Discoveries
Hans Christian Oersted - Danish physicist who accidentally discovered that electricity induces magnetism by placing wire near compass

Penicillin: Alexander Fleming discovered when a strange fungus (pennicilium mold) blew into his petri dishes containing cultures of bacteria, killing them. After a moment of frustration, he realized the implications: antibiotics were born.

Henri Becquerel accidentally left uranium salts in a dark room and returned to find that they had exposed a photographic plate. Marie Curie chose to study these mysterious rays and to determine if other elements gave off similar emissions - discovered idea of radioactivity and won 2 Nobel Prizes. Becquerel also won a Nobel Prize.

Things discovered by accident: http://blogs.static.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/23600.html

Mpemba effect (appropriately warm water freezes faster) discovered by high school student Erasto B. Mpemba in Tanzania; creativity/freshness sometimes trumps experience

Kekule, the discoverer of the ring structure of benzene, "discovered the ring shape of the benzene molecule after having a day-dream of a snake seizing its own tail (this is a common symbol in many ancient cultures known as the Ouroboros). This vision, he said, came to him after years of studying the nature of carbon-carbon bonds." Not working can lead to discovery when requisite background experience present

Lasers - they were a "solution looking for a problem," now widely used today. This is a good argument FOR scientific research and that good that can come of just thinking without a goal in mind initially

Altruism/Kindness
Scrooge: literary example to show stinginess (and thus wealth) does not lead to happiness

The Florida bank president of a bank that was foreclosing who quietly distributed his exorbitant severance bonus to his employees, current and former. Was cited in Obama's 2009 State of the Union Address; inherent good of humanity

Good quote by physician Albert Schweitzer: "I don't know what you're destiny will be, but one thing I do know, the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve."

(Relatively) Beneficent Emperor Liu Bang of the Han Dynasty met with more success than ruthless Xiang Yu

Notion that heroism is worthwhile because your deeds live forever whereas the body is mortal: "Cattle die and kinsmen die, thyself too soon must die, but one thing never, I ween, will die, -- fair fame of one who has earned." Poetic Edda - Norse proverb.

Moshe Weinberg - Israeli wrestling coach who thought on his feet and died saving his students during Palestinian Black September group terrorist attack during 1972 Munich Olympics

Psychology
Psychology in general, especially Freudian. Know: id, ego, superego, Oedipus Complex, etc.

Ramachandran - fooling the brain with mirror therapy

Autism-Schizophrenia continuum http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/health/research/11brain.html

Society
Joseph McCarthy

The Euphio Question - Kurt Vonnegut. Society denatures when a "perfect sound" from space that gives listeners euphoria is discovered and sold

Vending machines in schools are worse than advertising because they directly lead to purchase

Tobacco advertising increasing in China while banned here

Aldrich Ames – cold war mole caught via wiretap; legitimate reason to wiretap/infringe privacy

Sophie Germain – early woman mathematician; had to teach self in secret and overcome bigotry (http://www.agnesscott.edu/Lriddle/women/germain.htm)

Other
Advice
Parker (re: SAT essay): use a fixed structure of intro, 2 body paragraphs, and a conclusion
the sat people dont care for complex writing, it just needs to get the point across
i always used 2 examples
6:42 AM if you dont have them, look up mbaye diagne, amy biehl, moshe weinberg, jackie robinson, cassius clay
they can be used for anything
good luck

Evan:i would argue AGAINST C.S. Lewis's quote (good to know this)
that his belief in god stemmed from his "inability to explain man's inherent sense of right v. wrong"
9:14 PM well id say we DONT have an inherent sense of right v. wrong, that we are simply programmed
and that if you look at the universe as a whole
it is moving TOWARDS chaos
me: yes
Evan: AWAY FROM ORGANIZATION
me: perfect
Evan: ENTROPY IS INEVITABLE

For fun, an idea for an introductory sentence: "Seven score and four years ago, the Civil War, the quintessential fight for civil liberty, ended, the anti-slavery Union victorious." (only works in 2009: 2009-144=1865; end of civil war)

Words:
Before writing, hold concepts in head to establish mindset of logic:

Utilitarian (ends justify means)
Deontological (ends do not justify means)
Implicit
Simultaneous
Determinism (chain of prior events)
Positivism (scientistic ideology)
Alexander Pope: "damning with faint praise"
John Donne: "no man is an island"

To establish stylistic mindset, think of these words/phrases:
Epimethean
Fitzgerald: "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne ceaselessly into the past"