THEM

Before The Men Who Stare Goats, the was THEM. Jon Ronson has a knack for finding the quirky parts of the underground minds in our society. In the THEM, Ronson spends time with the kind of people who believe that there is a secret Jewish conspiracy to take over the world to form the New World Order. The groups differ greatly from the KKK to Islamists to just plain old folks. The conclusion of the book brings Ronson to a bizarre ceremony in northern California that may sound too weird to be true.

By far this has been one of the most fascinating books I have read in a long time. Not every chapter was riveting, but for the most part it had no trouble holding my attention. Learning how some of the nuttier factions of society. Chapter two was the highlight of the book. I'd heard reference to Ruby Ridge before, but honestly knew little besides the name. Ronson spends time with Rachel, the daughter of Randy Weaver, and gets her impression of the events that took place. He later meets up with Randy Weaver himself. In short you learn about a family that moved to the mountains of Idaho to escape the corruption of the world with the strange belief in the coming New World Order and that the government was out to get them. In the end, they paranoia played out in some of the ways they may have expected, but not for the reasons they would have supposed. The events left Randy's wife Vicky and son Sam dead and became a rallying cry and pilgrimage spot for the likes of Timothy McVeigh. Since the events at Ruby Ridge, Randy Weaver has dropped his conspiracy view of the world, many believe it's because his wife was the driving force between those believes.

Ruby Ridge happened prior to the events at Waco, so for many Americans, it's less well known. It's true that the Weaver family and the Davidian Cult held many beliefs. In fact Ronson meets with Randy Weaver at the Davidian site, where it was being rebuilt. Weaver was like a Rock Star to the volunteers working at the site, even though he no longer held those extreme beliefs. What I found most fascinating was what actually lead up to the siege. Randy had been spending time with the local Aryan Nation group and he'd been approached by a federal marshall to spy of the group. He was chosen, because he was not committed to their cause. He spent time with them for the social aspect. He declined the offer. Unfortunately, before the request the same marshall had asked Randy to saw off a couple of shotguns, just below the legal limit. This allowed the government to push Randy's hand. He still refused, despite the threat of prosecution. He never showed up in court, and that's when the nightmare began.

Ronson also spends time with a KKK outfit called the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. This happens to be one Klan faction that was trying to build a more positive image. Less with hating blacks more loving the whites. The difference is subtle, but one factor with this group was the fact that they were making an effort to avoid the N-word, at least in public. The group was using personality tests up the wazzoo to help them to improve themselves and make a better impression publicly. Their buddies at another faction called the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan view this effort as the Klan as going soft, but the AK of the KKK are the ones that make the Jerry Springer appearances. As far as I'm concerned, they are essentially the same. Fascinating, but the same.

The concluding chapter of the book offers a view of the powerful, few are aware of. There's a place in northern California known as the Bohemain Grove where many leaders, government and business, go to talk about issues in the world. It's where George Bush Sr. learned that Cheney would be the running mate of his son in the coming 2000 election. It was merely reported that Bush learned the news while camping in northern California. That would be camping at the Bohemian Grove. Among conspiracy theorists, this is a satanic ritual and evidence of the New World Order. Ronson was able to sneak in attend. He did so with some help. A local lawyer took him in, so to speak.

Ronson learned about this event and decided to check it out, so he contacted one of the extremists he'd spoken to earlier in the book and invited him along. His name is Alex Jones. Alex Jones is one of the nuts similar to Randy Weaver and he hosts a radio show. He accepted the invitation. While planning the infiltration, Ronson learned of this lawyer, Rick, who'd snuck in several times before. Ronson contacted him and got his help. Rick's instructions were simple, just walk in and act like you belong. That's what Rick and Ronson did. Alex Jones on the other hand decided to sneak in with one of his buddies a little differently. All saw the same ritual, but they came away with different interpretations. Jones provided the typical nutcase explanations, while Ronson described a strange ceremony as nothing more than a Fraternity party for geezers.

What's most interesting about Bohemian Grove is not what takes place, it's how people view it. There's a population out there that see it as a satanic ceremony for world domination. The thing is it's not. There was a time when it was the most powerful people in the world and maybe a lot of influence came out of the meetings. Now the attendees are mostly older and the younger folks are avoiding these kinds of gatherings, because they see them as lame. So, at some point the amount of power wielded by the Bohemian Grove crowd will rhyme with zero.

The book is great and well written. I had a difficult time putting it down. I don't know why some people have such screwed up perceptions of the world. Some of it must be due to their upbringing. It's not unusual that children will see the world with a similar lens as their parents. They may or may not come through life with the same ideals, but the parents will have a significant impact on that world view. In the case of the extremists, they tend to live in tight communities and so getting contrary information is difficult. They're like a weird genetic mutation or something. Read the book and check out the clips below. Part of the book was filmed for a documentary, Ronson's other job. Alex Jones interpretation of the Bohemian Grove ritual is further down.

Bad Astronomy

Bad Astronomy is kind of a catch-all book for astronomical misconceptions and myths. Philip Plait, the author, sets out to set the record straight a number of issues regarding astronomy. While Plait is a scientist, a man with a PhD, he doesn't write like one. The writing carries the Bill Nye enthusiasm with the college professor knowledge. Plait was, at the time of the book, a professor at Sonoma College.

Bad Astronomy covers a wide range of topics from egg balancing to the moon hoax and several other things in between. As mentioned above, the book does not drip with geek-speak. It's a very down to earth, nearly conversational in nature. I especially like that I could share fact from the book fairly easily. What's the point of reading a book if you can't enlighten those around you.

It all started with chapter one and the myth of balaning eggs only at the Spring equinox. Apparently there's a myth, on I was unaware of, that eggs can only balance at this time of the year. There's supposed to be some gravitational effect. So, often school kids get roped into testing this theory. Of course somebody succeeds, thus perpetuating the myth. The problem is, there's nothing special about the time of year. Given the right patience a steady hand, and the right egg, you too can balance an egg...any time of the year. My wife, brother, sister and I put this to the test over the Thanksgiving holiday. It worked of course. We just had to use the right egg.

Plait goes into a few other misconceptions, most notably the rotation of draining water and the color of the sun. When you ask somebody if they know anything interesting about drains, they'll most likely refer to the Coriolis Effect. The main point here being that drains swirl the opposite way depending on which hemishpere your in (Counter-clockwise up north and Clockwise down south). The Coriolis Effect is too weak and sinks/toilets/bathtubs too small for the Coriolis Effect to have any noticable impact. It should be noted that there is potential impact, but very small. In fact you would likely need to let the water sit for a week* or so then drain the container one drop at a time. When in comes to toilets, the water swirls solely because of the jets in an effort to keep that porcelien shine from becoming too marred, if you know what I mean.

What color is the sky? Blue of course. But why? Well it's not really blue and in fact a lot of people know that. They'll even get the answer partially correct and refer to the pollutants in the air refracting the light. They are correct that it's something in the air, but it's not the pollutants, it's the air itself. When the photons enter the atmoshere, much of the color gets delfected by the molecules in the air. The Reds and Oranges are affected the most. The Violets and Indigoes are affecte the least. The Blues have just the right wavelength that they scatter everywhere, but still make it your eye. They make it to your eye from every direction under the sun which causes the sky to appear blue. So, then what color is the sun? It's white. Most people assume is yellow, because the only time they can look at it is at sunset when it appears yellow. If it were possible to look at the sun directly during the day, it would be white.

Then there's the moon hoax theory. I admit that I dabbled into that territory in the past. I never became one of THEM though. Plait deals with this subject quite well and shares solid evidence and explanation for the veracity of the moon landing. A favorite of the moon hoax nuts is the lack of stars in the still pictures. This is easily explained by the fact that the shutter speed on the camera was short due to the amount of sunlight and the light from the stars was not strong enough to show up in the pictures. Another issue centers around the flapping of the flag, like it's being blown in the wind. What they forget is that without the atmoshpere the flag is more likely to flap because the lack of wind resistence. Any movment affecting the flag would be more exagerated.

While I never became a believer of the moon hoax, I studied in seriously enough to give it fair consideration. In the end, the offcial and sceintific explanations won out for me. They made more sense to start with. The key was their simplicity. Believing in a staged moon landing took more imagination and more effort. How was this pulled off without a single insider blowing the lid? Why did Russia not challenge the veracity of the event if the hoax is so obvious, as the believers claim? On the technical side, the effort to make it look real seems it would cost as much, if not more, to pull it off. Several years ago I saw some footage from the moon landing that settled things permanently (though my conclusion was already pretty secure). The footage was of the moon rover driving around the moon and I noticed two important things. First, I could see stars in the picture. They were faint, but I could see them (only a few at that). That's the benefit of a moving picture I suppose. The other thing I noticed was a perfect rainbow of moon dust kicked up by the tires. There was not a speck of dust floating in the air, just as if they were driving in a perfect vacuum. Not something that's easily created here on Earth.

That's the long and short of Bad Astronomy. It's a worthwhile read, especially with somebody who has a budding interest in astronomy. I think it's a good read for anybody, just to become familiar with astronomical phenomena. It's best to educate yourself so you don't fall victim to stupid ideas like the moon hoax. Below is footage from Mythbusters with their testing of moon hoax claims.





* I've seen estimates range from 2 hours to 3 weeks. I figure a week is a good middle ground.

I.O.U.S.A. - 2

Ok, so we're not totally screwed. Things are not looking good, at least according to this book. The national debt is growing like Tiger Wood's list of 'lovers' and programs such and Medicare and Social Security are poised to squeeze out other programs as they begin to require more funding. I.O.U.S.A is not just a book though, it's also a movie. In fact it was a movie before it was a book. The book seeks to summarize the film, in less than 100 pages. In addition to the summary, the book includes interviews with many of the subject of the film. These folks come from all ends of the spectrum of politics. Most, but not all, see the mounting debt as 'the' issue of our time.

The emotion in the film makes it a far more effective communicator than the book. When David Walker, former Comptroller General, speaks he has a passion about the state of things. That's largely missing from the book. Granted, it's hard to capture that kind of thing in the written word, unless you're a great fiction writer. The advantage of the book is the fact that you can reference it and show people key points, hi-lite and take notes.

The best interviews, in my opinion come from David Walker (it's worth youtube-ing the guy as well), Ron Paul, Arthur Laffer, Paul Volcker and Paul O'Neil. This section is good just because you get more information from these folks than could be found in the film.

What I find interesting based on reading the book is potential dire situation we may be heading toward. In the next 30-40 years, the government will have severe difficulty meeting its obligations. The issues are Social Security and Medicare. Meeting them will be near impossible according to current trends, and that's if you eliminate every other federal service; thus the US government becomes a health care/retirement program. The likelihood of this actually happening is quite low. It just means that things will have to change so the balance sheets don't get all out of whack. That means either a cut in benefits, increase in taxes, reduction in other programs, or a combination of all three. What concerns me, after reading this book is the push toward public health-care, a la France.

I'm not against a way to provide health-care to those who struggle. I do think it has to be reasonable. Even if Obama states that the public option would be covered without needing additional tax funds. That may be true now, it may not be true in the future. I believe that when Social Security and Medicare were rolled out, they weren't expected to bring such a perceived burden looming over our heads or our children's heads. Reason had an interesting take on health-care. I know that this situation won't be the same for the 40 million uninsured, but it fits some:

It distresses me that when John Mackey expresses his point of view on health-care he gets crucified, virtually. If we're concerned about finding solutions to these problems, then we should be willing to look into as many realistic options as possible and find the best. I don't like the knee-jerk reaction that we need to turn to the government to solve our problems. There have to be creative ways to solve some of them ourselves. Imagine in auto insurance functioned like health insurance. Filling up with gas or getting an oil change would include a copay, not the actual price of the service. Imagine if each fill up were just $10 or $20. You think pollution is bad now? Granted that's an analogy that may not fit perfectly, but it's the kind of thinking that needs to be looked at. That said, here are some of Mackey's comments from Reason:

Back to the book. In short, I get the message that we need to be more conscious about what we expect from the government. Even when they try to do the right thing, they often get it wrong. It spans from programs to feel good laws, like these at Cracked.com. We're in this mess because people wanted to do the right thing and help others out. Maybe sometimes that's not really the right thing. Providing health care and social security may in the end not be in the country's best interest, over the long run. In a statement from Alexis de Tocqueville in his Memoir on Pauperism he said "It is necessary to do what is most useful for the receiver, not what pleases the giver".

In the end. the book was not near as inspiring as the film, but it's worth checking out, from the library (assuming you can't access the movie). A 30 minute cut of the movie can be found here. For some reason they had the embedding capability disabled.

I.O.U.S.A.

We're Screwed!!!!!!!!!!!!

Affluenza

If you ever begin to feel complacent in life and need a reason to feel guilty, just pick up Affluenza by John De Graaf*. It's not just a book, as it was a PBS documentary before the first edition was printed. I picked up the second edition guilt-free, since somebody gave it to my wife and I to read. We're just trying to make the authors proud. We may even see if we can share the wealth.

The book is not that guilt inducing, unless you have some serious problems. If you have those problems, you probably aren't likely to pick up the book. Even if that's the case, I think it's worth reading. The authors do a decent job of getting their message of decreasing consumption and unnecessary purchases without being overly preachy. The text was easy to follow, making the book easy to digest. Their facts seemed to be in order, though I do question their use of some of their data. It's not one thing in particular, but I perceive with books like this, it's easy to cherry-pick data to support the author's already established conclusions. While I don't have a specific instance, the tone of the book did fit that bill. It's not unusual, since this is not an academic book. It is worth noting. I think that the general conclusions and ideas in the book are reasonable and worth considering.

I liked that the book spent time referencing two other books I own, Culture Jam by Kalle Lasn and Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. Both books center around living simply or at least by minimizing the unnecessary distractions of stuff. Both are worth reading as well, though I would chose Your Money or Your Life first as it's the first personal finance book I've read that actually focuses on making real changes to spending habits. Affluenza pulls from these books effectively and provides a fair endorsement of them.

The one thing that bothered me about the book was their little survey to show how bad your affluenza was. And no, I did not score poorly. I landed in the second group of only being mildly infected. While the authors admit the survey was not scientific by any means, it was a little dorky. Some of the items included on the list didn't work for me, like whether you eat meat once a day, or if you've ever experienced road rage, or do you ignore the mpg of your car. Then there was the scoring system. You were scored out of 100, but there were 50 questions and each question counted as two point. Why not just make the scale 50 or score some questions as more if you aren't going to use the 50-point scale.

On the whole, the book is a good read, but I think that it might be worth it to find the documentary it's based on as well. I have not seen it, but a portion of it is shown below.

* The book as three authors: John De Graaf, David Wann, and Thomas H. Naylor. For space and sanity I will refer to De Graaf as the only author.

The Num3rati (Audiobook)

Stephen Bakers' book entitled The Num3rati is fascinating on many levels, and downright frightening on some others. I honestly don't know if I should be excited or petrified of the future. Baker has done to the world of data mining what Malcolm Gladwell did to blinking. The Num3rati, didn't sell near the number of books, I happened on it by accident. It's an interesting book for sure and it's worth the time invested to reap its contents (whether by reading or by listening). It falls into the same genre of Blink, Outliers, Freakonomics, and The Undercover Economist as it looks at some interesting facets of life in search of the hidden messages.

As I stated above, Baker takes on the task of data mining. In statistical terms, data mining is a bad thing. It's where people have a data-set an look for correlations, any correlation they can find. An example would be linking driving habits to the Zodiac.* In the case of The Num3rati, data mining refers to the collection of data by companies and governments to better understand a given population. The data is collected with a purpose and to answer specific questions, but the process is similar to mining for ore in the actual process of data collection.

Data collection is a key enterprise in the American business culture. We should all be familiar with the saying that "knowledge is power".** Companies expend Billions in better understanding their target populations. It's well worth it, especially when the data allows the company to more easily target their audience. Rather than use the shotgun approach on national TV (very expensive), they can use a sniper approach on specific shows and channels frequented by their targets.*** The ultimate goal is to get sellers and buyers together.

The data collection spans other areas as well. Baker spends a chapter dealing with internet dating, primarily Chemistry.com, which was started by love guru and Purdue professor Helen Fisher. To test out the validity of the algorithm, Baker and his wife set up profiles, just to see if they would get matched up with each other. After a few days, nothing happened. Baker then realized he'd set a parameter that excluded his wife's age group. With that correction, happily they showed up on each other's prospective lists.

Collecting data also comes with some very positive uses. The number-crunchers are finding ways to help people with medical problems. Patients with severe medical conditions can be "watched" by their doctors via electronic equipment that monitors their rhythms and patters of behavior. When the patter is broken unexpectedly, then doctors know that something may be amiss and can intervene immediately. It may be where a patient gets up to pee around a certain time each night.

The Num3rati covers many areas of life and showcases good and bad uses of the collected data. The book is certainly not ground-breaking by any stretch of the imagination, however the information is useful and puts many things into perspective when considering the technology of the day. I found the book worthwhile to read, though not necessarily to own. What is contained in the book will be out of date and it doesn't make a mark the way that Freakonomics did, at least not enough for a follow-up called Super-Num3rati. I definitely recommend it, because is is informative, but save the few bucks and pick it up at the library if you can.

* These are items that have no relationship (aside from the fact that Astrology is crap), but people have made claims that there is a real relationship due to identified correlations. Because the data was not collected for that express purpose and people were merely looking for correlations, it's no surprise they found one. The issue is that when you just mine data for correlations, you're bound to find something, but when the data was not collected in a way as to answer a specific question, the correlations have little meaning.

** Knowledge is not power, though knowledge put to use comes somewhat closer to that reality. All the knowledge in the world does little for you, even if you know about David Letterman's affairs.

*** Targets are a very good description after listening to this book. While Baker doesn't use the term himself, the description of the aims is quite clear. It might not be all bad, but it's certainly isn't all good.

The Sky Is Not the Limit

Neil De Grasse Tyson is the face of Astrophysics in America. He's also the author of several books about astronomy and the director on the Hayden Planetarium in New York City. On top of all that, he hosts Nova Science Now. The Sky Is Not the Limit is a memoir where Tyson chronicles his burgeoning interest in all thing astronomy as a kid to his rise to to a very prestigious position at the Hayden Planetarium.

For the most part, the book is pretty interesting and well written. Tyson certainly has a talent for writing and communicating scientific ideas to the lay person. The book is not heavy on science, but the science that is included is easily understood. Most of the book focuses on Tyson's experiences falling in love with science, Astronomy in particular.

The subtitle for the book is: Adventures of and Urban Astrophysicist. It's certainly an applicable title, as Tyson has lived pretty much his entire life in New York City. From that subtitle, I had wrongly assumed that he'd grown up in a poorer neighborhood. Shame on me for the assumption. As it turns out, Tyson grew up in a relatively well off family, not that he was swimming in cash. It was this upbringing that provided him with landmark experiences such as attending an Astronomy camp in New Mexico and joining an Astronomy Cruise while in high school. Tyson even relates some of his experiences with racial prejudice and the assumptions that a black student couldn't pursue Astrophysics.

As I mentioned, the book is interesting and enjoyable, although the first half of chapter one wasn't that exciting. I almost regretted picking out the book and even considered putting it down. It wasn't so much that it was horribly written, but more that the target audience appeared to be for the junior high age. While I still feel the book is appropriate for that age group, I found it to be reasonable for any age group. In fact, I would recommend this book to anybody, even if you're not interested in Astronomy. I think the book is inspiring and can encourage younger folks to pursue their interests and get passionate about something. I think it can even inspire older adults to renew forgotten interests (I still regret not taking that Astronomy class in college).

The coolest story comes from Tyson's experience applying for college. He'd applied to and been accepted to Cornell and Harvard. At that time, Carl Sagan was teaching at Cornell and invited Tyson to come for a campus visit. Sagan even offered to let Tyson stay at his house, in the event he had trouble getting home after the visit. That left and impression on Tyson and though he ultimately chose Harvard, he's endeavored to follow the example that Sagan provided in being personable with fans and students of Astronomy.

The long and short, it's a worthy read. It's the kind of book I'll encourage my kids to read when they hit junior high and they are trying to figure out what they are interested in.