Messing with the stoplight thieves

About a month ago I was traveling East on Manchester Road in St. Louis County, Missouri. I decided to make a right at New Ballwin Road but the light was red. I put on my brakes, slowed down to where my speedometer went to zero. I flipped on the signal, looked left and right and then made my turn. There was an officer several cars across from me as I made my turn and I had seen him as I stopped. I thought nothing of his presence until he hit his lights and pulled me over. The officer was completely professional and courteous as he wrote me a ticket for not coming to a complete stop before making my right turn on red. I asked the officer whether he was a traffic officer or a regular patrol officer and he identified himself as a traffic officer. You see, traffic officers are those which choose to lay about in wait for giving tickets to unsuspecting alleged lawbreakers. Traffic officers do not arrest burglars, robbers or kidnappers or such unless there’s no one else to call upon for assistance. Traffic officers write tickets which generate revenues and make the city not have to raise other taxes or fees for their citizens. The ticket was allegedly for my not making any “complete cessation from movement” before making the right turn. I explained to the officer that I had ceased all forward momentum, turned on my signal, looked around and safely made my turn and that as for any “complete cessation from movement,” that was not possible in our physical universe. The officer and I debated the language of the ordinance, which he said was not as I had told him. Some readers know that I am an attorney. The whole “complete cessation from movement” thing seems like a scam so I did a little research. It seems that any “complete cessation from movement” actually does not naturally occur in our universe. At approximately - 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Kelvin) molecular motion is slowed to its minimum but, such motion never stops. [More . . . ]

Continue ReadingMessing with the stoplight thieves

Evolution imprisoned in biology classrooms

David Sloan Wilson is an evolutionary biologist who teaches in the Department of Anthropology at Biology Binghamton University. He has long been a champion of multi-level selection theory, and he boldly applied his research and findings to human conduct, boldly going where many biologists hesitate to go, based upon a well-documented history of derision aimed at scientists who dare to study human beings as though they were animals subject to natural selection. This, despite the fact that humans clearly are animals that are subject to the forces of natural selection. Today, I spotted an excellent video of an October 30, 2009 talk that David Sloan Wilson gave following the publication of his book, "Evolution for Everyone." The video lasts almost one hour. I previously posted extensively on his book here. I've posted on other aspects of his work here and here . Wilson opens his clear, insightful, sometimes blunt and oftentimes humorous talk by announcing that higher education has an "evolution problem." The problem is that many in academia resist applying modern scientific biological findings to their own disciplines, even though these biological findings would be highly relevant. Wilson thus refers to the Ivory Tower as the "Ivory Archipelago." Darwin anticipated the broad scope of his theory, but many teachers in the humanities refuse to have anything to do with well-substantiated principles of biology, even modern findings would be highly informative to their fields of study. [More . . . ]

Continue ReadingEvolution imprisoned in biology classrooms

Meteorite in the garden

I think it's so utterly cool that this married couple discovered that the big rock decorating their garden was a meteorite that started its journey to Earth half a billion years ago. I write this post full well knowing that meteorites commonly strike our planet: there have been 1,086 meteorite "falls" (witnessed impacts) and 38,660 meteorite "finds" in the history of our planet. I once had the privilege to view the Barringer Crater in Arizona, a crater extending .73 miles in diameter caused by a meteorite impact only 40,000 years ago. I tend to think of the Earth as stable and the meteorites are striking us. The truth is that all of us are streaking through space on a huge rock we call Earth. It's equally amazing that the solar system once did not exist and that it will one day cease to exist. We are privileged to be cognizant of this amazing tour of space, passengers who are lucky to be alive and lucky to be conscious of this experience, all of us touring on the skin of our planet. All of this constitutes the most amazing and true story ever, but I've never yet read any of this in any newspaper headline.

Continue ReadingMeteorite in the garden

We’re letting our children down.

Look what advertising has so often come to: img_2567The advantage of going with this company is that they won't hit you with "hidden fees." They won't cheat you. Much food packaging and advertising is comparable. We won't poison you with strange chemicals! Zero grams of trans fats! All natural!

America... just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable.

- Hunter S. Thompson

But it gets worse. In our schools we work hard to teach our children civility and kindness. For instance, take a look at this wonderful set of "Rules to Live By" displayed at New City School, in St. Louis Missouri. Who could possibly dispute the importance of any of these rules? These characteristics precisely describe the kinds of children we want to raise, right?

img_2593

Now consider the accusations that we commonly hear as the centerpiece of media stories, especially political media stories. They are full of untruths, untrustworthy characters, refusal to listen and tons of vicious put-downs. Our conflict-pornography obsessed news media works hard every day to undo the lessons we so carefully teach our children. There is something terribly wrong with us. Fixing this lack of truth and civility should be one of our highest priorities. One easy suggestion is to turn off the television or radio whenever they report fake news that is really conflict pornography. Label it as not-news and just shut it off. Or, better yet, switch over to real news like Democracy Now with Amy Goodman, where you'll hear truth from a trustworthy reporter, who will actively listen to her guests and offer absolutely no put downs.

Continue ReadingWe’re letting our children down.