Palin Politics.

I am sickened by the apparent degradation of the rhetoric tonight at the RNC. This is coming from someone on the fence. I just sat through 3 hours of petty potshots in place of substance. 3 hours of making juvenile one-liners and mocking sideswipes in place of promoting a platform that can stand on its own. From Huckabee to Lieberman, Rudy to Palin, the few truly brilliant moments were far overshadowed and cheapened by standard fear-mongering, the sickeningly-rank-and-file taxes plug, and the sly wording of classic political spin: Appear to accuse your opponent of something while wording it in such a way that the obvious accusation isn't technically the one you can be held accountable for making. Palin looked different, and then she opened her mouth. --I was just desperately hoping that the high bar of rhetoric at the DNC would inspire the RNC to rise to the occasion. Instead, they showed to me that they apparently have no hand and instead had to dumb down the conversation to such a degree that no meaningful conversation can take place at all. The short version? To my great disappointment, I watched the TV with my mouth agape tonight and found myself thinking the whole time, "More of the same."

3:33 AM - 3 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

Progress report 2.

Well, let's see here. I can't believe it's been more than a year since my last post... Another year, another blur of unbelievable new events, and for those of you who have wondered where the hell I've been and what I've been up to, I've got a brief progress update. Death, life, new careers, new research, and forging onward - see below.

I did, in fact, get married in Chicago not long after my last post - and it was one of the best celebrations of my life. -Due, I should say, in no small part to the family and friends who braved crossing the rockies to celebrate w/ me and Jordan on St. Patrick's Day. =) I know I've said it since, but thank you all who came and who sent their well-wishes.

Next, I presented my new physics model, Temporal Mechanics, at the 13th triennial conference of the International Society for the Study of Time back in August 2007 in Monterey to (much to my relief) much excitement. It appears that my fears that the framework, (which manages to conceptually unify Relativity and Newtonian Mechanics - and possibly Quantum Mechanics - by exploiting a gap in Einstein's thinking,) would be quickly rejected were unfounded. The concept that time and motion are, in fact, two sides of the same physical process (the cornerstone of Temporal Mechanics) made quite an impact.
--Now, the next step is to try and test the framework observationally... no small task, but I have some ideas about where to continue the research. All I need now is time (*wink*), which I haven't had to date, for the reasons to follow.

In November, after interviewing a number of times with a number of different organizations, (UNLV and DRI, to note a couple,) I decided to leave my job with the environmental program at the Nevada Test Site to join the geohydrology group with the Southern Nevada Water Authority. I figured it would bring my credentials back to center - I was worried about being pigeon-holed into strictly environmental work the longer I remained at the test site.

To make life all the more bewildering, on my first day at the new job, Jordan's father unexpectedly passed away in his sleep (not two weeks before we were to see him for Christmas). That's an event deserving of its own post, but suffice to say, with the events that were to follow, I learned a great deal about commitment, loss, betrayal, love, what it means to be an adult, and I feel as though I aged more in a few weeks than prior years combined. I'm really going to miss you, Jim.

Because of this, I had to forfeit a research presentation I'd prepared and been accepted to present at the American Geophysical Union in early December about the intersections of Planetary Science and Archaeology. While it covered a number of areas and was intended to be an overview of the many ways that the fields are starting to overlap, I started looking into it as it specifically related to something I'd become very interested in during my time at the Test Site: The little-known Nuclear Rocket Program, pushed by JFK and implemented by the Atomic Energy Commission and the Aerojet General Corporation in the 1960s. In short, you may be surprised to learn that we invented, built, and tested nuclear-based rockets at the Nevada Test Site that were designed to take us to Mars after we landed on the Moon, and do it in half the time of our current, best 21st-century Orion Program plans. This all-but-lost technology is still twice as powerful as our best chemical rockets today, and we're currently getting ready to tear the last surviving structures of the program down, erasing it from history forever. So, thus began my interest in the Archaeology of technology - the idea that present and future Archaeologists could act as torch-bearers for lost (and advanced!) technology took root firmly in my psyche.

Well... a few months later, in March, I presented alternative Archaeology-Planetary Science research at the annual international conference of the Society of American Archaeology in Vancouver. Again, it's not as far afield for me as you might imagine. The presentation was essentially a call for a protocol - a direct result of research I'd been conducting on how to rigorously pursue an archaeological investigation on suspected extraterrestrial artifacts, (called "Xenoarchaeology" - where "xeno" means "foreign.") The argument goes something like this: We already have an established scientific field devoted to the study of alien life (Astrobiology). Well, probabilistically, we (or one of our exploring robots) are going to come across something we think is evidence of alien life long before we discover life itself, and that moment is the wrong moment to begin to consider how to really conduct an investigation, who to notify, what protocols are already in place that would apply, what pitfalls are involved in this sort of new research, etc., etc. (From the perspective of the research, it doesn't even matter if it turns out to be really evidence of alien life or not.) So, I basically connected the dots - NASA Mars sample return protocols, planetary science concepts, international notification agreements with the SETI program, to create suggested guidelines for a xenoarchaeological investigation (including a what-not-to-do real-world example). Now, while I was very apprehensive at being the planetary science geek who edged his way in sideways with the archaeology/anthropology crowd, the research was well-received and (excitingly) opened the door for further work.
--After the warm reception, the plan now is to turn the research into a paper submitted to the journal Astrobiology, with the hope that if I "write the book" on how to do xenoarchaeological research, when NASA does find something weird, they'll have no choice but to call me in on it. *smirk*

All the while, my new geo position with a subcontractor (Parsons) for the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) ended up being incredibly time-intensive... As it turns out, SNWA is going to be building a pipeline to the mountainous region of East-Central Nevada to pump fresh groundwater back down to Las Vegas as a means to combat the serious drought conditions affecting the desert southwest. My job is in direct support of the pipeline project, where I'm on a team analyzing the geological and surface-water flow in the region to determine just how much water there is to deal with. As you can imagine, the project is steeped in controversy, with angry ranchers taking pot-shots at us (figuratively and literally) as the small group of field researchers and I regularly travel up to the the area to gather data. Well, the practical reality of the job is that it sends me out to (literally) the middle of nowhere 2-3 weeks out of every six to take nigh-impassible roads up the sides of mountains to measure all of the streams, springs, and creeks for hundreds of miles of parched and rugged terrain - a schedule that I (and my wife) am still adjusting to and that leaves little time for a real life in Vegas...

In June, I returned to Eldorado Valley outside of Vegas and Boulder City to work with Dr. Steve Metzger and researchers from NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center - chasing dust devils in an attempt to test new instrumentation for future Mars landers and equipment. A new (but probably less exciting) video may show up soon as a result.

Next, this past July I helped present a paper on a new model of Anchor Ice formation I'd co-authored with a former professor at UW at a symposium of the International Association of Hydraulic Engineering and Research, also (coincidentally) in Vancouver. I was actually able to attend this one on my employer's dime, as I was able to build a case that the research would actually apply to areas of the future water pipeline. We finally presented some of the work I helped with in college as a research assistant - collecting other-worldly video of strange ice crystals that form on the bottoms of rivers that have been naturally drawn below the freezing point during frigid nights... This "Anchor Ice" wreaks havoc on dams and intakes for power plants, especially when it begins to start floating rocks downstream and into turbines, etc. Well, our observations, which we learned were one-of-a-kind, made quite a splash (so-to-speak). The thrill of being on a scientific frontier is addictive... and unlike any other kind of thrill out there.

Let's see... what else? I've been volunteering for the last year at the Springs Preserve down here in an attempt to legitimize my archaeological credentials... now I'm spending some side time researching the history of water management technology in the valley during early settlement periods... Oh, and also during the last couple of months I've been doing some webmaster moonlighting- helping my father get a new performing organization off the ground. Called Nevada Pops, it's an orchestra/band/big band/chamber group that will be performing just the fun stuff - movie scores, broadway classics, marches, jazz, Americana - in an effort to bring more music that people want to hear to venues all over Vegas and southern NV. Their first concert is coming up this August 30th. -Check it out if you're not already booked up - it'll be a good time. =)

*deep breath*

So, that pretty much brings us up to present. Life is good, though not always what I'd expected. What was left of my social life while working at the Test Site has disintegrated almost completely now that I'm being sent literally hundreds of miles away every couple of weeks. Still, with the application of what time and energy I have left after work to shoving my way into some of the newest frontiers of science (and rescuing some equally captivating science from the past,) the life less ordinary I've been striving for feels ever closer. So, while my social calendar continues to gather dust, I hope that those of you who are nearest and dearest will understand that you are in my thoughts, and while I might not always say so, I miss you all. I know things are going to get even more frantic for me before I'm able to break back into academia as a professor, which is the only way I think I'll ever be able to unify my desire for research in a psychologically/physiologically/socially/emotionally-sustainable manner... but I don't plan to be gone forever.

Go for your dreams, friends, and don't look back. Nothing is impossible if you don't ever give up.

Cheers,

Ben

9:28 AM - 3 Comments - 3 Kudos - Add Comment

Progress report.

Just in case you've been wondering where I've been for the last six months+, I've got a brief progress update for the interested. Sleepless nights, pregnant puppies, house hunting, and below.

My article on Temporal Mechanics was just published early February in the official journal of the International Society for the Study of Time (ISST):

Kronoscope article

I presented my Nevada Test Site / Mars Analog dust devil research at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting early December:

Convective vortices run amok

I presented my virtual science conference research at the same conference:

VirtuCon 2006 research

I've been accepted to present add'l Temporal Mechanics research at the Triennial Conference of the ISST next July:

Time conference webpage


I'm writing a new article for submission to Kronoscope on a new temporal structure of the universe that might explain the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics (with implications for the theoretical possibility of time travel!)

Kronoscope main page

And I'm rallying troops for a multi-pronged research assault and applying for a Mars Fundamental Research grant, which is offered through NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Proposals are due in July.

Oh, right... and I'm getting married in a few weeks, putting my house up for sale (and hoping we can score the dream home we've found), trying to hammer my way into lunar analog research at work, and trying to self-publish and shop a few of my short stories / books.

*deep breath*

So, in short, life is good. My social life has (obviously) taken the greatest hit, but things I've been waiting my whole life for are finally moving forward. It's a very hectic but exciting time. So, I figure I'll have plenty of time later to have a social calendar, and hopefully those of you who are nearest and dearest will be up for a glass of wine and some burgers when the dust settles.

8:23 AM - 5 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Staring 2,000 years into the future: a Real and Reverse Prophecy

Lucretius, an Epicurean philosopher and poet of the 1st Century BCE, was a champion of developing an intelligent understanding of the world as a means to fight back the darkness of fear and supersitition. By using reason alone, he was able to predict a very modern understanding of the world, divorced entirely from the dominant religious supersititions that would prevent such an understanding for nearly 2,000 years. How many others have been able to Prophesy so accurate a modern future and past?

"Since, then, I see The master parts of this our world dissolved And once again reborn, so may I know That likewise heaven and earth have seen the hour Of birth, and shall achieve their day of doom.

10:13 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Two things from Confucius:

According to the Master,

7:54 AM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

M.A. - The Universe, Purpose, and Reason

"Do not let your breathing only act in concert with the air which surrounds you, but let your intelligence also now be in harmony with the intelligence which embraces all things. For the mind power is diffused in all parts and pervades all things for him who is willing to draw it to him, just as the atmosphere is for him who is able to breathe it." - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, VIII-54

5:56 PM - 1 Comments - 1 Kudos - Add Comment

Why We Need to Keep Onward:

"We ought to remember not only that our life is daily wasting away and a smaller part of it is left, but also that if a man should live longer, it is quite uncertain whether his mind will stay strong enough to understand things, and retain the power of contemplation to strive after knowledge of the divine and the human. ...We must make haste, then, not only because we are daily nearer to death, but also because our perception of things and understanding of them cease first."

5:50 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Priorities and Friendships

Something a few friends have recently said to me gave me pause.  How do we define friendship?  -And how do we prioritize it?  How does someone become a friend?  Is it shared interest?  Experience?

10:10 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Ancient Assurances

What history records was the last good Emperor of a crumbling empire, a man born into royalty, taught by a slave, raised as a gentleman and general, and who ultimately wished he'd been a philosopher or hermit instead, writes what I feel to be some of the most comforting memoirs I've ever read.

9:28 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Joining the 21st... again...

Warning - Completely Frivolous Post Ahead:

2:15 AM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment