Tag: science

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #2,943

yeah I know you did not ask!

Everyone has heard of the “five second rule”, if a piece of food falls to the floor you have 5 seconds to pick it up before the germs attack it.

This morning I thought we need to modify this formula a wee bit.  The length of time that is available to pick up the food item is directly proportional to the the perceived goodness of the food.  To illustrate, a lima bean would be trash while it is still a foot from the floor.  A chocolate chip cookie would still be good after resting 20 or 30 seconds on the same floor.

I suppose if will really wanted to be scientific about this we would need to add a couple variables to the equation. One takes into account the cleanliness of the floor.  A kitchen floor immediately after mopping with ammonia water would be close to zero.  A well trafficked floor in a third world bus station would be pushing 1.  We would need another variable for the stickiness of the food.  Our chocolate chip cookie would again be close to zero and a limp, damp, overcooked piece of asparagus would be pushing 1.

If you are OCD  and really want to know what studies have been done on this, here is an article from WebMD:     ‘5-Second Rule’ Rules, Sometimes

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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

20000_Leagues_Under_Seas_1110This book was not quite what I expected. What little I knew about this story was from seeing bits and pieces of the various movies based on this book. The movies emphasize the adventure aspect of book. Perhaps the best way to describe the book would a travelogue for 20,000 leagues most of which was under the sea.

Towards the end of the book Professor Aronnax is reviewing his time aboard the Nautilus. He does so in a short paragraph:

“My nerves were somewhat calmer, but in my excited brain I saw over again all my existence on board the Nautilus; every incident, either happy or unfortunate, which had happened since my disappearance from the Abraham Lincoln—the submarine hunt, the Torres Straits, the savages of Papua, the running ashore, the coral cemetery, the passage of Suez, the Island of Santorin, the Cretan diver, Vigo Bay, Atlantis, the iceberg, the South Pole, the imprisonment in the ice, the fight among the poulps, the storm in the Gulf Stream, the Avenger, and the horrible scene of the vessel sunk with all her crew. All these events passed before my eyes like scenes in a drama.

It is these events that Hollywood has sucked out of the book to make movies. Continue reading “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne”

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The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe

Narrative_Arthur_Gordon_Pym_1108Edgar Allan Poe is best known for his short stories and poetry, particularly the poem The Raven. In researching Poe I discovered that he is known as the founder of the detective fiction genre and credited with reinventing science fiction. During his lifetime he was best known as a literary critic. In reading the Wikipedia article I had another myth burst. I was always under the impression that Poe was a drug addict and died from such a life style. Poe had his issues, alcoholism may have been one of them, but many of the negative qualities associated with Poe are the result of a smear campaign by an enemy of his, Rufus Wilmot Griswold and a public all too willing to be titillated. However, Poe did die in mysterious circumstances and his death has been attributed to a cornucopia of etiologies.

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket is Poe’s only novel, although not a long one. It is a book in 3 distinct parts.

The first part is the classic sea adventure story. A young man is desirous of going to sea for the adventures he believes he will encounter. His parents and grandfather are adamantly opposed to his plan. Continue reading “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe”

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Bacon by Richard William Church

Bacon_1210Again this was an individual from history whose name I knew, but did not know why I should remember him.   From the Librivox blurb about The Essays of Francis Bacon:  “Diderot and Voltaire considered him the father of modern science. Others consider him only the father of the scientific method.”  Mr. Church went back and forth on this at one pointing stating that he was mainly the individual who had a platform and broadcasted the fundamentals of experimental science to a larger audience.  Either way it was an important contribution.

Bacon was a collector of “facts” and searcher after a key to unlock the meaning of the collected facts.  He was a proponent of deductive reasoning over inductive reason to understand our world.   Deductive reasoning with the scientific method1 was the key he sought.

Generally, when they call someone complex or complicated it is an indication that the good and bad side of humanity comes out frequently in an individual.  Francis Bacon was a complicated individual.  His real passion Continue reading “Bacon by Richard William Church”

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Mr. California Wonders About Ignorance

John the Philosopher aka Mr. California asked me to comment on the following:

“Ignorance rules the unreflecting herd.” 1

Ignorance is defined by the dictionary as: lack of knowledge, education, or awareness.

My first thought is that this falls under the rubric of “Nothing new under the sun”. A Google search on — quotes ignorance of the masses — revealed many similar thoughts. Here are a few that I cherry picked:

“Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think.” ~~ Thomas Edison

“It’s much easier not to know things sometimes.” ~~ Stephen Chbosky

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” ~~ Isaac Asimov

“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” ~~ Sir Winston Churchill

“Any formal attack on ignorance is bound to fail because the masses are always ready to defend their most precious possession – their ignorance.” ~~Hendrik Willem van Loon

And I could go on.

My next thought Continue reading “Mr. California Wonders About Ignorance”

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Paul Krugman on Climate Change Deniers

A famous Carl Sagan quote definitely applies to Paul Krugman’s editorial in today’s New York Times.Pioneer10-plaque_tilt

“In science it often happens that scientists say, ‘You know that’s a really good argument; my position is mistaken,’ and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn’t happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.”

Mr. Krugman’s editorial, Points of No Return, describes how if you are not a climate change denier it will get you excommunicated from the Republican Party.

From the editorial:

“Think of it this way: Once upon a time it was possible to take climate change seriously while remaining a Republican in good standing. Today, listening to climate scientists gets you excommunicated — Continue reading “Paul Krugman on Climate Change Deniers”

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Ann Wagner, Global Warming Denier…Be scared, very scared

Okay I know that Senators and Congress folks really do not read a sliver of the email they get, but this is pretty outrageous.  I went onto Congresswoman Ann Wagner’s site to ask that she not support the Keystone Pipeline project for causes-of-global-warmingenvironmental reasons.  They force you to choose a subject so I chose Climate Change.

This is the form letter I got back.  It is one of the scariest things I have read in a long time.  The only place that climate change is being debated is within Republican circles and only then because big money wants to continue to make big money at everyone else’s expense.  The percent of scientist that are in agreement on global warming being caused by humans is almost unanimous.  Either this woman is an idiot who cannot understand basic science, such an ideologue that she refuses to face hard evidence, or so enamored with her position as a  high and mighty Congresswoman that she is going to go along with the party line to remain so.  No matter what the reason she scares the living snot right out of my body.  The fact that we continue to elect idiots like this does not speak well for our country.

Just as an aside she never once addressed the main subject of my email, the Keystone Pipeline.  Now there is responsive public service.

I am including the whole text of her form letter response.  Read it with the lights on.   It is indeed a horror story of complete and utter stupidity.

—-

Dear Citizen Rush,Thank you for contacting me with your concerns regarding climate change. I appreciate your views on this issue and welcome the opportunity to respond. Continue reading “Ann Wagner, Global Warming Denier…Be scared, very scared”
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Only 6% of Scientists are Republicans

This article is drawing the conclusion that because most scientist are Democrats (or at least not Republicans) it draws into question the science behind some big issues today.

Climate change is the example given. Whether you believe that climate change is happening splits down party lines. Which makes me wonder about how much our politicians are really examining the issues, but that is another topic. The article wonders if science is pushing science or perhaps politics (and funding) is pushing science.

I have another question. Scientists on the whole are a very well educated group. They are trained to look at most things in a critical and factual manner. If you do not know the answer they are trained to search for it, or say we really do not know at this time.

Given the above, I find it very interesting that only 6% are Republicans. But that is just me!

Article at Slate.com
Most scientists in this country are Democrats. That’s a problem.

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The Unintended Lesson

dsc_0001aMy Uncle Dutch is not a tall man, and he has what we affectionately call a Buddha belly.  I know that he was skinny once upon a time.  I have seen pictures of him when he was young and in the Navy, but that is not the Harry Dodd I know.  He is elderly now, with white hair, and it is hard for me to not think of him in a suit and tie. The first thing that you will probably notice about my Uncle is his smile.   While he doesn’t smile all the time, it is certainly there more than it isn’t. And it is the type of smile that just lights up his whole face.

 He is married to my mother’s sister.  Now that I am older, I recognize her as kind, gentle, woman. Continue reading “The Unintended Lesson”

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Skinning Rats

It was the fall of 1978,  my son was five years old and my daughter 8.  They were “knee high to a grasshopper” as they say in Arklahoma.  I was attending Central State University, since renamed to the University of Central Oklahoma.  I was majoring in Biology.

Why Biology?  First I had a real love for the science.  Secondly, I had always done well in this branch of the sciences.  I had basically been forced into a business degree program my first year of college and nearly flunked out.  It was a lack of interest and other factors (partying???).  In retrospect I might have better served myself and my family to have gotten my computer science degree at that time rather than the B.S. in Biology.  The punch cards intimidated me, and at time I had doubts about my intellectual capacity.  Dissecting struck me as easier than flow charts. Plus, I’ve made a real study of coming to the fork in the road and taking the wrong tine.

This particular semester I was taking several courses, but Mammalogy 4263 taught by Dr. Caire is of interest here.  Dr. Caire had his M.S. in rats, and his PhD Continue reading “Skinning Rats”