Athena

Wow, I feel like an old time farmer with dirt under my finger nails. What you are doing should be a PBS show, so the rest of the world can know what you are doing, and where our technology. The government may stop funding PBS complete, when what it should be doing is educating the masses who are left far behind. May be in Portland, Oregon people know of such jobs, but not in the rest of Oregon. Nothing could bring us up to speed better than PBS and I sincerely thank you for helping me realize this. Now I must communicate that to my representative. I hope others communicate a need to improve PBS and support it, to bring us all into the future.

Would you mind, explaining what you do with lasers and how this connects with concern for protecting your vision? I never thought much about laser beams doing harm, but in relation to what we are talking about here, I am curious. Can laser beams penetrate and cause heat of explosions like a Hollywood movie? Laser beams can be used to create holograms, right? I put my hand in a hologram picture and there was no heat, so are there different kinds of laser beams?

Amazing! There really is a logical explanation to my questions. About reversing north and south, I am a hard core dyslexic. I once tried to be a bus driver for a company that picked up children and handicapped people, so a person had to know every street. Ah, you do not want a dyslexic person driving a bus. One of my passengers was so kind. When I turned right instead of left, he said, "no, your other left". So the light triggers hormones. I knew that. But again, wasn't really getting the meaning of the fact. And the moon absorbs light better than snow, and absorbed light is not reflected. The faster moving light is better at penetrating and of course, heat is produced as it moves through! Do I have that right? Slow moving light, the light on the north side, does not penetrate and is reflected, and therefore, does not cause heat. What is happening is the UV is sucked up, on the south side, and doesn't get to the north side, so the heat doesn't get there. Right? Okay, now what makes one proton fast and another slow? I am thinking of "The Elegant Universe" again, and string theory. Light is like string theory isn't it? Some protons moving fast and some moving slow, some penetrating and some being absorb, depending on the speed. Why? what are some fast and some slow?

Geeze, how do you guys know all this stuff? I love you all because you do know so much, but each answer pushes my curiosity even further. What is really happening, when the UV sneaks past our defense system? And by the way, thanks for the explanation. I was wondering if it is really important to buy the more expensive sun glass and obviously the answer is yes! Hey, another eye defense, is growing catracs that eventually block out all light, so we really should buy the more expensive glasses. But the pushes the question of why? Why does ultra violet light trigger catracs that eventually blind us? Also, I am thinking of the movie "The Elegant Universe". It has this guy appear to jump off a building to make a point about the strong force being stronger than gravity, because the molecules of the ground hold together and do not let the falling body pass through. It also questions the possibility of passing through walls. Neutrino can pass through anything, right? UV can pass through our defenses and damage our eyes. May be there is no connection, but I want to know why can UV get through undetected, but not the other parts of the light spectrum? But it is not totally undetected, because it will trigger the growth of catracs.

Yipes you replied before I replied to your answer. So now it is the ultra violet light that causes the problem. Okay, I know light is a spectrum but I sure don't know the meaning of that. I know if you grow plants under different colored lenses, each plant will be deformed in a different way, depending on the color of light that can't get through to the plant. Oh, G- I am burning with curiosity! Why all the different vibrations? How can this be? What in blazes is vibrating and why all the different speeds? Why must a plant have all the colors to be healthy? And still what is it that causes heat, and why does the angle of the light seem to make a difference, you know coming through the north window, but not the south? The light is there but not the heat. What causes the heat? The ultra violet light doesn't get to the south window? (this really isn't an idol question. I have an apartment on the north side and get a lot of heat. I am moving to an apartment on the south side and I am really worried about the increased heat bill. I am trying to figure out if there is any possible way to compensate for this, besides paying more of electricity.) Can we excite the light in some way to create heat? My neighbors will really love me, if I experiment in my apartment and burn the whole building down.

Wow Moontanman, what an interesting addition to the answer. Oh geeze, now I have to know, how does the eye do that? If we are in the snow, the reflection can be so bright, we have to squint. This too can hurt the eyes can't it? I have heard of snow blindness, and don't know for sure what that means. I just now we squint when a light is too bright. The original question is more interesting than I realized. Not only does some light have heat, but it can damage our eyes. I am still curious. Why is not all light the same? Why would reflected light from the snow hurt our eyes, but not the reflected light from the moon which can safely look at? But we shouldn't stare at the sun like we stare at the moon.

I knew that. I love coming here with my questions, because I forget what I know. Maybe you have to be over 60 to understand that? But it is kind of like being a kid all over again, discovering things for the first time. In fact I'd like to change name here to "annoying kid". You know how the kid always asks why? Your answer makes me even more curious! Why can our eyes be damaged if we stare directly at the eclipse? Oh, oh, also you must not look at the sparks when someone is welding, because that can burn the eye too. I remember that because I did look, when I was told not too and hurt my eye. I am guessing the energy that burns the eye is the same coming from the sun or the sparks of welding. But why? All light is not the same, but why? What is happening?

I hope I am posting in the right place. I want to know, why do I feel the warmth of the sun's rays when the sun is visible from my window, but not when the sun is the other side of the building? Like on the south side of the building, there is light, but not heat. On the north side, there is a lot of heat with the sun shine coming in. Like even if there is no heat with reflect sun light, why not? What happens to the heat?

Wonderful, an excellent disagreement for making a point. I interpret timestamp's statement to mean, unless you are sincere and respectful, go somewhere else, and I am fully in agreement with that. Those who want to do nothing but attack others, and are not sincere and respectful would only hurt the discussion. I like this definition of moral - to know the law and good manners. This knowledge is what meant by the pursuit of happiness, and it involves the happiness of everyone. It has everything to do with raising the human potential for good to its highest level. Some people seem intent on reducing us to our lowest level, and that is why forums have rules. Timestamp is being assertive and making it clear what is desired here. I am perfectly okay with that. I believe we should have standards, and those who don't, should not be able to disrupt the activity of those who do. Islam has made our understanding of morals vitally important on an international level, so I welcome discussions like this, and don't want them ruined by someone who just likes to make trouble. Freedom of speech must be considered a human right, but that right does not mean the right to step on others. It does not mean it is necessary to have children and disruptive people in the boardroom. This can be a hard judgment to make; between only the disruptive person and the opposing voice that should be heard, but I think we can make this distinction. Freedom of speech, must be understood as the freedom to reason. It is not the freedom to say and do anything, such as cover the statue of Mother Mary with cow dung, because that would mean having no moral standards. It would mean sanctioning immorality and ignorance, and that is not okay! Not only should we resist this in our personal lives, but as said, it matters on an International level as well. Freedom of speech goes with a search of truth and rule by reason. Being disrespectful does not. By the good way, good manners are even more important than good laws. With good manners there is little need for laws. So we need to begin with an understanding of good manners.

I think people have responded to the principle of freedom of speech? I believe democracy holds freedom of speech to be a human right. That makes what others are saying confusing to me. There seems to be some question of if freedom of speech is a human right? When is a person not free to say what s/he thinks? Is lying considered acceptable freedom of speech? Is it okay to tell someone you are renting a two bedroom home for $500, and for one months rent and a $500 they can move in; when in truth there is no such rental? How about yelling fire in a crowded theater? How about slandering someone? I think for moral reasons we do put limits on freedom of speech. We can hold people legally responsible if their words and acts harm another. But how does this get tangled into cultural and language differences? What are the morals involved in the limits of such freedom of speech? A moral being a matter of cause of effect, and principle being a law. In the case of freedom of speech, it supports the principle of seeking truth, and the principle of respecting the individual. The German philosopher Hegel promoted the idea that everyone should conform to the state, and the state may use any means necessary to get this conformity. He was paid well by Germany to lecture at colleges and convince the youth of the value of this conformity. Obviously this threatens liberty and justice, and should never be adopted by a democracy, but it has been. Only when democracy is defended in the classroom is it defended, and it can also be destroyed in the classroom. Democracy is an ideology of relationships. Government is only one aspect of democracy. More importantly democracy is manifest through culture, the culture must be learned before it can manifest. Does this threaten the culture of another?

I do not understand your argument, because it so completely violates the principle of freedom of speech, and is a very good example of why that freedom is so important. Who in bloody 'ell has the authority to sensor speech as you describe? Such authority over the people is completely intolerable. You get big points for knowing that list is liberal. It came out of a text book with some slight modifications. We had liberal education until 1958, when we replaced it with Germany's model of education for technology, and began producing products for industry. That means we stopped transmitting the culture essential to our liberty and justice, and look more like Hitler's Germany every day. So the problem you stated is very real. The underlying problem is we stopped transmitting the essential culture. We replaced training for independent thinking with "group think". At this point, we might as well have surrendered Germany before so many were killed because we are what we fought against, and this change came through public education. Lemur, you speak to the question of authority. The Greeks asked, how do the gods resolve their differences, and concluded, reason, is the controlling force of the universe, and even the gods are subject to reason. That is, reason is separate from the gods. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, not because a god makes it so, but because the earth revolves as it circles the sun. Whatever, the gods do must comply with the reason of all things. So democracy is about finding the truth, the reason of all things, and we all have a part in this. That is it is up to each one of us to question truth (science) and authority, as you said. In the beginning of the US democracy, the question was, to whom does God give His authority, and the answer is, everyone. With our rights, come responsibility. Our Declaration of Independence could also be called a Declaration of Responsibility. The citizens of Egypt behaved very responsibly when they united in demonstration against the existing authority, and did so in a peaceful and orderly way. This should give us great hope they will succeed in their transition. Unlike the violence of the French revolution and failure of their first attempt to have democracy. When the people can unite and behave in a responsible way, it is awesome is it not? That is rule by reason, and what democracy is about. Come to think of it, instead of copying the principles of democracy, I should have made the effort to articulate them myself. 1 Rule by reason. 2 Search for truth. 3 Individual responsibility. 4 Check and balance of united effort. Help me with this. Is that an improvement. What should be added?

Hum, those were some interesting statements, but although some principles were mentioned I am having a problem picking out, and developing a comprehensive reply. If we wrote of the laws of physics as we have written of the principles of democracy, it would be difficult to advance science. One of way of defining a principle is scientific law explaining a natural action. This definition fits into the understanding that democracy is away of manifesting the highest morality. This train of thinking is based on the notion that we are reasoning creatures, and therefore, can govern ourselves with reason. The concept of moral, Moontanman, originates with the ancient Greeks. To be moral, is to know the law and good manners. To know the law is to know how the universe works. We achieve this scientifically, through observation, and then reasoning with each other until there is a consensus on the best reasoning. You know, how scientist work with each other to come as close to truth as we can get. At no point is it assumed we know absolute truth, because tomorrow we may learn something that radically changes our notions of what we hold true today. Please note the root of the word "science" is knowledge and conscience is coming out of knowledge. Your attack on the gods is not appropriate to this discussion, okay? A list or principles might look something like this 1. Respect for the dignity and worth of the individual. 2. Open opportunity for the individual. 3. Economic and social justice. 4. The search for truth. 5. Free discussion; freedom of speech; freedom of the press. 6. Universal education. 7. The rule of the majority; the rights of the minority; honest ballot. 8. Justice for the common man; trail by jury; arbitration of disputes; orderly legal process, freedom from search and seizure; right to petition. 9. Freedom of religion. 10. Respect for the rights of property. 11. The practice of fundamental social virtues. 12. The responsibility of the individual to participate in the duties of democracy. Like an understanding of these principles, would be helpful to Egypt's efforts to develop democracy, and avoid the disruption of economic and political institutions that it is dealing with today. More than this, an understanding of these principles is essential to defending our liberty and justice. When human beings do not know these principles, and do not agree to live by them, they get into power struggles, such as Egypt and other countries are struggling with. Defending our liberty and justice is a matter of culture, but I am afraid we are loosing the culture essential to our liberty and justice. Without this culture, that leaves only authority over the people to maintain, social order. That is the police state, or tyranny, we want to avoid, and our military can not defend us from a police state or tyranny. Only education can. We need to understand the principles of democracy, to protect our liberty and justice.

I don't know if the phenomena of more boys being born when people go to war, could be considered evidence of a conscious universe, I just know this phenomena is widely recognized and the attempts to explain why this happens are not satisfying.

If has occurred to me that discussions of morality are lacking when there is not also a shared concept of democratic principles. This is also a problem in political discussions or when discussing the limits of power. We have entered wars saying we are defending democracy and in the past when we did this, books were written about the principles of democracy and what separates us from the enemy. Lately, it seems like few people have an understanding of democratic principles, and I would like to what you think they are.

Thank you for your sensitivity of the person being watched. I stopped enjoy life so much when the hormones divided the girls from the boys. I really enjoyed life much more when we were all kids playing the field, building forts, playing games, when it didn't matter if one was a girl or boy. I really enjoy being older and able to join the guys again without sex being an issue. It is disappointing to me when I am enjoying a discussion with a man, and sex does become an issue. Yeah, it would be nice to enjoy those "higher" matters, without wondering if I should leave the room before there is a problem. My grandmother would say, beauty is as beauty does. I heard especially males are prone to having a sexual response when visually stimulated. This is so superfacial, and has nothing to do with inner beauty. Females also have a reaction to what they see, and many men would never have mates, if other factors weren't also important to the human female's choice in a sexual partner. The Greeks became very concerned about beauty, and I appreciate this. This is not purely materialistic but has a spiritual quality as well, akin to beauty comes from the inside, and is in harmony with God. for Pythagoras there were beautiful and ugly numbers, and harmony relates to music with beautiful or terrible sounds.

This discussion of slavery is assuming to me. When I came of age women were still barred from some colleges and some careers. One of my professors announced to the class that any female who got married would receive a C. Of course I got married, because my father insisted the only thing I should study was home economic, because men earn more, and women therefore, should stay home and be full time homemakers. I was raised to accept this, but felt angry about it, and never returned to the class where the professor said a married female would a C, and sure enough, he gave me a C even thought I had not earned it. Even if a woman was doing the same job as a man, she was paid less. There was a lot of work women were not allowed to do, even into the 1970 recession. I leaved in an area where most jobs were male jobs, and remember economic struggle well. This have changed a lot since then. A journalist interviewed pioneer women a good hundred years ago, and some were outraged about the big stink made about slavery, while their own slavery was ignored. When they came of age is common for a poor family to marry off 14 year old daughters to older men who wanted a wife to cook and clean for them. It was made law that these men could hit their wives to make they behave. There was no economic opportunity for these women, and their slavery was very real. To rub burn salt into the wound, this had the church's blessing as God's will and holy marriage. I remember the first women's liberation magazine, New Women, and this strange feeling that flooded through me when I the word "she" where we had always used the word "he". If we are going to speak of slavery, can include the female history of economically, politically and socially enforced slavery? Then the cost of our liberation and need to continue improving our social organization.

Perhaps nothing is more important to the judgement of this question than science. Here is a google sample of that science. Since ancient Greeks the teen years were known as high risk years and a period of poor judgement. Now we have the science to understand this. BRAIN NOT FULLY DEVELOPED UNTIL AGE 25 - Marist Country BRAIN NOT FULLY DEVELOPED UNTIL AGE 25. By Kristen Rollins. Teenagers are four times as likely to be involved in a car crash and three times more likely to ... www.academic.marist.edu/mwwatch/fall05/science1.htm - Cached - Similar At What Age Is the Human Brain Fully Developed? | eHow.com Apr 22, 2010 ... At What Age Is the Human Brain Fully Developed?. As with nearly every other body part and system, the brain continues to grow for several ... www.ehow.com › Health › Family Health › General Family Health - Cached A child's brain fully develops by age 25 - Newark Parenting ... Sep 21, 2009 ... The human brain reportedly becomes fully developed at age 25. Prior to full brain development children exhibit the following behaviors more ... www.examiner.com/...in.../a-child-s-brain-fully-develops-by-age-25 - Cached Brain Immaturity Could Explain Teen Crash Rate (washingtonpost.com) Feb 1, 2005 ... A National Institutes of Health study suggests that the region of the brain that inhibits risky behavior is not fully formed until age 25, ... www.washingtonpost.com › Metro › Maryland › Government - Similar NIMH · Teenage Brain: A work in progress (Fact Sheet) This growth drops off sharply after age 12, coinciding with the end of a critical period for learning languages. While this work suggests a wave of brain ... www.nimh.nih.gov › Health Topics › Publications - Cached - Similar Expert: Risky teen behavior is all in the brain - USATODAY.com Apr 4, 2007 ... "Adolescents are at an age where they do not have full capacity to ... have in recent years found that the brain is not fully developed ... www.usatoday.com/news/.../2007-04-04-teen-brain_N.htm - Cached - Similar

We might ask, what is science? My dictionary says science is systematized knowledge derived from observation. In the beginning science was not broken into several different fields of study. Democracy is the result of using science to determine morality.

We need to turn to science for the answer of this question. The human brain develops slowly and does not reach its full growth until around age 25. For this reason, the status of adulthood should not apply to anyone under 25. Also for this reason, age restrictions were put on running for congress (25) and the president has to be at least age 35. When it comes to equality, you would not want a 15 year old with no medical education performing an operation on you, would you? We have many restrictions on what a person can do, depending the person's proven ability. The reason for increasing the age of getting driver's license, is the high number of young drivers who drink and have accidents. Car insurance rates decrease when a person gets older, because to statistics showing our driving improves as we age, up to a point. After age 80, we are more prone to get in accidents and should consider alternative transportation. It seems almost impossible to get a teenager to understand the rules are for his/her own protection, not because someone likes the power of making and enforcing rules. The unfortunate result is they break they rules and get hurt or hurt others. This is one of the favorite themes of Greek mythology and I wish such were still apart of public education. Young people are prone to bad judgement, and should not be treated as adults. This includes, regardless of the crime a young person commits, the law should respect the fact that the thinking of those under 25 is not equal to the thinking of those over 25.

Those were some very thoughtful answers. Where I live we consider it inhumane to keep someone tied to wall, and if parents did that here, they would face criminal charges. Parents were charged for putting a child in a cage temporarily, as a form of discipline. In the far past, such a person would be driven away from the tribe or killed. In fact, this child may have been killed soon after birth if the problem was notice, and I am not totally opposed to this. It is a luxury to keep non productive members of a society alive and care for their needs. Can we afford to do this? I think we can. I remember when we institutionalized such people, and think we were wrong to close those institutions. Anyone opposed to how people were treated in these institutions should work in one, and then recommend what should be done. Turning everyone loose on the streets is not a good idea. Treating a mentally deficient person like a criminal, as we presently do, is not okay in my book. Leaving people who can not care for themselves on the streets and then making it criminal to sleep on the streets, is not rational. We are avoiding the reality of mental deficiency and disorders, and I think this is wrong. Our prisons are an unethical way to dealing with people who have mental disorders. I am in favor of using drugs when possible, and will add to this, those who are a threat to others, unless medicated, should be in a monitored living situation, unless they prove themselves capable and willing to use their medication correctly.

We know what the bible says is fact, the same way we know Troy existed. Archeology, geology and related sciences are uncovering the past all the time. However just because Troy did exist and the battle actually did happen, that does not make the stories of the Greek gods fact. We knew of Troy because of Homer and what we call Greek mythology. In ancient times mythology and history fact are all mixed up. The Torah, and therefore, the Christian bible and Koran are like Homer's stories, a mix of fact and fiction. I love when science proves a biblical story true, but many Christians resent this science. You know the plagues that hit Egypt. They started with a volcano and huge ash cloud that changed the weather, causing a problem with the river, causing the frogs to die , causing uncontrolled insect population growth and disease. Religious people resent this interference of science, for the same reason Athens ordered Socrates to drink the Hemlock, because he encourage youth to question the truth of the gods. You see, religion as Greek mythology, requires a God who can cause things to happen in response to human activity. That the events happening for scientific reasons, rather than because a God made them happen, is an attack on religion. Get it? The events did happen and research proves this out. The problem is with the explanation of what caused things to happened. An interfering God or a volcano? :lol::lol: "since random lying really isn't very beneficial" Mr. Skeptic that was beautiful! I love it.

Can we explore that possible memory? I read a lot of information can be stored on a neutrino. If I remember correctly, light waves carry an image of what exist, and continue to carry that image even if what existed no longer exist. We understand how to electronically record information. How might the universe record a memory and maintain it? Would the memory manifest three dimensional material reality? Would there be any difference between the memory and the present manifest reality? Is all this not also a question of it ghost exist, and if we are eternal with our memories being as much a reality as our present? Is there a God who knows all and never forgets? Our own memories can be changed, but can the memory of the universe be changed? As you argued Steevey that would mean rearranging every atom. Or would it? I can rewrite my memory, but that doesn't change my body in away I can perceive the change. Is changing memory equal to changing matter?

If you are going to do public speaking, you might join a Toastmasters Club. Toastmasters Clubs make people experts in public speaking by having them speak and giving the feed back. The professors chosen by The Learning Company, for their DVD's and audio tapes, are the professors who love their subject so much, their enthusiasm for the subject attracts the listener. Seriously a person who knows everything about his subject, can be so boring everyone can't wait to get out of the room. But when the speaker loves the subject and loves telling about it, the listener associates the subject with pleasure and takes a greater responsibility in the getting value out of what is being said. Do you love your subject? What motivated you to do the research? What is it about the subject that excites you? If you find what turns you on about this subject, and tune in to your own sense of pleasure, you will have the audiences attention. They will want the sensation pleasure you have. Kind of like putting sugar in the medicine. Medicines are usually bitter and children refuse to take them, but put in some sugar and they will drink the whole bottle. Enjoy yourself and everyone will enjoy you.

I hoping to find an argument proving me wrong, because I love the idea of time travel. I just find it hard to believe there is any reality besides the present. I know if people are traveling between distant planets they are kind of going back in time. But each planet has its place in space time. It many appear to exist in light rays, when in fact it no longer exist. Wow, wouldn't that be a trip to be traveling to a planet that no longer exist. At what point in the trip would it become obvious the planet no longer exist? Your question about gravity is one that I have struggled with for years. If the only force is gravity, everything would collide together. Something is holding everything apart and I don't know what that is.

Where do mental habits fall into this explanation of brain function? For example, I knew a woman with Alzheimer's disease, and wherever she was upset she would say a bible verse and immediately feel comforted. She obviously did this so many times in her younger years, that it would happen automatically. Less fortunate is the person with post trauma syndrome who replays a terrible event. Anything associated with the terrible traumatic event causes this movie to slip from the history library into present consciousness. Because I have PTS from an experience that happened before I was verbal, I know it was recorded in emotions, not words, and that this resulted in emotional chaos when I was a young adult and under stress. It took many years to figure out what was happening. Only knowledge of PST and therapy, resolved this problem. With a therapist I was able to successfully reprogram the memory. I call this reprogramming, mind magic, but it is also called linguistics and is a matter of changing our self talk. It doesn't seem we can do this on our own, but it can be achieved with hypnosis. PST is kind of like a being a ghost stuck in time. Our lives may go on, but we get called back to that trauma until we figure out how to get past it. Kind of like the person in a coma needing to figure out how to reconnect the brain and move on, except a live is built around the trauma, and may be normal until the PTS is triggered. Either way for the good or bad, mental habits effect our lives.