Archive for November, 2007

The Maid asked for a raise.
The Madam was very upset about this and asked: “Now Maria, why do you want an increase?”
Maria: “Well Madam, there are three reasons why I want an increase. The first is that I iron better than you.”
Madam: “Who said you iron better than me?”
Maria: “The Master said so.”
Madam: “Oh.”
Maria: “The second reason is that I am a better cook than you.”
Madam: “Nonsense, who said you were a better cook than I?”
Maria: “The Master did.”
Madam: “Oh.”
Maria: “My third reason is that I am a better lover than you.”
Madam (very upset now): “Did the Master say so as well?”
Maria: “No Madam, the gardener did.”
SHE GOT THE PAY RAISE

Blogging can be informative, creative, and fun. On the other hand, I’ve found that different Blog sites can be frustrating to navigate. All sites are based on a “theme template” and almost no 2 are alike, so here are a few basics I’ve learned in my blog site travels. First things first: if you want to comment on a post you’ve found, almost all sites require you to register before you can leave comments. Look for a “register”, or “signup” button and pick your username and password. (this may take a few tries, depending on how popular the site is). Some sites may use your e-mail address as your username. Once you’ve joined the site you can leave comments. Depending on the defaults set up by the site’s administrator, you may also be able to post your own blog and more. The site may also let you bookmark your favorite blogs (i.e. Technorati) for easy retrieval the next time you visit. As you become more familiar with blogging, there are alot of other tools and options available for linking blogs sites, posts, etc.. Another day.

     If we are to agree on a simple proposition like 1+1=2, don’t we need to agree that whatever flows from that must be correct also? Doesn’t progress in mathmatics or science depend on this very principle? For example, lets look at the degree of accuracy that has been developed in the scientific community, which is mind boggling. Computer clock speeds have been increasing at warp speed and the second is  divided into billionths. Trillionths of a second would become the next reality if it weren’t for one inconvenient fact. Electrical impulses can only travel at the speed of light. It takes an electron longer to travel a foot than it takes to process the information it carries. Therefore computer clock speeds are only limited by the physical distance to remote memory cashes, aka fetch speeds.

      To produce computers their components must be free of contamination or impurities to an extrodinary degree. Clean rooms have contributed to the solution of pollution by measuring the amount of foreign particles in the air around the assembly of components. Particle counters sniff out and count individual molecules. This is analogous to finding not just the needle in the hay stack, but the tip of the needle. We can now reliably peer into a molecule to see the atoms assembled there. Further, we can look into the atom to see how it is assembled, and with advanced mathematics we can deduce to an extrodinary degree the particles which make up the electrons and protons which make up the atom.

       However, theorists like Steven Hawkings have placed an inconvient limit on how small the most basic of building blocks can be. His string theory asserts that all matter is essentially composed of strings of energy measured by putting thirty some zeros between a decimal point and a digit. Using really complicated reasoning he has also placed an inconvenient limit on the size of our universe. It seems a universe can only expand to around 18 billion light years in diameter before it reverses and begins contracting again. Fortunately for us however, there seems to be an infinite number of these universes to explore. Our telescopes can see out to about 15 billion light years and we can detect the background radiation left a trillionth of a second after the big bang.

        If we take a close look at our bodies and apply some basic plumbing principles immortality may only be a few generations away. Aubrey de Grey has presented an elegant argument which goes something like this: Toxins build up in our cells over our lives and eventually interfere with the cell’s ability the replicate itself correctly. The build up of contamination together with defective cell replication are responsible for aging, and ultimately death. We need only to find ways to remove the toxins from our cells so they reproduce faithfully and we should be able to extend our lives indefinitely. If we remove the artifical roadblocks in areas like stem cell research and the use of them, the process of repairing or replacing worn out body parts will be speeded up dramatically.

        Add up all the advances made in testing and measuring and science and technology and we are led to the ultimate inconvenient truth. From the smallest of particles of atoms to the far corners of the known universe we are having an ever closer look. And all of this progress and growth in knowledge has sprung from the simple proposition that 1+1=2. God, for lack of a better concept, is running out of places to hide. Isn’t it time to modernize our religious beliefs? While science has expanded mans’ awareness and knowledge one giant step after another, our religious leaders have steadfastly buried their collective heads in 2000 year old sand. I mean, if people weren’t brain washed from birth into believing increasingly dubious dogma like the earth and heavens being created a mere 6 thousand years ago, if people were taught to reason independantly from the herd (unlike sheep), would that really amount to some sort of catastrophe? Maybe to the people making a good living promoting this drivel but certainly not to an educated person. Isn’t it time we recognized people no longer need to be controlled through fear of an omnipotent force, whose authority can never be challenged because it is never direct? Isn’t it true that God is best known by his absence? Don’t Jews and Christians alike owe their phenomenal success to the fact that He never shows his face? Do we really need to blow each other up over who said what 2000 years ago? Can’t we just allow each other the room for our own thoughts and not feel obligated to foist our beliefs on others? The suggestion that one mans theory can convey our souls into a blissful eternity, while another theory only a hairs breath away dooms its believer to unrelenting hell, is shear nonsense. The suggestion that one mortal human has a direct link to a supreme being the rest of us were unfortunate enough to be born without is ridiculously childish. All we need do is look at each other, and our mothers and fathers, to conclude we are all cut from the same DNA cloth. We all , each one of us, must do the hard work of figuring these universal truths out for ourselves and not leave the thinking to others to do for us. In the final analysis, all a person can do in life is gather about himself his integrity, his imagination, and his individuality and then leap into experience.

 I’m speaking of George Bush and cronies, of course. Beginning early on in
his administration the President showed his colors by appointing household
cronies to positions they were clearly unqualified for. His appointments
throughout his administration have reeked of favoritism. Along comes the phoney war.
Companies associated with the administration received and continue to receive
bloated contracts in the billions on a most favored basis. The war in Iraq has
provided a vehicle for the looting of the US treasury on an unprecedented scale.
Then along came Katrina. While the poor people of New Orleans wallowed in muck
and filth and waist high water for weeks the pigs at the trough again used the
opportunity to further loot the treasury for more millions. Generous offers from
abroad of close to a billion dollars were turned down by the administration. Offers
from governments willing to provide hospital ships to aid the injured were declined
while the administrations cronies hired cruise ships, with more treasury millions,
to provide mostly ineffectual help. Mobile homes and trailers shipped to the
area to provide temporary shelter continue to sit unused. Debris haulers who would
normally be grateful to receive 150$ per truck load were awarded contracts upwards
of 150$ per ton, or 1500$ per truck load, again with little to show the taxpayer
in terms of results.
 Unfortunate as these financial crimes are to the nations self respect, they
pale in comparison to the cost in human terms. This administration is responsible
for the loss of close to a million lives — on the basis of a lie. According to George
Tenet in his book on the subject, the administration knew they were deceiving
the American public prior to the engagement of our troops in Iraq. As Sean Penn
stated in his appearance on Bill Maher, the administration led us into a situation
that is murdering young men and women from this country and others. According
to Penn, George Tenet, George Bush, Dick Cheny, Condolessa Rice, et al should be
in prison for war crimes, not leading the nation into an ever increasing folly abroad. 
 When is enough enough? I am personally embarrassed beyond belief by the
criminal behavior of our elected officials. For the first time in my life I am
ashamed to be an American. Another two years of this administration’s travesties
and our leaders will have surpassed the atrocities of Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler
and taken the world lead in religious genocide.

   Is everybody a Neanderthal? Is everybody a sicko? If you watch the news and agree with the world as they portray it we certainly all must be both. Otherwise, why would we allow ourselves to wallow in the swill the media dishes up as daily fare? Just suppose for a minute we were’t bombarded with the detritus of wars and the corrupt behavior of our leaders. Suppose, instead, we were served a diet of honorable deeds among men. Suppose the media provided a progressively encouraging menu of scientific breakthroughs improving the quality of our lives and beating back the misery afflicting humans everywhere. And, for the sake of argument, let’s say articles of this sort can be found on page one. Would people stop buying newspapers or stop watching the evening news? Would the current state of world affairs continue to decline? Or would the world begin to shift toward a more benign and civil minded mentality? Suppose we were encouraged to hope for a better future based on scientific quantum leaps in health care and clean and renewable energy sources. The only losers in such a scenario would be the mass producers of destruction whose profits come from a mind set stuck in 2000 year old sand. Only profits which come from the perpetuation and reinforcing of the basest of human emotions would be at risk.
I, for one, believe the world could survive an onslaught of positive news and would be far better for it. If you agree, email me at email@parmsplace.com