Ladies and Gennlepeoples….. Allow me to present to you, my first aquarium! Ta da!

I started this tank about 2 months ago, and finally finished the “basics” last weekend. The display tank is four feet long and holds 75 gallons, and the sump holds 55 gallons (more on that later). My friend Mike and I built the entire stand with a cordless drill and a jigsaw! There’s about 100lbs of Uaniva live rock from saltycritter.com in the tank, and an additional 50 in the sump (still more on that later). The tank has a 3-4 inch live sand bed and is currently home to a Yellow Tang (Z. flavescens), a Royal Gramma (G. loreto), a mix of about 25 blue and red legged hermit crabs, and a handful of snails (Astrea, Turbo, and Nessarius). I’ve also found four “featherduster” worms on the rock and Mike was kind enough to give me a few Zoanthid coral polyps.

The tank is lit with 2 daylight and 2 actinic PCs, a daylight T5 and an actinic T5. Moonlighting is primarily provided by Current USA’s Nocturnal Blue Lunar lights and a lunar link (four 1 watt LEDs). The tank is not “reef-ready” so I’m using an overflow, which seems to be working beautifully. Circulation is provided by a closed loop consisting of an SCWD and two “snail-go-rounds” (Hydor-flo rotating attachments). I’ll post a video on this later. The closed loop is driven by a 1300 GPH QuietOne 5000. Flow through the sump is provided by an additional 700 GPH from a Mag 7.

The sump is a 55G glass aquarium partitioned with acrylic and silicone. Water enters through a column of submerged bio-balls, and under a partition into the skimming/filtration chamber. The used Turbofloater-1000 I aquired needed a little TLC,

but it seems to be working fine now – especially with my brand new OR-2700!

From the skimmer, water flows over a baffle into a chamber containing 40-50 lbs of live rock.

This is the love nest for a bottle of copepods acquired from oceanpods.com. From there we move into an algae ‘fuge with a 6″ DSB and a handful of chaeto. (The rock just looks pretty there.)
Then, it’s over another baffle into a corner ‘fuge for problem fish (solitary confinement). Finally, through a bubble trap to the return chamber with my Mag 7.

Heating is provided by two 150-watt “stealth” something-or-other heaters located in the skimmer and return chambers. The two white tubes in front of the sump are homemade canister filters containing activated charcoal and PhosLock in series. Water is double-distilled, deionized stuff that I get from work for free (I work in a research lab).

We installed this nipple on the drain line from the overflow to make water changes that much easier…..

As far as water quality…. I’m at 0 ammonia and nitrites, 10ppm nitrates, pH 8.3, specific grav 1.025 and temp between 79.6 and 80.1. I just installed a cooling fan, however, which should keep the temp a little more stable.

The immediate future will see the introduction of 5 chromis (C. viridis), 2 cleaner shrimp (L. grabhami), and a Coral Beauty (C. bispinosus). Then it’ll be time to upgrade the lighting and save for an RO/DI unit. I’m hoping to work in some simple soft corals (mushrooms and, hopefully, a pulsing xenia) as well. Later down the road I’d love to provide some clowns (A. ocellaris) and a BTA for my beautiful wife (who, incidentally, paid for this entire thing and had put up with my destruction of our living room during construction). There is, of course, a lengthy list of other critters I’d like to add to the mix, but I think a little patience will go a long way on that front.

Special thanks to my wonderful wife and best friend Michaela, and also to my good friend Mike who has made multiple 5-hour drives to help me build and tweak this system.

I have been trolling the internet again, paying particular attention to international forums in various subjects, and I have noticed a marked increase in traffic critical of the United States. As I read these posts, I tried to form rational arguments in favor of the United States, but came up short on many fronts. While I was able to laud America's contributions to the world over the past two centuries, I found that current American action, speech, and policy was much harder to defend. A recent article on slashdot about a study comparing UK and US health statistics resulted in the forum being flooded with responses critical of multiple aspects of American society including healthcare, economy, lifestyle, global perspective, and more. Even after filtering out confrontational (troll) responses, several educated arguements remained that challenged the prevailing self-opinion of America at large.

Now let me insert a disclaimer here. I realize that no opinion, action, etc, can be attached to a group on account of the presence within that group of individuals with dissenting or alternative opinions. I speak of the self-opinion of America, therefore, based on the expressed opinions as portrayed by the type and content of articles in the mainstream media, the responses of the vast majority of Americans in the forums I have been browsing (excluding the small handful of worldy Americans with well thought out responses), and the opinions of fellow students and coworkers who have astounded me with their lack of perspective. I have the deepest respect for those citizens who have made the effort to expand their perspectives, including those who are able to form a cogent arguement contrary to my own opinions. This post should in no way be applied to them. It should, however, be applied to that mass of people who believe themselves to be exempted by the above disclaimer but who couldn't find the Ivory Coast on a map or who give confused looks at a question on the merits of a parliamentary system.

Returning to the matter at hand, I will endeavor to summarize some of the broader critiques of the U.S. presented by those living elsewhere. As the article referenced above is healthcare related, let's start there. A common critique is that healthcare in the US is prohibitively expensive and results in a poorer overall national quality of health. For the amount of money the US spends on healthcare each year (ranked among the highest in the world), the quality of US healthcare is abysmal by comparison (one of the poorest of "industrialized" nations) according the the WHO. One poster took this a step farther and questioned the economic model that has led to America's market-driven healthcare system. While his comments are insightful, they offer little in the way of alternatives. Many of the American comments in the same thread indicate a preference for Canadian-like socialized medicine, or UK-like government medicine. I personally think that the German system would work well with a few modifications. All these systems have weaknesses, but I agree with the WHO that healthcare is a right not a service. Unfortunately, too many US responses among fellow students with whom I have discussed this simply shrug and say "we're still the best," or blame it on "statistics skewed by minorities." Ahh….future leaders of America.

One of my other favorite anti-American critiques is brought up in a subthread of the slashdot article which indicates that Americans know little to nothing about other countries in the world. I am ashamed to say that I agree with this sentiment. I'm a year from graduating here at the University of Iowa, and most of my fellow students still can't distinguish Iraq from Iran on a world map. Hmm…..that explains a lot, I think…. One thread offers an explanation (excuse?) for this phenomenon. I can think of NO EXCUSE for this ignorance, particularly if Americans wish to involve themselves so pointedly in the affairs of other nations. Not all of us have to major in geography, but we should be able to locate the Red Sea without Google or Wikipedia. Don't even get me started on American multilingualism. While the US dollar and the logistical power of the US military act much in the same way as the British Navy of old, they do not give America carte blanche to do as they will heedless of future consequences. There is a fine line between the catastrophic collapse (a la Ottoman empire) and graceful decline (a la UK) of a global "superpower". No influence, whatever it's ideals, lasts forever. The US cannot rest on the laurels of WWII any more than the UK could bask in the defeat of Napoleon. The world keeps turning, and constant change renders what was once a revolutionary idea a commonplace concept.

So what's my point in all this? Mainly to draw the attention of "my fellow Americans" to the consequences of willful blindness driven by complacense, righteousness, and arrogance. I also submit that a handful of hard-working citizens who have made an effort to expand their horizons can do much to change the course of history. We must not rest on our laurels either, confident in our education and ability and contributing little to society in return. With education and perspective comes responsibility, and it is our duty to ourselves, our families, and our world to introduce new ideas that contribute to humanity as a whole. 300 years ago a few courageous forward thinkers introduced the (as yet imperfected) concept of individual liberty. 300 years later, it is time for us to introduce new ideals to the world that will forward the cause of compassion and humanity. Once again, I call for change inspired by our daily actions and examples.

Well, it's the end of spring break – classes start up again today. Sorry I haven't posted for awhile (not that anybody reads this thing anyway). This is just a brief line to keep the blog alive. I'm sure I'll find something new to rant about soon. Over break I started exploring some of the lesser known side of the internet and have discovered USENET and gopher. Usenet seems pretty cool, but I still don't have a reliable SMTP server to post from. I can't think of a good use for gopher yet….but I do like the way it's organized. I'd probably use it if .mil computers had a better browser than IE. Oh, and I finally got me a linux shell account. I may be able to provide email service to close friends and family in the near future. That's all for now!

The following is an excerpt from one of my posts on slashdot.

“Governments” were initially formed (in the tribal days) to share resources and protect the group from others who might desire those resources. This mutated as “civilization” grew. Governments became more complex as they managed ever larger areas, populations, and resources. They created money to better distribute these resources over more diverse areas. A gold coin was the same on both ends of the empire. Religion grew out of a desire to understand nature along with a search for social “morality”. Eventually, technology allowed science to split from religion and the “moral” side of religion became mired in its own traditions and rituals, obscuring the original message of cooperation. Just as religion was perverted from a cooperative influence to a divisive amplification of difference, money began to be perverted by those who controlled its production. Soon, a coin wasn’t the same to those two distant strangers. To one, it meant he could eat for a week – the price of a loaf of bread. To the other, it wouldn’t even buy the crust because others in his area had more coins, and the laws of supply and demand drove the prices in his area up. The idea of money as a universal alternative to barter was destroyed. What initially served as a tool for distribution turned on itself and became a tool for exploitation. Remnants of the original purposes of religion, government, and currency remain to this day, and were essential in the development of today’s technology. From the guy who dug up the sand, to the guy who soldered the chips, to the programmers, distributors, consumers, auxiliary industries, etc….the world as we know it would not exist without the ability to safely communicate (provided by the govt), share resources (provided by the monetary system), and the will to cooperate (initially encouraged by religion, supplanted by the monetary system). All of this brought us to where we are today, but as we see every day, this system is falling apart. Why?.

To answer this, let’s look at what the three systems (govt, rel, and $$) have become. Government long ago transitioned from a management system agreed upon (in action if not in name) to an entity that exists only for its own glorification and expansion. The actions of it’s constituents no longer play a critical role in a government’s legitimacy because the govt structure has become so large that it is impossible for it to truly represent a true majority on any given issue. Religion, as mentioned above, sacrificed its unifying messages of cooperation, humanity, compassion, etc for “technicalities” of procedure, ritual, interpretation, and more that now are used to divide what they were intended to unify. The $$ system was the last to die, buffered for ages by the actions and failures of governments and the attitudes and perspectives of organized religion. The rise (and current decline) of the US marks the zenith of the economic system’s ability to do “good” for humanity by encouraging innovation, development, and efficiency. Today’s system rewards efficient exploitation far more than innovation. With ever increasing economic globalization, there are fewer and fewer “new markets” in the “new world” sense. As a result, competition over existing markets causes the emphasis for efficient exploitation to snowball. Unless we find another inhabited planet that we can dominate, subjugate, and exploit – we are left to eat our own. This explains the “dollar a day” fallacy which postulates that if the percent of the world’s population living on less than $1/day were to be given, by any means, $5/day…..that $5 would be devalued to such an extent that there would be no real effect on lifestyle.

So….what to do now? I argue that the system described above has given birth to its successor. The global awareness, ability to communicate, and desire to cooperate originally engendered by the 3 systems no longer require the “supervision” of their parent systems. Today, I don’t need a government to send my letter to the other end of the world. I don’t need money to trade my work for a product. I can work with others who truly share my interests, even at a distance, rather than others who merely reside in my local geographic vicinity. The infant alternatives are still in their nascent states – by no means perfect, and still not ready to stand completely on their own, but they do exist and they are growing rapidly – originally in the software community, but expanding to other genres at an ever increasing pace. Old religion is merging with government, while the original messages live on as individuals and small groups discover that spirituality does not require mandated rituals. Money is becoming increasingly virtual and less tangible….less real. It is being replaced by a trade in knowledge and skill – still an imperfect currency, but superior to what we have been using because they cannot be controlled by the ignorant. Government is the last to be affected because it has such a pervasive influence. It is not being replaced – history has shown that replacing governments merely leads to more of the same over time. Instead, it is being ignored. Many many people are existing outside of government regulation – one issue/genre at a time. Eventually, governments will dissolve into their original roles….the distribution of “public” resources. Regulation, enforcement, communication, etc…will return to the control of “we the people”. It has begun. Don’t screw it up with violence unless it becomes absolutely necessary. Violence allows the ignorant to stay in power. In both totalitarian states and violent revolutions the artistic, intelligent, and enlightened are persecuted and suppressed. It is time for the intelligent to turn away from the status quo . Rather than destroying what we have now, let’s just begin to build something better, and allow the old system to implode. It will be difficult. It will be painful. There will be reactions, violence, and more, but we need no longer be ruled by the ignorant, fearful, and greedy. We can make this change.

I found this article in the NY Times today that tells of a new cancer treatment that has been given a six figure price tag for a very disturbing reason. From the article:

Until now, drug makers have typically defended high prices by noting the cost of developing new medicines. But executives at Genentech and its majority owner, Roche, are now using a separate argument — citing the inherent value of life-sustaining therapies.

So let me get this straight…..because life is “inherently valueable”, any treatment that sustains life has an equivalent value and can therefore be outlandishly priced? It’s not research costs that drive the price up, it’s the value placed on your life. I’m surprised this isn’t considered extortion. If you want to live, you pay me lots of money….if not, well, I guess your life just isn’t worth $100,000. Does this mean that food, water, shelter, and the like, which are all required to sustain life are worth an equal amount? This is getting out of hand. I’m done ranting. Time to go do something. For those of you who have some scruples, look at creative commons licensing, the GPL, and others of that ilk. Unless enough of us start to share freely, this is going to get worse, not better. We live in a world that rewards efficient exploitation. Time to build a world that rewards efficient innovation and humanity.

I don’t pretend to be an expert in the field of theology, but with the current state of world affairs, I think a little discussion of the benefits and flaws of organized religion may be a good thing. I say “organized” religion to distinguish socio-religious organization from individual or communal spiritual quests. It is not spirituality I question, but the physical entities that have arisen in it’s name. Religion is a framework in which spirituality can be developed. As with many manmade creations, however, it is too easily abused. Organized religion does not require spiritual depth or even a desire to develop this depth. It merely requires faith and specific behaviour. This is not to say that organized religions mean to do harm, or even that harm is an inevitable result of organizing the human spiritual quest. The vast majority of world religions will accept any person who is willing to (at least in name) proclaim certain tenets. Religion is a great motivator of people and provides a strong social conscience to many who are seeking to better develop their own mores and values. If religion (by which I still refer to organized or semi-organized religion) were to limit itself to the spiritual, it would indeed be the driving force for “good” that it believes itself to be.

Unfortunately, religions rely on “leaders” to interpret messages that were designed to communicate tolerance and peace. These leaders too often have political, physical, and economic interests that conflict with the deliverance of an unbiased message. Even if it is not their intent, the conflicts of interest that arise when the powerful disseminate information to the weak can lead to the dilution or distortion of an otherwise pure truth. In many arenas, this would be viewed as it exists. For instance, we often expect our political leaders to be corrupt and to distort information to better affect their own interests. Why then, do we not view our religious leaders the same way? We see the flaws in the leaders of “other” religions or sects all too clearly, yet we blindly follow the guidance of our own with very similar results to those we criticize. This is evident at times in other arenas, albeit to a lesser degree and with more debate. In politics, for instance, a person may believe that one specific leader can “do no wrong” as it were, but others within the same political party will freely criticize specific decisions of the same leader. This makes it difficult for political leaders to achieve power over a “critical mass” which consolidates power to such a degree that they engender the same fanaticism and narrow focus that religious leaders so often create.

The “obvious” cause is the “faith” of the followers. The vast majority do not have faith in our political leaders to do what is “right” all the time, or even most of the time. Our religious leaders, however, have (in theory), reached their position by demonstrating in both deed and word their commitment to the tenets of their respective religions. Add to this the unifying nature of an old saying….

“Me and my brother against my neighbor. Me, my brother, and my neighbor against a stranger.”

There are other variations on this saying, but the concept is nearly universal. It allows for sects of the same religion to fight each other and yet unify to fight an “outsider”. Faith, plus a unifying doctrine makes for a mass of people who are willing to die for what they “believe”. When that outsider is designated an “enemy” by religious leaders, followers extend the faith in their religious beliefs to faith in the “righteousness” of a political cause. God ceases to be the driving force in believer’s lives (although his name is used and abused more than ever), while the eradication of the outsider and the support of religious leadership is seen as a duty. Leaders transition from having “earned” their position from faith, word, deed, and sacrifice, to having been “granted” this position by divine mandate. This transition is often subtle, but the leaders are given the symbolic power of the entire religion. This has nothing to do with spirituality, and everything to do with power and intolerance. Both sides argue for their religion and it’s values, and swear that the “other” is the antithesis to all they believe. Extremism drowns out the quiet protest of the rational and the messages of God are placed second to the “interpretations” of religious leaders. So begins the jihad/crusade (circle one).

So what’s my point? Merely that each of us needs to consider, meditate, and pray on each word and action we do or neglect to do in the name of our religion. The world teeters at the brink of the next world war, crusade, or both. To ensure the peace and tranquility that is conducive to meditation, prayer, and spiritual development we must disassociate ourselves from the “name” of our respective religions and dedicate ourselves to the underlying tenets rather than the message of the day. The vast majority of religions advocate peace. It is strange, that these same religions are the cause of so many wars, and so much repression and destruction. It is time that I stop rallying to my neighbor’s cry of “foul” and start studying the message of God for myself. Let us rally instead to a new cry – that of a common need to develop our spirituality in a safe, quiet, and peaceful world. Rally to the cry of peace and turn your back on the power games that have overtaken organized religion.

MercuryNews reports that the Bush administration is trying to force Google to relinquish access to search records nominally to protect children from pornography. While innocuous on the surface, this raises some troubling issues. If investigators need “to develop a factual record of how often Web users encounter online porn and how Web searches turn up material they say is ‘harmful to minors’ ,” then why don’t they perform their own searches and examine the results for such material? Knowing the current administration’s obsession with terrorism, I would not be at all surprised if the administration were to “accidentally” find information in these records that would indicate “suspect” terrorist “connections” which could be used to further chip away at the rights of Americans. We all know how reliable the “suspected connections with terrorists” definition is. USAToday reported that a four year old toddler was on the watch list because his name, “Edward Allen” is shared with another “suspect” person. If the list of “suspect connections” is so prone to error, why should we trust the administration to target “bad guys” indicated by a new information source with any more reliability? Don’t get me wrong, terrorists are scary. But we cannot let fear dictate our lives.

As Roosevelt said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Americans are in danger of relinquishing far too many of the values upon which America was founded in order to achieve the illusion of a “secure homeland”. We have seen this administration authorize domestic NSA wiretaps, subpoena library records, “detain” American citizens without due process, and more all in the name of “homeland security” which, to me, is reminiscent of the “for the fatherland” cry of prewar Germany. We must take great care not to let ourselves be blinded by banners, bugles, and slogans in an attempt to “feel safer”. Sure, we might prevent another plane from crashing, but the modus operandi of terrorists is to improvise, to adapt to their situation and find new and unique ways of wreaking havoc. The only way they can do real damage to America as a nation is by influencing our daily lives. No plane crash can do that. The lives of the victims, and their friends and family will be forever changed, but the life of the average American, while frightened and concerned, was not substantially changed by the destructive glide path of any aircraft. It was changed by the policies and regulations of our own government in response to those crashes. We are becoming weaker, not stronger, in our response to these attacks.

At one point in our history, America was seen as a shining example of a nation of “freedom” and “human rights”. Now, we preemptively invade a sovereign nation that posed a “potential” threat, we “disappear” people and export them to be tortured, we restrict the rights of our own citizens, monitor their lives, and question their every association all in the name of “freedom” and to the cry of “homeland security!”. These are not the actions of a “freedom loving American.” What happened to speech free from unwarranted government monitoring, assembly free from suspicion of “links” to a “suspect” organization, prohibition of “unreasonable” federal searches, safeguards such as due process, and all the other rights enshrined in our constitution? Why are we spreading “freedom and democracy” in other countries, but killing the same here at home? The terrorists have sown fear in the hearts of Americans. We are so terribly afraid, not only of the terrorists, but of our own people. We fear to be associated with the “enemy,” however loosely defined that may be. We fear to stand up and be an example of courage in challenging times, preferring instead to be led like sheep with a duly elected shephard keeping us “safe”. We fear most of all, to live without fear. It is expected that we be afraid. That we hunt down the “enemy” even at the cost of a few innocents. After all, the truly “innocent” will be exonerated in time. No, I forgot…..no due process. Good thing little Edward wasn’t “detained”.

Well, I guess we just have to stick our heads in the sand and hope this all blows over. The “War on Terrorism” will end just like the “War on Drugs” did. What? It didn’t? A rhetorical oversight, I’m sure somebody else will fix it. Right? Anybody? Oh, and I still haven’t been told just exactly what defines a terrorist…… But I’m sure we can trust the government to do the right thing…..

Those of you who know me know of my aggressive promotion of the Linux operating system. I’ve been told many times that the “average user” neither needs, nor wants anything other than a Windows system because “windows just works.” Well, this here blog gives me the chance to respond to this.

How many of you have had a virus on your system? How many have seen an otherwise fast system run slower than molasses in January because of spyware and adware? How much time, money, and effort have you spent to prevent these problems from happening? These are the questions that prompted my switch to Linux about a year and a half ago. Like many of you, I spent hours every month running updates, scans, defrags, and countless other maintenance chores just to keep my “just working” system functioning. I soon found myself downloading “freeware” like Adaware, and Spybot S&D to keep my system safe. It didn’t take long for me to ask why this free software was able to do what my operating system (which I paid good money for) could not. I mean, I thought this kinda software was unreliable, buggy, and loaded with viruses. What kind of person in their right mind would take the time and effort to produce quality software and then not charge for it?! It didn’t take long to realize that my computer ran smoother and was better protected with this “freeware” than it ever had been with proprietary ($$) software. I started using other freeware programs to make my weekly maintenance chores easier. Free firewalls like Sygate or ZoneAlarm, registry cleaners, faster defrag software and other nifty little gizmos were tested and adopted as I tried to spend less time on “chores” and more time having fun with my PC. One day, while browsing for more freeware utilities, I came upon a forum entry that announced “Linux is ready for the desktop!” Now keep in mind, I’d never heard of this “linux” thing at the time, but it aroused my curiosity.

A quick google search told me that linux was a free operating system. Free? Now wait a sec, I just paid a fortune for XP Pro… either this Linux thing is pretty cheesy or I had been royally taken advantage of. Everybody knows there are only two choices in the computer world – Windows and Macintosh. Both of those choices cost money. A free operating system seemed kinda dodgy to me, but, after my experiences running freeware on Windows, I felt I should take a closer look.

I clicked on a link to something called “gentoo” (funny name, something to do with a cow) and found myself looking at all sorts of high tech gobbledygook. “Ahhh…., I understand now,” I said. “This Linux thing is for programmers!” I almost quit right there, but I was curious why they called Linux “Gentoo”, so I followed another link that taught me the concept of a distribution. There are hundreds of “flavors” of Linux called distributions. www.distrowatch.com is a great site that lists the most popular of these distributions. To make a long story short, I soon found that there were indeed “non-geek” versions of Linux that met my computing needs (internet, word processing, etc). I admit I was still somewhat nervous about “learning” a “new” operating system, but I reasoned that if I spent the same amount of time learning that I currently spent on updates, scans, etc, then I should be proficient with the new system in no time. Guess what? It worked!

Today I run the kubuntu linux distribution and I haven’t spent a dime on software for over a year. I don’t have to pay for Antivirus. I don’t have to scan for spyware. While I have software on my system that protects me (clamAV, snort, guarddog, and tripwire for the curious), every item I’ve installed has been free of charge. I have found Linux to be far more configureable than Windows ever was (and yes I’d “re-skinned” windows back in the day), and the “Linux community” far more helpful than any “tech-support” I’ve ever dealt with. I’m taking my first steps into programming today, thanks to the time I’ve saved, and the lessons I’ve learned thanks to Linux. It’s not for everybody, but if you aren’t afraid of that giant calculator on your desk, then you might enjoy a fresh (and did I mention FREE) alternative to Windows.

On a side note. There are idealistic reasons behind my switch to Linux, Firefox, and other open source software as well. The shuttleworth foundation does a good job of describing this. I’ll go further into this topic later, but I hope this post has been sufficient to whet your curiosity about alternatives to the “standard” that Windows seems to be by default. Linux isn’t perfect, but I find it more efficient to use and less maintenance intensive than Windows. Give it ashot! The Linux community will be happy to help, and what have you got to lose – its FREE!

Ab Mente Justinis is Latin for “From the Mind of Justin.” This blog is a place where I’ll share my perspectives and ideas with readers who are interested. Feel free to post comments to any of my entries. I’m always looking for new viewpoints. I’m pretty busy as a premed student, so I won’t be posting regularly, but I’ll try to post updates as often as I can. That’s all for now!