Tag Archives: Einstein

World War IV….. 1

Military, Other Quotes, Quotes • Tags: ,
Quote of the Day
Einstein2I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. -Albert Einstein

When I came across this Einstein quote it almost made me shudder. Even though I have heard it before it struck me this time.  We are advancing technologically at an astounding pace in recent years.  Integrated circuits are in just about every device we now buy. Artificial intelligence is being used for so many things today.  Unfortunately because the Pentagon budgets take the biggest bite out of our discretionary spend technology is at the forefront in our ability to kill those we currently don’t like for one reason or another.

Our killing machines are becoming so advanced that we can now kill thousands of times more of the “enemy” than we could even fifty years ago.  With all this in mind I know that Albert was saying that our next world war would likely destroy worldwide civilizations such that the one after that would be amongst the few survivors that are left.

We seem to alway have an enemy that we want to destroy. In the past it has been the dreaded communists. In the present it is those who have a radicalized view of their religion.  For one reason or another we have been at war with each other throughout our history. Do we stand a chance of not having a World War III? I just don’t know but I selfishly don’t want to be around when  or if it happens as it will likely truly be the “was to end all wars”.

Thanks Albert for bringing this to our attention. I only pray that I am not the only one to shudder at the possibility of your words…

Stupidity, Insanity & Cluttered Desks……

Inspiring, Other Quotes, Quotes • Tags: , ,
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Eisnstein 1Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe. ~ Albert Einstein

Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. ~ Albert Einstein

If a cluttered desk is that of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk? ~ Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was one of my first heroes in life. His biography was one of the first “really long” books I read in my early life. I always felt an almost kindred relationship with him.  I think maybe I am an “ignorant” version of him. From his early life he, like me, was always asking “why?”.  If he were a kid today I’m sure he would be diagnosed as ADD; I’m sure I would have too. So, with this post I want to bring up a few of his quotes that inspire me. More…

No…..

Inspiring, Quotes • Tags: , , , ,

I am thankful to all those who said NO to me. It’s because of them I did it myself.  –Albert Einstein

After collecting a number of Einstein quotes he is becoming one of my favorites and this is one of the best ones. I know in my life I have always asked “Why is this like ….” I often get the equivalent of “no” as a reply or maybe more accurately “this is the way we have always done it…” or some such as that.

Those refusals to take seriously my “why” has made me stronger over the years. It is one of the things that has enabled me to cope with my deafness. I won’t fall into the box that people want to put those who cannot hear. The “deaf and dumb” label is still alive today.

My asking why and then having to go about finding out why myself has made me stronger. One case in point is when I questioned my religious leaders about why we seem to ignore Jesus’ words today I was pretty much told that we are just worthless people who can’t do that but he loves us anyway. That answer just didn’t play with me. Since I could get no answer that made any sense I went about finding out the answer myself. I spent years studying the words of Jesus and the history of religion. As a result I now have my answer that my religious leader either didn’t want to tell me our just didn’t know himself. What is the answer?  To find that out join me on the journey of the history of the church over at RedLetterLiving in the coming months to find out.  The answers just might surprise you :)

Don’t ever stop asking questions and don’t ever take “no” or “that is the way we have always done it” for an answer especially in todays political environment. Thomas Jefferson’s quote the “a democracy depends on an informed electorate” is more urgent today than it has ever been. Continue asking questions and seeking answers; don’t just sit back and accept the spin that others put on the story.

But what do I know….

From Eleanor… 3

Inspiring, Off The Top • Tags: , , ,
Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself –  Eleanor Roosevelt

I have sure made my share of mistakes but haven’t we all? Sometimes I don’t but I like to believe that I learn from my mistakes and try not to make them again. But some mistakes creep up on me and I stubbornly refuse to admit that they are mistakes at all.  Instead I blame them on circumstance or outside factors or just plain dumb luck.  Let’s admit it, no one likes to admit mistakes.

Eleanor Roosevelt was as most of us know the wife of our 32nd president. Franklin Roosevelt, FDR as he was common called, was the only president to serve three terms in office. Well almost three, he died in office before the end of his third term. He was president during World War II. The conservatives around today absolutely hate him as he was the president to start many “liberal” things such as Social Security, the minimum wage and other humanitarian stuff. He died in office just before the end of the war.

But I am getting off track here, Eleanor his wife was a very unique First Lady. She, unlike many women in her day, had much to say about many things. Eleanor had a somewhat contentious relationship with her husband. Here is what Wikipedia says about that:

Despite its happy start and Roosevelt’s intense desire to be a loving and loved wife, their marriage almost disintegrated over Franklin’s affair with his wife’s social secretary Lucy Mercer (later Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd). When Eleanor learned of the affair from Mercer’s letters, which she discovered in Franklin’s suitcases in September 1918, she was brought to despair and self-reproach. She told Franklin she would insist on a divorce if he did not immediately end the affair. He knew that a divorce would not reflect well on his family, so he ended the relationship….

Although the marriage survived, Eleanor emerged a different woman, coming to the realization that she could achieve fulfillment only through her own influence…

And indeed she did achieve fulfillment through her own influence.  She was probably the most active First Lady in our nation’s existence and stayed active  for years after her husband’s death.

Getting back to the quote at hand. We all need to learn from others mistakes. But that doesn’t seem to be happening much anymore especially in the political sphere. Those guys in Washington seem to repeat the same mistakes over and over again. This brings up another quote from one of my heroes Albert Einstein:

insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results

But that is a topic for another post…

Inspiring Words…

Inspiring • Tags: , , , , ,


Here it is Sunday again. On this day I try to give you a post about something or someone who inspires me.  For today I have chosen a quote from Albert Einstein. I will not even bother to tell you who he is as I’m pretty sure you all know.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning.  – Albert Einstein

Of course Einstein was a brilliant scientist but he was also a brilliant and inspiring thinker. His words above should be how all of us approach life.

Learn from yesterday — If we don’t learn from our experiences, especially our mistakes, then as someone else said you are bound to repeat them. Sometimes over and over again. :) Einstein certainly didn’t always get it right the first time; he learned from his mistakes. The same is true for me, and I expect most of you. I became pretty proficient in designing and writing software apps in my professional life but that didn’t occur overnight. It only occurred after learning from previous stumbling attempts.

Live for today — The trouble with many is that they continue to live in the past. I have a friend who was traumatized by his experiences in the Vietnam war forty years ago. He lives that war on a daily basis. He always wears his jacket lined with medals and things from the war. He just never managed to leave the war behind him. The trouble with others is that they are always thinking and planning for the future so the present just slips by them. The only thing that is real is today. Everything else is just thoughts or dreams.

Hope for tomorrow –  This one I a struggle with. I seem to frequently get into a dark mood about how things are going. I can’t see any silver linings in tomorrow. I am certainly not alone is these types of feeling. Mark Twain was one famous person who became very cynical in his later years. He just could not see anything good about tomorrow. His writing in the last ten years of his life was very depressing to read.  We must always have “hope for tomorrow”. I am now constantly on the look-out for examples where tomorrow might be brighter than today.

Not stop questioning – To me this is probably the most important part of this inspiring quote. To question things is the only way to make them better. If questions are stifled then creativity is trampled and the truth is often untold. I can proudly say that I have never stopped questioning; that sometimes gets me in trouble especially with those who panic about change as answers to questions often result in change. For me to be without questions is to be without life. How do you like that one for a quote?? :)

Thanks Albert for giving me such valuable guidance for my life…

Albert You Are Safe, For Now…..

About Life • Tags: , ,

Source:  Cosmic Log – Flaw found in faster-than-light setup.

Months after researchers reported that they measured neutrinos traveling faster than light, they’re finding that the incredible result may have been due to a bad connection rather than a violation of Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity.

A while ago I made a post about how scientists today disproved Einstein’s theory of relativity. It was reported that they had been able to measure the speed of a neutrino that was faster than light. According to Albert when things approach the speed of light they end up as pure energy. Well it looks like the scientists needed to kick their equipment as a loose connection caused an error .

Whenever my internet connection goes down, and it goes down quite frequently in my rural area, I usually give it a virtual kick in the pants otherwise known as a reset to get it re-booted. I haven’t had to do that with my new LCD TV yet but I imagine that day is coming as it is approaching warranty expiration. Maybe that is what happened to these scientist’s equipment? It get got out of warranty and therefore is going on the blink?

Why don’t they make things like the did in the “good old days”? That is a question I hear often especially from my wife and the other old people I encounter ;)  The good old days are always thought to be better than today. I’m afraid that is a result of “selective memory”. Sometimes we seniors just have the malady. I remember the good old days of the 60s and 70s when it came to automobiles. Looking back I would actually call them pieces of junk. We had to get a new car about every three or four years if you wanted reliable transportation.  Few cars in those days lasted more than 100,000 miles. After the car was a year old the repair season began. Usually it started with a new fuel pump, water pump, alternator or a number of other failures. Then came the exhaust and brake systems. The good old days were just not the good old days when it came to our cars. Cars are infinitely more reliable now than they were in the good old days.

I, as usual, got off topic here but that is one of the rights of passage into maturity I guess. Getting back on subject it looks like E=mC 2 is safe for now. But disappointingly that put the Star Trek warp drive back on the back burner. You were indeed a brilliant guy Albert but I hope someday to see your theory is proved wrong so we can get on with “traveling where no person has gone before……

Say It Isn’t So….

Off The Top • Tags: , , ,

Source: Cosmic Log – Faster-than-light neutrinos confirmed.

Goodbye E=m² !!!

It looks like scientists have discovered that matter can travel faster than the speed of light. One of Einstein’s simplest and most dramatic theories postulated that this was impossible. According to the theory when matter approaches the speed of light it turns into pure energy. He also postulated that matter no bigger than an eraser could create more energy than all the stockpiles of nuclear bombs now in existence.

Einstein was definitely one of my heroes as I was growing up. I think I read his biography when I was in my early teens. I loved his attitude on life and his crazy hair! I always dreamed that I would discover something as mind-blowing as he did. Unfortunately I moved off a career path very early on that made that pretty much impossible even if I had, which I didn’t, the intellect and creativity he did. Early on I was convinced that I wanted to be an astronomer when I grew up. I read scores of books on the topic. But when I discovered that almost no one actually got a job in astronomy and that the pay was not as good as a typical engineer I changed career paths. I don’t regret that decision but I do sometimes wonder what my life would have been if I had followed my initial dreams.

So, I was somewhat disappointed to learn that Einstein might have not gotten somethings totally right. But that does open a door for another of my dreams and that is Star Trek. Anyone who has seen any of the movies or TV series know that in order to move through the universe they used a warp drive to go faster than light. If that were not possible it would take thousands of years just to get out of our galaxy. Maybe this discovery is the very beginning of making warp drives possible? ;)

So, sorry Albert that one of your theories might be on the trash heap but it does open up a myriad of other possibilities. Maybe I can put it in my will to use some of my dust in the first warp drive???

Hello Warp Drive!!