Justifying...

[Original] Image Source: Rain dance - famous actors who've never won Oscars

Topics: Apathy, Diversity, History, Oscars 2015, Selma, Voting Rights

I spent Friday watching "Selma" in tears from the haunting images, graphic displays of violence that was (is?) a part of our country on quite a regular basis in the 1960's. During the time of the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965), I was 2 and 3-years-old respectively, too young to be of any good to the movement and merely a worry for my activist big sister.

I think a lot about my big sister in movies like this. She would have been one of the young people that got on "freedom ride" buses and put her life on the line for equality, or as she says now, everyone's equality: women, immigrants; LGBT. I remember her arguments with our parents about her safety. I remember praying I'd see her again. I remember crying a lot.

As I said (without giving away spoilers), my wife and I spent most of the movie in tears. I doubt if either my sister, mother-in-law or a lot of seniors in my family will want to see this movie. For them, it brings back painful memories.

If "demographics is destiny" - the mantra for the year 2042 - then, at 6,028 voters of which 94% are so-called "white"; 76% male and the average age 63 years, it's a pretty forgone conclusion that our stories were not going to get a mention above "best picture" and song; our actors were not going to get an Oscar nod. Also of note in that demographic, their sentiments of the time would have been shaped by their environments. Since we don't know where they lived before residing in "liberal" Hollywood, their view of Selma's value in lieu of #BlackLivesMatter and the recent, gut-wrenching atrocities of Boko Haram is an interesting contrast compared to how they all jumped on the #JeSuisCharlie bandwagon so quickly...and easily. A group of 5,666 and male gender of 4,581 pushing into senior citizenry don't likely have heroic memories of the 1960's since there was clearly two sides of the debate - depending on their families' politics at the time - they could have found themselves on. That makes for an academy clearly lacking diversity, either ashamed or indifferent.

What exactly is an "Oscar," and why does it matter? This is a self-contrived public pat-on-the-back by the industry itself. Whether you look at it or not, it is a vast infomercial on the movies you could have seen and didn't. You'll pay the $11.50 per person (New York prices) and the equally outrageous price for popcorn; you'll order it on pay-per-view; download it on bootleg: win-win-win-kinda-sorta (not).

These are OUR stories, and all of humanity's stories: it is not for us to make some privileged, self-mythologized group of "others love us" - it is for us to love ourselves, they are validated in the telling of them; everyone else is along for the ride and welcome. Our campfires required no feedback from the tribe other than applause; they are now clearly in the electromagnetic spectrum. We can read; we can write; we can act and direct; we can upload videos and audio; we can distribute on DVD and via Netflix. If Selma is anything more than an ironic juxtaposition regarding Civil Rights and Voting Rights fought for by young people and fifty years later, their millennial grandchildren being too apathetic to decide their own hard-fought destinies in the voting booth (but, up front in line on Black Friday), they deserve whatever bizarre legislation that is likely to come of this 114th congress. Opinions are fine, but action is far better, and revolutions have never been won in living rooms on backsides, nor freedoms for "consent of the governed" maintained without constant vigilance and participation. Voting, as Selma did, and the midterms' aftermath will show: matters.

Offical Site: Selma Movie

Physics 2014...

First Realistic Virtual Universe (see 5 below)

In May cosmologists took the place on the pedestal by releasing the first simulated universe of such a large scale: it simulated 13 billion years of cosmic evolution in a cube with 350 million light year long sides. “Until now, no single simulation was able to reproduce the universe on both large and small scales simultaneously,” said the lead author Mark Vogelsberger.

1. Deepest Image of a Galaxy Cluster (January)
2. NASA Releases First Images Taken by the Curiosity Rover ( February)
3. The Discovery of Gravitational Waves (March), though there's some recent data that cast doubt.
4. NASA’s Exoplanet Discoveries (April)
5. The First Realistic Virtual Universe (May)
6. Hybrid Carbon Nanotube Circuits (June)
7. OCO-2 Launched (July) The OCO-2 will study carbon dioxide concentrations and distributions in the atmosphere.
8. Field Medals and IBM’s Neuromorphic Computer Chip (August)
9. Water Vapour Found on an Exoplanet + India’s First Probe to Mars (September)
10. Nobel Prizes (October), the winners were Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura, who were responsible for the development of the efficient blue light diodes.
11. Landing on a Comet (November), the first landing on the surface of a comet performed by the Rosetta spacecraft equipped with Philae landing module.
12. Planck 2014 Results (December)
The newest data suggests that the universe is 13.8 billion years old and is composed of 4.9 percent atomic matter, 26.6 percent dark matter and 68.5 percent dark energy.

Physics Database: Top Physics News of 2014

Her Winter...

We first got wind of her problems on our visit to Austin in November, thinking only by suddenly not eating that she missed us, which I'm sure she did. She collapsed in front of her sitter. In a few days, she was back to her old rambunctious Labrador self. She later collapsed in front of us when we returned to New York. An early morning visit to the emergency room and MRI revealed a mass on her spleen. For Labradors and Golden Retrievers, as had happened before 11 years ago, this is sadly common. The mass for 2/3 of the cases is usually malignant. It draws blood from her circulatory system into her abdomen as happened to both of my Golden's years ago, clearly evident on the MRI. She gets tired easily on stairs she used to bound up and down; three handfuls of dog food now reduced to one that takes an entire day to devour. Surgery, radiation and chemo therapy may buy her 3 - 6 months, and is expensive. As both sons made their way here, I've been too preoccupied to blog anything about physics.

We saw her slip away slowly and finally in her vet's office at PetSmart Banfield Hospital under injected euthanasia. We all cried as she slipped into eternal slumber, her last acts in life to wag her tail, perk her ears; interact and kiss the tears of her young men - my sons - away. As intelligent as she was, this was the only thing she has ever failed at.

I will remember the floppy ears of a puppy that on a dead run stumbled over herself. I will remember how a hiss from our cat, Felix would send her darting away, despite at adulthood outweighing her by 60 lbs. I will remember the whole eaten pizza, the three devoured  Monte Cristo sandwiches and the apple pie! It was all hilarious, well before phone video and You Tube. It is now a part of memories of her.

I will remember tough days at work - be it engineering, teaching martial arts or high school physics - no matter what day I'd had, her resolution was enthusiasm, unconditional love and "let's play" with boundless energy, now sapped by a mass acting as an internal vampire.

I will remember her on my move from Texas to New York as my only friend for a while in a new place. She seemed only to greet me with opened maw - can't call it a smile - panting tongue and her famous "whipping tale of death" that hurt if she hit you with it inadvertently. Now, death has claimed her.

Her atoms, mine and my families originated in the same crucible that birthed the star we now call our single sun. Her ashes will make their way back to that celestial birthplace, passing perhaps Sirius, the Dog Star.

And when Entropy claims me one day, hopefully my atoms will find that place, and we Raven, will play!

March 11, 2004 - December 24, 2014, a little before the Spring equinox and a little after the Winter solstice. Rest in peace, girl.

Blogging will begin again 1 January 2015. See you next year.

Love,

The Goodwin Family: Cassandra, Robbin, Jonathan and Reggie (dad)

Fear Bola and Duct Tape...

"Sell the fear": it was the instruction I received in a very uneventfully short career as a sales representative for an electronics security firm. Part of the memorized script I recited that entailed sharing horrid crime stats to wearied prospective buyers was "how did that make you feel?" It was of course, supposed to make you feel afraid, very afraid...for your lives and reaching for your checkbooks. At an appointment scheduled through the office, before I could launch into my memorized banter, the woman said: "I was just burglarized last night." Undoubtedly, the fastest sale I ever had. She knew exactly how she felt: violated, angry and afraid.

It is interesting then, that this definition is put forth. All the networks do this: posing simultaneously as the voice of reason and prophets of doom. It looks for answers while promoting doubt post "X-Files" that the "truth is out there." It makes a rational discussion and discourse almost impossible to attain.

This fear is unfortunately the byproduct of 9-11, reminiscent of the fear of Anthrax attacks that spurred the prodigious purchases of duct tape (I'm sure like manufacturers appreciated the bump in sales). Currently, a mint is being made in HAZMAT suits and other emergency supplies, just in time for Halloween. The governors of Illinois, New Jersey and New York are now competing in the silly season on which can suspend the Civil Rights of medical professionals the fastest, NJ and NY's main men potential presidential candidates in 2016, but I'm sure that has nothing to do with it. Both have used the now bipartisan, feckless dodge "I'm not a scientist" to defend inaction on climate change and fracking (NJ's chief executive selective ignorance notable after the devastation of Hurricane Sandy and his previous complaints of congressional inaction).

The danger of these draconian measures will be eventually discouraging military and medical professionals from doing what we did after 9-11 (paraphrase): "fighting terrorists/Ebola over there before they/it comes over here." What nurse or doctor will WANT to volunteer for hazardous duty when instead of a hero's welcome, they get thrown in a gulag? Kaci Hickox has tested negative, NEGATIVE for Ebola 2X! The protocol for self monitoring has worked successfully since developed for dozens of volunteers that have come to our shores after duty since 1976, when the virus was first reported on the continent of Africa. Nina Pham (RN), Amber Vinson (RN) both of Texas Presbyterian and Doctor Craig Spencer are medical professionals that knew these protocols and reacted to them swiftly. Could they be tightened? I'm for lowering the standard of the 103 degree temperature to any low-grade fever when you've deployed to an affected area along with the self-monitoring/isolation and reporting to medical authorities when anything changes. Ms. Vinson was diagnosed with a low-grade fever of 99.5 degrees after travel, and not infectious (a TV host in New York got explicitly graphic on the unlikelihood of casual infection). It does appear catching the infection prior to any forthcoming vaccine early is the key to survival.

The problem with this lack of appreciation for STEM fields, atomizing humanity to islands of xenophobia in our Solar System's outer asteroid belt (a mythical "over there" that will magically not affect us); tying the hands and feet that must combat Ebola [actually] "over there" that will tragically affect us, the inevitable outcome is the very thing no one wants: a modern plague, first in Europe then in America. We will fair better as currently not being torn asunder by Civil War (imagine the impact if this struck us during our actual Civil War). As a nation, we seem determined to do the stupid, and swiftly.

Apps and Ebola...

Technology Review

Perhaps the sanest proposal I've heard so far, using technology to get people to the necessary treatment, track patients accurately; contain and control a pathogen before its R0 of 2 out of apathy based on xenophobia and tribalism grows exponentially to Bubonic proportions. With this country's current disastrous love affair with austerity, I'm not talking about the ubiquitous "there"...

"We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology." Carl Sagan.

Nigeria is Ebola free...so is Senegal, largely due to both countries having enough infrastructure and concerted effort to combat it, proving it can be contained and conquered. Thomas Eric Duncan has died, and two nurses that worked his case have been affected and are receiving the best treatment available. But, we've been exquisitely conditioned via initially pamphlets, chat rooms, talk radio and the Internet to not trust the government or technology - the moon landing never happened; a stateless cabal rigs every election to their desired outcome, not voter apathy, suppression-cum-"integrity" or Supreme Court judicial activism; "jack-booted thugs" will come, in black helicopters to intern us all in FEMA camps taking our guns and freedoms. The wondrous beauty of most conspiracy theories is they never have to be proven, and actual plots can be conveniently ignored.

In this election season especially, fear must be sold from those with no other plan than to just be afraid; Nigeria and Senegal's good news you'd never have known.

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: Back in July, Cedric Moro started a crowdsourced mapping service to keep track of the spread of Ebola in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Moro is a risk consultant who has created several crowdsourced maps of this kind using the openStreetMap project Umap.

Anyone can enter information about suspected or confirmed Ebola cases while hospitals and other health facilities can tell people whether they are open and functioning and how many spare beds they have.

The site tracks other information to such as unsafe burials, hostility towards health workers and links to information about the disease. It even tracks the movement of infected individuals to see how the disease spreads.

Moro’s work has been hugely important in helping to link potential victims with appropriate healthcare facilities and giving a broader overview of the tragedy as it unfolds.

But it also has an important limitation. Anyone hoping to contribute must have access to a computer or smartphone to upload their information. That means the system is accessible only to a relatively small portion of the population.

Today, Mohamad Trad from Doctors Without Borders in Paris, France, and a couple of pals outline plans to build on Moro’s approach and make this kind of information available purely through ordinary mobile phones. “We propose building a recommendation system based on simple SMS text messaging to help Ebola patients readily find the closest health service with available and appropriate resources,” they say.

Abstract

We propose to utilize mobile phone technology as a vehicle for people to report their symptoms and to receive immediate feedback about the health services readily available, and for predicting spatial disease outbreak risk. Once symptoms are extracted from the patients text message, they undergo complex classification, pattern matching and prediction to recommend the nearest suitable health service. The added benefit of this approach is that it enables health care facilities to anticipate arrival of new potential Ebola cases.

arXiv:
Guiding Ebola Patients to Suitable Health Facilities: An SMS-based Approach
Mohamad Trad, Raja Jurdak, Rajib Rana

Related link:
World Science Festival: Everything You Need to Know About Ebola

The Bathtub...

Source: The Bathtub Theory of Economics and Life

"My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." Grover Norquist

The bathtub: source of childhood delight in soap bubbles and added flatulence. In Grover-the-Grouch's special case, it is clearly the latter...

My apologies for the unannounced "blog break." Posting twice a day for any celebratory month can be taxing mentally. I'm back, somewhat refreshed and perplexed at the same time...

It can be said I spend a lot of time thinking about Sequestration from the search results that will now include this posting. Likely because I think it is the dumbest idea of self-inflicted immolation on the altar of libertarian, free market austerity I think humans have ever conceived! It requires "magical thinking"; fairies with pixie dust and exacting miracles on drive-through demand to pull off. The pixie dust is someone, somewhere in the "free market" writing a big enough check to cover what would normally be the "collectivist conspiracy" also known as a democratic republic. It should have healed Thomas Eric Duncan and the two nurses affected with the Ebola virus. Cutting $490 million from the CDC; $2.5 billion from NIH and STILL refusing to confirm or appoint a Surgeon General the NRA loves puts a huge dent in Tinker Bell's pixie dust. Nate Silver gives the stats why an Ebola travel ban is pointless. Pixie dust...

Yet, Nate Silver gives a republican takeover of the US Senate a 60% chance at succeeding, but he hedges with reassuring nuance. Meaning: at the worst display of stupidity and cognitive dissonance, brace for more austerity cuts, magical thinking, "shining city on a hill" cliche bull excrement; repeal of The Affordable Care Act putting 10+ million recipients back to square one of waiting for death; further slippage internationally in our technological competitiveness and likely a sham impeachment trial that will make us permanently a mockery in the pages of history. We'll be the Proverb, the Byword of how a government of the people, by the people and for the people perishes from the Earth for the racial disdain of the real-life Huxtables at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (1400 is apparently the annex down the street). The charge has been levied back-and-forth from the last administration to the present, but Eric Fromm's treatise "Escape From Freedom" is instructive in this excerpt:

"The fact that somewhere else he declares that a boy should be taught to suffer injustice without rebelling will no longer strike the reader-or so I hope-as strange. This contradiction is the typical one for the sadomasochistic ambivalence between the craving for power and for submission.

"The wish for power over the masses is what drives the members of the 'elite,' the Nazi leaders. As the quotations above show, this wish for power is sometimes revealed with an almost astonishing frankness. Sometimes it is put in less offensive forms by emphasizing that to be ruled is just what the masses wish...While the 'leaders' are ones to enjoy power in the first place, the masses are by no means deprived of sadistic satisfaction. Racial and political minorities within Germany and eventually other nations which are described as weak or decaying are the objects of sadism upon which the masses are fed. While Hitler and his bureaucracy enjoy the power over the German masses, these masses themselves are taught to enjoy power over other nations and to be driven by the passion for domination of the world."

"Trickle-down = golden flow" as the working class ("middle class" a moribund label now) are taught to spit and stamp on those at the bottom that not for luck or grace they would quickly be, and will to their own self-delusion, not likely leave their current stations and social stratus without the advantage of connections the 1% nonchalantly enjoy.

Or in our case, why the country went insane in 2010 and seems determined to continue it in 2014.

Free Thought Nation and Google Books

Related link: Eric Fromm dedication site