Science Lesson

Today's trivia: pH is short for Potential of Hydrogen.

What we all want is to be rich.
Materially rich, first of all. We want to be able to sit around the pool all day, spending the interest our huge bank accounts earn. We also want to be rich in freedoms. We want to do what we want, when we want, and to not have anybody do anything to us.
Finally, we all want to be spiritually rich. We want to be free of guilt, free of worry about the future.
Most of the hate and fear in the world comes from poverty. The black kid on the corner talking about hating the white man, wouldn't give a damn about the white man if he made as much. Certainly the black lawyer don't feel quite as much hate. The hate he does feel is because he doesn't have the same level of freedom that his white colleagues have. If he was invited to the same parties, addressed with the same deference, he wouldn't care what whitey did.
On the other side, the KKK is mostly made up of poorer folk, who think that if blacks weren't taking all the jobs, then THEY would have a shot. Instead of having to live in a trailer park, stretching the welfare check to cover a luxury or two, they would live in a house, with a car and a suit and a proper paycheck.
There are two ways out of this.
First, make everyone richer. Science and The Enlightenment has been trying to do this for centuries. The guy in the trailer park would cringe if he saw how he would have lived four centuries ago - or even two. (Maybe they should make Charles Dickens required reading in public schools again - if only to show people how good they've got it now.)
The second way is to become satisfied with what you've got now. It is very hard to be satisfied with a crust when all around you have cake, but it has been done. You just have to be a saint.
It's easier to make everyone richer, than to make everyone contented. That's why we need more scientists in our society, and more science.

90% of all scientists in TV and movies are portrayed either as nerds or madmen.