Charles Dickens, "Great Expectations" (Excerpt)

That was a memorable day for me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it and think how different its course would have been. Pause, you who read this, and think for a long moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on that memorable day.

Philip Larkin, "Days"

What are days for?

Days are where we live.

They come, they wake us

Time and time over.

They are to be happy in:

Where can we live but days?

Ah, solving that question

Brings the priest and the doctor

In their long coats

Running over the fields.

US Space Program

President Obama in today's Twitter Town Hall responded to a comment about the United States' space program. The question obviously encompasses the end of the space shuttle program. I strongly agree with President Obama's response saying that the space shuttle program has become the status quo and that we need to discover a new frontier in space. He goes on to say that he would like to see breakthrough technologies that would give us the ability to go to places faster and also to reach Mars.

I agree. It is time to discover and expand new technologies and get out of the narrow space shuttle idea box that the United States is in.

All of the Above

Vindictive, bullying or just plain annoying? Probably all of the above. Today, President Obama will be holding an unprecedented Twitter Town Hall where "tweeps" can ask questions to the President about jobs and the economy, but the Republicans are out to ambush the online event.

The purpose of political Town Halls is to hear from the constituents - the common citizen - about a certain topic affecting them and in turn the representative answers the question. These types of meetings (in this specific case an online meeting) gives the sense of a personal touch, a one-on-one, and humanizes the relationship between constituent and government official. The President cares about the common man and wants to hear from them their genuine questions about jobs and the economy. However, the purpose of Town Halls will be diminished with the Republican ambush.

Why ambush the President's Town Hall and prevent him from answering questions from everyday Americans? Maybe the Republicans want to make him look bad? Or catch him in a gaffe with their loaded questions? Or viscerally they want the event to fail. Nevertheless, the purpose of the Republican ambush is negative. Oh, and they aren't trying to hide it, all throughout the social media sphere, Republicans and Republican politicians are asking their constituents to join up in arms and giving them loaded talking points to ask the President.

The Republicans can't be stopped with their ambush. It is their right. They have the right to participate in this Twitter Town Hall - everyone is invited. However, I do have an issue with their purpose. Town Halls are meant to enlighten and educate. The Republicans mean to sabotage and hinder. It's OK though, I am content inside. All this energy put into flooding the Twitter Town Hall, I wonder if the Republicans know that the questions are being moderated.

Radiolab Presents Symmetry

It's been a while

Well, here I am sitting in my room surrounded by a pile of clothes on my right and a pile of miscellaneous desk items to my left. I am packing to move to my new apartment in downtown Raleigh, and well, the process is going slow. I have too much "stuff".

With this move, I hope to transition to a 'minimalist' lifestyle.

I packed the easiest things first: my books. And I have A LOT. It has always been a dream of mine that in the future, when I get a house, that it contain a room reserved as a library. Now, my books are mostly non-fiction, seeing that I am a History and Political Science major (nerd). To name a few, I have 90% of David McCullough's books, a thick book about the history of New York City called "Gotham," and a few books about the history of war. In the fiction section, I have some works by Bill Bryson and school classics that I fell in love with authored by Bronte and others. Now, the third category would be poetry and philosophy. I have ALL the works by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Also in my collection are Robert Frost Poems and Early American works from Jefferson, Adams, and Jackson.

Oh wait, can't forget my Calvin and Hobbes collection :-).

One thing I won't be packing are my turtles. The only reason I am not taking them with me is that the tank cleaning process is so cumbersome! I wouldn't be able to do it in a 2nd floord downtown apartment setting. They will still get visits from me often. My sisters are ecstatic to take care of them, so they are in good hands.

That's it for now, maybe I'll go back to packing a little bit more then it's time to hit the sack (It's 10:30pm).

Why Facebook is Necessary (Thanks Laura)

CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO MAKE IT LARGER

National Geographic Pictures

Quotations Needed

"Any given culture is a reflection of the politics and economics of a given society, and the former in turn has a tremendous influence upon the latter; politics is the concentrated expression of economics." - Mao Zedong

Evolution, Security and Progress of Civilizations

In the past, civilizations were compelled by natural disasters to advance their technology or perish. For example, the Indus River valley civilization had to create an irrigation and dam system to control the seasonal overflow of the river. This same scenario applied to the BCE civilizations in China and India. Moreover, the hybridization of plants (like rice and wheat) had to occur in colonies where the climate and soil were much different from that of the motherland.

In the present time, the country of the Philippines is not following this technological response to natural disaster pattern. Recently, in the news, we see the capital city of Manila underwater and the surrounding towns experiencing mudslides from the attack of two typhoons. Each year, the Philippines gets pummeled by typhoons - people die and the streets flood - yet there has been no infrastructure improvement to prevent the same incident from happening the next year.

First, there is government corruption. The government does not have its priorities straight. Money is being siphoned off by greedy and corrupt government officials. Just as long as the officials are doing well then they don't care about anyone else. There is such a great divide between the poor and the rich. So, there is no money for infrastructure improvement. Next, the Philippines has a tradition of exporting its college educated to developed countries to work. A good percentage of the country's financial imports come from overseas worker remittances. Hence, civil engineers are not staying in the country to address the problem. I can go on and on.

If the Philippines does not address its fundamental problems of dealing with natural disasters then it is handicapped in the world stage. Yearly typhoon attacks are hindering economic growth and the general progress of the country. The bottom line is - the country must deal with its fundamental problems or perish.