment to artificially select for multicellularity in yeast. The results were startling ~ evolution into multicellular functioning, evidence of a rudimentary division of labor, and indications of the first steps toward cellular differentiation, all within a few dozen generations. An embedded video demonstrates the process, one of the most fundamental in all of biology.

In a humorous aside, Sheril Kirshenbaum recounts the disconnect between science and journalism when she was asked by a television crew to Just Look Science-y.

And finally, with a special focus on the future of our presence in space, Marc Millis goes way out on a limb to predict An Optimistic History of the Next 40 Years. As a self-described cynical romantic, I doubt that his projected accomplishments will come to pass quite that quickly, but I hope he's right and I'm wrong. Cheers.

BLACKOUT AFTERMATH

2012-01-21T14:54:00.000-07:00

So what were the effects of the widely-publicized Internet blackout on January 18, protesting the proposed SOPA and PIPA legislation which would have placed a burden of government censorship on the free Internet? Only the largest Internet protest in history, with over 10 million signatures to petitions to members of Congress, and with over 115,000 websites participating (including this blog). On the day before the protest, only one U.S. Senator was publicly against the legislation. Two days later, that number shot up to 34, and is still rising. Here is a summary of blackout stats, along with a list of high-profile website participants and supporters, including Wikipedia, Reddit, Google, Wordpress, Tumbir, Mozilla, Wired, BoingBoing, and many others.

Participatory democracy works, especially from the ground up. From the top down, not so much. Most of the legislative functioning and policy-making of our government has been hijacked in recent decades by corporate and military interests and their lobbyists, with deep pockets and few scruples. The disenfranchisement of the American electorate has been exacerbated by the widening, deepening divide between the 5 percent of the populace who control over between 80 and 90 percent of the nation's capital, and the rest of us. Whenever such a gap exists between the few rich and the many poor, the stage is set for dramatic, sometimes violent change.

To prevent the drama and violence, some pragmatists are re-evaluating their participation in the status quo. In the case of the censorship bills, Jonathan Weisman writes in the NYTimes that "When the powerful world of old media mobilized to win passage of an online anti-piracy bill, it marshaled the reliable giants of K Street ~ the US Chamber of Commerce, the Recording Industry Association of America, and of course, the motion picture lobby .... Yet on Wednesday, this formidable old guard was forced to make way for the new as Web powerhouses backed by Internet activists rallied opposition to the legislation through Internet blackouts and cascading criticsim, sending an unmistakable message to lawmakers grappling with new media issues: Don't mess with the Internet .... As a result, the legislative battle over two once-obscure bills to combat the piracy of American movies, music and books and writing on the World Wide Web may prove to be a turning point for the way business is done in Washington. It represented a moment when the new economy rose up against the old."

To clarify ~ battling piracy of intellectual property is a good thing. But the means chose for doing so by SOPA and PIPA were so draconian that they threatened first-amendment rights on multiple levels within the Internet community. The bills need to be re-written, and doubtless they will.

In the meantime, I rather relish the role of Internet activist, just as I'm proud to once have been an anti-war activist. I close with this ~ get involved. Register to vote, and then vote! And regardless of your particular views, make your voice heard. Do so by signing the petitions of activist groups, by writing letters to the editor, and by contacting your members of Congress and the White House. Here is the contact information you need.

It is long past time to take our country back from the wealthy few on Wall Street and in Washington, DC. Occupy America.

OBAMA ~ SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT

2012-01-20T17:39:00.001-07:00

As often happens toward the end of a president's first term, especially when that president is the nation's first black chief executive and commander-in-chief, Barack Obama has been taking heat from both extreme conservative Republican (for being too liberal), and from extreme liberal Democrats (for not being liberal enough). Obama made it clear when he first ran for the presidency that he is a moderate, and that his policies will reflect not short-term gain but long-term advantage for the country and its citizens.

In the most recent issue of Newsweek magazine (see cover above, click to enlarge), Andrew Sullivan addresses this contradiction in his article How Obama's Long Game Will Outsmart His Critics. He maintains that Republican Obama-bashing has no basis in reality, that in fact the president has delivered on the majority of his campaign promises, and is succeeding in the long remedial process of healing the disastrous financial and military excesses of preceding Republican administrations, most notably that of George W. Bush. Sullivan states ~ "A caveat: I write this as an unabashed supporter of Obama from early 2007 on. I did so not as a liberal, but as a conservative-minded independent appalled by the Bush administration's record of war, debt, spending, and torture. I did not expect, or want, a messiah. I have one already, thank you very much. And there have been many times when I have disagreed with decisions Obama has made ~ to drop the Bowles-Simpson debt commission, to ignore the war crimes of the recent past, and to launch a war in Libya without Congress's sanction, to cite three. But given the enormity of what he inherited, and given what he explicitly promised, it remains simply a fact that Obama has delivered in a way that the unhinged right and purist left have yet to understand or absorb. Their short-term outbursts have missed Obama's long game ~ and why his reelection remains, in my view, as essential to this country's future as his original election in 2008."

If you would like your own visual and personal impression of Sullivan, here is a link to an interview he did with Chris Matthews on Hardball. Sullivan comes across as down to earth, pragmatic, and willing to point out any myopic thinking by Republicans or Democrats. It is a fascinating reality check, with Matthews asking pointed questions and Sullivan providing well-reasoned answers. Given the flea circus that is the Republican presidential nomination race, this writer finds it reassuring that the presumptive Democratic nominee, Barack Obama, presents a calm and intelligent alternative who is highly conversant in Constitutional law, and pragmatic in his dealings with allies and antagonists (domestic and foreign).

P.S. ~ Obama also has a cool charisma ~ during a speech at a fundraising event in New York Thursday night, the President sang while thanking Al Green, who performed earlier at the same event. Dude has it goin' on.

"MY DRUNK KITCHEN" AND OTHER DIVERSIONS

2012-01-19T15:43:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my Facebook friend Clarity Sanderson for sharing this episode from a hilarious online video series called My Drunk Kitchen. It's a comedy spoof of all the niche cooking shows one can find on TV, performed with cool jazz in the background by Hannah Hart. Here's a list of the episodes available at the MDK website.

Speaking of altered states (alcohol above), it now appears that the DEA Finally Admits Marijuana is Medicine ~ "by giving pharmaceutical companies exclusive permission to make pills from it." I've advocated for over forty years that marijuana should be legalized, its quality regulated, sold by licensed outlets, and taxed for revenue ~ just like alcohol is. Marijuana is not only infinitely less toxic than alcohol, it is a documented medicinal treatment for relieving the symptoms of glaucoma, chemotherapy, chronic pain, arthritis, AIDS, asthma, bipolar disorder, cancer, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, PTSD, sleep apnea, sickle cell disease, and many more. This DEA action may be the first step in that direction, though they'll never succeed in granting sole rights for distribution to pharma giants. Too many states have legalized medical marijuana, which represents a lot of voters. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Here's another reference to individual acceptance of substances which produce altered states ~ 10 Scientific and Technological Visionaries Who Experimented with Drugs. No Timothy Learys or Andrew Weils are present. Check out the brief article for a fuller description of each of the following ~

~ Sigmund Freud ~ cocaine.
~ Francis Crick ~ LSD.
~ Thomas Edison ~ cocaine elixers.
~ Paul Erdos ~ amphetamines.
~ Steve Jobs ~ LSD.
~ Bill Gates ~ LSD.
~ John C. Lilly ~ LSD, ketamine.
~ Richard Feynman ~ LSD, marijuana, ketamine.
~ Kary Mullis ~ LSD.
~ Carl Sagan ~ marijuana.

This isn't to suggest that drugs make you smarter. It does suggest (as confirmed by this writer's own experience) that certain drugs remove our societal or personal preconceptions, allowing us to see (literally and figuratively) not only from new perspectives, but also to notice details or relationships which weren't apparent to us while straight. There is thus a connection with creativity and original thought, common knowledge in the arts for many years. Move over, Lewis Carroll.

BLACKOUT

2012-01-17T22:14:00.002-07:00

Tomorrow, predatorhaven will go dark. No news, no information, no resources. Why? Because I'm protesting Internet censorship.

Websites all over the Internet, including sites like YouTube and MoveOn.org, could be made unavailable if big entertainment companies, the Chamber of Commerce, and their lobbyists get their way by ramming Internet censorship legislation (the Stop Online Piracy act, or SOPA, and the Protect IP Act, or PIPA) through the Senate.

That's why tomorrow, Wednesday, January 18, I'm joining Reddit, Wikipedia, Mozilla, Wordpress, TwitPic, Boing Boing, and thousands of other sites and blacking out predatorhaven in protest. (Click on the above image to enlarge.)

Call your elected officials.

Tell them you are their constituent, and you oppose SOPA and PIPA.

Why?

SOPA and PIPA cripple the free and open internet. They put the onus on website owners to police user-contributed material and call for the blocking of entire sites, even if the links are not to infringing material. Small sites will not have the sufficient resources to mount a legal challenge. Without opposition, large media companies may seek to cut off funding sources for small competing foreign sites, even if big media are wrong. Foreign sites will be blacklisted, which means they won't show up in major search engines.

In a post SOPA/PIPA world, Wikipedia --and many other useful informational sites-- cannot survive in a world where politicians regulate the Internet based on the influence of big money in Washington. It represents a framework for future restrictions and suppression. Congress says it's trying to protect the rights of copyright owners, but the "cure" that SOPA and PIPA represent is much more destructive than the disease they are trying to fix.

If you'd like to learn even more about SOPA/PIPA, click here.

THE STUDENTS ~ THE TEACHERS

2012-01-17T15:42:00.000-07:00

Thankfully, there are signs that all the feel-good "everyone's a winner" philosophy in education has run its course. Recently the Washington Post published an article titled In Schools, Self-esteem Is Losing Favor to Rigor, Finer-Tuned Praise. Here are a few relevant exerpts demonstrating why we haven't been doing our kids any favors in recent years ~

"For decades, the prevailing wisdom in education was that high self-esteem would lead to high achievement. The theory led to an avalanche of daily affirmations, awards ceremonies and attendance certificates ~ but few, if any, academic gains. Now, an increasing number of teachers are weaning themselves from what some call empty praise. Drawing on psychology and brain research, these educators aim to articulate a more precise, and scientific, vocabulary for praise that will push children to work through mistakes and take on more challenging assignments.

" .... A growing body of research over three decades shows that easy, unearned praise does not help students but instead interferes with significant learning opportunities. As schools ratchet up academic standards for all students, new buzzwords are 'persistence', 'risk-taking', and 'resilience' ~ each implying more sweat and strain than fuzzy, warm feelings.

" .... studies have found that praising children for intelligence ("You're so clever!) also backfires. In study after study, children rewarded for being smart become more likely to shy away from hard assignments that might tarnish their star reputations. But children praised for trying hard and taking risks tend to enjoy challenges and find greater success. Children also perform better in the long term when they believe that their intellect is not a birthright but something that grows and develops as they learn new things."

Speaking from my experience as a student at secondary and university levels, and also from my experience as a teacher of high school students, I welcome this news. Everyone in a learning situation (regardless of age) welcomes challenge, so long as they are being encouraged and treated with respect by an informed and enthusiastic teacher. Just as we master a physical skill by starting out with the basics and gradually raising the bar for performance, so we also master intellectual challenge by imposing high expectations accompanied by training and praise for achievement. That was certainly the approach during my education, and I thrived on it. One might even go out on a limb and suggest that the narcissistic "high self-esteem" movement is responsible for the sharp decline in learning by U.S. students compared to students of other nations, in every subject from language to science to history to math.

Naturally, the quality of teaching is critical. There are many fine, committed teachers and professors out there, people who stay current to developments in their fields, and who invest thought and creativity in their classroom performance. As with any profession, there are also a number of slackers, teachers who are content to skate by, teaching from the same lesson plans year after year ~ and who are rarely aware of the dulling effect this attitude has on their students. I'm a firm believer in merit-based promotion and the complete elimination of the tenure system. Teachers' performance should be reviewed annually, based on the learning that took place in their classrooms, as well as on their furthering their own skills and knowledge base through attending in-service trainings, seminars, and taking advanced university classes. And ALL teachers should be paid well, on a sliding scale based on merit.

Further, political and religious agendas must be removed from the classroom. School administrations and school boards need to develop the cajones to stand up to pressure from parents' groups which seek to impose their own cultural prejudices on what is being taught. This is true in the arts, in literature, and especially in the sciences. I just learned of a national organization, the National Center for Science Education, whose mission is to free science teachers to do what they were hired to do ~ teach science. Not religious fundamentalism, not conservative or liberal ideology. Science.

"The National Center for Science Education has been defending the teaching of evolution since Edwards vs. Aguillard, the 1987 Supreme Court decision that declared the teaching of creationism an unconstitutional promotion of religion .... the organization played a critical role in the Dover case, which blocked the teaching of creationism's descendent, intelligent design.

"Although the organization's title refers to science education generally, evolution has been the primary area of science that has been under attack for reasons that have nothing to do with the latest research. But over the last several years, that's changed as more and more bills have been introduced that target both evolution and climate change .... [the NCSE] is broadening its support of students and educators to include climate change.

" .... the NCSE's work with teachers on evolution made them aware that teaching climate science was becoming controversial ... What they found were some clear parallels between evolution and climate science. Just as the controversy over evolution takes place within the public but not among scientists .... There's not a debate going on within the scientific community about whether the climate is getting warm and whether people have a great deal to do with this.

" .... There are also parallels in terms of motivation. The basis for antievolution is ideological. There's also an ideological basis for anti-global warming, it just happens to be a political and economic ideology."

It is a sad indicator of the insecure faith in one's own religious beliefs that certain fundamentalist evangelicals feel compelled to impose their religion on others. In principle, doing so is rather pathetic and often annoying. In the public schools, there is absolutely no justification for ideology hampering or corrupting the teaching of science. If you want to teach religion, do it in church or in the home.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. 1929-1968

2012-01-16T14:07:00.001-07:00

I was 21 years old when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated. It was one of those events in which everyone remembers where they were when they heard the news. Dr. King, clergyman, orator, civil rights activist, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, advocate of non-violence, outspoken opponent of racial discrimination, poverty, and the Vietnam War, remains one of our nation's most beloved and revered voices of conscience. He was also reviled by those who advocated hatred and racial segregation, those anachronistic minds which feared what they did not understand.

On the day of Dr. King's death, I was in military communications, attached to a mobile battery of 155 mm self-propelled howitzers, at a temporary fire base in the outskirts of Cholon, the Chinese section of Saigon, South Vietnam. I was politically naive (hence my presence in the war), but I had heard enough about the charismatic Dr. King to know that upon his death by an assassin's bullet, all hell was likely to break loose back in the U.S. To some extent, it did. But there were also individuals who, in spite of their shock and grief, pleaded for restraint, to honor the vision of the slain leader. Robert F. Kennedy was one calling for peaceful mourning. Two months later he himself was assassinated. 1968 was a dark year.

But it was also a turning point. The counterculture joined mainstream American in eventually prevailing in our efforts to end the war, and to bring the deeply corrupt presidency of Richard M. Nixon to a close. All did not become roses and birdsong ~ a look around today will confirm that. But the times were dynamic, fraught with the potential for rising to our higher natures. No one personified that potential, complete with human frailties, than did Dr. King. Here is a link to his I Have A Dream speech, delivered to an audience of 250,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, on August 28, 1963 during the March on Washington. It remains one of the most stirring and visionary speeches in the history of this or any other nation.

ON CONSERVATIVES, REPUBLICANS, AND THE RICH

2012-01-15T15:48:00.000-07:00

(Click on the above image to enlarge, then read the red print at the borders to understand the message.)

Okay, it's true. I'm not conservative. Or a Republican. Or rich. So you might (might) be forgiven for thinking that what follows is uninformed, or partisan, or sour grapes. You would be wrong. What follows is solidly based in fact, well-researched, complete with citations. Read on, I dare you.

You Might Be a Conservative If ... is a collection of 22 beliefs voiced by many conservatives. Trouble is, all 22 are founded in misinformation, deliberate ignorance of history, hypocrisy, double standards, and lies (or half-truths, which is the same thing). You say you're upset that Obama has taken 61 paid vacation days to date? You support the first and second amendments to the U.S. Constitution? You're certain that former President Ronald Reagan was a devout Christian? You believe that the wealthiest Americans are "job creators"? Um, you might want to browse through the collection. You're in for a rude awakening.

Why Republicans Deny Science ~ The Quest for a Scientific Explanation is on a mission ~ to understand why it is that Republicans are significantly more likely than Democrats to deny the validity of evolution, or the existence of anthropogenic climate change, or the environemental dangers inherent in oil exploration and production (remember the Deepwater Horizon? All these concepts have been observed and documented and proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Yet Republicans remain in denial. Why? Chris Mooney suggests that "An increasing body of science suggests that we disagree about politics not for intellectual or philosophical reasons, but because we have fundamentally different ways of responding to the basic information presented to us by the world. These are often ways of which we are not even aware ~ automatic, subconscious ~ but that color all of our perceptions, and that effectively drive us apart politically. What's more, what is true for how we come to our opinions about politics is also assuredly true for how we approach 'facts' that are perceived to have some bearing on the validity of our political opinions ~ whether those facts are scientific, economic, historical, or even theological in nature."

How we come to our opinions may indeed partially explain the widening ideological rift which all but paralyzes politics these days. But that doesn't excuse us from stepping beyond knee-jerk responses and really thinking about the issues based on evidence, not bias. I believe that's one huge advantage to my training in the sciences ~ learning to consider evidence, even if it might subvert my working hypothesis. That's why resources like the collection of conservative beliefs referenced above, can be so valuable. They force us to question our assumptions. The result may confirm what we'd originally thought, or it may force us to re-evaluate. Our beliefs may even evolve over time. (There's a word for that. Progress.)

Rich People Lack Empathy, a new study finds. "Social psychologists are making an argument that Occupy Wall Street protesters have been saying for months. Many rich people just aren't in the habit of thinking of others. According to researchers at the University of California-Berkeley, people who grew up in economically comfortable circumstances are less attuned to the suffering of other people .... Such conclusions are especially relevant now, as the Occupy movement continues to focus national attention and criticism on the growing divide between rich and poor.

"While some wealthy people have defended themselves as merely embodying the ideals of American capitalism ~ a system where, the argument goes, anyone can make it to the top if they're willing to work hard ~ many Occupy protesters have offered a less flattering theory: that the rich, as a class, simply aren't concerned with the well-being of anyone else. The findings of the UC Berkeley team seem to suggest that this may be true, though the researchers make it a point of saying that it's likely the result of inexperience on the part of the rich, not necessarily malice."

I would add that, as in the discussion of Republican denialism above, being born wealthy does not deprive one of imagination. Here's a parallel. I wasn't born Jewish, yet that does not prevent me from feeling (as best a non-Jewish person can) the horror which accompanies the Holocaust. I also wasn't born female, yet I feel empathy for the physical, emotional, and economic struggles which girls and women endure in our society. In fact, I feel I have an obligation to become aware, to empathize, to support those who are oppressed or victimized. So the "inexperience" part of the explanation for the self-focus of the wealthy only holds so much water with me. You don't have to have experienced being lynched, or know someone who was, to identify with the scars which many black people carry in white society.

I'm persuaded that there is indeed an emotional/intellectual distinction between liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans. It may be partly a genetic predisposition, it is certainly influenced by the family and community in which we grew up, but ultimately we choose, every day, to hold to our beliefs or to reconsider them, when faced with the evidence presented every day in the news, in scientific studies, and in our own set of ethics (or lack thereof).

Are rich people merely unaware? I doubt it. It seems more likely to me that their greed overrules their social conscience. Is the system broken? Not exactly. But it's definitely rigged.

VIDEO SATURDAY

2012-01-14T14:32:00.000-07:00

Dove In Slow Motion ~ 45 seconds. This is visual poetry.

Reporter's Awkward Moment With Fan ~ 1 minute 22 seconds. Not much awkwardness, but some wonderful fan adoration, and reporter Sarah Kustok handled it with grace and humor. I love the last few seconds of the video.

President Obama .... A Man of the People ~ 5 minutes 46 seconds. This is unadulterated self-promotion, but nothing that isn't true ~ his smile, his intellect, his decisiveness, his humor, his ability to connect with people one-on-one, his love for his family, his commitment to people programs like health reform and raising employment, his willingness to listen to those with differing views, his raising America in the eyes of the world, his calm in the face of crisis, his compassion, his support for our troops, his being one very cool dude. "For facing the most difficult and loneliest job in the world with grace, dignity, honesty and strength .... and despite all the hate, pettiness, racism, greed, and corruption in Washington, President Obama still offers us Hope." The images tell the story.

Stephen Colbert Running for President, and 11 Other Times He Interrupted Politics ~ a collection of slyly hilarious Colbert moments during interviews, speeches, and outtakes from The Colbert Report. "For ages, plenty of celebrities have tried ~ and succeeded ~ at entering the political world as a product of devotion to public service, or ego. But few have done so expressly to make fun of our political process from the inside out." His legendary ruthless satire, delivered with a straight face and a twinkling eye, are not to be missed.

Boxer Puppy Greeted by Herd of Cows ~ 1 minute 8 seconds. My bet is the cows were thinking, "DAMN, that is one ugly calf."

AMERICA, INC.

2012-01-13T15:02:00.000-07:00

I've insisted for years that those who advocate that the U.S. be run like a business are naive at best, and venal at worst. Government is an entirely different animal from business. Why? Because most businesses exist to make a profit ~ by providing goods or services to paying customers. The customers in question are separate entities from the businesses in question.

But we, the people, are the government. Government exists to serve us, the citizens without whom government would have no meaning, no existence. We (individuals, corporations) pay taxes to provide revenue, and in exchange we obtain the benefits of citizenship ~ roads, schools, national defense, consumer protection, environmental protection, and regulation of business, which exists to make profit. That's the difference. That's the reason it is misleading to think rigidly in terms of a balanced budget or operating at profit, the terms of business. Government is not business. It takes in revenue, it distributes services.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman agrees. In his essay American Isn't a Corporation, Krugman explains ~ "Why isn't a national economy like a corporation? For one thing, there's no simple bottom line. For another, the economy is vastly more complex than even the largest private company. Most relevant to our current situation, however, is the point that even giant corporations sell the great bulk of what they produce to other people, not to their own employees ~ whereas even small countries sell most of what they produce to themselves, and big countries like American are overwhelmingly their own main customers.

"Yes, there's a global economy. But six out of seven American workers are employed in service industries, which are largely insulated from international competition, and even our manufacturers sell much of their production to the domestic market. And the fact that we sell mostly to ourselves makes an enormous difference when you think about policy.

"Consider what happens when a business engages in ruthless cost-cutting. From the point of view of the firm's owners (though not its workers), the more costs that are cut, the better. Any dollars taken off the cost side of the balance sheet are added to the bottom line.

"But the story is very different when a government slashes spending in the face of a depressed economy. Look at Greece, Spain, and Ireland, all of which have adopted harsh austerity policies. In each case, unemployment soared, because cuts in government spending mainly hit domestic producers. And in each case, the reduction in budget deficits was much less than expected, because tax receipts fell as output and employment collapsed."

See what I mean? This is one reason why anyone running for high office, especially for the presidency, should have not only legal training (which would include an understanding of the Constitution and the protections it guarantees to all citizens), but also should have some experience in actual government ~ whether as a state governor or as a U.S. Senator or Representative. Having a grasp of the larger picture is not only useful, it is essential. I do not regard experience in business as a desirable quality for a presidential contender.

Every time I read about a business deciding to cut costs by down-sizing, or by out-sourcing, I cringe. There are creative ways to cut costs without cutting your own throat. Such myopic measures nearly always mean lost jobs, ruined lives, less income for the company, and less tax revenue for the nation. There's something unpatriotic about placing personal greed ahead of the welfare of society. There, I said it, the P word. Patriotism isn't about waving the flag and thinking "America, right or wrong." Patriotism is about doing what's best for the country, and all of us are the country ~ not just the top 5 percent.

HOME SWEET MISSILE SILO

2012-01-12T18:11:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my friend Bill and to a website called Scouting New York for this amazing slide show ~ a Cold War-era SM-65F Atlas missile silo and control building which was converted into a luxury country home in the Adirondacks ~ complete with a multi-story home (only one of which is above ground), a guest log cabin, an FAA-approved 2,050 foot private runway and airplane hangar, and adjacent lands totaling 142 acres. The silo home even has its own website, which proclaims that the entire property can be had for a mere $1,760,000. The website provides details regarding the home's features, the launch control center, the silo, utilities, etc. But the step-by-step photo tour in the slide show offers images of better quality.

Gee, I'd like to have the $150,000 just for one of the private planes I like. Multiply that times 12, and I could have the entire layout. Thankfully, dreams are free. Now, go take the slide show tour, and prepare to be amazed.

BOOKS ~ MARIJUANA

2012-01-11T15:37:00.000-07:00

This is the kind of website I love to discover. Bookshelf Porn is not about pornography, but rather is a "collection of all the best bookshelf photos from around the world". Literally hundreds of photos, along with quotes and links to other websites. Who knew that books could be displayed in so many creative and visually entertaining ways? Do not miss the opportunity to browse through this design collection. It may give you ideas for your own home.

Breaking news ~ the NYTimes reports on a study which concludes that marijuana smoke does not harm human lungs. "The new research is one of the most extensive looks to date at whether long-term marijuana use causes pulmonary damage, and specifically whether its impact on the lungs is as harmful as smoking cigarettes. The researchers followed more than 5,000 people over two decades and found that regularly smoking marijuana ~ the equivalent of up to a joint a day for over seven years ~ did not impair performance on a lung function test. The test, a measure of pulmonary obstruction that looks at the amount of air a person can force out in one second after taking a deep breath, is typically worsened by smoking tobacco.

"In the near term, smoking marijuana irritates the airways and can cause coughing, and public health advocates stress that it causes impairment that reduces attention, lowers motivation and heightens the risk of accidents. Over days or weeks, chronic use can lead to problems with learning and memory."

Dr. Donald Tashkin, a pulmonologist at UCLA, said one reason marijuana may not be as harmful as tobacco smoke may be the fact that its active ingredient, THC, has anti-inflammatory effects.

MATH ERRORS ~ SCIENCE DATING

2012-01-10T16:12:00.001-07:00

This list is apparently going viral among sciency-mathy types. Thanks to Carin Bondar, Jennifer Ouellette, and Andrea Kuszewski for passing along 6 Small Math Errors That Caused Huge Disasters. The bottom line ~ there's a good reason for your teacher's insisting on math accuracy when you were in school. I spent eight years as a land survey instrument tender and filled in as survey party chief, back during the Punic Wars. It was not only normal but expected that we would check each other's math and drawings. Even those with years of experience in simple math, algebra, trigonometry and engineering goof up sometimes. The consequence may be tiny, or it may be huge and costly. Witness the disasters in the article, which could have been avoided with just a little more thought, or another set of eyes looking at the design ~

~ Airliner crashes due to window design.
~ Military jets crash due to aircraft carrier deck design.
~ Hotel walkway collapses due to the strain on a single bolt.
~ Hundreds die in a nightclub fire due to inward-opening doors.
~ The Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapses because it had no air holes for wind.
~ The Titanic sinks because its central propeller doesn't work in reverse.

So do all those math drills, kids, until you can do the math in your head. Then get someone to check your work anyway. And do check out the disaster link for illustrations, videos, and a fuller explanation of the causes of each 'learning moment'.

This via Carin Bondar, with tongue only half in cheek ~ 5 Things You Should Know Before Dating a Scientist. "So you've been eyeing that smart, attractive scientist you're lucky enough to know personally. You're intrigued. Your scientist is smart, funny, confident .... Who can blame you? Science is a sexy occupation. But scientists aren't like the bimbos you usually pick up at the bar. Nor are they the a-holes you ladies continually fall for. No, scientists are different beings (which is why you're attracted to them in the first place), and you should realize that this isn't going to be a run-of-the-mill, boring, lame relationship you're used to."

Why? Click on the link for a fuller, and rather earthy, explanation. Here's the summary ~

~ We can figure things out.
~ At some point, you will be a topic.
~ Yes, we think we're smarter than you.
~ You're not less important than the job. The job is just more important than anything else.
~ You won't be disappointed.

Lastly, just for fun, here is an interactive, color-coded illustration of the human spine and its component vertebrae (illustrated above, click to enlarge). At the linked website, position your cursor over each vertebra in turn to see what parts of the body it supports and its attendant nerves connect to, and what symptoms may occur when it is out of alignment. Caveat ~ do not respond to "click here for an appointment". Chiropractors want your money. That doesn't detract from the information provided.

REPTILES & TRAINS & SEX

2012-01-09T16:52:00.001-07:00

Did you know that 26 U.S. states have a designated state reptile? Seems like our scaly cousins are getting short shrift compared to birds ~ there are 50 feathered state symbols. The first state reptile was named in 1969 (Oklahoma's collared lizard). Since then snakes, turtles and alligators have joined the roster (click on the above image to enlarge). Check out the link to see a map of reptile-friendly states, and a list complete with vivid photos. I think my favorites are Arizona and Florida, though I admit to a lifelong fascination with reptilians. Which might explain a few of my choices in girlfriends.

I also admit to a lifelong fascination with model trains. My dad worked on trains while in the Army in WWII Europe. He may have been behind my first train set, as a pre-schooler. I was best friends with his boss's daughters, who had an elaborate model train layout in their basement. I never got around to building my own ~ it requires a lot of space, time, and cash. But HO dreams never die. Here is a video showing how to create train scenery. Kinda fun, if you're into it.

Lastly, for guaranteed giggles and groans, check out this short video excerpt from the TV game show "Family Feud" ~ in which men answer the pressing question, "You'd do WHAT for sex?" That's all I'm going to say.

NATURAL HEROES ~ CAPITALIST JESUS

2012-01-08T15:05:00.000-07:00

I chanced upon an episode of an Emmy Award-winning PBS show I hadn't known existed. It's called Natural Heroes. The premise is simple ~ each episode contains several short, independent films which illustrate how "all over the world, people are finding ways to bring clean air and water back to their communities, and ensure that their schools and neighborhoods are healthy." The fourth and fifth seasons are currently airing in the U.S., and you can view previous episodes at the website, as well as a nationwide listing of stations which air the series.

Here is a link to the episode which hooked me ~ scroll down to the screenview titled "The Story of More Stuff" (divided into electronics, cosmetics, and bottled water). Narrator Annie Leonard explains how our desires for consumer goods are manipulated by manufacturers and lawmakers, how our basic human needs are controlled by suppliers, and the costs we pay in toxicity to our bodies, degradation to the environment, and hits to our wallets. The tone is informative, enthusiastic, and down to earth, illustrated by animated line drawings. The pacing is right, and the information is priceless.

And this is just one half-hour episode. You can browse all episodes from seasons 1-6. The topics vary widely, but the content is valuable to all informed consumers and voters. Your children and your grandchildren will thank you for becoming familiar with Natural Heroes ~ you may even decide to become involved in a project yourself. That's why they call it independent film.

In a similar vein, check out this two-minute clip called Capitalist Jesus ~ the disconnect between the original purity of Christ's teachings, and what capitalism has mutated into, forms a chasm that is profoundly wide and deep. I have a feeling, though I don't yet have my own copy, that the clip is taken from Michael Moore's 2009 movie Capitalism: A Love Story. There are those who dismiss Moore as an overweight mudslinger. I am not among them. He has the integrity and courage to take on the most powerful vested interests in the country ~ pulling aside the curtain to reveal that the emporer has no clothes. From the NRA and the gun industry (Bowling For Columbine) to the train wreck we call healthcare (Sicko) to the egregious web of deceit and fraud surrounding 9/11 and the resulting war in Iraq (Farenheit 9/11), Moore has taken on topics which affect us all, yet about which there is much obfuscation and misdirection by those in political and corporate power. If the truth hurts, so be it.

GENDER

2012-01-07T15:17:00.002-07:00

I'm addressing three distinct but related issues in this post. Please read on.

Marriage Contracts: Should We Have Term Limits? Rita Arens introduces her meditation on marriage thus ~ "Last year marked my ten-year wedding anniversary. I love the legal protections of marriage ~ no one argues that my husband can't pick me up from the hospital or shouldn't be able to pick something up for me or inherit my money. I love the psychological aspect of marriage too ~ but it's the LEGAL aspect of marriage that ups the ante societally from living together. The legal aspect is also the part I think we should change. We should have marital term limits. I have several reasons. They are my opinions.

~ "Marriage is the only common American legal contract I can think of that has no expiration date .... Marriage is a legal contract, and as much as I love the protections it provides, I see no reason why all hell should have to break loose if you want to sever that contract or limit it in some other legal way.

~ "Divorces shouldn't be allowed to snarl up the courts as much as they do.

~ "Putting in term limits makes re-upping even more romantic than getting married in the first place. Getting married is much easier than staying married .... Staying married because you choose it every day is a different feeling from staying married because you got married. Conscious choice makes things more valuable.

~ "Break-ups are going to happen whether or not we make it simple legally for them to happen ~ the divorce data reflects that .... In the case of marital term limits, no longer are mid-life crises or affairs or even two sets of lawyers needed. One person just moves out.

~ "If you want to stay together (and I hope you do!), re-upping needn't be so hard .... It's not like you have to have a wedding all over again. We renew our health insurance and car insurance every year, we pay taxes every year. Why not re-up our marriage certificates every 5-10 years?

~ "And the real reason ~ term limits separate the legal relationship from the religious relationship .... We have all sorts of separation of church and state in government, and I can't figure out why we're hanging on to this one."

Recognizing that people change, Arens goes on to quote Maura Kelly ~ "It's likely that many divorcees earnestly planned for lifelong partnerships but simply didn't sufficiently understand life, themselves or their spouses. Perhaps they were incapable of envisioning the ways in which their significant others ~ or they themselves ~ would change. They may have been surprised by their partner's inability to change or their own intransigence. Punishing them for not being able to foresee the future seems unnecessarily draconian."

There is much more substance in Arens' essay. Whether or not you instinctively agree or disagree with her ideas, you will find food for thought in them.

Why Growing Up as an American Female Has Left Me Wary of Men. It is a truism which most men don't grasp ~ that most women experience repeated disrespect and abuse at the hands of men, starting at a very young age. The writer sheds light on that experience by recounting her encounters with males, as a child and as an adult. Please don't dismiss her story as mere anecdote. Nearly every female in our culture could recount similar memories, many so distressing that it becomes necessary to sublimate the memory itself in order to function. The writer is careful to note that not all men are careless or cruel, that in fact the men she's chosen to include in her circle of friends are all thoughtful and self-aware. But based on the life stories of so many women, such men must make up a minority in our culture.

The Ugly Facts About Rape. Saving the most ugliest for last, here is a sampling of the results from the CDC National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey ~

~ Nearly 1 in 5 women (18.5%) and 1 in 71 men (1.4%) in the United States have been raped at some time in their lives.

~ More than half (51.1%) of female victims of rape report being raped by an intimate partner, and 40.8% by an acquaintance. For male victims, more than half (52.4%) reported being raped by an acquaintance and 15.1% by a stranger.

~ Most female victims of completed rape (79.6%) experienced their first rape before the age of 25. 42.2% experienced their first completed rape before the age of 18 years.

~ More than one-quarter of male victims of completed rape (27.8%) experienced their first rape when they were 10 years of age or younger.

For many, it's not a very pretty world. For a window into the loss of innocence, I recommend the movie Sleepers. It is based on real events, and deeply disturbing to watch at times. But I am a firm believer in our responsibility to adopt the Quaker practice of bearing witness, being mindfully present and attentive to unpleasant events, especially those over which we have no control. It is important to the victims, and to ourselves.

CONTINENTAL DRIFT ~ BEST SCIENCE WRITING

2012-01-06T14:33:00.000-07:00

How quickly time flies. It was one hundred years ago today that Alfred Wegener introduced the concept of continental drift to modern science. His hypothesis remained controversial for decades, in spite of evidence ranging from the matching contours of coastlines separated by oceans (think about how nicely eastern South America and western Africa fit together), to similar plant and animal fossils found on opposing shores, to the matching distribution of glacial sediments across continents. Wegener had discerned the phenomenon, but he did not have the resources to explain the mechanism. That came along half a century later, when the theory of plate tectonics was fully developed ~ the earth's surface (including the sea floor) is a crust comprised of a network of plates in constant motion, riding on circulating currents of molten magma beneath. Plates are generated along mid-oceanic ridges where upwelling magma spreads in both directions from the ridge (seafloor spreading). When one plate collides with another, it may compress and push the second plate upward, forming our youngest and highest mountain ranges (the Himalayas, the Andes, the Rockies). Or, one plate may simply be forced beneath the other, to re-enter the molten substrate. Or, the sides of the two plates may simply bear against each other while moving in opposite directions. All of this activity is responsible for the bulk of the earthquakes and volcanoes which occur along plate boundaries. The image above (click to enlarge) illustrates the processes, and the image below shows the shapes and distribution of the global network of tectonic plates.

Wegener's story is similar to that of Charles Darwin, who proposed the theory of evolution through natural selection, but did not possess the resources to grasp selection's driving mechanism ~ genetics. It wasn't until Gregor Mendel published the results of his study of genetic inheritance among pea plants that the narrative was filled in. Still, both Wegener and Darwin were the visionaries whose minds were able to look at the concrete world and deduce explanations for what they saw.

And now, with a trumpet fanfare and a flourish of tympani, here are the most popular Scientific American blog posts of 2011. Inclusion in this list of 30 essays is a high achievement among science writers, and I'm pleased that several of my Google+ friends made the list ~ Christie Wilcox (# 8 and 10), Jennifer Ouellette (# 12), and Andrea Kuszewski (# 1). Each title on the list links to the corresponding essay, so that you can get a taste of the rigor, insight, originality and quality which these writers have in common.

As a bonus, here is a link to Jennifer Ouellette's appearance on the Craig Ferguson show. Pretty hilarious.

FLOWCHART

2012-01-05T11:56:00.000-07:00

I discovered this Flowchart for Choosing Your Religion among the many postings on my newsfeed on Google+. After exploring the various amusing branchings, I realized that by and large, the conclusions are not far from accurate. See what you think ~ click on the image to enlarge.

A LITTLE MUSIC, MAESTRO

2012-01-04T15:18:00.000-07:00

This is just dandy ~ a website where you can enter your birth date and year (or any other significant date you're interested in), and see what song was #1 on the U.S. pop music charts. The listings extend back to 1940 ~ not far enough, in my opinion, since some great song-writing was going on in the 1920s and 1930s. It turns out my song was an orchestral version of "Heartaches" by the Ted Weems orchestra. I like the vocal version better. Sometimes it seems that the lyrics are the story of my love life, at least when I'm feeling sorry for myself.

Here's another dandy ~ a video of first lady Michelle Obama getting her Let's Move! dancing groove on, at a Washington DC middle school. Michelle's got moves ~ and she's clearly having a great time as she campaigns to end childhood obesity. Kind of a refreshing change from the staid decorum of most world leaders and their spouses. You go, girl !

IQ CEILING FOR POLICE

2012-01-03T16:38:00.003-07:00

I just discovered a news item from several months ago, reporting that an applicant for the New London, Ct, police force was denied employment because he had scored too high on an intelligence test. His exam score was 33, indicating an IQ of 125. "But New London police interviewed only candidates who scored between 20 and 27, on the theory that those who scored too high could get bored with police work and leave soon after undergoing costly training .... The average national score for police officers is 21 to 22, the equivalent of an IQ of 104, or just a little above average."

The applicant sued the city for discrimination, "alleging his civil rights were violated because he was denied equal protection under the law." Both the U.S. District Court and the 2nd Circuit Appeals court denied his claim, stating in part that the city did not discriminate because "the same standards were applied to everyone who took the test." WHAT? So if I've advertised for a personal assistant, and I reject any applicant who isn't a sexy, gorgeous young woman, that's okay because I've applied the same standards to all applicants, regardless of their ability? How is that not discrimination?

The courts further said that the city's hiring policy "might be unwise but was a rational way to reduce job turnover." I dispute that claim. There's nothing rational about refusing to hire a qualified and motivated applicant, based solely on the flimsy pretext of what might happen in the future. I suspect not only discrimination based on intelligence, but discrimination based on age (the applicant was a 49-year-old college graduate). The problem is, how do you document and prove such discrimination? You'd have to have access to the city's records, and carefully cross-reference hiring and retention by age, gender, IQ, race, nationality, religion, and prior experience, just to arrive at a scientific sampling of what's really going on. And the city is hardly likely to release those records without a court order. And the courts do not seem disposed to stir the waters of the city's hiring practices.

Their policy is entirely counter-intuitive. I'd rather have the most intelligent police officers protecting me, not merely average ones. There's another issue, one which some police departments share with the military. I have no scholarly evidence, but my experience and intuition tell me that those of average or lower intelligence are more likely to follow orders without question. It's all about command and control ~ and deniability. It's one thing to have individual hiring authorities follow discriminatory and regressive policies. It's quite another thing, and utterly confounding, for those policies to be upheld in federal court. I wish this had been pursued to the U.S. Supreme Court, because the attendant publicity might have shed a different light on the validity of New London's policies. Alas, the applicant dropped the lawsuit, and now works as a prison guard ~ a position where the average IQ is even lower than among police officers.

My sister is a police officer in San Francisco. I'm certain that her intelligence is well above average, and she's been a loyal and effective employee for many years. But then, San Francisco is apparently more enlightened in many ways than certain other cities.

One last note ~ the news item mentioned that the national average IQ for police officers is 104, meaning that half have IQs of 104 or higher, and half have IQs of 104 or lower (see chart above, click to enlarge). So on the one hand there have to be a number of very bright cops out there, but on the other hand, there also must be a number who are struggling to keep up. Not an encouraging thought. Being a police officer is a demanding and sometimes dangerous job, calling for a wide range of skill sets, continuous retraining, and mature judgment. Our police departments should be staffed by the best and brightest, not by the merely average.

SCIENCE - USE IT OR LOST IT

2012-01-02T16:15:00.001-07:00

Physicist Lisa Randall in her CNN essay American Can't Afford To Lose Its Grip On Science ~

"If current political discussions are any indication, America is in danger not only of losing scientific leadership, but also of losing respect for the scientific method itself. This is at a time when the type of clear and rational thinking that science teaches us is more relevant than ever. Given the challenging problems we face today, our country needs to embrace the scientific values that have served us so well.

"Much of our economy, from the ever-tinier and more powerful products of our electronics industry to the most cost-effective manufacturing processes to the latest marketing and advertising tactics, has emerged from scientific advances and reasoning. So have many sensible government policies and programs, even if they are often also politically compromised.

"The scientific method lets us see how various policies have fared elsewhere (through observation and experiment) and in other cases we can anticipate the expected results of various policies. Of course political factors enter too, in policy debates in which actual scientific facts don't necessarily dominate the decision-making process. But in all cases, having a logical framework with which to move forward makes sense.

"Science is difficult in many cases. The shortcut to presenting reasoned arguments is to present the conclusions of scientists rather than the detailed logic and reasoning that went into their decisions .... Though scientists rely on expert opinions, the opinion of any scientist, no matter how important, ultimately has to be verified through facts. Everyone who is interested is free to examine date or evaluate ideas. A promising direction or an objection to existing suggestions will ultimately be heard. The key currency in science is reputation. Scientists know they have to pay attention to both good ideas and to objections, because science is unforgiving. Golden parachutes don't exist."

At the learning level, I discovered a NYTimes article that made me wish that I was still pursuing my degree today ~ Online Textbooks Aim To Make Science Leap From The Page. In addition to definitions, diagrams, and discussion, virtual texts (see image above, click to enlarge) "are replete with punchy, interactive electronic features ~ from dynamic illustrations to short quizzes .... to audio and video clips woven into the text." Imagine, seeing an interactive image of the human brain or a map of an oil spill, and being able to manipulate the image to explore details and relationships. Further, when you purchase digital texts, they all fit in your handy IPad or other device.

Still in the realm of competitive education, take a look through 10 Lessons American Schools Can Learn From China. It was true thirty years ago, and is even more true today, that Asian students attending American universities enjoy a clear advantage in the preparation they've undergone before ever matriculating. In China ~

~ Education is a top priority.

~ China is cutting out college majors that don't pay. (I have problems with this one.)

~ Teachers are retrained before being dismissed.

~ Education spending is growing.

~ China increased teacher pay and training to success.

~ There is reduced emphasis on rote learning, more on problem solving.

~ Non-attentive students are not tolerated.

~ Extracurricular activities are downplayed in favor of more studying.

~ Chinese students spend more time in school.

~ Schools recruit and retain key professors.

U.S. universities do practice a few of these measures, but in our society as a whole there is clearly a lack of understanding and support for quality higher education for every student.

As one small step toward correcting the situation, I offer How To Argue With A Scientist: A Guide. Jacquelyn Gill has "collected the most commonly used phrases and turned them into everyday English, so that the next time you argue with a scientist, you'll not only better understand their arguments, but you might learn how to make yours better, too." Core concepts explained include ~

~ sample size

~ anecdotal evidence

~ the scientific method

~ peer review

~ bias

~ consensus

She ends as follows: "Insert many caveats about generalizations and oversimplification here. This is meant as an introductory guide, not a thorough treatise. Historians and philosophers of science will likely cringe, but the goal here is the edification of the layperson." Let's hear it for edification !

THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT

2012-01-01T15:51:00.001-07:00

Since I retired several years ago, I've had more time for (among other things) reading, writing, and watching Netflix DVDs. The latter have included movies ~ studio, independent, and foreign language ~ as well as a number of drama series originally offered on cable. I'd like to recommend several of those cable series, based on their consistently high quality performances and production values.

~ In Treatment ~ by far the most original and thoughtful drama I've seen in years. Each DVD features five episodes showing sessions between a psychologist (played exquisitely by Gabriel Byrne) and his patients, as well as sessions between the psychologist and his own therapist. Because the setup has us revisiting each patient week by week, we become drawn into their lives and their issues, which run the full gamut of human complexity. The genius of the screenplay is that as silent observers, we see people at their most vulnerable, and realize as therapy progresses that there is more going on than first met the eye. We get to ask ourselves what we would do differently, both as the patient and as the therapist. An aside ~ during his own sessions as client, the psychologist can be as irrational and in need of guidance as his own patients are, a brilliant touch which happens to ring true with my own experience in therapy and in peer counseling. Describing the series sounds dry. Watching it is riveting.

~ The United States of Tara ~ a comedy-drama about a wife and mother (played by virtuoso Toni Colette) who has dissociative identity disorder. Her core personality is inhabited by several wildly different alternate personalities. When triggered by stress, any one of them may emerge to take over the host's body ~ and all her "alter" personalities know each other (inhabiting the same brain, as they do), though they don't necessarily get along. When I watched the first few episodes, I thought, "Okay, this is mildly interesting, but where's it going?" I'm glad I stuck with it, because as is the case with In Treatment, the viewer has to wonder how he/she would handle a situation where one's wife/mother/sister/daughter/friend might transform into someone else entirely. Her family and friends have learned to simply interact with each distinct personality, knowing that the original will return, but it makes for some hilarious or touching situations.

~ The L Word ~ I described this show in a previous post, but my high regard remains for this excellent series about a group of lesbian, bisexual, and transgender friends living in West Hollywood. You can't help but care about the characters in the ensemble cast, and identify with their passions, struggles, and joys. I may have to watch the entire series again.

~ Burn Notice ~ an action drama about a discredited spy who is trying to regain his job and his reputation, and in the meantime supports himself as a private investigator in Miami. The spy teams up with his ex-IRA girlfriend (a wee slip of a girl who happens to love explosives and automatic weapons) and a buddy who was once a Navy SEAL, taking on cases that range from kidnapping to extortion to counter-espionage. Their combined skills in military, paramilitary, and espionage make for an interesting window into another world, one where law and ethics may overlap, or may not.

~ Justified ~ any law enforcement series based on Elmore Leonard characters is bound to be colorful and fascinating. Timothy Olyphant plays a U.S. Marshal, "something of a 19th century officer in modern times, whose unconventional enforcement of justice makes him a target with criminals and a problem for his superiors." Olyphant, as he did in the series Deadwood, comes across as taciturn, observant, with a keen eye for things not being quite right. His approach is to talk people into doing what they need to, but if he has to draw his sidearm, he'll shoot to kill. Telling a criminal that to his face has a powerful effect.

~ The Wire ~ the title refers to surveillance conducted by a special unit of Baltimore Police Detectives, assembled to ferret out and arrest criminals in the illegal drug trade, the seaport system, and city government. This is another fine ensemble cast, and the plots and settings take us onto gritty streets where anyone you meet is probably a predator. Some fine, tense moments.

~ Band of Brothers ~ war is a theme which has been explored thousands of times, but rarely so effectively. Based on real events and real characters, the series follows members of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division during World War II, from basic training to parachuting behind German lines on D-Day, thence through Operation Market Garden, the siege of Bastogne, and the eventual capture of Hitler's Eagle's Nest in the Bavarian Alps. The prevalence and trauma of violence are portrayed starkly, true to the times. The courage, terror, and humanity of the men of Easy are a microcosm of the generation who fought that war ~ the defining event of the 20th century.

~ Firefly ~ a wonderfully original space western, centered on the nine crew members of a space transport as they make a renegade living on the edges of a star system governed by an oppressive military alliance. The dialogue, props, and plot are wildly entertaining ~ old West mannerisms in space, in a culture which is a blend of American and Chinese influence. Nathan Fillion stars as Captain Malcolm Reynolds, an outlaw with a heart of gold. The criminally short-lived series was revived as a feature film, Serenity.

~ Battlestar Galactica ~ a fugitive fleet of assorted civilian space ships, defended by the eponymous military battleship and fighter carrier Galactica, flees the decimation of the human race by the Cylons, a cybernetic race created by humans. Edward James Olmos stars as the commander, with Mary McDonnell as the president of the twelve decimated human colonies, and Tricia Helfer as Cylon model number 6. The story alternates between character-driven plotlines and space combat sequences, with one overlying goal ~ to somehow locate and return to ancestral Earth.

I detect several common threads linking my choices ~ an emphasis on fully fleshed-out characters, original and evocative screenplays, emotional nuance, and respect for the intelligence of the audience. I'm interested in any feedback which you may have. Please click on "comments" below, and tell me your thoughts. Happy New Year !

FUTURE SEX NOW

2011-12-31T13:56:00.000-07:00

From Sexbots for Women ~ "What do females want in a cyborg lover? Androids that provide erotic pleasure for humans, a.k.a. 'Sexbots', are destined to end up in our beds in the future .... Typically, such sexbots are regarded as machines designed for men. But don't women also desire cyborg stimulation? When will their plastic paramours arrive? What will they look for in a mechanized lover? How will female lust for robotic romance impact relationships and society?"

What follows is a lively, provocative interview between Ethical Technology's Hank Pellissier and two women with an avid interest in alternative sex ~ IEET Program Director Kristi Scott, and transhumanist author Dominique Mainon. Their conversation is wide-ranging and provocative, and not to be missed.

No less provocative is the opening of a new science fiction-themed bordello northwest of Las Vegas. Alien Cathouse will feature sex workers imaged after Star Wars, Star Trek, and other famous sci-fi and fantasy characters. I have never been intimate with a hooker, and don't intend to. Still, the thought of a close encounter with one of the women from Firefly/Serenity, Battlestar Galactica, or X-Men is, well, titillating. Add ten-foot-tall Neytin from Avatar, and the possibilities grow exponentially.

RENAISSANCE THINKING

2011-12-30T15:10:00.000-07:00

"Do you think like a polymath? Here's a quick test ~ Are you more of a rational or an experiential/intuitive thinker? If you cringed as you read the question and thought to yourself 'I love constantly shifting between both modes of thought', then you're on the polymath path.

"According to psychologist Seymour Epstein's cognitive-experiential self-theory, humans have two parallel but interacting modes of information processing. The rational system is analytic, logical, abstract, and requires justification by logic and evidence. In contrast, the experiential system is holistic, affective, concrete, experienced passively, processes information automatically, and is self-evidently valid (experience alone is enough for belief) .... According to the theory, neither mode of thought is absolutely more important, and neither mode is intelligence. Instead, the key to intelligence is the ability to switch flexibly between modes of thought depending on the task at hand."

Dr. Barry Scott Kaufman's essay How Renaissance People Think goes on to list specific advantages and disadvantages for each mode of thought, and to demonstrate how integrating them heightens creativity and enhances social relationships. He concludes thus ~ "Those who are open to experiencing both analytical thought and experiential thought and are flexible enough to switch between the two .... have the greatest chances of not only changing the world for the better, but also forming deep, empathic connections with others .... So, want to be a Renaissance person? First step, start thinking like one."

A cautionary note ~ the rational/intuitive dichotomy should not be confused with left brain/right brain thinking. The latter concept has been discredited. We perform both modes of thought on both sides of our brain.

On a slightly different train of thought ("All aboard for the Southwest Zephyr!"), check out How to Ace a Google Interview. The Internet giant relies not only on standard job interview questions, but also on puzzles and riddles which test an applicant's lateral thinking and ability to deal with ambiguity. Their brain teasers require you to not only examine clues within the question, but also to examine your own assumptions about the question. Click on the link to be walked through several sample questions, and to learn why "the best answers to many questions begin with 'It depends'."

ICE MELT ACCELERATING

2011-12-29T17:22:00.000-07:00

For those few who still doubt that human-generated greenhouse gases are causing runaway global warming (and also for those of us who have understood the danger for several decades), the PBS NOVA special Extreme Ice is jaw-dropping. The program demonstrates with compelling video and scientific data the extent to which glaciers around the globe are disappearing ~ rivers of ice disintegrating faster than they can be replenished by snowfall. The same holds true for the vast ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica. As ice on a glacier or ice sheet melts, gravity channels it to low-lying hollows which become temporary lakes ~ temporary because the combination of water pressure and the water's warmer temperature cleave fissures into the underlying ice, fracturing it to depths up to a mile. The water flow reaches bedrock and proceeds to carve its way downhill toward the sea, lubricating the flow of the overlying ice. It is a self-perpetuating cycle on a monumental scale, beautiful and terrifying.

Okay, you ask, it's all very impressive, but so what? After all, Earth has always gone through periods of warming and cooling, influenced mostly by shifts in the planet's orbit. But this is different. Due to man-induced global warming, the ice melt has accelerated more quickly, over a much shorter period of time (since the start of the Industrial Revolution, when we began pouring greenhouse gases into the atmosphere), surpassing ANY recorded changes in the geologic record. The likelihood is real for a rise in sea level of three feet (one meter) or more by the end of this century, flooding coastal cities worldwide (see image above, click to enlarge), and altering the circulation within the world ocean and within the atmosphere, with climate consequences we cannot yet imagine.

Please click on the link and watch for just a few minutes. You'll be hooked.

By coincidence, earlier this month a NYTimes article examined another, somewhat overlooked aspect of global warming and ice melt ~ the thawing of permafrost in the world's arctic regions. Permafrost "underlies nearly a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere, and contains twice as much carbon as the entire atmosphere." Melting permafrost will release not only carbon dioxide, but also methane, a gas which traps even more of the sun's heat.

Even if we had begun to rigorously rein in our greenhouse gas emissions in 1980, it would have been a toss-up whether we had already passed the point of no return. Now .... this observer is certain that we have already passed the threshold. We have set in motion processes which we understand but poorly, and which are irreversible. Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

CANIS SOUP

2011-12-28T15:03:00.000-07:00

No, gentle reader, the title does not refer to recipes for stewing, braising, or broiling local members of the genus Canis ~ in North America, including wolves, coyotes, and foxes, not to mention domestic dogs. Rather, it refers to our increasing understanding of how and to what extent certain canids (especially wolves and coyotes) interbreed to produce viable offspring. A Scientific American blog post addresses interbreeding with illustrated descriptions of the species and their hybrid offspring. (An image of a coywolf appears above ~ click to enlarge.)

It is a fascinating and well-told story. My only quibble is with the author's portraying the wolf as "romantic and charismatic", while the coyote is described as a "pest." But perhaps that is just how much of our society sees them. I happen to have high regard for both species. Each is a top predator, meaning that each has survived over thousands of years by hunting using intelligent tactics. Further, the coyote has proved to be more adaptable to human intrusion ~ efforts to eradicate coyotes have actually increased their range and numbers. During my years living in the southern Arizona desert, it was always a thrill to hear coyotes howling at night. I haven't had the pleasure of hearing wolves yet, a circumstance which stands in need of remedy.

Regular visitors to this forum know that I am a strong proponent for restoring as much of the globe as possible to a natural state, including the healthy presence of native predators. Conservationists face an uphill battle in persuading ranchers, farmers, hunters, and others that it is not only feasible but desirable to co-exist with all of nature's megafauna in a state of dynamic equilibrium.

There are success stories, notably in areas where predators like wolves have been re-introduced to parts of their former ranges. The wolves thrive, and over-populations of prey like elk and deer are winnowed to a healthy size as happened during all the millennia before the arrival of humans. Many human opponents refuse to adapt, going so far as to take the law into their own hands by killing any wolf in sight. Other former opponents take a more enlightened approach, cooperating with state and federal game agencies and conservation groups to selectively eliminate those predators who repeatedly kill livestock. Some former opponents, once they realize that there are ways to minimize predation, become defenders of the predators they once reviled. Some Montana ranchers who live near Yellowstone National park are among them, as documented in the PBS special Wolves in Paradise.

I recently came across an article which describes a potent solution to the conflict. The experiment took place in Africa, in an effort to dissuade lions from preying on villagers' cattle. The method is simplicity itself ~ conditioned taste aversion. Lions were allowed to eat beef which had been "treated with the deworming agent thiabendazole in doses large enough to make them temporarily sick to their stomachs .... After a few meals of treated beef, the lions were once again offered untreated meat." They refused.

The report states that conditioned taste aversion is "a natural defense mechanism enabling predators to survive encounters with prey with toxic [antipredator] defenses. When mammalian predators experience nausea after consuming prey with toxic defenses, they form an aversion to the taste and scent of these toxic animals. Long after recovering from the effects of a [sub-lethal] dose of the toxin, predators avoid offending prey wherever they are encountered." This result has implications for predator-human relations on every continent.

IN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEY

2011-12-27T15:48:00.000-07:00

I was fortunate to tune in to the PBS talk show Charlie Rose last week, when he interviewed actor Angelina Jolie on the occasion of the release of the first film she's directed, In The Land of Blood and Honey. I have enormous respect for Jolie as both an actor and a humanitarian. She is falsely portrayed in tabloids as egocentric and shallow, when in fact the 37-year-old actor has not only won numerous awards for her work, but is also a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The film's premise is a love story set during the Bosnian War, when Muslim Bosniaks, Orthodox Christian Serbs, and Catholic Croats ~ ethnic factions which had lived as friends and neighbors and had intermarried in pre-war Yugoslavia ~ became alienated and polarized. Murder, rape, and ultimately genocide were the result.

This is not ancient history. The war occurred between 1992 and 1995, and for most of that time the world stood by and did nothing. Precisely because these events happened so recently (as have similar wars and genocides in other parts of the world), Jolie "wrote and directed the film to rekindle attention for the survivors." The movie was shot on location, using Bosniak, Serb, and Croat actors who had lived through the events protrayed.

I invite you to watch Rose's interview with Jolie and three of her actors. A disturbing subject is discussed with empathy and intelligence. Simply click here for the web page, then click again on Jolie's picture to start the video. A written transcript appears below the video.

CROWD DYNAMICS ~ FOSSIL FUELS

2011-12-26T13:50:00.000-07:00

"Imagine that you are French. You are walking along a busy pavement in Paris and another pedestrian is approaching from the opposite direction. A collision will occur unless you move out of the other's way. Which way do you step?"

This is the set-up for The Wisdom of Crowds ~ The Strange But Extremely Valuable Science of How Pedestrians Behave. Our decisions while moving through crowds are frequently subliminal, based on the culture in which we grew up, on the subtle calculus of the movement of objects in space, and on the equally subtle interplay of eye contact and personal presence.

But there is more going on, as the article explains. The movements of individuals become naturally subsumed into the flow of groups, not unlike a collective mentality at work. The probability of the movement of particles is overlaid by the fleeting yet sophisticated judgments of intelligent minds. Dense crowds have a propensity to spontaneously break into lanes that allow people to move more efficiently in opposite directions. They also have a propensity to respond in a predictable fashion to obstacles like intersections. Interesting reading.

Speaking of crowding and compression, here is a splendid video which presents 300 years of fossil fuels in 300 seconds. Cleverly done and intensely informative, the inevitable upshot is that we must stop thinking and behaving in reaction to events, and start thinking and behaving proactively ~ taking a hard look at the harm we've caused, where it's going, and how we can turn things around to arrive at a healthy and sustainable future. Even if we didn't have our grandkids to consider (we do), we still owe it to our mother (Mother Earth) to make things right.

CHRISTMAS ORIGINS

2011-12-25T14:57:00.000-07:00

I first learned in high school Latin that for several centuries, the exact day of the birth of Christ was not precisely known. Originally his birth was celebrated on January 6, the day of epiphany. Later, in a move calculated to win converts, the date was officially moved to December 25 in order to coincide with the Roman festival Saturnalia, as well as with the pagan Scandinavian festival Yule, both of which approximated the winter solstice and the gradual return to longer days and shorter nights. Thus was Christmas born.

The customs and trappings which we associate with the holiday similarly are rooted in distinctly non-Christian origins. The video The Unwrapping of Christmas ~ Its History, Myths and Traditions casts light on why we give gifts, decorate Christmas trees, light Yule logs, hang mistletoe (my favorite), and why we teach our children to believe in Santa Claus. The Wikipedia article also looks at the holiday's origins and history, including controversies surrounding the holiday. (One of those controversies centered on the very name Christmas, or 'Christ mass', an inference which deeply offended early Puritan Protestants. Another controversy arises from the secular holiday shopping hysteria which has come to attend gift-giving, seemingly forgetting any focus on the spiritual message of peace and good will toward all peoples. Yes another controversy addresses the emphasis on the Christian holiday, to the exclusion of equally important non-Christian traditions such as Kwanzaa, Hannukah, Samhain, Festivus, and other winter festivals.

Here is a lovely alternative way of looking at the season ~ Carl Sagan's narration of A Universe Not Made For Us. His soothing voice and gentle application of intellect are a refreshing breeze, taking us back to a broader perspective on being human. You listen, you watch, and you can't help thinking, "Oh yeah, that's right. I'd forgotten."

Winding up on a lighter note, here's a brief Marx Brothers clip, The Sanity Clause. Cheers.

CHRISTMAS IN THE TRENCHES ~ DOG RESCUE

2011-12-24T15:28:00.001-07:00

Here are two true stories which portray, far more than frenzied gift buying or ritual sentimentality, the selfless, human meaning of this season. Each is understated, and genuine, and touches the heart.

The first story is celebrated in a ballad written and performed by John McCutcheon. It tells the story of a spontaneous Christmas Eve truce that took place 97 years ago today, during which German, British and French troops found respite from the cold, muddy, bloody trench warfare of World War I. How? By discovering their common humanity. The event was reenacted in the 2005 film Joyeux Noel. I was first introduced to the song nearly 20 years ago, by my good friend Dale Evarts, and it brought tears to my eyes. It still does.

The second story is told in a video showing "one of the most heartbreaking and beautiful" animal rescues ever filmed. The small dog in the video is clearly lost, terrified, starving, and probably abused ~ yet the gentle persistence of the rescuer eventually saves her from a grim fate. More tears of devastation and joy.

The common theme is clear ~ by reaching outside our lives, our assumptions, even our hatreds, we transcend circumstance and in doing so, become more sublime, more caring, more truly human.

BORDER SECURITY

2011-12-23T15:47:00.001-07:00

As most of us know, security checks while traveling are not limited to airports. Those entering the U.S. at highway border crossings are subject to similar scrutiny ~ including the need to have upon your person a current passport, even if you are a U.S. citizen returning to this country. One aspect of security searches has always troubled me, because of the potential for physical damage to one's belongings. That is using Xrays or other radiation detection on cameras, computers, and other film or digital devices (not to mention the cumulative carcinogenic effect upon the human body). TSA is quick to assure us that the screening devices used are used at sufficiently small strengths as to be harmless. This is not true. Anecdotally, back in the days of film photography, I've had exposed film fogged so badly that the images were useless, which is why I started carrying my rolls of 35mm film in lead-lined containers, easily opened for visual inspection, but not to be sent through a scanner.

Times have changed, but the threat of damage and issues of privacy remain. Hence the timeliness of an online guide called Defending Privacy at the U.S. Border: A Guide for Travelers Carrying Digital Devices. You can navigate through the document by using the scroll bar at the right, or by using the arrows at the bottom. It is a thorough and informative read, especially for those who may not be well-informed about (a) their rights, and (b) technical issues associated with our computers, cameras, and mobile phones. Table of contents headers include ~

~ Why can my devices be searched at the border?
~ How the government searches devices at the border
~ Deciding how to protect your data (the bulk of the document)
~ Interacting with border agents

Travel safely, travel wisely, and travel well-informed. By the way, did you know that if you live within 100 miles of any land or coastal section of the U.S. border, your rights under the U.S. Constitution might be summarily suspended in the name of national security? Further, did you know that 2 out of 3 Americans (197.4 million people) live within that 100-mile strip? Click on the map above for a better view.

Speaking of border security, it's useful to remind ourselves how we became Fortress U.S.A. in the first place. Gone are the days when your verbal assurance of American citizenship was sufficient at the Canada border, or a simple visa was adequate at the Mexico border. Here is a lively, provocative video entitled "9/11~ A Conspiracy Theory", complete with transcript. It is worth reminding ourselves repeatedly that the events surrounding that tragic day are shrouded in secrecy and double-dealing at the highest levels of our government, and that the resulting war in Iraq was justified by layers of lies, half-lies, and damned lies, spreading fear of non-existent weapons of mass destruction and terrorist cells, when the true driving force was assuring the flow of oil from that country. Terrorism undeniably exists ~ but we ourselves, by our words and deeds, are too often the cause of its being directed at us.

MENDEZ ~ PHOTOS ~ INSULTS ~ GERMAN CARS

2011-12-22T17:49:00.001-07:00

"At first I thought I was fighting to save rubber trees, then I thought I was fighting to save the Amazon rainforest. Now I realize I am fighting to save humanity." ~ Chico Mendez.

On this day in 1988, Brazilian environmentalist and human rights advocate Chico Mendez was assassinated. He was one of nineteen rural activists murdered that year, but certainly the most well-known ~ which also made him the greatest threat to the ranchers, rubber plantation owners, and government officials who felt threatened by his insistence on protecting native habitat and native peoples. His story was made into an award-winning documentary, as well as a cinematic drama.

The winners of the prestigious National Geographic 2011 photo contest have been announced, and here they are. The exquisite Grand Prize winner appears above (you'll definitely want to enlarge this image by clicking on it.)

Ever wonder what happened to the art of the insult? I refer not to the crude profanities which prevail today, but rather to the artful verbal stilettos wielded by piercing minds like those of Dorothy Parker, Oscar Wilde, and Winston Churchill. Despair not, gentle reader ~ I refer you to the most prolific linguist (and author of veiled and not-so-veiled insults) in the English language, Sir William Shakespeare. Here is a "tastefully offensive insult kit" ~ you have only to "combine one word from each of the three columns, prefaced with 'Thou'." Delicious.

Finally, this title speaks for itself, and it is fascinating reading ~ How Germany Builds Twice as Many Cars as the U.S. While Paying Its Workers Twice as Much. Small wonder that the German economy is the strongest in the entire European Union.

SPAWN OF GRAPHICS

2011-12-21T15:46:00.001-07:00

Yesterday's post featured visual images with brief captions. Today's post follows the trend, but today each image title is a link to an explanation of the picture. Please do check each link ~ the information is quite fascinating. (As always, click on any image to enlarge for full clarity.)

The scale of Saturn ~ you won't believe your eyes.

When Bubbles Get Comfortable ~ wait, aren't they supposed to be round?

U.S. Federal Budget Infographic ~ notice the only years we had a budget surplus.

xkcd - some new Science Mnemonics ~ *snort*

GRAPHICS FOR FUN AND PROFIT

2011-12-20T16:03:00.000-07:00

(Please click on any image to enlarge.)

Artist's concept of an underworld city.

Creation myths and the evidence supporting them.

Oops. Santa forgot to activate his transponder.

Graph comparing percent of Americans who support environmental protection with percent of Americans who prioritize the economy. Note that the environment was ascendant until the election of George W. Bush in 2000. After that, his disastrous political and fiscal policies put the U.S. into a tailspin, with a corresponding shift in public focus to the economy.

Safety vs. freedom.

Some days are like this.

Being a baby-boomer, I'd never considered this until I saw the graph. No wonder Christmas songs have become so boring.

Yup.

The ongoing effects of Reagonomics.

Ditto.

Is that a light saber you have in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

Typogram of a human skeleton.

BULLYING

2011-12-19T15:46:00.003-07:00

Like many of us, I was bullied as a child ~ by an individual and by a pair of individuals. The experience shook my self-esteem for years, until I received training in martial arts and the self-confidence that comes with knowing that you can defend yourself if need be. The experience also contributed to my clear positions on social justice for individuals, groups, and nations.

Recently Hogan Sherrow summarized recent research in his Scientific American article "The Origins of Bullying". The behavior has received increased public attention in recent years, as a result of the twin tragedies of victims committing mass shootings at schools, and victims committing suicide. To understand bullying, it helps first to define it. "According to psychological sources, bullying is a specific type of aggression in which (1) the behavior is to harm or disburb, (2) the behavior occurs repeatedly over time, and (3) there is an imbalance of power, with a more powerful prson or group attacking a less powerful one. this asymmetry may be physical or psychological, and the aggressive behavior may be verbal (e.g., name-calling, threats), physical (e.g., hitting), or psychological (e.g., rumors, shunning/exclusion). The key elements of this definition are that multiple means can be employed by the bully or bullies, intimidation is the goal, and bullying can happen on a one-on-one or group basis."

Sherrow goes on to establish that bullying is cross-cultural (not specific to any region or tradition), and that in fact it spans the entire order Primates ~ apes, monkeys, and humans. Humans, however, carry bullying several orders of complexity further. "Humans have taken an ancient behavior that used to provide an advantage in survival and reproduction, and altered its intensity and impact through language and culture. While physcal bullying is a serious issue and targets of bullying are beaten all too often, humans have intensified and expanded the impact of bullying by incorporating language. Language allows us to communicate abstract ideas, coordinate behaviors and express thoughts and feelings to others. Language also allows us to gossip, and gossiping is a key psychological element in bullying and can have serious, lasting effects.

"Language, combined with a phenomenal social memory that allows us to remember scores of individuals and their attributes, which we inherited from our primate ancestors, allows bullies to spread rumors about their targets, and inflict harm on them, without putting themselves at risk physically. Text and online bullying are extensions of this behavior, and further remove the bullies themselves from immediate risk. It is not anonymity that texting and online interactions provide, but rather the opportunity for individuals to distance themselves from potential conflict and risk that provides them with a platform to be cruel.

"Humans have further altered the impact of bullying-like behaviors through cultural practices and norms that celebrate violence and demand conformity to a narrow view of what is acceptable and normal .... the most intensive bullying is found in countries where violence and social intolerance are the most commonplace. In the U.S., views on violence, sexuality and what is normal impact the actions of our youth, and play on our inherent tendencies to coerce others into conformity .... Still, cultures do not 'create' bullies, and bullies are not found only in those cultures that practice social intolerance and glorify violence. The tendency to bully or coerce others is natural and deeply rooted in our evolutionary history, and emerges in any group of toddlers playing freely. However, when cultures condone, and in some cases celebrate violence and aggression, while suppressing or demonizing aspects of humanity that are equally natural such as homosexuality, they unwittingly give license to and encourage bullies.

"Bullying was there during the birth of our species, having been inherited from the earliest of our social ancestors. Species ranging from rats to chimpanzees regularly engage in bullying-like behaviors, and those behaviors provide advantages to the individuals who engage in them. However, the combinatory effects of language and culture on bullying in humans have distorted its effects, pushing it beyond individually advantageous to socially venomous. The result has been the crisis we see played out in our schools, shopping malls and social media websites ~ children and young adults bullying each other with devastating results. While nearly all anti-bullying programs are well-meaning and can show progress in the short term, they fail to get at the root of the problem. Addressing bullying through culturally-based social programs is like taking the flowerhead off a milk thistle. You will slow the growth and spread of the plant, but not for long. It is only through incorporating a deeper understanding of the antiquity of a behavior like bullying in our policies that we can hope to alter its impact on society. Like milk thistle, bullying must be pulled up by the root if we hope to remove it from the fields where our children grow and develop."

PERSON OF THE YEAR

2011-12-18T13:57:00.000-07:00

Today's post is a tribute to Time Magazine's choice for their annual Person of the Year. For 2011 the editors chose The Protestor (see image above) ~ "From the Arab Spring to Athens, from Occupy Wall Street to Moscow," it has been a monumental year for social change initiated not by political leaders or prominent public figures, but rather by ordinary people gathering together in one voice, demanding that dictators be ousted, and that corrupt holders of economic power be held accountable. We haven't seen this much public participation in shaping our own destinies since the antiwar protests of the 1960s and 1970s. If this trend were to continue, who knows ~ we might see the day (after bitter resistance by those in power) when government of, by, and for the people is once more a reality.

POVERTY

2011-12-17T18:07:00.000-07:00

From AP News ~ "Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans ~ nearly 1 in 2 ~ have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income .... Paychecks for low-income families are shrinking. The inflation-adjusted average earnings for the bottom 20 percent of families have fallen from $16,788 in 1979 to just under $15,000, and earnings for the next 20 percent have remained flat at $37,000. In contrast, higher-income brackets had significant wage growth since 1979, with earnings for the top 5 percent of families climbing 64 percent to more than $313,000."

Here are the official U.S. Census guidelines for poverty status in the contiguous United States ~

~ family of 1 ~ $10,890
~ family of 2 ~ $14,710
~ family of 3 ~ $18,530
~ family of 4 ~ $22,350
~ family of 5 ~ $26,170
~ family of 6 ~ $29,990
~ family of 7 ~ $33,810
~ family of 8 ~ $37,630
(each additional person, add $3,820)

By any measure of economics, politics, or morality, this is an untenable situation. The figures buttress what I've maintained often ~ that the gap between the wealthy top 5 percent and the remainder of the population has been widening for thirty years, to the point where not merely social unrest (like the Occupy movement) but social upheaval will occur unless our elected officials get off their collective behinds and institute revolutionary reform. Which is unlikely to happen, since most of those same officials are either wealthy themselves, or are in the pockets of the wealthy.

We frequently hear politicians and commentors (I refuse to use the term 'commentators', since it is a ridiculous construct to suppose that people 'commentate') describe our situation as varying degrees of economic recession. No one wants to be the first to use the D word, but I suggest that we are already verging into a very real depression ~ one created by Reaganomics to favor the wealthy, and one from which it will take us another thirty years to fully recover, even given the best of intentions by all parties. That latter given is a stretch in credulity. Most of the wealthy do not spread their wealth. A few donate to charitable causes (and then take the tax write-off), and even fewer voluntarily suggest that the American tax structure be revised to see to it that those making vast sums of money contribute a more significant portion to the common good. It is a disingenuous myth that these are the "job creators". They're in it for more, and more, and more wealth. Period.

Meanwhile, the numbers of impoverished continue to make up a larger and larger proportion of our population. It isn't so in every developed country. It is definitely so in America's distorted version of capitalism. We know that poverty is the foundation for poor education, poor health, and high levels of crime. It is in everyone's interest to hold the feet of the super-wealthy to the fire, and to hold them accountable for shouldering more responsibility for contributing to the commons. Failure to do so will only hasten our descent from the company of the informed and influential nations of the world.

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS 1949-2011

2011-12-16T15:51:00.006-07:00

I was shocked to learn that Christopher Hitchens died yesterday, at age 62. He was an author, journalist, critic, and one of the world's foremost intellectuals. The NYTimes described Hitchens as "a slashing polemicist in the tradition of Thomas Paine and George Orwell who trained his sights on targets as various as Henry Kissinger, the British monarchy and Mother Teresa, wrote a best-seller attacking religious belief [God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, a book which everyone, believer or non-believer, should read], and dismayed his former comrades on the left by enthusiastically supporting the American-led war in Iraq."

According to Wikipedia, "Identified as a champion of the 'New Atheism' Movement, Hitchens described himself as an antitheist and a believer in the philosophical values of the Enlightenment. Hitchens said that a person 'could be an atheist and wish that belief in cod were correct,', but that "an antitheist is someone who is relieved that there's no evidence for such an assertion. He argued that the concept of god or a supreme being is a totalitarian belief that destroys individual freedom, and that free expression and scientific discovery should replace religion as a means of teaching ethics and defining human civilization."

The Huffington Post notice features a video of Hitchens holding forth on "the benefits of reading your own obituary." He wrote in Vanity Fair that "In whatever kind of 'race' life may be, I am very abruptly become a finalist. He died of pneumonia as a complication of esophageal cancer.

Hitchens was an original thinker with a rapier wit. Here are two videos featuring him addressing audiences on religion in general, and evangelical bullies like Jerry Falwell in particular. Hitchens did not suffer fools gladly, and did not hesitate to call a space a spade. He will be missed.

Erratum ~ Yesterday I celebrated Beethoven's birthday a day early. To my knowledge it is the first time in the history of this forum that I've beat the other horses out of the gate so terribly. I'm not certain which troubles me more, that I posted a day early, or that no one appears to have noticed. In any event, happy birthday (again), Ludwig.

BEETHOVEN ~ RACISM IN CINEMA

2011-12-15T14:30:00.005-07:00

Today marks the 241st anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven, the musical giant who spanned the chasm between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music. Most people have their favorite Beethoven pieces, even if they're not aware of it. Among mine are theMoonlight Sonata for piano (which is also transcribed beautifully for classical guitar), and the Symphony No. 7, Second Movement (Allegretto). The second piece illustrates Beethoven's signature instrumentation, including French horn, oboe, cello, violin and trumpet. Enjoy.

Last week's episode of Rober Ebert's PBS series At The Movies was divided into three segments, each devoted to how African-Americans have been included and depicted in films. The first covers the time period pre-1960s. The second addresses 1960-1990. And the third discusses 1990 to the present. The half-hour presentation is timely, given that this year, not one black actor or director has been nominated for an Academy Award. To me this is an egregious omission and a step backward, given the wealth of talent in the black, Asian, and Latino communities. Memo toAMPAS ~ it's the 21st century. Time to join the rest of us.

CREATIVITY ~ VAGINAS

2011-12-14T14:49:00.002-07:00

My thanks to Facebook and G+ friend Andrea Kuszewski for the link to a column by Michael Machalko, titled Twelve Things You Were Never Taught In School About Creative Thinking. Below are the items on the list ~ you can click on the link to learn more about each item.

~ You are creative.

~ Creative thinking is work.

~ You must go through the motions of being creative.

~ Your brain is not a computer.

~ There is no one right answer.

~ Never stop with your first good idea.

~ Expect the experts to be negative.

~ Trust your instincts.

~ There is no such thing as failure.

~ You do not see things as they are. You see them as you are.

~ Always approach a problem on its own terms.

~ Learn to think unconventionally.

~ Creativity is paradoxical.

The tone and information attached to each item are both informative and encouraging. Let the ideas flow through you, play with them, and have fun !

In the spirit of lists, here's a very different one ~ 15 Crazy Things About Vaginas, written by OB/GYN physician and author Lissa Rankin. Her facts are not so much crazy as stunning (and far from common knowledge) ~ the human body never ceases to amaze me. What field could possibly be more fascinating than biology, the study of life?

BRAIN MYTHS ~ MIRRORS

2011-12-13T15:37:00.002-07:00

I consider myself to be reasonably well acquainted with anatomy (structure) and physiology (function) in humans and other organisms. Even so, I came across a few surprises in Nine Stubborn Brain Myths That Just Won't Die, Debunked By Science. Each one comes with the background for the myth, and the reasons why the myth just is not true. Check out the article for a fuller picture. Here are the myths, to whet your appetite ~

~ Left-brained people are organized, right-brained people are creative.

~ Your memory is an exact account of what you see and experience.

~ You only use 10% of your brain.

~ Alcohol kills brain cells. (It's effect is actually more insidious.)

~ The Internet is making us dumber.

~ Listening to classical music turns babies into geniuses.

~ Brain games make you smarter.

~ Your IQ is fixed and stays the same throughout your life.

~ Your brain works better under pressure.

Now get out there and use both sides of your entire brain, stop drinking, improve your IQ, and see about lowering the stress in your life. A relaxing hour of classical music is a good start !!

Here's another misconception with a surprising explanation ~ well, surprising to me, anyway. Have you ever wondered why mirrors appear to reverse left-right, but not up-down? As Matthew Francis explains, mirrors actually do neither. They reverse what you see front to back. What?? Sounds insane, but the explanation makes sense when you read it carefully and with an open mind. Which I cordially invite you to do. Mirror, mirror, on the wall ....

PRISONS AND SCHOOLS

2011-12-12T13:40:00.004-07:00

"The U.S. has less than 5 percent of the world's population. But it has almost a quarter of the world's prisoners." Phrased another way, the U.S. "has 751 people in prison or jail for every 100,000 in population. The only other major industrialized nation that comes even close is Russia, with 627 prisoners for every 100,000 people. The others have much lower rates. England's rate is 151. Germany's is 88. Japan's is 63." These figures come from a NYTimes report datelined April 2008. If you look at the current Wikipedia comparison of incarceration rates by country, little has changed. For a graphic representation, see the image above (click to enlarge).

Why does the U.S. have 1 out of every 100 adult citizens in jail or prison? Part of the answer can be found in an NPR analysis, The Root: The Price of Funding Jails Over Schools. This country's prison population skyrocketed with the introduction of the misguided war on drugs (see image below). Rather than tackling the disease (poverty, lack of education, poor health care), the government tackled one of the symptoms (drug use). The result was that by 1994, 1 million Americans each year went to prison on a drug charge.

American prisons and jails are so overcrowded that incarceration is often outsourced to private, for-profit detention centers. Conditions in both government and private facilities are a disgrace ~ staff brutality, poor food and healthcare, violence and rape among prisoners, and subhuman living conditions only scratch the surface. Imprisonment is also expensive, with the annual cost to taxpayers per prisoner averaging $24,000 ~ meaning that in some locations, the cost is much higher.

As the NPR report states, "Largely as a result of the War on Drugs — which includes police stops, arrests, and mandatory minimum sentences — more than half of all prison and jail inmates — including 56 percent of state prisoners, 45 percent of federal prisoners, and 64 percent of local jail inmates — are now those with mental health or drug problems .... While Americans of all races and ethnicities use illegal drugs at a rate proportionate to their total population representation, African Americans are imprisoned for drug offenses at 13 times the rate of their white counterparts .... According to "Unlocking America: Why and How to Reduce America's Prison Population," if African Americans and Latinos were incarcerated at the same rates as whites, today's prison and jail populations would decline by approximately 50 percent."

The NPR report also notes that "dollar for dollar, drug treatment is seven times more effective than incarceration for rehabilitating those suffering from drug addiction." Further, drug arrests and convictions do not differentiate between harmful drugs like heroin or crack cocaine, and relatively harmless substances like marijuana. Between one quarter and one half of all those incarcerated for drug offences, are in prison for marijuana. This is like tossing someone in slam for buying alcohol. Which raises the obvious comparison ~ wouldn't it make infinite sense to treat marijuana like alcohol ~ legalize it, regulate the quality of the product, and tax sales. But that's another story.

Bottom line, at a time when federal, state and local governments are cutting funding for education, we continue to spend nearly $70 billion annually on imprisoning more of our population than any developed country in the world. What's wrong with this picture?

PLAYING CATCH UP

2011-12-11T13:49:00.013-07:00

Whenever I come across an interesting or informative article, news item, or image that might be suitable to publish in this forum, I send the link to my desktop for future reference. Sometimes I write about an item immediately, sometimes I don't, and things accumulate. Today I'm clearing out the links related to politics. Now don't just move on to some other online activity just yet ~ scan the titles below first. If even one catches your eye, it will be a worthwhile investigation. 'Sides, some of them are so silly that they're fun.

The first entry is nine days old, but still an eye-opener. In The Bomb Buried in Obamacare Explodes Today ~ Hallelujah! we learn that one provision should have a long lasting and powerful impact on the future of health care in our country.

"That would be the provision of the law, called the medical loss ratio, that requires health insurance companies to spend 80% of the consumers’ premium dollars they collect—85% for large group insurers—on actual medical care rather than overhead, marketing expenses and profit. Failure on the part of insurers to meet this requirement will result in the insurers having to send their customers a rebate check representing the amount in which they underspend on actual medical care.

This is the true 'bomb' contained in Obamacare and the one item that will have more impact on the future of how medical care is paid for in this country than anything we've seen in quite some time. Indeed, it is this aspect of the law that represents the true 'death panel' found in Obamacare ~ but not one that is going to lead to the death of American consumers. Rather, the medical loss ratio will, ultimately, lead to the death of large parts of the private, for-profit health insurance industry.

Why? Because there is absolutely no way for-profit health insurers are going to be able to learn how to get by and still make a profit while being forced to spend at least 80 percent of their receipts providing their customers with the coverage for which they paid. If they could, we likely would never have seen the extraordinary efforts made by these companies to avoid paying benefits to their customers at the very moment they need it the most.

Today, that bomb goes off."

Next, consider The Top 10 Federal Contractors, All Working for the Military. "These corporations received $138.4 billion in taxpayer funds .... these ten corporations paid for the services of no fewer than 109 different lobbying firms deployed to Capitol Hill", with many lobbyists working for more than one contractor. The sheer audacity of all concerned in engaging in multiple levels of conflict of interest, at taxpayer expense, is staggering. Why are these funds not being devoted to public works projects like the WPA or the CCC, to lower unemployment?

Mostly because the majority of people in this country don't want to know, don't want to be bothered. They would rather numb their minds and trust those in economic, military and political power to make decisions for them. We the people are the decision-makers. All those highly-paid CEOs, generals, and politicians work for us. They are our employees. Yet, according to Ignorance Is Bliss When It Comes to Challenging Social Issues, "The less people know about important complex issues such as the economy, energy consumption and the environment, the more they want to avoid becoming well-informed, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association. And the more urgent the issue, the more people want to remain unaware." That is just sad.

It is also disturbing when you consider the 24 Policies That Republicans Supported BEFORE They Were Against Them. Government by principle, or government by expediency? We, the voters, must decide.

So what do you think ~ are we moving in the direction of becoming a police state? Given the assaultive behavior of police officers in multiple cities toward members of the Occupy movement, one could be forgiven for wondering. Here are Five Things That Have Civil Rights Advocates Nervous ~

~ Indefinite military detentions of U.S. citizens.

~ Targeting U.S. citizens for killing.

~ Arresting witnesses for recording police actions.

~ Using GPS to track your every move.

~ Surveillance drones spying on U.S. soil.

Sound paranoid? Every one of these acts has taken place, or is proposed to take place in the near future. Thankfully the third issue is already being addressed. Here is the detailed finding in Federal Court Rules That Videotaping Police Is A First Amendment Right. Those last three words are key to most of the volatile issues being played out on the streets and in Congress ~ rights guaranteed to individuals by the U.S. Constitution. Too many of those in politics, the military, and law enforcement seem never to have heard of that founding document, much less read and understood it.

Lastly, two articles on the gruesome imbalance of wealth distribution and taxation in our fair land ~ Taxing the 1% ~ Why The Top Tax Rate Could Be Over 80%, and Finally, A Rich American Destroys the Fiction That Rich People Create the Jobs. Hint ~ millionaires and billionaires seek only to increase their wealth by maximizing profits by any means necessary, up to and including firing portions of their workforce. "What creates jobs is the company's customers, who create demand for the company's products, which in turn creates the need for the employees to produce, seel and service those products. If those customers go broke, the demand for the company's products will collapse. And the jobs will disappear, regardless of what the entrepreneur does." In an economy with high unemployment, mortgage foreclosures, and stagnant wages, with jobs being outsourced to other nations, it is rather difficult to wave a magic wnd to generate customer demand. Thank you, Reaganomics. Thank you, Republican presidents and legislators since 1980 who have led us down the garden path.

IMAGE BROWSING

2011-12-10T15:37:00.003-07:00

Today's post is brief, tomorrow's will be better ~ unless you think that brief is better, I suppose.

First, scan through these rather stunning photos of Water Towers From Around The World. Design variations range from the near-primitive through gothic and baroque to futuristic. Very cool.

Second, here's a collection of 25 Vintage Ads Depicting Blatant Sexism in the context of love and marriage. The ads date mostly from the 1950's and 60's, with a few that are more current. The easiest way to view them is with the left/right direction arrows flanking the second illustration. The accompanying commentary says it all. Given the tenor of those times, it is a small miracle that women have made the gains they have ~ which is no reason to give up the struggle for true and complete equality, in pay, in promotion, in the full range of jobs available to both genders.

Finally, out of sheer perversity, don't miss this mathematical/philosophical discussion explaining Why the 3D Universe Leads to Murphy's Law. It's easy to follow, and the metaphorical bug's path (see above) is a perfect illustration to the inevitability of complication ~ especially in systems which include living beings.

FRACKING ~ LOTR

2011-12-09T13:39:00.003-07:00

A bit of background ~ in the epic 2004 sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica, life was far from pure and simple. People made mistakes, broke rules, sometimes even did awful things for good reasons. And like us, they cursed. The favorite default curse word in this distant future was (will be?) fracking, clearly a morphed form of fucking ~ that gloriously all-purpose term that can be a noun, a verb, and adjective, an adverb, and probably a preposition if put to the test. Here is a brief video sample of how "fracking" fits into daily conversation ~ and this is just among the women characters. (Don't get me wrong, the series isn't wall-to-wall cursing, but I think it lends credibility to the dialogue when cursing is included organically.)

So what does this have to do with anything? Well, imagine my amusement when I tuned in to the CBS Evening News last night, and one news segment was headlined "Fracking," in big bold letters on the screen. I wondered if the news anchor had a hard time keeping a straight face. It turns out that the report was about another kind of fracking ~ hydraulic fracturing of rock strata to release natural gas or oil. An unfortunate by-product of the process is contamination of ground water by the chemicals injected along with large volumes of water and sand ~ bad news for residents of places like Wyoming, where water for drinking and farmland irrigation is a precious commodity.

On a different note, those who have read J.R.R. Tolkien's epic fantasy trilogy The Lord of the Rings, or better yet have seen Peter Jackson's movie trilogy of the same name, will appreciate this bit of satire ~ Lord of the Rings: an allegory of the PhD? Dave Pritchard does a great job of introducing LOTR characters as people inhabiting academia, rather than Middle Earth. Have fun.

SEXUAL ATTRACTION'S EVIL TWIN

2011-12-08T13:44:00.002-07:00

Sexual harassment is no laughing matter. During the '60s and '70s, one stereotypical image was that of an attractive woman receiving wolf whistles and catcalls as she walked past a group of construction workers. Other, more sinister images exist ~ a coworker or supervisor persistently making unwelcome suggestive remarks, telling off-color jokes, even becoming physically intrusive. When rebuffed, the aggressor's response might range from verbal to physical abuse. (Note that I've painted a picture of male aggressors. Female aggressors prey upon males as well, something which is underreported in police reports and academic research.)

So here we are, decades later, and in some ways things have improved. Those men who are prone to becoming socially evolved, do not indulge in harassing behavior. But ask most women, and you'll come to understand that we're a long way from universal respect. Case in point ~ recently the prolific blogger on all things social and sexual, A.V. Flox, posted a powerful essay titled I Just Want To Go For A Walk. In it she describes a number of scenarios involving male strangers in which she feels uncomfortably defensive and alert to signs of trouble. She did not grow up feeling this way ~ she's lived all over the world, and didn't experience feeling unsafe until she moved to Los Angeles. The essay is an eye-opener for men and women alike, regardless of your feelings for or against feminism. It's not about that. It's about gender predation, and how that feels to the recipient. It matters (or should) to everyone. Harassment is not only disrespectful and predatory, it is illegal.

In direct response to IJWTGFAW, a male writer shared an anecdote, a scene he witnessed in which a woman was working at her computer in a public setting, minding her own business, and a man kept making increasingly aggressive passes at her, refusing to see (or admit) her polite nonresponsiveness as refusal. The piece is called Sometimes A Girl Just Wants To Get Her Work Done. I'm happy that it was written by a male. At least not all of us are Neanderthals.

Finally, and with no small measure of hilarity, I'm here to pass along an older study on homophobia, one which is receiving new attention in light of gay-bashing remarks made by some of the current field of Republican contenders for their party's presidential nomination. Sarah Jones reports in Proof That Homophobia Is Associated With Homosexual Arousal that "those who hate homosexuals are actually suppressing homosexual urges .... [Research] participants consisted of a group of homophobic men and a group of non-homophobic men. The men were exposed to sexually explicit erotic stimuli consisting of heterosexual, male homosexual, and lesbian videotapes, and changes in penile circumference were monitored. They also completed an Aggression Questionnaire. Both groups exhibited an increase in penile circumference to the heterosexual and female homosexual videos. Only the homophobic men showed an increase in penile erection in response to male homosexual stimuli. The groups did not differ in aggression. Homophobia is apparently associated with homosexual arousal that the homophobic individual is either unaware of or denies .... Heterosexual men with the most anti-gay attitudes, when asked, reported not being sexually aroused by gay male erotic videos. But, their penises reported otherwise."

Darn penises. The Republican Party flees in terror.

VISUALS

2011-12-07T16:10:00.003-07:00

Censorship. Click here for a side-by-side comparison of eight Time magazine cover photos. Notice that the editions marketed in Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific portray serious issues of global concern, while the edition marketed in the U.S. portrays smaller, more intellectually lightweight issues. Are the editors afraid that the American public can't think? Or might it be that global issues are being intentionally kept from us, precisely because we can think, and thought might lead to a deeper questioning of the media and political-economic establishments? As Arsenio Hall used to say, "Makes you think 'hmmmmm'."

Along the same lines, check out the video What They Won't Tell You About the National Debt. This won't be news to anyone who has followed this forum for any length of time. Since 1980, the national debt has tended to soar under Republican presidents, and to fall under Democratic presidents. This is because the G.O.P has been in lockstep with plutocratic Reaganomics for the past thirty years. It is a horrendously failed ideology, one which concentrates more and more wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer individuals. It's also because Republicans favor big-ticket spending like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, while Democrats favor more affordable human service programs. The video tells the story in four brief minutes.

Still on a visual theme, I was delighted to discover an article and accompanying artwork in the newsfeed of one of my Facebook friends ~ entitled What Children's Drawings Would Look Like If Painted Realistically. One word ~ wow.

In another visual realm entirely, here's a three minute video called Perpetual Ocean, showing global ocean surface currents from June 2005 through December 2007. Anyone with even a passing understanding of oceanography will recognize formations like the Gulf Stream, the Humboldt Current, and the formidable hemispheric gyres and prevailing currents of the world ocean. Earth's defining trait, the water that covers 70 percent of the planet's surface, is in constant, ever-shifting motion ~ just like the ocean of air that covers 100 percent of the surface.

Finally, I would be remiss if I failed to note that today marks the 70th anniversary of one of the defining events of the 20th century ~ the Japanese surprise attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It marked America's military entry into World War II in both the Pacific and European theaters, which ultimately turned the tide of war against Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan. Here is a slide show of images taken on the day of the attack. Each image is accompanied by a caption relating what you're seeing.

MYOPIC POSTAL SERVICE

2011-12-06T15:27:00.002-07:00

The US Postal Service announced yesterday that in order to address increasing losses of revenue (ostensibly caused by more people sending mail and bill payments online), it plans to institute draconian measures to cut costs. They include ~

~ eliminating next-day delivery for first-class mail.

~ shutting about half of its 487 mail processing centers nationwide, which would entail firing about 28,000 postal workers.

~ closing as many as 3700 of the nation's 32,000 post offices. Most of these will be rural. Above is a map of the projected 85 post office closures in Montana alone. For reference, the state is about 500 miles east to west, and 300 miles north to south, with roughly 1 million residents. Can you imagine how many will be affected if the USPS has its way?

~ reducing mail deliveries from six days a week to five.

~ cutting the overall postal work force of 653,000 employees by more than 100,000.

The USPS has annual budget costs of about $75 billion, and last year spent $5.1 billion more than it brought in. The impact of the Internet, as well as parcel delivery competition from FedEx and UPS, are part of the story. This writer contends that rigid thinking by USPS management is also responsible. It is ridiculous and short-sighted MBA thinking to propose that any business or government agency can cut costs by eliminating service and firing employees. How many scores of times have we heard that refrain during the past decade or two, from companies which subsequently failed because the reduced service they offered actually drove customers away?

I grew up in small towns where the post office was (and remains) the community's lifeline to the outside world, as well as a place to socialize. In MBA terms, it may make sense at first glance to close a tiny branch which serves only a few hundred residents. But that means those residents must then choose between traveling 10-50 miles to the nearest intact post office branch, or go without mail entirely. There is a place in this world for BOTH mail service and Internet service.

Further, many of the intended closures are not in tiny communities. One of the mail processing centers on the chopping block happens to be right here in Missoula, MT ~ a community of nearly 70,000 residents which also serves as a mail hub for double or triple that number in surrounding towns. To close distribution centers in the West, where they are already spaced hundreds of miles apart, will disrupt the lives of people and businesses to an unconscionable degree.

The answer in the short term is for the President and Congress to agree to fund the USPS shortfall. $5.1 billion is a drop in the bucket, not even equal to the money spent during one day in the misguided war in Afghanistan. Over the long term, USPS management should be replaced by more creative individuals who understand how to streamline service without eliminating it. It's not rocket surgery. If USPS is serious about competing, they should be looking for ways to IMPROVE service. And the answer is decidedly NOT to privatize the postal service. That is shorthand for providing some entrepreneur with a handsome profit, while the customer pays more for less service.

Ben Franklin, the first US Postmaster in 1775, must be rolling over in his grave.

JOURNEY OF MANKIND

2011-12-05T13:34:00.002-07:00

As technology becomes more sophisticated, and as human knowledge doubles every ten years, I find myself wishing I were back in school, able to enjoy what today's students take for granted. Case in point ~ an interactive map showing the spread of humans as we migrated from our African origins to populate the globe, with some surprising divergences and setbacks along the way. It is called Journey of Mankind ~ The Peopling of the World. On the home page, click on "play", then continue to click on "play" after you've absorbed each display in turn.

We now know more detail than was possible as recently as three or four decades ago. Please note two things ~ with each new display, the migration of humans is shown as moving arrows, and simultaneously you can observe the progression across the timeline at the bottom of the screen. Secondly, in addition to this interactive slide show, you can see the presentation in video form at any time by clicking on the prompt on the right edge of the screen.

Each new screen presents not only locations, but also information explaining the events you're seeing. It is a singularly entertaining and informative achievement.

SEXUAL PERCEPTION

2011-12-04T14:25:00.012-07:00

Two new studies shed light on our preoccupation with sexual images, and how our minds are influenced by the presence of bare skin. In the first, Jonah Lehrer reports in The Psychology of Nakedness that "we are constantly translating our visual perceptions into a theory of mind, as we attempt to imagine the internal states of .... total strangers.

"In general, people assess minds along two distinct dimensions. First, we grade these minds in terms of agency [self-control, acting morally, planning]. But we also think of minds in terms of the ability to have experience [to feel and perceive pleasure, hunger, or desire]." The researchers "suggest that these dimensions are actually a

duality, and that there's a direct tradeoff between the ability to have agency or experience .... It's quite easy to shift our perceptions of other people from having a mind full of agency to having a mind interested in experience ~ all they have to do is take off their clothes."

In their study, the researchers "showed 159 undergraduates a variety of photos. Some of these photos were of an attractive female named Erin, appearing in either a headshot or a bikini. Other students looked at a handsome man named Aaron, glancing at either his face or sculpted bare chest. The photos used are shown below. After looking at these pictures and reading a brief description of Erin/Aaron, subjects were asked to evaluate the mental capacities of the person.

" .... When the pictures showed only a face, they had lots of agency. But when we saw their torso, we suddenly imagined them as obsessed with experience. Instead of being good at self-control, they were extremely sensitive to hunger and desire. Same person, same facial expression, same brief description ~ but a hint of body changed everything.

" .... The idea that body focus can lead to both decreased and increased mind states stands in contrast to the term 'objectification', because it suggests that people seen as bodies are not seen as mindless objects, but as experiencers ~ someone more capable of pain, pleasure, desire, sensation, and emotion but lacking in agency. In other words, focusing on the body does not lead to de-mentalization but to a redistribution of mind."

NOTE ~ it is important to understand that this research addresses only our perception of others. It does not suggest, for instance, that my perception of Erin is Erin's reality. Seeing a woman in a bikini does not mean the woman possesses a reduced intellect, any more than seeing a woman modestly clothed means that she is brilliant. The same is true for women looking at men. It merely influences the observer's instinctive response. The line of inquiry is interesting, and raises questions for further study.

The second report is from Christopher Ryan, the author of the excellent book Sex at Dawn ~ The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality. In his blog of the same name, Ryan asks Why Do Breasts Mesmerize? He draws upon anthropology, psychology, evolution, and of course physiology to explain "what gives the [exaggerated] female breast such transcendent influence over heterosexual male consciousness." I'll leave it to you to check out Ryan's brief analysis, draw your own conclusions, and ask yourself what features of male anatomy may have a similar effect upon women?

MIRRORCUBE ~ STUDENT GOOFS

2011-12-03T15:18:00.003-07:00

Thanks to Andrea Kuszewski for turning me on to MirrorCube ~ a very different sort of tree dwelling. Currently offered as a tree hotel and as custom homes, the concept lends itself to all sorts of tree house designs. As you can see in the image above, the signature feature is that all exterior walls are lightweight aluminum covered with mirrored glass. The result is a striking coalescence between optical illusion and blending into the surrounding environment. The interiors are wood paneled and customized to the owner's wishes. Complete privacy, and complete visual access looking out. Very cool.

As both a student as as a teacher, I've encountered the full gamut of strange, sometimes awkward, and often hilarious student writing. Or so I thought, until I came across two collections of student writing which had me rolling ~ S*** My Students Write, and The 56 Best/Worse Similes. Caveat ~ if you have pets, they may look at you strangely as you burst into laughter.

SCIENCE AND LESS-THAN-SCIENCE

2011-12-02T13:31:00.004-07:00

Why yes, now that you mention it, it is Science Friday. Here is a selection of topics, one or more of which will hopefully tickle your fancy.

The Truth about 'Science' on TV ~ four pie charts showing the proportionate science content and non-science content of four cable TV shows ~ the Science Channel, the Discovery Channel, National Geographic, and the History Channel. Whoa.

Global Food Demand May Double by 2050 ~ and we're not prepared. The author proposes that "The Green Revolution can only take us so far and we need a great deal of additional investment in transgenic agriculture to develop drought tolerant crops that require less water, fertilizer, and fossil fuel to produce." Nowhere is there any mention of the true root of the problem ~ too many people. We are already exceeding the planet's carrying capacity for the human species, with the added cost of driving species extinct and destroying entire ecosystems. We must find a humane way to decrease our numbers to one-tenth their current (7 billion) level. Who'll be the first to bite the bullet? I did my part 34 years ago, when I made a decision of conscience to father only one child. Others I know have made the choice to have no children. It's a start, but barely.

Why the Study of Evolution Matters ~ "Teaching science without evolution is like teaching sentence structure without the alphabet." ~ Dr. Carin Bondar. This link takes to to a series of interviews with women scientists who understand the vital importance of teaching evolution in public schools. To do less is to deprive our children of the tools they need to understand not only biology, but any number of dynamic processes which affect us all.

The Power of the Pentatonic Scale ~ What? Doesn't music fall within the circle of the arts, not the sciences? Not so fast, Grasshopper. There is much overlap. Painting relies on chemistry and physics. Music is composed (ahem) of physics as well, and all speak the common language of mathematics. But there's more. Click on the link, and you'll watch Bobby McFerrin perform his magic, eliciting the instinctive musical understanding which resides in us all. I've seen the video before, and it remains magical.

GIFTS FOR KIDS

2011-12-01T15:27:00.002-07:00

I have a dilemma. My son Ian, his wife Michelle, and my grandson Ryan live nearly 600 miles away. I've only seen Ryan four times in his 9-year-old life, so there is much I do not know about the things he enjoys doing. This is a dilemma when it comes to buying gifts for him (birthday, Christmas). In the past I've always tried to include one or more age-appropriate books, since I grew up a voracious reader, and believe in the power of books to stimulate our imaginations. Toys, puzzles and games which engage a child's creativity are also on my list. My hope is that Ryan will come to associate certain kinds of gifts with me, in a good way.

Even so, I sometimes falter, wondering whether he would really like this gift, or that one. It would be so much easier if we lived near each other, and spent regular time together. I could take him out for a special event or treat, or at least know more intimately what he enjoys. I do get ideas from his mom and dad, but there's always the risk of duplicating something which Ryan already has. Drawing upon my memory of what Ian enjoyed at Ryan's age helps.

The other day I came across This Year, Give Them Brains in Scientific American online. The dozen suggestions are by no means the only good ideas out there, but they do provide a starting point. And they dovetail nicely with my wish to stimulate a child's skills and creativity ~ preferably WITHOUT the use of batteries.

SCIENCE VIDEOS

2011-11-30T14:17:00.003-07:00

Nearly everyone has tuned into National Geographic or a similar science series, and watched as molten lava (often filmed in Hawaii) flows into the ocean. As it submerges, the lava tube or river cools only at its surface at first ~ the super-hot interior continues to flow, bursting through the cooling crust to continue downslope until eventually, the natural heat sink of the ocean hardens the lava flow entirely ~ until the next volcanic eruption, which can originate from land or from the sea floor.

Here is a visually similar phenomenon, except the intruding liquid is water itself. As the water component in sea water freezes, it leaves behind a briny liquid that is denser than the surrounding sea. This super-salty fluid sinks, then freezes on contact with the substrate. The sea ice spreads quickly, capturing any sea life on the bottom. These brinicles are an eerie sight.

Looking up rather than down, here is a visual explanation of the origin and occurance of auroras surrounding the Earth's polar regions. The journey from the sun's interior to the Earth's atmosphere is breathtaking in the magnitude of energies and distances involved.

Finally, here are Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of astrophysicist and cosmologist Carl Sagan's last interview ~ with Charlie Rose on 27 May 1996. Sagan waxes poetic on science, pseudoscience, the cosmos, much more. Sagan passed from our midst on December 20 of that year. Long may he sail !

PEPPER SPRAY

2011-11-29T16:26:00.004-07:00

During the months since the Occupy Wall Street movement has morphed into the Occupy movement, we have repeatedly witnessed photographic and video coverage of police officers in many cities brutalizing peaceful protesters. The form of police violence which has received the most attention has been the use of pepper spray, aka Oleoresin Capsicum or OC spray. Setting aside for a moment the constitutional issues of free speech and civil rights, I want to devote this post to the use and abuse of this toxic substance, and its effects on the human body.

In her blog post About Pepper Spray in Scientific American, Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Deborah Blum describes her search for a way to measure the intensity of pepper spray, during which she discovered the Scoville scale, devised a century ago. The scale assigned Scoville Units (SU) to various forms of peppers, depending on the intensity of capsaicin present. Capsaicin is an irritant to human tissue, even in low doses. To gain some perspective, consider the capsaicin concentrations in the following ~

~ bell pepper ~ 0 SU

~ pepperoncini ~ 100-500 SU

~ jalapeno ~ 2500-9000 SU

~ cayenne ~ 30,000-50,000 SU

~ civilian self-defense spray ~ 2-3,000,000 SU

~ police-grade spray ~ 5,300,000 SU

Blum continues ~ "capsaicin binds directly to proteins in the membranes of pain and heat sensing neurons .... any compound that can influence nerve function is, by definition, risky. Research tells us that pepper spray acts as a potent inflammatory agent. It amplifies allergic sensitivities, it irritates and damages eyes, membranes, bronchial airways, the stomach lining ~ basically what it touches. It works by causing pain ....

"The more worrisome effects have to do with inhalation~ and by some reports, California university police officers deliberately put OC spray down protestors' throats. Capsaicins inflame the airways, causing swelling and restriction."

Health and safety risks are not limited to the pepper component alone. "Depending on brand, an OC spray may contain water, alcohols, or organic solvents as liquid carriers; and nitrogen, carbon dioxide, or halogenated hydrocarbons (such as Freon, tetrachloroethylene, and methyl chloride) as propellants to discharge the canister contents. Inhalation of high doses of some of these chemicals can produce adverse cardiac, respiratory, and neurological effects, including arrhythmias and sudden death."

These risks have long been known, and published not only in scientific journals but also in law enforcement journals. According to the Justice Department and the ACLU, pepper spray use has been suspected in dozens of deaths that occurred during police custody. ACLU attorneys have stated that "the use of pepper spray as a kind of chemical cattle prod on nonviolent demonstrators resisting arrest constitutes excessive force and violates the Constitution."

It is worth pointing out that many police officers in the U.S. use crowd control measures like tasers, pepper spray, tear gas, and physical force in a manner that is unrestrained and reckless, when compared to how the U.S. military uses such measures in hostile situations. Military use is carefully tactical, designed to direct the flow of people to areas where they can be passively controlled. Police use is punitive, and carries the high probability of injury.

A.V. Flox, another prolific blogger, recently weighed in on the controversy ~ "pepper spray is a riot-control agent, which is banned for use in war by the Chemical Weapons Convention. It is typically used only against violent attackers who are resisting physical arrest and constitute a serious threat of harm to others." In no instance during the Occupy demonstrations has that been the case. The movement is explicitly non-violent.

Robert Tsietsema expands the current absurd situation in Pepper Spray and the Weaponization of Food, in which he satirically suggests durian, cabernet sauvignon vinegar, okra slime, Taiwanese stinky tofu, and tabasco sauce as candidates for the escalation of food products as weapons by police.

More seriously, Rania Kalek warns that this is just the beginning ~ that "by arming police departments with military-grade equipment, domestic policing has come to resemble a combat operation with citizens as the enemy .... The barrier between military and civilian law enforcement was drawn long ago for good reason. Traditionally, the role of the civilian police force is to maintain the peace and safety of the community while upholding the Constitution. But that barrier has been broken down by decades of the relentless war on drugs, and more recently the war on terror. Today civilian law enforcement agencies have access to military-grade equipment designed for heavy combat, essentially blurring the line between soldier and police officer.

"When local police departments are armed with military-grade equipment, the soldier's mentality is not far behind .... The average patrol officer's belt holds a handgun, pepper spray canister, Taser, handcuffs, and baton or nightstick. Multiply that by several hundred, which is the minimum number of police officers deployed to raid a large Occupy encampment, and the amount of firepower is startling." Add to that arsenal the acquisition by police of military weaponry which includes (but is not limited to) M-14 sniper rifles and M-16 assault rifles, grenade launchers, armored personnel carriers, bulletproof helmets, night vision goggles, tanks, survellance towers, and the Shadowhawk drone aircraft. Where are we, as a nation, heading?

Perhaps the answer is found in the ubiquity of photoshopped images of UC-Davis police lieutenant John Pike, who casually walked along a line of kneeling Occupy demonstrators and pepper sprayed their faces at point-blank range, repeatedly. His image has gone viral online, and now appears to be pepper spraying everyone from the Mona Lisa to Christ, penguins to Norman Rockwell characters, and even (appropriately) the U.S. Constitution itself (see image above).

It is a truism that when citizens rise up to protest the actions of those in political or economic power, those in power too often respond by retaliatory, repressive measures which only exacerbate our discontent. In the U.S. it last happened during the antiwar movement of the 1960s-70s. It has happened many times in our more distant past ~ the draft riots during the Civil War come to mind. And it is happening again. Repression and the use of force are not the answer. Responsible dialogue is.

MARTIAL LAW

2011-11-28T12:46:00.003-07:00

From Stephen D. Foster, Jr. ~ "Since Occupy Wall Street began, American police officers have arrested thousands of people for exercising their constitutionally protected right to protest. On Monday or Tuesday, the US Senate will vote on a bill on a bill that would give the President the ability to order the military to arrest and imprison American citizens anywhere in the world for an indefinite period of time.

"A provision of S. 1867, or the National Defense Authorization Act bill, written by Senators John McCain and Carl Levin, declares American soil a battlefield and allows the President and all future Chief Executives to order the military to arrest and detain American citizens, innocent or not, without charge or trial. In other words, if this bill passes and the President signs it, OWS protesters or any American could end up arrested and indefinitely locked up by the military without the guaranteed right to due process or a speedy trial."

This flies in the face of every constitutional guarantee of protection for those accused of a crime, not to mention those who have committed no crime other than speaking their minds. We are innocent until proven guilty. And the U.S. is not a war zone or a police state, in spite of the ambitions of those Republicans and few Democrats who sponsored the "arrest and detain" amendment to the defense funding bill.

This brief video reminds us of similar past mistakes, e.g., the internment of Japanese-American citizens during WWII, and the summary arrest without just cause of thousands of Americans during the McCarthy era. Now it appears we must resist the impulse to excessive power yet again.

Time is of the essence. You can sign the American Civil Liberties Union petition here. Better still, call your Senator now. Here is a list of all U.S. Senators and their contact information. And here is a list of contact information for all federal and state executives and legislators. Make your voice heard !

FLOW

2011-11-27T15:07:00.003-07:00

From The Creative 'Flow': How to Enter that Mysterious State of Oneness ~ "Flow, the mental state of being completely present and fully immersed in a task, is a strong contributor to creativity. When in flow, the creator and the universe become one, outside distractions recede from consciousness and one's mind is fully open and attuned to the act of creating. There is very little self-awareness or critical self-judgment; just intrinsic joy for the task.

"But who enters flow? .... those who are more likely to have high levels of self-esteem, a sense of fulfillment, life satisfaction, better coping skills, and lower anxiety .... Researchers also found an association between flow and conscientiousness .... flow seems most likely to occur when a person engages in a task with a moderate level of challenge that is well matched in difficulty to a person's current skill level. Flow also shares some commonalities with the mental state of high concentration seen during meditation.

" .... Flow may thus be a state of subjectively effortless attention that occurs during skilled performance and has different underlying mechanisms from [the mechanisms of] attention during mental effort."

It's likely that everyone has experienced flow, perhaps without noticing. It can occur during any creative process ~ writing, music, art, acting. Flow can also occur during daily activities which are sufficiently complex that practice is required for mastery ~ navigating a transit bus through traffic, flying an airplane, writing computer software code, cooking a fine meal. Scott Barry Kaufman points out that "flow is essential to creativity and well-being across many slices of life ~ from sports to music to physics to religion to spirituality to sex." I'll drink to that.

DARWINIAN ECONOMICS ?

2011-11-26T16:38:00.003-07:00

Here's a conceptual twist for you, not unlike driving your car onto black ice and losing all control over steering and braking. The standard narrative would have it that Adam Smith is the father of economics ~ Smith, who proposed that rational self-interest and competition can lead to economic prosperity. We've seen over the past several decades, particularly during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush, that the fatal flaw in this view is that unless individuals and corporations are regulated by government (representing the interests of the people), rational self-interest morphs into irrational greed, and competition is distorted or erased.

Is there an alternative model for viewing economics? Why yes, now that you ask, there is. In a PBS Newshour interview, Robert H. Frank suggests that Charles Darwin has much to say about the world of finance. " .... generation by generation, small mutations contribute to the extra speed of an individual animal. That animal is less likely to be caught and eaten by predators, and so it left copies of that mutation in the next generation, and then it spread generation by generation .... Thus, the invisible hand of natural selection promotes the survival of the individual and the prosperity of the species. In economic terms, this is the greatest good for the greatest number .... made possible by competitive individuals like Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, or Steve Jobs.

But there is also a dark potential to the competitive evolution story ~ "individuals vying in ways that stultify the species," creating conflict between individual and group. Just as (over evolutionary time) larger and larger antlers on bull elk are a temporary boon during mating competition but become a hindrance when escaping predators, so amassing greater and greater wealth is a temporary boon to the 0.01 percent of the population who control most of the nation's assets, but ultimately is harmful to the society as a whole. "There's no question that we're in the midst of another Guilded Age. The robber barons have accumulated great wealth, and they spent it in very visible ways .... and that's the downside of conspicuous consumption. With humans, as with other animals, the survival of the so-called fittest may come at a cost to the species as a whole.

"Success is a balance between the urge to cooperate and the impulse to compete, a balance in the origin of our species and in its continuing evolution."

You can view the entire interview, or read the transcript, here.