Category Archives: Science

More Reference than Evaluation

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For folks facing an imminent move to Social Security, US News has tips that can make a significant difference in payments. The article includes how to manage the passing of a spouse. See:

http://money.usnews.com/money/retirement/articles/2014/04/07/5-ways-to-boost-your-social-security-payments

  • Copying a Bankrate report, the Washington Post reported that new studies show that not only are Millennials carrying less debt than they did in previous years, they are actually pretty good at saving. Millennials are saving more aggressively than they have in the past, and in some cases, they’re saving more than their older counterparts, according to a new study from Bankrate.com. Ironically, some notable economists wish they would spend more, even borrow, to improve recovery from the 2008 recession. See: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/get-there/wp/2016/03/29/one-habit-millennials-are-actually-pretty-good-at/
  • Patty Duke died today of sepsis due to a ruptured intestine. She was 69.
  • An excellent article in Atlantic Magazine April, 2016, is about Obama’s legacy as President. It is a far ranging report that covers Obama’s thought processes associated with his impact on foreign relations and his guiding principles. The article is almost like reading a novel – an easy read. It is enlightening when real world sophistication is compared with Donald’s “I know how to fix that” – no he doesn’t; he has absolutely no idea how complex and nuanced foreign relations are today.
  • The reader may recall the recent report about the happiest nations in the world [US and Happiness, 3/16/2016]. It turns out that there is a direct correlation between happy cities and creativity in science and culture. See: http://www.livescience.com/54132-six-of-the-best-cities-for-scientists.html
  • While studying the parasite that causes toxoplasmosis in cats, researchers with the University of Chicago found a connection between the microorganism and Intermittent Explosive Disorder or IED. Symptoms of the disorder are recognized by repeated, impulsive outbursts of verbal or physical hostility.

http://www.examiner.com/article/toxoplasmosis-cats-linked-to-violent-behavior-humans

  • Nestle wants to own water rights in Oregon. See the FWW notice below (log on to see clip). A corporation is seeking to own water. This is a taboo. Humans can live only 5-7 days without water or suffer debilitating effects if the water is contaminated. Water is a public, worldwide commodity that can only be managed by governments (Flint Michigan aside). There are many confrontations across the United States between clean water-dependent corporations and public access. Further, there are corporations that poison public water sources beyond potable quality for farms and towns that need the same water. Around the world, fresh water is declining.

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/

 

 

This Is How You Stop Nestlé From Bottling Your Water: Watch the new Story of Stuff Project’s video on the Oregon ballot campaign to protect Cascade Locks!

Dear Ancient Mariner, What would you do if a bottled water company came to your town and tried to take control of your water? Unfortunately, for too many communities, this is not a hypothetical situation. Take Cascade Locks, in Hood River County, Oregon. This pristine town on the Columbia River has been battling for the last seven years to stop Nestlé from taking control of their water and building a bottling plant in their community. For years, the company has been working the system to avoid environmental reviews, buy influence over local politicians and speed up the process to get what they want. Meanwhile, the community has been putting up a fierce fight to protect their water.  So how is a small community taking on a huge, multinational corporation? Hear the story of this powerful, grassroots campaign in a new video, produced by The Story of Stuff Project — watch “Our Water, Our Future” now!

Nestlé came to Cascade Locks in 2007, promising to create jobs and stimulate the economy with a plan to bottle and sell water from a local spring. But when the community found out about Nestlé’s attempted water grab, they started to speak out against the plan. Nestlé has a track record of lying about the impact its bottling has on a community’s economy and environment.1 Cascade Locks residents didn’t want Nestlé wreaking havoc on their town — leaving them without enough water for the local farming and recreation industries. After years of trying to chase Nestlé out of town — inundating state agencies with public comments, pushing multiple governors to stand up and protect their water, and rallying against Nestlé’s lies — residents decided to come together and put the issue on the ballot so they can declare, once and for all, that Nestlé, and any other corporate bottlers, have no right to bottle public water! Food & Water Watch has been working alongside community members fighting the Nestlé water bottling proposal for the past seven years. Now, we’re partnering with the Local Water Alliance, Hood River County’s grassroots group, to push this effort over the finish line and stop Nestlé once and for all! Watch this video to hear the stories of local activists fighting to protect their water from Nestlé! [log on to view video]This isn’t just the story in Oregon. From Maine to California, this multinational corporation is working to take control of local water sources for its own private profit. But water is a public right and should not be bottled for private profit! If Hood River County passes this measure, it will send a message to Nestlé and help create a playbook for other communities that have to stand up to this big bully of a corporation and say NO. Winning this campaign would ensure the protection of this public water for future generations. Check out the video from the people who are standing up to Nestlé and fighting to keep their water public. Thanks for taking action, Caitlin Seeley George Online Campaign Organizer Food & Water Watch act(at)fwwatch(dot)org

1. Keep a Nestlé Water Bottling Plant Out of the Columbia River Gorge, Food & Water Watch, April 23, 2013
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Ancient Mariner

Stirrings in the South China Sea

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Okay. This headline has Chicken Little running around the backyard:

The U.S. Navy has dispatched a small armada to the South China Sea.

The carrier John C. Stennis, two destroyers, two cruisers and the 7th Fleet flagship have sailed into the disputed waters in the last 24 hours, according to military officials.

The mariner spent some time in Taiwan in the early nineties. The entire South China Sea was an officially declared war zone even then. The western beaches of Taiwan were (and still are) cluttered with anti-tank and anti-landing craft concrete cones. The new jet fighters built in the nineties are kept inside mountains. Taiwan’s only defense if China invades the island is to counterstrike, making it painful for China to consider an invasion; Taiwan will be obliterated in such an invasion.

In the last few years, China has assumed ownership of the South China Sea all the way down to Brunei not far from Singapore. The South China Sea wraps around the coastline of Vietnam on the west and the Philippines on the east. Not only does China desperately need the fishing rights, it has decided to turn the Spratley Islands into a military zone to protect its southern coast. As recent news headlines have reported, China is creating new man-made islands with air and naval bases. Further, China has its eyes on the rich oil region off the coast of Thailand.

China has numerous ways to escalate the confrontation. Once protected by the vast Pacific Ocean, the US has small islands and atolls, many uninhabited, spread around the western Pacific. China easily can harass these islands. Obviously, China will continue its militarization of the region.

Mariner suspects that any escalation will be between surrogate nations and territories. The US forces will be playing in China’s backyard far across the Pacific. Calling on allies like South Korea and Japan has its own set of anxieties. Imagine China turning loose North Korea on South Korea, Japan (700 miles away) or nations bordering the South China Sea (1,700 miles away). Kim Jong Un would leap at the chance.

The US has little choice but to show some kind of presence. Aside from China’s mainland, the South China Sea is bordered by US allies and trading partners. Certainly, these nations are anxious about the Chinese extension into the primary ocean resource for several nations.

The mariner put Chicken Little in the hen house for now. But his squawking can still be heard.

  • – – –

On a more pleasant note, the mariner reports to his family that all the cacti and succulents brought back from the Sonora Desert are thriving under the grow lights. Woodland plants retrieved from the backwoods of Arkansas have survived and show new growth. A Nandina shrub retrieved from Maryland has healthy bark and looks ready to burst forth.

The mariner is in the midst of planting seed trays for the vegetable garden and flower beds. Rabbit fence will surround the backyard perimeter in another few days. Rabbits are the mariner’s nemesis and all his neighbors save one think they are cute, semi-wild pets; his sister-in-law actually tames them and feeds them by hand.

Each warren produces three batches of six rabbits – eighteen all together from spring to fall – from one nest. The last thing the mariner wanted to do was ruin the landscape with fence but even with military reinforcement including rifles, pistols, compound bows and chemicals, the mariner is losing to his neighbors’ willingness to let rabbits breed as, well, as rabbits will do. It’s a fact that in a year one doe’s offspring can produce 800 pounds of rabbit meat. The only predator in town is the king of predators: Homo sapiens. Where are they when you need them?

REFERENCE SECTION

Reader Becky has forwarded a website that has information about the fight to save the monarch butterfly. See: http://www.xerces.org/blog/butterflies-and-volunteers-the-western-monarch-thanksgiving-count/

Some good news on the environmental front: For the first time this year, more California Condors were born in the wild than have died. In 1987, the remaining Condors were rescued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Releasing young ones into the wild began in1992. In 2015, more young were born in the wild than older ones that died, suggesting that the Condor population was capable of sustaining its numbers. For more detail, see:

http://www.fws.gov/cno/es/CalCondor/CondorCount.cfm

Ancient Mariner

Visiting the Folks

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The mariner returned recently from the Southwest. It was important to see his children again; that was a fulfilling experience. Mariner also went to the Southwest to visit the Sonora desert. He has never been to a desert biome and that experience, too, was fulfilling.

Now, about a week back in Iowa, he had time to absorb the impact of the visit. The desert experience reminded him that it has been a long time since he visited the planet he lives on.

Perhaps a visit to our home – our planet – is something each of us should do on a regular basis. Homo sapiens pushed aside Earth to make room for human-specific priorities. This is our prerogative; evolution has provided humans with propensities that encourage redesigning our environment to fit our needs and that enable us with technologies that can create new potential for our species. Wrapped up in our concrete cities, our electronic gadgetry, our quest for comfort and privilege, we forget that we are offspring of our planet.

Many people, of course, feel they return to nature to camp, jog, walk, and other human purposes. This is not the same thing. This is like visiting one’s invalid great grandfather not to restore the bond between the two of you, or to look genuinely after his needs but to impose on him your own personal accomplishments and interests. Truth be told, wise old grandpa couldn’t care less; he has his own reality to deal with. And so it is with the wise old parent of all of us: Earth.

Had we, over the millennia, considered our planet and its biosphere to be part of the formula for success, perhaps we may not be causing the sixth extinction, we may not have allowed Carbon imbalance, we may not have been so destructive that we have our own epoch – the Anthropocene, created because our trashiness has literally changed the surface of the Earth.

Every one of our species should visit Earth every few months. The visit entails setting aside human interpretations of what we see. This is a good time to practice empathy and imagination; empathy is something humans should exercise frequently anyway because empathy is not used when it should be.

Hello, field mouse. You seem busy. Why do you scurry so much? Is the space you live in adequate and satisfactory to your needs? You caught a cricket. Will you carry the cricket back to a nest? How can I help you defend your environment?

Hello, hawk. How far do you fly to find your meals? What do you eat? Are there places for you to nest safely? How can I help you defend your environment?

Hello, turtle. Hello, opossum. Hello, bluebird. Hello, frog. Hello, monarch butterfly. Hello, bee. Hello, rain forest. Hello, bat. Our fellow inhabitants suffer for our lack of empathy and respect for their environmental needs. We humans have the ability to push aside any life form and any ecological presence so we can build Interstates, convert hundreds of acres from open land to super malls with room for us to park our cars. Our capability to overrule nature is a power. Power corrupts. Homo sapiens is so corrupt, in fact, that we don’t provide proper habitat even for our own. Millions starve to death. War, an antiquated tool, is used too easily.

Recently, Stephen Hawking proposed that Homo sapiens will be extinct within 10,000 years. The first signs of human ritual occurred about 10,000 years ago. We are halfway through our time on this planet. No doubt, many other residents are cheering that day.

Mariner urges you to spend a half day in the wilderness – meaning more than ten blocks from a sidewalk and paved street. As you walk, take your time to find tiny little environments, small creature environments, and wide-ranging environments. Stop and empathize. The other inhabitants will appreciate the rare, good vibes.

Ancient Mariner

 

Of Monkeys and Metamorphosis

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It’s too bad Joseph Campbell did not live to see a metamorphosis performed in a hospital operating room. Campbell had a clear understanding about consciousness, and its ability to press for life beyond duality. Metamorphosis is the experience of Jesus on the cross; Jesus is able to disassociate consciousness from the body – simply a container to feed the spirit. Pain, human history, and self-centeredness fall away.

A few days ago, it was announced that surgeons successfully transplanted an entire skull from one monkey to another. Immediately, so many questions filled the mariner’s head:

Given the first head’s disassociation from its body, did the first head experience metamorphosis?

Did the replacement head experience metamorphosis when it was removed from the contributing body? Was there confusion about the consciousness of self when it was associated with another body?

One can hope both monkeys were very close in size and confirmation else the replacement brain would assume that, more or less, this is like the other monkey and would issue muscle memory instructions apropos of the previous body. One can imagine that picking the nose may well be difficult.

It is common knowledge that both nurture and nature constitute the conditions of a primate body, brain, genetic propensities, and psychological behaviors. Is handedness not an issue for the new body of the transplanted skull? Monkeys grab things with all four limbs; this could be a life or death situation high in a tree.

But mariner squanders questions on the mechanics of brain-to-body management. What would Aristotle want to know? What would Freud want to know? If the new body was addicted to alcohol or good cigars, how would the transplanted brain deal with this?

If the contributing monkey liked parsnips but the new body didn’t, how would this be resolved?

We’ll have to wait for the interviews.

Not that the previous subject brings politics to mind – well, actually it does. Donald is joined by Sarah. Oh my, oh my! Sarah associates with Glenn. Oh my, oh my, oh my!!

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Oh my…

Ancient Mariner

 

The Western States – Independence versus Federal Management

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Everyone who follows the reality of our times is aware of the complex priorities surrounding the nurturing of the Earth and its biosphere. The priorities range from global issues like chemical contaminants that destroy the ozone layer and the destructive effects of excessive Carbon on the environment, to more political and philosophical issues like international agreements to slow Carbon discharge and whether the Federal Government has the right to own and manage land in behalf of a balanced biome in the western states of the US. To understand the scope of this issue, the Federal Government owns fifty percent of the land in eleven western states; Federal Government owns over fifty percent of Nevada land – the State where Cliven Bundy took issue with the Federal Government over his “right to use Nevada’s land.”

This last issue, an argument today about the right of a national government to seize and hold land in behalf of a larger objective, provides an unusually clear dialogue about a person’s right to pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness versus global values required to sustain human wellbeing in a global context. Right now, a test case is playing out – regarding the Cliven and Ammon Bundy confrontations with the Federal Government over the right to use Federally preserved property for farming and other private enterprises and, in Ammon’s case, the right of the Federal Government’s justice system to prosecute individuals for abusing “Government property.”

Beside the conflict between private enterprise and Federal control, this case provides a clear picture of the cultural shift in Federal objectives over time. Originally, very large sections of land were acquired by the Federal Government to assure that it would not be divided into disorganized uses that would prevent using the land for its natural resources, primarily lumber and grazing. The original intent, as the west became settled, was to sell off the Federal land in large acreages to private owners who would continue to pursue renewable practices for lumber and grazing. Later, around 1880-1890, there was a fear that private enterprise would strip the western resources of a ready supply of wood – as important then as oil is today – that would lead the nation into a natural resource crisis. As a result of this concern, the Federal Government’s attitude toward a sell-off faded.

In 1947, the Federal Government created The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) – the agency that attempted to seize Cliven Bundy’s cattle in 2014. The BLM is tasked with multiple and different interests, many of which conflict with each other. Objectives managed by the BLM include commodity production, grazing, recreation, ecological functioning, endangered species habitats, and revenue.

Fed Land west

In Cliven Bundy’s case, he refused to honor the rights of the Federal Government as owners of the land where he grazed his cattle and never paid over one million dollars in fees for the right to graze there. Fees began in 1993 when the BLM moved to reduce grazing to protect the endangered Desert Tortoise. When the BLM began removing cattle to be auctioned to pay overdue fees, the situation became an armed standoff as militant groups arrived ready to defend Bundy with weapons if necessary. BLM did not want this kind of escalation so they withdrew. Currently, the BLM plans to move through the Federal Court system. This is a slow process. The Bundy family, including Ammon, who is leading a takeover of a firehouse in Oregon, feels they won in Nevada and plan to expand their resistance as opportunities arise.

However, the case has much broader ramifications than a family feud with the Federal Government. Does the Federal Government have the right not only to seize and manage property, but to threaten citizens/businesses with confiscation of property if they fail to comply with Federal regulations? Substitute cap and trade for coal burning companies; can the Federal Government enforce environmental policy with the threat of a takeover? Hugo Chavez thought so when he nationalized Venezuela’s oil industry. Can the Federal Government take over power companies like Duke Electric in Georgia because of blatant and severely damaging abuse to local water resources? Can the Federal Government stop production of automobiles outright if Carbon standards and miles per gallon are in violation of Federal regulations? There are several precedents for government takeover in one form or another; remember prohibition? Remember the Keystone pipeline?

The Bundys have turned over a huge rock! The mariner suspects our capitalist-dominant culture is not ready for this much governmental authority. Nevertheless, science and technology are defining a path that leads to catastrophic disruption of Earth’s biome within a comparatively short time.

Who can make unbiased – and enforceable – decisions in this increasingly chaotic situation?

Ancient Mariner

Giving Humans their own Epoch

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Open any general history book and the reader will find humankind’s history broken down into specific eras, ages, epochs, and periods. For example, we all know the Christian era, 0-2015AD (in history books, dates are important). We also know about the American Civil War, 1860-1865 and the Age of Enlightenment, 1620-1780. A major marker for the world is the dropping of a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima August 1945 as the beginning of the nuclear age.

Too often, and this goes back to the distant past when Homo sapiens had barely moved out of Africa, changes in period, age or era are bracketed by wars or cultural invasions. For all our centuries, our species settled major issues with violence. Easily isolated in daily news is the horrible conflict in Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, Egypt, Somalia, Kenya, Nigeria, and Sudan. It is as if there are rules about implementing new eras: many people must die; massive destruction of artifacts and public buildings; horrendous attacks on the innocent – including women; trench burial plots (not only must one be killed, one must be forgotten). Perhaps wars are significant because wars have definitive start and end dates. The mariner suggests that war slows down cultural transition. It may be better to set differentiation on successful, progressive changes.

Some ages are benchmarked by advancement of a discovered thing or the adoption of some idea. For example, cotton gin, steamships and trains, automobiles, macadam road paving, electricity, airplanes, television, and the Internet. Intellectual ideas have been noted in similar fashion; consider the mathematics of Archimedes and Newton, logic of Socrates and Plato, Solar System by Galileo, and General Theory by Einstein.

It is burdensome that Homo sapiens expends significant effort on the advancement of war: chariot, trireme, trebuchet, gunpowder, armored vehicles, aircraft, rockets, and now drones. It is not difficult to divide the history of war into periods of change.

One could go on naming moments that signify a transition of some sort using endless objects, events, and ideas. Is it possible to name so many periods, phases and eras that there is no time left that is not a turning point? The mariner believes so.

Why must there be change? The quick answer is “Things change for the better, the less expensive, and the more efficient.” Comparatively, this may be true for manufactured things, for economics and general wellbeing. But the real reason for change is Homo sapiens. Humans have a brain that thrives on change. Consider other species; many trees may live unchanged until the planet changes, perhaps millions of years; the opossum is one of the oldest creatures around and the latest opossum lives the same life as the first. Monkeys and apes, for all their intelligence, haven’t changed their lifestyle nor have whales and dolphins. No other species invents puzzles for the sake of inventing puzzles. Humankind must be entertained intellectually – if only watching a television show a monkey could understand or struggling to find the unified theory in physics.

If one merges the predatory nature of humans with the ability to imagine an expansion of power, the result is greed and avarice. Further, the faster humans can attain more gratification, the more rewarding the experience. The fastest way, of course, is violence. Second to violence is cheating – still a form of violence. This behavior is in our genome. The oldest parts of our brain, the parts that go back to the primordial days of Homo sapiens, understand this behavior and react accordingly. Humans and monkeys weren’t that different then. It is the nature of evolution to carry genetic baggage forward along with newer mutations. For example, a fetus develops false gills before it develops lungs. There must have been a fish somewhere in a human’s path of evolution. If one gives greedy behavior some thought, it seems only natural that any predator must satisfy sustenance quickly or it will not thrive.

It is up to our predatory and inventive selves to manage our species. No other species can manage Homo sapiens. This is why government evolved. Even government, however, is subject to predation. It has taken the entire era of human existence to fine tune government to the point that it functions today. Obviously, there is much more tuning to be done. Unfortunately, our ability to change the status quo often means that what was good will not remain good, hence Lord Acton’s phrase ‘power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.’

Being the premiere predator on Earth plus having an inquisitive mind has allowed humans to multiply and prosper. Humans have overcome every adversary except themselves. The mariner has written often about the effect of population growth and the destruction of Earth’s biosphere. Excessive Carbon has disrupted the atmosphere, land and oceans. The broad use of fossil fuels, which began about 1850, has changed the name of our current epoch: We were living in the Holocene Epoch until another name had to be given for our current times because humans have so changed the Earth. Now we live in the Anthropocene Epoch – named for human trashiness, abuse of living creatures, and disrupting the Earth itself.

By the end of this century, there will be nearly twice as many humans as there are today. How do we rein in ourselves? All we have is religion and government. Obviously, they haven’t been working very well. Our definitions of culture, government and faith are all we have to fix a problem that will be fixed without us if we aren’t careful.

 

REFERENCE SECTION

Let’s deal with the awkward article in front of ‘opossum.’ Is it correct to say ‘a opossum,’ ‘an opossum,’ a ‘‘possum,’ or an ‘‘possum?’ Yes. This is a singularly intriguing circumstance in our language; dictionaries and grammar sources support this odd behavior. The truth is it is determined by how the speaker chooses to pronounce the word. Proof that there is free will! If you choose ‘opossum,’ then you say ‘an;’ if you say ‘possum’ then you say ‘a.’ It’s your choice! Of course, you can call it by its official name, Didelphis Virginiana and avoid the whole thing.

Expanding the Liberal Arts mind:

A reader has offered an interesting podcast link from the book review section of the New York Times. The podcast features the year in poetry with guests reading favorite poems; about half of the 39-minute podcast is an interview with poet George Saunders. See:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/27/books/review/inside-the-new-york-times-book-review-podcast-the-year-in-poetry.html?_r=1 .

The printing press was not mentioned in the above list of inventions but certainly is one of the most important. Johannes Gutenberg invented the first western press in 1445 AD. However, independent letter blocks of wood were made by Chinese monks in 866 AD. Further, a Chinese peasant named Bi Sheng (Pi Sheng) developed the world’s first movable type. Though Sheng himself was a commoner and didn’t leave much of an historical trail, his ingenious method of printing, which involved the production of hundreds of individual characters, was well-documented. Metal movable type also was developed independently in Korea in the late 14th century. In 1377, a Korean monk named Baegun is credited with printing a compilation of Buddhist sayings using movable metal type. The two-volume book, known as “Jikji,” is believed to be the oldest book in the world printed with metal type. Unlike the West, the East did not utilize prepared type very quickly because of the complexities of Asian writing systems.

This history of printing is found on http://www.livescience.com/43639-who-invented-the-printing-press.html , a website the mariner encourages browsing readers to view periodically looking for anything of interest.

 

Administration of the iowa-mariner website.

Occasionally, a reader will ask how to find past posts. To help readers search, the POST page, typically the first that one sees, now has a menu across the top with subject headings. The mariner frequently lists a post under multiple subject headings but they should help in any case. There is a search box on the POST page and another on the subject page. Another method is to scan the posts on the right side of the page; these are sequenced by date and if the reader has an idea of when, this may be helpful as well.

Speaking of the column on the right side of the page, at the bottom is the “meta” section. Use the “login” option to create a site identity and receive notice of new postings. Your email address will never be shared with others although your login name will be how readers of the site will refer to you. Once you have subscribed, send an email to the mariner to make sure your subscription is noted at skipper@iowa-mariner.com.

Finally, the mariner has created a forum page called “The Captain’s Mast.” If any reader wants to open a dialogue with the mariner or with another reader’s replies, simply enter your comment in the Captain’s Mast.

Ancient Mariner

 

 

Mother Earth

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The mariner came across this news item:

“Prince Charles has spoken exclusively to Sky News about his ongoing concerns about climate change, saying he believes there are links to the current refugee crisis and terrorism.

In his only interview ahead of COP21, the UN’s climate summit which opens next Monday, the Prince of Wales suggested that environmental issues may have been one of the root causes of the problems in Syria.

He said: “We’re seeing a classic case of not dealing with the problem, because, I mean, it sounds awful to say, but some of us were saying 20 years ago that if we didn’t tackle these issues, you would see ever greater conflict over scarce resources and ever greater difficulties over drought, and the accumulating effect of climate change, which means that people have to move.

“And, in fact, there’s very good evidence indeed that one of the major reasons for this horror in Syria, funnily enough, was a drought that lasted for about five or six years, which meant that huge numbers of people in the end had to leave the land.”

During the fourth millennium BC, about six thousand years ago, the Middle East was the first area to practice widespread agriculture. Slowly, over many centuries, weather patterns changed leaving mountains and harsh, crusty soil. The term “Fertile Crescent” is no longer applicable. Several debilitating floods and droughts occurred over the centuries as well as numerous wars. Governments and economies became minimal.

Then, in the nineteenth and twentieth Centuries, oil became profitable and has since provided 95% of the economy in the Middle East; the region was overrun by Western entrepreneurs who established weak local governments supported by oil profits. After the First and Second World Wars, the Middle East finally established permanent boundaries between countries except during the six year war between Iraq and Iran – a war for regional supremacy rather than for territory.

All this time, the weather worsened, leaving little in the way of economic disparity – it was oil and not much else. One wonders whether Prince Charles has a point. In the US, California suffered a drought for five years. Prices of fresh produce rose significantly. More produce was flown in from South America. North America is fortunate that another warming phenomenon came along in the form of El Nino – at the cost of floods and damaging storms. Already, 2015 is the warmest year on record. It hasn’t been thousands of years but is weather shifting? El Nino is a specific event but how can we tell that weather a hundred years from now may not be conducive to record corn and wheat crops?

Further, as with more of the Earth than we realize, fresh water is disappearing. Scientists are working hard at new ways to produce fresh, clean water. There are a few commodities that are provided by the Earth and as such should not be owned by proprietary corporations: a clean atmosphere free of carcinogens and chemicals that disrupt the chemical balance of our atmosphere. Another is water itself; corporations should never own water rights, whether natural or reproduced. Finally, while this is indirect, diversity of life is another commodity. Wildlife and plants service our planet and in the process, service us as well. Elizabeth Kolbert in her book, The Sixth Extinction, proves that humans are ravaging the Earth’s living family far more destructively than any terrorist attack by ISIL.

Very slowly, earthquake by earthquake, volcano by volcano, and our human contribution, excessive Carbon, the weather is bound to change. It’s an experience similar to living a lifetime: one is young and suddenly, almost by surprise, we wake up one morning to know we are approaching the end. It is hard to focus on large planetary issues far beyond nationalism – but the time has arrived.

Ancient Mariner

A Well Rounded Education?

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Mariner has been reading about the new movement in colleges that expresses empathy for individuals suffering any indication of racism, cultural suppression, campus abuse, and even offensiveness in comedy. On the good side, this is college students running things. On the bad side is a student mentality that appears to be over protective of even one student’s sensitivities. Several top ranked comedians like Jerry Seinfeld won’t do shows at colleges because of restrictions about their subject matter. Other campus speakers are screened before they are invited to speak at assemblies. (An earlier post recommended the September 2015 issue of The Atlantic Magazine http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ covering this topic)

What is disturbing about the student attitude is its tendency to foster cultism and isolationism in students who will leave the campus to step into the real world – a bit coarser than a campus. There are enough tea party folks to go around already. Will there be a generation of young people who reject the human condition and close their ears to reason, compromise and human frailty? The student attitude of purity or nothing is dangerous in a world full of turmoil, overcrowding, terrorism, and global warming. The students are opposed to negotiation right from the start. Nothing is more important in this century than teaching students the skills of negotiation, political reason and the pursuit of a better world for everyone.

The mariner understands their intent. The students are tired of racism and the enmity of cultural and religious bigots. They wish for a fair world where differences are accepted without turmoil. It may be a good thing that turmoil is not accepted but the real world, particularly at this moment, is not ready for piety. This is a hardnosed time when humanity must sort out conflicts affecting the entire world. It is a time when leaders must decide who will not die, who will not starve, who will not suffer genocide, who will not be sacrificed for a greater cause. The mariner suspects the students may not be fully prepared for reality. Still, things can change – the hippies of the 1960s became the capitalists of the 1980s.

On a second front, the gun-racist-terrorist sensitivity, the Mayor of Dallas, Mike Rawlings, confessed he is more afraid of white men with guns planning another mass shooting than he is afraid of a hidden terrorist among the Syrian refugees. See:

http://www.thespreadit.com/mike-rawlings-dallas-mayor-66591/

Third, for the last several days CSPAN broadcast from the Miami Book Fair. A Sunday broadcast presented the following:

Tracey Stuart, author of Do Unto Animals: A Friendly Guide to How Animals Live, and How We Can Make Their Lives Better, and Gene Bauer, author of Living the Farm Sanctuary Life: The Ultimate Guide to Eating Mindfully, Living Longer, and Feeling Better Every Day, present their thoughts on animal rights.

This is an upbeat, refreshing conversation about animal rights and our overdependence on meat in the human diet. Worth watching. While the reader is at the CSPAN video website, browse a bit; it is guaranteed the reader will find an interesting subject. See:

http://www.c-span.org/video/?400037-7/book-discussion-unto-animals-living-farm-sanctuary-life

Finally, if you haven’t been following John Oliver’s television show, you’ve missed his scrutiny of your favorite complaint in life. This episode questions the legitimacy of televangelists asking for money to buy 65 million dollar jet airplanes. Accommodate some coarse language – it’s HBO. Check him out at:

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=john+oliver+last+week+tonight&FORM=VIRE1#view=detail&mid=DF07448C20530777F6EEDF07448C20530777F6EE

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It’s time to drag out the old thought experiment called Schrodinger’s Cat:

You have at hand a sealed cardboard box. Inside is a cat, an ion detector (like a Geiger counter), and a flask of poison. If the ion detector detects a radioactive particle, the flask breaks and the poison kills the cat. Seeing only the box and no outside clues, is the cat dead or alive?

Give this some thought. Could the cat be both dead and alive at the same time? How would that be possible? If you can resolve this paradox, you are prepared to study quantum mechanics! Not fair to use the Internet although you’re allowed to find it in a book you already have in your own library.

Ancient Mariner

 

An Eclectic Post

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Inspiration comes from many sources, in this case from road kill. Carcasses lie abandoned on the side of the road which led the Mariner’s wife to write this poem:

Elegy for a Dead Raccoon

The body lies beside the road

A furred lump hit by a passing car

Left like refuse, unremarked.

We in the cocoons of our cars

Pass by without a second glance

Without a second thought.

If we gave it a second thought

We would have to recognize

That we, too, will become a lump

Beside the road.

Our mammal bodies are not different:

A baby raccoon was born, suckled,

Stretched his paws, struggled to walk,

Learned to eat, to drink, to clean himself,

Wrestled with his brothers and sisters,

Explored the same world we live in

With the same five senses.

The only difference is that when he died,

In a sudden, tragic accident

His body was left as a furred lump

Beside the road.

There were no remarks at a solemn funeral

And no elegy

Except for this one.

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Getting the most out history is an art form. History books that deliver dates, events and event correlations are full of facts but leave out the human condition, the three dimensional reality that makes history real and provides the reader with human substance. One trick to expand one’s understanding of history is to read biographies of those who played a role in history but may not have been on the front page. As a bonus, biographies are easy to read and almost like reading fiction. Below are four biographies spread across a wide spectrum of history.

Lucy by Ellen Feldman, W,W, Norton, 2011.

One of the most important romances in the last century. Although their relationship was heavily constrained, their love lasted. Lucy was with FDR when he died. Arthur Schlesinger gave a review:

“It is a story which reminds us of the code of another day, of the complexity of human relationships, of the human problems of statesmen bearing the heaviest responsibilities and of the capacity of mature people to accept the frustrations of life and, perhaps, to make of frustrations a sort of triumph. Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lucy Mercer all emerge from the story with honor.

And, if Lucy Mercer in any way helped Franklin Roosevelt sustain the frightful burdens of leadership in the Second World War, the nation has good reason to be grateful to her.”

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

The Sixth Extinction, an Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert, Henry Holt & Co. 2014.

Mariner has referenced this book in past posts. It is an accounting of Kolbert’s travels around the world visiting scientists and living creatures. However, it is a biography of us and our association with the Earth’s life forms. Written in a story-like style, it is mesmerizing.

Paul Newman, A Life by Shawn Levy, Random House, 2009.

Historian Shawn Levy gives readers the ultimate behind-the-scenes examination of the actor’s life from his merry pranks on the set to his lasting romance with Joanne Woodward to the devastating impact of his son’s death from a drug overdose. This definitive biography is a fascinating portrait of an extraordinary man who gave back as much as he got out of life and just happened to be one of the most celebrated movie stars of the twentieth century.

Frederick the Wise by Sam Wellman, Concordia Press, 2015.

Little is known about one of the most powerful individuals in the Reformation, Frederick III, Elector of Saxony. Blessed by a translation of German works by Sam Wellman, Frederick’s life and influences are readily available. Frederick was the protector of Martin Luther as Saxony battled the Holy Roman Church during the 15th and 16th centuries.

Ancient Mariner

Sustaining Social Creativity

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Over the years of www.iowa-mariner blog, the most common theme has been to share information and opinions that promote thought – particularly lateral thinking, which is the ability to absorb new information and process it into a brand new idea. Lateral thinking is the best tool by far for reconciling knotty problems of any kind, whether something as broad as fundamentalism versus democracy or as simple as creating a vacation schedule that satisfies the whole family.

Recently, the mariner has written many posts with this theme in mind. Starting today, he will add a permanent section to every post which suggests outside viewing or reading that is entertaining in its topic and will broaden every reader’s knowledge as an aid to lateral thinking. The mariner still will write opinion and topical pieces but the reader should take advantage of the new section called ‘Reference Section.’ This post in particular will focus on this new section.

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The current issue of Scientific American (October 2015) is entertaining from cover to cover not with obscure scientific jargon but with shorter articles that have to do with how science and technology are changing the way we live from morning to night – today! There are pieces about how horses behave in the wild, how important sleep is, servant robots similar to those on the Jetsons TV series soon will be affordable for the middle class home, a new gene to control obesity, the next war will be in space, changing the home vegetable garden, etc. Most articles also can be accessed on the Scientific American website: www.ScientificAmerican.com .

An informative website that covers many current issues that are not covered adequately if at all on television or in newspapers can be found at: http://www.c-span.org/ . c-span has an extensive library of videos covering a wide spectrum of current events and what can be termed ‘important page 4 news,’ for example, the story that the Federal Government will underwrite $39 billion in unpaid college tuition loans. Most speeches given by presidential candidates are available. In all, c-span has 197,163 videos.

The mariner subscribes to two other magazines besides Scientific American: The Atlantic Magazine http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ which is the premier magazine for contemporary ideas in culture, industry and politics along with many book reviews and in depth articles. A staff writer is Ta-Nehisi Coates, the new voice for black America. Did you know that Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld refuse to do comedy on college campuses? (September 2015).

The last magazine is Smithsonian http://www.smithsonianmag.com/?no-ist published by Smithsonian Institution – the large national museum along the mall in Washington, D.C. This is a pleasant magazine that covers the human experience through culture, nature, biography and special interest stories.

None of the websites or magazines listed is an advocacy journal but rather makes an effort to present apolitical information without regard to any particular point of view. These magazines provide the easiest source by which to remain a liberal arts individual throughout life. The reader will be more than capable of lateral thinking.

Ancient Mariner