Tag: Education

Darker Days Ahead

Darker Days Ahead

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Hang in there, the solstice is coming. You might not notice it at first, but around December 22 we have our shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, although not usually the coldest. Those come in January for most of us. And then the days mercifully begin to last a little longer and a little longer, lifting depression and signaling the coming of Spring.

If you’re a scientist like me, and I assume most of you are at least hobbyists, you want the truth, up front, bad news or good. You value that science and knowledge sets us apart from the ignorant, superstitious, unnatural world view for which we’ve lived with most of our evolutionary days, which, depending on when you decide to call our species ‘human’ is, somewhere between a million and a hundred thousand years ago.

We are forcing humans into unnatural selection these days. If you’d like to read about it in depth, I recommend a book by Juan Enriquez, “Evolving Ourselves”, available in the customary locations worldwide.

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Available at Amazon

We have pigeonholed ourselves away from even the smallest resemblances of our original existence. Babies are born by C-section, antibiotics kill every microbe we want to destroy, and the toxins of pollution are starting to express their effects in the newest generations, such as autism, allergies, and shorter life spans. Our immune systems are coddled, our drudgery’s solved, artificial daylight rules, and our food is wrapped in plastic.

I am still hopeful in this new age of corporate control that science will last, because it doesn’t change except to uncover a deeper truth. If it’s found incorrect, its duty and obligation is to correct itself. Facts remain despite any objections, propaganda, denial, or wishful thinking. When you make decisions in your life, inform yourself from reliable sources, be skeptical of wild claims and extraordinary declarations. Look for the facts, the proof, the evidence. In this way, you promote the brain over the brawn, the science over fiction, the future over the past.

Wishing you peace and warmth as the sunlight returns to generate life on Earth. (For those of you on the other side of the equator, read this again in June when it applies on your half of the planet.)

 

 

Science or Fiction?

Science or Fiction?

bookcarlsaganOne of my all time favorite authors and human beings was Carl Sagan. Many people have heard of his book “Pale Blue Dot” which he wrote after having the Voyager turn its camera back toward Earth on its way out of our solar system.

Science Non-Fiction was his specialty. The technology of a book, of writing, was rejected in the early days of civilization. Story telling was considered the only form of communication worthy, because of the nuances, inflections, gestures, and passion that accompanied the transmission of the words. The argument in favor of writing was that no matter if the original story teller was alive or dead, the story would be told, eternally, as it was written.

And that is what we have now. We look at a new way of communicating, through electronic media, just as this is. But it is written. So are emails, texts, even screen plays and computer games. They are all written, using language with a specific style, intent, or format. In the late 70s, part of the math curriculum was learning to count in a different bases – 8 and 12. The logic behind this was that for the 8 base, computers loomed ahead in our future. For the 12 base, we could use it to convert ourselves to metric. The official words for these are octal and duodecimal.

I can understand the octal system. I can also understand the duodecimal. But we have ten fingers and toes. I began wondering if my aliens that only have 8 fingers and toes counted in an octal system and understood the binary system, since ten is not divisible by four or eight. I also wonder why in hell the USA is still using a base of twelve for measurements when ten is so incredibly easier by a magnitude of, well, exponentially.

Here’s a couple curious facts about the 8-10-12 dilemma.

Clocks are made for twelve, although they could have just as easily been made for ten. A circle doesn’t have to have 360 degrees, it could have had 500 or 100. They would just simply be different sizes.

Metrics are based on the size of the earth and the volume/weight of desalinated water. These are a nice constant but even that changes over long (long) periods of time and micro mineral content.  Imperial measures were based on some guy’s foot.

How did a mile come to be 5280 feet? Why not 5000? Something about how much ground a horse could cover in a certain amount of time. Same for horsepower – logs being pulled up a cliff face. But those are entirely other conversations.

I digress. My thoughts for Carl Sagan and books are for the need to read and communicate, to educate ourselves as well as entertain ourselves. In a world full of violence it is nice to stop and escape, nay, essential to do so as it is to eat or sleep or even breathe the air. Education is the key to virtually all of the problems we face – and once a person leaves the cave and sees the world in color, not shadows, in 3D, not projections on a flat wall, they can never return, and in doing so, we can all finally move forward.

 

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