METRIC SYSTEM / STEWART

METRIC SYSTEM. The US is one of only three nations in the world which have refused to adopt the metric system (see map above, click to enlarge -- the metric world is shown in green) -- the other two nations are Burma and Liberia. It is a measure of our stubborn culturocentrism that we lag behind the rest of the planet in converting from the arbitrary and ungainly English system of measurement. The metric system is the common language of the sciences, commerce, aviation, and personal use. It's utility and simplicity are easy to manipulate and comprehend -- a standard set of prefixes in powers of ten are used to derive larger and smaller units from the base unit.

For example, consider the metric unit of length, the meter (equivalent to approximately 1.09 yards). The simple addition of the appropriate prefix yields the following:

1 kilometer = 1000 meters

1 hectometer = 100 meters

1 decameter = 10 meters

1 decimeter = 0.1 meters (a tenth of a meter)

1 centimeter = 0.01 meters (one hundredth of a meter)

1 millimeter = 0.001 meters (one thousandth of a meter)

Whether doing simple math in the grocery store, or complex calculations in physics, chemistry or biology, the metric system is intuitively simple and direct. Now compare this ease with units of length in the English system:

12 inches = 1 foot

3 feet = 1 yard

1760 yards = 5280 feet = 1 mile

As a child, I had to learn by heart the English system in all its absurd complexity, as well as learning fractions and their equivalents in percentages (percentages being nothing more than a variant of the metric system !! ). For instance:

1/2 = 0.5

1/3 = 0.3..... (..... means the preceding number is repeated indefinitely)

1/4 = 0.25

1/5 = 0.2

1/6 = 0.16....

1/7 = 0.14 approximately

1/8 = 0.125

1/9 = 0.1 ....

1/10 = 0.1

Those who grew up with the English system cringe at the thought of learning to convert units of distance, area, volume, mass, temperature, etc., to the metric system. Yet the conversions are simple to memorize, and once you are accustomed to using metric, you begin to think in metric. No more conversions necessary. Child's play. Even an old dog like myself can do it in his head.

I was reminded of the measurement dilemma by an article in today's NYTimes. In the early 1980s, the road signs on a stretch of Interstate 19 from Tucson to Nogales, AZ, were changed to show distance in kilometers (one mile = approximately 1.6 kilometers, while one kilometer = approximately 0.6 miles). I'm intimately familiar with this stretch of highway, and never once had any trouble deducing my position using either system of measurement. Apparently, the current gubernatorial administration of Luddite Jan Brewer has decided to abandon this tiny step toward joining the rest of the world -- I-19 is to have new signs installed showing distance in miles, not kilometers. What a shame. Rather than being a beacon of education and understanding, America's only highway with signs using the metric system will revert to the tired and cumbersome English system. I suppose there's one thing to be said for our backward ways -- we're consistent.

The other thought that occurs to me is that, given Arizona's recent attempt to abrogate Federal immigration laws, and the inherent racism behind that attempt, might the retreat from metric measurement along I-19 also have a racist component? That highway is the essential corridor between Tucson, with its significant Latino population, and Nogales, the nearest port of entry between the US and Mexico. Use of the metric system on I-19 encouraged travel and commerce back and forth between the two countries. Squelching such a welcome would be consistent with Arizona's increasing xenophobia. I'm just sayin'.

STEWART. Regular readers know that I am opposed to racism or exclusionary thinking, including the current, ugly spread of anti-Muslim sentiment. Comedian and talk show host Jon Stewart brilliantly skewered Islamophobia recently. I invite you to take a few minutes to enjoy his pointed satire -- no matter what your political or religious beliefs, you're bound to find a laugh (or two, or 3.33..... ).

FINANCIAL TUNEUP / LEARNING

FINANCIAL TUNEUP. Today's NYTimes featured a very useful article -- 31 steps toward clarifying one's financial status and enhancing the stability of one's financial future. They are broken down into subtopics -- investments and retirement, loans, credit, planning, consumer issues and insurance. My only quibble lies in the amount recommended to be set aside in savings. The article says one percent from each paycheck. I've found it more useful to target ten percent. Yes, in recessionary times that can be tough. But if you take that ten percent right off the top of your take-home pay, you'll find that your spending habits adjust automatically.

LEARNING. In recent decades, learning theory has paid much attention to the learning styles of students, and the corresponding teaching styles of instructors. There is certainly evidence to support the perception that some people learn most effectively through rote memorization, or through listening to verbal explanations, or through visual demonstration, or by hands-on practice -- with the implication that teachers need to be aware of their students' needs, and make adjustments in their method of presentation.

A new study suggests that these principles are only one avenue toward effective learning. The study found that absorption and retention of new information can be enhanced by (A) alternating the study environment, so that one is exposed to learning material in varied settings, (B) varying the type of material studied in a given setting, and (C) including intervals of self-testing -- essentially practicing taking tests and quizzes without the pressure of being graded, so that on actual tests the process feels familiar and less daunting, and one can concentrate more fully on content.

Speaking as a lifelong student and also as a former teacher, these ideas make intuitive sense. The more tools one has for learning, the more effective learning will be. Of course, nothing can replace the symbiosis between an inquisitive mind (student) and a versatile and creative imagination (teacher). Set and setting (i.e., one's attitude and the learning environment), physical resources (books, labs, field trips, guest speakers), varied study habits, and making the experience both challenging and FUN, all revolve around that core student-teacher relationship.

NATIVISTS / ROADKILL

NATIVISTS. At regular intervals in U.S. history, those who may be a numerical majority among citizens, or those who perceive themselves as being more purely "American" (whatever that means), focus the prejudices of their tiny minds on an "alien" group. Almost every ethnicity, every nationality, every religion has been targeted for vilification at one time or another -- blacks, eastern Europeans, Scandinavians, the Irish, Jews, Catholics, Asians, Latinos, et al. The group currently under attack is, of course, Muslims. The spreading right wing fervor directed against Islam is, like all bigotry, vapidly irrational, not to mention antithetical to the founding principles expressed in the Contitution. Witness the furor over the construction of a Muslim community center and place of worship in lower Manhattan. Witness the weak-minded and desperate attempts by Republicans to label President Obama as a secret Muslim. Witness the surreal smear by Newt Gingrich when he said that the President exhibited "Kenyan, anticolonial behavior." Clearly one symptom of fevered dysentery in the Gingrich brain is diarrhea of the Gingrich mouth. (You may substitute Palin, Beck, McCain, Boehner, Limbaugh, McConnell, or any of a hundred other conservatives who value power over truth, wealth over integrity.)

Is this America?, asks Nicholas D. Kristoff. I'd say it's a toss-up.

The supreme irony is that whenever self-styled nativists (portrayed brilliantly in Martin Scorcese's film Gangs of New York) claim the flag and the nation as being exclusively theirs, they ignore the fact that ultimately it is Americans who have always been the invaders. We stole this rich land from tribes of indigenous peoples. We swept across the continent in a sweaty fervor of Minifest Destiny (a rationalization devoid of ethical or historic content). Hypocrites all, these nativists.

Three years ago today (better late than never), the United Nations adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples -- spelling out individual and collective rights to culture, identity, language, employment, health, education, and more. In the U.S. Native Americans are the dark secret never discussed -- independent nations subsumed, conquered, placed like lepers onto reservations, deprived of their language, their culture, their traditional ways of life, their identity. Alcoholism and poverty and suicide and unemployment are higher on Indian reservations than in any other segment of American life. Yet somehow, miraculously, remnants of Native culture and pride have persisted over the years.

We, the peoples and cultures of this Earth, have so much to learn from each other. We shame ourselves when we stereotype and reject any group. When will we learn?

ROADKILL. Regular visitors will have read more than once of the plight of wilderness and wildlife, locally and globally. Intentional human predation and loss of natural habitat to human rapacity are two of the prime threats to endangered species and to wilderness -- not to mention to the health of the entire biosphere, which includes us humans. (see map below, click to enlarge.)

A less publicly debated, more easily ignored pressure on wildlife populations comes in the deadly form of cars and trucks. In recent years citizen scientists have begun to document the toll on wildlife, by counting and mapping (using GPS) the bodies of animals, birds and reptiles who perish when hit by a vehicle. It is onerous and thankless work, but vital to our understanding of how to avoid perpetuating the slaughter.

THE RIGHT MOVES

Years ago, during a time when I was single and dating, I was also pursuing activities in which I found innate pleasure or challenge -- ranging from riding my motorcycle to ushering for productions of the Arizona Theatre Company (and seeing many excellent plays for free), peer counseling, singing in the University-Community Choir, and taking French horn lessons. Adult day or evening classes in Tucson were diverse. A favorite was assorted dance classes. I'd always been a self-conscious dancer, and wanted to push my boundaries. To this day my favorite memories include the mind-body learning that took place in modern dance, group improv, and jazz dance. (Alas, there were no classes in 1930s and 1940s Swing.) I did not become even remotely a virtuoso. But it was fun, and since men were often a numerical minority, it was also a chance to meet women who were similarly broadening their horizons and learning about themselves in the process.

I've never been a fan of going to dances solo. I would much rather have a compatible partner with whom to create and improvise, not tied down to a small set of memorized moves. For those who do dance to meet others, however, I've discovered a recent study by evolutionary psychologists at Northumbria University. The findings (which focused on male dancers -- a followup will focus on female dancers) suggest that women are more attracted to men whose dancing includes creative and vigorous movement of the neck and torso -- subconscious signals of a man's health and vigor, and (for younger dancers) of reproductive quality.

My thought is that upper body movement is fine, but the study appears to have neglected, in both its design and its findings, the foundation of great dance -- legs and hips. Watch any salsa, hip-hop or tango dancer, and you are certain to notice elaborate and expressive step patterns and movement of the pelvis. The best dancing is a whole-body experience -- including slow swaying to romantic music.

Here is a link to the study -- their method for generating computerized figures is intended to eliminate viewer bias toward an individual's appearance. Be sure to check out the two videos which demonstrate movements which are appealing or less-than-appealing to most women.

KORAN BURNING

It seems that even the most bigoted fundamentalist clerics can be sensitive to public opinion. Terry Jones, a pastor from Gainesville, FL, announced earlier this week that he intended to burn copies of the Koran this Saturday, on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The outcry from religious leaders of all faiths, from political leaders of all persuasions, from US military leaders, and from citizens of countries around the world, was a tsunami. One hopes that Mr. Jones was suitably chastened (though I doubt it) when he announced earlier today that he is cancelling the proposed burning. Is it coincidence that ultimately it was the voice of Prsident Obama that appears to have tipped the scales? Obama rightly pointed out (as would occur to anyone with an ounce of common sense) that such a brazen act of religious vilification would endanger the lives of Americans at home and abroad, including US troops in Muslim countries. The justifiable outrage which would spread across the Muslim world would provide a perfect recruiting tool for a new generation of terrorists. It's called throwing fuel on the fire.

What was this delusional man thinking? (A) It makes no sense to commemorate an act of violence (the attacks) with another act of violence (the burning). (B) What would be the reaction of Christians if an allegedly holy man from another religion started burning Bibles? Sacrilege is sacrilege. (C) Book burning in any form (think Nazi Germany) is the signature of cowardice, weakness and paranoia -- no one has the right to censor what others read. The last time I looked, we live in a land where freedom of choice is still intact -- at least in theory.

So the upshot is that Mr. Jones is to meet with the imam of the proposed Muslim cultural center located over two blocks from Ground Zero. Jones claims to have assurances that no mosque will be incorporated into the center. The presence or absence of a mosque is frankly none of Mr. Jones' business. What would Mr. Jones think if a Muslim leader were to tell him where he could or could not build a church? I wonder if he is just trying to save face. There should be NO limitation on e inclusion of a mosque. It's called freedom of religion, remember?

One of the tired refrains that keeps popping up is that a mosque would be an insult to the victims and family members of the 9/11 attacks, and to Americans in general. Whenever anyone claims to be speaking for all Americans, I automatically discount his/her credibility. Our origins, culture, politics, religions and opinions are simply too diverse (gloriously so) for anyone to suppose they know what "America" wants. I doubt that person's ability to grasp what "America" even stands for -- tolerance, diversity, respect for others. Voltaire said, "I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

Mr. Jones, the Tea Party, anti-war activists, and all other citizens benefit from that right. But with every right comes a responsibility. Freedom of speech is not absolute. It is against the law (and common sense) to yell "FIRE" in a crowded public place, when there is no fire. Making a public display of burning Muslim holy books (or any holy books) is just as incendiary, and should be just as criminal.

JILL'S STORY

A television news anchor on KPAX in Missoula is the most popular media personality in western Montana. Jill Valley comes across as professional and serious on screen, but her coworkers know that she has a wry and insidious sense of humor. Watch her closely and you'll see a twinkle in her eye, and the barest quirk of a smile as she quietly delivers a comment or dig to one of her team members, usually without the viewing audience even noticing. Jill has been named Montana Broadcaster of the Year four times, and has won journalism awards for writing and reporting. She's been voted Missoula's best television personality for the past decade.

Jill Valley is the center of attention these days for another reason -- breast cancer. I first learned of it after befriending her on FaceBook. She recently underwent a mastectomy, and is currently enduring chemotherapy. And through it all, she's rarely missed a day of work, nor lost her composure and focus on camera. What blows me away is that she seems so .... well, casual about it all. I know that doesn't come close to summing up her experience. There have been moments when the world is dark and painful and fearsome -- but Jill has unfailingly shared hope, and humor, and gratitude to all those who love and support her.

But my description is hopelessly inadequate. Take a moment to get acquainted with this charming and brilliant woman in her own words, at the August 31st post on her blog, Mission to Missoula. I predict that, like me, you'll come away feeling like you've just met someone you would like as a lifelong friend. Here's to you, Jill, and to all the other woman and men who battle cancer every day, everywhere.

A NIGHTMARE

From 1978-1982, I had a dream job. The Nature Conservancy chose my then-wife and me to be caretakers at Canelo Hills Cienega, a TNC preserve in southern Arizona. The habitat was part oak-juniper woodland, and part cienega or marsh. In the grasslands bordering the Sonoran Desert, streams and marshes were once more common. As successive Spanish, Mexican and American ranchers overgrazed the resource, topsoil erosion began. Eventually streambeds cut so deep that they lowered the water table, draining the marshes which were home to native wildlife, and an important water source for migratory birds from as far north as Canada, and as far south as southern Mexico and Central America.

At Canelo Hills, paleoecologist Paul Martin suggested building a retaining dam to prevent further headward erosion of the stream bed. It worked, and the cienega was safe. During our tenure as caretakers, we lived onsite in a century-old two-story adobe ranchhouse. We converted the adjacent adobe bunkhouse to include a visitors center, a guest room, and a studio for my ex's stained glass work. We greeted visitors, guided visiting groups of school children, worked with researchers, maintained the building and fences, and monitored natural conditions on the preserve. I also patrolled the boundaries during hunting season, to discourage poachers. The life was often solitary, but never boring.

Those four years, when I was 31 to 35 years old, were vivid and formative. After leaving Canelo to attend school at the University of Arizona for my degree in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, I often returned to visit la cienega. It even appeared in my dreams -- usually featuring me responding to some threat of encroachment by humans. The role of steward and protector to the natural world had etched itself into my identity, and remains so to this day. I fully understand the impetus behind the radical ecosabotage described in Edward Abbey's seminal novel The Monkey Wrench Gang (see logo above), just as I understand the activist interruption of whale hunting by groups such as Greenpeace and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. In any struggle for justice, whether it is feminism or civil rights or protection of habitat and endangered species, there is room for BOTH working within the system to enact legal reform, and working outside the system to draw attention to the problem.

Over the years since Canelo, and since graduating from the UA, my work has alternated between serving nature and serving human society. In 1989-1990, I worked as a US Forest Service wildlife tech in South Carolina after the onslaught of Hurricane Hugo, doing habitat restoration for the endangered Red-Cockaded Woodpecker. And from 1990 to 1995 I was a counselor and teacher in suburban Philadelphia, orchestrating classes in math, biology and environmental studies. More recently, especially since last year's retirement, I've written frequently about environmental issues in this public forum, often taking radical views which offfend some readers, and are supported by others.

The other night, I awoke abruptly from a nightmare -- one in which I was once more back at Canelo Hills, which had been transformed almost beyond recognition. Paved roads and logging trucks traversed that calm valley, elaborate bridges and walkways had been constructed for crowds of visitors, and condominiums were metastasizing on the land once invaded by mere poachers. In the dream I was overcome by grief and rage. It seemed that I was the only soul present who understood the desecration being visited upon sacred ground. I was prepared to set a torch to all this human intrusion, ready to attack anyone who got in my way, ready to place my body in the path of those profane, belching trucks.

Once awake, heart pounding, I could not return to sleep. It was clear to me that, whatever the injuries and limitations that have come with age, my life's work is not finished. I don't yet know whether it will transform from fieldwork to advocacy writing, or to physically interrupting wolf hunts, or to something I haven't yet dreamed of. But be on notice -- the fire-breathing activist is back.

"Desert, o my desert, yours is the only death I cannot bear." -- Edward Abbey

WILD HORSE ROUNDUP

This is one of those issues which tears at your heart, and has no simple solution. In the unpopulated stretches of the American West, wild horses have roamed freely since the time of the Spanish conquistadores, starting in the early 1500s. Equine escapees from Spanish, Mexican and later American herds were the progenitors of today's mustangs. The animals are technically feral rather than wild, since their ancestors were domesticated. It was the capture and taming of mustangs which transformed the plains Indian tribes from walking wanderers to the most splendid light cavalry the world has ever known.

A NYTimes article describes the mustangs' fate in recent years (be sure to watch the video embedded in the article). As the West was increasingly settled by the flood of American invaders from the east, railroads, ranches, roads and towns combined to diminish the area of wilderness available to free-ranging mustang herds. Their numbers dwindled, both from loss of habitat and from capture or predation by human hunters. In 1971 the Wild Free-roaming Horse and Burro Act was passed, protecting dwindling herds from being rounded up for sport or profit. In the years since, mustang numbers have blossomed, to the point where ranchers and BLM officials felt it necessary to periodically cull the herds, limiting the population size. Ostensibly mustang roundups were conducted so that their numbers would not outpace the capacity of the land to support both mustangs and other, co-existing wild herbivores. But it is also true that large portions of Federal land (our land) are leased at bargain-basement prices to ranchers as grazing allotments. The ranchers' cattle, of course, can be sold for profit, with no benefit to taxpayers. When numbers of mustangs are perceived to interfere with that profit, there is no question or hesitation about which presence is more important. For ranchers, it is their cattle. For wild horse advocates, it is the mustangs.

The roundups are conducted not from horseback, as they were traditionally, but using helicopters to haze the animals in the direction of a fence funnel leading them into a holding corral. Wild horse advocates contend that the process is cruel, pushing both adult horses and their young at full speed to the point of exhaustion, injury or death. Those who conduct and advocate the roundups insist that they are conducted as humanely and efficiently as possible.

Once captured, some mustangs are put up for adoption, but there aren't nearly enough people willing or able to adopt so many detainees. The remaining horses are sent to private ranches in Kansas and Oklahoma for stockpiling -- their upkeep is again paid for by taxpayers. It is ostensibly illegal to sell wild horses for slaughter. This writer is skeptical. Here is another viewpoint, that of the American Mustang Foundation.

As I said at the top, there are no easy answers. Even if cattle were not present on public lands (a situation I would dearly love to see), it is likely that eventually mustang herds would grow beyond the carrying capacity of their habitat. Humans have so effectively contained or eliminated their natural predators (mountain lions, wolves, grizzley bears), and mustangs are so swift and hardy to begin with, that some sort of population management is inevitable to prevent mass starvation. One possible solution is birth control -- using dart guns to inoculate selected mares with infertility drugs. Another, and more controversial, solution is to allow natural predators to flourish in mustang habitat. I'm all for natural predators as a matter of principle, but I doubt that they could keep up with the mustangs' breeding rate.

It is a touchy and polarizing situation. The lives of 40,000 mustangs hang in the balance.

An aside -- many years ago I was privileged to see a locally legendary mustang herd for myself. I was on a three-day solo hike into the Tortolita Mountains north of Tucson, Arizona, the rumored home of the herd. On the second day of my sojourn (amid canyons and a central flatland positively teeming with rattlesnakes), I took a short walk up a side-canyon. On my way back to my tiny camp, I sensed that I was being watched. I eased to a stop, looked up over my left shoulder, and there on a ledge halfway up the mountain slope, was a group of fifteen or twenty horses, staring at me intently. We watched each other for a few minutes, then I lowered my eyes and slowly resumed my path campward, so as not to spook them.

What a thrill !! It is possible that they were part of some rancher's herd, but I doubt it. Not that many horses. The romantic in me will always believe that these were mustangs and that for a few minutes beneath the roasting desert sun, we regarded each other as fellow travelers on this shared planet of ours.

ORIGINS / THE INTERNETS

ORIGINS. One of humanity's reasons for creating the myth of a supreme god (or gods) is to try to explain how we, our world and the universe came into being. Until very recently in our history, we simply did not have adequate tools or information to perceive differently. Once the idea of a god caught on, those who opposed it (atheists) or simply weren't sure (agnostics) were subject to hostility ranging from ostracism to death.

A number of eminent scientists in recent years have proposed, with considerable supportive reasoning, that there simply is no need to resort to the existence of an omnipotent deity to understand the origins of humanity and the cosmos. Astrophysicist Carl Sagan in The Varieties of Scientific Experience, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion, neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris in The End of Faith, and writer/essayist Christopher Hitchins in God Is Not Great, have each contributed thoughtful evidence to support the parsimonious proposition that God is a human construct, unnecessary for explaining our origins.

Now renowned theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking is about to publish The Grand Design. in which he similarly asserts that "no divine force is needed to explain why the universe was formed. The video "Physics Leaves No Room for God" summarizes Hawking's thoughts in an accessible format.

THE INTERNETS. For those who aren't yet aware, Verizon and Google are embroiled in controversy surrounding their joint proposal for a proprietary subset of the currently free and universal access Internet. Much confusion has ensued over whether their vision would restrict and impose user costs on access. My good Chicago friend forwarded to me a blog post which handily clarifies what is being proposed, and what is at stake. It is required reading for those who would like the Internet to remain free and easily accessible.

TWO ARIZONA LEADERS

GERONIMO. On this day in 1886, the Chiricahua Apache warrior Geronimo (Goyahkla in his native language) surrendered at Skeleton Creek in southern Arizona, effectively bringing to a close the Indian wars of the West. Geronimo was never defeated in battle, and successfully evaded capture by thousands of US Army soldiers under various commanders. He was persuaded to surrender by Lt. Charles B. Gatewood (who spoke the Apache language and was sympathetic to Apache history and culture) after years of pursuit had worn his band of followers down to fewer than twenty warriors.

Geronimo suffered terrible loss during his life. His first wife and family were murdered by Mexican troopers in 1858, creating his lifelong hatred for Mexicans. He subsequently remarried and had more children. The invasion of Apache territory by American miners, settlers and soldiers was met with stiff resistence by Geronimo and other Apache leaders. Assisted by spiritual abilities and sterling courage, Geronimo inspired his people with many daring raids and escapes, waged against both Mexican and American armies.

Tragically, Geronimo, along with many Chiricahua people, were sent into exile at a prison in Florida. He died in 1909, forever deprived of seeing his beloved Southwest desert again. The movie Geronimo: An American Legend depicts his life during the few years before his surrender. While the film necessarily compacts or alters particular events or characters for the sake of the narrative, it remains true to the essential spirit of the times, showing with vivid detail what life was like in the Sonoran Desert in the late 1800s. Note -- click on the image below to enlarge. Geronimo stands at the far right.

JAN BREWER. Talk about polar opposites. Brewer is governor of present-day Arizona, the woman who signed into law Arizona's infamous and racist immigration law. A Tucson friend sent me the link to this video, shower her opening remarks prior to a debate among candidates for the office of governor -- the election will take place in November. In the words of my friend, "This is our governor's opening statement in the debate last night -- did she evr look stupid -- and the idiot will get votes (certainly not mine) and may win ... the debate was a joke. Green party guy looked like he smoked a joint before coming on. Litertarian, articulate, but some real scary ideas. [Democrat] Terry Goddard had a difficult time making his points as Brewer just butted in whenever she wanted and said that what he was saying was not true. The whole debate made me think that we are in deep, deep doo-doo."

I have to agree, Brewer on camera comes across as a simpleton, trying to cover her confusion with nervous laughter. She is a cookie cutter Sarah Palin, older but no wiser. I cannot fathom how supposedly intelligent citizens can take people like Brewer, Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh seriously. But then, we are the nation that voted for eight years of George W. Bush. Pretty damned embarrassing.

Note -- gubernatorial debates rarely arouse comment among the national press, but this debate caught the attention of the NYTimes' astute Gail Collins. Please see her reactions here.

KIDNEY IMPLANT / PENTAGON PROPAGANDA

KIDNEY IMPLANT. People who experience reduced kidney function due to renal failure, have limited choices. If they are lucky, they may secure a kidney transplant from a living or recently deceased donor. But the number of prospective recipients far exceeds the number of donors. For the remainder, dialysis provides the most common treatment enabling patients to maintain the body's internal equilibrium of water and minerals, and also to assist in voiding metabolic waste. But dialysis is an intrusive and debilitating procedure (see diagram of a dialysis machine above, click to enlarge), as well as being expensive. Each visit for dialysis treatment lasts for 1-3 hours, with tubes introducing cleansing fluids and removing fluid waste. Patients typically feel deeply chilled and weakened by the procedure, which often must be endured three times a week.

In one of the most important medical breakthroughs in recent history, dialysis may become a thing of the past. Yesterday researchers unveiled the world's first implantable artificial kidney. For 350,000 regular dialysis patients in the U.S. alone, this new device is a ray of hope. Here is a link to the full article describing the implant.

PENTAGON PROPAGANDA. It isn't news that the military carefully filters, spins and slants the information it presents not only to the President and Congress, but also to the American people. Every war has produced its own unique public relations apparatus. Most citizens don't stop to think that it is we, the taxpayers, who are footing the bill for information with is at best incomplete, frequently inaccurate, and often deliberately misleading. Why? To perpetuate the guerre de jour, the war of the moment.

Can you wrap your imagination around a number like half a billion? That's how many dollars (our dollars) are being squandered in the Pentagon's present Afghanistan propaganda blitz. This is money that could be channeled (depending on your own views and priorities) into enhanced weaponry and protection for troops on the ground, or (in my opinion) channeled into schools, water treatment facilities, roads, and employment for the people of Afghanistan. This is the only guaranteed and proven way to stabilize the region, the best possible expenditure to combat the Taliban and Al Qaeda. It is scandalous that General David Petraeus sees fit to participate in a PR campaign which diverts so much funding from actually waging the war, or winning the peace.

A TOOL FOR THE GENTLE READER. You will notice among the features lining the right-hand side of this page, a chart labeled "Visitors" broken down by country. Each person who reads this blog is represented by his/her nation's flag, a two-letter designator identifying that nation, and the number of visits from that nation. To date 12,728 people from 126 countries have graced this page with their presence, averaging 54 visits per day since I initiated the sitemeter in March of 2009. If you would like to know the country to which each flag and two-letter designator belongs, simply click on this link, scroll down and then click on the appropriate square in the colored chart. If you ever needed an indication that we live in a global community, this is it -- a modest blog written by a modest writer in western Montana, reaching out around the planet. Very cool.

HOW SCIENCE IS DONE

For those who seek easy, concrete, immutable answers to life's questions -- where did we come from? how do migrating birds and butterflies know where they are going? why do some people have brown eyes, and others blue? where does that mysterious sock disappear to, when I do laundry? -- the answers can varously be tentative, inconclusive, reassuring or enlightening, when they come from science. Why is this? Doesn't the very word "science" mean "knowledge"? Why does it take so long to figure things out?

The answer lies in how science is conducted. When confronted with a question, the scientific method (click on image above to enlarge) requires that an investigator form a hypothesis (potential explanation), gather and analyze data through observation and experimentation, determine whether the empirical results support the hypothesis, and then publish the study's results for peer review. Results must be (A) replicable by other researchers, and (B) falsifiable. No leaps of faith are allowed. If a given hypothesis yields the same testing results reliably and repeatedly, over time it gains the force of credibility and is re-labeled as a scientific theory. Further testing and time may elevate the theory to a scientific law.

All of this takes time, and because of the requirement of falsifiability, something that has long been held to be true, may later be proven false. Case in point -- for centuries, largely under pressure from the Catholic church, people believed that the Earth was the center of the Universe, with the sun, planets and stars revolving around it. To propose otherwise was heresy, as Galileo learned the hard way. Yet the impulse toward truth is ultimately stronger than the impulse toward superstition, and science came to accept the reality that the earth revolves about the sun, which is only a moderately-sized star located midway out along one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way galaxy, one of tens of billions of galaxies in the known universe. Our homocentric view of things took a well-deserved cosmological thrashing, but we emerged better (and smarter) for it.

In good science, all sorts of avenues of inquiry are pursued, challenged, debated, settled, and revisited later on. A perfect example from the field of animal and human behavior concerns the notion of altruism, helping others with no personal gain, or helping others at one's own expense. In 1964, biologist William Hamilton advanced an explanation which appeared to explain altruism as an alternative avenue for prolonging one's own genes in the population. His hypothesis was generally accepted until quite recently, when a team of prominent evolutionary biologists at Harvard (including the redoubtable E.O. Wilson) published a paper in the journal Nature, disputing Hamilton's explanation.

This is the meat of science -- rigorous debate, evidence advanced and challenged, results confirmed or refuted. Fifty years ago, human knowledge was doubling every ten years. Now it doubles every five or six years. With so much learned, and so much remaining to learn, it's hardly surprising that if we want certainty in our views of ourselves and our surroundings -- and if we insist on more than a blind leap of faith to reach that certainty -- then we have to be willing to exercise patience, a healthy and informed skepticism, and an open mind. There is a word for such a rigorous mindset. It's called progress. Anything less is gossip, superstition or ignorance.

In a completely unrelated article, Jonathan Parkinson suggests with tongue-in-cheek "Got a physics question? Ask a stripper." It turns out that some women pursuing advanced degrees in the sciences find that they can support the costs of their education by working on the side as lap dancers, strippers, and even a few as hookers. The money is good, and job satisfaction is reported to be generally high. And none of these enterprising academics has to ask her clients, "Would you like fries with that?"

THE WORLD OF CONSERVATIVES

Kathleen Maclay reports that four researchers who culled through 50 years of research literature on the pyschology of conservatism report that at the core of political conservativism is the resistance to change and a tolerance for inequality, and that some of the psychological factors linked to political conservatism include:

• Fear and aggression
• Dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity
• Uncertainty avoidance
• Need for cognitive closure
• Terror management

Please click on the link for a more thorough description of the research. The qualities listed above are consistent with my own experience -- the further to the right one's thinking, the more likely that these and similar traits will replace rational thought. The findings go a long way toward explaining the conservative-induced polarization we observe at all levels of government, and in the populace at large. Mind you, I'm not suggesting that liberals are saints with a monopoly on insight and proper values. But they do, in my opinion, come closer. When your psyche operates out of fear and aggression, dogmatism and intolerand of ambiguity, and uncertainty avoidance, you are more likely to see the world in black and white terms -- which is rarely useful, since the world we inhabit is assuredly in shades of gray -- nuanced, diverse, subtle, and ever-changing.

This might explain the persistent perception among Republicans and Tea Party proponents that President Obama is a Muslim, or is partial to Muslim beliefs, or may not even be a citizen. None of these absurdities is true, yet according to a Newsweek poll, Republicans in large numbers believe that Obama would like to impose Islamic law. Say what??? Here is a man who is a Constitutional scholar, a Christian (not that being a Christian is somehow preferable to being a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew, or an atheist), and a deep and insightful thinker -- yet dull-witted people who are more comfortable letting others do their thinking for them follow reactionary slogans like lemmings into the sea.

Stop. Look. Think. You are being lied to by the leaders of the right. I increasingly am pessimistic about the future of this Republic, precisely because American voters do not engage their own critical faculties, do not question their own assumptions, do not think. They merely react. Which is why we face so many crises -- too few of us bother to think ahead five, ten, fifty years, to examine the consequences of our choices. Every difficulty we face, from human overpopulation to the financial meltdown to wars and yes, even the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, has been predictable and avoidable. We refuse to think in subtleties, we refuse to consider the larger picture, we seek only to maximize our own comfort and wealth and power, at the expense of anyone who gets in our way. This is civilization?

White fright is alive and well in America. If you doubt me, check out this video which compares the behavior and atmosphere during Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech, and the behavior and atmosphere during Glenn Beck's "Restore Honor" address from the same location, 47 years later. Beck's audience resembles a Ku Klux Klan rally, complete with obscene words and gestures. This man's understanding of honor is twisted and vulgarized beyond recognition.

M/V ALL ALASKAN

I spent the summer of 1982 wearing long johns and seeing my breath. During the break between school years at the University of Arizona, I decided to join the migration of itinerant hopefuls headed for summer jobs in Alaska. It was a long and circuitous pilgrimage. The first leg was a plane flight from Tucson to Seattle, where I rendezvoused with my traveling companion, Mary. There we boarded an Alaska Marine Highway ferry, the M/V Malaspina for the glorious three-day voyage up the Inside Passage, winding amongst coastal islands off British Columbia to Haines, AK. The landward mountains along the Passage shoot up nearly vertically from the sea. Between sightings of bald eagles, whales, and the ever-shifting weather, there was never a dull moment.






















Aboard the ferry we befriended a man who was transporting a new SUV for a friend, and hitched a ride with him from the Haines terminal across Canada to Anchorage (camping out in snow along the way -- in late May). After a two-week hiatus in Anchorage (where the weather forecast goes something like "If you can't see the Chugach Mountains to the east, it's raining. If you can see them, its going to rain."), we returned to hitchhiking down the Kenai Peninsula to Homer, home of the Red Dog Saloon, thence once more by AMH ferry to Kodiak Island and the small seafaring town of Kodiak (shown below).

















It seemed that a small army of other travelers had the same idea. Competition was fierce for jobs at the local canneries, as well as for jobs on the fishing boats and processing ships based at Kodiak. After two weeks of living in a tent at a nearby state park, drying out at the public library, and falling in love with that fiercely wild and beautiful land and seascape, I took matters into my own hands. Courtesy of a letter of introduction I'd obtained from a niece of one of the officials at All Alaskan Seafoods (and after a three-day trial period of working for the woman who was the company's radio dispatcher), two friends and I were selected to fill vacancies aboard the M/V All Alaskan. The dispatcher described us as "three skookum kinda guys," a high compliment in native vernacular.

A quick dash to Kodiak Airport, a quick flight by small plane to a rough airstrip at Chignik on the Alaska Peninsula (from whose tip extend the Aleutian Islands), then a wait for the ship's skiff to come pick us up from the gravel beach. The deckhand who piloted the skiff greeted us with "Welcome to the Blue Zoo." More fitting words were never spoken. Our summer's voyage had begun.
















The All Alaskan was a processing ship, 300 feet in length, with three decks in the aft superstructure and three decks below, not counting the bilges.. Smaller fishing boats would offload whatever the season's catch might be, from king crab to herring to salmon, onto the ship. The ship's crew was divided into gangs with various specialties -- rapid gutting and beheading, packaging, flash freezing, and storage in the ship's massive freezer hold. Cases weighing 80 to 120 lb. were stacked according to species and the method of preparation, and distributed by weight to prevent the ship from listing to starboard or port, and eventually off-loaded into the holds of Japanese or Korean freighters. It was a high-speed, coordinated, and often extremely dangerous operation -- speed held sway over safety concerns. Crew members carried razor-sharp processing knives, negotiated narrow passageways or tilting decks made slippery by cold water and fish slime, and had to avoid contact with automated conveyor belts whose moving metal parts would grip loose clothing and guarantee injury. The metal stairways between decks, as on most ships, were steep and treacherous. Out on the main deck, in the wind and cold and (often) rain, one had to be careful to avoid falling overboard. Those northern waters were described not on a temperature scale, but a time scale. "Five minute water" meant that if you were in it, you would last five minutes before hypothermia and exhaustion would lead to drowning. I witnessed half a dozen serious injuries, two of which required helicopter or boat medevac to the mainland.

Work days were twelve hours on, twelve hours off, seven days a week. The grueling conditions often led to fatigue, loss of focus, frayed tempers. Fighting was strictly prohibited, with an automatic loss of job as the penalty. Most workers tried to maintain an even emotional keel and get along, but as with any cross-section of society, there were a few individuals who took a perverse pleasure in goading others, out of simple meanness. And a few others who were liked by all. And a few who performed acts of heroism to save someone else's life, at risk of their own.

We worked hard, and we slept hard. Because we burned so many calories, and built up muscle mass so quickly, it was standard to eat four large meals a day, just to keep going. Diversions were few -- a TV in the galley where one could watch the same taped movie ten times, reading, writing letters home, playing cards, standing out on the bow or the fantail watching seabirds, dolphins and the ever-changing ocean and sky. Alcohol and marijuana were easily obtained. Though both men and women served on the crew, shipboard romances were few, simply because there was zero privacy. So the levels of stress, fatigue, and hormones were all off the charts.

As a change of pace, one could volunteer for overtime (!!) by going aboard one of the Asian freighters to help with the transfer of cases of fish into their cargo hold. The language barrier meant that hand signs, facial expressions and tone of voice were all we had to go on, but generally it worked out. Those freighters were invariably cleaner, more freshly painted, and more professionally run than the All Alaskan. One could ascribe part of that difference to the messy work we did. But it was also a reflection of the corporate mindset, in my opinion, as well as a reflection of the personality of the skipper. Our ship's captain was an old salt with a gift for colorful hyperbole and a fondness for the bottle. Our initial training was spotty, and safety drills were non-existent during my stay on board. It was the crew foremen and the more experienced crew members who really kept the ship running.

During the two months I worked on the All Alaskan, we worked the waters all the way from Chignik, southwest through Umiak Pass, then back northeast to Bristol Bay. Thankfully, in addition to taking several rolls of photos (now in storage), I kept a journal. When I read a key word or phrase and it all comes flooding back -- the friendships, the wild working conditions, the songs that ran through my head, how often I was reduced to tears over missing my young son. Not to mention larger-scale incidents, like the time the ship was listing at a 30 degree angle from vertical and in danger of sinking, after the bow cable which was securing us to a freighter severed, while the stern cable remained attached. Both ships scissored away from each other, then crashed together again several times, impelled by the fast tide at the mouth of Kvichak Bay near Dillingham. Once both captains revved their engines, the ships stabilized, and repairs were made. Everyone's eyes were as big as dinnerplates -- except for the half-sauced captain, who said, "Hell, this ain't nothing, this is Hollywood stuff, nothing like being out in 100 foot waves," or some such tall tale.

At the end of salmon season, as the ship was about to head west for the Bering Sea, I was fortunate to meet a young Frenchman who was giving away his return airline ticket to .... Tucson. I could have stayed with half a dozen of my mates who were going to tour up to Mount Denali, but I decided that getting home was where my heart needed to be. On the flight from Kodiak to Anchorage, I looked down at the clouds below and saw my first and only glory -- a double full-circle rainbow with the plane's shadow precisely at its center. Homecoming to my sweetheart, and to my son, was bliss.

The urban myth in those years was that people spent a summer in Alaska and got rich. Not so, I'm afraid. I only cleared a few thousand dollars. But the experience .... priceless.

Note: this blog post was prodded into reality by coming across an online conversation thread about the mysterious fate of the M/V All Alaskan. It turns out that after my experience on board, the ship ran aground on St. Paul Island in 1987, and subsequently was destroyed by fire in 1994. She lived just shy of fifty years, and in spite of the travails of work on her decks, she'll always occupy a special place in my memory. When I served on board, she had none of the ugly rust streaks seen in the photo below. She was the Blue Zoo.

RIGHT WING FAT CATS / ZOOTIES

In yesterday's post, I referred to the radical right's smear campaign against President Obama. Today, two of my favorite NYTimes columnists take up the theme, from different angles. Economist Paul Krugman takes on the emotionally-charged content of the conservative witch-hunt season, noting that moderate Republicans, who have the most to lost in the polarization of the electorate, are blindingly absent from the debate. No leaders, not even George W. Bush who urged Americans to a more tolerant attitude toward Muslims, has stepped forward to calm the stormy waters. What are they afraid of? The rapier wit of Sarah Palin?

Essayist Frank Rich examines the money trail behind the Tea Party movement. It is a fact that many Tea Party members are on the high side of affluence, with the vast majority being white, male and Republican. Rich reports that, behind the scenes, there are three billionaires bankrolling the Tea Party -- Rupert Murdoch, and brothers David and Charles Koch. How ironic that the rank and file among the Tea Party don't even realize that they are pawns in the broader financial and political power plays of three modern fat cats, whose goals are often at odds with the unsuspecting TPers being financed. Rich's article provides the gory (and richly ironic) details.

ZOOTIES. This is just too delightful not to share. I stumbled across motivational speaker Amanda Gore's video How to Let People Know You Love Them, and despite my initial cynicism, was enchanted. No mystical voodoo, no con job, just simple common-sense advice on lowering one's stress level, and improving relations with those we love. I dare you to try it out.

IN DENIAL / THE X PRIZE

IN DENIAL. Timothy Egan's NYTimes article Building a Nation of Know-Nothings expresses clearly, and with examples, the fatal flaws inherent in right-wing rhetoric, particularly the racist rhetoric directed at President Obama. Conservatives undermine their own credibility when, with ignorance bordering on stupidity, they continue to disingenuously (and hypocritically) claim that Obama is a Muslim, that he is a terrorist, that he may not even be a citizen. Do we not have enough real, critical issues with which to deal, without having to refute such baseless slander? Perpetuating ignorance by telling a lie repeatedly is nothing new -- Mussolini had it down, and proudly. For the record, here is documentation of the President's birth certificate.

THE X PRIZE. Like many, I was familiar with the X Prize as it relates to suborbital space flight, and to robotic land vehicles. I was surprised and pleased to discover that the foundation behind the prize supports technological development in many fields, with the stipulation that the development benefit humankind. Case in point -- the PBS News Hour recently devoted a segment to the R&D of an ultra light car which will travel 100 miles per gallon of fuel. The builders are still refining the vehicle, but they say that combining existing energy technology with aerodynamic design and the crash protection found in race cars can produce an affordable and safe revolutionary alternative which surpasses even the most fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles of today. Check out Judy Woodruff's interview with Oliver Kuttner to see what this vehcile looks like, and how it performs.

Lastly, a heart-stopping video showing a dog in Chile rescuing another dog which had been struck by freeway traffic. It would be anthropomorphic to call this act heroism -- but it would surely be interesting to know if the two dogs were related or lived in the same home, to understand this death-defying act of apparent altruism.

I HAVE A DREAM

On this day in 1955, a 15-year-old African-American boy named Emmett Till was murdered in Mississippi for flirting with a white woman.

On this day in 1963, I was about to start my junior year in high school.

Also on this day in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, calling for racial equality and an end to discrimination. His eloquent and moving words were heard by a quarter million civil rights supporters who had participated in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom -- and by countless millions of others in the years since.

No description can do justice to Dr. King's integrity and passion. Here is a link to the full text of his address -- you can watch and listen to the full speech at the same link.

A footnote. What a shame that predatory provocateurs Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin are attempting on this day to co-opt the legacy of Dr. King, with a divisive, fear-mongering gathering of their own today at the same location where Dr. King inspired the minds and souls of so many. As Bob Herbert notes, the hatred and bigotry which the right wing foments are a hollow sham, a mockery of our nation's founding principles and a slap in the face of the peaceful good will which Dr. King sought to instill in all of us. Chris Matthews comments that if Dr. King were around for today's rally, his sentiments might well be "I Have a Nightmare."

Bottom line, I can state categorically that the vacuous, retrogressive thinking of Beck, Palin, Limbaugh, and other Tea party adherents will never win the Nobel Peace Prize -- which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. received in 1964. He will be forever missed, and forever treasured.