Zooming in on the beach

Earlier, I posted on Powers of Ten. I've long been fascinated by the way numerous relatively similar things can aggregate into macro patterns such as the crisscross that you can see in the photo to the right. Naturally occurring pattern like this abound on the beach.

How is it that sand dunes can naturally form out of random sand grains and random wind? Just because it's difficult to explain doesn't mean that it doesn't happen, of course.

The warm-up act of this post consists of three photos I recently took on a beach. First you see the "sand," then you focus in to see the individual grains of sand. Every one of those grains is different, even though they each look the same from a distance. They are a lot like people in that regard.

The above photos are mere warm up act for this wonderful, mind-stretching display of smallness and largeness. I realize that I featured this display in an earlier post, but it is that well done.

Continue ReadingZooming in on the beach

Just a reminder…

...that we live in a country where it is necessary to draft legislation which would prevent the government from killing you without due process. H.R. 6010, introduced by Dennis Kucinich, would prohibit anyone (including the President) from the extrajudicial killing of an American citizen. It includes this handy reminder of just how far we've come from our foundational principles:

Sec. 2. (1): due process of law is a fundamental principle in the United States Constitution, the United States has a commitment to the principles included in the Bill of Rights, and no United States citizen, regardless of location, can be ‘deprived of life, liberty, property, without due process of law’, as stated in Article XIV of the Constitution

Continue ReadingJust a reminder…

Promiscuous Teens Earn Barely Lower Grades

It's all in how you present a subject. A recent study currently making its way through reportage shows a slight negative correlation between number of sex partners and GPA in high school. The headlines depend on who you read. Some headlines (linked to the articles) for example: Survey: Sex affects grades and Teen sex doesn't cause bad grades and Teen Sex Not Always Bad for Grades all cite the same study presented to the American Sociological Association in Atlanta yesterday. The American Family Council declared that the study confirms the negative link between teenage sexuality and academic performance. It really doesn't. There was no academic difference between abstinent kids and those who have committed relationships including sex. But girls in the promiscuous hook-up crowd earned GPA's of 0.16 points less than virgins. That's about 1/3 of the way between an A and an A-. Horrors. But everyone knows that the adolescent emotional problems that lead to promiscuity also tend to lead to bad grades. But that's just folk wisdom; common sense. Now there is an Actual Study to confirm the correlation. It's a pity that none of the coverage I've found links to the study itself.

Continue ReadingPromiscuous Teens Earn Barely Lower Grades

Big money causes President Obama to choke on net neutrality

Do you remember the way candidate Obama spoke out fervently in favor of net neutrality throughout his campaign? Check out this video compilation of some of his many pre-election pro-net-neutrality pronouncements. Guess what? Now that Google and Verizon have decided that a multi-tier non-neutral arrangement will help their profits statements, Obama is unwilling to fight back. Just as he failed to do regarding single payer health care. Just like he failed to do when Wall Street "reform" failed to address too-big-to-fail and failed to reinstate Glass-Steagall (and see here). Just like he did when the military-industrial complex insisted on ramping up U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan. Just like he fail to do as he continues to drag his feet on Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell. Now Obama is unwilling to fight back in support of net neutrality: "President Obama campaigned on net neutrality, and yet the White House has been surprisingly quiet on the issue since the breakdown of FCC negotiations and in the wake of Google and Verizon's joint policy proposal." President Obama has lost his voice regarding net neutrality even though

Joel Kelsey, political advisor with nonprofit media-reform group Free Press, "said the proposal would create "tollbooths on the information superhighway." "It's a signed, sealed and delivered policy framework with giant loopholes that blesses the carving up of the Internet for a few deep-pocketed Internet companies and carriers," he said in a statement.
In the midst of all of this hypocrisy, Obama's Press Secretary Robert Gibbs unloaded on the "professional left," insisting that " “They will be satisfied when we have Canadian healthcare and we’ve eliminated the Pentagon. That’s not reality.” How about this, Mr. Gibbs? Barack Obama has repeatedly proven that he would rather have any sort of deal than a deal that achieves the principles Mr. Obama announced in his campaign speeches. Obama achieved some good things too, but how is anything mentioned at the top of this post differ from anything john McCain would have done? Except, perhaps, when he called the health care bill "reform" instead of calling it the "send gushers of tax money and forced clientele to the health insurance industry." The above-described failures didn't occur in a vacuum. We also seen his refusal to bring American torturers to justice. We've seen expansion of off-shore oil drilling. He's authorized remote-controlled drone attacks on Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen, where these are conducted by the CIA, and in which numerous civilians have been killed, and we have good reason to believe that many other deaths of innocent people have been covered up. I voted for Barack Obama, but I'm sorely disappointed. Not that there was any other reasonable place to put my vote. From now one, though, I am going to judge Barack Obama solely by what he does, not by his elegant campaign speeches. For additional trustworthy information on the Google-Verizon deal, see this list of articles at Free Press.

Continue ReadingBig money causes President Obama to choke on net neutrality