Hi UFOvsUSO!

Nice to know you're Asian too.
You're in middle school, that means you're in college.

You've come to the right place and you'll learn a lot from here.

Happy Bauting!

In China Middle school = College? Here in the USA middle school is 7th and 8th grade (sometimes 9th too, depending on school system)

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I was just sitting here contemplating the immortal words of Socrates who said, "I drank what?"

"Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot." --Carl Sagan "Pale Blue Dot"

Welcome aboard You must have some nice skies up there in northern Michigan. Are you around the UP?

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I was just sitting here contemplating the immortal words of Socrates who said, "I drank what?"

"Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot." --Carl Sagan "Pale Blue Dot"

Em,I am not in college!

Welcome!

Not all here are young folks.

I suppose I should (re)introduce myself.

My name is Man on the Moon, though I usually respond well to motm if you are anywhere near as lazy as I.

I live in California right now (yeah yeah, I was gone when the earthquake hit) and have been waiting a long time to feel a quake. I left just in time for one to come :P. I live on the central coast. It's great!

I teach science to 5th and 6th graders. While I grew up yec--don't mug me just yet--I have long thought it is important to understand evolution and old earth stuff, I haven't always allowed myself to truly be critical of the world. Also, I respect the general public desire to NOT be taught creationism, so unless a student specifically asks, I don't tell. I think I started out a lot more liberal than most, but even so...I can't imagine...never mind. That's another story.

I was a member here probably four years ago. It looked a lot different then! I sort of fell away with school--it had been a summer thing, then later forgot about it until I found a link at talk.origins in some research I was doing. That was yesterday. For the last, oh, three years probably, I've let slide a lot of things in hopes I would become neutral enough to really take a good look at the world without killing myself mentally. Emotionally I am still attached to the idea of yec, not sure why. Intellectually I've all but let go, and logically...never mind, that's beyond the scope of an introduction.

I've long held the universe could be old and life be young, some of my old posts from long ago reflect that. If you think you're finding dirt on me being a hypocrit, there it is. More recently I've started to look into that question as well, which is reflected in the above paragraph. I'll probably be in and out, asking questions about the cosmology side of things, but mostly just acquanting myself again with the society and culture of scientists and skeptics that I have been so frustrated with in the past and tried to reject. Only recently (two years fair enough?) have I accepted the skeptic in myself and determined to face it if I want to be honest with myself. The dichotomy of believing in God on one hand and not being able to on the other is rather mind bending. Bear with me when I'm asking obnoxious questions, I'm just trying to work out the facts and not feel like a traitor at the same time.

Am I the only one to experience this?

In other news, I like life, just the thinking part is frustrating. Nothing could be better or more rewarding than what I do right now in revealing the world, critical thinking, and the scientific process to my students. In fact, it may be because of my job that I decided to take the next step and put myself up for whammies of thought. Either way, it's great and I'm having a grand time of it. Thanks for any help you may give me, and for putting up with folks like myself. I'm very grateful to open, non-pressure (to conform) forums like this. I very much like the no-idiot, pro-id format that's grown here. And glad to see it's still alive!

motm

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None to speak of

And why can't you believe in God?

I should rephrase that statement, thanks for noticing. It should read "believing in God as my views are changing (which is my goal) and not being able to as I've understood Him in the past...". I thought that was clear from the context, but looking back I can see it's not. I've been up all night for various reasons, sorry. I think it's fixed now

I still stand by the "it being difficult" part. Thanks for the heads up!

I'll check later after I've had some rest and see if I make more sense.

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None to speak of

NP. I can be dense at times . . .

oohhh.. Sorry!

Well you would think so with for the most part no polution.
However in the summer Humidity gets in the way, Now in the Fall Frosty Air. Well the winter speaks for itself. In about Jan. the skies are clear but Cold and I for the most part hate Winter.

I deliver Mail for a living and the last thing I want to be is cold after being outside all day.

But I still feel very lucky living where I do. I am only about 50 from the U.P.

At the moment I am trying to figure out a way to build a portable observatory. The Ideal design would be something that I could take down easily in the Spring. I have some ideas in my head but if anyone else would like to add to my confusion please do so.

I used to live in northern Indiana (elkhart) so I feel your pain re: the cold.


the best place to get ideas for your observatory will probably either be Off Topic Babbling (one of the most-read forums) or Astronomical Equipment (not as much traffic, but has some extremely knowledgeable folks)

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I was just sitting here contemplating the immortal words of Socrates who said, "I drank what?"

"Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot." --Carl Sagan "Pale Blue Dot"

My middle school was 5th-8th.

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Rovers forever! - ToSeek
"Carl Sagan sent a message to ET,
Neil Armstrong walked in the Sea of Tranquility
Steve Squyers built Spirit and Opportunity
Dan Haylen upchucked in zero gravity." -Brent Simon, The Space Camp Song
'Evolution and science are one thing, but you don’t mess with Yoko Ono. Everybody knows that. ' - 386sx

Wow..where do you go to school?

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I was just sitting here contemplating the immortal words of Socrates who said, "I drank what?"

"Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot." --Carl Sagan "Pale Blue Dot"

Hi,

I just joined today. I am a high school physics teacher in the USA (Pennsylvania) and my students ask me good questions that I can't answer sometimes. I am hoping this forum will be a good resource for answering them, or at least pointing them in a good direction to look at.

Thanks for being here!

Hi keemunA. Yep, this is a great place for that. Q&A is probably the best place. Welcome to BAUT

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

Hi Baut forum members,
Just joined today but have been recieving/reading Fraser's UT newsletters since Jan 2000. keep up the great acheivements you clever astronomers !
Steve, Sydney Aus.

Heeeey.... Who ya callin' "clever?!?!"