Conflicting Perspectives on the Motivation of the Civil War

    It has come to my attention through many discussions that there remains a deep emotional and intellectual cut between the North and the South, concerning the precipitous debate of the American Civil War. The North upholds the abolition of slavery, the South defends slavery as an economic necessity of the period. Everyone seems to agree that slavery is wrong, southerners feel ostracized. Country folk are stereotyped as racists, illiterate, extremist, and are largely separated from scholarly contributions. As such, the history books are written in a Northern slant. So then, what is the truth behind this bitter divide?

Thought of a new scientific proof for God

One of the major debates between scientists and theologians is whether the incredible statistical improbability of the universal conditions--from the big bang, to the goldilocks zone, to the laws of physics themselves--is a result of a creator, or just chance.

Reactive Lenses

There are glasses which increase their darkness in the presence of greater light. But they take some period of time to darken, and they darken unanimously across their surface. I think it should be possible to make some kind of material which would only blacken out distinct light sources (like the sun), from any angle, and preserve a florescent quality across the rest of the surface, or other angles. This would be invaluable to windshields as cars drive towards a sunrise or sunset.

Ignorance?

What is the source of ignorance? Is it really a smaller part of some other kind of human character? Or are we just ignorant? Should the limitation of knowledge be a justification for crimes of all types? Or should it be a call to a more humble kind of human progress?

Newest Story Idea

A story been brewing around in my head is a classic Hero/Villain dynamic, except I'm finding that I can't really go that basic. It's not in me, though I have an appreciation for the style, because it's so uncomplicated. So I'll try to keep melodramatic elements in it, but it's gonna develop into its own monster.

School Schedule

My school schedule is OK. Kinda busy, but with decent breaks so it's not a big deal. The classes are interesting. I find sociology very intruiging. Mostly because it has a nice correlation to economics, and I loved that class. :) So anyway, I think school will be cool.

Do I believe in Atlantis?

I don't know. The majority of theories are preposterous, and most are built because people are actually searching for it. If Plato is the only source, I find it really unlikely. More plausibly it had different names if it was indeed a real place. In which case we would have more evidence. Every continent has had dozens of scholars claim it as the origin. One of the best theories I think is a specific underwater mountain. However, the facts of Atlantis I'm not entirely sure about.

What is Intelligence?

"To my mind [intelligence] must entail a set of skills enabling the individual to resolve genuine problems or difficulties that he or she encounters and, when appropriate, to create an effective product — and must also entail the potential for finding or creating problems, and thereby laying the groundwork for the acquisition of new knowledge" Howard Gardner

Heroes Bones

Did the Greeks mistake Mammoth skulls as the Cyclops? 

A new leading theory, with hundreds of literary evidence scattered among the lesser known Greco-Roman writers. Fossil beds cross with the sites of heroes tales. Why wasn't this obvious before? Why were so many fossils thrown away by modern archaeologists in the presumption that ancients people's were oblivious to them?

Blog Suggestions???

Now that I've launched this thing I want to know how to make it better. Both in design and in topics. I cant figure out how to post in new pages or how to imbed a video.

Freedom of Individual Rights in Education (FIRE)

I support http://thefire.org/. It's a non profit organization, devoted to enforcing our freedom of speech in the most important place- ACADEMICS! They help students in ridiculous cases of speech codes and power hungry authorities, to help our country become what it was meant to be.

Code Making

The other day I was thinking about a normal circle cipher (WWI), and I thought "What if the actual code rolled as the message was written, so the actual cipher itself is dynamic." That got me thinking about ways to disguise patterns. A key is the most crucial part of a code, and figuring out how to disguise a key is a very big challenge. Ideas ran around, and then I thought "What if only one character was important, the number of useless characters between each was the code." That isn't even taking redundancy into account. Anyways... codes are fun.

Simplification...

Scientifically, life is just a higher form of osmosis. Everything in nature floats around, randomly bumping into things. Until it attains the correct velocity, with the correct object, in the correct conditions in order to cause a reaction. And all laws describe and regulate these factors or their outcomes.

Jackson Pollok

Why isn't 1 prime?

The rule for prime is it must be divisible by one and itself. One has this quality. But people say, no, it can only be divided by one, but one is itself! So I don't understand. >:(

Infinity (><)

Infinity can have a beginning or an end, though it shouldn't have both. Imagine an infinitely long ruler and cut it at some point. It would still expand infinitely in both directions. However, now that each section has a starting point,  a further division would be unequal. One side remains infinite while the other is measured.

Season of the Witch

Looks like a good one! Thriller for sure. http://www.youtube.com/user/SOTWthemovie?v=AbaRKNPZA3M&feature=pyv&ad=9023442589&kw=season%20of%20the%20witch

The Rite

What do you guys think? I'm excited for this one! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_swO_F6Hvm8

Zero Recoil

Is it possible? Is there a system in concept which would neutralize a bullet's recoil without diminishing velocity or performance?

Btw, I abhor hunting. Just a principle I hold dear. Sorry NRA.

Science

Dr. Terell proposed during a class that perhaps there are units of distance (or movement) which cannot be divided any further. This also implies a limit for time as well, because spacetime is connective. The problem came to me in visualizing this concept because of radial geometry. If we consider the atomic level and assume a connection between particles, if one particle moves one unit, this does not necessarily obligate other particle’s movements. The result is a pixelated reality, as it takes measureable steps (a dependable ratio) before its effects are observed on other particles.