Our Ugly Twin

Earth’s ugly sister planet, Venus is about the same size, but it has an average surface temperature of 870 degrees Fahrenheit or about 465 degrees Celsius, which is well above the melting point of lead, and its atmosphere is laced with corrosive acid.  Venus has a thick atmosphere which is generally described as being pale yellow or orange and it traps heat in a runaway greenhouse effect, making it the hottest planet in our solar system.  Venus is a real oddball, as it is the only planet that spins in a different direction from the other planets around the sun.  Venus spins on its axis clockwise from east to west, while all other planets barring Uranus (which rotates on its side since its axis is tilted almost 98 degrees), spin anti-clockwise from west to east.  The most popular theory about why Venus has a clockwise spin, is that it probably started out with an anti-clockwise spin just like all the other planets, but at some point, in its past, it was struck by a massive object (perhaps another planet) that sent it spinning in a different direction reversing its rotation.  Venus rotates much more slowly than Earth does, so a day on Venus lasts for 243 Earth days, or 5,832 hours and every night is like a month long here on Earth.

Several landers from the former Soviet Union have landed on Venus, but none of them lasted longer than a couple of hours, so they were only able to transmit information for a short time, because the extremely high temperature and pressure on the surface of Venus melted and crushed all of the landers.  Venus is an uninhabitable planet that is thoroughly hostile to life, and it is thought that there is little chance this planet was ever habitable.  Scientists think that Venus lost all of its surface water billions of years ago, which condemned it to its hellish landscape of today.  As its water evaporated, clouds of carbon dioxide formed in the planet’s atmosphere triggering an intense runaway greenhouse effect.  I was looking up fun facts today on BuzzFeed and that is when I discovered that Venus is the only planet that spins clockwise.

Written for the JYProvocative Question #35 which asks us to share a fun fact.

The Place Where I Belong

Traveling by commercial aircraft is vastly safer than traveling by car.  Most airline accidents happen during the first three minutes or last eight minutes of flights.  The take-off which lasts just 30 to 35 seconds and landing make up just two percent of the entire flight, but it accounts for 13 percent of all fatal accidents.  49% of fatal aircraft accidents occur while the plane is making its final descent and landing, which are the deadliest parts of an average flight.  It is much easier and safer for a plane to cruise than to land and take off.  Autopilot is a tool that assists pilots in controlling various aspects of the flight, such as altitude, course, thrust, and navigation.  Autopilot has been around for over a hundred years now and most pilots will use in for 99.9% of the flight, as soon as they reach their cruising altitude.  If the visibility is very low, the pilot may use autopilot to land the plane.  Unmanned drones are able to navigate autonomously, but when a plane is on autopilot, the pilot always has to be around to take control in case of an emergency.

An autonomous vehicle, or a driverless vehicle, is one that is able to operate itself navigating from an origin to a destination and perform all necessary functions without any human intervention, because it has the ability to sense its surroundings.  A human passenger is not required to take control of the vehicle at any time, nor is a human passenger required to be present in the vehicle at all, although some vehicles may have the option for a driver mode.  An autonomous car can go anywhere a traditional car goes and do everything that an experienced human driver does.  Autonomous vehicles are intended to make mundane drives easier, so that passengers can spend their time on other things instead of being concerned with the road.

I have never had a chauffeur, but I have always wanted to get into a car and say, “Home James, and Don’t Spare the Horses.”  I guess that I might be able to get into a self-driving car someday and say that as the number of these on the road is expected to surpass 54 million in 2024.  I wonder what would happen if I said, “Take Me Home, Country Roads”, like would it start playing some John Denver.

Written for the JYProvocative Question #34 which asks about our thoughts on autonomous vehicles.

Shining a Light

I love history, because it is the only subject that records all of the significant things that ever took place.  The Uvalde school shooting was a mass shooting that occurred two years ago on May 24, 2022, at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, United States and this was a tragedy that was mishandled by the police, who didn’t act quick enough to save the children.  Some things are worth remembering, so we can learn where we went wrong.  Having history/heritage/awareness months for groups that have historically marginalized identities is a good idea, as this allows us to take a deeper dive into why they were ignored by history.  Napoleon Bonaparte is credited with saying “history is a set of lies [we have] agreed upon”, so having these remembrance months is a good way for us give credit to the people that were left out of history.  The winners are honored and remembered, but the losers also participated in history, and this is a way of letting them have a voice in what happened.

Sometimes I think it would be a lot easier to just celebrate everyone every day, but I don’t think that other people would like that.  It’s a natural inclination to want to feel valued and appreciated by others, and to have a sense of purpose and meaning in our lives.  The need to feel important is something all human beings share, and this desire is rooted in our need for social connection and belonging, as well as our desire for self-esteem and self-worth.  Everybody has goals and desires that are different from others, but we all have the same needs that shape our thoughts and drive us to either succeed or fail.  I don’t see any problems with having history/heritage/awareness months, as this is the way we can remember those who were forgotten or were passed over in the history books.

Written for the JYProvocative Question #33 which asks, “Do you think having history/heritage/awareness months is beneficial?  If yes, how so?  If no, what is a better way to celebrate/drive awareness?”

Forever a Never Trumper

I started reading several articles on The Wall Street Journal and found them very interesting and they asked me to subscribe, but since the WSJ is a division of Dow Jones, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, they won’t get any of my money.  In my opinion FOX News (which the Murdoch Family Trust is the majority shareholder of) is behind everything that is wrong with the world today, as the network caters to right-wing propaganda, promotes climate change denial and supports Trump by distorting the truth with their fake news.  Even some of the FOX hosts have admitted that they don’t believe the stories that they are spewing out, but they tell other people to believe it, because sensationalism provokes public interest.  Fox News had to pay almost a billion dollars in legal settlements to bury the contents of their account of the network’s blatant attempts to manipulate the truth, mislead the public, and influence our elections.  This country is so divided now, and this division only made Rupert Murdoch richer, but he will not get a nickel from me.

Written for the JYProvocative Question #32 which asks, “How much do political opinions/affiliations affect your purchasing decisions?”

Modern Meat

Cultivated meat, also known as cell or cultured meat, is genuine animal meat (including seafood and organ meats) that is produced by cultivating animal cells directly.  This goes beyond plant-based meat substitute which is used for the Impossible burger.  This production method eliminates the need to raise and farm animals for food.  Cultivated meat is made of the same cell types that can be arranged in the same or similar structure as animal tissues, thus replicating the sensory and nutritional profiles of conventional meat.  Lab meat would come from tissue and growth mediums extracted from animals to grow muscle fibers.  With chemical additives, the resulting muscle fibers mimic conventional meat.  Decades of accumulated knowledge in cell culture, stem cell biology, tissue engineering, fermentation, and chemical and bioprocess engineering preceded the field of cultivated meat.  The world’s demand for meat is growing at an unprecedented rate, with production more than quadrupling since the 60s.  As a result, factory farming has taken over traditional animal farming, causing an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation and pollution in addition to being the biggest source of animal cruelty on the planet.  In response to this challenge, a revolutionary solution is emerging, that being cultivated meat, which is grown from animal cells in a controlled environment, without the need for animal slaughter.  Cultivated meat is identical to conventional meat at the cellular level. This innovative approach to meat production has the potential to transform the way we think about food.

The idea of producing meat in a lab was first discussed in the 1950s, when Dutch researcher Willem van Eelen, called one of the “godfathers of cultured meat,” came up with the idea.  The first cultured beef burger patty was created by Mark Post at Maastricht University in 2013.  It was made from over 20,000 thin strands of muscle tissue, cost over $325,000 and needed 2 years to produce.  We have the ability to make cultivated meats, but the costs for cell-cultured meat is way over-priced and these extremely high charges are not expected to become cost-competitive till 2030, so this is basically nothing more than a dream of what we could have.  Many companies are invested and still working on this, but it may be a while before you will see any of this in a grocery store.  Once lab grown meat overcomes the high production costs, it will still have to face regulatory hurdles, and consumer acceptance and many farmers have a beef with it.

Written for the JYProvocative Question #31 which asks, “What are your thoughts on lab-grown meat? Should lab-grown meat innovation be pursued, or should it be banned? How do you think lab-grown meat should be regulated?”

Everyone Pays Their Fair Share

Tax reform always comes down to the rich versus the poor and which group will benefit the most by changing the current tax system.  Everyone wants to be rich and rich people want to keep as much of their money as they can, and nobody blames them for that.  In college I took a course on Financial Cost analysis and my professor said that some of the wealthiest people in the US can get away without paying any taxes.  He said that they have to file every year, but when they do file, they write, “I refuse to pay any income tax, because I think it is illegal.”  The government never fights with these super wealthy people, because they have lawyers that can take this case all the way up to the Supreme Court and the government is afraid that they might lose, making the whole tax system a total disaster.   I never knew if my professor was kidding about this or not, but he seemed like a very serious man, and it made sense to me.  Nobody cares if poor people get screwed, especially the rich people who have never lacked anything in their lives.  So many people live from paycheck to paycheck, and they are buried in credit card debt, stuck in a rut that they will never get out of, while other people continue to make money off these unfortunate souls.  No tax break given to the rich will ever trickle down to them and if they don’t pay their taxes, the IRS still wants what they feel they are owed.  Poor people do not have lawyers on retainer waiting to serve them and they cannot say they think income tax is illegal, but they may be put on a payment plan.  Fair is something that is impartial and just, without favoritism or discrimination, it doesn’t cheat one group over another or try to achieve an unjust advantage.  We need a tax system that is right and honest and conforms to the rules, and since there are no loopholes available to the poor, we must take these away from the rich.

Written for the JYProvocative Question #28 which asks, “How would you change the tax system?”

Determination

Finding motivation is always helpful and that comes in two opposite but interconnected forms, sort of like the Yin and Yang of writing; inspiration to get you started and discipline to finish the job.  These aspects of writing seem sort of equal to me and many times either one can be enough to write a post, but utilizing both of them is ideal.  Most of the posts that I write come from prompts and they provide my inspiration, but I worked as a technical writer where I was paid to be a subject matter expert which was completely different, because when I was given assignments that had to be completed.  On my first Engineering job, I learned about the term “digability,” which you probably won’t find in the dictionary, however the word “digable” is a real word and it means, “Capable of being dug.”  I was taught that every engineer needs to have digability, because many times the answers are not right in front of us, so we have to dig to find them.  You may have to dig an inch down and a mile wide to get into all of the details and learn everything that is needed, or you can take a different approach by digging just a few inches wide and going miles deep into the topic.

I always wondered where the Muses got their inspiration from, since they were responsible for inspiring everyone else, like were they drinking some special kind of water that was laced with something.  I feel that confidence is more important than inspiration or discipline when it comes to writing, as if you have done something before, it always gets easier the next time around.  I think that any job can be completed with willpower and determination and taking the attitude that surrender is not an option.  Motivation is the initial burst of inspiration for writing and discipline keeps you moving toward your goal.  If you are determined to do something you will stick with it, even after that initial motivation disappears.  As Dory famously said, “Just keep swimming.”

Written for the JYProvocative Question #27 which asks, “When it comes to writing, what matters more – the inspiration that motivates you to start writing? Or the discipline to keep writing when you aren’t inspired at all?”

Ideologies

I think that people should be judged for their actions, not their intentions, or motivations because it is the results that count.  If you want to judge yourself for your intentions that is your business, because that takes place inside of your head and it doesn’t affect anyone else.  I feel that the act counts much more than the reason and I guess an example is needed here to make my point.  Let’s say that you had a few drinks and then you got into your car, and you hit somebody with it, but you stopped which was the right thing to do.  We are going to ignore the fact that you should not have been drinking and driving and that it was a terrible thing that you may have injured somebody else.  If you stopped your car to see if they were OK, that would be doing the right thing for the right reason.  If you stopped because there were witnesses around that saw you, then you would have done the right thing for the wrong reason.  The important thing is that you stopped, and the victim of your crime was able to get help, so this ended up being a good thing.  In this second scenario, the driver who did the right thing for the wrong reason, his actions were guided by fear of consequences that he was going to be caught whether or not he stopped he stopped his car, and it did not come from a sense of him doing what was right or wrong.  Basically, he is not a good person, and he should have his driver’s license taken away from him, but in this particular case, he did the right thing.  The person who did the right thing for the right reason is not a good person either, because they acted irresponsible, and I hope that somebody takes away their driver’s license also.

Written for the JYProvocative Question #26 which asks, “If someone does the right thing but for the wrong reasons, is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

Funny Workplace Story

I was a door to door vacuum cleaner salesman for one day and the first door that I knocked on turned into a sale.  My friend Henry was selling Electrolux vacuums and he told me that he could get me a job, so I took him up on his offer.  I had to wear a shirt and tie and we drove together to the office and introduced me to his boss.  Besides the boss, Henry and I, there were five other guys there that were vacuum cleaner salesmen.  The boss told me that I needed to learn how to do a demo, where I would have to demonstrate the different features on the vacuum, and he asked Henry to do it while I and everyone else watched.  Next the boss got everyone psyched up preparing everyone to be mentally and emotionally ready to sell some vacuum cleaners.  He told us that everyone needs an Electrolux vacuum, even if they don’t realize it and it was our duty to sell them one.  He asked everyone. “Who is going to sell a vacuum today?”  Everyone replied, “I will!”  He asked, “Who thinks that they can sell two vacuums today” and the top salesman replied that he would.  He said that if we were able to sell 5 vacuums between us before noon that he would take us all out to lunch at the best restaurant in town and everyone was cheering.  He told us what neighborhood we would be canvassing today, and we split up into groups in different cars and Henry and I went with the boss.

When he parked his car, he gave me a vacuum from his trunk and told me to take the left side of the street and knock on every door to show off the vacuum.  I started with the corner house and the lady opened up her door and told me that she already owned an Electrolux vacuum and then she said that she was running low on bags and asked me if I had any.  I told her that my boos had a bunch of vacuums in his trunk and that he might have some bags in there also and since he was on the next street over, I could go and check with him.  I told my boss about the lady that needed bags and my boss told me that I just made my first sale.  I told him that he must have misunderstood what I told him, as the lady already has a vacuum and all she needs are bags.  He fired back at me and said that since I was able to get into the house, the rest of the job was easy, and he was sure the lady was going to buy a new vacuum.  His motto was, if you get your foot in the door, the sale was made.

He grabbed the rest of the crew and all 8 of us went to the lady’s house.  He told the lady that this was my first day on the job and asked her if I could do a demonstration of the new model and if the rest of his crew could watch so they would also be able to learn.  She agreed and we all went into her living room and sat on couches.  He asked if she could show him the model that she had and when she took it out, he said, “I remember these well and they always did a good job, but our new model is so much better.”  He said that he would like to show her how much better the new model was than the one she had, and he sprinkled some dirt on her carpet.  He told her to use her vacuum to pick up the dirt and then I was going to use the new model and she would be able to see the difference.  She cleaned up the dirt with her vacuum and then had me show her that the collection bag in the new model was completely empty.  I vacuumed over the area where she just finished, and we looked at the collection bag again and it did pick up more dirt.  The lady was surprised at how much better the new vacuum was than the one she had.

My boss told her that she could purchase the new model on a trade in and we would take her old vacuum away and she liked that idea, but she wanted bags, so my boss gave her a dozen bags with the deal.  I was happy, but my commission was only $150 because of the trade in, but I didn’t get into another house for the rest of the day and nobody else made a sale either.  I realized that I didn’t have the personality for high pressure sales and that my boss was the kind of guy who would be able to sell ice to an Eskimo.  This ended up being my last day.

Written for the No JYProvocative Question where Jewish Young Professional is taking a week off, but she said that we could choose one of the three topics she left us, and I went with a funny workplace story, and although my story was not humorous, it was a funny story for me.

Necessary Ideology

Feminism is the belief in the equality of people of all genders, a set of values aimed at dismantling gender inequality and the structures that uphold it.  If everyone on the planet had ideas like this, what a wonderful world it would be.  These inequalities could concern pay inequality, gender-based health care inaccessibility, rigid social expectations, or gender-based violence which still impact people everywhere to this day.  We know right from wrong, but some men who are in power are still trying to take advantage of women.  The meaning of feminism has changed over the years, and it began in the mid-19th century, where several generations of woman suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and practiced civil disobedience to achieve what many Americans considered a radical change in the Constitution, just because they wanted the right to vote.  Some suffragists used more confrontational tactics such as picketing, silent vigils, and hunger strikes.  By 1900, every state has passed legislation modeled after New York’s Married Women’s Property Act (1848) granting married women the right to keep their own wages and to own property in their own name.

For centuries in the United States and Europe, a woman’s husband or another male relative controlled any property allotted to her.  Today, it’s easy to take for granted that women can take out a line of credit, apply for a home loan, or enjoy property rights.  In the Western world, things have definitely improved for women.  They have basic human rights, they can work, drive, own land, be politicians or whatever they want, but now there is a push for more inclusivity in the higher paying jobs that some women seem to be deprived of getting.  Feminism will always be a relevant issue till all women are treated equally all around the world.  Today March 8, 2024, is International Women’s Day and women can celebrate how far they have come, even though they are not quite there yet.

Some people are saying that we have already arrived at gender equality because women have the same rights as men and the same opportunities as men.  And that female equality is unnecessary in today’s world.  I don’t think this is true because on June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned 50 years of precedent, overruling Roe v. Wade.  In the year following that decision, the pace of new legislation on abortion has been swift and women are losing their right to choose what they want to do with their own bodies.  I clapped and cheered last night during Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address when he called out the Supreme Court publicly shaming them for their Trumpian decision to take rights away from women.  We need to keep communicating the message of feminism, so everyone realizes that women are also people, and they won’t take it anymore.

Written for the JYProvocative Question #25 which asks, “Is feminism needed in 2024? If yes, what should feminism in 2024 look like? If no, what philosophy or movement should replace feminism in 2024?”