This World and Me

The brilliant To Kill a Mockingbird had a profound impact on American literature. Its powerful themes of empathy and prejudice remain painfully relevant today and will remind and inspire us for generations to come. Rest in peace, Harper Lee.

I admired this man's devotion to the Constitution of the United States and the passion with which he defended it. The candor and wit he brought to every proceeding have undoubtedly shaped the ways we interpret the law today. Rest in peace, Justice Antonin Scalia. The image at the top was originally taken in 2010 by Stephen Masker, who has made it freely available under the CC BY 2.0 Generic license . It was adapted by me, and the adapted version is available under the same license.

The world faces a crisis. At the end of 2014, there were 19.5 million refugees on Earth, most of whom were displaced by the devastating civil war currently raging in Syria. As the world struggles to resolve the crisis, it is becoming increasingly imperative that we understand what  is at stake, even before we think about the implications. One such imperative understanding is the difference between the two often fallaciously interchanged terms "refugee" and "migrant." The difference is stated perhaps most eloquently by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees  (UNHCR): Refugees  are persons fleeing armed conflict or persecution. The situation in their own nation is so incredibly dangerous that they must leave their country in search of safety that may be provided by other countries or organizations.  These are people for whom denial of asylum has potentially deadly consequences . Migrants  are people who choose  to move, not because of armed co...

On Thursday, February 11, 2016, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in Livingston, Louisiana and Hanford, Washington, announced the first direct observation of gravitational waves. Part of the scientific method  and any scientific theory is being able to make testable predictions. This is an ecstatic moment for science because such waves were predicted by Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, which he had published in 1915. The direct observation of gravitational waves further solidifies the theory, and provides a strong basis for further experimentation, observation, and prediction. The scientists at LIGO are almost certainly going to receive a Nobel Prize in Physics for their contributions. Comment from discussion ELI5: Why is today's announcement of the discovery of gravitational waves important, and what are the ramifications? . I have  posted about science  before. Science is—and always will be—a...

This post comes as a sort of follow-up to this old post . In that post, I pointed out that different people have different artistic tastes, and the fact that other people don't enjoy something does not necessarily indicate that you shouldn't enjoy the same thing too. Also, it is questionable whether enjoying something solely because other people enjoy it is really true enjoyment. I suppose a corollary to that is challenging whether disliking something solely because other people dislike it truly means that one dislikes it. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic , an animated TV show with a target audience of girls aged 4-7, comes to me as a good example of all this. Despite its young demographic, the show has unexpectedly garnered a massive fan following consisting of older viewers, many of which are male adults. Indeed, the My Little Pony fandom —the members of which identify themselves as "bronies"—has grown to be notorious. I suppose the question I really want to a...

I am in a state of bliss right now. Pure ecstasy. For on this first day of February, two thousand sixteen, American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and Minnesotan music producer Adam Young released his first album as "Adam Young." I've posted before about Mr. Young. He is more widely known for Owl City, one of many musical projects he has created over the years. One of Owl City's songs, "Fireflies," propelled him into the international spotlight and peaked at position one on the national charts of seven countries. Today's album epitomizes exactly what draws me to Owl City and the ingenious man behind it. Every single instrument, every single lyric, every single sound—the overwhelming majority of Owl City was conceived, written, produced, engineered, recorded, and mastered by only one person. Owl City is often mistaken for a band, because (until today) Young doesn't use his own name for his musical endeavors. "Owl City" is mor...