A book by it's cover

I remember a saying my parents taught me. Never judge a book by it's cover. Of course this does not only refer to books or their covers. It refers to everything one will encounter through life. Be it race, religion, or way of life. It is not "wise" to judge based on appearance or in one case a name.

I am a man so I subscribe to various mens magazines, one of which is Playboy. I was reading an article in this months issue that makes me fear the direction of our societies. Most people claim they want peace. And yet again we have a display of irrational reaction based on a publications name.

Playboy is now on news stands in Indonesia, along side Maxim and other "for men" magazines. So far they have had 3 publications hit the news stands all of which have sold out in a couple days. Okay now to hit you with the kicker. Playboy Indonesia is not a nude magazine. In fact the publication is less offensive than other "for men" magazines in the area. This publication is a symbol of freedom. It has articles pertaining to area and they are not tails of sex or sin.

The chief editor visited the Press Council and proposed what the publication would be about and contain. There were no objections to it. In fact in order to not just throw what he knew might be a controversial publication out on the streets, he reached out to the Islamic organizations in the area. But of course the largest group had issues with it. I would not even call them issues, more or less they said we don't care what it is about. I am speaking of the Front Pembela Islam (FPI). It is organizations like this that make me fear the worst. To not even enter a meeting with an open mind is just plain silly these days.

Of course when the first issue was released there were protesters lined up outside the offices to voice their opinion. Was it a peaceful display? Hell no, it got out of hand property was destroyed and it would seem that the group was out to hand out judgment. A lawsuit was filed against Playboy Indonesia for breaking the law with respects to Piracy and Pornography. (Time to remind all that this publication was not a pornographic publication.) The editor was found innocent of the charges brought against him and the publication was deemed free of filth.

Why do I care? Well, there are many poor people in Indonesia and there are no jobs for people to get. This publication adds to the available work in the area. I mean what ever happened to that saying "Never judge a book by it's cover." Seems to me that we as a race are slowly drifting further and further into a pit that no one wants to be in. Oh yeah, and it is all for the "good" of our community, humanity, etc., etc. Every day I find more and more things that try to destroy my hope for peace. And every day it seems that people are not looking or listening. I hope we soon find a way to think rationally and open minded. I personally feel bad for what the next generation of humanity is being left with.

May peace find it's way to all.

Magnets

So, not exactly sure why this popped in my head, but I was wondering when I could expect the world to flip you could say. So I was looking around on the web... And I know exactly what made it pop in my head. Just remembered. I was chatting with a friend about intelligent design, and that made me think about things that might cause the extinction of the human race. So that made me think of Modern Marvels and then that lead to the magnetic field of the Earth. Go figure.

Okay, back to it. So I was looking around the web for info on the pole flip. Did you know that on average the poles change places once every 200,000 years? How do we know this, well, apparently cooled lava is the key. The iron in the lava rock aligns itself to the magnetic pols when it is cooling. That is our road map. And as far as the time, well, we all know that is easy to figure out if you have enough over time building up. So, on the average I guess we are over due for a flip. But from the studies we also know that the flip is very random in terms of when it happens. I would have to find that article again but I think we are in the 600,000's since last magnetic flip. Makes me wonder what we can expect.

So the magnetic north pole was first found in 1831 by James Ross. Since then it has been tracked cause we found out it moves. And apparently it is moving at a rate of 40km per year. What I find interesting is that this is not an indication of a flip. In fact it would seem that no one knows to what to expect. Just found another page that puts the average at 300,000 years as the average over time. We are currently in 780,000 year range according to this site (science.nasa.gov.) But not knowing what could happen of course has not stopped people from thinking about what might happen. "The Core" comes to mind.

So we have a theory about the mechanics of the Earth. Solid inner core with a liquid outer core. And they say the magnet force that surrounds the Earth is the result of the dynamo effect. Look it up. So that got me to thinking what happens during a flip? Are we screwed? Well, never fear, according to NASA that will not be the case. Although a compass may be useless we will still be protected from deadly space radiation. You can breath now.

I found this to be interesting and figured maybe others might as well. I guess we will have to wait for that comet or meteor to plow through the earth for some great and spectacular natural catastrophic event to be the end of man. Science is cool I think. So much great stuff to keep you wondering!