All Entries in the "The Lightning Strike" Category

Judging from the human infatuation with canines of every size, shape and color--not to mention zoos, conservatories, and pet stores stocked with every imaginable critter--it is safe to conclude that humans are perhaps the world's most enthusiastic supporters of, with one caveat, genetic diversity. Of course, that one caveat is highly consequential. Remarkable as the human enthusiasm for diversity may be among non-human species, among our own species, humans tend to deplore diversity. That is, to put it mildly, a rich irony.

Racism and Hypocrisy: Celebrating Diversity–Just Not Among Humans

As Darwin pointed out in the The Origin of Species (1859), species often exhibit enormous variation. Darwin was a pigeon breeder and described at length the astounding variation that, with the help of artificial selection, pigeon breeders had succeeded in cultivating in an otherwise humdrum bird species. Similar forces operate on Canis familiaris and, if anything, have [...]

Timothy McGettigan | Mar 07, 2013 | Comments 2

Albert Einstein believed that the universe was governed by a rational god who would never dream of playing dice with his precious creation. Yet, if scientists have learned anything over the past century, it is that the universe is anything but rational. Thus, a word to the wise: if there is a god, he does play dice. Further, scientists who don't wish to crap out would be well advised to wise up to the increasingly bizarre rules of his game.

Feynman’s Cosmic Onion

Albert Einstein believed that the universe was created by a rational god; a god who would never presume to play dice with his precious creation. Einstein’s belief in a rational, knowable universe was rooted in a “clockwork” scientific philosophy that comprised the very bedrock of Enlightenment science. This perspective was most famously summed up by [...]

Timothy McGettigan | Feb 04, 2013 | Comments 1

Determinists explain everything that occurs in the universe as an outcome of an infallible master narrative: if an apple falls from a tree, or a star explodes in the Andromeda Galaxy, then determinists will insist that those events transpired precisely how and when they did because an insuperable chain of causality preordained each outcome. The magic of this type of deductive thinking--which, once again, is predicated on a dogmatic allegiance to an "infallible" master narrative--is that it can be used to explain anything and everything. However, as Karl Popper articulated so convincingly, deductive theories that purport to explain everything in fact succeed in explaining nothing scientifically.

Elementary My Dear Watson! The Beauty (and Baloney) of Being Right about Everything

Fate is the most potent weapon in a the arsenal of determinists like Stephen Hawking. To contend, as determinists plainly do, that the outcomes of events are pre-determined is essentially the same as saying that the ebbs and flows of history are all dictated by fate. Actors, whether animate or inanimate, have no control over [...]

Timothy McGettigan | Nov 16, 2012 | Comments 0

Take the reader survey…

Please help the Socjourn and take our reader survey. It is anonymous and we won’t share any information with Big Brother. Most important, some decent reader statistics will help us approach Athabasca University for support of this resource, thereby ensuring that it remains free for all to see. Pause for the cause. It won’t take more than a minute.

Dr. Michael Sosteric | Apr 20, 2012 | Comments 0

Airlines to Charge Passengers by the Pound

On the heels of Allegiant Airline’s plan to charge up to $35 per carry-on bag, other major airlines have begun considering plans to charge passengers by weight.”It’s simple math,” stated Howard Fine, a spokesperson for Universal Airlines. “Heavier passengers cost more to ship from point A to point B.” In response to questions about consumer backlash over [...]

Timothy McGettigan | Apr 06, 2012 | Comments 1

Socjourn Demystifies Sociology

The Socjourn was recently featured in the publication Open AU. I’m reposting the article here but if you want to see the original article, visit this link. As a side note, the statistics they report are a bit off. In January of 2012 the Socjourn received close to five million webserver hits, not one million as I originally suggested. Not bad for a discipline that has been, up to now, confined to the dank basements of academic inquiry.

Dr. Michael Sosteric | Feb 10, 2012 | Comments 54

A Book Review: Railroads in the African American Experience: A Photographic Journey (2010)

History is written by the winners, that is certainly true. Living in a nation of “winners” we never hear the stories of those who lose. We exalt those who are triumphant, tell their stories, and forget the pain and the suffering that has resulted from the struggle. But not always. Dr. Owen Brown of Medgar Evers College, CUNY introduces us to a pictorial history of America where the story isn’t about the winners, it is about the colonial disenfranchised and their epic struggles to survive and thrive in a hostile and racist world. It is a story, told in pictures, that is both enlightening and, we hope, inspiring.

Dr. Owen Brown | Feb 08, 2012 | Comments 0

Good Science Trailer

Here’s a little advertising video for the book Good Science. It’s a great little book if you ask me and its message, that scientist always look to find out the truth of things, timely and important, especially considering the collapse of POMO theory. But it’s also a challenge. As Tim points out, accessing the truth of things is not always so straightforward. What’s more, in order to get to the truth, scientists often have to be revolutionaries. We never take the world “as it is” but always challenge ourselves, and others, to work towards the truth. Some might call it a calling, I just call it bloody hard work.

Dr. Michael Sosteric | Feb 07, 2012 | Comments 0

National Academy of Science

Science, science, science. Has there ever been a thing more wondrous and beautiful, terrible and ugly, than science? From acetylsalicylic acid to atom bombs, Prozac to Pontiac, it is impossible to deny that science is at least partially responsible. So find out more about it, and teach your students well. Make Good Science a textbook in your methods, theory, or even introductory class.

Dr. Michael Sosteric | Jan 23, 2012 | Comments 1

Definition Indigenous – The Politics of Indigeneity

Definition Indigenous – The Politics of Indigeneity – A book where the authors go and talk to native people around the world. Looks interesting to me, but the publishers need to write better ad copy otherwise the usefulness of books that help us see and define what it means to be indigenous, or aboriginal, will be submerged behind an ugly sea of EPMO.

Dr. Michael Sosteric | Nov 24, 2011 | Comments 1