I was once asked the question: "If you could have all Americans memorize one part of U.S. written history or law, what would it be?" I said: The Bill of Rights, aka, the First 10 Amendments of the Constitution of the USA. The reason is simple, because everyone should know them and have them readily available. I personally have a book that is a copy of the constitution, declaration of independence, and the articles of confederation. Also i have a magnet on my refrigerator that is of the Bill of Rights. So i, and anyone else in the house, can look at them whenever they please and be reassured that they have these rights.
   So as follows I'll give you the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution of our country, and you yourself can decide what they represent. Although, anyone that can read should feel they are very straight forward.

First 10 Amendments to the United States Constitution (The Bill of Rights)
I.   Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

II.   A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

III.   No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

IV.   The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

V.   No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

VI.   In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed; which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.

VII.   In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined in any Court of the United States than according to the rules of the common law.

VIII.   Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

IX.   The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

X.   The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

   These 10 Amendments were ratified effective on December 15th, 1791.
   Give credit to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. That's not to say many others didn't have their parts, and that if it wasn't for these 2 others wouldn't have come along and done the same thing. But it went the way it did, when it did, because these 2 men feared the government could be too powerful and take away our civil liberties and rights at will. They worked very hard in a time that never had the back of a constitution like this before, to give us these guarantees.

   That's not to say the Magna Carta and Petition of Right were not great in their time, but there wasn't a Constitution to this magnitude. Our Constitution has made the standard for all laws in all countries since it came to be.

   Now if you noticed that Article II (the right to keep and bear arms) doesn't say "in war time". And it says this right "shall not be infringed". That means it cannot be broken, aka, taken away. If you take this right away from the American people, then what is to say our freedom of speech and peaceful assembly can't be taken? It's these 2 freedoms that is making this such a hot debate around the country to begin with! Once you've changed one of The Bill of Rights, it will become much much easier to change others. Soon after we will have lost our freedom.
   Article 4 (unreasonable/unwarranted searches and seizures of property) is one that i believe has been broken by the search procedures done at airports. "random" security checks is NOT a reasonable search, and never do they give a precise description of what they are looking for. They have taken things to a whole new level of being invasive of personal being and treating people like security threats when they are not a REASONABLE threat to the security of the other people on the plane and airport. Why not make the procedures mandatory on buses, taxicabs, and entering the damn mall!? And on top of that, a majority of the personal objects they obtain are fucking ridiculous and not a "probable" threat to begin with.

   I have plenty of opinions on how other amendments are being stretched and flopped on a daily basis also, but i felt i should mention those two, being the time we're in.

    “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”
-- Albert Camus (1957 Nobel Prize for Literature)
  
   "There are only two kinds of freedom in the world; the freedom of the rich and powerful, and the freedom of the artist and the monk who renounces possessions”
-- Anais Nin (Author)
  
   "Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
-- Benjamin Franklin (Statesman, Scientist, Philosopher, Printer, and Inventor.

   "Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
-- Martin Luther King (Baptist Minister and Civil-Rights Leader)

   "There is no such thing as a little freedom. Either you are all free, or you are not free.”
-- Walter Cronkite (Journalist, and News Anchor)

   “Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.”
-- Mahatma Gandhi (Philos
  

   Ever looked at something and wondered if you are actually seeing it the way it was suppose to be seen? Maybe there is something hidden to the naked eye that other creatures can perceive, but our human senses are too weak to pick up on it, or maybe we don't have the correct sense to begin with to even attempt to see it?
   What am i getting at? I'm saying that the environment has more to it than we actual see, smell, feel, hear, and taste. I say the word "see" but is that really the word to use when you are looking at the world through x-ray, or electroreception (the ability to sense electricity)? There are so many senses out there that we don't even think of! I'm going to give a few examples and explain to you what they are, and whether there are actual animals out there that have the "sixth" or "seventh" senses. Some creatures however have the same type of senses that we do, they are just much more elaborate and strong, such as dogs can sense the direction of smells, cats can expand their pupils and shift the muscles around their eyes to see in low light, some birds can see things closer than they are, catfish have taste receptors all over their body, all fish can sense whether they are upside down or not through their special inner ear, and some insects have taste receptors on their feet!
   - Chemical Sense: some animals can sense certain chemical changes, such as fish can sense the change is how salty the water is.
   - Thermoception: ability to sense changes in temperature. This is not to be confused with our ability to sense temperature change. Ours is actually the homeostatic thermoception which is mainly regulated and detected by use of chemicals sent to the hypothalamus. Whereas some snakes have actual receptors that detect infrared; so it's basically having heat vision. They can concentrate through these receptors, as oppose to their eyes, at night and see things in a way we never could, through heat vision!
   - Magnetoception: the ability to actally know which direction you are facing, because you can feel the magnet pole in the North. Birds, and some insects have this.
   - Ultraviolet site: seeing things through ultraviolet light, rather than the normal light spectrum as we do. Things don't have the same colors they do when you are an insect, because you see the ultraviolet light.
   - X-Ray: electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths between gamma rays and ultraviolet radiation. There are no known creatures that actually see in x-ray, but there are some animals that can feel the radiation associated with it.
   - Echolocation: Sound wave detection, such as in bats and dolphins
   - Polarized light detection: the detection or sense of the reflection of light. For instance, bees can see ripples in glass and water that we cannot, because they can detect the refracted light that we cannot. So the windshield of a car may look much more rippled to a bee than to us.
The following are some that are not naturally found within our atmosphere, so we have no real need for detecting them:
   - Gamma ray
   - Radio wave
   - Microwaves

   So there will always be sounds we don't hear, vibrations we don't feel, and tastes we could never have dreamed of. In a way that's sad, but at the same time all those animals don't perceive those objects and the atmosphere the same way we do, either. For instance, a dandelion in looks white and red to insects, because they see ultra violet light, and many creatures have trouble seeing during the day.
   Next time you're walking around outside, imagine for a moment how cool it would be to see things in a different light, but then remember how hard simple tasks would be if you had all those other senses! Imagine taking the garbage out when you can see all the radio waves from the towers, ultra violet light and gamma rays from the atmosphere, while seeing in x-ray, detecting temperature, electricity, and magnetism! you'd never make it to the end of the driveway. ;

   I'm fascinated by plants and animals, but ask anyone that knows me and they'll tell you my love for insects. The second you walk in my house you'll find insect boxes next to the couch, insects drying on the tops of cupboards, and in the freezer will be containers of insects in the first phase for before becoming part of my collection (first phase after capture that is) .
   With that in mind, i decided it would be fun to give you insight into just how amazing insects can be. In particular i'm going to compare us to ants, and specifically the Leafcutter Ants, Atta cephalotes. I'm going to tell you how life could be like if we lived as the leafcutter ants do, and we had their amazing abilities and systems.

   Lets start with family size: to make things fit our human scenario, lets have 1 person represent 100,000 ants. So you'd be living with 30-60 other family members! Lets say this family is 51 people (including the Queen, aka your mother), with 9 more on the way (eggs, aka babies). Your father would have died long before the first of you was even born, in fact your father could be one of several young men that made sweet young love with your very large mother. Your brothers (aka all the boys in the family) would have to move out when they hit puberty, only 5 of the 50 kids are boys. All the boys will grow wings and fly off when they hit the age of about 13. They would never have to work, and do nothing but lie around eating until it's time for them to get a girlfriend, at which point they are forced out of the home or they die and become food. Your mother would live in one of the largest and most hard to reach rooms of the vast underground home.
   For simple resons, we'll say the average person is about 150 pounds (just between the average weight for girls, and boys) and are 5'6" tall. All the girls would be leveled off into groups when they are between 10 and 15 years of age. Your 9 biggest sisters would be the bosses, and protect everyone inside the colony. These girls would be weighing about 325 pounds standing 7'6" tall, and made of solid muscle! They spend most of their time in the above apartment complex making sure only family members are getting in, and the boys are leaving at puberty. Whenever there is a cry for help in the fields where you harvest your crops, these sisters come running to the rescue. With 9 massive sisters like this, it makes all those tough teasing sessions as children worth the trouble. Especially when your 6 foot acid spitting neighbors try to steal your food. (aka termites)
   The second group in command are the workers. They would be the girls that are older and stronger but not tough enough to be "soldiers", aka the girls in charge. They weigh about 150 pounds but can carry about 3,000 pounds.  Their jobs are simple yet require the most energy -- maintenance and cleaning of the home, and bringing the plant crops to the storage rooms that are specially ventilated and kept moist to grow the rich fungus that feeds the colony all year round. They'll take out the garbage to the landfill about half a mile from the apartment, and by the time the family dies off the garbage pile will have been big enough to cover several football fields with over 10 feet high of garbage. Before they are tough enough to go out on the harvest, they work the underground part of the home clearing new rooms all the time. There are 27 of the 45 girls that are "workers". The strongest 20 of these 27 girls will do the manual labor of carrying objects, such as the food, and building materials. They'll sometimes carry upwards of 1,000 pounds of food for 5 miles to the apartment complex. The smaller worker girls clear paths and stay on the look out for danger and alert the colony when anything from nosy neighbors to mountain sized beats get between them and the apartment complex. Sometimes they'll even ride on backs of the larger working girls to get a better view. These girls will also spray paint lines (aka secrete chemicals) on the ground wherever they go so that everyone can find their way back to the colony, and the 9 larger sisters can find their way to them if they need help.
   The last 9 girls are like nurses. These girls take care of the injured, the babies, and mix up the ingredients to make the fungi in the growing rooms for the colony. They rarely see the light of day, and are runts compared to their working sisters and soldier sisters.
   Now lets talk about the home: Our house would look like a medium sized apartment building from ground level, but once inside you'd find long stairways to a much much larger underground facility. This facility has 8 miles of hallways and staircases that lead to 300+ rooms! In the first mile you'll find good ventilation and simple living accommodations for everyone in the house. The next few miles down you'll find all the bathrooms and kitchens (the fungi rooms). And at the bottom mile you'll find rooms for the very new born babies (aka the eggs), and the mother (the large room with the queen) that never leaves unless all her daughters move her to a new site, if threatened by things such as flood.

   Quite the family if you ask me. So you see, even the smallest of insects can be very impressive when put into perspective.