Everything On The Internet Is True, Except Not At All

Science and mathematics denial is running rampant throughout the U.S.

That's right. It's 2015, and that is a true statement. Is this real life? Unfortunately, yes.

This topic comes to me from fellow LaSalle High alum Erik Anderson. Thanks for the topic, Erik! I'm just sorry that it is one.

I've talked recently about the denial of climate change, but aside from the people denying that, there are other people--sometimes the same people--that root their ideas in conspiracy theories. It's kind of funny, actually, that most of the people who I have seen that do not believe in climate change are also the people that believe in all these ridiculous and baseless conspiracy theories, but I digress...

Science and mathematics denial is a different kind of crazy. No, I'm not talking about 1+1 = 2. Thankfully there aren't a lot of people that disagree with that. But when equations start having radicals, exponents, and variables that they've never seen before, some people start to look elsewhere for information. So, first off, we need to examine why people do this, before I explain why it's no good.

There are plenty of psychological explanations for certain behaviors. The internet breads a new variety of human through fear. In fact, it's a lot like brainwashing.

When we were in school--ya know, that place where we went to learn things and obtain knowledge--we were constantly taught from the beginning of internet usage to cite .edu, .org, and .gov. Not all of these domains automatically means that the information on these cites is 100% undeniably true. But, what it does mean is that it's not being funded by commercial entities. Yes, I admit that .gov is sort of a commercial entity, and I can definitely see anyone's skepticism in constantly using a .gov when our own congress/senate/etc. is trying to hide things from us all the time. However, what I can tell you is that more often than not, these domains are considerably better than .coms. Dot coms are funded by commercial entities of all kinds. Like Burger King. Are you seriously going to believe a site funded by Burger King?

I'm not going to completely deny the possibility of aliens. I don't know if they are real. I also don't know if they're not real. This is an open-minded train of thinking. The unknown should create a kind of skepticism that searches for the undeniable truth. With that said, if I found a .com that talked about aliens invading us from all parts of the world, I would first look outside. Here's what I wouldn't do: Automatically make an aluminum hat and go hide in a bomb shelter.

See the difference?

Side note: even if I saw aliens outside, I would first check to make sure that I am void of any diseases that breed hallucinations like Alzheimer's, etc. I know that a lot of people are not so quick to believe that their ridiculous point of view is a problem. No matter how ridiculous their proposed "solution," they swear it's the only way to solve a problem. These people need to be avoided, because these people are closed minded. Even in math, there is no such thing as "1 way or nothing." For example, I can get to "2" a few different ways: 1+1, 2+0, 4-2, 4/2, 1*2, I don't need to keep going, do I?

The old adage "seeing is believing" has some root in science. People did this thing called the Scientific Method where a set of steps are taken beginning with a hypothesis and ending with a conclusion based on certain experiments. The experimenters or scientists make conclusions off of what they see from the experiments. They log their information, and then send the same test to different scientists. If those scientists come up with the same result using the same measurements, quantities, etc., then the conclusion of those experiments are given this term that we hear a lot: Fact. Therefore, "facts" are born from science in a lot of ways.

Fear breeds ignorance. Businesses know this. People who like manipulating facts along with other people also know this. There are people who justify their points of view with YouTube videos as opposed to peer reviewed journals. These YouTube videos that lead people to believe that there are certain "facts" are clandestine. In other words, "kept secret from us." These videos and articles make people believe that the government and other special forces are keeping this information from us so we don't go berserk. As far as the alien thing goes, who the hell knows? It could be true? Maybe our government and other governments are secret little shits that don't want us to believe that aliens are real? Again, that's an open-minded perspective. I'm NOT saying that I watched a video and automatically believed that aliens are real. Again, see the difference?

Along with science and mathematics deniers, the conspiracy theorists are the worst. These people I can NOT stand. The people who believe that the U.S. govt. had something to do with 9/11, the Boston Bombings, and the facts are not good enough for them. These are the people that can't live without being in fear, so they find articles and faux information to make them more fearful based on their own preconceived biases/ideas/understandings. Action movies corrupt the malleable mind. Those movies that hint on conspiracies like in National Treasure about the Illuminati. The Illuminati were a real group of people that did real things, just not the things that people believe they did--like creating some grand puzzle to find some grand treasure. It is hard for these kinds of people to separate fact from fiction. Side note: skepticism is a great thing to have. Skepticism keeps everyone in check, and there are A LOT of things to be skeptical about. However, here's a brief analogy of the kind of WRONG skepticism that I'm seeing more of:

You can't see the other part of the conversation, and actually this is not mine, this came directly from Erik and people that he has been running into that are denying science and using "conspiracy" and "truth" to mean the same thing, but I think I can take a guess how it went approximately:

Erik: 1+1 = 2
Conspiracy theorist: No, it's 7 *link to YouTube video defining 1+1 equaling 7*

Erik: Uhh, no. That doesn't make any sense. 1+1 has always equaled 2. *link to peer reviewed educational article explaining that 1+1=2*

CT: Oh, yeah? Then how come they say 4-2 equals 2? Huh? Explain that!
Erik: Well, uhh, math. Math explains that. School. If you went to grade school, grade school teachers explain that.

CT: You just don't understand! How can you believe what these crazy people tell you! They're hiding the truth! 1+1 equals SEVEEEEENNN!!! Also, aliens.

Now, if I heard that aliens are real from a well-known Astronomer such as Neil deGrasse Tyson, then my ears would perk up, and I'd say, "Whaaaaaa?!?!" Because if HE'S saying it, then it most surely is true. At the very least, I'd be considerably more inclined to believe him than anyone else on the matter. Scientists are these people that want to tell EVERYONE about their new discoveries. We would have heard about new findings--and we actually do hear about new findings each day about new species being discovered, potential life on a moon of Saturn, etc.--if any of these accusations were true.

I encourage all of you to use science and mathematics to your favor! Be skeptical! Skeptical is good. Skeptical allowed Jack Andraka--that super smart boy genius I wrote about in a previous post--to create a simple, fast, and inexpensive way to detect certain cancers. But he used previously known facts about math and science to create a different perspective. He didn't just go, "Gee, whiz, I'm pretty sure this thingy will work."

Ultimately, it's good to be skeptical, but don't deny scientific and mathematical facts, please? Also, stop thinking that the world is out to get you. That's how these ridiculous conspiracy theories are created. Until I see something creditable, i.e. Eric Snowden debunking a slew of govt secrets, then I'm not going to believe these strange conspiracies. Speaking of which, for all the "the media is hiding things from you because the govt told them to" people, why would have we even heard about Snowden, Chelsea Manning, etc. over the years?

- PatInTheHat

One Step Forward, Ten Yard Penalty

Every. Single. Time.

Every single time I hear good news, I'm hit with worse news. If people in America want to know why we progress at a snail's pace, it's because there are officials in office who are snails.

A couple days ago I heard from a friend of mine that the Presbyterian Church has finally accepted gay marriage. Woo! Seriously, that's great! But when I was told of this, I responded with some skepticism.

Though it's great that the Presbyterian Church has accepted homosexual marriage, it took forever. It took similarly as long for a Catholic Pope to finally go, "Yeah, gay marriage is cool, whatever." To the point of LGBT activists everywhere, it's called marriage. Not gay marriage. It's just marriage.

That said, no religion represents the United States or even individual states (though I'm sure there are conservative Republicans out there who would say otherwise, and I'd argue that if that is the case it shouldn't be because, ya know, separation of Church and State and all that shit that everyone keeps ignoring. But, ya know, don't give me a background check for the guns I purchase. Sorry, slight digression...). So, why, then does it seem like Religion(Church..whatever) and State GO HAND-IN-HAND!?

Listen, Christians, I get it. You out there who want to pick certain things out of your religious text in order to berate other human beings around you for no reason other than to assert whatever dominance you think you have on them. Really, I get it. You're assholes. It's cool. There are tons of people like you out there. I'm used to it!

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, the Lord of all Assholes hailing from Indiana decides, "Hey, ya know what would be really great? Let's make a law where everyone can make pretend that homosexuals aren't people. Yeah! Let's go backwards by 100 years and treat people who are different than me like animals!"

First off, look at me *does the index-middle finger to the eyes back to that disgusting human being* Fuck. You.

Either you were elected by a kajillion heathens--which I will not withdraw as a possibility--OR you DISGUISED yourselves as non-heathens, beautiful people whom in reality are the fullest of the shits. All of the shits.

If you are someone from Indiana who is not trying to stop this legislation that will actively discriminate against the LGBTQ, etc. community, you should be embarrassed! You should be embarrassed of that governing POSs over there that are signing this act of  clear oppression on a group of people who only deserve to be treated like people.*

I'm livid. I'm sad. I'm sorry to the LGBTQ, etc. community over there and around the country who this is hurting the most. 

These acts of hatred have got to end right now!

Flabergasted and disgusted.

* In case you're unfamiliar with what I'm talking about, here ya go: http://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/columnists/matthew-tully/2015/03/24/tully-statehouse-republicans-embarrass-indiana/70371558/

- PatInTheHat

Say It With Me

The United States is a confusing place to live in. In one moment, we're talking about sending people to Mars for the first time in the history of human kind--a potential reality that everyone seems pretty quick to accept--and in the next moment we're denying the proof of science in climate change.

Now listen, man, I get it. Science is hard. Science is so hard that there is a profession dedicated to it. In fact, there are multiple professions with different designations dedicated to it. Even that can be frustrating/confusing for people who aren't used to professions having different designations. Ya know, like calling someone a doctor who is not an MD. I know how confusing that can be for some of you. And I'm really sorry you do not know how to use Google during these times, but you really need to learn for the sake of mankind.

Yes, really. Mankind's future depends on you not being an ignorant twit.

Now, I am not a scientist.

Nope.

Not even a little bit.

But even though I'm not a scientist, I can trust science. Here's why: Scientific facts are tangible. Tangible is another way of saying that we can see, feel, smell, etc. the changes. They are definitely there, because numerous experiments were done to prove the existence of what we weren't sure was there. Like gravity, for instance. We can't see gravity, but we can feel its effects when we jump in the air and land back down on the ground. Otherwise, that jump would have flung us into space.

Cool? Cool.

Now, climate change (initially coined by Al Gore as Global Warming) is a very real thing.

Quick background: the Earth goes through these climate periods some of which we're familiar with through high school science classes that teach us of the Ice Age and so forth. Certain phenomena can accelerate the process of these climate periods. For instance, a meteor that crashed into Earth around when the dinosaurs were still around could have created a nuclear holocaust of sorts in that the Earth got so hot so fast, that most living organisms died out.

Today, we're realizing that climate change is being accelerated by humans. Oil that would have stayed inside the crust of the Earth would have stayed there had we not extracted it. Once the oil enters our cars, the used oil creates noxious gas that fills our atmosphere and even damages our O-Zone, which protects us from the Sun! Moreover, the gasses create a Greenhouse Gas effect where the warm air has a hard time escaping the Earth's atmosphere, so instead of the warm rays of the sun ricocheting into the stratosphere, it instead comes back down to Earth.

Scientists of all kinds, including those we hear from all the time in Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye, are trying to warn us of the severity of this issue so that we can start combating the issue now before we destroy ourselves. On the other hand, there are politicians like Rick Scott, the current governor of Florida, who are trying to keep people stupid by abolishing the term "climate change" completely.

Now, I know some of you out there are going to be like, "Well, Al Gore was a politician! We believed him!" Well, first off, by the looks of it, no you didn't. Secondly, he was taken very seriously--ya know, since he won the Nobel Prize in Science--by science colleagues because he went through the mathematics and scientific experimentation to prove his stance on the topic. To hammer the point home, he decided to call his now proven theory "Global Warming," because he wanted to make it abundantly clear to your Average Joe that the Earth is slowly beginning to rise in temperature.

I know I'm being very basic about this stuff and talking about it as if you've never heard of climate change. I'm really hoping you have, the reason I'm laying it out like this is because it's super important! If there's one topic that needs to be talked about every single day until we're sick of it (which some of you might have been hearing about it a lot and ARE sick of it) this is the topic.

We need to do something about this collectively. This is not a one-person job, so don't go begging the President to fix everything--and trust me, he's been trying his damndest as far as cc goes. In order to make a real change, we need to start creating groups that write petitions to those we've elected in power to make changes on a smaller scale first, i.e. Mayor, governor, Senator, etc. An immediate big scale change like this--going from oil/limited energy to solar/unlimited energy--is not going to happen. Bill Nye and Tyson are going all over the place--TV outlets, conferences, the President himself, etc--to fix the problem on a big scale. I appreciate what they are doing, because it has gotten the conversation going throughout the world, let alone the country, but we need to do our job, too!

So, say it with me: We can make a change!

Get out of that pessimistic shell of, "I'm a turtling nobody without a voice."

No, you're not. And it's time we stop pointing the finger at our constituents expecting them to mind-read us. We need to tell them. To their face. That things need to change.

Say it with me. Then be the change you want.

- PatInTheHat

Scavengers

The corporate world is a strange place.

I'm sure I've made that point pretty clear through previous posts, but in case I haven't made it crystal clear, there ya have it. And here's some more fuel to the fire.

One of the stranger times of day is lunch time. If you're new to a company in corporate America, then you probably don't have any work friends. Even if you had people you could call "work friends" it certainly doesn't guarantee that they will ask you to go to lunch with them. I'm not saying this is a mandatory thing to do among co-workers. It's definitely not. But there is about a 30-minute period between 11:50 and 12:20 that anything can happen.

Either you decide that you're getting lunch yourself--which is something that I tend to do the majority of the time--or you ask a co-worker to get lunch with you or a co-worker does the same. Luckily my aunt works in the same building I do, so I just go eat with her. It's considerably less awkward that way anyway. Once I actually sit down to have lunch with co-workers--other than my aunt--it's basically just as awkward because no one wants to accidentally say anything offensive.

In my department we have this one guy, who is right under the VP of the tax department, who, if we all have lunch together, always jokes at the lunch table and sometimes using vulgarity. It certainly lightens the mood, but you can never reciprocate his actions/words or else it's considered unprofessional all the sudden.

I wish that was the strangest occurrence.

The strangest occurrence for me, especially as it relates to lunch time, is the ritual feeding of the higher-ups who are having meetings throughout the day. These wealthy entrepreneurs gather in a conference room and are fed, free of charge, at lunch time. Sometimes they get full buffets, too, with those hot steel trays that you saw at prom that held the meatballs, veal, mashed potatoes, etc.

I'm using the word "strange," but really these kinds of things irk me. I mean, you're kidding me, right? I know how this country is set up. The wealthier you are, the less you have to pay. It's privilege as far as the eye can see, and I'm sure if I ever got to their positions I'd feel grateful. But that's bullshit, isn't it? Why do we, the intern, along with other colleagues in the department, that earns pittance in comparison, have to pay for our own lunch, but you, magistrates, get to mosey on over to a kitchen right outside of the room you are having these meetings for free food and drinks?

Ha, they don't want us to feel forgotten about, though. If they leave anything uneaten, guess where it goes! That's right, the food we weren't supposed to eat finally comes to us. The dogs of the company finally get their bone. And what's always left? The stuff that no one ever wants to eat. Just to put that in comparison for you pet owners out there, that's the equivalent of you dropping something on the floor, and whistling to your dog to clean up the mess.

Doesn't that just make you feel all warm, fuzzy, and wanted?!

No, it doesn't.

About 20 minutes ago, one of those ritual moments occurred when someone from our department discovered that some food was left over for us! Like a flock of starving seagulls, half of the department, who, by the way, make substantially more than I do, practically sprinted to the food to make sure they got some before anyone else did. None of those people included me, because I had no idea what happened until it was explained a little later. What did I find when I got there other than a sign that everyone started to ignore that said, "Do not eat, please. For Executive lunch"? Some salad with no dressing.

Mmm, fucking yum.

There are times like these where I wish I was back in high school and could just draw penises and other graffiti all over shit you didn't approve of. Back then, it was socially acceptable to do this. And then, I shit you not, things actually changed. People got the message. If you did this kind of stuff in corporate America, all you get is a pink slip that says, "Don't come back tomorrow," if they figure out it was you, anyway.

Heaven forbid you disagree with common practices. -.- Grumble grumble.

- PatInTheHat

All About You

Hey there everyone! Hope you're doing well. This post is specifically for everyone out there who has been reading this blog over the past couple months, which going by my views (just under 3,000!) has been a good amount of you! So, thank you!

As I've explained to a few of you out there who have asked, I didn't start out writing the blog for anyone other than mostly myself. It serves as a decent creative and emotional outlet, but it's an outlet that I created, too, in order for all of you to get know a little more about me--perhaps that was about 20% of the reason.

Over the past, whatever, year-ish I've kept my distance from a lot of you. I only hope that you have not taken that personally! It had nothing to do with any of you, and you know who you are. I just needed my time for a while--which is something in my earlier life that I didn't have much of.

That said, under no obligation to you, of course, I would love for this blog to become more interactive. Although the comments from all of you out there have been phenomenal--whether through here or social networks--I don't mean comments (but please keep them coming)! I've been privileged to have you intelligent readers pose very thought-provoking questions, and since that's been the case I'd like to see how this goes:

I'd like to hear from you what you think some really important topics are. Social media, the internet, and, of course, the news are great places to find new information, but I can't find it all! If there is something going on that you would like me to write about so the message gets to more people, tell me about it and tell me why it's making you upset/happy/feel any certain way! If you provide an interesting topic, I will write about it and include your name (or an alias if you wish to remain anonymous) within the blog post! I'll also leave you the option of whether you'd like your name tagged in social media in case questions come to you! Lastly, I will show you the full draft of what I've written, and will allow you to add certain points that I may have missed so to be more true to the topic at hand. Understand that all of my previous works have either been editorial pieces, i.e. mostly opinionated, or have been about my life. So, before telling me about a topic, know that my opinions about it, whether they are yours or not, will be put into the article. However, again, you'll be able to read the article before it's posted, so if a happy medium is not reached between the both of us, then the article will not be posted. Fair, right?

A lot of the newer topics I have written on are posts to get a conversation going. To those sharing my posts from time to time, thank you! I'm glad that I'm writing share-able/informative-enough posts. It means a lot!

Now that I've laid everything out on the table, what do you guys say?

Do you trust me?

- PatInTheHat

I Don't F*cking Know

There's something strange about vocal vulgarity.

In any given unappealing scenario, curses roll off the tongue without barely any effort. When we were kids, our parents really tried to prevent us from being so vulgar. In the end, those futile attempts to keep us from the crack-addiction of modern expression practically did the opposite.

Once you get that first taste of delicious vulgarity, you're immediately thankful it's not something that makes us put on weight.

I won't speak for you, but I, for one, welcome the vivacious unscrupulousness of vulgarity. No, not to belittle someone, hurt someone, name call, etc. I, instead, welcome it for other reasons.

For example, sometimes it snows on the first fucking day of Spring. Other times, you're up to your God damn, piece-of-shit neck in student loans with no fucking way to get out for the next 10-20-lifetime amount of years.

Some occasions--and what I like using vulgarity for the most--thinking outside of the box is helped by vulgarity. Now, ok, you're going to say, "But, Pat, that has nothing to do with cursing." You're right, technically it doesn't. Technically it has do with the way our minds are activated when we're angry or ticked off. I find that I do some of my best thinking when I'm livid. Words, ideas, and other phrases pop into my head that don't generally come to mind on the regular.

Thus bringing me to my point: Working in any workplace is hard. How am I supposed to get my creative juices flowing if I can't scream a couple shit-fucks from now and then, huh?

*Fucking Sigh*

- PatInTheHat

The Velocity of Money

Since no one likes to really think about things that depress them or stress them, I'll keep this post brief.

Considering I'm an accountant by trade, it's only about time I talk about something money related that doesn't just have to do with student loans.

The Velocity of money is a concept that is being widely talked about because of the fear that our country is beginning to fall back into another recession or even another Depression, which we haven't had since the 1930s.

By definition, the velocity of money is the number of times one dollar is spent to buy goods and services per unit of time. In other words, if I spend a dollar on gum, and the vendor spends that dollar on indirect costs for their business: like electricity, then that one dollar had a velocity of 2. If I make one dollar, and then decide to save it, then that dollar has a velocity of zero.

Our economy is still so bad that everyone is afraid to buy things. More importantly, no one WANTS to buy things, because as money becomes more scarce while prices on housing, cars, and other things have continued to rise, we all start to think twice about buying that cup of coffee at DD, or buying that sandwich from Wawa. Yes, those are low-priced items in comparison to the house and car I mentioned, but as with all things: If you ignore the little problems, they'll become big problems.

Maybe you are already aware of this, or maybe you're not. The basic point of this post is to make you more conscious of the choices you make. Because if YOU feel like you need to save money, then that likely means many others are doing the same thing. Therefore, how is money circulating the way the economy is supposed to? Well, it's not.

No, it's not your fault that you're saving. I'm not blaming you. I'm simply saying that if people start having gruff with the government (which most of the right-wing is already well ahead of us doing), I wouldn't blame you. But with any problem that you'd have at work, let's start coming up with solutions to the problem instead of just complaining about them. Complaining will get us nowhere.

I know, you're probably not a politician, and you probably feel like your opinion doesn't matter, but that's the furthest from the truth. We, as people of this nation, just need to get a real conversation going. I certainly haven't started it--as I've heard this being discussed on radio outlets already. I am, however, trying to keep the discussion going.

If something like this really bothers you--which it kind of should for the sake of all of us, including yourself--then please keep the conversation going!

I'm sick of worrying about the economic distress that our country is still failing to overcome.

- PatInTheHat