Breathing Earth

You have to see this. http://www.breathingearth.net/

Thanks to Matt.

Smallpox

So I won't be sleeping tonight after reading this essay on Smallpox. It is a detailed (though a little graphic at times) essay about the danger we all now face from Smallpox - a virus that has officially been declared "eradicated" but still exists in a freezer near you. Virtually no one (in the world, that is) has immunity to the virus anymore because it no longer exists naturally.

Can you spell epidemic waiting to happen? What makes me nervous is not that this could be used as a bioweapon or the fact that my government doesn't seem to have taken notice to our vulnerability (there are maybe 7 million vaccines readily available - and it is estimated that we would require 100 million vaccines in the US to contain an epidemic)...

What makes me the most nervous is the fact that Smallpox is so contagious that it could be around the world in 6 weeks. What makes me nervous is the fact that if it were ever used, on any major worldwide population center, it could be in my backyard that fast. And I would have virtually no forewarning, since it takes at least 2 weeks for a physician to be able to diagnose the virus (if anyone would even recognize the symptoms of a virus barely anyone has seen in 30 years).

But that's okay, because the government is going to come and save me, right? Or maybe not. My money's on a cabin in the woods.

Creating Healthy Environments

I have been thinking about the integration of healthcare and green building lately, slowly formulating a few ideas of how to develop the best health care environment possible. I'm calling the idea "Utopia General" - a place of healing where the physical environment fosters healthy decisions, runs efficiently and effectively, inspires and motivates, provides green space and clean air....

Well, it seems I'm not the only one contemplating the intersection of these concepts. The Sacred Heart Medical Center at River Bend, in Springfield OR has beat me to it. They were featured by Greenroofs.com for their 50,000 square foot intensive green roof.

The hospital is home to 386 private rooms and the eight rooftop gardens will be for the enjoyment of both patients and visitors. Kudos to Sacred Heart for their ahead-of-the-curve thinking!

Conspiracy Theory

And we're back.... I have come across too many interesting ideas lately that I want to share, so I'm giving this another go.

I came across an editorial today that talked about people's propensity to believe in conspiracies. Sure, most of us are mostly rational - but we also believe in something bordering on the fringe. Conspiracies like Area 51, or mind control, theories about the Kennedy assassination, or that Jews control Hollywood abound. One of my favorites is in a vast right wing conspiracy led by George W. Bush. Now, I may not have been his biggest fan, but I doubt that. How could a man who sometimes struggled to put together a complete sentence have managed a vast conspiracy?

So the question I would like to propose is why millions of Americans, myself included, find ourselves drawn to these conspiracy-based stories and irrational beliefs, even when we know them for what they are?

According to Wikipedia, "Psychologists believe that the search for meaning is common in conspiracism... and may be powerful enough alone to lead to the first formulating of the idea. Once cognized, confirmation bias and avoidance of cognitive dissonance may reinforce the belief. In a context where a conspiracy theory has become popular within a social group, communal reinforcement may equally play a part."

I would like to add to that. I hypothesize that the reason conspiracy theories have such a hold over us is because they allow us to believe that someone else is in control. To be precise, if there is a secret society (such as the Masons, the Opus Dei from the Davinci Code, or even a secret branch of government) controlling everything from behind the scenes, then they are to blame when things go wrong.

It's not society's failings, it's theirs. It's not the elected government, it's the people running top secret projects that screwed up. If this is true, then we as a society do not have to take responsibility. I do not have to take responsibility.

And that is a much better reason to believe in conspiracies than just because it's a good plot line. It's also comforting to know that this mess isn't our fault.

Never regret anything that made you smile.

"The world is not respectable;
it is mortal, tormented, confused, deluded forever;

but it is shot through with beauty, with love,
with glints of courage and laughter;

and in these, the spirit blooms timidly,
and struggles to the light amid the thorns."

George Santayana

Honesty

I can't resist posting this. He's got a point.



"A friend of mine knows a guy from the Pashtun region of Afghanistan. The guy told my friend that if he wanted to send money home, he would do it by giving cash to someone from the same culture who was traveling back. “What?” asked my friend. “Someone you know, or just anyone?”

“Anyone”, said the Pashtun guy. “He will take the money as far as he can, and then he will give it to someone else, and that person will take it as far as he can, and then he will give it to someone, who will give it to my family.”

Wow.

I relayed this tale to a friend who lives in Istanbul. “Oh yes,” she said. “I regularly take a bus route through the center of the city. The bus is so crowded you have to squash on. There’ll be about 200 people on there.

“The bus has three doors, and you’re supposed to get on in front, but you can’t, because it’s so full, so people get on through all three doors. You need to stamp your bus-pass, or buy a ticket, at the front, but you can’t move. So people pass their bus-pass up the bus, hand to hand.

“I’ve seen twenty lira notes go up the bus, hand to hand, and I’ve seen the change come back the same way. Imagine that in England–that money wouldn’t go further than two hands before some guy pocketed it.”

Indeed.

When did we, in the US and UK, lose our honesty? Or rather, as I’d like to ask the person who ripped off MY stuff from the trunk of my car this summer, when did we start assuming that because you CAN take something, you have the RIGHT to?

Of course there are problems with the shadow side of honor in Islam–I’m not idealising that culture either. But there is something fine in a culture where not only do people insist on paying for their bus-ride, and thereby supporting the public transport infrastructure that makes their city bearable, but also pass each other’s hard-earned cash without stealing it.

When the common people rip each other off, there’s something nasty in the air. It’s not just about a few coins, it’s about solidarity, community, mutual respect of the hard work of someone just like you, trying to make an honest living. There’s something fine in those values."

About that pension plan...

This article on the Huffington Post made me angry. It seems that "Big Business", particularly their executives are always getting themselves into trouble. This time, it's by hiding their own pensions in with average workers', allowing them to get tax breaks and weedle money out of the system for their own (and their friends') benefits.

I know, I know... I'm sure they were well intentioned. After all, saving taxes means more money to shareholders, which surely helps the common American somehow .... wait, that money never does get filtered back down. Tax payers have to make up the difference with more national debt - and that tax savings gets directly passed on to those already making million-dollar salaries.

From the reporting, it doesn't sound like it was technically illegal. Just of questionable moral integrity. So what does that mean? Means that our Senators need to close a loop-hole, before more executives retire and drain pension funds intended to help those who really need it.