Bernie Sanders? Sadly American’s only good bet.

Corporations vs Countries?

Corporation Power Grab

Interesting article as we move forward I wonder if companies will become more audacious in trying to gain more power against sovereign nations. It wouldn’t be hard to image corporations trying to become mini-nations themselves. Does it start with Uruguay and their battle against big tobacco?

Project Euler Problem 3

The prime factors of 13195 are 5, 7, 13 and 29.

What is the largest prime factor of the number 600851475143?

The trick in this problem is to divide out the value of d (in this case a number) if the remainder is 0. By doing this, you deal the other values that could be divisible by 2 such as 4 and 8. And this value of d must be appended to an array of factors. An array which is basically tracking the values that divide into n.

def largest_factor(n):
    factor = []
    d = 2
    while n > 1:
        while n % d == 0:
            factor.append(d)
            n /= d
        d +=1
    return factor

This second snippet of code runs the function and gets the result, but you still have to call the max function on the array to obtain the largest value which is the answer to this problem.

answer = largest_factor(600851475143)
max_value = max(answer)
print max_value

Ta Prohm

This is a good reminder that civilizations and societies do follow a cycle of ascension and decline. This video also reminds us more importantly that western civilization isn’t the only form of civilization that has existed and prospered throughout human history.

Female Revolutionaries

If you look at history closely you sometimes wonder if there is actually an objective truth. In classrooms, many events and historic moments are simplified so that we who live in the modern day can digest them. Perhaps only true intellectual historians can truly grasp the knowledge at their fingertips but even historians debate on historical events and their ramifications. Hopefully, you take the time to look at the list I have linked to.

It’s a short article citing the names of a few female revolutionaries who fought for their cause. History often forgets about the little people who helped mold and change history we know it today. Great movements and leaders are often built on the backs of the hard working and the strength of those who have no power so in honor of females who put in the heart and sacrifice during their respective time periods. I share this list with you in hopes of opening your horizons, and to the possibility that even if people forget your contributions who are also a part of history.

Media? Or Joke?

A student tweets about shooting at her Oregon community college, and TV producers ask if she can call them right now pic.twitter.com/41Tn9Mc5Tf

— Matthew Haag (@matthewhaag) October 1, 2015

 

Social media puts a lot of pressure on journalists. I sometimes really do feel for them since if they don’t break the story first someone else will beat them to it. If that occurs then what is the point in following mainstream media outlets if anyone can break a story with the power of Twitter, Facebook, etc. What is concerning is how journalists can become so focused on their jobs that they forget that in life people’s lives matter. The spirit of journalism isn’t to break sensationalist stories but instead provide the people with valuable information of the events and issues they may not be aware of. To present the facts, and let the people decide for themselves what they want to believe.

Instead, we have the media giving us “a narrative” a story to follow, and a line of thinking we ourselves did not arrive at logically. Proper Journalism has become replaced with television talking heads who follow a script and emotionally charge the people. Emotion often overrides logic and reason. If you have wishes to influence the people and perhaps lead them. Appeal to the heart more than the mind. Sell the dream and by the time reality sets in it will be already too late. The power of propaganda is historically amazing no matter the medium if you can convince many to follow your “narrative” you have power. With that power, you can wield history.

The Trump Fallacy

Donald Trump has hit a nerve in this nation, and people are just catching up. Americans are so cynical of the bureaucracy that Washington D.C has become. There is a strong segment of this country that has willing aligned themselves with his political platform. A man who was at one point in time often the pun of reality television, and a person who uses Twitter as his personal microphone to spew rhetoric that fits his own ideology. Yet we should see through his deceit as he is not an honorable man, but he is so out of the norm that people have gravitated to him. We should realize that Trump is a moron, but a moron that people are willing to trust more than the snake politicians that live at Capitol Hill and I don’t know what I find more depressing. His campaign understands that for many average Americans the economy is still the #1 issue in America since 2008 because the truth is that there has been no economic recovery for the middle class, and the working class has been pushed down even further. The only “economic recovery” really occurred for the top 1 percent who reside on Wall Street.

Trump is merely an uneducated citizen. Anyone who has a fundamental understanding of American history understands that immigration has always been a social, and political dilemma as historically there have been numerous times of large influxes into the United States. Unfortunately, the hatred and envy is misplaced. Now I am not saying that in the 21st Century America is not facing glaring issues when it comes to immigration instead what I am saying is that it is clear there is a pattern to this immigration backlash. When the economy is booming the nation can bring enough talent, and labor to fill the needs of the economy. When the party ends, and the economy is either in decline or stagnation it becomes easy to point the finger towards those who are not “American” it’s a cycle that is prevalent in Europe as well, but not to the same degree. The United States has a unique history when it comes to this type of dilemma because it has happened in different points in its history, and I think what sets the U.S apart is that it has occurred with various different groups of people from all over the world.

Immigration is an issue that deserves an entire post by itself. What I am attempting to convey is that it’s merely a convenient scapegoat. If you think hard about it the narrative is so simple that it repels the mind. Immigrants take our jobs. The jobs that we “true citizens” should be competing for. It’s easy to digest, and the masses can easily digest such narratives. The problem is that it’s not addressing the root of the issues, or the fundamental problems structurally that should be addressed. Trump is merely a symptom of a sick declining society. The sad part is that there are no other viable options. Our society likes to promote freedom of choice, but in reality we the voters don’t really have one.

My warning to you the voter is that it’s easy to give in to the easy narrative. The Trump narrative. If Trump wins it’s not because of his merit, but because he isn’t a man who’s affiliated with the political elite of Capitol Hill, and more importantly as rich as he is he’s not a man of Wall Street.

Lot’s of fake choices is no choice at all.

Selfie Culture At It’s Finest

 

Take a look at the video above. I find it humorous that a group of young women would take the time to attend a baseball game and take 10-20 pictures of themselves. Granted in my opinion baseball games can be boring, and I view it as a good sport if you want to talk to your friends for 3 hours. I find it amazing that this generation of youth would rather gaze at their phones than talk to people. It’s one thing to check a message or two and respond. Instead what I have noticed is that most of the time the smartphone becomes a crutch as it’s used to mask the awkward silences that often occur between people who don’t know each other fairly well.

Project Euler Problem 2: Fibonacci Sequence

Problem #2:

Each new term in the Fibonacci sequence is generated by adding the previous two terms. By starting with 1 and 2, the first 10 terms will be:

1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, …

By considering the terms in the Fibonacci sequence whose values do not exceed four million, find the sum of the even-valued terms.

The key to this problem is to understand the Fibonacci sequence. If you can write down the sequence on paper for the first 2-3 iterations writing the code shouldn’t be too hard. As you see below I start with the first two terms at 0, and 1. I add them up store them in a variable, and check if it’s divisible by 2 (checking if it’s even), and if it is I add the result to the final solution.

def fib():
    answer = 0
    first = 0
    second = 1
    while(second < 4000000):
        temp = first
        first = second
        second = temp + first
        if second % 2 == 0:
            answer += second
    return answer

print fib()

Book Update

If your are wondering about my novel I have decided to take a more careful approach. Before I publish online I will try to have 5 people review each of my chapters. With the feedback provided I plan to edit the original drafts. You can still continue to expect my shorter essay’s which is the bulk of this sites analytical material.