Follow our old leader!

The UK has made it a law that creationism cannot be taught, in any form, within public schools.  All content must be scientifically supported in the "science" classes.  Cheers to Richard Dawkins, David Attenborough, and Michael Reiss for being the headliners of this cause (and a bigger cheers to all the supporters)!

Now if the USA also follows this trend there is a chance I will no longer be called the "Gorilla man" for my acknowledgment of evolution as fact in my classroom.  

Reflections about "The Universe in a Single Atom" by the Dalai Lama - Part 3

This post will be brief.  The act of meditation appeals to me greatly for, oddly, it almost reminds me of how I think naturally.  I shared the labeling of my "blindness" by science idea with my students; they agreed and explained that the levels of depth I think about topics limits my awareness around me (I summarized their thoughts, so if any students read this and want to correct it, please do).  Meditation, as I currently understand it, pursues a very similar attribute.  Being able to focus on thoughts objectively, meaning without feelings of the past or future distorting them, is the goal.  

Learning without application to one's life describes the challenge in today's education, for students see no purpose in learning much of the content (which I agree with - sorry stoichiometry, I do not use you in my life regularly).  However, the act of learning and making every part of your life meaningful should be taught.  To make content meaningful to me, I must attach it to my philosophy of life.  The method used in doing so is deep, reflective thought.  For example, just this week in physics I covered the impulse-momentum theorem.  I am able to see that both the greater the amount of force (effort) and time put into something allows an action to take place more easily (or the other way around, with "jumping on the bandwagon" means I have to put less effort and time into something); this philosophical idea is a great lesson to teach humans.  As an "ex-forced student", I know the majority of the students will only view this as an equation and nothing more, for one only gains this perspective by deeply reflecting on the meaning and searching for other pieces of evidence of what the equation is representing.  Sadly, if I took the time to try to teach meditation, or my form of it, it would probably look like a piece of religion.

Current picture of the universe...and its end!

If you have one hour to be super excited, I suggest you go watch Lawrence Krauss's talk.  It goes against my thoughts currently; I will need to look more into quantum.  I am currently one that thinks there is a simpler way of viewing our universe.

If you fall in love with Lawrence Krauss, you can also get his new book coming out which goes into more detail about this talk.  I found out about it from Sam Harris's interview with him.

The most interesting part, to me, about Krauss's talk is the description of the potential future of intelligent beings.  He explains how the universe will become so spread out that individual solar systems will be too distant for light from others to reach.  The light will hit some barrier, but I forget the name of said barrier.  Interesting nevertheless!

I feel bad for my cat

I kept fighting the idea of getting my cat declawed.  I finally gave in; my sister offered to do it for me.  Seeing Roz tread lightly on her paws saddens me.  Having my fingers cut off would not make me happy; it was only done to save furniture.

Sorry, but thinking of weird behaviors done which scientific research is responsible for intrigued me.  Even one as "minute" as cutting a cat's fingers off (just the tip - inappropriate Archer reference).  Basically I dislike my allowance of this behavior; I could have gone the noble route and got the "soft claws" they sell instead.

Double sorry, for me blabbering about animal cruelty I allowed to my cat.