Category: Science

Hey that is what my first degree in in…

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Quote of the Day – Arthur C. Clarke

Quote of the Day… not actually daily, but whenever I encounter one I think worth sharing and there are not too many in sequence.  I like quotes as they frequently distill a piece of wisdom into a brief passage, or make other points very succinctly – such as the witticisms of Oscar Wilde.

“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” – Arthur C. Clarke

A little something to ruminate on for the this post election day.   I personally think there is other intelligent life out there.  However, our civilizations are like an old married couple in a king size bed, too far apart for anything to happen.  Unless you have a faster than light drive in your pocket somewhere, it is difficult to image how we would make contact.  But who knows, in the 50s I never envisioned the possibilities of hula hoops or cell phones…

To see more Quotes for Day, visit this link: Quotes for the Day

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Rotor Craft on Mars

Today’s news had a story about NASA’s rotor craft, helicopter by any other name, making its fiftieth flight on Mars: Ingenuity Soars: NASA’s Mars Helicopter Aces 50th Flight – “We Are Not in Martian Kansas Anymore”

There have been stories about this craft since even before it arrived on Mars. These stories always make me think of my father who was a technical representatives for helicopters for Kaman Aerospace.  I could see him as being utterly fascinated by a helicopter flying on another planet, especially one with practically no atmosphere.

I could also see him trying to get stationed on Mars to provide technical assistance for the craft!  Yeah, I know, he was no Matt Damon.

There is no way to verify now, but Continue reading “Rotor Craft on Mars”

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Gendered Appropriation

“….we saw in earlier chapters, tracing the place of women in societies without writing often means using clues left, quite literally, in the fabric of material culture, such as painted ceramics that mimic both textile designs and female bodies in their forms and elaborate decorative structures. To take just two examples, it’s hard to believe that the kind of complex mathematical knowledge displayed in early Mesopotamian cuneiform documents or in the layout of Peru’s Chavín temples sprang fully formed from the mind of a male scribe or sculptor, like Athena from the head of Zeus. Far more likely, these represent knowledge accumulated in earlier times through concrete practices such as the solid geometry and applied calculus of weaving or beadwork. What until now has passed for ‘civilization’ might in fact be nothing more than a gendered appropriation – by men, etching their claims in stone – of some earlier system of knowledge that had women at its centre.“

The above quote is from The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow. Their book is an attempt to upend the linear, inevitable  human history as we have been taught and is currently de rigueur in popular books of overarching human history.

No earth shattering conclusions…I am just putting this out there as a nugget to meditate on.  That ‘civilization‘ may not have been the product of men breaking the mold and having a sudden intellectual epiphanies on various subjects and endeavors, but the slow accumulation of knowledge by women that men appropriated. Although I am not sure appropriation is the proper word as many of these past societies were less gender stratified than became the norm later.

Now assume the lotus position…

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From NYT: It’s the Fauci Awards!

Back in the 80s I worked a dual function position in a rural county in Arkansas.  On one side I was Administrator of the Local County Health Department.  A function that was more or less office manager for the Health Unit and I interfaced with public officials in and outside the county.  When I put on my other hat I was the County Sanitarian.  As a Registered Sanitarian I had a wide range of duties Continue reading “From NYT: It’s the Fauci Awards!”

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NYT Daily’s podcast on Coronavirus

The Daily is a 20 to 30 minute podcast from the New York Times on current topics. Today’s episode is on coronavirus, and it is well worth your time. The primary contributor to this episode is Donald G. McNeil Jr. who is a science and health reporter for The New York Times. His explanation of the possible pandemic is excellent.

What scares me is the leadership of this country.  I do not believe they are up to dealing with a pandemic, unless they do the smart thing and get out of the way of the experts. That would be out of character for the Trump administration.

We have a president who truly does not understand basic science, basic economics or basically very much.  We have many senators and representatives that if they have a basic knowledge of science are willing to act ignorant for the sake of campaign contributions. Trump has put Vice President Pence in “charge” of the government’s response.  I would bet a very large sum of money that Mike Pence believes either 1) you can pray away the possible pandemic or 2) a pandemic would be God’s vengeance on a wicked world and well deserved and the righteous have nothing to worry about.

‘Nuff said a link to the story is below:

The Coronavirus Goes Global

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Vaccinations – They are a good thing

For various reasons there is a huge anti-vaccination movement in this country and elsewhere in the world.  As former minor public health official in Arkansas and as someone trained in science I found this very hard to swallow.  The initial “study”that set off the current anti-vaccination movement has been discredited as well as the doctor who put it out there.

Here are 3 excellent videos on the subject (watch them in order).  Also I have a link to the original article.

Five surprising moments in vaccine history

Video 1
Continue reading “Vaccinations – They are a good thing”

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BBC article – How Western Civilization Could Collapse

Here is an article I found worth my time to read.  An excerpt from the article is chilling.

“That economic stratification may lead to collapse on its own… Under this scenario, elites push society toward instability and eventual collapse by hoarding huge quantities of wealth and resources, and leaving little or none for commoners who vastly outnumber them yet support them with labour. Eventually, the working population crashes because the portion of wealth allocated to them is not enough, followed by collapse of the elites due to the absence of labour.”

Enjoy!  http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170418-how-western-civilisation-could-collapse

The sad part to me is that this is a story that has repeated itself multiples in our history, yet we are not smart enough to learn from it. Or perhaps we do not have the gumption to push against the greedy hoarders and those more interested in the current profit.