Just because a phoenix shall rise from the ashes, doesn't mean we should build statues in honor of the ashes. It is the phoenix to whom we should give honor and seek to emulate. The phoenix chooses to overcome adversity. This does not justify adversity. The phoenix chooses to forgive, learn and therefore flourish. This does not justify the ashes from which she emerges more beautiful and glorious than before. Life is pain. This will never change. Life is often cruel and unfair. This will never change. Life is risk. This will never change. Life is also beautiful, invigorating, filled with pleasure, incredibly diverse and quite compelling...if you let it. Are you going to blame the ashes and

Some Thoughts and Advice for Our Students and All Students <and all citizens> SOURCE: https://jmp.princeton.edu/announcements/some-thoughts-and-advice-our-students-and-all-students August 29, 2017 We are scholars and teachers at Princeton, Harvard, and Yale who have some thoughts to share and advice to offer students who are headed off to colleges around the country. Our advice can be distilled to three words: Think for yourself. Now, that might sound easy. But you will find—as you may have discovered already in high school—that thinking for yourself can be a challenge. It always demands self-discipline and these days can require courage. In today’s climate, it’s all-too-easy to allow your v

Forbes.com, February 15, 2017 Link here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/02/15/97-an-inconvenient-truth-about-the-oft-cited-polling-of-climate-scientists/#2149b23d205a Text here: What are some widely cited studies in the news that are false? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Answer by Richard Muller, Professor of Physics at UC Berkeley, on Quora: What are some widely cited studies in the news that are false? That 97% of all climate scientists accept that climate change is real, large and a threat to the future of humanity. That 97% basically concur with the vast majority of clai

Imagine that there is a new scientific theory that warns of an impending crisis, and points to a way out. This theory quickly draws support from leading scientists, politicians and celebrities around the world. Research is funded by distinguished philanthropies, and carried out at prestigious universities. The crisis is reported frequently in the media. The science is taught in college and high school classrooms. I don’t mean global warming. I’m talking about another theory, which rose to prominence a century ago. Its supporters included Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Winston Churchill. It was approved by Supreme Court justices Oliver Wendell Holmes and Louis Brandeis, who ruled in

A novel such as State of Fear, in which so many divergent views are expressed, may lead the reader to wonder where, exactly, the author stands on these issues. I have been reading environmental texts for three years, in itself a hazardous undertaking. But I have had an opportunity to look at a lot of data, and to consider many points of view. I conclude: We know astonishingly little about every aspect of the environment, from its past history, to its present state, to how to conserve and protect it. In every debate, all sides overstate the extent of existing knowledge and its degree of certainty. Atmospheric carbon dioxide is increasing, and human activity is the probable cause. We are also

Direct copy from: http://www.michaelcrichton.com/biography/ Michael Crichton was a writer and filmmaker, best known as the author of Jurassic Park and the creator of ER. His latest posthumous novel, MICRO, was released on November 22, 2011. Crichton graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College, received his MD from Harvard Medical School, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, researching public policy with Jacob Bronowski. He taught courses in anthropology at Cambridge University and writing at MIT. Crichton’s 2004 bestseller, State of Fear, acknowledged the world was growing warmer, but challenged extreme anthropogenic warming scenarios. He predicted

"I think the biggest problem we've had for the last 18 years with this government is that they fed the country hatred. So, they separated us in two types of people. We stopped being one group of people and we became either red or blue." (Produced by Braulio Jatar) Watch - it will be the most important 3 minutes you invest today. Connect the dots... The "feeding of hatred" is not isolated to Venezuela, the United States nor to any one country or continent on this planet. There are hate factories billowing poisonous smoke everywhere in and out of politics...and we are all breathing it in. Hate-ism: The use of a label (skin color, gender, political affiliation, tribe, sexual preference, religio