Topic Tuesday #24 2013/01/01 - "Happy New Year!"

Topic Tuesday #24 2013/01/01 - "Happy New Year!"

How lucky that Topic Tuesday has fallen on Christmas and the New Year! So the obligatory holiday education post is at hand. Let's look at the Calendar for origins of this, our only Global/Universal, holiday.

On the Calendar(s): The primary calendar that we have wide familiarity with is the Gregorian Calendar, but the story doesn't start there. Let's go back to it's earliest incarnation.

Roman Calendar

Numa Pompilius (753–673 BC; reigned 715–673 BC), second king of Rome, created the Roman Calendar which was superseded in 46 BC by Julius Caesar's "Julian Calendar". Caesar's version had the year beginning in January, unlike the Roman calendar that started in March. The Julian Calendar was utilized by most of Europe from 45 BC until it was superseded by the Gregorian calendar commencing in 1582. The Julian Calendar is still in use in parts of the world today and is primarily used to track observance dates of fixed feasts and  moveable feasts.

Pope Gregory XIII

The Gregorian Calendar was promulgated by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582; the decree, a papal bull, is known by its opening words, Inter gravissimas. Reform was required because too many leap days are added with respect to the astronomical seasons on the Julian scheme. On average, the astronomical solstices and the equinoxes advance by about 11 minutes per year against the Julian year. As a result, the calculated date of Easter gradually moved out of alignment with the March equinox. The Julian calendar gained a day about every 134 years. By 1582, it was ten days out of alignment from where it supposedly had been in 325 during the Council of Nicaea. 

The Gregorian calendar was adopted initially by the Catholic countries of Europe, with other countries adopting it over the following centuries. Since the Julian and Gregorian calendars were long used simultaneously, although in different places, calendar dates in the transition period are often ambiguous, unless it is specified which calendar was being used. The notation "Old Style" (OS) is sometimes used to indicate a date in the Julian calendar, as opposed to "New Style" (NS), which either represents the Julian date with the start of the year as 1 January or a full mapping onto the Gregorian calendar. This notation is used to clarify dates from countries which continued to use the Julian calendar after the Gregorian reform, such as Great Britain (switched in 1752),  Russia (1918), or Greece (1923).

January : "Ianuarius" is the original Roman designation of the month January. The name is either derived from the two-faced Roman god Janus, from the Latin word 'ianua', which means "door", or it is the masculine form of Diana, which would beDianus or Ianus (Janus). The Romans dedicated January and specifically New Year's Day to Janus. Janus is usually depicted as a "two-faced" god since one face is looking forward to the future and the other face looks backward to the past. January 1 was new year day: the day was consecrated to Janus since it was the first of the new year and of the month (kalends) of Janus: the feria (Latin -"free day") had an augural (fortune telling) character as Romans believed the beginning of anything was an omen for the whole. It became customary to exchange cheerful words of good wishes. For the same reason everybody took a break from their usual business, exchanged dates, figs and honey as a token of well wishing and made gifts of coins. All these were called 'strenae'.

Cakes made of spelt (dinkel wheat, or hulled wheat) and salt were offered to the god and burnt on the altar. It is interesting to note that, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, many of these customs have migrated to Christmas.

Celebrations:

Roman: Fortuna (Latin: Fortūna, equivalent to the Greek goddess Tyche)

Roman: Agonalia

Feast of Juno and Janus, god of beginnings and thresholds. On this day, no evil may be spoken, so that the day and the year may be sweet. "Words have weight, and the ears of the Deities are open." (Ovid, Fasti). Friends exchange small jars of honey with dates or figs, along with good wishes and coins. These were called Strenae, after the Sabine Goddess of Health. This custom has continued in France to this day.

In medieval times, people wore animal masks on this day; this was called "guising."

Greek: Gamelia, Feast of the Goddess of Marriage, Hera (corresponding to the Roman Juno).

Anglo-Saxon: Wassail (Old English wæs hæl, literally 'be you healthy') "Be Hale (whole)"  Additionally the tradition of wassailing which falls into two distinct categories: The House-Visiting wassail and the Orchard-Visiting wassail. House-Visiting wassail, caroling by any other name, is the practice of people going door-to-door singing Christmas carols. These have also migrated to Christmas.

Roman: Feast of Aesculapius (Greek Healing God), his mother Coronis, and his daughter Salus (Health), whose Greek counterpart is the goddess Hygieia, though her functions differ considerably.

Sumerian: Inanna's (Sumerian goddess of sexual love, fertility, and warfare.) Nativity feast is begun by lighting a white candle at sunset. It is to burn through the night and is extinguished at dawn.

Modern Day, We drink, dance, sing songs, like Auld Lang Syne, to which we always get the words wrong.

Happy New Year! May your hearts be full and your days easy.

Alud Lang Syne 

English translation(minimalist)

Should old acquaintance be forgot,

and never brought to mind ?

Should old acquaintance be forgot,

and old lang syne ?

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my dear,

for auld lang syne,

we'll take a cup of kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup !

and surely I’ll buy mine !

And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my dear,

for auld lang syne,

we'll take a cup of kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.

We two have run about the slopes,

and picked the daisies fine ;

But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,

since auld lang syne.

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my dear,

for auld lang syne,

we'll take a cup of kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.

We two have paddled in the stream,

from morning sun till dine† ;

But seas between us broad have roared

since auld lang syne.

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my dear,

for auld lang syne,

we'll take a cup of kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.

And there’s a hand my trusty friend !

And give us a hand o’ thine !

And we’ll take a right good-will draught,

for auld lang syne.

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my dear,

for auld lang syne,

we'll take a cup of kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.

Topic Tuesday #23 2012/12/25 - "Happy Holidays!"

Topic Tuesday #23 2012/12/25 - "Happy Holidays!"

Clarification of the term 'Happy Holidays' seems to be needed nearly every year. Given that I reside in the United States of America where we are graced with the Constitution and its amendments, there is plenty of reason to call attention to this. Certain media outlets insist that there is a war on Christmas every time someone says something other than, "Merry Christmas". The origins of celebrations during this time of year date back to when man realized that the longest night/shortest day of the year occurred, the Winter Solstice. Since the axial tilt of the Earth is considerable (approximately 23 degrees 27 minutes) the sun does not rise high at high latitudes in (local) winter. Those that found themselves in more northern latitudes, would experience significantly longer nights to the extent of a twilight lasting 20 hours to 179 days at the poles. This was a big deal to early agrarian and hunter gatherer cultures in the northern hemisphere. Additionally humans are not designed for this kind of environment. The period of polar night can trigger depression in some people. Cases of SAD or seasonal affective disorder are generally exacerbated by these conditions. The polar night may also be implicated in some instances of solipsism syndrome. It's easy to see why traditions would get setup around such a pivotal time of year. The harvest was in, the snow lay thick, and travel was ill advised. Best to just stick with your family and close neighbors and as we say in the south, hunker down. The combination of events fostered traditions of feasts and reverie. Myths and fairy tales of ghosts, and vampires and werewolves are also said to have their origins in the longest nights.
December 25th was a pretty popular day! The following list celebrate the day as a festival or birth or both.

• Zoroaster - Persia - c 6000 - 10,000 BC
• Osiris - Egypt - Father of Horus Pre- 5th Dyanasty C3000 BC|
• Horus - Egypt - c.3000 BC
• Mithra - Persia - c.1200 BC AKA "deus sol invictus" (Unconquered sun god)" 
• Festival of natalis Invicti [Birth of the Unconquerable (Sun)] c.1200 BC
• Attis - Greece - c.1200 BC
• Krishna - India - c.900 BC
• Dionysus - Greece - c.500 BC
• Saturnalia (December 17-25) The day marked the dedication of the Temple to Saturn in the Roman Forum in c.497 BC
• Marduk Sumerian sun god of Babylon
• Wittoba Of The Bilingonese
• Gentaut
• Tammuz
• Quexalcote Of Mexico
• Thor Son Of Odin
• Xamolxis Of Thrace
• Apollo
• Winter Solstice (Julian calendar Dec 25th from 45 BC until it was superseded by the Gregorian calendar commencing in 1582)
• Jesus** - Roughly 1 AD
• Boxing Day - Current calendar - December 26th

**December 25th was specifically chosen to be the day to celebrate the birth of Jesus in the 4th century by Pope Julius I. An arbitrary day had to be set as there was none given within the scriptures (births were not celebrated 2000 years ago, only the dates of deaths were observed). It served another purpose, that of conversion. Stephen Nissenbaum, professor history at the University of Massachusetts  Amherst, wrote in reference to Saturnalia (December 17-25), “In return for ensuring massive observance of the anniversary of the Savior’s birth by assigning it to this resonant date, the Church for its part tacitly agreed to allow the holiday to be celebrated more or less the way it had always been.”

Iconography:
Yule Log: English historian Henry Bourne, who, writing in the 1720s, described the practice occurring in the Tyne valley. Bourne theorized that the practice derives from customs in 6th to 7th century Anglo-Saxon paganism.

Ginger Breadmen: Saturnalia, local custom primarily in the more Germanic regions. Biscuits shaped like humans, dating back to some of the more colorful human sacrifice rites that were often performed.
Caroling: As part of Saturnalia, there was often drunken and naked singing though the streets. This was "adjusted" by the church when Saturnalia was co-opted into singing hymns.
Mistletoe: Norse mythology recounts how the god Balder was killed using a mistletoe arrow by his rival god Hoder while fighting for the female Nanna. At some point it gets twisted into kissing under the mistletoe from a combination of the debauchery of Saturnalia and the traditions of some druidic sects. 

Christmas Tree: The Asheira cult, worshiped trees. At the time of the Winter Solstice, they would decorate the very trees they worshiped. In another attempt to win the pagans over to Christianity, the practice of bringing a tree into your home and decorating it was incorporated into the newly formed celebration of Christ’s birth. 

Gift Giving: The emperors of pre-Christian Rome compelled their citizens to bring offerings and gifts during the Saturnalia (in December) and Kalends (in January). This ritual/tradition expanded to include gift-giving among the populace. Christian flavor was added by re-rooting it in the gift-giving of Saint Nicholas. Boxing Day is also a gift giving celebration.
Santa Claus: Nicholas was born in Parara, Turkey in 270 CE and later became Bishop of Myra. He died in 345 CE on December 6th. He was named a saint in the 19th century.
Nicholas was among the senior bishops who convened the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE and created the New Testament.
In 1087, Nicholas remains were moved Turkey to a sanctuary in Bari, Italy. In Bari, Nicholas supplanted a female boon-giving deity called The Grandmother, or Pasqua Epiphania, who used to fill the children's stockings with her gifts.
The adopted Nicholas gift giving spread north. It was adopted by groups who worshiped a pantheon led by Woden –their chief god and the father of Thor, Balder, and Tiw. Woden had a long, white beard and rode a horse through the heavens one evening each Autumn. When Nicholas legend merged with Woden, he shed his Mediterranean appearance, grew a beard, mounted a flying horse, rescheduled his flight for December, and donned heavy winter clothing.
The Catholic Church adopted the Nicholas legends and traditions and taught that he distributed gifts on December 25th instead of December 6th.
In 1809, Washington Irving wrote a satire of Dutch culture entitled Knickerbocker History. The work refers several times to the white bearded, flying-horse riding Saint Nicholas using his Dutch name, Santa Claus.
Dr. Clement Moore, a professor at Union Seminary, read the book and in 1822 he published a poem based on the character Santa Claus: “Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in the hope that Saint Nicholas soon would be there…” Moore innovated by portraying a Santa with eight reindeer who descended through chimneys.
The Bavarian illustrator Thomas Nast elaborated the imagery of Santa Claus with more than 2,200 illustrations appearing in Harper's Weekly from 1862 through 1886. Nast gave Santa a home at the North Pole, his workshop filled with elves, and his list of the good and bad children.
In 1931, the Coca Cola Corporation contracted the Swedish commercial artist Haddon Sundblom to create a coke-drinking Santa. Sundblom modeled his Santa on his friend Lou Prentice, chosen for his cheerful, chubby face. The corporation insisted that Santa’s fur-trimmed suit be bright and Coca Cola red. The Modern Santa was born – a blend of Christian crusader, pagan god, and commercial idol.

Happy Holidays to everyone! I hope your day was as enjoyable as mine, no matter what you believe or celebrate.

Topic Tuesday #22 2012/12/18 - "The End of the World..?"

Topic Tuesday #22 2012/12/18 - "The End of the World..?"

Yes, I had to jump on the bandwagon. How often do you get to live through an 'Apocalypse' complete with dooms day scenarios and movies?  Well... Quite a few times as it turns out.

Apocalypse/Dooms Day/End of Days predictions and cults that we didn't die from.

1) If you read this on or later than the 21st of December, 2012 - You have survived the end of the Mayan Calendar cycle. NASA put together a very nice treatise as to why we will still be here Saturday morning and beyond. http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2012.html

Harold Camping

2) Harold Camping (born July 19, 1921) of Family Radio predicted the world was going to end in 2011 using numerology in his interpretations of Bible passages. Camping predicted that Jesus Christ would return to Earth on May 21, 2011, whereupon the righteous would fly up to heaven, and that there would follow five months of fire, brimstone and plagues on Earth, with millions of people dying each day, culminating on October 21, 2011, with the final destruction of the world. He had previously predicted that Judgment Day would occur on or about September 6, 1994. Mr. Camping had a stroke after the failed 2011 predition, apologized, and retired as president of Family Radio.

3) In the days leading up to September 9, 2009, fans of Armageddon insisted that the world would end - 9/9/9 being the emergency services phone number in the UK and also the number of the Devil - albeit upside down. Surprisingly there wasn't the same hyperbole on June 6, 2006.

4) Heaven’s Gate (March 26, 1997) followers believed in UFOs and impending doom, for which the only escape was to voluntarily “turn against the next level” by committing suicide. The leaders of the group, Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles, convinced members that their “evacuation” plan would be a fast-approaching UFO which would act as their mode of transport to beyond. 

5) Waco, TX Branch Davidians a deeply religious cult that originated in 1955 from a schism in the Davidian Seventh Day Adventists("Davidians"), a reform movement that began within the Seventh-day Adventist Church ("Adventists") around 1930. The 1993 actions of this religious sect were predicated on the notion that they lived in the final times according to the Book of Revelation. Vernon Howell (who changed his name to David Koresh in 1990) claimed himself their final prophet. The Davidian movement went up in flames during the 55 day "Waco Siege" (February 28 - April 19, 1993)

6) “Aum” was a Japanese religious movement founded by Shoko Asahara. His 1984 doomsday prophecy described a final conflict culminating in a nuclear "Armageddon", borrowing again the term from the Book of Revelation. According to Robert Jay Lifton, author of “Destroying the World to Save It: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and the New Global Terrorism,” Asahara predicted Armageddon would occur in 1997, and that humanity would end, except (surprise!) for the elite few who joined Aum. Shoko Asahara was convicted of masterminding the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway and several other crimes, for which he was sentenced to death in 2004. In June 2012, his execution has been postponed due to further arrests of Aum Shinrikyo members.

7) Edgar Whisenant wrote a bestselling book called “88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988.”  and the following year he published “The Final Shout: Rapture Report 1989,” and continued selling millions of these books with the same title and a revised year through 1993.

8) 50 members of a group called the Assembly of Yahweh (less familiarly known as Messianic, as well as Spiritual Israelites) gathered at Coney Island, New York, in white robes, awaiting their 'rapture' from a world about to be destroyed on May 25, 1981

9) The “mad messiah,” James Warren "Jim" Jones (1931 – November 18, 1978) was founder and leader of the “People’s Temple.” In 1965, Jones claimed that the world would be engulfed in a nuclear war on July 15, 1967. When that didn't happen, Jones went about establishing his communist commune in “Jonestown” in Guyana. The events of November 18, 1978, in Guyana, in which 920 people died at the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project (informally, and now commonly, called "Jonestown") and nearby airstrip at Port Kaituma, and Georgetown in an organized mass suicide/killing. The mass suicide and killings at Jonestown resulted in the greatest single loss of American civilian life in a non-natural non-accidental disaster prior to the events of September 11, 2001. Casualties at the airstrip included, among others, Congressman Leo Ryan. On the evening of November 18, in Jonestown, Jones ordered his congregation to drink a concoction of cyanide-laced, grape-flavored Flavor Aid. Parents were instructed to inject their children with the same drink should they be under a certain age. (This is also a plausible origin of the phrase, "drinking the cool-aid.")

10) Sir Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727) In one account is said to have foretold the end in 1948, but in a manuscript he wrote in 1704 (in which he describes his attempts to extract scientific information from the Bible), he estimated that the world would end no earlier than 2060. In predicting this he said, "This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, and by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail."

11) Protestant reformer Martin Luther (1483 - 1546) proclaimed that 'the kingdom of abominations shall be overthrown' within 300 years. Anywhere from (1546 - 1846)

William Miller

12) William Miller (1782 – 1849) American Baptist preacher. Among his direct spiritual heirs are several major religious denominations, including Seventh-day Adventists and Advent Christians. Later movements found inspiration in Miller's emphasis on biblical prophecy. His own followers are known as Millerites. Miller prophesied The End in 1844, based on Bible passage Daniel 8:14: "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." 

13) John Napier (1550 – 1617) though best known as the discoverer of logarithms, predicted the world would end either in  1688 or 1700 in "A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St. John" (1593). He also dated the seventh trumpet to 1541.

14) Christopher Columbus (1451 – 1506) predicted the world would end in 1656 in one of his books, a "Book of Prophecies" (1505).

Nostradamus

15) Michael Stifel (1487 - 1567) a German monk, proselytized that the end of the world would come on Oct. 3, 1533, at precisely eight o’clock in the morning. When the hour came and went, he was then summarily ejected from his ecclesiastical quarters and flogged in the streets.

16) Nostradamus (1503 – 1566) in his book "Les Propheties", published in 1555, had this quatrain that still befuddles people into thinking the end is near: Century I Quatrain 46

“Very near Auch, Lectoure and Mirande a great fire will fall from the sky for three nights. (Anytime now...)

Topic Tuesday #21 2012/12/11 - "The Shopping Apocalypse"

Topic Tuesday #21 2012/12/11 - "The Shopping Apocalypse"

It's that time of year. The scent of artificial pine is in the air and random Santa's in the park give away candy canes. (they were safe and individually wrapped, not creepy, and quite nice.)
It has occurred to me, and many others, that the Christmas Season is starting to cannibalize other holidays!
Once upon a time, the church only advocated celebrating the day of death. Easter is still more important to Christianity than Christmas because of the death and rebirth of the Christ. Time marched on and birthdays became special anniversaries. The obvious thing that was needed was a birthday for Jesus. It's not in any of the 4 gospels about Jesus's life. The various ecumenical councils came up with borrowing, or consolidating, holidays from the pagans they were bent on converting. They took on the winter solstice, Saturnalia, Yule, and many others that were all celebrated in mid to late December and declared it was Jesus's birthday. 

Centuries pass and the celebrating could not be contained; it expanded to Christmas Eve to have more time to share the love and giving. Then the 12 days of Christmas, which starts on the 25th and runs through January, in some strange competition with Hanukkah, I suspect. Then the real commercialism started in. Decorations started going up earlier and earlier. Now we have ended up with Black Friday and Cyber Monday. And now... there are stores open on Thanksgiving! This year I was able to shop for Christmas decorations at the same time I could buy candy corn and slasher masks on Halloween. 

What's my point? Stop bashing Christmas? I'm not bashing anything except blatant commercialism. I should not have a mix station with the "Monster Mash" and "Away in a Manger" or "Tubular Bells" and the "Little Drummer Boy"... Shouldn't we give proper respect to our holiday traditions? What's the point in having them if all they do is blend? Christmas now contains, itself, New Years, Thanksgiving and now Halloween. It's the unstoppable juggernaut holiday. 

But there is some solace to be found in the shopping apocalypse that has befallen us. Eggnog is available earlier. That make me very happy. 

Happy Holiday Season(s)!

Topic Tuesday #20 2012/12/04 - "Are we alone?"

Topic Tuesday #20 2012/12/04 - "Are we alone?"

One of the pages I follow posted a graphic of the radio signal bubble from Earth. This struck me as a moment of possible revelation. "The first AM broadcast was on Christmas Eve, 1906, and Hitler’s broadcasting of the 1936 Olympics is regarded as the first signal powerful enough to be carried into space - which is a rather disturbing thought." Since 1936, Hitler's voice has been traversing space. At the speed of light, the 1936 Olympic introduction speech has only traveled, 76 light years. Proxima Centauri, our closest celestial neighbor star, is located only 4.243 light-years from the Sun. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. Therefore 60x60x24x365=seconds in a year 31,536,000 x 186,000 =
5,865,696,000,000 miles in a lightyear. x4.243 = 24,888,148,128,000 miles to the Alpha Centauri Cluster. We have not detected life there. So the old axiom, 'If a tree falls in the woods, and no one is there to hear it does it make a sound?" comes to mind, though more importantly, does it matter if it did?

The trouble with the cosmos is that it is so very large and we... are not. Everything is scaled up. The most precious of these scalings, is that of time. We have discovered EXO-Planets, worlds of other stars. We detect them crossing in front of their stars. But I digress which is easy to do with this topic. To think that no other life has formed in a universe large enough to have more stars (with planets) than there are grains of sand on all the beaches of our pale blue dot, is either terribly egotistical or simply short sighted. I know nothing for sure, but I have plenty of reasons to believe we are not alone. So what's the real question? The question is does it matter. Then the complex answer, yes and no. It matters because we don't like to be alone. It matters because so much of our own sensibilities are shrouded in the arrogance that it was all made for us. Statistics lean towards there being other life in the galaxy, and in the universe at large. Why it doesn't matter: because that alien species might not be there anymore. Consider our own infancy as a species. We are a very young species; when we talk of geological ages, humanities recorded history is less than a 1,000th of a percent of the age of just the Earth. In less time than Hitlers voice has been traveling outward, we have been on the verge of destruction of our entire species and most of the other inhabitants of this world, countless times. It's easy to look at the Cuban Missile Crisis and see that we were close to annihilation This distinction is important. We look to the heavens and ask if we are alone. A young boy sits and reads of Superman coming from Krypton, while global super powers glower over a table perched on mutually assured destruction. If there is other life out there, would it survive long enough to ask the same questions as the boy? Will be have a planet to visit when the Grexian's that live 300 light years away start listening to Elvis Presley decide we are worth a closer investigation? At the speed of light, it will take them 300 years to come pay us a visit. The question is, will we humanity exist long enough to not walk alone in the universe? Or will we become nothing more than a disembodied voice traveling out forever?
At any rate, the answer is not as important as the question: "Are we alone?".
What do you think?

Thanks to https://www.facebook.com/IFeakingLoveScience & http://zidbits.com/2011/07/how-far-have-radio-signals-traveled-from-earth/

Topic Tuesday #19 2012/11/27 - "Grab a Snickers"

Topic Tuesday #19 2012/11/27 - "Grab a Snickers"

Last night I was confronted by the past. Not my past but an event that took place in Spokane, Washington on March 18, 2006. Otto Zehm, 36, a mentally disabled janitor, was mistaken for another man stealing money from an ATM at the convenience store that Zehm visited every day to get a soda and a Snickers. I will sum it up as briefly as I can, and you can see the full report here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/otto-zehm-beating-death-karl-thompson-mental-disabilities_n_2143920.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

Otto Zehm

• Report: ATM Theft
• Respondent: Officer Karl F. Thompson Jr. ( a Vietnam veteran and a decorated 40-year veteran of law enforcement in Los Angeles, northern Idaho and Spokane)
• On Scene: Officer assaults suspect (Zehm) with baton, striking him 7 times in 8 seconds and used his stun device.
• Reinforcements: More officers arrive, gag and hogtie Zehm and sat on him.
• Results: It was determined sometime later that he was not at fault however was beaten unconscious and expired 2 days later. His last words were "All I wanted was a Snickers bar."
• Aftermath: Cover-up of the excessive force and violations of Zehm's civil rights. Officer Thompson was sentenced November 15th 2012 to 4 years and 3 months for his roll in Zehm's untimely death.

My take is this and I will end and open to comments:

I love and respect any member of law enforcement and our soldiers that are willing to put their own lives at risk every minute of the day to keep the majority safe. I am only concerned with the outliers. The ones that make grievous errors. Keep an eye on those that are there to serve and protect. Don't be afraid, but don't be dumb either. Bad things happen. This was/is a tragic tale that echos all over.
How do we go about fixing something as pervasive as power corruption? Did the officer have a bad day? Not eat his Wheaties? Just make a mistake? We won't know. These black marks, like all such, are swept under the rug as quietly as possible. The authorities can't have tarnished reputations as it just causes more unrest. Like a wild animal seeking weakness .. Then they get hurt, and they will always protect their own. I wouldn't expect anything less. They are few. The criminals are many. It's a hard dirty job. This does not excuse anyone or make them less accountable for their actions-EVER...
The bad apple does spoil the bunch, especially when all you wanted was a snickers bar, and were beaten to death over mistaken identity...

Topic Tuesday #18 2012/11/20 - "Perception is Reality"

Topic Tuesday #18 2012/11/20 - "Perception is Reality"

"Tell me where is fancy bred,

Or in the heart or in the head?"

-Merchant of Venice, Act 3, Scene 2

Where is reality? What is reality? How is reality different than a dream? Do you know? Have you ever thought about it? The school of thought is called "Proprioception"

We have Sight, Sound, Smell, Touch, and Taste. Those are the standard 5 senses, but there are a few more: Vestibular [Inner Ear: Gravity and Acceleration], Kinesthesia [Body Muscles / Joints: Bio-feedback for Movement and Position of appendages], and Nociception [Thalamus: Perception of Physiological Pain].

 These senses can be easily fooled. Here are some examples where you have been fooled, and will be fooled time and time again - In referenced order above.

[Sight] 3D technology takes advantage of our stereoscopic vision to make 2D object leap or sink away from their flat origin. 

[Sound] What's the sound of a lightsaber? This make believe movie icon, which you will instantly recognize is the hum of idling interlock motors in old movie projectors and interference caused by a television set on an unshielded microphone. But we hear the sound of battle! We think of cutting metal and severing limbs and deflecting blaster bolts (the sound of a hammer striking a guide wire to a communication tower).

[Smell] We use chemicals to make smells go away, but sometimes they are still there and just masked. This is just over powering a sense. The reality hasn't changed, but it doesn't matter, since the bad smell is gone. You accept that it's gone.

Male Senses Scaled by Sensitivity.

[Touch] A clever magician can fool us with clever deceptions. The "Hey! Look At The Monkey" distraction while a gentle touch of one hand confuses you to the removal (or addition) of an item from your hand (or pocket). It's an art form, based on deceiving you. More direct stimulation with topical analgesics or chemicals that can cause a burning or cooling sensation are also blatant sense tampering.

[Taste] "Lick the wallpaper, the snozberries taste like snozberries!" Though Wonka was fictional, the technology is sound.  It's just another chemical combination giving false impressions. Additives that go into your chewing gum, soda, and countless other consumables fool your taste buds into thinking that thing you are devouring, tastes good. Ever thought what it might taste like without the additives? 

[Vestibular] If you ever played the game where you took a bat, and kneeled over it and spun around in a circle to make yourself dizzy and then tried to run in a straight line, you have actively fooled your inner ear and made yourself look foolish in the process. But at least that's all in good fun!

[Kinesthesia] This is a hardest one to replicate, but an example would be the phantom twitches reported by amputees. The limb is gone, but the brain still thinks it is there because kinesthetic senses are still being triggered.

[Nociception/Pain] If you have ever had anesthesia, you know that pain receptors can be fooled. Whatever was causing your pain, it is still there. You just don't notice, or in some cases, care. On an interesting note, your brain lacks nociceptive tissue. This might be due to the fact that any injury of sufficient magnitude to cause pain in the brain will incapacitate the organism and prevent it from taking appropriate action, which is the actual purpose of pain.

We can learn much from the experience of being tricked and having our reality altered before our senses. It all comes down not to our senses, but our perception of what is "real". Our minds are the key. We are enormously complex in our methods of interpretations. Smell and Taste go together. Our Vision tends to track the Sound in our environment. Eye-Hand coordination is another example of linking these attributes  These senses gather the information of our physical existence and deliver them to our brain to determine actions, reactions, and (most importantly) meaning.

What does this mean? It means reality is a very individual experience, since reality is your interpretation of the world around you through your senses. What we understand is unique since no one has your perspective on your senses. Something that smells good to you, may be repugnant to me, and the adage of "beauty is in the eye of the beholder", tell the tale clearly. 

Then to twist you all up, go watch the Matrix. 

"Do you think that's air you're breathing?"

Topic Tuesday #17 2012/11/13 - "Slicing the American Pie"

Topic Tuesday #17 2012/11/13 - "Slicing the American Pie"

States With Petitions to Secede.

After the 2012 presidential general election there came a great stir in the states that leaned in favor of the challenger from the GOP, Mitt Romney (some that ended up going to Obama as well!). This stirring is nothing new, but worth talking about. There are at the time of this writing 20 states, Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas - that are seeking peaceful secession from the United States. Most read like this one from Tennessee: "Peacefully grant the State of Tennessee to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW government." Not everybody who wants to secede is polite enough to write a petition. Peter Morrison, treasurer of the Hardin County (Texas) Republican Party, wrote a post-election newsletter in which he urges the Lone Star State to leave the Union, with some rather unpleasant and pointed imagery.

"We must contest every single inch of ground and delay the baby-murdering, tax-raising socialists at every opportunity. But in due time, the maggots will have eaten every morsel of flesh off of the rotting corpse of the Republic, and therein lies our opportunity... Why should Vermont and Texas live under the same government? Let each go her own way in peace, sign a free trade agreement among the states and we can avoid this gut-wrenching spectacle every four years."

2012 Results

The whole affair of secession from the USA is largely a symbolic gesture  as the 14th Amendment signifies citizenship of being of the USA not of the individual states. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has even addressed the constitutionality of secession and how a state would go about it in a letter to a screenwriter who posed the question: "To begin with, the answer is clear. If there was any constitutional issue resolved by the Civil War, it is that there is no right to secede. (Hence, in the Pledge of Allegiance, "one Nation, indivisible.") Secondly, I find it difficult to envision who the parties to this lawsuit might be. Is the State suing the United States for a declaratory judgment? But the United States cannot be sued without its consent, and it has not consented to this sort of suit." Texas does have the ability to subdivide itself into 5 states. This would give it more Senators on the whole, but as you divide a state up, there is no guarantee of loyalty to the original cause.
As with any of these type of movements, Texas in particular, the logistics is what hamstrings the entire endeavor more than even the legal ramifications. There are a great number of nationalized services that would all have to be... "repatriated" into a state government. The cost of the operation would be phenomenal. Texas would have it better off. They have their own power grid. They have enough manufacturing and population to make sustainability an option. Of the other 19 states however... Well, it wouldn't be hard to see that any sedition among them would harm the citizens far more than help them. So in the end, secession just isn't going to happen. If it does... It will be a civil war and there will be millions of lives lost. /Begin SOAPBOX/ Pretty simple. Stay and fix the things you are trying to run away from. Do it legally. It was the law that got you into "this mess" in the first place! Make good choices, and advertise those choices to everyone else. /End SOAPBOX/

What do you think? Should the states be allowed to bow out? Do they even have the right to do so? How do you think it could be done? How many infrastructures would be interrupted? Would I need a passport to get to Louisiana?

Topic Tuesday #16 2012/11/06 - "Getting Accepted to the Electoral College"

Topic Tuesday #16 2012/11/06 - "Getting Accepted to the Electoral College"

Here in the United States, we utilize the Electoral College to elect the President. It's kind of a funny system, and after this, you may really hate it. It made sense to the founding fathers when it emerged from the 1787 Constitutional Convention. It was a hybrid of the Virginia Plan, the Connecticut Compromise and the Three-Fifths Compromise. It was chosen, in equal measures for it's "fairness" to smaller, less population dense states and due to legal slavery which was prevalent at the time but political suicide to rebuke at the time. Essentially a popular vote would just have been overly biased towards the most populated states. James Madison and James Wilson both argued for the popular vote. The original plan was to have the representatives of the Congress to elect a president. this was deemed too "intrigue" provoking, feeling that then a small group of men would have too much collusion and influence. The design of the Electoral College was based upon several assumptions and anticipations of the Framers of the Constitution:

• Each state would employ the district system of allocating electors.
• Each presidential elector would exercise independent judgment when voting.
• Candidates would not pair together on the same ticket with assumed placements toward each office of President and Vice President.

The system as designed would rarely produce a winner, thus sending the election to Congress. So it was amended and changed to what we have now, as a "winner take all" state by state model. Now into the nuts and bolts... Some definitions:

• Voter: You and Me - proud citizens of the republic.
• Candidate: The person that wants to run the country for the next 4 years.
• Elector: The people that have been chosen by the Candidate's Party to do the actual vote in December. Electors are generally chosen by the candidate’s political party. These Electors can be anybody but Senators or Congressmen. They are usually very politically active and well connected. What the Electors are supposed to do, is cast their votes based off the Popular Vote, which is what "We the People" do with that ballot. They are, in most cases, not strictly obligated to do so, but have 99% of the time. 
• Elector Slate: The full list of the chosen Electors for a given Candidate.
• Popular Vote: The actual voter ballot tabulation that is greater than all others.
• Electoral Vote: How many points your state has to give the Candidate. Each state gets one Elector per member of House & Senate that the state is allotted, or a minimum of 3, in the case of Washington D.C.. There are presently 538 Electors. To win this horse race, you have to hit 270+. 

Here's what happens:

1. You cast a vote for, say the Purple Teams Candidate.
2. The vote you cast for the Purple Candidate is assigned to Purple's Elector for your district (or some nomenclature to that effect)
3. The popular vote is tabulated and the Elector for the leading candidate of the Popular Vote in the District is awarded the District wholesale. Majority rules, winner take all. 
4. At the State level, the districts are tabulated, majority rules again, and the State's number of Electoral Votes goes to the Candidate. Maine and Nebraska each have a variation of “proportional representation".
5. The above continues until all the ballots are counted. Once someone has 270 Electoral votes, it's all over.
6. We all assume that whoever won. We are almost always right, and it is the popular vote - by proxy through proportional representation.
7. Paperwork - After the presidential election, your governor prepares a “Certificate of Ascertainment” listing all of the candidates who ran for President in your state along with the names of their respective electors. The Certificate of Ascertainment also declares the winning presidential candidate in your state and shows which electors will represent your state at the meeting of the electors in December of the election year. The electors meet in their respective states, where they cast their votes for President and Vice President on separate ballots. Your state’s electors’ votes are recorded on a “Certificate of Vote,” which is prepared at the meeting by the electors. Your state’s Certificates of Votes are sent to the Congress and the National Archives as part of the official records of the presidential election. 
8. Each state’s electoral votes are counted in a joint session of Congress on the 6th of January in the year following the meeting of the electors. Members of the House and Senate meet in the House chamber to conduct the official tally of electoral votes. The Vice President, as President of the Senate, presides over the count and announces the results of the vote. The President of the Senate then declares which persons, if any, have been elected President and Vice President of the United States.
9. The President-Elect takes the oath of office and is sworn in as President of the United States on January 20th in the year following the Presidential election.

So as you can perhaps tell, this is a convoluted process that simultaneously make it easier to calculate with the use of the Proportional Representation model, and ludicrous as it subjugates the power of your own vote to  to someone else, who we then trust will vote according to the vox populi (voice of the people).

So what do you think? Should the electoral college be mothballed and go with a true popular vote?

For more information on the Electoral College and it's methods, visit http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/about.html

2008 Election Results

Topic Tuesday #15 2012/10/30 "All Hallows Eve"

Topic Tuesday #15 2012/10/30 "All Hallows Eve"

Where did the holiday Halloween come from? Many people fantasize wildly on the topic and many popular beliefs label it a satanic and pagan ritual. Well, they have part of it right. Let's take a stroll through history.

Peter Tokofsky, an assistant professor in the department of folklore and mythology at UCLA states, "The earliest trace (of Halloween) is the Celtic festival, Samhain, which was the Celtic New Year. It was the day of the dead, and they believed the souls of the deceased would be available"  Samhain (pronounced sah-win or sow-in) means "summer's end" by the Celts.

This day marked the end of summer (and the harvest) and the beginning of the dark, cold winter; a time of year that was often associated with human death. For this reason Druids (Celtic pagans) believed that the spirits of those who died the preceding year roamed the earth the night of Samhain.
The Druids celebrated with a great fire festival (to encourage the dimming Sun not to vanish) and danced round bonfires to keep evil spirits away. With all that they would leave their doors open in hopes that benevolent spirits of loved ones might join them around their hearths. Divination was thought to be more effective during this time, so methods were derived to ascertain who might marry, what great person might be born, who might rise to prominence, or who might die. The Celts would also wear costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. Crops were burned (to prepare the fields for the next planting) and animals were sacrificed (and eaten by the villages as part of the festival, with plenty of ritual too). The spirits were believed to be either "entertained by the living", or to "find a body to possess for the incoming year". This all gives reason as to why "dressing up like witches, ghosts and goblins, villagers could avoid being possessed".

By 43 AD, Romans occupied the majority of Celtic territory. Over the 400 years of occupation, two Roman festivals were melded within the culture:
First, a celebration for Pomona (the Roman goddess of plenty or "she who cares for fruits") which followed the August fruit and nut storage with a opening of those stores near November first. Bobbing for apples if most often attributed to Pomona's role.
Second, Feralia, celebrating the Manes (Roman spirits of the dead, particularly the souls of deceased individuals). Faralia, while practiced later, in February, may have also been subjugated in the land of Celts during this time due to climate and local traditions.

Fast forwarding to the Middle Ages, Pope Gregory IV wanted to substitute Samhain with All Saints' Day in 835, but All Souls' Day (Nov. 2nd) which is closer in resemblance to Samhain and Halloween today was instituted in a French Monastery in 998 and spread throughout Europe. In the 16th century, Christian village children celebrated the vigil of All Saints' by doing the "Danse Macabre". The Seven Brethren whose grisly death is described in the seventh chapter of the deuterocanonical book of Second Maccabees is also said to have resulted in children dressing up in grizzly costumes to signify these deaths. Also During this time the belief developed that witches traveled on broomsticks to the black Sabbaths to worship demonic forces and devils. It is said that, witches were guided by spirits in the form of black cats. Lending credence to this were the old Druid traditions of "revering or worshiping" cats, believing them to be reincarnated souls.

All Saints Day became All Hallows Day. Hallow means holy or sacred. October 31 is the evening before All Hallows Day and came to be called in the western world all hallows evening and then all hallows een. Een is an abbreviation for evening. Finally, the word was reduced to the way we have it today, Halloween.
Halloween came to the United States when European immigrants brought their varied Halloween customs with them. In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants including the Irish fleeing from the potato famine in Ireland in 1846. By combining Irish (Celtic) and English (Roman Catholic/Anglican) traditions, Americans began the "trick-or-treat" tradition. In the later 1800's the holiday became more centered on community and in the 1920's and 1930's Halloween became a secular, but community-centered holiday. In the 1950's leaders changed Halloween as a holiday aimed at the young to limit vandalism. This all led to what Halloween actually is like today. There continues to be controversy over the implications of the holiday among the very pious, considering the entire thing to be sinful and direct devil worship. In my neck of the woods, it's a harvest festival that was twisted through the years with superstition and has become a fun holiday to celebrate the things that go bump in the night so we don't have to be afraid, all the time, just on halloween, and because we like to be scared...Well a little.

Special thanks to the following sources:
The Origins of Halloween
http://www.albany.edu/~dp1252/isp523/halloween.html
A Reminder of Death. Navarro, Michelle. Oct. 1997. UCLA. 12 Oct. 2002. http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/DB/issues/97/10.31/news.halloween.html
Halloween FAQ. Thomas, Patrick. 4 Nov. 1993. Rutgers University. 12 Oct. 2002. http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/pub/soc.religion.christian/faq/halloween
History Channel Exhibits: The History of Halloween. 2002. The History Channel. 12. Oct. 2002. http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/halloween/hallowmas.html
History of Halloween 29 Feb. 2001. Indiana University. 12 Oct. 2002.
http://www.iun.edu/~preprofn/Histroy%20of%20Halloween.htm
MSN Learning & Research- Halloween. MSN Encarta. 12. Oct. 2002. http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.aspx?refid=761572079
The Origin of Halloween Comes Out of the Sky. Chamberlain, Von Del. State University of Utah. 12. Oct. 2002. http://www.utah.edu/planetarium/CQHalloween.html
Halloween Traditions around the World. Flowers, MaDonna. 28. June. 2011. Halloween Costumes Blog. http://www.halloweencostumes.com/blog/post/2011/06/28/halloween-traditions-around-the-world.aspx
http://lindy-halloween.blogspot.com/2010/10/pomona.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feralia
An evangelical site dedicated to stamping out Halloween as Satanic (turn your speakers off...)
http://www.demonbuster.com/halloween.html

Topic Tuesday #14 2012/10/23 "The Signal and the Noise"

Tuesday #14 2012/10/23 "The Signal and the Noise"

Last night was the final debate of this presidential election season. (I am going to refrain from partisan support in this post, but those that have read my work before will inherently know where I lean.) The talk was heated, but fluffy through most of the debates. All of the debates were far less about facts than they were puffed chests, interrupting the moderator, going over on time, and the ever so important last word. They were quite entertaining, and even sickening at times. Overall, I would give them 2.5 stars out of 5 for a you should have seen them, but didn't need to since it wasn't anything new, AT ALL. 

This leads into today's topic. 

We are getting a lot of noise through the media outlets and mailings and signs in years, and graffiti on said signs, and stump speeches and rolling roadblocks when they come to our cities etc... How do we filter the noise to get the right signal? I have been talking to several colleagues about the polls and who is doing well where and it never fails that when I bring up a website or media outlet, it is immediately disparaged and dismissed because of their slant. I bring up another, and another, and another; then dig deeper to find where they get their data and show how they arrive at their conclusions. This is to little avail other than showing that I am actually fact checking and not talking out of my arse. Overall, the chat has been civil, if not mind-numbing. And that's the problem-There is too much noise and not enough substance for the signal. The most bi-partisan organizations still seem to lean one way or the other, or at least someone will tell you they do and dismiss them as biased. It seems the only way to know what you need to make a rational decision is to do your own digging and sifting. It takes time. It takes patience. It takes booze in many cases...

I have said it a few times, but I would encourage you all to read the platforms of the main parties, since until campaign reform happens, there is little point in casting a vote for another candidate (sad but true). Keep in mind that an evolution of ideals has happened and these ARE NOT the same political groups we grew up with. They certainly are not the ones your family has supported for generations. 

Some further advice: 

• Read the platforms - But do it alone, but aloud, first. If the language is difficult to get through, you are not supposed to get through it and it is deceitful by intent. Your challenge is to... 
• Critically Compare - Take a highlighter and red pen to the platforms and mark the heck out of them. Compare which side believes what. You may need to translate the legalese doublespeak into plain english. This usually makes the paragraph a sentence. 
• Look to the future -  The one that is elected will be setting policy for decades to come. Not only that, but the likelihood that they will pick Supreme Court Justices (2 are most likely this time) will weigh heavily on law going forward for a long time. Laws can be overturned and our lives directly affected by this decision. 
• Science & Education - As the song said, I believe the children are our future. If we do not educate them correctly, we lose as a nation. What is being taught is as important as how it is taught. Examine the tail tail markings of where the education is going and ask yourselves if that will hurt the next generation. The best technology that we have came out of the furnace of scientific exploration of space. This is a cold and rational endeavour that is filled with wonder. There is no place for superstition in science. Tossing salt over your shoulder or whispering an enchantment will not replace an antibiotic to make your ear infection abate. Act accordingly in this regard. It's your grandchildren's futures you will be deciding.
• ASK - If you are still left asking questions, then do not keep them to yourself. ASK EVERYONE. Communication is key. You may get some rather interesting answers but you may do a service by prompting others to ask the same or other questions. Remember back to your days in school how a single question in class could derail a lecture and make everyone engaged. It's exactly the same in real life, just you are both teacher and student. This principle is for everyday, not just politics.

In conclusion: 

Educate yourselves and Vote. If you do not vote, I don't want to hear a single complaint about the next 4 years; beyond, "Man, I should have voted!"

How do you sift through the noise to get the signal?

On the Separation of Church and State...

Setting the Scene: May 25th, 1787, Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia. Gathered in the same room where the Declaration of Independence was signed (11 years earlier) are 55 criminals of Britain of whom a few names ring out quite loudly. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and the chief architect of the Constitution - James Madison, Jr. This document, though not very long, was the culmination of several plans - neatly compromised into the document that was signed September 17th, 1787 - Full ratification was not until June 12, 1792. 40 of 55 signed it (not everyone could stay or wanted what was written) and 12 of the 13 states were represented (Rhode Island sent no representative) Ages of these men ranged from Franklin at 81 to Jonathan Dalton at age 26. 23 were Revolutionary War veterans. Roger Sherman of Connecticut was the only one present to have signed the Articles of Association, the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. These men were well aware of the reason they were present and the stakes that lay before them and their new country. Of the signers the following were not Christians (some only interned in Christian institutions): James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Gunning Bedford, Jr., Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, Richard Dobbs Spaight, George Clymer, Gouverneur Morris, John Langdon, Nicholas Gilman, Nathaniel Gorham, Roger Sherman, Rufus King, William Blount, Jared Ingersoll. That's 15 out of 40. While searching through the memoirs and writings of the founding fathers, there were key themes that drove them at this conference, in no particular order:

Freedom of religious practice.

Not having religious practice be as a mandate for government service.

Fair representation by the people in the new government. 

Purposely having no religion in the document whatsoever. 

Madison and Washington, were both classified as Diests. These two Presidents of the Enlightenment were staunchly opposed to religious involvement in government. That is what they were escaping when they came to this land. Washington would not go on record, even to his dying day, for what faith he trusted. He mentioned it would only serve to divide the people. When confronted by clergy that there lacked mention of Jesus Christ in the Constitution, Washington said, "...the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction", and in a letter "Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause."
Madison, as president, was so staunch in the separation of church and state that even the issuance of sanction, where no money would ever be involved, was too much and denied.
The Enlightenment, the age from which our founding fathers pulled this nation together, was an age of science and reason. Benjamin Franklin as a scientist invented the lightning rod. The church frowned upon this fantastic invention at the time as it prevented the almighty from smiting people with lighting - I kid you not.
The church, ANY church, while teaching from a stagnant book of allegorical tales spun from tribe to tribe in the deserts of the "promised land" has no business influencing policy for a nation of people that don't agree with the passages of their teachings. This is true from religion to religion where they even share the same texts or same story but interpret them differently. What are laws? Laws are merely the moral structure of a people, converted into enforceable rules of conduct. As soon as you legislate a belief and not a fact, then you have done the entire culture a disservice and made it that much easier for the infringement to be done again, and again. Faith Based Initiatives, National Day Of Prayer, Congress being opened by a Priest with a prayer, Governors having church sponsored lunches, having religious iconography on public (taxpayer supported) property, anything that provides favoritism to belief... These are the things that erode, in completely natural ways, the fundamental division that keeps this nation thriving. Religion has served to obstruct progress at every turn, as progress usually means the loss of control for their dogma. Contraception means that the church can no longer mandate sexual practices. Did you know that sodomy is often considered any position other than "missionary"? Did you know that until 2003 (Lawrence v. Texas), sodomy was illegal in nearly every state? Religion is as much about its control as it is good works. I argue that religion is not required to do good works, and you certainly can control yourselves. If you think you require morals from the church to guide yourself or your government, then you are fooling yourselves. "Morals" existed long before there was a chosen people wandering the desert, or the Sumerians invented glue 7,000 years ago, or when the Japanese invented pottery over 10,000 years ago. The Golden Rule existed as a concept, since it is such a simple one, (expressed neatly by Wil Wheaton as "Don't Be A Dick") long before the ancients figured out writing. The case is made clearer by the plain fact that if we had been so unruly, then we would have never figured out how to write down rules in the first place.
Back to the rules, simply put, there is nothing that religion can offer law or science that these fields would be unable to figure out on their own through generalized good behavior and diligence... To allow the two to mix is to return steadily to the dark ages where the church was law and people were burned at the stake for speaking the truth.
"I believe that God wants me to be President" - George W. Bush
W. A. Criswell (Reagan's choice for the 1984 Benediction of the RNC) said, "The separation of church and state is the figment of some infidels imagination." Criswell introduced Reagan to a large group of fundamentalist Christians in 1980 and Reagan said to them "I know you can't endorse me but I want you to know that I endorse you." Reagan continued to erode the separation when he said, "When our Founding Fathers passed the First Amendment, they sought to protect churches from government interference. They never intended to construct a wall of hostility between government and the concept of religious belief itself."
Reagan was heavily supported by Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, to get into the Whitehouse. It was at that time that the "Religious Right" was born. Since then, every endeavour has been made to twist the purposely secular founding of the nation into a Christian Fundamentalist Ruled empire, where nationalism is measured by Bible verse.
Thomas Jefferson penned the words "Separation of Church and State".
James Madison penned Government and Religion are served by: "the total separation of Church and State."
In 1817 Madison publicly stated that "a national day of prayer would imply and certainly nourish the erroneous idea of a national religion."
Also Madison - "Establishment of a chaplainship to congress is a violation of equal rights as well as constitutional principles."
Given that I am quoting the principal author of the Constitution, I would say his words deliver the purest intent of those documents to separate fully the religious from the government. Don't let anyone try and insinuate different, when you can cite the source.

Topic Tuesday #13 2012/10/16 "It's bad luck to be superstitious"

Topic Tuesday #13 2012/10/16 "It's bad luck to be superstitious"

It's beginning to look a lot like Halloween around here. I see spider (the fake kind) and ghosts hanging in trees, and tombstones popping up all over the place. I'll talk more about All Hallows' Eve, next week. Today  being this is the 13th Topic Tuesday, let's chat about luck, specifically superstitions. Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13. It's one of a very long list, 530+, and it's particularly amusing. 85% of western culture buildings typically skip the 13th floor and by that same regard, have no negative numbers for floors below the lobby. Eastern cultures skip the number 4, 13, and 14 due to the pronunciation being similar to the word death in regional languages. There are a tremendous number of superstitions and general phobias. Some well placed and founded in genuine harm, but most, are irrational.  A black cat crossing your path causing you to jump out of the way, putting you under a ladder and dropping your pocket mirror all in the same motion would probably cause a superstitious person to lose their marbles.
There is no cause to believe these things, but they have become part of our culture.
Question:
What are you afraid of (irrational or rational)? Why?
What's your favorite superstition? Why?

Topic Tuesday #12 2012/10/09 "Book Hangovers"

Topic Tuesday #12 2012/10/09 "Book Hangovers"

Have you ever been touched by a book so strongly, that you couldn't immediately move on? I was reading a series by Peter F. Hamilton, referred to as the Commonwealth Universe Saga, and after I finished reading them (OK I listened to them on Audible - IT'S STILL READING) I immediately started them over. I had to read the first two books again, immediately... HAD TO. I was stuck in the universe that had been presented to me. A similar thing happened after I read the sequel, the Void Trilogy. Then I read the entire series, all 5 books, again. This was not isolated to Mr. Hamilton's work. I had the same Experience with David Webber and his Honor Harrington series (13 books), and Daniel Suarez's Daemon and Freedom TM.
These books, which I consider excellent, were able to get in my head and make me a part of the universe they presented. I was engaged and they made me think.


Today's Question - What books have given you a book hangover? What books have traumatized you and made you different? Tell me about your library and how you absorb content.

Topic Tuesday #11 2012/10/02 "Oh the Humanity?"

Topic Tuesday #11 2012/10/02 "Oh the Humanity???"

In todays world we continue to push the limits of science. What tends to follow the science - is the philosophy...
Today, I want to look at what it takes to be human.

March 2011: Enter a dying man, Craig Lewis, 55, Dying from amyloidosis. Craig had 12-24 hours to live when his wife Linda okayed an experimental procedure by two innovated doctors at the Texas Heart Institute. Dr. Billy Cohn and Dr. Bud Frazier, successfully replaced his heart with a continuous flow pump. Two venturi like pump motors served as a replacement for the failed muscle. There was a catch though; Craig no longer had a pulse. EKG was flatlined. Linda Lewis said, "I listened and it was a hum, which was amazing. He didn't have a pulse." The technology passed multiple animal trials and it certainly passed this test.

I've included the short documentary on it below.

Heart Stop Beating | Jeremiah Zagar from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo
As technology changes us, as we lose those telltale markers that we are alive, how will we adapt? Our minds are a series of electrical impulses and it's a trivial jump to reason that one day we will "backup" our consciousness, and perhaps be downloaded back into a new or greatly repaired body. How will humanity deal, with immortality? Will we still be human? With no need of an afterlife, will we need religion?

Topic Tuesday #10 2012/09/25 "Water World - Part 2"

Topic Tuesday #10 2012/09/25 "Water World - Part 2"

We need quite a bit of water to survive on. It needs to be clean...
Last week I discussed the requirements of how much water we need to survive. Today, how do we make it safe?

I am going to quickly give some ways to clean up water so you don't die. 

There are 4 categories; Separation, Chemical, Filtration, Oxidation.

SEPARATION: (HEAT, LIGHT & GRAVITY)

• SEDIMENTATION gravitationally settles heavy suspended material. 
• BOILING WATER for 15 to 20 minutes kills 99.9% of all living things and vaporizes most chemicals.  Minerals, metals, solids and the contamination from the cooking container become more concentrated. 
• DISTILLATION boils and re-condenses the water, but many chemicals vaporize and recondense in concentration in the output water. It is also expensive to boil & cool water. 
• ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT is a good bactericide, but has no residual kill, and works only in clearly filtered water. Still in its infancy stage is a new technology involving super white light.

CHEMICALS

• CHLORINE is common, cheap, but extremely toxic. It does not decrease physical or chemical contamination, it does increase colesterol formations, is a carcinogen, amd causes heart disease. 
• IODINE is not practical, and is mostly used by campers. 
• HYDROGEN PEROXIDE kills bacteria with oxygen, is chemically made and is very toxic. It is used in emergencies. 
• COAGULATION-FLOCCULATION adds chemicals which lump together suspended particles for filtration or separation. 
• ION EXCHANGE exchanges sodium from salt for calcium or magnesium, using either glauconite (greensand), precipitated synthetic organic resins, or gel zeolite, thus softening the water. Minerals, metals, chemicals or odors are not affected, and the water is salty to drink. 

FILTRATION

• SLOW SAND of 1 cubic meter passes about 2 liters/min, and does a limited bacteria removal. 
• HIGH PRESSURE/RAPID SAND of 1 cubic meter passes about 40gpm and must be backwashed daily. 
• DIATOMACEOUS EARTH removes small suspended particles at high flow rates, must be back-washed daily and is expensive.
• PAPER or CLOTH filters are disposable and filter to one micron, but do not have much capacity. 
• CHARCOAL: 
• -COMPRESSED CHARCOAL/CARBON BLOCK is the best type of charcoal filter, can remove chemicals and lead, but is easily clogged, so should be used with a sediment prefilter. 
• -GRANULAR CHARCOAL is cheaper, but water can flow around the granules without being treated. 
• -POWDERED CHARCOAL is a very fine dust useful for spot cleaning larger bodies of water, but is messy and can pass through some filters and be consumed. 
• REVERSE OSMOSIS uses a membrane with microscopic holes that require 4 to 8 times the volume of water processed to wash it in order to remove minerals and salt, but not necessarily chemicals and bacteria.

OXIDATION - These are most often used in big water treatment facilities. These techniques attempt to mimic what mother nature does with rivers. See THE SELF-PURIFICATION OF RIVERS AND STREAMS, from 1919. You can read a great deal about it to understand how it is supposed to work.

• AERATION sprays water into the air to raise the oxygen content, to break down odors, and to balance the dissolved gases. However, it takes space, is expensive, and picks up contaminants from the air. 
• OZONE is a very good bactericide, using highly charged oxygen molecules to kill microorganisms on contact, and to flocculate iron and manganese for post filtration and backwashing. 
• ELECTRONIC PURIFICATION and DISSOLVED OXYGEN GENERATION creates super oxygenated water in a dissolved state that lowers the surface tension of the water and effectively treats all three types of contamination: physical, chemical and biological.

The easiest for you and me to go through is likely to be the separation method. An issue to remember here, and one that has caught entire villages with a bad case of the runs, is proper storage of the water once you have sterilized it. There are many methods to do that, but that will be another topic. Look for "Food Safety" later on.

Now for your consideration: 

1. What are your plans on keeping a supply of available, CLEAN, water on hand? 
2. What would be the best method for scaling up for family clusters, to villages, to towns, etc? 
3. Are you going to try any of these methods?

Topic Tuesday #9 2012/09/18 "Water World - Part 1"

Topic Tuesday #9 2012/09/18 "Water World - Part 1"

© hdptcar

Day after day, day after day,

We stuck, nor breath nor motion;

As idle as a painted ship

Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water, every where,

And all the boards did shrink;

Water, water, every where,

Nor any drop to drink.

- The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

And you thought I was going to mention a certain movie where someone pees into a Mr. Coffee and gets Tasters Choice... Well you were right. Love it or hate it, Water World with Kevin Costner, presents some interesting scenarios. The only one I am concerned about is potable water. Clean water, that won't kill you. Pretty important stuff. You can live for about 72 Hours without proper hydration. Food is not without moisture but in the strictest terms, you will die from dehydration long before starvation. Now I could go on and on and on about conservation and the importance of water, but that will be for another topic. Today lets talk about solely about how much water we need and where we can get it. 

In a survival situation, water quite often is a life and death factor. If you are in your fortress of solitude, you may have a cache of water. The numbers on what is recommended you consume depends on the individual, environmental factors and labor exerted. The Institute of Medicine determined that an adequate intake (AI) for men is roughly 3 liters (about 13 cups) of total beverages a day. The AI for women is 2.2 liters (about 9 cups) of total beverages a day, for an average, healthy adult in a temperate climate. What you eat also provides a significant portion, an average of 20 percent of total water intake. Given that we are in the context of a survival situation, we will forego chat about excessive water consumption, hyponatremia. The above information was from the Mayo Clinic and the numbers SEEM high for consumption (given that FEMA recommends 1 gallon or 3.78 liters for drinking and sanitation). We will look at one more metric to determine our hydration needs: Urine.
"Generally if you drink enough fluid so that you rarely feel thirsty and produce 1.5 liters (6.3 cups) or more of colorless or light yellow urine a day, your fluid intake is probably adequate."[Mayo Clinic] This also may seem high but to avoid illnesses and allow your body to properly dispose of waste, it is a vital number. Personally, I have worked long and hard and knew I needed to drink more as I hadn't had to pee for over 8 hours. That was with what I thought was large consumption of fluid. It wasn't enough; so watch yourselves and those in your care.

Now for your consideration: Recap: We need quite a bit of water to survive on. It needs to be clean, BUT given that is a HUGE topic on it's own, I'm breaking that out into part 2 for next week.
Where do we find our water? This is assuming the municipality stopped working or you are making a sequel to Swiss Family Robinson. Brain Storm with me and share your favorite methods to collect water.

Topic Tuesday #8 2012/09/11 "Tomorrow Land"

Topic Tuesday #8 2012/09/11 "Tomorrow Land"

If you have been reading some my previous Topic Tuesdays, you have probably figured out, I am a bit of a futurist. I try to look at the big picture and see where will be in the years ahead. There are a lot of variables here and no one can pretend to be able to see the future with any certainty. Regardless of those obvious shortcomings, I look to the future. Today's topic is future related as well, but rooted in the present. With a simple query, I pulled up the estimated population of earth. Wolfram Alpha and Apple were kind enough to furnish the graphic.  http://www.worldometers.info/ Has live counters for much of this information aggregated from the sources that keep track. Simply put, we have approximately 7 billion people onboard spaceship Earth. Estimates have that number rising to around 10 billion by 2050. That estimate doesn't take things like medical improvements and social infrastructure proliferation, which will make the number larger. What's the point to all this? What are we supposed to do with that many human beings on the planet? How will we feed them? Where will they live? What will they do to work? How will they entertain themselves?
Now think about this... I just gave you a bunch of numbers and here is the one that matters: 38.
The scenario played out is only 38 years away. This is within most of our lifetimes. It's not Star Trek future; it's 401k retirement future. This is just not that far away... In America, we do not face the over crowding issues of nations like China, India and Japan. That doesn't mean America won't have to in the near future. Scenarios like overcrowding, famine, water shortages always highlight science for me. I saw a recent NASA estimate that terraforming Mars, will take a whopping 480 years and 5 trillion dollars (that's the complete deal, no suit required, go play fetch with fido in the park, time frame). 480 years, call it 500 years, is 400 years too late to handle the issues we will have here, but in doing research towards those ends, we will discover amazing things that we can use here. Imagine, the problems that come with restarting an entire planets biosphere to make it habitable for you and me. I think we might find a few way to clean up this planet  in the process. One day, people may realize, its about all of us, and not just about getting a better rate of return on your 401k. Our legacy, is our future as it is being written now. Will we live in enormous arcologies?
Will we resort to blood sport and de-humanize ourselves to control population? It's only a few decades away. What do you think?

Topic Recap: in 38 years, the population of Earth will rise by 3 billion people to 10 billion+. How will we handle that? And what about the future beyond that? How/where will we live with this many people in the year 2100?

Topic Tuesday #7 2012/09/04 "Debate Club"

Topic Tuesday #7 2012/09/04 "Debate Club"

"What we have here, is a failure to communicate."  It would seem that this more true in today's world than it was in Cool Hand Luke. We don't talk to each other. We yell, or we do nothing but seethe and complain. Most of us have no relationship to our next door neighbors. If you don't live with someone, and sometimes not even then, you don't have a relationship worth opening your mouth about. We have become a consumer culture. We make very little and talk about even less. Sure we talk about sports... But that doesn't do anything. It has no purpose except for enjoyment (and sometimes profit). Why don't we talk? Even more, why do we let other people (the "talking heads") talk for us? They inflict their opinions on us, then do not listen, and we have no voice and thereby - no choice.
Why don't we talk? I remember growing up with my older parents and remember hearing about how they grew up. My mother grew up in a fairly puritan household. that meant keeping things to yourselves was the norm. Of course this seemed to be the norm for an entire generation. You only talk about religion in church, you never talk about sex, and you should refrain from talking politics whenever possible, because it's inappropriate to discuss such things in pleasant company. I think the time has come for us to stop this silly practice and discuss things. The problem with that idea is that these things have been private for so long, we have personalized them. People tend to get very heated about these topics.

So what do you think? Can we calm ourselves down and actually talk to each other about these things that we have bottled up? Am I delusional for even suggesting it?

Political Commentary: The run for the White House in a nutshell

Political Commentary: The run for the White House in a nutshell: No matter who runs, it is a fallible human that will take the seat. I believe that most people genuinely want to do the best they can. What must not be overlooked when examining any election is once in the oval office, the ultimate outcome of things related to the president are usually as follows:

• President has a "plan" (Idea, concept for change, reform, etc.) Named "Plan A". 
• Plan A goes to the House of Representatives and is voted down, or re-written.
• Plan A then goes to the Senate as (Plan A rep1). It is summarily executed, or edited again and become "Plan A sen1" and then goes back to the President.
• The President has to then veto his own Plan, or let if fly with the changes to not look like a blundering idiot before the people, because he voted down his own Plan, even though it was hacked to death twice before it his his desk again. The people only hear, President vetoes Plan A. (Not 'Plan A rep1', or 'Plan A sen1') 

I am not a conspiracy theorist, I just know that they are all out of their minds, and rightly so.
Try to do good in one hand. Have too much money in their faces to always do what's right by those that need it most in the other... The human equation...
"I want to help you, so I must stay in office until I can (it does take time), but that requires massive amounts of money to get reelected and then I'm indebted to the people that gave it to me; to... not help you..." This is why money needs to be taken out of politics. Anyone that has to raise millions of dollars to win and then to keep their job 4 years latter, isn't being elected on their ability to do the job. They are being elected on their ability to tell you how much better than anyone else (especially that person over there) they can do the job. I am positive i have glossed over many, many, many, many intricate details, on purpose, to illustrate; just because he has a plan, doesn't ever mean he CAN make it happen. Sadly, opposed to doing what is right and just by their people, representatives in the opposition will try to torpedo every bit of legislation that comes out of the White House. I applaud any representative that sticks to their guns and isn't afraid to go across party lines and vote for what would be best (in their opinion) for their constituents. I applaud them even if I disagree.
The lines are blurry on who is for what and why. It is intentionally so. When this is the case, usually the populace will just not think about it and vote with their party affiliation, regardless of benefit or detriment to themselves. Others will find the issue that is their match head and vote for whoever has the best talking point to that cause. This has become the nature of the best, and I hope that this may open your minds to a little fact finding and strolling across party aisles to see what all the hubbub is. More importantly, before you judge the man in the chairs job by the promises he didn't keep, check to see how he did at trying to make them happen. I bet you'd be surprised.
Personally, I lean to "none of the above". ~Andy Cowen