Repeating history - does that sound like a good idea to you?

2017 in the United States of America and one of the many current conversations about Science is Data Rescuing. Data Rescuing. How do we care for scientific data? Just let that sink in for a minute. 

As a science teacher, I encourage my students to visualize the lives of the historical scientists we study and read about. I remind my kids that we only know what we know when we know it. Science is about collecting data, analyzing that data, and figuring out relationships between the data. Are scientists wrong? Of course, all the time, and how do they handle the new data that shows that the relationships they analyzed aren't really what they thought? They CHANGE their claims. Science is ever evolving, ever changing, morphing as we find more data, as technology enhances our ability to "see" the world. 

It wasn't so long ago that people thought that sicknesses were because people were possessed with the devil. In a world before microscopes, there was no way to imagine microscopic organisms, never mind these microbes causing disease. 

Science is the human mind's way of explaining natural phenomenon. Science is different from religion because science is based on evidence, AND changes with new evidence. Science does not involve faith in the unknown, but faith in a process, a logical, sequential, mathematical process. 

Math is the language of the Universe. Whether you think you are "good" at math or not, you are. Your brain evolved to notice patterns. Math is patterns. 

In Galileo's time, in Newton's time, in Mendel's time, in Darwin's time, there were people trying to explain the world through the logical processes of science. We excuse the push back because "those" people didn't know. They didn't have enough exposure to knowledge. Education wasn't accessible. Information was filtered as a small group of leaders saw fit. 

How, how? How have we gone backwards? How has the citizens of the US allowed a small group of leaders to decide that science data, and access to science data should be filtered? How have we allowed this small group to decide what is "true", not based on data, but based on greed? We have allowed greed to filter how we not only see the world, but live our lives, and how we make decisions. Does this small group really think that a world with more coal is preferable to exploring how our Sun's energy can be harnessed? 

I see greed, but I don't understand greed. Homo sapiens will not survive as individuals. Homo sapiens are community organisms. We need groups, a tribe, collaboration. We are now the Divided States of America, and unless we want to be a community again, we will collapse.

This is it

Saturday I was walking into the grocery store, when I saw a pregnant woman with her groceries packed in plastic bags from the store. What?!? This woman, who is about to leave a HUMAN behind on Earth, doesn't even care enough to bring reusable bags to the store?

A colleague at work buys single use, plastic water bottles to drink out of.

Cigarette butts litter my street.

Packaging is out of control, especially at Trader Joes.

Based on my anecdotal evidence, I've developed a hypothesis.

Hypothesis: There is an inverse correlation between a person's belief in afterlife and their views on taking care of the environment. The stronger the belief in a god/afterlife/heaven, the less they care about taking care of the environment.

Reasoning: The reasoning is simple. If you believe that there is some place to go after you die, you aren't worried about the state of the Earth. If you don't believe in an afterlife of any sort, then this is it. This is your life. This is your Earth. You've got one chance. All living organisms have one chance. You are a part of the chance.

Evidence: I'll admit that I haven't surveyed a large sample of people (I wish someone would). My evidence is based on observations. I know a few pious individuals, and what I've witnessed is those are the people that buy water in plastic. I don't live in Flint, so there is no reason to be buying water that some company has taken from a tap, bottled in toxic plastic, and now is profiting from.

The other day I was minding my own business in my home, when 8 marked police cars flew by my front window, followed by an unmarked car, an ambulance, fire truck, and then the ghetto bird (police helicopter) began circling. The neighbors came out and we all congregated at the end of the block, looking down at the chaos. My elderly neighbor, who is extremely religious, and has written and published books on god/religion, came over to my yard. He's a quiet, peaceful, gentle man. We stared down at the flashing lights and I asked him how he's managed to stay so positive about living in such a crazy world. He comment - I'm paraphrasing: "I have hope of a great life in Heaven."

So, wait. The idea of going to heaven, excuses you from taking action now?

And then there's my atheist friends. People who believe that this is it. Our time on Earth IS the point. Those are the people carrying around reusable bags, going to yoga, refilling water bottles.

"Gotta do much more than believe, if we really want to change things.
Gotta do much more than believe, if want to see the world change." - DMB (Gaucho)

"Please Wake Up" -DMB

If you take up space and have mass, then you matter

Bright flash

Pop

Pop pop pop pop

Midnight in the 'hood

2 shaking pups

Have you noticed an

Inverse

Relationship 

Between sensibility and

Income?

It's not about color, race, religion, gender,

It's about the notion that you can

Make a difference. 

What is the formula to sell you,

No, I'll just give it to you,

What's the formula, so that you realize that you

Make a difference. 

It's time and I don't know how much 

Longer

I can just stand by and watch you

Ruin the world 

Stop

You matter

We all matter

It's just a collection of matter. 

hashtag reality

As I sit here burning coal so I don't freeze to death I reflect on reality.

Apparently I need to rant some more...

There are these little locally made breakfast burritos, all wrapped up in plastic that they sell in Whole Foods. After a bitterly cold morning walk with Fresa I decided to head over to the local market and pick up a buritto. I drive into the lot and almost slam into the cart rack. The entire front of the store is covered in dead trees, dead christmas trees with signs that read $69.99.

A few years back I wrote about this same topic and of ALL places in this universe, the last place that I thought I would see a dead house tree is at Whole Foods. I actually had an image of driving my car though the trees and sparing them the harsh dry slow withering from the heat of a house.

Can you just take one more minute to reflect on why you killed a tree to stand in your house for a few weeks? I can give the smokers a small break, I mean they don't even care if they kill their own lungs, why would they care about killing a tree, but you non-smoker people, come on. We need those trees, you know to breathe. Dead trees can't photosynthesize and provide our needy lungs with sacred oxygen.

 I went into Bed Bath and Beyond the other day and I almost had a panic attack. There is so much crappy China-made shit in there that the store owners should be charged with treason. Please be conscience about where your stuff is made. You have the power, the choice to buy locally made stuff. Yes, it may be a bit more expensive, but can't you cut back a little and only buy a few gifts?

I've made a decision that this xmas my gifts will be made in the US. If you need ideas go to the Etsy website and buy directly from the artist herself. Your downtown area probably has some great little shops with locally made stuff. Be a responsible consumer this holiday season. Give gifts that make the world better and let's cut our ties with toxic plastic crap from China.

It's not really funny the way this is

And in a snap the heat broke. Thirty degrees broke. I haven't seen mild fall or spring days in years. Damn climate change. We just change back and forth. Cold to hot and then back to cold again. Where did fall go? Are we really going to go from here to snow?

That's ok, we've got a/c and heat. We can keep blasting those emissions up. The climate's changing, burn more coal, the climate's changing, burn more coal, the climate's changing, burn more coal.

Did you know that a petroleum engineer makes 3 times as much as the teacher who taught her all she knows? What kind of nonsensical place do we live in?

I know, let's water our grass while we think about it.

You shall not defy death

One of my pet peeves about being home is the incessant obsession over TV and other people's lives. The jerk who decided to walk across the Grand Canyon on a tight rope has been all over the media and in the DR I probably would have missed the news entirely, but here, everywhere you turn there is more footage, radio talk, etc about this ass who has a family, kids and is walking on a 2 inch wire without any safety. I think he is an irresponsible douche bag that doesn't deserve a minute of coverage, and yet here we are talking about him. Would you have cared if he had safety harness? I bet his children would have. He is a father and when you do that, when you decide to have kids, bring a life into this world that you are now responsible for, you give up your right to take death risks beyond the norm. I knew this part of my culture would be challenging for me. I have decided that when I move into my own place that I am not going to get a TV. It is too easy to get distracted and turn that box on and just flip. There's that self control issue again. Is the real self control not buying the item, or buying it and then managing yourself when it's around?

Speaking of death defying risks, my puppy got me up at 5 and while she was grooming herself by the pool, she leaned back and - splash - went right in... I panicked and grabbed her right away, in retrospect I should have calmly encouraged her to swim to the steps...

If you had your own blog, do you think you would try to live a more interesting life?