Bite-sized Science

Consider planting a tree any time you can. One tree generates enough oxygen for about 4 people to breath. Some trees are better oxygen producers than others. Ask your county extension agent or horticulturalist for types.

Homelessness and Hunger are two things that become even more poignant at this time of year. Many of us encounter numerous people standing on street corners holding up cardboard signs. To alleviate our guilt, we will often give out change or dollar bills. This is in keeping with the good wishes of the season, but it doesn't solve the problem. It has been proven many times that by donating to actual charitable organizations, it does help solve the problem. Kindly make donations to the Salvation Army, your local homeless shelters and local food banks. Consider donating to mental health social service agencies in your community, and veterans outreach centers. All of the many people working in these areas do so without the financial support and gratitude they deserve.

Earth in the near future. Perhaps, renewable energy and tighter environmental restrictions will be required. Getting everyone to do that. Good Luck.

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/images/galleries/VenusIR_jaxa_960.jpg

Guanine

Adenine

Cytosine

Thymine



Strange creatures from a different world. These building blocks are what you owe everything to for who you are.

The literally billions and billions of combinations possible in a single thread of these elements is the stuff of dreams. Welcome to the wonderful world of Deoxyribonucleic Acid or DNA.

Learn more here:

DNA

Hackers

To use an idea espoused by Malcolm X, "By Any Means Necessary", the probability of escalating action and reaction to cyber-intrusions, cyber security and the banking/internet industries may lead to a much higher level of aggression on a global scale. It may not be long before industries develop tactics and techniques including the use of technological bounty hunters to remove threats. The physical location of a threat will not impede this action, given that smaller payments made to individuals to remove e-threats would be substantially lower than losses easily reaching millions of dollars.

Byte-sized Science

Here is something few people realize. Computers, smart phones, and computer networks are all basically stupid. They are really bad at counting. In fact, they can only count to 1. Yes, just to 1, but to be fair, they start at 0.

This is known as Binary. Everything that can be represented from a pixel on a screen to a googleplex (1 followed by 100 zeroes) can be done using Binary math.

For ease of examples, a Zero can be used to represent something that is off. A One can be used to represent something that is on.

Now, you can count like a computer.

Of course, computers can count really fast. To do so, they can use Zero and One to represent other numbers.

To do so, computers combine these zeroes and ones into Bits and Bytes.

For example to represent the number 0, the computer can use 0, 0000, 00000000, 0000000000000000. They are all the same thing. Zero.

The number Four can be written using three bits: 100, where 1 equals 2 * 2, followed by two zeros.

Shortcuts are everywhere for computers.

Using three bits is called Octal. The biggest number it can count to is 7. That is 111, where the first 1 is (2 ^ 2) + (2 ^ 1) + (2 ^ 0). Remember that any number raised to the power of 0 is defined to be 1.


Using four bits is called Hexadecimal. The biggest number it can count to is 15. Ah, but you might wonder how two digit numbers can be represented by a single character. Easy, instead of using 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 & 15, we simply use A, B, C, D, E, & F to stand for those numbers. Thus,

1010 Base 16 is the number 10, again the first one is 2^3, 2^2, 2^1 & 2^0.

If you want to count really high, you can use Base 32, Base 64, Base 128 or beyond. That takes you into really big number country.


Remember, computers are dumb.

We will be living in a much sadder world. Much we now know will soon only be memory.

Endangered Species List


Vanishing

I have been seeing an increase in the number of numerical puzzles being posted onto Facebook, perhaps in an attempt to goad you into responding incorrectly.

In a bite-sized piece of Mathematics, use the following:

"Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally. "

The Order of Operations for Math follow these rules.

1st. Solve for Parentheses/Brackets. ()[]{}

2nd. Solve for Exponents next. 3^2 is the same as 3 x 3 or 9.

3rd. Solve for Multiplication. Multiply things together from left to right as you get to them in the problem.

4th. Solve for Division next, the same way you did for Multiplication. Left to right.

5th. Solve for Addition. Again, left to right.

6th. Finally, solve for Subtraction the very same way.

Don't believe that Geniuses are needed to solve these problems. We aren't all geniuses, but by following very simple rules, we can at least gain some confidence in our own abilities.

As little as we know about our universe and even our own solar system, it would appear that even greater levels of ignorance and misinformation is always at hand about Earth itself. Perhaps you've encountered stories (innuendo, deceit, pseudoscience or perhaps even validated) about the current condition of our planet. Climate change evokes powerful feelings of self-accreditation, generational employment and ambivalence. Beyond a small number of people actively involved in the study of climactic data, many people are willing to allow their own lives to proceed without much concern for such things. It is my own position that the symbiotic relationship between the inhabitants of Earth and the planet itself must be considered to be sacrosanct. This "Pale, Blue Dot" is home. It is the only one we have ever known. It is the only one we may possibly ever know.

Whether you agree or disagree with the conclusions that have been publicized, it would be beneficial to you to review what I consider to be as primary data elements from credible sources. As such, I am enclosing a link to the most recent Earth temperature data I can find or have access to at this time.

Earth temperature information

With each succeeding year now achieving the 'hottest year on record' now at an alarming pace, I urge you to read, study, understand and grasp the consequences of our inaction. Those of us in the Baby Boomer generation (1946-1964, roughly) will die before catastrophic levels are achieved but it is highly probable that future generations will live vastly different than before under stressful conditions. It is for them that we must become better stewards of our world.

From A Certain Point of View

From A Certain Point of View:

The extraordinary events of the last 150 years have brought about dramatic changes to the lives of Earth's species, from organic to inorganic, intelligent or under development (let's start by inferring that even simple organisms can evolve and achieve what to that species is incredible). To be sure, there have been numerous examples of brutality, indifference and incredulity about what has occurred across our globe. A healthy skepticism is invited, but rigorous adherence to a belief structure that has been shown to be flawed is discouraged and perhaps even detrimental to all.

From A Certain Point of View is designed to provide a re-fusion of facts, accepted scientifically supported data and the above mentioned healthy skepticism.

Much of what we know or are aware of today is often colored by perspective. The ability to overcome this inherent bias interlaced intricately with interpersonal communications can be difficult.

To borrow a phrase from the Tom Cruise film, "A Few Good Men", it is imperative to all of us that we focus more on what we can prove and not on what we believe. Belief structures are primarily subsets of perspectives and therefore subject to the whims of interpretation. In today's academic environs, college faculty and administrators lament the continuing devolution of critical thinking as the demand for specialization has eroded such a capability or at least narrowed its use too far beyond the borders of that specialization.

From a certain point of view, climate change, racial inequalities, social support infrastructures, and their opposites all seem injurious. It is not prudent to so easily dismiss the many facets of these programs without exploring and critically analyzing their impacts. As a society we are inundated with information that shapes our biases (not always kindly or benevolently) into the actions we take throughout our daily lives. We witness children covered in the residue from bombed out buildings or we see individuals suffering the loss of life through what can be seen as careless indifference. This is itself not a judgment, but merely an interpretation. How we react to these events speaks volumes about how our biases are shaped.

Perhaps it would be wise to look closely at one's personal biases. Why do I dislike anyone? What fear would drive such a statement? I often disagree with a lot of what is opined on the networks and news outlets and it is with some degree of difficulty that I have to remind myself that opinions on television are perhaps just as wrong as some of my own are on many topics. Herein lays the point, my opinions aren't wrong, nor are they correct, they are simply words without a pedigree if I cannot support them with observable, repetitive and confirmable supporting opinions.

To whit, please take the time to peruse the allegory by Plato about 'The Myth of the Cave'.

Plato

With that small step, we enter a different realm, a new dimension of who we think we are and how our perspectives make us into who we are.