Mars Time

Reflecting on both a recent National Geographic article on Mars Exploration, and the Ron Howard docudrama series, 'Mars' ...

Mars, so what's the attraction?

It's nothing like Bradbury's 'Martian Chronicles'
It's nothing like 'Jon Carter' (and let's be thankful for that)

The place is a dump, astronomically-speaking, or at least a run down ghost town, so what's makes this little planet so appealing that otherwise reasonable people would be willing to risk their lives to go there?

Seriously - go look at parts of New Mexico.  That's a lot like Mars, except you can breath, won't usually freeze to death, and won't be mutated by radiation (well, if you avoid the old nuclear testing bits).

But exploring New Mexico is not as exciting (no offense New Mexico, I love you).

Exploring Mars IS exciting, and I think mainly because you can't breath, will likely freeze to death and be blasted by cosmic rays (but you won't get cool superpowers out of it).

So, there will be plenty of thrill-seeking types looking for the kind of excitement that Mother Earth just doesn't pack anymore, and willing to go to Mars.  But what about the scientists and engineers who will need to spend their life's work focusing on the place and how to get there (and maybe back)?  What's in it for them?

Well, let's face it, as local space destinations go, Mars is the most appealing.  It's bigger  and farther away than the Moon and therefore automatically cooler. It also comes with a kind of atmosphere.  A thin and deadly one, yes, but an atmosphere.  And let's not forget there is always the possibility of finding recognizable life buried there somewhere.  So though the place may look like New Mexico, it's definitely cooler to planetary scientists and exobiologists.

But what does all this mean to average you and me?  All but a very few of us living today will never set foot on Mars - or work directly to get people there.  The rest of us will be cheering the lucky ones on and paying for it.

Ah yes, paying for it. Will we see any benefit from all this activity which will ultimately cost trillions?

Er ... no, not right away, anyway. There may be some cool inventions that spin off from this effort that improve (or complicate, you know tech) our lives, but nothing big and nothing soon.

But, hey, the history of humanity - or at least the history of that part of humanity that has always embraced reason, science, and technology, claims a clear path forward.  We have to go somewhere or we will go nowhere, and Mars seems like the best alternative right now to stagnation.

So, here's the bottom line:  Don't support going to Mars because we will see benefits in our lifetimes.  Support it because this country (and the World) needs to believe in something bigger than itself.  Something that transcends all the usual human desires, resentments, and resulting strife.

Mars, it's time to go!

Idiocracy or Madness?

... have we become idiots or just gone entirely mad?

The faithful few readers of this blog may remember this post from 2011: http://waynetpov.blogspot.com/2011/11/idiots-united.html, in which I reference the movie 'Idiocracy'.  The fear of my long-ago post was also that contained in the very recent LA Times story on the subject, which is that social media has amplified stupidity to an alarming level and given voice to cretins who would otherwise be powerless and ignored.

But I am beginning to think this is looking at the situation incorrectly.  I am starting to believe that some form of mass psychosis, maybe even madness, is sweeping the land.  I say this because I know many people who are most definitely not idiots who nevertheless voted for Mr. Donald Trump (all hail his excellency!)

What makes an intelligent person vote for not only the least qualified candidate ever to run for our top office, but also the most openly morally bankrupt in a generation?  How can they cast their ballots for someone who has KKK backing, support from Russia, and who proposes to install Sarah Palin in a government office (Secretary of the Interior), give high power to both Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich, and who thinks it would be wise to deport 11 million immigrants (and ignore the inhumane effects).  Let's not also forget they would have to ignore his disgusting attitude towards women and his advocacy for torture as a 'useful' tool.

But somehow these intelligent people either ignored all those awful aspects of Trump, or dismissed them as something our system wouldn't permit him to actually do, or (gulp) embraced those horrid ideologies themselves.  Somehow, someway, these intelligent people made the most illogical, damaging choice they have ever made.  These smart people added their voices to those of the truly idiotic crazy-core of Trump supporters and gave him the reigns of the most powerful office and the most powerful military in the World.

I believe something akin to temporary (I hope) insanity gripped these intelligent people, leading them to a form of blindness to the truth. I hope they will snap out of it as the reality of what they've done begins to take shape.  I hope when this happens they will use their intelligence to resist the worst impulses of the person they've put in office, to the best of their abilities.  I hope they will join with the slightly more than half of the Nation that did not vote for Trump and will fight to keep our personal freedoms (and not just our right to carry guns into a Del Taco). 

Most of all I hope this return to sanity happens very soon, so we can all work together to ensure that Obamacare isn't repealed until a workable replacement is enacted. That we can figure out a humane compromise on immigration, and that women won't be left with no options but to seek back-alley abortions.

Crunch Time

or, after all the spewed vitriol, it's time to vote (or shut up)

I can't remember when I've wanted a day to come and pass as much as I want Nov 8 to get here and then get gone. After all, the longer this mess lasts the more friends I am likely to lose - or at least majorly alienate.

It's not that I try to irritate people, it's just that I can't effectively hide my shock that sentient beings I call friends (and relatives) would actually vote for a candidate with exactly zero bonafides that befit him for the office of President.  I mean, forgetting his 'ideas' (which are abysmal) what is there that recommends him over, say, a department store mannequin?  That dummy has the advantage over the other dummy in that it can't talk (and send terror through our allies while doing so).

I can't bear to list the Republican candidate's bad plans or the times where he or his minions have fanned the flames of hated and promoted the idea of violence against his opponent.  To list them is to relive them in painful clarity.

No, all I'll do here is to urge everyone to get up off their chairs and vote this Tuesday.  Don't let anything short of medical emergencies or major natural disasters (like that Great Meteor some are praying for) deter you from exercising your constitutional right (and DUTY) to cast your ballot.  This holds true even if you are deeply conflicted about the choice for President and intend to write in Mickey Mouse or Tom Hanks.  There are lots of other offices and initiatives that need your attention - at least go for those.

OK, that's It!  Off you go - review your choices, mark your sample ballot, and plan to be at the polls in time to get 'er done on Tuesday.  Good Luck to Us All ...

Lemmings 2016

Or what lessons might we learn from a small Scandinavian rodent ...

A popular (though somewhat scary) image from my childhood school learnings was that of thousands of small rodents called Lemmings pouring over a cliff to their deaths, each blindly following the Lemmings in front of them, who were in turn following the ones in front of them until we get to the first jumper(s) and have to wonder what the heck they were thinking and did they know the impact of their verticalistic impulses on their fellow Lemmings.

Never mind that the suicidal aspect of the Great Lemming Jumps has been discredited, it is still an apt metaphor for some (or a lot) of the political insanity that's been playing out in the news and social media.

If there a better way to explain the steadfast support that many are showing for a certain republican candidate for President, no matter how many warnings they receive that he may be about to lead them off a cliff?  It seems these supporters are following the lead of those further up towards the front, in the form of some conservative 'news' pundits or faded political stars trying to stave off the end of their careers, who all seem to be clinging to a desperate belief their candidate can somehow jump off the cliff but fly, not fall, and they (if not the rest of the Lemmings behind) will grow wings and fly with him.

If that is what the pack-in-back thinks, gravity of a political sort may soon give them a painfully demoralizing lesson.

Let's imagine a reality in which the Lemmings and their human political analogs watched their Leader(s) teetering on the brink, noted the height of the fall and the distinct lack of wings, and turned and walked away, muttering something about idiots.

Great Expectations 2016

... "you can't always get what you want ... but if you try sometimes, you get what you need"

What do we need?  

How's this:

To be safer from violence (from other humans) - fewer battles and terrorist acts would be a start; innocent people not having to fear their own police would be even better; adding being treated more equally and with greater fairness despite your religion, ethnicity, gender, or social status would bolster this basic need

To have enough healthy food and drink - nobody should have to subsist on cheap fast food

To have a stable place to live - everyone should have a home they can reasonably count on being available to them; one they own, rent, or share with others, but something reliably there

To have effective basic medical care - nobody should die or be incapacitated for lack of medical care; and nobody should have to face bankruptcy to pay for mandatory treatment

To have an education- everyone should have access to the education and training needed to function in the world; this shouldn't bankrupt or burden anyone with unmanageable debt

To have gainful employment - everyone should have the opportunity for jobs that will pay a wage capable of providing the basics of life

To have the potential for social and economic upward mobility - everyone should be able to improve their condition, whether through hard work, education, or just luck; whatever the means and how difficult the task it must be possible or else we deprive our society of hope; being "able to pursue happiness" or more simply have 'freedom of choice', is an important addition to this (even if not strictly basic by definition)

These seven are what I think are basic human needs. You might be able to add more.

The Dark Mirror

... or what do you see when you stare into the internet abyss?

Sometime in my distant youth an unknowable combination of genetics, upbringing and experience conspired to turn me into what I am today,  that most hapless of internet inhabitants, the 'Voice of Reason'.

To me, everything boils down to logic and fairness. You don't lash out at someone or something unless there's a supportable, logical reason, and the lashing on balance is fairly dealt.  Better still don't lash out at all.  Fairness is the Be All and End All, and logic its guide.

This attitude put me at risk in my high school and long-haired college days during 'discussions' with local constabulary.  I can say in retrospect only my absolutely obvious innocence saved me from my righteous (but logical) indignation landing me in the clink on more than one occasion.  Does Right Make Might? No, not in the real world, Dorothy!

This attitude, though tempered with age and experience, still today makes me an outcast, weirdo, and sometimes unwelcome commentator to my 'friends' Facebook rants.  

I too often interject with what I see as a reasoned appeal to calm and careful appraisal. Logic and fairness the goal. You'd be amazed (or maybe not) on how this goes down.  

And something even nastier happens from time to time.  Just as I sometimes reveal myself on the internet to be a lame-ass 'Dudley-Do-Right' know-it-all, some other of my 'friends' who are totally nice people to meet and interact with in person, reveal themselves as ideologues only slightly to the right of Genghis Khan's right-hand man, or slightly to the left of Karl Marx's dentist.  And being me I have a hard time deciding whether I should hate these people that I normally 'like' just because they are odious baboons on Facebook or Twitter. It's a logical dilemma on what constitutes fair appraisal.

Its been a difficult lesson and I am still trying to learn it fully.  Its a lesson on what the internet really is (or at least what certain social portals within it are). 

What we post on the internet is frequently our unfiltered, unedited, innermost thoughts.  Some of us spew out amazingly toxic vitriol which we'd never say to someone face to face.  We don't want discussion or gainsaying or an appeal to logic and fairness. We want to vent and we want the world of our 'friends' to support or stay silent.  

Perhaps its cleansing internet therapy, but it shows the World, or at least our circle of 'friends' exactly how dark our dark sides can be.  

Passionate Politics

 There's no doubt that political speeches can be boring.  The more the speaker brings in actual facts, plans, and specific pronouncements, the more boring it can get.  This leads to a quick channel switch to the latest episode of River Monsters (or similar less painfully-real 'reality' escape).

Now, give us passionate sound bites, over-the-top promises, and unproven but so, so nastily enjoyable dirt on opponents, and we lap it up.  Hey, we'd say, its almost as good as the latest Mountain Monsters episode, where someone may have actually smelled a Sasquatch (!)

Personally, I like a little passion in political stump speeches.  I understand facts and wouldn't mind hearing modestly-detailed plans, but I don't need a scholarly lecture by a candidate taking up my precious viewing time.  On the flip side, I want passion but not so much to the deficit of intelligence that afterwards I come away with no clear idea as to why I am suddenly feeling scared, or angry at [insert name of group or individual].  I have enough vague unease and unspecified, poorly-directed irritations already, thank you.

So, somewhere between Cosmos and the Sharknado series lies the factual sweet spot for political speeches to hit.  I'd say so far we've been dodging a lot of bull (sharks)...