DISORDER & DISCRIMINATION / SCIENCE MUSEUMS

DISORDER & DISCRIMINATION. A fascinating set of studies has revealed that chaotic environments (whether dirty, cluttered, or fraught with uncertainty) provoke stereotypes and discriminatory behavior, far more so than clean, ordered environments. The setting might be a railway station, a neighborhood, an office space with bookshelves, an experiment with flashcards, or the arrangement of shapes on a page -- the results are consistent. The working hypothesis for these studies is that "stereotypes, being a set of simplified categories and judgments, can help people to cope with chaos. They are a 'mental cleaning device in the face of disorder'. When our surroundings are full of chaos -- be it dirt or uncertainty -- we react by seeking order, structure, and predictability. Stereotypes, for all their problems, satisfy that need."

Thus might Muslims become unfairly stereotyped as being violent, Poles as less intelligent, blacks as aggressive, Jews as avaricious, women as passive, ad nauseam. Understanding the roots of stereotypes does not justify indulging in them, of course. They remain simplistic thinking which misleads us, forming a world view which does not accurately reflect complex reality, and leading to xenophobic and discriminatory behavior which the recipient does not deserve. As the report concludes -- "The message for policy makers is clear: One way to fight unwanted stereotyping and discrimination is to diagnose enviromental disorder early and to intervene immediately by cleaning up and creating physical order. Signs of disorder such as broken windows, graffiti, and scattered litter will not only increase antisocial behavior, they will also automatically lead to stereotyping and discrimination. Investing in repair and renovation, and preventing neighborhoods [and public facilities] from falling into disarray, may be relatively inexpensive and effective ways to reduce stereotyping and discrimination."

Footnote -- It is also useful to recognize that the higher one's tolerance for ambiguity and diversity, the more adaptable one becomes in varying, diverse settings. Just a thought.

SCIENCE MUSEUMS. I was pleased beyond words to come across the article Surveys Confirm Enormous Value of Science Museums, "Free Choice" Learning. It is an unfortunate myth that schools and formal education form the best, or even the only, source of information for inquisitive minds of any age, particularly when the subject is science. Classrooms have their place, but direct experience in laboratories, on field trips, and in interdisciplinary teaching provide the most vivid and memorable learning tools.

The study focused on the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Extensive surveys of thousands of visitors over a ten-year period revealed that --

~ More than half the residents of Los Angeles County, over one million a year, have visited the Science Center since it opened in 1998, and say it strongly improved their understanding of science issues.

~ Residents who visited the Science Center were among the most knowledgeable Los Angeles residents about science and technology, and their visit significantly contributed to this.

~ the makeup of visitors was broadly representative of the general population, including all races, ethnicities, ages, education and income levels.

~ More than a quarter of visitors were Hispanic, and some of the strongest beliefs about positive impact were expressed by minority and low-income individuals.

~ While other leisure activities were decreasing in the past decade, adult use of the Internet, watching educational programs on television, and listening to educational programs in other formats increased.

~ Nearly all adults who said their children had visited the Science Center reported an increase in their children's knowledge of science and technology, and large majorities said the visit increased their long-term interest levels.

~ The attraction of the museum was amazingly broad -- no one zip code accounted for more than 2 percent of the visitation.

These results dovetail nicely with both my experiences growing up, and with my experiences as a teacher. The most vivid memories are imprinted in non-ordinary settings -- on vacation, on a field trip, during a visit to a richly varied and artfully presented environment like a science museum. Even if one does not exist where you live, a special trip to the nearest science museum will repay you many times over, in new knowledge and in a revitalized sense of awe and wonder at all that we know (and are still learning) about the world around us. Hands-on exhibits, along with both static and animated displays, in fields ranging from physics, biology and chemistry to time, space and the cosmos will keep you happily engaged for hours on end.

Toward that end, here is a list of major science museums in the U.S. I particularly recommend those (like the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia) which incorporate or are close to an IMAX theater. The signature seven-story tall, wrap-around screen and state of the art sound system are guaranteed to take your breath away. Here is a list of IMAX venues, located around the world. Enjoy.

GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN / VIEW FROM ABOVE

GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN. By now most of us are aware that due to a last-minute compromise (of sorts), the U.S. House and Senate were able to agree to fund operations of the federal government for the near future -- after much partisan posturing on proposals which have little to do with serving the people or balancing the budget, and much to do with the antics of spoiled, overpaid schoolchildren. Or, as Nicholas Kristof suggests in Our Cowardly Congress, "This budget war reflects inanity, incompetence and cowardice that are sadly inexplicable."

I'm not so certain that explanations are lacking. Our elected officials in both parties are making a career of failing us, their employers. Democrats lack the cajones to stand on principle -- they are so fearful of criticism that they end up caving in, even when they have a numerical majority. Republicans lack the vision or the values which once made this country great. They are so intent on making the super-wealthy even wealthier (including themselves) that they would sacrifice human services on the altar of spending cuts. And we, the electorate, persist in sending to Washington the weakest, least enlightened politicians money can buy.

Do you doubt that this country is governed by Wall Street? Consider that when a government shutdown was still looming, analysts viewed the prospect as a "plus for the market". We formulate and execute foreign policy and domestic policy with a view not toward national security, world peace, or bettering our social/environmental world. Rather, policies foreign and domestic are expressly carried out to maximize profit for the privileged top 1 percent, leaving the rest of us out in the cold.

Here are two modest proposals which would go a long way toward solving our financial mess. (1) Reform the tax code to eliminate all deductions, exemptions, and write-offs for both individuals and corporations. It is obscene that the world's largest corporation, G.E., pays no taxes whatsoever. Everyone should contribute their fair share, 10 percent of gross income. We would find ourselves with a federal budget surplus which could be devoted to improving roads, schools, healthcare, mass transit, you name it. (2) End the war in Afghanistan. On Capitol Hill the current deadlock is over a mere $40 billion in spending. Yet we spend $2 billion per week in Afghanistan, making the same military and political mistakes we did in Vietnam. According to the Afghanistan Study Group, "If the Afghan war ended and the funds allocated to it were returned to the states, no state in America would run a deficit next year."

The solutions are there. We only have to slice through the Gordian knot of partisan politics and act in the best interests of all people -- at home and around the world.

VIEW FROM ABOVE. Many thanks to my Chicago friend Bill for this link -- 100 Incredible Views Out of Airplane Windows. Some I've seen, many I want to see. It is worth taking a step back from our troubles and noticing the astonishing beauty which surrounds us. As a sample, you'll want to click on this image of Arizona's Grand Canyon for full effect. Enjoy all 100 !

BEING BUMPED / BIRDNET / PARSIMONY

BEING BUMPED. Michelle Higgins in the NYTimes reports that in the current economy, with airlines cutting service and eliminating the number of daily flights, the overbooking of seats and subsequent bumping of passengers from flights is on the rise. "Airlines regularly overbook flights to help offset no-shows and to ensure that flights are packed with paying passengers. Last year, out of 595 million passengers, 681,100 were denied seats on planes, according to the Department of Transportation. Most of those people volunteered to give up their seats in return for some form of compensation, like a voucher for a free flight. But D.O.T. statistics also show that about 1.09 out of every 10,000 passengers were bumped involuntarily.

"Airlines are required to ask people who are not in a hurry to give up their seats voluntarily, in exchange for compensation, before passengers who do not want to give up their seats are kicked off. But with capacity cuts, getting customers to volunteer is tricky. Full planes mean that the next flight out with an open seat might not be until the next day or even the next."

Still, there is apparently opportunity in every dilemma. Some people who wish to rack up frequent-flier miles, strategically book on flights that are the most likely to be oversold in the hopes of being bumped. Higgins offers a list of tips for those who want being bumped. If you wish to avoid being bumped, just do the opposite (see the article for further explanation) --

~ Be the first in line.

~ Fly through hubs.

~ Take the red-eye.

~ Choose the right airline and the right day.

~ Check the weather.

~ Know the rules.

~ Ask for more.

~ Be polite.

My own semi-educated guess after flying commercially for over forty years, is that airline practices are highly suspect. The hub-and-spoke system is custom-made to generate logjams. Further, the practice of overbooking should be made illegal. It would not be tolerated in any other business. Selling a seat ticket is entering into a contract. Selling more tickets than there are seats, amounts to intentional and systematic fraud.

BIRDNET. How embarrassing. The BBC reports that "A Durban [South Africa] IT company pitted an 11-month old bird armed with a 4GB memory stick against the ADSL service from the country's biggest web firm, Telkom. Winston the pigeon took two hours to carry the data 60 miles -- in the same time the ADSL had sent 4% of the data." High-speed internet still has a few kinks to work out, it seems.

In another bird story, this remarkable video shows two crows inciting an epic cat street fight. The cats fell for it, and neither bird was hurt in the ensuing melee. Where's the dignity?

PARSIMONY. To tickle your imagination, and hopefully to encourage more inconspicuous consumption, check out 7 Ways to Have More by Owning Less. People working together can achieve wonders.

POLITICAL BRAINS / LOSING LISA

POLITICAL BRAINS. We all understand that liberals and conservatives think and behave differently. New research has shown that their brains are actually structured differently. "Liberals have more gray matter in a part of the brain [the anterior cingulate cortex, or ACC] associated with understanding complexity, while the conservative brain is bigger in the section [the right amygdala] related to processing fear .... It is conceivable that individuals with a larger ACC have a higher capacity to tolerate uncertainty and conflicts .... It remains unclear whether the structural differences cause the divergence in political views, or are the effect of them. But the central issue in determining political views appears to revolve around fear and how it affects a person."

The findings are consistent with my perception that liberals are given to more nuanced, flexible thinking which allows for shades of meaning and experience; while conservatives are given to stark, rigid thinking thinking which admits to merely black-and-white interpretations of the world. Of course, these are generalities -- moderates probably exhibit both types of thought.

LOSING LISA. NASA has announced that due to budgetary constraints, it is abandoning LISA, "the planned Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, as well as IXO, an X-ray satellite observatory." LISA is designed to detect and isolate signals called gravity waves, which would allow it to pinpoint binary systems within our galaxy, as well as "giving detailed access to the spacetime metric near a black hole. As a side benefit, the wavelength is just right for looking at gravitational waves that might be produced in the early universe .... "

Budget cuts. Shrinking and reordering priorities. What sort of twisted society have we allowed to develop -- one in which NASA must hold bake sales to fund its missions, while GE, the largest corporation on the planet, pays zero taxes? The failed war in Afghanistan costs billion of dollars a day, yet we somehow imagine that it's all the fault of teachers' unions. Someone toss me a rope, I've fallen down the rabbit hole.

YOU & TAXES / FACEBOOK COPS

YOU AND TAXES. Most folks were outraged (thought not particularly surprised) when it was revealed in the NYTimes that "General Electric, the world's largest corporation, had a very good year in 2010. The company reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, and said $5.1 billion of the total came from its operations in the United States. It's American tax bill? None. In fact, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion .... the company has been cutting the percentage of the American profits paid to the Internal Revenue Service for years, resulting in a far lower rate than at most multinational companies.

"Its extraordinary success is based on an aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits offshore .... While General Electric is one of the most skilled at reducing its tax burden, many other companies have become better at this as well. Although the top corporate tax rate in the United States is 35 percent, one of the highest in the world, companies have increasingly been using a maze of tax shelters, tax credits and subsidies to pay far less."

Lobbying. Offshore accounts. Tax shelters. It burns my grits when misinformed people whine about individuals on welfare, when the towering thundercloud casting that tiny shadow is that we live in a nation of corporate welfare. It is one of the most egregious failures of capitalism in its current mutation that if you have the financial means, you can hire accountants, lobbyists, and tax attorneys to shield you from paying your fair share of the burden of running a nation -- all the while raking in obscene profits to reward your CEOs (but not your struggling average workers). Am I alone is seeing both a financial and an ethical disconnect here?

It would be interesting to trace the evolution from the philosphy of the founders of this nation, who pledged "our lives, our fortunes, our sacred honor" to establish and defend the republic, to the philosophy of those in power today -- take the money and run. Let no one labor under the illusion that we live in a democracy. Our government resides on Wall Street, not in Washington. We go through the motions of holding elections, and sometimes we send a president or congressman to the capitol with high hopes of effecting change. As I noted to a friend recently, it's like tossing a pebble into a pond. Reform may produce a few spreading ripples, but the pond remains intact.

Incidentally, here is a satirical explanation of G.E.'s Aggressive Tax Strategy. I particularly like "brought a few hundred million good things to life, then claimed them as dependents".

So what to do? We can complain about the unfairness of it all, but where are the solutions? Over thirty years ago, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Jack Anderson proposed a reform that is elegant in its simplicity. His suggestion -- that ALL individuals and corporations pay a flat 10 percent tax on their gross income. Period. No deductions, no exemptions, no tax shelters, no deferments, no exceptions for offshore accounts. If you made money, whether inside the U.S. or overseas, you would owe 10 percent of that income. The resulting income to the government would be a floodtide sufficient to finance the repair and modernization of our nation's infrastructure (roads, highways, high speed rail, air traffic control, clean power), as well as insure the finest education system in the world, establish quality universal health care, create jobs for all who are able to work, and remove the necessity for waging war in the far corners of the globe over natural resources.

If you earned $40,000 a year, your tax would be $4000 -- at first blush a staggering amount, until you consider that you would receive value for value in the form of affordable healthcare, education, and other services. If you as a corporation made $14 billion (and remember, that figure represents profits, not gross income), you would pay $1.4 billion. Can you imagine the galvanizing effect that would have on our economy? Everyone paying their fair share, and everyone reaping the benefits. Doubtless there would be details to be ironed out -- and perhaps the specific percentage would have to be revised. But it strikes me as a good starting point.

Reality check -- I don't live in la-la land. I realize that the status quo maintained by the super-wealthy and their armies of minions in Congress would fight such a change to the death. Even the mildest tax reforms are resisted tooth and nail. But guess what? When 1 percent of Americans control 40 percent of the nation's wealth, and the gap between the rich and the rest of us widens every year, there will come a breaking point. Even the sheep who elect the conservatives who perpetuate our economic shipwreck, once educated, are capable of growing fangs. One hopes sooner rather than later.

Speaking of taxes and national defense (when did we stop calling it what it is, the War Department?) -- check out this handy calculator from Rethink Afghanistan -- you simply input your income and your filing status from 2010, and up pops the amount you contributed to war. I doubt that the algorithm takes into account niceties like itemized deductions or those dreaded offshore accounts, but it is still an interesting approximation of your financial support of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and a dozen other hot spots on the planet. I'm just sayin'.

FACEBOOK COPS. I got a kick out of the NYTimes article Police Lesson: Social Network Tools Have Two Edges. Facebook and Twitter may be ubiquitous, but they are far from anonymous. Increasingly, police departments across the country are having to establish rules of conduct for their officers who maintain a Facebook presence. Why? Because certain officers allow their egos or their sociopathic tendencies to compromise criminal investigations or criminal trials. I mean, common sense would tell me, if I were a police officer and posted a profile photo of myself in a uniform identifying my employer, not to list my occupation as "human waste disposal", or posting on my news feed that I'd watched the movie Training Day to "brush up on proper police procedure". Live and learn, eh?

RAPE / BLOODLUST

CAVEAT -- today's post is not pretty. Readers who are sensitive to the seamy underbelly of life may wish to proceed with caution. On the other hand, whether or not you are sensitive, you may find food for thought that proves useful in your own life.

RAPE. There are few acts of violence uglier or more psychologically damaging than rape. The ugliness is compounded when rape (or any other assault) occurs in front of witnesses who do nothing to intervene. How sick is it, then, when an 11-year old girl is raped at least six times over a period of three months, not just by an individual, but by various members of a group of nineteen men, ages 14 to 27? This scenario played out in the small town of Cleveland, Texas, as reported in the NYTimes. The arrests of the suspects "have raised fundamental questions about how a girl might have been repeatedly abused by many men and boys in a tightly knit community without any adult intervening, or even seeming to register that something was amiss, until sexually explicit videos of the victim began circulating in local schools.

" 'It wasn't that anyone was asleep,' said the Rev. Travis Hulett Jr., the pastor of the New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, which anchors the Precinct 20 neighborhood where most of the defendents live. 'You can be awake and see things and still not do anything.' "

Really? Shades of Kitty Genovese. Sorry, but I don't agree. I've risked my own life more than once in the defense of animals and people, and will do so again if the need arises. It is incumbent upon all of us to understand both the benign and the horrific sides of our human nature, so that we are equipped to make the most humane, elevating choices possible in any situation. Turning away from violence or ugly behavior is, ultimately, no solution. The people of Cleveland, Texas, have a lot of soul-searching to do.

As does anyone in a position of physical or economic power over others. As a species we are still evolving, and it is an open question whether we will survive our own environmental myopia long enough to become enlightened beings. There are many among us who choose the easy path of criminal behavior, over the more disciplined path of integrity. Case in point -- the Southern Poverty Law Center recently reported that sexual assaults against immigrant women have taken on the proportions of a human rights tragedy in the United States. There remains an undercurrent of misogynistic predation in our culture, about which few wish to think. In our apathy, we allow roughly half of all women to endure at least one incident of sexual harrassment in their lifetimes. For immigrant women, the proportion is more like 80 percent. Power should carry with it responsibility, not the opportunity for predation.

I'm enough of a cynic not to be surprised when I encounter such barbarity. We are, after all, only 66 years removed from the Holocaust. Genocide, rape, murder, child abuse, are still with us. But I'm also enough of an idealist to believe that we are capable of better, and that it is necessary not just to speak out, but to stand up to those who choose not to control their own impulses toward violence. We are a nation of laws, and we are also a nation of individuals capable of defending victims of abuse .... if only we make that decision.

BLOODLUST. One step removed from actual violence is the portrayal of violence -- in books, in films, in folklore. Many among us shy away from the portrayal. Others are drawn to it, whether from resonance with their own fantasies. or from an effort to understand and prevent it. Tom Jacobs' essay Bloodlust and Jokes and What Lies In Between explores vividly reproduced violence in the context of Quentin Tarentino's signature 1994 film "Pulp Fiction". With references to Stendahl, Flannery O'Connor and Herbert Marcuse, Jacobs posits that violence on film elicits not only shock but (counterintuitively) sometimes laughter, the kind of laughter which signals not enjoyment, but rather a nervous response to the shock of the unknown. "Scenes of violence slap us out of our general stupor, they make us see things again in strange ways .... Violence both matters to us and it doesn't. It is both upsetting and funny. We see It as a spectator and as someone who imagines oneself in those particular ill-fitting shoes. We need to be shocked, convulsed out of our traditional ways of consuming and watching it in order to really see it and its relation to our mundane lives. Everyone's mortality is unique .... Violence tends to focus the attention even as it unveils something of our vanities. Violence (which is different from suffering) when expressed in fictional form and crosscut with a sense of humor is, in today's world, perhaps the only way to make us see."

One could draw similar parallels with graphically-violent films like "300" or "Sin City". It is an interesting thesis, one with which I'm not yet certain I agree. Click on the link above to view the entire essay, and see what you think.

LIFE AND DEATH / THE ECONOMY / HUMOR

LIFE AND DEATH.

LIFE. A distinguished panel discusses the origins of life, the possibility of finding life elsewhere, and the latest development in synthetic biology. The video is 41 minutes long, but the exchange of ideas is spirited and provocative, eliciting laughter and applause from the audience.

DEATH. In Death Anxiety Shapes Views on Evolution, Tom Jacobs reports that, although evolutionary theory is the foundation of modern biology, fewer than 40 percent of Americans say they believe in it. "While frustrated scientists sometimes blame religion for this knowledge gap, newly published research suggests that the key factor isn't faith per se, but rather a benefit it provides that Darwin does not -- a sense that our all-too-short lives have meaning.

" .... a sense of literal immortality may be provided by religious belief in afterlife, and a sense of symbolic immortality may be provided by 'living on' through one's accomplishments, offspring, or cultural affiliations .... Reminders of death tend to evoke 'enthusiastic adherence' to our religious and political belief systems, since they are the mechanisms that promise us either literal or symbolic immortality .... Evolutionary theory, which views human life as the product of a lengthy chain of natural events, seems 'existentially bleak' to many people.

" .... So are we emotionally predisposed to stay scientifically ignorant? Not necessarily. [In one phase of the study's experiments)], half of the participants read a passage by cosmologist and science writer Carl Sagan. In it, he argued that 'humans can attain meaning and purpose by seeking to understand the natural origins of life. Even if we are merely matter, we can still find purpose, but it must be one that we work out for ourselves.'

"Among those who were exposed to Sagan's notions, thoughts of mortality produced a negative reaction to intelligent design theory and a positive one toward evolution. It seems the study participants were still looking for meaning in response to an existential threat. But after being told by a trusted source that scientific study can satisfy this longing, they found Darwin's concepts surprisingly appealing."

Note: while an existential fear of death may explain the intensity with which people cling to religion, or resist the explanatory power of evolution, it remains true that religion (another word for superstition) perpetuates this fear for its own self-perpetuation. To the extent that this is true, religion persists in behaving irresponsibly, and not in the best interests of its adherents.

THE ECONOMY. Here are three very different perspectives on the economic meltdown we've experienced over the past 30 years, starting with the Reagan presidency. In a somewhat random gathering of facts, you will find Rich vs. Poor: 14 Funny Statistics and 14 Not So Funny Statistics About This 'Economic Recovery'. The depressing trend continues in the astonishing fact that 11.4 % of All U.S. Homes Are Vacant. That may seem like an opportunity for those who have disposable capital, but who among us does? Precious few, it turns out. Of the 1 %, By the 1 %, For the 1 % explains who, and why. Over the past four decades, thanks to conservative legislators and administrations, the nation's wealth has become more and more concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people, until we've reached the point where the top 1 percent of the nation's citizens control 40 percent of the nation's wealth. "Those in the middle have actually seen their incomes fall. For men with only high school degrees, the decline has been precipitous -- 12 percent in the last quarter century alone. All the growth in recent decades has gone to those at the top."

How can this be? Here's how. Tax loopholes have been created for the rich by conservative legislators and administrations -- in particular, "lowering tax rates on capital gains, which is how the rich receive a large portion of their income, has given the wealthiest Americans close to a free ride .... Much of today's inequality is due to manipulation of the financial system, enabled by changes in the rules that have been bought and paid for by the financial industry itself -- one of its best investments ever. The government lent money to financial institutions at close to zero percent interest and provided generous bailouts on favorable terms when all else failed. Regulators turned a blind eye to a lack of transparency and to conflicts of interest .... Wealth begets power, which begets more wealth.

"America's inequality distorts our society in every conceivable way .... people outside the top 1 percent increasingly live beyond their (shrinking) means .... Inequality massively distorts our foreign policy. The top 1 percent rarely serve in the military -- the reality is that the 'all-volunteer' army does not pay enough to attract their sons and daughters, and patriotism only goes so far. Plus, the wealthiest class feels no pinch from higher taxes when the nation goes to war -- borrowed money will pay for all that. Foreign policy, by definition, is about the balancing of national interests and national resources. With the top 1 percent in charge, and paying no price, the notion of balance and restraint goes out the window. There is no limit to the adventures we can undertake: corporations and contractors stand only to gain. The rules of economic globalization are likewise designed to benefit the rich. They encourage competition among countries for business, which drives down taxes for corporations, weakens health and environmental protections, and undermines what used to be regarded as the 'core' labor rights, including the right to collective bargaining. Imagine what the world might look like if the rules were designed instead to encourage competition among countries for workers. Governments would compete in providing economic security, low taxes on ordinary wage earners, good education, and a clean environment -- things workers care about. But the top 1 percent don't need to care. Or, more accurately, they think they don't.

" .... The top 1 percent have the best houses, the best educations, the best doctors, and the best lifestyles, but there is one thing that money doesn't seem to have bought: an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live. Throughout history, this is something that the top 1 percent eventually do learn. Too late."

HUMOR. Finally, a few grins -- Obama and Gay Marriage. Palin's Squirmish, and why Everyone Should Put Down the Toilet Seat.

MLK ASSASSINATION / REALITY IS BROKEN

MLK ASSASSINATION. 43 years ago today, on 4 April 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was slain by an assassin's bullet in Memphis, Tennessee. He was the preeminent spokesman for equality, peace, tolerance, and social justice in our time. Among many humanitarian and civil rights awards, Dr. King was selected to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

His passing at the young age of 39 was a national tragedy. It remains so. Sadly, there are those who would use his good name in furthering causes which he would not have approved. Here's one example -- a video of a Pentagon spokesman claiming that Dr. King would have understood the necessity for the war in Afghanistan, along with a rebuttal in Dr. King's own words. Here is a link to one of Dr. King's most memorable moments -- his "I Have A Dream" speech delivered during the March on Washington on 28 August 1963.

REALITY IS BROKEN. That being the name of a new book by Jane McGonigal. The book is subtitled "Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World." I have not yet read it, but I intend to. In the meantime, here is a lively interview between McGonigal and Stephen Colbert. See what you think, eh?

PONY EXPRESS / WEINER / DON QUIXOTE

PONY EXPRESS. 151 years ago today, the Pony Express began its 18 month life as the then-fastest mail link across the country. Messages were carried "by horseback riders in relays to stations across the prairies, plains, deserts, and mountains of the Western United States", from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California. "It became the west's most direct means of east-west communication before the telegraph, and was vital for tying California closely with the Union before the Civil War."

Those were rough and desparate times. Pony Express riders not only had to race the mail across an often-harsh landscape, they did so alone. Most carried two revolvers and a rifle, to defend themselves against highwaymen or hostile Indians, and endure all extremes of weather. Relay stations were 5 to 20 miles apart, and at each station a rider would exchange his tired mount for a fresh one. Roughly 80 riders were used at any one time. I have a commemorative t-shirt on which is reproduced a famous advertisement for prospective riders. It reads, "Wanted: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over eighteen. Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred."

WEINER. Who says politicians have no sense of humor? At the Congressional Correspondents Dinner last week, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) delivered a raucous address skewering political foes and friends alike ... including himself. Here is a link to the video.

DON QUIXOTE. "Quixotic -- Possessing or acting with the desire to do noble and romantic deeds, without thought of realism or practicality. Impulsive. Romantic to extravagance, absurdly chivalric, apt to be deluded." The pursuit of an unlikely grail derives from one of the most enduring characters in Western literature -- Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote. The archetypal romantic knight's quests have been the inspiration for operas, classical music, plays, ballets, and films -- not to mention the role model for countless quixotic dreamers of impossible dreams.

In The Paris Review, Jonathan Gharraie explores the linguistic legacy and the original character. "Can all the possibilities and implications of a character, or even -- more ambitiously -- a life's work, be contained within the semantic boundaries of just one word? We think of Orwellian as adjectival shorthand for a state apparatus of terror and survaillance, but what if we also took it to mean window-pane clarity of expression or even a marked aversion to the poetry of Stephen Spender? In the same way, Don Quixote is not only a cautionary tale about the perils of idealism: it is also the first great book about books, a visionary parable about the responsibilities of reading and writing fiction that arrived early on in the age of printing. The river feeds into an ocean.

For some, the appeal of Don Quixote derives from "the idealism and the chivalry we've been lacking." For others, "you cannot write in Spanish without having Cervantes in mind .... [Spanish writers] are all heirs to that style." Further, "as well as celebrating the daring moral venture of Don Quixote, this is an occasion for confirmed bibliophiles. Four hundred years after Cervantes' masterpiece emerged, we now stand on the farthest shore of the printing age. We still buy books, we still want them hanging round, causing clutter or mess .... This passion is significant now because we have some idea of how a world without books might work. We at least know that we would continue to read, [whether] the lavish endeavor of the lovingly prepared new edition or the take-out convenience of the virtual text."

May we always pursue impossible dreams .... and may we always, like the protagonist in Robert A. Heinlein's Farnham's Freehold, treasure and pass on to our children the love of books.

HUMAN LAKE / SCIENCE BITES BACK / BACH

THE HUMAN LAKE. Carl Zimmer has written a comprehensive, compelling essay in which he retraces the development of human understanding of ecosystems, biological niches, and the resiliency to change which is conferred by biodiversity -- and draws a parallel between that complex ecology and the similar ecology which lives within each human body. The initial setting is a lake in Connecticut, a pristine natural laboratory for the study of organisms and how they are dependent upon each other. The ultimate setting is you, and me, and everyone we know, and how we too are dependent not only upon food and shelter and warmth, but also upon the thriving billions of microorganisms living symbiotically in our bodies. It is a fascinating and illuminating discussion, one which hopefully will leave the reader with insight (maybe even empathy) for all those wee critter which call our bodies home .... and in the process make our own lives possible.

SCIENCE BITES BACK. This made me smile. Conservative Republicans seeking to deny the existence of global warming called upon five "experts" to testify -- only one of whom was an actual scientist. In a delightful ambush, physicist Robert Muller remained true to his principles and asserted that yes, global warming is indeed real and well-documented (see graph below, click on any image to enlarge). Climate hawks of the world, unite -- and Luddites, beware.

BACH. My thanks to Andea Kuszewski for posting this link on Facebook -- a Rube Goldberg device set up deep in a forest, playing Bach's Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring. The sheer amount of work and planning -- cutting hundreds of blocks of material to produce the correct note, spacing them to produce rhythm and tempo -- is an astonishing feat of dedication to beauty. You can also hear a classical guitar version here. This is a perfect illustration of why classical music is my favorite genre -- it remains nuanced and timeless.

GOOD & EVIL / WEST COAST TSUNAMI

GOOD & EVIL Experimental psychologist Andrea Kuszewski, guest blogging for Scientific American, posits that the line between good and evil is gray and fuzzy, rather than clear. In an entertaining and thought-provoking essay, she suggests that "the world's greatest heroes are also some of the most hard-headed, rebellious, not-necessarily law-abiding rule-breakers .... Not only that, there may be a genetic link between these extreme heroes and those least expected to act heroically -- the Sociopath. This person [the hero] is called the Extreme Altruist, or X-Altruist." The sub-headers in her essay hint at what lies beneath the surface of our assumptions, and how those assumptions may be midguided --

• Heroism to the Extreme


• X-Altruists and Sociopaths -- A Genetic Link?


• The Traits of the Sociopath vs. the X-Altruist


• Ego, Empathy, Emotion -- Why Do They Matter?


• The X-Altruist -- a Personality Disorder or Optimal Gene Expression?


• Why Is the Intensity Necessary?


• Ego Resilience and Flexible Detachment -- the Superpowers of the X-Altruist


• Could an X-Altruist "turn evil"?


• The Sociopath -- a Less Hardy X-Altruist?


• How Can We Prevent X-Altruists From Becoming Sociopaths?


• How Do We Encourage X-Altruism?

It may surprise you (as it did me) to learn that in psychological terms, X-Altruists and Sociopaths SHARE seven of nine defining traits. They differ in only two. To learn more, I invite you to read Kuszewski's remarkable essay, at the link above.

WEST COAST TSUNAMI. Could the horrific events which befell Japan following a near-offshore earthquake and tsunami, happen in the U.S.? Absolutely, according to an 8-minute PBS Newshour segment, viewable here. Both countries lie on the Pacific Ring of Fire, and both countries have a major tectonic plate subduction zone lying just off their respective coasts.

The last such catastrophic earthquake off the Pacific Northwest occurred in 1700, and another is due anytime. Should the next quake strike anywhere near shore, as did the quake in Japan, the resulting tsunami, once ashore, could reach up to 130 feet above sea level .... as did the tsunami in Japan. Think of it -- all coastal areas below 130 feet in elevation, inundated. Considering that the Japan quake's tsunami caused considerable damage in Santa Cruz, California, 6000 miles from the quake epicenter, it is not hard to imagine a natural disaster that could dwarf the effects of Hurricane Katrina, since a much longer stretch of coastline (and many more people) would be at risk. Please view the PBS Newshour segment for more graphic information.

Finally, to lighten things up while still learning cool stuff, check out the video How A Differential Gear Works. It looks like it might have been filmed in the 1950s, but the step-by-step presentation is clear and fun to watch. See if a little light bulb doesn't go off over your head.

MARCH MADNE$$ / NUCLEAR D / MILEPOST

MARCH MADNE$$. Each year during the month of March, the NCAA national collegiate basketall championship tournament is televised across the U.S. -- second only to football's Super Bowl in viewership and revenue generated. A Frontline segment, Money and March Madness (view here) did some investigative reporting, and revealed a sordid tale of greed and injustice. The Washington Post summarizes nicely --

"Generations of college athletes have generated revenue for their schools, for the NCAA, and for television networks, while pocketing only a chance at a four-year education .... The NCAA clings to the romantic image of students wearing letterman jackets and smiles without acknowledging that the entire landscape has changed. In the past three decades especially, college sports has become big business and its profit margins remain remarkable because it features an unpaid labor force .... The NCAA is in the midst of a $10.8 billion TV contract. Most head coaches pull in seven-figure salaries .... And the NCAA executives are resting their heads on pillows of cash every night .... Essentially, everyone is getting paid handsomely except the ones doing the heavy lifting. And therein lies the crux of the NCAA's position. The student-athletes are compensated with an education, the value of which pales in comparison with the dollars they bring to their universities."

There's more to the story. At the start of each school year, college athletes are required to sign an NCAA agreement which stipulates that the athletes will not accept payment of any kind for their athletic performance, for rebroadcasts of games in which they participate, even for the use of their images in video games. This, because the students are regarded as "amateurs", thus forbidden from recompense.

Further, each athletic scholarship is valid for one year only, as opposed to the standard four-year academic scholarship. Should the student athlete fail in any way to come through for the team, he or she faces the prospect of no scholarship the following year. The alleged reward for all that pressure and hard work is the possibility of signing with a professional ball team upon (or even before) graduation. But there are only so many openings each year among professional teams, so the percentage of college players who make the cut is small.

The icing on the cake is that most schools do not impose academic standards upon their players. The Frontline segment reveals that of the teams participating in this year's March Madness, most include players with failing grades. Am I missing something, or isn't the purpose of a university education precisely that -- education? Small wonder that anywhere between 20 and 60 percent of college athletes fail to graduate.

Returning to the Washington Post -- "The NCAA is a non-profit organization and enjoys tax-exempt status. It could hand its hat in good conscience on the notion of amateurism 50 years ago, when the cost of an education might have matched the revenue generated by its student athletes. But it's now in the business of signing billion-dollar contracts and paying everyone except the stars of the show, a point Frontline raises and [the NCAA] willingly ignores."

The whole thing stinks. I'm not suggesting that college players necessarily should start pulling in stellar salaries -- that would only play into the already lopsidedly-outlandish recompense awarded to professional players. I am suggesting that athletic scholarships should be good for all four years of school, and that the NCAA as a non-profit organization should undergo a Congressional investigation for fraud and abuse of its tax-exempt status. Further, coaches and NCAA officials should not be making more money than any tenured university professor. There are too many truckloads of cash floating around, with no oversight. I highly recommend that you view the Frontline segment at the link above.

NUCLEAR D. "D" as in disarmament. There may be many among you who remember the name Valerie Plame. In 2003 a news reporter outed Ms. Plame as a CIA agent.

The incident is portrayed in a 2010 film called Fair Game. The movie is "an action-thriller based on the autobiography of real-life CIA undercover operative Valerie Plame Wilson, whose career was destroyed and marriage strained to its limits when her covert identity was exposed by a politically motivated press leak --

"As a covert officer in the CIA's Counter-Proliferation Division, Valerie's work involved identifying the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq before the United States declared war. Her husband, diplomat ambassador Joe Wilson was hired by the CIA for a fact-finding mission as part of the investigation. When the Bush Administration ignored his findings and used them to support the call to war, Joe contradicted the White House in the New York Times, igniting a firestorm of controversy."

Valerie Plame has not gone away. In an introduction to the DVD release of the film, she appears with an appeal for all viewers to become involved in pushing our government to follow through with the START treaty, and become informed on the broad issue of nuclear disarmament. You can start by checking out the website Take Part. The threat of global nuclear annihilation is a terror my generation grew up with. There is no rational reason for either the U.S. or Russia to continue to stockpile enough nuclear weapons to destroy all life on earth many times over.

MILEPOST. This blog was initiated in February 2008. Records of visitation began in March 2009. Naturally, at first the numbers were miniscule. During the past year, however, the number of readers has increased exponentially (see first graph below, showing the past thirteen months' readership -- click to enlarge). I attribute the increase in part to word of mouth, in part to readers' finding the blog through web search engines such as Google, and in part to my posting each day's entry on my Facebook news feed, starting a few months ago. In all, I've written 897 daily entries, including this one.

As of this writing, I've had 40,005 visitors from 173 nations since records commenced. In March of 2010, I had slightly over 500 visitors the entire month. A year later, I had just shy of that number (499) in a single day -- on 24 March 2011. March was also the first month in which the number of visitors topped 12,000.

Within the geometric increase over time, there is a clear pattern of more visitors during the week, and fewer on weekends (see second graph below, showing the past thirty days' readership).

I want to take this moment to thank every reader who has graced this page with your interest and attention, whether or not you agree with my sometimes-outspoken opinions. Please return, and please continue to spread the word. I encourage all readers to become public followers, by signing on at the "Followers" widget in the right-side column. Peace.

FIRE FIGHTING WAND / SCHOOL INNOVATION / MEDICAL MARIJUANA

FIRE FIGHTING WAND. Imagine a flame-quenching method that relies on an electric field-generating wand. The technology now exists, and could add to the arsenal of static systems (e.g. water sprinklers) and portable systems (fire hoses and extinguishers). Here's how it works: An electrode powered from a backpack creates an electrical field. "The electrical field interacts with the charged particles in the flame -- the electrons, ions, and soot particles -- and this collective motion of the charges in the electric field can lead to movement of the gas within the flame .... the flame gets detached from the fuel source, so it gets pushed away." Voila, that portion of the fire is extinguished.

Arthur C. Clarke famously observed that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. The beauty of the flame-quenching wand is that it does not need to be in contact with the flames themselves. In an enclosed space such as a burning building, this tool could be used to create a safe escape route for those trapped by a fire. Here is the complete article for your reference.

SCHOOL INNOVATION. Thanks to Andrea Kuszewski for the link to this -- the Chicago Tribune reports an experimental approach to learning which is elegant in its simplicity -- incorporate the technology with which students are already familiar into the curriculum, in ways which reinforce and enhance traditional learning. In this case, "The complete reinvention of the typical urban middle school downplays rote memorization in favor of collaborative learning, critical thinking, and imaginative exploration in an effort to change how today's students learn .... Students will learn from video game designers and computer experts how to design and build their own video games, produce custom websites, podcast, blog, record and edit short films, and connect with technology in meaningful and productive ways .... 'It's a different type of learning because of how they teach it, not what they're teaching,' said sixth-grader Connor Fitzgerald. 'They give you the facts, but more importantly they tell you about the relationships between those facts.'"

As with the fire-fighting wand described above, this actively creative approach to learning is one more tool in a teacher's bag of resources, and it sounds like an excellent one. In the early 1990s I spent five years teaching math and science to teenagers at a private school, where the budget meant we operated on a shoestring. Blackboards, the occasional field trip, and our imaginations were the essential tools we teachers had for engaging our students' interest and imparting what knowledge we could. The teachers who could think creatively were the most successful. To have had the resources described in this article would have been a dream come true. The closest we could come was interdisciplinary teaching. The teaching methods described above represent a quantum leap forward.

MEDICAL MARIJUANA. For more decades than I care to count, I have advocated treating marijuana in the same manner we treat alcohol -- it should be legal to obtain so long as you have reached a prescribed age, and it should be commercially available through licensed vendors. The sale of marijuana would provide a source of tax revenue to each state, just as alcohol does now, and the quality of the product sold could be carefully monitorred.

The closest we've come to such a vision is in those 15 states (see map below, click to enlarge) which have made legal the possession of small amounts of marijuana for those with qualifying medical conditions. Medical marijuana, sold from licensed caregivers, is available in the form of herb, tinctures, and baked goods. According to an MSNBC news report, in a few short years medical marijuana is now a $1.7 billion market, rivaling the $1.9 annual revenue generated by Viagra. Given that only 1 in 30 potential patients is currently registered and purchasing medical marijuana, the potential for growth in the budding (as it were) marijuana cultivation and sales industry is fairly staggering. If another 20 states pass medical marijuana laws, as an independent financial analysis firm's study suggests is possible, the market could grow to $8.9 in 2016.

A few other highlights of the study --

• California and Colorado account for 92 percent of wholesale and retail sales nationally.


• Arizona, Michigan and Washington are considered well-positioned for significant growth.


• There are 24.8 potential consumers for medical marijuana in the United States today. This number reflects the number of Americans with qualifying ailments who live in a current "legal state". Currently, there are fewer than 800,000 patients in these states.


• Business owners say the largest hurdle to success is not financing, but regulatory uncertainty. [This is due in part to the fact that marijuana remains illegal under Federal law, and due in part to the reluctance of state legislators and local communities to embrace medical marijuana as a legitimate treatment -- even though countless studies have demonstrated its effectiveness.]


• Nearly two-thirds of medical marijuana caregivers surveyed -- 63 percent -- have been in business less than one year.

In the spirit of innovation and embracing the future which is the common theme of this post, I hope that the public in general, and legislators and law enforcement in particular, will take the time to educate themselves on the realities of marijuana usage, both medically and recreationally. It is long past time to emerge from the Dark Ages.

ANTI-MUSLIM BIGOTRY / TEXTBOOKS / NESTING

ANTI-MUSLIM BIGOTRY. In well-documented testimony, the Southern Poverty Law Center reports "an increase in hate crimes and other bias incidents directed at Muslims in America .... Of the 156 hate crimes and bias incidents collected by the SPLC from news reports since 9/11, about one-third occurred within a year of those attacks. But nearly one-fifth have occurred since May 2010, when controversy over the Islamic center in New York City erupted .... In 2010, Muslims have been harrassed, threatened, attacked, and stabbed .... The toxic atmosphere has also entered our schools, manifesting itself in the harrassment of Muslim students and teachers, as well as attempts to limit how the history and culture of Islam is taught.

"The SPLC has documented a number of anti-Muslim hate groups operating in the United States. They portray Muslims as fundamentally alien and attribute to its followers an inherent set of negative traits .... They also defame Islam, which they tend to treat as a monolithic and evil religion. These groups generally hold that Islam has no values in common with other cultures, is inferior to the West, and is a violent political ideology rather than a religion.

" .... Political leadership and education are key to tamping down this anti-Muslim xenophobia. Following 9/11, President George W. Bush delivered a series of speeches in which he said Muslims and Arabs were not our enemies .... Teachers can also play a key role. They must be allowed to offer the facts about Islam, and dispel the fear and myths about the Muslim community which allow this current hostility to grow."

I couldn't agree more. Simplistic, xenophobic rhetoric is never a reliable guide to a rational, humane world view. Rather, it is typical of the destructive, black-and-white thinking which has been used to justify every act of group barbarism from the lynching of blacks in the American South to the Holocaust of World War II. The rhetoric usually includes derogatory terms intended to dehumanize the objects of scorn -- think camel jockey, gook, nigger, spick, Polack, bitch, fag, the list goes on and on. This bigotry has no place in a democratic republic whose citizens come from every land, every culture, every religion. Whenever you hear a sweeping generalization like "All Muslims are ... ", or "All women are ... ", or "All Mexicans are ... ", or "All blacks are ... ", a red flag should go up in your mind. The speaker is indulging in visceral hate.

TEXTBOOKS. What a wonderful idea -- the content of school textbooks being freely available to all, on Internet websites. One wouldn't have to be a registered class member to learn about the subject. One could be simply an interested lay person, or a student who would like to prepare ahead of time for the class. Education should be public and free, including no cost for textbooks. Learn more at the website Open Access Textbooks.

NESTING. The ever-ingenious webcomic xkcd presents a rather mind-blowing rule for model train layouts (one of my passions as a child). Click here to view the full-scale comic.

PRISON SCANDAL / ESCAPED COBRA

PRISON SCANDAL. I've been a critic of private, for-profit prisons for a long time. Privatizing government services is a profligate waste of taxpayer money, and provides services that are questionable at best, corrupt at worst, and whose core function is to line the pockets of corporate officers and stockholders, with little or no oversight. Outsourcing is a perfect example of the horrific results of conservative ideology take to its logical conclusion.

NPR recently aired a two-part series on private prisons. The first part examines a youth correctional facility in Mississippi -- a place where conditions are so violent and out of control that "the Southern Poverty Law Center and the ACLU have file a class-action lawsuit on behalf of 13 inmates against the prison operator, GEO Group .... [alleging] rampant contraband brought in by guards, sex between female guards and male inmates, inadequate medical care, prisoners held inhumanely in isolation, guards brutalizing inmates, and inmate-on-inmate violence that was so brutal it led to brain damage."

The guards themselves are a big part of the problem. Beyond inadequate numbers, training and oversight, many corrections officers are themselves members of gangs. Governmental correctional facilities have their problems, and are in dire need of reform. But private, for-profit facilities are not in the business of rehabilitation or even humane punishment -- they are in the business of making money. Period. So while guard-to-inmate ratios of 1 officer to 10 juvenile prisoners are common in state facilities, in private facilities the ratios can dip to 1 officer in 60 prisoners ... all in the interest of shaving costs, but at the expense of safety and humane treatment.

The second part of the NPR series focuses on the impact on communities in Texas, where the private prison industry is a $3 billion enterprise. After a 20 year boom cycle, the industry in parts of the country has begun to shrink, leaving entire communities with increased unemployment and no good options. "According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the total correctional population in the United States is declining for the first time in three decades. Among the reasons -- the crime rate is falling, sentencing alternatives mean fewer felons doing hard time, and states everywhere are slashing budgets."

Here is how the cycle plays out. For any town contemplating hosting a private prison, "The packages look sweet. A town gets a new detention center without costing the [local] taxpayers anything. The private operator finances, constructs, and operates an oversized facility. The contract inmates pay off the debt and generate extra revenue. The economic model works fine until they can't find inmates."

I had the opportunity to work in the Tennessee juvenile corrections system for five years. Training was thorough and professional, with annual retraining. I worked in a Department of Childrens Services boys group home -- something like a halfway house for juvenile felons who had served their time, and were being prepared for reentry into society and their families. Part of our function was security, and part was counseling. My fellow officers and my superiors were all qualified, dedicated individuals who worked as a team to help our boys follow a more positive path in life. This is an example of government fulfilling its rightful role responsibly. There is no justification for avoiding that responsibility by relegating juvenile or adult offenders to a for-profit prison.

ESCAPED COBRA. Ha. Imagine being a visitor to the Bronx Zoo and coming across the following sign: "The World of Reptiles is closed today. Staff observed an adolescent Egyptian cobra missing from an 0ff-exhibit enclosure on Friday." Oops. Cobra on the loose. Keep an eye out for your ankles, indeed.