Explosive Expressions

Last night marked a few firsts for me.. First time to an IMAX theater, first time I’ve been able to go on a date with my wife in quite some time, and first time I’ve helped to break a Guinness world record. Well, the world record isn’t confirmed yet, but I expect it will be with something like 400+ theaters in the US and 63+ countries around the world showing The Age of Stupid, simultaneously, it should be easy enough to smash the record.

Oh, what’s The Age of Stupid, you ask? Well, it’s a damn good thing you’re reading this blog post because that’s what I plan on talking about! The Age of Stupid is a drama-documentary-animation hybrid from director Franny Armstrong and Producer Lizzie Gillett. The film is set about 45 years in the future, after climate change has ravaged the world. It is a combination of short documentary clips, some nifty animation, and actual news footage from current and past events. All together it presents a pretty decent look at where we, the human race, may be headed if we don’t head off climate change in the very near future.

Climate change is one of those hot topics that lots of people talk about, even more have an opinion on, and a source of much debate. Personally, the effects of climate change, manmade or not, are pretty obvious. Hotter summers, rapid changes of season, melting ice caps, etc. These are all signs of a changing climate, change which could be extremely detrimental to all inhabitants of earth. Unfortunately, there are also those that believe that climate change is nothing more than a big hoax.

So let’s talk a little bit about climate change. Climate change is a natural occurring phenomenon. Whether you believe in the Bible, or in Evolution, climate change still exists. For those that are religious and reject evolution, there’s Noah’s great flood. That’s some serious climate change right there, though one could possibly argue that it wasn’t a natural event. And for those that believe in Evolution, there’s the Ice Age, continental drift, and more.

So climates change over time. However, if you look at the world today, and look at the world a scarce 50 years ago, you’ll see that there has been quite a bit of climate change in a very short period. Interestingly enough, it seems that much of this change seems to have come about as we, humans, evolved and developed new technologies. I’m not a scientist, and I don’t claim to be one, but it’s hard to believe that glaciers that have existed for thousands of years have suddenly decided to melt, rapidly, just about the time we start polluting the hell out of the earth. You can argue all you want about correlation and causation, but just look around a bit. Hurricanes have been getting increasingly stronger, there is a rise in tornado activity, and more. It’s hard for me to believe that mass logging of forests, significant rises in CO2 emissions, and the general strip mining of the planet has no effect.

Changing our lifestyle to be more “green” isn’t all that difficult. In fact, it makes good economic sense in many instances. Let’s take a look at some easy ways to handle “going green” and save money.

Bottled water is a great place to start. First of all, bottled water isn’t necessarily “better” than tap water. In most cases, bottled water *is* tap water. You’re paying good money for the convenience of picking up a bottle (that you had to stop at the store to get) rather than filling it with water from the tap. And if you’re that concerned about “bad” tap water, just get a filtration system. Filtration systems can cost you anywhere from a few bucks to a few thousand bucks, depending on what you want/need. For myself and my family, we opted for a whole-house filtration system that cost us a few thousand up front. Since installation, all the unit costs me is a bag of salt every month or so. That’s runs me about $30 a year. Compare that to buying water in a bottle. I use about 2-3 bottles of water a day, just for myself, which would cost me roughly $3 a day. That’s over $1000 a year, just for bottled water. Plus, I’m already paying for the water the city feeds to my house. So, having installed the filtration system about 9 years ago, I have already paid for the filtration system twice over! On top of that, think of all the plastic bottles I haven’t used. 9 years, 3 a day, that’s about 10,000 plastic bottles. Unbelievable when you sit and think about it.

What else can you do that’s both economically feasible, and eco-friendly? How about hot water? Well, we use hot water every day for a variety of tasks such as washing dishes and clothes, taking baths and showers, and even heating our house. Traditional water heaters store heated water in a tank, ensuring the temperature stays steady throughout the day, whether you use it or not. This is great as it means instant hot water (minus the time it takes to get from the tank to your faucet), whenever you need it. Right? Well, sort of. While it does mean instant hot water, there’s only so much to go around. It’s very easy to use up all of the water in the tank and have to wait for more to be produced. Plus, heating that water all day and night, even when its not needed, is a waste of resources and money.

We recently switched to a tankless hot water heater. The general idea is to heat the water, only when we need it. There’s still a delay before the hot water gets to you, and it’s a little bit longer of a delay, but the water gets and stays hot until I turn off the tap. And when I’m not using hot water, there’s nothing heating it, so it costs me nothing. The initial install cost is a few thousand to get one installed, but these units pay for themselves in no time. Add to that something like the Chilipepper hot water pump and you can even stop wasting the cold water already in the pipes while you wait for the hot water to get to you.

There are even more ways to save. Moving from grid electric to solar electric can save you a ton of money in the long run. Simple solar installations will significantly reduce the amount of electricity you use from the local grid, reducing your monthly electric bill. More advanced installations can completely remove your reliance on the electrical grid and may even result in the electric company having to pay you for the electricity you feed to them! Solar is, however, a heavier investment up front, so it’s not for everyone.

Overall, there are many, many ways to reduce your carbon footprint and become a better eco-citizen. As part of the Age of Stupidity premiere, a new campaign was mentioned. In a nutshell, this campaign aims to cut individual carbon emissions by 10% in 10 months. It’s a pretty ambitious campaign, but definitely obtainable. They have a 10-point checklist on their site to show you how you can start reducing your footprint. Those steps are as follows:

1. Fly less, holiday more
2. Save 10% on heating
3. Save 10% on electricity
4. Drive less
5. Eat better
6. Buy good stuff
7. Dump less
8. Don’t waste food…
9. … or water
10. Feel happier

Sure, it’s built for marketing, but these are still great ideas. In fact, I outlined numbers 2 and 3 above. And my solutions are far more radical than the ones they suggest. If you want it simple, follow their solution. Turn off the heat in areas you don’t need it and insulate your house better. To save electric, just turn off stuff you’re not using! That plug in the wall to charge your phone? Yeah, it uses electric, even when you don’t have the phone plugged into it! Simple things can make a huge difference.

So, can you drop your carbon footprint? Are you willing to do your part? Do you need more convincing?

Check it out. He’s sweating. I can just hear him muttering to himself.. “Oh shit…. Aw fuck.. I’m goin to jail .. dammit.. I was the Vice Fucking President.. Who do they think they are.. Don’t they know about Nixon? … Shit shit shit…”

“I have serious doubts … about the extent to which he understands and is prepared to do what needs to be done to defend the nation.”

Felicia Day, from The Guild, Dr Horrible, and more, sings and dances in this really cool music video from The Guild. Check it out. The song is pretty catchy too… You can also pick it up on iTunes or even Amazon.

Seriously, are you people insane? Yes, you have every right to carry a weapon, assuming you have the necessary licenses. You absolutely have the right, and I fully support that right. But standing outside of a venue where the President of the United States is speaking, carrying firearms, including assault rifles, while protesting against the president is just antagonistic and irresponsible.

Think about this for a minute. The leader of our nation, who was elected by the people, is speaking in your area. You decide to go protest against him. And as part of that protest, you decide to bring along a weapon? What message are you trying to send? If he doesn’t cow to your protests, you’ll kill him? Are we that uncivilized?

Bringing a firearm, or a weapon at all, to a venue like this, where there are plenty of security officers, is just asking for trouble. First, you’ll be targeted immediately. If anything happens, regardless of whether you’re involved, you’ll be first on the list of people they look at. Second, you’re going to end up reducing the effectiveness of the security forces present. Why? Because you have a visible weapon and have automatically been ratcheted up the list of people that are considered possible dangers. In the end, this means security forces will constantly be watching you, reducing the amount of time spent on watching the crowd as a whole. Again, regardless of whether this is what you intend or not, you are an immediate threat, already identified.

And, even if you do have your head on straight, which I’m not quite sure of right now, you have brought a weapon into a venue with lots of other people. What’s preventing someone else from taking your weapon and using it? And before you point out the hordes of police and other security personnel, realize that they are trained for these situations, whereas you are likely not.

You have every right to carry a weapon, and I fully support you. But please use your head. Let’s not cause more problems than we have already. Antagonizing behavior like this will likely end up with the government thinking more about gun control, which I’m sure you’re completely against.

Healthcare. What a debate.. Seriously, what the hell. I don’t see what the hoopla is all about, seriously. There’s a lot of screaming and shouting going on, but no one seems to be talking about the issue at hand. Obama wants the government to provide universal healthcare to all Americans. This sounds like a really good thing to me.

Let’s look at what we have today. First, according to different sources, we have several tens of millions of people without healthcare at all. Estimates seem to range from 40-80 million people. Compare that to the 250 or so million people that have health coverage. That’s roughly 15-20% of Americans under 65 without healthcare!

But who are these people? Surely we’re talking about the low-income, welfare cases, right? Wrong. In a 2003 paper on the relationship between income and health insurance, the writer found that more than 50% of those without health insurance made more than $25,000 per year. According to the 2009 Federal Poverty Guidelines, a $25,000 per year income is considered poverty when you exceed four persons in your family.

So universal healthcare isn’t just for the poor, it’s more for the average American who is a productive member of society. The government isn’t looking to hand out free healthcare to those who don’t deserve it, they’re looking to provide a necessary service to those who try, but can’t afford healthcare because of the insane premiums.

So what are we talking about? Is the government looking to kill off older Americans, provide free abortions, or put insurance companies out of business? No, I doubt it. In fact, I hope that Obama and the rest of the Democratic party can get this healthcare bill passed. Think about it, it actually makes sense.

First, the government needs to put together a basic healthcare plan. No bells and whistles, just your run of the mill healthcare that covers all the normal stuff. They should follow the same basic guidelines that current insurance companies follow. Set some fair deductibles, put in some reasonable ceilings, and let it fly. This means instant competition for the insurance industry since all of the basic care will now be covered by the government’s free healthcare plan.

Yeah yeah, it’s not really free, we pay for it with taxes… No kidding. I’m aware of that. But, to the average American, it seems free and sometimes perception is really important.

Anyway, as I was saying, the government plan covers the minimum benefits. Now the insurance companies can step up and start offering all the fluff and special features. They’ll need to make it affordable in order to compete, but I’m sure they’ll be able to keep the doors open.

In the end, I believe this will bring down healthcare prices, ensure competition, and provide coverage for those that deserve it. I don’t believe this will be the downfall of America, and it won’t result in the government choosing who lives and who dies. It will not cause healthcare prices to rise, and in the end, if you don’t want to participate in the government insurance plan, and put your healthcare in their hands, just go and get your own insurance. It’ll still be out there, and it will probably be better than ever.

If you spend enough time trolling around on the Internet, you’re bound to come across some pretty cool stuff. Here’s a collection of some stuff I came across recently.

In the vein of dead celebrities, ala Michael Jackson, comes this beauty from Pictures for Sad Children. The sad part is how incredibly true this is:

Obama is said to be one of the most organized presidents there has ever been. I came across this via a twitter post by Ana Marie Cox. It combines the current presidency with the Getting Things Done methodology designed by David Allen.

Old WWII propaganda posters re-imagined for current Internet trends:

And to finish things off, some images from crazy4cult, an artistic tribute to classic cult films.

I know it seems like a long time ago, but think back a bit and see if you can recall anything about a paramilitary company called Blackwater. Ring any bells? Well, they go by the name of Xe, these days, but that’s probably an attempt to disassociate themselves with all of the events they were involved in when they worked for the US Government in Iraq. In September of 2007, they were involved in a shooting in which 17 Iraqi civilians were killed. Iraq revoked their license to operate in Iraq. Thankfully, Blackwater’s contractor status ended shortly after Obama took office.

Well, it looks like Blackwater, or more specifically, their CEO, Erik Prince, is back in the news. Last evening, lawyers for Iraqi civilians filed a number of sworn affidavits from former Blackwater employees. These affidavits allegedly contain details about murders, gun smuggling operations, deception, and destruction of evidence.

The identities of the witnesses have been kept secret, both citing a fear of reprisals from Mr. Prince and his associates. One of the witnesses has gone on record stating that he has been contacted by Blackwater management, since his departure, and has been threatened with death and violence. He also goes on to state that Mr. Prince thinks of himself as a “Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe.” Mr. Prince allegedly encouraged his employees to kill as many Iraqis as possible, all in the name of religion.

This seems to be a running theme in the former Bush administration, as other Bush officials and allies used religion as an inspiration during war. What ever happened to separation of church and state?

So how long will we have to pay for the mistakes of the past? How long will we have to clean up the mess left by Bush and his associates? Will we still be paying for this after Obama has left office? Will we ever be able to live down the atrocities committed by Bush and company, all in the name of national security?

My hope is that we can move beyond the past, look towards the future, and prove to the world that we can overcome our past mistakes.

Remember Sarah Palin? How about Palin the Poet?

Well.. here’s hoping she drops out of the spotlight now…

Being an active father and working in the education industry now, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about education in general. From my perspective, it seems that the education system in America is sorely lacking. In our local school district, I’ve had several “run-ins” with the administration concerning my children’s education. It seems that the school has no real interest in anything other than getting the kids through school with the least effort possible. I’m generalizing, of course, as there are some outstanding teachers we have encountered. Unfortunately, they are the exception rather than the rule.

I’m not exactly sure what to blame, but it seems that the school is more willing to ignore bad grades, toss out papers, etc. than to actually teach the students. Unfortunately, this is often done without parental knowledge. We have experienced this directly, however, when questioning the number of incorrect and uncorrected papers our child brought home. Instead of offering to go over the papers with the students, the school instead insisted on throwing them out so we “wouldn’t be bothered by them.” Brilliant suggestion.

Another problem I see is that students seem to spend an inordinate amount of time re-learning everything each year. In some cases, my children have spent the first 2-3 months of the school year reviewing the previous years learning. While I’m a firm believer that repetition leads to better understanding, I’m also of the opinion that spending this much time on review is detrimental to the student in the long run.

Instead, perhaps it’s time to change the system. The material review is necessary each year because students do not retain material they have learned over long periods of time. It’s new material to them, they have not practiced it enough to truly learn the concepts, and there is a large break during the summer where they are likely not engaged in any educational activity. However, there is a solution. Modifying the school year so that it encompasses the entire year can help cut down on these problems. Initially, I believe keeping the existing 180 day school year is necessary, but it can be spread out over the year, leaving 1-3 week breaks at various points. Additionally, I think the year should be split into two distinct semesters. This allows a break point at the beginning and end where testing and review can occur. Review would still be necessary, but should take a much shorter time to complete.

There’s much more to this than merely re-arranging the school calendar, though. The curriculum needs to be adapted to this new schedule. Educators need to spend time reinforcing concepts over time, perhaps coming back to earlier skills throughout the year. Reinforcement of skills at various periods throughout the year keeps them fresh in the minds of the students, and allows them the practice they need to succeed. Additionally, breaks should have definitive goals set for them. Perhaps the reading of a book over the break, additional practice sheets, etc. The student won’t be engaged full-time over breaks, but they can still practice.

In fact, I think it’s high time we start leveraging some of the technology we have available and use it for this purpose. I remember getting homework, occasionally, over holiday breaks. Depending on my mood, I would either spend the first day or two finishing all of it, or wait until the last day to do it. Waiting until the last day helped to refresh some of the concepts in my mind, but defeated the purpose of having work to do over the break. Instead, using new technology, this material can be provided to the student at specific intervals during the break. Websites can provide the necessary material to the student at specific intervals, enhancing the practice they get.

I believe that, done correctly, even slower students will be able to keep up with the class given this type of schedule. From my own observation, it seems that students that fall behind do so because they miss a key concept, be it through not understanding, or through absence on a critical day. Either way, once this concept has been lost, it becomes a major struggle to regain ground and catch up to the class. However, a year-round type of school would lend students additional time during which they can catch up with a key concept. With reviews being spread out over the year, educators can devote more time to teaching initial key concepts. They can spend two days instead of one. They can provide additional help to students who struggle while the rest of the class reviews recent concepts. Overall, I believe students will be able to stay with the class, allowing educators to delve deeper into subjects, providing a deeper understanding to students.

However, a recent study, back in 2007, seems to indicate that there is no advantage to year-round schooling. The study found that there was no significant increase in test results between students from traditional 9-month schools and students from year-round schools. I find fault with this study, though. To begin with, they state that the year-round schools they looked at mostly suffered from overcrowding and that the year-round scheduling was adopted specifically because of this overcrowding. In contrast to this, the traditional 9-month schools did not have this problem. In my opinion, overcrowding generally results in educators that are resource constrained, overworked, and constantly struggling to keep up. It seems to me that if they were able to provide their students an education comparable to that of non-crowded schools, then they did pretty well.

Additionally, the study concentrated on test schools from year end testing of kindergarden and first grade students. These are students that are just learning the basics, barely able to write, let alone take tests. I don’t believe they have the experience at that point to benefit from year-round schooling. I would be more interested in how the test scores vary from year to year over the students entire education. At what point do the test results begin to vary, if at all? My guess is that they begin to vary somewhere around third grade and up.

There are, of course, drawbacks to year-round education as well. For instance, many schools are older and, while they have heating systems, they do not have adequate cooling systems. As a result, the school gets rather hot during summer months, leading to a less than desirable condition for students. Various summer-oriented institutions, such as summer camps, will suffer. Summer staffing, often filled by older students, will suffer as students will not have time to devote to a job.

All of these problems can be overcome, though, if people are willing to support better education for our children. President Obama himself has supported modifying school calendars, and there are parents out there who support the idea as well. There is definitely more to learn in this area, and I think we need to spend the time and money to do it. Our children’s education is at stake here, as is the future of our workforce.

More information about year-round schooling can be found at the website of the National Association For Year-Round Education.

On June 19th, Obama was at the 65th Annual Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner. While there, this animation was unveiled and played. It’s quite funny, enjoy.