The Mad Skeptic

Singularitarianism Must be Challenged by Skeptics

noreply@blogger.com (Baron Army) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 23:04:00 +0000

Lately, there has been a fair amount of credulous coverage of the concept of transhumanism and the singularity on Skeptical podcasts and otherwise skeptical media. To my recollection, Massimo Pigliucci and Steven Novella are the only high-profile folks providing any appropriate counterpoint. After listening to the second episode on the topic on Skeptically Speaking, I decided I could hold my tongue no longer. It seems to me the Skeptic community, as a whole, is doing a piss-poor job being skeptical on this issue.

As a Geologist and Microscopist looking in, transhumanism, futurism and sigularitarianism all look to be nothing more than science fiction-based wishful thinking. That is not to say that there are great strides being made in computer science and technology or that the idea of augmenting oneself is appealing. As a Skeptic and an Atheist, I have observed a number of parallels between this futurist-whatever-you-want-to-call-it and woo-woo, cults, and – yes – religion.

Let's start with the basics, sigularists and futurists use a lot of very, very soft language in regards to what the future will provide. In listening to the second transhumanism episode on Skeptically Speaking, I was struck by the incredible number of times words like “someday”, “would”, “could”, “might” and other similarly wiggly words were used. How is this any different from plain old wishful thinking? 'You could become fabulously rich'. 'Someday, vaccinations will be shown to cause autism'. How are those sentences any different from stating something along the lines of: 'We could make a mathematical model of the human brain' or 'We might have transhumans who can do [insert super-human task here]'? I have to ask why is this concept wrapped up in such poorly defined and (apparently) deliberately fuzzy language? The very definition of the singularity – as provided by George Dvorsky on Skeptically Speaking – as being “an intelligence explosion” not only smacks of pseudoscience terminology, it is so open ended as to represent almost anything intelligence related. How is that any different from the crap Deepok Chopra spews when he calls forth his bastardized quantum physics?

As to my pseudoscience observation – both singularity adherents and creationists share similarities. Perhaps the differences between “true” Science and Engineering help exacerbate this (I'm not saying engineering isn't a science – I just want to separate it from Biology, Geology, and so on). Both creationists and singularists have a pre-conceived belief that they are setting out to prove. While the Creationists are self-deceived in regards to Evolution etc., they are using real sciences (mainly Genetics, Biology, and Geology) in an attempt to justify their beliefs. Are the singularists doing the same thing only using computer science and robotics? I really don't know. I just thought I'd throw it out.

The main thing that is most disconcerting to me, as an Atheist, is the apparent and deliberate pseudo-religious posturing the believers in singularity put on. Sure there are no robes and incense but it's time to face the facts, the 'singularity' (regardless of how it's defined) is not a foregone conclusion. Yet, these computer and robotics acolytes speak as if it will happen. How is that any different from fundamentalist Christians asserting in the inevitability of the rapture? Sure, computers are real and the four horsemen of the apocalypse aren't but both of these concepts share fundamental similarities. Both promise a big and wonderful change for adherents as they are allowed to escape their mundane existence and negative repercussions for those who don't believe. Good things for the in-group and bad things for the rest. Religion.

Finally, one thing George Dvorsky said on Skeptically Speaking really lead a bad taste in my mouth. Right after the other guest, Greg Fish, give a reasonable response to a chat room member who wants to become “transhuman” as quickly as possible by instructing them to study things like computer science or neurology, Dvorsky busts this gem out:

....subscribe to a, I guess, a belief system or, I guess, a value system that's referred to as 'singularitarianism' and I know that is a mouthful. But singularitarianism is the general feeling that we need to advance ourselves, we need to get to the singularity as soon as possible. And the reason for that is we probably risk self-destruction before then if we don't. Namely through the development of other technologies. Namely nano-technolgies and nano-weapons. Whether it be robotic technologies or even biological technologies such as genetic, or sorry, such as pathogens and other kinds of, basically, devastating pathogens that could cripple the entire human species. And the idea here is that we can circumvent or, rather, preempt that from happening should we get to the singularity first. Whether or not we would survive the singularity is an open question but at this point the responsibility, I suppose, is somewhat out of our hands. There is a famous quote, I think it might be from Hans Moravec, who says that a self-improving artificial intelligence that is human-equivalent is the last invention we will ever need to make because at that point it's going to take over and it will, basically, be able to figure out the rest for us.

So, I'm left wondering, is singularitianism a doomsday cult or are they promising to save the world? Either way, something's rotten in Denmark. We will destroy ourselves if we don't create god!

I understand the host, Desiree, did not have time to follow up on this whopper of what, in my opinion is a fresh, steaming pile of crazy but she didn't ask a single hard question of her guests for the entire show. Why was that? If someone was to go on a Skeptic show and say similar things about crystals and New Age woo, they would almost certainly be challenged. Why did this not happen. Is it because robots are “good” and crystals are “bad”. Stop playing favorites. Someone needs to stand up and start shouting “show me the evidence”!

Yes, all this stuff is cool sounding and, yes, it may very well appeal to a great many of Skeptics. I, for one, wouldn't mind being able to become some sort of a cyberpunk and do things we can only dream of. After all, many of us are self-identified nerds and geeks but that is no excuse to not recognize the existence of a critical thinking blind spot. Transhumanism and singularitarianism are beliefs and, if Dvorsky's quote above is any indication, it sure sound awfully religious to me. This belief must be challenged and debated. If I'm wrong, and singularity (whatever the hell it ends up being) is possible and as beneficial as its proponents claim it will be, the debate may make the transition to transhumanism easier. However, if I'm right about this being nothing more than irrational singularity worship, we might be able to inject some sound reason into what may be a new cult and save people time, energy, and grief.

Photo by Bistrosavage

OMFG Asbestos is Awesome!!

noreply@blogger.com (Baron Army) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 03:53:00 +0000

Here's a rather interesting brochure put out by Johns Manville telling the world about their "magic" mineral -- chrysotile asbestos:

Johns Manville Document

England isn't the Only Place Where There are Mysterious Big Cats

noreply@blogger.com (Baron Army) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 22:45:00 +0000

I grew up in Upstate New York. Not the “upstate” people refer to when they are talking about anything north of New York City. I'm not referring to western New York which, for some bazaar reason beyond my comprehension, is lumped into the “upstate” New York category (the area is more like “upstate” Pennsylvania or extreme-eastern Ohio if you ask me). I'm talking about the real upstate New York – the Adirondacks. You remember when Teddy Roosevelt became President? Remember how he was out doing his manly vacationing in the wilds and had to ride a horse, get a carriage, and then a special train so that he could take the oath of offices? Remember where he was? That's right. In the Adirondacks!

Enough of me straightening everyone out on what is and isn't Upstate New York. The Adirondacks, themselves are a mountain range made of ancient rocks deformed in the Grenville Orogony. These metamorphic rocks were, at one time, covered with sedimentary rocks but due to upward forces both unknown and known (isostatic rebound^*) these rocks were eroded away. In time the significant and amazing Adirondacks were formed and this is where I grew up and it's a great place to go ice fishing.

When we first moved to the Adirondack region, my family had a menagerie of small farm animals and among those animals were a small flock of geese. Anyone who has had the pleasure of being in the presence of these animals know just what kind of terrible and abusive bastards they really are. They chase you. They bite you, make a lot of noise for no apparent reason, and shit everywhere. Yes. These were the pets my parents thought their children deserved. Most importantly, though, is that geese are not small and, even more important to that, they will stand up to predators. Swans aren't the only waterfowl one needs to be concerned about.

Not too long after we moved, our geese started disappearing without a trace. Part of it was explained as possibly being the result of their age. They were old and my parents postulated that the geese just wandered into the woods and died. I know now that geese really, really don't care for the forest and rightly so. Their instinctive means of escape is to fly away and things like leaves and branches kind of get in the way of flying. While our geese couldn't fly, they would occasionally try and I never once observed them going into the woods for anything. Soon, though, the old age/woods theory crumbled as more geese disappeared. Fearing dogs were responsible for the killings, the geese were locked up into their little barn at night.

Wouldn't you know it, the geese kept disappearing! One night my grandparents were over for a visit and the remaining geese started making one hell of a racket. My grandfather told my father he thought he had heard something unusual down by the barn and my father had decided to investigate further. Without a flashlight, my dad went down to the barn. I believe the geese were still going at it but he couldn't see anything unusual. Just then something “big” growled nearby in the bushes and in his words “the hairs went up on the back of my neck”. Unnerved (which is atypical of my father), he got back to the house as quickly as possible. He never saw what made the sound and he swears it was cat-like.

Before long, the last goose was taken. Not only was it taken, whatever animal killed it managed to pull a full-grown domesticated goose through the 4-5 inch opening between the bottom of the door and the ground and then carry – not drag – that goose into the woods without dropping nary a feather. We tracked whatever it was with our dog to the culvert down the road. We presumed that whatever it was had taken its kill up French Mountain. Oh yeah. We lived on the base of French Mountain in the town of Lake George and this area is not wilderness by any stretch of the imagination.

So what's the point of this story? To me, it appears highly probable a large cat killed our geese. I don't have any evidence to support this claim apart from the missing geese but a large dog could have carried a dead goose as well. My dad's experience certainly lends credibility in my mind to the idea of there being a large cat in the area but his story is only anecdotal. So what large cat other than the bobcat could be in the Adirondacks? I'm talking about the mountain lion or cougar.

These critters used to live in the Adirondacks but were hunted to extinction in the 1800's. However, just like the reports of big cats in Great Britain, people are claiming to see mountain lions in the Adirondacks. Almost certainly, a very high percentage of those reports can be attributed the mis-identification of bobcats and, possibly, fishers (both of which are extremely secretive). Currently, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation denies the existence of wild (not feral) cougars in New York. However, this area used to be their stomping grounds and, if the relatively recent return of moose to the area is any indication, re-population from an outside region is a possibility. Naturally, there is the chance that stupid and vain people buy cougar kittens to be pets and then release them as adults into the wild and just one such case may have already been observed in Keene Valley. There is even a website dedicated to whether there are mountain lions in the Adirondacks. Check it out. I think it is well done and it presents all sides. In case you are wondering, I voted “Maybe” on the poll.

Is this a cryptozoological cryptid creeping? Certainly not. This is a case of a known animal potentially moving back into a region it once inhabited or possibly a case of irresponsible and eccentric pet ownership gone awry. Likewise, it could simply be localized cases of mis-identifications and misunderstandings. Regardless of how you toss the dice, known animals keep coming up and that is why these “ghost cats” really aren't all that mysterious. Personally, I hope wild cougars are moving back into the area. Camping out will become a whole lot more exciting.

*Isostatic rebound is the equivalent of what happens to a filled balloon if you were to hold your thumb in one place, press inward and then gradually release your thumb. The balloon returns to its original form. In Geology, your thumb would be glaciers and the balloon would represent the crust of the Earth. As the glaciers retreated, the crust, which had been compressed, rebounded upward as the extra mass of the ice disappeared.

Photo by Harlequeen

SPLC Deserves our Skeptical Support

noreply@blogger.com (Baron Army) — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 03:27:00 +0000

I don't mean 'skeptical' in the literal sense. I think Skeptics really need to get behind the Southern Poverty Law Center. Not only are they doing good work pissing on race myths, they are busting conspiracy theories!

How could a Skeptic go wrong?

Well, check them out and I encourage you to donate to this most worthy of causes!

Photo by Foxtongue

Matt Drudge and the Right's Utilization of Terror Management Theory

noreply@blogger.com (Baron Army) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:04:00 +0000

The right is up to it again. Tonight, after hearing the good news about the ruling against the Arizona immigration law (which is good for two primary reason:1) it's maintaining the sanctity of the Constitution and 2) limitations on the police-state mentality towards "others" is being restrained) I decided to see how Matt Drudge was going to portray this historic ruling.

Wouldn't you know it, he threw up a picture of someone holding an American flag with the stars replaced by a swastika. Good to see you're as unbiased as ever Drudge....

However, in reading the links on the rest of the page, I realize the majority were anxiety provoking or just plain-old fear mongering and this got me thinking about Terror Management Theory. Basically, it states that we behave in certain ways when we are reminded of our mortality. Reasonable Doubts did an excellent podcast on this topic. If one is presented with scary stories which contradict your world view you are, in a way, reminded of your own mortality -- or at least your lack of control and that might mean you'll up on the dead end of the stick. This then elicits an emotional response. The United States government -- especially under George W Bush -- has utilized this theory in a way that got us all kinds of great stuff. Just think of the Patriot Act and how that was steam-rolled through Congress. We are still living with that diabolical legislation because of fear. Our fear and the fear of the members of Congress. Bush, Cheney, and their lackies absolutely knew what they were doing with that legislation.

George Orwell certainly understood the premise behind Terror Management Theory even if the theory wouldn't be developed until well after his death. One only needs to read Nineteen Eighty-Four and the constant fear placed in people's faces each day as Oceania battles both Eurasia and Eastasia and society's constant worry over spies and those who committed "thought crime". Micheal Moore (who may know of Terror Management Theory) illustrated Bush and Cheney's usage of fear after 9/11 in his movie "Fahrenheit 9/11".

With this knowledge in hand, I decided to analyze Drudge's page this evening. The following graphic illustrates my examination:

As the legend indicates, red represents a scary story or what I consider would be scary to Drudge's base readership (ie Conservatives, etc.), blue represents media stories -- which is what Drudge, ostensibly, intended to originally cover, and green represents general interest stories. There are a couple of stories which are not colored. This lack of coloration is because I didn't know which way to label them or because they could be interpreted on more than one level. Additionally, one story is purple because it is a scary media story. Although a couple pictures were labeled, I did not consider them when I counted things up.

Here's the analysis:

On Drudge's page this evening, he had links to 59 stories (excluding the video link because I viewed it as part and parcel of the Kagan story). Of those 59 stories, 35 or approximately 59% are scary stories. Eleven or about 20% are media stories. There are 7 or approximately 12% general interest stories. The remaining 6 stories represent about 10% of the total. I should point out that I counted my purple story twice -- once for the scary category and once for the media category.

What does this say about Drudge? What can you say beyond that he is a fear monger when more than half of his page is about fear. Could be one of two things as far as I see. My first inclination is that he is attempting to utilize Terror Management Theory on the behalf of his Conservative political agenda. Breitbart has been using it. Bush or Cheney (who ever was really running the show) adeptly used it. Could he be trying to cement the Conservative base and make sure no ideological weaknesses develop? Possibly. My second thought is that Matt Drudge is a scared man. He looks for these stories to feed some kind of a confirmation bias turned profitable web portal. Is he frightened, proverbially cowering in some corner somewhere? He certainly isn't a terribly public person and while that does nothing to suggest he's afraid of everyone else, it does nothing to disprove it either. My belief is that the truth is both possibilities. While Drudge may not fully understand Terror Management, he is good at manipulating emotions by way of the stories he chooses to link to. In doing so, he helps feed the fear out there about those who are different, about change, about political views contrary to his own. Yes he's scared but he wants us all to be scared as well.

Preserving the Holy Racial Sanctity of Our Country

noreply@blogger.com (Baron Army) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 01:52:00 +0000

Due to the recent attention being paid by the *ahem* mainstream media to Zionist association with the Illuminati and their hideous plans to take over the world, I thought I'd blow the lid off what those nasty, smelly, hooked-nosed sub-humans are really planning.

Not only are the Jews all about making Hitler look bad *shudder*, they already control the World's money and they are probably in bed with the Bilderberg Group. Of course, everyone already knows that Israel called up all the Jews who worked in the World Trade Towers and commanded them not to go to work that day. And, in a vain attempt to garner sympathy from the gullible populace, they are even spray painting swastikas on their own synagogues. At least that's what the bastion of truth, Stormfront.org is saying. Well, here it is people, here's the big deal:

The Jews are getting us to eat their fiendishly delicious bagels! Did you know that when you eat one of those soft and squishy yet crispy on the outside pastries, you are single-handedly supporting the Zionist occupied world government? I'm surprised Glenn Beck hasn't brought this up yet. It's true!

If we don't do something soon to protect the sanctity of our country's pure snow white soul, we will be doomed forever! It's already too late on many fronts. Those ape-people from Mexico are planning an invasion and their burritos are already in freezers across this great country of ours. Take a look at history and you'll see the after effects of these invasions of the mud people. Polish sausage can be bought at the local supermarket and those fanatical communist Chinese bastards have set up businesses all across our beloved homeland and are serving up delicious wonton and fried rice? Don't even mention "french" fries!

When will this terror end? I fear for our children because they may never know the bland, vanilla-white world we all grew up in. Pretty soon, we will no longer be able to find white bread in the supermarkets!

Sounds ridiculous doesn't it. Well, it is and those beliefs of the race baiters and racists out their like the Klan or Breitbart are just as ridiculous. It's high time people started making fun of these morons.

The Passing of a Colleague

noreply@blogger.com (Baron Army) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:20:00 +0000

From the Albany Times Union:

Chen, Rong BETHLEHEM Rong Chen, 46, of Slingerlands, N.Y., passed away at home surrounded by her loving family on July 23, 2010 after a long and courageous battle with cancer. Born in Fuzhou, Fujian, China. Rong was a graduate from Shanghai Jiaotong University with both bachelor and master's degrees in science. After emigrating to the states in 1990, she received a master of science degree in analytical chemistry from State University of New York at Buffalo. She worked for the SUNY foundation, Allied Signals/Honeywell, and New York State Department of Health as a chemist/research scientist until she passed away. She maintained an active and fully independent life despite the countless medical treatments she received. An avid reader (in Chinese and English), Rong enjoyed movies, traveling, sports (football and basketball) and lately HGTV/Food Network. She is survived by her beloved daughter, Jennie Tang and her devoted husband Dr. Junnong Tang. She is also survived by her parents, Mr. Qixing Chen and Ms. Xiuhua Ye; and two brothers, Qing Chen and Gong Chen. She is also survived by several cousins including Mr. Shi Chen, his wife Ms. Ping Ye and their son Jihai Chen of Carmel, N.Y. She was predeceased by her paternal grandmother and an infant brother. Rong and her family would like to thank her treating doctors, nurses, friends, neighbors and co-workers for their loving and dedicated support throughout this challenging time. Calling hours will be on Monday, July 26 at Applebee Funeral Home, 403 Kenwood Ave., Delmar, N.Y., from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. A private funeral on Tuesday, July 27 will be held at the convenience of the family. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made in memory of Rong to the , 262 Osbore Road, Loudonville, NY 12211.

Regrettably, this is the second person I've known who has died as the result of breast cancer.

Previously, my friend Penny Green passed away after a long fight with the disease.

Hopefully, the day will come when this disease will cease to be a problem. To help get t here, please make a donation to the American Cancer Society.

What the Media and the Obama Administration Could Learn from Skeptics

noreply@blogger.com (Baron Army) — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:05:00 +0000

Unless you have been living under a rock, camping, coming out of coma, or read the Drudge Report or watch Fox News, you are almost certainly aware of the smear job done on Shirley Sherrod by Andrew Breitbart. A more flagrant example of deliberate racist propaganda has not been perpetrated on the National psyche (at least to my knowledge which, honestly, is somewhat limited) in a very long time. Essentially, Breitbart wanted to get back at the NAACP for their observation that the Tea Party harbors blatant racists. Now, this is a fact which is irrefutable. Evidence has been collected by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and they write about it on their blog, Hatewatch. Now, don't expect this blog to be only about the Tea Party -- they only play a partial role. SPLC equally covers all hate groups and their associations and I strongly recommend anyone reading my blog to take some time out of their day to read an article or two. You will be disgusted at the level of ignorance still present in the United States of America.

I really don't want to write about Breitbart. He has been called the "Goebbels of the Right" for is usage of misinformation, editing, rumors, and lies. All of which are intended to benefit his Conservative political agenda. Unfortunately, Fox News eagerly laps up whatever he is serving and then vomits it back out to a larger audience. Fox News, like Breitbart is garbage in my opinion. I don't care how glossy they are and certainly don't care how loud they yell on television they cater to the basest and disgusting of human fears. They and Breitbart are part of the same agenda-driven machine. As Rachael Maddow recently put it -- it's no surprise the Fox News does what Fox News does. It is nothing new. And, like Rachael Maddow, I find what is most unsettling is that the Obama administration took this misinformation seriously.

As Skeptics, we are well aware of one's ability to self-deceive and it implications upon behavior. We are also well aware of the many, many ways data can be misrepresented, falsified, or fabricated. Had the Obama administration been even remotely skeptical of information coming from a profoundly questionable source, I doubt Shirley Sherrod would have been fired. This is something Skeptics can teach the world -- follow your sources, question everything, and never accept anything on face value. Oh yeah -- think for yourself.

Breitbart edited a real video to make is appear as if Sherrod is a racist when, in fact, she was explaining how she wasn't and the thought process she went through. While the rest of the world is examining this obfuscation what are Breitbart, Drudge, and Fox News trying to do? They're trying to frame Obama as a racist because someone in his administration acted too quickly in firing an employee. Yes that is wrong but I seriously doubt Obama is a racist. The Breitbart, Drudge, Fox information chain has already proven itself unreliable and it continues to do so in their attempt at maintaining some race-based power structure. Fox and Friends still has not run a correction about the Sherrod story. Drudge is only running with the "Obama race troubles" line and Breitbart is continuing to be a cock sucker. As of the writing of this article, he hasn't apologized or run a correction. Instead, he's tried to pass the buck, posted the full video, and then re-doubled his efforts to smear Obama. Sounds like a true-believer to me and we all know that true believers are immune to reality.

So here's my message to the Obama administration and the mainstream media -- start reading some Skeptic blogs and websites. Learn about the Scientific Method and the concept of testing a hypothesis. Hopefully, you will learn something and won't be snookered by these agenda-driven con-artists the next time.

Well, I can hope can't I?

One More Sarah Palin Poster!

noreply@blogger.com (Baron Army) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:47:00 +0000

Eat it up party people:

"Refudiate," Suitable for Framing

noreply@blogger.com (Baron Army) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 05:01:00 +0000

I think this says it all:

Cryptozoological Whine for Cash. Good Intentions In, Garbage Out

noreply@blogger.com (Baron Army) — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 23:32:00 +0000

Breaking news! Cryptomundo is going to shut down if they don't raise enough money to cover costs!

Sound familiar? You bet, Cryptomundo just finished a fund-raising drive which was innagurated by the site's owner, Craig Woolheater, threatening to shut the site down unless he received adequate donations. He whined about loosing money and the usual garbage the woo-woos and loons put up in a disgusting display of self-pity to try to raise money and sympathy. Let's send some alms to the noble idiot!

Well, I would have linked to the original posting but, true to Cryptomundo form, the post was deleted before I could archive it. Honestly, I didn't think I would write anything about it at first so I dun goof'd. Instead, I present you with the provided screen grab of my Google Reader account to prove the post really went up.

In case you were actually concerned about this one-stop shop for censorship and pseudo-science, they did get enough suckers donors to send in enough money to keep the site up.ⁱ Why do we see this tactic so often? It works in the woo woo crowd -- adding to the "unsinkable rubber duck" image. On the plus side, Woolheater did say they were going to shift focus back to cryptozoology! Good thing because they were almost exclusively publishing SEO posts about monster movies instead of cryptids or even the occasional real zoological story. I could hear the death rattle....

So far the stories have seemed to remain on the cryptid-side of things but it's only been a day since the Great Cryptomundo Panic of 2010^tm. It will be interesting to see where they take this tired old topic which leads me to the second half of this post:

Good Intentions In, Garbage out.

While the donors were giving their money to Woolheater, his star writer and all around creep and loon, Loren Coleman, published a credulous post about 36 foot tall humans in antiquity using a graphic from a creationist website (say hello to Geocities formating folks!).ⁱⁱ As someone rightfully pointed out on Cryptomundo, dinosaur, mammoth, and giant sloth bones were often thought to have originated from giants. The science of Paleontology put that ancient belief in the grave. Having said that, we now have a better than average link between cryptozoology and creationism. Peruse the Mt. Blanco Institute of Omniology site and see just what kind of crazies Cryptomundo has tapped into. Of course, Coleman's response to this observation would be something along the lines of he was trying to inspire discussion; which he did -- just not about giants.

I honestly don't know if Coleman or Woolheater are creationists themselves or if the post is some sort of advertisement paid for by the Mt. Blanco Institute of Omniology (probably could have been cheap seeing how Cryptomundo was about to go belly up). Either way, I don't find it at all surprising to find creationist material on a cryptozoology site. Regardless of what the case may be, I have to wonder if either of them actually vet ANY of the information they dig up.

iWoolheater, Craig. The Readers Breathe New Life Into Cryptomundo. Cryptomundo. 2010-07-16. URL:http://www.cryptomundo.com/bigfoot-report/cryptomundo-anew/. Accessed: 2010-07-16. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5rH96T6FC)

iiColeman, Loren. Where Are The Bones? Any Giants In Those Days?. Cryptomundo. 2010-07-16. URL:http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/bones/. Accessed: 2010-07-16. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5rH8bzzEI)

Children's Entertainment -- Busytown Mysteries

noreply@blogger.com (Baron Army) — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 02:05:00 +0000

Looking for something to help teach your child critical thinking skills at an early age? Good luck. There really isn't a lot of stuff on the television that goes out of it's way to demonstrate cause and effect, the scientific method, or critical thinking. What's on t.v. tends to be aimed at other skill sets, is just fluff (i.e. Sponge Bob -- even if it is really funny), or downright awful (i.e. Veggie Tales -- which seeks to brainwash your kids into being good christian minions).

I'm really not familiar with a lot of the different shows out there mainly due to the fact I don't have television in the apartment. I gave up cable to save money and I don't get any reception inside (thick stone walls). Consequently, I can't take credit for this 'discovery'. My daughter picked out Hurray for Huckle: Zooming Around Busytown when we were returning some Redbox DVDs.

Busytown Mysteries follows around a group of friends who are led by a cat named Huckle. These characters might be familiar to many as the show is based on the books by Richard Scarry. Each episode has some kind of a mystery that is solved at the end by the friends. What make's the show really good is they show the characters coming up with ideas and then testing them. As each hypothesis fails, they modify their thinking until the answer is found. Sound familiar? It's the scientific method for toddlers!

My daughter gave the show rave reviews which -- in 3 year old terms -- means she sat still and was adsorbed in this cartoon. When the show was over, there were a lot of questions and that is always a good thing. I make a habit of watching whatever I'm letting my daughter watch so I can attest to the fact that she loved this cartoon. I wouldn't be surprized if the insipid "Barbie and the Nutcracker" is forgotten forever (a father can dream).

So, if you have a little one -- probably second grade and younger -- I strongly recommend renting or buying this DVD or any from the series. It is well written, geared toward a little kid's attention span, is brightly colored, and it really teaches critical thinking. One weird thing though; the kids in the cartoon drive cars. I hope my little one doesn't get any wise ideas.

A Blast from the Past -- The Magnet Hucksters

noreply@blogger.com (Baron Army) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 01:52:00 +0000

Here's an oldie but a goodie:

I've written about this in the past and my story was discussed on the Swift at one point. Basically, way back in 2005, there were vendors on the New York State Empire State Plaza Concourse (a large mall-like setting which links all the building on the Empire State Plaza) who were selling magnet jewelery and making claims they could stop pain and cure various things. I've lost the original letter I sent in complaining. Most likely, it is on my old computer which is sitting in a corner because it's clock battery is dead and I haven't gone out to get one to replace it. A version of the original letter is on my LiveJournal account (I now realize I've been a Skeptic blogger for over 5 years now!) but it is no where near as interesting as the response I received:

06 03 06 Magnet Response

I found the response while going through things as I prepare to move into a new apartment. As you can read, the NYSCPB really doesn't grasp the evidence against magnets relieving pain or the concept of placebos. In that, I was very disappointed. However, it wasn't too soon after my letter was mailed in and this response was generated that the magnet hucksters stopped appearing on the Concourse. I think they realized the heat was on them or someone told them to change their advertising. Much to my chagrin, they have reappeared within recent memory although their signs have changed. Mostly, they read just something about "magnetic jewelery" although I do think I saw a 8.5x11 print out with "testimonials" written on the top. Next time they are around, I'll be taking pictures.

Skeptical Single Parenting

noreply@blogger.com (Baron Army) — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 23:13:00 +0000

I am a single dad. On two levels, my situation definitely is not the one I envisioned myself being in when I was younger. First, I never really expected to have a child. For all intents and purposes, I planned on being child-free. I could go on about the rampant anti-child prejudice the permeates the “child-free” subculture (if it is such a thing) but I won't beyond denouncing it outright and to say I never shared those views. I guess I was somewhat narcissistic in that I didn't want to have to put any energy, money, and effort into having a child. Secondly, when I did fantasize about my having a child, it wasn't in the context of being a single father. Things didn't work out for my daughter, myself, and her mother in a way that reflect a “traditional” family.

I'm glad to say I do not regret having my daughter in any way. She is my life and being a dad, despite my child-free-ness, comes naturally to me. She's happy, curious, and has even made an appearance on Virtually Drinking Skeptically (she couldn't sleep and was curious about who I was talking to). Obviously, despite our differences, her mother and I are doing something right. I was fortunate to have parents who didn't try to force a dogma down my throat and I am striving to ensure my daughter gets the same advantage.

My daughter's mother does not share my Skeptic and Atheist views. Yes, this could become a problem. We parent in what is referred to as “parallel parenting” but we are moving towards true co-parenting. In both of these parenting styles, there is communication between the parents about the child and their well-being. At one point, this level of communication was impossible. I'm not going to write about it here but the situation was really bad.

Despite our level of communication, there are a couple things which I have not brought up as an issue and I parent my daughter on these topics entirely by my standards as a Skeptic and Atheist. As a result, this aspect of our lives is “parallel”. My Ex is pseudo-religious in a New Age meets Catholicism kind of a way. I've never criticized her beliefs and kept my opinions to myself. I just accepted them – which was easy because she never went to church or tried to get me to go the entire time we were together. She is also a believer in things like spirits, ghosts, reiki, and other topics which lack evidence of their existence. When we were together, her discussions about how she felt the “presence” of a dead relative were common. I just bit my tongue and accepted them as a part of who she is.

Now, I'm free of the situation I found myself in prior to our split and I can parent as I see fit. Fortunately for my daughter, she had three living great-grandparents when she was born. Unfortunately, two passed away after her second birthday. Also, a favorite pet cat and my parents' dog (who she loved) died. Consequently, she's trying to understand death. This is a natural process for anyone to go through. The way her mother and I are handling the explanations about death differ and this could be a source of conflict.

Obviously, the matter of potential strife is about what happens after one dies. My daughter's mother tells her that one “goes to the angels”. Consequently, my daughter comes to me for confirmation. She'll often ask me “Is Uma with the angels?” Uma was my parents' dog. My response to her – which I don't think she fully understands yet – is that some people believe that we go to the angels after we die but that I don't believe that. I try to tell her that people “live” on in our memories and that we continue to love them even though they are gone. Personally, I don't feel that passing the buck to a supernatural and unprovable post-death existence is acceptable.

As she's only three, these types of questions often come up – a lot. Anyone with a kid knows what I'm talking about. Death is a big deal for kids at this stage of development as they struggle with self identity and the limits of “self”. While she may not fully grasp what I'm telling her and it may be easier for her to think that you go somewhere else (much like we drive to Grandma and Grandpa's house) when we die, I think it is much more important for me not to deviate from my beliefs and water down my explanation. The end result will be a consistent explanation that she can reliably hang her hat on. While I may not be seeing any immediate comprehension, I think it will come in time.

Similarly, I get questions about ghosts and monsters. As for monsters, I tell her they don't exist. Period. They are only found in books and movies. I view it as though a monster is thing of terror and if a “monster” creature exists out there (like bigfoot) it is an animal – not a monster and not a thing of terror. As for ghosts, I approach it in a similar fashion to the way I answer her about death and monsters. I tell her that some people belief in ghosts but I add one little thing. I tell her that no one can prove they are real and that ghosts are only really in scary movies and stories. I'm trying to redirect any possible concerns she might have about ghosts and monsters towards where they belong – fiction (at least as far as we've been able to determine so far).

My daughter's mother as halfheartedly been going to church with the kids (she has a son from another relationship). While some might think this would get me pissed, I'm OK with it. Actually, I would like some exposure to religion but that exposure needs to be discussed. When the time comes, I will discuss it with her. Right now, “church” is where she went to see a play of the Three Little Pigs so I don't think they are going all that often (besides, trying to get my daughter not to ask a preacher “why” after every statement might be impossible – actually, she may already be a Skeptic!).

Ultimately, I hope to provide a rational anchor to my daughter's pseudo-new-age mother. Consistency and honesty are the keys to success and I think she will learn and grow from my example. Now that she's getting old enough, I like asking her “what do you think?” I get some interesting answers but, more importantly, I'm trying to start her out thinking for herself. Ultimately, her beliefs will be linked to those of her mother and myself. While I hope she becomes a rational and intelligent woman, I have no control over the matter. It's up to her. I can only give her the tools and what she builds is up to her. I do think exposing her to science and reason will pay off in the end. Plus, her ability to reason and think for herself will help insulate her from unfounded beliefs like those held by her mother – or myself for that matter.

Happy Fourth of July! The USA and BP are Fucking Over Your Rights

noreply@blogger.com (Baron Army) — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 20:59:00 +0000

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

--First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America

FUCK the Government and their corporate financiers. On the very day the United States of America celebrates it's INDEPENDENCE from the British monarchy, I find this little nugget from @ebertchicago (seriously, if you haven't followed him yet, you are missing out):

Being a supporter of the first amendment, i went to the link and now embed it below. You can feel Anderson Cooper's indignation through the screen:

This behavior is absolutely unforgivable. Now is the time to raise our voices and let the Government know that this sort of action is inappropriate. I am not an alarmist by any stretch of the imagination but it does follow the series of event which were outlined in George Orwell's 1984. It's simple, use a tragedy to secure more power for the state.

I don't like this precedent. While I have no love for CNN or most broadcast networks, they are the press in today's modern society and the Government is taking a giant shit on them -- especially when there is not enough coverage of just how fucked up Louisiana is thanks to BP. I sincerely hope the media outlets put aside their partisan and competitive bickering and file a lawsuit against Obama and the Coast Guard post haste.

I said it before but it bares repeating again: It's the Fourth of July! If there wasn't a prime opportunity for the fantasy-prone out their to start cooking up conspiracy theories about cover up -- this is as sure as my (present) existence going to provide the conditions. The difference is that there may actually be a cover up. Time will tell.

In the mean time, write your Senators, and Representatives and demand that this foolishness stop and the American People be allowed to see just how BP has ruined one of our National treasures and just how badly the Federal Government has failed in its response.

Response to my Letters Regarding Texas' Retardation

noreply@blogger.com (Baron Army) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 22:34:00 +0000

As many folks will recall, I sent out letters to various governmental representatives about Texas's giant step backward in the education of their children.

Much to my chagrin, I haven't heard anything back -- until today. When I went to pick up my mail, there was a letter from the Assembly of the State of New York. This, in itself, is not an uncommon occurance seeing how I've been pretty outspoken about just how dyfunctional the State of New York is. Hell, This American Life did a story on how messed up things are here in Albany!

I digress.

While McEneny will almost certainly not receive my vote this November, he certainly is on the right page about creationism:

Thank You for You Letter Public

CTA: Support the Collier County Public School System in Their Fight Against the "liberty" Counsel

noreply@blogger.com (Baron Army) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:34:00 +0000

CALL TO ACTION:

This is a news item that Atheists and Agnostics should stand about and let their voices be heard. The Collier County Public School Superintendent banned a Fundamentalist christian group from handing out Bibles on school property on "Freedom of Religion Day". You can read the whole story here: Florida School District Bans Bibles on Religious Freedom Day. Never heard of it? Me neither but I think it is something the non-believer crowd could get involved in.

Well the Liberty Counsel (I figure it really should be liberty -- little "L" -- and in quotations but people can name their organizations what ever they want), is suing the school district to force them to allow the distribution of Bibles on campus. We're talking about elementary to high school here. In other words, a captive audience with heavy peer pressure.

In case you were wondering about where the law stands on this, I did a little research on the Freedom from Religion Foundation's website and found the the Seventh District Court of appeals ruled the distribution of Bibles in school to be unconstitutional in Berger v. Rensselaer Central Sch. Corp., 982 F.2d 1160.

We need to voice our support to the school district. I have already written a letter of support and I will be mailing it out later. Additionally, I will be posting it here when I can access my Sribd account.

Edit: Here is the letter I sent out copy anything from it you might like to include in your letter or email:10-7-2 Collier County Public Schools Public

Video Blog: The TEM

noreply@blogger.com (Baron Army) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 01:42:00 +0000

So I thought I'd get into the video blog scam business by posting a little informative viddy about the Transmission Electron Microscope I use at work. I'm sure to rake in the big bucks now!

Excuse the muffled video in spots -- I was putting my thumb over the microphone. I filmed this with my Palm Pre in case anyone's interested:

This is a Failure of New York Government to Serve Its Citizens

noreply@blogger.com (Baron Army) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:59:00 +0000

Here is a copy of the memo those of us who work for the department of health received from the State Health Commissioner:

All Employees Shutdown Email

To say that the budget impasse in New York State has reached the point where parts of the DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH will be shut down is absolutely disgusting! I'm certainly not a teabagger but I'll tell you one thing, I do believe the whole mess of these politicians need to be excised from the State government. New York has got to be the most corrupt and dysfunctional state in the Union. This is what years of apathetic voting (or not voting) gets us.

New Yorkers, get off your lazy asses and vote these clowns out of office! Both my representative and State senator can not count on my vote. They've proven to me that they are only interested in politics and not the welfare of the people.

How Potentially Dangerous is Asbestos?

noreply@blogger.com (Baron Army) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 22:00:00 +0000

I was doing some calculations at work the other day related to a question the regional Federal Prosecutor had sent in. He was curious about how “contaminated” a room could be with asbestos fibers. He also was curious about how many fibers could exist in a chunk of asbestos-containing building material (ACM).

My boss and I ran the numbers and came to a conclusion. However, in the process I thought it would be academically interesting to see just how small a piece of ACM would be required to “contaminate” a given space if it were to become aerosolized (that is, the particles are thoroughly released into the air). Nerdy. I know but this is what I do and, guess what! You get to benefit from my journey into the maths.

First, here are some assumptions I'll be working with: Most foremost, everything here is hypothetical and perfect. We all know the world isn't a perfect place. Consequently, a lot of these numbers are not seen in real life. This was only intended as an intellectual exercise on my part. Second, I've used what some have argued are arbitrary safety levels which have been determined by both NIOSHⁱand the AHERAⁱⁱ. That is to say a Phase Contrast Microscopy-determined (PCM) airborne concentration of 0.01 f/cc asbestos is acceptable for clearance (i.e.“it's safe to go in”) and materials with 1% or greater asbestos must be considered ACM. These are the current regulations and I decided to run with them. Finally, no ACM is totally friable (easily falls apart) to the level of individual fibers. There are a variety of different binding materials and so on. Consequently, the horror story you will see below really wouldn't be seen in reality.

Alright. Enough with the disclaimers and limitations. The first part of my thought experiment was tochoose a space. For this purpose, I chose the Louisiana Superdome. Not only is it the largest fixed dome structure inthe world, it has historical significance due to Hurricane Katrina and I feel more people need to be paying attention to Louisiana now as it's getting slammed with BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Based upon information on Wikipedia, the Superdome has an interior capacity of 125,000,000 ft³. No joke people. Apparently, it can seat up to 72,698 people. My next step was to determine how many cc's 125,000,000 ft³ represents. Turns out it is – get ready for it – 3,539,605,824,000 cc! Three and a half trillion cubic centimeters. Huge!

OK. Got the ginormous number. Now what? Remember, I'm going to use the PCM clearance level of 0.01f/cc. All that one needs to due is do the appropriate multiplication and a total of 35,396,058,240 fibers is determined. That value is the maximum number of fibers which would need to be uniformly suspended (give or take) in the air and still pass PCM clearance. Now, how big of a piece of ACM would be needed to get that kind of a concentration?

I'm using a concentration of 1% (by mass) asbestos for my hypothetical ACM as this is the lowest positive concentration by AHERA (which oversees public schools and so on). So how big is an asbestos fiber? Let's take a look. A PCM countable structure must be 5 μ by 0.25 μ. For the purpose of this exercise, I'm going to assume the asbestosis the most common type – chrysotile– whose fibers are a long, thin tube (actually, it's a scroll but I don't need to go into that here). Therefore, one PCM structure would be 5 μ x (0.25 μ/2)² x 3.14 or 0.25 μ³

So, assuming all the fibers suspended in the air in the Superdome were the minimum PCM countable structure (in reality, this never happens),we next determine the mass of that suspended chrysotile. To do that, 0.25 μ³ is multiplied by chrysotile's density of 2.5 pg/μ³ (picograms per cubic micron) resulting in 0.02 gr. Not a lot is it? Kinda scary methinks.

That's it. If any larger piece of material were to become aerosolized –like a penny-sized chunk of ACM – it would result in the Superdome failing its clearance and the air would not be suitable for people to breathe.

First, people really shouldn't be poo-pooing asbestos. While the epidemiology is far from certain, it is a known carcinogenⁱⁱⁱand a small piece, if it were to become aerosolized, could lead to cases of mesothelioma or asbestosis 30 years down the road for innocent and totally unsuspecting people. Secondly, there is a lot of talk about nanoparticles and nanotubes in the science news these days and their importance in material sciences can not be understated. Unfortunately, very little is known about any effect they may have on people's health^iv. I used chrysotile as an example for a reason in this exercise. Afiber of chrysotile is a tiny, tiny tube – a nanotube if you will. We know it causes cancer and the mechanisms by which this occurs is not terribly clear. It behooves the scientific community and the general public to thoroughly vet the health consequences of these particles before they are put into use on a large scale. They could be totally harmless and easily removed from the body but, as this exercise demonstrates, it wouldn't take a lot of material to totally contaminate an enclosed space.

iNIOSH. 1994. “Asbestos and Other Fibers by PCM: Method 7400, Issue 2” in NIOSH Manual of Analytical Methods, Fourth Edition. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2003-154/pdfs/7400.pdf

iiAHERA. 1987. Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act. Federal Register. 52(210):41845-41905. http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-TOX/pre1994/3269-8.pdf

iiiEgilman D, Fehnel C, Bohme SR. 2003. Exposing the "myth" of ABC, "anything but chrysotile": a critique of the Canadian asbestos mining industry and McGill University chrysotile studies. Am J Ind Med. 44(5):540-57. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14571518

ivKelly B. 2009. Small concerns: nanotech regulations and risk management. SPIE Newsroom. 10-13. https://spie.org/x38158.xml?ArticleID=x38158

Photo by sarflondondunc

Review: Joe Nickell's Real Life X-Files

noreply@blogger.com (Baron Army) — Sat, 22 May 2010 01:49:00 +0000

I recently finished reading Joe Nickell's Real-Life X-Files: Investigating the Paranormal . While I did find it an entertaining read, I don't think I'm Joe's audience.

Joe's style is pretty easy going and there really wasn't too much cerebral activity going on in my head as I read. Again, I don't think I'm the target audience and I read his posts in Skeptical Inquirer. I really believe this book is meant for the potential skeptic, the uninitiated doubter, or the woo-woo leaning but open minded individual. If that is the Joe's audience, I think he hit the nail on the head. Each chapter is a different investigation and provides a brief synopsis of the background, investigation and conclusion. Personally, I would have enjoyed the book more if he had really gone into depth but I think this synopsis style would work for those who are skepticurious.

About those skepticurious folk...while I appreciate what Joe is doing by providing his references within the text (i.e. “Getman, 2010"), it could prove distracting to the reader unfamiliar with in-text references. I felt the flow was broken up a little and the book would have been better served with end notes. But, hey, that's only my opinion. As anyone who reads this blog knows, I've been messing around with both forms of referencing.

If you are a hard-nosed, research-driven skeptic, this book may not be for you. Having said that, I do like to live vicariously through Joe's writings and this book really does make you wish you had his job. At the same time, I think this book would make a superb gift for anyone who is undecided about things like ghosts, various lake monsters, and the like. I'm pretty certain they will enjoy it.

How to Fight the Texas Board of Education from the Comfort of Your Own State

noreply@blogger.com (Baron Army) — Thu, 20 May 2010 01:19:00 +0000

In light of the recent protest in Texas against the revisionist history being presented as a Social Studies curriculum, the recent defeat of the Creationist agenda in Missouri, and the introduction of California Senate Bill 1451, I thought I'd present a proposal to those of you who don't live in Texas but still want to do something.

In an effort to build a wall around the stupidity the 'great' State of Texas seems intent upon forcing the rest of us to endure, I suggest people get out their pens, pencils, typewriters, or word processors and write their local state representatives. I have already done this myself and I provide my letter as an example below. Depending upon how your state's educational system is designed you probably will want to write those who actually run it. In the case of New York, this body is the Board of Regents. All the required information is easily available online.

5-18-10 Regents Letter Public

If enough people write in to their state legislators, there is a much better chance of stemming the flow of brain-addled Creationist dogma from Texas. Let the Young Earth dentist McLeroy know that they are making Texas an intellectual backwater and laughing stock of the United States of America.

Rant: So the Furloughs Went Through

noreply@blogger.com (Baron Army) — Tue, 11 May 2010 21:50:00 +0000

Despite our protests yesterday, the New York State government has decided to show its employees how it values them -- by passing the furloughs. I must say that I'm greatly disappointed.

It was pointed out to me that the efficiency of newborn screening will be diminished by 20%. Whether this means 20% more babies will die in New York can't be said. That would be fear mongering and would mean Governor Paterson is a baby killer.

That's in jest people! Don't write in and tell me how stupid I am. Paterson's already shown me that by playing to the lowest common denominator in his negotiations through the press.

I have informed my representatives they can expect me to actively campaign against them. Below is a copy of the letter I sent to State Assemblyman Jack McEneny (I know I misspelled his name) expressing my disgust at his "have his cake and eat it too" politics:

Mcneny Letter 3 Public

I also wanted to provide a rebuttal to claims made by a local Albany blog that the protest in Albany ran for two hours. This claim is patently false. AlbanyCitizenOne's claim is either a lie or a misrepresentation of the facts. I was physically at the protest -- boots (size 13 steel-toed) on the ground. I arrived around 12:15 and the protest was under way so I can not state exactly when things began. However, I was present when it broke up -- which was 12:45pm. My Twitter feed as well as the time stamps on the photos I took support this claim (the "Twisted Sister" post is when the event ended). Her observations that the chanting started at 1:30pm leads me to believe that either she was somewhere else -- either physically or mentally. [edit: In rereading her post, I can't tell if her grammar is terrible and she's saying things broke up at 1:30pm] It is possible she did not arrive when she claimed to (11:30am) and she did see an ad hoc protest of some kind as many State workers take their lunches at different times resulting in an elongated protest as civil servants cycled through. I could see a residual presence of angry State civil servents hanging around in that case. If that was the situation, she missed the actual protest as the 2000+ people who were there had mostly left the park and returned or were returning to their stations after 12:45pm.

As AlbanyCitizenOne is admittedly anti-union and specifically anti-PEF and anti-CSEA I suspect an elementary and hackneyed attempt at biased reporting to achieve and/or reinforce a previous agenda.

EDIT: The Troy Record reported that Albany Police estimated the turnout to be approximately 3500 people.

Buh Bye Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Baron Army) — Thu, 06 May 2010 03:08:00 +0000

I got rid of my Facebook account. Yes, I'll live but this also resulted in the Mad Skeptic page disappearing as well. I know. I know. Hundreds of vestal virgins are marching to slaughter to qualm a nation's despair. Honestly, I doubt it will upset anyone but to those of you pining for the good 'ole days – um, well, I've got nothing for you.

So, why did I get rid of the account? After all, I'd been on the site for a ridiculous amount of time. Back then, you had to have a .edu email account and apply for acceptance. Basically, I had decided that Facebook's ever changing privacy policy was unacceptable. While I did not use my real name on Facebook, my personal data would almost certainly have been accessible through their Open~~Grift~~Graph nonsense. I decided to cut the chord and stop feeding the beast.

While I had been playing with the idea recently, today's data vulnerability in Facebook's chat system was the straw that broke the camel's back. I do take certain aspects of my personal life seriously and only choose to share certain information with certain people. I have no interest in having some behemoth social network data farming my information to the highest bidder – especially when my daughter (who is a toddler) could come into the mix.

Facebook has obviously changed its business model over the years. When I first joined the site, it was mostly out of curiosity but, at that time, no one had access to my information unless I wanted them to have it (or, at least that's what they claimed). Since then, CEO and co-founder, Mark “questionable ethics” Zuckerberg has seen big dollar signs on every person on Facebook's information. Frankly, the more I learn about the guy, the more and more he looks like a scumbag to me. Now, Facebook owns your information and you have a limited ability to opt out of privacy-eroding practices.

If you are concerned with Facebook's privacy issues, Gizmodo has an excellent post called “Top Ten Reasons You Should Quit Facebook” that is well worth the read. If you are comfortable with giving your personal information away for free, you probably should read the article as well. Facebook is not as benevolent as it wants you to believe. The EFF has done a great job chronicling Facebook's attacks on privacy.

So I say this to Facebook: “Don't let the door hit ya where the dog should have bit ya.”

photo by theleetgeeks

So this is What it Feels Like to be a Political Football

noreply@blogger.com (Baron Army) — Tue, 04 May 2010 21:52:00 +0000

I am a geologist but I work for the New York State Department of Health. It's kind of a weird position in that I am, basically, a microscopist who studies asbestos and identifies unknown “white powders”. I like my job and one of the main reasons I took it was the ability to do research and to do work that would benefit the public health. This task is accomplished in a number of ways. Before my daughter was born, I would inspect laboratories which tested for asbestos. Lately, a lot of my work has been in making proficiency rounds which are sent to those testing laboratories, participation in a standards development committee, and, of course, research.

Those of you outside of the state of New York may not be aware of our fiscal problems – and I'm not talking about the Great Recession per se. I'm referring to the fact that the State's budget is overdue and neither Governor Paterson or the Legislature seem interested in actually negotiating a compromise budgetⁱ. Paterson, whose administration is on some shaky ground ethicallyⁱⁱ, and the Legislature, whose membership includes or included a felonⁱⁱⁱ, an abuser^iv, and a future felon^v, seem to be more interested in a political pissing match. And who are they pissing on? The State's Civil Servants and, therefore, the people of the State. Paterson has decided the best way for him to bully his budget into acceptance is to enact furloughs^vi on the State workforce – despite it almost certainly being illegal for him to do so.

I belong PEF which is a union affiliated with the AFL-CIO and, honestly, I've seen precious little action from the Union leadership. Not only is this discouraging, it makes me question whether these people should hold the positions they have. Both my union and CSEA (the largest public employee union in the State) have legitimate suggestions on ways to reduce costs on the budget. Interestingly enough, these suggestions have, apparently, been ignored by the Governor. Why? Because it would reduce the number of non-union contract employees employed by the State even though these “temps” and “consultants” cost the State significantly more than a civil servant would. Not only does the Governor want to limit the union membership, I strongly suspect he has some deep pockets out there that he may need to rely upon in the event of an ethics probe and/or a resulting trial. Incidentally, it was Paterson's questionable ethics which resulted in the ending of his campaign for Governor and, most likely, his political career. Regardless, not enough is being done by the unions.

The Legislature is a corrupt bunch of uncultured apes. I swear, The Lord of the Flies must be their guide on how to run things. I wrote both my Senator and Assemblyman and described the Legislature as a pool with turds floating in it. While they may not care for my vernacular, my sentiment is a sound one. This Legislature has demonstrated its incompetence and corruption time and time again and I feel it is time the whole lot are voted out. A big reason there is no budget is that these leaches will only work 3 days a week and when they are working they are trying to pass ridiculous bills and are only looking out for their ~~member items~~ pork.

Dysfunction and corruption are the standards for New York State governance. Consequently, a single parent who works for the State such as myself is left in a completely powerless position. There is nothing like the feeling of being kicked around then made to feel not welcome by the people you are supposedly working for all the while having to continue your work. I have called my representatives. I have written my union leadership, and my representatives numerous times. I have faxed the Governor and my representatives as well. No one seems to give a shit about the State's civil servents. Sure, I get feigned compassion but these people are not looking at cuts in their pay or furloughs. Consequently, I doubt their sincerity and their legitimacy.

We are just being used as a political tool by, as far as I'm concerned, fucking megalomaniacs. What is the recourse? We can't strike because of the civil service laws and no one will listen to us. The public, evidently, hates “lazy state workers” regardless of what we do to protect them or make their lives easier^vii. I, personally, am left in a position of feeling powerless and angry and I have had enough. I am wondering how I'm going to cover costs for my daughter and I – especially seeing how I already work 2 part-time jobs to make ends meet.

So why am I venting here? Well, it is my blog so I can. Secondly, while I will be put in a rough situation which is going to set me back financially, there are more people who will suffer. Whether they be private sector, non-profit, or civil servants, the citizens of New York depend upon the services the State provides. Reducing the ability of the workforce to meet those needs will only be harmful. People will suffer as a result. Whether it makes the local paper remains to be seen. I wonder how long before it will be before some kids become seriously ill after playing at a spray-ground and no one can get the results of the water tests back from the State labs? Doctors who think their patients may be suffering from West Nile virus or Equine Encephalitis are going to have to wait longer to get much needed results (which is a big problem when organ transplants are being held up as a result) Plus, Paterson is being “penny wise and pound foolish” with his furlough idea. The unions will sue. Things are already moving for us to get money the Governor has already illegally withheld. This is going to add on to the pile. Now, the State will have to defend itself in court and then pay back the money Paterson claims it will save but do so with interest. How does that save anyone anything? It only adds to the aggravation.

It is time New York passes its budget so that the civil servants like myself can get back to doing what we want to be doing – doing our research, improving the State, and serving the people. If this situation continues, more researchers and the like will look to work elsewhere and that will harm the people of the State in the long run. After all, many of us could earn significantly more in the public sector. Many of us deliberately chose this line of work to help benefit others.

iConfessore, Nicholas. Albany Misses Its Deadline on the Budget. New York Times. March 31, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/nyregion/01late.html

iiKatz, Basil. New York governor charged with breaking ethics law. Reuters. March 4, 2010. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6225A520100304

iiiLyons, Brenden J. Feds: Give Bruno 8 years. Times Union. April 24, 2010. http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=924736

ivVielkind, Jimmy. Monserrate out in Senate vote. Times Union. February 10, 2010. http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=924736

vVielkind, Jimmy. Espada denies 'questionable' ties. Times Union. April 20 ,2010. http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=923170&category=STATE

viVielkind, Jimmy. Paterson will put furloughs in next budget extender. Capital Confidential. May 4, 2010. http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/25910/paterson-will-put-furlough-in-next-weeks-budget-extender/

viiNorthrup, Laura. Study: Public employees better-educated, more skilled, earn less. Capital Confidential. April 29, 2010. http://blog.timesunion.com/stateworker/study-public-employees-better-educated-more-skilled-earn-less/97/

photo by Ari Herzog