by Louis B. Shalako
c2010
All Rights Reserved
Every interaction with another human being changes us in some small way.
We get another piece of information. We get another impression, another argument, another opinion, another question.
We get another piece of the puzzle.
And then we go on to the next person. When we arrive there, we enter this process as a new person, because the last encounter has changed us in some way. What this means is that we see the next person with a whole new perspective. Then the process unfolds again, and we get another new insight.
In this way, we grow as human beings.
In the words of popular self-help author Dr. Daniel Amen, you can ‘change your brain.’
What this means to me is simple.
‘Seek out new things, new people, and new ideas, for not to do this is to be isolated, and ultimately one will be the loser for it.’
It is not necessary to contradict every point of view one does not agree with. Sometimes it is enough just to sit back and listen, for surely the other person arrived at their present destination for a number of reasons.
And sometimes it is not necessary to draw any conclusions. One might just keep listening. One of the great challenges we face is that everything we know, is taught to us by other people. We have the right to pick and choose what we learn from them.
The key thing is to choose wisely.
Any other knowledge we have is a conclusion that we have made ourselves. If we are to protect ourselves in some way by being objective about conclusions drawn by others, then surely in the interest of protecting others, we should try to be objective about our own conclusions.
(For your own reading safety, comfort and convenience you might want to take everything I say with a grain of salt.)
'Draw your own conclusions.'
And, it might be wise to 'consider the source.'
In the interest of ‘factual accuracy’ I Googled Dr. Amen’s name to check the spelling. I originally wrote, ‘Dr. Gregory Amen.’ I had to change it. This is not ‘dogma.’ This is what the man himself honestly believes his name to be. I really can’t do any better than that, although I clearly don’t know everything.
I can assure the reader that Google did not write this for me.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
The Neutrino. And Equilibrium.
by Louis B. Shalako
c2010
All Rights Reserved
Editor's Note: The following is science parody and should not be used as a cheat-sheet for college or university exams.
The neutrino is a particle with no mass or charge. It must occupy time and space, or one wonders how it was detectable with anything other than purely theoretical, or mathematical means.
First postulated in theoretical terms, the existence of the neutrino was later demonstrated in the lab. Certain characteristics, predicted mathematically, held true under experimental conditions.
A neutrino may be a kind of spherical force field, one which demonstrates the characteristics of both a wave and a particle. Considering other aspects of quantum physics, this requires a minimal stretch of the imagination.
Think of it as a bubble of force, analogous to one layer of an onion, but also exhibiting some aspects of a soap-bubble as well.
If you prick a soap bubble, the skin is punctured. Surface tension is held in equilibrium at a given size, by temperature, the amount of soap, and the amount of air blown in, and other similar physical factors, 'mathematical factors.'
When you puncture a bubble, it is no longer in equilibrium. All of the skin retracts due the the phenomenon of surface tension. It withdraws in a spherical fashion, and all the air rushes out through the hole. This is because of the light compression of the gas inside, (air,) due to the effects of elasticity, and surface tension.
The air pressure is what held the bubble at a given size, after all. Otherwise it would have shrunk in size until it was again in equilibrium.
What happens next is that the drop of soap jets off in the opposite direction from the jet of air. (Then gravity pulls it to the ground. That's why it falls in an arc, and not straight down.)
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Isaac Newton's First law of Motion, as I recall.
So when a neutrino is bombarded, another 'particle' may be dislodged, or loses coherence, and goes flying off someplace else. At some point the soap bubble analogy runs dry, but it might be best not to think of the neutrino as a particle so much as a force field.
The fact that a neutrino is 'uncharged,' may easily be accounted for by the notion of equilibrium. The neutrino has both a negative and positive charge of equal strength. In mathematical terms, these will simply cancel each other out.
One of the interesting things which I would like to know, is what is the temperature of an atom or particle at the core, or nanoscopic level, when all around, at my own level of 'reality,' it is 20 degrees Celsius?
Because that would affect my theoretical visualizations profoundly. Also, I just read something about ionizing radiation, and I need to go back and check that out again.
To report a typo, please e-mail louisbshalako@cogeco.ca
c2010
All Rights Reserved
Editor's Note: The following is science parody and should not be used as a cheat-sheet for college or university exams.
The neutrino is a particle with no mass or charge. It must occupy time and space, or one wonders how it was detectable with anything other than purely theoretical, or mathematical means.
First postulated in theoretical terms, the existence of the neutrino was later demonstrated in the lab. Certain characteristics, predicted mathematically, held true under experimental conditions.
A neutrino may be a kind of spherical force field, one which demonstrates the characteristics of both a wave and a particle. Considering other aspects of quantum physics, this requires a minimal stretch of the imagination.
Think of it as a bubble of force, analogous to one layer of an onion, but also exhibiting some aspects of a soap-bubble as well.
If you prick a soap bubble, the skin is punctured. Surface tension is held in equilibrium at a given size, by temperature, the amount of soap, and the amount of air blown in, and other similar physical factors, 'mathematical factors.'
When you puncture a bubble, it is no longer in equilibrium. All of the skin retracts due the the phenomenon of surface tension. It withdraws in a spherical fashion, and all the air rushes out through the hole. This is because of the light compression of the gas inside, (air,) due to the effects of elasticity, and surface tension.
The air pressure is what held the bubble at a given size, after all. Otherwise it would have shrunk in size until it was again in equilibrium.
What happens next is that the drop of soap jets off in the opposite direction from the jet of air. (Then gravity pulls it to the ground. That's why it falls in an arc, and not straight down.)
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Isaac Newton's First law of Motion, as I recall.
So when a neutrino is bombarded, another 'particle' may be dislodged, or loses coherence, and goes flying off someplace else. At some point the soap bubble analogy runs dry, but it might be best not to think of the neutrino as a particle so much as a force field.
The fact that a neutrino is 'uncharged,' may easily be accounted for by the notion of equilibrium. The neutrino has both a negative and positive charge of equal strength. In mathematical terms, these will simply cancel each other out.
One of the interesting things which I would like to know, is what is the temperature of an atom or particle at the core, or nanoscopic level, when all around, at my own level of 'reality,' it is 20 degrees Celsius?
Because that would affect my theoretical visualizations profoundly. Also, I just read something about ionizing radiation, and I need to go back and check that out again.
To report a typo, please e-mail louisbshalako@cogeco.ca
Friday, July 16, 2010
The Future Lies In The Past.
by Louis B. Shalako
c2010
All Rights Reserved
The papacy became vulnerable to attack in the 15th century due to the greed, immorality, and ignorance of officials at all ranks of the hierarchy.
Vast, tax-free church possessions, in some estimates amounting from one-fifth to one-third of all the lands of Europe, incited the envy and resentment of the land-poor peasaantry.
Humanism represented the beginning of classical learning in the 15th century. It displaced Scholasticism as the principal philosophy of Western Europe. It also deprived church leaders of their monopoly on learning.
More importantly, it destroyed their monopoly on teaching.
Ordinary people studied ancient literature. Scholars such as the Italian Lorenzo Valla critically appraised translations of the Bible. It wasn't long before people were challenging dogma and tradition that had stood sacrosanct for a thousand years.
If you substitute 'corporatism' for the papacy, and once you consider the fact that the internet is a great equalizer, then it is no wonder that mainstream media make fun of media such as the internet, facebook, youtube, bloggers, independent film-makers, self-published authors, and citizen journalists.
I see it as a kind of gallows humour.
I find the internet to be interactive, even kind of intuitive. And that's way better than passive and stupid.
At some point a show geared to 14 year old kids meant nothing to me.
Now I don't have to watch crap programming. If nothing else, I can create my own.
And sometimes, ladies and gentlemen, it's really good programming.
That's the part that worries me.
Because it is one hell of a responsibility.
Guys like me hold the fate of the world in our hands. That makes us thoroughly dangerous men.
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
And you have to admit, I'm pretty ruthless.
In the world of the future, you will have six to ten billion channels to choose from.
And I promise not to bore you to death.
c2010
All Rights Reserved
The papacy became vulnerable to attack in the 15th century due to the greed, immorality, and ignorance of officials at all ranks of the hierarchy.
Vast, tax-free church possessions, in some estimates amounting from one-fifth to one-third of all the lands of Europe, incited the envy and resentment of the land-poor peasaantry.
Humanism represented the beginning of classical learning in the 15th century. It displaced Scholasticism as the principal philosophy of Western Europe. It also deprived church leaders of their monopoly on learning.
More importantly, it destroyed their monopoly on teaching.
Ordinary people studied ancient literature. Scholars such as the Italian Lorenzo Valla critically appraised translations of the Bible. It wasn't long before people were challenging dogma and tradition that had stood sacrosanct for a thousand years.
If you substitute 'corporatism' for the papacy, and once you consider the fact that the internet is a great equalizer, then it is no wonder that mainstream media make fun of media such as the internet, facebook, youtube, bloggers, independent film-makers, self-published authors, and citizen journalists.
I see it as a kind of gallows humour.
I find the internet to be interactive, even kind of intuitive. And that's way better than passive and stupid.
At some point a show geared to 14 year old kids meant nothing to me.
Now I don't have to watch crap programming. If nothing else, I can create my own.
And sometimes, ladies and gentlemen, it's really good programming.
That's the part that worries me.
Because it is one hell of a responsibility.
Guys like me hold the fate of the world in our hands. That makes us thoroughly dangerous men.
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
And you have to admit, I'm pretty ruthless.
In the world of the future, you will have six to ten billion channels to choose from.
And I promise not to bore you to death.
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