OCTOBER 31st, 1517, REFORMATION DAY

A time that changed the world, the Reformation not only gave birth to Protestantism, but also brought about social, political, and economic changes. The established Catholic Church violently protested this rebellion of authority. The resulting long bitter war caused turmoil for a hundred years. On the anniversary of this momentous event I thought it would be appropriate to look at the current status of religion in America.

Coincidentally, a new survey of religious affiliation by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life just became available. The report shows that every religion is losing members, but the Roman Catholic Church has experienced the greatest loses. The survey also indicates that the group that had the greatest gain was the unaffiliated. More than 16% of American adults say they are not a part of any organized faith, which makes them the country’s fourth largest “religious group”. For more details, you can see the entire report at http://religions.pewforum.org/reports/

As a nonreligious person, I wonder why, with all the abuses, scandals, and illogical ideas religion is responsible for, is religion still so powerful? And what about all those modern scientific discoveries that prove that much of the Bible is just not true? I think the answer is that people need connections and community to live. It is about family, tradition, consolation, ethics, memories, and more. No one wants to give these things up because of a lack of belief in a god. The truth is that at the present time, the above list of social goods is hard to find outside of a religious affiliation. At the important times of our lives_ when our loved ones are sick and dying; when a baby is born; when we want to affirm our love in marriage; when we want to educate our children about important values_ we need to be part of a group. In my opinion, this is why there are many nonbelievers active in a church. Eventually, maybe Secular Humanism will offer an alternative to the church’s community.

LESSON IN HOW TO VOTE

On November 2, 2010, we have a civic duty to vote in the general election. The first step toward informed voting lies in determining your own personal preferences as to public problems you are most concerned with and the solutions you prefer. The second step lies in determining which candidates come the closest to sharing your preferences. Most political statements, commercials, and campaign literature are filled with misrepresentations, omissions and lies. Freedom of speech, as guaranteed by our constitution, allows them to say anything and, unfortunately, they do! So, I find the best source for sorting out the truth about candidates is a nonpartisan organization that has a reputation for honesty and integrity. Nationally, I recommend http://votesmart.org/voteeasy/  In Michigan, I recommend http://www.michiganfamily.org/index.html

It is important to vote AFTER you have thoroughly informed yourself as to who and what you will be voting for and why. Most people don’t have a clue and that is very sad.

Be a good citizen and vote intelligently. Exercise your right or lose it!

BITS, BITES, AND THE DARK SIDE

Much like old age snuck up on me, the digital Internet has taken over the world before I knew what was happening. E-mail, entertainment in the form of videos and games, education through virtual universities, research through online reference works, music, news, and shopping for any thing you might want. Oh yeah, I almost forgot social networks. Web sites have all the existing information in the world! There is much good that has resulted from the Internet but there is also a dark side.

Fifteen years ago Ian Clarke, an Irish teenager with a flair for inventions, created a revolutionary new way for people to use the Internet with complete anonymity. By downloading Clarke’s software, anyone can use the Internet without detection. It is called Freenet and can be installed with minimal computer skills in a couple of minutes. Needless to say, it is used for all kinds of nefarious purposes such as bomb making instructions for terrorist and child pornography. “The Darkweb” is the fastest growing part of the Internet and is 400 times the size of the commonly defined www. Experts say that Google is bringing to the surface a very small fraction of “The deep web”. Law enforcement and government agencies have been trying to crack it and have had some success.

Professor Juliana Freire of the University of Utah, who is leading a deep web search project called Deep Peep, says, “It’s not feasible to index the whole deep web because of sheer scale. There is just too much data”. The Internet continues to expand in unpredictable and messy surges. I wonder where we go from here? And I wonder if we really want to go there.

QUANTUM WEIRDNESS

Two Russian physicists, specialist in the science of Quantum physics, have won the Nobel Prize for investigating the properties of graphene. Oh, you did not study Quantum physics in school? It is the study of the behavior of matter and energy at the tiny level of atoms. Scientific laws do not function the same in these small realms. For instance, observing something actually influences the physical processes taking place. Just “looking” at something can make it do something weird. Matter can go from one spot to another without moving through the intervening space. Information moves instantly across vast distances. The entire universe is actually a series of probabilities. Yikes, now that is weird!

You ask, “What the hell is graphene?” Graphene is a form of carbon that is the thinnest, strongest, and hardest material in the world. Imagine some saran wrap stretched across a cup, supporting the weight of a truck bearing down on a pencil point. It is that strong! It also can transmit electricity faster and better than copper. Imagine the potential applications of this stuff. It is mind-boggling.

OK, so you are wondering how these preeminent scientists discovered this stuff, right? Surprisingly, it did not occur during their regular workweek. On Friday evenings they like to have a few shots of vodka and play around with fun, improbable research. For example, they once managed to levitate a frog in a magnetic field. It was during one of their fun Friday nights that they discovered the ability to peel very thin layers off of pencil graphite with Scotch tape. Voila, with these thin sheets of graphite, they were able to create Graphene. This is a great example of how You do not need huge resources or a Harvard University to do something amazing.