Dominic’s Jar of Flies

Chet Raymo’s “A Measure of Restraint” provides multiple compelling arguments for humans to show “a measure of restraint” when it comes to developing new scientific ideas.  Arguably the most important reason humans study history is to learn from the mistakes we made in the past – and be sure not to make them again.  So starting his passage with two historic examples of times scientific discoveries caused harm very effectively uses this fact about history.  It is very essential, now more than ever, that the human race show restraint in science.  It seems like every day there is an article on the front page of Reddit (“the front page of the internet”) informing readers of a new wild discovery or advancement in science.  One of these articles caught my eye specifically, it was one about how scientists have now developed in a lab, meat complete with “fake” blood, which did not involve the death of an animal to create.  While my initial reaction – like many oth...

It is sad but true.  “The most essential skill in political theater and a consumer culture is artifice.”  This quote taken from Chris Hedges’ Empire of Illusion ,  exposes a sad reality of our society and culture today.  Now I do not think that all the people and companies in this field want to have to use artifice.  It is just that they have discovered that in order to stay competitive in the fields - they must. The honest people seem to be no match for the ones who are being deceptive and telling the people what they want to hear.  Politicians say that they will be able to reduce taxes and increase spending on road repairs all at the same time during their campaign. The people, undestantably, are in great support of this, and elect this politician into office.  I mean who does not like lowered taxes and fixed roads - especially in a place like Michigan, with our terrible roads. And the honest politician who said that he or she would improve th...

There should not be a debate about the United States of America having English be its official language.  Most all the people who live in it, speak it. The whole Constitution of the United States of America is written in it.  And most all public schools in the United States are taught in it. Why then is it such a big deal to make it its official language?  It really, should not be. In fact, most other countries have their own official language. Spain, Colombia, and Cuba all have Spanish as their official language.  Portugal and Brazil, both have Portuguese. And finally, both North and South Korea have Korean as their official language. All of this is completely fine and acceptable.  Hell, I even lived in South Korea for five years, and not once did I think it was a problem that their official language was Korean. I was a foreigner living in their country.  It would be unbelievably arrogant of me to think that they should have to cater to my inabili...

This week our class got our practice Advanced Placement multiple choice reading tests back.  We had taken them about a week prior and I was feeling pretty good about my results - even though I didn’t even get a chance to answer all the questions.  I felt good about them for a reason. I have been working on this skill even since I got my eleventh grade PSAT score back, as one place where I was really lacking was the reading section.  I uploaded my scores to Khan Academy and they gave me a useful course and set of practices to work on this skill and improve. Sitting down and doing these questions every once in a while when I had some spare time really seemed to improve my skills.  It is an easy to use system, that in a weird way is kind of fun. I just recently took the real-deal SAT and I was much more confident in my answers in the reading section, and (knock on wood) I think I did pretty well. I think this can also be reflected in my previously mentioned improve...

(listen at your own risk,  may cause existential crisis) I cannot help but draw some similarities from Virginia Woolf’s description of a moth going from corner to corner of a windowpane in “The Death of the Moth,” to a line from the Pink Floyd song “Time.”  The line from the song goes “Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown / waiting for something or someone to show you the way.” To me I interpret this line to mean that the subject is staying in the same place he knows and doing the same things over and over.  This is comfortable and so our subject waits for something to lead him somewhere else as to not to take risks or change. Now I can’t say for certain that the moth is waiting for something to guide him elsewhere, but he does have the option of exploring the house or room he is in - rather than the same windowpane.  Both of our subjects have the option to go elsewhere, but they do not. I urge everyone to not follow their example. Otherwise ...

The healthy state state of mind Lars Eighner mentions in “On Dumpster Diving” is not a healthy state of mind for all.  Lars’ state of mind mentioned was that no ownership or attachment to material items was healthy. While this may have been healthy for him, it may lead others down a fatal path.  Based on a true story, the book “Into the Wild” (later made into a movie with an amazing soundtrack by Eddie Vedder) written by Jon Krakauer, tells the story of the late Christopher McCandless.  After graduating college, Christopher made the decision to donate all of his savings to a charity and then take his Datsun and drive west from Virginia. Ditching most all of his material possessions.  Eventually his Datsun broke down where he then ditched it on the side of the road and burnt all of his remaining cash and driver's license with it. For a long time this lifestyle of wandering was good for him and he thoroughly enjoyed it.  He had met many people and traveled al...