California Fire Traced to Candlelight Vigil for Victims of Last Fire

LOS ANGELES - Tragedy has struck the Golden State once more with a deadly blaze which killed more than a dozen and left hundreds homeless. "It's a catastrophe on multiple levels", said California Fire Prevention Spokeswoman Joanna Gambolputty. "The area burned down was prime habitat for both the Spotted Owl and the Delta Smelt, both endangered. We must all work harder to fight climate change and save the earth from fire. We urge all mourners to consider holding a glow stick or sparkler vigil in order to prevent another fire. On second thought, as glow sticks and sparklers are known to the state of California to cause cancer, please illuminate any vigils with your smartphone screens."

Meanwhile, the US Forestry Service has been working on updates to its famous mascot Smokey the Bear. Critics have long noted the bear's troubling connection to toxic masculinity and heteronormativity with his signature campaign hat. The hat, also known as a campaign hat, is worn by Army drill sergeants and traces its history to the brutal, imperialist war the US Army waged against indigenous fighters in the Philippines at the turn of the 20th century. The same war gave birth to the notorious Colt 45 pistol now heavily favored by MAGA supporters and other far right militants. Furthermore, say critics, the fact that Smokey is both shirtless and shoeless could be seen as insensitive to both the homeless and the undocumented immigrant communities.

"Clearly, we as Californians can no longer allow such hateful imagery in light of a second Trump term", said Governor of California Gavin Newsome. "Some time ago, I appointed a special blue-ribbon commission to brainstorm more peaceful, tolerant and inclusive mascots which are in line with our official policy of diversity, equity, and inclusion." So far, only a few details of the new mascot have been publicized, but it has been revealed that the new mascot will have a Spanish name, wear a rainbow tutu, and be an herbivore of some kind, possibly a squirrel.       

California celebrities have pitched in with their own fire prevention awareness raising effort dubbed Learning Man. It will a feature a concert and other events hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye the Science Guy. Paris Hilton will run the kissing booth, Barbara Streisand the dunk tank, and Bill Maher has promised to bring enough condoms and lube for everyone. The public is cautioned that no outside fruits or vegetables will be allowed and to be prepared to use "San Francisco bathrooms".

Supercut - my most memorable moments

 The timeframe is roughly from 2008 to 2021

I graduated Army basic training in early 2016.

A giant spider I saw near Morogoro, Tanzania in 2007.

I visited Egypt on my way back from Africa in 2009.

The dinosaur bone I dug up in Wyoming in 2021

Taken on safari in Mikumi in 2007

The day I decided to join the Army in January 2015

Mt Kilimanjaro with the school I taught at in the foreground

Me at the peak of Kilimanjaro in 2009

The Uluguru Mountains near Morogoro 

A red African maggot that fell out of an orange I was about to eat

skydiving in 2011

doing standup in 2012

A thin me back in 2008

My YouTube Channel

I haven't added any new content since 2022, nor do I plan to. It includes my comedy videos along with my musings on math, history, and politics. Below is a video of my first and only skydive. 

What is America's "National Interest" exactly?

I've heard the phrase above many times without it ever being defined. So here's my attempt at a definition.

The basic ingredients are peace and prosperity. Peace means the absence of armed conflict at home and abroad. Thus, a peaceful nation is not at war and has low crime. Also, its borders are secure, and its population is roughly stable. High levels of emigration or immigration signal serious problems, and below replacement fertility is a sign that something is disastrously wrong. 

As for prosperity, that means low unemployment, high literacy, and a low cost of living. Breaking those down further, low unemployment requires low taxes and few regulations. High literacy requires good schools and libraries. A low cost of living requires cheap food, energy, and housing. 

Here are the requirements to get all those things:

-secure the border

-avoid alliances

-build oil refineries and nuclear reactors

-cut spending, taxes, and regulations

-build cheap housing

I, Viking Yamabushi

 

The purpose of a system is what it does

It amused me to learn that the youngest person so far to graduate from a US high school was a 6-year-old.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Kearney

If a motivated 6-year-old can graduate from an American public high school, that tells me the academic standards are a joke. Of course, I knew that already having attended American public schools myself.

But wait, there's more:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2021/03/30/baltimore-city-public-schools-promoted-student-with-013-gpa-while-spending-a-14-billion-budget/

***

A Baltimore mom recently learned her high school senior had a 0.13 GPA yet ranked 62/120 in his class. The student had flunked all but three classes during his first three years of high school.

***

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d_JT8w_eo4

I don't regret soldiering on for 12 years when I could have graduated early by skipping a grade and/or going to summer school. I will note that it is absurd to herd together students of vastly different ability and motivation into the same cohort based merely on age.

The American instinct toward egalitarianism tells us that yes, everyone should take algebra, even if they can't pass it after taking it three times. Only our prosperity makes such waste possible. As imperfect a measure of intelligence as IQ is, it correlates strongly with academic achievement and other forms of success. But it is taboo in the US to notice such things; see for example how Charles Murray was pilloried for writing about the social effects of IQ.

Fun fact: it was named "high school" in the past because only the top students went there at first:

https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2015/02/12/us-high-school-graduation-rate-hits-all-time-high

If US public education produces poor results year after year at great expense, then that is because the people running it want it that way. The purpose of a system is what it does. 

Any realistic assessment would conclude that only about the top 20% or so of students have the ability and desire to benefit from high school and even fewer from college. It is a travesty that high schools have mostly become very expensive minimum-security prisons to confine teens until they become legal adults. I look forward to the day that changes for the better. Until then, I will do my best to affect positive change as a teacher and educated adult. 

Facial hair and authority - AKA the history of shaving

 

Arabs are right to be suspicious of the US and its military

 

For what it's worth, the US (NSA) also spies on Israel.

I know for a fact that the NSA collaborates with Israel for intelligence purposes and military operations, because that was my job at NSA. 

https://www.meforum.org/middle-east-quarterly/why-arabs-lose-wars

Change the names, and the story is about you - أسماء مختلفة وقصة واحدة

 I've seen several YouTube videos like this:

These videos are based on this article by Norvell de Atkine, a retired US Army officer:

https://www.meforum.org/middle-east-quarterly/why-arabs-lose-wars

Well, COL (retired) Atkine, allow this former Army E5 Arabic linguist to retort:

Nothing says BE ALL YOU CAN BE like injecting estrogen into your butt. 

Fear not, Republican Space Rangers. Someday we'll have enough carpet-munchers and chicks with dicks to fly our mighty fighter planes.

Republican Space Rangers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZuZShxJq8M

Advice to students and entry-level workers - memento mori

The most important thing to keep in mind is that the purpose of school is to learn, not to get good grades. Of course, it is better to get good grades if possible, but in the long run, grades don't matter much, except as an ego boost. Nobody puts their GPA on their tombstone. Standardized test scores matter, but only as hurdle to be cleared. ACT, SAT, ASVAB, GRE, MCAT, etc. don't mean much once you've enlisted or gotten accepted. Your college and major also don't matter much, though graduating from a famous school is usually worth it. 

So what does matter? First off, your life will be much easier if you can avoid student loan debt. Ways to avoid that include getting scholarships, going to community college, work-study programs, internships, trade schools, joining the military, not changing your major or schools, and graduating on time. Unless you start your own business (and doing that almost always means saving up money while working for someone else), employers care about years of experience and not much else. 

This advice comes from my experience in college, the military, trade school, and working all kinds of jobs for the past 24 years. Speaking of that, it's OK to get fired, quit, or otherwise lose your job. It's better to move on than to get stuck in a job you hate or don't need. Life should be enjoyed. I've had 19 jobs plus my own business. I learned something from all of them and made money from all of them. And now I'm semi-retired. There are many paths to the top of the mountain. All that matters is that your income exceeds your outgo. Otherwise, your upkeep will be your downfall. 

Creating and doing things that others value is how you make a living. Think about how to do that and have fun at the same time. Memento mori. 

I should add that the most important things you learn in school are what you like and what you're good at. The social skills you learn are similar to the social skills you learn in prison. 

My experiment in having 5,000 Facebook friends

It began in early November. I was curious if there was a maximum number of friends and if so, what was the limit? It turns out Facebook limits you to 5,000 friends. This is interesting because the average user only has about 200 friends. Interestingly, that is very close to the Dunbar number, which says that the average person can maintain stable relationships with about 150 people.

I used very little discretion and simply friended every suggestion in the order I got them until I hit the limit. Here's what I learned: there are a lot of scammers, impostors, and suckers on Facebook. The most common scams involve sex or pornography, though a great deal of porn is given away as free samples. So yeah, if you want strangers to message you with pornographic images or videos, just friend a bunch of random young women. Or rather, profiles that have pictures of young women.

There are many celebrity impersonators, which I found amusing. The lie itself is audacious, but the real entertainment comes from the gullible people who think they actually have a famous friend. It's just a big case of Santa Claus for adults. 

There are better aspects. I have friended people from all over the world and now have a francophone pen pal, among others. Had I been more selective, I could have gotten a pen pal of just about any language.

Oh, if someone uses the word "alaye", it means: "I am a scammer, so if you are also a scammer, let's stop wasting time with each other". So there is a kind of honor among thieves after all. 

My Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=25833503

Rethinking math education

The traditional approach to teaching math comes from a time before cheap and ubiquitous calculators. True, there was the abacus and later the slide rule, but those required a firm understanding of math to use. For the vast majority of people, math is merely the tool they use to keep track of money, stuff, and time. In this way, math is more akin to measurement or accounting rather than a method of problem-solving.

Then there is the question of motivation. It seems, at least in the US, that math education has turned into a kind of contest for prestige. Classes like calculus are seen as luxury goods which give students bragging rights. Very little of the math I learned in engineering school came up on the job. I don't regret learning it, but there was a definite mismatch between what I was taught and what I was paid to do.  

In his writings about math education, Paul Lockhart notes that real mathematicians treat their work as more of a form of play or art and often have little interest in practical applications. Deeper mathematical understanding comes from curiosity and creativity rather than just being presented with a variety of problems and solutions. Many mathematical ideas were explored in depth centuries before there were any practical applications for them.  

Given the number of people who are unable to do algebra word problems, there is something very wrong with how math is being taught. Teachers rarely present math as anything but a set of instructions which must be followed in various situations. Many math students who do well in high school and college are tricked into thinking they are good at math when actually they are just good at following instructions. 

Yes, algorithms are useful, but the true learning comes from knowing why an algorithm works and trying to make your own. In my own time as a math teacher, I found it better to explore a smaller number of ideas and questions in depth than to bombard my students with many easy exercises as most other teachers do. That so-called drill-and-kill method was the way I was taught. It was tedious and taught me little. 

So to wrap up this bit of rambling, I propose the following:

1. present the students a wide variety of problems from different topics 

2. choose questions that require some patience and creativity to solve and explain.

3. recognize differences in mathematical ability - don't dumb-down the class

It is enough to open minds; there is no need to overload them. 

The advantages of texting (unencrypted SMS)

 I greatly prefer texting over other forms of telecommunication for the following reasons:

1. it forces people to get to the point and choose their words carefully

2. it creates a record of the conversation for both sides

3. it allows you to communicate clearly in loud places

4. it allows clear communication even when reception is poor

5. it doesn't use up the battery

6. it keeps your conversation safe from being overheard

I'll add that so-called secure messaging apps are definitely NOT secure from Apple, Google, or whatever company made your smartphone's operating system. And all of that information is available to NSA and its FVEY (Five Eyes) cohorts. Text message encryption just security theater for the vast majority of people.

Unless you're running a spy ring or a terrorist organization, there's not much point in encrypting text messages. If you use your smartphone to browse the internet, all your activity is being recorded anyway. 

Those truly interested in privacy would not use smartphones or the internet. 

Think of it this way: if WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, etc. were truly secure, do you think the US or other governments would let people use them? Cryptographic algorithms are classified as munitions by the US government:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export_of_cryptography_from_the_United_States

The many advantages of writing

Off the top of my head, writing: 

1. preserves knowledge without the faults of human memory

2. makes it easy to store, copy, and spread information

3. encourages literacy

4. reduces the need for teachers and thus makes education cheaper

5. creates jobs such as industries for publishing and stationery

6. makes knowledge last centuries or even millennia

7. allows thinkers to have a lasting legacy

8. prevents ideas from being lost to time

9. aids with language learning and translation

10. fosters diplomacy and trade

There are many others. The prevalence of literacy is a bellwether for civilization.   

I should add that in addition to more popular video and audio media, writing is much simpler to produce and does not even require electricity. 

Complications for the Drake equation "predicted" by Dneprov

In earth's natural history, only about 1% of species last longer than 15 million years. For mammals, the average species lasts about a million years. Humans have been around for about half a million years have had spaceflight and telecommunications for about 50 years. That's about the length of time human civilization has been detectable to aliens and vice-versa.

Even if the galaxy was teaming with life, advanced civilizations would be just as rare out there as they have been on earth. It would also take an extremely long time for them and us to expand into an interstellar empire. 

The vastness of space, like the oceans, invites us to ponder what lies beyond. Since the oceans are much easier to reach, that would be a better use of money than manned space exploration. 

If the goal is to preserve humanity, we should be more worried about what happens here in the near feature and let our descendants figure out how to colonize outer space. If we ever do encounter an alien civilization, it will most likely be intelligent robots created by some extinct biological race.

It seems the distant future will just be robots talking to each other, if that. It's possible that such civilizations already exist and only interact with other robots. I think the 1958 short story "Crabs on the Island" by Anatoly Dneprov might be playing out on a universal scale. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igROsVAk7fY

https://biblioklept.org/2019/01/25/read-crabs-on-the-island-sixties-soviet-sci-fi-by-anatoly-dneprov/

 

Alien landscapes on Earth

 Algeria

Utah

Utah(?)

Jordan

Horseshoe crab blood, conservation, and euryhaline conditioning

Horseshoe crab blood began to be used to test for the presence of bacterial toxins in vaccines in the 1960s. Soon, it developed into a major industry, but with a devastating impact on horseshoe crab populations.

https://www.npr.org/2023/06/10/1180761446/coastal-biomedical-labs-are-bleeding-more-horseshoe-crabs-with-little-accountabi

The good news is that there is evidence that prehistoric ancestors of the crabs were able to adapt to freshwater a few times. Wikipedia says:

***

Only four species of horseshoe crab are extant today. Most are marine, though the mangrove horseshoe crab is often found in brackish water. Additionally, certain extinct species transitioned to living in freshwater. Horseshoe crabs primarily live at the water's bottom but they can swim if needed. In the modern day, their distribution is limited, only found along the east coasts of North America and South Asia.

***

***

Horseshoe crabs are often caught for their blood, which contains Limulus amebocyte lysate, a chemical used to detect bacterial endotoxins. Additionally, the animals are used as fishing bait in the United States and eaten as a delicacy in some parts of Asia. In recent years, horseshoe crabs have experienced a population decline. This is mainly due to coastal habitat destruction and overharvesting. To ensure their continued existence, many areas have enacted regulations on harvesting and established captive breeding programs.

***

Perhaps marine horseshoe crabs can be conditioned to live in freshwater just as the lionfish was in this experiment:

Sixth grader credited with scientific breakthrough on lionfish

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJZz9SM2Q8I

Me and my long hair - growing for 3+ years

 I haven't cut it in about 1,200 days. I don't think it will get much longer.

I suppose should get a sitar and light some incense. 

Ocean salinity, euryhaline animals, and possible bluefin tuna aquaculture

 A map of ocean salinity - it ranges from about 33 to 38 parts per thousand

Thus, all cosmopolitan marine animals such as orcas and bluefin tuna can tolerate about +/- 5 parts per thousand of salinity.

https://animalia.bio/cosmopolitan

https://animalia.bio/atlantic-bluefin-tuna

For comparison, brackish water has a salinity range of 1 to 10 parts per thousand. Tide pools have a much greater salinity range.

https://www.ncesc.com/geographic-faq/which-condition-will-increase-the-salinity-of-the-water-in-a-tide-pool/

Because gentle gradients of salinity do not exist in nature, euryhaline species are somewhat rare. However, lionfish can live in freshwater if the salinity is gradually reduced. There may be other species that have the same ability.

Sixth grader credited with scientific breakthrough on lionfish

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJZz9SM2Q8I

It would be a great boon to aquaculture and conservation if marine species like lobsters and bluefin tuna could be raised in freshwater. Saltwater aquaculture is much more difficult and vulnerable to natural disasters. If vulnerable freshwater species could be adapted to seawater, that would greatly increase their long-term chances of survival. 

There are a number of species of freshwater fish that can adjust to living in saltwater aquariums:

https://healthyhomeaquarium.com/biology/community-and-ecosystem/which-freshwater-fish-can-live-in-saltwater-aquarium/

***

First, it’s crucial to increase the salt in the water slowly. This gradual change prevents the fish from getting shocked or stressed.

To get started, use a freshwater tank. Add a bit of marine salt mix each day to raise the salt level. Watch how the fish react and make sure they’re okay. Adding no more than 0.002 specific gravity (SG) a day is recommended.

Keep testing the water often. Check the salt, pH, and ammonia levels to ensure they’re right for your fish. Adjust as necessary to keep things perfect.

***

Hmm. So adding 2 g of marine salt per liter per day is a rule of thumb. Good to know. Hopefully the opposite is true for my upcoming experiment involving clams.

UK Army Nurse Morale Patch

 Probably my favorite morale patch: