On Flight MH17

     Much like Jon Stewart, I was really surprised to get home from vacation and learn that the world had gone to crap while I was lounging on the beach. This post was originally going to be about my vacation by the ocean, but I think we can all agree that there are some much more important matters to be discussed, namely - Flight MH17.

On the FIFA World Cup

     Lately everything from Google to Facebook has talked of nothing but the 2014 FIFA World Cup. I get it, we're all excited to see which country produces the best soccer players, but there is more to life than kicking a ball around on artificial turf. At least when the Olympics come around, we can all see a nice big variety of sports. Unfortunately, FIFA forces us to endure to weeks full of a single event, namely the aforementioned ball kicking on artificial turf.

On Binge-Watching

     Has Netflix taken over control of your life? If you answered "Yes" to that question, you're not alone. Online streaming has ruined the existence of many individuals, myself included. If by some strange act of God you actually haven't been corrupted by the ability to watch one TV show for hours (and hours) on end, run. Run and never look back, because there is still hope for you. Hope that one day, you may be a productive member of society. As for the rest of us, we're screwed.

'Tis Finally Summer!

     I'm going to apologize right now for my last post about Graham's number, as it was pretty awful. In my defence, I was studying furiously for exams that evening (and/or marathoning Torchwood on Netflix.) But I am oh-so happy to announce that this school year is officially over! I've had a great freshman year and I've made some excellent new friends at my high school, but I'm just ready for the year to be over at this point.

On Graham's Number

     Graham's number, named after its creator, Ronald Graham, is a very, very large number. It is in fact quite a lot larger than you or I can understand. It dwarfs numbers even as huge as googolplex (10^10^100). To see just how staggeringly big Graham's number is, take a look at the Numberphile video below.

On the United Nations

     The United Nations (UN) is an international organization with the sole purpose of promoting peace and justice. I find it disappointing that the human race is capable of mucking up something with such good intentions so much. The UN is controlled mainly by the "big five," namely China, America, Russia, the UK, and France. Not much can happen in the organization without unanimous approval from them. You can imagine that's a problem.

On Gun Control

     Columbine. Newtown. Santa-Barbara. These places are scarred with tragedy. All too often, a person with serious mental illnesses gets their hands on a firearm, and uses it to kill people. We've seen it happen before, and unfortunately, I believe that we will see it again before meaningful changes to a broken and outdated system can take effect. Every time we see this kind of atrocity, we swear that changes will be made, our politicians insist that they will do everything in their power to prevent anything like it ever happening again, but then news cycle turns over.

"I am Become Death"

     J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the lead scientists of the Manhattan Project, is among the founders of the atomic age. He was present at the Trinity Test, the first-ever detonation of a nuclear weapon. After the Second World War, he remarked that the Trinity event brought to mind a phrase from a Hindu scripture, Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

On Artificial Intelligence

     In the past century, the human race has expanded at an unimaginable rate. Our knowledge of the universe and its workings has grown more profound with each year. Our capacities for innovation and creativity have proven themselves time and time again. But among all of these developments, there's one that has horrified science-fiction writers and conspiracy theorists for decades: artificial intelligence.

On Stephen Galloway's The Cellist of Sarajevo

     The Cellist of Sarajevo, told from the viewpoints of four individuals caught in a time of war, is Stephen Galloway's in-depth exploration of human nature. Throughout the novel, which revolves around The Siege of Sarajevo which took place from 1992 to 1996, Galloway depicts the horrors of war, and makes us all question what it means to be human.

On a Photoshop-Addicted Media

     We all know that the models we see on the front of magazines don't actually look that good in real life. However, a lot of us can't help but feel just a slight pang of jealousy/resentment while we're in line for the grocery store check-out. Even though we can all acknowledge that this reaction is irrational, we continue on staring at the Kardashians and then criticize them when they put on an extra five pounds.

On Climate Change Denial

     There are certain things in this world that we know to be true. The sky is blue. The sun is big. These are just two examples of truisms that have been proven by science. Human-caused climate change is among these facts, and I'm getting very tired of people who say otherwise. Climate change is very, very real, and it has the potential to destroy life as we know it. Despite enormous and ever-growing consensus within the scientific community as well as the general public, some people just really don't seem to care. Many politicians and members of the masses refuse to acknowledge the very existence of global warming, let alone what catastrophic consequences it could wreak.

On Nerdyness

     You may have already noticed, but I'm a nerd. Nerdyness comes with many benefits. A better understanding of the World around you, the ability to win arguments without being reduced to name calling, and good grades in school. However, it also comes with its drawbacks, including but not limited to: the need to expand your knowledge of the World around you when you should really be getting that math homework done, the need to win any and all arguments - no matter what, and the soul-crushing feeling of receiving anything less than an 85% on your report card.

Save the Internet!

     Net Neutrality is an issue I'm passionate about. It is the only thing standing between a free and equal internet, and an ISP-controlled Web, rampant with discrimination. I'm sure you've noticed that it is now under fire. It is up to us, the general public, to protect the Internet, something we're becoming increasingly dependant on for everything from communications to information and education. If Net Neutrality gets struck down at the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) meeting on May 15, it will be nothing short of a corporate coup d'etat.

On The End of Libraries

     I was reading an article by Slate the other day, which you can find here. It was a thoughtful commentary on the evolution of the library, and a forecast for its future. Describing a future without paper books, Michael Agresta points out that if libraries are to survive the digital age, the're going to have to completely remodel their entire purpose.

On "YOLO"

     YOLO, an acronym for "You Only Live Once," has a good message behind it. Unfortunately, its meaning has become lost to the vast majority of society, who mainly use the term as an excuse for acts of stupidity. Examples include:


Concerned witness: You're really going to climb on top of that building? You're going to break your neck!

Less than smart person: YOLO!

On Nuclear Weapons

     The Marshall Islands, a very small island nation in the Northern Pacific, is suing the nuclear powers of the world. In 1970, a treaty know as the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty, or NPT, became law. It has since obligated the nine nuclear weapons states to peacefully negotiate international disarmament. Here we are, forty-four years later, and the nuclear powers of the world continue to expand and modernize their arsenals. No negotiations with a real goal of nuclear disarmament have taken place. But now, a small nation, with a population of only around 68, 000 people are aiming to face up the world's superpowers in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

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On Net Neutrality

Earlier, I talked about the Amazingness That is the Internet. Sadly, in recent months that Amazingness has been threatened. For so long, there have been regulations to safeguard against abuse of the Web. Now they've come under fire. In the United States, a Supreme Court decision struck down the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) rules on Net Neutrality. Essentially, they made sure that internet service providers, or ISPs, wouldn't have the power to make some websites faster than others. They protected the Internet from major corporations paying enormous amounts of money to ISPs to increase the speed of their online traffic, at the expense of websites that didn't have millions upon millions of dollars to spend.

On the Amazingness That is the Internet

     A hundred and fifty years ago, if you wanted to talk to somebody in a different part of the world, you sent a letter. That letter would be collected by a mail man, who would take it to a sorting centre. From there, it would be shipped to a major post office hub, where it would get sent to your friend - eventually. Now, we just send them a message on Facebook, or through a text.The internet has revolutionized how we communicate, how we learn, even how we listen to music.

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On the Crisis in Ukraine

Hello, people of the internet! You may have already heard about the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. Essentially, Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, mobilized Russian troops and annexed the Crimean peninsula, located in the South-East portion of Ukraine.

Thoughts on the Vlogbrothers

In my last post I mentioned being a Nerdfighter. It struck me that I should maybe elaborate on what, exactly, that is. By technical definition, a Nerdfighter is someone who is made entirely of awesomeness, but commonly, we're simply defined by our love of the Vlogbrothers, and our goal to decrease worldsuck. The Vlogbrothers are namely Hank and John Green, which are names you might just recognize. John is the #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Fault in our Stars, Looking for Alaska, and An Abundance of Katherines. Hank is the founder of VidCon, Scishow, EcoGeek, and numerous other organizations. They are both heavily involved in the YouTube channel Crash Course, which you can find here, and The Foundation to Decrease Worldsuck.

On Fandoms

I have a confession to make. Before we progress our relationship any further, I should tell you... I'm a Whovian. Not only that, I'm also a Nerdfighter! I know what you're thinking, "Oh, that poor lost soul." You may even be right about that, but let me ask you one thing: if you could own your very own TARDIS, wouldn't you?

Thoughts on Digital Graveyards

There’s a country in Africa. This country is named Ghana. Ghana is where we send our technological leftovers. In Ghana, there are several places known as “digital graveyards”. They're basically what the name implies. There are countless organizations, countless organizations that we support that send hundreds and hundreds of metric tons of unusable, irreparable, sometimes toxic, e-waste. Why? Why do you think? Money. Yes, it’s cheaper to send tons of technological waste to Africa, marked as a donation, than it is to properly dispose and/or recycle it.

Thoughts on Veronica Rossi's Under the Never Sky

Under the Never Sky, written by Veronica Rossi, is a classic YA dystopian novel. The story, told from two different points of view, focuses around Aria, a sheltered young adult who's been banished from her "pod." The pods were apparently built to house humanity after a great war called "The Unity." When Aria is thrown out of her pod, an Outsider named Perry comes to her rescue. As they voyage across deadly terrain, and face countless dangers together, they're forced to depend on one another.

What, if Anything, do we owe Developing Nations?

Hundreds of thousands of people die every year due to some illness or injury that could have been treated. Countless preventable deaths have happened in the past ten years, simply because some people aren't able to access any kind of healthcare. Our society boasts of our selflessness, and of our charitableness. I ask you then, why are we so easily able to turn a blind eye to so many horrors. I'm perfectly aware that it costs a lot of money to send healthcare to poor people in Africa. I'm perfectly aware that the people up on Parliament Hill feel as though they're not responsible for another nation's people, and they would be right. So why then, do I feel like those deaths are crimes?

Thoughts on Human Curiosity

Human imagination is incredible. We are the only species in the universe (and it's a big place...) that we know of that creates things of beauty and art. We direct films. We write books. We cook food. We study physics. We wonder. Those are all things that are, as far as we know, unique to us. We're all flying through space at thousands of miles an hour, desperately trying to find our place in a universe that is constantly expanding at an unimaginable rate. The fact that I can even begin to comprehend that is extraordinary.