Faking or Refusing

I've spent the night writing a paper on "how [my] previous living environment has affected me."
hahahhah.
That's pretty much ridiculous.
I wasn't required to do so. Why did I do it then?
I can save one hundred plus dollars a month for having written that paper. It was for a housing scholarship with the honors program.

The best part about it is that I know someone who was refusing to write it because it is utterly pointless. She doesn't care as much about the money as her own dignity.
And she's right: it's a bunch of crap that really doesn't mean anything. All of those scholarship and college application essays were. I'm feeling like I'm in High School where I felt this way about nearly all of my essays.

I imagine, however, that it's all my fault because I could've protested against writing a pointless essay and the program chair probably would've let me do something else... but it's due tomorrow and I didn't start it until nine tonight. Next time I'm going to have to stand my own and refuse to waste my time. I'm excited to do so.

Not an element

Uranium, element 92, was named after the planet Uranus. Neptunium, element 93, was discovered later and named after Neptune (as Neptune follows Uranus in the planetary line.) Then scientists discovered element 94 which they named Plutonium likewise because of the planets.

But if Pluto's not a planet, is Plutonium an element?
I demand that we rename it. :)

Self-Proclaimed Evolutionary

So, in case you haven't noticed, I really don't like creationism or intelligent design. (I'm in favor of theistic evolution until evidence for any other theory makes any sense to me.)
These pictures come from a deist facebook page. I like them. :)

Brainwashed

Have you ever been in one of those classes where the professor/teacher states what they think about a subject before a debate and then you come to realize later that the discussion was a little tainted because of their personal preference? A class where you suddenly realize everyone sounds like they've been brainwashed by the professor/teacher...

That's a little how I feel right now. I feel as though I've taken the easy way out.
The funny thing about the argument is that I agreed for the most part with what I was saying. At the time it didn't feel like I was being twisted into saying something and I still don't know why it feels that way now.

On a related note - do other people find themselves stating things that they really do believe and then not too long after asking themselves: do I really believe that? It always seems absurd looking at whatever I've stated the second time.

Anyway, I'm feeling a little tricked (like I commonly would after College Writing last year.) I can still see my professor picking out and praising one person in the class and another person in the class looking at my professor a little like she had been "enlightened."

Simplicity in the Torah

This is one of my favorite religious stories (for the moment). It may sound familiar as the bible has a similar passage. Hillel was a Rabbi who was born one hundred and ten years before Christ. Shammai was another Jewish leader who was born fifty years before Christ. Here's the story:

Once there was a gentile who came before Shammai, and said to him:
"Convert me on the condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot."
Shammai pushed him aside with the measuring stick he was holding.
The same fellow came before Hillel, and Hillel converted him, saying:
"That which is despicable to you, do not do to your fellow, this is the whole Torah, and the rest is commentary, go and learn it."

It's all ____'s fault.

Because surely "we didn't start the fire."

The other day I got to triple dip by going to a lecture called "I don't believe in Atheists." Which when I first found out about I was left thinking: "Religious studies credit for three classes? My life is complete."
Before you start accusing me of being atheist-intolerant let me get to my point:

Hedges' talk was about the New Atheist (think "The God Delusion", etc.) movement and the Christian Right.
He made some valid points as to why these groups are hurting America and the World. Three of my favorite were:

1. They both treat groups of people as the enemy. With the New Atheists it's those who are religious as can be seen be the major work to take religion out of everything these days. With the Christian Right it's the "sinners" - today this can easily be seen in the homophobic to the point of denial of the existence of homosexuality attitude of many in Christian Right states.

2. Because of this belief the two of them tend to claim that if the "problem" of the people's attitude (sinners saved or religious people becoming existentialist, etc.) were solved that we could miraculously reach a utopia and people would be wonderful.

3. The reason why this Utopia cannot exist is that the problem lies neither within religion or within a specific group (like the gay community) rather the problem lies within the inherint ability of men to do wrong.

I'm not saying that I think that he was totally correct, but he made some dang good points.
(As well as one really flawed one that they debated about during the Q&A section - at which points someone got so mad they asked him "Do you have trouble with English?!")

This all seems to fit well with the "Doctrine of the Mean" by Aristotle which I've recently discovered and really liked.

Anyway, just thought I'd talk about it.
It's interesting to me particularly because I've been trying to find a good piece of atheist literature, but all of the Atheists on Goodreads hate the four New Atheists and call them out on their poorly formed arguments.

On a side note: I really do like the song "We Didn't Start the Fire" and sometime soon I want to go through and read up on all of the events in the song because while I do know about some of the events/people (Cola wars, Ben Hurr, Eichmann) the number of ones I don't is kind of pathetic (children of thalidomide, Nasser aand Prokofiev, Edsel is a no-go.) It should be quite the learning experience... all of the things I should know. Plus - I'll finally get down to reading "Catcher in the Rye."

Quite the Wise Decision

So I find this fascinating -

Technetium, element 43, was discovered in 1937. To produce it scientists are required to bombard Molybdenum-96 with an additional neutron causing it to become Molybdenum-97 which then loses a negative beta particle and becomes Technetium.
(96Mo(n, γ)99Mo → 99Tc + β -)

Because it can only be produced synthetically and was the first element to have that qualification there was a huge controversy over whether or not it should be included in the Periodic Table of Elements (even though there was a predicted spot for it.) The decision to allow it and all of the following synthetic elements in wasn't made for ten more years and that was only after the scientists could study fallout from atomic research.

There are twenty-four elements that have been produced that absolutely cannot be found in nature (as it turns out, traces of Technetium can be.) There are over fifty more that some say that we could possibly produce.

Wow.

Can you imagine how quickly it could've thrown science off to refuse to include synthetic elements in the Periodic Table?

It's mind boggling and makes me wonder if we've done anything as incredibly stupid (or at least what seems incredibly stupid to the little Freshman) as this that has set science years behind. We probably have. It'll be really interesting to see what the things that we don't quite understand now ending up being discovered as scientific errors in the future.

Why Honors?

Honors Program sounds like something that you'd be forced into by some parent because "it'll look good on a resumé."
Honors is, however, a wonderful thing.

Why? (I'll tell you why!)

Without Honors I don't think I would've fully embraced the ideas of education for the self (in contrast to education for a career.)
Sure, I would've read a bit, but there's more to it than that. College is not about classes.

College is about having the opportunities to do expensive things for less or for free. (BB King, Wicked, Shakespeare Festival, Madame Butterfly, etc.)
College is about having someone help you to find the best professors with the smallest agenda.
College is about telling your teachers what you want out of class and what you want to do in their class.
College is about taking trips random places outside of the classroom that you may learn more from and getting credit for going.
College is about going to lectures on topics you never had heard of and, sometimes, not understanding them, and other times finding a new passion.
College is about getting a few teachers that scare you because they're a little too "out there" to be as sane as they seem to be.
College is about going to a few events that don't spark your interest because you need to get so many points for a class. Then, afterwards, finding out you really don't hate all of them. (But.. ugh.. the Opera.. blegh.)
College is about getting way too much reading, insisting upon reading nearly all of it, and then going to class feeling prepared and being overwhelmed by the brilliance of your teacher and fellow students - suddenly realizing just how little you know.

The Honors Program is all about every one of those things and more.
These are the things you really can't get from College without putting major effort into searching for each one. In honors they fall in your lap without you saying a word and sometimes you forget just how lucky you are.

That's why.