The masse consenting

I received a forward today containing this cartoon. The line, "Imagine yourself in a land where your countrymen followed the voice of political extremists who didn't like your religion." struck me poignantly. I wrote in my journal:

It was not until just now that I had drawn the connection between many Americans today and many Germans in the 30s. It's true that Amedinejad is crazy, and is potentially a threat... but it wasn't until this email that I realized the error so many Americans make (of grouping all/most Muslims as extremists like Amedinejad) is an equally grave threat to world progress. Before today I'd been frustrated by the spoutings of poorly informed Americans who think all Muslims are a threat. Now, I see that mentality as threatening, not just annoyingly mis-informed.

Imagine yourself in Iran where your countrymen follow the voice of politicians who don't like Christianity.

Imagine yourself in the USA where your countrymen follow the voice of politicians who don't like Islam.

Imagine yourself in Germany where your countrymen follow the voice of politicians who don't like Judaism.

We're all familiar with the last. I think it'd be tough to argue the first two don't exist now. Sure, there's a big step between where we are now, and genocide... but I'm made nervous by the fact that many of our countrymen and politicians are still facing that direction.

Slacking

I feel resigned to the idea that I'm going to be a once a month blogger. It's kind of sad, but being in an office 40 hours a week dropped blogging from the priority list. Today I don't have anything in particular that I want to blog about, I'm simply blogging because I haven't yet given up on the idea of my blog. Here are some tidbits from the last month.

-Master Cleanse was cool... I stopped at the end of 5 days. Days 3-5 all felt the same, I felt like it had run its course. I was also ready to get back on the bike and I still have apprehensions about doing a 300 mile week on a liquid diet. Perhaps I'll try the "way more than moderate" exercise and fasting some other time.

-The lady and I put together our desired travel plans for the rest of the year. They include: San Fransisco, Saint Louis, Chicago, New Mexico, and a week in either Ireland or Italy. People keep saying, "only a week?" I think to myself, well I only have 5 days vacation this year... and when was the last time you went to Europe?

-I've started going back through my Calculus text book. I've decided to actually learn it this time, making the progress slow and arduous, but giving me a sense of accomplishment. I've also been reminded of Euler's formula, and how sweet it is.

-I bought a couple of bikes. An early 90s Huff Savannah Tandem was the first. Mine is rustier than the one pictured, but it's still rolling hilarity. I also bought a 2008 Kestrel Talon last weekend. I've only had it out once for intervals, but it really cooks, I think I'm going to like it a lot.

-I bought a kit and started my first batch of homebrew, I need to transfer it from one receptacle to another tonight (I'm not cool enough to know all the brewing terms yet... I think I'm transferring it from the fermenter to the carboy).

-Work is working.

-I got on LinkedIn thinking the bandwagon had passed and discovered I'm mistaken. It's just getting started. I'd call it a valuable tool for anyone: looking for a job, looking for an employee, or looking for the communication of ideas and concepts between industries. If you're on there, and feel it beneficial, add me.

-Wine is good

-I discovered the song Country Boy by Albert Lee (I'm in my office at lunch so I can't link to youtube... damn you Surf Patrol!). He was on the Crossroads DVD, and I think he's pretty awesome.

-Experiences close to me have further convinced me euthansia should be legal. Nursing homes can be good, or they can just be a place to die. If you are just waiting to die, especially if you are in pain, there's no reason you should have to pay $5,000/month to wait (avg cost for a shared room, 2004 MetLife Market Survey). Simply put, it's childish for us to make someone live months in pain when they don't want to. We are keeping them alive, but they are not living, they are just dying slowly, waiting for it come, wishing it would come sooner.

That's my blogging for the month. Late.

Master Cleanse Day 1

I started Master Cleanse today. I'm totally nerding out on it and I'm going to record my weight daily in a google documents spreadsheet.

The goal is 10 days.... I've done a 3 day liquid fast before. My thought is if I can make it 3 I can make it 5. If I can make it 5 I can make it 7, and if I can make it 7, I can make it 10. Using the transitive property, I have deduced it can be done.

Wish me luck, and timely bowel movements.

Femeostasis

Women want to be viewed as equal.. and I don't blame them. Things are definitely going the right direction, if they're going at the appropriate speed is up for argument.

As most things... I expect feminism and the general view of and laws protecting male female interaction to gain momentum and eventually have to back up a bit. At some point in the general stance of feminism will have to change to, "we are different in many ways, but we should embrace those ways."Of course, this view already exists, but I'd argue it's not yet held by the majority.

In only slightly related thought, is pulling a chair out simply respectful... or does it simply reinforce the idea that we are not equal? Does it depend only on the motivation of the person pulling the chair? Why shouldn't you, in self-defense, hit a woman who is hitting you? Is it because she is inferior? Can you imagine a women saying, "why won't you hit me back" like Rudy to an A squad lineman before the Purdue game?

Could we pass homeostasis in our actions? Could society become matriarchal? Or could we only approach an asymptote of equality? Women would never truly been seen as equal, but the difference would be so tiny no one would actually perceive it.

There are a lot of questions in this post, so I hope it gives a few people something to think about. I also hope before either these questions can be answered we learn, as a society, to recognize and employ our differences toward our common goals.

Rector resentment

I've been picking up a free daily publication at work daily. Like many small town publications it has a standard column that reprints the news from some fixed time in the past. Luckily, Carthage has a little history so the column reviews the area's top news stories from 100 years ago.

Last week the title was "A School Excitement."
The public schools at Lowell, the Kansas town at the junction of Shoal Creek and Spring river not far from Galena are closed and the town is in much excitement. Chas. Brooks and his wife have charge of the public schools. Mr. Brooks requested each of his pupils to write him a letter, for the purpose of advancing them in composition. The children acted upon his advice with the exception of one girl, and she took his advice, but she insulted the teacher. She told him in her letter that he was a fool and said other things which Mr. Brooks took exception to and expelled the young girl. Her mother, Mrs. Cheatham, got mad. She went up to the school house and pounded and scratched Mr. Brooks. He did not defend himself because a woman was attacking him. In the general confusion a little girl by the name of Ida Vennette was cut about the head and otherwise painfully injured.

The line about him not defending himself cracks me up, but the idea that even one hundred years ago, teachers had issues with parents who thought their children could do no wrong is of more interest to me today. I'm relieved to find out that's not specific to my parent's generation (I think the old timers forget how things really were back then, or they just didn't know, or I've listened to them to much... the more I learn about history, the more I learn the good old days were just the same old days). I'm also frustrated that parents have foolishly defended foolish children for over a century... I'd hope that somewhere in the last four generations we might have progressed the teacher parent realationship just a little bit. My emotions are leveled by the reminder that people will always disagree, parents are teachers will inevitably argue.. simply because they are human. Likewise, there will always be teacher's making errors, and parents without the full story.

It's certainly a parent's right to disagree with the teacher (let's hope they go looking for answers before a fight). But what really over cooks my grits is when they go straight to the administration who sides with the parent before even hearing the teacher's case. When a principal uses acquiescence to prevent conflict, especially at the cost of a teacher's character... they have failed at education. There are a lot of good teachers out there... and they all have a lot of kids. The chances of one kid complaing about a teacher are a lot higher than the chances of that kid being right.

Certainly the kids and parents can't be ignored... but don't forget innocent until proven guilty. And don't forget that sending a parent home happy isn't always the best thing in the long run.

In education, business, and in everyday America we seem to have a shortage of spines. Many disagreements happen because of a lack of knowledge... but quelling that disagreement does in no way suggest education. A parent and student being in the wrong and thinking they're right is exactly what we don't need more of. Surely, the student will grow up to be another parent in the wrong. There's no way to say who's in the wrong... but educators and their administration are the only people in position to fight the fight, and if they don't try, we're never going to win.

I might blog later on a slightly related topic: It appears to me in education, government, and business... the less you trust the people directly under you, the more waste you create. Easier said than done, but words I intend to live by.

Laundry Theory

I thought I might explain how a normal blogging gets dropped.It's 9:16 in the AM and I have a theory. Let's go research.

My theory is that we all use a lot more laundry detergent than we need. As with any solvent, there's going to be a point of diminishing returns. If I was a detergent company I'd want to make sure my customers were well past that point. I'd want to ensure my product worked to its full potential (and buy it again), and I'd want customers to use more of my product (and buy it sooner).

After 10 minutes, the wikipedia article on laundry, and now on laundry detergent (a good example of wiki's left leaning motif), I'm finding some interesting stuff. Detergent has a pretty big carbon footprint, and Tesco in the UK had the same idea I did about labeling products with environmental impact information. In rank from largest carbon footprint to smallest: Powdered detergent, liquid, concentrated liquid, Fat Tire Amber Ale. So if you love nature... drink Fat Tire, not Tide. Soap nuts, the dried fruit of the sapindus tree, are one of the best natural solutions. They don't look too expensive, I might try them after I run out of my giant box of powdered detergent (hey, it's cheap, and I didn't know).

Well it's now 9:52 and I've found someone else who had a related thought: Just be sure you're not using too much. I'd expect people have already thought about this, but perhaps they haven't. It does bring up the question of why the caps need to be so big...I can't help but say it must be related to consumers doing what they do faster. Aside: Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-business... I'd do the same thing if I was a CEO of Ultra. Then again, if you really want to save, DIY. I still haven't found anything directly related to my theory, but I did find a green game with Tom Green.

It's 10:22 in the AM. Typically by this point, I'd have changed my topic and probably just blog on the carbon footprint of different types of detergent. So now know, that's how I usually drop a blogging.

This Island Earth

I am almost through the Planet Earth series. If you have not seen these, do so. If no one you know owns them, and you don't have netflix, and your local rental store doesn't carry them, just go buy them. Although the graphics and audio may be outdated in a few decades, there may be some of the last and best shots of several species, and the content is of the type that demands to be passed on (for reasons, historical, biophilic, and academic).

During the episode I watched last night, I had two ideas for Sci-Fi films.

Sci-Fi Number A: As the human population continues to grow, an entire continent abandoned to remain un inhabited and provide the human population with the ecological benefits of a major area of true wilderness (water shed, O2 production, greenhouse gas reduction). Human's development of technology slows natural evolution of the species (has it already?). After a few millenia, scientists discover a species has developed on the wilderness continent that has the potential for global superiorty. The decision must be made whether to let nature run its course, exterminate the species before it becomes too powerful, find a way to co-exist, bringing it into our enivronment, or vice-versa. Of course, a huge and cheesy fight scene could always happen.

Sci-Fi number B: In the not so distant future the elite of the one world gov't declare overpopulation the source of all problems, and without the possibility of a traditional fix. They announce that they will go underground, and will resurface once the world population has declined to a sustainable state... i.e. they tell the general public to have at each other. This could be a story of anarchy and survival, or a bard's tale of banding together for the good of all (even if not for the common good, BAM!)

If anybody has seen these movies, let me know. I've not yet dreamed them, so I'm anxious to see how they turn out. If anybody wants to make these movies, just put my name in the credits in little tiny letters, and give me one penny for every copy produced.

*Ideas for science fiction films is not a recognized side effect of the Planet Earth series. If Sci-Fi visions become more frequent than 12/hour, you should consult a doctor, or priest, or anyone who will talk to you.