November 2011
72 posts
October 2011
86 posts
“Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge. Its goal is to find out how the world works, to seek what regularities there may be, to penetrate the connections of things - from sub-nuclear particles, which may be the constituents of all matter, to living organisms, the human social community, and thence to the cosmos as a whole. Our intuition is by no means an infallible guide. Our perceptions may be distorted by training and prejudice or merely because of the limitations of our sense organs, which, of course, perceive directly but a small fraction of the phenomena of the world. Even so straightforward a question as whether in the absence of friction a pound of lead falls faster than a gram of fluff was answered incorrectly by Aristotle and almost everyone else before the time of Galileo. Science is based on experiment, on a willingness to challenge old dogma, on an openness to see the universe as it really is. Accordingly, science sometimes requires courage - at the very least the courage to question the conventional wisdom.”
—Carl Sagan (via stellaralchemy)
Homework
I am having such a hard time juggling family and homework. I get so much work done during study hall, but once I get home, my family demands attention. If I’m not directly giving them attention, the constant knocks on my door and pointless small-talk make it virtually impossible to do homework, never mind their constant yelling.
If I didn’t have to drive my sister home every day, I would totally stay after school in the library… -Sigh- Usually this is no problem, but now that I have a preliminary scientific paper and three source pages due tomorrow, its becoming a huge problem that’s stressing me out way too much.
Calculate your slavery footprint: http://www.slaveryfootprint.org →
slaveryfootprint.org
For a quick snapshot, you answer 11 pages of questions, including your age, the number of children you have, whether you rent or own a home, what’s in your medicine cabinet, what you eat, the clothing you own, how much jewelry you own and what electronics you have. If you have time, you can fine tune your results by reporting specific number of items. Like how many computers, leather shoes or stuffed animals you have.
“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”
—John F. Kennedy
“Nowadays we live in a world which is paradoxical. We pursue happiness, and it leads to resentment; and it leads to unhappiness; and it leads in fact to an explosion of mental illness.”
—Iain McGilchrist (via anothersilly)
Warren Buffett's Proposed Amendment
My Uncle posted this on Facebook today, I don’t know if this is what we need, but I find it interesting.
Warren Buffett, “I could end the deficit in 5 minutes,” he told CNBC.
“You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election. The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971…before computers, e-mail, cell phones, etc. Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven took 1 year or less to become the law of the land…all because of public pressure.”
Congressional Reform Act of 2011:
- No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.
- Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.
- Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
- Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
- Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
- Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
- All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term’s), then go home and back to work.
