New blog tags

Sometimes I dont like to admit it but I actually consume a lot of internet. But in all my time online I am always impressed at the way the internet is able to show me new and interesting material from such diverse and unrelated backgrounds which makes me see the internet as yes a place for trivial and mindless dribble but at the same time a place for people to connect with some of the most interesting ideas from anywhere in the world. In coming across material for the blog I am reminded of Gandhi's Seven Deadly Sins which read:

Wealth without Work
Pleasure without Conscience
Science without Humanity
Knowledge without Character
Politics without Principle
Commerce without Morality
Worship without Sacrifice

I really like how these show that for everything we strive for we must always never forget to lose sight of the core principles for which we do things. That all things are in opposition to each other and although it seems counter-intuitive, we must seek balance between the things we do and desire.

looking at these precepts I think I could find examples of each of the sins and share them here. While Gandhi recognized these as sins I wonder if it would be possible to find the Seven Moral Virtues

Wealth with Work
Pleasure with Conscience
Science with Humanity
Knowledge with Character
Politics with Principle
Commerce with Morality
Worship with Sacrifice

So to kick things off I will share a video that shows Science with Humanity

In this video it shows how some musicians have made music out of the radioactive decay of elements. The musicians have managed to blend music with science and I think the result is something you will enjoy!

Update 8/15/11: after some further thought I think I will have to put this tag on the back-burner for the moment due to the fact that I haven't really used it. I originally envisioned this to be a reoccurring tag I could put on subsequent posts but that hasn't turned out to be the case after having it for a few weeks. I can see why Gandhi saw these and sins and while I notice many of these things as sins I didn't intend for this tag to be used to highlight the sins of the world here. I wanted to be able to show the seven moral virtues and I still have hope that they exist in the world I think that they are hard to come by.

What Happened to Obama’s Passion? - NYTimes.com

Stories I believe are integral parts of how we interact and view the world. For thousands of years before the written word, stories were the sole means of transmitting and preserving valuable information. I would not be surprised if it is found that there exists some hardwired tendency for humanity to naturally gravitate towards storytelling as the de facto form of information dissemination. The stories we tell ourselves guide our preconceptions and shape our values which is why as it is so important as discussed in the article why politicians need to craft a story (whether the story is based on factual evidence is another case, just look to the republican story of "small government" in all things except in social policy such as gay rights and abortion along with "national defense") is necessary for people to believe and support you. Obama is credited with running a highly successful election campaign but has not seen the same success in his presidency. Ask anyone what Obama's campaign slogan was and all will easily respond "hope", but this slogan was built upon Obama's up and coming rags to riches story he crafted and people bought it. But what is the narrative pushed by Obama post election? Has his "centrist" policies and endless compromise muddled the story Obama was elected on and left voters confused?

What Happened to Obama’s Passion? - NYTimes.com: "The stories our leaders tell us matter, probably almost as much as the stories our parents tell us as children, because they orient us to what is, what could be, and what should be; to the worldviews they hold and to the values they hold sacred. Our brains evolved to “expect” stories with a particular structure, with protagonists and villains, a hill to be climbed or a battle to be fought. Our species existed for more than 100,000 years before the earliest signs of literacy, and another 5,000 years would pass before the majority of humans would know how to read and write.

Stories were the primary way our ancestors transmitted knowledge and values. Today we seek movies, novels and “news stories” that put the events of the day in a form that our brains evolved to find compelling and memorable. Children crave bedtime stories; the holy books of the three great monotheistic religions are written in parables; and as research in cognitive science has shown, lawyers whose closing arguments tell a story win jury trials against their legal adversaries who just lay out “the facts of the case.”"

The Dutch Way - Bicycles and Fresh Bread - NYTimes.com

good commentary on not only the structural but cultural differences on American style transportation and Dutch transportation. Both structural and cultural barriers will need to be overcome if we are to achieve a balanced transportation infrastructure. 

The Dutch Way - Bicycles and Fresh Bread - NYTimes.com: "Dutch drivers are taught that when you are about to get out of the car, you reach for the door handle with your right hand — bringing your arm across your body to the door. This forces a driver to swivel shoulders and head, so that before opening the door you can see if there is a bike coming from behind. Likewise, every Dutch child has to pass a bicycle safety exam at school. The coexistence of different modes of travel is hard-wired into the culture.
This in turn relates to lots of other things — such as bread. How? Cyclists can’t carry six bags of groceries; bulk buying is almost nonexistent. Instead of shopping for a week, people stop at the market daily. So the need for processed loaves that will last for days is gone. A result: good bread."

SHIKAI TSENG

SHIKAI TSENG

"The essence of tyranny is the denial of complexity". -Jacob Burkhardt

Put it on Washington's tab

we often look back on the founding fathers with rose colored glasses. It is easy to look at some of the many portraits and paintings of our fledgling nation and not get caught up in the ideals of freedom.
Yet do our idealistic depictions of our founding fathers match up with what the historical records say?
Surprisingly no, take for instance General George Washington lauded as possibly our most respected and principled leader in the early days of our nation. We are familiar with his stately, soft spoken mannerisms yet historical records show that his seemingly benevolent nature came at a cost.

It was June 16, 1775, and American statesman George Washington was feeling magnanimous. Or, at least, that's what he wanted everyone to think. Washington had just been appointed general of the Continental Army over the soaring hopes of John Hancock,[1] and, in order to not look too pleased with himself, America's future first president declined fiscal remuneration for his services. Well, almost. He said:

Sir, I beg leave to assure the Congress that as no pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to have accepted this arduous employment, I do not wish to make any profit from it. I will keep an exact account of my expenses. Those I doubt not they will discharge, and that is all I desire.

"Expenses", eh? Latter-day patriots, infused with nationalistic fervor, might assume this meant Washington would only take the barest hint of sustenance for his labors. As Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, Washington might expect a comfortable salary. For a little perspective, the very day Washington accepted his commission, Congress drew up the pay for officers and privates. A private made $6 2/3 a month, a captain $20, and a major general $166. Seems to us Washington was giving up a decent sum in exchange for this promise of discharging these expenses.

So, in the end, how much did Washington spend over his eight years of service?
$449,261.51, in 1780 dollars.
Taking into account 220 years of inflation that'd be worth over $4,250,000.00 today.[5]Four million dollars' worth of "expenses", and, after going over the account with a fine-toothed comb (at one point he was corrected for undercounting 89/90 of a dollar), Congress approved the lot of it.

How the US media marginalises dissent - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

How the US media marginalises dissent - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Good discussion on just how much the media shapes and forms our public discourse.

On discovering you're and Android

A very discomfiting realisation, discovering you are an android. That all those thoughts and ideas and feelings you seem to be having are just electrical impulses zapping through your circuits.
The idea that the self, or the conscious mind, emerges from the workings of the physical structures of the brain – with no need to invoke any supernatural spirit, essence or soul – is so fundamental to modern neuroscience that it almost goes unmentioned. It is the tacitly assumed starting point for discussions between neuroscientists, justified by the fact that all the data in neuroscience are consistent with it being true. Yet it is not an idea that the vast majority of the population is at all comfortable with or remotely convinced by. Its implications are profound and deeply unsettling, prompting us to question every aspect of our most deeply held beliefs and intuitions.
This idea has crept along with little fanfare – it did not emerge all at once like the theory of evolution by natural selection. There was no sudden revolution, no body of evidence proffered in a single moment that overturned the prevailing dogma. While the Creator was toppled with a single, momentous push, the Soul has been slowly chipped away at over a hundred years or more, with most people blissfully unaware of the ongoing assault. But its demolition has been no less complete.
If you are among those who is skeptical of this claim or who feels, as many do, that there must be something more than just the workings of the brain to explain the complexities of the human mind and the qualities of subjective experience (especially your own), then first ask yourself: what kind of evidence would it take to convince you that the function of the brain is sufficient to explain the emergence of the mind?
Imagine you came across a robot that performed all the functions a human can perform – that reported a subjective experience apparently as rich as yours. If you were able to observe that the activity of certain circuits was associated with the robot’s report of subjective experience, if you could drive that experience by activating particular circuits, if you could alter it by modifying the structure or function of different circuits, would there be any doubt that the experience arose from the activity of the circuits? Would there be anything left to explain?

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."
H.P. Lovecraft

That anxiety may be in your gut, not in your head

bacteria in our guts play many important roles in our health and well being, but new research has found that bacteria residing in the gut influence brain chemistry and behaviour. For each person, the gut is home to about 1,000 trillion bacteria with which we live in harmony. These bacteria perform a number of functions vital to health: They harvest energy from the diet, protect against infections and provide nutrition to cells in the gut. Any disruption can result in life-threatening conditions, such as antibiotic-induced colitis from infection with the "superbug" Clostridium difficile.
Working with healthy adult mice, the researchers showed that disrupting the normal bacterial content of the gut with antibiotics produced changes in behaviour; the mice became less cautious or anxious. This change was accompanied by an increase in brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which has been linked, to depression and anxiety.
When oral antibiotics were discontinued, bacteria in the gut returned to normal.
"This was accompanied by restoration of normal behaviour and brain chemistry," Collins said.
To confirm that bacteria can influence behaviour, the researchers colonized germ-free mice with bacteria taken from mice with a different behavioural pattern. They found that when germ-free mice with a genetic background associated with passive behaviour were colonized with bacteria from mice with higher exploratory behaviour, they became more active and daring. Similarly, normally active mice became more passive after receiving bacteria from mice whose genetic background is associated with passive behaviour.

Life Before the Dinosaurs

what does a seven year old who is enamored with prehistoric life do? Well he blogs about it of course

I am seven years old. I really like the life before the dinosaurs. And I really think arthropods are cool.

Thomas Hobbes=misanthrope

Famine, politics and governance

"Famines don’t happen in democracies because political leaders have an incentive to ensure that their citizens don’t go hungry; they need their votes. That’s the argument put forward by Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen in his 1981 book on “Poverty and famines.” The current crisis in the Horn of Africa seems to lend weight to Sen’s argument –- and to the argument that famine is a crime -– demonstrating that droughts only turn into famines when they take place against a background of bad politics and governance."

Mormon Presidential Politics

write up found here

Didn't go to the twilight concert, hopefully I will get some math done...

Educating the Saints Hugh W. Nibley

In "Higher Education" the traffic titles and forms are already long established: The office with its hoarded files of scoresheets, punched cards, and tapes can declare exactly how educated any individual is—even to the third decimal. That is the highly structured busywork which we call education today; but it was not Brigham Young's idea of education. He had thoughts which we have repeated from time to time with very mixed reception on the BYU campus. Still we do not feel in the least inclined to apologize for propagating them on the premises of a university whose main distinction is that it bears his name.

Brigham Young's declaration that "every art and science known and studied by the children of men is comprised within the Gospel."⁸² But this does not mean, as is commonly assumed, that anything one chooses to teach is the gospel—that would be as silly as arguing that since all things are made of electrons, protons, neutrons, etc., whenever anyone opens his mouth to speak he gives a lecture on physics. It means rather that all things may be studied and taught in the light of the gospel: "If an Elder shall give us a lecture upon astronomy, chemistry, or geology, our religion embraces it all. It matters not what the subject be, if it tends to improve the mind, exalt the feelings, and enlarge the capacity."⁸³ It would be quite impossible to improve the mind, exalt the feelings and enlarge the capacity of any man without making him a better candidate for heaven—"it matters not what the subject be."⁸⁴ By the same token, the reading of the scriptures if not undertaken in that spirit does not belong to our religion: " 'Shall I sit down and read the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Covenants all the time?' says one. Yes, if you please, and when you have done, you may be nothing but a sectarian after all. It is your duty to study . . . everything upon the face of the earth, in addition to reading those books."⁸⁵

It is perfectly natural for the young who discover the world of scholarship for the first time to strike in their sophomoric zeal an intellectual pose, rail in high terms against the Church that has kept them in darkness all these years, and catalogue the defects and miscalculations of the prophets in the light of their own scholarly elevation. That is perfectly natural, and if we had heeded Brigham Young, the urge to study and criticize would be running in fruitful channels. Whether we like it or not, we are going to have to return to Brigham Young's ideals of education; we may fight it all the way, but in the end God will keep us after school until we learn our lesson: "Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me. But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right" (D&C 9:7–8).

Excerpt from Contact by Carl Sagan

At a few hundred kilometers altitude, the Earth fills half your sky, and the band of blue that stretches from Mindanao to Bombay, which your eye encompasses in a single glance, can break your heart with its beauty. Home, you think. Home. This is my world. This is where I come from. Everyone I know, everyone I ever heard of, grew up down there, under that relentless and exquisite blue. You race eastward from horizon to horizon, from dawn to dawn, circling the planet in an hour and a half. After a while, you get to know it, you study its idiosyncrasies and anomalies. You can see so much with the naked eye. Florida will soon be in view again. Has that tropical storm system you saw last orbit, swirling and racing over the Caribbean, reached Fort Lauderdale? Are any of the mountains in the Hindu Kush snow-free this summer? You tend to admire the aquamarine reefs in the Coral Sea.

You look at the West Antarctic Ice Pack and wonder whether its collapse could really inundate all the coastal cities on the planet. In the daylight, though, it's hard to see any sign of human habitation. But at night, except for the polar aurora, everything you see is due to humans, humming and blinking all over the planet. That swath of light is eastern North America, continuous from Boston to Washington, a megalopolis in fact if not in name. Over there is the burn off of natural gas in Libya. The dazzling lights of the Japanese shrimp fishing fleet have moved toward the South China Sea. On every orbit, the Earth tells you new stories. You can see a volcanic eruption in Kamchatka, a Saharan sandstorm approaching Brazil, unseasonably frigid weather in New Zealand. You get to thinking of the Earth as an organism, a living thing. You get to worry about it, care for it, wish it well. National boundaries are as invisible as meridians of longitude, or the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. The boundaries are arbitrary.

The planet is real. Spaceflight, therefore, is subversive. If they are fortunate enough to find themselves in Earth orbit, most people, after a little meditation, have similar thoughts. The nations that had instituted spaceflight had done so largely for nationalistic reasons; it was a small irony that almost everyone who entered space received a startling glimpse of a transnational perspective, of the Earth as one world. It wasn't hard to imagine a time when the predominant loyalty would be to this blue world, or even to the cluster of worlds huddling around the nearby yellow dwarf star on which humans, once unaware that every star is a sun, had bestowed the definite article: the Sun. It was only now, when many people were entering space for long periods and had been afforded a little time for reflection, that the power of the planetary perspective began to be felt.

Things I need to do better on

going to class: have had a hard time going to my math class lately and am concerned I wont be able to test into a high enough math level that I would like. I don't know why it is difficult for me to get there as I almost never regret going once I am there.

complimenting people: I think this would be a good thing for me to work on as it is something that everybody likes and helps you to get to know more people (if you do it in a non-creepy way).

serving others: this is something that would help me feel good and other people feel good. I mean if you think about it that way why doesn't everybody do service? This comes to my mind because as I was donating plasma the other day and I overheard one of the techs say how he did not want to live to old age. He reasoned that old age is just too much to bear because all you deal with is your body falling apart. But it made me wonder, to reach old age is something that not everybody get the chance to do so and if you do you do it while consuming and relying upon others, so wouldn't you feel an obligation to maybe try and give back to others after you had received so much?

Nasa Spin-off Tech

NASA tech

with the talk of the last shuttle flight and the increasing worries of the national debt people often wonder if NASA is worth American tax payer dollars when currently it only consumes .05-1% of the federal budget.

Here are several "practical" applications that have arisen due to NASA. But really if you are trying to decide if NASA is worth American tax dollars just have a drink of Tang, I mean come on the stuff is delicious!

EDIT: tang was actually not invented by NASA and was only used after the astronauts found the water on the spacecrafts distasteful and used tang to make it more palatable 

Vilnius Mayor A.Zuokas Fights Illegally Parked Cars with Tank

seems a little harsh to actually run over a car just because it is illegally parked. maybe a parking ticket would have sufficed? there has to be more to the story than what is shown here.