The Nobel Peace Prize

Congratulations to Al Gore and the entire Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for wining the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.” This makes Gore one of the most influential people on the planet, and draws much needed attention to the IPCC’s work, which is largely ignored by the public for being boring scientifically-dense reading.

Mega props to Gore for turning right around and giving the cool $750,000 to the Alliance for Climate Protection, which Gore chairs. Giga props to the IPCC for observing the scientific method all these years:

Each time the IPCC sits down to consider the solidity of hundreds of pieces of research its conclusions are subjected to both scientific and political scrutiny before they can be published.

Many scientists find this a frustrating process and several briefly walked out this year when political delegates objected to some of what they wanted to say.

But in many ways it is this process of scrutiny that has allowed the IPCC’s pronouncements to have such an impact. Every piece of evidence it presents publicly, every statement it makes has been assessed rigorously.

If it errs at all, it errs on the side of caution and by being able so convincingly to shrug off accusations of exaggeration that it has won credibility for itself and its findings.

McCain took the high road, congratulating Gore and issuing a challenge to him to support nuclear power. Bush took the meh road, acknowledging the prize, but not making any changes to his plan to tackle Global Warming by doing nothing… well, he might show up to some more free dinners.

And yes, I am reveling in the incoherent rage now spewing from the lunatic fringe, with their silliness about the sun causing Global Warming (without any scientific evidence whatsoever), a National Review blogger exaggerated Gore’s Inconvenient Truth exaggerations by reporting a British judge found 11 inaccuracies in the film (but there were only nine and the Judge considered the film was accurate overall), Telegraph readers evoked socialist conspiracies and ad hominem attacks, while a round up of blog posts reveals a world of pundits still trapped in the politics of 1999 (“Clinton’s only legacy will be a stained dress!” (Bite me NeoCon sissies)).

This award further reinforces the fact that truth perseveres. The wingnuts won’t be convinced, but their voices grow weaker with each passing year, muffled under a mountain of scientific evidence that now streams in on a daily basis. I appreciate the political fringe minority speaking out so loudly, it let’s the rest of us know who you are so we can keep a careful eye on you.

As I argued in my previous post, Al Gore doesn’t need this award with so many accomplishments all ready under his belt; however, the Environmental Movement does need it, and in awarding both Al Gore and the IPCC, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee is bringing attention to a cause that should unite the world, because we are one world first, and individual countries second. Lots of people can’t understand why people working tirelessly on an issue that effects everyone on planet Earth merit a “Peace Prize,” but these are the same people who think the solution is to “invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.”

Compare such negative and destructive ideas with chairperson of the IPCC, Dr. R.K. Pachauri’s hopeful and noble comments on receiving the award.

---

Video of Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech (via Treehugger).Time’s Global Warming Survival Guide

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry

surface chemistry of an organic crystal

Oh this is way past cool. Congratulations to Gerhard Ertl for winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2007, which recognizes his lifetime of work establishing an experimental school of thought for the entire discipline of modern surface chemistry.

Using many different methods of measuring reactions, including playing reactions in reverse order, Ertl was able to decrypt the chain of atomic processes that produce artificial fertilizer and the oxidation of carbon monoxide on platinum, used by catalytic converters for exhaust-cleaning in cars. His research methods have opened an entire realm of scientific research.

An entry-level explanation of the research here (PDF).

A more technical explanation here (PDF).

Nobel Prize in Physics

Toshiba Hard Drive 4GB Data Storage

Congratulations to Albert Fert and Peter Grunberg for each winning 1/2 of the Nobel Prize in Physics “for the discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance.” Regarded as one of the first major applications of nanotechnology, and was a crucial discovery in the development of smaller and smaller data-storage:

…the ongoing IT-revolution depends on an intricate interplay between fundamental scientific progress and technical fine tuning. This is just what the Nobel Prize in Physics for the year 2007 is about.

An entry-level explanation of the discoveries here (PDF).

A more technical explanation here (PDF).

---

The fact that nobel prizes seem to be going more and more to several people working on the same research is a symptom of how complex progress has become. Fading away are the days of lone inventors and scientists revolutionizing a field single-handedly. The Great Man Theory was always an overly-simplistic view of human history, and one that has given people distorted views of their place in society. I have seen the future, and it is wiki-style collaborations. One day the Nobel prize in Physics will be split sixteen ways.

>Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Chimeric Mouse Embryo Developed at the University of Texas at Austin

Congratulations to Mario Capecchi, Sir Martin Evans, and Oliver Smithies for each winning 1/3rd of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2007 “for their discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells,” meaning this research allows for the production of genetically-modified mice, and gene-targeting, which has opened the door to understanding what specific genes in the mouse genome do by “knocking out” the genes. 10,000 mouse genes have been knocked out so far. This research, which has been going on for nearly 30 years now, sets the foundation for identifying the genes behind human diseases, targeting them, and one day straining them out of our genome.

Breakdown of this important research here.

Also, from the Scientist who made the above mouse, Shan Maika, when I requested permission to use this photo:

this mouse embryo was the result of crossing a transgenic mouse I made here at my facility (S100-rtTA) with a Tet-On/Lac Z mouse and then administering doxycycline (in the drinking water) to the mother during gestation. Below is what the student sent me when he gave me the picture to use on the website.

The LacZ transgene expressed in Schwann cells and visualized via histochemnistry for beta-galactosidase. We used the S100B-promoter (a glial selective promoter) to drive the expression of the reverse transcription Trans-activator (rtTA). Because this system is base on the Tet-On conditional gene expression system (Fruth et al., 1996….I think)all I have to do is feed these animals tetracycline or one of its derivatives (ie Doxycycline) to activate transcription of LacZ in the Schwann cells.

– Shan Miaka, Mouse Genetic Engineering Facility

The Nobel Prize in Literature

Congratulations Doris Lessing, “that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism[sic], fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation[sic] to scrutiny,” for winning the The Nobel Prize in Literature 2007! The award recognizes her lifetime of works, which encompass feminist, communist, psychological, and Sufist themes.

I am not personally familiar with her work, but one title that jumped out at me was Canopus in Argos, a five-book science fiction series that deals with “forced evolution” as wikipedia describes it, and “studies the post-atomic war development of the human species” as Doris Lessing’s Bio and Bibliography describes it. All but the first book is currently out of print. You can bet these books will all be back at the presses post haste.

Her name also has a nice assonance (or is it alliteration?) with the name of another great mind, Lawrence Lessig, but this quote endears her to my heart:

“…in science fiction is some of the best social fiction of our time. I also admire the classic sort of science fiction, like Blood Music, by Greg Bear. He’s a great writer.”

Blood Music is one of my all-time favorite science fiction novels. You rock Lessing!

Economic Sciences

Cournot Game with Three Competitors

Congratulations Eric Maskin, Roger Myerson, and Leonid Hurwicz (who at 90 is the oldest person to recieve a Nobel), for each winning 1/3rd of the The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences 2007, “for having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory.”

Only Republicans and Democrats describe our economies in black and white socialist and capitalist terms, dishonestly circumventing the reality that all markets are mixtures of strategies. Socialist roads are preferable to capitalist ones, market competition promotes more innovation and progress than monopolization, and Health Insurance’s third party payment systems just sucks ass all around.

Determining when regulation, taxation, privatization, voluntary charity, auctions, and other market architectures and solutions provide the best solutions to different market situations is the basis of Mechanism Design Theory, and the field appears to rely heavily on game theory for its research and insights.

Information for the public about this field here (PDF).

Scientific Background here (PDF).

DNA Helix worked out by James Watson and Francis Crick in Cambridge.

I’ve posted a science fiction short story, The Noble Mutant, to Oort-Cloud. Here’s a snippet:

“Technically you’re a parasite,” I shot back. “You implant fertilized eggs in the female uterus, a clone of yourself. You’re like a cuckoo, putting your egg inside another bird’s nest, forcing our women to raise your offspring, who will grow up to exploit other women. That’s parasitic.”

“Technically,” Daniel corrected without a hint of animosity, “we are exoparasitoids, and it’s not something we are ashamed of.”

---

“You know you don’t have to do this,” I said, trying to bring Sarah out of her trance for the third time. “A proxy signatory is perfectly legal for this kind of contract.”

She had spent the entire flight staring out the window at the endless expanse of ocean below, or maybe it was endless space above. Although it looked like we were in outer space to me, our trajectory placed us barely within the bounds of what was considered sub-orbital. As fantastic a view this afforded Sarah in the window seat, it was one she was accustomed to and I knew her preoccupation with it was subterfuge for the heavy thoughts weighing on her mind.

“Legal, but unprofessional,” Sarah shook her head, staying focused on the world outside. “I’ve worked with Daniel for over a decade now. He’s a decent person and I owe him the respect that comes with a face-to-face business deal.”

“And the risk?” I prompted.

Her eyes flashed disappointment at me and I immediately curled up inside, but tried to remain outwardly cool, “Risk is my department Todd. I’ve been working with Daniel for years via video conferencing mediums.”

“See, that’s the part that concerns me,” I began cautiously, trying not to sound jealous. “In video conference negotiations you two are on equal footing. Your negotiation skills give you a decisive edge over him actually. But in close-quarters, the power he wields—“

She held up her hand to stop me, “Just because his mutation gives him such power, doesn’t mean he’s the kind of person to abuse it. Besides, all of the contract details were worked out months ago, this is a mere formality.”

“I understand, but consider what he is—“

“I trust him,” she assured me. “Whatever happens in to me in his presence, I know he won’t take advantage of the situation. This isn’t our first time coming into close physical proximity of each other.”

I wanted to bring his inherited wealth into the discussion. The billions of dollars Daniel’s father had amassed as a self-made man were inarguably the result of his genetic advantage over the opposite sex. He not only seduced wealth out of the hundred-plus women, but offspring as well, a whole island full of them.

“I asked for you to come along,” Sarah said, “because I trust you too. I know it’s only a few minutes, but I hope you understand.”

“I was a teenage boy once,” I smiled reassuringly. “I think I know a little something about raging hormonal responses.”

She cracked a genuine smile and for once in my life I knew I had finally scored a few conversational points with this beautiful woman. I tried to savor the moment as she returned to the window, lost in thought.

My ability to flirt with women was inversely proportional to their attractiveness. A woman as stunning as Sarah was so intimidating it stripped me of all but my most professional demeanor. I suspected that was why she asked for me specifically on this business transaction. She considered me neutered; although, that was light-years from the truth. I considered her the perfect woman, but I lacked the casual wit to win a mind like hers over.

Our resumed silence was now uncomfortable for me, but she was unaware. She was completely detached from the present. Her mind was so focused on what awaited her on the ground.

“Our decent will begin shortly,” the lone stewardess thankfully brought me out of my meditation on Sarah. “I’ll need to collect your drinks before reentry eliminates gravity in the cabin.”

I handed my untouched bourbon and water over to her and then passed Sarah’s diet soda over as well. We were the only passengers on this flight. Even without Government restrictions on travel to the island, technically a country, there was little demand to visit a nation of mutants.

My insides adjusted as we began reentry. I quickly nabbed Sarah’s pen from the air in front of her as it floated away. She took no notice.

I used the opportunity to soak in her profile. Her soft features were accented against the window, where space was fading away and the curve of atmosphere split the sun’s rays into hues of blue. Far below, the Pacific Ocean was coming into clarity, but I was absorbing Sarah, who was absorbing her own internal conflicts.

* * *

“Our visas won’t allow us out of the airport,” Sarah was saying as we exited the shuttle. “Of course, being a woman I have no desire to leave the airport. I can’t imagine what traveling through a community of them must be like.”

I nodded, also unable to imagine it, “Scary, I suppose.”

“More like ecstasy,” she looked sideways at me, gauging my response. “Remember your raging juvenile hormones?”

I tried, but the time and place weren’t conducive to nostalgia. I noticed there was no one to greet us in the lobby. In fact, the whole airport was deserted.

“They’ve taken all the proper steps to accommodate me,” Sarah said, her stride clipped and purposeful. “You know the first time I came here, one of them had lingered in the airport too recent to my arrival and I got so hot I—“ She shut-up, blushing, and said, “Well… They were so embarrassed over it, and apologetic. They really are very gentlemanly.”

I said nothing, didn’t know what to say as usual. Once again I was painfully aware of how a more socially adept male would have some means of capitalizing on this situation with a tasteful joke, but I was not him.

“They only produce males,” Sarah noted solemnly after a few moments of marching in silence. “Without any women on the island they will go extinct in one generation.”

“It’s a pragmatic necessity,” I said. It was a sterile and scientific thing to say, but the best I could manage, “If their mutation were allowed to run free—“

“It would drive the human race to extinction,” Sarah cut me off, nodding her head in vigorous acknowledgment of the reality. “It doesn’t make it any less tragic.”

I winced, but was not allowed to dwell on my conversational blunder as we came to the conference room door. Sarah turned the handle and I followed her in.

The scene inside was casual. Recliners, tropical plants, and fine art made up the décor. Daniel stood in front of the lush sofa across the coffee table. He was stiff and obviously uncomfortable. He was an extremely short fellow, pale and somewhat disfigured. Not hideous, but far from attractive.

When we entered the meeting room he nodded his head once at both of us and muttered a brief greeting, but made no other motion. It was Sarah who stepped forward and offered her hand, which he seemed to take reluctantly.

“It’s good to see you again Daniel,” she said sincerely.

“As it is to see you,” he replied formally.

Sarah gestured to me, “This is my notary, Todd Pearson.”

Daniel had no problem offering me his hand, which I took firmly out of politeness with a nod, but said nothing. He looked to Sarah again and swallowed uncomfortably, gesturing for us to sit down. Once certain we were comfortable, he seated himself on the sofa. That’s when I noticed the large vent in the wall conspicuously placed behind him. It took me a moment to realize the fan was moving air out of the room, channeling the breeze toward himself and away from us. I found this setup incredibly considerate of him, and unexpected as well.

Daniel pretended to busy himself with reviewing an electronic copy of the contract as Sarah casually slipped a bottle of hand-sanitizer out of her jacket. She squeezed a dollop of the stuff out on the palm she used to shake Daniel’s hand and began wringing it thoroughly. I tried to think of something to lighten the uncomfortable situation, but nothing acceptable came to mind. A wry observation that could evoke a chuckle from both parties right this moment would certainly earn me more points with Sarah, but the situation was simply too bizarre.

“You’ll find things just as we discussed,” Sarah said, and I detected a slight tremble in her voice. She shifted in her seat, “The extensive list of charities will have their designated gifts bestowed should the last inhabitant of the Island—“

“When we all pass away,” Daniel corrected with a sympathetic smile. “There is no uncertainty there.”

“When that time comes,” Sarah shifted again, and her speech quickened pace. “When the last heir to your father’s fortune expires, the entire inheritance, $160 billion dollars, will be distributed according to the appropriate charities accord–according to your d-designations.”

“It’s all in order,” Daniel said without actually reviewing the contract. I could see he was more concerned with Sarah, who’s face was flushed and beads of sweat were breaking out on her forehead.

“This… thumbprint,” Sarah managed through heaving breaths, pressing her now-trembling thumb to the electronic document, “in the notary’s presence and your own, secures our contractual obligations.”

Daniel followed suit, pressing his thumb to the electronic document before him, “I give my consent to this last will and testament as accurately defining the handling of our nation’s estate.”

The tension in the room set me to work with an intensity I’d never felt before. There wasn’t much I could do except verify the results on the electronic display resting in my lap. I stared at it, tried to lose myself in it, anything to avoid the unspoken conflict going on inside Sarah sitting nearby.

Sarah’s heavy breathing paused and she let out a moan. My eyes remained fixated on the read out as the A’s, T’s, C’s and G’s were decoded out of the genetic samples and compared against the international database. I thought I could actually feel the heat radiating off of her, sense the blood boiling below her skin. I narrowed my eyes at the screen as if trying to will the results out of the program.

I reached out with one hand to take hers, “Almost done.”

She withdrew her hand as if the touch burned her. “Don’t,” she hissed.

I winced again, involuntarily. Mercifully, my computer verified Sarah as being herself and Daniel as being himself.

“By the power invested in me by the United Nations,” I announced uncomfortably, “I declare this document official.” I pressed my thumb to the screen to lock the will and file it away with the governing body.

Sarah stood up suddenly, trembling, “If you don’t mi–excuse me.”

Sarah strode out of the room. I detected a damp spot on the rear of her skirt, but averted my eyes respectfully. The situation might be funny were it not for the fact that Sarah was a close friend, and I knew how incredibly humiliating this must be for her.

This left me alone in the room with Daniel. With the overwhelmingly attractive female absent, I could feel my self-confidence restoring. Feelings of bitterness at my romantic ineptitude flooded in, and accompanying them was a rush of jealousy that focused on the mutant sitting a few feet away.

“You hate me,” Daniel said, and I looked at him. His eyes regarded me coolly. “I can tell your feelings go well beyond simple dislike.”

I shook my head negative, but did not answer immediately. I took a few long moments to sort out the reasons for my emotions, “It’s your genes I hate. You as a person, I admire.”

“So you both hate and admire me,” he corrected. “You hate the inanimate strings of proteins inside me, but not their end result sitting here before you? You can be honest. Anything you say won’t be anything I haven’t heard or read a hundred times before.”

“I–I hate the incredibly exploitive nature of your evolutionary adaptation,” I snapped. “I despise the fact that your pheromones have just driven my client into the bathroom, where she is certainly masturbating compulsively in an effort to satiate the raging lust your presence induces in all females of my species.”

“Your species,” he whispered sadly.

“Yes, mine,” I asserted. “The consensus among geneticists is that you are a new branch on the evolutionary tree.”

Daniel shrugged calmly and said, “Our species are able to cross-breed. So we are not such distantly related mammals as you think.”

“Technically you’re a parasite,” I shot back. “You implant fertilized eggs in the female uterus, a clone of yourself. You’re like a cuckoo, putting your egg inside another bird’s nest, forcing our women to raise your offspring, who will grow up to exploit other women. That’s parasitic.”

“Technically,” Daniel corrected without a hint of animosity, “we are exoparasitoids, and it’s not something we are ashamed of.”

“You shouldn’t be,” I said a little too hastily, and I averted my eyes, embarrassed at my outburst, my obvious display of prejudice. I had always prided myself on my open-mindedness, “It’s no different than any other birth-defe—hereditary predisposition. Like being short, or pale, or asymmetrical, or having poor skin…” I trailed off, frowning as I realized these were all qualities of the man sitting in front of me.

Daniel was obviously amused.

I cleared my throat, and after an uncomfortable pause said, “I’m not a bigot. I just resent the power life has just given you through an almost statistically impossible chance mutation.”

“Did you know some of the residents on this island have made a conscious decision to live as homosexuals?” Daniel seemed to ask me out of nowhere.

I took a moment to process this. “Considering your entire female population is now past the age of retirement, I would say that’s a pragmatic way of fulfilling certain needs,” I replied coolly, and when Daniel’s eyebrows lowered at me knowingly, I added, “I wasn’t talking about sexual appetites. Cohabitation provides community stabilization. Having a life partner means having someone to lean on and be leaned on. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Many of us have undergone sexual reassignment surgeries,” Daniel added, watching me, measuring my reaction to this news.

My ethical belief in multi-culturalism dictated I not pass judgment, but I did wince involuntarily at this revelation, “How… are the rest coping?”

“Each in their own way,” Daniel softened. “An island full of quarantined mutants waiting out extinction. We don’t have the option of passing on our genes, so we work on passing on our ideas. We write, create artworks, conduct research… We have our father’s fortune to play with. Maybe with it we’ll be able to leave a deeper mark on history than as a genetic case study.”

“That’s… healthy,” I managed to say.

The corners of Daniel’s mouth tweaked upward with sympathy for my awkward position, “I’m only telling you this so you will know that life has not exactly rewarded us.” His eyes flashed at the door, and I could hear approaching footsteps, “It’s lonely. Imagine how lonely it will be for the last of us.”

Sarah returned, her face flush, dabbing at the sweat beads on her forehead with a handkerchief. She was breathless, but had recaptured some of her composure, “I appreciate your patience gentlemen. Daniel, I believe this concludes our business.”

Daniel and I stood up. Sarah offered him her hand, but he pretended not to notice, “Thank you Sarah. Your coming here means a great deal to myself and my brothers. Especially concerning a matter of such gravity.”

Sarah let her hand drop to her side, “I appreciate the trust you have placed in me.”

“Best wishes for a long and happy life then,” Daniel said.

“Best…” Sarah frowned, trailing off. “Yes… Thank you.”

Daniel nodded, beaming and Sarah turned to leave the room. Daniel turned to me and took my right hand in both of his, squeezing with far more pressure than was appropriate. I tried not to betray my confusion at this gesture.

“Best wishes for a long and happy life for yourself Mr. Pearson,” he said in a conspiratorially hushed tone accompanied with a knowing smile I could not understand.

I nodded once, extracted my hand from his massaging grip, and followed my client back to the waiting shuttle.

* * *

“You know,” Sarah said after a while and I noticed she had brought Daniel’s picture up on her personal computer, “while I was in there, I thought he was the most attractive man in the world. The longer I’m away from his presence, the less attractive he becomes. The pale skin and black eyes… His disproportions… Lack of symmetry. He’s actually quite ugly.”

I knew I had a responsibility to say something to lighten the mood, something to play down the awkwardness, but I said nothing. I just stared at the picture of the ugly little man, and soon realized I didn’t need to say anything. I just needed to be there for her, and I was.

“Infatuation–,” Sarah shook her head. “Lust is a funny thing. How it colors our perceptions. Like how a woman’s menstrual cycles affect what she finds attractive in a male.”

“It affects men in the same way,” I said, thinking of my disastrous ex-wife, who I’d married with a head still swimming in passion and fell out of love with just one year later. “Those raging hormones can override all common sense, make us sacrifice security for dangerous behaviors. People go to prison for letting their lust rule their heads.”

“Thank you for coming with me,” Sarah put her hand on mine and my skin tingled with the rush of warmth that followed. “A lesser man might have taken advantage of the situation… and I don’t just mean sexually. I was in mental state easily manipulated.”

“I never got to tell Daniel why I admired him,” I noted after a moment, watching the island finally vanish into the vast expanse of ocean below.

“You told him you admired him?” Sarah asked, lifting her head from my shoulder.

I nodded, “I don’t think he registered it, but I do really. As much as I hate the quaternary sequence of his DNA, I dearly respect the mind riding along in that body. To wield such powers of procreation, to know that opportunity exists with any woman in the world, just for the taking, and not act on it.”

“It makes men born with the rapist genes seem all the more weak-willed,” Sarah supplied neutrally.

“Such an ingenious evolutionary adaptation,” I added, “thwarted by the conscientious objection of a human mind.”

Sarah paused and tilted her head to find my eyes, “You realize what you just said.”

I met hers and nodded, “And they are. They’re letting their mutation go extinct to prevent its destroying the human race. I’d say such an altruistic act of sacrifice to benefit our species makes them honorary members of the tribe.”

“You don’t know half of it,” her eyes went distant, and flashed brief sorrow. I would soon discover what I thought was weighing so heavily on her mind was really only a miniscule fraction of the whole story.

* * *

The bustling terminals at Norfolk International were a stark contrast to the island’s deserted airport. I escorted Sarah to Customs. My passage back into America was rather straightforward, a quick check for banned fruit and plants and I was on my way. Here Sarah faced another ordeal.

She turned to me suddenly as we stood in line for processing, “Todd, I was thinking on the trip back here, about what a pillar of stability you are… and not a half-bad looking one at that. Would you like to have coffee with me tonight? Get to know one another outside of a professional setting?”

My eyes must have widened appreciatively, because she laughed and took my sleeve absentmindedly. I said lamely, “I would like that.”

She nodded, apparently comfortable with my awkwardness. It was as if she were seeing me for the first time, “Six o’clock then?”

“Yes,” it was all I could manage.

“Sarah Oliver?” a man in a white lab coat called out, and we both looked toward him.

“Great,” Sarah said and started walking over to the old man. She turned around, walking backwards, and gestured to him over her shoulder with one thumb, “Word of warning, I don’t know how good a mood I’ll be in. I’ve got a date with the government gynecologist that I’m not looking forward to,” she grinned and shook her head. “They’re not paid to be gentle. So be prepared to be patient if I’m in a foul mood.”

I merely nodded, “I’ll see you at six.”

She nodded, still beaming at me and strode off, casting one last glance at me over her shoulder before disappearing through the clinic door.

I decided I needed a drink, and was conveniently standing in an airport, where bars were plentiful. I surveyed my surroundings and decided on the closest pub. It was filled with weary travelers waiting out the time between transfer flights. I ordered a bourbon and water, and then made it a double knowing my body had plenty of time to process the alcohol before my date that evening.

“Those poor mutant freaks,” I overheard the bartender telling a nearby patron. “I’d kill myself too if I was stranded on an island without any chance of getting some tail.”

“Not the proper kind anyway,” the patron said with a goofy grin between sips.

I frowned and focused on the scrolling closed-caption feed accompanying the news report. Daniel’s entire island of mutant Don Juan’s had committed suicide, and Sarah knew it was coming.

The Will I had notarized suddenly held a much deeper meaning. Billions of dollars allocated to various charities across the world. The mutants, quarantined out of society, were buying their way back into it through an incredible singular act of sacrifice. They were heroes to the human race.

“Bunch of rich brats enjoying a tropical paradise bought off the hard work of others,” a buttoned-up 20-something was telling the bartender, who was smiling and nodding in agreement. “The world won’t register the loss.”

“And what do you do for a living?” I demanded, and both their heads whipped around to me.

“I’m a political consultant,” the kid replied with self-importance.

“Social parasite,” I spat and downed me drink. I pointed at the bartender and commanded, “Another.”

The bartender returned with another double in a thick, uncomfortable silence. The fellow sitting nearby got up and left without another word, having only finished half his drink. I smiled inwardly, but maintained a stern, warning expression to keep the bartender in line.

I considered my right hand, which I had not washed since shaking Daniel’s, imagining the pheromones lingering there. I frowned, realizing what it had recently gained me, and wondered if I would have the willpower to wash it before our six o’clock date. The answer came moments later, when I rubbed the palm into the other, and pressed them both into my cheeks, massaging slowly. I was only human after all.

I raised my glass to the flat screen in a silent toast to the island pictured in its top-right corner over the news anchor’s shoulder.

To better souls than I, I thought and downed my glass.

Incoherent letters to the editor are expressing outrage over the rumors about Al Gore’s nomination. Damian Thompson brought up the tired old argument that Al Gore produces greenhouse gases by existing (which are preferable to the plague of mind-numbing stupidity Thompson’s columns invoke in his readers). Faux News commentators were practically falling over one another to portray the possibility as a vast liberal conspiracy (also see here and here (And remember, They report, you decide!).

But the fact that the very same people whose ideology has made the United States less-safe and increased animosity toward Americans all over the world are outraged that the former Vice President is a contender for the Nobel Peace Prize is not enough to justify awarding it (Although, their fury does warm my heart!). It’s also important that all this lobbying for Al Gore to take it could backfire, and prompt the Nobel committee to chose someone else. MSNBC notes that most Nobel Peace Prize winners are awarded after they’ve hit their peak.

At this point, Al Gore’s list of accomplishments is so great the Nobel Peace Prize would be superfluous. The man was the most influential politician in the development of the Internet (and never said he invented it as some urban legends claim), in 2005 Gore was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award “for three decades of contributions to the Internet” at The Webby Awards, and his recent book The Assault on Reason stresses the importance of the Internet in the cross-pollination of ideas and promoting democracy.

He’s got 24 accomplished years in politics. He served in Vietnam despite his opposition to the war and an opportunity to serve in the National Guard instead. Today he’s focused on educating the public and informing policy on Climate Change.

Al Gore doesn’t have to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The man totally #$&%ing rocks enough all ready without it.

Even if Gore does win the prize, it won’t prompt him to run for President. To do so would actually detract from his cause and vindicate all those rabid wingnuts who think his environmental concerns are just a ploy to win public office. Just like his humorous attempt to declare his intention to run for President at the Academy Awards was part of his nefarious plot to win in 2008 (Satire Alert!).

Gore has much more power and freedom presently than he would as an elected official, and he will accomplish even more serving in our next president’s cabinet. Al Gore is America’s unofficial ambassador to the world, and he’s loving it. #&%$ poly-tics.

As for the liberal conspiracy network (the ominous fourth part of the insidious Axis of Evil), the Herald Tribune dispels some of the myths Faux News is propagating about the Nobel Peace Prize being so easily influenced.

Besides. Al Gore winning the prize would be vastly more defendable than Rush Limbaugh (not satire alert!).

Today is Powers of 10 Day, 10/10/2007, which is a famous film made by Charles and Ray Eames in 1977 that takes the viewer from a picnic scene, off of Earth, out of the Solar System, galaxy, and into deep space. It’s a film concept that has been often repeated in films like Men in Black and Contact, the “God-Perspective Crane Shot.”

It’s a great film, one that stresses our place in a Universe, which is much vaster in size than our ancestors figured, yet smaller than what many of us Space Age kids thought it would be.

Google Video has the film here.

The Simpsons also did a tribute to this film.

See also the IMAX Cosmic Voyage for a modern, computer-enhanced version of this film narrated by Morgan Freeman, and he played god in a couple of movies, you know, and narrated March of the Penguins, so right there you know this short film is going to make you pee your pants with awe.

First a list of resources for teachers.

Base number system and culinary complaints aside (Hat tip to flyingsirkus), the English Imperial System is a complicated, verbose, bloated system of measurement that contributes to mathematical and scientific illiteracy in America. Using dual systems, standard for commoners, metric for scientists, cost us a $125 million Mars orbiter 1999.

Standard uses 14 different units to measure length (inch, foot, yard, mile, fathom, rod, furlong, league, mil, pole, perch, hand, link, chain). Converting between these different units requires a great deal of rote memorization, as there is nothing connecting the units. There are 12 inches in a foot (base-12?), three feet in a yard (12 X 3), and 1760 yards in a mile (no relation to three or 12). Metric may use a base-10 number system, which is not optimum, but Standard uses a a base-whatever number system, which is nonsensical.

Metric uses one unit for length, the meter combined with a prefix (micro, milli, centi, deci, deca, hecto, kilo, mega, etc… etc…). Measuring area, volume, mass, force, or whatever else you can think of works the same way: a root unit combined with a prefix. Units are related to one another as powers of ten, and we are already (almost) using metric in computing, where a 100,000 kilobytes equals 1,000 megabytes equals one gigabyte.

This post can only serve as food for thought, we still use QWERTY keyboards despite the development of more efficient layouts. So converting to a metric-based society is something that can only happen as our obsolete elders… you know… croak.

National Metric Week is brought to you by the U.S. Metric Association.

AOEUIDHTNS!!!

Got to check out this inspiring documentary last week, just in time for the 50^th anniversary of Sputnik 1. The film wisely skips the Cold War dimensions of the Space Race, an historical context today’s generation can’t really relate to, and probably shouldn’t bother to considering the U.S.S.R. turned out to be a paper tiger. Instead, the focus is on the wonder of space flight, its novelty and how it influenced American 60s culture and briefly made all countries one world.

The film also brought out a number of details I was unaware of surrounding the Apollo program. For instance, I never knew atheist leader Madalyn Murray O’Hair sued the Apollo 8 astronauts for reading aloud from Genesis during their mission. Or that a programming error “1202 program alarm” jeopardized the mission as the computer was unable to process both the landing and rendezvous data simultaneously and crashed.

In the event that the astronauts were unable to leave the Moon, Nixon was to read a contingency speech, which begins, “Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.” The rest of it is pretty inspiring too.

Buzz Aldrin is Peeing in this Photo

Equally inspiring is Buzz Aldrin’s admission that on his way down the ladder to take his first steps on the Moon, he paused for a moment to alleviate his bladder, a moment immortalized in this photo.

Today, October 6th, the world has used up all the natural resources the Earth can produce to sustain us for the year. This means that, until January 1, 2008, we are spending resources from our future and the future of our children:

Global Footprint Network today revealed October 6 is Ecological Debt day – the day when humanity has consumed all the resources the planet will produce this year. Data from Global Footprint Network and UK-based partner NEF (the new economics foundation) shows that starting in the mid 1980s humanity’s Ecological Footprint has been bigger than what the planet can supply, and we have been adding more to our ecological debt each year. … Today, with Ecological Dept day falling on October 6th, our overshoot is 30 percent.
– from the Global Footprint Network

Of course, this debt is not distributed equally. Some of us are consuming much more than our fair share of the Earth’s resources. How many Earths it would take to sustain everyone on the planet living at your quality of life?

“The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever.” – Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

When I was a toddler, my parents lived in Daytona Beach, Florida, and Cape Canaveral was just 70 miles south of us. From there, we could watch NASA’s rocket launches from our balcony. I can vaguely remember a night launch, when I got to see the first stage of a rocket fall back down to Earth, where it would splash down way off the coast in the Atlantic. It’s just a dim red dot in my memory; much stronger are my memories of the sense of awe I felt even at that young age.

Sputnik 1

It wasn’t awe, but fear that Americans felt fifty-years ago when Sputnik 1 became the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth. Earthling minds were too parochial, and perceived a dire threat rather than a milestone accomplishment. Instead of the human race being on the threshold of a new frontier, we had a foreign enemy who now had the power to drop bombs on us from space.

Luckily we evolved. After decades of military expansion competing against one another, the U.S. ended up defeating the U.S.S.R. with a McDonalds in Red Square, free enterprise was more powerful than military strength; however, the decades of our two countries burning the candle at both ends to conquer space has forever changed our perspective of ourselves in the Cosmos.

Four years after Sputnik 1, Russia would make Yuri Gagarin the first human to orbit the Earth, and 12 years later America would put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon. The view of Earth from space would completely change how human civilization viewed itself. The Earth hanging alone in the void stressed the precariousness and uniqueness in the Universe.

“Suddenly from behind the rim of the Moon… there emerges a sparkling blue and white jewel, a light, delicate sky-blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white, rising like a small pearl in a thick sea of black mystery. It takes more than a moment to fully realize this is Earth . . . home.” – Edgar Mitchell, astronaut, USA, 1971

Mars Rover Mission Patch

Today there are several hundred satellites in orbit, bringing weather and imaging, television, GPS, and phone signals. They have become a permant, ordinary part of our life. The Hubble Telescope has seen to the very edge of our Universe, while the WMAP data has shown us the shape of the early Universe.

For the last three years, we have followed Spirit and Opportunity along on their adventures on the planet Mars. In a way, they are better than having human explorers on Mars, because we see what they see, we collectively decide where they should go next, and the entire human race has come along for the ride.

We even have a satellite on its way out of our solar system. At the same distance from the Sun as Pluto (the planet Pluto), it turned around to take a few final photographs of our little neighborhood. Can you find the Earth in the following picture?

Pale Blue Dot Earth seen from 4 billion miles away Photo by Voyager 1, 1990.

How have we lost so much public interest in the “out there?” Why don’t we go back to the Moon? It’s the most logical place to start putting human beings. We can’t stay in the cradle forever.

Pale Blue Dot

Has space become so overwhelming that people simply can’t register it anymore?

The Awesome Phylotaxis Seed Portal

Seed Magazine, probably the most philosophical of science periodicals, has Announced the Winners for it’s essay contest on the topic of Science Literacy. I do need to take a moment to agree with this complaint about Seed’s failure to acknowledge submissions being pretty rude; with that being said, I did enjoy both winning entries. The winner, Scientific Literacy and the Habit of Discourse, was highly academic and enjoyably erudite, while second place, Camelot is Only a Model, was down to Earth and insightful. I recommend both essays, which are brief, fulfilling reads.

This also frees me up to post my entry (PDF):

An Age of Science

Just as people may grow addicted to exercise, sweets, drugs, or even mind-freezing self-righteous indignation, people come to crave that spine-tingling sense of awe that comes with discovery. Scientific Literacy is a state of mind where we fall in love with the immense, complex beauty of the world and want to spend the rest of our lives adventuring in it. The scientifically literate recognize the repeatable, quantifiable, and testable nature of truth (with a lower-case “t”), and our interactions with reality are clearer, and more practical for this insight.

We are the ones who see the programming code running reality and yearn to decompile it. We are keenly aware of the 13.7 billion-year chain of chance that led from our quarks condensing into our atomic nuclei, which captured our electrons, fusing hydrogen into helium into our carbon inside the forge of stars, cast out in supernovas and into the algorithm of natural selection that merged protobionts into bacteria into our mitochondria, powering single cells into somatic-cells, communing into organisms of growing complexity all the way up to our homo sapiens–we who are privileged to wonder, What’s it all about?

The Information Age has inundated us in a flood of data, and human minds are flailing to keep from drowning in it. To protect the integrity of our cognitive schemas, each one of us must learn to live the Scientific Method. Every new member of the Internet must unlearn the conditioned behavior of believing everything they read, to fact-check the urban legends and misleading rhetoric that clog our inboxes and Web searches, to challenge cherished ideas we have always taken for granted, to question question question. “The more we study the more we discover our ignorance,” as Percy Bysshe Shelley noted. The Internet has become the collective peer-review journal for the entire human race, a memepool where digitized ideas are forced into a survival of the fittest competition for mindshare in the mental ecosystems hosted in our brains.

Unfortunately the minds running this massively complex multi-cultural arena of conceptuals are still prone to our primate ancestors’ fascination with shiny objects. We are easily persuaded by emotive appeals vice rational ones. We have short attention spans and too many demands on our time to immerse ourselves in the complexities of anthropogenic climate change, the vast gray-area ethical conundrums of the emergent Genetic Engineering Revolution, or even thinking about the phenomenal implications of E=mc² and m=^E/_c2 beyond geeky plumage, intellectual mating calls on t-shirts.

In science there are foxes and hedgehogs, researchers who dart from one subject to the next and those who hunker down into one topic exclusively. The overwhelming majority of non-scientifically minded people are foxes. They channel-surf, consume their knowledge in sound bytes, and acclimate themselves to the advertising assault we are all subjected to everywhere we go. Typical people perceive all scientists as hedgehogs. This is because, to most people, science is a single subject, and this is technically correct. Science is a single subject, the subject of everything.

Far too often, scientists are the ones who pigeonhole science. They work to narrow and restrict the scope of what constitutes “true” science. Economics isn’t science, but Complexity Theory is. Psychiatry isn’t science, but Neuroscience is. Politics isn’t science, but Memetics is. If sub-atomic particles make atoms, which make molecules, which make cells, which make people, which make minds, which make societies, how can anything not ultimately answer to science?

Proselytizing science is far too important to be left in the hands of scientists. Scientific Literacy is everyone’s responsibility. When we exist, we agree, consensually or otherwise, to live by the laws of this Universe. We must submit to the processes of biology, work within the dictates of chemistry, and obey the laws of physics whether we want to or not. People must deal with reality, and therefore science, every moment of being.

This makes each and every one of us scientists, and loosening the rules up a bit, recognizing everyone as scientists, even if they lack the publications, discoveries, education, or other credentials, will proactively work to promote scientific literacy. Ivory towers of authoritarianism are anathema to scientific progress, which is the most democratic of all disciplines, where every challenge to the establishment, no matter how trivial or unqualified its source, must be satisfactorily elucidated. As Sir Arthur Conan Doyle observed, “There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.”

Too many people concerned with the public understanding of science today use standardized testing, the measure of individual minds to independently recall specific facts on the spot, as the criterion for literacy. They are misplacing their focus. Scientific Literacy is a state of mind, an attitude, not a collection of facts in one’s head. It is less important to know Carbon’s atomic number is six than it is to know that this characteristic of the atom, and many more, are easily accessed on a Periodic Table.

The exercise of reading, even reading poorly, brings children into literacy. An open dialogue, brimming with scientific inaccuracies and ignorance, will bring amateur scientists into the habit of scientific thinking. Facts do not change because people believe inaccuracies. The facts are always there, nestled safely in reality, unchanging and waiting patiently for people to discover and rediscover them. We all have a responsibility to help others see farther “by standing on the shoulders of giants,” as Newton did, and experience reality’s breath-taking view.

The fruits of science fill our lives, but so few appreciate it. Today Agricultural science fed billions of people across the globe. Medical science saved millions of lives. Physical and Chemical sciences enhanced quality of life with computers, cars, and a plethora of other modern conveniences. Information science expanded our digital cosmos more than half a million terabytes. Evolutionary science scribed the eons’ worth of our ancestors’ epic adventures preceding our few scant millennia of recorded history. Astronomy took us to the outermost boundary of our universe, while Quantum Physics hinted that other universes might lie beyond it.

“Invention breeds invention,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. Science only gets better the more you know about it. We must awaken people to that critical mass of scientific understanding, where they begin to hunger for more and set off adventuring for themselves. John Lennon said, “A dream you dream together is reality,” and when a critical mass of scientific literacy emerges in our social consciousness, then the Information Age will give way to an Age of Science.

October was once Computer Learning Month, supported by the Computer Learning Foundation between 2000 and 2002. Apparently it’s now defunct, but I’m upset that I missed out on the fun, and, if you haven’t figured this out by now, I’m a sucker for modern-era holidays that serve as a celebration of scientific thought and Enlightenment Era ideals.

Plus, through the wonders of Googletubing and Webernetting, I was able to find all these cool educational materials for teaching kids about computers, posted in honor of this event, still archived online!

For instance, Crayola posted some cool coloring pages with all sorts of nifty fun facts. Did you know that we call programming errors “computer bugs” because in the early days of computing, real live bugs would get into the computer and short out the wiring! Actually, I think some of the old-timey programmers where I work told me about this, but I just rolled my eyes at them (“There goes gramps babbling about the ‘good old days.’ Probably forgot to take his anti-dementia pills again.”).

Apple has a great front page to a portal with teaser-descriptions of all sorts of great articles about how you can use computers to train teachers, let kids express themselves with digital video, promote scientific literacy, and a myriad of other ways computers can enhance education. Unfortunately, the teaser descriptions are all you get at this portal, because all the links are now dead. So Apple computers can go $%&# themselves for not paying the few pennies it would have cost them to keep what was probably at most 100kb of data available online. Jerks.

Anyways! On to happier items. Christopher Farms Elementary School, in Virginia Beach, has a super-dupper list of links to all sorts of jolly old interwebslinging sites with fun and games. I especially liked the It’s Raining Letter! typing game, it’s the bee’s knees! Not all of the links still work, but some of them do, which makes Christopher Farms Elementary School a whole lot cooler than those frakwits at Apple. Jerks.

The Home School Learning Network, for xenophobic parents who fear the possibility of their children developing social skills, has a list of online activities and information for parents and children to improve their sheltering skills. Because we all know, despite the Interweb’s vast seas of information, it is a “network,” which means it can be just as dangerous as going outside! Stay away from the evils of the Hello Kitty chatroom children! Stay far far away!

I did find a link to a memo stating Virginia Governor Gilmore issued a Certificate of Recognition for Computer/Technology Learning Month in Virginia. So technically I think Virginians are supposed to still be observing it, but then again, this was Gilmore, and he signed a lot of things he had no understanding of.

Anyways. There you have it, October is still Computer Learning Month as far as this blog is concerned, and I plan on using it as an excuse to post some of my experiences working in programming and also as an excuse to really, honestly for-real-this-time learn the Rules of Database Normalization (PDF) well enough to explain them here so that non-computer literate folks can understand them. There is a high probability you will never hear mention of this again.