My Fractal Cousin Poses to Allow me to Test my New Canon R6 Camera

I'm experimenting with my new camera, a mirrorless Canon R6. My fractal cousin, a next door neighbor posed for this photo to allow me to test resolution.

What is more amazing? New camera technology that can capture fractal branches so well? Or the fact that trees and human beings had a common ancestor who lived about 385 million years ago?  Or that the offspring of beings that evolved into trees invented an extremely high tech camera?  Or that one of those far-distant offspring pointed this high tech camera at a tree and became self-reflective.

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Your Inner Fish For the Holidays!

You've seen all of those standard fare Christmas shoes over and over.  It's time to shake things up this holiday season.  Instead of watching predictable shows, or a show with a ghastly ending, the Grinch that Stole Christmas, open your mind and take a look at this much-stranger-than-fiction trilogy created by biologist Neil Shubin. These informative and entertaining shows are available at no charge at PBS.

Episode I - Your Inner Fish
https://www.pbs.org/video/your-inner-fish-program-your-inner-fish-2/

Episode 2 - Your Inner Reptile
https://www.pbs.org/video/your-inner-fish-program-your-inner-reptile/

Episode 3 - Your Inner Monkey
https://www.pbs.org/video/your-inner-fish-your-inner-monkey/

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Race Conscious “Solution” to the Limited Supply of COVID Vaccines

I've often argued that we need to refocus, to consciously move back toward the central mission of Martin Luther King:

“I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

~From MLK's “I have a dream” speech

It's distressing to see so many loud voices arguing for the opposite, demanding that we need to become ever more conscious of "race" and claiming that we have made no meaningful progress since the Civil War or since the early 1960s.

Basing anything on "race" is always a massively erroneous and ultimately destructive miscategorization.  It will lead to endless strife and mistrust because "race" tells us nothing meaningful about any of the people with whom we share this planet. There is only one way to get to know each other: Taking the time to learn about each other, one at a time. Using "race" as a proxy as a shortcut for this hard work is inevitably destructive. In its simplistic detachment from real-world facts, sorting people based on "color" is akin to basing public policy on phrenology or astrology.

The above is a short prelude for a recent proposal regarding prioritizing people for the COVID vaccine, pointed out by Andrew Sullivan:

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