Sparta vs. Athens

Two of the great civilizations of the world – Sparta and Athens – warred with one another for 200 years. From 550 to 350 BC, the two cities found themselves in frequent battles.

Sparta, a small city in southern Greece, was a powerful military force. Strong, fearless, and known to toss unfit babies into gorges. Their men went through grueling training, and Spartan boys were tested on their toughness by enduring whippings. They were fearless warriors on land.

Athens, on the other hand, differed greatly. Known as the birthplace of democracy, the Athenians way of life  was far more laid back than that of the Spartans. It was a city rich in culture, philosophy, art,  and science. Athen’s accomplishments in these areas are one of the most extraordinary in human history. People such as Plato, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristotle, and Socrates sprung from Athen’s grounds. The Athenians were masters of sea time battle.

Despite the greatness of both civilizations, the two warring civilizations dominated the history of Ancient Greece. At one point, the two joined forces to defeat 2 attempted Persian invasions. Once accomplished, though, Sparta and Athens went back to competing against one another for leadership of Greece.

Not until Philip of Macedonia invade from the North did Sparta and Athens finally cease fighting. Philip’s invasion took over the city-stats and their empire. Philip and his son Alexander the Great would go on to conquer many more lands throughout Greece and Asia.

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The science behind sleep

Well, it seems Monday has come once again a lot faster than I predicted. This last weekend was busy with a friend in town and another friend’s birthday. It seems another “Sunday” is always needed after the original Sunday. Luckily, I went to bed at 9pm last night. Going to bed early is one of my favorite Sunday night activities. Sleep is so important for having mental clarity on Monday morning and starting your week off right – so what exactly is it and why do we need so much of it?

Sleep would seem like an anti-evolutionary trait since we spend so much time doing it, and it leaves us vulnerable for predator attacks. Yet, if a person were to go longer than 2 weeks without sleep, he/she would die. We all know that lacking just one day of sleep leaves us groggy and disoriented. Make it three, and delirium is sure to set in.

Although we are not exactly sure why sleep is so important, we do know that during this time our thoughts re-organize, our muscles and organs restore themselves, and we build memories.

There are also 5 different stages of sleep. See below. (*taken from Discovery Health)

• Sleep Stage 1
  In this brief stage, which may last only a few minutes, the body drifts to sleep. Brain waves are mostly high amplitude, slow waves and occasional alpha waves (like those found when awake).
  Percent of total sleep time for young adults: 5 percent.
• Sleep Stage 2
  Heartbeat and breathing slow and the sleep is deeper than in Stage 1. Slow-wave sleep continues with peaks of brain waves (known as sleep spindles) occurring.
  Percent of total sleep time for young adults: 44 to 55 percent.
• Sleep Stages 3 and 4
  These are the stages of deepest sleep, when brain waves are slowest. During these stages breathing and heartbeat slow further and muscles relax. Dreams are more common than in the earlier stages and sleepwalking and talking may occur during Stages 3 and 4.
  Percent of total sleep time for young adults: 15 to 23 percent.
• REM
  Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep stages lengthen through the night. The first REM cycle may be only 10 minutes while the last could last as long as an hour. During this cycle the heartbeat increases, breathing becomes shallow, eyes move rapidly, muscles are relaxed, and dreams are most vivid. Brain waves resemble those during waking.
  Percent of total sleep time for young adults: 20 to 25 percent.
  

  Nothing's cuter than a sleeping kitten

Want to know some other interesting facts?

- Whales and dolphins only sleep 1/2 of their brain at a time. Therefore, if they are sleeping, one eye will be open and the other closed.

- Getting too much sleep (9 hours or more) or too little (6 hours or less) gives a person a 30% higher death rate than those who sleep regularly every night.

It seems getting your beauty rest is just part of the sleep equation, and there’s numerous reasons why we should sleep more. Don’t worry if you didn’t catch up on all your sleep during the weekend, there’s always tonight to get your full 8 hours. Happy Monday!

Information pulled from: http://health.discovery.com/centers/sleepdreams/basics/basics.html, http://www.abc.net.au/science/sleep/facts.htm, Intellectual Devotional by Kinder and Oppenheim

Crazy Boxes Puzzle

If you are a true puzzle fan, well then boy do I have a treat for you. The object of this game is to turn all the boxes red. It seems easy enough. When you click on a box, it turns the square you clicked on and it’s diagonally adjacent squares red. Essentially it makes a cross shape (+). Try to click on all the right squares to have the puzzle be perfectly red.

Give it a shot! It takes some thinking…….

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Thursday’s Word Search Puzzle

We’re going to do some more mind exercise today. Don’t let the name “Wacky Wordsearch” fool you, it’s more challenging than the name lets on. I think we all know how to do word searches, but this one has a twist. You get negative points for circling the wrong words or letters.

Hope you enjoy!

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Metaphysics in Philosophy

Aristotle’s Metaphysics is one of his most well-known works. His ideas led to a new branch of philosophy which influenced the thinkers of his time and thereafter. The word metaphysics literally means ‘after physics’ as it was chronologically written after the books on nature. His work focuses on reality, existence, and being in terms of what it is. For example, a metaphysical philosopher ponders “What is the world?” while a physicist poses the question “How does the world work?”.

Metaphysics is the study of all reality including the natural and supernatural. The natural world is identified as things which can be scientifically proven (energy, matter) whereas the supernatural world is identified as things which cannot be scientifically proven (the existence of god). It is the study of the world which we can – and - cannot see. Although when people use the term today, they often overlook the natural side and use metaphysics as a way to question reality from a supernatural standpoint.

There are two main questions of metaphysics. The first one asks, “What is reality?”. In asking this, metaphysical philosophers search for the underlying rules and principals of existence. They hunt for the common thread that proves and binds reality – those things which are unchanging. The second question asks, “What is the real reality?”. This contrasts from the first question as it is focuses on discovering ultimate truth. Often times, this can contradict to the world as we perceive and experience it.

Metaphysics is difficult to define as it is broad in its scope and can include the sciences. Most notably, cosmology is aligned with metaphysics and aspires to identify the very beginnings of existence. It is not only a western philosophy but can also be seen in Buddhist and Hindu philosophy as well.

Information compiled from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphysics, http://atheism.about.com/od/philosophybranches/p/Metaphysics.htm, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/metaphysics/, and http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/N095

Mind Exercise – Sudoku

Hello all- For Thursday’s puzzle, how about a game of sudoku? I’ll admit, I’m not the best at this, but I do see it’s benefits.  Plus the more you play, the better you get. So do a little mental exercise, and get your mind active. Once you finish, you’ll get that deep down feeling of accomplishment. Enjoy!

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King Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV (1638-1715, known as the Sun King , ruled France f0r seventy two years starting at the young age of 4. During his time of rule from the  awe-inspiring Palace of Versailles, Louis XIV was able to expand French influence in Europe and centralize and strengthen its powers at home. The absolute monarchy which Louis XIV built held more power than France had seen in its history as well as eliminated what was left of feudalism.

As King, Louis XIV knew that France’s power was divided among a handful of rich noblemen who reigned over vast parts of the province. In order to gain their trust and compliance, he built his image as that of magnificent and glorious. By association, they too would seem glorious to others by sharing his presence, and thus, when Louis offered the wealthy noblemen to come live in his grand Palace of Versailles, they would accept. This avoided another Fronde (civil uprising of nobles against the French monarchy), and the noble elite were appeased. Louis also built palaces across France as well as expanded Versailles making it the most lavish and magnificent palace in Europe.

Louis’ ambitious ways  gained him unprecedented power, and he was able to even convince the Catholic church to allow him more control. One of his most famous quotes – “I am the state.” -portrayed Louis’ vision of himself as France. There was no separation between the two, and so having the Church under his power seemed fitting to him. Louis XIV tried to foster religious unity often resulting in persecution of others such as Protestants and Jews.

Four days before his 77th birthday, Louis XIV died and left behind a great legacy. Although he led France to strength and power, his absolute monarchy also led to tyrannical behavior which would alter result in the French Revolution in 1789.

The Great Books: Beowulf

It seems if a book is touted as a great classic, then it shall be made into a movie. Beowulf is no different, and if you aren’t familiar with this English literature, then you probably recognize it from the 2007 movie version which starred Angelina Jolie. I haven’t seen the movie, but I have read the epic poem. Unfortunately, I barely remember it,  so today we’ll take a brief look at the plot and the significance of Beowulf.

Plot

Beowulf is a young prince from Geatland (a place south of Sweden) who arrives unexpectedly with a group of armed men to a Danish town. This town, belonging to King Hrothgar, has been continually terrorized by a monster named Grendel who breaks in at night and devours the King’s warriors. When Beowulf and his men arrive, they fatally injure Grendel who then runs off to his swamp to die. Grendel’s mother tries to avenge her son’s death, but Beowulf is able to find her at her lair and kill her first. There he sees Grendel’s corpse and decapitates it to bring the severed head of the monster back to Hrothgar’s town. The Danish town cheers and celebrates when Beowulf returns with Grendel’s head and rejoice over the fact that their town is now monster-free. Eventually, Beowulf returns his hometown of Geatland as a hero. Soon after, he takes the thrown and rules for fifty years. A hero to the core, Beowulf protects the Geats from a terrorizing dragon, but it is in this same battle that he is fatally wounded. The Geats burn Beowulf’s body in a large funeral pyre and bury him with treasure. Thus, the story of Beowulf ends.

What’s the significance of Beowulf?

So why has Beowulf persisted as one of the great works of literature through the ages? One reason is that the story portrays a mix of pagan and Christian traditions. Set around 500 A.D. in, a more pagan era, the story’s characters often exhibit many Christian thoughts and beliefs yet their action do not always match this.

Beowulf is often introduced as the first great influence on the development of English literature. Although many scholars stand by this, it was not actually wide read until the 1800s.  Regardless, it still holds great historical and literary value. J.R.R. Tolkien, writer of The Lord of the Rings, was heavily influence by Beowulf.

So the next time someone brings up Beowulf or makes an allusion to it (you never know!), you’ll now have the basic idea, and be able to give a smart, little reply back.

Black Holes

Star explosions are interesting. Star implosions also make equally interesting topics to explore. The kind of star implosions I’m referring to in particular are black holes. If you’ve ever seen Star Trek, you probably have an image in your head of a space ship swirling into a dark, black abyss. That can serve as a starting reference point, but other than the fact that a black hole has a strong gravitational pull, there’s not much more accurate information you can take away from that depiction.

So let’s begin. What is a black hole? A black hole is a result of a star imploding into itself and collapsing down to nothing. Its gravitational force becomes so strong, that no matter can survive it. Inside a black hole is nothing, except for “a little nugget of singularity” as physicist Kip Thorne puts it which we don’t understand. This point of singularity is a result of the dying star continually collapsing into itself, becoming denser and denser, until it is a point with no radius and infinite destiny. Nothing escapes the black hole, not even light.

If light cannot escape the black hole or its event horizon (the border of the black hole where the gravitational pull sucks in surrounding matter), then how can we see it? Technically, we can’t. We observe black holes by observing the way they interact with the objects in space around them.

To understand a bit more about black holes, we need to discuss escape velocity. When a rocket ship launches into space, it must go at a high enough velocity (speed)  to escape the earth’s gravitational pull. If it does not have a high enough escape velocity, the ship  falls back down. In a black hole, the escape velocity needed to exit must be faster than the speed of light. This is impossible and thus the area surrounding the black hole is known as the event horizon. If an object falls into an event horizon of a black hole, it gets sucked in. Outside of the event horizon, though, it is OK.

OK, so the question you really want to know: Can we space or time travel through a black hole? You know….the way they do in Star Trek. This idea is not as far fetched as you may think. Some physicists (like Burko in particular) argue that if a black hole has a weak point of singularity, it isn’t out of the question. A weak point of singularity means that it won’t completely crush you or your space ship if you enter, and it may lead you to a wormhole (a tear/tunnel in the space time continuum) and spit you out in some remote part of the universe. Though this idea is very theoretical, there is no evidence to completely disprove that it may work. In science, that counts as a possibility. The closest black hole being 30,000 years away, though, serves as a much bigger problem.

A Bit About Buddhism

A quick overview on the history and basic principles of Buddhism.

One of his students asked Buddha, “Are you the messiah?”
“No”, answered Buddha.
“Then are you a healer?”
“No”, Buddha replied.
“Then are you a teacher?” the student persisted.
“No, I am not a teacher.”
“Then what are you?” asked the student, exasperated.
“I am awake”, Buddha replied.*

——————————————–

What does it mean to be awake? In Buddhism, awake is the term for enlightenment. So what then is enlightenment? It’s not something so easily summed up in a sentence, but regardless I will make an attempt. It is the knowing of greater reality than the one we perceive and realizing the teachings of Buddha.

Before we begin on the teachings, let’s take a look at who Buddha was.  To start, he was not  god, nor did he ever claim to be. Siddhartha Gotama was a prince and born over 2500 years ago in what is now present day Nepal. His upbringing was one of extreme luxury, and consequently also of sheltered bliss.  His father, after being told by a prophet that his son would either be a great world conqueror or a priest, chose to direct Siddhartha in a path away from religion and spirituality. This led to a life where Siddhartha had everything he wanted but  no chance to experience the real world or suffering.  Driven by curiosity, Siddhartha would often leave the palace to see how others lived. Here he saw four things which changed his life: an old man, a dead man, a diseased man, and an ascetic ( a person who denies himself the worldly pleasures of life). No longer sheltered b the suffering of others, he decided to leave his old life behind – including a wife and son- to lead the life of an ascetic and find the true meaning of life, and therefore achieve enlightenment. After several failed attempts, Buddha recalled a moment in childhood where he was able to reach a meditative state. By using this, known as jhana, he eventually discovered the “middle path” – the ability to investigate all our actions on an unbiased, upright ground so that truth can be found.

Dharma and Karma

Buddhists turn to the Three Jewels when looking for refuge or guidance: Dharma, Sangha (those who have attained enlightenment), and Buddha. Dharma is considered the truth and the teachings of Buddha. It is the natural law and the source of truth. By practicing Dharma, we protect ourselves from ignorance. By attaining peace in our mind, we increase our level of happiness. Karma, on the other hand, are the left over effects from our previous actions and lives. To sum it up, it is “what comes around goes around”. This law aims to identify why there is inequality around us or why bad things happen to good people. It is responsibility for our past and present actions.

The Four Noble Truths

The Four Noble Truths are one of the primary teachings in Buddhism.

1. Life is suffering. If we live, we will suffer. There will be pain, embarrassment, anger, etc… It is not bad, but a fact of life we must accept.
2. Suffering is caused by desire. From wanting things we feel angst, and even after we achieve our wants, it does not guarantee happiness. We suffer from our expectations. We must modify our wants.
3. We can stop our suffering, and be happy. By living in the present, not the past or perceived future, we can learn to be happy. By eliminating our useless desires, we can be happy and also help others.
4. The 8-Fold Path that leads to the end of suffering.

The Eight Fold Path

1. Right View
2. Right Intention
3. Right Speech
4. Right Action
5. Right Livelihood
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Concentration

“Right” signifies the perfect or ideal way of doing the Buddhist teaching. By following these steps, one can reach enlightenment and a release from suffering – the main objective of Buddhism. From these, there are 3 divisions. Wisdom is the first division and holds 1 and 2 which involves understanding the 4 Nobel Truths and committing to the Buddhist practices. The second division, Ethical Conduct, holds 3, 4, and 5 involves acting and speaking in a way which exudes wholesomeness and compassion towards others. Things such as prostitution, killing, intoxicants, and slavery are prohibited behaviors. The last division, Mental Discipline,(6,7,8) is where we are able to develop mental clarity and a true meditative state. Here our mind truly focuses. This is where our concentration levels increase, and we can apply it to our everyday lives.

Summary

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy. It outlines a way to lead life. It does not follow a god, and the statues of Buddha are not idols but reminders of the path a Buddhist should lead.  Buddhism does not ask its followers to take the word of Buddhism as is but to also discover for themselves what is truth. The above are guidelines to help one arrive to enlightenment. One should weight the karmic effect of our decisions, and aim for a path that does not harm any other living being or creature. The end goal of Buddhism is to break the cycle of suffering. From there, we can truly learn compassion and help others.

*Quote taken from:http://festivals.iloveindia.com/buddha-purnima/buddha-quote.html

**Information piled from the following sites: http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/5minbud.htm, http://www.aboutbuddha.org/english/buddha-teachings.htm/,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism, andhttp://www.geocities.com/lesliebarclay/buddhaintro1.html, http://www.thebigview.com/buddhism/eightfoldpath.html,http://buddhism.about.com/od/theeightfoldpath/a/eightfoldpath.htm.

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