Pseudo-intelligence

I realize everyone’s not a scientist. Math is difficult to some people, as is logic. Some people are more intuitive, others just not smart enough; but fortunately our world is blessed with people who fully understand science and all its amazing benefits. These people are our doctors, engineers and researchers and have brought to us all the modern benefits of our exceedingly technical world. I myself am trained as an engineer, and the responsibility upon me to improve life around me using my technical expertise is not one I take lightly. I think it is fine for people to possess different skills and knowledge in our society, as this specialization is in fact the foundation of all economies. What bothers me is deep seeded paranoia of science and scientists that seems to persist throughout much of the community which itself is ignorant of science.

It would be logical for those who do not understand to trust those that do, but rather they become paranoid and fearful of what they do not understand. This paranoia and fear then extends to those scientists, perhaps because they have difficulty comprehending their knowledge, in the same way I have difficulty understanding such ignorance. This is likely born out of human fear of the unknown and is an unfortunate problem in our world, but this is not the issue which drove me to write this blog. What bothers me so much are those who prey on the fears of those ignorant people and purposely mislead them in order to make money. Not only are they deceiving people out of their money, but they are also propagating their ignorance and even promoting their fear and paranoia of the unknown. This slows progress and causes social policy to be dominated by fear rather than reason.

There are countless examples of this sort of preying on ignorance, but perhaps one of the most poignant examples of this are the many Q-Ray products. I’m sure you’ve seen their infomercials advertising their bracelets which promote wellness, optimize your own bio-energy and of course do not provide any explanation of how they work. The most confusing product I found on their website is the EMF Protection Chip (http://www.qray.ca/QRayCart/Product.aspx?sku=1201). These clips claim to protect your body from harmful EMF waves using bio-metals and PiRay Technology. Of course there are no such things as bio-metals, and Pi, the ratio of circumference to diameter of a circle, has nothing to do EMF waves. The EMF waves they speak of are the electromagnetic field waves which propagate from anything with electric current or magnetism. You are constantly bombarded by them, not only from electronic devices, but from the many radio waves travelling through the air, microwaves coming from space, the Earth’s own magnetic field and even light. There has been no documented harm caused by these waves which we are normally exposed too (with the exception of putting your head in a microwave oven) nor could a $12.95 (plus S&H) chip prevent their propagation through your body.

People can believe whatever they want, and I feel much more sympathy than disdain for their ignorance, but it appals me to see people preying on them and promoting their paranoia and ignorance of our modern world. It’s the 21^st century.

From Blogger Pictures

Worth Keeping

There is something about nature. By something I mean the power it possesses to affect me when I am immersed in it. Recently I had the pleasure of visiting the Pacific Northwest and was blown away by the mountains and incredibly tall red-wood trees. Beyond viewing the beauty there I also toured several Native American historical sites there and observed their lost way of life. Upon learning how they lived I felt a deep jealousy of the simplicity and beauty of their life. Living off immense wilderness, plentiful with food and a perfect climate seemed to me to be the ideal life. The ease of life they enjoyed can be seen in the amazing art they had time to develop, not having to spend most of their days just surviving. The totem poles which they built out of stone tools are an amazing accomplishment. Living off a healthy diet of fish and immersed in incredible natural beauty they were able to design a beautiful and unique artistic style which is one of my personal favourites in the history of the world. I personally like to think that the reason those Natives never progressed technologically is because they already had the perfect life.

Of course nature’s beauty is all around us and is as diverse as the Earth is large. After my trip I returned home to the Atlantic Northeast. Although nature’s physical features are not as immense or powerful here as on the Pacific, it is beautiful all the same. Inspired by the wilderness on the Pacific I went hiking in Blomidon Provincial Park in Nova Scotia and all but forgot the Pacific, coming face to face with Nova Scotia’s own unique wilderness.  I feel so lucky to live in a nation with so much untouched wilderness, but at the same time I am afraid that our nation could end up like those in Europe where their forests and wilderness have been all but obliterated. Much of Canada’s wilderness is so because no one has developed it yet, but little of it is actually protected. Logging, mining and the tar sands are constantly destroying our wild (and it is ours) with little stopping them, all in the name of economic progress. Surely in a nation as large as Canada we can have both: large comfortable cities with plentiful energy and natural resources while maintaining large swaths of wilderness and expansive national parks. The government simply needs to commit to protecting large areas of wilderness from private interests and surely this will benefit the greater good. In our times of in-activity and stressful, stimulated lives, getting back in touch with old home in the wild can be the best therapy.

-DG

P.S. I have included several photos of my recent trips.

Nature Blog