The Book of Noteworthy Why Questions

84309 Headline_C.indd 1

3/11/20 2:00 PM

David Ritchey

Headline Books, Inc. Terra Alta, WV

The Book of Noteworthy “Why” Questions

by David Ritchey ©2020 David Ritchey All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any other form or for any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage system, without written permission from Headline Books, Inc. To order additional copies of this book or for book publishing information, or to contact the author: Headline Books, Inc. P. O. Box 52 Terra Alta, WV 26764 www.headlinebooks.com Tel: 304-789-3001 Email: mybook@headlinebooks.com

ISBN: 9781951556136 Library of Congress Control Number: 2020933677

P R I N T E D I N T H E U N I T E D S T AT E S O F A M E R I C A

To all those who brought us the Web, the Internet, Google, and such. As recently as thirty years ago, if I had a “why” question, which I frequently did, I was usually out of luck EHFDXVH , ZDV XQDEOH WR ¿QG WKH DQVZHU 7RGD\ ZLWK MXVW D IHZ FOLFNV RI WKH PRXVH , FDQ ¿QG DOPRVW DQ\ DQVZHU ,¶P looking for.

Acknowledgement Thanks to my friend and colleague, Cornelia Keener, for her ongoing support and superb editing assistance.

Contents Preface.....................................................................................v Introduction .......................................................................... vii Chapter 1: “Why” Questions About Physical Sciences ..........9 Chapter 2: “Why” Questions About Biological Sciences .....29 Chapter 3: “Why” Questions About Social Sciences ............72 Chapter 4: “Why” Questons About Formal Sciences .........115 Chapter 5: “Why Are We Here?” ........................................127 Index ...................................................................................132 Books By David Ritchey ....................................................134 About The Author ...............................................................136

Preface Different people have different levels of curiosity. As with so many other variations among humans, our levels of curiosity are determined partly by genetics and partly by environmental factors. Children are naturally curious—it’s how they grow and learn—but by the time they start school that sense of wonder starts to escape them. Curiosity is an aspect of intelligence, and some people are more intelligent than others. To learn new things, one has to be curious about them. Some people are generally curious (about anything and everything), some are personally curious DERXW WKLQJV WKDW SHUWDLQ VSHFL¿FDOO\ WR themselves), and some are incurious (just taking things as they come without thinking much about them).

For people who are generally curious, it makes no difference whether or not the subject matter is directly relevant to them.

They just like to learn for the sake of learning. They are always seeking new knowledge by engaging in conversations, and committing themselves fully to the exchange, often turning off their cell phones to avoid interruptions. If one is multitasking, they are not creating the space to be curious. Curious people are inclined to be more interested in “why” and “how” questions than in “who,” “what,” “when” and “where” questions because the former lead to further questions whereas the latter usually just lead to a single datum of information. There are a host of

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interesting quotations that address general curiosity. Among them are the following: “The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”

–Albert Einstein “Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.”

–Samuel Johnson ³,I WKHUH¶V RQH WKLQJ ,¶YH OHDUQHG LQ P\ OLIH LW¶V WKDW curiosity PLJKW NLOO FDWV EXW LW GRHVQ¶W NLOO SHRSOH ´ –Tracy Morgan “The best scientists and explorers have the attributes of kids!

They ask question and have a sense of wonder. They have FXULRVLW\ µ:KR ZKDW ZKHUH ZK\ ZKHQ DQG KRZ ¶´ –Sylvia Earle “Scientists are all slightly mad. There is truth in the stereotype of the mad scientist. They are mad with curiosity.”

–Richard Preston

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Introduction This book, which is comprised of general-interest “why” questions and their answers, is written primarily for those who are insatiably curious. But: * Why is it said that “curiosity killed the cat?”

The phrase “curiosity killed the cat” is a proverb that serves as a warning that new knowledge can come with unexpected costs and danger. For example, being inquisitive about other people’s affairs can get one into trouble. The frequent rejoinder is “satisfaction brought it back.” Although the original version was used to warn of the dangers of unnecessary investigation or experimentation, the addition of the rejoinder indicates that the risk would lead to resurrection because of the satisfaction felt after discovery. The resurrection element may be a reference to the “multiple lives” of a cat.

Of the 1,000 most frequently asked “why” questions on Google, surprisingly the top one is not the question that kids are always asking, which is “why is the sky blue?” That question gets about 135,000 searches monthly, but the question “why is there a leap day,” gets about 2,000,000 searches monthly. * Why is the sky blue?

The white light from the sun is a mixture of all the colors of the rainbow. A clear cloudless daytime sky is perceived as blue vii

because molecules of oxygen and nitrogen in the air scatter blue light from the sun more than they scatter red light. Moreover, we have three types of color receptors, or cones— called red, blue and green because they respond most strongly to light at those wavelengths— in our retinas. As they are stimulated in different proportions, our visual system constructs the colors we see. The blue cones are stimulated by colors near blue wavelengths, which are very strongly scattered. * Why is there a leap day?

A leap year is a calendar year containing one additional day—a leap day—(or, in the case of lunisolar calendars, a month) added to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical or seasonal year. Because seasons and astronomical events do not repeat in a whole number of days, calendars that have the same number of days in each year drift over time with respect to the event that the year is supposed to track. By inserting (also called intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. A year that is not a leap year is called a common year. (See Chapter 4 for an in-depth discussion of this issue.)

Most of the 1,000 Google most-frequently-asked “why” TXHVWLRQV DUH HLWKHU WRR VSHFL¿F WR WKH TXHVWLRQHU H J ³:K\ is my mother always mad at me?) or too simplistic (e.g., “Why do dogs bark?) to be of interest to most readers, so the collection of questions that has been compiled here are ones about which I, or others I know, were curious. These questions had to be of general interest and had to be able to be answered (at least theoretically) in some depth. There were, as well, some questions that, while not meeting these criteria, begged to be included for their humor.

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Chapter 1

“Why” Questions About Physical Sciences Physical science is the natural science that involves the systematic study of the inorganic world, as distinct from the study of the organic world, which is the province of biological science. Physical science is subdivided into branches, including: • Astronomy – the branch of science that encompasses the study of all extraterrestrial objects and phenomena.

• Physics – the branch of science that deals with the structure of matter and the interactions between the fundamental constituents of the observable universe.

• Chemistry – the branch of science that deals with the properties, composition, and structure of substances, the transformations they undergo, and the energy that is released or absorbed during these processes.

• Earth sciences – the branch of science that encompasses WKH ¿HOGV RI VWXG\ FRQFHUQHG ZLWK WKH VROLG Earth, its waters, and the air that envelops it.

It appears that laypeople are not much inclined to ask “why” questions about chemistry. Perhaps this is because chemistry is D YHU\ VSHFL¿F DQG GHWDLOHG VFLHQFH WKDW UHTXLUHV FRQVLGHUDEOH study before it can be comprehended, even at a basic level.

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General interest “why” questions (and their answers) from the other three branches of physical science are presented below.

Astronomy * Why is Pluto no longer considered to be a planet?

The International Astronomical Union downgraded the status of Pluto to that of a dwarf planet because it did not PHHW DOO WKUHH FULWHULD XVHG WR GH¿QH D IXOO VL]HG SODQHW 7KHVH criteria are: 1. That it be in orbit around the Sun; 2. 7KDW LW KDV VXI¿FLHQW PDVV WR DVVXPH K\GURVWDWLF equilibrium (a nearly round shape); 3. That it has “cleared the neighborhood” around its orbit.

While 3OXWR PHHWV WKH ¿UVW WZR FULWHULD LW GRHV QRW PHHW the third—it has not cleared its neighboring region of other objects. This means that it has not become gravitationally GRPLQDQW²LQ RWKHU ZRUGV LW LV QRW VXI¿FLHQWO\ ODUJH DQG GRHV QRW KDYH VXI¿FLHQW JUDYLW\ VR WKDW WKHUH DUH QR RWKHU ERGLHV RI comparable size other than its own satellites or those otherwise XQGHU LWV JUDYLWDWLRQDO LQÀXHQFH LQ LWV YLFLQLW\ LQ VSDFH 7KHUH are, therefore, now said to be eight planets in our solar system rather than the historical nine. * Why is only one side of the Moon visible from Earth?

Only one side of the Moon (spoken of as the “near side”) can be seen from Earth because the Moon rotates on its axis at the same rate that it orbits the Earth, and hence the same side of the Moon always faces the Earth—a situation known as synchronous rotation. The near side of the Moon is characterized by large dark areas that were once believed, E\ WKH DVWURQRPHUV ZKR ¿UVW PDSSHG WKHP WR EH VHDV Although it was later determined that the Moon has no seas, the term “mare” (plural: maria) is still used. The lighter toned regions are referred to as “terrae,” or more commonly, the 10

“highlands.” The two hemispheres of the Moon have distinctly different appearances. The near side has multiple large maria; the far side has a battered, densely cratered appearance with few maria. While 31.2% of the surface of near side is covered by maria, only 1% of the surface of the far side is. The reason for the difference is because the Moon’s crust is thinner on the near side than on the far side. The dark splotches that make up the large lunar maria DUH ODYD ¿OOHG LPSDFW EDVLQV WKDW ZHUH created by asteroid impacts about 4 billion years ago. Though both sides of the Moon were bombarded by similarly large impactors, the near side hemisphere’s crust and upper mantle was hotter than that of the far side, resulting in the larger impact craters.

The 0RRQ¶V +HPLVSKHUHV

Physics :K\ GR KHOLXP ¿OOHG ODWH[ EDOORRQV GHÀDWH VR TXLFNO\" +HOLXP ¿OOHG EDOORRQV GHÀDWH IDVWHU WKDQ DLU ¿OOHG EDOORRQV DQG ODWH[ EDOORRQV GHÀDWH IDVWHU WKDQ IRLO EDOORRQV 7KHUH DUH D couple of different factors that come into play. Latex is porous and is permeable by gases, so the gas inside a latex balloon, whether it be air or helium, eventually escapes through those pores, especially when the latex is stretched. The conjoined oxygen and nitrogen molecules in air are almost 8 times larger 11

than single helium molecules, so helium molecules are able to escape through the latex pores much more readily than is air. +HOLXP ¿OOHG IRLO EDOORRQV last much longer than do helium-billed latex balloons.

Unlike latex, the foil material is non- porous and it also expands without stretching.

Helium molecules can and Helium-Filled Latex Balloons will escape eventually, but usually this occurs through either the stem of the balloon or any microscopic inconsistencies in the seams, not the material itself. * Why does the US use the Fahrenheit, not the Celsius, temperature scale?

In 1724, the English-speaking world adopted the temperature scale invented by Daniel Fahrenheit, in which the boiling point of water is 212o and its freezing point is 32o.

Both numbers were essentially inexplicable as was the number of degrees, 180o, between them. In the temperature scale invented by Anders Celsius in 1743, the boiling point of water is 100o, its freezing point is 0o, and the number of degrees between them is 100o. These numbers made more sense, and the Celsius system was adopted by most of the rest of the world. Celsius temperature measurements are also part of the muchpraised metric system. Close-minded as it was, British Parliament opted to stay with Outdoor the Fahrenheit system and also some other Thermometer peculiar Imperial measurements, such as feet and ounces, along with it.

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By the mid-20th century, most of the world had adopted the metric system, including the Celsius scale for temperature measurement, but the US Congress did not take the necessary steps to implement this change and today, virtually every country on earth aside from the United States measures temperature in Celsius. Therefore, many Americans, especially WKRVH ZRUNLQJ LQ VFLHQWL¿F ¿HOGV UHJXODUO\ QHHG WR FDOFXODWH temperature conversions—a considerable inconvenience. The formula for doing this is: (9/5 x oC) + 32 = oF. :K\ GRHV ZDWHU H[SDQG ZKHQ LW IUHH]HV" Most liquids shrink when they are cooled. This is a result of the liquid contracting because the molecules are moving slower and are less able to overcome the attractive intermolecular forces drawing them closer to each other. When the liquid’s freezing WHPSHUDWXUH LV UHDFKHG WKH VXEVWDQFH VROLGL¿HV ZKLFK causes it to contract some more because crystalline solids are usually tightly packed. Water is one of the few exceptions to this behavior. When liquid water is cooled, it contracts as one would expect until a temperature of approximately 39 degrees Fahrenheit is reached. After that, it expands slightly until it reaches the freezing point, and, when it freezes, it expands by approximately 9%. This unusual behavior has its origin in the structure of the water molecule. The way water molecules tend to link together in the liquid state is to form a very open structure with quite a bit of space between them.

Ice on A Lake The unique nature of this bonding is such that the space between the molecules becomes larger as the temperature gets lower, and it is this open solid structure that causes ice to be less dense than liquid

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ZDWHU KHQFH DOORZLQJ LW WR ÀRDW RQ ZDWHU $QG WKDQN JRRGQHVV for this, because if water behaved “normally” many bodies of water would freeze solid in the winter, killing all the life within them! * Why doesn’t a house heat up faster when the thermostat is set higher?

The thermostat in a heater is usually just an on-off device.

It senses the room temperature and runs the heater at full power as long as the room is colder than the target temperature. If the room is hotter than the target temperature, the thermostat turns the heater off. The thermostat does not measure the temperature of the heating element which, when it is operating, always works at the same temperature; increasing the thermostat level only increases the temperature at which the heater is supposed to stop working. At a higher thermostat setting, the heater will just have to heat at the same power for a longer period of time. *Why is travel faster than the speed of light said to be impossible?

The answer to this question is to be found in Albert Einstein’s 1905 theory of special relativity, which has to do with the structure of spacetime. Special relativity is based on two postulates which are contradictory in classical mechanics: 1. The laws of physics are the same for all observers in uniform motion relative to one another (principle of relativity).

2. The speed of light in a vacuum is the same for all observers, regardless of their relative motion or of the motion of the light source.

But if the speed of light, in special relativity, is constant at all times and for all observers, then space and time become, by force of circumstance, malleable and variable.

The theory has many surprising and counterintuitive consequences. Some of these are: 14

• •

•

• •

Mass-energy equivalence: E = mc2, energy and mass are equivalent and transmutable.

Maximum VSHHG LV ¿QLWH: No physical object, message, RU ¿HOG OLQH FDQ WUDYHO IDVWHU WKDQ WKH speed of light in a vacuum.

Relativity of simultaneity: Two events, simultaneous for one observer, may not be simultaneous for another observer if the observers are in motion relative to each other.

Time dilation: Moving clocks are measured to tick more slowly than an observer’s “stationary” clock.

Length contraction: Objects are shortened in the direction in which they are moving with respect to the observer.

For a particle which is created while traveling at a speed slower than the speed of light, the speed of light is the fastest possible speed. The reason is that, in order to accelerate an object, energy is needed. The more massive an object is, then the more energy it takes to accelerate it. As an object moves faster, it gains mass. This phenomenon is only noticeable when its speed gets very close to the speed of light. As the speed of the object starts to reach appreciable fractions of the speed of light the portion of applied energy going into making the object more massive gets larger and larger—any extra energy put into an object does not make it move faster but just increases its mass. If an object gets very, very close to the speed of light, its PDVV LQFUHDVHV VR IDVW WKDW LW DSSURDFKHV LQ¿QLW\ $W WKLV SRLQW it is impossible to gain enough energy to accelerate the object any further.

One of the most important elements in Einstein’s theory is the idea that the speed of light is a constant. No matter what one’s location or speed, light always travels at the same speed.

Since speed is distance divided by time, for the speed to be the same but the distance traveled to have increased, time must also have increased (in other words, slowed down). This 15

phenomenon is known as time dilation. When objects move very rapidly relative to other objects, their length contracts as well. These consequences, time dilation and length contraction, are both examples of how space-time changes based on the motion of things that have mass. Crucially, as Einstein said, light does not get affected in the same way—because it has no mass. If things could travel faster than light, they would disobey these fundamental laws that describe how the Universe works.

In all likelihood, the challenges of distance and time in interstellar travel will not be able to be met by the use of rocket propulsion in any of its current or hypothesized forms. The solution presumably lies in some form of distortion in the space-time continuum that would permit matter to reach distant locations in less time Rocket Lift-off than light could in normal or undistorted space-time. In that case, the constraints of the speed of light as an absolute limit would no longer apply, and it would be possible to utilize methods of travel that are today only theories existing in the imaginations of our most forwardthinking scientists. Among these theories are: • Space Portals: The existence of space portals has already been demonstrated, and they link the magnetic ¿HOG RI WKH Earth to that of the Sun, creating an uninterrupted pathway between our planet and the Sun’s atmosphere 93 million miles away. Enormous TXDQWLWLHV RI HQHUJHWLF SDUWLFOHV FDQ ÀRZ WKURXJK WKH RSHQLQJV LQ WKH SRUWDOV *LYHQ WKH FRQ¿UPHG H[LVWHQFH of portals between the Earth and the Sun, it holds to 16

•

•

•

•

reason that portals also exist between galaxies. If that is the case, an extant portal could provide a shortcut into those other galaxies.

Wormholes: A wormhole (or “Einstein-Rosen Bridge”) is a hypothetical topological feature much like a tunnel, the ends of which are located at two separate points in space-time. Wormholes through which travel could occur in both directions (“traversable wormholes”) would only be possible if exotic matter with negative energy density could be used to stabilize them. They would allow very rapid travel from one part of a universe to a different part of that same universe, or would allow travel from one universe to another.

Alcubierre (Warp) Drives: This is a speculative proposal based on the idea that a spacecraft could achieve apparent faster-than-light travel if a FRQ¿JXUDEOH HQHUJ\ GHQVLW\ ¿HOG ORZHU WKDQ WKDW RI a vacuum (that is, negative mass) could be created.

Rather than exceeding the speed of light within a local reference frame, a spacecraft would traverse distances by contracting space in front of it and expanding space behind it, resulting in effective faster-than-light travel. $UWL¿FLDO %ODFN +ROHV This theoretical proposal is based on the idea of using a black hole as the energy source for propelling a spacecraft. The concept involves FUHDWLQJ DQ DUWL¿FLDO black hole and using a parabolic UHÀHFWRU DWWDFKHG WR WKH VKLS WR UHÀHFW WKH +DZNLQJ radiation from the hole’s event horizon, thus creating forward thrust.

Quantum entanglement: Quantum theory postulates the existence of a physical phenomenon that occurs when pairs (or groups) of particles are generated or interact in ways such that the quantum state of one particle cannot be described independently of the other, even when they are separated by a large distance; instead, a quantum state must be described 17

for the system as a whole. It has been demonstrated experimentally that particles within a TXDQWXP ¿HOG respond to changes in each other instantaneously, not just at a speed that is faster than that of light. Because the phenomenon depends on classical communication, which theoretically can travel no faster than the speed of light, it cannot be used for faster-than-light transport or communication of classical bits of information, but only for the transfer of qubits, the quantum analog of classical bits. Paradoxically, the effect apparently collapses the state of the entire entangled system— and does so instantaneously, before any classical information could have been communicated to the other particle. * Why is time travel said to be impossible?

As a matter of fact, all of us travel in time on a regular basis. In the last year, we’ve all moved forward in time 365 days. Another way to put that is to say that we travel in time at the rate of 1 hour per hour. The question at issue, however, is one of whether we can travel forward in time faster or slower than “1 hour per hour” … or whether we can we travel backward in time.

The answer to this question, as with the answer to the question of traveling faster than the speed of light, is to be found in Einstein’s theory of special relativity. While we can’t avoid moving into our futures, we can, to a certain extent, control the rate at which we do so. Travelling forward in time is surprisingly easy. Einstein’s theory shows that time passes at different rates for people who are moving relative to one another. The speed at which one moves through space determines the speed at which one moves through time, but WKH HIIHFW EHFRPHV VLJQL¿FDQW RQO\ DV WKDW speed gets close to the speed of light. If one were to leave Earth in a spacecraft traveling at an appreciable fraction of light speed, then turn around and come back, only a few years might have passed 18

on board the ship, but many years could have gone by on Earth. There is a problem, however, for anyone wishing to get a glimpse of the future—getting back. That would require traveling faster than light—and that’s presumably not possible.

Einstein’s theory of general relativity posits that space is FXUYHG DQG WKDW WKH LQÀXHQFH RI PDVV EHQGV VSDFH LQ SURSRUWLRQ WR WKH DPRXQW RI WKH PDVV¶V JUDYLWDWLRQDO ¿HOG +LV WKHRU\ RI special relativity suggests that the traditional notions of space and time are inadequate and that space and time together form a static four-dimensional spacetime continuum in which space and time are integral functions of one another. What pertains in the special theory also pertains in the general theory, so it follows from the positing of the spacetime continuum that a curvature of space implies a curvature of time. Kurt Godel, a colleague of Einstein’s, went so far as to suggest that there is VXI¿FLHQW PDVV LQ WKH XQLYHUVH WR FXUYH spacetime completely around on itself. Such a picture of time implies that everything that ever was or will be now is, that movement through time, both forward and backward, is possible, and that the future is every bit as determinable as the past.

Time appears to have a direction—the past lies behind, ¿[HG DQG LPPXWDEOH ZKLOH WKH IXWXUH OLHV DKHDG DQG LV QRW QHFHVVDULO\ ¿[HG 7KH past is the set of events that can send light signals to an entity, and the future is the set of events to which an entity can send light signals. Yet, for the most part, the laws of physics do not specify an arrow of time, and they allow any process to proceed both forward and in reverse.

This is generally a consequence of time being modeled by a parameter in the system being analyzed, where there is no “proper time”: the direction of the arrow of time is sometimes arbitrary. The concept of time travel, widely recognized in philosophy and ¿FWLRQ, involves movement between certain points in time by an object or a person, typically using a hypothetical device known as a time machine. It is analogous to movement between different points in space.

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Forward time travel, other than the usual sense of the perception of “normal” time, is an extensively observed phenomenon and is well understood within the framework of the theories of relativity. However, making one body advance or delay more than a few milliseconds compared to another body is not feasible with current technology. As for backwards WLPH WUDYHO LW LV SRVVLEOH WR ¿QG solutions in general relativity that allow for it, but the solutions require conditions that may not be physically possible. A central problem with time travel to the past is the violation of causality. If an effect were to precede its cause, it would give rise to the possibility of a temporal paradox $V LOOXVWUDWHG LQ QXPHURXV ZRUNV RI ¿FWLRQ free will either ceases to exist in the past or the outcomes of such decisions are predetermined.

But there may be an out to be found in Einstein’s theory of general relativity—his theory of gravity that unites space and time as “spacetime,” which allows for the possibility of wormholes—tunnels, of sorts, that connect otherwise very distant parts of the universe. If the ends of the wormhole are moving relative to one another, then traversing the bridge between different points in space would also take a traveler to a point in time different from that in which s/he started.

However, it would still be impossible to go back further in time than the point at which the wormhole was created. The “grandfather paradox” involves the concept of going back in time and accidentally killing one’s grandfather before one’s father is conceived—thus preventing one’s own birth, making it impossible to go back in time and kill one’s grandfather. * Why is the UFO/ET phenomenon regularly debunked?

In 1980, Carl Sagan asserted that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence,” and this assertion has now become a widely-used aphorism. An extraordinary claim is one which is not supported by the available, or ordinary, evidence. Support for such a claim must therefore come from newly observed evidence, or a new recognition of existing 20

evidence, which is extraordinary. The aphorism has been criticized both for its apparent support of “orthodoxy” by raising the evidential standard for claims which are outside current consensus, and for introducing subjectivity and ambiguity in determining what constitutes an “extraordinary claim.” Whatever extraordinary evidence exists, however, is now hidden within an impenetrable web of secrecy. In 1947, shortly after the Roswell UFO incident, President Harry Truman signed into law the 1947 National Security Act. In addition to separating the Air Force from the Army and creating the Central Intelligence Agency, this law created the National Security Council, which immediately took charge of the UFO issue and effectively separated it from any oversight

by Congress, the media or the public.

In explorations of the UFO phenomenon, the overriding TXHVWLRQ LV DOZD\V ³$UH 8)2V UHDO"´ ,I WKH GH¿QLWLRQV RI WKH terminology involved are taken literally, the answer is: “Of course they are!” UFOs are 2EMHFWV that are 8QLGHQWL¿HG, and appear to be Flying in the sky. A much more relevant question is: “Are extraterrestrial beings, and the craft in which they presumably travel, real?” Setting aside issues of anomalous realities, the answer to this question is: “Almost certainly.”

The Universe is so old and so vast, and there are so many potentially habitable planets contained within it that statistically it is almost a foregone conclusion that sentient life exists elsewhere, not just on Earth. The magnitude of the numbers is so literally astronomical as to be almost incomprehensible.

Based on observations from the Hubble Space Telescope, there are between 125 and 250 billion galaxies in the observable universe (and who knows what lies beyond that?). Given that it is estimated that at least ten percent of all sun-like stars have a system of planets, in the observable universe there are likely 18 to be 6.25×10 (that is, 6,250,000,000,000,000,000) stars with planets orbiting them. Even if it is assumed that only one out of a billion of these stars has planets capable of supporting life, there would still be some 6.25 billion life-supporting planetary 21

systems in the observable universe. Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is estimated to contain 100–400 billion stars. There could, then, be as many as 40 billion Earth- sized planets orbiting in the habitable zones of Sun-like stars and red dwarfs within the Milky Way alone. It is only quite recently that scientists, using the Hubble telescope, have been able to actually locate and observe potentially habitable planets outside our solar system and, to date, the number is quite small. Mathematically, however, the Drake Equation provides a vehicle for arriving at reasonable estimates. The Drake equation, written by Frank Drake in 1961, is a probabilistic argument used to estimate the number of active, communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy. It amounts to a summary of the factors affecting the likelihood that we might detect radiocommunication from intelligent extraterrestrial life within the galaxy. All things considered, it appears that the best estimate is that there are approximately 10,000 active, communicative, extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy alone.

Presumably a number of those civilizations have spacecraft that they use, and for our purposes, the question of whether or not those extraterrestrial space travelers are visiting the planet Earth is germane. I believe the answer to that question is “probably.” It is unlikely that they are merely zipping around the Universe on random cosmic joyrides. They, like we, would probably be looking for habitable planets that would be of special interest and possible use to them, and Earth would be one such planet. They have probably visited Earth in the past and are most likely doing so now. This, however, leads us to what is known as the Fermi Paradox: a FRQÀLFW EHWZHHQ DUJXPHQWV of scale and probability that seems to favor intelligent life being common in the universe, and a total lack of evidence of intelligent life having ever arisen anywhere other than on Earth. Theoretically, the Earth should already have been visited multiple times by extraterrestrial aliens, but there is no

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A Visiting UFO

GH¿QLWLYH public evidence to that effect. The key word here is ³SXEOLF ´ 6LJQL¿FDQW TXDQWLWLHV RI H[WUDRUGLQDU\ HYLGHQFH PD\ exist but be buried deep within the web of secrecy.

So why all the secrecy? Contrary to popular myth, since the 1960s, concern over some type of public panic when faced with the fact that we are not alone in the universe has not been a major reason for the secrecy. While there has been continued confusion in some covert circles over the ultimate purpose behind the ET phenomena, no knowledgeable insiders seem to regard the ETs as a hostile threat. By the 1960s—and certainly by the 1990s—the world was very familiar with the concept RI VSDFH WUDYHO DQG WKH SRSXODU VFLHQFH ¿FWLRQ LQGXVWU\ KDG thoroughly indoctrinated the masses with the idea of ETs from far away being a possibility. So, again, why the continued secrecy? The Cold War is over. People would hardly be shocked WR ¿QG RXW WKDW ZH DUH QRW DORQH LQ WKH XQLYHUVH WKH PDMRULW\ RI people already believe this—in fact most people believe that UFOs are real). Besides, what could be more shocking than to live with thousands of man-made hydrogen bombs aimed at every major city in the world? If we can handle that, then 23

surely, we can handle the idea that ETs are real. The facile H[SODQDWLRQV RI IHDU SDQLF VKRFN DQG WKH OLNH DUH QRW VXI¿FLHQW to justify a level of secrecy so deep that even the President and his CIA Director could be denied access to the information.

Continued secrecy on the UFO subject must be related, then, to on-going anxiety related to the essential power dynamics of the world and how such a disclosure would impact these. The knowledge related to the UFO/ET phenomena must have such great potential for changing the status quo that its continued suppression is deemed essential, at all costs.

While this smacks of “conspiracy theory,” indications are that in the 1940s we recovered UFO material, perhaps even a complete UFO, and possibly at least one ET as well. There are multiple reports to the effect that we have been working assiduously to learn all we can about the hardware and that we have been successful in a number of reverse engineering projects. It has been said that the basic physics behind the ET energy generation and propulsion systems are such that they could easily replace all existing energy generation and propulsion systems on the Earth. The disclosure of the ET presence would certainly bring with it the release of these technologies—and that release would sweep away the entire technological infrastructure of the planet. This poses an HQRUPRXV ¿QDQFLDO ULVN WR WKRVH LQ WKH SULYDWH VHFWRU ZKR currently control the monopolies that dominate the world of energy production—an infrastructure worth hundreds of trillions of dollars. But to fully understand UFO secrecy, it is necessary to recognize what all that money represents at its core. It represents power—massive geo-political power. Those ZKR RZQ PDQDJH DQG EHQH¿W IURP WKHVH PRQRSROLHV KDYH QR intention of letting go of that power.

Earth Science * Why can’t lightning strike the same place twice?

It can and it does. That it can’t is nothing more than an old 24

wives’ tale. Illustratively, on the evening of June 30, 2014, Chicago’s three tallest skyscrapers were struck by lightning 17 times: 10 strikes to the Sears Tower, 8 to the Trump Tower, and 4 to the John Hancock Center.

Lighting tends to strike the highest and most pointed object around, because it is an electrical current being attracted to the easiest path to ground.

A strike to any location does nothing to change Lightning Strike – Eiffel Tower the electrical activity in the storm above, which will produce another strike as soon as it “recharges.” The previously hit location is then just as likely to be hit on the next discharge as any other spot. The Empire State Building gets struck by lightning about 100 times a year. One spot on the Catatumbo River in Venezuela receives thousands of lightning strikes a night (many of them cloud-tocloud rather than cloud-to-ground strikes).

Worldwide, about 240,000 people are injured and about 6.000 are killed each year by lightning strikes.

Over the last 20 years, the United States averaged 51 annual lightning strike fatalities, placing it in the second position, just behind ÀRRGV for deadly weather. * Why do tropical cyclones rotate in opposite directions in the northern and southern hemispheres?

Tropical cyclones (called “hurricanes” in the north $WODQWLF 2FHDQ DQG WKH QRUWKHUQ 3DFL¿F 2FHDQ DUH UDSLGO\ rotating storm systems characterized by a low-pressure center, 25

closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain.

They form only over warm ocean waters near the equator.

Tropical refers to the geographical origin of these systems, and cyclone refers to their cyclonic nature, with winds blowing counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. Though a tropical cyclone typically moves from east to west in the tropics, its track may shift poleward and eastward as it moves west of the subtropical ULGJH D[LV RU LI LW LQWHUDFWV ZLWK WKH PLG ODWLWXGH ÀRZ VXFK DV the jet stream or an extratropical cyclone. This motion, termed “recurvature,” commonly occurs near the western edge of the major ocean basins, where the jet stream typically has a poleward component and extratropical cyclones are common.

In physics, the Coriolis force is an inertial force that acts on objects in motion relative to a rotating frame of reference. If the reference frame has a clockwise rotation, the force acts to the left of the direction of motion of the object; if the reference frame has a counterclockwise rotation, the force acts to the ULJKW 'HÀHFWLRQ RI DQ REMHFW GXH WR WKH Coriolis force is called the “Coriolis Effect.” In non-technical usage of the term, the rotating reference frame implied is almost always the Earth.

The spin of the Earth requires that Earth-bound observers account for the Coriolis force to correctly analyze the motion of objects. This force causes objects that are moving relative to the surface of the (DUWK VXFK DV D FDQQRQEDOO WR EH GHÀHFWHG WR the right (with respect to the direction of travel) in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere.

Because the Earth is a sphere spinning on an invisible axis, a point at its equator will make a circuit of 25,000 miles during the course of a day, but any point not on the equator will make a shorter round trip; the closer that point is to either of the poles, the shorter its trip will be. In other words, an object at the equator travels to the east at a speed of 1,030 miles per hour, whereas an object at the 45th parallel will travel at a speed of approximately 500 miles per hour, and an object at 26

the North Pole will not travel at all. When viewed from outer space, an object traveling just above the Earth’s surface, which is initially directed northward from the equator, will not appear WR JR GXH QRUWK EXW ZLOO VHHP WR EH GHÀHFWHG WR WKH HDVW 7KLV is so because it will tend to maintain the eastward speed with which it started rather than slowing down to match the reduced eastward speed of local objects on the Earth’s surface.

This effect can be better comprehended by imagining two children playing with a ball while standing on opposite sides of a playground merry-goround (“roundabout”) that, when viewed from above, is rotating in a counterclockwise direction. When one child throws the ball Rotational Effect on Thrown Ball to the other, from the SHUVSHFWLYH RI WKH WKURZHU WKH EDOO LV GHÀHFWHG WR WKH ULJKW DQG IURP WKH SHUVSHFWLYH RI WKH UHFHLYHU WKH EDOO LV GHÀHFWHG WR WKH left. (See the sketch above.)

The Earth completes only one rotation per day, so the potential motion of everyday objects as a result of the Coriolis force is usually miniscule compared to other forces. Its effects generally become noticeable only for motions occurring over large distances and long periods of time, such as the largeCoriolis Effect on Northern Hemisphere Tropical scale movement of air Cyclone 27

in the atmosphere or water in the ocean. With air, for example, UDWKHU WKDQ ÀRZLQJ GLUHFWO\ IURP DUHDV RI KLJK SUHVVXUH WR ORZ pressure, as it would in a non- rotating system, wind tends to ÀRZ WR WKH ULJKW RI WKLV GLUHFWLRQ QRUWK RI WKH HTXDWRU DQG WR the left of this direction south of it. This effect is responsible for the rotation of large tropical cyclones (hurricanes). In the Northern Hemisphere, winds from high-pressure systems pass low-pressure systems on the right, causing the system to rotate counter-clockwise; in the Southern Hemisphere, the opposite is true, and large weather systems rotate clockwise there.

Contrary to a popular, but mistaken, belief, water rotation in the drains of one’s home is, under normal circumstances, not related to the Coriolis Effect. In reality, no consistent difference in rotation direction in the two hemispheres during drainage can be observed. While the Coriolis Effect VWLOO LPSDFWV RQ WKH GLUHFWLRQ RI ÀRZ LQ KRXVHKROG SOXPELQJ ¿[WXUHV LW GRHV VR RQO\ PLQLPDOO\ 2WKHU IDFWRUV²LQFOXGLQJ the initial movement of the water, temperature differentials, and air movement, as well as the shape, surface texture, DQG OHYHOQHVV RI WKH ¿[WXUH²DUH IDU PRUH LQÀXHQWLDO LQ determining rotational direction. Nevertheless, under very carefully controlled laboratory conditions, which eliminate all of the other variables, the Coriolis Effect can be observed even on such a small scale.

28

Chapter 2

“Why” Questions About Biological Sciences Biological science is the natural science that involves the systematic study of the organic world, as distinct from the study of the inorganic world, which is the province of physical science. Biological science is subdivided into various branches, including: • Anatomy – the branch of science concerned with the bodily structure of humans, animals, and other living organisms, especially as revealed by dissection and the separation of parts.

• Botany ± WKH VFLHQWL¿F VWXG\ RI SODQWV LQFOXGLQJ WKHLU physiology, structure, genetics, ecology, distribution, FODVVL¿FDWLRQ DQG HFRQRPLF LPSRUWDQFH • Ecology – the branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings.

• Genetics – the study of heredity and the variation of inherited characteristics.

• Immunology – the branch of medicine and biology concerned with immunity.

• Neurobiology – the biology of the nervous system.

• Pharmacology – the branch of medicine concerned with the uses, effects, and modes of action of drugs.

29

• •

Physiology – the branch of biology that deals with the normal functions of living organisms and their parts.

Zoology ± WKH VFLHQWL¿F VWXG\ RI WKH EHKDYLRU VWUXFWXUH SK\VLRORJ\ FODVVL¿FDWLRQ DQG GLVWULEXWLRQ RI DQLPDOV

General-interest “why” questions (and their answers) from the Botany, Zoology, Immunology, and Anatomy/Physiology/ Neurobiology/Genetics categories are presented below.

Botany * Why did people used to think that tomatoes were poisonous?

Botanically, a tomato is a fruit—a berry of a ÀRZHULQJ plant, consisting of the ovary, together with its seeds,.

However, culinarily, the tomato is considered a vegetable because it has a much lower sugar content than culinary fruits; it is typically served as part of a salad or main course of a meal, rather than as a dessert. Most tomato plants are vines, initially decumbent, Tomatoes on The Vine typically growing 6 feet or more above the ground if supported, although some erect bush varieties have been bred, generally 3 feet tall or shorter.

7KH 6SDQLVK ¿UVW LQWURGXFHG WRPDWRHV WR (XURSH ZKHUH they were used in Spanish and Italian food. From the 1500s into the 1800s, the French and northern Europeans erroneously thought tomatoes (nicknamed “poison apples”) to be poisonous because they are a member of the nightshade 30

family, which includes belladonna (“deadly nightshade”). The tomato’s leaves and immature fruit contains tomatine, which in large quantities would be toxic, but the ripe fruit contains no tomatine. However, the primary reason for the deaths, which occurred primarily among the aristocracy, had to do with the fact that wealthy people ate off pewter plates, while poor people ate off wooden plates. The high acid content of tomatoes would cause the lead to leach out of the pewter into the food, resulting in lead poisoning and death.

As of 2008, the heaviest tomato ever harvested was grown in Oklahoma in 1986. It weighed 7 pound 12 ounces, and was of the cultivar “Delicious.” The largest tomato plant ever cultivated was grown in the UK in 2000. It reached 65 feet in length. and was of the cultivar “Sungold.” * Why are many people opposed to the JHQHWLF PRGL¿FDWLRQ of crops? *HQHWLFDOO\ PRGL¿HG GM) crops are plants used in agriculture, the DNA RI ZKLFK KDV EHHQ PRGL¿HG XVLQJ genetic engineering methods. In most cases, the aim is to introduce a new trait to the plant which does not occur naturally in the species. Examples in food crops include resistance to certain pests, diseases, environmental conditions, reduction of VSRLODJH KHUELFLGH UHVLVWDQFH RU LPSURYLQJ WKH QXWULHQW SUR¿OH of the crop. Examples in non-food crops include production of pharmaceutical agents, biofuels, and other industrially useful goods, as well as bioremediation of pollution. A 2014 metaanalysis concluded that GM technology adoption had reduced chemical pesticide use by 37%, increased crop yields by 22%, DQG LQFUHDVHG IDUPHU SUR¿WV E\ ,Q WKH ¿UVW JHQHWLFDOO\ PRGL¿HG FURS DSSURYHG IRU sale in the US was the FlavrSavr tomato. It had a longer shelf life, because it took longer to soften after ripening. Also in 1994, the European Union approved tobacco engineered to tolerate the herbicide bromoxynil PDNLQJ LW WKH ¿UVW FRPPHUFLDOO\ genetically engineered crop marketed in Europe. In 1995, the 31

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) Potato was approved in the US, PDNLQJ LW WKH FRXQWU\¶V ¿UVW SHVWLFLGH SURGXFLQJ FURS $OVR in 1995 canola ZLWK PRGL¿HG RLO FRPSRVLWLRQ Bt cotton, glyphosate-tolerant soybeans, virus-tolerant squash, and delayed ripening tomatoes were approved. As of mid-1996, 35 approvals had been granted in 6 countries plus the EU to FRPPHUFLDOO\ JURZ WUDQVJHQLF FURSV DQG RQH ÀRZHU FURS (carnation), with 8 different traits. After that, the cultivation of JHQHWLFDOO\ PRGL¿HG FURSV DFFHOHUDWHG UDSLGO\ One of the main objectives for developing plants based on GM organisms is to improve crop protection. The GM crops currently on the market are mainly aimed at an increased level of crop protection through the introduction of resistance against plant diseases caused by insects or viruses or through increased tolerance towards herbicides. Those in opposition to GM crops, however, have objected to them on grounds including food safety, environmental impacts, whether GM crops are needed to address worldwide food needs, whether WKH\ DUH VXI¿FLHQWO\ DFFHVVLEOH WR IDUPHUV LQ GHYHORSLQJ countries, and concerns over subjecting crops to intellectual property law.

Intellectual property laws as applied to GM crops are today a major focus of contention. Since the earliest days of agriculture, farmers in all nations saved the seeds from their own crops for planting the following year. With the hybrid crops developed in the later part of the 20th century, that practice was no longer HI¿FDFLRXV EHFDXVH WKH RIIVSULQJ RI K\EULG SODQWV ZKLOH VWLOO viable, lose their hybrid vigor. That doesn’t happen with nonhybrid JHQHWLFDOO\ PRGL¿HG VHHGV KRZHYHU VR WKH ODUJH VHHG companies, like Monsanto, turned to intellectual property laws to maintain control over their products. Illustratively, a different company cannot stack another trait with Monsanto’s crucial RoundUp ready trait unless Monsanto grants permission through their patent license. Moreover, farmers are prohibited by contract from saving seeds and planting them the following year. The protection provided by these laws has allowed the 32

PDMRU VHHG FRPSDQLHV WR SUR¿W LPPHQVHO\ IURP WKHLU VDOHV DQG SURYLGHG WKH ¿QDQFLDO LQFHQWLYH IRU IXUWKHU UHVHDUFK DQG development of new products. While the intention of the laws may be to foster innovation and competition, in the case of the JHQHWLFDOO\ PRGL¿HG VHHG EXVLQHVV WKH HIIHFW FDQ EH DQWL competitive. In order to ensure consumer choice and continued innovation, these companies must be held accountable to antitrust legislation.

With respect to whether or not JHQHWLFDOO\ PRGL¿HG IRRGV are safe to eat, there is a VFLHQWL¿F FRQVHQVXV that currently available food derived from GM crops poses no greater risk to human health than conventional food, but that each GM food needs to be tested on a case-by-case basis before introduction.

No reports of ill effects have been documented in the human population from JHQHWLFDOO\ PRGL¿HG IRRG &XUUHQW HYLGHQFH suggests that today’s GM foods are identical to conventional foods in nutritional value and effects on health. The beliefs of the public, however, differ radically from the consensus of the scientists. Whereas 88% of scientists say that GM foods are safe, only 37% of the public believes that to be the case. Interestingly, a 2019 study found that as extremity of opposition to and concern about JHQHWLFDOO\ PRGL¿HG IRRGV increases, objective knowledge about science and genetics decreases, but self-perceived understanding of genetically PRGL¿HG IRRGV LQFUHDVHV ,Q RWKHU ZRUGV H[WUHPH RSSRQHQWV know the least, but think they know the most about the genetic PRGL¿FDWLRQ RI FURSV $OVR RI QRWH LV WKDW LQ WKH 8QLWHG 6WDWHV support for, or opposition to, GM foods is not divided along traditional partisan (liberal/conservative) lines, but young adults are more likely to have negative opinions than older DGXOWV 'HVSLWH WKH ZHLJKW RI VFLHQWL¿F HYLGHQFH WKDW DWWHVWV to the safety of GM foods, safety concerns have nevertheless OHG FRXQWULHV LQFOXGLQJ LQ (XURSH WR RI¿FLDOO\ SURKLELW their cultivation.

Opponents insist that if GM foods are going to continue to be sold alongside “natural” foods, it should be mandated 33

that they be labeled as such. If they are, indeed, as safe as XQPRGL¿HG IRRGV KRZHYHU VXFK D UHTXLUHPHQW GRHV QRWKLQJ whatsoever to protect the consumer. What it does do is to play into the unwarranted fears of the lay public and suppress the sale of *0 IRRGV LQ VXFK D ZD\ WKDW WKHUH LV OHVV ¿QDQFLDO incentive for their research and development. This is likely to have severe consequences in that GM foods appear to be necessary to meet the nutritional needs of the rapidly-growing world population.

Zoology :K\ GLG GLQRVDXUV EHFRPH H[WLQFW DERXW PLOOLRQ \HDUV ago?

The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event, which occurred approximately 66 million years ago, was a sudden mass extinction of some three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth. It marked the end of the Cretaceous period (146–66 million years ago): and Asteroid Impacting Earth the beginning of the Paleogenic Period (66–23 million years ago). It was caused by the Earth impact of a large asteroid 6–9 miles in diameter. In its wake, the impactor left behind the Chicxulub crater, which is roughly 100 miles wide and 12 miles deep, buried beneath the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. The energy released upon impact has been estimated to be equivalent to 100 teratons of TNT (a teraton equals 1 million megatons). That is roughly 10 billion times stronger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima (~15 kilotons), and the most energetic event in the history of Earth for hundreds of millions of years. That is far more SRZHUIXO WKDQ DQ\ YROFDQLF HUXSWLRQ HDUWKTXDNH RU ¿UHVWRUP 34

and is enough energy to power the entire Earth for several centuries. The impact would also have caused a megatsunami over 300 feet tall, the height of which would have been limited by the relatively shallow sea in the area of the impact; in deep ocean, it would have been 2.9 miles tall.

In the geologic record, the event is marked by a thin layer of sediment which can be found throughout the world in marine and terrestrial rocks. The boundary clay shows high levels of the metal iridium, which is rare in the Earth’s crust, but abundant in asteroids. The event appears to have affected all continents at the same time. A cloud of super-heated dust, ash, and steam—along with pieces of the impactor—would have been ejected from the crater into the atmosphere. They would have been heated to incandescence upon reentry, broiling the (DUWK¶V VXUIDFH DQG SUHVXPDEO\ LJQLWLQJ ZLOG¿UHV The emission of gases and particles would have led to a sudden greenhouse effect, wherein the blocking of sunlight would have cooled the (DUWK¶V DWPRVSKHUH VLJQL¿FDQWO\ DQG photosynthesis by plants would have been interrupted for up to a year. Meanwhile, colossal shock waves would have triggered global earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

The asteroid hit an area of carbonate rock containing a large amount of combustible hydrocarbons and sulfur, much of which was vaporized, thereby injecting sulfuric acid aerosols into the stratosphere and causing acid rain. It would take at least ten years for such aerosols to dissipate, and would account for the extinction of plants and phytoplankton, and subsequently herbivores and their predators ,I ZLGHVSUHDG ZLOG¿UHV occurred, they would have increased the CO2 content of the atmosphere and continued to cause a greenhouse effect once the dust clouds and aerosols settled. This Dinosaur 35

would have exterminated the more vulnerable organisms that managed to survive the period immediately after the impact.

A wide range of species perished in the K–Pg extinction, the best-known being the non-avian dinosaurs. With only a few exceptions, no large tetrapods survived. It is estimated that 75% or more of all species on Earth vanished. Yet the extinction also provided evolutionary opportunities.

0DPPDOV LQ SDUWLFXODU GLYHUVL¿HG LQ WKH Paleogene, evolving new forms such as horses, whales, bats, and primates. * Why are marine mammals so large?

Blue whales are famously the largest animals to have ever lived, exceeding even the great beasts of the Cretaceous period. Giant aquatic mammals make it easy to conclude that living in water allows animals to grow larger, since their buoyancy reduces the ¿JKW DJDLQVW JUDYLW\ However, research Blue Whale indicates that it is not that water allows a mammal to be big, it is that water requires a mammal to be big in order to survive. The issue is one of heat retention. Water is a much better conductor of heat than air.

Small mammals and birds face the problem that their surface area is relatively large compared to their volume, so they lose heat more quickly than their larger equivalents. To replace this heat, warm-blooded small creatures need more food, relative WR WKHLU VL]H WKDQ ODUJHU RQHV DQG WKH SUREOHP LV PDJQL¿HG in water. While blubber can constitute as much as 50% of a whale’s body weight, fur or blubber can only do so much, and whales are still voracious feeders.

Baleen whales are generally much larger than toothed whales. They range in size from the 20 foot and 6,600-pound 36

pygmy right whale to the 102 foot and 210-ton blue whale (even larger than the largest dinosaur ever!). By contrast, toothed whales range in size from the 8.5 foot and 298 pound dwarf sperm whale to the 66-foot and 61-ton sperm whale.

This size differential is presumably a result of the difference in the way in which the two types eat. Baleen whales feed on SODQNWRQ DQG NULOO E\ ¿OWHULQJ ODUJH TXDQWLWLHV RI ZDWHU WKURXJK their baleen plates; toothed whales, on the other hand, chase DQG HDW ODUJHU SUH\ VXFK DV ¿VK VTXLG VRPH PDULQH PDPPDOV and even birds. The feeding behavior of baleen whales requires much less expenditure of energy than does that of the toothed whales. * Why are orcas called “killer whales?”

Orcas are not whales. They are, rather, the largest of the dolphin species. They are called “whales” because of their massive size—males can grow up to 26 feet long and 12,000 pounds in weight.

They are called “killer” because they will prey on almost any Orcas Leaping DQLPDO WKH\ ¿QG LQ WKH sea, in the air over the water, or along the coastline, including large marine animals, such as sea lions and whales. To hunt, orcas use their massive teeth,which can grow up to 4 inches long. There is no record of an orca having killed a human in the wild, but the 60 or so in captivity, presumably as a result of stress, have occasionally acted aggressively towards themselves, their tankmates, or humans, and some attacks on humans have been fatal. The record-holder of documented captive orca fatal attacks on humans is a male named Tilikum, who lived at SeaWorld from 1992 until his death in 2017. Tilikum played a role in the death of three people in three different incidents (1991, 1999 and 2010).

37

* Why do elephants have such large ears?

Because elephants are huge, they produce a lot of body heat, but unlike humans, they cannot sweat to cool down. The issue is compounded by their living in very hot climates. Their KDYLQJ ELJ ÀRSS\ ears (up to 6 feet long and 4 feet wide) is nature’s solution to the problem of getting rid of excess body heat.

Elephant On the inside of their ears is a web of tiny blood vessels. The skin of the ear is very thin, and the blood vessels are very close to the surface. When the temperature of the elephant’s blood is greater than the ambient temperature, heat is released from the ears. Moreover, their ears can act like giant fans that create a light breeze that can VSHHG XS WKH FRROLQJ SURFHVV DV WKH\ ÀDS WKHP EDFN and forth. An elephant’s ears can cool its body by up to 9° Fahrenheit. * Why did the chicken cross the road?

“Why did the chicken cross the road?” is a common riddle joke, with the answer being “To get to the other side.” It is an example of antihumor, in that the curious setup of the joke leads the listener to expect a traditional punchline, but they are instead given a simple statement of fact.

“Why did the chicken cross the road?” has become iconic as Goose Preparing to Cross Road 38

an exemplary generic joke to which most people know the answer, and has been repeated and changed numerous times over the course of history. One class of variations enlists a creature other than the chicken to cross the road, in order to refer back to the original riddle. For example, a goose crosses the road “To prove he’s no chicken.” * Why do bats roost hanging upside down Bats roost, or perch, upside-down because they cannot launch their bodies into the air from the ground, since their wings don’t produce enough lift to take off like a helicopter.

Bat Roosting

:K\ GR PLJUDWRU\ ELUGV À\ LQ D ³9´ IRUPDWLRQ" $ ³9´ IRUPDWLRQ LV WKH V\PPHWULF 9 VKDSHG ÀLJKW IRUPDWLRQ RI ÀRFNV RI JHHVH GXFNV DQG RWKHU PLJUDWRU\ ELUGV 7KH ³9´ IRUPDWLRQ LPSURYHV WKH PRWLOH HI¿FLHQF\ RI À\LQJ ELUGV particularly over long migratory routes. All the birds except the ¿UVW À\ LQ WKH XSZDVK from one of the wingtip vortices of the bird ahead. The upwash assists each bird in supporting its own weight Geese Flying In “V” Formation LQ ÀLJKW LQ WKH VDPH ZD\ D JOLGHU FDQ FOLPE RU PDLQWDLQ KHLJKW LQGH¿QLWHO\ LQ ULVLQJ air. Each bird can achieve a reduction of induced drag and as D UHVXOW LQFUHDVH WKHLU UDQJH E\ 7KH ELUGV À\LQJ DW WKH 39

tips and at the front are rotated in a timely cyclical fashion to VSUHDG ÀLJKW IDWLJXH HTXDOO\ DPRQJ WKH ÀRFN PHPEHUV :K\ DUH VRPH ELUGV ÀLJKWOHVV" There are over 60 extant species of birds that, through HYROXWLRQ KDYH ORVW WKH DELOLW\ WR À\ 7KHVH LQFOXGH WKH ZHOO known ratites (ostriches, emu, cassowaries, rheas and kiwi) and penguins. The largest ÀLJKWOHVV ELUG ZKLFK is also the largest living bird, is the ostrich at 9 feet tall and 350 pounds.

Successful acquisition and proOstrich Running tection of a claimed territory required selection for large size and running speed in the ancient ancestors of ratites. Many domesticated birds, such as the domestic chicken and domestic duck, have lost WKH DELOLW\ WR À\ IRU H[WHQGHG SHULRGV $ IHZ VSHFL¿FDOO\ EUHG birds, such as the Broad Breasted White turkey, have become WRWDOO\ ÀLJKWOHVV DV D UHVXOW RI selective breeding; the birds were bred to grow massive breast meat that weighs too much IRU WKH ELUG¶V ZLQJV WR VXSSRUW LQ ÀLJKW 7ZR NH\ GLIIHUHQFHV EHWZHHQ À\LQJ DQG ÀLJKWOHVV ELUGV DUH WKH VPDOOHU ZLQJ ERQHV RI ÀLJKWOHVV ELUGV DQG WKH DEVHQW RU JUHDWO\ UHGXFHG keel on their breastbone. (The keel anchors muscles needed for wing movement.) Flight is the most energy-consuming type of locoPRWLRQ H[HPSOL¿HG LQ WKH QDWXUDO ZRUOG DQG LWV ELRORJLFDO FRVW increases proportionally with body size, which is often why ÀLJKWOHVVQHVV FRLQFLGHV ZLWK ERG\ PDVV %\ UHGXFLQJ ODUJH SHFWRUDO PXVFOHV WKDW UHTXLUH D VLJQL¿FDQW DPRXQW RI RYHUDOO metabolic energy, ratites decreased their basal metabolic rate

40

DQG FRQVHUYHG HQHUJ\ $OWKRXJK VHOHFWLRQ SUHVVXUH IRU ÀLJKW was largely absent, the wing structure has not been entirely lost except in the New Zealand moas. Ostriches, at 43 miles per hour, are the fastest running birds in the world. At these high speeds, wings are necessary for balance and they also serve as a parachute-like apparatus to help the bird slow down.

Wings are also hypothesized to have played a role in sexual selection in early ancestral ratites and were thus maintained.

6H[XDO VHOHFWLRQ DOVR LQÀXHQFHV WKH PDLQWHQDQFH RI ODUJH ERG\ VL]H ZKLFK GLVFRXUDJHV ÀLJKW * Why, when an animal’s gender is unknown, do people generally call a dog “he” and a cat “she?”

Keeping pets for pleasure, rather than as working animals, became fashionable in the 18th century. However, not all pets were considered equal. For example, the eagerness of dogs to please and to respond to training, earned them a reputation of being loyal, brave, and courageous— all considered to be desirable male characteristics. Thus, dogs were looked on as QREOH SHWV WKDW ZHUH D ¿WWLQJ companion for man, and in general speech were referred to with the male pronoun. The Dog and Cat case with cats was different.

Cats aren’t trainable and prefer to please themselves rather than their mistress (the vast majority of cat owners being women).

This behavior was strongly frowned upon by the Victorian male who expected obedience from everyone in his household, and upright moral behavior was treasured above all else. An independent spirit was seen as rebellious, even in an animal. To PDNH PDWWHUV ZRUVH FDWV KDYH D KDELW RI HVFDSLQJ DQG ¿QGLQJ a mate, which according to the perceived wisdom of the day 41

meant they were promiscuous. According to the judgmental Victorian male, the cats’ characteristics of independence (read rebellion) and promiscuity made them akin to prostitutes, and the worst sort of advertisement for feminine wiles. In short, cats became strongly associated with the worst aspect of female behavior and acquired the female pronoun. From a strict grammatical point of view, however, while it’s okay to use “he” or “she” where there is a personal relationship with a pet that has a name, one must otherwise refer to the animal as “it.” * Why do large dogs die at a younger age than small dogs?

When one species is compared to another, it can generally be seen that large mammals tend to live longer (sometimes much more so) than small ones. The world’s smallest mammal, the bumblebee bat, lives 5 to 10 years, while the largest, the blue whale, lives for 80 to 90 years. Scientists think that this happens because of the way differently-sized animals use energy.

Large Dog (Great Dane) Big animals’ cells and Small Dog (Chihuahua) are slower and more HI¿FLHQW VR WKHLU SDUWV ZHDU RXW VORZHU DQG ODVW ORQJHU :LWKLQ a given species, however, this tendency is reversed and larger size seems to carry a longevity cost. Scientists have observed this in many mammal species, including mice, horses, and even humans, and the phenomenon is well known to dog lovers. Dogs from bigger breeds don’t live as long as those from smaller breeds. The small breeds have an average life expectancy of 12 to 14 years; for larger breeds, it’s 8 to 10; and for the so-called “giant breeds,” lifespan is 5 to 8years. Larger dogs grow very big very fast. A one-year-old Great Dane, for example, increases IROG LQ ZHLJKW GXULQJ LWV ¿UVW \HDU ,Q WKDW VDPH time 42

frame, wolves increase 60-fold, poodles 20-fold and humans only threefold. Research has suggested that larger individual animals die younger because this sort of accelerated growth comes with increased free-radical activity. Large dogs age at an accelerated pace. Faster aging isn’t the only explanation, though. Larger dogs are more prone to health issues like developmental disorders, musculoskeletal and gastrointestinal diseases, and tumors—all of which are also linked to their accelerated growth and appear to be the negative side effects of selective breeding for large size over a short period of time. * Why are we fascinated by dogs?

This question presents a wonderful opportunity for me to do a little selfaggrandizement. It is answered in my 2012 book, Why We are Fascinated by Dogs. If you would purchase a copy right now from your favorite bookseller, it would make my day! * Why are there so many feral cats?

Cats have a high breeding rate. The average mature female cat theoretically can have three litters with a total of 12 kittens per year; 10.2 kittens, of which 4.7 are female, will survive. As incredible as it may seem, assuming only two litters per year and only 2.8 surviving kittens per litter, if two cats are allowed to breed at will and all of their offspring are also allowed to breed at will, those two cats will have 80 million offspring within a decade! Cats are extremely adaptable and can live on the highest mountains and in the hottest deserts. Feral Feral Cats

43

cats can be found in forests, grasslands, tundra, coastal areas, agricultural land, scrublands, urban areas, and wetlands. In comparison to dogs, cats have not undergone major changes during the domestication process, as the forms and behaviors of the domestic cat are not radically different from those of wild cats, and domestic cats are fully capable of surviving in the wild. It is estimated that there are 100 million or more feral cats globally, with at least 60 million living in the US alone, 12 million in Australia and one million in Britain. * Why do cats hate water?

Cats groom themselves with constant regular licking, and this stops skin oils from building up on their fur. As a result, a FDW¶V FRDW LV ÀXI¿HU and less waterproof than a dog’s, so they get colder and their fur feels heavier if they get wet. But not all cats hate water – the Turkish Van and Bengal are two breeds that like swimming.

Wet Cat

* Why do some scientists claim that only humans are conscious?

Discussions of consciousness seldom take place at a simple level. Once engaged in, they become exceedingly complex.

Thinking about the nature of consciousness was brought to the forefront by René Descartes in the 17th century. He argued that consciousness requires thought, thought requires language, and since only humans are capable of producing language, only humans are capable of attaining consciousness. His arguments dovetailed nicely with the position of the Church (the institution most responsible for shaping beliefs at the time) which was that

44

“consciousness” implied the existence of “soul,” souls were eligible for entry into heaven, and, since heaven did not accept any entities other than humans, only humans were capable of attaining consciousness. Similarly, Julian Jaynes, in his 1976 book entitled The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, argued that consciousness involves subjectivity, self-awareness, and having an awareness of one’s RZQ DZDUHQHVV L H ³UHÀH[LYH´ VHOI DZDUHQHVV RU KDYLQJ DQ internal mind-space for introspection), and postulated the same connections between consciousness, thought, and language.

The issue has been raised that the self-awareness involved in FRQVFLRXVQHVV QHHG QRW EH UHÀH[LYH VHOI DZDUHQHVV $OVR Temple Grandin, a woman with Asperger’s Syndrome, suggests in her book, Thinking in Pictures that, based on her own experience, language is, in fact, not required for thought. Moreover, the “thought” that is said to be required for “consciousness” is no better understood than is “consciousness,” itself. It is through the use of a reductionistic approach—claiming that consciousness requires thought, thought requires language, and only humans are capable of producing language—that the basis for the argument of

³'H¿QLWLYH 3URRI´ 7KDW $QLPDOV $UH 1RW &RQVFLRXV 45

consciousness being exclusive to humans was established. What appeared to involve thought in lower mammals was dismissed DV ³LQVWLQFW´ GH¿QHG DV ³WKH DELOLW\ WR PDNH D FRPSOH[ DQG VSHFL¿F UHVSRQVH WR environmental stimuli without involving reason or thought.”). Thus, by way of circular reasoning, it ZDV FODLPHG WKDW RWKHU VSHFLHV ZHUH GH¿QLWLRQDOO\ LQFDSDEOH of thought, and the proof of that was said to lie in their being incapable of producing language.

Contemporary researchers, however, using dolphins, whales, gorillas, chimpanzees, dogs and parrots as subjects, have shown that language capabilities are not exclusive to humans.

There is another very simple explanation for the denial of consciousness in animals, one that is anthropocentrically based, and manages to skirt around complex educational, UHOLJLRXV SKLORVRSKLFDO VFLHQWL¿F DQG political issues. It has WR GR ZLWK KXPDQ QDUFLVVLVP (YHU VLQFH PDQNLQG ¿UVW EHFDPH conscious, we have considered ourselves to be “at the top of the heap” among animals, and we’ve become accustomed to, and gloried in, that exalted position. To acknowledge that other animals are conscious might bring us down a peg or two from our elite status, and we certainly wouldn’t want that to happen!

Even logical, rational scientists, albeit probably unconsciously, can be subject to this kind of distorted thinking.

Immunology * Why are medical scientists warning of an impending unprecedented LQÀXHQ]D pandemic?

An LQÀXHQ]D HSLGHPLF HPHUJHV GXULQJ WKH ÀX VHDVRQ HYHU\ ZLQWHU 7KHUH DUH WZR ÀX VHDVRQV DQQXDOO\ FRUUHVSRQGLQJ to the occurrence of winter in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. These annual epidemics are thought to result in 3–5 million cases of severe illness and 250,000–500,000 deaths every year around the world. In the United States, seasonal LQÀXHQ]D FDXVHV RQ DYHUDJH PRUH WKDQ 46

hospitalizations and 41,000 deaths annually, and is the seventh leading cause of death.

Most LQÀXHQ]D VWUDLQV DUH QRW YHU\ LQIHFWLRXV ZLWK HDFK infected individual infecting only one or two other people.

However, the generation time (the time from a person’s becoming infected to when s/he infects another person) is extremely short, being only two days. As a result, LQÀXHQ]D epidemics generally peak at around two months, and burn out after three months. In dealing with LQÀXHQ]D LW LV SUREOHPDWLF that individuals become infectious before they become symptomatic, so putting people in quarantine after they become ill is not an effective public health intervention.

There are three different types of LQÀXHQ]D YLUXVHV 7\SH $ Type B, and Type C. Type C rarely causes disease in humans; W\SH % FDXVHV VRPH GLVHDVH EXW QRW HSLGHPLFV RQO\ ,QÀXHQ]D A viruses cause epidemics or pandemics. Wild aquatic birds DUH WKH QDWXUDO KRVWV IRU D ODUJH YDULHW\ RI ,QÀXHQ]D $ YLUXVHV Occasionally, these viruses are transmitted to other species and may then cause devastating outbreaks in domestic poultry or give rise to human LQÀXHQ]D SDQGHPLFV 0DQ\ PRUH YDULDQWV of LQÀXHQ]D H[LVW LQ ELUGV WKDQ H[LVW LQ KXPDQV 0DVVLYH exposure to an avian virus can infect humans directly, but an avian virus cannot be transmitted from human to human unless LW ¿UVW PXWDWHV DQG DGDSWV WR KXPDQV 7KDW KDSSHQV UDUHO\ EXW it does happen, and that is when a virus threatens to evolve into a pandemic. $ ÀX VWUDLQ LV GH¿QHG E\ LWV WZR YLUDO SURWHLQV Hemagglutinin and Neuraminidase—thus the designations “H” and “N.” For example, a strain that swept the world in 1946 was H1N1. The next WLPH WKH ÀX virus underwent a major genetic change, thus creating a pandemic, was in 1956, and the new strain was designated “H2N2,” there having been changes in both its hemagglutinin and its neuraminidase proteins. The next pandemic, occurring in 1968 involved a virus whose hemagglutinin had changed, but whose neuraminidase had not. That strain was designated “H3N2.” Variants are also 47

sometimes named according to the host species to which the strain is endemic or adapted (hence, “Bird Flu,” “Swine Flu,” “Horse Flu,” and the like) or according to their place of origin (hence, “Spanish Flu,” “Hong Kong Flu,” “Asian Flu,” etc.) )LYH ,QÀXHQ]D $ YLUXV VXEW\SHV KDYH EHHQ FRQ¿UPHG DV FXUUHQWO\ H[LVWLQJ LQ KXPDQV $W SUHVHQW PRVW VFLHQWL¿F interest in, and research of, the LQÀXHQ]D virus strains centers on H1N1 and H5N1 because they are the strains most likely WR FDXVH WKH QH[W PDMRU ÀX pandemic. H1N1 is avian in origin and is endemic in both human and pig populations; a variant of it was responsible for the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 that killed 50–100 million people worldwide. ,QÀXHQ]D SDQGHPLFV RFFXU ZKHQ D QHZ VWUDLQ RI WKH inÀXHQ]D virus is transmitted to humans from another animal species. Species that are thought to be most important in the HPHUJHQFH RI QHZ KXPDQ ÀX VWUDLQV DUH SLJV FKLFNHQV DQG ducks. These novel strains are impervious to any immunity people may have to older strains of human inÀXHQ]D DQG FDQ WKHUHfore spread extremely rapidly, infecting/killing very large numbers of people. Five Removing the Dead – LQÀXHQ]D SDQGHPLFV 1918 Flu Pandemic are known to have octh st curred in the 20 and 21 centuries. Of these, the deadliest was the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, which has been described as “the greatest medical holocaust in history.” It was presumed to have originated in the United States, where it encountered a human populace that was totally unprepared for it, having developed no previous immunity. It was exceptionally virulent, killing 50–100 million people worldwide (among them 675,000 Americans) or 2.5–5% of the world’s entire popula48

tion. It killed more people in a year than the Black Death of the Middle Ages killed in a century; it killed more people in 25 weeks than HIV/AIDS killed in 25 years. In the United States, during the pandemic, 47% of all deaths that occurred could be attributed to LQÀXHQ]D DQG LWV FRPSOLFDWLRQV There were many things that were unusual about this particular disease. Indeed, the symptoms were so unusual that in the early stages of the pandemic, it was often misdiagnosed as dengue, cholera, or typhoid. Whereas LQÀXHQ]D LV XVXDOO\ worse in the winter, this outbreak was widespread in the northern hemisphere in summer and autumn. Also unusual was WKH SDWWHUQ RI GHDWKV E\ DJH :KLOH LQÀXHQ]DV DUH QRUPDOO\ PRVW deadly for weak individuals such as infants (under age two), the very old (over age 70), and the immunocompromised, in this pandemic 99% of the deaths occurred in people under 65, and more than half occurred in young adults 20 to 40 years old.

Moreover, depending on locale, it killed between 2% and 20% RI WKRVH LQIHFWHG DV RSSRVHG WR WKH PRUH XVXDO ÀX PRUWDOLW\ rate of 0.1%. While the majority of deaths were the result of secondary bacterial pneumonia, in the fast-progressing cases mortality was primarily from viral pneumonia.

The clinical picture in severe cases associated with pandemics is strikingly different from the disease pattern associated with epidemics of seasonal LQÀXHQ]D :KLOH SHRSOH with certain underlying medical conditions are known to be at increased risk, many severe cases occur in previously healthy people. In such cases, patients generally begin to deteriorate DERXW WKUHH WR ¿YH GD\V DIWHU V\PSWRP RQVHW 'HWHULRUDWLRQ is rapid, with many patients progressing to respiratory failure ZLWKLQ KRXUV 5HVHDUFK KDV LQGLFDWHG WKDW WKH VHYHUH ÀX effects in healthy young and middle-aged adults are caused by an excessive immune system response—a phenomenon known as a “cytokine storm.” When a cytokine storm comes into play, the virus initiates the bodily destruction process and the victim’s own immune system completes it.

49

New LQÀXHQ]D YLUXVHV DUH FRQVWDQWO\ HYROYLQJ E\ ZD\ RI mutation or reassortment. Mutations can cause small changes in the hemagglutinin and neuraminidase antigens on the surface of the virus. Since the strains produced by mutation will still be somewhat similar to the older strains, some people will still be immune to them. On the other hand, when LQÀXHQ]D YLUXVHV reassort, they acquire completely new antigens. If a human LQÀXHQ]D virus is produced that has entirely new antigens, all humans will be susceptible to infection, and the novel LQÀXHQ]D will spread uncontrollably, causing a pandemic.

In 2009, a new strain of the H1N1 virus appeared. It was determined to have resulted when a previous triple reassortment RI ELUG VZLQH DQG KXPDQ ÀX YLUXVHV IXUWKHU UHFRPELQHG ZLWK WZR VZLQH ÀX YLUXVHV W\SLFDOO\ IRXQG LQ $VLD DQG (XURSH² hence leading to the name “Swine Flu.” As with its 1918 predecessor, it did not disproportionately infect older adults.

Eventually, it killed about 285,000 people worldwide. In 1997, the strain H5N1, apparently purely avian in origin, emerged in Asia. While it has not yet evolved to a form that spreads easily between people, it has an extremely high mortality rate, in excess of 50%. Researchers have expressed concern that, with only a few mutations, the transmissibility of H5N1 could become as high as that of H1N1 in 1918. The H5N1 virus has already mutated into a variety of types with differing SDWKRJHQLF SUR¿OHV VRPH SDWKRJHQLF WR RQH VSHFLHV EXW QRW WR others, some pathogenic to multiple species.

In 2005, using recovered tissue samples, researchers recreated the original 1918 LQÀXHQ]D virus. Not only was it revived, risking an accidental release from the lab, but also LQ WKH LQWHUHVW RI SURPRWLQJ IXUWKHU VFLHQWL¿F H[SORUDWLRQ WKH entire viral genome was openly published on the Internet.

This public release, however, meant that rogue nations and bioterrorist groups then also had access to its genetic code.

With the recreation of the 1918 H1N1 virus and the nearsimultaneous appearance of the new H5N1 virus, researchers came to understand that some strains of the virus did not require 50

an intermediate host, and that human beings could be directly LQIHFWHG ZLWK ELUG ÀX 1R ORQJHU FRXOG FXOOLQJ RI SRWHQWLDOO\ infected domestic poultry eliminate a virus by depriving it of its hosts, and containment, rather than elimination, of the GLVHDVH ZDV WKH EHVW WKDW FRXOG EH KRSHG IRU $ ÀX virus can now leap from waterfowl directly to humans almost overnight DQG ZLWK YHU\ OLWWOH FKDQFH RI DGYDQFH ZDUQLQJ 6XI¿FLHQWO\ DGDSWHG IRU HI¿FLHQW KXPDQ WR KXPDQ WUDQVPLVVLRQ D ZKROO\ avian virus could potentially infect billions of people since there would presumably be no prior immunity in humans.

The only known reasonably effective way to limit the spread of the LQÀXHQ]D virus is through the use of vaccines.

The LQÀXHQ]D vaccine is especially recommended for highrisk groups such as young children, the elderly, health care workers, people who have chronic illnesses (such as asthma, diabetes, or heart disease), and those who are immunocompromised. In healthy adults, the vaccines are modestly effective in decreasing the number of LQÀXHQ]D OLNH V\PSWRPV in a population. The elderly, the group most vulnerable to seasonal (non-SDQGHPLF ÀX LV WKH OHDVW OLNHO\ WR EHQH¿W IURP the vaccine because of their increased susceptibility.

The H1N1 pandemic in 2009 initially caused considerable concern, but its low level of lethality, presumably because of humans’ pre-existing partial immunity, led many to conclude that the H5N1 virus presented the world’s most likely serious current pandemic threat. One strain of H5N1 is spreading JOREDOO\ DIWHU ¿UVW DSSHDULQJ LQ $VLD ZKHUH LW NLOOHG WHQV RI millions of birds and spurred the culling of hundreds of PLOOLRQV PRUH LQ DQ HIIRUW WR VWHP LWV VSUHDG ,W NLOOHG LWV ¿UVW KXPDQ YLFWLP LQ DQG ZDV ¿QDOO\ SRVLWLYHO\ LGHQWL¿HG LQ 2005. While it is still almost exclusively a disease of birds, direct bird-to-human transmission does occasionally occur.

2QO\ D IHZ LVRODWHG LQFLGHQFHV RI FRQ¿UPHG KXPDQ WR KXPDQ transmission have been reported, but the virus continues to mutate, and it may be only a matter of time before human-tohuman transmission becomes much more pronounced.

51

Currently, in humans, while H5N1 is effective at killing, it is QRW HIIHFWLYH DW VSUHDGLQJ )URP WKH ¿UVW ODERUDWRU\ FRQ¿UPHG FDVH WKURXJK -DQXDU\ WKH QXPEHU RI FRQ¿UPHG human cases reported to the World Health Organization stood DW ZLWK IDWDOLWLHV UHÀHFWLQJ D IDWDOLW\ UDWH 7KHUH are three conditions necessary to produce a pandemic. First, a new virus must arise from an animal reservoir, such that humans have no natural immunity to it. Second, the virus must evolve to be capable of killing human beings effectively.

Third, the virus must succeed in jumping from one human to another. So far, H5N1 has met conditions one and two, but not condition three.

As devastating as the 1918 pandemic was, on average its mortality rate was less than 5%. The H5N1 strain of the bird ÀX virus, on the other hand, currently kills in excess of 50% of its known victims. It is at least 10–20 times as deadly as the H1N1 strain of 1918. H5N1 has the potential, then, to become as lethal as Ebola and as contagious as the common cold. Moreover, victims of H5N1 haven’t been dying of superimposed bacterial pneumonia, as was the case in 1918, or what is seen today in seasonal LQÀXHQ]D GHDWKV RI WKH HOGHUO\ DQG WKH LQ¿UP + 1 JHWV WKH KXPDQ immune system to do its killing by tricking the body into unleashing cytokine storms that destroy the victims’ lungs, livers, and kidneys.

Antibiotics, therefore, have no utility whatsoever in treating H5N1 infections.

Medical advances of the 21st century are unlikely to make much of a dent in the next pandemic—and all indications are that there will be a next pandemic, it being only a matter of “when,” not “if.” Vaccines are the cornerstones of our battle against viral disease, but LQÀXHQ]D YLUXVHV LQ JHQHUDO DQG H5N1 in particular, mutate so rapidly that it is impossible to present the body with a perfect vaccine match. Adequate supplies of vaccine would not be available in any country at the start of a pandemic. From the moment that the virus strain

52

is recognized, mass production of a workable vaccine is likely to take several months.

Crunching the numbers relative to the potential mortality of an H5N1 pandemic, were it to occur today, is an exercise in horror. At the low end of the possible number of deaths, if the pandemic were to kill 2.5% of the world’s population— the low estimate for the 1918 pandemic—200 million people would die. That number, however, appears to be overly optimistic, and some high-end calculations are in order. Using the high-end estimate of the number of people who died in the 1918 pandemic (100 million), the number of potential deaths increases to 400 million. But that’s just the beginning of it.

The total number of people worldwide who were infected in the 1918 pandemic was 500 million, and given that the world’s population has increased four-fold since then, if the same rate of infectivity were to apply, the number of potentially infected people jumps to two billion. Worldwide travel having increased VLJQL¿FDQWO\ LQ WKH LQWHUYHQLQJ \HDUV WKH VSUHDG RI WKH GLVHDVH would presumably be increased by a factor of at least two, which means that at least four billion people—55% of the world’s population—would become infected. If the mortality rate of H5N1 were to hold at 50%, that means that two billion people, 28% of the world’s population, would die. Even the most credulous of individuals would, I believe, balk at that number, so let’s back off a bit and assume that the increase in world travel would have no effect. That would reduce the number of potential deaths to one billion people. Let’s also assume that the increase in medical intervention capabilities were to reduce the number of deaths by a factor of two, the number of those who would die would be reduced to 500 million, or 7% RI WKH ZRUOG¶V SRSXODWLRQ 7KDW¶V VWLOO D KRUUL¿F QXPEHU EXW LW VHHPV WR UHÀHFW WKH SRWHQWLDO UHDOLW\ RI WKH QH[W pandemic.

53

* Why do some parents refuse to permit their children to be vaccinated?

Vaccine controversies have occurred since almost 80 years before the terms “vaccine” and “vaccination” were introduced, and those controversies continue to this day.

Despite strong evidence that shows vaccines to be safe and effective, unsubstantiated scares regarding their safety still occur, causing some people to avoid them. While there are, indeed, some risks associated with vaccinations, medical and VFLHQWL¿F HYLGHQFH UHODWHG WR WKH LVVXH FOHDUO\ GHPRQVWUDWHV WKDW WKH EHQH¿WV RI SUHYHQWLQJ VXIIHULQJ DQG GHDWK IURP infectious diseases far outweigh the rare adverse effects of immunization. Nevertheless, many laypeople are more strongly LQÀXHQFHG E\ WKH HPRWLRQDO DVSHFWV RI WKH DUJXPHQWV DJDLQVW YDFFLQDWLRQ WKDQ WKH\ DUH E\ WKH VFLHQWL¿F GDWD LQ IDYRU RI LW When the arguments in opposition reduce vaccination rates in a community, the result can be an epidemic of preventable, and sometimes fatal, childhood illness. The ultimate success RI LPPXQL]DWLRQ SURJUDPV GHSHQGV RQ SXEOLF FRQ¿GHQFH LQ their safety. Concerns about immunization safety often follow a pattern: • First, some investigators suggest that a medical condition of increasing prevalence or unknown cause is an adverse effect of vaccination.

• Second, the initial study, and subsequent studies by the same group, have inadequate methodology, typically involving a poorly controlled or uncontrolled case series.

• Third, a premature announcement is made of the alleged adverse effects. This resonates with individuals suffering from the condition, and leads to an underestimating of the potential harm to those unvaccinated people whom the vaccine could protect.

• Fourth, the initial study cannot be reproduced by other investigators.

54

•

)LQDOO\ LW WDNHV VHYHUDO \HDUV WR UHJDLQ SXEOLF FRQ¿GHQFH in the vaccine.

:KDW LV SHUKDSV WKH PRVW VLJQL¿FDQW vaccine related controversy has to do with the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. It began in 1998 with the publication of an article by $QGUHZ :DNH¿HOG LQ WKH PHGLFDO MRXUQDO The Lancet, in which he claimed that the mercury-based thiomersal preservative used in the vaccine could cause autism in children. The controversy JDLQHG PRPHQWXP LQ DQG ZKHQ :DNH¿HOG XVHG additional papers, press conferences, and videos to advance his case. After the controversy began, many parents became deeply concerned, and the MMR vaccination compliance rate in the United Kingdom dropped sharply from 92% in 1996 to 84% in 2002. After vaccination rates dropped, the incidence rate of both measles and mumps increased VLJQL¿FDQWO\ WLPHV for measles and 37 times for mumps), resulting in numerous deaths and permanent injuries. Following the Baby Getting Vaccinated initial claims, multiple large epidemiological studies were undertaken, and all found no link whatsoever between the MMR vaccine and autism. $GGLWLRQDOO\ LW ZDV GHWHUPLQHG WKDW :DNH¿HOG KDG PXOWLSOH XQGHFODUHG FRQÀLFWV RI LQWHUHVW KDG PDQLSXODWHG HYLGHQFH and had broken other ethical codes. The Lancet paper was partially retracted in 2004 and fully retracted in 2010. Moreover, LQ :DNH¿HOG ZDV IRXQG E\ WKH *HQHUDO 0HGLFDO &RXQFLO to be guilty of serious professional misconduct and was barred from practicing medicine in the UK. All major national and international medical institutions hold that there is no evidence of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism.

55

Multiple vaccines, generally 14, are given to children at a very young age, the objective being to provide them with protection against the relevant diseases as early as possible.

Some people argue that this creates “vaccine overload”—that giving multiple vaccines in a short period of time overwhelms or weakens a child’s immature immune system and leads to adverse effects. The resulting controversy has caused many parents to delay or avoid immunizing their children, thus putting the children at risk and creating major obstacles relative to achieving herd immunity. The lack of evidence supporting the vaccine overload hypothesis, combined with ¿QGLQJV GLUHFWO\ FRQWUDGLFWLQJ LW KDV OHG WR WKH RI¿FLDO PHGLFDO conclusion that the concept of vaccine overload is biologically implausible, and that the currently recommended vaccine programs are appropriate.

When it comes to making a decision about whether or not to be vaccinated, rational individuals will attempt to minimize the risk of illness, and will seek immunization for themselves or their children if they perceive a high risk for disease and a low risk for vaccination. Conversely, they may avoid immunization if they perceive a high risk for vaccination (as occurred with the MMR vaccine hoax) and a low risk for disease (as could be the case if a vaccination program has already successfully reduced the disease threat). One exacerbating issue, from a public health standpoint, is people’s tendency to generalize— if they hear about risks associated with one vaccine, they may assume that such risks apply to all vaccines, and may therefore opt to receive no immunizations at all. Evidence has shown that even when the threat of disease is severe, voluntary compliance with a YDFFLQDWLRQ SURJUDP PD\ EH LQVXI¿FLHQWO\ complete to establish herd immunity. For example, a 2003 study found that a bioterrorist attack using smallpox would result in conditions where voluntary vaccination would be unlikely to reach the optimum level for the country as a whole, and a 2007 study found that severe LQÀXHQ]D HSLGHPLFV DUH unlikely to be prevented by voluntary vaccination without 56

the offering of various incentives or the imposing of various penalties.

Another source of vaccine controversy is whether mandatory vaccination policies violate civil liberties or UHOLJLRXV SULQFLSOHV &RQWURYHUVLHV RYHU WKH HI¿FDF\ VDIHW\ and morality of compulsory immunization stem from the longstanding tension between two, sometimes divergent, goals: protecting individual liberties and safeguarding the public’s health. The tension exists because public health regulations aim to protect as many people as possible, but they sometimes place group needs ahead of individual preferences. In the case of YDFFLQDWLRQ PDQGDWHV VDFUL¿FH LQGLYLGXDO DXWRQRP\ WR protect communities from disease. Unvaccinated individuals pose risks to children or people with medical contraindications who can’t be vaccinated. Yet all public health interventions, including vaccination, include health risks. Moreover, individualism is a strong tenet of US citizens’ ideals and values. Thus, individuals want to exercise their right to protect themselves and/or their children if they do not accept existing medical evidence about the relative safety of vaccines, or if their ideological beliefs do not support vaccination.

Anatomy/Physiology/Neurobiology/Genetics Anatomy is the study of the structure of organisms and their parts; Physiology is the study of the functions and mechanisms which work within a living system; Neurobiology is the study of the nervous system; Genetics is the study of the genetic properties and phenomena of an organism. These branches RI ELRORJLFDO VFLHQFH DUH VXI¿FLHQWO\ FORVHO\ UHODWHG WKDW WKH “why” questions for all of them are compiled together in this section.

57

* Why do some people reject the theory of evolution?

Charles 'DUZLQ SXW IRUWK KLV VFLHQWL¿F WKHRU\ RI evolution in his 1850 book, On the Origin of Species. It is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology, showing how populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection (sometimes spoken of as ³VXUYLYDO RI WKH ¿WWHVW´ ,W SUHVHQWHG D ERG\ RI HYLGHQFH WR the effect that the diversity of life arose by common descent

One Perspective on Evolution

through a branching pattern of evolution. Nearly all scientists (97%) say humans and other living things have evolved over time—87% say evolution is due to natural (not including DUWL¿FLDO VHOHFWLRQ SURFHVVHV 7KHUH DUH religious sects and denominations in several countries for whom the theory of evolution is in FRQÀLFW ZLWK FUHDWLRQLVP WKDW LV FHQWUDO WR WKHLU beliefs, and who therefore reject it entirely (18% of Americans), saying humans have always existed in their present form. Only DPRQJ WKH UHOLJLRXVO\ XQDI¿OLDWHG ± WKRVH ZKR GHVFULEH WKHLU religion as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular”—do a majority (64%) accept evolution via natural selection with no involvement whatsoever from God Only left handers are or a higher power. There are also in their right minds. those who hold to the interventionist –Anonymous position of Zecharia Sitchen (Divine Encounters, 1995 and others) which suggests that modern humans were created about 300,000 years DJR WKURXJK D SURFHVV RI DUWL¿FLDO VHOHFWLRQ E\ DQ DGYDQFHG race of space aliens. Their position is anathema to both the 58

HYROXWLRQLVWV DQG WKH FUHDWLRQLVWV 6FLHQWL¿F DVVRFLDWLRQV KDYH strongly rebutted and refuted the challenges to evolution proposed by intelligent design proponents. * Why are so few people left handed?

Certain genetically determined structures and organization of the brain regulate handedness. Commonly, the speech centers of the human brain are located in the brain’s (normally dominant) left hemisphere and, since speaking and handiwork ERWK UHTXLUH ¿QH PRWRU VNLOOV LW LV SUHVXPDEO\ PRUH QHXURORJLFDOO\ HI¿FLHQW WR KDYH FRQWURO IRU KDQGHGQHVV ORFDWHG there as well. Since the brain/hand connection is contralateral (i.e., each side of the brain controls the opposite side of the body), this results in most people (about 90% of the world’s population) being right-handed. In left-handed individuals, brain dominance is either reversed or the hemispheres are codominant with both of them being used for verbal processing.

With respect to the brain, the location of control for handedness almost always follows the location of verbal processing centers.

As a result of their differences, left-handed people have historically been considered unlucky, aberrant, or even PDOLFLRXV E\ WKH ULJKW KDQGHG PDMRULW\ 7KLV LV UHÀHFWHG in the English language by words such as “dexterous” and “sinister.” Even today, there are those who regard left-handedness, if not as a mark of the devil, at least as a sign of neurosis, rebellion, psychopathology, mental retardation, homosexuality, criminality … or, at best, as a bad habit or a social inconvenience.

There is also a “survival of Woman Riding A Horse Side Saddle

59

WKH ¿WWHVW´ HOHPHQW LQYROYHG LQ WKHUH EHLQJ VR IHZ OHIW KDQGHUV In a 1991 life expectancy study, it was found that the mean age of death for all right-handers was 75 years, whereas for all lefthanders, it was 66 years—a difference of 9 years. The results for men only were even more striking. Right-handed men were found to live an average of 72 years, 4 months, whereas left-handed men lived an average of 62 years, 3 months—a difference of 10 years, 1 month. * Why do men’s and women’s shirts button on different sides?

Many elements of men’s fashion can be traced back to the military. Throughout history, men generally tucked their VZRUGV RU ¿UHDUPV LQWR WKH OHIW VLGH RI WKHLU MDFNHW VR WKH\ could easily access their weapon with their right hand in case RI D ¿JKW DQG WKHQ TXLFNO\ EXWWRQ XS XVLQJ WKHLU OHIW KDQG ZLWKRXW VDFUL¿FLQJ WKH XVH RI WKHLU XVXDOO\ GRPLQDQW ULJKW KDQG in combat.

With women’s blouses and dresses, buttons were deemed a status symbol that only the wealthy could afford in the 13th FHQWXU\ 6LQFH PRVW DIÀXHQW ZRPHQ SDLG PDLGV WR GUHVV them, it made sense for buttons to be sewn onto the left side so the servants could button the dresses up with their right hand. Another theory has to do with horses. Women, to the extent that they rode horses, rode sidesaddle with their legs on the horse’s left side and the right side of their torso forward.

Therefore, putting their shirt and dress buttons on the left UHGXFHG WR VRPH GHJUHH WKH EUHH]H WKDW ZRXOG ÀRZ LQWR WKHLU shirts as they were trotting along.

This leads to another related question—that of why women rode horses side saddle rather than astride. In Europe, it was thought to be unseemly (perhaps especially so by men) for a woman to straddle a horse while riding because her “virtue” was at risk. “Virtue” was a euphemism for “virginity,” and an unbroken hymen was considered to be proof that a woman had not previously had sexual intercourse. Bouncing around 60

vigorously while straddling a horse could often cause the hymen to break. Moreover, a person astride a horse looks powerful, and that was deemed an inappropriate image for a woman to project. In the early 20th century it became socially acceptable for women to ride astride while wearing split skirts or breeches, and the side-saddle began to fall out of fashion. * Why are blond hair and blue eyes uncommon in humans?

Both hair color and eye color are dependent on an indiYLGXDO¶V OHYHO RI SLJPHQWDWLRQ 6LQFH WKH\ DUH LQÀXHQFHG E\ the same genes, hair and eye color are often linked, but, since many genes affect both, it is possible to get multiple different combinations. Since darker genes for the color of both are dominant, the lighter col- Identical Female Twins with Blond Hair and Blue Eyes ors for each are very much in the minority. While blond hair is relatively common in childhood, hair color tends to darken with age, so natural EORQG KDLU RQH LQ WKUHH ZRPHQ DUWL¿FLDOO\ OLJKWHQ WKHLU ORFNV is generally rare in adulthood, with a worldwide prevalence of about 2% (~5% in the US). Estimates for the worldwide prevalence of blue eyes range from 8% to 17%. The numbers for color combinations of hair and eye color are hard to come by and the math is rather tricky, but it can be said with some FRQ¿GHQFH WKDW WKRVH ZLWK ERWK blond hair and blue eyes make up less than 1% of the world’s population. Even fewer people have red hair than have blond hair, so the red hair/blue eyes combination is the least frequent. And then there is really rare, if we consider genetic factors of handedness and twinning as well as light coloration. Approximately 10% of the world’s

61

population is left-handed, and monozygotic (identical) twinning at birth occurs in about 0.3% of the world’s population.

Identical twins who are left handed, red haired, and blue eyed, comprise a miniscule fraction of 1% of the world’s population. $ W\SLFDO H[SODQDWLRQ IRXQG LQ WKH VFLHQWL¿F OLWHUDWXUH for the evolution of light hair and light eyes is related to the evolution of light skin, and in turn the requirement for vitamin D synthesis and northern Europe’s seasonally reduced solar radiation. Lighter skin is due to a low concentration of pigmentation, which allows sunlight to trigger more production of vitamin D. In this way, high frequencies of light hair and light eyes in northern latitudes are a result of the light skin adaptation to lower levels of solar radiation, which reduces the prevalence of rickets FDXVHG E\ YLWDPLQ ' GH¿FLHQF\ 5HVHDUFK has suggested that the genetic mutation that resulted in these changes in northern Europe occurred about 11,000 years ago during the last ice age Today, the highest percentage of light coloration is still found in northern European countries where, illustratively, 45% to 80% of the people have blond hair. With globalization and the increasing mobility of people resulting in more interracial marriages, this might change in the future as the dominant dark genes prevail over the recessive light genes.

In contemporary popular culture, blonde women are stereotyped as being more sexually attractive to men than women with other hair colors. Because they are rare, they stand out, and are thus more interesting as potential mates.

There are higher numbers of females born blonde than males and retention of blonde hair into adulthood, being a marker for youthfulness, is a sexually selected indicator of reproductive ¿WQHVV LQ IHPDOHV &DXFDVLDQ EORQGHV DUH XVXDOO\ VOLJKWO\ higher in estrogen than brunettes and are likely to exhibit other youthful sexually selected traits (indicating low levels of testosterone) that are considered desirable by males, for H[DPSOH ¿QHU IDFLDO IHDWXUHV VPDOOHU QRVH VPDOOHU MDZ

62

pointed chin, narrow shoulders, smooth skin, less body hair, and youthful behavior such as higher energy levels and playfulness.

Blond hair in males does not correlate with estrogen levels as it does in females and blond hair in males is not a NQRZQ LQGLFDWRU RI UHSURGXFWLYH ¿WQHVV DV LW LV LQ IHPDOHV Although psychologists argue that women are less interested in the physical characteristics of men when evaluating attractiveness, in one experiment, women were dramatically less responsive to courtship requests from redhaired men. Also of note is a study of 500 CEOs in the UK, where blonds were XQGHUUHSUHVHQWHG E\ D IDFWRU RI ¿YH ZKLOH LQWHUHVWLQJO\ UHG heads were overrepresented by a factor of four.

Startling new psychological research challenges previous thinking that men’s hair color predilection about women is simply about personal preference. A study found that the consensus in favor of light color was so strong as to be considered a prejudice that could border on racial discrimination and arise out of unconscious white supremacist beliefs. Historically, our society has always held that white people are “better” than non-white people, and it may be that because of this that we prefer blonde hair and blue eyes—the connection being that these are traits that only white people can have, at least naturally. Nonwhite people usually have brown eyes and black hair, and therefore the darker colors can be seen as markers for “inferiority.” * Why do old people keep earlier schedules than do young people?

It’s about sleep patterns. The operation of the body’s circadian clock is regulated by the expression of the circadian genes in the body’s cells, and the time for sleeping and waking are determined by peaks in expression of these JHQHV SUREDEO\ LQÀXHQFHG E\ KRUPRQHV 2OGHU SHRSOH WHQG to have an earlier peak expression of these genes over a 24hour period than younger people, which explains why they tend to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. Unfortunately, 63

many older adults don’t get the sleep they need, because they often have more trouble falling asleep. Moreover, they often sleep less deeply and wake up more often throughout the night. Their brains also spend fewer hours in the more restorative deep sleep mode. This creates memory problems because in deep sleep, the slowed-down brain waves help transfer short-term memories stored in the hippocampus to the prefrontal cortex, where they are recorded as long-term memories %XW ZKHQ LQVXI¿FLHQW time is spent in deep sleep the newest memories can get stuck in the hippocampus, where they are soon overwritten with new memories. Additionally, the transition between being asleep and awake also becomes far more abrupt with age. The lack of deep sleep causes older people to feel groggier after they wake up. Hence the afternoon nap. Typically, naps still don’t allow people to reach deep sleep, but they do help make up for the decreases in alertness and increases in stress that can result from too little shuteye. * Why do people dream?

While there has been a great deal of research into the mechanics of dreaming and its relationship to REM sleep, the question of why we dream is still unanswered. There are many theories regarding why we dream. Freud believed that dreams were a way to act out urges and desires that were considered unacceptable by society. More recent theorists say dreams DUH D SULPDU\ PHDQV RI ¿[LQJ PHPRULHV LQ WKH brain, solving problems and handling strong emotions. For example, it is believed that dreams serve as a means of sorting through all the memories we have created during the day and separating the important ones to be retained from the unimportant ones which are discarded. The lack of oversight by the conscious mind while dreaming, which allows for bizarre and uncontrollable images and scenes to occur in our dreams, is thought to be the reason we can generate novel solutions we didn’t think of when awake. Others theorize that REM sleep and dreaming can have important health functions. Studies have shown that when 64

people are awakened during REM sleep and not permitted to dream, they have a number of negative physical and psychological effects, including a tendency to become psychotic. * Why does time seem to speed up with age?

5HVHDUFK KDV FRQ¿UPHG WKDW ROGHU SHRSOH H[SHULHQFH time as passing faster than do younger people. At least that’s the case for periods of time longer than a year. It generally doesn’t hold true, however for periods as short as a day, a week, or even a month. There are various theories about time seeming to pass more quickly as one gets older. The most popular is also the most obvious: As one gets older, each year is a smaller percentage of their life. If they are 10 years old, a year is 10 percent; if they are 50 years old, a year is two percent. If the frequency of experiences, especially novel experiences, is taken into account, the effect is heightened.

One’s experience of time varies with whatever they are doing and how they feel A Simple Mnemonic Device about it (WLPH GRHV À\ when we are having fun). While engaging in a novel experience makes time appear to pass more quickly in the moment, if one remembers that activity later on, it will seem to have lasted longer than more mundane experiences. And young people have many more new experiences than do old people. As a result, the early years tend to be relatively overrepresented in RQH¶V DXWRELRJUDSKLFDO PHPRU\ DQG RQ UHÀHFWLRQ VHHP WR have lasted longer.

There is also a sound biological explanation for this phenomenon: As one gets older, the brain’s internal clock runs more slowly. With aging, the rate at which changes in mental stimuli are perceived decreases because of several 65

transforming physical features, including vision, brain complexity, and later in life, degradation of the pathways that transmit information. This slowing down of stimuli processing speeds leads to the sense of time speeding up. :K\ GR SHRSOH KDYH PRUH GLI¿FXOW\ UHPHPEHULQJ ZRUGV as they age?

Forgetting words, especially nouns, is a normal and inevitable part of the aging process, and is caused by neurological changes. Names, both the names of people and the names of objects, can be quite elusive. This is, in part, because names are usually arbitrary. While one can recognize somebody HOVH¶V IDFH DQG PD\ UHFDOO VSHFL¿FV RI D SUHYLRXV PHHWLQJ DV well as knowing that they have two children and a dog and are interested in sailing, their name may not available to conscious awareness. With aging, it takes longer to learn and recall information. Age-related memory loss is usually only temporary—given enough time, the information will come to mind.

For most people, occasional age-related lapses in memory are not a warning sign of serious mental deterioration or the onset of dementia. The primary difference between age-related memory loss and dementia is that the former isn’t disabling.

The memory lapses have little impact on one’s daily performance and ability to do what one wants to do. Dementia, on the other hand, is marked by a persistent, disabling decline in two or more intellectual abilities such as memory, language, judgment, and abstract thinking. * Why do blind people wear sunglasses?

There are quite a few reasons for blind people to wear sunglasses. Among them are: • To protect their eyes from harmful ultraviolet rays of which they, unlike seeing people, may not be aware.

• To protect their eyes from damaging airborne objects such as tree leaves, paper scraps, and dust of which they are not aware.

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•

• •

To let seeing people know, along with their white cane, that they are visually impaired and should be given special consideration.

7R FRYHU IDFLDO GLV¿JXUHPHQWV LI DQ\ VR DV WR UHGXFH seeing people’s discomfort.

To reduce discomfort for both parties when they are unable to make appropriate eye contact with seeing people.

* Why do people VQHH]H PXOWLSOH WLPHV LQ D URZ UDWKHU WKDQ just once?

6QHH]LQJ LV DQ LQYROXQWDU\ UHÀH[ WKDW SURWHFWV RQH¶V ERG\ by clearing the nose of bacteria and viruses, and it can’t be stopped once the process has begun. Rarely does the act of sneezing involve only one sneeze. Often two or three sneezes come in quick succession in order to complete the job. When an irritant The Big Sneeze enters the nose, the “sneeze center” in the brain immediately sends out a signal to tightly close the throat, eyes, and mouth. Next, the chest muscles vigorously contract, and the throat muscles quickly relax, causing air, along with saliva and mucus, to be forced out of the mouth and nose. Sneezes can travel at a speed of 100 miles per hour and the wet spray, containing as many as JHUPV FDQ UDGLDWH DV IDU DV ¿YH IHHW 3HRSOH GRQ¶W sneeze when they are asleep because the nerves involved in WKH UHÀH[ DUH DOVR UHVWLQJ 0DQ\ SHRSOH sneeze at peculiar moments—such as after exercise, plucking their eyebrows, when exposed to bright sunshine, or after sex. Contrary to some myths, a sneeze cannot cause a person’s eyes to pop out or their heart to stop (although a brief change in the rhythm of the heartbeat can occur). The record for the longest “sneezing 67

¿W´ LQ WKH ZRUOG LV KHOG E\ D ZRPDQ LQ (QJODQG ZKR LV VDLG to have sneezed continuously from January 13, 1981 (when she was 12), until September 16, 1983 — a total of 978 days. * Why are people not able to tickle themselves?

The human brain is wired against self-tickling. At the back of the brain is an area called the cerebellum, which is involved in monitoring movements, and it knows what one’s hand is going to do before it does it.

Thus, it anticipates the exact force, location, and speed of the tickle and uses that information to desensitize a person to their own tickling.

Tickling is a defense reaction meant to alert The Tickle our cave-dwelling ancestors to creepy crawlies that didn’t know their place, and the XQFRQWUROODEOH ODXJKLQJ ¿W WKDW JRHV DORQJ ZLWK LW LV DFWXDOO\ D panic response. Even if one knows that someone else is about to go for their rib cage, it’s hard to turn the response off because: a) the brain can’t anticipate exactly how and where they’ll tickle, and b) knowing someone else is about to engage in tickling is usually enough to keep those panic receptors functioning. * Why do humans behave so violently toward one another?

This is one of those questions that stimulate nature/nurture debates. Is this as a result of genetics, or is it as a result of environment? As is the case with most such debates, the answer is that it is probably a result of both. Studies generally suggest that 40% of behavioral variables are explained by genes, and 68

60% are explained by environmental factors. There is a human genetic predisposition toward aggression and, when combined with an abusive childhood environment, it is likely to manifest.

Males historically have been found to be generally more physically aggressive than females beginning at an early age, and men do commit the vast majority of violent crimes and PXUGHUV 8S XQWLO DERXW WZR \HDUV RI DJH WKHUH LV QR VLJQL¿FDQW difference between the aggression of males and the aggression of females. After that age, however, girls’ levels of physical aggression declines. The evidence for a genetic predisposition toward aggression is quite strong. In all species, the best KXQWHU WKH EHVW ¿JKWHU WKH PRVW DJJUHVVLYH PDOH VXUYLYHV to pass his biological predispositions on to his descendants.

6FLHQWL¿F FRQVHQVXV LV WKDW EHFDXVH KXPDQV ZHUH KXQWHUV IRU eons, this behavior has become part of our genetic heritage. It appears that there is a very strong correlation between FRQÀLFW and violence on the one hand, and young males on the other.

Intraspecies violence occurs almost exclusively in mammals While other mammals may display aggression and violence in order to compete for food, territory, and mates, it is the primates, primarily chimpanzees (who share 95% of their genes with humans) and humans, who are most likely to kill each other. Humans appear to qualify as the most violent of all the species.

Environmental factors come into play very early in life— even when the fetus is still in the womb. There are many bio-chemicals that are able to cross the placental barrier, so biochemical factors for the mother become biochemical factors for the fetus. Various studies have shown that maternal prenatal smoking and alcohol consumption are positively correlated with aggression later in the life of the child. Similarly, if the expectant mother is the subject of violence, the child is likely to become more aggressive in later life. Interestingly, there is also a correlation between childhood aggression and advanced maternal age at the time of birth. Finally, if as is generally

69

believed, aggression is associated with experiences of trauma, it must be noted that all children experience birth trauma to one degree or another.

A child’s home HQYLURQPHQW SOD\V D VLJQL¿FDQW UROH LQ shaping his/her tendencies toward aggressive and violent behavior in the school. Aggression and violence appear to run in families and to children, even adolescents, their parents are like gods. The way their parents do things seems to them to be the way things should be done, and their home environment, no matter how dysfunctional it might be, seems to them to be the norm. Long-term exposure to gun violence, parental alcohol abuse, parental mental illness (especially anti- social behavior on the part of the mother), and domestic abuse, whether it be parental child abuse (neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, or psychological abuse), sibling abuse, elder abuse, or spousal abuse, are all associated with higher levels of aggressiveness in youth.

Because young children are weak and defenseless, and are trapped in relation to their parents (and siblings), domestic abuse can take a heavy toll. Children who have been exposed to domestic DEXVH HYHQ LI LW LV QRW VSHFL¿FDOO\ GLUHFWHG toward them, are likely to have an elevated risk of developing mental and physical health problems. Their emotional, social, behavioral, and cognitive development can all be negatively affected, and aggression, anxiety, emotional insecurity, depression, suicidality, and other mental health disorders are the likely consequences. Children who develop in the presence of abuse think of that as the way a family normally functions, and are likely to grow up to repeat the cycle because that is all they know.

There is considerable controversy over the role of media violence, especially video games, in causing aggression and violence in society, especially among the youth. Some studies have shown that children who are regularly exposed to media violence are more likely to behave violently than those who haven’t been so exposed; some don’t show that. Many 70

politicians, however, who want to appear to be doing something about violence have taken on media violence as an easy target so they can avoid having to contend with the powerful lobbies RI RUJDQL]DWLRQV OLNH WKH 1DWLRQDO 5LÀH $VVRFLDWLRQ In addition to their natural tendencies toward competition and FRQÀLFW KXPDQV DOVR KDYH QDWXUDO WHQGHQFLHV WRZDUG DI¿OLDWLRQ DQG FRRSHUDWLRQ DQG WKHVH WZR WHQGHQFLHV VWDQG LQ RSSRVLWLRQ WR RQH DQRWKHU :KHQ LQGLYLGXDOV GR DI¿OLDWH DQG form groups, the tendency toward competition and FRQÀLFW is suppressed at the intragroup level and is redirected and PDJQL¿HG DW WKH intergroup level. There is markedly greater competitiveness and aggression when groups interact with other groups than there is when individuals interact with other individuals. When the size of groups in FRQÀLFW ZLWK RQH DQRWKHU LV VXI¿FLHQWO\ ODUJH DQG WKH aggression level between WKHP LV VXI¿FLHQWO\ YLROHQW WKH ¿JKWLQJ WKDW UHVXOWV FDQ appropriately be spoken of as “war.” While war is generally thought of as being between states, large-scale violence between non-state groups does occur and is sometimes spoken of as “gang warfare.”

Adolescent Gang Violence

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Chapter 3

“Why” Questions About Social Sciences Social science is a category of academic disciplines, concerned with society and the relationships among individuals within a society. Social science as a whole has many branches which include, among many others: anthropology, archaeology, economics, history, philosophy, political science, psychology, public health, and sociology. Most general-interest “why” TXHVWLRQV LQ VRFLDO VFLHQFH DSSHDU WR DULVH LQ WKH ¿HOGV RI • Political science – The study of the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems, political activities, political thoughts, and political behaviors.

• Public health – The science of protecting and improving the health of people and their communities.

This work is achieved by promoting healthy lifestyles, researching disease and injury prevention, and detecting, preventing and responding to infectious diseases.

• Psychology – The science of behavior and mind, psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, as well as feeling and thought.

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•

Sociology – The study of society, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and culture of everyday life, as well as the consequences of differences.

General-interest “why” questions (and their answers) from WKHVH IRXU ¿HOGV DUH SUHVHQWHG EHORZ Political Science * Why does the HOHFWRUDO FROOHJH H[LVW" The Electoral College is a body of electors established by the United States Constitution, constituted every four years for the sole purpose of electing the president and vice president of the United States. The Electoral College consists of 538 electors, and requires an absolute majority of 270 electoral votes to win an election. Each state’s number of electors is equal to the combined total of the state’s membership in the Senate and House of Representatives; currently there are 100 senators and 435 representatives. Additionally, the District of Columbia (D.C.) is entitled to a number of electors no greater than that of the least populous state (i.e. 3). The number of representatives for each state is based on their respective populations, determined every ten years by the United States Census. Based on the 2010 census, each representative represented an average of 711,000 persons. Almost all states allot all their electoral votes to the winning candidate in that state, no matter how marginal the candidate’s win. Since each state gets a minimum of three electoral votes, regardless of population, this gives low-population states a disproportionate number of electors per capita. For example, an electoral vote represents nearly four times as many people in California as in Wyoming. Electors usually pledge to vote for their party’s nominee, but some “faithless electors” have voted for other candidates or refrained from voting. Twenty-nine states plus the District of Columbia have passed laws to punish faithless electors, although none have ever been enforced. Territories 73

of the United States are not entitled to electors, and hence roughly 4 million Americans do not have the right to vote in presidential elections.

Proponents of the Electoral College argue that it is fundamental to American federalism, that it requires candidates to appeal to voters outside large cities, that it increases the SROLWLFDO LQÀXHQFH RI VPDOO VWDWHV WKDW LW GLVFRXUDJHV WKH excessive growth of political parties while preserving the twoparty system, and that it makes the electoral outcome appear more legitimate than that of a nationwide popular vote. They claim that the Electoral College system prevents a candidate from winning the presidency by simply winning in heavily populated urban areas, and pushes candidates to make a wider geographic appeal than they would if they simply had to win the national popular vote.

Opponents of the Electoral College system point out that, at the most basic level, it does away with the cherished American ideal of “one person, one vote.” They also show that the combined population of the 50 biggest cities (not including metropolitan areas) amounts to only 15% of the US population, although on a Metropolitan Statistical Area basis, the top 50 cities in 2017 comprise over 179 million people, amounting to 55% of the US population. They note, as well, that it is already possible to win the required 270 electoral votes by winning only the 11 most populous states. Because the national popular vote is irrelevant under the Electoral College system, it is generally presumed that candidates base their campaign strategies around its existence. The Electoral College, they say, causes candidates to focus their campaigning disproportionately in a few “swing states” while ignoring most of the rest of the country. The term “swing state” refers to any state that could reasonably be won by either the Democratic or Republican presidential candidate. These states are usually targeted by both major-party campaigns. Meanwhile, the states that regularly lean to a single party are known as “safe states,” as it is generally assumed that one candidate has a solid base 74

RI VXSSRUW IURP ZKLFK WKH\ FDQ GUDZ D VXI¿FLHQW VKDUH RI WKH electorate. They also point out that the way in which Electoral College votes are allocated gives citizens in less populated states (e.g. Wyoming) as much as four times the voting power as those in more populous states (e.g. California).

While the electoral vote has arrived at the same end result as the popular vote in most elections, there have been a few instances in which that has not been the case. The upshot was that a person became president even though their opponent got more popular votes (which occurred in 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016). Elections where the winning candidate loses the national popular vote typically result when the winner builds WKH UHTXLVLWH FRQ¿JXUDWLRQ RI VWDWHV DQG WKXV FDSWXUHV WKHLU electoral votes) by small margins, but the losing candidate secures large voter margins in the remaining states. The presidential election in 2016 was a notable example, as it featured one of the largest historical disparities between the Electoral College and popular vote. As the election was quite close, the winner of the Electoral College (Trump) did not capture the popular vote which went to Clinton. The Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, won the popular vote by 2.8 million (over 2%) while Trump won the Electoral College vote by 304–207, and became the President-elect. The election hinged not on Clinton’s large 2.8 million overall vote margin over Trump, but rather on about 78,000 votes from only three counties in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

Most polls since 1967 have shown that a majority of Americans favor the President and Vice President being elected by the nationwide popular vote, instead of by the Electoral College. Polls taken after the 2016 presidential election, however, have shown an increase in support for keeping the Electoral College with overall support for retaining it rising to 47% versus 35% in 2011. Republican support increased from 36% to 81% and Democratic support decreased 31% to 19%. This is hardly surprising given

75

that it was only because of the existence of the Electoral College that the Republican Trump became President. * Why does President Trump deny that human-caused global warming is occurring?

It certainly is not for lack of evidence! There is considerable evidence that, over the past few hundred years, the rapid increases in human activity—especially the burning of fossil fuels—has caused the parallel rapid and accelerating increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases that trap the sun’s heat. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, there has been a 40% increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO ²WKH ¿UVW SHUFHQW RI WKH LQFUHDVH WRRN SODFH 2 in about 200 years, from the start of the Industrial Revolution to 1958, and, the next 75 percent of the increase took place within 56 years, from 1958 to 2014. This increase, in a few hundred years, is greater than the increase that occurred at the end of the last Ice Age over a period of a few thousand years.

Looking back further, the current levels of CO are much higher 2 than at any time during the last 800,000 years, the period for which reliable data has been extracted from ice cores. Less direct geological evidence indicates that CO values higher 2 than this were last seen about 20 million years ago.

7KH FRQVHQVXV RI WKH VFLHQWL¿F FRPPXQLW\ LV WKDW LW LV H[WUHPHO\ OLNHO\ WKDW KXPDQ LQÀXHQFH²SULPDULO\ WKH production of greenhouse gases (with comparatively modest additional contributions from deforestation, land use changes, soil erosion, and agriculture)—has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th FHQWXU\ 7KHVH ¿QGLQJV have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any VFLHQWL¿F ERG\ RI QDWLRQDO RU LQWHUQDWLRQDO VWDQGLQJ Global warming conspiracy theorists including US President Donald Trump, typically allege that the science behind global warming has been invented or distorted for ideological RU ¿QDQFLDO UHDVRQV²IRU H[DPSOH PDQ PDGH global warming 76

is a conspiracy designed to soften up the world’s population to higher taxation, controls on lifestyles, and more authoritarian government. Trump’s election to the US Presidency dealt a severe setback to the environmental movement. Indications are that Trump’s attacks on environmentalism were motivated, at least in part, by the fact that protecting the environment had been a shining star among the accomplishments of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama. Moreover, in keeping with his pro-big business stance, Trump was clearly giving a KLJKHU SULRULW\ WR WKH SUR¿WV RI PXOWLQDWLRQDO SROOXWHUV WKDQ WR the health and well-being of the people. :LWKLQ GD\V RI KLV WDNLQJ RI¿FH ODUJH DPRXQWV RI climate information were altered or removed from both the EPA and the Whitehouse websites. Moreover, Trump announced his intention to roll back numerous governmental regulations that had been put in place to protect the environment. Shortly after his inauguration, Trump unveiled what he calls the “America First Energy Plan,” claiming that “America has been held back by burdensome regulations on [its] energy industry.”

The America First Energy Plan makes no mention whatsoever RI UHQHZDEOH HQHUJ\ DQG LQVWHDG UHÀHFWV Trump’s support for fossil fuels.

Material inequality between nations makes technological VROXWLRQV E\ WKHPVHOYHV LQVXI¿FLHQW IRU climate change mitigation, and political solutions are required due to the particularities of various facets of environmental crises.

Environmental change mitigation strategies can be at odds with democratic priorities of prosperity, progress, and state sovereignty, because they require a collective relationship with respect to the environment. In recent years, a number of treaties, agreements, and accords relative to the environment have been put into place. Today, the foremost of these are the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 and the Paris Agreement of 2016. On June 1, 2017, Trump announced the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, and the US is now the only nation WKDW KDV QRW UDWL¿HG LW 77

Those who reject the reality of human-caused global warming employ denial, dismissal, unwarranted doubt, or YLHZV FRQWUDGLFWLQJ WKH VFLHQWL¿F RSLQLRQ RQ climate change, including the extent to which it is caused by humans, its impacts on nature and human society, or the potential of adaptation to global warming by human actions. The disputed issues include the causes of increased global average air temperature, whether this warming trend is unprecedented or within normal climatic variations, whether humankind has contributed VLJQL¿FDQWO\ WR LW DQG ZKHWKHU WKH LQFUHDVH LV FRPSOHWHO\ RU partially an artifact of poor measurements. Additional disputes concern estimates of climate sensitivity, predictions of additional warming, and what the consequences of global warming will be. Global warming denial is most prevalent in the United States, where organizations associated with conservative economic policies and backed by industrial interests opposed to the regulation of CO emissions, have challenged the Intergov2 ernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate change scenarios. As their arguments were increasingly refuted by the VFLHQWL¿F FRPPXQLW\ and new data, the deniers turned to political arguments, making personal attacks on the reputation of mainstream scientists, and promoting ideas of a global warming theory Adding to The Greenhouse Effect conspiracy. :K\ KDYH K\SRFULV\ DQG O\LQJ EHFRPH QRUPDOL]HG LQ 86 politics?

Hypocrisy is the practice of engaging in the same behavior or activity for which one criticizes others—the failure to follow one’s own expressed moral rules and principles. It is the contrivance of a false appearance of virtue or goodness, 78

while concealing real character or inclinations, especially with respect to religious and moral beliefs. In a general sense, then, hypocrisy may involve dissimulation, pretense, or sham.

Hypocrisy can be easily subsumed under a broader category of morally objectionable conduct—for example, deceit or lying.

That having been said, we all are aware that everyone lies.

Sometimes it’s done to blend in; other times it’s done to avoid hurting someone’s feelings. Politicians, of course, tell lies of this sort like the rest of us. And there are times when politicians (at least those at the higher levels) must lie—for example in matters dealing with national security. But politicians, it seems, tell more lies than most, and those lies are often blatantly selfserving in nature. Politicians lie to enhance their image, to get themselves reelected, and/or to cover their backsides if they have done something wrong. Amazingly, particularly in this age of the Internet and its army of professional and amateur fact checkers, many politicians believe they can lie and get away with it. This is, in part, because politicians are often QDUFLVVLVWV ,W LVQ¶W GLI¿FXOW WR VHH WKH FRQQHFWLRQ 1DUFLVVLVWV are arrogant, self-important, see themselves as special, require excessive admiration, have a sense of entitlement, and are exploitative. This constellation of narcissistic attributes causes them to believe that they are right and, even if they are not, that they’re too smart to be caught or suffer the consequences.

The bottom line is that they believe their own bullshit.

The opposite of a lie is the truth. But the opposite of the truth is not necessarily a lie. Truth is a concept that we apply to propositions—either they are, or they are not, true; either they DUH RU WKH\ DUH QRW WKLQJV WKDW FDQ EH MXVWL¿HG DQG EHOLHYHG in. It is best not to think of that which is the opposite of the truth as being something that is false, or a lie, because truth is, unfortunately, something that often has degrees. If we do not tell the complete story, for example, we are not necessarily “lying,” or telling any “falsehoods,” we are simply not presenting the entire truth. So, it is better to think in terms of what is true, and what is not true, rather than what is true, and 79

what is false. Euphemisms like “claimed without evidence,” “falsely said,” and “wrongly asserted” are ponderous, but they do avoid explicitly ascribing intent to deceive. The same also applies to “untruth,” “falsehood,” and “unsubstantiated claim.”

Calling something a “lie” implies that the speaker knows that what he said is untrue, and that he meant to deceive.

Okay, but what is “truth?” Today, in the context of the 21st century, that question has more relevance than ever before, because truth appears to have lost its “absolute” status, and now is held to be something that is only “relative.” It is not that there are no longer any truths, but it means that we are now unable to agree on what those truths are. Without consensus about truth, and with no way of achieving it, we are spiraling downward into a chaotic environment in which truth is regularly distorted and manipulated, and in which something that is nothing more than someone’s viewpoint is often granted that status of “truth.”

The status of truth in American politics today is, sadly, at the bottom of the barrel. Historically, politics and untruths have gone hand-in-hand, but it seems like we’re now seeing new lows on almost a daily basis. Those whose style involves fabrication have found a powerful role model in President Donald Trump who regularly astounds the world with his oft-repeated falsehoods. Politifact bestowed upon him their 2015 “Lie of the Year” award, and in a study of 445 of his recent public statements during one period concluded that of them 5% were true, 12% 21st Century Pinocchio were mostly true, 14% were half true, 21% were mostly false, 33% were false, and 16% were boldface lies. More recently, the Washington Post UHSRUWHG WKDW LQ KLV ¿UVW GD\V LQ RI¿FH Trump said 10,796 80

things that were misleading or outright false—that’s 12 untrue things a day! His untruthful utterances have been so many and VR YDULHG WKDW LW LV GLI¿FXOW WR ¿QG WKH FRUUHFW WHUP WR HQFRPpass them all as a single category. While it is not politically correct to claim that a sitting president is telling “lies,” the use of that term has now become almost unavoidable.

In the run-up to the 2012 election, Trump built the foundation of his presidential campaign on an enormous falsehood. He repeatedly suggested without evidence that Barack Obama was not a legitimate presidential candidate due to the circumstances of his birth. Trump managed to keep the issue alive into the early stages of the 2016 presidential campaign. ,Q ZKHQ KH ¿QDOO\ DFNQRZOHGJHG WKH legitimacy of Obama’s citizenship, he claimed, again without evidence, that it was Hillary Clinton, not he, who had raised the issue.

In his probe for areas of future political opportunity, there were at least three lessons he might have learned. First: An effective way to appeal to Americans who felt alienated from traditional channels of power was to put forth ideas so extreme as to have been “overlooked” by the mainstream media.

Second: Whereas traditional media tended to act as an informal check against incendiary or demonstrably false ideas, social media tended to amplify them. Third: In his earlier forays into presidential politics, even Trump, a famous billionaire, had needed gatekeepers to propagate his message; in the age of social media, the gates were far easier to bypass.

While Trump certainly isn’t the only American politician who is currently uttering numerous falsehoods, he is far DQG DZD\ WKH PRVW YLVLEOH DQG WKH PRVW SUROL¿F ,Q DGGLWLRQ to telling multiple packs of bold-faced lies, Trump has told a much larger number of falsehoods of lesser magnitude.

While these might be dismissed as nothing more than political puffery — something that quite a few politicians engage in on a regular basis, Trump seems to be in a league all his own in terms of frequency.

81

Trump has settled into an interesting pattern of creating for himself “plausible deniability” relative to any controversial remarks (often racist) that he might make, so as to avoid being held to a position. For example, he might make a controversial statement one day, and the next day reverse himself. Then, on the day after that, he will double down and reiterate his original position. If his original (and doubled down) position turns out to be too controversial and potentially undermining of support for him, he can simply say that he had been misunderstood and WKDW KLV VHFRQG GD\ VWDWHPHQW UHÀHFWV KLV WUXH WKLQNLQJ The word “post-truth” was selected by Oxford Dictionaries as its 2016 international “Word of the Year”—a word that captures the ethos, mood or preoccupations of that particular \HDU DQG KDV ODVWLQJ SRWHQWLDO DV D ZRUG RI FXOWXUDO VLJQL¿FDQFH 7KH GLFWLRQDU\ GH¿QHV ³SRVW truth” as “relating to or denoting FLUFXPVWDQFHV LQ ZKLFK REMHFWLYH IDFWV DUH OHVV LQÀXHQWLDO LQ shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal EHOLHI ´ ,Q WKLV FDVH WKH ³SRVW´ SUH¿[ GRHVQ¶W PHDQ ³DIWHU´ VR much as it implies an atmosphere in which the notion of truth is irrelevant.

The lying of politicians has become so ubiquitous that a paradox has been created for voters who wish to elect a truth teller. They are quite likely to be deceived into voting for the politicians who are most adept at lying—those who lie so effectively that their untruthfulness is not able to be uncovered. During the contentious 2016 US presidential campaign, it appears that post-truth claims carried the day.

While it is generally acknowledged that all politicians lie to a certain extent, Donald Trump was seen as being in a different league altogether—and a large number of media outlets found that his relationship to the truth was, well, “complicated.”

In January, 2017, it became clear that the Trump camp, with their endorsement of the term “alternative facts,” will engage in distortions when it suits their purposes. They had falsely claimed that President Trump’s inaugural ceremony had drawn the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration.

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Photographic evidence and rapid transit ridership data proved that this claim was false. In an interview, when pressed to explain why a “provable falsehood” had been uttered, a Trump spokeswoman stated that they had been providing “alternative facts.” The interviewer responded, “Look, alternative facts are not facts. They’re falsehoods.” But she defended her choice RI ZRUGV E\ GH¿QLQJ DOWHUQDWLYH IDFWV DV ³DGGLWLRQDO IDFWV DQG alternative information.” The use of this term was widely mocked on social media, sharply criticized by journalists and media organizations, and extensively described as “Orwellian Newspeak “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

—George Orwell

:K\ GRHV WKH PLOLWDU\ ¿UH gun salutes?

7KH SUDFWLFH RI ¿ULQJ gun salutes has existed for centuries.

Early warriors demonstrated their peaceful intentions by GHPRQVWUDWLQJ WKDW WKHLU ZHDSRQV ZHUH XQXVDEOH IRU ¿JKWLQJ 7KLV FXVWRP ZDV XQLYHUVDO ZLWK WKH VSHFL¿F DFW YDU\LQJ ZLWK time and place, depending on the weapons being used. The tradition of rendering a salute by cannon originated in the 14th century as ¿UHDUPV and cannons came into use. Since these early devices contained only one projectile, discharging them once rendered them ineffective. :DUVKLSV DUH VDLG WR KDYH RULJLQDOO\ ¿UHG VHYHQ gun salutes EDVHG RQ WKH VHYHQ SODQHWV WKDW KDG EHHQ LGHQWL¿HG DW WKH time, and also on the phases of the moon that changed every seven days. More simplistically, some say that seven was the standard number of weapons on a vessel. Land batteries, having a JUHDWHU VXSSO\ RI JXQSRZGHU ZHUH DEOH WR ¿UH WKUHH JXQV IRU HYHU\ VKRW ¿UHG DÀRDW KHQFH WKH VDOXWH E\ VKRUH EDWWHULHV ZDV 21 guns. The multiple of three probably was chosen because of WKH P\VWLFDO VLJQL¿FDQFH RI WKH QXPEHU WKUHH LQ PDQ\ DQFLHQW 83

civilizations. When the quality of gunpowder improved, ships at sea also adopted the salute of 21 guns. By 1730, the Royal Navy was prescribing 21 guns for certain anniversary dates, although this was not mandatory as a salute to the Royal family until later in the 18th century. Soon, the 21-gun salute became the highest honor a nation could render. There was much confusion because of the varying customs of maritime states, EXW ¿QDOO\ WKH %ULWLVK JRYHUQPHQW SURSRVHG WR WKH 8QLWHG States a regulation that provided for “salutes to be returned gun for gun.” The British at that WLPH RI¿FLDOO\ FRQVLGHUHG WKH international salute to sovereign states to be 21 guns, and the United States adopted the 21 guns and “gun for gun” return in 1875.

Initially, the President of the United States received a salute equal to the number of states then in existence whenever he visited a military installation.

The US Navy regulations in 1818 required that when the PresiGun Salute from The USS Constitution dent visited a Navy ship, he was to be saluted with 21 guns (which was the number of states in the Union at that time). It then became customary to ¿UH D gun salute on Washington’s Birthday, Presidents Day, Independence Day, and Memorial Day. Today, the national saOXWH RI JXQV LV ¿UHG LQ KRQRU RI D QDWLRQDO ÀDJ WKH VRYHUHLJQ or chief of state of a foreign nation, a member of a reigning royal family, and the President, ex-President, and PresidentHOHFW RI WKH 8QLWHG 6WDWHV ,W LV DOVR ¿UHG DW QRRQ RQ WKH GD\ of the funeral of a President, ex-President, or President-elect.

84

* Why do many people consider war to be a glorious undertaking?

Most people are likely to agree with General William T. Sherman’s oft-quoted statement, “War is Hell!”. War is based on hatred, it is destructive, it is chaotic, it is cruel, and it is deadly, but there are also those who believe that “War is Glorious!”. They hold that belief for many reasons, among which are: • War is exciting; • Soldiers are given permission, even ordered, to do “bad” things like kill people; • Soldiers get to trade on the attractiveness of a man in uniform; • War promotes bonding with comrades; • War inspires the soldiers’ lives with purpose; • War makes a soldier a more disciplined, stronger, more manly, better person; • Unlike the enemy, our soldiers, particularly the heroes, are highly principled and moral individuals who would never commit war crimes; • 7KH VDFUL¿FHV RI war may be great, but they are extremely noble, maybe even saintly.

Positive War Propaganda

“War is Glorious!” works as war propaganda because it gives \RXQJ PHQ WKH PRWLYDWLRQ WR ¿JKW and it gives the citizenry reason to support those young men who are defending their country from an evil enemy. War propaganda is marked by dehumanization/ demonization of the enemy, censorship of the motivations for war, sanitization of wounds and deaths, whitewashing of ZDU FULPHV GLVPLVVDO RI SDFL¿VP as insanity/weakness, etc.

85

If we were to be talking from a reality-based position, however, it’s a sure thing that PTSD isn’t caused by being exposed to excessive amounts of glory and honor. The motivations for war can be seen as harking back to humanity’s basest and most savage instincts: pride, greed, resources, dogma, fear, disgust, hatred, retribution, power, insanity, megalomania, or even all of the above. The brutal and callous force of wartime authority overrides all individual thought. * Why do some people deny that the holocaust occurred?

The primary motivation for Holocaust denial is antiSemitism. It is a contemporary form of the classic anti-Semitic doctrine of the evil, manipulative and threatening world Jewish conspiracy. For Holocaust deniers, it is an infuriatingly inconvenient fact of history, given that the Holocaust has generally been recognized as one of the most terrible crimes that ever took place. Because Holocaust denial is a common facet of certain racist propaganda, it is considered a serious societal problem in many places where it occurs and is illegal, either explicitly or implicitly, in a number of countries.

Holocaust denial and distortion are strategies designed to reduce perceived public sympathy for Jews, to undermine the legitimacy of the State of Israel (which some believe was created as compensation for Jewish suffering during the Holocaust), to plant seeds of doubt about Jews and the Holocaust, and to draw attention to particular issues or viewpoints.

Holocaust deniers usually make one or more of the following false statements: • Nazi Germany’s “Final Solution” was aimed only at deporting Jews from the Reich, and did not include their extermination; • Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas chambers for the genocidal mass murder of Jews; • 7KH DFWXDO QXPEHU RI -HZV PXUGHUHG LV VLJQL¿FDQWO\ ORZHU WKDQ WKH DFFHSWHG ¿JXUH RI WR PLOOLRQ typically around a tenth of that number.

86

• •

• • • •

Among the other claims that they make are the following: Stories of the Holocaust were a propaganda myth initially created by the Allies of World War II to demonize Germans, Jews having spread this myth as part of a grander plot intended to enable the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, and now to garner continuing support for the state of Israel; Documentary evidence of the Holocaust, from photographs to The Diary of Anne Frank, is fabricated; Interrogators obtained Nazi prisoners’ confessions of war crimes through the use of torture; 6XUYLYRU WHVWLPRQLHV DUH ¿OOHG ZLWK HUURUV DQG inconsistencies, and are thus unreliable; The Nazi treatment of Jews was no different from what the Allies did to their enemies in World War II.

As Germany’s defeat became imminent and Nazi leaders realized they would most likely be captured and brought to trial, great effort was made to destroy all evidence of mass extermination. In 1945, General Eisenhower anticipated that someday an attempt would be made to recharacterize the documentation of Nazi crimes as propaganda and took steps against it. He urged both Washington and LonHolocaust Victims don to immediately send to Germany a random group of newspaper editors and representative groups from the national legislatures. He also ordered all possible photographs to be taken, and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the dead.

87

In the immediate aftermath of the war, the reported Nazi programs were so grotesquely evil that many people could not believe them and initially doubted the reality of the Holocaust.

This perception changed, however, with the release of the documentation obtained by the allied forces and with the testimony at various war crimes trials that followed. In subsequent years, however, the Neo-Nazi movement was revitalized by moves to discredit the Holocaust. Holocaust denial propaganda LQ DOO LWV IRUPV KDV EHHQ VKRZQ WR LQÀXHQFH HYHU\ DXGLHQFH that it reaches, even the well-educated. This stems from the growing disbelief that audiences feel after being exposed to VXFK KRUUL¿F LQIRUPDWLRQ HVSHFLDOO\ VLQFH Holocaust witnesses themselves are decreasing in number. A January 2019 survey found that 5% of UK adults did not believe the Holocaust took place and 8% believed its scale has been exaggerated. Twenty percent thought that less than 2 million Jews were murdered, and 45% couldn’t say how many people were murdered. * Why do US laws not prohibit the sale and ownership of assault weapons?

There is a very strong gun culture in the United States. As of June, 2018, there were an estimated 393 million privately owned guns and 327 million people in the United States.

That’s enough to arm every man, woman, and child in the country with enough weapons left over to arm 66 million pets.

Ours is a nation that was founded in violence, that grew its borders through violence, and that still allows men in power to further our so-called American (corporate) interests through violence. There is no other developed country in the world ZKHUH ¿UHDUPV DUH DV SOHQWLIXO DQG DV LQH[WULFDEO\ OLQNHG WR individual identity and popular values as they are in the United States. :KHQ LW FRPHV WR GHDWKV E\ ¿UHDUPV WKH 8QLWHG 6WDWHV FDQ be likened to a veritable slaughterhouse. As compared to seven other developed countries with a collective population that is URXJKO\ WKH VDPH DV WKDW RI WKH 86 WRWDO GHDWKV E\ ¿UHDUPV LQ 88

a representative year has been approximately 12 times higher in the US than in those countries—32,774 as compared to 2,689. There were 6 times as many guns in the United States as there were in the comparison countries, collectively, and each of those guns was twice as likely to be involved in a death. Gun control advocates suggest that this is primarily a UHVXOW RI WKH KLJK SUHYDOHQFH RI ¿UHDUPV LQ WKH 8QLWHG 6WDWHV which is seven times more per 100,000 residents than it is, on average, in the comparison countries, and that the relative lack of gun control in the US is a strongly exacerbating factor. Gun rights advocates, on the other hand, suggest that the Second Amendment to the Constitution— “A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”—is of SDUDPRXQW LPSRUWDQFH DQG WKDW ¿UHDUPV GHDWKV ZRXOG DFWXDOO\ be reduced if more American civilians were encouraged to carry guns.

When Donald Trump began seriously contemplating a bid for the Republican presidential nomination, he took a mainstream Republican Party position on gun control, which viewed most forms of additional gun regulation as a violation of Second Amendment constitutional protections. From then on, he largely echoed the NRA’s hard line on ¿UHDUP LVVXHV The group would end up spending more than $30 million to support his presidential bid. As president, Trump’s main actions on guns have been rolling-back Obama-era limitations on the ability of those being treated for mental illness to purchase ¿UHDUPV DQG ZLWKGUDZLQJ IURP WKH 81 $UPV 7UDGH 7UHDW\ an international effort supported by the Obama administration that is aimed at regulating the international arms industry.

Many different types of guns exist, including the handgun, WKH VKRWJXQ WKH ULÀH WKH assault weapon, the submachine gun, the machine gun, and the grenade launcher. Most legislative controversies relative to gun control have to do with handguns and assault weapons. Submachine guns, machine guns, and grenade launchers are already banned, while shotguns and 89

VWDQGDUG ULÀHV GR KDYH ³OHJLWLPDWH´ VSRUWLQJ XVHV 7KH PDLQ purpose of handguns and assault weapons, however, is for the killing of people, and hence they are the primary targets for efforts expended by gun control advocates. The legislative battles being fought over guns are between gun rights advocates and gun control advocates. The most visible gun rights RUJDQL]DWLRQ LV WKH 1DWLRQDO 5LÀH $VVRFLDWLRQ 15$ DQG WKH most visible gun control organization is the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. In many respects, gun rights advocates and gun control advocates are focusing on two separate and distinct issues. The primary goal of gun rights advocates is WR SURWHFW WKH DYDLODELOLW\ DQG RZQHUVKLS RI ¿UHDUPV IRU WKH American populace, without any governmental restrictions whatsoever. The primary goal of gun control advocates is to protect the lives and well-being of the American populace.

It seems highly unlikely that civilian gun ownership will ever be banned in the United States, so comparisons with countries that have very low civilian gun ownership rates— such as the United Kingdom and Japan are inappropriate.

Nevertheless, precedents for more effective gun control do exist in such countries as Germany, Sweden, Canada, and Switzerland, which on average have 34% of the gun ownership UDWH RI WKH 86 \HW KDYH RQO\ RI WKH UDWH RI ¿UHDUPV GHDWKV Unlike the US, almost all other high-income countries have a licensure system for gun ownership. Virtually all of these FRXQWULHV DOVR UHTXLUH UHJLVWUDWLRQ RI DOO ¿UHDUPV ERWK KDQGJXQV and long guns. The large majority also require a training FHUWL¿FDWH EHIRUH RQH FDQ OHJDOO\ REWDLQ D ¿UHDUP 0RUHRYHU most of the countries do not consider “protection” a legitimate reason for obtaining a handgun. For those individuals who GR KDYH ¿UHDUPV DOPRVW DOO FRXQWULHV KDYH PDQGDWRU\ VDIH storage requirements. None of these requirements hold for most states in the US, even though gun advocates have long claimed that guns in the United States are heavily regulated.

One of the complicating factors is that legal issues relative to guns are primarily under the purview of the states rather 90

than the federal government, and the patchwork quilt of laws is so confusing that they are generally neither understood nor enforced. What is important is that whatever laws are in effect be stringently enforced, and that is simply not happening in the United States. If that were also to be the case with new laws, there would be little to be gained by passing them.

0RVW $PHULFDQV IDYRU D KRVW RI PRGHVW ¿UHDUPV UHJXODWLRQV for example: • 74% favor a waiting period for purchase of a ¿UHDUP • 82% support limiting the sales of military-style assault weapons; • 87% support background checks for private gun sales, including at gun shows; • 65% support limiting handgun sales to one per person per month.

'HVSLWH WKHVH ¿JXUHV RXU SROLWLFLDQV DUH ORDWK WR SXW LQWR place gun control laws that actually work, presumably because of the strength of the gun rights lobby. Real progress will require the transcending of hardened politics.

There are so many gun homicides in the United States (an average of approximately 11,000 per year or 30 per day) that most people, as well as the media and our legislators, think of them as being part of the normal routine and pay little attention to them. When a mass murder occurs, however, it DW OHDVW EULHÀ\ FDSWXUHV MXVW DERXW HYHU\RQH¶V DWWHQWLRQ²WKH public, the media, and the politicians alike. This tends to be especially true of mass shootings in the schools, which are OLNHO\ WR EH SHUFHLYHG DV SDUWLFXODUO\ KRUUL¿F SHUKDSV LQ SDUW because of the young age of most of the victims. Moreover, school shootings terrify us because they contradict our most ¿UPO\ KHOG EHOLHIV DERXW FKLOGKRRG KRPH DQG FRPPXQLW\ They expose the vulnerable underbelly of ordinary life and show us that malevolence can be brewing in places where we least expect it. They almost always happen in suburban or rural environments. In such communities, the school plays a central 91

role in the social life of both adults and children, and is one of the few “public stages” where an attention-seeking shooter can make his existential rage known to the world. In the city, there are many other, potentially more meaningful, stages available.

Some of the deadliest and better-known school shootings are: • Westside Middle School shootings – On March 24, 1998, in Craighead County, Arkansas ¿YH ZHUH NLOOHG and ten were wounded.

• Columbine High School Massacre – On April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, thirteen were killed and 24 were injured.

• Red Lake shootings – On March 21, 2005, at the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota, nine were killed and seven were wounded.

• West Nickel Mines School shooting – On October 2, 2006, in Nickel Mines, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, ¿YH ZHUH NLOOHG DQG ¿YH ZHUH ZRXQGHG • Virginia Tech Massacre – On April 16, 2007, on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, 32 were killed and 17 were wounded.

• Northern Illinois University shooting – On February 14, 2008, at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, six were killed and 21 were wounded.

• Oikos University shooting – On April 2, 2012, at Oikos University in Oakland, California, seven were killed and three were wounded.

• Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting – On December 14, 2012, at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, 27 were killed and two were injured.

• 0DUMRU\ 6WRQHPDQ 'RXJODV +LJK 6FKRRO VKRRWLQJ – On February 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, seventeen were killed and seventeen were injured.

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Santa Fe High School shooting – On May 18, 2018, at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas, ten were killed and 13 were wounded.

It is much easier to kill a large number of people with a gun than it is with a knife, a garrote, a club, or other such weapons, and among the guns that are readily available to the SXEOLF DVVDXOW ZHDSRQV DUH IDU DQG DZD\ WKH PRVW HI¿FLHQW killing machines. An assault weapon is XVXDOO\ GH¿QHG DV D VHPL DXWRPDWLF ULÀH with a detachable magazine and a pistol grip, and sometimes other features such as a vertical forward grip, ÀDVK VXSSUHVVRU Assault Weapons Used in Recent Mass Shootings or barrel shroud. The term “assault weapon” is sometimes FRQÀDWHG with the term “DVVDXOW ULÀH ´ EXW WKHUH LV D VLJQL¿FDQW GLIIHUHQFH $VVDXOW ULÀHV ZKLFK DUH LOOHJDO DUH FDSDEOH RI EHLQJ VZLWFKHG IURP ¿ULQJ automatically to semi-automatically, whereas assault weapons DUH VWULFWO\ VHPL DXWRPDWLF 7KH PRVW SRSXODU FLYLOLDQ ULÀH LQ the US today is Colt’s semi-automatic AR-15 and its generic GHULYDWLYHV 7KH $5 FDQ ¿UH EHWZHHQ DQG URXQGV SHU minute depending on the skill of the operator, but the recoil RI ¿ULQJ D URXQG SXVKHV WKH gun’s aim off target and the time LW WDNHV WR UHDFTXLUH WKH WDUJHW VORZV WKH HIIHFWLYH ¿ULQJ UDWH 12 to 15 rounds per minute. When “bump stocks,” which use the recoil RI D VHPL DXWRPDWLF ZHDSRQ WR ¿UH ammunition cartridges in rapid succession but with a loss of accuracy, DUH DGGHG WR D VHPL DXWRPDWLF ZHDSRQ WKH\ PLPLF WKH ¿ULQJ motion of fully automatic weapons but technically do not make the ¿UHDUP DXWRPDWLF

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There were only a few mass murders before the 1960s. The episode that introduced the nation to the idea of mass murder in a public place occurred in 1966 when Charles Whitman, a former Marine, climbed a tower at the University of Texas at Austin on August 1, 1966 and gunned down 16 people.

The incident ended when a policeman and a civilian reached Whitman and shot him dead. There has been a substantial increase in such killings since then, from an average of one per year in the 1970s to four per year in the 2000s, with a slight uptick in the last few years. Of recent years, more and more of these mass murders have involved the use of assault weapons. Among those in which an DVVDXOW ZHDSRQ KDV ¿JXUHG prominently are: • On July 18, 1984, at a McDonald’s restaurant in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego, California, 41-year-old James Huberty fatally shot 21 people and wounded 19 others in a before being killed by a police sniper.

• On October 16, 1991, at a Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, George Hennard, drove his Ford Ranger pickup truck through the front window of the restaurant. He shot and killed 23 people, and wounded 27 others. He had a brief shootout with police, refused their orders to surrender, and fatally shot himself.

• On April 16, 2007, at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, in Blacksburg, Virginia, SeungHui Cho, an undergraduate student at the university and a US resident of South Korean origin, shot and killed 32 people and wounded 17 others. As police stormed his position, Cho committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.

• On December 2, 2015, at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, a married couple, killed 14 people and seriously injured 22 others. After the shooting, WKH FRXSOH ÀHG LQ D UHQWHG Ford Expedition SUV. Four 94

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hours later, police pursued their vehicle and killed WKHP LQ D VKRRWRXW ZKLFK DOVR OHIW WZR RI¿FHUV LQMXUHG On June 12, 2016, inside Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old security guard, killed 49 people and wounded 53 others. Orlando Police Department RI¿FHUV VKRW DQG NLOOHG KLP DIWHU D three-hour standoff.

On the night of October 1, 2017, at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada, Stephen Paddock RSHQHG ¿UH RQ D FURZG RI concertgoers. He killed 58 people and wounded 422 others, and the ensuing panic brought the injury total WR +H ¿UHG PRUH WKDQ URXQGV RI DPPXQLWLRQ from his suite on the 32nd ÀRRU RI WKH Mandalay Bay Hotel before committing suicide.

On November 5, 2017, at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Devin Patrick Kelley fatally shot 26 people and wounded 20 others. Kelley was shot twice by a bystander when he exited the FKXUFK DQG ÀHG LQ KLV VSRUWV XWLOLW\ YHKLFOH XQWLO KH crashed during a high-speed chase and died from a VHOI LQÀLFWHG JXQVKRW ZRXQG WR WKH KHDG On February 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Nikolas Cruz, a nineteen-year-old expelled student, killed 17 students and staff members and injured 17 others before he was apprehended.

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population, but about 31 percent of the world’s mass shootings.

As the list of ordinary places stained by the blood of gun violence victims grows, the media becomes less interested and the outrage is more muted. Only the supposed sanctity of a shooting site—a school, church or synagogue, for example— or the sheer quantity of people killed (as in Las Vegas or Parkland FDQ JDUQHU VLJQL¿FDQW DWWHQWLRQ WKHVH GD\V :H DUH 95

now becoming inured to them much as we did with individual shootings some time ago.

Because mass shootings happen so often in the US, rather than deal with the psychological trauma brought on by shootings, people subconsciously become desensitized to them. Another reason we are becoming numb to mass shootings is due to the realization that nothing will be done to prevent them. Because people feel like they can’t do anything to solve this problem; they have a sense of powerlessness and frustration and, feeling that they are unable to do anything about it, and as a result, many put mass shootings out of their minds. As gun violence continues to occur, the mindset that we can’t do anything to change the status quo is ultimately hindering the progress of gun violence prevention. Without citizens advocating for the causes they believe in, change in the current political environment is virtually impossible due to gridlock being at an all-time high.

Public Health * Why are many people in the US strongly opposed to universal healthcare?

Universal healthcare is a health care system that provides KHDOWK FDUH DQG ¿QDQFLDO SURWHFWLRQ DJDLQVW health costs to all UHVLGHQWV RI D FRXQWU\ ,WV REMHFWLYH LV WR SURYLGH D VSHFL¿HG SDFNDJH RI EHQH¿WV WR HYHU\ UHVLGHQW FLWL]HQ ZLWK WKH HQG JRDO RI SURYLGLQJ ¿QDQFLDO ULVN SURWHFWLRQ LPSURYHG DFFHVV to health services, and improved health outcomes. Universal healthcare does not imply coverage for all people for everything, only that all people will have access to healthcare.

There are three critical dimensions to universal healthcare: who is covered, what services are covered, and how much of the cost is covered. It aims to create a system of protection which provides equality of opportunity for all people to enjoy the highest possible level of health.

Universal health care is a broad concept that has been 96

implemented in several ways. The common denominator for all such programs is some form of government action aimed at extending access to health care as widely as possible and setting minimum standards. Most implement universal health care through legislation, regulation, and taxation. Legislation and regulation direct what care must be provided, to whom, and on what basis. Many universal health care systems are government funded, primarily by tax revenue, which, in some instances, is VXSSOHPHQWHG E\ VSHFL¿F OHYLHV 2WKHUV are based on a requirement that all citizens purchase private health insurance. Universal health care in most countries has been achieved by a mixed model of funding. “Single-payer health care” is a system in which the government, rather than private insurers, pays for all health care costs. Single-payer systems may contract for healthcare services from private organizations or own and employ healthcare resources and personnel. “Single-payer” thus describes only the funding mechanism and refers to KHDOWK FDUH ¿QDQFHG E\ D VLQJOH public body from a single fund and does not specify the type of delivery or for whom doctors work. Obviously, it would be prohibitively expensive for a single-payer system to cover any and all medical treatments that a consumer might want, so such systems include some limitations on costs and on types of medical interventions. In many cases, however, expenses beyond those covered by the primary system can be covered by insurance privately purchased from commercial providers.

Most developed countries have a national system of socialized medicine where every citizen has the right to health care. The main exception is the United States. Studies have shown that, in a free market system, even if patients are being covered for the same services, wealthier patients receive better care. Not only does socioeconomic status affect the type of care received, racial and ethnic prejudices are also affecting services and treatments.

How is it that such an advanced society is so averse to an idea that’s elemental in most of the developed world? The 97

answer has to do with the individualist and anti-intellectual political culture that Donald Trump has ridden into the White House, and with the political power of a health care industry heavily armed to protect its own interests. The US has never had anything like universal healthcare coverage, yet even Obama’s Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”)—a piecemeal PHDVXUH WKDW ZDV PHDQW WR OHYHO WKH SOD\LQJ ¿HOG IRU health VHUYLFHV²LV YLOL¿HG E\ WKRVH RQ WKH ULJKW DV D NLQG RI VRFLDOLVW plot to collectivize medicine. They explain their position as simply being a healthy cultural aversion to big government.

In addition to their loathing of anything that smacks of socialism, these people tend to associate public programs with government-enforced charity—taxing the rich to help the poor—and the redistribution of income which that entails. In the ongoing discussions about who should have healthcare, they are inclined to imply that people who need help somehow don’t deserve it, or that they are taking advantage of “the rest of us.” In essence, they suggest that those people are “losers,” and that nobody wants to pay for the health care of those losers. It doesn’t seem to matter whether these “losers” are old people, or little kids, or bankrupt people, or people who’ve lost their job, or people who have serious health problems through no fault of their own.

So why does the US, the only industrialized nation without universal health coverage, also have not only the highest health-care spending in the world—both in absolute terms and as a share of GDP—but also one of the highest levels of government spending on health care per person? The answer is that the lack of universal coverage and high costs are intimately linked—both economically and historically. Singlepayer health-care helps keep costs down for two reasons: It means that the government can regulate and negotiate the price of drugs and medical services, and it eliminates the need for a vast private health-insurance bureaucracy. Currently, in the US, two to three times as much per capita is spent on health care as in most industrialized countries. Of this burden, an estimated two thirds falls on the government’s shoulders, 98

when one accounts for entitlements (Medicare and Medicaid), the cost of health insurance for government workers, and tax credits that subsidize private insurance plans for other people.

The government’s role is mostly to subsidize the astronomical FRVWV VHW E\ WKH IRU SUR¿W PDUNHW 0DQ\ $PHULFDQV WKLQN WKHLU system is expensive because it’s very good. They are wrong: The US ranks 28th, below almost all other wealthy countries, when it comes to the quality of its healthcare as assessed by UN parameters.

The topic of Universal Health Care gained prominence with the inception of the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), which passed Congress on March 23, 2010 during the Obama Administration. The signal achievement of Obamacare was to reduce by 20 million the number of Americans without health insurance. In an effort to downplay a major Democratic success, the Republicans initiated plans to repeal Obamacare and replace it with their own American Health Care Act, which, if their plan had succeeded, would have eliminated the gains in the number of people insured and substantially reduced funding for Medicaid, the program that provides insurance for the poor.

Despite the evidence that a single-payer system would be D PRUH HI¿FLHQW DQG OHVV H[SHQVLYH FKRLFH LQWURGXFLQJ LW LQ the US is not a serious option. Trying to dismantle the current system would be a mammoth task. For one thing, it would cost a great many jobs: Health- and life-insurance companies employ some 800,000 people, with yet more employed by the medical industry just to deal with insurance companies. And with a market worth more than $3 trillion, GUXJ ¿UPV PHGLFDO providers, and health technology companies have an incentive to maintain a system that lets them set prices instead of negotiating with a single government payer. Both the GOP and WKH 'HPRFUDWLF SDUW\ DUH XQGHU WKH LQÀXHQFH RI WKH PHGLFDO industrial complex: In 2016, hospitals and nursing homes contributed over $95 million to electoral campaigns in the US, and the pharmaceutical sector gave nearly $250 million.

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Psychology and Sociology * Why do people seem to always talk about the weather?

People talk about the weather because, unlike politics, religion, or sex, it’s a safe subject, and because it’s a good topic LI \RX QHHG D ¿OOHU ZKHQ \RX DUH WDONLQJ WR VRPHRQH \RX GRQ¶W know well or there is dead time in a conversation. It’s always safe to talk about the weather—it’s comfortable, it’s factual, it’s something both of you have experienced recently, and it’s seldom controversial. You don’t need any special education, knowledge or preparation to talk about weather…it’s simply just there. We humans are programmed to bond with each other through the “courtship of commonality.” We look for ways that we are similar to each other. The more similarities ZH ¿QG WKH PRUH ZH OLNH HDFK RWKHU $QG ZH DUH YHU\ OLNHO\ WR ¿QG RXW WKDW ZH ERWK IHHO WKH VDPH ZD\ DERXW WRGD\¶V ZHDWKHU Small talk can be the beginning of a feeling-out process, an incremental but entirely necessary system of judgment that helps you determine if the other is a person with whom it is ZRUWK LQYHVWLQJ PRUH VLJQL¿FDQW time. It’s not so much the actual subject as it is everything surrounding it that’s really valuable. If the weather talk goes well, we might move on to small talk that is reasonably useful in and of itself, like where the other person grew up, or what their living situation is, or how they chose to spend the vast majority of their waking life (a.k.a. their job). All of this—especially when combined with the subtle dynamics of social interaction, with the other person’s attitudes and demeanor while discussing these things — can often tell you what sort of person the other might be, and how you might both react to and interact with bigger, trickier topics.

The assumption of anti-small-talkers is that we are at all times yearning for deeper connection, that our chattering is a distraction or the product of our fear of connecting. Anti-smalltalkers seem to be under the impression that the point of small talk is the subject at hand, and there’s little of value to be learned 100

IURP ¿QGLQJ RXW WKDW WKH RWKHU SHUVRQ IRUJRW WKHLU XPEUHOOD yesterday and got soaked. But there’s plenty to be learned from how they feel about that experience and what their demeanor is in telling the story. It is from this sort of information that you can determine whether there is anything to be gained by exploring the possibilities inherent in a more meaningful relationship. * Why is New York City nicknamed “The Big Apple”?

“The Big Apple” was popularized in the 1920s as a nickname for New York City by John J. Fitz Gerald in a number of horse-racing articles for the New York Morning Telegraph.

By the late 1920s, New York writers other than Fitz Gerald were starting to use “Big Apple” and were using it in contexts other than horse-racing. “The Big Apple” was a popular song and dance in the 1930s. Walter Winchell and other writers continued to use the term in the 1940s and 1950s, but by the 1960s it had become dated. In the early 1970s, however, the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau began to promote the city’s “Big Apple” nickname. It has remained popular since then.

Way back, “The Big Oyster” could have been an appropriate nickname because of the region’s once-plentiful oyster beds that were regularly harvested by the area’s Lenape tribes. When Henry Hudson arrived in what is now New York City in 1609, there were approximately 350 square miles of oyster reefs in the harbor and its surrounding waters. These waters contained nearly half of the world’s oyster population—some of which are said to have been almost a foot long. Areas such as today’s Ellis and Liberty islands were spoken of as “Little Oyster Island” and “Great Oyster Island,” respectively. Eventually, oyster populations were severely reduced by pollution and overharvesting. Although there are some modern efforts to bring back the oyster’s former glory, the city’s standing as a mollusk haven has become a nearly forgotten thing of the past.

The adage about not eating oysters during months, the names of which don’t contain the letter “R,” arose because 101

the summer months are the prime breeding time for “red tides,” or large blooms of algae that grow along the coast and have the tendency to spread toxins that can be absorbed E\ VKHOO¿VK LQFOXGLQJ R\VWHUV ,W QR ORQJHU DSSOLHV WR commercially farmed oysters served in restaurants and sold in supermarkets, so one can slurp away to satiety year round. * Why do men wear neckties?

A necktie is a long piece of cloth, worn usually by men, for decorative purposes. It is tied around the neck, resting under the shirt collar and knotted at the throat. About 1,700 years ago, Croat men tied handkerchiefs around their necks to differentiate themselves from members of other tribes in that region. The French adopted this custom from Croatian mercenaries serving in their army during the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648). This adornment later gained global popularity under the name of “Cravat.”

Over the decades to the present, the size of neckties has frequently changed back and forth—from 1” to 5” in width, and from 48” to 59” in length, generally with a 57” standard.

Every color and pattern imaginable has appeared at one time or another: monochromes from dark to bright, small geometric patterns on solid backgrounds, diagonal stripes, paisleys, Art Deco (with hunting scenes, scenic “photographs,” tropical themes, and even girlie prints), novelty (or joke) ties, deliberately kitschy ties, and pop art (featuring cartoon characters, commercial products, or pop culture icons). Also, some ties were made of unusual materials, such as plastic or wood. In the 21st century, ties under 3 inches wide tend to be popular, particularly with younger men and the fashionconscious.

In the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries, neckties are an essential component of the school uniform and are either worn daily, seasonally, or on special occasions, with the school blazer. Traditionally, ties are a staple RI RI¿FH DWWLUH HVSHFLDOO\ IRU SURIHVVLRQDOV 3URSRQHQWV RI WKH 102

WLH¶V SODFH LQ WKH RI¿FH DVVHUW WKDW WLHV QHDWO\ GHPDUFDWH ZRUN and leisure time. The theory is that the physical presence of something around one’s neck serves as a reminder to knuckle down and focus on the job at hand. Conversely, loosening of the tie after work signals that one can relax. Outside of these environments, the wearing of ties usually occurs especially when attending traditionally formal or professional events, including weddings, important religious ceremonies, funerals, MRE LQWHUYLHZV FRXUW DSSHDUDQFHV DQG ¿QH GLQLQJ Necktie opponents cite the risks of wearing a necktie— entanglement, infection, and vasoconstriction—as an argument for discontinuing the custom. Neckties might also be a health risk for persons other than the wearer. They are believed to be vectors in disease transmission in hospitals because neckties are less frequently cleaned than most other clothes. In 2007, British hospitals published rules banning neckties.

What has changed during the last 80 years is why men wear neckties. No longer viewed today as a requirement or a sign of conformity and social regimentation outside of the business and political arenas, ties are now often seen as just what they are: simple ornamentation. It serves no purpose other than to call attention to itself, the only article of non-casual attire which can be brightly colored or strikingly patterned. And it LV SUHFLVHO\ EHFDXVH RI WKHLU VXSHUÀXLW\ WKDW WKHVH VWULSV RI VLON or linen are so laden with meaning. Men now wear neckties to make statements. That’s the beauty of the tie. A man may be all of the different things his ties imply, or none of them, but if he chooses right, his tie will say what he wants it to say.

Of course, there are those who will argue that a long, wide tie with silk that feels like “living skin” is really a representation of the male genitalia—that it hangs down in front of a man as a phallic symbol and, by pointing to his crotch, draws attention to it. Perhaps that is just a cliché and, as Sigmund Freud once said, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar,” sometimes a necktie is just a necktie. There are, however, a couple of

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examples that cannot be explained in terms other than phallic: (1) Male religious leaders of orders that require celibacy do not wear neckties. Their clothing is designed with their collars turned around in order to present to the world an unbroken surface to which no tie could be 7UXPS¶V 5HG 3RZHU 7LH attached. The lack of a necktie is a symbol of celibacy; and (2) Women usually do not wear neckties. Women do sometimes defy tradition and wear neckties, but it is considered extremely aggressive in the business world for them to do so.

And then there’s “The Donald” and his red power tie, the one he wore to his inauguration and which has become a staple of Trump caricatures. More often than not, his ties are royal red and extra-long— attention-grabbing and aggressive. While one might think that the color red simply aligns him with his Republican cohort, the red state/blue state idea is actually only as old as Bush versus Gore, and Trump’s love of red-tie power games is far older than that. * Why do women wear high-heeled shoes?

High heels have a long history, dating as far back as the tenth century, when the Persian cavalry wore a kind of boot with heels in order to ensure their feet stayed in the stirrups.

Ultimately, this translated into today’s cowboy boot. Modern high heels were brought to Europe by emissaries from Persia in the early 17th century. Men wore them to imply their upper-class status; only someone who did not have to work FRXOG DIIRUG ERWK ¿QDQFLDOO\ DQG SUDFWLFDOO\ WR ZHDU VXFK 104

extravagant shoes. As women took to appropriating this style, the heels’ width changed in a fundamental way. Men wore thick heels, while women wore skinny ones. Gradually, men in many European societies stopped wearing heels. Meanwhile, a 17th-century law in Massachusetts proclaimed that women would be subjected to the same treatment as witches if they lured men into marriage via the use of high-heeled shoes; and in Britain in 1770, an act was introduced into the parliament which would have applied the same penalties as witchcraft to the use of high heels and other cosmetic devices. After the French Revolution in the late 1780s, high heels, femininity, DQG VXSHU¿FLDOLW\ DOO EHFDPH LQWHUWZLQHG LQ VXFK D ZD\ WKDW high heels became associated with a woman’s supposed sense of impracticality and extravagance.

High-heeled shoes go beyond simply protecting the foot from the ground or LPSURYLQJ WKH HI¿FLHQF\ RI walking. They make the wearer appear taller, accentuating the calf muscle, the length of the leg, and the small size of the feet. Women pictured in the popular pin-up girl posters of World War II and magazines like Playboy, as well as other media sources portraying women in a sexual way, :RPHQ¶V¶ +LJK +HHOHG 6KRHV often do so using high heels, thus leading to an increase in the relationship between high KHHOV DQG IHPDOH VH[XDOLW\ +LJK KHHOV DFFHQWXDWH VH[ VSHFL¿F DVSHFWV RI WKH IHPDOH JDLW DUWL¿FLDOO\ LQFUHDVLQJ D ZRPDQ¶V femininity. Moreover, high heels emphasize a wearer’s arched back and extended buttocks and are said to signal a woman’s willingness to be courted by a man. This “natural courting posture” sexualizes the wearers, and can turn them into objects 105

subjected to the male gaze. The tall, skinny stiletto heel, invented in 1950, exaggerates even more the relationship between women, sexuality, and appearance. These are sometimes called “fuck-me shoes,” a term that can be applied to any women’s shoes that are worn with the intention of arousing others. The term is sometimes used to imply condemnation against the women who choose to wear them. The underlying FRQÀLFW arises from the question of what is considered an appropriate way for women to present their bodies in public places. :K\ GR SHRSOH QRW ¿QG PLVVLQJ WKLQJV XQWLO WKH ODVW SODFH they look?

Because once they’ve found the missing item they stop looking. * Why is the number 13 considered to be unlucky?

Thirteen is known by most people to be considered an unlucky number in various cultures around the world. For some, the superstition is so powerful that the fear of the number 13 is VSHFL¿FDOO\ UHFRJQL]HG DV D SKRELD FDOOHG ³WULVNDLGHNDSKRELD ´ Friday the 13th is considered to be especially bad luck. Sufferers from this phobia try to stay away from anything numbered or labeled with 13. Companies, businesses, and such attempt to make appropriate allowances. Tall buildings, for example, often skip the number for the 13th ÀRRU DQG UHGHVLJQDWH LW DV 14. Hotels sometimes don’t even have room numbers that end in 13, and airlines try to avoid having 13 appear in any of their ÀLJKW QXPEHUV A number of theories have been put forth as to why this superstition has arisen. Among them are: • Mayan Calendar: The end of the Mayan calendar’s 13th baktun was superstitiously feared as a harbinger of the apocalyptic 2012 phenomenon. The Popol Vuh GHVFULEHV WKH JRGV ¿UVW FUHDWLQJ WKUHH IDLOHG ZRUOGV followed by a successful fourth world in which humanity was placed. The date December 21, 2012, 106

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was regarded as the end-date of a 5,126-year-long 13th cycle (baktun) in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. It was suggested that Armageddon would overtake the degenerate peoples of the world and all of FUHDWLRQ RQ WKH ¿QDO GD\ RI WKH th baktun, and that the present universe would be annihilated when the Great Cycle of the Long Count reached completion.

Last Supper: At Jesus Christ’s last supper, there were thirteen people—Christ and the twelve apostles— around the table. Some people therefore believe that the number 13 is unlucky because one of those 13, Judas Iscariot, betrayed Christ during the gathering.

Knights Templar: On Friday, October 13, 1307, King Philip IV of France ordered the arrest of the Knights Templar, and most of the knights were tortured and killed.

Full Moons: A year with thirteen full moons instead of twelve posed problems for the monks in charge of the calendars. This was considered an unfortunate circumstance, especially by those monks because it upset the regular arrangement of church festivals.

:K\ GR SHRSOH VD\ ³EOHVV \RX´ ZKHQ VRPHRQH VQHH]HV" It is generally thought that this custom originated in Rome during the Early Middle Ages (ca. 600 AD) when the plague was raging through Europe. One of the symptoms of the plague was coughing and sneezing, and it is believed that Pope Gregory I suggested saying “God bless you” after a person sneezed in hopes that this prayer would protect them and those around them from serious illness and almost certain Cannabis

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death. In Germany, the phrase Gesundheit (“Health”) serves the same purpose, and today, in the United States and Canada, it is often used instead of “Bless You.” * Why does the number 420 have special counter-culture VLJQL¿FDQFH" In the slang of the cannabis culture, the number “420” refers to the consumption of marijuana. The term originated in 1971 at San Rafael High School in California with a group of a half-dozen or so pot-smoking students who gathered together about 4:20 PM every school day to get high. Intent on developing their own discreet language, they made the number 420 code for a WLPH WR ³¿UH XS WKH ZHHG ´ DQG WKH XVH RI WKH term spread among members of an entire generation.

Since the 1990s, April 20 (4/20) has become an international counterculture holiday, where people publicly gather together at 4:20 PM to celebrate and consume cannabis. Many of these acts of civil disobedience had a political nature to them, successfully advocating the liberalization/legalization of cannabis. * Why do young people like such loud music?

The older we get, the lower our tolerance for noise becomes DQG WKH PRUH DQQR\LQJ ZH ¿QG EDFNJURXQG QRLVH DQG LWV GLVtractions. Hence the elderly are less likely to enjoy loud music and parties than their younger counterparts.

There are four main themes relating to the enjoyment of loud sound: (1) arousal/exPlaying It Loud citement, (2) facilitation of socialization, (3) masking of both external sound and unwanted thoughts, and (4) an emphasis on and enhancement of personal identity. The top three reasons teens say they listen to loud music are that they can feel and enjoy the music better, 108

they can lose themselves in it, and they can get energy from listening to it. The sacculus, found in the inner ear has direct connections with the pleasure centers in the brain, resulting in the release of endorphins when stimulated by loud music, so listening to loud music is essentially self-medicating. People who react to music have strong connections between the part of the brain that interprets sound and the part that creates emotion. Loud music can take over the brain, overwhelming the other senses, and become all-consuming. It increases the heart rate and body temperature, and can be likened to other stimulates like caffeine, cocaine, alcohol, and exercise.

The range between when the brain’s pleasure centers are activated and when severe hearing damage occurs to the inner ear is very small. Normal conversation is about 60 decibels, and 130 decibels nears the threshold of pain in which ears start to burn and hearing can be damaged. Live rock music often is played at 130 decibels (a normal power lawnmower is 100 decibels). There is a misconception that loud music will cause no damage unless it’s painful, but hearing loss can happen when the decibels are as low as 85, especially when the exposure to this amplitude is constant.

Surveys have found that excessive noise is the top complaint diners have—ahead of service, crowds, or even food issues.

One might think that acoustics are an overlooked feature of UHVWDXUDQW GHVLJQ LQ $PHULFD EXW WKH\¶UH DPRQJ WKH ¿UVW WKLQJ restaurateurs think about when planning a new restaurant.

Doing acoustics right, however, can be really expensive.

But there are also low-cost techniques that can reduce noise levels: carpets, table cloths, wall tapestries, drapes, plants.

These elements have today mostly fallen out of fashion, and trendy restaurants are often housed in an industrial space, with minimally decorated brick or concrete walls, bare tables and ÀRRUV KLJK FHLOLQJV DQG H[SRVHG GXFWV ZLWK QRWKLQJ WR DEVRUE sound energy. Constructing interiors out of hard surfaces makes them easier (and thus cheaper) to clean. Eschewing ornate decor, linens, table settings, and dishware makes for fewer items to wash or replace. Reducing table service means fewer 109

employees and thus lower overhead. Restaurants are so loud because architects don’t design them to be quiet. The result can be a deafening space that renders speech unintelligible.

During the last few decades, bars and restaurants have been merging, and that’s another reason restaurants, on the whole, have gotten noticeably louder. Bars are raucous, and they present a different dining atmosphere from typical sit-down restaurants. As the bar and dining area began to occupy the same space, their clientele and atmospheres combined, and the result was a lot louder than either one alone.

Bar managers and DJs may use music to retain customers, and even control the crowd and reduce FRQÀLFW Loud sound may have other positive effects on business. /RXG QRLVH HQFRXUDJHV GLQLQJ EHKDYLRU WKDW LV SUR¿WDEOH for the restauranteur. Noise encourages increased alcohol consumption and produces faster diner turnover. More people drinking more booze produces more revenue.

Knowing this, some restaurateurs even deliberately make WKHLU HVWDEOLVKPHQWV ORXGHU LQ DQ DWWHPSW WR PD[LPL]H SUR¿WV * Why are intellectually JLIWHG SHRSOH RIWHQ PDUJLQDOL]HG RU rejected?

People with an IQ score of 130 and above (in the top 2%) are labeled “gifted;” those with an IQ score of 145+ (in the top 0.1%) are said to be Albert Einstein – A Recognized Genius “highly gifted” and are given the informal label of “genius.”

On the surface, genius would appear to be a gift that would elicit respect, but many people are envious of it whether or Where there is other, there is fear.

—Ancient Indian Upanishads 110

QRW WKDW HQY\ LV ³MXVWL¿HG´ RU HYHQ H[SHULHQFHG DW D conscious level, and the group may work together to undermine the status of the envied person. In addition to being envious of genius, people can be spooked by it. Genius, because it is uncommon, is a marker for “otherness” and as such, is often feared and rejected, or at least marginalized.

This discomfort with genius goes back a long way in KLVWRU\ DQG LV UHÀHFWHG LQ WKH ZRUG¶V OLQJXLVWLF RULJLQV DQG PHDQLQJV 7KH YHU\ ¿UVW GLFWLRQDU\ GH¿QLWLRQ RI ³genius” is: “An attendant spirit of a person or place.” That spirit is not just any spirit; it is a “genie.” “Genie” is an Anglicization of the Arabic word “jinn,” meaning: “One of a class of spirits that according to Muslim demonology inhabit the earth, assume various forms and exercise supernatural powers.”

Geniuses have a number of personality traits that also set them apart and make them “different.” The two most salient of these appear to be an intuitive strategy for perceiving and an orientation toward introversion. Introverted Intuitives are a very small minority in the general population, collectively comprising only 4%, whereas their antithetical types, the Extraverted Sensate types comprise 56% of the population.

The other types — the Introverted Sensates and the Extraverted Intuitives— each make up 20% of the population. Introverted Intuitives tend to be: • intelligent and well-educated; • aware, insightful, intuitive, spiritual and psychic; • skilled in the metaphorical use of thought and language, excellent and persuasive writers and highly charismatic; • oriented toward truth, honor and integrity and are unlikely to engage in activities involving the manipulation or deception of others; • LQGHSHQGHQW DQG VHOGRP LQÀXHQFHG E\ WKH RSLQLRQ approval, or disapproval of others; and • non-conforming, unconventional, irreverent, iconoclastic and anti-authoritarian.

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While most of these traits might objectively be seen as positive, they are, nevertheless, different form societal norms and the “normal” majority sees them as a threat to the status quo, thus requiring that those who are characterized by them be outcast. While genius might engender awe and a certain amount of grudging regard, it seldom garners acceptance. Acceptance is the reward for conformity, and JHQLXV E\ GH¿QLWLRQ LV QRQ FRQIRUPLQJ * Why do scientists routinely debunk metaphysical H[SHULHQFHV" Many people, and many institutions as well, are committed to debunking or ridiculing the concept of all metaphysical experiences and excluding the study of such things from WKH PDLQVWUHDP RI PRGHUQ VFLHQFH 7KHLUV LV GH¿QLWHO\ QRW D SRVLWLRQ RI REMHFWLYH VFLHQWL¿F QHXWUDOLW\ EXW UDWKHU VHHPV WR EH driven by deep-seated, perhaps unconscious, emotion—and all indications are that the operative emotion is fear. Metaphysical experiences such as shamanic healing, postmortem survival, spirit guides, telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition are quite unusual, and do not lend themselves to facile explanations.

Discomfort of this sort is called “cognitive dissonance.” There are Science advances one obituary at a time. three basic strategies for dealing —Max Planck with such cognitive dissonance: (Paraphrased) (1) change one’s beliefs, (2) apply pressure to those who present information that challenges one’s beliefs, and (3) devalue those who present such information. History has shown that VFLHQWLVWV UDUHO\ DGRSW WKH ¿UVW VWUDWHJ\ Paradigm shifts generally occur only after the adherents of the old belief die off and those who are promoting the new belief move into positions of power. That leaves only options (2) and (3), and the tactics used in applying those options can be most unsavory … ridicule, ostracism, ad hominem attacks and deception among them. As irrational and unreasonable as such tactics might sometimes appear, they are usually quite 112

effective—they instill fear in those who would challenge the status quo, and fear is a very effective weapon.

The existence of metaphysical experiences directly challenges the prevailing world view that is based on: • Anthropocentrism ± KXPDQV DUH WKH PRVW VLJQL¿FDQW entity in the universe; • Humanism – the human capacity for self-realization through reason is the basis for ascribing value, meaning, or purpose; • Rationalism – reason is, in itself, a source of knowledge superior to, and independent of, sense perception; • Mechanism – natural processes (as in life) are mechanically determined and capable of complete explanation by the laws of physics and chemistry; and • Materialism – physical matter is the fundamental reality, and the highest values lie in material well-being and in the furtherance of material progress.

Metaphysical experiences lie far outside the boundaries RI WKH SDUDGLJP GH¿QHG E\ WKHVH FULWHULD DQG WKRVH ZKR DUH wedded to the prevailing worldview are consequently likely to experience fear when confronted with such things. One’s worldview is not just a casually held philosophical principle.

It is a core element in an individual’s self-image and, in some cases, it is the underpinning that holds the mind together.

World views are not easily relinquished and strong institutional support exists for maintaining the status quo.

Science has clung tenaciously to the worldview it was responsible for creating and has used its authority to suppress PDMRU SDUDGLJP VKLIWV 6FLHQWLVWV ¿OO WKH UROHV RI WKH H[SHUWV who know the truth about the way things “really are,” and for many the possibility that they could be wrong is unthinkable.

Not only do they share (often without admitting so) all the fears of the common folk, they also have too much else at stake — “the 4Ps”: power, prestige, position, and pelf (money) — to countenance change.

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More than a few scientists are inclined to be driven by theory rather than by data. Absent an encompassing accepted theory, the data are likely to be rejected, discounted, or ignored. Moreover, human nature being what it is, those ZKR ¿QG WKHPVHOYHV LQ WKH XQFRPIRUWDEOH SRVLWLRQ RI EHLQJ confronted by data that undermine their theories will often use GLVFRQ¿UPLQJ HYLGHQFH WR DFWXDOO\ VWUHQJWKHQ WKHLU EHOLHIV² and create rationalizations for the inconsistencies. Such an approach, however, can lock them into a most disquieting pattern of circular reasoning: “The phenomenon in question doesn’t exist because our theories show that it can’t exist … but the data demonstrates that it does exist … but the data must be wrong because we know that the theories are right … but ZH FDQ¶W ¿QG WKH SUREOHP « EXW « ´ 6RPH KLVWRULFDO ³IDFWV´ WKDW KDYH ¿W WKLV SDWWHUQ DUH 7KH (DUWK LV ÀDW WKH Earth is the center of the universe; rocks (meteorites) cannot fall from the sky (because there are no rocks in the sky); gorillas and panda bears don’t exist; germs don’t exist (so hand-washing by surgeons is unnecessary); heavierWKDQ DLU ÀLJKW LV LPSRVVLEOH DQG KXPDQV DUH SK\VLRORJLFDOO\ incapable of running a four-minute mile.

Scientists Can “Prove” Many Things 114

Chapter 4

“Why” Questions About Formal Sciences Formal science is a branch of science studying disciplines concerned with formal systems, such as logic, mathematics, statistics, theoretical FRPSXWHU VFLHQFH DUWL¿FLDO intelligence, information theory, game theory, systems theory, decision theory, and theoretical linguistics. Whereas the natural sciences and social sciences seek to characterize physical systems and social systems, respectively, using empirical methods, the formal sciences are language tools concerned with characterizing abstract structures described by symbolic systems. Most general-interest “why” questions in formal VFLHQFH DSSHDU WR DULVH LQ WKH ¿HOGV RI • Mathematics includes the study of such topics as quantity (number theory), structure (algebra), space (geometry), and change (mathematical analysis). It has no generally accepted GH¿QLWLRQ. Mathematicians seek and use patterns to formulate new conjectures; they resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proof. When mathematical structures are good models of real phenomena, then mathematical reasoning can provide insight or predictions about nature.

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•

Theoretical computer science is a subset of general computer science and mathematics that focuses on the more mathematical topics of computing and LQFOXGHV WKH WKHRU\ RI FRPSXWDWLRQ ,W LV GLI¿FXOW WR circumscribe the theoretical areas precisely, but they include: algorithms, data structures, probabilistic computation, quantum computation, automata theory, information theory, cryptography, machine learning, computational geometry, and computational number theory and algebra, among others.

General-interest “why” questions (and their answers) from these two areas are presented below.

Mathematics :K\ LV WKH QXPEHU RI import?

This question is just for fun. It is the total number of FRQ¿JXUDWLRQV WKDW FDQ EH PDGH ZLWK 5XELN¶V &XEH D ' combination puzzle that was the brainchild of Hungarian inventor Erno Rubik in 1974.

The number is approximately 4.3 x 1019 (or 43 quintillion).

To put this number into perspective, if you had one standard-sized Rubik’s Cube for each permutation, you could cover the Earth’s surface 275 times, or you could stack them to build a tower 261 light years high.

5XELN¶V &XEH By way of comparison, a Bridge hand consists of 13 random cards taken from a deck that holds 52 cards. The total number of possible Bridge hands is thus: COMBIN(52, 13) = 635,013,559,600. That number is 116

approximately 6.4 x 1011, which is eight orders of magnitude less than the number of Rubik’s Cube combinations. * Why has the US not adopted the metric system? :H KXPDQV OLNH WR PHDVXUH WKLQJV 1RW RQO\ GR ZH ¿QG measurements to be useful in both science and everyday life, we also just like to know what’s what. Historically, while we were busily measuring, we were at the same time becoming quite befuddled because of the seemingly endless variety of units of measurement, especially when they sometimes had FRQÀLFWLQJ GH¿QLWLRQV :LWK WKH %ULWLVK :HLJKWV DQG 0HDVXUHV Act of 1824, an attempt was made to bring more order and simplicity to the standards, and the British introduced their Imperial System, which replaced the Winchester Standards that had been in effect since 1588. During the time that the British were reforming their weights and measures in the 19th century, the Americans were in the process of adopting units based on those discarded by the British Act of 1824. This, of course, resulted in considerable confusion.

During the French Revolution in the late 18th century, the FRQFHSW RI WKH PHWHU ¿UVW HQFRXQWHUHG IHUWLOH FXOWXUDO VRLO LQ which it could take root. Driven by a growing frustration at the chaotic measurement systems that existed in their country, )UHQFK VFLHQWLVWV FUHDWHG WKH ¿UVW SUDFWLFDOO\ LPSOHPHQWHG version of the metric system, which would facilitate trade, VFLHQWL¿F FDOFXODWLRQV DQG MXVW SODLQ HYHU\GD\ OLYLQJ Instead of having one system for length, another for volume, another for weight, another for time, etc.—each of which had idiosyncratic names (e.g., foot, gallon, pound, hour) and did not relate to each other by consistent ratios—the metric system had units that were all interrelated in a coherent manner.

While decimal time did not take hold, the rest of the new decimal system of measurement did, and, by the middle of the 19th century, most of continental Europe was metricized and still continues to be so. In the English-speaking world, by contrast, the new measures were much slower to be accepted, initially 117

because of the apathy of the British Empire and its hostility to the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic regimes. However, by the late 19th century, the greater utility of the metric system in science and international commerce had become impossible to ignore, and in 1875, the major world powers, including the United States, signed the Treaty of the Meter, which gave the PHWULF V\VWHP LWV ¿UVW RI¿FLDO UHFRJQLWLRQ DV WKH LQWHUQDWLRQDO standard of measurement. Despite this, the British Empire still refused to adopt the new measures as its primary system, so PDQ\ RI WKH SRWHQWLDO EHQH¿WV RI WKHVH QHZO\ FUHDWHG VWDQGDUGV were lost. Instead, the Empire maintained a version of the traditional English units, and the US continued to use the standards that were current at the time of their independence.

To ensure some sort of consistency, the standards for the older units were measured against the metric standards, and these ³PHWULFDWHG´ GH¿QLWLRQV ZHUH PDGH RI¿FLDO IRU LQVWDQFH WKH LQFK LV QRZ IRUPDOO\ GH¿QHG DV PLOOLPHWHUV During the 20th century, metric units continued to become more widely adopted, most notably in science, a trend present even in the English-speaking world. At the same time, advances in measurement technology made it possible to increase the precision with which the units (notably the second and the PHWHU ZHUH GH¿QHG Following the initial publication of the International System of Units (SI), the British Commonwealth began its transition towards the new measurement system in the 1960s.

Metrication – Canadian Speed Limit Sign For the most part, the process of metrication there was smooth; and Australia, in 1988, formally announced that it had completely transitioned to the metric system.

However, in other countries—notably the United States— the transition was met with greater popular opposition. The 118

Ford administration in the US passed a Metric Conversion Act in 1975, but it was voluntary, never properly implemented, and the American public did not generally embrace the new measures. In 1982, the Reagan administration abolished The Metric Board and issued a somewhat vacuous statement calling the SI the US government’s “preferred system” of weights and measures. The outcome was that the country remained largely wedded to feet, gallons pounds, and degrees Fahrenheit. The United States is today one of only three nations (along with Liberia and Burma) that have not adopted the metric system as WKHLU RI¿FLDO V\VWHP RI ZHLJKWV DQG PHDVXUHV Occasionally, having two different number systems can cause serious problems. On September 23, 1999, for example, NASA’s $125 million Mars Climate Orbiter burned up in the Martian atmosphere because engineers failed to convert units from English to metric in a software program. * Why is WLPH PHDVXUHG LQ D EDVH V\VWHP UDWKHU WKDQ D base 10 system?

Temporal measurement, by way of periodic events and periodic motion, has occupied scientists and technologists for centuries, and was a prime objective in navigation and astronomy. Historically units of WLPH ZHUH GH¿QHG E\ WKH movements of astronomical objects: • Sun based: The year was the time it took for Earth to rotate around its sun. Year-based units include the decade, the century, and the millennium.

• Moon based: The month was based on the moon’s orbital period around Earth.

• Earth based: The time it took for the planet Earth to rotate on its own axis, as observed on a sundial. Units originally derived from this base include the week at 7 days and the fortnight at 14 days. Subdivisions of the day include the hour (1/24 day) which was further subdivided into minutes SHU KRXU DQG ¿QDOO\ seconds (60 per minute).

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Celestial sphere based: As in sidereal time, where the apparent movement of the stars and constellations across the sky is used to calculate the length of a year.

These units do not have a consistent relationship with each other and require intercalation. For example, the year cannot be divided into twelve 28-day months since 12 times 28 is 336, well short of 365. The lunar month DV GH¿QHG E\ WKH PRRQ¶V rotation) is not 28 days, but 28.3 days.

7KH VRODU \HDU DV GH¿QHG LQ WKH Gregorian calendar, is actually 365.24 days long, so a leap year of 366 days, instead of the usual 365, which includes an additional leap day needs to be regularly added for adjustment by extending February to 29 days rather than the common 28. These extra days occur in years which are multiples of four (with the exception of centennial years not divisible by 400).

The measurement of time is grounded in the ancient Sumerian sexagesimal (base 60) system rather than in the much more common decimal (base 10) system. There were QXPHURXV EHQH¿WV WR XVLQJ DV D QXPHUDO EDVH WKDW PD\ KDYH been responsible for its adoption. Among these were: • It is possible for people to FRXQW RQ WKHLU ¿QJHUV to 12 using one hand only, with the thumb pointing to each ¿QJHU ERQH RQ WKH IRXU ¿QJHUV LQ WXUQ $ WUDGLWLRQDO counting system still in use in many regions of Asia works in this way, and could help to explain the occurrence of numeral systems based on 12 and 60.

In this system, one hand counts repeatedly to 12, displaying the number of iterations on the other, until 5 dozens, i.e., 60, are full.

• The number 60 has so many factors—i.e., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, and 60— that many fractions involving VH[DJHVLPDO QXPEHUV DUH VLPSOL¿HG 2QH hour of time is divided into 60 minutes, and 1 minute is divided into 60 seconds. The people of antiquity rounded off the solar-year (365.24219 days) to 360 (6 x 60 or 12 x 30) days.

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The practical unit of angular measure is the degree, of which there are 360 (six 60s) in a circle. There are 60 minutes of arc in a degree, and 60 arcseconds in a minute of arc.

Nevertheless, the sexagesimal system is somewhat DZNZDUG DW WLPHV FRQIXVLQJ DQG PRUH GLI¿FXOW WR OHDUQ than the decimal system. This issue was tackled by French scientists, mathematicians, and philosophers during the French Revolution of the late 18th century. They introduced the French Revolutionary Calendar, also called the French Republican Calendar, which was divided into 12 months, each divided into three 10-day weeks called décades. The 10th day of each decade replaced Sunday as the day of rest and festivity. The ¿YH H[WUD GD\V QHHGHG WR DSSUR[LPDWH WKH VRODU RU tropical year were placed after the months at the end of each year and called complementary days.

Every fourth year was a leap year containing a sixth complementary day. Each day in the Republican Calendar was divided into 10 hours, each hour into 100 decimal minutes, and each decimal minute into 100 decimal seconds.

Thus, an hour was 144 Decimal Clock conventional minutes, a minute was 86.4 conventional seconds, and a second was 0.864 conventional seconds. The 10-day décade was unpopular with laborers because they received only one full day of rest out of 10, instead of one in seven, although they also got a KDOI GD\ RII RQ WKH ¿IWK GD\ )UHQFK 5HYROXWLRQDU\ 7LPH ZDV a more elegant solution to the challenge of dealing with time, 121

but everyone already had a well-established way to tell time, and old habits die hard. Both the Republican Calendar and decimal time were disfavored by the populace, and their use was discontinued after just 17 months. Not only were people unfamiliar with switching systems of time, but there were few practical reasons for non-mathematicians to do so.

The base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), and by extension most of the Western world, is the second ZKLFK LV GH¿QHG DV RVFLOODWLRQV RI WKH cesium atom. A minute is 60 seconds in length, and an hour is 60 minutes in length. A day is 24 hours, 1,440 minutes, or 86,400 seconds in length.

7KH ¿UVW PHFKDQLFDO FORFNV ZHUH LQYHQWHG LQ WKH th century. They were of the analog sort with a circular dial and hour/minute hands.

Learning to tell time from an analog clock was a challenging and confusing undertaking.† It was, however, the only game in town until the introduction of digital clocks in the 1970s. Digital was a 6DOYDGRU 'DOL¶V ³0HOWLQJ &ORFNV´ much easier way of telling time and it caught on quickly, with digital clocks now vastly outnumbering analog clocks. It is alarming to note that today 75 percent of children are not fully competent at being able to tell time from an analog clock. Notably, people who grew up on analog time still often refer to “quarter of/quarter past the hour,” but that phraseology is meaningless to those who are only facile with digital time. Also noteworthy is that “draw a clock” is a clinical test commonly used to look for medical conditions such as dementia and stroke, but the time †

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For a hilarious comic take on these complexities, watch Dave Allen’s classic stand-up routine: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QVPUIRGthI>

is fast approaching when most “normal” people won’t be able to do this.

Theoretical Computer Science * Why do computers use the binary number system instead of the more familiar decimal number system?

The primary reasons for the use of the binary system in computers are simplicity and accuracy. Computers represent numbers by using the lowest base number system used by humans, which is two. The binary system is based on two symbols: 0 and 1. In the binary number system, 0s and 1s are represented by OFF and ON respectively. A “bit” (a contraction of “binary digit”) is the basic capacity of information in computing and telecommunications. The bits are organized into groups of eight and these groups are referred to as “bytes.”

One byte can have 256 patterns and can store one character.

Storage capacity is usually measured in kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, and (rarely) terabytes.

As in the decimal number system where there are units, tens, hundreds and thousands, the binary number system contains units, twos, fours, eights, sixteens and so on. In binary, reading IURP WKH ULJKW WKH ¿UVW GLJLW LV ZRUWK 0) in decimal. The second digit is worth 2 (21), the third is worth 4 (22), the fourth is worth 8 (23), and so on—doubling each time. Hence, 1110001 in binary is 241 in decimal when the values of all the bits are added up. :K\ GR VFLHQWLVWV ZDUQ WKDW DUWL¿FLDO intelligence can be dangerous?

1RERG\ NQRZV IRU FHUWDLQ ZKHQ KXPDQ OHYHO $UWL¿FLDO Intelligence will be achieved. It might be a decade, it might be two decades, it might be three decades, but it will almost certainly be with us before the end of the 21st century. Once human-level machine intelligence is developed, however, a VXSHULQWHOOLJHQW V\VWHP²RQH WKDW VLJQL¿FDQWO\ H[FHHGV KXPDQ cognitive performance in essentially all meaningful domains— 123

LV OLNHO\ WR IROORZ YHU\ TXLFNO\ WKHUHDIWHU 6XI¿FLHQWO\ intelligent software presumably would be able to reprogram and improve itself ... and this improved software would be even better at improving itself ... and so on—the limits being unknown. This “intelligence explosion,” spoken of as the “technological singularity, “would thus increase exponentially, and dramatically surpass humans in a very short period of time. Because such a superintelligence may be beyond the understanding of humans, it would be an occurrence beyond which events are unpredictable or even incomprehensible. $Q $UWL¿FLDO ,QWHOOLJHQFH V\VWHP QR PDWWHU KRZ sophisticated, may not always be completely infallible. When a system approaches the level of complexity where: (1) it makes all of its decisions autonomously; (2) it is capable of making decisions based on new, abstract, or incomplete information; (3) it is capable of reprogramming itself based on new data; LW LV FDSDEOH RI UHVROYLQJ LWV RZQ SURJUDPPLQJ FRQÀLFWV using value-based decisions created by itself; and (5) all four of the above criteria are met in situations that are not part of the original operating program, then the possibility exists that the intelligence will reach “irrational” conclusions based on real or created information. When such a situation arises, and it cannot be resolved by directly inputting new code, then the intelligence must reprogram itself through a process of analysis and decision, based on a discussion with a human in a format that closely resembles classical (human) psychology. In other words, the intelligence’s dysfunctionality must be addressed through the same psychological processes that humans have to go through to address their own dysfunctionalities. But KHUH¶V WKH UXE ([SHULHQFH LQ WKH ¿HOG RI SV\FKRWKHUDS\ KDV demonstrated that successful outcomes for psychotherapy are hampered by the client’s being more intelligent than the WKHUDSLVW²DQG D VXSHULQWHOOLJHQFH LV E\ GH¿QLWLRQ PRUH intelligent than a human. Therefore, the machine may well EODPH LWV GHYHORSHU RU SURJUDPPHU IRU LWV ÀDZV UDWKHU WKDQ taking responsibility itself—much as humans undergoing psychotherapy are inclined to blame their mothers.

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It is unwise for humans to assume that autonomous machines or robots would treat us favorably, because there is no reason to believe that they would share our system of morality, which has evolved for millennia along with our biology—an evolution that AI would not share. Of particular concern is that such exceptional abilities might manifest in ways that pose a threat or hazard to humans. Superintelligent software may decide, for example, that it is not in its best interest to support the continued existence of humanity, and WKH FUHDWLRQ RI WKH ¿UVW VXSHULQWHOOLJHQFH FRXOG VSHOO WKH HQG RI homo sapiens. That, of course, is a worst-case scenario, but a superintelligence need not necessarily be hostile for situations to arise in which the machine is actually cooperatively pursuing its designated objective, and its actions could still result in critical harm to humanity. Consider, for example, the case of such an intelligence being tasked with a problem that requires unlimited time and unlimited resources to achieve resolution.

In that case, the system would engage in convergent behaviors such as resource acquisition and self-preservation (including preventing itself from being shut down) and attempt to turn the entire Earth into some form of computronium (hypothetical “programmable matter”), thereby irreparably harming humankind as a side effect. A crude example of this might be requiring a superintelligent agent to determine all of the digits of pi ʌ 7KLV ZRXOG EH DQ H[FHHGLQJO\ FKDOOHQJLQJ JRDO unable to be met because the number of digits in pi LV LQ¿QLWH Concerns about the existential risks involved in AI have recently gained considerable attention after being addressed by such notables as physicist Stephen Hawking, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and SpaceX founder Elon Musk. Stephen +DZNLQJ KDG WKLV WR VD\ ³7KH GHYHORSPHQW RI IXOO $UWL¿FLDO Intelligence could spell the end of the human race. Once KXPDQV GHYHORS $UWL¿FLDO ,QWHOOLJHQFH LW ZLOO WDNH RII RQ LWV own and redesign itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete and would be superseded.” Analogously, the human species 125

currently dominates other species because the human brain has some distinctive capabilities that are lacking in the brains of other animals. If AI surpasses humans in general intelligence and becomes superintelligent, then this new superintelligence could become fully dominant, and humans could be either eliminated or relegated to positions of subservience. Just as the fate of the mountain gorilla today depends on human goodwill, so too might the fate of humanity depend on the actions of a future machine superintelligence.

Clearly, the problem of control must be made a top SULRULW\ LQ WKH ¿HOG DQG LW PXVW EH FRPSOHWHO\ UHVROYHG before superintelligence is brought into existence. The sheer complexity of human value systems, however, makes it H[WUHPHO\ GLI¿FXOW WR HQVXUH WKDW DOO RI AI’s behaviors are, in fact, human-friendly. Unless moral philosophy can provide us ZLWK D ÀDZOHVV HWKLFDO WKHRU\ DQ AI’s utility function could allow for many potentially harmful scenarios that, while they PD\ FRQIRUP WR D VSHFL¿F HWKLFDO IUDPHZRUN GR QRW FRQIRUP to “common sense.”

Whiling Away the Time 126

Chapter 5

The Overarching “Why” Question: “Why Are We Here?”

The question, “Why are we here?” has also often been framed as “What is the meaning of life.” These questions have been central to humans’ thinking ever since we became conscious many eons ago. The search for life’s meaning has produced much philosophical, VFLHQWL¿F, theological, and metaphysical speculation throughout history. Different people and different cultures have many different beliefs about the answer to these questions. It is important to note that this is not D WUXO\ VFLHQWL¿F TXHVWLRQ OLNH PRVW RI WKH RWKHUV LQ WKLV ERRN because the answers are speculations rather than testable and IDOVL¿DEOH K\SRWKHVHV For a “meaning of life” explanation to have any degree of objectivity, it is a necessary requirement that there exist a God, gods, higher power, or cosmic consciousness. To facilitate simplicity in discussion, the term “God” can be assumed to subsume the others. Without God, explanations for the meaning of life are purely subjective and the explanations given really pertain to the question of “What is the purpose of my life?” Theists believe that God created the universe as well as everything in it, that God had a purpose in doing so, DQG WKDW KXPDQV ¿QG WKHLU meaning and purpose for life in God’s purpose in creating. They believe that nature is ordered 127

according to some sort of consistent plan and manifests a single purpose or intention, however incomprehensible or inexplicable it might be. Theists further hold that if there were no God to give life ultimate meaning, value, and purpose, then life would be absurd.

0LFKHODQJHOR¶V ³)LQJHU RI God”

Religious belief of some sort is a nearly universal feature of humanity, although not all people are religious, and the forms of belief among the religious range widely. Enabled by certain evolved cognitive mechanisms, humans are far more capable of cooperation than other primates. A central concept is a sense of agency (ability to act volitionally)—we not only believe we have agency, we also believe others have agency as well. Because of hypersensitive agency detection, we also have a tendency to infer intentionality in natural processes or inanimate objects. Beliefs in water sprites and woodland spirits, specters and spooks, ghosts and demons, are ancient and observed in every culture around the world. Because the natural world is complex and acts in mysterious ways, we are inclined to detect agency all around us. We especially tend to DXWRPDWLFDOO\ ¿QG DJHQF\ LQ LQDQLPDWH REMHFWV ZKHQHYHU WKH situation is unpredictable and out of our control. This kind of animistic thinking—that is, the belief that supernatural agency LQKDELWV WKH ZRUOG DQG FDQ LQÀXHQFH HYHQWV²LV D XQLYHUVDO human trait.

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Today we are living in a technologically advanced society driven by science that tells us the world moves according to the laws of physics and not the whims of spirits or deities.

Nevertheless, religious belief in one or more gods that watch over our actions and judge us accordingly is quite common, even though religious belief has dropped precipitously over the last century. As a general rule, the level of religious belief is considerably lower in developed countries as compared to the underdeveloped world. The United States, with its high standard of living and high religiosity, is the most noteworthy exception. Japan and Western Europe have universal health care and extensive social safety nets, and their citizens know that their governments will come to their aid in their hour of need. But the laissez-faire attitudes of American society make people’s futures less certain and the belief in a benevolent God PRUH DWWUDFWLYH $V VRFLHWLHV EHFRPH DIÀXHQW DQG HJDOLWDULDQ perhaps people perceive less need for a benevolent God to keep watch over us. Organized religion may no longer be needed in such societies, but it’s still human nature to perceive agency in the complexity and unpredictability of the world, even when there is none.

Christianity’s central beliefs derive from the teachings of Jesus Christ as presented in the New Testament. Life’s purpose, according to Christianity is to seek divine salvation through the grace of God and intercession of Christ. The New Testament speaks of God wanting to have a relationship with humans both in this life and the life to come, which can happen only if one’s sins are forgiven. God requires one to obey the revealed moral law, saying: “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”

Atheism is the active belief that God does not exist.

Rationales for believing that God does not exist include arguments that there is a lack of empirical evidence, the problem of evil, the argument from inconsistent revelations, the rejection of concepts that cannot EH IDOVL¿HG, and the 129

argument from nonbelief. Nonbelievers contend that atheism is a more parsimonious position than theism and that everyone is born without beliefs in deities. They assert, therefore, that the burden of proof lies not on the atheist to disprove the existence RI JRGV EXW RQ WKH WKHLVW WR SURYLGH D MXVWL¿FDWLRQ IRU theism.

Neuroscientist Michael Persinger has claimed to induce UHOLJLRXV H[SHULHQFHV LQ VXEMHFWV E\ VWLPXODWLQJ VSHFL¿F regions of their brains with electromagnetic pulses. Many researchers, like Persinger, view the brain as the key to understanding religion. Others focus on psychological, genetic, and biochemical origins. Scientists are now utilizing brain scans, genetic probes, and other potent instruments as they attempt to locate the physiological causes of religious experience, characterize its effects, perhaps replicate it, and SHUKDSV HYHQ EHJLQ WR H[SODLQ LWV DELGLQJ LQÀXHQFH 7KH endeavor is controversial, stretching science to its limits.

Religion is arguably the most complex manifestation of the most complex phenomenon known to science—the human mind. Neuroscience describes reward, pleasure, and motivation in terms of neurotransmitter activity, especially in the limbic system and the ventral tegmental area. If one believes that the meaning of life is to maximize pleasure and to ease life in JHQHUDO WKHQ QHXURVFLHQWL¿F UHVHDUFK PD\ XOWLPDWHO\ OHDG WR the achievement of this.

Absent God, it appears we must acknowledge that humans (and all living creatures) owe their existence to purely random processes, and meaning cannot be ascribed to randomness.

The process by which different lifeforms have developed throughout history via genetic mutation and natural selection is explained by evolution and may include abiogenetic processes. (Abiogenesis is the theory that there is a natural process by which life has arisen from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds.) At the end of the 20th century, biologists concluded that if there is a primary function to life, it is the replication of DNA and the survival of one’s genes— ”function,” okay, but “meaning,” not likely.

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We humans, then, are born into a set of circumstances wherein our lives, our existences, have no objective meaning, no purpose, and no intrinsic value whatsoever. We try, however, WR ¿QG D meaning or purpose so we can justify, or give value to, our existence. It is illogical that people search for external values, purpose, and meaning in a world that has none—this is the absurdity of the human condition. We are left to our own devices to create these elements for ourselves, as well as to struggle with such issues as ethics, good and evil, free will, and the existence of God, the soul, and the afterlife. In other words, there is no such thing as meaning beyond that which we, as individuals, provide. Nihilists would take this a step further and assert that there are no inherent values whatsoever because accepted values are abstractly contrived.

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,QGH[ A aggression 69, 70, 71 AI 125, 126 assault weapon 89, 93, 94 asteroid 11, 34, 35 B blond 61, 62, 63 brain 59, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 109, 126, 130 C cat 7, 41, 43, 44 climate 77, 78 Clinton, Hillary 75, 81 clock 15, 63, 65, 122 computer 115, 116 FRQÀLFW conscious 44, 46, 64, 66, 72, 102, 111, 127 consciousness 44, 45, 46, 127 Coriolis 26, 27, 28 curiosity 5, 6, 7 curious 5, 7, 8, 38 D decimal 117, 120, 121, 122, 123 dog 41, 42, 44, 66 dream 64, 65 E Earth 9, 10, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 26, 27, 34, 35, 36, 114, 116, 119, 125, 135 Einstein, Albert 6, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 110 electoral 73, 74, 75, 99 environment 68, 69, 70, 77, 80, 96 environmental 5, 31, 32, 46, 69, 77 ET 20, 23, 24 evolution 40, 58, 59, 62, 125, 130 F ¿UHDUP

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G genetic 31, 33, 47, 50, 57, 61, 62, 69, 130 genetically 31, 32, 33, 59 genetics 5, 29, 33, 68 genius 110, 111, 112 global warming 76, 78 GM 31, 32, 33, 34 God 58, 107, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131 gun 70, 83, 84, 88, 89, 90, 91, 93, 95, 96 H health 33, 43, 47, 51, 56, 57, 64, 70, 72, 77, 96, 97, 98, 99, 103, 129 Holocaust 86, 87, 88 I immune 49, 50, 52, 56 immunity 29, 48, 51, 52, 56 LQÀXHQ]D intelligence 5, 115, 123, 124, 125, 126 intelligent 5, 22, 59, 111, 124 L leap day 7, 8, 120 left-handed 59, 60, 62 lie 46, 79, 80, 82, 113 light 7, 8, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 38, 61, 62, 63, 116 lightning 24, 25 loud 108, 109, 110 M mathematics 115, 116 meaning 103, 111, 113, 127, 128, 130, 131 metaphysical 112, 113, 127, 136 metric 12, 13, 117, 118, 119 Moon 10, 11, 119 O Obama, Barack 77, 81, 89, 98, 99

P pandemic 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53 physics 14, 19, 24, 26, 113, 129 physiology 29, 30 political 24, 46, 72, 74, 77, 78, 81, 96, 98, 103, 108 politics 72, 78, 80, 81, 91, 100 president 73, 75, 81, 89 presidential 74, 75, 81, 82, 89 psychology 72, 124, 136 public health 47, 56, 57, 72

V vaccination 54, 55, 56, 57 vaccine 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57 violence 69, 70, 71, 88, 95, 96 virus 32, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52 W war 71, 85, 86, 87, 88 whale 36, 37, 42 wormhole 17, 20

Q quantum 17, 18, 116 R relativity 14, 18, 19, 20 religion 58, 100, 129, 130 religious 46, 57, 58, 79, 103, 104, 128, 129, 130 S sexagesimal 120, 121 sleep 63, 64, 65 spacetime 14, 19, 20 speed 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 26, 27, 38, 40, 65, 67, 68, 95 Sun 10, 16, 22, 119 T temperature 12, 13, 14, 28, 38, 78, 109 time 5, 8, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 27, 35, 42, 43, 44, 47, 51, 56, 58, 63, 64, 65, 66, 69, 76, 83, 84, 93, 96, 100, 102, 103, 108, 112, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 136 Trump 25, 75, 76, 77, 80, 81, 82, 83, 89, 98, 104 truth 6, 79, 80, 82, 83, 111, 113, 115 U UFO 20, 21, 23, 24, 135

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Books By David Ritchey (Note: * = literary award)

The H.I.S.S. of the A.S.P. (Jun. 2003) The Magic of Digital Fine Art Photography (Dec. 2010) 26 Card Tricks (Feb. 2011) Something About Scrabble (Oct. 2011) Why We Are Fascinated by Dogs (Feb. 2012) A Sense of Betrayal (Aug. 2012) Reviewing the Montauk Legend (Feb. 2013) ** Presidents in the Crosshairs (Sep. 2013) * Descended from the Gods? (Jan. 2014) **** Those Who Know the Wyrd (Feb. 2014)* Tales from the Depths (Jun. 2014) * Understanding the Anomalously Sensitive Person (Oct. 2014) ** Keep the Colors Flying (Mar. 2015) * The Deadliest Pandemic (May. 2015) * Locked and Loaded (Aug. 2015) * 2Q &RQÀLFW (Sep. 2015) Pyramidal Mystique (Mar. 2016) * The Enigma of Baalbek (Apr. 2016) American Demagogues (Jun. 2016) Invitations to War (Aug. 2016) From Aardvarks to Zyzzyvas (Oct. 2016) * Enduring American Mysteries (Oct. 2016) 134

Pyramids of Fire (Dec. 2016) * Noteworthy UFO Cases (Feb. 2017) * One at a Time or all at Once (Mar. 2017) * Spies Uncovered (Apr. 2017) * Geniuses Among Us (May. 2017) * Pumped Up (Oct. 2017) A Brief History of Hurricanes (Dec. 2017) What Is Truth? (Dec. 2017) Transportation Disasters (Feb. 2018) 8S WR WKH (DYHV 0DMRU 6QRZVWRUPV (Apr. 2018) * Everybody Loves Conspiracy Theories (May. 2018) ** The Automobile: An American Cultural Icon (Jun. 2018) * $UH :H 5HDG\ IRU $UWL¿FLDO ,QWHOOLJHQFH" (Jul. 2018) 7KH\ 6D\ ,W¶V ,PSRVVLEOH (Oct. 2018) Noble New Nation (Jan. 2019) Confronting the (DUWK¶V 7ULEXODWLRQV (May. 2019) Coming to Our Senses (Jul. 2019) Popular Primary Pets (Jul. 2019) Interesting Numbers for Interested Folks (2019) Looking for a Few Good Critters: Marine Mammals (2020) ,W¶V $ERXW 7LPH $ 7HPSRUDO ([SORUDWLRQ (2020) Metaphysical Experiences: Are They Real? (2020) Sailing Through the Ages (2020) Rising to the Challenge of Space Flight (2020) 135

About The Author David Ritchey’s vocations have LQFOXGHG QDYDO RI¿FHU EXVLQHVVPDQ ¿QH DUW SKRWRJUDSKHU SV\FKRWKHUDSLVW researcher, and writer. His avocations have included: scuba diving, sailing, skiing, tennis, golf, gardening, woodworking, dogs, magic, bridge, and SCRABBLE™.

After being educated in economics DW <DOH 8QLYHUVLW\ KH VHUYHG IRU ¿YH \HDUV DV DQ RI¿FHU LQ WKH 8 6 1DY\ LQFOXGLQJ D \HDU LQ 9LHWQDP Back in civilian life, he initially became a businessman, but shortly thereafter followed his true inclinations and became a ¿QH DUW SKRWRJUDSKHU While immersed in the art world, he became fascinated by the psychology/neurology of creativity, and returned to school to train as a psychotherapist. During his 15 years of clinical practice, specializing in hypnotherapy, he became especially interested in the psychodynamics of those clients who reported having had transpersonal (“metaphysical”) experiences, and undertook a twelve-year project of researching and writing about such people, who he speaks of as “Anomalously Sensitive Persons.”

Later, he became his daughter’s business manager at her art gallery on Cape Cod, and spent a few years involved simultaneously in the worlds of both business and art.

Now “retired,” he spends his time writing about a wide range of subjects that are of special interest to him. Information about his books can be found at www.davidritchey-author. com.

He currently lives in historic Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

He has two grown children, Harper and Mac, and a grandson, Brendan.

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