Friday, December 21, 2007

Examine

Make for thyself a definition or description
of the thing which is presented to thee,so as
to see it distinctly what kind of thing it is,
in its substance,in its nudity,in its complete
entirety,and tell thyself its proper name,
and the names of the things of which it has
been compounded,and into which it will be
resolved.

For nothing is so productive of
elevation of mind as to be able to examine
methodically and truly every object which is
presented to thee in life,and always to look
at things so as to see at the same time what
kind of universe this is,and what kind of use
everything performs in it,and what value
everything has with reference to the whole,
and what with reference to man,who is a
citizen of the highest city,of which all other
cities are like families; what each thing is,and
of what it is composed,and how long it is the
nature of this thing to endure.


-Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

Friday, November 30, 2007

Energy Crisis

I just went out for lunch (mmm... chimichanga). Before returning to work, I stopped in to use the restroom. My momma raised me right, so I always wash my hands when I'm done. I grabbed a paper towel from the dispenser and *wwwwwwwwwwt* out came another one right behind it.

Magic! Technology! Industry! Hooray! But why?

Unfortunately, these electronic dispensers seem to be nearly everywhere now.

Why waste the extra energy to spit out a paper towel?

Why create all that extra E-waste that someone will need to deal with?

Didn't the old "pull and tear" method work just fine?

What's next? Electronic toilet paper dispensers? Oh. Well. I guess that is next.

What a world!

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Grand Unified Theory

Today, I was reading a bit more about the Large Hadron Collider being built in Switzerland / France. It is slated to begin it's search for the "God Particle" in May 2008.

It's especially interesting to note the very small possibility that...
"...the LHC might trigger one of several theoretical disasters capable of destroying the Earth or even the entire Universe."

But, I suppose that it would likely be a better way to die than Global Thermonuclear War or getting hit by a car. Go science!

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Vasiliy Arkhipov and Stanislav Petrov

A special message to those with very important buttons to push. Sometimes saving the world is up to you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasiliy_Arkhipov

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov