Harvard for All

I watched a lecture in basic chemistry that was part of the regular class schedule at Berkley on Netflix last night. It was great. I had access to all their web self help sites as well. Two things struck me. The lecturer was world class, and the fact that he said that grades were not done on a curve - just straight percentages. I got to thinking - anyone could get a great education on line, and since the students weren't competing with each other, why couldn't anyone just sign up and take the course over the net - for credit? Zero admission criteria. Anyone who wants and pays can take the exact same chemistry 101 or any other course at Berkeley, Harvard, Yale, you name it,  for credit towards a degree as any on campus student would take.
Lets do away with entrance criteria, let anyone who wants to sign up and take courses over the net, take the tests, and get credit for the grade they get. Literally hundreds of thousands could sign up. This would open up world class education to all, would stop punishing bright intelligent people for lack of focus in their youth, and would greatly enhance convenience and accessibility. The monies earned would allow free tuition for on campus students. These students would be selected from a highly competitive pool much as is done now. The on campus experience would probably remain the more prestigious, designed for the most promising, allowing for on campus experience, networking and counseling. But the classes would be identical, and the online degree real and well earned. Accessibility of the best and brightest educators to the world. Stunning

An Act of God

There are Republican politicos out there that are still calling the oil spill an act of God. If it is, then God is trying to tell them something, and its not that BP has no liability.

Science and Religion

Science and religion are in pursuit of the some of the same things.
Both try to explain and thus heighten our experience of the incredible beauty that is this universe.
Both try to provide answers outside of ourselves.
Here's the major difference between most religion and science.
Religion requires faith.
Faith is a mind killer. Faith is a comfortable blanket to insulate from the cold reality of the unknown. Faith is even at times - laziness.
Faith calls for an end to the pursuit of knowledge, to further understanding.
It is a matter of faith - simply accept.
Science pursues truth. Truth reveals beauty. Truth is much larger than ourselves.
Truth is the reward of our courage to face the unknown.
Truth is the reward of our courage to face not knowing.
The pursuit of truth is the only thing that will expand understanding, compassion, humility.
Truth, the pursuit of truth, is the only way we can grow.
As we gain more understanding, as we discover more truth,  the beauty that is this universe is revealed
and the more beautiful we become.
I choose truth over faith every time.

Confessions of an Agnostic

Artificial intelligence will evolve past human capability. No one seriously argues this.
There probably is no limit to intellectual growth.
Intelligence a million times, a billion times, a billion, billion times ours.
Not only is this possible, it’s inevitable.
Intelligence so great it exceeds our ability to appreciate it in its entirety.
To us such intelligence would be indistinguishable from God.
Given the age and size of our universe, or the very real possibility that this may be a multi-universe reality, such intelligence is likely to have already evolved.
Perhaps our universe is their handiwork.
Perhaps there is a creator.
Perhaps there is an intelligence that is omnipotent and omnipresent.
Perhaps there is a God.
One thing is for sure
This God isn’t Allah. It’s not Jesus. It doesn’t have sons that look like us. It’s not Buddha. It’s not a human creation.
But if an intelligence created everything there is its presence would be evident in everything.
On some crude level we would be aware of it in our shadowy understanding, in the fog of our intuitive sense of the beauty, relationships, complexity imbued in all that there is.
Perhaps that is the origin of our rather crude interpretations of religion, of our Gods.

Horoscope of the Day - The Onion Style

AIRES
The throbbing inside your skull will finally come to a stop this week, signaling the end of the Trematode's gestation period.

Obama

Just read that Obama has pursued 'leaks' from his administration with more vigor and vengeance than even George Bush and Cheney did . Obama is putting primarily well meaning whistle blowers trying to improve things in jail - and I don't mean house arrest.
Overall, after considering the entire Obama Presidency to date,  I feel betrayed. Anyone else?

One World

"Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind" .....Albert Einstein.  

Sorry, I cant help it. I don't hero worship. It's just, wow, what insight for 1949. 

A precious albeit somewhat twisted mind

My friend Ancil saw my post on Earth from 4 billion miles away and sent me this in return. Now this is a precious mind. Put Ancil in any negotiation or board meeting anywhere in the world and you'd soon hear laughter and witness rare perspective emerging. Got to love it.

Earth

Earth from 4 billion miles away - it was taken by Voyager 1 in 1991 as it approached the outer limits of our solar system.

We Can Do Better Than This

A seagull on the Gulf coast June 2010

It's the Oil's Fault

In the last week several Republican politicos have been systematically working into their interviews words to the effect that the oil spill is an act of God. It’s God’s fault. Apparently they believe God is that dumb. 

Sarah Palin thinks the oil spill is the environmentalists' fault. Don’t ask. 

I think they are all wrong. Obviously the spill and the subsequent damage to the environment and the Gulf coast economy is the oil’s fault. After-all if it weren’t for the oil, none of this would be happening. Clearly someone owes BP an apology. 

It's the Environmentalists' Fault

“Extreme deep water drilling is not the preferred choice to meet our country’s energy needs, but your (environmentalists) protests and lawsuits and lies about onshore and shallow water drilling have locked up safer areas. It’s catching up with you. The tragic, unprecedented deep water Gulf oil spill proves it.” Sarah Palin (or more likely her ghost writer)

Sarah Palin is a liar. No shades of gray - she's a liar - and a stupid one at that. When it's not an act of God, it's the environmentalists' fault. In fact deep water drilling has been the greatest focus of concern for years. There is more red tape, regulation and the potential for litigation with deep water drilling than in shallow. The fact that there have been more suits involving shallow wells is because there are just more shallow wells.  But big oil has not been  "forced" to go deep. There are thousands of unused shallow water leases. The 'safer' areas have not been locked up. It's all about return on investment. They go where they think they can make the most money. Profits.
Palin and these other dirt balls never made any distinction between deep and shallow drilling before this mess. It wasn't 'drill shallow drill'. This is juvenile and twisted and bizarre. It's the sort of reasoning that enables one to blame the Jews for enraging Hitler. It is inflammatory, disingenuous, irresponsible, and utterly unproductive game playing. She cares nothing about truth, our environment, or even the average working man who must live and work on the gulf coast. Inflame, anger, agitate all to keep her speakers fees high. To date she has cashed in on her 'political' career to the tune of 12 million dollars and all she's ever really done is ride the coattails of a real politician in a failed run for  national office and turn her back on the State of Alaska midterm.

Instant Karma for the Uninspired

I think this oil 'spill' will define the Obama presidency before its over much in the way the Iran hostage crisis defined Billy Carter's and Katrina, George Bush's. At first it doesn't really seem fair. And yet - two weeks prior to this disaster President Obama announced the largest expansion of offshore drilling for oil and gas in US history. That was the best he could do in his plan for energy independence. Like so much else in his Presidency Obama missed a great opportunity. Kennedy called for men landing on the moon within the decade - a seemingly impossible and yet inspiring call to action. Obama could have had an even greater moment and legacy. He could have called for attaining energy independence using renewable, safe, clean sources of energy within this decade. He could have announced the establishment of his NASA - focused not on space exploration but instead on developing and implementing new technologies that would provide a permanent earth friendly solution to our energy needs. A plan that would have created millions of jobs and captured the hearts of billions. He could have called for the the end of the era of big oil and with it the end of the need to kill, invade and oppress in order to obtain it. He could have called for the end of the slow destruction of our planet. The way we are currently living is after all unsustainable as we continue to poison the very air, water, and soil we depend on to exist. Instead Obama's great plan? Drill baby drill. He's really so very uninspired and now he looks really quite silly. Two weeks after his announced plan to expand oil drilling - this. Instant karma. Sad - but probably well deserved.

Oil stupid

Oil 'spill'. Spill seems sort of understated at this point, don't you think?. How does one describe 150 million gallons of a toxic liquid going where it shouldn't go - a spatter, a splatter, a spritz, a slosh, a soak, a souse, a splash, a burble, a gurgle,a swash,a spill? There is no word for it - save perhaps stupid.

Republicans Think God is a Dumb Ass

The last couple of days Republican politicos have been systematically working into their interviews words to the effect that the oil spill is an act of God. Apparently they believe God is so stupid as to punch a hole in the Earths  crust under 5000 feet of sea water into a massive pool of oil and then screw it all up and spill the whole bloody mess all over the place. So what is God doing drilling for oil anyway? Doesn't he know he could just create a bunch of it?
The one good thing about it being Gods fault is that he has the ultimate no-fault insurance. Cant claim damages from God. Short of wearing BP logos on their hats and T-shirts could these congress men and women be any more obvious? Gods fault indeed.

Are Retarded Foxes Sly?

Rarely do I pay any attention or take seriously anything coming from Fox "News". But I have to share today's experience. Two Fox pundits were busily chatting away, sounding as if they were trying to convince each other as much as anyone else of a rather astounding point of view. The reason BP has seen a precipitous drop in stock value as of late, they argue, is because the Attorney General - the Democratic Attorney General - is about to launch a criminal investigation into BP's actions surrounding the oil "spill". Anyway they were going on and on as to wheter that was a smart thing to do - didn't the Attorney General know that this sort of thing would drop BP's stock and lower their net worth? I mean after all there's going to be all these law suits and how will BP be able to pay if their stock value falls? Oh, how could he?
Not a word about the oil disaster itself or BP's complicity in the fiasco that has followed. Nope - the stock is falling because the mean ole Democratic Attorney General is going to - wait for it - INVESTIGATE - as in - do his job.
One of the worst environmental disasters in history and Fox News wants to concentrate not on the the disaster - hey whats a little oil? - and not on the people who did this - but on the people who are trying to discover what happened. And they want to indict them for even considering holding the lying, reckless bastards who allowed this to happen, then lied about it, and are still lying about it, accountable.