RIP Michael Jackson…

Yes, I am going to add to the discussion of Michael Jackson’s death, but not in the way you might think. You may or may not know that I am not a fan of the celebrity worship culture that exists in our society. Some individuals argue that celebrities have to put up with the constant surveillance and reporting on their lives as part of the job description of celebrity. I disagree. I think that celebrities should be accorded the same respect and privacy that anyone deserves. They are people trying to make a life and a career for themselves. They do not deserve having cameras shoved in their faces and Perez Hilton gossiping about every minutiae of their lives. So how does this relate to Michael Jackson?
It is tragic that Michael Jackson died. It is tragic when anyone dies. Yet not everyone gets the world-stopping media attention when they die. Yesterday and today radio stations are playing tribute to MJ by playing his songs. People are lamenting his demise on Facebook and Twitter (so much so on Twitter that the servers crashed!). I ask why? What makes a sad, emotionally torn pop star worthy of such attention. His fame drove him into an unhealthy mental state. It is likely that he was abused as a child, and his early fame certainly did not help him become a well adjusted adult. Does this make his death earth-shattering news?
Now for the perspective: In South Africa, there were almost 1000 deaths a day due to HIV/AIDS by the end of 2007. 56 homeless people died in 2006 and 2007 in Vancouver. How many children die from starvation, unclean water and poverty in Canada and the world everyday? Where are the Twitter-crashing tweets about these countless deaths that happen everyday? Where are the news reports about these nameless, faceless people who die. It is just as tragic when one of the poor, the unknown die as when a famous celebrity dies. But few seem to notice. Each was a life unique, with hopes and dreams and desires and fears, now forever gone.
Celebrities are no more knowledgeable, important, wise or anything more than you, me or the homeless women looking for a safe place to stay the night on East Hasting’s.

It is tragic when someone, anyone dies. Do not get so hung up on a celebrity death…

S.

It is still the End of a Human Life…

While waiting for my class this afternoon, I eavesdropped on a conversation of several business students who were waiting to do a presentation. They were discussing new sniper rifles and the merits of medium ranged weapons. Apparently one of these students was or is in the military and had attended sniper school. They began discussing Xm-110 308 that the US military is deploying now and ballistics and windage and bullet mass and powder loads and so on…

They were casually discussing devices that only serve one function: ending human life. I felt like saying this to them, that they were discussing devices that have to redeeming function, but I decided that I did not want to be a jackass.

We are so callous about human life (and I am referring to already born human life… no abortion comments please…). We watched programs on television on which humans are routinely and often brutal murdered. We play video games with the same themes. We discuss instruments of death as casually as we might discuss a good book….

So much effort we put into killing each other over so little cause or provocation.

It needs to stop…

Scott

Cells in the Loo…

I substitute teach and I am also enrolled in Calculus II and I often have to go right from work (in one town) to my calculus class in another town. It is usually a 20 minute drive on the freeway. When I arrive at my university I often feel the little twinge in my abdomen that signals that my kidneys have produced enough urine to fill my bladder. In other words, I have to pee (or make water, urinate, etc…). After paying for the privilege of parking my automobile I wander into the building in search of one of my usual, er, de-watering holes.

Such was the case on Monday (March 2) afternoon. I was in the loo, standing at the urinal, removing metabolic wastes when in walked another gentlemen. This was not unusual as I was in a public, multi-stall facility. Also not so unusual was this gentleman’s ( a term I use very lightly…) act of speaking on a cellular telephone he had wedged between his ear and his shoulder. Many young people today enjoy using cellular telephones or ‘cellphones’ to communicate with one another. I was fully expecting him to say:” I will call you right back.” or “hold on, I have to pee, I will call you right back.” Whatever the combination of the particular words I was expecting him to hang up his phone…

He shattered all of my expectations as he wandered up to a nearby urinal (not the adjacent one…) and began to relieve himself without even a pause in his conversation! I was a little perplexed… I had heard of people using cellphones while sitting on the toilet, often with one hand free, but I did not think that I would actually encounter someone talking on a cellphone, wedged between shoulder and ear all the while standing at a urinal… An activity, I might add for my female readers, often requires two hands. He merrily ( I assume merrily as he was speaking in a language that was not english) continued his conversation, zipped, made a show of washing his hands, and then walked out the door…

Astounding! was the best term that came to my mind. Never mind the feat of balancing a tiny cellphone on his shoulder whilst he peed, he did not even have the courtesy to his listener to stop talking while he did his business. Unfortunately he was speaking non-English, so I do not actually know what he was saying, but I venture to guess that the conversation would have taken two distinct paths depending on the gender of the person on the other end…
If the person on the other end was a male, I imagine the call sounded like this:
“Dude! I am totally like talking to you while I pi@$…”
“No way, I am like totally like doing the same thing!!!!!”
If, however, the other person was a female…
“What is that running water sound? Are you peeing while talking again?!”
“No, it is er, ah, the meditation fountain I am sitting near, contemplating how much I enjoy my feelings with you…”

Of course these are gross stereotypical oversimplifications, but I am confident in my prediction…

So what? Simply this: If you are sitting on a toilet and have the urge to text a pal, I guess you have to do what you have to do… Please do not make an audio call from a washroom while in the act of removing wastes from your body. It is wrong on so many levels… Plus you could drop your cell phone onto the urinal cake…

Mmmmmmmmmm urinal fresh…

Scott

Lest We Forget…

It is Remembrance Day, and we must remember why we have a day off. It was 90 years ago that the “war to end all wars” ended. Unfortunately we did not learn much, and still have wars to this day. In this day and age, we have ways of killing each other with naught but a push of a button. As easily as I type these words, a house could be destroyed. With the ease of purchasing a book online, a town or city can be wiped from existence. With a few clicks of a mouse, an entire country can be reduced to radioactive ash. This is not the world that I want to live in, yet so many people seem content to fight and kill and die for what seems, at least to my feeble intellect, trivial reasons. I am tired of conflict and violence and jihad and border skirmishes. We live in a global world, and our problems are global.

Thus I think it is time to lay aside our petty nationalism and work together. Nuclear weapons, economy environment are all things that must be dealt at a global level. We breathe the same air, drink the same water and we need to grow beyond our tribal stage and move into a time of global cooperation and problem solving. It is time that we grow up and talk about our problems.

How this should take shape, I know not. I only know that we will either stand together and survive as a species and planet, or we will become extinct, and the planet will go on without us…

There are no borders when looking at the earth, only a small, fragile “pale blue dot”.

Scott

On Mathematics…

As you may or may not know, I am in the midst of a Calculus class (Calculus 1 – Limits and Derivatives) at my university. It is a difficult class, but at the same time, it is rewarding. Calculus is something that I have always wanted to learn as I know it is a powerful mathematical tool, especially for understanding and solving physics problems. As I was sitting in class the other day, I was struck by an interesting thought, a realization if you will. I realized that math is the only absolute truth in our universe. This is an idea I have heard of before, but at this moment the idea fully crystallized in my mind. I was thinking about the proofs that one can work out in mathematics. Proofs that are independent and true, literally. Mathematical proofs are unique in that they are true regardless of language, philosophical viewpoint, location in the universe, &c. Though some proofs are simple and some hideously complex, all can be shown to be true independently of all other information.

I thought about this later. Those geometric proofs that many of us grew to loathe in Math 10 were actually glimpses of universal, absolute truth! What a fantastic thing! Proving that the angles on either side of a line transecting parallel lines were equal holds true always!

This thought gave me a new perspective on mathematics, and helped to gain a glimmer of understanding as to why people can become enamored with the subject, and dedicate their lives to studying and teaching “impractical” pure mathematics. I have also realized why early mathematical philosophers, Pythagoras was one, saw a touch of the divine in their formulas and geometries. Mathematics is a subtle and complex subject, but when I think of the inherent truth of it, I feel much more interested in learning and studying it….

Consider:
In some places god is called Yahweh, others Jehovah, Shiva, Thor, Cthulu or does not exist at all. But everywhere in the universe is 2+2=4 true and 2+2=5 false…

Ubi dubium ibi libertas

S.

What is so important about faith?

Greetings. As I said, I would have a question. It is there in the title, but I will repeat it:
What is so important about faith?
I will now add some explanation. Most major world religions have a component involving faith on the part of the adherent. Faith is important, it moves mountains, it is like a mustard… but why? I have been thinking about this, and I cannot come to a good answer, so I ask you, my loyal readers, to answer me. Why faith? Why is it that faith has no evidence, and that is lauded, even to the point where asking questions (perhaps even the one I am asking) is considered taboo, and showing a lack of faith. I am just curious about this, and am curious to see your replies…

dy/dx e^x = e^x

S