A Ton of Crap
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2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23 …
There is an infinitude, or infinite set, of prime numbers and this concept was first demonstrated by Euclid in 300 b.c. A whole number that can be divided by numbers other than itself and 1 is known as a composite number. Furthermore, any whole number that has a value greater than 1 is either composite or prime.
STEM CELLS
What Are Stem Cells? Stem cells are a very special type of cell because during their early life and growth stages, they can actually develop into many different types of cells. Another very important feature of stem cells is that in a living body, they can be used as a repair system and divide infinitely, replenishing the other cells. During division of stem cells, the new cells can either turn into different types of cells that have a specific function or they can remain as stem cells. Under certain conditions, stem cells can actually turn into tissue or become organ-specific cells that carry out particular functions.
SPIRITUALISM, MEDIUMS, AND TALKING TO THE DEAD
Spiritualist Beliefs Spiritualism is a monotheistic religious movement that appeared in the nineteenth century. By the year 1897, there were more than 8 million followers in Europe and the United States. As accusations of fraud grew, Spiritualist churches began to appear, where spiritualism is still practiced to this day. Spiritualists believe in communicating with spirits of those who have passed on. They believe that after the death of the physical body, the soul lives on and that the soul can still improve and learn. In spiritualism, communicating with the dead is done by people who are gifted with the ability to do so. These people are known as mediums.
LESSON 38B
Y2K
Response by the U.S. Government The United States Government passed the Year 2000 Information and Readiness Disclosure Act on October 19, 1998. The Act was intended to promote the sharing of information related to the Y2K problem from the private sector, and for their help, the companies were provided with a limited amount of protection and exemption from antitrust policies. The White House worked with FEMA, which was independent at the time and created websites as a form of outreach. Federal agencies had their own task forces associated with Y2K and worked with the private sector. The United States spent $300 billion dollars in preparation for Y2K.
JOSEPH PULITZER
His Early Career in Publishing In 1872, Joseph Pulitzer purchased the St. Louis Post for $3,000, as well as a German newspaper. The profits from the Post were able to pay for his law school education. In 1878, Pulitzer, who had started a law firm, closed it and purchased the St. Louis Dispatch, which had been in trouble. He combined the Post and Dispatch into one paper, and focused on writing about corruption, gambling, tax fraud, and lotteries. He made it his goal to clean up and repair St. Louis.
PRIME NUMBERS
The Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic The fundamental theorem of arithmetic states that all integers that are positive and larger than 1 can be written as the product of one or many primes so that it is unique except, perhaps, for the order of prime factors. What this theory says is that primes are the building blocks of numbers that are natural or composite. Prime factorization is the process of finding out what prime numbers make up a natural number. For example, if you wanted to find the prime factors of 18, you would do:
18 ÷ 2 = 9
9 ÷ 3 = 3
18 = 32 × 2
STEM CELLS
Unique Properties of Stem Cells Stem cells are not like any other cells found in the body, and they have three properties, no matter the source. Stem cells have the capability to divide and renew themselves over long periods of time, a characteristic that blood cells, muscle cells, and nerve cells do not have. Stem cells are not specialized, meaning they do not have functions like carrying oxygen or pumping blood. Instead, they create specialized types of cells. The process of creating a specialized cell from an unspecialized cell is known as differentiation.
SPIRITUALISM, MEDIUMS, AND TALKING TO THE DEAD
Mediums Mediums communicate with the dead to provide messages to the living. There are two types of mediums: physical mediums and mental mediums. Physical mediums usually only work with séances. This is because anyone sitting next to the medium will see and hear what is going on around them. With mental mediums, the process is in the mind of the medium. There are three forms that mediums identify: clairvoyance (seeing the spirit), clairaudience (hearing the spirit), and clairsentience (sensing the thoughts and presence of the spirit).
LESSON 38C
Y2K
International Response Funded by the World Bank, the International Y2K Cooperation Center was established and met on December 11, 1998. Among the things discussed at the meeting were planning for crises, testing computers, and communication among countries. The IY2KCC intended to promote worldwide programs, promote coordination with geographic areas, and promote communication and support from the private sectors.
JOSEPH PULITZER
The New York World In 1883, at the age of thirty-six, Pulitzer bought the New York World for a total of $346,000 from its owner, who was reportedly losing $40,000 a year on the paper. Pulitzer made the paper focus on scandals, sensationalized stories, and human-interest pieces, and used the paper to expose fraud and abuses. In 1909, Pulitzer was indicted when the New York World reported that the U.S. government fraudulently paid $40 million dollars to the French Panama Canal Company. Pulitzer was indicted for libeling Roosevelt. The case was dismissed, however, and it was a very important moment concerning freedom of the press.
PRIME NUMBERS
Euclid’s Theorem As previously stated, prime numbers are infinite. This is actually a theorem, known as Euclid’s theorem. There are many proofs that show Euclid’s theorem to be true. Euclid showed this with his own proof. His proof stated that if you have a list of prime numbers, there will always be another one after the last number you’ve written. If P is the product of the prime numbers and q = P + 1, the answers produced will be either prime or not prime. Though this doesn’t only give prime answers, it proves the number of primes goes on infinitely.
STEM CELLS
Embryonic Stem Cells The stem cells taken from embryos are known as embryonic stem cells. These cells are mostly derived from the embryos of eggs fertilized in vitro, which are then donated for further research. These cells are then grown in the laboratory. If grown under proper conditions, embryonic stem cells can remain undifferentiated. If they begin clumping together, they will differentiate spontaneously and begin to form various types of cells. When scientists attempt to generate a specific type of cell, they control the differentiation. Today, scientists have “recipes” that tell them how to make particular cells.
SPIRITUALISM, MEDIUMS, AND TALKING TO THE DEAD
Communication with the Dead in Other Religions Though Spiritualism derived from Christianity, many other religions have a similar concept of being able to talk to the dead. In indigenous religions and animism, shamans contact the dead and the spiritual world. Animists believe that shamans can talk not only to the dead, but also with the spirit of nature. Sufism, which is considered a mystical branch of Islam, believes that communication with the dead is possible as well. There are also some Wiccan religions that believe the dead can talk to humans.
LESSON 38D
Y2K
Panic Y2K created a mass panic, and people began preparing for a disaster. Insurance companies began selling policies that covered the Y2K crisis, stores began stocking up on food and even began selling freeze-dried foods. People feared the stock market would crash and that planes would stop working and fall from the sky. A survey of 14,000 people found that more than half of the people were going to take cash out of their bank accounts that would last them two to six weeks.
JOSEPH PULITZER
Yellow Kid During World War I, Pulitzer and Hearst were competing with one another in the newspaper industry using yellow journalism. In 1886, the New York World incorporated a color section, and was one of the first papers to do so. Pulitzer hired ca
rtoonist Richard F. Outcault, and he created Hogan’s Alley, featuring his character, the Yellow Kid, one of the world’s first newspaper comics, which became immensely popular. William Randolph Hearst was extremely impressed with the work of Pulitzer, and bought Outcault from the New York World to join his paper. Pulitzer then hired George Luks to create the Yellow Kid series.
PRIME NUMBERS
The Largest Known Prime Since Euclid has proven that prime numbers go on infinitely, mathematicians have been trying to discover larger prime numbers that exist. The Electronic Frontier Foundation even awards prizes for those who find the next largest prime numbers. Many of the largest prime numbers are called Mersenne numbers, named after the seventeenth-century monk who created the formula Mp = 2p – 1. Of the ten highest prime numbers found, the top nine are Mersenne primes, and the tenth is the highest non-Mersenne prime. Currently, the largest prime is 243,112,609 − 1.
STEM CELLS
Adult Stem Cells Adult stem cells are undifferentiated cells that exist around differentiated cells in a tissue or organ and have the ability to renew and differentiate to create some or all of the specific types of cells in the tissue or organ. In living organisms, stem cells repair and maintain the tissue they exist in. Whereas the embryonic stem cell is derived from the embryo, scientists still do not know where the adult stem cells are derived from, and they have been identified in the brain, heart, teeth, skin, skeletal muscle, testes, ovarian epithelium, liver, blood vessels, peripheral blood, and gut.
SPIRITUALISM, MEDIUMS, AND TALKING TO THE DEAD
Emanuel Swedenborg Emanuel Swedenborg lived from 1688 to 1772. At the age of fifty-six, Swedenborg, who was a Swedish scientist, inventor, and philosopher, claimed to have had a spiritual awakening. Swedenborg began having dreams and visions, and he believed he was chosen by God to reform Christianity with a new doctrine. Following his supposed awakening, Swedenborg published eighteen books, with his most well-known book being Heaven and Hell. In his Life on Other Planets, Swedenborg claimed he had communicated with spirits from the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Saturn, Venus, and Jupiter. The fact that he had not communicated with spirits from Neptune or Uranus, which had not been discovered yet, has raised concern over his credibility.
LESSON 38E
Y2K
Solutions The Y2K problem was solved in several different ways. Dates were expanded, meaning the two-digit years in programs, databases, and files were changed to four-digit years. For databases whose size was too large to change, codes that were six-digit year/month/day were changed into three-digit days and three-digit years (this was known as date repartitioning). In the process of windowing, the two-digit years were kept, and the programs had to determine the century only when it was needed for a specific function. This process required installations of code and was much simpler than expanding the dates.
JOSEPH PULITZER
Journalism Schools In 1892, Joseph Pulitzer approached the president of Columbia University about creating the first ever journalism school, and offered to pay for it. Pulitzer was turned down; however, in 1902, the new president of Columbia University took him up on his offer. The journalism school, however, was not created until after Pulitzer’s death. In his will, Pulitzer left Columbia University $2 million dollars, and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism was created in 1934. By the time Columbia University created the school, the University of Missouri, from the sway of Pulitzer, had created the Missouri School of Journalism.
PRIME NUMBERS
Trial Division Trial division is an extremely complex process with a very simple idea. The basic concept of trial division is to see if a number that is going to be factored (n) can be divided by a number greater than 1 but less than that number (n). This means that one has to test whether n is divisible by a number that is not itself. You begin by two and work your way up. If a number is not divisible by two, it will not be divisible by four (because four is divisible by two). This rule applies for any multiples. So from that, we can determine that the only numbers worth testing are prime numbers.
STEM CELLS
Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells An induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) is an adult cell that is reprogrammed into an embryonic cell-like state with the use of viruses. This is done by forcing the cell to express factors and genes that are important for keeping the important properties of embryonic stem cells. Scientists do not know if embryonic stem cells and iPSCs differ in any important ways. Use of iPSCs has been very important in developing drugs and modeling diseases. Scientists hope to use iPSCs with transplantations. Using the viruses to change the adult cells needs further studying, however. Scientists have noticed that introduction of the viruses can cause cancers.
SPIRITUALISM, MEDIUMS, AND TALKING TO THE DEAD
Houdini’s Quest Famous magician and escape artist Harry Houdini made it a lifetime goal of his to debunk mediums and show the world that they were fraudulent. He would attend several séances dressed in disguise and expose their tricks to reporters and policemen. He even hired researchers to learn about the psychics in the audience of his performances, so that when it was show time, he would invite them to the stage and outsmart them. Houdini began to include in his own performances the how-to process of creating a séance. Before Houdini died, he told his wife that if it was possible to communicate to the dead, he would pass a code on to her. On the tenth anniversary of his death, Houdini’s wife held a séance on the radio. After none of the mediums could break the code (though they claimed to), Harry’s wife said that Houdini did not come through and that it was finished.
LESSON 38F
Y2K
Errors from Y2K Though the crisis was averted, there were some errors that occurred on January 1, 2000. A webpage on the national weather forecasting system of France showed a map with the date 01/01/19100. On the website of the U.S. Naval Observatory (where the official time of the country is kept), the date was reported as Jan. 1, 19100. In Japan, equipment that monitored radiation stopped working at midnight and an alarm went off at a nuclear power plant. In two states of Australia, machines used for validating bus tickets stopped working.
JOSEPH PULITZER
Pulitzer Prize Joseph Pulitzer died at the age of sixty-four in 1911. In Pulitzer’s will, he made very specific provisions for the creation of a prize; however, he allowed for changes to occur. The prizes would be four awards in journalism, four awards in letters and drama, four scholarships, and one award in education. The first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded in 1917. The Board of the Pulitzer Prize has since made additional awards, including categories like music, online journalism, and multimedia. The Pulitzer Prize has even been given to cartoonists.
PRIME NUMBERS
Prime Gaps When there is a sequence of numbers and there are no prime numbers that show up, it is called a prime gap. Another way to think of prime gaps is it is the difference between two successive numbers that are prime. For example:
Primes: 2 3 5 7 11 13 17…
Gaps: 1 2 2 4 2 4….
Mathematically, this is written as: gn = Pn + 1 – Pn
In this formula, gn is the nth prime gap and Pn represents the nth prime number.
STEM CELLS
Uses of Stem Cells Stem cells can be used for a wide variety of things. Human stem cells can be used when testing drugs. For example, stem cells are currently used for screening anti-tumor drugs. Perhaps the most impressive way stem cells can be used, however, is for cell-based therapies. Stem cells offer the possibility of renewing and replacing cells and even generating tissues. This would allow treatment of ailments and diseases such as Alzheimer’s, stroke, heart disease, burns, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoarthritis by healing destroyed tissue.
SPIRITUALISM, MEDIUMS, AND TALKING TO THE DEAD
How to Conduct a Séance
Step 1. Gather your participants (there should be at least three people) around a round table. The table makes a symbolic circle that is needed.
Step 2. Choose your medium
. It can be a person among your group or someone who has had experience talking with the dead.
Step 3. Place a simple, natural food that is aromatic at the center of the table and light candles (at least three—the more the better) and dim the lights.
Step 4. Sit around the table and join hands.
Step 5. To summon the spirit, the medium must say: “Our beloved [name of the spirit], we bring you gifts from life into death. Commune with us, [name of the spirit], and move among us.” Wait for something to happen. If nothing happens, repeat Step 5.
Step 6. When there is communication, have your medium ask simple questions with yes or no answers (one noise for yes, two noises for no).
Step 7. If the situation gets out of control and you need to end the séance, break the circle, put out the candles, and turn on the lights. If not out of control and you have finished your questions, thank the spirit, tell them to go in peace, break the circle, put out the candles, and turn on the lights.