Christopher McKitterick's Blog, page 16
January 28, 2013
Astro-Porn of the Day: Teacher Finds Hidden Hubble Treasure
This just in:
A Connecticut high-school astronomy teacher has uncovered a dazzling view of a nearby galaxy while exploring the "hidden treasures" of the Hubble Space Telescope. Here's where he started, the original Hubble shot:
Click the image to see the Space.com article.
The photo shows an star nursery spotted with dark dust lanes in the Large Magellanic Cloud - an irregular companion galaxy to our Milky Way Galaxy - about 200,000 light-years from Earth. As the Milky Way’s gravity gently tugs on our neighbor’s gas clouds, they collapse to form new stars. In turn, these light up the gas clouds in a kaleidoscope of colors.
Josh Lake, a high school astronomy teacher at Pomfret School in Pomfret, Conn., as part of the "Hubble Hidden Treasures" contest that challenged space fans to find unseen images from the observatory. Lake won first prize in the Hubble photo contest with an image of the LHA 120-N11 (N11) region of the Large Magellanic Cloud. Hubble officials combined Lake's image with more observations of the N11 region in blue, green, and near-infrared light to create this new image:
Click the image to see the Space.com article.
From NASA: "In the center of this image, a dark finger of dust blots out much of the light. While nebulae are mostly made of hydrogen, the simplest and most plentiful element in the universe, dust clouds are home to heavier and more complex elements, which go on to form rocky planets like the Earth."
Look at all those baby stars! Just wanted to start everyone's week off with some pretty.
Now I'm off to take a look at the scholarship hall KU Housing suggests we use for this summer's CSSF Speculative Fiction Writing Workshops (short-fiction workshop here, novel workshop here) - we're taking applications now, so if you or someone you know is interested, it's time to apply!
Chris
A Connecticut high-school astronomy teacher has uncovered a dazzling view of a nearby galaxy while exploring the "hidden treasures" of the Hubble Space Telescope. Here's where he started, the original Hubble shot:
Click the image to see the Space.com article.
The photo shows an star nursery spotted with dark dust lanes in the Large Magellanic Cloud - an irregular companion galaxy to our Milky Way Galaxy - about 200,000 light-years from Earth. As the Milky Way’s gravity gently tugs on our neighbor’s gas clouds, they collapse to form new stars. In turn, these light up the gas clouds in a kaleidoscope of colors.
Josh Lake, a high school astronomy teacher at Pomfret School in Pomfret, Conn., as part of the "Hubble Hidden Treasures" contest that challenged space fans to find unseen images from the observatory. Lake won first prize in the Hubble photo contest with an image of the LHA 120-N11 (N11) region of the Large Magellanic Cloud. Hubble officials combined Lake's image with more observations of the N11 region in blue, green, and near-infrared light to create this new image:
Click the image to see the Space.com article.
From NASA: "In the center of this image, a dark finger of dust blots out much of the light. While nebulae are mostly made of hydrogen, the simplest and most plentiful element in the universe, dust clouds are home to heavier and more complex elements, which go on to form rocky planets like the Earth."
Look at all those baby stars! Just wanted to start everyone's week off with some pretty.
Now I'm off to take a look at the scholarship hall KU Housing suggests we use for this summer's CSSF Speculative Fiction Writing Workshops (short-fiction workshop here, novel workshop here) - we're taking applications now, so if you or someone you know is interested, it's time to apply!
Chris
January 25, 2013
Astro-Porn of the Day: Vela Supernova Remnant
Because BEAUTIFUL:
Click the image to see the NASA page.
About 11,000 years ago, a star in the constellation Vela exploded, creating a flash of light briefly visible to humans living near the beginning of our recorded history. The outer layers of the star collided into interstellar gas and dust, driving a shock wave still visible today, as you can see in the photo above. The resulting dramatic nebula spans almost 100 light years and appears 20 times the diameter of the full Moon from our POV. As gas rockets away from the exploded star, it decays and reacts with the interstellar stuff around it, producing light in many colors and energy bands. At the center of the Vela Supernova Remnant glows a pulsar, a star as dense as matter can get, which rotates more than ten times per second.
Chris
Click the image to see the NASA page.
About 11,000 years ago, a star in the constellation Vela exploded, creating a flash of light briefly visible to humans living near the beginning of our recorded history. The outer layers of the star collided into interstellar gas and dust, driving a shock wave still visible today, as you can see in the photo above. The resulting dramatic nebula spans almost 100 light years and appears 20 times the diameter of the full Moon from our POV. As gas rockets away from the exploded star, it decays and reacts with the interstellar stuff around it, producing light in many colors and energy bands. At the center of the Vela Supernova Remnant glows a pulsar, a star as dense as matter can get, which rotates more than ten times per second.
Chris
January 18, 2013
Tragedies, tiny and large.
Yesterday, when I got home from an all-day English Department strategic-planning meeting, I saw a dead squirrel. Someone had driven over it. This was distressing, because I've gotten attached to several neighborhood squirrels. Also, if one of these poor bastards is going to die, it should be in the talons of a hawk or something, not a senseless death beneath the mindless wheels of a car.
When I parked my scooter, I picked up the little dead thing from the road and placed it in the grass beneath a tree in front of my house. It was still warm, flexible, but very dead. I spent a few seconds examining it to see if this was one of the regulars, my "outdoor pets," but it showed no markings I recognized.
I wonder if its siblings will perform another squirrel funeral like they did last time.
*
And then, this morning, I witnessed another little urban-wildlife tragedy. A few days ago, I put a big, clear-topped, metal live-trap on my back porch. See, I've apparently been breeding mice by feeding the squirrels and birds. Baby mice are about some of the cutest things you'll ever see, darting out of cover just long enough to fetch a seed, than darting back under cover like a furry lightning-bolt. Heck, I've even made videos of the tiny things, and will share them soon. Just need to upload.
This morning, I saw that the live trap caught two little mouses since I checked yesterday. One had been dead for a while, the other had just died and was cuddling it, nose pressed on top of its dead sibling. The point of "live trap" is that you're supposed to be able to catch and release them (preferably in another neighborhood).
*
Finally, about two weeks ago, my grandmother Violet McKitterick died. She had been sick for a long time, living in a nursing home, but getting frequent visits from her five children, their partners, and even grandchildren. She hasn't been fully cognizant for a few years, but she seemed to enjoy the company. I thought I'd share a few of memories of my Grandma Vi:
When I was a little boy, especially before I started school or in the summers, I would often stay with Grandma Vi during the day when my parents were at work. I always looked forward to spending time with her. She was so kind and patient, letting me play with Matchbox cars all over the floor, or take apart old clocks or other things so I could figure out how they worked – even if they never did again.
Grandma Vi taught me to paint when I was barely old enough to hold a brush. I remember once, while she was doing rosemaling on the kitchen cupboards, I sat at the table and painted scrap pieces of wood in a similar style. One of these is still around somewhere. It says, "Violet is very beautiful."
In the hot summer when I had trouble falling asleep, Grandma would sometimes gently brush her fingernails along my back, giving me goosebumps so I felt cooler. It was such a comfort.
When I discovered she had played the accordion, I was so proud! It seemed like such a magical and complex instrument that surely she had to be a musical genius to be able to make that thing work.
Most of my earliest memories of Grandma Vi and Grandpa Harvey together were of them laughing and chasing one another around the house. She would laugh and say, "Oh, Harvey!" then giggle and swat at him. This ritual often ended with them scurrying off to the bedroom. They seemed so happy together. I still think of that as a model of how two people in love behave toward one another.
*
In other news, I'm still SWAMPED with new-course development. Sorry I've been away for so long! Now I've got to get back to work.
Best,
Chris
When I parked my scooter, I picked up the little dead thing from the road and placed it in the grass beneath a tree in front of my house. It was still warm, flexible, but very dead. I spent a few seconds examining it to see if this was one of the regulars, my "outdoor pets," but it showed no markings I recognized.
I wonder if its siblings will perform another squirrel funeral like they did last time.
*
And then, this morning, I witnessed another little urban-wildlife tragedy. A few days ago, I put a big, clear-topped, metal live-trap on my back porch. See, I've apparently been breeding mice by feeding the squirrels and birds. Baby mice are about some of the cutest things you'll ever see, darting out of cover just long enough to fetch a seed, than darting back under cover like a furry lightning-bolt. Heck, I've even made videos of the tiny things, and will share them soon. Just need to upload.
This morning, I saw that the live trap caught two little mouses since I checked yesterday. One had been dead for a while, the other had just died and was cuddling it, nose pressed on top of its dead sibling. The point of "live trap" is that you're supposed to be able to catch and release them (preferably in another neighborhood).
*
Finally, about two weeks ago, my grandmother Violet McKitterick died. She had been sick for a long time, living in a nursing home, but getting frequent visits from her five children, their partners, and even grandchildren. She hasn't been fully cognizant for a few years, but she seemed to enjoy the company. I thought I'd share a few of memories of my Grandma Vi:
When I was a little boy, especially before I started school or in the summers, I would often stay with Grandma Vi during the day when my parents were at work. I always looked forward to spending time with her. She was so kind and patient, letting me play with Matchbox cars all over the floor, or take apart old clocks or other things so I could figure out how they worked – even if they never did again.
Grandma Vi taught me to paint when I was barely old enough to hold a brush. I remember once, while she was doing rosemaling on the kitchen cupboards, I sat at the table and painted scrap pieces of wood in a similar style. One of these is still around somewhere. It says, "Violet is very beautiful."
In the hot summer when I had trouble falling asleep, Grandma would sometimes gently brush her fingernails along my back, giving me goosebumps so I felt cooler. It was such a comfort.
When I discovered she had played the accordion, I was so proud! It seemed like such a magical and complex instrument that surely she had to be a musical genius to be able to make that thing work.
Most of my earliest memories of Grandma Vi and Grandpa Harvey together were of them laughing and chasing one another around the house. She would laugh and say, "Oh, Harvey!" then giggle and swat at him. This ritual often ended with them scurrying off to the bedroom. They seemed so happy together. I still think of that as a model of how two people in love behave toward one another.
*
In other news, I'm still SWAMPED with new-course development. Sorry I've been away for so long! Now I've got to get back to work.
Best,
Chris
January 14, 2013
Creative genius and science.
Fascinating. This is the oldest piece of music known to humankind, originally engraved in cuneiform on a tablet from 1400 BCE, excavated in the early 1950s in the ancient Syrian city of Ugarit. It is a hymn to the moon god's wife, Nikal. The tablets also contain detailed performance instructions for a singer accompanied by a harpist (this recording is harp-only) as well as instructions on how to tune the harp. From this evidence, Prof. Anne Kilmer and other musicologists have created this lovely piece of music:
Listening to this got me thinking: In the days when this was recorded in cuneiform on clay, mastery of anything was a form of magic. Only a genius could have created this piece or performed it, because they didn't have the same kind of rigorous science-based educational system. But since the advent of the scientific method and applying it to our educational system, we have learned how to partition masterpieces (art, music, stories, structures, and so on) into understandable components, analyze them, and reproduce the effect they create in the mind of the audience.
Click the image to see a page about the original cuneiform tablets.
Now anyone with sufficient interest and patience can learn the theory that once produced magic, and with practice and a lot of effort can perform such a piece and maybe even come up with one that has a similar effect. It's like Hogwart's for everyone. I suspect this is why creative genius today is so hard to pick out from a crowd of art - anyone can look like a genius. But it's also why we recognize true genius when we do encounter it.
Chris
Listening to this got me thinking: In the days when this was recorded in cuneiform on clay, mastery of anything was a form of magic. Only a genius could have created this piece or performed it, because they didn't have the same kind of rigorous science-based educational system. But since the advent of the scientific method and applying it to our educational system, we have learned how to partition masterpieces (art, music, stories, structures, and so on) into understandable components, analyze them, and reproduce the effect they create in the mind of the audience.
Click the image to see a page about the original cuneiform tablets.
Now anyone with sufficient interest and patience can learn the theory that once produced magic, and with practice and a lot of effort can perform such a piece and maybe even come up with one that has a similar effect. It's like Hogwart's for everyone. I suspect this is why creative genius today is so hard to pick out from a crowd of art - anyone can look like a genius. But it's also why we recognize true genius when we do encounter it.
Chris
January 11, 2013
Astro-Porn of the Day: It's full of planets....
...the galaxy, that is. NASA's Kepler mission just announced that they have discovered 461 new planets. Four of the new planets are less than twice the size of Earth ("super-Earths") and orbit in their sun's habitable zone, the orbit where liquid water might exist on the surface of a planet. Since last year, Kepler has increased its planet-discovery by 20&percent; and now totals 2,740 potential planets orbiting 2,036 stars. The categories that saw the most dramatic increases are the Earth-sized and super-Earth-sized candidates, which grew by 43 and 21 percent, respectively:
Click the image to see the Astronomy.com story.
I suspect we'll end up discovering that most stars have a crew much like that of our Sun: Mostly gas giants in the outer reaches, and mostly little rocky worlds up close.
Click the image to see the Astronomy.com story.
Chris
Click the image to see the Astronomy.com story.
I suspect we'll end up discovering that most stars have a crew much like that of our Sun: Mostly gas giants in the outer reaches, and mostly little rocky worlds up close.
Click the image to see the Astronomy.com story.
Chris
January 5, 2013
Reading, writing, and blowing my nose. Also 1001 words on a new story.
Finished reading Scalzi's
Redshirts
last night (one of the Gollancz and Tor nominations for this year's Campbell Award). It was an absolute blast and an extremely quick read: Even ill, I finished it in less than 24 hours, and I'm not a fast reader.
Yes, I am still enjoying the suffering that comes around every time this year for many. Another night of sweating the bed into a puddle, blowing my nose a billion times, and feeling like smeared poo. When I have a fever (yesterday's high was just short of 101°F), I get emotional, as evidenced by my weeping pretty much continually over poor Dean Winchester's suffering (we watched some Supernatural last night). What surprised me is that Scalzi's self-proclaimed "piss-take on televised science fiction" also set me to sobbing. (Okay, I get very emotional when feverish). By the end, though, the rational part of my mind came to the conclusion that this book really is far more than just a romp, and in fact has a lot to say about being human in our age. I promise that though it might make you sad at points, it'll mostly just elicit a single bold tear from most of y'all, plus if you're a fan of TV SF, it'll also elicit a lot of laughter. Every once in a while, Scalzi's micro-writing seems unfinished to me - he doesn't describe any of the characters, provides almost no set-dressing, and seldom appeals to any senses - but you don't read him for beautiful prose. You read this book for rompin' action, entertaining characters, and an interesting idea. If those attributes spin up your warp core, this book is highly recommended.
Speaking of Scalzi, have you noticed that he placed NUMERO UNO on Locus' All-Centuries Poll for Best 21st Century SF Novel for his book, Old Man's War ? That gave me pause. I very much enjoyed it then, so perhaps I ought to give it a re-read to analyze why.
I was very pleased to see both Stephenson's Anathem (2nd) and Wilson's Spin (4th) make the top novels list for this century. Both are FANTASTIC books, my favorites of their respective years. I wasn't surprised by much on the 20th Century lists, but is Asimov's The Foundation Trilogy really the 3rd-best book of the last century? Hm. I loved it as a 1980s kid, but pulled it from the required reading list for my SF novels course after getting too many complaints about its crap writing. His The Caves of Steel - a much better novel in every way - is still on my readings list (and placed 56th on the Locus poll).
Another interesting detail: Very little from the last two years made the list in any of the 21st Century categories. I wonder if we should attribute this to our simply needing some time to catch up with reading. If you're like me, you seldom read current work, mostly relying on awards and nominations for such. Too bad for the writers staying in the business of earning money from writing, though. Unless... hm, perhaps this is why we're seeing an up-surge in ebook sales: People discover work well after it's already pulled from physical bookstore shelves, so end up buying used or ebook. Hm.
On the plus side of being feverish, this slightly altered state helped me come up with a new story idea, 1001 words of which I wrote today. Hooray, new story!
Okay, time for a nap, methinks. Hope you're doing well and enjoying 2013.
Chris
Yes, I am still enjoying the suffering that comes around every time this year for many. Another night of sweating the bed into a puddle, blowing my nose a billion times, and feeling like smeared poo. When I have a fever (yesterday's high was just short of 101°F), I get emotional, as evidenced by my weeping pretty much continually over poor Dean Winchester's suffering (we watched some Supernatural last night). What surprised me is that Scalzi's self-proclaimed "piss-take on televised science fiction" also set me to sobbing. (Okay, I get very emotional when feverish). By the end, though, the rational part of my mind came to the conclusion that this book really is far more than just a romp, and in fact has a lot to say about being human in our age. I promise that though it might make you sad at points, it'll mostly just elicit a single bold tear from most of y'all, plus if you're a fan of TV SF, it'll also elicit a lot of laughter. Every once in a while, Scalzi's micro-writing seems unfinished to me - he doesn't describe any of the characters, provides almost no set-dressing, and seldom appeals to any senses - but you don't read him for beautiful prose. You read this book for rompin' action, entertaining characters, and an interesting idea. If those attributes spin up your warp core, this book is highly recommended.
Speaking of Scalzi, have you noticed that he placed NUMERO UNO on Locus' All-Centuries Poll for Best 21st Century SF Novel for his book, Old Man's War ? That gave me pause. I very much enjoyed it then, so perhaps I ought to give it a re-read to analyze why.
I was very pleased to see both Stephenson's Anathem (2nd) and Wilson's Spin (4th) make the top novels list for this century. Both are FANTASTIC books, my favorites of their respective years. I wasn't surprised by much on the 20th Century lists, but is Asimov's The Foundation Trilogy really the 3rd-best book of the last century? Hm. I loved it as a 1980s kid, but pulled it from the required reading list for my SF novels course after getting too many complaints about its crap writing. His The Caves of Steel - a much better novel in every way - is still on my readings list (and placed 56th on the Locus poll).
Another interesting detail: Very little from the last two years made the list in any of the 21st Century categories. I wonder if we should attribute this to our simply needing some time to catch up with reading. If you're like me, you seldom read current work, mostly relying on awards and nominations for such. Too bad for the writers staying in the business of earning money from writing, though. Unless... hm, perhaps this is why we're seeing an up-surge in ebook sales: People discover work well after it's already pulled from physical bookstore shelves, so end up buying used or ebook. Hm.
On the plus side of being feverish, this slightly altered state helped me come up with a new story idea, 1001 words of which I wrote today. Hooray, new story!
Okay, time for a nap, methinks. Hope you're doing well and enjoying 2013.
Chris
January 4, 2013
Fodder for thought
First up, new research suggests that 2.7% Of Drivers Are Stupid Jerks, Will Go Out of Their Way to Kill Turtles. This is a follow-up to another study, 2.7% of Drivers Are Stupid Jerks. Both studies find that about 2.7% of drivers intentionally swerve in an attempt to kill box turtles or other reptiles.
Click the image to see the article.
Let's say we have 300,000,000 people in the US. If 2.7% of them are animal-murderers (a short step from full-blown psychopaths), that suggests we have 8,100,000 psychos-in-waiting. Whoah. I wonder what keeps most of them from emerging like murderous butterflies from their cocoons?
How about some GOOD news? Here, have some hope for curing Alzheimer's.
Click the image to see the Kurzweil.com article.
Some more cool science: Quantum gas goes below absolute zero. This is fascinating. Things behave very strangely at the quantum level, so I'm strangely unsurprised! They also suggest this might be the explanation for dark energy....
Ever wondered how to pick a lock? This is a great graphic demonstration:
Click the image to see the Tumblr post.
My New Year's gift from the universe was a lovely cold. Thankfully, my fever broke last night (in a puddle in my bed - seriously, my sleeping-hat was DRIPPING), and the cough has become, ahem, productive. I've also become a snot factory. On the plus side, my brain is working again.
Hope you're doing well!
Best,
Chris
Click the image to see the article.
Let's say we have 300,000,000 people in the US. If 2.7% of them are animal-murderers (a short step from full-blown psychopaths), that suggests we have 8,100,000 psychos-in-waiting. Whoah. I wonder what keeps most of them from emerging like murderous butterflies from their cocoons?
How about some GOOD news? Here, have some hope for curing Alzheimer's.
Click the image to see the Kurzweil.com article.
Some more cool science: Quantum gas goes below absolute zero. This is fascinating. Things behave very strangely at the quantum level, so I'm strangely unsurprised! They also suggest this might be the explanation for dark energy....
Ever wondered how to pick a lock? This is a great graphic demonstration:
Click the image to see the Tumblr post.
My New Year's gift from the universe was a lovely cold. Thankfully, my fever broke last night (in a puddle in my bed - seriously, my sleeping-hat was DRIPPING), and the cough has become, ahem, productive. I've also become a snot factory. On the plus side, my brain is working again.
Hope you're doing well!
Best,
Chris
December 23, 2012
Gun rights are not a liberal vs. conservative issue.
Why has the national conversation about gun-rights and gun-control become a Left vs. Right, Liberal vs. Conservative, Democrat vs. Republican issue? In fact, it's by definition the liberals who should be most in favor of personal liberty. I don't understand this nation.
Intelligent, otherwise reasonable, liberals and progressives I know have gone off the rails about how GUNZ ARE EVIL! as badly as (presumably) intelligent and reasonable conservatives are unable to think sanely regarding "Obamacare" or [insert flame-war issue here]. But this makes no sense. Why should guns be a liberal vs. conservative issue any more than computers or road signs or sugar?
Although my recent essay about gun rights was not about pressing for more guns in more hands, I do urge more liberals and progressives to become gun-owners, or else the armed part of our nation will consist only of the military, police, criminals, and conservative Republicans. Is that where you want to live?
Greater regulation of regular citizens' gun-rights only makes us less free and less safe from the bad guys (see Argument 6: My Experience with Bad Guys. Dealing with the root disease in our nation is the only path toward ending the problems we face. See this thread about how many crimes are averted by gun-carrying civilians. See this article for one example beyond my own that I cited in my essay.
I know the argument against guns: "But they're killing our kids!" I already addressed that in my essay in the Other things that contribute to human death section. Guns are not even one of the main threats to our children. If you discount that argument, you're helping me make my point here. Are you fighting to remove children's access to grain and sugar? They're far more dangerous than guns, but I hear no national outcry to further regulate those things, because there's too much money to be made there, and obesity kills us in a far less-dramatic fashion.
What makes me sad (beyond our national sickness) is that no amount of reasonable argument will make any difference to the closed-minded. For (many) liberals and guns, it's the same as how no reasonable argument in the world can put extreme conservatives back on the rails when it comes to national healthcare reform, taxes on the ultra-rich, separation of church and state, and so on. If you mock Republicans about those things, how can you feel okay about your doing the very same thing about gun-rights?
Right now, if you're putting together a straw-man arument, thinking about ways to derail the conversation, unable to hear me above the screaming "HE'S WRONG!" in your head, please pause and consider for a moment. I even got a "Fuck you" response last week by someone who went on to write a pair of non-respondable posts, including this line:
"Some issues do not have two sides. They do not deserve reasoned debate. Racism. Same-sex marriage. Equal opportunity. Universal health care. Gun control." In another of her posts on the subject: "Comments closed. I'm not going to debate any of these points. I see no reason to."
This is emblematic of intellectual blindness: "I'm right and everyone else is wrong. End of story. Gun control is not the same as equal rights. Trying to discuss that does not reflect my "white male privilege" (from her post's title). In fact, I'd like to see people of all colors and genders and economic backgrounds have the same gun-rights.
Perhaps the root of our national problems is not just what I wrote about here, but also how we become blinded by what we feel and become closed to reason. I don't have "feelings" about my guns; in fact, they're rather mixed, as I spent a lot of my life listening to the unconsidered liberal line that guns are bad. No, they're tools, and the only feeling I have about them is comfort when facing overwhelming threat.
That is something every human wants.
Chris
Intelligent, otherwise reasonable, liberals and progressives I know have gone off the rails about how GUNZ ARE EVIL! as badly as (presumably) intelligent and reasonable conservatives are unable to think sanely regarding "Obamacare" or [insert flame-war issue here]. But this makes no sense. Why should guns be a liberal vs. conservative issue any more than computers or road signs or sugar?
Although my recent essay about gun rights was not about pressing for more guns in more hands, I do urge more liberals and progressives to become gun-owners, or else the armed part of our nation will consist only of the military, police, criminals, and conservative Republicans. Is that where you want to live?
Greater regulation of regular citizens' gun-rights only makes us less free and less safe from the bad guys (see Argument 6: My Experience with Bad Guys. Dealing with the root disease in our nation is the only path toward ending the problems we face. See this thread about how many crimes are averted by gun-carrying civilians. See this article for one example beyond my own that I cited in my essay.
I know the argument against guns: "But they're killing our kids!" I already addressed that in my essay in the Other things that contribute to human death section. Guns are not even one of the main threats to our children. If you discount that argument, you're helping me make my point here. Are you fighting to remove children's access to grain and sugar? They're far more dangerous than guns, but I hear no national outcry to further regulate those things, because there's too much money to be made there, and obesity kills us in a far less-dramatic fashion.
What makes me sad (beyond our national sickness) is that no amount of reasonable argument will make any difference to the closed-minded. For (many) liberals and guns, it's the same as how no reasonable argument in the world can put extreme conservatives back on the rails when it comes to national healthcare reform, taxes on the ultra-rich, separation of church and state, and so on. If you mock Republicans about those things, how can you feel okay about your doing the very same thing about gun-rights?
Right now, if you're putting together a straw-man arument, thinking about ways to derail the conversation, unable to hear me above the screaming "HE'S WRONG!" in your head, please pause and consider for a moment. I even got a "Fuck you" response last week by someone who went on to write a pair of non-respondable posts, including this line:
"Some issues do not have two sides. They do not deserve reasoned debate. Racism. Same-sex marriage. Equal opportunity. Universal health care. Gun control." In another of her posts on the subject: "Comments closed. I'm not going to debate any of these points. I see no reason to."
This is emblematic of intellectual blindness: "I'm right and everyone else is wrong. End of story. Gun control is not the same as equal rights. Trying to discuss that does not reflect my "white male privilege" (from her post's title). In fact, I'd like to see people of all colors and genders and economic backgrounds have the same gun-rights.
Perhaps the root of our national problems is not just what I wrote about here, but also how we become blinded by what we feel and become closed to reason. I don't have "feelings" about my guns; in fact, they're rather mixed, as I spent a lot of my life listening to the unconsidered liberal line that guns are bad. No, they're tools, and the only feeling I have about them is comfort when facing overwhelming threat.
That is something every human wants.
Chris
December 21, 2012
Grades are posted! Taking a weekend break....
Egad, my fingers and wrists and neck and shoulders are in knots after a pretty-much solid two weeks of sitting at my desk almost every waking hour. Why I felt the need to write demanding blog posts this week, too, I do not understand. But I'm DONE! Sure hope the students appreciate my efforts and find my comments useful. I really enjoyed a bunch of the final projects, though many were the typical undergrad papers. The grad students' work was universally pleasing to read, of course. I felt uncomfortable giving as many C or lower grades as I did this semester, but I'm done giving incompletes unless a student asks and really needs it - too much of a pain for everyone later on.
This weekend shall be nothing but goofing off. Some stretching, too, and maybe some working out. My poor, neglected body.... Sadly, I will not be going to my usual Saturday-morning breakfast with James Gunn, on account of that's usually at 8:30am (6-1/2 hours from now). MUST SLEEP.
Next week, I get back onto writing. I intend to reach about 30,000 words on The Galactic Adventures of Jack & Stella, write up a formal book outline and cover letter, and get this thing OUT. Also finish revising Empire Ship and submit it as well as a distinctly odd couple.
Mostly, though, I'll spend the winter "break" finishing development of my upcoming, brand-spanking-new interactive-online version of my "Foundations of Technical Writing" course.
Now, to sleep, perchance NOT to dream about student papers.
Chris
This weekend shall be nothing but goofing off. Some stretching, too, and maybe some working out. My poor, neglected body.... Sadly, I will not be going to my usual Saturday-morning breakfast with James Gunn, on account of that's usually at 8:30am (6-1/2 hours from now). MUST SLEEP.Next week, I get back onto writing. I intend to reach about 30,000 words on The Galactic Adventures of Jack & Stella, write up a formal book outline and cover letter, and get this thing OUT. Also finish revising Empire Ship and submit it as well as a distinctly odd couple.
Mostly, though, I'll spend the winter "break" finishing development of my upcoming, brand-spanking-new interactive-online version of my "Foundations of Technical Writing" course.
Now, to sleep, perchance NOT to dream about student papers.
Chris
What's wrong in our nation? How do we cure our national illness?
Extending yesterday's post about the national conversation about guns. Thanks to everyone for contributing (even the "f**k you" response shed some light on the discussion).
My related Facebook post generated some interesting discussion, as well, that combined with this discussion got me thinking.
It's vital that we shift our national focus from ridiculous, horrible, treasure-wasting, murderous, human-suffering-inducing military adventures like our wars on [insert item here: drugs, terror, etc.] and instead invest this wasted creative energy, power, money, resources, and so forth into things that make our nation and humankind better and stronger in the long term.
We need to invest in vastly improving our public schools, mental-health institutions, scientific research... you name it: all the things that make us grow healthier and stronger instead of weaker and sicker.
To do this, we need to get money and religion out of politics. When our political representatives must spend the majority of their creative, emotional, and intellectual energy on gathering support from big donors and financial interests as well as anti-intellectual powers, we the people are not represented or served. These are all forces of entropy.
We need to debunk the corporate fiction of logarithmically increasing profits. It's unsustainable and leads to financial collapse, as we've witnessed recently. It imbues people with starry-eyed notions that they, too, can become wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice, which leads to all manner of sickness and moral decay.
We need to teach our children that money is an abstract tool, not a goal in life. At the same time, we need to teach them how to be a productive, contributing member of the world while earning a living, and that becoming wealthy for the sake of wealth is a goal unworthy of a good citizen.
We need to teach people - especially our children - that working to understand empathy for others is the answer to most of our problems.
Something we can all do: Love things deeply and share your love for those things, one classroom at a time, one room of gamers at a time, one dinner-party at a time, one person at a time. If someone wants to share their love with you, give them a chance. Open your mind. Don't exclude people, don't dismiss their love.
What would happen if, instead of wasting money and resources and mental energy and lives on war and destruction as a nation, we invested it?
What would happen if we made building a better future the goal instead of inducing and propagating fear? Would people feel the need to own guns if they didn't fear others? What would our culture look like if our greatest aspirations revolved around building a better world instead of protecting against threats and becoming rich?
Would people grow up emotionally healthier if they weren't bombarded with the messages of a culture of war and fear and rape and violence and profiteering?
Is it possible that being tacit supporters of such horrors as our nation commits in our name is a root cause of our national dysfunction?
If this is supposed to be a "Christian nation," as defined by so many of those who propagate these horrors, why do we value and act out the inverse? I believe we really could make this country a respectable place and become a beacon of hope for humankind if we actually followed the teachings of Jesus. But we don't, and organized religion always falls prey to the rot that destroys other human institutions, so the religionists need to either shut up about our "Christian nation" or else start acting in a way the historical Jesus taught. But they need to leave out the notion of gods and instead work on building an actual heaven on Earth.
Indeed, making this a truly secular nation would go a long way toward saving us. Heck, eliminating the notion of "nation" would help, too, as would eradicating all the other sub-tribal, exclusionary concepts with which we've enchained ourselves and dragged along through time like sledges since our earliest ages. Religions ruin civilizations, which I find to be a bitter irony, in that they were formed to organize and help people. Religious leaders destroy religions. Politicians ruin governments. Governments destroy nations. And so on.
Establishing anything leads to entropy, a crumbling and ruination and dying of everything that people build with their energy and enthusiasm. Whenever an institution settles, wherever beaurocracy forms, entropy sets in. So we must continually rebuild, reinvest, explore, discover. We must let go of what we cling to out of fear and comfort. We must always keep growing and learning, else we begin dying. This is the lesson all of history teaches us, as does physics, as does medicine....
Wanna save the world? Wanna make it a better place? I wanna hear your ideas.
Chris
My related Facebook post generated some interesting discussion, as well, that combined with this discussion got me thinking.
It's vital that we shift our national focus from ridiculous, horrible, treasure-wasting, murderous, human-suffering-inducing military adventures like our wars on [insert item here: drugs, terror, etc.] and instead invest this wasted creative energy, power, money, resources, and so forth into things that make our nation and humankind better and stronger in the long term.
We need to invest in vastly improving our public schools, mental-health institutions, scientific research... you name it: all the things that make us grow healthier and stronger instead of weaker and sicker.
To do this, we need to get money and religion out of politics. When our political representatives must spend the majority of their creative, emotional, and intellectual energy on gathering support from big donors and financial interests as well as anti-intellectual powers, we the people are not represented or served. These are all forces of entropy.
We need to debunk the corporate fiction of logarithmically increasing profits. It's unsustainable and leads to financial collapse, as we've witnessed recently. It imbues people with starry-eyed notions that they, too, can become wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice, which leads to all manner of sickness and moral decay.
We need to teach our children that money is an abstract tool, not a goal in life. At the same time, we need to teach them how to be a productive, contributing member of the world while earning a living, and that becoming wealthy for the sake of wealth is a goal unworthy of a good citizen.
We need to teach people - especially our children - that working to understand empathy for others is the answer to most of our problems.
Something we can all do: Love things deeply and share your love for those things, one classroom at a time, one room of gamers at a time, one dinner-party at a time, one person at a time. If someone wants to share their love with you, give them a chance. Open your mind. Don't exclude people, don't dismiss their love.
What would happen if, instead of wasting money and resources and mental energy and lives on war and destruction as a nation, we invested it?
What would happen if we made building a better future the goal instead of inducing and propagating fear? Would people feel the need to own guns if they didn't fear others? What would our culture look like if our greatest aspirations revolved around building a better world instead of protecting against threats and becoming rich?
Would people grow up emotionally healthier if they weren't bombarded with the messages of a culture of war and fear and rape and violence and profiteering?
Is it possible that being tacit supporters of such horrors as our nation commits in our name is a root cause of our national dysfunction?
If this is supposed to be a "Christian nation," as defined by so many of those who propagate these horrors, why do we value and act out the inverse? I believe we really could make this country a respectable place and become a beacon of hope for humankind if we actually followed the teachings of Jesus. But we don't, and organized religion always falls prey to the rot that destroys other human institutions, so the religionists need to either shut up about our "Christian nation" or else start acting in a way the historical Jesus taught. But they need to leave out the notion of gods and instead work on building an actual heaven on Earth.
Indeed, making this a truly secular nation would go a long way toward saving us. Heck, eliminating the notion of "nation" would help, too, as would eradicating all the other sub-tribal, exclusionary concepts with which we've enchained ourselves and dragged along through time like sledges since our earliest ages. Religions ruin civilizations, which I find to be a bitter irony, in that they were formed to organize and help people. Religious leaders destroy religions. Politicians ruin governments. Governments destroy nations. And so on.
Establishing anything leads to entropy, a crumbling and ruination and dying of everything that people build with their energy and enthusiasm. Whenever an institution settles, wherever beaurocracy forms, entropy sets in. So we must continually rebuild, reinvest, explore, discover. We must let go of what we cling to out of fear and comfort. We must always keep growing and learning, else we begin dying. This is the lesson all of history teaches us, as does physics, as does medicine....
Wanna save the world? Wanna make it a better place? I wanna hear your ideas.
Chris
Christopher McKitterick's Blog
This is my long-lived LiveJournal blog (http://mckitterick.livejournal.com), but if you really want to stay in touch, check out my Tumblr and Facebook pages.
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