Let me describe a work situation for you. You are given an assignment by your superior, which includes a description of how this task "should" basically go. Motivated but relatively inexperienced, you take on this task with vim and vigor, only to discover half way through the assignment that what "should" have occurred did not. Flustered and in a state of temporary confusion, you halt what you are doing and explain to your superior that what "should" have happened did not occur at all, but you are swiftly reprimanded for your incompetence. If this sounds familiar, I hope you are more experienced now and can reflect on the true problem here, which is the word "should". Though only a mischievous culprit in this case, "should" is arguably the most ruinous word, and if the stakes are high enough, deadly word, in the entire English language. If you don't believe me, I urge you to keep reading!
Contrary to the views of many, entropy makes the word "should" a rarely seen critter. Entropy refers to the amount of disorder inherent to a system under consideration, and as such, the odds are always against "should", because there is only one desired outcome and a myriad of undesired outcomes spawned from unforeseen or unprevented circumstances. The three main problems with the word "should" are as follows. The first is that entropy increases as the complexity of a system increases. For example, entropy is low when trying to arrange three blocks of different size in order of increasing size (1 correct answer but only 6 possible permutations) but much higher when considering a Rubik's cube (1 correct answer for 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 combinations). As we work on more complex systems, it is increasingly probable something will go wrong before we reach the desired outcome. The second problem is that protocols or instructions in a process to reach the outcome are not always followed. That is, other people at some point must do what they are supposed to do, but this is not guaranteed. The third problem with "should" stems from the inherent hubris we all possess. We think we are masters of our fields, but the word "should" betrays our ignorance, because it suggests to others we believe we are so knowledgeable that we know exactly how everything will occur for a series of events leading to the desired outcome. Does this sound possible?
In my humble opinion, people who truly resemble pundits do not use "should" but rather speak in terms of conditional statements and probabilities. It may sound more ugly and cumbersome, but remember that life is not always gift-wrapped with a little red bowtie on top. A lot of time, effort, and lives would be saved if we allowed people to cache the set of possibilities in our instructions or advice. For example, instead of saying "Don't worry, the airbag should deploy if you get into an accident" (reactive and hopeful advice but it sounds nice and neat) advise your teen to "drive slowly, wear your seatbelt, always use your turn signal, err on the side of caution, and always watch what the other drivers around you are doing, because the airbag is not guaranteed to work if you get into an accident" (proactive and plan-based advice that is much more cumbersome). If you think I am an old codger who is afraid of his shadow, I urge you to consider the current state of ebola in the United States. According to US officials, in the Texas hospital which treated a man (Eric Duncan) who had visited Liberia, there was a safety protocol that "should" have been followed when treating this man, but apparently it was not, which caused the health care worker treating Mr. Duncan to contract the disease. I just hope in this case that the word "should" does not cost this health care worker and many more of us (if the disease spreads) our lives. My younger brother (a programmer and software designer) used to tell me that in programming, having 1 solution to solve a problem is insufficient, and it is more useful to have 7 solutions for any given problem in case the other solutions don't work for some reason. I used to chuckle and say this was overkill, but in retrospect, I think this is one example of the younger brother acting as a pundit and the older brother acting as a fool "should".
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8764235
Saturday 5 March 2016
Space Exploration: A Catholic Perspective
Each state has various government agencies and they hold government auctions at different times of the year. They would publish the date and time of the auction in the local newspaper where the auction is the held and these details would also be available on their websites.
Each year the local and state departments will hold a sale of all seized property for the public so that they are able to free storage space and get some money for their respective departments. You can contact the local departments in your area to know the details about the auctions that are been held.
Depending on the size of the city or state you live in, these auctions will be held either once or twice a year or every quarter. There are hundreds of items that are available for sale in each state department government auctions and if you do adequate research you will be able to find all the items you want at very cheap prices.
4 Tips For Finding Government Auctions In Your State
Departments of the state government seize or confiscate homes, automobiles and other items due to illegal or criminal activities or for nonpayment of taxes or bills. Property that is confiscated in such a way is often sold to the public by inviting bids. Individuals who have placed the highest bid for a particular item will be successful in the bid.
You can contact the local office of the Sheriff or the city chamber of commerce or any other government department that holds the auction for a schedule and a list of items that are been sold.
Most of these state government agencies also have their own websites where details of the auction date and time are mentioned. You will also be able to see the various categories of items that will be offered for bidding.
The police department of the state will also seize and confiscate vehicles and other properties due to any illegal activity and these items are available for bidding to the public. Most of the items that are sold in the auction are priced at less than half of their original market price.
You would need to have completed 18 years of age and hold a valid driver's license to participate in the bidding process. There are various payment options that are available after successful completion of a bid and you would need to be aware about it to complete the process.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8766368
Each year the local and state departments will hold a sale of all seized property for the public so that they are able to free storage space and get some money for their respective departments. You can contact the local departments in your area to know the details about the auctions that are been held.
Depending on the size of the city or state you live in, these auctions will be held either once or twice a year or every quarter. There are hundreds of items that are available for sale in each state department government auctions and if you do adequate research you will be able to find all the items you want at very cheap prices.
4 Tips For Finding Government Auctions In Your State
Departments of the state government seize or confiscate homes, automobiles and other items due to illegal or criminal activities or for nonpayment of taxes or bills. Property that is confiscated in such a way is often sold to the public by inviting bids. Individuals who have placed the highest bid for a particular item will be successful in the bid.
You can contact the local office of the Sheriff or the city chamber of commerce or any other government department that holds the auction for a schedule and a list of items that are been sold.
Most of these state government agencies also have their own websites where details of the auction date and time are mentioned. You will also be able to see the various categories of items that will be offered for bidding.
The police department of the state will also seize and confiscate vehicles and other properties due to any illegal activity and these items are available for bidding to the public. Most of the items that are sold in the auction are priced at less than half of their original market price.
You would need to have completed 18 years of age and hold a valid driver's license to participate in the bidding process. There are various payment options that are available after successful completion of a bid and you would need to be aware about it to complete the process.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8766368
How To Find Government Auctions In Your State
Each state has various government agencies and they hold government auctions at different times of the year. They would publish the date and time of the auction in the local newspaper where the auction is the held and these details would also be available on their websites.
Each year the local and state departments will hold a sale of all seized property for the public so that they are able to free storage space and get some money for their respective departments. You can contact the local departments in your area to know the details about the auctions that are been held.
Depending on the size of the city or state you live in, these auctions will be held either once or twice a year or every quarter. There are hundreds of items that are available for sale in each state department government auctions and if you do adequate research you will be able to find all the items you want at very cheap prices.
4 Tips For Finding Government Auctions In Your State
Departments of the state government seize or confiscate homes, automobiles and other items due to illegal or criminal activities or for nonpayment of taxes or bills. Property that is confiscated in such a way is often sold to the public by inviting bids. Individuals who have placed the highest bid for a particular item will be successful in the bid.
You can contact the local office of the Sheriff or the city chamber of commerce or any other government department that holds the auction for a schedule and a list of items that are been sold.
Most of these state government agencies also have their own websites where details of the auction date and time are mentioned. You will also be able to see the various categories of items that will be offered for bidding.
The police department of the state will also seize and confiscate vehicles and other properties due to any illegal activity and these items are available for bidding to the public. Most of the items that are sold in the auction are priced at less than half of their original market price.
You would need to have completed 18 years of age and hold a valid driver's license to participate in the bidding process. There are various payment options that are available after successful completion of a bid and you would need to be aware about it to complete the process.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8766368
Each year the local and state departments will hold a sale of all seized property for the public so that they are able to free storage space and get some money for their respective departments. You can contact the local departments in your area to know the details about the auctions that are been held.
Depending on the size of the city or state you live in, these auctions will be held either once or twice a year or every quarter. There are hundreds of items that are available for sale in each state department government auctions and if you do adequate research you will be able to find all the items you want at very cheap prices.
4 Tips For Finding Government Auctions In Your State
Departments of the state government seize or confiscate homes, automobiles and other items due to illegal or criminal activities or for nonpayment of taxes or bills. Property that is confiscated in such a way is often sold to the public by inviting bids. Individuals who have placed the highest bid for a particular item will be successful in the bid.
You can contact the local office of the Sheriff or the city chamber of commerce or any other government department that holds the auction for a schedule and a list of items that are been sold.
Most of these state government agencies also have their own websites where details of the auction date and time are mentioned. You will also be able to see the various categories of items that will be offered for bidding.
The police department of the state will also seize and confiscate vehicles and other properties due to any illegal activity and these items are available for bidding to the public. Most of the items that are sold in the auction are priced at less than half of their original market price.
You would need to have completed 18 years of age and hold a valid driver's license to participate in the bidding process. There are various payment options that are available after successful completion of a bid and you would need to be aware about it to complete the process.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8766368
Animal Abuse in Fashion, and Going Alternative
If you wear a down coat or mink coat... You have indirectly supported animal abuse. You don't want a live creature to feel pain just to have their fur or feathers extracted; but you are likely keeping a few of these sins. When a coat is laid at the department store, or when a model is smiling in a fashionable article-- there was pain. There were inhumane methods of harvest, that are not highlighted. And, the reason these practitioners can continue to be cruel, is by profit. From each purchase, by a person, there is an incentive to carry on the cold business.
Browse, "PETA down feather abuse video."
The few minutes of the play will let you understand the fact that geese are made to live in an awful environment, so its feather farmers can brutally yank each one out. Every non-faux is no exception, to this downstaged truth. When your conscience makes you curious for an alternative that works and rocks your style, be assured. Non-animal-friendly fashion designers tend to swear by the effectiveness and demand of the "loft" from poultry. But, there have been advancements in science, that give you that same warmth.
Mink fur is no exception. Browsing PETA will let you in on another fashion industry secret: If it is not synthetic, faux, or plant-based, there was abuse. Your money can go for a nicer Thinsulate, and grow the business of a smarter kind-- science! There is distinguishable style in synthetic wear, so the use of real mink, down, or leather... is unjustified. Checking the labels, and going to the next one-- And, looking online for specific ingredients are recommended. Synthetic ones exist, looking the same.
When a leather product is in your vicinity, you may or may not grab it. The sensitivity of most buyers aren't touched, by the security. But, synthetic rayon and synthetic warmth have their legitimacy, too. Genuine leather is glorified, by the sales tactician, but the material is no better... if you are not being drenched in a rain. Among the glamorous photography and poses, and along the pros and cons-- There is no loss to faux choices. Selecting a brand of designer, like Gucci, might sound fabulous... But, there was blood. And, there is probably a cheaper and sexy option, somewhere else.
100% recycled materials, made in American factories, are available. It is not unlikely to see the fashion world catch onto its "radical" prospects that leak truths, and it is likely to see more shifts toward a different course of purchases. In our growing future, no company can survive a change in people's demands. It is the Age of Information.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8761265
Browse, "PETA down feather abuse video."
The few minutes of the play will let you understand the fact that geese are made to live in an awful environment, so its feather farmers can brutally yank each one out. Every non-faux is no exception, to this downstaged truth. When your conscience makes you curious for an alternative that works and rocks your style, be assured. Non-animal-friendly fashion designers tend to swear by the effectiveness and demand of the "loft" from poultry. But, there have been advancements in science, that give you that same warmth.
Mink fur is no exception. Browsing PETA will let you in on another fashion industry secret: If it is not synthetic, faux, or plant-based, there was abuse. Your money can go for a nicer Thinsulate, and grow the business of a smarter kind-- science! There is distinguishable style in synthetic wear, so the use of real mink, down, or leather... is unjustified. Checking the labels, and going to the next one-- And, looking online for specific ingredients are recommended. Synthetic ones exist, looking the same.
When a leather product is in your vicinity, you may or may not grab it. The sensitivity of most buyers aren't touched, by the security. But, synthetic rayon and synthetic warmth have their legitimacy, too. Genuine leather is glorified, by the sales tactician, but the material is no better... if you are not being drenched in a rain. Among the glamorous photography and poses, and along the pros and cons-- There is no loss to faux choices. Selecting a brand of designer, like Gucci, might sound fabulous... But, there was blood. And, there is probably a cheaper and sexy option, somewhere else.
100% recycled materials, made in American factories, are available. It is not unlikely to see the fashion world catch onto its "radical" prospects that leak truths, and it is likely to see more shifts toward a different course of purchases. In our growing future, no company can survive a change in people's demands. It is the Age of Information.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8761265
My Next Trick - Mud to Microbes!
For the first living thing to suddenly appear on earth would have been a very dramatic development indeed. Let's say the first living cell was a bacterium. At the very least it would have to find something appropriate to feed on, and then work out how to get rid of waste matter. It would also need to discover that essential for all living things - how to reproduce itself. Whilst it didn't have to engage in the tricky business of sex it did need to discover how to split into two separate individuals, each equipped with all the essentials of life.
The bacterium cell would have contained DNA which stores information. DNA consists of at least hundreds of genes which contain long chains of things called nucleotides. Each nucleotide has three parts - a phosphate group, a sugar, and four nitrogen bases. These bases are guanine (G), cytosine (C), adenine (A), and thymine (T).
The sequence in which these bases (G, C, A, and T) are arranged constitutes the cell's genetic code.This code tells the cell how to build the amino acids which are the building blocks for the proteins that are appropriate for that cell. Proteins are, of course,very complex; and they are absolutely essential for all life.
The explanation is often given that, just as 26 letters of the alphabet can be used to form an endless series of words that we use to produce our prodigious range of ideas, so these bases can be arranged to send out huge numbers of messages to direct in the development of all aspects of the cell's life, including its reproductive activity. It was a veritable library of information.
There are other freakish things that have to happen for a living cell to emerge from mud. For example, amino acids are either right-handed or left-handed. (Don't ask!) Amino acids in living things must all be left-handed. Seeing the probability of a left-handed amino acid turning up is 0.5 and assuming there were only 100 amino acid positions to fill in the first living cell the chances of all of them being filled by left-handed amino acids is 0.5 raised to the power of 100, which means the chances of getting all of the places being filled by left-handed amino acids is about one chance in 10 to the power of 30.
Unimaginative creationists say the chance of a living cell emerging with those skills is vanishingly small; therefore it didn't happen. Even many atheists agree that the chances are very slim. That's why they want to shift the problem of origins to outer space, and claim that life forms landed here via a meteorite or something similar. Creationist Christians likewise shift the problem to outer space and claim that God did it all.
Arguably the claims of evolutionists break down at the very first hurdle - the first cell. Thus if we can plausibly invoke God to organize the first jump to life then there is every reason to believe that He would have had a significant role in the later developments of living things as well. Many of them were quite freakish too.
What scientists need to do, and what they are certainly desperately trying to do, is to create a living creature themselves. If it happened originally by accident it can't be all that complicated, can it? But even if humans did create some simple life form it wouldn't persuade me that original life was an accident. Humans can create mouth organs, golf balls, bicycles and computers; but I don't expect ever to see some version of a mouth organ, a golf ball, or a miniature computer (that was clearly not man-made) emerging from dirt.
Oh, you say, there is no way for inorganic products to breed. Therefore a very primitive version of a mouth organ, for example, couldn't produce variations that would lead to more effective mouth organs through survival of the fittest. I agree. Nor was there any chance of chemicals producing the first living cell through variations and the survival of the fittest. Chemicals don't breed either.
I'm sure magicians could make it appear that they have turned mud into microbes, but I'm not a magician. And, alas, I won't be turning real mud into real microbes - unless a very freakish accident happens.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8743634
The bacterium cell would have contained DNA which stores information. DNA consists of at least hundreds of genes which contain long chains of things called nucleotides. Each nucleotide has three parts - a phosphate group, a sugar, and four nitrogen bases. These bases are guanine (G), cytosine (C), adenine (A), and thymine (T).
The sequence in which these bases (G, C, A, and T) are arranged constitutes the cell's genetic code.This code tells the cell how to build the amino acids which are the building blocks for the proteins that are appropriate for that cell. Proteins are, of course,very complex; and they are absolutely essential for all life.
The explanation is often given that, just as 26 letters of the alphabet can be used to form an endless series of words that we use to produce our prodigious range of ideas, so these bases can be arranged to send out huge numbers of messages to direct in the development of all aspects of the cell's life, including its reproductive activity. It was a veritable library of information.
There are other freakish things that have to happen for a living cell to emerge from mud. For example, amino acids are either right-handed or left-handed. (Don't ask!) Amino acids in living things must all be left-handed. Seeing the probability of a left-handed amino acid turning up is 0.5 and assuming there were only 100 amino acid positions to fill in the first living cell the chances of all of them being filled by left-handed amino acids is 0.5 raised to the power of 100, which means the chances of getting all of the places being filled by left-handed amino acids is about one chance in 10 to the power of 30.
Unimaginative creationists say the chance of a living cell emerging with those skills is vanishingly small; therefore it didn't happen. Even many atheists agree that the chances are very slim. That's why they want to shift the problem of origins to outer space, and claim that life forms landed here via a meteorite or something similar. Creationist Christians likewise shift the problem to outer space and claim that God did it all.
Arguably the claims of evolutionists break down at the very first hurdle - the first cell. Thus if we can plausibly invoke God to organize the first jump to life then there is every reason to believe that He would have had a significant role in the later developments of living things as well. Many of them were quite freakish too.
What scientists need to do, and what they are certainly desperately trying to do, is to create a living creature themselves. If it happened originally by accident it can't be all that complicated, can it? But even if humans did create some simple life form it wouldn't persuade me that original life was an accident. Humans can create mouth organs, golf balls, bicycles and computers; but I don't expect ever to see some version of a mouth organ, a golf ball, or a miniature computer (that was clearly not man-made) emerging from dirt.
Oh, you say, there is no way for inorganic products to breed. Therefore a very primitive version of a mouth organ, for example, couldn't produce variations that would lead to more effective mouth organs through survival of the fittest. I agree. Nor was there any chance of chemicals producing the first living cell through variations and the survival of the fittest. Chemicals don't breed either.
I'm sure magicians could make it appear that they have turned mud into microbes, but I'm not a magician. And, alas, I won't be turning real mud into real microbes - unless a very freakish accident happens.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8743634
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