Bits (and bytes) of information

I've finished most of my Calculus homework that is due next Wednesday so I'm happy with that. I took about 10 minutes to run through my Java program and polished up a few things so I'm prepared for that to be evaluated next Tuesday, all that remains is figuring out a design for a projectile to show on Monday in Engineering class. I've got some ideas and Mr. Van offered one very good one so I'll try to work on that tonight or tomorrow afternoon. It really won't take long once I make up my mind.

Anyways.... I feel it is my duty to share bits of information with others so that is what this post is all about: random thoughts. Isn't that great?! We'll start with a quote.

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." - Ronald Regan

I like that one, it does indeed fit. If an industry is healthy the government thinks that they are a monopoly (which isn't necessarily bad by the way) and they tax it to death. Whereas when something like oh... social security is bloated and extremely wasteful and really needs to be replaced by something better, they help it limp along.

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/0a03b5108e097010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html
Here is an EXTREMELY interesting article on coloured bubbles! It's amazing especially when you understand the chemistry of such an achievement. To get color molecules to bond to the tiny film of soap without weighing it down just amazes me. I can't wait to give them a blow!

Here's something interesting for all of you AIM or MSN Messenger lovers. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. In emoticons! It's quite entertaining.
http://www.yankeepotroast.org/archives/2005/11/the_most_excell.html

And some other random thoughts to follow up on that I jotted down for further exposition:
The other night while driving to Bible Study I spotted one of those billboards outside the Hosanna Praise Tabernacle, at least it's called something like that. The sign said "Blame Softly, Praise Loudly."
After pondering that for about 0.2386 seconds I thought to myself "If both actions (blame and praise) are directed toward the same One, as I think it is, then that is quite a horrible thing to say! Never mind the fact that you're blaming "softly," you shouldn't be blaming God for anything! "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. " James 1:17
God is not to blame for anything you endure or think you endure oh man! Instead we ought to rejoice when afflicted by trials knowing that the testing of our faith develops perseverance (James 1:2,3). I can't think of anything that I would "blame" God for? As though shaking my fist at God would be worthwhile. Who am I to say what is good for me and what is not? I am so short-sighted I cannot even see what will happen tomorrow let alone what long-term benefit might come about! To "blame softly" is still to blame and that is sinful. Here is a definition I found:
Blame
1. "An accusation that you are responsible for some lapse or misdeed"

Indeed man!
If they were referring to praising loudly a person you know and blaming him softly (which doesn't make much sense) then it still seems to be in error to me. Anyway, that rather shocked me.

And on a lighter note, the assignment given in Economics class on Wednesday and due today was rather difficult. Inspiration finally brightened my intellect and I figured out how to solve it. So I came to class prepared to turn it in and the guy a few seats over (I was 15 minutes early) asked me if I had completed the assignment. I said yes and he queried
"Can I take a look at it"
as he leaned closer in greedy anticipation. I politely said that I didn't know if I was supposed to. And he backed away a little surprised.
"Oh! Well, I suppose we could do a group thing."
I looked through my papers (and was worried for a moment because I couldn't find it) and taking a quick glance at it I said
"Well, I put together a separate column with Total Cost and Marginal Cost and found where MR was equal to MC like the example she has shown us."
He looked slightly disappointed but there was no way I was just going to let him copy down my answers. The funny thing is, this guy who was asking for help usually tries to ignore me if I strike up a conversation, at least it has felt that way. All of a sudden he was all smiles and "hey! So, you got some answers I can copy?"
The girls behind me were muttering about how they couldn't figure it out (if you wait until the last 10 minutes to do it that occasionally happens) and then another young man came in who everybody thinks is a genius at Economics, one of the girls said they saw him in the cafe yesterday and he said he was having trouble and she was "like, then I'm sunk!" He is a nice young man and I think he's doing fairly well, I believe I scored a bit higher on both exams though, 10 points higher on the last one.

They immediately asked him for solutions and it turned into a big group thing. I know it's nice to help but sometimes when people just want to copy answers instead of learn the material, it really gets my gander up. He and I had done the exact same thing (added the extra columns) so we had the same answers. The first guy who had asked me was copying down some things and one of the girls asked him
"so, did you get an equilibrium price of $26?"
And he said "Well, I uh... I had the incorrect numbers the first time but yes, that's what I got."
Liar. He didn't even have the correct METHOD and definitely not the correct numbers except the ones he had JUST copied down. I turned around and slumped in my seat huffily. I'm sure that whole front right section of the class got the correct answers because of the overly-genial young man behind me. He was trying to explain how it worked but most didn't care, they just wanted the answers and the five points for turning it in. These are the same people that complain that they score poorly on the exams, I guess that is the time for their payback.

Okay, so maybe that wasn't on a lighter note, I'm getting rather frustrated as I think about it. If they had really had difficulties then they could have send an e-mail to the teacher asking for help like I almost did (but I figured it out on my own). Instead they must figure
"bah, this is too difficult, I'll just ask someone tomorrow for the answers."
I'm perfectly willing to explain something to someone and I did give that guy a hint on how to get started, he would have just had to do the calculations himself, which apparently was not what he wanted! So he waits for the next guy to ask for answers. *bangs head on keyboard*
Okay, I feel better, I got that out o' my system.

Let's end on a good note:
Mr. Y sent a helpful e-mail about Customer Service today and I copied a section out of it I thought was extremely funny. It reminded me of Groucho Marx in Duck Soup.

"The author of the book, ‘Life Is Tremendous,’ a motivational and humorous speaker Charles Tremendous Jones talks about the airlines losing his luggage so often that
he expects it. As the plane is landing he starts thinking about the lost luggage and starts getting irritated. As he walks toward baggage claim he thinks about the idiots doing this to him again and he gets really steamed up. By the time he gets to baggage claim he’s hurrying to see that his suitcase isn’t there so he can go give the airline people a real piece of his mind only to find his luggage is there, which makes him really mad that they would get him so steamed up over nothing in the first place."