Front: Jeb Bush 2012
Back: Because third times a charm...right?
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Obama's Bloody Wars Of Occupation
34 minutes ago
Friday, July 10, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
The Peter Principle of Politics
You get elected to higher and higher positions until you are found incompetent at a political position, which you effectively get reelected to over and over...
Here, Arizona state Senator Sylvia Allen manages to contradict herself in two sequential sentences:
Now, "science" tells us that the Earth is around 4.3 billion years old. The reason we know this is that we have something called radioactive decay measurement. In essence, if you know the rate at which radioactive materials decay, then you can determine how long ago a sample was purely radioactive material...in essence back calculating the age of the sample. The most accurate estimates of Earth's age come from radioactive decay measurements using...you guessed it...uranium.
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Here, Arizona state Senator Sylvia Allen manages to contradict herself in two sequential sentences:
"The Earth has been here 6,000 years, long before anybody had environmental laws, and somehow it hasn’t been done away with. We need to get the uranium here in Arizona, so this state can get the money from it,"
Now, "science" tells us that the Earth is around 4.3 billion years old. The reason we know this is that we have something called radioactive decay measurement. In essence, if you know the rate at which radioactive materials decay, then you can determine how long ago a sample was purely radioactive material...in essence back calculating the age of the sample. The most accurate estimates of Earth's age come from radioactive decay measurements using...you guessed it...uranium.
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Wednesday, July 8, 2009
How to colonize another planet.
Hint: Not realistic.
Here, scientists argue that nanorockets that act like "particle accelerators" could provide thrust to tiny spaceship, speeding them to nearly light speed so that they could reach other stars in a reasonable amount of time. Ignoring the fact that communication with those spaceships would still take...light years...this is a pretty cool idea.
Here, scientists claim to have discovered how to make sperm cells from stem cells.
TAE's genius idea: Load a tiny ship with stem cells and a bioprocessor. Then, launch said ship (and a small army of others explained later) at nearly light speed to nearby stars. The ship army automatically determines if habitable planets exist around star. If not, the microship army moves on to next star, and so forth until a habitable planet is discovered. The bioprocessor ship then activates the bioprocessor, which turns the stem cells into sperm and eggs. The sperm then fertilize the eggs. The fertilized eggs are then frozen and the spaceship sends a "Go" signal.
Phase 2: Once the "go" signal is detected, a small army of microships are launched in the direction of the colony ship. These ships contain parts and pieces of incubation chambers, a power plant, colony buildings, and highly advanced robots. The robot ships, almost like Voltron, assemble in space into the robots, who use solar power to function. The robots then start assembling the power plant, which has an autolanding mechanism built into it. The robots then land (switching from solar power to power from the plant) and assemble the incubation pods. The fertilized eggs are then thawed and cultured in the incubation chambers for 9 months.
Voila! Human babies are born. The robots then meticulously raise them, using food from food-bearing microships that have also landed. The robots also teach them. Soon the humans have started a colony. Earth, meanwhile, (years before) has sent out a radio broadcast to the future colonists. The radio broadcast arrives, and the colonists send one back. Years later, it arrives on earth. Congratulations, we've just colonized another world, in another solar system.
The problem with classic colonization theory is the idea that adult humans climb into a vessel to trumpets and fanfare and blast off from Cape Canaveral to do it. From a resource standpoint, it makes much more sense to send gametes to another planet in tiny, easy to power vessels that actually can move quickly from star system to star system, and once a habitable planet is found...the adult humans are grown onsite.
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Here, scientists argue that nanorockets that act like "particle accelerators" could provide thrust to tiny spaceship, speeding them to nearly light speed so that they could reach other stars in a reasonable amount of time. Ignoring the fact that communication with those spaceships would still take...light years...this is a pretty cool idea.
Here, scientists claim to have discovered how to make sperm cells from stem cells.
TAE's genius idea: Load a tiny ship with stem cells and a bioprocessor. Then, launch said ship (and a small army of others explained later) at nearly light speed to nearby stars. The ship army automatically determines if habitable planets exist around star. If not, the microship army moves on to next star, and so forth until a habitable planet is discovered. The bioprocessor ship then activates the bioprocessor, which turns the stem cells into sperm and eggs. The sperm then fertilize the eggs. The fertilized eggs are then frozen and the spaceship sends a "Go" signal.
Phase 2: Once the "go" signal is detected, a small army of microships are launched in the direction of the colony ship. These ships contain parts and pieces of incubation chambers, a power plant, colony buildings, and highly advanced robots. The robot ships, almost like Voltron, assemble in space into the robots, who use solar power to function. The robots then start assembling the power plant, which has an autolanding mechanism built into it. The robots then land (switching from solar power to power from the plant) and assemble the incubation pods. The fertilized eggs are then thawed and cultured in the incubation chambers for 9 months.
Voila! Human babies are born. The robots then meticulously raise them, using food from food-bearing microships that have also landed. The robots also teach them. Soon the humans have started a colony. Earth, meanwhile, (years before) has sent out a radio broadcast to the future colonists. The radio broadcast arrives, and the colonists send one back. Years later, it arrives on earth. Congratulations, we've just colonized another world, in another solar system.
The problem with classic colonization theory is the idea that adult humans climb into a vessel to trumpets and fanfare and blast off from Cape Canaveral to do it. From a resource standpoint, it makes much more sense to send gametes to another planet in tiny, easy to power vessels that actually can move quickly from star system to star system, and once a habitable planet is found...the adult humans are grown onsite.
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Self-sacrifice, cont'd.
Back during Easter season (I think it's supposed to be a season? Or is the season Lent and the day is Easter? This is why The Abstracted Sister is the minister, and I am the engineer), I wrote a short post discussing that I consider self-sacrifice for strangers to be the single most Christian act a person can perform, and the act of doing so was perhaps the single most significant thing that both separates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom, and connects us to the Divine.
This morning I heard two men in Minnesota drowned after saving a boy from a similar fate. I can't find a link to the expanded story, but the synopsis is as follows:
A boy swam too far out, and the high winds were making it difficult for him to get air and swim. After hearing his cries for help, Nathan Junker and Albert Hermiston dashed into the water with a life preserver. The two swam to the boy, put the life preserver on him, and sent him to shore. Lacking floatation devices themselves, the two were unable to reach shore or stay afloat. Tragically, both men drowned. The boy lived.
When I heard this story I was deeply moved. And at the same time, I asked myself what I would do if I were in Nathan Junker's place. Would I watch helplessly from the shore, sickened but fascinated? Would I desperately call 911, knowing deep down that police surely could not arrive in time? Or would I plunge recklessly into the water, putting the life of a stranger above my own?
I do not pretend like this isn't a hard decision. I have a wife and young daughter who depend on me. But at the same time, when I think about how hard it would be to leave them here on earth via self-sacrifice, I also think about what I'd want a stranger to do if my daughter ever found herself above her depth in a lake in high winds, unable to reach the shore.
And there's the rub. There's the core theme of Christian sacrifice. Someone else sacrificed His life for me, not even knowing me, not even knowing if I would be worthy of that sacrifice. And He didn't get the luxury of a graceful, swift death. He didn't go out with his boots on. He bled to death on the cross in his undies in front of a hostile crowd. And because He did this for me, I absolutely must do it for another, if the time comes.
Now I don't want to give the impression that self-sacrifice is the only Christian connector to God. But it seems to me that sacrifice, or more importantly doing less so another can have more, is a noble and human trait.
Perhaps our grandparents got this. Perhaps that is what makes them so unique from Gen Y. Perhaps our grandparents believed and lived a philosophy of "I have slightly more than the minimum necessary, so I'll give the extra to those that need it" while my generation is living a philosophy of "I want as much as possible but I'm not heartless so I want everyone else to have as much as possible too." Our ideals are noble, but our methods are unChristian.
I'm not innocent of the accusations I make above. My own head swims with greed, and I am obsessed with the idea of becoming rich beyond imagination via my powered exoskeleton. And then I think of all the stuff I could buy for my family and friends with my riches. That's nice of me, but I'm missing the mark somewhere. The problem is that in my plan I don't sacrifice anything, I just redistribute my wealth to a larger group of people. Potentially, I could be creating more problems than I'd be solving.
To the readers, especially those in Gen X and Y, I suggest you take a look at your goals, and try to figure out your true motives. And then see if you can really reconcile those motives with the fundamental philosophy of your religion.
Anyway, back to science.
_
This morning I heard two men in Minnesota drowned after saving a boy from a similar fate. I can't find a link to the expanded story, but the synopsis is as follows:
A boy swam too far out, and the high winds were making it difficult for him to get air and swim. After hearing his cries for help, Nathan Junker and Albert Hermiston dashed into the water with a life preserver. The two swam to the boy, put the life preserver on him, and sent him to shore. Lacking floatation devices themselves, the two were unable to reach shore or stay afloat. Tragically, both men drowned. The boy lived.
When I heard this story I was deeply moved. And at the same time, I asked myself what I would do if I were in Nathan Junker's place. Would I watch helplessly from the shore, sickened but fascinated? Would I desperately call 911, knowing deep down that police surely could not arrive in time? Or would I plunge recklessly into the water, putting the life of a stranger above my own?
I do not pretend like this isn't a hard decision. I have a wife and young daughter who depend on me. But at the same time, when I think about how hard it would be to leave them here on earth via self-sacrifice, I also think about what I'd want a stranger to do if my daughter ever found herself above her depth in a lake in high winds, unable to reach the shore.
And there's the rub. There's the core theme of Christian sacrifice. Someone else sacrificed His life for me, not even knowing me, not even knowing if I would be worthy of that sacrifice. And He didn't get the luxury of a graceful, swift death. He didn't go out with his boots on. He bled to death on the cross in his undies in front of a hostile crowd. And because He did this for me, I absolutely must do it for another, if the time comes.
Now I don't want to give the impression that self-sacrifice is the only Christian connector to God. But it seems to me that sacrifice, or more importantly doing less so another can have more, is a noble and human trait.
Perhaps our grandparents got this. Perhaps that is what makes them so unique from Gen Y. Perhaps our grandparents believed and lived a philosophy of "I have slightly more than the minimum necessary, so I'll give the extra to those that need it" while my generation is living a philosophy of "I want as much as possible but I'm not heartless so I want everyone else to have as much as possible too." Our ideals are noble, but our methods are unChristian.
I'm not innocent of the accusations I make above. My own head swims with greed, and I am obsessed with the idea of becoming rich beyond imagination via my powered exoskeleton. And then I think of all the stuff I could buy for my family and friends with my riches. That's nice of me, but I'm missing the mark somewhere. The problem is that in my plan I don't sacrifice anything, I just redistribute my wealth to a larger group of people. Potentially, I could be creating more problems than I'd be solving.
To the readers, especially those in Gen X and Y, I suggest you take a look at your goals, and try to figure out your true motives. And then see if you can really reconcile those motives with the fundamental philosophy of your religion.
Anyway, back to science.
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Wisdom is not a fossil fuel.
TAE best friend and repeat guest writer Adam wrote me a long email discussing his renewed and deep admiration for his grandparents. He writes:
He goes on to discuss the conservative mindset that his grandparents have held so firmly for as long as they can remember. At last, he expressed regret that he had not interacted with his grandfather more, as the man is starting to succumb to early stage dementia.
As I am sensitive to my friend’s situation, and as I also hold Tom Brokaw’s Greatest Generation dear, what I want to express to the reader today is that “wisdom” is not a fossil fuel, and once passed down, can renew itself in a new host. I have a friend, a mechanical engineer like myself, who got a lucrative job recently at a large firm based here in Kansas City. His salary was…fantastic, fresh out of college he started at 75k. His profit sharing is also lucrative, and he’ll probably earn 10-20k this Christmas via that. In this economy. And combine that with his wife’s salary as a paralegal, you get a family of two living in a low cost city making six figures.
I talked to this friend a few months ago when he was preparing to buy a house. He said the bank had qualified him for a $255,000 loan. He and his wife had looked around at the homes at that price, and were awestruck by how much house they could “afford.” Mind you, this is after the housing bubble popped. Three years ago he’d probably have qualified for a $400,000 loan. Anyway, I asked him “what does a young, childless couple need with a 5 bedroom, 4 bath with walkout basement?” and he said this to me “my friend, no family on earth needs that much house. Not even if we had 5 kids would we need that much house. My grandpa and grandma lived in a 2 bedroom 1 bath (with no garage) for 41 years, raised three kids there, and never once did they complain or believe they needed more house.” My friend and his wife eventually bought a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath, gorgeous ranch with a huge yard, and TAE tips his hat to the modest.
The point here is this: our grandparents lived lives in an era that required them to not only get by with less, but to rationalize the “less” they had as “enough” and go on living. Our grandparents planted Victory Gardens. Our grandparents canned their own food. Our grandparents attended church…well…religiously, for most of their lives. I challenge the reader to name 3 people over the age of 70 that don’t attend church. I suggest you will be hard pressed to name them.
This post is not meant to be grandparent hero-worship, although I know it seems like it. What I am trying to impress upon the reader is that living like your grandparents is extremely difficult in a world where not only are we taught to not content ourselves with what we have, but we have been ingrained with the a priori philosophy that “more wealth = more good.” To live like your grandparents, you first need to open the New Testament, as they have done countless times over the last century and read the words of Jesus to the young king: “give away all your belongings, and follow me.” Deep down, I know that I am very much like my paternal grandfather. I know he was an intrepid, enterprising, humorous, ambitious young man. These are the qualities I pride in myself. But when I wonder what separates me from him, I know deep down it is not losing the farm in the Great Depression. It is not the bombing runs he flew in WWII. It is not being witness to 85 years of history against my paltry 27. What separates me (and my generation) from his is the indomitable faith in Jesus Christ and his teachings, and how weakly I follow them and how strongly they guide his life. I once again challenge the reader to name three people. But in this case, name three people under 35 who read a daily devotional.
The little angel on my shoulder suggested to me that I be less Christ-centric in this post. That is fine. Take Christ and Christianity out of the above post, and insert any other faith, and the generalities still hold. My generation has not found its faith, whatever that faith may be. We, it would seem, worship ourselves instead.
To Adam, and to anyone else who acknowledges that The Greatest Generation has a lot to teach and show us about living a satisfying, full life (without living a life full of stuff), I suggest you remember that your church probably has a cadre of different aged persons. Although awkward and difficult (and bizarre in the eyes of your less forward thinking peers), taking the time to establish relationships and dialogues with the elderly in your church can teach you more about lving life, and about loving yourself, than you could possibly imagine. As I was writing this, I stopped on a whim and called my grandmother in Iowa. She explained that her new wallpaper border in the kitchen was a crock pattern. Amused, I asked what a “crock” was. “For pickling cucumbers, of course,” she replied. “We’d fill the 5 gallon crock with cucumbers and brine and let it all pickle.” I didn’t even know you could do that.
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“My grandma had a cherry tree grove at her house. When the cherries were ripe, she started calling her extended family to come over and pick cherries. When not enough of them could come, she started calling neighbors, and anyone else she could think of. She could not let a single cherry touch the ground. ‘Can’t let good cherries go to waste’ she’d say. You just don’t see people doing that nowadays.”
He goes on to discuss the conservative mindset that his grandparents have held so firmly for as long as they can remember. At last, he expressed regret that he had not interacted with his grandfather more, as the man is starting to succumb to early stage dementia.
As I am sensitive to my friend’s situation, and as I also hold Tom Brokaw’s Greatest Generation dear, what I want to express to the reader today is that “wisdom” is not a fossil fuel, and once passed down, can renew itself in a new host. I have a friend, a mechanical engineer like myself, who got a lucrative job recently at a large firm based here in Kansas City. His salary was…fantastic, fresh out of college he started at 75k. His profit sharing is also lucrative, and he’ll probably earn 10-20k this Christmas via that. In this economy. And combine that with his wife’s salary as a paralegal, you get a family of two living in a low cost city making six figures.
I talked to this friend a few months ago when he was preparing to buy a house. He said the bank had qualified him for a $255,000 loan. He and his wife had looked around at the homes at that price, and were awestruck by how much house they could “afford.” Mind you, this is after the housing bubble popped. Three years ago he’d probably have qualified for a $400,000 loan. Anyway, I asked him “what does a young, childless couple need with a 5 bedroom, 4 bath with walkout basement?” and he said this to me “my friend, no family on earth needs that much house. Not even if we had 5 kids would we need that much house. My grandpa and grandma lived in a 2 bedroom 1 bath (with no garage) for 41 years, raised three kids there, and never once did they complain or believe they needed more house.” My friend and his wife eventually bought a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath, gorgeous ranch with a huge yard, and TAE tips his hat to the modest.
The point here is this: our grandparents lived lives in an era that required them to not only get by with less, but to rationalize the “less” they had as “enough” and go on living. Our grandparents planted Victory Gardens. Our grandparents canned their own food. Our grandparents attended church…well…religiously, for most of their lives. I challenge the reader to name 3 people over the age of 70 that don’t attend church. I suggest you will be hard pressed to name them.
This post is not meant to be grandparent hero-worship, although I know it seems like it. What I am trying to impress upon the reader is that living like your grandparents is extremely difficult in a world where not only are we taught to not content ourselves with what we have, but we have been ingrained with the a priori philosophy that “more wealth = more good.” To live like your grandparents, you first need to open the New Testament, as they have done countless times over the last century and read the words of Jesus to the young king: “give away all your belongings, and follow me.” Deep down, I know that I am very much like my paternal grandfather. I know he was an intrepid, enterprising, humorous, ambitious young man. These are the qualities I pride in myself. But when I wonder what separates me from him, I know deep down it is not losing the farm in the Great Depression. It is not the bombing runs he flew in WWII. It is not being witness to 85 years of history against my paltry 27. What separates me (and my generation) from his is the indomitable faith in Jesus Christ and his teachings, and how weakly I follow them and how strongly they guide his life. I once again challenge the reader to name three people. But in this case, name three people under 35 who read a daily devotional.
The little angel on my shoulder suggested to me that I be less Christ-centric in this post. That is fine. Take Christ and Christianity out of the above post, and insert any other faith, and the generalities still hold. My generation has not found its faith, whatever that faith may be. We, it would seem, worship ourselves instead.
To Adam, and to anyone else who acknowledges that The Greatest Generation has a lot to teach and show us about living a satisfying, full life (without living a life full of stuff), I suggest you remember that your church probably has a cadre of different aged persons. Although awkward and difficult (and bizarre in the eyes of your less forward thinking peers), taking the time to establish relationships and dialogues with the elderly in your church can teach you more about lving life, and about loving yourself, than you could possibly imagine. As I was writing this, I stopped on a whim and called my grandmother in Iowa. She explained that her new wallpaper border in the kitchen was a crock pattern. Amused, I asked what a “crock” was. “For pickling cucumbers, of course,” she replied. “We’d fill the 5 gallon crock with cucumbers and brine and let it all pickle.” I didn’t even know you could do that.
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Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Chicago Architecture/Renovation
Next time I am visiting the Abstracted Sister and her family in Chicago I absolutely must check out the new all glass observation platforms installed on the Sears Tower. Apparently you can see a full quarter mile down.
The Abstracted Mother is highly advised to avoid the Sears Tower at all costs.
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The Abstracted Mother is highly advised to avoid the Sears Tower at all costs.
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Obligatory Lance Armstrong Post
As I type this, Lance Armstrong has moved up to 2nd place in the Tour de France.Armstrong has many biographies, training manuals, and websites devoted to him, so I'll spare the reader any biographical information they could find elsewhere, probably more accurately.
But as an engineer, Armstrong is really the posterboy for biomechanical engineering. From wind tunnel testing to adjusting the bike mechanics and aerodynamics, to ergonomics of the bike seat, to aero bars, to his intense training regimen that is, like horses, set up to peak at race time, to his embrace of new technology, the man and the economy that surrounds Armstrong proves that science and technology can coalesce into a superior version of the human condition. Although most of us do not have 6 hours a day to ride and a team of dieticians to provide us with perfectly designed meals, we do get the shake down of technology that has largely been brought about in the last 10 years...a.k.a. The Reign Of Lance. Ten years ago you just didn't see people on bikes much. Nowadays you see them on carbon fiber bikes with disc wheels. These technologies weren't invented by Armstrong or even his team. But the freakish success of Armstrong in TdF after TdF has proven the success of the technologies.
Whereas cyclists used to take a very relaxed off-season (see Jan Ullrich) and start getting in shape in early spring for the racing season, now most competitive cyclists never stop to catch their breath.
If you are lucky enough to catch Armstrong, Leipheimer, Contador, and the peleton of bikers on television this month, just try to admire for a second the marriage of technology and biology that has occurred to create the athletes spinning across your screen.
And when the inevitable EPO scandal hits some of the cyclists, instead of reviling the sport, and the athletes that participate in it, instead realize that biotechnology has come so far that we've even figured out how to artificially increase our red blood cell count temporarily to enable higher speed at higher altitude. Cheating? Yes. Amazing? Yes.
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