What some smart people are optimistic about

This morning I read the beginning of Arnold Kling’s column on TCSDaily, and where he had a link to Edge.org. the website of the Edge Foundation:The mandate of Edge Foundation is to promote inquiry into and discussion of intellectual, philosophical, artistic, and literary issues, as well as to work for the intellectual and social achievement of society.” Every year they ask a <a href="http://edge.org/questioncenter.html”>question to their members. Last year it was “What is your dangerous idea?,” and in 2005 it was “What do you believe is true though you cannot prove it?” (which I apparently noted at the time) & has since been become a book with an Introduction by Ian McEwan. This year’s question is “What are you optimistic about and why?” A fine question, and again some great reads. While browsing (John Gottman, Steven Pinker, Richard Dawkins…) I came across a nice quote by Martin Seligman, a major figure in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and now Positive Psychology:

The third form of happiness, which is meaning, is again knowing what your highest strengths are and deploying those in the service of something you believe is larger than you are. There’s no shortcut to that. That’s what life is about.

Just something to keep in mind.

Spring is here, spring is here…

Well, not quite. Surely Boulder is due for a blizzard of sort, but last night I played softball for the first time this year. A double-header, and I pitched for most of the first game, and all of the second. It’s slow pitch, so my job is to give them fat pitches to hit, and that I did. Still, sometimes they hit them poorly, and I found that I gave myelf credit for it, as if I’d managed to trick them or something. Still, it was nice, I felt like I had not missed a beat. The atmosphere was nice for an all men’s league, too.

None of the above. That is, asexual people, as reported in the New York Metro. What would abstinence advocates say to that? Cheating?

Wash your shoes – really well

If you commit a crime, that is. Because forensic geologists will, uh, track you down. Or so says Raymond Murray, author of Evidence of the Earth: Forensic Geology and Criminal Invstigation. He tells some good true-crime stories. As an academic, he’s found a career applying his skills to makea tangible difference: catching criminals.

That has to be rewarding. I saw him speak at a Tattered Cover bookstore in Denver, which, despite its name, does not sell used books. They did have a good selection of “bargain books.” But I refrained. As Jessica Bennett writes in an article I just read recently, “the idea of ‘saving money’ is worth more than the object purchased. When a person buys something simply because it is “such a good deal,” they are paying money for the reward of saving money.”

Last night I saw a band that used an old 1950s-style chrome microphone. Funny how it looked good to me, even though I suspected the chrome case was just a shell for a modern mic. That is, form did not follow function as it probably did for the originals. Yet, what does it look “cool”? The glamorization of the past?

Dumbing Down Dr. Condoleeza Rice

Tibor Machan wrote an interesting article about this. It remind me of an article in The Atlantic about how G.W. Bush was more articulate ias governor than as president, and John Taylor Gatto‘s book, Dumbing Us Down.

To change topics, last night on NPR I heard that astronomers detected a star that left “our” galaxy (OK, “our” is my term, and I’m scare-quoting myself) to seek a better world in a black hole. Here’s the New Scientist report. How fast is it going? 670 km/s = 6.7 x 10⁵ m/s ~ 2 thousandths the speed of light. That’s 150 thousand miles per hour. It’s hard to imagine something going that fast, let alone something that large.

Temple Grandin

She has what is described as a high-functioning autism such that she, to some extent, things in images. I heard part of an interview with her on NPR, and maybe it’s about time I hear the rest.

Aliens Cause Global Warming

John Stossel has an article about Michael Crichton’s new novel, State of Fear, which is critical of whether human acitivities are causing global warming. Crichton also has a speech on the subject, Aliens Cause Global Warming, which he gave at Caltech. I have not read this one yet, but his Remarks to the Commonwealth Club are quote provocative, and insightful. Here’s an excerpt

Today, one of the most powerful religions in the Western World is environmentalism. Environmentalism seems to be the religion of choice for urban atheists. Why do I say it’s a religion? Well, just look at the beliefs. If you look carefully, you see that environmentalism is in fact a perfect 21st century remapping of traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs and myths.

I just might read his novel. It’s nice to see a main stream author take on controversial positions.

More then 50,000 (& counting) people died because of the earthquake in Indonesia. Now that is a climate issue worth considering: how do people deal with more common occurances? OK, this was the largest earthquake in forty years, but still, its effects, and those of hurricanes and tornadoes, are much more concrete than “climate change.” Perhaps the resources should be spent addressing these issues. Roger Pielke addresses this in “Breaking the Global-Warming Gridlock”, Atlantic Monthly, July 2000. (Their on-line policy has changed so only subscribers can access it, or those with the subscriber ID. Clever. I expect other magazines will follow. )

In other news, I’m again optimistic about my research progress. I asked a professor for some guidance, and I got it!

The Obesity Myth

Last night I saw University of Colorado Law Professor Paul Campos speak about his new book, The Obesity Myth. Not only was Campos entertaining, but his message was important: there is little or no correlation between “obesity”, defined by body-mass-index (BMI) and health. Further, this obsession with losing weight leads people to unhealthy acitivities. Further, for me, it was a reminder that just because I’m thin, to say the least, I’m not fit.

T-Rex is a Wimpy Dinosaur

Speaking of the mid-west, I’m enjoying NPR (gasp!) on the weekends. (Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor, whom I saw at the Vancouver airport two summers ago.) This American Life had a segment on dinosaurs,, and how the new theories reveal that T-Rex was a wimp, and it was all marketing that fueled the idea of it as a real predator. The segment ended with “I’m a Little Dinosaur”, by Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers. Woo hoo!

Notable books, art, and research

On Tuesday I heard a doctor speak about his new book, Surviving the Extremes. Incredible. The author, Kenneth Kamler relates true stories, some he is involved in, of people surviving extreme cold, heat, being lost at see, outer space, etc. One theme is that people sometimes beat the odds, and survive, out of sheer will, and they need a reason. One time it was revenge, in the case of the old prospector abandoned in the desert by his partner. One guy was lost at sea, and survived for more than two months by floating in some jetsam and using the nails stuck in the wood as fish hooks!! One 17-year-old girl was in an air plane that exploded, somehow she survived, landed in a jungle, and made her way out. As a doctor, he talks about the biology behind it, too.

Last week I also saw a presentation by Naomi Halas,a scientist at Rice. She talked about nano-particles, and their applications to killing tumors. Quite inspiring. Some popular articles about her work are here.

Lastly, a few months ago I saw a photography exhibit featuring the work of Nurit Wolf. Rarely do I respond to the visual arts, but her use of reflections in the windows of buildings is just phenomenal. Too bad I can’t find more of her work on-line.