Three quick, random posts: A neat image, Search for Aliens From Your Desktop, and something terribly, wonderfully geeky

First, a pretty nifty electron microscope picture of flower pollen from several different plants, including lily, primrose, hollyhock, and castor bean.

Secondly, I don't know about you, but I search for aliens from desktop. No, really. SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) is scanning the skies with large radio telescopes, with the goal of
discovering the existence of other civilizations in the cosmos. This brings in a good amount of data, but they don't have a supercomputer. Instead, they organized a network of volunteers, whose computers all interpret data and send it back to the main facility. The computers only do work when they aren't being used, or when they are in screen saver mode. When banded together these volunteer computers have the combined computing power of a pretty damn big supercomputer. In fact, when combined, it beats out the world's current supercomputer champ, IBM's Roadrunner. (In this sense, it's like a computer virus, but for good.)

If you're interested, here's a link: http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

And now for something truly funny, but embarrassing:

So let's say you're like me, and you love poetry and books, but you also have a soft spot for space exploration and Star Trek. Let's say you're rather excited for the upcoming Star Trek movie. Now let's say you REALLY wanted to get into the movie, not just by dressing up in Vulcan ears or by aping Scotty's famous brogue. Well now, there are Star Trek fragrances.

One, called "Tiberius," seems markedly uninteresting, as I'm no great Captain Kirk fan. Those Travelocity commercials just ended it for me. And that duet with Ben Folds? WTF?

But another is called "Red Shirt," in homage to the redshirt crew members who'd die in the first few minutes of your average Original Series episode. It carries the tagline, "Because tomorrow may never come." Now that's fantastic, Mr. Bombastic, yes?















http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/41832117.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUsZ

Unknown Regions

So while searching the Internets at work, I stumbled across this early 20th Century image of a map, which is up for sale on Ebay. Note how the North Pole is described...


Blog Update, 8:58 PM. OK, I couldn't help myself. I had to buy the map. But fear not, there are several others like it still on Ebay.

Essay About Knockout on Gather!

I was prompted by the fine folks at Minnesota Public Radio's gather site to write a brief essay about Knockout (well, I don't know if they were looking for an essay, but it turned out that way). Whatever you want to call it, you can check it out here.

As a teaser, it's called: Adventures in Starting a Literary Magazine, Featuring: The World's Worst Salesman, Robert Bly Reconnaissance, and The Literary Death Match.

Let me know what you think.

Bats Go Into Space!

OK, so the coolest thing! So just before the much-delayed Space Shuttle launch yesterday, the folks at mission control spotted a bat (yes, a bat) hanging onto the fuel tank. They concluded it was not a threat to Discovery and the shuttle lifted off yesterday. When they lifted off...the bat was still onboard. Apparently, it held on even after lift-off, thereby becoming the first (potential) BAT IN SPACE!

Here's a link, and a dramatic re-enactment of what probably happened when said bat met E.T.

Rwandan Swearing: The Anti-Bart Simpson

OK, to augment today's earlier post about swearing in Irish. Here are my favorite swear words of all time. They are all from Kinyarwanda, which is spoken in Rwanda.

Urakisegura inzira = Do die of hunger!

Kabure amaso ibirori bije = Get blind at celebration time!

Gashinyike bashikura = Do starve alone!

Kanyare ico = Do piss impurities!

Urakannywa wa Base = Drink dirty river water!

and my favorite...

Kabure inka = Have no cow!

Some Irish Swear Words for Your St. Patrick's Day

We've all been there. It's St. Patrick's Day, you're wearing green, you're drinking green beer, and you're enjoying pretending to be Irish. But then you realize: You don't know any Irish Gaelic. Well, now you do. Here's a few of my favorite inappropriate phrases from the Emerald Isle.

Tí Diabhail, which means “Devil’s House” (literally, “the house of the Devil')

Cailleach an Diabhail, which is another way to call someone “an infernal hag”

allas an diabhail, which roughly means “brat” (but literally means “a limb of Satan”)

and finally, bruithleachán, which is a person who sweats profusely

Image of the Chicago River licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.

Peter Singer Article

OK, a few quick notes. First, a lot of y'all might not know it, but I started out studying philosophy and I never quite stopped. (How can you?) Anyway, I came across an article about the-oh-so-controversial Peter Singer in the NYT, and I thought I'd share it with you. Singer takes utilitarianism quite seriously.

For those of you who've forgotten your philosophy or think utilitarians work on the sewer lines or power grid, here's a primer. In a moral sense, utilitarians are consequentialists; generally speaking, in a given situation, the consequences of an event (not the intentions) are what matters. And utilitarians are interested in a specific type of consequence--human happiness. But a utilitarian's definition of happiness is different than our common notion of it. Here's how J.S. Mill states it in his Utilitarianism:

The creed which accepts as the foundations of morals “utility” or the “greatest happiness principle” holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain and the privation of pleasure [II 2; cf.II 1].

So if an action (whatever its intention) improves world happiness on a global scale, it's a good thing and the moral thing to do. If that action makes the world a less happy place, then that's a bad thing and an immoral thing. Mill and friends are therefore after 'the greater good,' a phrase you no doubt have read before.

Peter Singer applies this framework to contemporary culture and consumer spending. He argues that we're using our personal (and global) resources immorally, in that we're spending it on non-essential items (dinners, movies, clothes, fancy cars) when we should be spending it to reduce world suffering. In short, the money you spent on dinner at a restaurant tonight could have saved a child from dying of dysentery. This is a simple fact. The fact that you didn't do so, he contends, means that you are, in a very real sense, immoral.

Here's one argument he proposes, and it's quoted in full in the article:

“First premise: Suffering and death from lack of food, shelter and medical care are bad.

Second premise: If it is in your power to prevent something bad from happening, without sacrificing anything nearly as important, it is wrong not to do so.

Third premise: By donating to aid agencies, you can prevent suffering and death from lack of food, shelter and medical care, without sacrificing anything nearly as important.

Conclusion: Therefore, if you do not donate to aid agencies, you are doing something wrong.”

To reject this argument, Mr. Singer writes, “you need to find a flaw in the reasoning.”

(from The Life You Can Save, Random House, as quoted In the New York Times)

In his other work, (most notably Animal Liberation), Mr. Singer takes this argument even further; in fact, he contends that happiness doesn't just pertain to humans, but to animals as well. Therefore utilitarians, if they are to be consistent, should seek to prevent animal suffering as well. In any case, Mr. Singer always makes for an interesting debate, so I thought I'd post this up to see what y'all had to say about it.

Here's the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/books/11garn.html?ref=books
Here's Singer's webpage at Princeton: http://www.princeton.edu/~psinger/faq.html

Switching from Cafepress to Zazzle

A quick note (as it's quite late): As you may know, I've been tinkering around with all sorts of fun Knockout designs on the print-on-demand site Cafepress. Well, after seeing some of the cool publicity stuff on Zazzle, I switched, so if you're looking for Knockout gear, that's the place to go. I'll update all of the links and all that good stuff tomorrow (and our cafepress site still works, of course), but the Zazzle site is a lot cleaner and the displays look pretty lovely. Here's an example for y'all to ponder.

Good night,

b


create & buy custom products at Zazzle

Robert Bly Conference, April 16-19

I just got word that there's a Robert Bly conference coming up at the University of Minnesota in April. A number of fine MN writers will be there, including Mr. Bly himself, of course. Check out all the information at this site: http://staff.lib.umn.edu/communications/bly2009/

Speaking of, we've got a limited number of copies of Knockout #1 that Bly signed. If you're interested in one, send me a note at knockoutpoetry@gmail.com

A few fun things

First, if you didn't know, I'm a bit of a DIY (do-it-yourself) kinda guy. I'm not saying I'm great at any of it, but it's fun and worthwhile.

Well, I stumbled across a few great DIY websites. One deals with how to make your own wind turbine and a variety of other projects, including how to make solar panels (almost) from scratch. There's even a page about how to make your own turbo jet engine. (Of course, this made me conjure up all sorts of wild ideas, and I briefly pondered making a jetpack. Then I briefly pondered the natural consequence of any jetpack that I'd design: instantaneous death and I thought I'd forgo the idea.)

The other website is Instructables, which features how-to projects. You'll find everything here. From the strange and rather beautiful (turn an old suitcase into an ottoman!) to the rather damn helpful, just about every cool food idea ever.

***
I also came across a link that intrigued me: a draft of the future, the interplanetary weather report. I've been trying to track down the temperature readings (if they are available) from the Opportunity and Spirit Rovers, as I'd like to make a little widget that tells you the current temp on Mars and then the temperature in a paradise like Fargo, ND, or my current hometown, Cambridge, MN. (Today's low was -13 F.) If anyone's interested, maybe I'll try to learn the code real quick-like.

Two Arguments Against "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

Preface:

The other day, I mentioned Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Well, I stumbled across an article that mentioned the Pentagon discharged 11 more soldiers because of their sexual orientation. According to the AP, "627 were fired in 2007." (2008 stats haven't been released yet.) If those folks were all grouped together, that's right around a batallion.

Those numbers aren't even the worst of it. I can't help but wonder how many GLBT folks don't sign up for the armed services at all, given that they know the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy is in force. I assume there are at least some such folks, and I'd imagine a sizable number still in the service that are in the closet, so to speak (given that at least 12,000 or so GLBT folks joined and were later kicked out because of their sexual preference). So we're preventing more folks from joining the service exactly when we need them (they just sent another MN National Guard unit last month), and we're forcing our GLBT soliders to hide their own identities, which is shameful. These folks are sacrificing just like every other soldier; they should be rewarded, not punished, for this.

OK, now it's time for the arguments:

For those folks who'd say that gays aren't fit for the service, or those that say they'd degrade the quality of our armed forces, I've got one argument (and one snarky comment) for you. First, the snarky comment: Seriously, you actually believe that? OK, you might.

Since you might, consider this: A good deal of the world's militaries are integrated, and they sure as hell aren't falling apart. Two good examples: Israel (which, for better or worse, has the military out there with the most practice) and the U.K's armed forces. Both admit gays to service and the armed forces of both countries are highly effective.

This next bit isn't an argument. Actually, it's more of an appeal to authority. But hey, no one's perfectly logical. Even the higher-ups in the States are coming around to the idea of gays in the service. Consider Army General John Shalikashvili (ret.) and his 2007 op-ed piece in the New York Times. Originally he was in favor of Don't Ask, Don't Tell; now he's against it. Here's a link to the article.

And if that little appeal to authority didn't sell you, let's talk about money. According to an article I found on the DOD's website, "it costs the Army $54,700 to train a basic combat arms soldier, and as much as $67,000 for other military occupational specialties, depending on the length of their advanced individual training." Now multiply that by 12,000 and that's quite a bit cash.

This is a recurring cost. Let's assume that Don't Ask, Don't Tell stays in place, and that 600 is an average number for folks booted from the service. (1,200 were kicked out in 2000 and 2001, by comparison.) That's still about $33,000,000 lost per year. A good chunk of cash, yes?

New T-shirt up

As you might have gathered from my random blog postings, aside from being a poetryface, I'm a bit of a science geek. As a matter of fact, I'm in love with all things NASA. I tell everyone I know: my two favorite governmental organizations are NASA and the Postal Service.

In any case, I too was disheartened when Pluto was voted off the island. To that end, I've been making random t-shirts on Cafepress. It's really just more for fun than anything, but here is a new one, in case you're interested:

Stephen Colbert and NASA, BFF

(image credit: NASA)

In case you hadn't heard, over the past few months NASA and friends have been tricking out the International Space Station, adding rooms, fixing the plumbing, and so on. During the course of this home makeover space edition, they've added a new nodule, or room, to the space station. Well, to get people excited, they decided to hold a contest to give it a name. NASA provided four options, Earthrise, Legacy, Serenity, and Venture, but allowed write-ins too. Well, Stephen Colbert exhorted his viewers to stuff the ballot box, and they've done so. Colbert is now the leader, far and away, though it remains to be seen whether NASA will actually follow through with it. In any case, head over to the site and make your suggestion. And yes, I followed the crowd and voted Colbert. I love this sort of stuff.

And a side note: with the recent additions, the international space station is actually so bright it's pretty easy to spot from the ground with the naked eye. (According to the wonderful website spaceweather.com, it has an apparent magnitude of -4. In English, that means the ISS is about as bright as Venus.)

Even cooler, you can type in your zipcode and it will give you a heads-up of what will be....well...above your head on a given night.

Some upcoming readings and new MN license plates

First, a few readings I came across in the near future, then a note about the new MN license plates.

Tim O'Brien, March 19 & 20, 2009 at the Hopkins Center for the Arts. Tix are $35.

Joshua Beckman (poet), Friday, April 17, 7:30pm - Magers And Quinn Booksellers. Free,
Tom Robbins: Tuesday, April 28, 7:00pm - Free. Minneapolis Central Library, Pohlad Hall, 300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis. Rita Dove, May 11; The Fitzgerald Theater, $20.

If you haven't heard the news, Minnesotans will have a few new license plate choices in the near future. The plates, created by the Department of Natural Resources, are deemed "critical habitat" plates; for an added fee of $30, MN drivers can purchase them. The proceeds go to the DNR, which uses the money to purchase (and manage) land for public use. Well, the DNR came up with eight choices and they are putting it to a vote. Four will make the cut. The plates feature loons, white-tailed deer, a showy ladyslipper, a fishing scene, a pheasant, a black-capped chickadee, a walleye, and a woodduck.

Here's my favorite (the bobber is a nice touch):

(license plate photo courtesy of the MN DNR)

You can see all the of the contenders and vote on them here.

A New Look at Shakespeare, and A Good Article Defending The New Deal

Two quick notes:

First, historians have located what they think is portrait of Bill Shakespeare, and the only portrait that was painted during his lifetime. It looks...a lot like the other portraits, so perhaps they were based on that original. Anyway, you decide. Here's a link: Shakespeare.

Shakespeare line of the day: Dost thou think because thou art virtuous there will be no more cakes and ale?

Name the quote and you get twenty cool points.

************

Also, I don't know about y'all, but I'm sick of people tearing down FDR and the New Deal and blaming the Depression on him. The New Republic has a nice summary of the arguments folks fling against him and a nifty refutation too. Here's a link: FDR.

Knockout Donates to The Trevor Project, Martin Espada Reading

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, Knockout's donating a portion of proceeds to The Trevor Project. Well, we're off to a good start. Knockout's on Facebook and we created a Knockout Facebook Cause and through that, we've donated $224 to the The Trevor Project so far. (All donations to our Facebook Cause goes right to the The Trevor Project.)

We also created some cool Knockout gear on Cafepress; half of the proceeds go to The Trevor Project too. Here's an example:



I also just got word that Martin Espada will be reading in the Twin Cities later this month. He'll be at Hamline University on March 19. Knockout will be there, so if you're going, we'll see you there.

Martin Espada Reading

March 19: Reading, 7:30 PM
Giddens Learning Center
Hamline University
St. Paul, MN

Here's a link: Martin Espada Reading

A few thoughts on Florida, the Everglades, Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and Snow Globes

First, a note about Florida. I just got back from a trip; I wasn't there too long, five days or so. I only managed to swing it because it was (damn) cheap and because of my (and my girlfriend's) fanatical love for Minnesota Twins baseball. And if any of you doubt that my girlfriend is as big as a baseball nut as I am, please see Exhibit A:



Yes, that's the lovely lady, and she's wearing a custom-made Twins jersey adorned with the number of her total man-crush: Minnesota catcher, native and two-time batting champ, Joe Mauer. In one of our running jokes, she refers to Mauer as "husband," so I acquiesced to this sort spiritual wifery and had the jersey made for her b/day.

Anyway, I digress. It was my first trip there since I was a kid (sadly I couldn't find a picture of oh-so-cute-six-year-old-me wearing Mickey Mouse ears to post here), and this trip differed from my previous visits in that I visited Florida's west coast and the Everglades for the first time.

Some of Florida was familiar. As usual, the palm trees were complete, ubiquitous show-offs (and a damn fine sight to see coming from a land with only bare trees, snow and sadness), and at times I had the nagging suspicion that I was trapped inside a geriatric version of the Matrix. Even so, it was a pleasant damn Matrix, let me tell you.

Anyway, I'm writing this, because I was shocked by the sheer abundance of wildlife in the area. Now, I'm from MN and I'm used to seeing all sorts of creatures ranging about. White-tailed deer are everywhere here (they ravage my parents' garden every June or so), and I've seen coyotes, bear, wolves, about 2342342345346346 birds, but MN's got nothing in terms of pure numbers.
OK, that's actually not true, but it seemed much easier to spot large wildlife in Florida.

For instance, we were driving down I-75 (Alligator Alley) and my girlfriend said, "I think I just saw an alligator in a ditch." Now, my father had tried this prank on me back in the Mickey Mouse days, and then, as now, it seemed like a joke. But my girlfriend doesn't joke. In fact, she hates laughing. She only frowns.

So this seemed out of place. She spotted another, and sure enough, an alli-frickin-gator was in the ditch. Then we started driving again, and we spotted another. And another. All told, we spotted about a hundred before stopped counting and that was only a mile stretch or so. Now according to the folks at the Florida Fish and Wildlife, they are about 1.25 million alligators in Florida. According to the MN DNR, we've got 1 million or so white-tailed deer. But unless you're really in the sticks, it's strange to see more than a dozen deer in a day. To see them one after another was pretty impressive. Now I'm sure there's an explanation; I'm guessing that the gators are just more concentrated in that area. Hence the name, Alligator Alley.

The same thing happened at the beach. We visited Sanibel Island and right after we stepped on the beach, I saw a dorsal fin in the water. No, it wasn't a shark (but I did immediately start humming the Jaws theme); it was a dolphin. Flipper was right there! In MN, to see our iconic animals, the wolf, the bear, the moose, it's often takes some effort. Sure there are some places that are better than others, but to find one right away was surprising, at least for a Florida nature novice like me. In any case, FL's definitely a place I'd like to visit again.



Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Now for a brief foray into politics. President Obama is following through on a campaign promise and is looking to eliminate Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Personally, I think that's a damn fine thing. According to the Service Members Legal Defense Network, approximately 12,000 troops have been discharged due to disclosing their GLBT status since 1994. That's pretty close to a Division. And while I won't start pontificating here, it doesn't make a good deal of sense to me to discharge capable troops at all, and especially when we're involved in several wars and are sending our National Guard folks on second and third tours.

And Now For Something Completely Different

Finally, a short note about the most important subject in the world: snow globes. Or, rather, the lack of them in Fort Myers, Florida. Now I know this is a contentious subject, so I'll try to make my argument as fair and balanced as I can. To this end, I'll start with the most basic of assumptions: Any vacation is incomplete if cheap, kitschy, decent snow globes aren't available. But as of this writing I am now in the Twin Cities, sans snow globe. Unless a benevolent snow globe fairy appears, or it begins to snow snow globes, I will be without any trip’s most essential item. Now you probably think I'm a lazy, no-good jerk who didn't look hard enough for his snow globe. But I did! I went to five different shops in Fort Myers and one in the Everglades...and I only saw one item that resembled a snow globe. First, this "snow globe" didn't have any snow in it. That's a requirement; it's in the name. And that's half the fun; usually you get snow globes from places that are warm.

Exhibit A: I have one from AZ that's got a cactus and a roadrunner and SNOW. I remember playing with it as a kid, capriciously shaking the globe like some sort of maniacal weather god, which incessantly baffled the roadrunner. (In retrospect, this bears some resemblance to Minnesota’s weather patterns; perhaps Minnesota is itself inside a large snow globe, the plaything of puckish deities.)

Exhibit B: Even worse, my snow globe contender was made of glass. GLASS! First, that's dangerous. My girlfriend doesn't allow me to handle glass or tacks other sharp objects, as I might be a danger to myself and those around me.

More importantly, snow globes are kitsch. They are cheap, so they should be made from cheap materials, like plastic. (Preferably hand-me-down recycled plastic.) Glass, on the other hand, is fancy. Expensive. When I think of glass, I think of church, museums, wine and booze, chandeliers, windshields on a Jaguar. All of these things are strictly adult; snow globes are childish. No sensible adult would give a kid a glass souvenir; they’d be bored out of their tree by it, and their parents would probably shelve it away like a museum piece lest the kid might break it. Snow globes are made for rough-housing. The very premise is to shake the damn thing in order to create ready-made (if very localized) meteorological chaos. Producing a glass snow globe is therefore a contradiction in terms, like serving Steel Reserve at a black tie dinner.

For these reasons, my vacation may be over, but it still unfortunately incomplete.

Will write a book-related post soon.
---- Brett