One-Siddhartha Gautama

Siddhartha Gautama or Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. Shakyamuni was born into a princely family, the rulers of the Shakyas. He lived a sheltered, abundunt life and married at 16. But his restlessness with confinement to the palace soon led to a trip outside the palatial walls, and there he soon realized that his life was not that of the common man. He had come to know what suffering was. He saw death. This led him down the path of finding the reason people suffer, and how to escape suffering. With enlightenment he became "Buddha," or "he who is awake." He then proceeded to teach his philosophy, and this has become the religion of today that so many millions adhere to, Buddhism.

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Goodbyes

It's hard saying goodbye. A good friend of mine is leaving Duke to return to Paris. He was fed up with the physics program here, and after securing a position in France, decided to return home. It's unfortunate that the department here could not do more to help, as he was genuinely bright; unfortunately he was suffering from depression, probably induced by the stresses of the PhD program as well as the dull boring city of Durham. In general how does one say goodbye? You don't really, especially if you're good friends. You just end up saying hello less often. At least that's my take. Unfortunately, more on goodbyes, it's goodbye to Duke's NCAA hopes for this year. We were outplayed by LSU. Sure the refs were really not entirely fair (from our point of view of course), but they closed our top scorer down. It was a fun run, and I enjoyed watching them play, especially since I thought they played such great team basketball, but it's over. Such a somber posti...

FAO Schwarz!

Found this on Funny Times: What New Toys Did You Get? (compiled by Phil Proctor) Capitalism: He who dies with the most toys, wins. Hari Krishna: He who plays with the most toys, wins. Judaism: He who buys toys at the lowest price, wins. Catholicism: He who denis himself the most toys, wins. Anglican: They were our toys first. Greek Orthodox: No, they were ours first. Branch Davidians: He who dies playing with the biggest toys, wins. Atheism: There is no toy maker. Polytheism: There are many toy makers. Evolutionism: The toys made themselves. Church of Christ, Scientist: We are the toys. Communism: Everyone gets the same number of toys, and you go straight to the opposite of heaven if we catch you selling yours. B'Hai: All toys are just fine with us. Amish: Toys with batteries are surely a sin. Buddhism: Wanting toys causes suffering. They either break, or you outgrow them. Taoism: The doll is as important as the dump truck. Mormonism: Every boy may have as many toys as he wants. Vo...

John Bardeen

I'm reading the biography of John Bardeen, co-inventor of the transistor and co-author of the BCS theory of superconductivity. He won a Nobel Prize in Physics for each of these discoveries, making him the only person ever to win two Nobels in the same category. The book is "True Genius---The Life and Science of John Bardeen" by Hoddeson and Daitch. He's not as well known to the public as Einstein or Feynman, but his contributions to science are up there with the greats. Here's a quote that I find very wise, from a man not known for saying much. People have said about Bardeen, "he doesn't say much, but when he does say something, you pay attention." "I feel that science cannot provide an answer to the ultimate questions about the meaning and purpose of life. With religion, one can get answers on faith. Most scientists leave them open and perhaps unanswerable, but do abide by a code of moral values. For civilized society to succeed, there must be ...

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