No Longer in the Center

The story of Orpheus and Eurydice is one told many times in many different ways, and which I most recently experienced in the musical Hadestown.  If you're not aware of the story then there are SPOILERS to come.   There are different versions of the story but in almost all of them Orpheus is in love with Eurydice and loses her to death, Hades, or some other tragedy, and the loss is often tied to the chance for Orpheus to save her.  In Hadestown, Orpheus has the chance to walk Eurydice out of hell if he can keep doubt away, and not look back to make sure she is following behind him.  If he looks back, though, she must return to Hadestown.  Logically this task seems easy.   I couldn't help but think about it as a decision matrix: The Choice: Eurydice is Following (loves Orpheus) Eurydice is Not Following (it’s all a trick, she doesn’t love him enough to follow) Orpheus Looks Back (i.e. l...

#MeToo is a trending hashtag today, which is being shared on social media with the following post: If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote "Me too" as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem. Please copy/paste. #MeToo Thank you to all of the people who have shared this hashtag.  Thank you for sharing your experiences and your stories.   Your courage to speak up highlights the magnitude of the problem and I believe you. My first thought (after feeling sadness) was to wonder whether I should add my voice to this trending story.  As a man, if I add my voice will it be distracting or supportive, patronizing or empowering, helpful or hurtful?  Is the defining characteristic of my voice that it is male, or that it is white, or heterosexual, cisgendered, middle class, educated, liberal, or privileged?  I decided to write this because the defining characteristic of my voice should be first and foremost...

Does this type of post honor veterans or criticize "this country" for not honoring them enough? Is that the same thing? Today is Veteran's Day, so prepare yourself for a social media overload of flags, pictures of statues, and quotes intended to be inspiring about the sacrifice of veterans like the one on the right.  We celebrate our Veterans for their courage, their bravery and for their sacrifice, as well we should. But is it enough? Some people will lament the fact that the celebration is only one day, or that it doesn't change the way we honor the veterans, or fail to, on other days.  The government agency tasked with helping Veterans is plagued with scandals , and the NFL has to be paid to honor the veterans.   So it's no wonder that we've gotten cynical about how much a few "thank you" messages matter.   Is it enough to say "thank you" if we don't really try to understand what the sacrifice of a veteran is? You've prob...

Everyone is complaining about Netflix trying to find a polite way to charge more for their instant watch service. What you should be complaining about are the cable companies. Here's why: Netflix has found a way to offer you a service that your cable company is too stupid to offer: actual on demand viewing of movies and shows you want to watch. Your cable company already has the infrastructure in place to offer on-demand viewing, already has the content, and already has a lot more of your money than Netflix. And for all of that you get on demand viewing of maybe a couple episodes of shows you might want to watch. Netflix charges you 1/10 of what your cable company charges you to get access to much much more on any device, anywhere you get internet. The problem is not the service that Netflix offers, the problem is that you should already get this service for free from the company you already pay to bring you the same content.

Pluto , formally known as a Planet, has been recategorized by the International Astronomical Union on August 24, 2006 as a dwarf planet. Although no longer considered an upstanding member of the solar system (to borrow a phrase from 2 Skinnee J's), Pluto is now the largest member of the Kuiper belt . So it's not all bad for Pluto. Rather than being the smallest fish in a sea filled with giants like Jupiter, Pluto is now the largest member of a smaller sea. But what about Charon . Charon is the largest of Pluto's moons, or rather that's what Charon used to be. Since Pluto is no longer a planet, it's inaccurate to call Charon a moon, a nickname for natural satellites such as the Earth's Moon that orbit planets. At times Charon was even referred to as a double planet with Pluto because of its size compared to Pluto, just over half the size of Pluto. Indeed, Charon and Pluto are so close that neither actually rotates around the other. Instead they are deadl...

So the commercials for the new Nissan Leaf got me thinking about how far away we are from large scale conversion to electric cars (or some version of electric-motor-drive car, such as the hydrogen fuel cell cars we keep hearing about). The arguments in favor are simple. While the internal combustion engine is relatively efficient it cannot be as efficient as large-scale energy generation just because of scale. Although, the power has to come from somewhere, plugging a car into your home outlet would be significantly more efficient (and therefore less polluting) in the long run than running a small-scale power station under your hood. Designing a car around a small (non-explosive) and quieter electric motor also provides infinite possibilities for improvement in safety, aesthetic and spacious design. Contrarians that suggest the technology can't be advanced to the level of internal combustion engines (in terms of distances per charge, torque etc.) are obviously ignorant of the ...

I haven't posted here recently because I've been overwhelmed with a head cold and trying to get our new office website up and running. I am getting over the head cold, finally, and the new website is up and running, and now I have to figure out how I get back into my routine. Having spent most of my waking hours over the last two weeks working on the new website, in order to get it out into the world as quickly as possible, I now have to figure out how to calm down. Filling your time with work for two weeks straight changes the way you look at the world, and makes it difficult to relax. When the website finally went live and was debugged (for the most part) by Saturday afternoon, I had to forcibly stop myself from reaching for the computer every ten minutes to do more work. Although, it's great that, as humans, we're able to adapt to different conditions so quickly, it's also dangerous it you value balance. What's worse is that I can't figure out if my...

The Solar System is protected by a helium and hydrogen bubble from cosmic radiation. Although scientists were previously aware of the existence of the heliosphere (the name for this bubble), they only recently discovered (or hypothesized depending on how you read the article ) the bubble-like nature of the heliosphere, protecting our solar system on its journey through the universe. The heliosphere is one of the many elements that allows our planet to sustain life in s safe and nourishing environment, and our knowledge of how it works is very recent and constantly being updated. Some might say the existence of the heliosphere is evidence of a divine purpose. It could also be extraordinarily lucky, a statistical anomaly that among all the stars in the universe was bound to happen somewhere. Or it could be a typical characteristic of a solar system, something which just happens to coincide with sustainability of life, like heat and light. Either way it is damn neat. It is amazing th...

Although I am a second generation Star Trek fan (i.e. I grew up watching Star Trek: TNG), I enjoyed the original Star Trek and even most of the later spinoffs. I am also an avid movie fan, and as such could talk for hours about the different themes presented in the many Star Trek movies, both original and TNG. But the creation of the new Star Trek universe by J.J. Abrams presents a problem for me. Is it a gateway by which new fans will be introduced to the Star Trek I love or is it just an action movie to be enjoyed and forgotten? It is both a celebration of the old and a creation of something new to enjoy and a well balanced combination. But part of me fears that the enjoyment of the new characters and CGI action will distract some from realizing why the old Star Trek is worth celebrating. After seeing the new Star Trek with my friends I was disturbed to discover they had not seen The Wrath of Kahn. How could you understand the Kobyashi Maru, or the welling of tears you should feel ...

Jews, Christians and Muslims all believe in one God. A supreme being that created our world. Atheists believe that there is no such God or Creator. And the popular description of Agnostics is that they don't care. So what do you call a person who refuses to define beliefs based on insufficient evidence but who cares a lot about the questions of creation and faith? I am not a Protestant, despite my baptism, because I don't believe that a God exists who consciously planned and created the Universe, created people for a purpose, and then bore a human son who was later killed and resurrected. I do believe that many of the teachings of the Protestant and Christian faith are laudable, but I don't think they're the teachings of a divine offspring. In fact I believe this possibility to be unlikely given the lack of evidence to support such an elaborate theory. This means that I am not a Protestant even if I was raised to be one. In fact I think it is just as unlikely as the ...

The Geek Answer: Come on! Of course it does. The Philosopher Answer: Define "Better", and "Technology", and "Make."... Just kidding. The reality is that technology makes your life better even if you don't realize the many ways that it does. Even if you're the type of person who believes that focusing on the simple things in life are what make your life better, then consider the following: Do you enjoy sunsets or sunrises? Well, now you'll get to enjoy more of them. The average life expectancy in 1901 was 49 and by 2000 it was 77. This is due mostly to technology that allowed us to have cleaner (disease free) drinking water, better medicine and safer transportation. That's 10,277 more sunsets. Do you think food should be simpler and "organic"? Well, you can thank modern transportation for giving you the options. Although food was simplest when raised in your own background on your family farm, the choice was greatly limited ...

What happened to The Ten Commandments? Although there are a few versions (depending on how you number them) the basics stay the same. At the Catholic High School I attended we were taught the following ten commandments: 1. You shall not worship any other gods or make yourself a false idol. 2. You shall not use god's name in vain. 3. You shall remember the sabbath and keep it holy. 4. You shall honor your mother and father. 5. You shall not kill. 6. You shall not commit adultery. 7. You shall not steal. 8. You shall not bear false witness. 9. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. 10. You shall not covet your neighbor's possessions. There is nothing simpler in the complicated world of religion than the ten commandments. There is no ambiguity (or at least very little) and the list is short enough to remember. It was certainly easier to understand religion when I was a child and I was told these are the ten things you need to know. I was remind...