Now at over 7.5 billion people the world’s population is
staggering large. It’s an incomprehensible number; as people, we aren’t
equipped to understand what that number means. Now, imagine having to whittle
that number down to 160 people who would carry on the human race on Mars or
elsewhere in space. That is one of the premises of the series “Salvation.” According
to the show, 160 people is the minimum viable population to ensure that the
species can continue.
In order for this small number to work, the chosen travelers
would need to be genetically diverse, fertile, and heterosexual. The population
would need to include 80 men and 80 women. There’s a good chance that marriages
would need to be arranged and monitored as time went on in order to prevent
in-breeding.
Engineers skilled in spaceship repairs, survivalists with
skills in establishing camps and places to live, and doctors skilled in combat
medicine would be some of the people the program could consider. Creative types
may be desirable for their ability to solve problems in unique ways, but they
would need to have more than just their artistic skills.
With this set of criteria, old people and children wouldn’t
make the cut. Poorly educated people wouldn’t get on the ship. People who claim
a sexual identity, other than hetero, would be left behind. Those with genetic
diseases or genetic disease history in their families wouldn’t be able to take
the trip. If it would be a true choosing of the best of the best, every person
would face a battery of tests that would eliminate him or her or allow that
person to move on to the next level.
The question that this type of plan demands is how would the
influential people who don’t meet the criteria be kept off the ship. Would the
inventor be allowed to travel, regardless of any other quality? Would the
president of the U.S. or the ruler of the country be allowed to go? If this ark
were a last-ditch effort to save the human race and Earth was facing destruction,
would the billion-dollar investor have a spot on the ark with no further
testing? Would a country like the U.S. reach out to other countries to find the
best people to put on the ark, or would it only save Americans?
Another thing to consider is that genetic diversity would
entail finding people that don’t resemble each other. This would make everyone
uncomfortable since human beings like to hang with people who resemble
themselves. It would also make it possible for people on the ark to form groups
of like with like, which could sabotage the genetic diversity of the group. “Salvation”
has a group of number crunchers on a committee with an unknown science fiction
writer to provide the heart; It’ll be interesting to see how they decide who
lives and who dies.
So, how would you go about selecting 160 people to board a
space ark? If you were able to save 1600 people in ten arks, how would you
divvy them up? Assuming there were a clear 160 best and 160 second best would
you mix them or would you keep the best with the best and the second best with
the second best and so on?
Three episodes into “Salvation” and I can’t believe how stupid the characters are. The premise of the show is there is a planet killing asteroid on a collision course with the Earth. It has a 97 percent chance of colliding with our planet creating and extinction level event. The U.S. government has known about it for three months, and ordered a rocket from the Tanz company to send up a gravity tractor. The rocket has to retrofitted to work for what the government wants, and in testing, the retrofits don’t work right and the rocket blows up. The gravity tractor is out as far as the government is concerned.
In the meantime, a college student’s algorithm found the
asteroid. The student informs his professor, who disappears. The student gets
close to Darius Tanz, head of the Tanz company, and tells him what’s going on.
Tanz contacts the Department of Defense. Both the student and Tanz get added to
the secret group that is trying to find ways to deal with the asteroid. With
the gravity tractor out, one of the men has proposed running the IO satellite
into the asteroid to knock it off course.
The student and Tanz point out that doing so won’t move the
asteroid. It would instead create a lot of meteorites that would rain down on
Earth with no telling where they would land. The man, who proposed the idea,
concedes the point and asks if Tanz has a better idea. Tanz proposes the
invention of an electromagnetic engine which doesn’t exist. They agree on that
solution for the moment.
Flash forward to the next meeting because the president is
getting nervous and wants an update. The man, who proposed the ramming of the
asteroid, comes back with the same proposal, but this time, he’s done the
calculations: the created meteors would rain down on Russia, China and Korea
killing an estimated 1.4 billion people. They have two windows. The first is in
seven days, the next is in 60 days. Rather than give Tanz and his team 60 days
to build and perfect their EM engine, they decide to go with the first window
because it gives them two chances to get it right.
What? The false logic here is that they have two chances.
Unless they have two satellites in orbit around IO, they have only one chance.
Waiting for the second window wouldn’t change anything. If they didn’t get it
right the first time, there is no second chance. The IO satellite would be
careening into space, and there’s no backup. You have one satellite and one
chance. Wait for the second window.
However, there’s a larger problem. Russia and China have
active space programs. Chances are they’re going to find out about this asteroid
and what the U.S. did. If they do, there’s a good chance, they’ll see the
destruction of the asteroid as an act of war and decide to use their missiles
to blow the U.S. up. The political wonks and military people should understand
that’s the natural reaction of any person in power and that this secret
asteroid information is going to get out. At the very least, some spy is going
to find out. More likely someone’s going to let something slip.
If colliding with the asteroid is the only choice, this
group needs to make sure it has a plan to evacuate the countries that are going
to be affected before it decides on this plan of action. That means the
information about the asteroid needs to be brought before the United Nations
and nations need to know what’s coming. Even more importantly, the U.S. doesn’t
have a monopoly on “smart” people or space. In fact, with the defunding of
NASA, the U.S. isn’t the leader in space exploration any more. The asteroid could
be used to bring countries together; instead of as a way to fill the American
ego.
In “the Mummy” (2017), Tom Cruise is a rogue army officer looking for ancient artifacts to sell on the black market. He gets caught in a tough spot, calls in an air strike, and blows a hole in the street of an insurgent occupied town that reveals a screaming face. His commanding officer gets there along with a woman who specializes in protecting antiquities. They discover a giant screaming bust, which she recognizes as Egyptian. Cruise, his partner and the woman go into the hole.
There the woman narrates what she sees: A rope with
hieroglyphs to warn against evil spirit submerged in a pool of mercury being
used to weaken its power, watchers faced inward (rather than outward) guarding
against the pool, a set of chains (not for bringing the object up but instead,
for keeping it down). We find out later that she knows monsters exist, and this
is one of the most ancient. Even with all of these warnings and the knowledge
of why the cavern looks the way it does, Cruise shoots the rope, activates the
lifting mechanism and reveals the sarcophagus, which is taken aboard a military
aircraft as a sandstorm threatens to engulf the plane.
Many of the other Mummy movies that came before involve a
team seeking treasure in the desert and continuing to proceed despite warnings
of natives, tribes put in place to guard against the release of the evil, and
bad things happening to the team before they even enter the chamber.
There is a popular myth about the curse of Tutankhamun. Many
people believe there was a curse written on his tomb and Howard Carter went in
anyway. Even though there has been no curse inscribed on the tomb, it’s
representative of what people will do for knowledge, history, fortune and
glory. The truths exposed in these films and this legend include people are
curious and people are greedy. And these are the reasons why burying nuclear
waste won’t work.
Nuclear waste is deadly for 250,000 years. That’s longer
than any languages will survive. Burying it with statues and pictograms
detailing its deadliness may be treated as superstition from a less developed
society. Or it may not be readable to explorers who have no context for the
depictions. Worse, it may entice the future explorers to learn more about the
inhabitants who lived amongst the strange drawings. At that point, the horror
and joke will be on them. Assuming the mummy of nuclear waste isn’t unwrapped
by natural disasters or our own people with malevolent intent.
Отдел по связям с общественностью рад известить вас о новых программах, в которых могут принять участие российские компании, некоммерческие организации, выпускники обменных программ, молодые журналисты и студенты.
Надеемся, что идущая ниже информация может представлять интерес для ваc, ваших коллег или знакомых.
Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) – Глобальный предпринимательский саммит пройдет 4-5 июня 2019 года в Гааге, Нидерланды, и соберет 2000 самых вдохновенных предпринимателей, инвесторов и других участников со всего мира, работающих в таких секторах как сельское хозяйство, связь и компьютерные технологии, энергетика, здравоохранение и водные ресурсы. Саммит, спонсорами которого выступают правительства Нидерландов и Соединенных Штатов, рассмотрит способы создания благоприятных условий для успеха предпринимателей и их вклада в рост мировой экономики.
Если ваше инновационное решение не просто концепция, а действующий, готовый к реализации на рынке бизнес-проект, саммит дает возможность представить его крупнейшим инвесторам и лидерам вышеперечисленных отраслей.
Предприниматели с инвестиционными предложениями, могут получить дополнительную информацию и зарегистрироваться на сайте: https://www.ges2019.org
Интересующиеся также могут принять участие в глобальном диалоге, используя официальных хэштег #GES2019
Select USA Investment Summit 2019 – Глобальный предпринимательский саммит пройдет 10-12 июня 2019 года в Вашингтоне, США. Более 3000 участников из 70 международных рынков, 1000 глобальных разработчиков из 52 штатов примут участие в саммите. Российские инверсторы и предприниматели приглашаются к участию. Саммит поможет международным инвесторам и предпринимателям наладить связи и найти возможности для открытия новых предприятий и расширения существующих операций в США. Участники встретятся с членами Правительства, губернаторами, мэрами и агентствами по экономическому развитию страны. Более подробную информацию о Саммите «Select USA-2019» смотрите на сайте: http://www.selectusasummit.us.
The 2019 Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund – отличная возможность для выпускников обменных программ получить до 25 000 долларов на реализацию инновационных проектов в одном из пяти приоритетных направлений. Прием заявок начинается 1 февраля. Но начать работу над проектом можно уже сейчас! Для получения информации о программе пройдите по ссылке: http://bit.ly/AEIF19
Media Exchange for Global Achievement Program (MEGA) – это программа для молодых журналистов, работающих в СМИ или иных коммуникационных платформах, а также для студентов, изучающих журналистику. Финалисты программы познакомятся с разнообразными средствами массовой информации США и их ролью в жизни страны, посетив редакции, приняв участие в семинарах и практических занятиях. В конкурсе могут принять участие молодые люди от 18 до 22 лет, с хорошим знанием английского языка, которые могут продемонстрировать свои достижения в журналистике и имеющие возможность поехать в США на четыре недели с 22 июня по 21 июля 2019. Программа оплачивает все расходы, связанные с поездкой. Информация и заявка на сайте: http://megaprogram.org/program-information/ Прием заявок до 28 февраля 2019.
Small and Large Grants “Annual Project Statement” – ежегодный конкурс на соискание финансирования в формате малых и больших грантов. Программа направлена на укрепление связей между Россией и США. Успешные проекты демонстрируют общие ценности, способствуют развитию двустороннего сотрудничества, улучшению уважения и взаимопонимания и между нашими народами. Сумма одного гранта может варьироваться от 25 000 до 75 000 долларов США. Крайний срок подачи заявок – 15 июля 2019 года. Информацию о конкурсе, приоритетных направлениях, стратегических темах и процедуре подаче заявок можно получить по ссылке: https://ru.usembassy.gov/ru/education-culture-ru/cooperation-programs-ru/annual-program-statement-ru/
Peer to Peer Program – Программа Российско-Американского Партнерского Диалога предоставляет финансовые и нефинансовые средства организациям США и России для осуществления совместных проектов. Программа представляет интерес для российских организаций, интересующихся возможностью сотрудничества с коллегами из США в таких областях как предпринимательство, наука и технологии, социальная интеграция, общественное здоровье и взаимодействие в области искусств. Объем финансирования – до 75 000 долларов США. Крайний срок подачи заявки – 15 февраля 2019 года. Информация о программе : https://www.usrussiap2p.org/home/
Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellowship – интенсивная четырехнедельная обменная программа для молодых людей от 16 до 18 лет, с хорошим знанием английского языка, интересующихся тем, как видят друг друга граждане США и европейских стран, и имеющих возможность поехать в США в июне-июле 2019г. Цель программы – содействие развитию отношений сотрудничества и взаимопонимания молодых американцев и европейцев. Финалисты из Европы и США примут участие в обсуждении глобальных проблем, представляющих взаимный интерес, тренингах, семинарах, ознакомительных поездках и культурных мероприятиях. По итогам программы участники подготовят совместный проект. Программа оплачивает все расходы, связанные с поездкой. Более подробная информация на сайте: https://exchanges.state.gov/non-us/program/benjamin-franklin-summer-institutes
Конечный срок подачи документов 8 марта 2019г.
Opportunity Funds – программа поддерживает студентов, поступающих в американские вузы, но не имеющих собственных средств на обучение и не участвующих в программах обмена, финансируемых правительством США. Крайний срок подачи заявки – 11 февраля 2019 года. Детальная информация о программе: https://ru.usembassy.gov/ru/education-culture-ru/opportunity-funding-ru/ По вопросам, связанным с программой, также обращайтесь к консультантам центров EducationUSA Russia по email: adviser@educationusarussia.org. В теме письма укажите: “Opportunity Funds 2019”. В информационных центрах EducationUSA Russia можно получить и другую точную, своевременную и точную информацию о разнообразных возможностях обучения в Америке – это официальный источник информации о высшем образовании в США.
Vladivostok English Conversation Club – Приглашаем на ежемесячные встречи Клуба разговорного английского языка. Для того, чтобы стать участником этой группы и получать регулярные оповещения, пройдите ссылке https://www.facebook.com/groups/1950687178555678/ и оставьте запрос на вступление в группу “Vladivostok English Conversation Club”. Встречи клуба, как правило, проходят в одном из городских кафе в формате свободного общения с носителями языка. Уровень знания английского особого значения не имеет – если не уверены и хотите поначалу быть просто слушателем – all are welcome!
Vladivostok English Film Club – Для того, чтобы вступить в группу и получать регулярные оповещения, пройдите по ссылке https://www.facebook.com/groups/675547516122511/ и оставьте запрос на вступление в группу “Vladivostok English Film Club”. Это мероприятие – просмотр раз в месяц американского фильма на языке оригинала с английскими субтитрами – проходит раз в месяц в Генконсульства США. Хорошая возможность потренировать восприятие языка на слух и навыки разговорного общения – перед началом фильма кто-то из работников консульства представляет его аудитории, а после фильма обсуждает его на английском языке.
Vladivostok English Book Club – Приглашаем на ежемесячные встречи клуба. Количество участников ограничено – 16 человек. Для того, чтобы стать членом клуба, пришлите письмо на адрес PAVlad@state.gov и сообщите следующую информацию: 1) ФИО; 2) Род занятий (если вы студент, сообщите специализацию и уровень – например, бакалавриат); 3. Список книг, которые вы прочитали на английском языке; 4. Пояснение, почему вы хотите стать членом читательского клуба (100-300 слов); 5. Уровень вашего знания английского. Если вы сдавали TOEFL/IELTS, другие тесты, сообщите их результаты, или же дайте свою собственную оценку ваших знаний.
As the manager for a larger organization in Alaska, I would
sometimes get a strange call. For my team, I didn’t have problems if someone
needed a day off or had to come in late as long as it wasn’t a habit. My
employees never took advantage of this, probably because they were part-time
and needed the money. They were also a good group. When I got this call,
however, I did a double take.
“Um, hello, Shad.” I could tell who it was though he identified
himself anyway. “Yeah, I’m going to be late coming into work. There’s a moose
in my driveway.”
What could I say? Having a moose or bear in the driveway was a good reason not to come into work. Moose are unpredictable, and no one wants to antagonize a bear. So, I said the only thing I could, “Okay, well, when the moose is gone, come on in. I’ll leave an evening shift spot open for you.”
“Great. Thanks.” He couldn’t tell me when the moose would
leave. I knew he needed his hours. This seemed like a good compromise. More importantly,
no one was put in any danger in order to get to work.
It wasn’t the first time I had heard someone use a wildlife
excuse. In fact, when I was an employee at a different organization, I had
faced off with a moose in my yard and decided to call into work instead of hope
the moose didn’t kick me or my car. I was new to Alaska, so when I talked to my
boss, he told me it was better to stay at home rather than risk agitating the
moose. I should stay home until the moose was gone. That was one of the best
things about Alaska. People tried to take care of each other.
Fortunately, I never had to worry about facing a penguin in my driveway because there are no penguins in Alaska. I should know; I wrote the book. You can preorder the eBook from Amazon, or get a hard copy coloring book here on penguinate.com. If you want more stories, check out “Tales at an Alaskan Cabin” on Amazon.
Netflix’ “Io” is a minimalistic, quasi-science fiction movie about the end of the world. The CGI and backgrounds are questionable, and the two main characters have a hard time holding viewers’ attention, which is too bad because I like Anthony Mackie. However, what drives me to write this review is the anger I felt at the main character Sam, played by Margaret Qualley, at the end of the film. (Spoilers ahead.)
The Earth is contaminated by ammonia vapors and the entire
population has fled to Io, Jupiter’s moon, to find a new planet and build a new
life. The entire movie takes place on Earth, so the movie name is a bit of a
misnomer, but not so much that it creates cognitive dissonance. Sam, the daughter
of a scientist who has claimed that people can adapt to the new atmosphere and
urged people not to leave the planet, is the only one left alive as far as she
knows. She self-administers some sort of inoculation against the toxic
atmosphere.
Her human connection is a man who is already at the Io
station. She meets Mackie’s Micah when he lands at her place in a helium balloon.
Micah is looking for Sam’s father and headed for the last shuttle off the
planet.
In no particular order, she dumps the man on Io, there’s a
flashback of her father telling her that the human connection is more important
than science, and Micah reinforces that idea when he says people aren’t meant
to be alone. Sam acknowledges all of this and agrees to go with Micah to the
shuttle. Before that happens though, she seduces Micah overcoming his
objections with “we have to.”
And here’s where I get angry. Sam goes to a museum and then
tells Micah, she’s not going with him. She sees life on Earth where everyone
else sees death. She rips off her mask and survives the toxic atmosphere. Micah
leaves the planet. She gives birth to a child, and they go visit the sea. What?
Seriously? She’s a scientist working in biology. She should know that women don’t
necessarily get pregnant after one session of intercourse. But it can happen,
so let’s go ahead and give that to the movie.
Here’s where the movie doesn’t make any sense. When Micah
tells Sam that she’s coming with him, she has already gone through the process
of convincing herself that’s the only logical plan. She’s lost the bees. She
needed help with the windmill. Most importantly, she knows she needs the human
connection. She’s accepted that. She says, “Okay,” and that should be that.
There is no indication that she has changed her mind about human connection in
the rest of the film or that she understands she is pregnant.
There is no sense to her decision, and if she knows she’s
pregnant, she makes the most selfish decision available. First, the treatments
didn’t work for her father, and administering them to a child would be
different. She doesn’t have the expertise or data necessary to insure the
survival of the child.
Second, that child is going to grow up, she’s going to die,
and the child is going to be alone with no chance for human connection. She is
basically sentencing her child to solitary confinement for much of its life –
at best, and she’s doing it for no other reason than because she still believes
the human species can adapt. Except, the child will not be able to reproduce.
He or she (according to the credits, the child is a boy) will be the last
person on Earth with no chance to find the human connection beyond the
mother-child one. Which brings us to the last point, she cannot on her own
establish a new species or a human adaptation to the ammonia with just her
child, which begs the question of incest and menopause, if they both survive to
his sexual maturity.
I was willing to deal with the long, slow parts of the movie,
but to have it conclude so illogically and against the character of the only
real characters in the film, was more than disappointing. It was disturbing and
enraging.
When I first moved to Alaska, it was summer, and summers in
Alaska are glorious – absolutely beautiful. However, I was warned. Winter is
coming. If you want to survive Alaska and remain a resident for longer than a
season or two, you need to find an activity that you can do during the winter
months. This meant not only having the right clothing to go outside, but having
the right clothing that would be good for staying outside for prolonged
periods. The other important piece of information I was given about living in
Alaska is that it usually isn’t the first mistake that kills you; it’s the
mistakes that follow through poor decision making.
There are a lot of winter activities that people can engage
in: skiing, cross country skiing, skijoring, snowshoeing, ice skating, and
more. Trekking through the winter wonderland that Alaska becomes is amazing in its
own right, as long as you can stay warm. Fortunately, I had a friend who introduced
me to geocaching.
Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunt. Geocachers hide ammo cans or Tupperware, mark the coordinates and publish those at geocaching.com. Other cachers seek those boxes. They sign the log book, trade items, and enjoy the wonderful outdoors.
My friend and I had one rule about winter geocaching. If the
temperature was lower than 10 degrees Fahrenheit, we stayed at home. Living in
Anchorage the weather was relatively temperate, so those 10-degree days were
fewer and farther between than some places inland.
One Saturday, early in winter, the temperature pushed up to 10 degrees, and we got our gear together. We chose our destination, got our warm clothes on and headed out to the car. I wore plastic pants to keep melting snow from making my pants wet. They had buttons so that I could reach into my pants pockets if I had to.
We went into the park hiked around and came to a stream. It wasn’t
completely frozen over. There was ice on top, but the stream moved beneath. We
could walk to the bridge, but it was far away and I was cold. More importantly,
the arrow pointed right across the stream. I convinced my friend that we could
cross using the branch that hung below the water. It would just be a short jump.
He made it. I didn’t.
I fell through the ice. The stream ran into my plastic pants
and into my shoes. I had wool on, so I thought I should be okay. My friend knew
better. With the cache just feet away, I thought we should go get it. He said
no. We were going to go get a pizza and go home. It wouldn’t look good for a
director of health and safety (my job title at the time) to get hypothermia or
frostbite because he was too dumb not to make the second mistake.
He was right. Getting wet wasn’t really an immediate issue.
Staying out there would’ve created a bigger problem. So, we went back home. I
took a warm shower and changed into dry clothes and then we ate pizza. Geocaching
was one of two activities that I engaged in to make it through the winter.
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In Alaska, you may have to know how to protect yourself against long, dark winters and cold weather, but you do not have to know how to protect yourself against penguins, because there are no penguins in Alaska. I know because I wrote the book. Preorder the eBook on Amazon or preorder a hard copy coloring book here at penguinate.com. If you want more stories, check out “Tales at an Alaskan Cabin” on Amazon.
City Cakes and Café has generously given me space to hold an author signing on June 5, 2019 for my books, including “Disneyland Is Creativity” and “The Haunted Mansion Is Creativity.” I’ll give a short overview of creativity based on Disneyland’s structure and history and answer any questions. Then I will be happy to sign books; there might even be some stuffed penguins available. If you would like to vote on what time you can show up, there is a Facebook poll open until Jan 24, 2019.
Of course, City Cakes will be open for you to purchase refreshments. They specialize in vegan and gluten-free food. My favorite items were the lemon blueberry scones, waffles and the vegan sausage and cheezy potato wrap, but I’m pretty sure I ate everything on the menu. City Cakes is locally owned and operated, and they’ve expanded since I’ve been there last with a second café in Draper and a warehouse that allows them to deliver their baked goods to other coffee shops and stores.
When I lived in Salt Lake City, City Cakes and Café was like
my second home. I spent many hours, days and weeks sitting at one of their
tables enjoying breakfast, lunch or a snack while writing my next great
article. The location in Salt Lake City (1860 S 300 W suite D) is smaller, so
we’re going to pray for good weather.
Penguinate! Positive Creativity 