I’m leaving on a business trip to Dubai on Saturday, which will be my first real adventure outside of the United States (except for the 51st state, aka Canada)*.  I hope to have some cool pictures and stories to share from the UAE next week, so stay tuned.

* Just kidding, ay? I love you, Canucks.

“Put simply, our health care problem is our deficit problem. Nothing else even comes close.”
                                            -President Barack Obama

The address was also masterful political theater, clearly crafted to assert the President’s authority before the assembled chambers of Congress on the issue which may define his presidency.  Even reform opponents played their part in the spectacle: at a moment in his speech when Obama clearly asserted that his health care proposals would explicitly exclude coverage for undocumented immigrants, the traditionally quiet decorum of the event was punctuated by South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson, who loudly shouted “You lie!” at the president. President Obama could not have illustrated the vapid thoughtlessness of health care reform’s enemies any better than that.

Now, while I certainly found much to commend in the president’s speech, it wasn’t all rainbows and whiskey.  As a progressive who favors a single-payer health care system, I can’t say that I agree with all of President Obama’s proposals.  In particular, I feel that private, for-profit health insurance companies represent a fundamental conflict of interest between investors’ expectation of profit and patients’ need for medical care.  Obama is pushing for new laws that will limit insurance companies’ strategies to maximize their profit, which appears to be a nuanced, measured compromise — but in practice, it will be the federal government that bears the burden of enforcing these laws, and that means it will take time for insurance companies to comply with the new laws. We can nearly rest assured that their compliance will be grudging and constantly in search of loopholes. Put simply, the new laws Obama proposed would not fully resolve that fundamental conflict of interest.  I realize that Obama’s proposals are a political and practical solution rather than an ideal one, and I encourage everyone to support any legislation that accomplishes the goals he set.  My criticism is only meant to serve as a reminder that the fight for equity, fairness, compassion, and justice in the U.S. health system will not end with the passage of health care reform. I think that Bad Astronomer Phil Plait expressed a similar point regarding Obama’s education speech on Tuesday very well, and with all due tribute, I will repost the image here that he used to do so:

I, for one, am overwhelmed with humility by the science that Galileo’s telescope revolutionized.  It has brought us the likes of Carl Sagan, Maria Mitchell, Giovanni Cassini, and Stephen Hawking.  It brought us NASA and the space program, which will launch the space shuttle Discovery (STS-128) tomorrow at 1:10 AM EDT on a mission to the International Space Station.  There are no words that can, for the casual observer, capture the immensity of the expanding universe that telescopes have uncovered.  There is, at least, an image that comes close.  I am referring to the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, which is a composite image of a tiny region of space in the constellation Fornax, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope between 2003-2004.  It looks back over approximately 13 billion years, showing in just a tiny speck of sky that appears dark to the human eye the multitude of galaxies that existed only 400-800 million years after the Big Bang.  Every spot, blur, smudge, and speck on the image is an entire galaxy containing millions or billions of stars.  I will say no more about it, for if you’ve never seen it, this image deserves quiet reflection.  You can click on this small image to view the entire high-resolution version (18.1 MB).  In honor of Galileo, and without further blabbering from this blogger:

Hubble Ultra Deep Field

Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter

The Evolution Of Compassion by Robert Axelrod*

Stiff by Mary Roach

The Lives To Come by Philip Kitcher*

The Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond

An Anthropologist On Mars by Oliver Sacks*

In The Shadow Of Man by Jane Goodall

The Double Helix: A Personal Account Of The Discovery Of The Structure Of DNA by James Watson*

Monster Nation by David Wellington*

The Demon-Haunted World: Science As A Candle In The Dark by Carl Sagan*

The Red Queen: Sex And The Evolution Of Human Nature by Matt Ridley

Bad Astronomy by Philip Plait

I hope that Ms. Nash recovers remarkably, and that Travis’ death serves as a warning to those who own or may consider adopting pet chimpanzees.  They are best left to professionals running well-equipped sanctuaries.  Consider donating to a sanctuary if you want to help.  (Chimpanzees raised in captivity are almost never accepted by wild troops, and therefore cannot be released into the wild).

Edit: Apparently, the face-shredding is a common feature of chimp attacks.  I’d forgotten that I wrote about this in one of my very first posts on Survival Machine.

Today is the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, the British naturalist whose publication in 1859 of On the Origin of Species laid the foundation for virtually all subsequent discoveries in biology.  He did for the Western world’s understanding of life what Galileo did for our understanding of the heavens, and what Newton did for our understanding of physical forces.  Each year on February 12, those who appreciate the magnitude of Darwin’s contribution to human knowledge celebrate Darwin Day in his honor.  You are probably aware also that today is Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday as well.  Yes, Darwin and Lincoln were born on the exact same day in 1809.  And Abraham Lincoln founded the United States National Academy of Science! There seems to be no shortage of scientific significance today.

This year is not only Darwin’s bicentennial, but also the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species.  It’s also the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first use of a telescope, and the 400th anniversary of the publication of Kepler’s Astronomia Nova (which described his first two Laws of Planetary Motion). Wow! These coinciding anniversaries are among a number of reasons that a grassroots coalition called COPUS has established 2009 as a national Year of Science (YoS).  YoS 2009 is a national, yearlong celebration and campaign aimed at getting scientists out of the laboratory from time to time and into the public spotlight to share their research and raise public awareness and enthusiasm for science.  Both amateur and  professional scientists and science educators can get involved, and I intend to do my part by writing more actively this year and by beginning to apply to graduate schools.  Here’s hoping that the latter turns into a lifelong, professional involvement on my part…

Today, you can do your part by refreshing your knowledge of evolution by natural selection in this brief synopsis at DarwinDay.net.  If that’s all elementary to you, then challenge yourself by reading some evolutionary news at Science Daily.  And lastly, I’ll be celebrating a belated Darwin Day with friends when I fly back to Baltimore tomorrow night, most likely at Joe² restaurant & bar on North Avenue and Howard Street.  Leave a comment if you want to join me.  Let’s raise a glass to evolution!

Edit:  Also, check out this essay by Susan Jacoby in today’s Washington Post. It’s an excellent commentary on Darwin’s lasting impact.

I’m looking into ways of boosting readership, since a limited audience is the main reason I don’t write prolifically.  On the other hand, I’m less likely to post pointless drivel than I would someplace like Livejournal.  I’m looking at crossposting plugins, and I will probably find a way to publish my new posts via email to willing friends and colleagues.

Hopefully they’ll have the broadband fixed tomorrow and I’ll be able to get something of substance up here.  I’m considering a few good stories as topics.  In the meantime, I hope you’re preparing for the most important Darwin Day in your lifetime – this Thursday, February 12, is Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday! Check out the Happy Birthday, Mr. Darwin! page at the Year Of Science 2009 website for lots of perspective on Darwin’s impact as viewed from his bicentennial.  To find Darwin Day events near you, check out DarwinDay.net!

Now, on to the fun part.  On January 19, an e-print was published to arXiv.org detailing the results of an analysis of the accretion and decay of black holes that could possibly be produced by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)¹.  Casadio et al argue in their article against the possibility of catastrophic black hole growth—you can gather this simply by reading their abstract.  But they also claim that tiny black holes might take >1 second to decay, far longer than most subatomic particles generated in supercolliders.  Now, never mind that this only applies to the Randall-Sundrum 5-dimensional theoretical model of the universe, which is only one of numerous theoretical frameworks whose validity the LHC is designed to investigate.  Let alone that the paper was an argument against catastrophic black hole formation.  What the gelatinous mass of popular media hears is: longer decay time, thus a greater possibility that black hole accretion will outpace decay resulting in catastrophe.  Or to FOX News, “Scientists Not So Sure ‘Doomsday Machine’ Won’t Destroy World“.

Now, perhaps you’re thinking that FOX News’ headline is just sensationalism to attract readers, and the content of the article will be a bit more sophisticated.  But why the hell would you think that?

FoxNews.com can think of a few other things that didn’t seem possible once — the theory of continental drift, the fact that rocks fall from the sky, the notion that the Earth revolves around the sun, the idea that scientists could be horribly wrong.

I’m not pulling your leg.  Check out the article.  It’s not just that they making a mountain out of a molehill—an astronomical understatement!—I think FOX News paints itself as the journalistic equivalent of the torch-wielding mob outside Frankenstein’s castle.  It’s a view that fuels an unwarranted distrust of science and indirectly promotes anti-intellectualism.  Worse still, when public concern is aroused it pulls scientists (and funds) away from their research to form commissions and try to extinguish the hysteria.  These kinds of media misrepresentations of scientific concepts or developments usually irritate me, but they also serve as reminders of what an monumental challenge we face in reshaping science education in the United States.  Our culture needs to get to a point where media outlets like FOX News are laughed onto the tabloid shelves where they belong.

Fortunately, the new Obama administration has signaled that it is serious about promoting science with the appointment of the new Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu.  Before his appointment, Chu was a professor of physics and molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley.  He also shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1997 for using laser beams to trap supercooled atoms.  In announcing Chu’s appointment, Obama stated, “his appointment should send a signal to all that my administration will value science.  We will make decisions based on the facts, and we understand that facts demand bold action.”  Obama understands that investment in research and science education is one of the crucial tools we must use to invigorate our sluggish economy and confront the ecological and health threats on our horizon.  I hope he’s able to put that understanding into action.

Oh, and I’m sorry it’s been so long since I posted anything.  I’d like to dedicate more time to writing this year, so we’ll see what that leads to.  Stay tuned.

¹ arXiv:0901.2948v1, January 19, 2009.  On the Possibility of Catastrophic Black Hole Growth in the Warped Brane-World Scenario at the LHC, by Robert Casadio, Sergio Fabi, and Benjamin Harms.

I don’t think that commentary on this story is necessary.  I just want to make sure that everyone knows about it, and sees what despicable, self-absorbed cretins this celebration of crass consumerism can turn us into.  This wasn’t a mob of rapists or murderers.  They weren’t drunk or frightened.  This was a crowd whose blind violence was motivated by low prices and marketing.

Here’s looking at you, America.

Edit: It turns out that the one person stunned by a police taser gun at the Charles Village celebration was actually a McCain supporter who was just trying to get back to his apartment. Way to go, Baltimore City Police Department!

In the course of this election cycle, Obama’s critics have frequently e-mailed this article about Ayers’ memoir, which coincidentally was published in the New York Times on September 11, 2001. Read it, but be sure also to read Ayer’s letter to the New York Times of September 15, 2001, in which he corrects the record on his disposition toward explosives and terrorism—and repudiates the 9/11 attacks for the depraved acts of intolerance and hatred that they were. And if you’re not familiar with the Weather Underground, the Wikipedia entry about it is a good place to start.

Without belaboring the point, I’d just like to say that I believe the actions of the Weather Underground were called for by the urgency of their era, and that Bill Ayers should be recognized as a courageous activist who took extensive personal risks to make a stand against terror and genocide. He is neither a murderer nor a terrorist, but he is a great American.

A little while ago, on the walk here, we heard someone reading Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas over a P.A., for anyone within earshot to enjoy. Tonight, we’re going hippie fishing. If you’ve never heard of it, just know that it involves fishing line, a glowstick, and confused ravers in the dark.

…the tattoos of today are not minor affairs or miniatures placed on the body where only an intimate or an internist would see them. Today’s are gargantuan, inevitably tacky, gauche and ugly. They bear little relationship to the skin that they’re on. They don’t represent an indelible experience or membership in some sort of group but an assertion that today’s whim will be tomorrow’s joy. After all, a tattoo cannot be easily removed. It takes a laser — and some cash.

Are we supposed to believe that Colonel—ahem—Mister Cohen gets to know the people wearing the art well enough to determine what their relationship to it truly is?  Is he an adept translator of Hebrew, Chinese, or Sanskrit (what Cohen calls “Hindi”) characters?  I suspect not.  And I sorely doubt that he gets to see the “minor affair” tattoos on the bodies of many “intimates” in person these days—so how does he know whether they are still popular? And let’s get this out of the way: watching porn does not provide our intrepid cultural anthropologist with a representative cross-section of today’s youth.

Is the Washington Post required to keep publishing this guy’s column?  Do newspapers have some kind of secret tenure system I’m not privy to?  For disclosure’s sake, I do have three tattoos, all of which are visual (at least in warm climate) to the general public.  And this fuddy-duddy did just call me a loser:

The tattoo is the battle flag of today in its war with tomorrow. It is carried by sure losers.

But, in his very next sentence, he continues:

About 40 percent of younger Americans (26 to 40) have tattoos.

What a grim vision of the future Mr. Cohen has.  I hope he can take some comfort in the likelihood that he probably won’t be around to witness much more of it.

¹ I think Brooks Wackerman does a better job.

Seriously, this is not the sort of reputation the military should want, given that non-religious Americans are the largest (non) religious group after Christians.  They have enough trouble recruiting as it is!  This is just another example, sadly, of Christians thinking the world revolves around them.  It’s bad enough that brave men and women who are devoted to the service of their country were blithely thrown into harm’s way in Iraq by a callous and evangelically-motivated administration… but non-religious soldiers’ lives are threatened by their loving, Christian comrades-in-arms as well?  What a disgusting blemish on our armed forces.  I hope Spc. Hall wins his lawsuit and the DoD cracks down on prosyletizing by officers.

I haven’t posted anything in a while, have I?  Still, life marches on.  I got some paperwork done that’s been taking forever (to put it mildly).  I also was inspired by the news I wrote about in my previous post, and decided to read Robert Axelrod’s The Evolution of Compassion.  This book tells the story of his experiment: a computer tournament in the early 1980s that pitted programs submitted by game theorists from various academic disciplines (as well as an 11 year old computer prodigy) in the iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma game (a classic thought experiment).  It’s quite interesting, and you can expect me to write a more in-depth review when I’ve finished it.

P.S. – I would love to get some comments on my posts.  If you’re reading this, any feedback will be appreciated.  It’s hard to talk myself into posting when it feels like no one is reading! I’d really like to get this blog fired up.

The bill puts new emphasis on disparity research by reporting health care data by race and ethnicity, as well as socioeconomic status and health literacy. The legislation outlines mechanisms to conduct educational outreach to minorities, increase diversity among health care professionals, and improve the delivery of health care to minorities.

If we’re going to have national health care, this sort of thing is critical and taxpayers should actually be demanding it! Preventative medicine is always cheaper than treating ailments and disease, and the potential benefits of a healthy population go far beyond the lower cost of health care (increased economic productivity, decreased poverty, decreased crime, decreased drug abuse, the list is endless).

What really turns me on the most about Obama’s priorities, though, was this part of the document:

Improve and Prioritize Science Assessments: Assessments should reflect the range of knowledge and skills students should acquire. Science assessments need to do more than test facts and concepts. They need to use a range of measures to test inquiry and higher order thinking skills including inference, logic, data analysis and interpretation, forming questions, and communication. High-performing states like Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, use an assessment that calls for students to design and conduct investigations, analyze and present data, write up and defend results. Barack Obama will work with governors and educators to ensure that state assessments measure these skills.

I cannot overemphasize how crucial that is! American science education is fast becoming a joke on the international level. With rare exceptions, I was not taught how to use inference, logic, or data analysis in the public high school system, and I went to a half-decent public high school—ten years ago! Most inner-city and some rural schools are far worse. Prioritizing how to think over what to think is the key to producing bright, engaged, and enthusiastic students who actually get what science is all about and are well prepared to hit the ground running when they find the field of science that really inspires them. After I finish graduate school, to the extent possible, I’d like to be involved in changing American science education. One dream I have is to work for Eugenie Scott and the National Center For Science Education, which does great work defending public school curricula against religious zealots who try to force intelligent design into the science classroom. I donated $10 to them to offset the damage done when I bought a ticket to Ben Stein’s disgusting crock-umentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. If you ever doubt the sniveling academic dishonesty of I.D. proponents, watch that film (download a pirated copy off the internet, please) and read how well the good people who made ExpelledExposed.com eviscerate just about every claim the film makes.

So, having veered just a bit off topic for a moment there, I’ll try to bring this back to the Obama science plan and wrap it up. From what I’ve read, I am cautiously optimistic that a Barack Obama administration would be a very science-friendly one. I think he doesn’t go quite far enough in emphasizing the need for interdisciplinary physical, chemical, and biological systems research. He also needs to use that generic science document better to tie into other large issues that are addressed elsewhere on the campaign website, and which I haven’t yet had time to peruse. I hope to post in the near future my thoughts on Obama’s proposed energy and environmental policies, and his position on NASA (as well as contrasting these with those of John McCain). For the rest of tonight, though, I would be glad just to get enough sleep so as not to be a total zombie at work tomorrow. I haven’t quit my day job yet; the blogging doesn’t have me rolling in benjamins yet like I hoped it would

For now, I’ll leave you with this video from a few weeks ago when my favorite artist and role model Dr. Greg Graffin was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism by the Harvard Humanist Chaplaincy. It’s got him playing a few acoustic Bad Religion songs as well as talking about the award and why he prefers the label “naturalist” versus “atheist.” Wish I could have been there for this!

I hope the weather cooperates so I can do a bit of stargazing. I want to camp as much as possible this spring/summer/fall. Who’s with me? Other places I’d like to camp soon include Buchanan State Forest (Pennsylvania) and Sky Meadows State Park (Virginia).

At the end of my last class with Aubrey (I’d taken two), he invited all of us to a barbecue at his home in Tacoma Park. That was definitely one of the most unique experiences I had in college: hobnobbing with my professor and my classmates over cocktails, while our final papers sat on his living room table, waiting to be graded. When we spoke that night he said he was leaving soon to consider a job offer as the curator of ethnography at the national museum of Bhutan, one of the most isolated countries in the world and one where few westerners have ever traveled. As I later learned, that position was not funded as planned and it didn’t work out, but Aubrey still got to enjoy a rare vacation in the Kingdom of Bhutan. A selected autobiography of Aubrey Williams’ work can be found here.

I’ll always remember him for his intelligence, his humility, his passion, and his dedication to his students and his treatment of them as peers. His was truly a life well spent. Rest in peace, Aubrey, and thank you for making a difference in my life.

Another important ethic at Burning Man is participation. It is not a spectator event – the subject/object dichotomy is constantly under attack, and this is generally agreed to be a good thing. However, in each of my past three attendances, I contributed relatively little to the overall interactive wacky-ness of Burning Man. This year I want to do something special to participate, and I have an idea of what it is. I want to perform (and invite onlookers to help me perform) science experiments. The point is to teach the value of skepticism and the scientific method, while having an entertaining time. I haven’t settled on any particular experiments, yet. So, dear readers, here’s where you come in. I need your input!

Please tell me your most memorable childhood experience involving a science experiment. Maybe it was something mom, dad, or a cool aunt or uncle showed you. Maybe it was a science teacher at school doing something wacky in the classroom. Maybe it was something you saw Mr. Wizard do on Nickelodeon. It doesn’t matter where you saw it. I’m looking for the most visual, most thought provoking, and most entertaining experiments you can recall. Once I get at least a short list together, I’ll start performing some of them to get a good idea of how practical they’d be to perform in the desert environment. If I can, I’ll record videos of them and post them here on Survival Machine. If you want to help me perform it (and even appear in the video) just let me know. I’d also gladly welcome video submissions of you performing the experiment yourself. If anyone actually does that, I’ll make a post just to feature your video!

So, brainstorm, and let me know what you remember from the exciting world of science experiments!