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Monthly Archives: July 2016

Micro and Macro: Ruminations on Life and the Cosmos

25 Monday Jul 2016

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Several weeks ago while reading my latest New York Review of Books I felt as though my head was about to explode. My mind was on fire trying to understand the concepts and ideas described in two different articles: one reviewing a book about cracking the genetic code and the other reviewing books about black holes and Einstein’s theories. The first dealt with micro concepts, the second with macro. And I struggled mightily with both.

cell-nucleus-dna-geneH. Allen Orr’s review of “Life’s Greatest Secret: The Race to Crack the Genetic Code” by Matthew Cobb, dealt with DNA and RNA coding, amino acids and the secrets of the genome, heredity, and indeed life itself, all obviously very hard to wrap my head around. The exciting story of Francis Crick and James Watson’s discovery of the double helix structure of the DNA molecule opened the door for much additional fascinating research in molecular mechanics – the nature and composition of DNA, the proteins and amino acids attached in specific patterns to its “double helix” structure, the genes and how all this is packed into our cells and into the egg and sperm launching us into life resembling our parents. Importantly, these discoveries have also provided researchers with the keys to find cures for heretofore incurable genetic diseases. Also DNA research has played an increasingly important role in forensic science, resulting in conviction of the guilty and exoneration of the innocent. But regrettably, this research has also opened the door to “Frankenfoods”, the genetically engineered crops that fatten our livestock, anchor the processed food industry and enrich Monsanto.

Moreover these discoveries are fascinating because somehow they relate to the very nature of life itself – amazingly, all living organisms are made up of the same structures. After the “cracking” of the genetic code, the fundamental discovery was made that the code is nearly universal across all living organisms – “bacteria, fungi, plants and people”. So in our molecular composition, we are more similar to fruit flies and trees than not. All these infinitesimal structures – the proteins, the DNA, the genes, are virtually invisible, but they’re there….in all of us. They make sure we develop as fully formed human beings and not fungi or fruit flies. They signal the right cells to develop properly into bones. muscle, skin, digestive tract, nerve cells, blood and the arteries and veins for its transport. And finally, for better or for worse, they make sure we get the eye color, the hair, the particular nose, the intelligence, the talent, the physical ability, and indeed the emotional qualities and disposition of our parents, all determined by the genes in their DNA.

blazing-golden-sunOn this chilly day, while sitting outside for a few moments in the sun enjoying its warmth, I briefly glanced up at this dazzling bright star and wondered about its energy, so bountiful that it’s beyond understanding. I mean, the sun was warming me, warming the deck, the lawn, and all the trees and mountains around me. It was warming the state of Vermont, my home state of Arizona, the whole North American continent and in fact the whole planet. Yet in addition to warming the earth, it warms all the other planets that it illuminates in the solar system. But what about all the sun’s warmth, all the sun’s energy that does not strike our earth or another planet, and which is dissipated in billions of miles of cold empty space? What percentage of the sun’s light and heat goes off into this nothingness and is wasted – maybe 99.99 percent? What an incredible thought – that this bright blazing orb has been burning for millions of years and will burn for millions of more years, and will continue to warm this tiny little bit of the cosmos called earth, and bring it life. Yes, the warmth and light of the sun is the source of all life on earth – its energy transformed into the nourishment that sustains everything.

Other macro thoughts that stagger my mind relate to our solar system, our galaxy and other galaxies. First, it’s terribly hard to understand merely the size of our solar system. But it’s mind-blowing to consider that there must be hundreds (thousands?) more such systems in just our humble galaxy, the Milky Way. And there are millions more suns out there just like ours. And as my mind is stumbling toward some primitive understanding of our solar system and our galaxy, it heats up, flames out and stops working completely when it tries to understand that there are millions (or is it billions?) of other galaxies similar to the Milky Way in the universe.

juno-spacecraft-jupiterAnd the recent news of Juno, our probe to Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, absolutely astonishes me. This cluster of instruments and machinery, assembled and packaged painstakingly here on earth, just traveled 1.7 billion miles to settle into an orbit around Jupiter. It traveled at the incredible rate of 130,000 miles per hour but even at that speed had to travel for five years to cover that distance. And yet this object traveling this far to get a good look at the largest planet in our solar system is really so insignificant since Jupiter, Earth, our entire solar system, and our galaxy are all just a tiny remote and insignificant configuration in the immensity of our galaxy and the universe.

Hubble Frontier Fields view of MACSJ0717.5+3745Then just several days ago, a New York Times article described a new array of radio telescopes presently being assembled as a unit in South Africa. And though just in its structural infancy, the first several units in the array reported that in a tiny area of the sky where 70 galaxies had previously been revealed, more than 1300 galaxies were now detected, some “erupting in cataclysms as massive black holes in their hearts spew radioactive high-energy particles across the dark sea of space”. Come now, over a thousand Milky Ways observed in a tiny area of the sky? Absolutely mind-boggling.

A stellar-mass black hole in orbit with a companion star located about 6,000 light years from Earth.Priamvada Natarajan’s article in the New York Review of Books that provoked these “macro” thoughts reviewed two fascinating books concerning Einstein’s concepts and theories about space, time and matter; gravity, black holes and relativity, pretty heavy intellectual lifting for me. For example, how can the speed of light be a constant, coming toward me at the same speed whether I am moving toward the source or away from it? And if the speed of light is constant, then time must become relative, speeding up or slowing down. Can time do this? How?

One of the books reviewed by Natarajan relates the fascinating account of the search for the mythical planet Vulcan. Applying principles of Newtonian physics to the wobble in the the orbit of Uranus led to the discovery of Neptune, so naturally a “tiny hitch” in the orbit of Mercury led astronomers to believe that there was another planet between Mercury and the sun. Not ever finding this planet led to another explanation years later – this by Einstein, that Mercury’s orbital jiggle was caused by a “perturbation resulting from the pocket in space-time created by the sun”, it being an object massive enough to warp space-time.

blackhole_gravity

Other “pockets”, dents or punctures in the space-time fabric posited and described by Einstein are created by black holes, a conception that again, is very difficult to absorb contextually. Black holes are “singularities” formed from collapsed stars possessing a gravity so great that light cannot escape from them and thus are invisible, perceived only because they bend light rays passing by them. As an example, to have the immense gravity of a black hole, “the earth would have to be packed into an object the size of a penny”!

Just as astonishing is the recent news that we have finally detected gravitational waves, which, according to the general theory of relativity, are caused by the collision of black holes. Yes, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory announced the first gravitational wavesdetection of these gravitational waves at very complex arrays of instruments constructed in Louisiana and Washington. Scientists determined that two black holes, 36 and 29 times the mass of our sun, collided and coalesced into a single black hole 62 time the mass of the sun (how the heck can they know this?).

All these macro concepts discussed in the article surprise, astonish, confound, and ultimately confuse me because I have so little of the prior knowledge context into which to place this information. But thank God there are minds like Einstein’s and those of many other physicists and astronomers today, that are able to grasp and assemble the speed of light, the fabric of space-time, black holes, light years, galaxies, quasars, gravitational waves and the like into cohesive and understandable constructs in their own minds and faithfully and persistently continue to try to impart them to us.

Back to the micro – considering my insignificant aging body and the marvels it contains, it is amazing to consider that the genes I received from my parents and have passed on to my son make us somewhat immortal. Those little pieces of me will go on and on through his children and their children – a little fragment of my intellect, my eyes, my hair color and composition, my stature, my strength, and, God help them all, my personality and disposition – through those little sub-microscopic things called genes.

stages-of-life_thumb1

Another “micro” thought – while science has been able to provide answers to so many questions dealing with life, health and disease, it has never really been able to answer fundamental questions that deal with reproduction and aging. How do all living organisms reproduce themselves? How does an otherwise dead and dormant seed suddenly come to life when encountering warmth, light and moisture? How does a life begin at that magical moment when conception occurs? And this magic of reproduction occurs in all living organisms from the mite, to the fruit fly to the whale. And as mysterious and incomprehensible as all this is, what about the “binary fission” reproduction of bacteria and the six step process of virus replication?

And while so much around me goes through an annual and seasonal cycle of life – the trees, flowers, grass, and the insects, while animals and I are on a longer and more linear cycle of birth, life and death, we really don’t know what causes aging. Indeed, efforts to counter aging, to confound the natural cycle of life, seem to be exercises in hubris and appear insulting in a way – who are we to dare understand aging and death, much less to challenge and try to change the natural order of things?

2079435_deeper-still_jfxeaqbh63vorhnrwcs4oomcjqoxpy7q62c4u66siw3t6qwph3oq_790x445 While I do not know if there’s a heaven, or if there is, whether I’m going there or not, I have to remind myself that I slept for an eternity before I was born and could simply sleep for another eternity when I die. Our human minds are such that a total obliteration of life when we die is incomprehensible – hence the invention and maintenance of religion, whose primary purpose is to somehow explain death and the purpose of our very finite lives.

eternityIn contemplative moments, when thinking about life and death, I sometimes think that when I die I will find myself in a kind of place where all knowledge will somehow be revealed to me. I will suddenly understand everything – all the why’s and wherefore’s relating to the above. I will be able to finally comprehend the content and the dimensions of the universe. Someone will successfully explain gravity to me. I will finally understand how and why every object, all the “stuff” in the universe – the Earth right here under my feet and all of the innumerable other entities near and far – are composed of the very same basic elements that are listed right there on my humble little “Periodic Table”. I will finally understand procreation, birth, life and death. I will finally make sense of stars, galaxies, black holes, infinity and eternity.

All these ruminations, these humble and meager little thoughts and questions that my limited mind conceives, deserve responses, don’t they? It’s not fair that I was blessed with the ability to ponder the questions but cursed with the limited intellect and finite life that prevent me from finding the answers. Yes, all these micro and macro concepts boggle my mind so I guess I should stop complaining, continue to marvel and just be thankful that at my advancing age I still have a mind capable of being boggled.

 

Rotten Apple

13 Wednesday Jul 2016

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Whatever happened to the American corporation of the ’50’s. ’60’s and ’70’s? I remember corporations as being good stewards of their communities. I remember CEO’s being paid reasonably and occasionally visiting the factory break room to chat with employees and even taking a stint on the production line to see what it felt like. During those decades American corporations seemed to exhibit a balanced interest in their respective stake-holders: customers, workers and stockholders.

Today that balance is lost: workers’ wages are stagnant and unions are dying and there certainly seems to be much less care about customers. Only the bottom line – profits and share price, in otherwords the stockholders, are truly valued. And one of the foremost corporations in the US, indeed in the world, now the most valuable corporation on the planet, Apple, appears to perfectly mirror this dramatic change. This corporation is now the quintessential embodiment of corporate greed – from obscene profit margins to outsourcing jobs overseas to stashing billions in low-tax havens.

imac translucent caseI have always loved Apple products. I experienced them in my various schools as an elementary principal supervising early “computer literacy” programs employing first the venerable Apple IIe, then various versions of the Macintosh including the iMac with its brightly colored translucent plastic case.

 

Apple IICThe first computer I ever owned was the Apple Iic, replete with the Apple Flat Panel Display, the first portable (somewhat!) computer from Apple. Even though the primitive flat screen was dim and difficult to see without a bright light, I used this computer’s word processing capability to type the entire first draft of my doctoral dissertation in 1985. Then after a multi-decade succession of Windows computers that I used as a professional because of compatibility with the technology used by the various school districts for which I worked, I moved back to Apple computers recently with the purchase of a MacBook Pro laptop on which I am typing this article.

1st iPhoneIn 2000-2003 when I was a superintendent on the Navajo Reservation I owned a Palm Pilot PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) and was so impressed that I could keep addresses, phone numbers, calendars, notes and lists in this handy little pocket sized instrument. And I could sync it with my office computer as well, to share information between the two. At that time I also used a cell phone for professional business and I remember many times holding my Palm Pilot in one hand to reference a phone number and holding my cell phone in the other awkwardly trying to dial one handed and saying to myself – why the heck doesn’t someone combine these two marvelous devices? Well in 2007 Apple did exactly that and more when they produced the iPhone, the first everything-in-one “smartphone”. I now am on my third iPhone and have loved every one.

iPodBut looking back over my technological life, the Apple product that meant the most to me was the iPod. As an avid collector of and listener to all kinds of music, I had spent most of my life wrestling with finding the right LP, then finding the right track or racing through a reel to reel or cassette tape trying to locate the right song or symphony. So you can imagine my dizzy pleasure at being able to place virtually all of my favorite music onto my iTunes music library on my computer and then on that little hard drive miracle, the Apple iPod, where I could easily locate and play whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. Also, having purchased many LP’s and CD’s for only a few tracks and rejecting the rest, Apple’s iTunes store provided the opportunity to buy individual songs rather than albums. I simply cannot describe how much the iPod meant to me.

 

Steve Jobs and iPodSo you can imagine my shock when I attempted last year to buy another 160 GB iPod Classic from the Apple website and found it gone, simply gone, with no warning, no explanation and no announcement. Apple had simply made an arbitrary decision, presumably based on waning sales, that the famous iPod Classic with its huge capacity, distinctive click wheel control – the dream of music lovers like me, had to go. Why? Not enough profit yielded with sales diminishing. Simply a corporate decision based on profit, without the faintest sign of concern for faithful customers. And this after years of ads featuring a smiling (or was it cynical grimace) Steve Jobs extolling the virtues of this marvelous little machine.

Long ago I suspected that Apple might be discontinuing the iPod Classic at some future point but had always fancied that they would replace it with something else with similar or greater capacity. But all that’s left to carry on is the “iPod Touch”, with touch screen, limited capacity, a pile of useless apps and, of all things, a camera – simply an iPhone that you can’t use as a phone. I’m still numb with the realization that the iPod I have is all I ever will have unless I want to pay the grossly inflated prices being charged for the few leftovers still available on E-Bay.

My feeling of injustice at Apple’s discontinuation of the iPod is exacerbated by the iPod’s incredible sales record at Apple over the years. After the return of Steve Jobs the iPod was mainly responsible for the resurgence of Apple after its near-collapse in the late 1990’s, its huge sales carrying Apple until the introduction of the first iPhone. In January 2007, Apple reported record quarterly revenue of $7.1 billion, of which 48% was made from iPod sales. On April 9, 2007, it was announced that Apple had sold its one-hundred millionth iPod, making it the biggest selling digital music player of all time. And as of September 2012, Apple reported that total number of iPods (including the “Touch”) sold worldwide was 350 million.

After the introduction of the iPhone, iPod sales diminished yearly as a percentage of total revenue, not a surprising trend for Apple, as Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer explained in June 2009: “We expect our traditional MP3 players to decline over time as we cannibalize ourselves with the iPod Touch and the iPhone.” Yet one would think that Apple could exhibit a corporate loyalty to the iPod classic somewhat similar to its customers’ loyalty to a music player so important to its financial success. But alas, at Apple there is only one corporate consideration – profits and share price for its stockholders.

Another example of Apple’s heartless, corporate, profit-at-all-costs, consumer-be-damned behavior is with its latest iteration of successive iPhone models. Traditionally, new iPhone models replacing the older ones contained doubled storage capacity for apps, pictures and information. For example the iPhone 4 came with 4, 16 or 32 gigs of storage and my iPhone 5 was available with 16, 32 or 64 gigs of storage. So when I shopped for my iPhone 6s I was amazed to find that the storage in the middle and top models was indeed doubled – to 64 and 128 gigs respectively, but the least expensive model, which I had planned to purchase, was still a measly 16 gigs, in spite of expanded storage requirements for its new camera and video capabilities. Apple had cleverly decided not to double the storage for the entry level model, assuming correctly that customers would need to buy the 64 gig model for $100 more. If the storage had been doubled for the entry level model to 32 gigs as I had expected, it would have been perfectly adequate for me and a host of other customers. Incidentally it costs Apple less than $20 to increase the storage from 16 gigs to 64, so they made an extra $80 profit on the thousands of these phones sold.

lightning to 30 pin.jpgIn addition, Apple has a nasty habit of changing other features so the customer has to buy extras. I was very disappointed to see that the connector on my iPhone 5 had changed from the 30 pin connector used on the iPod classic and the iPhone 4 to the new “Lightning” 8 pin connector, requiring the purchase of expensive converters, from Apple, of course, for my older chargers. And Apple connectors seem to always be proprietary, used only on their products and no others. Again, I suspect, despite being cloaked in terms like improvement, efficiency and convenience, changing these connectors was simply another way to increase profits.

headphone jack

Gone?

And the latest tech gossip indicates that Apple is about to get rid of the headphone jack on its iPhones and replace them with some new kind of proprietary connection. Yes, just like Apple, yet another way to force customers to buy more and consequently increase profits. This change, if it occurs, is especially egregious, because the headphone jack is truly one of the few tech intercompatability standards left – I can plug virtually any headphones or earbuds into my Apple devices, other brands of tech devices, my stereo equipment. and the exercise machines at my gym. But if Apple has its way….and it likely will…. this will no longer be the case.

Apple has demonstrated its corporate greed in many other ways. It has continued to stick it to the American worker by assembling most of its products in China. But this has not made its products any cheaper – Apple continues to sell the most expensive computers and smartphones on the market, offers no discounts on its website or in its stores and has carefully limited discounts offered by retailers licensed to sell Apple products. Apple could easily afford to discount its products from time to time. Again, to hell with the consumer, but hail to the investor.

The young, well-informed, animated, energetic and enthusiastic people that work at Apple Stores all over the country are paid surprisingly low wages for the work they do for the wealthiest corporation in the world. They are not only salespeople – they are helpers, advisors and unabashed fans of Apple products. All should be paid appropriately – no less than $50,000 a year, instead of the measly $30,000 or so they earn now. Apple could easily afford to pay its store employees what they’re worth, not what the market will bear.

apple store

And Apple continues to operate with the largest profit margin of any tech company, averaging about 40 percent across all its products with iPhone profit at an ungodly margin as high as 69 percent. For example, costs range from $200 to $247 for iPhone 6 models that sell in the US for $649 and $849 without a contract.

With profits like this, Apple could well afford to be the model US corporation. It could demonstrate care for the US economy by manufacturing in the US instead of China and providing these US employees adequate compensation. And it could have emulated the fabled loyalty of its customers by continuing to manufacture the iPod classic with the sacrifice of a mere tiny sliver of its massive profits. Really, Apple could become the perfect “retro” US corporation, raising its concern for workers, customers and its corporate community to the level of its concern for share price and investors, with little cost to its bottom line.

But what does Apple do instead? The most valuable corporation in the US and in the world provides the most glaring example of corporate greed and national disloyalty by continuing to sacrifice the US worker and economy by manufacturing overseas and betraying its parent country by stashing its billions of obscene profits overseas, avoiding taxes, creating shell corporations and playing the tax avoidance game better than anyone else. Indeed the “most valuable corporation in the world” has disgracefully led the way in minimizing its taxes “better than anyone else in the world”.

Maybe Apple should heed the advice that the visionary leader of Intel, the late Andy Grove, offered in an oft-quoted essay he wrote in 2010 for Bloomberg. Grove warned that tech companies’ refusal to “scale up” their latest gadgets for manufacture in the US and rely instead upon the financial advantages of manufacturing in Asia was a serious mistake. It not only strikes a blow to the workers and the economy of the US but also allows the Asian country to develop the engineering skills and know-how that would have nourished the company’s potential for successful future innovation. In Mr. Grove’s words, ”Without scaling, we don’t just lose jobs – we lose our hold on new technologies. Losing the ability to scale will ultimately damage our capacity to innovate.” Keeping the brains, design and finance in the US and the manufacturing in Asia will ultimately backfire on us. It might be worth noting that in 2010 when Grove’s article was written, Chinese tech manufacturer Foxconn (where Apple products are assembled) employed more people – 800,000 in total – than Sony, Intel, Apple, Dell, Microsoft and HP combined. This company now employs over 1.3 million workers, all engaged in tech manufacturing that could and should easily be done here in the United States. Unfortunately, an important part of every tech start-up’s business plan is a “China strategy”. And Apple leads the way.

A final issue – maybe I’m wrong, but the revered, iconic and godlike Steve Jobs has always seemed as pecuniary as the company he named. In contrast to other billionaires, who are busy curing disease and empowering women and the poor all over the world (Bill Gates) or have pledged to give all their billions away (Warren Buffet), what did Steve Jobs or his heirs do with his estate of roughly $19 billion? Where is the “Steve Jobs Foundation”? Any diseases cured? Any wells dug? Any hungry people fed? How have his billions benefitted mankind? Just asking.

Perhaps Apple should critically examine its short-sighted profit-at-all-cost and consumers-be-damned corporate philosophy before it’s too late. Recent headlines from the New York Times: IPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs; from the UK’s Daily Mail: Apple Watch is a FLOP: Sales of the gadget have fallen by 90% since April, report claims and from a recent issue of Fortune: Apple Watch Sales Have Plummeted, Analyst Says, may be prescient.

Biblical Literacy

13 Wednesday Jul 2016

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Biblical literacy

No one in the English-speaking world can be considered literate without a basic knowledge of the Bible . . .our knowledge of Judaism and Christianity needs to be more detailed than that of other great religions, if only because of the historical accident that has embedded the Bible in our thought and language.
–E.D. Hirsch, Jr,, Joseph Kett, James Trefil,
The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy

Bible

The authors’ claim is true. The Bible is firmly embedded not only in our thought and language but also in our literature. Our everyday conversation is rich with common phrases that we may not realize have a Biblical origin. How often do we say or hear others recite phrases like “the writing on the wall”, “my brother’s keeper”, “beating swords into plowshares”, “cast the first stone”, “like a lamb to the slaughter”, living off “the fat of the land”, “Baptism by fire”, a real “Garden of Eden” or “forbidden fruit”. And certainly we have all heard of someone being referred to as a “Jezebel”, a “Judas”, a “good Samaritan”, a “doubting Thomas”, having the “patience of Job”, “as old as Methuselah”, a “scapegoat”, the “salt of the earth”, “antedeluvian”, a “prodigal son” or a “philistine” – all Biblical references. And we have heard battles or wars described as between “David and Goliath”, an”Armageddon”, “fight the good fight” or an “Apocalypse” – again, all from the Bible.

Biblical references and themes in literature abound – Cain and Abel, Noah and the ark, the Tower of Babel, Jonah and the whale, the wisdom of Solomon, the suffering of Job, David and Bathsheba, Alpha and Omega, the eye of the needle, killing the fatted calf, the strength of Samson (and the disappearance of that strength when his hair was shorn). All of these are referred to in countless works of literature, including many of the plays of Shakespeare.

According to Guinness World Records, the Bible is the best selling book of all time with over 5 billion copies sold and distributed. And expanding on the fact that 91 percent of American households already own a Bible, with the average household owning four, a New Yorker article several years ago noted that the Bible continues to the the best selling book of the year – yes, every year, selling on the average about 25 million copies annually.

Since there are millions of Bibles in American homes and the Bible continues to be the number one best seller, it certainly must be the favorite book of Americans. Indeed it is. In a 2014 Harris poll, it still ranks as America’s favorite book, ahead of “Gone with the Wind” and the Harry Potter series (it’s Donald Trump’s favorite as well, right ahead of “The Art of the Deal”!). The Bible also ranks high on many lists of “books to take if stranded on a desert island”.

But I think that in spite of its sales and ownership figures, the Bible’s “favorite” status in statistics and lists is somewhat gratuitous and misleading because people are not reading it much anymore. Reading and learning about the Bible are not the same as owning one. Survey after survey show readership down even among Christian church-goers. Presently only 37 percent of Americans report reading the Bible once a week or more. Recent surveys indicated that 60 percent can’t name more than five of the ten commandments. Twelve percent think that Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife and almost 50 percent of high school seniors think that Sodom and Gomorrah were a married couple. According to 82 percent of Americans, “God helps those who helps themselves” is a Bible verse. Many think that the Sermon on the Mount was preached by Billy Graham. And fewer than half of all adults can name the four gospels.

In addition, children are increasingly unfamiliar with the Bible and the personalities and stories that used to be standard fare for children’s reading. Many of us developed of our “Biblical literacy” reading and hearing Bible stories as children at home, in Sunday school classes.or other religious instruction. But children are not reading Bible stories like they have in the past because they are simply not popular anymore. With the explosion of a huge variety of children’s literature in recent decades, there is certainly vastly more quality literature to choose from for children than there was when I was young. And Bible stories themselves are often deemed too graphic and violent to be chosen for children’s reading by many of today’s more discerning parents.

And because for centuries the Bible has permeated our lives as a historical document and as a work of literature and as noted above, Biblical references and allusions abound in world literature, I fear that as knowledge of the Bible declines, many readers do not recognize the references and illustrations from the “good book” and thus limit and restrict their literary experience.

Two of my favorite anecdotes, while getting a chuckle from many listeners, will elicit only blank stares from some. One story features Mark Twain (or General Sherman or Oscar Wilde, depending on the story’s real origin) being stranded at a big city hotel at which a Methodist ministers’ convention was being held and describing himself feeling like “a lion in a den of Daniels”. Another concerns a teacher assigning the children to sketch their rendition of Joseph, Mary and the Christ child’s “flight into Egypt”. Instead of the typical picture of Joseph leading a donkey carrying Mary and the child, one little boy had drawn an airplane with four people in the cockpit and the little student , when asked by the teacher about the fourth person, pointed out that it was “Pontius, the pilot”. Obviously one needs sufficient Bible background to “get” these stories.

$_57

I still remember  all of the stories in my “Hurlbut’s Story of the Bible” bought for me by my mother in 1954. This special book, now reproduced conveniently for reading on the internet by the Baldwin Project, related the major stories in the Bible in a realistic and entertaining manner. Although there are many efforts today to increase knowledge of the Bible, it seems that the rapidly increasing popularity of social media and other electronic diversions guarantee that the very opposite will occur and that people will come to know even less about the Bible than they do today, further eroding their full understanding and enjoyment of so much discourse and literature containing Biblical allusions and references.

 

Self-Driving Car? Really? Why?

07 Thursday Jul 2016

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A few recent headlines: Obama Proposes $4 Billion Budget For Self-Driving Cars; Google, Tesla And Apple Race For Electric, Autonomous Vehicle; and, A Fatality Forces Tesla to Confront Its Limits. Obviously the race is on to perfect a self-driving car and  most major auto companies have committed as well as tech giants Google and Apple. But I have a real problem with this enterprise.

Front quarter view.jpg

Google’s self-driving car with LIDAR (light detection and ranging), a spinning range-finding unit on top of the car that creates a detailed map of the car’s surroundings as it moves.

I’m sorry, I have to question even the notion of a self-driving car. Why in heaven’s name would we want that? Are software engineers too bored with the status quo? Tired of improving inventory, ordering and shipping systems for Amazon? Tired of the creative challenges of designing software for NASA interplanetary space shots? Tired of designing software to more quickly access monstrous mountains of digitized information for Google? Tired of improving our computers and smartphones? I would think that there would be enough challenges in the world of technology to keep the “self-driving” car forever at the bottom of the list.

And why would anyone want to turn over the act of driving to a self-driving car? Ever since I first learned how to drive my Dad’s tractor and pickup truck as a kid, I have loved to drive. I have enjoyed starting, accelerating, shifting, the sound of the engine, the fresh breezes from lowered windows, the ever-changing scenery, but have enjoyed the power of control above all – why would I want to give up control? Why would I want to give up all this pleasure and power, the duty of staying between the white lines, staying on the right side of the road, and watching out for idiots, to a computer?

What’s this – a “single lens” look at the road? I have two lenses to see the road – one in each eye – this gives me something called “depth perception”, essential for driving I would think. I don’t think I’ve read about a “self-driving” car’s camera having two lenses and two electronic sensors. With my two lenses and two retinas feeding visual information to my brain, I have depth perception – I can not only see the outlines, shapes and colors of objects but I can tell how far away from me they are, how far apart from each other they are and how quickly I am approaching them.

If I don’t like to drive and fancy that I need a self driving car, I should take the bus instead. Or a taxi. Or just have someone else drive and enjoy the scenery from the passenger seat. Technology has gone too far: It wants to take the joy of driving away from me.

However good, the hardware and the software of technology are not infallible – it’s possible they both might get something called  a “glitch”. Once in awhile my computer has frozen. It hasn’t crashed yet but it might. What if the computer in my self-driving car freezes or crashes. I don’t want to be in the clutches and at the mercy of a computer when this happens. So I’m just going to sit in my “self-driving” car reading a book while my car runs off the road into a ditch or crosses the center line or median and heads straight for another car? No thanks, I don’t think so, I’ll do the driving myself.

Even when functioning as designed will the camera and guidance systems on these vehicles see well enough to avoid moving objects like pedestrians, cyclists or stray pets? And will they be able to detect common road hazards like foreign objects, potholes or the barriers for road repairs? Will they be “smart” enough to see a policeman directing traffic and accurately decipher his motions? Oh, and what about traffic lights and the meaning of green, yellow and red? And will they be able to “read” road signs and warnings?

Also, what happens during winter on snowy or icy roads? Is the computer system in this car going to sense what to do in such situations? I can feel the drive wheels slipping and can take measures to address the problem. I can feel the loss of control when I brake in snow or on ice, and can let up on the brake to regain control or can tap the brakes to slow or stop safely. I can also handle a skid with my steering wheel. Is the computer going to do all this? I don’t see how.

And what happens when cold (or heat), snow or ice affect the computer system itself, when the lens with the eye on the road gets fogged or iced up? Will the computer know that it can’t see the road properly and let me know?

Tesla Model S.jpg

The Tesla Model S uses a computer vision-based vehicle detection system composed of a forward facing camera, forward radar, ultrasonic sensors and GPS

Of course there are some unpleasant features of driving. Heavy traffic and traffic jams drive me nuts. Stupid drivers – inconsiderate drivers who don’t signal to let you know what they intend to do, oblivious drivers who blindly turn out in front of you, people who drive too slow or too fast, people who are on on their cell phone while driving, or worse, texting, all drive me crazy. But when things like this get unbearable, I will stop driving and take a bus or a taxi. I will not buy a “self-driving car”!

I have always been a little queasy about flying. Yes, it’s quick and it’s comfortable and yes, per passenger mile it’s much safer than driving. But…and this is a huge “but” – someone else is “driving” this huge machine through the air 30,000 feet above the earth with a huge crowd on board. If this person feels ill, suddenly loses consciousness, or if something goes wrong with the electronics or mechanics of the plane, causing a serious problem, it’s all out of my hands – I am helpless and powerless and totally at the mercy of these circumstances. When I am driving, of course I could feel ill or something could go wrong with the car, but I am still in control, not someone else, and could stop the car and address the problems.

The same principle applies to a “self-driving” car. Why would I want to have that uncomfortable feeling of vulnerability and powerlessness, of someone or something else being in control while in my car going to work or on vacation or driving across the country?

Also, how safe should we feel when encountering “self-driving” cars driving along with us or coming toward us on our highways and streets? Truly, even with all the idiots on the road, I think I would feel safer dealing with the idiots rather than dealing with cars driven by computers.

However, with the inexorable advance of technology, with the desire of manufacturers to create another product to sell and make profit from, and the eagerness of many people to own the latest gadget, I am sure that the march toward the “self-driving” car will continue. But count me out – I do not want to give up the pleasure and the power of driving my own vehicle and I definitely do not want to be the guy whose Tesla on “auto-pilot” hit a truck and killed him.

We Shall Over-comb

04 Monday Jul 2016

Posted by ralphfriedly in Uncategorized

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comb-over

Baldness assaults many men over time and fortunately most deal with this unalterable fact-of-life genetic condition with resignation and consequent dignity. “Seinfeld” character George Constanza deals with his baldness with comic and graceful acceptance as does the man who invented him and served as the series’ main writer, the inimitable Larry David, through his minimalist writing and acting on his own HBO series “Curb Your Enthusiasm”.

Jason Alexander      Larry DavidAnd some men for whom nature has provided a too generous beginning, have chosen to complete the job by shaving their heads, preferring to exhibit the totally bald head rather than going about with the standard fringed pate. This category includes celebrities and politicians so the choice is a common and admired one. Actor Yul Brynner was one of the early celebrity examples of this phenomenon with many other actors and politicians joining in later. What’s gratifying about people who choose to “go all the way” is that they have obviously not only accepted their condition but have decided even to maximumly improve upon it, like actor Bruce Willis, pundit James Carville and Florida Governor Rick Scott.

Yul Brynner  bruce-willis-24jul13-10  117_1carville Rick Scott

Ah, but then there are those men who choose to deceptively delay the inevitable with the “comb-over”, which fails at both delay and deception but is nevertheless adopted by many. The “comb-over” is defined by Ari Stern in the Urban Dictionary as:comb-over

“n., a rearrangement of surrounding hair to cover a bald spot as completely as possible. Usually accomplished by flattening strands of hair in widely-spaced parallel stripes across the afflicted region. Rarely successful, often calls attention to the follically-challenged zone in question”.

Trump hairThe hairdo of “presumptive” Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump prominently exemplifies an extreme kind of comb-over with his inordinately long and strangely hued leftover locks gathered from an inordinately low part, then arranged in a helmet-like swirl hiding a seriously receding hairline, more like a “comb-up-over-and back”.

The giveaway for a comb-over is the location of the hair part, a feature of the male combed or brushed hairdo normally located well above the ear on either side of the head. When the part descends dangerously toward the ear, one can be sure that a comb-over is being utilized. The early comb-over and skillfully hidden bald spot of failed presidential candidate Marco Rubio was, I think, as much a reason for his failure as Trump’s “Little Marco” moniker, his frenzied clueless repetition of talking points, his perspiration, and his nervous lip-licking and tongue-thrust-in-the-cheek recitation of the cliches in his canned speeches.marcorubiosmile

This effort at deception and fancied delay is nevertheless popular with many , sometimes employed early in the progression of the inevitable, later perceived as futile and consequently abandoned with full acceptance of the condition, as seen in early John McCain and Rudy Giuliani compared with more recent versions of both.

mccain comb-over John McCain late.jpg giuliani early Giuliani late

But the comb-over continues to be used persistently in denial of the underlying condition, and with apparent imperviousness to what people observe or think. In most comb-over cases, the subject would be much better off and would appear much more honest and real .Senator Carl Levinif it were just completely abandoned and the bald condition honestly accepted. For actually male baldness is entirely natural and not necessarily unattractive. Imagine if you will how much more honest and serious retiring Democratic Senator Carl Levin would appear if he proudly accepted and demonstrated his baldness.

benjamin-netanyahuAnd our final example, perhaps Congressman/Senator Benjamin Netanyahu, representing our 51st state, would appear a little more benign and vulnerable, in other words more human and humane, if he abandoned his progressively more severe and pronounced comb-over and showed the world exactly what his bald head looks like.

Oops, I almost forgot. There is a variation on

chuck toddthe comb-over that has no name so let’s call it the “Comb-Forward” or “Comb-Up”. I guess this is chosen if one has a aversion to the “-Over”. This unseemly “do” is best exemplified by MSNBC’s Chuck Todd who actually wears it quite well.

Finally in celebration of this unique hairstyle, I offer Maine poet laureate Wesley McNair’s “Hymn to the Comb-Over”:

How the thickest of them erupt just
above the ear, cresting in waves so stiff
no wind can move them.   Let us praise them
in all of their varieties, some skinny
as the bands of headphones, some rising
from a part that extends halfway around
the head, others four or five strings
stretched so taut the scalp resembles
a musical instrument.   Let us praise the sprays
that hold them, and the combs that coax
such abundance to the front of the head
in the mirror, the combers entirely forget
the back.   And let us celebrate the combers,
who address the old sorrow of time’s passing
day after day, bringing out of the barrenness
of mid-life this ridiculous and wonderful
harvest, no wishful flag of hope, but, thick,
or thin, the flag itself, unfurled for us all
in subways, offices, and malls across America.

Stressful Life Events

04 Monday Jul 2016

Posted by ralphfriedly in Uncategorized

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stress scale, stressful life events

Everyone has encountered very stressful events in life. The death of a loved one, marriage, divorce, or losing a job happen to many people at one time or another and cause significant physical and/or emotional debilitation. Such events are not to be treated lightly and require the support of friends and family members and sometimes even counseling or medication. Also many of these events can put a serious strain on spousal and other family relationships.

In 1967 a couple of psychologists, Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe attempted to measure a number of these kinds of stressful life events and attach a value to each, with 100 being the most stressful, according to the effect on one’s life of that event. A version of the Holmes and Rahe scale is published below.

Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale

While the death of a spouse is listed first, with an ascribed value of 100 and “death of a close family member” set at 63, I can’t help but think that the death of a child must be at least as stressful. The death of a child is not only the death of a loved one but an event that confounds the order of things: Parents are supposed to pass away before the child. Also the death of a child dashes countless rich dreams – those of the spouse and children, as well as the dreams of the parents. For example, the untimely passing of my sister Barbara must have been very difficult for my parents, her surviving spouse and her children. But when I think of untimely deaths, the dreadful slaughter of the high school students at Columbine and the innocent little children at Sandy Hook Elementary must have caused the most intense and horrible grief and stress for the parents, utterly impossible to quantify with any “stress value”.

When I look back over my own life, I have encountered many of the “high value” events listed in the Holmes and Rahe table. I remember especially a confluence, a virtual “tsumami”, of such events that occurred in 1982 when I:

  • Resigned from my principalship in Duxbury, Massachusetts;
  • Married – after being single for 10 years;
  • Became instant stepfather of four year old and nine year old girls;
  • Emptied a home I loved and put it on the market, helped to empty my fiance’s home as well, sifted through hundreds of items, deciding what to leave and what to pack and bring, saying goodbye to many possessions of deep emotional attachment;
  • Loaded a U-Haul truck and moved 2500 miles – this trip was our “honeymoon”;
  • Bought a home (and a big mortgage) in a new city and new environment;
  • Started a new job – had to learn an entirely new work culture – and my school was a “troubled school” where I was under extreme pressure to successfully earn the confidence of the staff and the parents and
  • Wife became pregnant that fall.

Applying “stress values” on each of these events is difficult because each event was tempered by additional realities. For example, changing jobs was difficult but eased by the fact that I was still a school principal. To “change residence”, i.e. move, was additionally stressful since it involved a huge move to an entirely different state, climate and residential situation. The move also involved all of the events related to a move to a new residence: new environment, new school and new friends for the girls, new recreational, church and social activities for all of us.

And the “gain of a new family member” was additionally stressful since it not only involved the instant stepchildren (family members plural) but also dealing with their father and child support issues. Add to this the new infant in our midst while the new family was still coalescing, and the stress had to be considerably greater than the level ascribed. Also, “significant increase in responsibilities” is not listed in the Holmes and Rahe table but going from being responsible only for myself to being responsible for a spouse and three children also had to be hugely stressful.

At about this time I also started work on my doctoral dissertation, a distinctly different kind of stress, and an event that also is not listed by the authors above. Adding this to the work, family and home responsibilities increased stress considerably and maybe even exacerbated the developing condition resulting in gall bladder surgery during the second January after the marriage and move.

Recalling these events, though yes, several had positive and pleasurable dimensions within the stress, makes me thankful that I was much younger then (40) and had sufficient youth and energy to deal successfully with all of them. I have to remember also that my new wife had just been divorced, sold a house, moved and was subjected fully herself to most of the stressful changes described above. Both of us being subjected to these pressures probably made each of us less able to help and strengthen other, but somehow she survived quite well also. And of course the daughters had their own stresses to deal with (divorce of parents is ranked at the top of another well known stress scale for children), some mentioned above.

So while we dealt with these events and more, especially the “tsunami” of 1982, what I, my spouse and children went through is very little when considering the stress that others endure, sometimes on a daily basis, when loved ones die or disappear routinely, food and shelter are scarce or nonexistent and wrenching changes are part of daily life. I am always amazed and gratified at the capacity of humans to endure stress and somehow come out ok and sometimes perhaps even better.

Why? I’ll Tell You Why

03 Sunday Jul 2016

Posted by ralphfriedly in Uncategorized

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Israel-Palestine

In a recent issue of the Washington Post there was a sanctimonious and condescending piece about people wondering why a sixteen year old Palestinian boy would stab and kill an Israeli woman. The headline reads: “A Palestinian teen killed an Israeli mom. Now both families struggle with why.” The story was datelined “Otniel, West Bank”. Need we look any further for a response to “why”? The Israeli family was living in a settlement home built on occupied land, stolen land, land taken from Palestinians who had owned it for centuries, land now populated by the thieves themselves, in violation of international law. The Israeli woman was killed by a boy whose family and whose people are daily humiliated at dozens of checkpoints, randomly slaughtered by an unaccountable military, who cannot move freely, who have no basic human rights, who have no livelihood, who have had their homes razed and their orchards and grazing land bulldozed and taken over by their occupiers and exist in daily fear for their lives. And we dare wonder “why”?

And the Haaretz of the west, the New York Times, is still after three weeks running a video story called “Shampoo Summit”, about Israeli and “Arab” women chatting and gossiping in a Haifa beauty parlor, which again, like dozens of sickening similar cliche stories about Israeli and Palestinian people amicably interacting or their children happily playing together while their elders wring their hands, look to the sky, wag their heads or stroke their chins and wonder “why can’t we get along?”, “why isn’t there peace?” If we’re getting along here in the beauty parlor and our children are playing together, what could be wrong? The video is simply more of the same sickening theme – a little microcosm of questioning and honest exchanges of feeling, a little island of normalcy masquerading as an excuse to keep stealing land and killing Palestinians. And how interesting that “Arab” is used in this positive context instead of “Palestinian”, further obfuscating the truth, because “Palestinian” is always reserved for the pejorative. The two main American print apologists for Israel, the New York Times and the Washington Post, are serial purveyors of “feel-good” stories like this because they mask, trivialize and smooth over the real story of the cruel application of the raw power of this US supported renegade nation.

And furthermore I’ll tell you why there isn’t peace. Despite the empty pledges from Israeli leaders that “we’ll negotiate anytime and anywhere” or the lame refrain that they “have no partner for peace”, the real reason that Israel for 67 years has refused to conclude negotiations and support the creation of a Palestinian state, is simply this: If there were suddenly an ironclad peace treaty, the end of the occupation and a Palestinian state, Israel could no longer steal land. That’s it in a nutshell. While dozens of peace talk efforts over multiple decades have failed, Israel has steadily and inexorably extended its hold on the most valuable West Bank land, solidified its control of the aquifers under that land, destroyed dozens of Palestinian villages, razed hundreds of homes and wantonly destroyed olive orchards and vineyards to build illegal settlements for the illegal occupiers to live in. Israel’s lust and hunger for all of “Eretz Israel” is no secret and has been reflected in its land theft for the last fifty years. And by the way, why the term “settlers”, which connotes valiant pioneers on a wild frontier? These interlopers are nothing more than vile thieves, stealing land owned and occupied by another people while protected by the third most powerful military on earth with blessings from the first.

And regarding peace, please spare me the nonsense that I have been assaulted with for years about Yasser Arafat refusing the “best offer ever” from Israel when Bill Clinton had pulled Ehud Barak and Arafat together in 2000. This is a myth, peddled successfully by the pro-Israel press for years. That so called “best offer” would have legitimized virtual bantustans in the West Bank, a Palestinian “state” reflecting Israeli apartheid, honeycombed by dozens of Israeli settlements and sliced up by private Israeli-only thoroughfares, yielding a totally unrecognizable and ungovernable “state” and still a mere vassal of Israel. Arafat was right to reject this “best offer” proffered by Israel’s negotiators and their American lackeys.

The reader may ask why the writer feels so passionately about these issues. This is why – I have known Palestinians intimately….I have had Palestinian friends and Palestinian students…I have heard firsthand about sorrowful and horrible events perpetrated by Israeli occupiers. How many of you have known Palestinians? At the American School of Kuwait where it was my pleasure to work for four years, the Arabic Department, which taught required Arabic to all students K-12, was composed almost entirely of displaced Palestinians. These were some of the more fortunate few actually, because they had decent jobs and rented homes in Kuwait. But without exception these people had a story to tell – about a lost home or farm, about a family forever severed, about the heart wrenching horror of bombs and gunfire and the death of family members, about fleeing their village or town in terror as their homes and villages were invaded and occupied by the “Israeli Defense Forces” (what “defense”? These were and still are offensive forces of invasion and occupation!). Our Palestinian teachers had pictures of the homes, farms and villages in which they lived and worked, the places they had owned now owned and occupied by Israelis (by what right, by what law, pray tell?). They also displayed pictures of friends and loved ones killed by the invaders and occupiers.

Indeed, by what authority exactly does the state of Israel invade, seize and occupy land owned by another people? None really, for the state of Israel has been a reckless, unruly and lawless violator of international law since its founding in 1947. International law requires occupiers to care for people and property and allow refugees to return to their homes; it forbids the acquisition of territory, expulsion of population, colonization of conquered territory, collective punishment, home demolition and deprivation of fundamental rights and freedoms. All of the above are violated by the rogue state of Israel.

So although I cannot justify violence and killing, I for one, never wonder “why” a Palestinian gets angry enough to do something drastic – to reclaim a tiny bit of dignity, a shred of independence, a spark of self determination, a spasm of strength, a hint of revenge – in a deplorable act like that committed in the illegal Otniel settlement in the Palestinian West Bank.

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