Excuses

Answering prompt 2) McNamara asks, in the film, “How much evil must we do in order to do good? We have certain ideals, certain responsibilities. Recognize that at times you will have to engage in evil, but minimize it….I think the issue is, in order to win a war should you kill 100,000 people in one night, by firebombing or any other way? [U.S. Air Force General Curtis] LeMay’s answer would be clearly ‘Yes.’” What do you think? Were the firebombings of dozens of Japanese cities “justified” in the context of WWII? Was the dropping of nuclear weapons on Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945) “justified”? Were these strategies, as McNamara advises in war, “proportional”? Did the ends justify the means?

Saying that in order to do good you may have to engage in evil is an excuse. The ends cannot be said to justify the means because then there are no boundaries on human behavior. You cannot reasonably say that the ends justify the means, but only up to a certain point because that point is not measurable and basically lets a person who is savvy enough do anything they want. As McNamara said, if we had lost we would have been persecuted as war criminals. Then how was it justified?

So long as people believe that up until a certain point the ends can justify the means they will also believe that humans war by nature and that human nature cannot change. That we will always have war. And so we shall. People can always say, invading this country will have this good result for me so I can justify the loss of life and resources to the war, or similar situation. People will not go through as much effort to exhaust all diplomatic options because sometimes war is just easier. I don’t believe we can change human nature, but I don’t believe war is in human nature. I believe humans are just too lazy to engage in political pussyfooting for long periods of time. The stress is too much. The idea of war, to relieve the stress and to end the pussyfooting becomes more and more attractive as time wears on.

Disclaimer: Of course, I have never taken a psychology class and I have not really studied human behavior. I may be totally wrong about human nature, but I may not be.

On Test Taking

My AP physics teacher would occasionally give us advice about how to do better in the class, and one thing he told us was a method he used in college for studying for and taking tests. The first thing to do is study to your heart’s content up until 48 hours before the test. Then you stop. For the next 48 hours you do not study, you do not think about the material. Do something else. Then, in the hour or so before the test, you go over the material and see what you do and do not know. Then, when you take the test, you go in, prop your feet up, stick a lollipop in your mouth and take the test.

The method behind the madness is this. According to the information he had, the human brain takes about 48 hours to assimilate things. So if you stop studying 48 hours before the test, your brain will be able to assimilate all the information. When you go through the information to see what you don’t know, you are setting yourself up to be able to skip the questions you know you don’t know so that you can get to the ones you do know. Then if you have time afterwards you can go back to the trickier questions. The final piece of advice you don’t have to follow exactly, the principal is to be relaxed. When you are freaking out you are going to forget things. If you are relaxed you will be able to remember all the things that you know. Freak out while you are studying if you want, worry after if you want, but be calm during the test and you will do better on it.

Open mouth, insert foot, chew slowly

Foot in Mouth Disease: A disorder of the brain in which the connection between the higher thinking centers of the brain and the mouth is severed. This can lead to a condition known as diarrhea of the mouth and to sometimes amusing, but often unfortunate social discomfort. This disease is present in most humans and flare-ups can be triggered by lack of sleep. The use of caffeine in combination with lack of sleep is almost certain to trigger this condition.

Ah, college life. So many things to do, so little time. Consequently, sleep often gets neglected (at least in my case). Trying to stay alert in classes, the masses of the sleep deprived turn to caffeine. Unfortunately, this can lead me to feel lucid when in actuality I am not. I tend to run off at the mouth at the best of times and this combination does not help. I don’t mean to say that I talk trash or anything, but I tend to just jabber on about anything that comes to mind without thinking about if what I say is appropriate, necessary, or even logical. It is lamentable. I try to take into consideration who I am talking to when I am talking to them so that I don’t offend them. I think it is a bit rude to do something in front of someone that you know they find offensive. So basically, I need to learn to think before I speak.

On another note, when I googled foot in mouth disease I kept coming up with Foot and Mouth Disease, which is a cattle and other hoofed animal virus. Finally I found a reference to my kind of definition, ironically in another blog. Here it is.

The fifth symptom in Hallowell and Ratey's Diagnostic Criteria for Attention Deficit Disorder in Adults is foot-in-mouth disease.

5. Tendency to say what comes to mind without necessarily considering the timing or appropriateness of the remark.
Like the child with ADD in the classroom, the adult with ADD gets carried away in enthusiasm. An idea comes and it must be spoken—tact or guile yielding to childlike exuberance.

Thank you and Goodnight.

Addition of Alkenes: The Formation of Vicinal Dihalides

I am so happy that I am finally learning new stuff in my Organic chem class. We have been going over the basic stuff and I have been bored out of my mind. Today though we started going through the mechanisms of different types of Alkene addition reactions and it is really interesting. I love learning about chemistry and I'm glad that the class is more learning based and less memorization based than I had thought it would be. I mean, sure, you could just memorize the 100 plus reactions that we are going to learn during the course of the semester, or you can do as he suggests and actually think about the material, make connections, and be able to come up with those reactions from information that you know. If you know the characteristics of a set of reactions and you have learned the concepts behind the mechanisms of the reaction then you should be able to infer the mechanisms and predict the products of almost any given reaction. For instance, I had known about Markovnikov's Rule, but I just learned about the anti-Markovnikov reactions that occur in the presence of peroxides. It is very useful information because if you know the mechanisms you can set up reactions to get a specific structural- or stereoisomer of the product.

Also, I am so entertained by the fact that I can sit in the balcony for that class. I guess that says a bit about me, but being easily amused makes my days much more fun than they otherwise would be.

On Blogging

This blogging assignment becomes more difficult the longer it goes on. I am quickly running out of topics to write about. So I will try to list some topics that may be appearing in the future and you all can tell me if you think that they might be worth writing about. This really reminds me of The Cat Who… books where the main character, Quilleran, who writes a column for the local newspaper catches some flack from his editor, Arch Ricker, for doing reader submission columns. He calls it a copout, and it sort of is but if Ms. Hickner wants me to write another blog instead of this one all she needs to do is comment or e-mail me and I will write another blog. So, on to the list!

Why to wear Pigtails

Puns

My favorite book(s)

Several of my favorite movies (we’ll call it summary practice)

Movie quotes

Inspirational quotes

Anime

Mercedes Lackey

Gardening

Purdue University

How to ride the bus

Insects (name one I’ll write 200+ words on it)

Anyway, seriously, I have a hard time coming up with topics and I love Scifi books and bugs, so if you want a description of one, just drop me a comment and I’ll try and blog it later that week. Plus you have to write a few comments every week anyway, right? So it is like a bonus for both of us. Lol Have a great night folks and I’ll see what kind of responses I get.

Feeding yourself without the meal plan

When I was deciding where to live this year money was a real factor. Finally I found Hilltop. Initially, the idea of having my own kitchen attracted me, but when I learned that I didn’t have to have a meal plan I knew it was the perfect for me.

Cooking for myself is a lot harder than I initially thought it would be. I do know the basics of cooking, but I am much more experienced with baking. The first time I made spaghetti, for instance, it turned out really weird tasting. It was edible, but barely. I have a few cookbooks, but I need to learn how to judge what kind of spices to use and how much to use when I make things. Another problem I have been having is finding time to cook. It takes me a long time to do things and I have only an hour between classes to eat lunch. I have been falling back on the old peanut butter and jelly. I don’t mind because I love peanut butter and I have home made jam, but it does get tedious after a while. I don’t even have time to cook Ramen! For dinner oftentimes I am too tired to cook real food or I am eating at Earhart for work. Not that I’m complaining, I guess, but I have all this yummy food in my room that I want to cook, and I can never find the time to.

Powderkeg

The most disturbing problem that has been raised by Ishmael Beah is one of the aftereffects of being a child soldier. Even though the war in Sierra Leone is over the country is primed and ready to re-explode into violence at any time. Many of those who were child soldiers have been missed by the rehabilitators and even those who took part in the programs are not truly part of society. Those former soldiers have nowhere to call home and no future to look forward to. They are wandering around just trying to eke out an existence with a populace who either ignores them because of their past or resents them because they received the help when the villagers received little or none. Ishmael pointed out in his talk that they are likely to join any kind of organized effort that develops regardless of that organization’s goals because they need to be part of something larger. They are especially susceptible to joining another armed effort because it is all they know and the army unit becomes a sort of family to them. As they are now, most of them have no one to rely upon and no one to take care of them even though some are still young boys.

So basically, almost any charismatic person with a bone to pick can gather an army rather readily. In a country with a fragile government anyway the situation is frightening.

Renchan (Calfelsha) Zara Tyfel

This is the character history for the D&D character I played with this summer. It is the best character I've had to date in terms of development, role-playing, and overall coolness, and this includes my 15th level gestalt Fighter-Cleric who sorta sucked because generating a high level character is soooo inferior to playing from 1st to 15th level. So, to begin......

Born as a Raptoran, Calfelsha Zara Tyfel left on the Walk of Four Winds as demanded by her culture at the age of 18. Offering her magical prowess (as a sorcerer for those who actually play) she joined up with a group of morally questionable adventurers who had earned a peaceful charter with the Nar Horsemen. Thus, most of her adventuring has been done in Narfel.

After hunting demons with a cleric of Mask and a disguised devil, among others, she finally grew strong enough to use her wings to fly. Having accomplished the goal demanded by the Walk of Four Winds, she returned home briefly to become a full adult in Raptoran Society and to take her adult name, Renchan, which replaced her child name, Calfelsha. Her parents gave her a wand of Arcane Eye as a naming gift.

Returning to Narfel, she found the cleric of Mask had received instruction from his god to construct a shrine, so she set out with several new partners to continue her demon hunt. After discovering a secret door in a dungeon, however, she was slain by four rutterkin along with most of her companions. One companion, a warlock, was able to escape. He returned to the cleric of Mask and they were able to pay the Druid Hensoi of Nighthawk Tower in the Rawlingswood to reincarnate Renchan from one of her previously molted feathers. Unfortunately, they didn’t have anything to reincarnate the unfortunate cleric of Waukeen who had also been killed.

Reborn as a human, she returned to the spot of her death to revenge herself upon the rutterkin (and to retrieve her equipment). Confronted with the sight of her own dead body, she plucked a single blue-dyed primary from her wing to remind her of her past.

Renchan bid temporary farewell to the cleric of Mask and the warlock in order to travel alone and come to terms with her new existence. She now travels back toward her homeland, unsure of whether she will still be welcomed. Having only one goal in mind, to regain her lost power of flight, she will practice her magic until she can find a way to accomplish this task.

*Note, all of this history was actually roleplayed in game
** To learn more about Raptorans, and D&D in general with a little surfing, visit this site http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20050204a or just google it.

A Diamond? Why?

Growing up I was never really attracted to gems in general or diamonds especially. For one, I don’t wear jewelry that much, and when I do I like intricate wire creations more than jewel studded stuff. I never really understood why diamonds are so attractive to people. I like color and so a clear diamond, while it sparkles, is nowhere near as attractive to me as a rich emerald, sapphire, ruby, garnet, topaz, opal; the list goes on of cheaper and more colorful stones that I would rather have. (admittedly not much cheaper)

However, saying this only dodges the question of whether the information on blood diamonds changes my opinion of them because if the issue was blood sapphires, for example, it would be the same. So, instead of answering about blood diamonds, I am going to say blood gems, because the concept is the same and I’m sure that there are countries that use proceeds from other gem sales for less than worthy endeavors.

So, has information about conflict gems changed my opinions of whether or not to buy gems? Not really. It has merely strengthened my opinion that natural gems aren’t worth the expense. There are many synthetic alternatives to almost every gem if you want to have a pretty rock on your earrings/necklace/bracelet. Depending on the quality of the lab grown gem, it may have the exact same properties as natural gems or it may have different properties. Irregardless, they are cheaper and just as pretty so why not use them? In regards to diamonds, since we know how to synthesize tool-quality gems I have no real problem with people wearing them in general, though I believe they are put to better use in precision tools. Until countries in Africa and other places stop fighting, I think we should just boycott natural diamonds/gems and use the synthetic ones.

Butterfly

Friday, as I was making my way toward our English 108 class, a splash of red in the carpet of green grass caught my eye. I had some time so I made my way over to it. It turned out to be a monarch butterfly. I was quite puzzled because the butterfly didn't fly away when I approached. It even let me put my finger under it to make it crawl up onto my hand. I believe that it was just far too windy for it to fly that day. It desperately clung to my finger as I walked along and I tried to shield it from the gusts. I reached a ginkgo tree and decided to leave the butterfly on it so that no one would step on it. I wanted to take it with me but I was afraid that it would try to fly away once we were inside and out of the wind. Before I put it on the tree I took a close look at it. The sheer complexity of this small life form was awe inspiring. This is the reason I started with entomology in the first place. Something that is so seemingly delicate can fly so far. The Monarch butterfly is known to fly over 2000 miles in its migration between Canada and Mexico. Some have been know to fly even to Hawaii and Eastern Australia. As I looked at the tiny creature, perfectly designed for what it had to do, I could see the hand of God in its creation.

Soda, it doesn't do a body good

A little over a year ago I gave up drinking soda. At the time I didn’t really have a reason to give it up, I was just copying my older brother because I admire him and want to be like him. When the summer ended, however, I had to decide what it was that I didn’t like about soda, because if I gave up all soda and soda-like products I would be able to drink milk, water, kool-aid, and coffee. Now only one of those choices contains caffeine so I sat down and thought about what it was in soda that made it unhealthy. I came to the conclusion that the main ingredients in soda that I object to are caramel coloring and high fructose corn syrup. Caramel coloring has been known to cause kidney stones because it builds up in your kidneys and it takes a lot of water to wash it away. High fructose corn syrup has more serious side effects.
I researched it on the internet (not terribly reliable, I know) and found a study done with rats. In the study, the rats were fed a diet high in sucrose and low in copper. This caused the rats to have internal organ failure. Now as all chemistry students know (or will learn) sucrose is made of glucose and fructose. So the scientists did a second study where 1 group of rats had a diet high in fructose and low in copper, 1 group had a diet high in glucose and low in copper, 1 group had a diet with average sugars and low copper, and 1 group was fed a balanced diet, for control. Only the group high in fructose suffered the same internal organ problems as the first test. Now you may have noticed that all of these tests were conducted with diets low in copper. This is still comparable to human diets because most Americans have diets low in copper.
Now, high fructose corn syrup would not be so much of a problem if it wasn’t in just about every commercial drink and a lot of commercial foods. It is cheap to make and so it is used as a sweetener in many processes. Take a look sometime and see how much of your food has this ingredient. It may surprise you.
In case you are wondering, I did find an acceptable caffeinated drink for myself. Monster energy drink. It tastes good because citric acid is like the 3^rd ingredient on the list and it is sweetened with glucose. I keep my consumption to 1 a day (or less) though, because it is an energy drink and you never really know what too much of that stuff will do to you.

A post-New Year's Resolution

This blogging assignment has made me realize that writing down my thoughts and feelings really helps me to organize them and understand them. However, many of those thoughts and feelings aren’t meant for any eyes but my own, which is my original objection to keeping a journal/diary. No matter how well you protect it there is always the chance that someone will find it and read it. If you try warning people away, it will make them curious. If you try making it look innocuous then someone might read it by mistake. The thought of someone reading my innermost thoughts scares the hell out of me, especially if I have written about them. But I have decided that the benefit outweighs the potential consequences, so I am going to keep an electronic journal on my computer. I will try to make it a goal to write something every day, because if I don’t make it a habit I won’t do it at all. Hopefully, some of the posts I will be able to post on here so that I don’t have as much to do. I hope that it will help to keep me sane as I embark on the crazy and stressful journey known as freshman year.

How big is your wingspan: a commentary

How big is your wingspan? Originally I took this picture because I liked the effect of giving wings to myself, but lately I have thought about the question above. Originally it is intended to measure your arms, but philosophically it could be used to measure your ambition. For the most part, the bigger the wingspan on a bird, the farther and higher it can fly. So the question asks, how far are you going to fly? What are your dreams and how far are you willing to go to achieve them? Every time I see this picture, I am reminded that I cannot just drift through life, I have to put forth the effort to make my dreams happen. One has to strike a balance though, between working toward your goals and doing things that you enjoy now. One of the hardest things for me to do is not to let life pass me by. Take action. Join a club. Hang out with friends. Share the things you enjoy. Laugh out loud. Smell the flowers. Enjoy the good weather while it is here. After all, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Now I'm going to go take a walk.