Education

I spend a solid 62.5% of my time daily on it. Considering that sleeping is only 29.2% and eating is a mere 8.3%, education is clearly my life right now. Upon analysis, the human body yields no outstanding strength, razor teeth and claws, or lightning speed. Incredibly, we are apparently the fruit of thousands of years of evolution and perched at the pinnacle of the global food chain.
Our one power, the defining characteristic of the Homo Sapiens Sapiens, is the mind.
Education is extremely important.

Yet a devastating problem in several countries is that people do not receive a sufficient education. More prosperous nations, like ours, give money and aid to these poor countries in hopes of improving the situation. It will surely help, but as the saying goes, "Give a man a fish, and he's fed for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he can teach other men to fish, feeding them all for the rest of their lives." Free schools for the poor all over the world help destitute children to learn and eventually prosper. No Child Left Behind also attempts to spread the knowledge and give a substantial, if not equal, opportunity. So let's give everyone in the world, people of all nationalities, races, and genders, an education, and that foundation will sustain humanity better than a donation.

Sanctions Bad

The United States and the United Nations put sanctions on misled countries in order to attempt to direct them to the right path. The act is analogous to taking away an errant child's food until it behaves.

1) Sanctions by the United States are unjustified. If a country's government is faulty, another nation has no right to interfere with its national sovereignty. It may criticize policies, but actions to change them must remain within the compass of the nation itself and the United Nations. Controlling and coercing another nation, whether through military or economic means, is only a loose or preliminary form of imperialism or colonialism. The United States cannot make decisions for the rest of the world any more than any other country could for the United States. If there is a problem so severe that it must be changed through economic sanctions, then the United Nations should have the jurisdiction to enforce a change.

2) Sanctions cause damage to the innocent. Since sanctions are often simply restrictions of trade and commerce with the chosen country, the people who supposedly are being oppressed or wronged in that country are then subjected to depleted supplies that can only further worsen their situation. Regardless of whether the policy is ultimately changed, sanctions are detrimental to the society. Additionally, sanctions on a country can cause related nations to suffer enormously, depending on the scope of the sanction.

3) UN sanctions are often unable to be enforced. The whole purpose of sanctioning is to enforce a change in law, but in international sanctions there must also be enforcement of the sanctions themselves. However, there is no non-military method of enforcement beyond mere political scorn, so the purportedly non-military tool of sanctioning often requires force to be effective.

4) Sanctions simply have a low rate of achievement. Sanctioning or subjecting a nation to external force in any case can frequently result in favor of the faulty government for which the sanction was intended. An excellent example of this phenomenon is Fidel Castro in Cuba. Known to the rest of the world as a scoundrel and a plague on society, he has nevertheless been able to blame the rampant poverty on neighboring and sanctioning nations, causing the population to rally around him. In Iraq, Sudan, and Myanmar(Burma) have hurt these nations potentially even more than the cause of the sanctions.

Although changes could(should) be made to sanctioning, currently they are an overestimated and detrimental tool for Civil Liberties.


http://globalpolicy.igc.org/security/sanction/anlysis2.htm
http://www.antiwar.com/eland/?articleid=10070

Smile

:] People say I smile a lot. They sometimes ask me why.
=D I don't see any reason not to.
:) It makes the recipient richer without making the giver poorer.
=P It takes a moment but can last a lifetime.
;) Someone might fall in love with it.
:] Everyone smiles in the same language.
=D It's contagious. There are lots of beneficial corollaries to this:
:) It's better to spread joy with a smile than sorrow with a frown.
=P If you're sad, give someone a smile. You may get it back with interest.
;) "Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles." ~George Eliot

S M I L E
:] =D :) =P ;)

Machines R Us

We use machines to make life easier. We control them. It's terrifying to imagine what might happen if they start to control us...

"Oh no! My laptop broke! All my stuff was on it!"
"We're going camping? Cool! Can I bring my DS?"
"Sorry, gotta go. My favorite show is on"

Light and Time

When eyes see any object, the actual process is far more complicated than one would expect. Light waves within the visible spectrum move from a source toward the object. Some of them then reflect into our eyes. The lenses in our eyes cause the image registered on our retinas to be upside-down, but the brain then reverses it once more to obtain the image of the object in our mind. In order for us to see anything, light must move from the source to an object and then to our eyes.

For example, when a supernova blows up, it takes several years for the light to reach our eyes. By the time we see the star, it may not actually exist at that point in time. Therefore, what is seen is not what is.

The other possible explanation for this is that time does not actually exist at all, and the light from the explosion means that there is a star, just not at this point in time, which does not exist. After a while, the rest of the light passes Earth and the star is gone from our sight, so it is truly gone to us. However, the light continues forever past the Earth, steadily becoming weaker until it fades away.

Dreaming of a Perfect Universe

When we dream, it’s seems as if we are in an alternate world with the monsters/people/animals/clouds/etcetera in it. I sometimes wonder if the characters within our dream have consciousness, or if they actually think. After all, some of them express ideas, desires, and they move around. All of this implies thought and sentience. Therefore, it could theoretically be true that we are all part of an enormous dream.
Since we’re so complex, it would have to be an incredibly spacious mind, but it is definitely possible. In addition, if God created the universe this becomes much easier to explain, for the universe could be God’s dream. Thus he would be omnipotent and omniscient, regarding this dream, his universe. There wouldn’t have to be any explanation for the beginning of the universe or the stars because God simply dreamed that it was so.

People are a Virus

People are a virus, not a mammal. Mammals steadily come to an equilibrium in their surroundings, no matter what they are, and thus coexist with everything else in stable harmony, even if it includes one eating the other organisms in those surroundings. Humans, on the other hand, move into an environment, never assimilate into it, and then destroy their surroundings. Then they reproduce and move on to somewhere else after exhausting the former place’s resources. A virus acts in a similar way. They move into a host, reproduce, destroy the host, and are spread elsewhere.
-inspired by the Matrix

Variety is the Spice of Life

The spicy flavour of food actually comes from pain sensors on our taste buds. Yet many people season blander foods with spices in order to enhance their flavour. Since variety is the spice of life, variety must be pain in our life while also making it more enjoyable.

Variety breeds large amounts of pain in our lives. Differences in thought cause arguments which then grow into global wars between countries and nations. Different foods and tastes may appeal to different people. Although variety induces pain and suffering, it also propogates innovation and progress, which in turn augment the prosperity of any given group of people. Animals cannot think at the level of people, so while different species remain the same and eventually die out because of changes in their environment, humans adapt and invent to ease our lives without the aid of claws, wings, or fangs. However, all this innovation is only possible with the presence of natural variety. If there were no variety, everyone would agree all the time and like to do the same things, and a utopian civilization might even be feasible. Unfortunately, all progress would come to an abrupt halt as well, and we would probably live our lives like lower animals without differences in choice and opinion.

Happiness

We do everything we do in order to make ourselves happier. Asking ourselves why we do a given action, and then why we do that cause, always eventually leads to a quest for happiness.
For example, I don't want to do my homework, but I do it. I do my homework to be accepted in a good college and then in a good job. I want a good job for more money, which then provides food, clothing, shelter, and entertainment. All of these things will make me happier.
I don't want to wash the dishes, but I do. Washing them prevents my parents scolding me , which preemptively makes both them and me happier.
I donate to charity and help others although these actions show no tangible benefits to myself. This is because helping people in need makes me feel good because I was raised with a high standard for compassion and respect. Thus altruism makes me happy.

CSR: Corporate Social Responsibility

I’d like to talk about corporations and moral standards. This has been a debated topic over the past couple years, but I personally believe that corporations shouldn’t be held to moral standards.
First, holding corporations to moral standards would substantially decrease their efficiency and power in the market. Since a business must survive in the competitive marketplace, it cannot afford to be ethically better to the point of sacrificing profit and gain without corresponding benefit.

Second, holding corporations as a whole to moral standards would unjustly punish innocent people. For example, if an executive makes a bad decision and the corporation is held responsible instead of the individual, then innocent employees will be chastised when they didn’t do anything wrong.



hehe


Lastly, holding corporations to moral standards would destroy life on Earth.
First of all, the United States economy is on the brink of collapse. US trade deficits and imports shadow exports and profit. The dollar has lost about one third of its value against other major currencies since 2002, and has been falling faster. Oil costs are flying high due to tremors in the Middle East. Recent economic reports and corporate earning statements show an economy rapidly losing steam.
Second, corporations are necessary entities in our economy. Our economy needs corporations to invest in advanced products and facilities, crack sophisticated global markets, and push the limits of our productivity and our expertise. An economy needs corporations to have a fair degree of agility in responding to changing market conditions, and too many restrictions on layoffs hurt the ability of the economy to remain competitive. Large corporations are necessary to achieve those governmental and social necessities that small enterprises are incapable of providing.
Like I said before, holding corporations to moral standards would break their value. Thus holding corporations to moral standards would completely destroy the corporate backbone of our market, throwing the economy into ruin.
The collapse of our economy would result in extreme loss of life. Think about the mother of all global meltdowns: the Great Depression. U.S. stocks began to collapse, and there were similar horror stories worldwide. But the biggest impact of the Depression was World War II. The Depression brought Adolf Hitler to power in Germany, undermined the ability of moderates to oppose Joseph Stalin's power in Russia, and convinced the Japanese military that the country had no choice but to build an Asian empire. Let the world economy crash far enough, and the rules change. Now that more powerful nuclear weapons exist and tension is high on the doomsday clock, a collapse in the economy would result in global terror and genocide, so we shouldn’t hold corporations to moral standards.

Perfection

Perfection would be nice. In fact, it would be perfect. But everybody knows that nobody can be perfect although anybody could see that somebody must be pretty close, because of natural variation.

"Nobody's perfect."
"We're only human."
These are ancient proverbs passed down from the past.
They also happen to be degrading and would be severely detrimental to society if everyone knew it.
These kinds of phrases emphasize the imperfection of humans, which is perfectly legitimate. However, the context in which they are used are, at least 3 times out of 5, as an excuse for a less-than-satisfactory result of something, such as a grade, a project, a software program, or a car. None of these things are perfect, and sayings like those above are sometimes used to waive the consequences.
The key point to realize is that although the state of perfection is exclusively theoretical, we still ought to strive to acheive it. For example, only a few people in the class get an A+. That doesn't mean that the rest of the class does not want or should not try to get an A+; it probably means that they will have to work harder to achieve that high grade. Nobody is perfect, but anybody can try.

TEG

Conservation of energy: There was a certain amount of energy in a particle smaller than a quark in the very very very beginning of time. When it blew up, it created the universe. There is a certain amount of energy in this universe. It doesn't change. Energy can be transformed into different types, but it is never created or destroyed.

Energy is conserved.
In the universe, not the earth.

We lose energy through the atmosphere (a), and we gain energy from the sun's rays(b). If a is less than b, the earth will heat up past the point at which we die. If a is greater than b, we may eventually have no energy left on earth. Right now b stands for bigger.

This is called global warming.
It scares some people enough to make speeches about it.
...I think what we need is a way to cool down...

Thermo-electric generators would let the world relax. There is always heat in the air. With global warming and everything, there seems to be more of it than usual (whatever we define "usual" to be...). Take the thermal energy out of the air, and it gets cooler. There is so much heat in the air, and more coming in from the sun, that energy supplies would sky-rocket because of the omnipresence of thermal energy. This would reduce the pressure put on gasoline and oil-filled countries. After we use it so much that the world actually cools down a couple degrees to whatever it ought to be if global warming didn't exist ("usual"), then we can split energy sources between gasoline, ethanol, which will have been perfected by the time TEGs are potentially created, and thermal energy.
Right now I have no idea how anyone would make such a thing; I just thought it would be pretty cool.

Good kid-bad kid

A "bad kid" leaves home to hang out with his or her friends, possibly doing drugs, drinking, dancing, or playing video games, talks back to his parents, has messy hair and clothes, seems lazy at home but acts like the Energizer bunny at parties, and in general gives you a feeling of "teen." With a personality that rocks the house on its foundations, he or she is the kind of person you see in magazine "success stories" where the kid may be a jock or just in bad childhood conditions but somehow manages to come out on top in a suit and a smile.

A "good kid" stays at home, does all the household and out-of-household chores for his parents, gets good grades without needing to study, studies anyway, obeys his parents, and is a social recluse apart from a few close friends who are always polite and intelligent, just like him or her. He never goes to dances or parties, especially ones with drugs or alcohol, even when he's invited. Startingly isolated from the world, he or she has an almost monotonously positive attitude about life, the universe, and everything.

So...which would you rather have?

GW=Bad

Extreme weather:

• Less predictable climate-such as droughts and storms-lead to destruction of agriculture.
• Increase in storm strength, frequency, and unpredictability leaves many dead or homeless.
• Just as the hurricanes Rita and Katrina left the Southeast United States in shambles, increased shore activity by humans like beach resorts and summer homes combined with the increased intensity and frequency of storms will raise the damage and financial cost as well.
  

Ground temperature change:

• Different climates will cause crops to suffer outside of their key temperature.
• Peat bogs such as those in Siberia will slowly but steadily release as much as 70,000 tonnes of methane gas from the dead plant material, multiplying the greenhouse effect and its consequences even more.
  

Ocean temperature change:

• Water is much more conducive to heat than air, and the underwater ecosystems of fish and plankton will deteriorate as organisms are thrust out of their normal climate.
• Extinction of fish can lead to a food chain collapse, and regions that thrive on sea food, such as Japan and South China, will experience major consequences.
• Phytoplankton that normally absorb CO2 from the air into the ocean decrease in efficiency due to the change in temperature, creating even more greenhouse gases.
• Earth's surface has more water than land. This means that the impact for all of these ocean-problems is even greater.
  

Melting of ice caps:

• Less surface area of the Earth will be covered by ice, which is considerably more reflective than water or land, increasing the sun's effect on the Earth as the latter two absorb more sunlight.
  
• Animals that make their home in the Arctic and Antarctic, such as penguins, polar bears, and seals, will lose large parts of their habitat. In addition, the salinity of the ocean will change dramatically, further destroying ecosystems and possibly species.
  
• The sea level will increase.
  

Increase in sea level:

• The more frequent storms, like hurricanes and tsunamis, will gather strength from the warmer waters across the land. As stated earlier, the surface is mostly water, and global warming only increases it.
• Coastal regions and places with lower altitudes will be underwater, causing loss of homes, financial cost, and thousands of refugees.
• As more and more people try to live on less and less land, disease will spread more easily, potentially resulting in epidemics and mass death.

Glacier retreat:

• This will cause landslides, flash floods, and glacier lake overflow.
• This increases the glacial runoff as the glaciers melt faster and faster.
• The Hindu Kush and Himalayan glacial melt will increase melting water supply to high density regions for a few decades, but then these areas will simply run out of water since the glaciers are the main source of water for many parts of Asia.

Financial costs$:

• "Rising atmospheric temperatures, longer droughts and side-effects of both, such as higher levels of ground-level ozone gas, are likely to bring about a substantial reduction in crop yields in the coming decades, large-scale experiments have shown" (The Independent, April 27, 2005)
• Increased national disasters cause the insurance industry to suffer due to increased property and population values in vulnerable coastal regions and increasing flood risks across the globe.
• Transportation systems like roads, airports, pipelines, and railways have to be maintained in the potentially harsh conditions, further raising costs.
• Coastal flood defenses will either have to be installed or upgraded as the number of category 5 storms.

Crazy bads:

• Decrease in land will perpetuate war as higher quantities of people vie for land.
• Repair work for more dangerous storms will use up more and more energy from oil or fossil fuels, and demand for such energy sources will soar.
  
• If something is not done soon, the intensity of storms will cause homes built from anything less than the most durable, expensive, and probably environmentally unfriendly materials will be destroyed, losing all hope of solvency by that method.
• Storm clouds blocking the sun will render solar panels useless