Issue 87 Did you know: Baby development May 29,2013

I learned about baby development in my AP Psychology class back in high school. I found it interesting and I thought I would share this knowledge in the hopes of aiding parents in raising there children. So here I go.

Developing the nervous system: When babies are born they are of course still developing. This is especially true for their nervous systems as they are for the first time being exposed to all sorts of new stimulus. As such, the simple act of holding the baby, touching their little fingers and toes aids in the overall development of the baby. Basically, touch your child so that the nerves in their body are stimulated and as such develop. The more stimuli you give the baby the faster they develop. They have even done experiments with monkeys where one was given a wire mesh mother and the other a mother clothed in warm cloth. What scientists found was that the monkey baby with the cloth mom developed not only faster, but was healthier as well. So in short, giving a baby your love and attention is a very good thing if you want your child to grow up healthy.

Speak to a baby, not gibberish: Have you ever said "goo goo ga ga" to a baby. Well don't do that! Babies are like a sponge with knowledge being the liquid. By speaking gibberish and even imitating the sounds of your child you are holding back their language and even their brain development. Just like touch, sound helps the baby’s nervous system develop, in this case for the purpose of being able to speak. Also, when speaking to the infant, try to make it so the can see your lips moving because the baby will in fact try to imitate you. This enables the mouths nerves and muscles to grow too even if the baby has yet to understand what they are imitating. Basically, talk to your child like you would any other individual and it will help your child develop faster and maybe even healthier.

Conclusion: I love children. I literally have a bunch of young cousins who when I see them, I can't help but hug them out of love. Of course they then proceed to maul me in a group to which there parents must yank them off. Needless to say it is kind of funny. As I love the kids in my family so much, I wanted to help parents with respect to their young children and showing their love and affection toward them. I am sure we can all agree that we want all children to grow up happy and healthy and thus why I write this tiny article here for you today. I hope you find it useful.

Issue 86 Public Libraries and the Internet May 28, 2013

Libraries, the place that many thought would be outmoded with the internet are still trying to hang on. To do so they are looking to lend books electronically. But even this is causing some interesting problems.

Publishers don't like electronic libraries: The reason is simple; it cuts into printed book sales. Publishers still like printing books in paper back and hard cover, but libraries cut into those sales. They do so by offering cheap and often time’s free access to the books once published via the internet. While yes, some publishers charge libraries to use and lend there books, there is still a sense of "cannibalism" within the realm of publishing.

Issues with electronic lending: Generally libraries guard the data of there borrowers end their reading habits, but with electronic lending digital traces are left which publishers will attempt to exploit. Thus, privacy is an issue. Libraries themselves could even exploit the data by selling it to make more cash. Only one advantage can be drawn that I can see, and that is a book version of "Pandora" that puts up similar music to what you normally listen to. In the case of books it will use genre and authors to help make useful suggestions for avid readers. But there is also an issue of the providers and their servers. Libraries don't use there own servers to lend books as they use an outside vender. If they try to switch, they may loose all those book titles that they can lend and may have to go through legal hassles to aid the new service to lend out the same books. It comes down to licensing law.

Overall advantage: Electronic lending does have its perks. It allows people to borrow books even after the library itself is closed. This means no more waiting in line for a book let alone for someone to return the book. Also, this allows for people access to information that would otherwise be hard to obtain as not all books are available on the internet itself save through an electronic lending system. In addition, while many may see this as a negative, hackers may break into the digital parts of the library and pirate all of the data. The hackers of course will win in the long run as libraries and publishers both will be forced to adapt to the new realities or literally die trying. Of course most libraries offer books free of charge so that issue will be minimized.

Conclusion: Libraries are here to stay. Some may not even be buildings, but rather online sights that lend out books and may even give a chance for people to buy the book itself (the electronic version). It opens up the market so that armature authors may publish a book through a library which may even turn into there big break. Advertisements are inevitable as some form of revenue will be required if the author is self publishing, as far be it for me to deny them the right to profit from their work. Even Amazon is getting into the act of lending out books along with movies and other media through their Amazon Prime service. Publishers have naturally pushed back by refusing to sell certain books to libraries, but that just means more room for the unlicensed and armatures to have greater exposure rather than be brushed aside for the more popular titles. How the library evolves is something we all cannot predict, but for me, I kind of hope that all the libraries in the world form a kind of network to provide titles from all over the world to the masses. An international library seems like a nice idea from my stand point.

Special for Memorial Day

Today in the U.S. we celebrate Memorial day.  Originally started after Americas civil war to honor the fallen, it has since become a day to honor all soldiers who gave their lives for their country.

God Bless all those who have fought and died and all those they left behind.

Issue 85 Interfaith Marrige May 27, 2013

Interfaith marriage is a good thing. Love should overcome everything including faith. But this is not always the case. According to an article in the Economist people are not prepared for an interfaith marriage possible problem. So let’s discuss those issues.

Problem: Some men and women of different faiths don't count on their religious differences getting in the way of their marriage. Apparently, A Roman Catholic man fearing that his daughter would not go to heaven if left un-baptized was given a court order saying if he ever did it again that he would go to prison. The reason was because his wife was Jewish and he had already promised to raise the child as a Jew. As a result a divorce occurred leading to joint religious rights. Interfaith marriages are more likely to end in divorce. Usually child birth brings people back to their faith and then the questions arise over which faith the child should be raised. Usually it is the mother’s faith that supersedes the fathers, but many do not discuss such issues out of fear. Fear of looking intolerant and even un-romantic. So the obvious solution is to discuss it before it is too late.

Interfaith marriage is common: About 45% of marriages are of two people with different faiths and the numbers are rising. These include people who are of different faiths or parts of a faith where their faiths "clash seriously". Even if you exclude the different denominations from the statistic the marriage rate is still at 36%. We Americans are apparently more likely to marry a person of a different faith than a person of a different political party. Why is this trend occurring? Well according to Ms. Schaefer Riley (she is Jewish and is married to an agnostic Jehovah's Witness) people are marring later in life. After a period of being single and on their own, peoples family traditions generally fall away. As such some people who marry into a different faith convert, but that is not always the case. America in this respect is a melting pot of faith.

Conclusion: I want interfaith marriages to survive. So I ask for all couples who are different faiths to discuss their differences early to avoid such problems. I personally, if I am to meet and marry someone of a different faith, would ask that the child be raised in both faiths and decide for themselves which faith to follow when they are old enough. If they want both and they feel they can reconcile the differences then I would support that to. However, we must also be careful as from my perspective a lot of my friends from interfaith marriages have become atheist out of the confusion reconciling the differences between the faiths and the promotion by secularists that faith causes war and death. It is not a faiths fault that a war occurs; it is the people who try to justify the act of murder who are at fault there. In any case, interfaith marriage I believe is a good thing. With this, just like the market place of ideas we will be able to root out the silly parts of faiths that we find untruthful or false. Let us face facts, we all agree on a lot of things when it comes to faith like helping the poor, and such. So in this I find that we are all correct and incorrect at the same time and that the differences are the issues that must be resolved. Maybe, just maybe, interfaith marriages will be the cure to such ills.

Issue 84 Interfaith centers May 24, 2013

An interfaith center is a place where people of multiple faiths may go and pray. Though, these people may not necessarily pray at the same time as a person with a different faith. It seems that such spaces are becoming more and more common with 1,500 in Britain alone. This I find to be a wonderful trend.

Why I like it: For one it brings together people of different faiths. By doing so it exposes people to other ideas and concepts within the faith based communities. While some of different faiths generally do not pray together, there are instances where a Muslim, a Christian and even a Jew pray together. These spaces are in no way limited to the monotheistic religions, as people of all faiths are welcome. These include Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists and in some cases atheists. It is a wonderful display of cooperation between the different groups with people either bringing in their own religious items in with some becoming permanent fixtures like Muslim prayer rugs. Some even have the room designed with curtains which cover up other religious items while people of a different faith pray. In Frankfurt's Goethe University they have an interfaith room called "house of silence" (Haus der stille). Here the Protestant and Muslim ministers have taken advantage of the space to hold a monthly peace prayer. It is a wonderful level of cooperation between the faiths and I would like to see more.

Possible future potential: Due to this level of cooperation we may see further expansion of this concept. It is possible that the different faith based groups will share more such spaces as it will decrease there overall costs in maintaining a traditional single faith house of worship. This may also lead to combined food kitchens and food drives that support the poor (something that all faiths can agree on). Basically we may have an elevated level of cooperation in helping those who are down and out as people of different faiths join hands to feed the hungry. Is it far fetched at the moment, maybe as more tolerance and acceptance of each other will have to continue. However, these spaces open up a dialogue with people of different faiths and as such ideas are shared. It will help us reach a better understanding between each other and realize that we all have a lot in common.

Problems: Some people fear that these spaces are Muslim prayer rooms disguised as multi faith spaces. This fear of course stems from the Jihadist terrorists within the Muslim community. People forget that it is only a small percentage of Muslims that are actually out to get them and their more moderate brethren. But most people are thankfully ignoring such fears as according to the Economist article public attitudes show that people are unconcerned about religious differences (Johannes Stuckelberger, Theologian and expert in church aesthetics at the University of Bern in Switzerland).

The one other problem is the overall design of the space. Some things may be deemed offensive like an alter that shifts from one direction to another to comply with Christians and Muslims need to worship in a particular direction. They also may be looked upon as tacky like the German Gebetomat which is a vending booth for prayers in 65 languages. As such most of such rooms are made to be as neutral as possible until the parishioners of the different faiths add there own touch to make it their own.

Conclusion: I have always liked this idea as I have always felt that these sorts of facilities would help bring people together on a more spiritual level. I do hope that these spaces will ultimately result in a dialogue that can bring all faiths together and shunt the violent radicals in all faiths out.

Issue 83 Sea Steading May 23, 2013

This concept was first brought to my attention on John Stossel’s show on Fox Business Network and again in the magazine Foreign Policy. It is a unique and a very innovative idea that I personally would like to see occur. But enough talk, here is what it is all about.

What is it?: Sea Steading is the idea to take an oil rig or a cruise ship and convert it into a tiny nation state. In essence it could have representation in the U.N. It works by dragging the oil rig or having the cruise ship in international waters. There, the people living on board would create a self sustaining society away from the corruption of the current governments around the globe. Due to the location in international waters, the people will also be immune to all laws created by other governments around the globe. But what is the goal?

The Goal: The goal is for each sea stead to create their own government. Each one would try out something different and see how it develops. In practice, the people aboard would dictate the type of government aboard each vessel and then compare notes with other members of the larger sea steading communities. From there it is all about developing the most effective form of government and economy whilst maintaining freedom. Basically it is a massive science experiment for designing the best government and economy. From there they hope that there land based counterparts will copy aspects of what works and then improve themselves. Also, if a sea steading community fails the people are either free to leave or change governments.

Worries: For one, the sea steading communities must be as self sustaining as possible. If they should have to tow themselves into another nations territorial waters then all the people there would be subject to those other countries laws. So either they make it so they never have to physically bring the community to land again, or they are fully recognized as an independent nation. Technology does allow for almost complete sustainability however with respect to recycling, fuel, and energy production. Food is a concern, but some form of farm or other form of food source must be created to make the system work.

The other worry is the weather. On land, the weather is less vicious than at sea. Ocean currents and strong waves can completely destroy a sea stead. They have designed oil rigs to withstand certain weather conditions closer to land, but at sea in open water the difficulty and the chances of survival if something does happen are very limited. Rescue is hundreds of miles off shore and so those people may be in for there own version of the "Poseidon Adventure" (it’s a movie for those who don't know). So hopefully these hurdles can be overcome in some way.

Conclusion: Conceptually, this is a fantastic idea. People want to use the scientific method to analyze and create the best form of government and economy. Heck, it might even be a precursor to orbiting colonies having there own self governments as well (those interviewed thought of this as well and are busy making plans). I do hope this idea comes to pass and that societies based on self determination develop that overcome humanities instincts to clamor for power and control. Would I live on one of these? Yes, but only if my country the United States finally collapses under its own weight.

Issue 82 Are we past race May 22, 2013

Short answer is no. We will never be passed race. While Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made great strides in removing the racism in our American culture, it has not disappeared. Rather race appears and disappears depending on what is going on.

How far have we come?: We are so much better than before. There is very little discrimination in respect to race itself in the negative sense. Instead, we are dealing with what has been coined as reverse racism. In this, we give people of certain races deference when it comes to employment such as Black Americans, Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans (this is known as affirmative action). They get hired sometimes even if a white individual is better qualified for a position simply due to skin color. Sometimes a black person will be hired over a Hispanic or an Asian person due to quotas. This happens a lot in government and even in the private sector because people fear looking racist. However, I question the logic behind these "reverse racism" practices as in truth it is out and out racism for you are basically saying that they can't achieve higher employment or education with out the white mans help. People add the word "reverse" in front just to make themselves feel better doing it. Many believe we are past this issue, but until such practices end, we will be caught in the death spiral of race based on color.

Racism is not just about color: Originally, racism was based around specific physical traits like skin color, but unfortunately Hitler changed that. He used the principles of eugenics (a defunct science) to deem people of the Jewish faith as an entirely different race. As a result over time religions and discrimination of people who worship in those faiths has become a form of racism. Eugenics has also played the same role in making it racist when people of a certain ethnic background are discriminated against. Overall, it is not about skin color any more, but about a common bond shared amongst a group of people that is being used to put them down in some way shape or form.

Racism is everywhere: Yes, we still suffer from racism in the U.S. This is a given due to government and private entities using things like affirmative action. It is also because we have hate groups on all sides as hate groups like the KKK, the Neo Nazis and even groups like the New Black Panthers preach some form of hate. But racism is also used to justify genocide even in the 21st century. No, I’m not talking about the Holocaust, but the genocide in Sudan. It is Arab Muslims who control the government killing African Muslims in the province of Darfur. They consider the African Muslims inferior to the Arab Muslims and have committed numerous atrocities in the name of cleansing the world of an inferior race. This as many would agree is out and out disgusting. But unfortunately simple differences in race are used to justify killing and discrimination all over the globe. This is not an isolated incident, but an epidemic of hate. No man should kill another for any reason save protecting themselves and there families from harm by another individual or group.

Conclusion: We all have work to do. Racism is a perversion of the world. It violates Gods teachings and I'm sure it violates the very principles of atheists as well. The tolerance policy by governments has done good. We tolerate each other as we attempt to co-exist, but tolerance is not enough. I do not want to just tolerate you being near me and working with me. It is time to take the next step, by accepting and finally understanding who we all are and what we have in common. Yes, two more steps, acceptance and understanding. We are all one race, the Human Race. We share so much in common and if we understood that, the disagreements will be pale in comparison. Our bond as a united people is in what we all share. We are human, we love freedom, we want to give ourselves and our families a happy healthy life, we all believe in something, and more. How can we all be right and yet all be so wrong at the same time? Surely we all have a role to play in destroying racism. Yes, people will be used as scapegoats when it comes to times of pain and torment, but we can and will get past this eventually. Just remember one thing, we have all been oppressed and we have all been an oppressor at one time or another in history and sometimes we are both at the same time. Once we understand that we are both victims and victimizers then maybe we can get past the hate passed from one generation to the next and move on to a brighter future.