Fear of Questions- BEDA- Day 10

Me sitting here today, as a scientifically literate person, (One day, an astrophysist. I hope) has more knowledge of science than Issac Newton did at any point in his life.

Any kid with at least an eighth grade education has more scientific knowledge than Issac Newton. 

Sir Issac Newton likely knew everything there was to know about science in his day.

And most know more.

But these days, that doesn't mean a whole lot.

We've grown into not caring, or even noticing science in our world.

E= mc squared is the most basic science equation for most. Almost everyone knows it. But we, as people, never see it in play. 

And that doesn't matter to the average person.
We can say that science and exploration are our natural instincts, but we don't seem to feel the need to follow them.

Even JFK admitted he didn't care about science. He cared about beating Russia.

When we put a man on the moon, we did it out of fear.

And now we are without a space race, and therefore have thrown ourselves out of the league.

The government makes the decisions of our scientific research as a country, and they clearly  don't put a whole lot of precedence on it.

Sixth-tenths of your American tax dollar funds NASA.

Six-tenths.

We are afraid of questions. We are happy with lingering on the answers because now, we need instant gratification, which the universe can't always grant.

We've stopped asking or wondering.

And now, America has lost it's place as head of science. And I don't think it will ever get that place back.

We have stopped maned space exploration, and it is our first hop back.
And I'm only expecting more from here.

Yeah, Me Too- BEDA- Day 9

Do you ever not understand that world around you?
Yeah, me too.

Teamwork Can Protect You From Invisible Microwaves- BEDA- Day 8

If you want to know what kind of person I am, take that idea from the fact that I was unaware it was Easter until about four in the afternoon.

And then I proceeded to microwave peeps.

Easter's always been a weird holiday for me, because when I was a kid I was so caught between accepting my atheism and acting Catholic like the rest of my family that religion made me very uncomfortable. 

We all used to go to my Grandparents GIGANTIC house and have a huge Easter egg hunt, and I tended to do very well, because at that point in time, I was the youngest. I was little and agile, and my siblings were teenaged and lazy.

I'm also pretty sure they let me take a lot of the eggs.

Anyway, I would eat candy and like my Easter basket, but it always felt empty.

Now, I don't care about Easter.

I microwave Peeps. 

Reasons I Should Be Asleep- BEDA- Day 7

I'm tired

It's late

I never sleep enough

I'm stressed

Reasons I'm not asleep

FREAKING BEDA

Music You Should Be Hearing- BEDA- Day 6

The Most Played Songs on my iTunes:

Little Talks- Of Monsters and Men

When I Decide- My Terrible Friend

We Didn't Start The Fire- Billy Joel

Stay Awake- Julia Nunes

White Blank Page- Mumford and Songs

The Fiction We Present Ourselves With- BEDA- Day 5

Okay, guys. I've had a VERY stressful week, and I really haven't been able to blog.
Sorry!

But, you'll be getting a little more out of me today as I make up for the lack of posts.

Here we go!

Lately I've heard a lot of discussion over books, and media and ideas.

"I read it like it's a book, and so should everyone. If it's just a book than how much affect does it actually have?"
And, at face value, that's true. 

But I think not taking stories to heart is a little more complicated than we realize. 

Humans have evolved into forming 'mental models'. They detail what we see as the normalcy. It give us a structure as to how the world works, and lets us predict what will happen in given situations. It's how we predict the endings of books, and decide if we should tell her that it makes her butt look big, because it'll make her angry.

These models are based on our surroundings, and the things that happen to us, and around us. We take those influences and our minds paint pictures of the order of life and people. 

(Flawed paintings, I might add)

And, naturally, some experiences carry more weight than others. Things that are really unique or unusual, or that have happened more recently, for example.

And we're not so great at distinguishing the differences between what's really happened to us, and the things we've heard stories about. 

And we can account that fact that, more likely than not, most early stories told by humans were about real life.

People told stories about that one time they were picking berries, and their buddy got super sick because he ate one.
Stories, wither or not they actually happen to us, help us understand the world outside of ourselves. 

We can hear a story and incorporate it into our working model of the world.

Now, staying alive isn't our main concern, and is therefore no longer the main point of stories. 

So we started telling fiction stories, but by then the story telling part of our brain was hard-wired.

So now we're stuck with this mental mechanism whereby we can treat fiction with the same weight as non-fiction, and use that to shape our idea of the world.

And this isn't a conscious decision, you can always step away from a story and say it it isn't real, but your self-conscious brain is already there.

You can even look at things and say, "Well, I know that despite this story, girls don't need romantic relationships", but that doesn't stop the part of your brain that forms that expectation. 

And because that's not a part of our minds we always control, we should think more carefully about the media we present ourselves with.

Books I've Read in 2012- BEDA- Day 4

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes- Arthur Conan Doyle

Clean- Amy Reed

Batman: The Killing Joke- Written by Alan Moore, Art by Brian Bolland

It's Kind of a Funny Story- Ned Vizzini 

Superman: Red Son- Written by Mark Miller, Art by Dave Johnson

Psychiatric Tales-  Darryl Cunningham

The Road to Equality- William H. Chafe

Batman: Bruce Wayne: Fugitive Volumes 1-3- Written by Ed Brubaker, Art by Dave Ross

Runaways Volumes 1-3- Written by Brian K. Vaughn, Art by Adrian Alphona

Civil War: Young Avengers and Runaways- Written by Jeb Wells, Art by Stefano Casseli