Birthdays!

Birthdays are always very important to me. Some people do not get excited when its their birthdays, but I think it is a very special day. Saturday, April 16th, i turned 19. It is weird to think that this is going to be my last teen year. After this year I will have been alive for a full two decades, it is a very weird thought. So for this birthday I decided I wanted to do something special. I got a few of my friends to go with my to a Pretty Lights concert in Syracuse! Pretty Lights is a guy who is a drummer and a DJ. He has really popular songs and performs an awesome concert! It was really an amazing experience! I was so happy to be with my close friends. We just hopped in a car and drove two and a half hours! We stayed with my friends home friend that goes to school there, she was going to the same concert that me and my friends drove all the way to see. It worked out perfectly. It was spontaneous and adventurous and just what I needed to start off my last year being a teen! I feel like everyone should try and make their birthday special. It should not be a time to think about how old you are, or to just say it is just another day; it was the day you were born, a special day. Going to Pretty Lights is a memory I will always look back on and reminisce.

the importance of light

Light is overlooked as a powerful tool to our essence. In ancient civilizations, light has been the uniting religion for cultures. The sun god was the all powerful being that influenced everything. However, today we over look the importance of light. Today, light only serves the function of lighting up dark places, but light can be used to influence our mood, change perspective and represent philosophy.
Light is dependent upon the darkness that surrounds it. In theater, the actor’s face is under the spot light surrounded by darkness to center the audience’s attention. The darkness is just as important, yet civilization disregards the darkness as important. Light pours onto the night-time skies and covers the stars. The solution for this is to concentrate the light to where we need it, use enough light for what we need and to focus light so that none escapes into the atmosphere. The architect Rogier van Der Hiede shows the examples that architecture need to contain the light within its confines, street lamps need to light only the ground; thereby, he emphasizes using only light we need.
Bright light is ingrained in the culture of the western world. Fluorescent lights expose every spec of dirt in our homes. Westerners use very bright light to leave no surface hidden. Contrary to western believe in bright light, is the eastern civilization’s. Lamps in the eastern world are usually covered in brown paper to soften it and make light warmer and welcoming. The eastern world recognizes the necessity of darkness and incorporates that into their architecture. Thus, Westerners need to learn form the eastern civilization philosophy of light: recognize the importance of the darkness, create warm light and to jettison light thats not necessary.


http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/rogier_van_der_heide_why_light_needs_darkness.html

what we can learn form the universe

The universe is the oldest and biggest thing in existence. If we could understand the universe then we would understand our existence. Where we came from? How we started? Is there god? Could all be answered by studying the initial state of the universe. Stephen Hawking in his TED talk explains this. According to laws of physics like Maxwell’s equations and Einstein's theory of relativity, time and space function as dimensions of space; thus, the laws of evolution apply to the initial condition of universe. The universe, then, can be created from nothing. There doesn’t have to be “Something” before the big bang, there might not be a god.
We are currently alone in our galaxy. Due to the lack of background radiation from alien radio waves or noise, scientists have concluded there are no aliens equal to our civilization within 100 light-years. Additionally, creating human life took 5 billion years after initial conditions were possible to support life. Thus,it will take a longer time for alien civilization to be created. However,due to civilizations self-destructive nature, an alien civilization may have already existed but has destroyed itself.
Finally, Stephen hawking concludes his speech with advice for humans to push forward on the frontier. The future of the human race depends on our exploration due to the limited supply of earth’s resources.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/stephen_hawking_asks_big_questions_about_the_universe.html

This guy is nuts

Susumu Sugawara has to be one of the craziest people alive. He also is probably one of the luckiest. When the tsunami caused by the recent earthquake in Japan was heading toward the small island where he lived he decided to try to beat the tsunami and sail into it. He lended up sailing into 20m tall waves and lived to tell the tale. He is now taking people to and from the mailand on his only remaining boat. This guy is so crazy.

Stumbleupon.com

Recently I was introduced to a new website, www.stumbleupon.com. This website may seem useless and boring to some people, but I find it rather interesting, and also addicting. Stumbleupon is considered a discovery engine that finds and recommends web content to its users. Its features allow its users to discover and rate Web pages, photos and videos that are personalized to their tastes and interests using peer-sourcing and social-networking principles. When you first sign up, you check a bunch of things that interest you and it basically begins to set up a sort of personalized profile for you. Then you click the STUMBLE button, and it directs you to websites/photos/videos based on your interests. You can either ignore them, give them a Thumbs up/Favorite or a Thumbs Down. Each rating adds data to your profile, so the more you use it, the more interesting stuff it delivers. I feel like stumbleupon has opened my mind to many different areas that otherwise I would never be interested in. For example there was an animation of three girls (they had no features, it was just shadows), all standing side by side, with one leg slightly raised higher than the other. If you looked at the middle girl, they all appeared to be rotating in the same direction; however, if you looked at either the girl on the left or the girl on the right, the one you were looking at appeared to be rotating in the opposite direction. I can’t remember specifically, but I am almost positive that this was considered to be in the science category, a category that I would have never been interested in.

Drinking Age 18? or 21?

One topic of interest that seems to go back and forth between the government a lot is the drinking age. Before The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 the drinking age was only 18. After this Act was passed the drinking age was obviously changed to 21, which is what it still stands at today. There are many arguments that I personally agree with about changing the drinking age back to 18. One main point being that at the age of 18 any person is considered an “adult,” treated like an “adult,” punished like and “adult,” so why is it that they can’t go out and drink at a bar like every other adult? Another point is if an 18-year told is allowed to serve for our country in war and also vote for the government positions, why can’t they drink alcohol? No one really thinks that deeply into the topic because it’s only 3 years and people who are already 21 probably say that it’s not that long, but for an 18 year old those 3 years seem like a whole lifetime. The last point that I’m going to argue is when you are 18 you usually still live at home for the most part. Although you only live at home for a couple of months, its still better than nothing, anyway, learning to drink at home in the comfort of your own home with you parents seems much more safe than starting to drink in college when you haven’t really done it even though we all know underage drinking takes place everywhere. Point being there should be people looking into fighting to change the drinking age back to 18 in order for everyone to not only be happy but safer also.

John Galliano's Anti-Semitism

On March 1, 2011 a video surfaced of John Galliano, the head designer of Dior, making Anti-Semitic comments at a bar in France. John Galliano is one of the world’s most famous and accomplished fashion designers. Since 1996 he has worked as the head designer for the Christian Dior label. With Galliano’s creative and artistic abilities, he has been able to make some of the most beautiful, intricate pieces of clothing. Whilst at a bar in France, John Galliano was caught on video saying Anti-Semitic things such as “I love Hitler” and “your foremothers, your forefathers would be gassed” and “people like you would be dead.” In France it is illegal to act upon racial hatred, so Galliano must appear at a court trial. As well as facing legal troubles, Galliano was fired from Dior because the company does not want any negativity around the brand. Many people have boycotted Galliano’s work, including Natalie Portman, who is currently the spokesperson for Dior’s perfume Miss Cherie. She made public statements saying that as a proud Jewish woman, she will no longer be affiliated with Galliano in any way. I think John Galliano’s words of hatred were absolutely disgusting and it’s absurd that such an influential name in the fashion industry can engage in such frowned upon behavior. His words are appalling and it’s upsetting to know that someone you once looked up to can disappoint you in such a manner. To see that this hatred is still so prominent in the world is extremely unsettling and I hope this incident will set an example for how hurtful Anti-Semitism is and for the ramifications of this type of behavior.