1. Human nature seems to depend upon a “system of doctrines” to be able to function
2. A replacement of this system, would still include a “prohibition to thought”
3. The fragility of society (5 reasons(Diamond)) causes a development of some system to  strengthen society

The Solutions

1. Replace the system of doctrines with the ‘promise of the future’
2. Prohibition of thought would be replaced by this promise, and thereby a motivation to reach the ‘promise of the future’
3. The fragility of society can also be strengthened by this ‘promise of the future’, a societal focus not on the present (as during the enlightenment) but on the future can fix the “conflict of interests” (Diamond). Cohesion on long term development, (not just through the ‘promise of the future’ , but also through the lengthening of life), will strengthen society.

Religion can only be replaced “by means of another system of doctrines” (Freud 65) and that this system, because it is merely a replacement, would still have the “same prohibition of thought” (Freud 66). Freud is wrong in that he, on a basis of practicality, wants to “[retain] the religious doctrinal system as the basis of education and of man’s communal life.”(Freud 66). Freud did not live in a period in which by 2012 – 2015 we will have nanobots in our bodies, and by 2030-2050, as Aubrey De Grey has postulated, that we will live for quite a long time (MFoundation). Freud is wrong because the problems that he observes in society that would block the evolution of human thought and progress are breaking down because of the influence of technology and hope for the future.

There are two fundamental problems within society that would stop the attainment of the “desired primacy of the intelligence over the life of the instincts.” (Freud 65). Freud first postulates that the only way to “expel religion” would be to replace it with another “system of doctrines” (Freud 65). This is most likely true because of how this system, religion, continues from one generation to the next, and how education and government are still in the womb of religion (Freud 58-64). The second problem is that the replacement system still would contain the “prohibition of thought,” the same “sanctity, rigidity and intolerance” (Freud 66). The third problem is not part of Freud’s argument against trying to fix the human mind, but fixing human society. The fundamental problem of society is that it is intimately connected to its environment, be that resources or other societies (Diamond). These problems seemed to be unsurmountable in the early 20th century, and some still seem to mountainous today, but based on the current technological and educational advancement of societies around the world, these problems are surmountable and will be conquered.

The first part of the solution is to obviously replace the current “system of doctrines” (Freud 65). Gentlemen, my solution is to replace the current system with a system that encourages thought and refutes “intolerance” (Freud 66). I have termed this modern system, The Promise of the Future. Our current system, our current society is based upon the past; religion is based off of tradition, no matter how ‘current’. Our society has a greater nostalgia for the past, than it has a hope for the future. Just a few days ago, (whether for the wrong or the betterment of America), citizens of America elected a leader for change, change for the future, hope in the future. This desire for the future can be fueled even more through a system of the future. A religion based on what can come, what can happen, will refocus human thought not on the past, but on what can be done now to affect the future. Because my system replaces the old traditional values, and is based on thought, on the future, it immediately avoids the “prohibition of thought”(Freud 66).

The second part of my solution is to strengthen society. Through the spread of my system, humanity will be focused on the hopes in the future, an optimistic and always changing society for the betterment of human kind in the long run. The “conflict of interests” (Diamond) between the rich and the poor however is a more complex problem. The solution of course is to lengthen life, by which people will no longer need to focus on the short term material goals, but on great long term goals.
Through The Promise of the Future and the lengthening of human life, humanity will change from an
animalistic species, to a transcendent race focused purely on the temple of the future.

Works Cited

Freud, Sigmund. The Future of an Illusion. Standard. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1961.

Diamond, Jared. “TED Talkes.” TED. 07 11 2008. TED. 7 Nov 2008 <http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jared_diamond_on_why_societies_collapse.html>.

MFoundation. “The Methuselah Foundation.” Methuselah Foundation. 07 11 2008. Methuselah Foundation. 7 Nov 2008 <http://www.mfoundation.org/>.

My dad and I were driving on the road while moving stuff late last night, and to keep ourselves awake, we turned on the radio to listin to the DC.  That was a big, big mistake.  It was so uselessly non-informative and had so much misinformation and lies that we had to turn off the radio and drive in silence.  Here was a few of things that I just could not stand listening about.  Oh, and did they ever say what ‘change’ they were making, especially with a VP who has been a senator for 40 some odd years!!! And his greatest supporter is a Kennedy who has been in the senate for something like 46 years!!!  Yeah.. right.

Here it is, Change that everybody can believe will happen with Obama as the next president.

Losing the war on terrorism.  Allowing Russia to take over Georgia etc…

Higher Taxes, creating a huge economic recession and making it harder to obtain that American dream the Obamas kept talking about..  I want to work hard during college and save every penny to get a million bucks, but if I make over 250K i get taxed to death, thanks Obama, thanks a ton.  Oh, while were at it lets just redistribute the wealth and create a socialist state.  Oh by the way,  most rich people have their money in assets like property outside the united states or in solid assets, not income you idiot, so the tax only affects people who are trying to work hard and improve themselves and those around them.  Please do not vote for Obama, if you do, you need to move to Russia, or yet, wait, move to North Korea, its a dictatorship which is even better, I mean look at the Kennedy’s, they have been in power forever…  ok I’m done ranting on this point, can’t stand it any more

More spending for an impossible health care system that you have to buy.

An increase in the national debt.

Quasi-Socialist Policies, going back to Marxism, we are not changing to get better, were going backwards people.

Ted Kennedy loves sailing his yacht!  What middle class, hard worker has time to sail a yacht!!!!!

Here’s another, he and other senators have made huge sacrifices, yeah like the 5 week vacation their taking right now, BS, and before a very recent legislation put in by republicans, senators could choose how much they could pay themselves!!!!!

It gets much, much worse, oh and btw, can I have a hug too Uncle Teddy, pls, I mean, you take all my money and my freedom, can’t I just get a little hug, oh and your family made their money on alcohol, oh you have such a great family too, what wife are you on now, and what about the alcoholism, and what about your brothers 13 children?????  Oh wait, and what about the Chappaquiddick incident.  I really hope he get his cancer cured, so that he is on medicare just like everybody else and see how crappy it is, but wait, because he is a senator he’ll his own personal doctors…, oh and guess what, if he gets cured, he’ll bankrupt all the new biotech and gentech companies by making them give every person brand new cures.  Doesn’t anyone understand basic economics anymore???  The rich by the new cure, then the middle class, then everyone has it as production increases, and then the process repeats itself..

Ok, I’m seriously almost done and out of fire.  Lets switch to Michelle Obama real quick.

OMG, that is almost all I can say.  but wait there might be some more, maybe I have to bow down to the wife of the messiah.. sheesh.. anyways, she now loves and has always loved the United States of America, ha! Ha HA HA!!! i find that extremely hard to believe when just a little while ago she said that because her husband finally is a president elect that she is, “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country, and not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change.” yeah right…, not just because Barack has done well, just mostly because he’s done well lol….  and she just didn’t say it once, she has said it twice.  “Jim Hoft has the vid of Michelle Obama repeating the line twice. She meant what she said.”

Oh yeah “fight for the world as it should be”, yeah as a Marxist society, great, lets all go back to the cold war, anyone willing, anyone?? i know there has to be a whole bunch of people who do because Obama is running for president, doesn’t seem like anyone… hmm…

Oh, this just gets me, because I am a kid, a teen almost an adult, and she says this, “Because we want our children — and all children in this nation — to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.”  Well I want to achieve those heights, I want to invent, to create my own school, but I need a good job and good money, and a lot of it if I want to make my own private school, and by imposing more taxes will make it easier to achieve this??? your an idiot Michelle, go and get a real job and come back to me, oh and you talk about all the success your family has had, what real job successes have you and your husband had, not political roles, real jobs, ceo, maybe a manager????? haven’t heard of any….

Oh, btw, my dad is in the Air Force, and she has the never to say this, “The military families who say grace each night with an empty seat at the table. The servicemen and women who love this country so much, they leave those they love most to defend it,” when the democratic congress has repeatedly restricted spending to spend more on their health care and unions to get more votes.. so we cannot have the things we need most, like new high-tech armor and tactical defense systems that even the Israelis have..  We have scientists that have created IED safe Humvees and tanks, yet where are they???  We have lightning strike tech.. yet we are not using it.  I’m sorry, I almost can’t just listen anymore to this.  And the she even has the never to continue and say, “it’s what he’s done in the United States Senate, fighting to ensure the men and women who serve this country are welcomed home not just with medals and parades, but with good jobs and benefits and health care — including mental health care,”  I don’t damn care if their welcoming soldiers back, I care if my dad comes back alive, and that means bulletproof armor and safe Humvees and same medical fields and putting pressure on the states who are funding terrorists to come in and kill Iraqi civilians.

Oh my goodness gracious, here we go again, “but can’t afford gas to find a job;” well I wonder why.., YOU DIDN’T ALLOW DRILLING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  wow.. finally I got that out…, and guess what, gas has gone back down to 3.39 a gallon for me down here in Texas because of our new oil wells, and guess what! We are getting paid by those so called evil oil companies because we have oil on our land that is being drilled up to put in your tanks, I salute oil men, thank you for working as hard as you do.  It’s the democratic congress that has stopped new refineries from being built, its the D. congress that has stopped drilling, and recently wanted to pass a bill to restrict not just drilling, but also mining for more than almost half of the united states!!! Did you know its because of the D. Congress that its cheaper to build a new oil rig than to repair a broken one because of the high cost permit deals they have created!! seriously.. the profits that oil companies are getting are good, but not nearly as much as the tremendous tax profits being made by congress!

OK, I’m burnt out…  y’all have a good day now.

Effect Size 1.0+  Absolutle Fabulous (30+ point percentile gain!)

Effect Size .80+ Great!

Effect Size .50+ Good.

Effect Size .20+ Okay… better than nothing.

Strategies:

Strategy		Details		Effect Size
Identifying Similarities & Differences		compare/contrast, classify/categorize, extended metahpors, analogies		1.31
Reinforcing Effort		helping students truly understand the link beteen effort and achievement; relationship building		1.22
Pratice		focused/active classroom practice		1.15
Summarizing		“delete, substitue, keep” method, summary frames, & reciprocal teaching		0.97
Note-Taking		webbing, informal outlines, combination notes, & dynamic notetaking		0.94
Nonlinguistic Representations		graphic organizers, kinesthetic activties, mental pictures, illustrations, demonstrations, models, etc.		0.83
Generating & Testing a Hypothesis		inquiry learning, inductive thinking, concept attainment, etc.		0.75
Setting Goals or Objectives		students taking part in setting personalized goals and tracking their own achievement		0.71
Providing Feeback		specific, individual constructive feedback, student-led feeback, & criterion referenced feeback		0.71
Cooperative Learning		sutdents working cooperatively, NOT just group work, active participation in the learning process		0.65
Cues & Questions		higher level questioning strategies		0.64
Advance Organizers		“hooking” the students’ interest in the learning		0.49
Homework		guidelines for practice outside the classroom environment		0.48
Providing Recognition		praise, recoginition, & rewards		0.36

For you  who want specifics, here they are:

]]> http://savetherepublic.wordpress.com/2008/08/21/education-and-kent-school/feed/ 0 lightning2 R&D List 1 R&D List 2 R&D List 3 R&D List 4 SR&D List 1 SR&D List 2 SR&D List 3 http://savetherepublic.wordpress.com/2008/08/09/ruby-and-threading-fun/ http://savetherepublic.wordpress.com/2008/08/09/ruby-and-threading-fun/#comments Sat, 09 Aug 2008 16:14:38 +0000 raptros-v76 http://savetherepublic.wordpress.com/?p=138 ]]> So here is a class I wrote in ruby.

class LimitedThreads
    def initialize max
        @group = ThreadGroup.new
        @maxthreads = max
        @lock = Mutex.new
        @slot = ConditionVariable.new
    end

    def to_s
        "max threads: %s; current threads: %s;" % [@maxthreads, @group.list.size]
    end

    def newthread *args
        if @maxthreads <= @group.list.size
            #delay until a thread ends
            @lock.synchronize { @slot.wait(@lock) }
        end
        nt = Thread.new do
            yield *args #this allows operation like Thread.new for passing in args to thread
            @lock.synchronize { @slot.signal }
        end
        @group.add nt
        nt
    end
end

lt=LimitedThreads.new 3
sleep_time = 2
12.times do |count|
    message = "hello from pass number %s" % count
    lt.newthread(message, sleep_time) do |msg, st|
        sleep st
        puts msg
    end
end

hello from pass number 1
hello from pass number 0
hello from pass number 2
hello from pass number 4
hello from pass number 3
hello from pass number 5
hello from pass number 7
hello from pass number 6
hello from pass number 8

Printing each group of three at 2 second interval bursts (all in group appear). Try it on other systems; it might do something else. If you can find a use for it, please, tell me.

TBLISI, Georgia (CNN) — Bombs rocked Tbilisi early Saturday morning as the fight between Georgia and Russia over a breakaway region intensified and moved into the Georgian capital.
…
Russia and Georgia, a former Soviet state, are fighting over the disputed Caucasus region of South Ossetia, a pro-Russian autonomous region of Georgia.

(As far as I can tell, it seems that some small region broke away from Georgia, and now Russia is bombing Georgia because Georgia had troops in this area. Russia and breakaway blame Georgia, Georgia blames Russia. What an utter mess.)

1) Yeah, John Edwards had an affair, and basically lied about it. More from ABC:

John Edwards repeatedly lied during his Presidential campaign about an extramarital affair with a novice filmmaker, the former Senator admitted to ABC News today.

2) Rush Limbaugh says the Clintons are up to something:

RUSH: Remember all those times, ladies and gentlemen, I warned you never, ever trust a Clinton? Nothing that happens with the Clintons is a coincidence? Isn’t it interesting, with the Lord Barack Obama plunging in the polls, there’s a story today from the Huffington Post about how he’s losing in Pennsylvania, and they can’t believe it. He ought to be cleaning up in Pennsylvania. We can believe it.

And then people wonder why I dislike politicians. So there you go.

After 4 terrible days of rumors flying around about MIT not excepting any freshman in the upcoming ’09 year, we can finally relax.  MIT is not usually late, so this is concerning to some who were ready to finish their MIT application the day it came out.  Its finally out and in the open, so hurry up and finish those apps before November for early admission.