Yes, Finally the WWW is Wearing me Out

I spend hours each day on the WWW as part of my job, and some more time on the www, recreationally.  But I have to admit it is wearing me out.  I am a bit tired of all the hype that never makes good. I am tired of clicking on a link and then NOT being able to see what I was really after and incidentally seeing numerous adverts.

The overstatement has gotten to the point that I shall NOT be going to half the number of links that at first appear interesting.  They deliver about half or less of what was promised, so if I reduce by half - maybe that should work out.  So called "travel life hacks" turn out to be advice to take chargers on trips.  What?

As you already know, much on the www is simply bogus.  What started me on this particular rant was the 3rd title I have seen in the last 2 days that speaks of science "proving" something. If you paid attention in 6th grade science you probably recall that science is not in the business of "proving" anything.  Every aspect of science is subject to being "disproven".  Forever.  There's NO exceptions and plenty of examples of key scientific principles that are ultimately found to be in error.

Now, if you read this blog, I am pretty sure that none of this is news to you.  I guess "misery loves company" and so we commiserate in this irritating aspect of the WWW.  Don't get me wrong, I think quite often of the explosion of access to information that we didn't have 25 years back.  I love this access.  I am grateful.

BUT, don't expect me to go to the site "proving" anything, and Yahoo and "ask.com", I ain't going to stuff on your sites, until your veracity improves.

And that's where I stand... for the moment.

A Wedding and some Memories

See these two young guys?  I taught both of them in the U of Alabama a few years back.  It was great to see them both at the wedding of Cal, in the second photo.

First, I was THRILLED to be invited to Cal's wedding.  I hadn't seen him or talked to him in several years, so when the invitation came, I told Brenda we needed to put it on the schedule.

At the wedding, I noticed a guy who looked really familiar, and a quick consult to the wedding program told me it was Clay!  What a bonus, one wedding - two of my former students.

I have NO idea how many students I have taught in my 37 years of higher ed.  My first students at VMI are only 5-7 years younger than me.  Who know where they are or what they are doing.  Several of them were from Iran.  Where are they?  At UGA I taught a bunch more, and they would be 8-10 years younger than me, which puts them at ages 55+.  Wouldn't it be neat to run into one of them?

Brenda laughs because I am always on the lookout for someone I know.  But who knows who I might run into?  It's sure nice to have the memories, and the possibilities.  Sweet memories!

It All Fades!

Once upon a time, years ago, I was a highly competitive, and slightly successful, loooooong distance runner.  I must necessarily put the emphasis on the looooong, because I was slow.  My all-time best marathon was a 2:34 which I ran a couple of times.  I won maybe three marathons in my career.  I won two 50-mile (80km) races at a much better time, typically 6:14:+.  One of the 50-mile wins was labeled by "Runner's World" as a "National Championship" but really wasn't in my view; the other win, not labeled such was very close to a genuine championship was the JFK 50-Miler.

Whenever I speak to coaches, I give a one-sentence statement about my running success, then I complain that, had I had a better coach, I could have done much better...whereupon I show a picture of my coach - me.  I really did pursue a bad training strategy and basically succeeded only because of the gifts G^d provided, plus a lot of long slow running.

It is hard for me to get excited about competing any more, because my race time is now slower than my per-mile running pace for 50 miles in my heyday.  I can likely win my age-group in some races these days, but what's the point?

I tell this sad tale thinking of my many young friends who have fallen in love with running or weight lifting, or some such.

"This too shall pass."

Yes, enjoy the strength of your youth, because it will fade away.  Some of my young friends seem to be putting a LOT of their eggs in this exercise basket.  Exercise is good, I highly recommend it, and have made my living in Exercise Science for many years. But exercise capacity passes, and all too soon.  You young folks with running success- this too will pass.  One day, in not very many years, your training capacity will fade and your times will slow.

I think G^d does this on purpose.  Our aging is a gentle, persistent, and constant reminder that we are NOT permanent.  We will be, one day, dead.  Not trying to be morbid here, just a warning to all.

This too shall pass.  One day, and it comes quickly, too quickly... so shall we.

Worshiptainment

I hate neck ties.  I rejoice very often that I do NOT have to wear a tie to work.  I recall as a kid that everyone wore neck ties a lot more often. Even on airplanes people dressed up pretty snazzily.  And... people dressed up to attend worship services.

I am about to rile up some folks here, but I kinda think we had something right in those old days. Dressing up a bit accomplished a few things:
Reminded us that worship was something special.
Reminded others that we were doing something serious.
Acknowledged that we were on "Holy Ground" coming corporately into the special presence of The G^d of the Universe.

Now, before you go crazy on me, I do know that we have G^d, the Holy Spirit, indwelling us, regardless of what we are wearing. I do know that we ought to worship G^d 24-7 regardless of what we wear. I know that "tradition" often gets us into trouble. And I do know that the level of dress is somewhat arbitrary - people living in the jungles of Borneo may have different dress standards than the fine Christians in Manhattan.

But I do think we can become a bit to casual about corporate worship.  We can be lax in our hearts as well as our flip-flops. I guess the real issue is, What is Corporate Worship all about?  Who are the performers and who is the audience.  I guess if I am the audience and you want me to be there, you better tailor everything to me - see above- no ties!

But if G^d is the audience for Christian corporate worship,  then maybe we ought to re-think things. 

Not telling you how to dress, just thinking.

Fraud... in Science

The BIG news in Science, at least from where I sit, is Science Fraud.  A behavioral science Ph.D. student at UCLA teamed up with a distinguished prof at Columbia University to publish a paper last December in one of the most prestigious Journals in science, called Science.  When some other Ph.D. students questioned his numbers, it came to light that he had fabricated most of the data for the paper, and, not surprisingly, had also fabricated several aspects of his academic resume.

A perhaps more important instance of science fraud that didn't get much attention was the case of a Duke Uni cancer researcher named Anil Potti.  Potti apparently faked a large body of important cancer research that misled many other researchers and resulted in numerous paper withdrawals and Duke's firing of Dr. Potti who now practices oncology in North Dakota.  North Dakotans beware!

I don't want to give the impression that these are two isolated cases, one Japanese anesthesiologist, Dr. Yoshitaka Fujii, currently holds the current record for scientific retractions. Dr.  Fujii, was found to have made up data in 172 studies. He now has, in the past four years, 183 retractions when you combine his science fraud with his failure to obtain ethical approvals to perform his research.

These frauds are scary, but sadly this is the tip of the iceberg.  We scientists are tempted to:
1) Collect tons of real data, then discard most of it in order to pick out the findings that support our hypotheses.
2) Ignore negative findings in order to report only positive results- part of this is a result of pressure from reviewers who tend to reject papers that found NO results of a treatment.  I call it the, "We knew it all along" syndrome. 
3) Eliminate participants or data that keep us from obtaining "statistical significance". 
4) Find things that support our hypotheses so that we can keep that grant money coming our way!

This last one is the foundation for the whole science fraud enterprise I think. There is tremendous pressure on scientists to:
a) Publish a LOT of papers in prestigious journals, b) get grant funding and c) keep grant funding.

Science is a tricky business.  It is hard to foresee everything that should be foreseen- so why not "foresee it" after the fact.  After all, a science paper is a historical document of something that happened one time in the past.  Who's to know?

"But science is self-correcting!  We replicate studies and ultimately find the truth!"  Yeah right.  One of my own students was just bemoaning to me yesterday the almost impossibility of publishing a study which merely replicates a previous study.  "Why publish that reviewers say, we already know that!"  I do not recall ever seeing a paper published which was an exact replication of a previous paper.  Doesn't happen because it won't be published.

So, in the end, it turns out, surprise of surprises, that scientists are NO MORE trustworthy than anyone else in society. Scientists lie and cheat, and that's just the nature of mankind.  I am a cynic and skeptic, true enough, but I come by it honestly (maybe).

So, want to put all your faith in scientists compared to those huckster religious types??

Think again.

Little Words, Big Meaning

I end up writing a good bit.  A lot of my writing is intended for friends, though I write science, and sell some magazine articles.  I write this blog, because I want to remember things, and if you read it, maybe you can help me remember things.

Because I write to friends a lot, I use a lot of little words that carry Big Meaning for me.  Here's what I mean:

If you are a Christian male, I may well call you "brother" which is intended as 1) a term of endearment, and 2) a recognition of our brotherhood in Christ.  Same for "sister".

In some cases, I may say, "my sister".  The possessive isn't really necessary, BUT, somehow it makes it even a bit more personal - at least from my perspective.

In all honesty, I have no idea if those who read my words feel any of the emotion I feel in writing.  And, that is the nature of this medium.  As I have shared before, I have no idea who reads, and what anyone thinks about anything.

With that thought in mind, let me say, thanks for journeying along with me, my sister, my brother.

Feel anything?

There’s gold in them thar hills!

We just spent two nights in the mountains just north of Ellijay, GA.  The cabin we rented was nice, nothing lavish, but nice.  As we walked around the nearby town of Blue Ridge, GA, I took note of the real estate listings.  A few were modest but there was no shortage of million-dollar-plus homes there too.

I looked around the mountains and the same was true.  There are some modest homes, but no shortage of “mountain estates”.  I marvel that some folks have enough excess income to have very nice “summer home”.  I wonder about this.

I do have a hypothesis - as usual. I think most of us are looking for a special spot.  We want a spot with associations of pleasure, relaxation, beauty. We think if we can just buy that perfect mountain get-away, then we will escape the cares of this world and gain a “little bit of heaven”.  The draw is real and real strong. People will take out a pretty large mortgage to buy the get-away with thoughts that they’ll pay it off by renting it out – or maybe not.

What are they after?  For what do they yearn?   My hypothesis is that we all have a hidden yearning for a heavenly home.  Really.  We know down deep inside that there must be a special place, a care-free, perfect spot.  We are not people of faith, no we are too sophisticated.  Plus we are Americans, we want it NOW!

But, let me assure you, we will never find that special place here on terra firma, well not on this version of terra firma.  This earth, despite its many beautiful places is corrupted irrevocably.  G^d will one day replace it, then those who are in relationship with G^d through Jesus the Christ, will live in that special place, where beauty is abundant and never ending, and where the streets are… GOLD!