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“At the time, we didn’t know a great deal, but we felt comfortable that we could put something up. And we liked the difference between our satellite and Sputnik. Ours flew science, the Van Allen experiment.”
- Carl Raggio, a mechanical engineer on the Explorer team

50 years ago, at this minute January 31, 1958 at 10:48 PM, the launch of Explorer I became America’s official entry into the Space Race.

Although Sputnik I and II were first into space, American’s deserve to have pride in Explorer I for going one step beyond just reaching space by performing some science while it was up there.

A Geiger counter installed on Explorer I discovered the Van Allen radiation belt, and it didn’t have to kill a dog to do so.

One day I decided I was going to become an American Football fan. I went to a sportswear shop in the mall and picked out a Raiders cap. The Raiders were going to be my team. That afternoon, I arrived at my dishwashing job at the college cafeteria, proudly sporting my new interest.

“Oh hey!” Tim, a coworker who was bussed in from the local mental institution pointed at my forehead. “You like the Raiders!”

“Yep,” I nodded proudly. “That’s why I wear the hat.”

Tim was ecstatic, “You guys have Rocket Ishmael! He passed for suchandsuch many field downs… and kicked X many touch goals… and ran for Y many first yards… and intercepted N many tackles!” Tim was rattling off copious amounts of sports facts at me in a barrage of information overload.

“Wow. I did not know that. Really?” I struggled to process this sudden deluge of data, “That’s cool. Uh-huh. Interesting. You don’t say.”

Tim stopped suddenly, frowning curiously at me, “You don’t really know anything about football, do you?”

“Ummm…” I thought for a moment. “Those Raiders have really cool helmets, huh?”

“I’ll give you a dollar for your hat.”

Sold, and thus my American Football interest was quickly extinguished.

It blows my mind to sit in a bar and listen to the obscure mountains of data sports fans can so casually toss about to one another. These are people who know all major players for numerous teams going back 30 years or more and can expound on statistical analyses of those players’ capabilities that leave my head spinning.

Two football fans arguing over who was the better quarterback, John Amway or Flash Gordon, sound suspiciously like two nerds arguing which was cooler, Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. Football fans geek out just like anybody else, it’s just their brand of geekery is more socially acceptable.

Why is that? Why do some athletes make more than 50 times the annual salary of the United States President? Why the urge to watch people run, jump, throw, and grapple in teams/tribes with “totemic” names like Bears, Eagles, Colts, Panthers, and the like? In his essay, Monday-Night Hunters, Carl Sagan argues that it’s simply in our genes as hunter-gatherers, and it’s easy to understand why a species such as ours, which only began gave up the hunt a few thousand years ago for an agrarian lifestyle would still have brains wired to this vicarious thrill.

But the operative word here is vicarious. This sound and fury signifying nothing constitutes an incredible expenditure of time and resources. Imagine if Sports fans devoted their energies to Science the way they devote themselves to their NFL Team:

Lou: I’m tellin’ yah Benny, Feynman was a better Physicist than Oppenheimer.

Benny: You kiddin’ me Lou? Your thinkin’ that clown was a better Physicist than Robert “father of the atomic bomb” Oppenheimer? Now I know your loosing it.

Lou: That Commie Oppenheimer couldn’t hold a candle to Feynman–

Benny: ’scuse me, but dat’s an ad hominem logical fallacy their Lou.

Lou: Feynman made major contribution to Quantum electrodynamics, the physics of superfluidity, and his Feynman diagrams were fundamental to String T’eory!

Benny: Ah bumpkiss to yah String T’eory. You just wait till that new super-collider comes online and blows apart all that String T’eory nonsense.

I’m telling you, if we can find some way to get the world’s legion sports fans to refocus their incredible powers of concentration and data-crunching cognitive prowess, we could solve world hunger, cure cancer, and be driving hybrids to the #@$%ing Moon in less than 10 years.

Still, I plan to watch the Superbowl Sunday Night for my Vicarious-Hunter-Fix.

Go Raiders!

Y the Last Man

I would love to go back and read through all the graphic novels I’ve bought collecting this series from its beginnings, but they’ve all been loaned out to people who loaned them out to other people and so on and so on. I did recently have the time to review my sister’s collection and enjoy how far this story has come in the last five years.

Something spontaneously kills all males of every species of mammal on Earth, with the exception of Yorick and his pet monkey Ampersand. As the last man on Earth, he is pursued by neo-Amazons, who, like the Amazon’s of history, burn off one of their breasts for their cause, and want to kill him because he threatens their female domination. The Israeli army, now the strongest army in the world for including women in strong numbers, is after him. Not to mention the news reporters, politicians, and others interested in the most valuable person on Earth, the one bearing the last of the Y Chromosomes.

Today the final issue arrived, and it did not let me down. I was reminded of all the strong female roles that came into play, and all the logistics of a male-less world for the remaining gender to adapt to. Now that the series is complete, I can honestly give it the thumbs-up and recommend anyone interested in a well-written, thought-provoking series filled with great characters, social commentary, and science fiction themes pick it up.

This summer the final Y the Last Man will be included in the last graphic novel. I highly recommend them. There’s also a movie in the works, which I’m sure will be awesome; however, I can’t see it being superior to the comic or encompassing the whole story in a way that does it justice.

Vertigo Comics has Issue #1 (PDF) available for download, and the complete series (almost) is available for purchase online.

I had the delightful fortune to discover the Salk Institute’s Beyond Belief Conference online about this same time last year. I ended up spending an entire weekend hanging out near my computer, soaking up every single lecture in order while sipping hot chocolate in my pajamas.

2006’s Beyond Belief program was Science, Religion, Reason and Survival, which included such greats as Richard Dawkins, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Ann Druyan, all offering their perspectives on Religion and Science, followed with academic discussion of each lecture. Watching the conference in its entirety was like watching a concert video of Lolapaloza (or whatever the big concert is for kids today), but instead of the monsters of rock, these were the Titans of Science.

Because it’s science, it’s all online for free. Beyond Belief Enlightenment 2.0 features presentations from Daniel Dennett, David Brin and an interview with PZ Meyers, and focuses on Enlightenment ideas and values. It takes a much more progressive and positive tone than last year’s content; although, last year’s content had several very inspiring talks.

You can view the full program of presentations here.

A friend gave me this ultra-nifty handy-dandy spifferific crocheted FSM for the Winter Solstice Holiday Season, and since FSM is my co-pilot, I’ve placed it on my desk for all to appreciate.

FSM is My Co-Pilot

Here’s the thing. I work for the Federal Government on a Coast Guard Base. We are prohibited from religious displays, so I’m officially breaking the rules. The people I work with are not allowed to hang up crosses, stars of davidzes, etc on their desks. This has come up before, and management asserts that it is a Federally-mandated no-no.

But here’s the other thing. Nobody knows what the heckskies FSM is, so they don’t know it’s religious. Dig?

But here’s another other thing! Even if they did know what it is, by asking me to take it down, they’d be acknowleding Pastafarianism as an actual religion! Thus derriding their own religion!!!

And here’s another other other thing!!! Pastafarianism isn’t really a religion, it’s a mockery of religion; therefore, the FSM on my desk is actually a symbol of secularism!!!

Bwa-Ha-Ha!!! Somebody call the Supreme Court in to figure this one out. I’m not afraid to face SCOTUS!!! First thing I’d do is kick Justice Scalia in the balls!!!

I have absolutely no idea if I’m breaking the Federal rules or not, and I’m chasing logical loopdeeloos around in my head trying to figure it out, and now I… I… I’m feeling kinda dizzy and seasick…

Okay… bye now.

In issue #4 Robo gets knocked out and has a dream where Carl “Cosmos” Sagan asks Robo to fly shotgun on the Viking Mission. I think the author’s caught Sagan’s style perfectly.

Carl Sagan in Atomic Robo

The Invertebrate Exhibit

Giant Hermit Crab

Awesome moment at this exhibit was getting to see one of Zoo staff feeding the Pacific Octopus. It ballooned up from a little white ball into a red explosion of tentacles. The Zookeeper fed it a muscle and a hermit crab, and had to fight octopus a bit to keep it from climbing out of the tank by climbing up her feeding staff.

Check out the Complete Flickr set

The Reptile House

Emerald Tree Boa

If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard some variation of this in the Zoo:

Guy: Yo that snake’s all like, “Wassuuuuup?” and that snake’s all like, “Just chillin’.”

Girl: Tee hee hee. You’re so funny, I wan’t to have sex with you now.

So geeky guys take note: Chicks dig it when you anthropomorphize animals at the zoo… unless said chick has a brain.

Check out the Complete Flickr set

Comparing Brains Left to Right: Fox Squirrel, Orang utan, Human, Asian Elephant, Fin Whale

A display that has a warning sign that you are about to have your preconception challenged is always cool. Mostly displays here, but very thought-provoking ones.

My favorite was the “Is a Cow a Tool?” display. I’d never thought of cows as being a tool for carrying around milk and meat for us, but there you go, we developed them to serve that purpose.

Check out the Complete Flickr set

The Union of Concerned Scientists, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Federation of American Scientists, the Scientists & Engineers for America, Audubon… World Wildlife Fund… the Society for Amateur Scientists… the Sierra Club… The list of activist organizations representing the multitude of issues important to Scientists and the Scientifically aware goes on and on and on.

Now there’s Science Debate 2008, which I completely support and believe everyone should get behind.

At the same time, I have to wonder, is this only watering down the field even more? I realize this is an effort focused around a single goal, getting the candidates to acknowledge and speak to those issues of interest to the Scientifically Aware community, but why did Mooney, Kirshenbaum, Chapman and others have to set things in motion? Why didn’t one of the established organizations listed above take the initiative? Why don’t we have an organization that stands out in assuming responsibility for organizing all Science-minded people around political issues all the time?

The Science-focused community is fiercely independent, making it a big tent and giving it the power to forge its individual perspectives in the fires of honest, constructive debate. At the same time, this independence means that we don’t form a cohesive voting block. Oddly enough, the fact that we can’t be stereotyped politically, like African Americans, Evangelicals, Hispanics, Feminists, Dittoheads, or Unions means the political world need not acknowledge us at all.

What unites Scientists ideologically? I was surprised to learn that several Scientists I met at NCNBC 2008 specifically stated they were not Environmentalists. I had always assumed Biodiversity and Sustainability would be lock step with a Scientific Worldview, but this was not so. Scientists and Enlightenment ideologues believe in science funding, science education, and prohibition of political interference in science, but they don’t necessarily agree on what science has to say about anything. Go figure… constructive disputation is the nature of science.

We tend to think of Science as above the fray, and it is and it needs to be above the fray to maintain its intellectual integrity. But you know what? The pundits don’t care!!! They don’t acknowledge any integrity. As far as politics is concerned, Scientists are all ready a self-serving special interest of cosseted, pussified academics who over hype the importance of species extinction, global warming, and pollution because they’re trying to scare people into giving them more taxpayer money.

Scientists can ignore the political world all they want, but the political world will demonize them regardless.

The reality is that Science needs a platform. Science must begin endorsing candidates. They must get active in politics. In 1983 Carl Sagan single-handedly convinced Senator Proxmire to drop his campaign against SETI funding, and Congress went on to vote in $1.5 million for SETI projects as a result. That’s what one rational mind engaging politics was able to accomplish. Imagine what a few hundred thousand could do.

What political business model works right now? In their coverage of the Nevada Caucuses, the mainstream media focused strongly on the Labor Union vote, an organization powerful in numbers and united in purpose so that whoever runs for office must obtain their stamp of approval.

Scientists have enough obligations eating up their time without politics. This is why Scientists, Educators, and Science Proponents need the equivalent of a Labor Union, to speak with Candidates on our behalf, secure promises from them to support our special interests, evaluate how they serve those interests, and either reward those politicians or hold them accountable. They’re our public servants; let’s get Pavlovian on them.

Scientists and Enlightenment Scholars do share a stereotype. We are highly-educated, inquisitive, regularly challenge our ideas, and we are also fun-loving people, who genuinely enjoy our intellectual pursuits for their own sake, rather than solely as a means to an end. Give us a convenient organization we can send $20 a month that will e-mail us when to write our Representatives and recommend who we should vote for.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the media had to factor in the “Science and Enlightenment Vote” when discussing election strategies?

Currently, I feel the Union of Concerned Scientists is the organization best serving this need, but I’m open to running with the herd if we could all get behind just one organization.