It's not real. ... Or is it?

I'm fairly certain that most people out there have seen or heard of one of the big political stories going on at the moment, but just to cover all possibilities, here's the story: (clicky-clicky).

Todd Akin, a US Representative from Missouri, made several statements regarding pregnancy rates from rape.  Among his comments were "... It's really rare", and "If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down".  This outraged me the first time I read about it, and it continues to do so.  "Legitimate" rape?  I'm sorry, I didn't know there was any other kind of rape.  Rape, by its very definition, is an act that is forced upon someone.  I don't know what he was thinking when he said that.  He's gone on to claim that he "misspoke", but as far as I know, he hasn't offered any explanation beyond that.  It seems pretty clear to me that if he misspoke, there should be immediate clarification.  The picture that I'm getting isn't one of clarification - it's of damage control.  A lot of people are calling for him to drop out of the Senate seat race that he's (currently) a part of, but he doesn't seem to consider that a possibility.

So, with the backstory out of the way, -should- he be forced to drop out of the Senate race?  My opinion is no.  Did he make a completely stupid, asinine comment?  Absolutely.  Should he be publicly "raked over the coals", as it were, in order to even START making amends for that?  Absolutely.  Does it in any way make him ineligible for holding a Senate seat?  Not in the slightest.  Really, all it does is put the voters into a different situation.  Assume that you're steadfastly Republican (which Mr. Akin is).  Is your political affiliation strong enough to push you to vote for him anyway, even after that kind of comment?  Or would you be displeased enough by it to change your mind, either voting for the Democrat, another candidate, or not at all?  Let's not forget, it wasn't too long ago that we had a US President in office who misspoke regularly.  I've seen 366-page calendars of "Bushisms" more than I'd ever cared to.  Former President Bush's qualifications (or lack thereof) to run the country are a different topic, though.

Essentially, I think that if Rep. Akin chooses to remain in the Senate race, then more power to him.  The final decision lies, as it always has, in the hands of the voters.  If the public is as outraged as they say, then their votes will speak for themselves.

I doubt this post saved any lives, and I apologize for that.  In an attempt to remedy that, I'll share this nugget of wisdom: studies have shown that 10 out of 10 people who drink water die.  Take from that what you will.

'Till next time, everyone.

Could Not Reading This Post Cause Cancer?

Probably not. As long as providing news has been a way for people to make money, the desire for increasingly sensational stories that'll attract attention has led to the proliferation of ridiculous claims and massive misinterpretation of relatively mundane facts. Case in point: an article that claims that eating the yolk of an egg is as dangerous as smoking.

This article was presented on the first day of my Statistics class this semester as an example of how facts can be skewed to an absurd degree by the media for the sake of creating a story from nothing. The original research that this article is based on concluded that people at risk of heart disease should probably avoid egg yolks. This was violently twisted by the author of this article to mean, "EGG YOLK WILL CAUSE CORONARY HEART DISEASE. BEWARE."

This highlights a major problem with our society: people will assume that a source is reliable just because of support from a major news outlet, especially if its a topic that they're not personally educated on. That being said, while it's your responsibility as an individual to look into the information that you're taking in, the people putting it out these kinds of articles should be held accountable as well. Providing people with this kind of misleading trash and calling it news is morally reprehensible, and it's rather depressing that people still think this is okay to do.

This has really been more of a commentary on the media at large than a specific current event, but I hope that it encourages a more critical look at the world. Tomorrow, John'll be posting with news that could potentially save your life. Be sure not to miss it.

Music Across Languages

When setting out on this current events thing, I decided that I was going to try and find interesting, less seen articles that I thought were interesting enough to share. This week I've decided to share this CNN article about AfroCubism, which is a band of Malian and Cuban musicians. The blending of two musical cultures first drew my eye, but as they described how that the bands members do not all speak the same language, and how they work together to create their own language in music, that's what really made me enjoy this article.

Tioumani Diabate, who plays the kora and is the musician whom the article focuses on makes the comment that AfroCubism shows that music can bring people together. I am very much into the uniting power of music, and of how music is able to speak to the deepest parts of ourselves. I admit that I do not know much about nor really follow international music, so I had never heard about AfroCubism before and to now know about such a collaboration is really really cool.

Music is one of the things that makes us human, allows us to express ourselves, so I definitely see music as being important to our culture and to who we are, and can be used to help see those differences in culture. And the bringing of two cultures together to create one sound allows us to continue to close the gap in the extreme differences we see in one another.

So perhaps I got more out of the article than was initially there, and I am certainly interested in what kind of thoughts you have after reading it (and watching some of the videos) too.

Who Comes Up With This Stuff?

So I found an article from the Wall Street Journal about decoding books into DNA.  Basically, someone decided to take a digital copy of a book and translates those ones and zeros into pieces of DNA.  The article is much better at explaining how they did it then I am, since I still don't understand how things work once they're in binary, much less in DNA.  But, apparently the space of someone's thumb could hold the entire internet.

Now, this is a very cool idea.  However, apparently it takes several days to transcribe it, and much longer to re-form those strands into a book.  I don't understand how they can do this, since DNA is sooo tiny.  But, someone much smarter then me has figured it out, and so now they can put literary information onto blank strands of DNA.

The better question seems to me to be, Why?  Okay, so now you have a book on tens of thousands strands of DNA.  So, why did you do this in the first place?  Just because you could?  I think we are doing perfectly fine with printed books.  If you want to read books from a computer screen or Kindle, that's fine, although I probably won't join you.  But what on earth possessed someone to say, "Oh, I want to read my book from a DNA strand today?"

Yeah, I understand that we're supposed to be improving ourselves and our technology all the time.  I wouldn't mind keeping things going at a slower pace, but that's just me.  I was born in the wrong century.  This is just crazy, to think of reading something through some complicated process that gets it off the DNA and into print.  But, hey, I suppose nothing will ever be lost again.

So, another article to think about.  Enjoy.

Everyone gets a gold star!

Just so you all know, I’ve taken a very open interpretation of “current events” for my post this week.  I had an experience this past weekend that relates to a current social issue that I’ve wanted to write about, so here I go…

A few nights ago, my family and I went to a popular sporting event (I may be a little paranoid, but I don’t want to be too specific with the unnecessary details) and, as with most sporting events, the night began with the singing of our national anthem.  When the announcer introduced the singer, I noticed that he was really talking the guy up.  Apparently the singer was an American Idol finalist and had auditioned to sing back up for a famous pop musician (the word auditioned should have raised a red flag because anyone can technically audition for anything, but I wanted to be excited and I was hoping to hear someone good).  The stands were packed and I would guess that there were about 1,000 to 1,500 spectators there that night, and after that grand introduction, I got my hopes up and thought that we were really going to hear something special.  Well, we ended up hearing a rather unexpected version of our national anthem.  The guy started singing, and then he ended up changing keys after the first line (I can understand that this kind of thing can happen when you’re singing in a huge open space through a fuzzy sound system), but then he changed keys again and again and again.  The singer had a very pleasant voice and all, but by the end of the song, he had sung in just about every key known to music.  I couldn’t believe that I had just heard a person sing our national anthem that badly in front of so many people.  It was obvious that the singer had some vocal talent, but he needed practice.  More importantly, he needed someone close to him to tell him specifically what he was not doing well so he would have a fair chance to work on and eventually fix whatever it was.    

I think that this is a big issue in our society today.  Everyone gets a gold star whether they deserve one or not.  The labeling of “above average” has become the new “average” and “average” has become the new “below average.”  Anyone who was in the grandstand that night was shown a prime example of why this is problematic.  Just so we’re clear, I’m not trying to hate on the poor guy, because he definitely had a natural talent.  I know firsthand that singing for a large number of people through a fuzzy sound system is nerve wrenching, and he may have been nervous or just having an off night.  But for someone with his resume, I was surprised that no one close to him, whether it was a friend, family member, or vocal coach, had told him what parts of that song he needed to work on before performing it for an audience.  It seemed like everyone was so focused on his accomplishments and how naturally gifted he was that his talent was never really harnessed to its full potential.

I’m not saying that it’s everyone’s place to tell others what they need to fix and how they need to do it, because that’s unnecessarily rude and it rarely ends up being constructive or useful in any way.  What I’m saying is that accolades often replace encouragement, and they shouldn’t.  Everyone needs encouragement, especially when they have talent and, most importantly, drive.  Accolades, or praises for achievement, should be limited to when they are deserved.      

Week of 8/19 - Current Events

Hey, everyone.  This will be another week of postings about (semi-)current events happening around the world.  We had some interesting articles a couple of weeks ago, and I'll be interested to see what our contributors choose to share this week.

Pendleton will be up tomorrow, and I'll be back on Friday.
Enjoy the week, everyone.

And now for something completely different...

Hey everyone! So, as promised on Sunday, I'm back to post something exciting. Today, I'm gonna share something that should appeal to anyone reading that enjoys puzzles, logic, programming, and/or math.

Project Euler.

This website provides hundreds of challenging problems that require a basic understanding math and a thorough understanding of basic logic. Some basic programming skill is generally necessary to compute the solution, but seldom anything advanced or complex, but the real challenge is in determining the proper algorithm for finding the answer to a problem like "Add all the natural numbers below one thousand that are multiples of 3 or 5."

Personally, I find that messing around with this is a great way to relieve stress, and I think that anyone that's ever enjoyed any of the things I listed at the beginning would have a real shot at enjoying this too.