Haven’t been posting in a long, long time. I haven’t even been looking for science facts to start that part up yet. What I have been doing is finding out what I really want to do with my life. It’s half over and do I really want to continue down the present path? I just attended a class at work called The 7 habits of Highly Effective People and learned a good deal from it. I think it’s time for me to “Sharpen the Saw.” I highly recommend the course.

I hate the tug of war between monetary needs and desire of what would truly make me happy. Need to pay the bills. I’m okay with less as long as I have a roof over my head and enough food,..and oh,..a high speed internet connection.

How to go from web designer to particle physicist. In high school a particle physicist is what I wanted to be but I listened to too many people telling me I should be an artist. Or maybe I’ll just write science books for the masses. Then I’m not stuck in one field because everything interests me. 

Enough of this pointless babble,..I have a website to create. Actually 2 of them.

This is an email I sent to a friend that I’d thought I’d share. Since it’s a deep thought topic I put it here even though it’s not something I thought of while driving home – except the alternate sun idea at the end.

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So I DVR’d Solaris a few days ago and watched maybe 45 mins of it. I think this movie is fast moving into my top 5 movies. It’s deep. I’m going to have to read the book. What was really cool is that it made me think of how a truly alien form could be living among us and furthermore it actually being us. Let me explain.

Given the following:

- Matter = Energy
- Laws of biology are the same across all levels of life (meaning small units (cells) divide make bigger – creatures, things reproduce to survive, etc.)
- The flow goes from simple to complex
- Our minds are a complete mystery – the exactly how of why it works

Starting small our cells exist in a structure of similar cells. A skin cell under my fingernail will never meet or know of a nerve cell in my brain yet they are part of my organism. I doubt my brain actually indexes each cell but probably knows that certain areas of “the body” should do this or that. It gives orders. Micro biological units within the cell perform very basic tasks. Then cells obey simple orders. Organs obey more complex orders. What connects the whole picture – the brain, the mind.

If we progress up the life ladder from basic building blocks – we go from molecules, cells, tissues, organs and finally organisms. Does it stop at organisms? This is the idea I had. The next step is minds. A far more complex thinking, organizing structure where each of us is like a cell – part of a larger computing environment so to speak. The what binds the minds together? Perhaps that elusive thing people call god or a diety. A multiple mind creature spanning large distances. Well fungus has this same feature – it’s a very large organism that can cover many, many square miles.

Now think of the implications. War would be pointless. It would be like chewing your arm off,….why do it?

Now here is the next step after that. Like a growing organism that uses differentiated cells to give rise new cells. Then those differentiated cells die – their only purpose to provide an environment for the new cells mutate properly and grow. Perhaps war does serve this purpose. Too many of us are not good – we do make a lot of waste – so a few checks to keep our population down would serve a greater good.

Now here’s a really cool idea that sprang from this. When we die we just get recycled to create another mind. But it’s not that simple sounding. Our ideas, our thoughts are the super-organisms thoughts, at least a portion. What if the super-organism picks up where we left off? Meaning it must be evolving as we are? As a mass of people, a tissue of the super-organism or perhaps an organ whithin we have function. Perhaps the planet is an organ and we are tissue? Perhaps the sun is the thought center – the god. The ancients where right then! All hail Ra the Sun God! This is the part I’m still working though so it’s gets a little grey here.

Although the sun as thought center goes against another idea that the sun is really a puncture, an anomally in space or wellspring of matter caused by the connection of multiple universes due to the gravitational effects on space. It’s not a normal part of the cosmos. Stars are leaks of the the real inner workings of the universe of dark matter.

Well those are my thoughts. Crazy. The result of caffeine, movies, books and video games. No wonder my bald spot is getting bigger. My stingy brain is demanding all the blood that goes up top!

The !Kung-San Work Week

Science Facts – 05.12.2008

Another tidbit from “Before the Dawn” by Nicholas Wade. (Who currently has a new very cool article here http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/23/science/23gene.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin) The !Kung-San are the oldest living people on earth – meaning their DNA has the most mutations on certain genetic areas. They still live a nomadic lifestyle in the central Kalahari of Africa. I found it interesting that Nicholas Wade mentions in his book that the !Kung-San spend 40 -44 hours a week “working”. Working meaning; gathering food, hunting, building tools and generally anything they need to do to survive. So let’s think about this. Does that mean in our “advanced” civilization of machines, medicine and profound understanding of life that we haven’t advanced to a point where we still need 40 hours to work? And that’s just for money to pay bills – we still have to shop for our food and clothing. Wealthier people do have more playtime, or recreation, but most of us still work 40+ hours a week. Something is wrong with this picture. I thought as societies advance people should have more “luxury” time. Here are some more facts about the !Kung-San – notice in the video that their eyes resemble Asian peoples’ eyes.

Khoisan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khoisan

“Click Language” and the San Bushmen People
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c246fZ-7z1w

The Hungry Brain

Science Facts – 05.19.2008

I’m currently listening to the audiobook “Before the Dawn” by Nicholas Wade so the next few posts will most likely be facts from there. Here’s the first one. The brain is only 3% of our body mass yet consumes 20% of our body’s energy. As we switched food sources a long time ago and started to eat meat our brains grew and our stomachs shrank. We get more energy from meat rather than plants and this enabled our brains to evolve. At least for some of us. You people fighting against each other know who you are.

Cornstarch Science

Science Facts – 05.05.2008

I found this video on another blog and,…well,..you just need to watch it. I don’t think the person who made this video was as the owner of the blog, Michael, states. It was a nice find. Interesting.

http://michaelscomments.wordpress.com/2008/05/03/cornstarch-science/

Time at the Speed of Light

Science Fact – 04.28.2008

According to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity everything is moving. Furthermore, things are moving through spacetime at the speed of light. What that means is that there is relationship between space and time such that it totals the speed of light. Why don’t we (and most matter in the universe) feel the effect of moving very fast? Because most of the matter in the universe is moving so slow that practically all of the energy is used up for moving through time. This is why Einstein also says nothing can travel faster than light. If something were to travel as fast as light then there would be no energy left for moving through time and that object would cease to move through time. Remember the famous example of an object being pulled into a black hole where an outside observer would see that object hang at the event horizon – the point of no return – and seem not to move further. The spacetime theory explains why this would be.

Science Fact for the week of 4/14/08

These are facts that were previously posted on my site voorlooper.net.

Phage Therapy

Bacteriophages or “phages” are viruses. These viruses target a specific host bacteria and infect, destroy and release more phages. The nice thing about these phages is that you can use them instead of antibiotics to treat illnesses. One advantage is that since it targets one or few hosts it won’t wipe out other good bacteria in your body – like the good bacteria that lives in your intestine. Another advantage is that it can be quicker to fight the infection. Phage therapy has been in use in Russia for the past 90 years and is currently being investigated in the U.S. for use. I’ve read articles about people with chronic sinus infections that no antibiotics can help but get cured with phages. Pretty cool stuff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phage_therapy

http://academic.evergreen.edu/projects/phage/phagetherapy/phagetherapy.htm

Science Fact for the week of 4/7/08

Thinking About Big Numbers

I must have a latent gene that likes Math even though I was horrible at math in school. Although, I must confess to checking my Calculus by using Algebra in college and currently my footer/signature on a forum I am part of says,

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

Anyway, I was listening to the Science Friday podcast about How Much is a Trillion and the guest speaker had an interesting way of explaining it.

1 Million seconds = 11.5 days
1 Billion seconds = 32 Years
1 Trillion seconds = 32,000 Years

http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200802085

Science Fact for the week of 3/31/08

Swirling Junk in the Pacific

Twice the size of Texas not far from Hawaii is a giant mass of garbage which 80% is from land that swirls in the Pacific Ocean. Apparently there’s this atmosphereic effect in the Pacific that creates a toilet bowl like effect that traps things. The dangerous part is the amount of plastic that is in the water – dissolved plastic that is not biodegradable. Read more about it by clicking the link below. (Note. I’m not related to Charles Moore)

http://www.satyamag.com/apr07/moore.html

Science Fact for the week of 3/24/08

Envisioning Avogadro’s Number

Is the number of atoms in 1 mole, which is a unit of measure in the subatomic world. A mole is said to be the number atoms of carbon-12 in 12 grams of unbound carbon-12 atoms. That number is…

6.0221415 × 10^23

If each atom was an unpopped popcorn seed then the number of seeds equal to Avogadro’s Number would cover the United States in a layer 9 miles thick.
- From the book Einstein by Walter Isaacson

More about Avogadro’s Number

04.21.2008 – The Aliens Have You!

A human body contains more bacterial cells than human cells. In other words, there are more bacteria living inside you than there are cells of you. Crazy! Follow the link below for more info.

http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2004/10/65252

I think this will be easier to manage than my personal website because I won’t have to battle with Dreamweaver and formatting the page. I’ll have to figure out the RSS thing but I’m not concerned right now. I think this will help me be more diligent on keeping this thing going.

(Just saw the RSS link at the bottom of the page.)

Something of a ramble but here it goes. I’ve thought about his many times and thought here would be a good place to jot it down. The premise lies in the fact that anything produced ultimately becomes obsolete. How many things created by humans have persisted in a useful state for any length of time. Given that changes in language make things hard to digest as time progresses the ideas can still be entertaining or practical depending on what they are. An example would be ancient Greek literature – somewhat difficult to digest for the lay person but the ideas are still talked about today if in a modified form.

But what about modern outlets of artistic expression. I mean even steel skyscrapers will fall in 300 years or less and then crack to pieces shortly thereafter and no traces left whatsoever. Even plastic will dissolve into microscopic bits that sooner or later will find it’s way into a mutated bacterium that can digest it. There are in fact some bacteria today that are eating it although not getting any nourishment because they are mistaking it for some other food. Songs and art become outdated in a decade or so. Books loose their punch after a time. The way we think changes over time and something that catches our eye as innovative today is obsolete in a few years.

Civilizations rise and fall. Long ago it was normal believe in many gods – now there is just one. Long ago magic and mysticism explained things that couldn’t be explained. Today, science explains a lot but also raises new questions. Everything produced by mankind seems to me to be made for the short haul. Instant success, popularity, wealth and power being major drivers of this feedback loop.

So what can one do to contribute to the long haul? I mean doesn’t it make sense that as forward thinking creature interested in the survival of not only oneself but as the species more thought would be put into this. What does this have to do with creating something that lasts or persists. I can think of only one invention of mankind that is still useful today as it was back ages ago – math. Think about it. It still keeps getting built upon and used in evermore complex ways.

I know there were a couple deviations in my writing about this. The thought being that mankind generally thinks in small chunks of time for immediate gains. Artwork and utility inventions are also built and succeed in the short term. Men change over time and so do their thoughts. This civilization we are in is rarely thought of by the lay person as something that has a beginning , middle and end. How does one fit in and contribute to this larger scheme of things? Or is it only in the immediate locale of time does one find contributing possible?

Randy

2007-12-05