I find it very difficult to not get angry.
I have confidence in my self discipline, but controlling my anger is something I have not yet mastered.
I believe it is very easy for a person like me to get angry.
I want to protect the environment and I am surrounded by people who don't care; it seems sometimes that anger is a reasonable reaction.
It is difficult to be surrounded by indifference.
Everyone living their little lives, missing the big picture.
Despite that, I should control my anger.
I should not call people stupid.
My anger solves nothing.
Freedom of Speech
The following is an excerpt from John Stuart Mill's On Liberty. In this excerpt, Mill gives his reasons on why freedom of speech is critical.
First, if any opinion is compelled to silence, that opinion may, for aught we can certainly know, be true. To deny this is to assume our own infallibility.
Secondly, though the silenced opinion be an error, it may, and very commonly does, contain a portion of truth; and since the general or prevailing opinion on any object is rarely or never the whole truth, it is only by the collision of adverse opinions that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied.
Thirdly, even if the received opinion be not only true, but the whole truth; unless it is suffered to be, and actually is, vigorously and earnestly contested, it will, by most of those who receive it, be held in the manner of a prejudice, with little comprehension or feeling of its rational grounds.
And not only this, but, fourthly, the meaning of the doctrine itself will be in danger of being lost, or enfeebled, and deprived of its vital effect on the character and conduct: the dogma becoming a mere formal profession, inefficacious for good, but cumbering the ground, and preventing the growth of any real and heartfelt conviction, from reason or personal experience.
First, if any opinion is compelled to silence, that opinion may, for aught we can certainly know, be true. To deny this is to assume our own infallibility.
Secondly, though the silenced opinion be an error, it may, and very commonly does, contain a portion of truth; and since the general or prevailing opinion on any object is rarely or never the whole truth, it is only by the collision of adverse opinions that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied.
Thirdly, even if the received opinion be not only true, but the whole truth; unless it is suffered to be, and actually is, vigorously and earnestly contested, it will, by most of those who receive it, be held in the manner of a prejudice, with little comprehension or feeling of its rational grounds.
And not only this, but, fourthly, the meaning of the doctrine itself will be in danger of being lost, or enfeebled, and deprived of its vital effect on the character and conduct: the dogma becoming a mere formal profession, inefficacious for good, but cumbering the ground, and preventing the growth of any real and heartfelt conviction, from reason or personal experience.
Solar Updraft Tower
I've recently been researching renewable energy and I re-stumbled upon the solar tower, more specifically the solar updraft tower. I'm not certain of how feasible this technology is so I'm not advocating it.
I just think it's cool.
The solar updraft tower is a proposed type of renewable energy power plant. It combines three old and proven technologies: The chimney effect, the greenhouse effect, and the wind turbine. Air is heated in a very large greenhouse-like structure around the base of a tall chimney, and the resulting convection causes the air to rise and escape through the tower. The air current in the greenhouse to the chimney drives turbines, which produce electricity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_updraft_tower
I just think it's cool.
The solar updraft tower is a proposed type of renewable energy power plant. It combines three old and proven technologies: The chimney effect, the greenhouse effect, and the wind turbine. Air is heated in a very large greenhouse-like structure around the base of a tall chimney, and the resulting convection causes the air to rise and escape through the tower. The air current in the greenhouse to the chimney drives turbines, which produce electricity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_updraft_tower
