by Dr. Kent M. Keith

1. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
   Love them anyway.
   
2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
   Do good anyway.
   
3. If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.
   Succeed anyway.
   
4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
   Do good anyway.
   
5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
   Be honest and frank anyway.
   
6. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
   Think big anyway.
   
7. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
   Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
   
8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
   Build anyway.
   
9. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
   Help people anyway.
   
10. Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
    Give the world the best you have anyway.

© 1968, 2001 Kent M. Keith

“The Paradoxical Commandments” were written by Kent M. Keith in 1968 as part of a booklet for student leaders.

Well from the headline, it’s obvious this is just an opinion, but I am thoroughly impressed by this new site Grooveshark . I don’t know about you, but when I discover one of these many gems throughout the internet I just wanna talk to whoever listens letting them know how cool they are. I get really excited about these things, sites like this inspire me to learn more everyday so I may be able to give back one day in some reasonable proportion… But I digress, and I didn’t even get started. Sorry about that.

Essentially you can play any song at anytime, create playlists, even upload your own music. It’s really amazing, I don’t know how the RIAA is going to feel about this, but for now I guess we can just enjoy and explore the possibilities. This is a portable playlist at it’s finest, you can create a playlist at home, and play it anywhere you have access to a connection. You can also connect with friends and share songs. It also has similar functionality as Pandora does with the way it picks similar songs to the ones that you have listened to.

Many people may now be wondering, is this a sharing site, as in can I download from this site. Currently you can download from the site through either Amazon mp3 or Itunes.

So some may think I am easily impressed, but I hope this site impresses you as much as it did for me. So I encourage you to check it out at Grooveshark.com please leave some comments of your thoughts and or discoveries. Thanks for reading.

Who would have thought that technology would enable anyone anywhere to attend classes at such esteemed colleges and universities as Harvard and Stanford, among other great schools like MIT and Berkley. I’m in heaven, as a philosopher by nature to have all this additional information at my fingertips.

I have recently started exploring these classes and podcasts, and now I can even watch lectures on my AppleTV. I am currently enrolled at NYIT and I often find myself looking for information to supplement what I get in my classes. Initially this was only available through podcasts which I have enjoyed for the past several years, but recently Itunes has just added a new tab called Itunes U for Itunes University. The best part about these videos and audio files is they are shared  free of charge, in the same spirit that the internet was developed.

I have watched many different videos and listened to many audio only lectures, and I have to commend the people who participate in this. So if you have not already done so definitely check it out in your Itunes store. If you like information I am sure you will not be disappointed. This makes me think of the quote from Good Will Hunting “You wasted $150,000.00 on a education that you could have got for a $1.50 worth of late fees at the public library”. Don’t  get me wrong I am not attempting to belittle those of you that attend these fine schools, I am just grateful that this information has become available to some of the underprivileged. Thanks for reading

Here is a couple of the sites with additional info or you can just open up your Itunes and click the Itunes U tab under the Itunes Store.

Stanford Itunes U

Harvard Itunes U

MIT Itunes U

So I am on this new Iphone app kick, and I am getting into checking out all different sorts of applications. One that I have recently started using often is called Gowalla and you can check it out at Gowalla.com . Basically it uses GPS to track you position so you can share with friends all the places you go and explore. You can create places if they have not already been created, which is pretty cool, at times I feel some resemblance  of a astronaut stepping on some uncharted territory. Well maybe that’s a stretch of the imagination, but what’s wrong with that. I enjoy seeing other people exploring this new technology and thinking of the possibilities of expanding on this.Yesterday I was thinking it would be cool to develop app using this GPS information to track Ice cream trucks, because really who doesn’t love ice cream. So I encourage you to download this app and explore away, you can also create trips so that others can enjoy some of the hidden pleasures that you have enjoyed. If you do decide to download this app look me up and I’ll be your friend chrisnolte is my username.

Another similar application to this is called FourSquare which I use as well and it has all the same features as Gowalla I use that app as well because I really enjoy the possibilities of these apps. I hope that you find this post helpful, and I hope you enjoy these apps as much as I do. Thanks to my brother Jeff for recommending this app.

My computer science teacher put me on to this site WolframAlpha.com a couple of months ago, and I was thoroughly amazed. He also informed me that they have a Iphone app available for $50.00 and I was actually considering purchasing it from the impression I got from there website, luckily they have lowered the price to a measly $1.99 a couple of days ago, so I couldn’t help myself.

I just started poking around, and you can find all sorts of information like the magnification of photography lenses at different focal points, to the wingspan of a  specific model airplane. You can look up information about DNA, you can enter a math function and integrate it just by typing it in. There really seems to be no limit to the amount of information available in this application, and the great part of it is all the sources are completely  reliable.

So basically if you like knowing intricate details of stuff, or you like an easy way to access information you really should check this out.

My name is Chris Nolte and I approve this message

Also here is a great video explaining some of the amazing features of the Wolfram Alpha project

Friedrich Nietzsche was arguably one of the first people to write “God is dead”, or at least the first one to fully expand on that idea. This is one of the most profound ideas, in my opinion, ever to be cast upon human existence; the unfortunate fact is that most are not able to conceive it. Nietzsche uses many tactics to help people think outside of this cookie cutter life that limits us. This seems to be a philosophy that has been emerging rapidly over the past several years with books like The Secret, The Power of Now, New Earth, and many other spiritual books that question the many religious teachings that have guided our world for centuries.
Nietzsche is very admirable, in that he speaks the unspeakable, and devoted his whole life to the expansion, and expression of his ideas, which continued until his death in 1900. His works were however not very well received, as most deliberately contradicted the belief systems of most of the world; particularly the Judeo-Christian World. His way of thinking freely, without restrictions or concern of repercussion, made him in my eyes very noble.

Plato is to most, the best source of information about Socrates, as he seemed to understand him best, for Plato was a philosopher himself. He was forty years younger than Socrates, and much of his beliefs, and theories where discovered due to Socrates help. He was one of many of Socrates students, but he was probably the most devoted. He seemed to grasp the way that Socrates mind worked; I don’t feel that this is something that the average Joe could accomplish. His believes often coincided with Socrates’ although many of them seemed to evolve later in Plato’s life. Plato became the conduit in which Socrates ideas lived on.

Plato’s dialogues were divided into three categories, the early dialogues, the middle, and late. These were separated by the time in Plato’s life when he wrote them, it seems the early dialogues would render the clearest picture of Socrates, as some of the later dialogues seemed to be infused with his own thoughts and ideas, and Socrates became a mouthpiece for them in his writings.

Among the early dialogues is Euthyphyro, in which Socrates and Euthyphyro are conversing on the porch of King Archon. During this they are speaking of piety, and what it means to be pious, and why someone would want to be pious. These dialogues, as well as many other early ones, such as Loches, Charmides, and Lysis seem to show the way that Socrates used a form of questioning to search for knowledge, or some sort of understanding. It seems like he instinctively understood what was right, but he knew he could not tell anyone what to do, they had to discover it on their own. These dialogues showed how to look at the world from another perspective; we can uncover much truth that we did not already know.

The Delphic oracle was understood in ancient Greece to be able to transmit the voice of God, and she became very influential in Socrates life when she told his friend Chaerephon that no one is wiser than Socrates. Some people could take this lightly, but Socrates certainly did not, he made it his life duty to expand his wisdom, and even more so his truth. He believed that what the oracle was stating was that he was the wisest because he was aware of his own ignorance, or lack of knowledge. All those that claimed to have knowledge, were in fact ignorant of their ignorance.

Socrates believed, and so stated that Apollo chose him to be an investigator, and to teach virtue. He told the jurors that everything he does is in accordance with what Apollo asked of him, and his death would be offense against Apollo. He stated that he was not an atheist, since he believed Apollo himself called him wise, through the mouth of the oracle. Many of these statements seemed to win much of the Juries praise as there was little difference between those for the vote of guilty. It seemed many people had faith in Socrates statements, although they may have disliked the uncomfortable thoughts, and feelings his questioning brought about.

There are several different Socratic testimonies that have survived from primary sources, two of which are Aristophanes, and Xenophon. Both of these sources paint a very different picture of who Socrates was, and what he was like.

Xenophon was a friend, disciple, and admirer of Socrates, so much of his testimony reflects these facts; beyond that he was a very simple minded person so he may not have grasped many of the concepts Socrates presented. Xenophon described Socrates as a virtuous and moral citizen that preached morality in everyday life, he believed him to be a very religious man. He also described Socrates as an advocate for self control, respecter for law, and a very good parent, and friend. Many believe that although his testimonies are truthful, they are very limited in their philosophical nature, as Xenophon was not a philosopher; he was very simple in his thoughts, and actions. He was in the military, and performed well in that sense, since he was very compliant.

Another major source of information about Socrates is Aristophanes, primarily from his comedies. Aristophanes was a comic play writer, and his depiction of Socrates was very different than what many others would describe of him, he seemed to mold Socrates to the needs of his play, rather than using the true Socrates. Socrates is one of the main characters in his play Clouds, and in this play he was depicted as a sophist who charged to teach. He was also shown as someone that did not believe in the God’s, and one who corrupts the youth of Athens. All of these allegations seem to be false as stated by Socrates in the Plato’s recollection of him. His play showed Socrates teaching a young man that the weather was not controlled by the gods, but was controlled by a chorus of clouds. Consequently the boy’s father burned down Socrates school, this act seemed to symbolize the death of Socrates, without the physical death, as that would make it a tragedy. This play seemed to be a major factor in the trial of Socrates, which ended in death. The way that Socrates proved the boy to be ignorant about the clouds, was taking place with many other people throughout Athens in different fashions, and it seemed the only way to stop this battle between light, and darkness would be to kill the light, or get rid of it. Socrates being the light of course and people seem to prefer to be in the dark, as it is usually more comfortable there. Fortunately Socrates is still alive and well, thousands of years later.

Most people cry for freedom, but complain they are unsafe; this paradox plagues many facets of our modern existence, particularly with the internet. In order to govern the internet, we have to understand more about the global community that uses it than ever before.

There are many aspects that add to the complication of governing peoples conduct on the internet, including laws, ethics, and other regulations. Laws are important on the internet, but they are difficult to enforce, as there are often issues with jurisdiction. This does not however mean that we should leave the internet to anarchy. I do feel that certain regulations should be developed, but to do so will require compromise from all nations, as many cultures have different beliefs, laws, and ethical values and in my opinion we should respect these groups no matter how small.

Many people would instinctually look at this matter with a purely utilitarian view, but in my opinion starting on that footing we are bound to hurt many people. So essentially on a global scale it is near impossible to develop universal laws for the internet, I feel that we should continue with the way we presently govern the internet, with organizations such as ICANN that are not biased in their actions, but are rather directly responsible to the internet community they serve. As most law making bodies often lean towards supporting the wealthy, a process I feel is against the spirit of the internet, which in my belief is to support the free flow of information. I hope that the governing of the internet will continue to changes, while maintaining a understanding of the possible repercussions of all areas of life, and existence. The internet is an amazing gift and will stay that way as long as we don’t try and wrap it up in red tape.