Philadelphia to Norristown and Washington to Philadelphia

If I am tired and cannot sleep I just turn one of these videos on and I fall off in about five minutes.

US HWY 9 New Jersey

I Am Not Quite Intelligent Enough to Truly Enjoy Physics Because I Have Not Mastered the Mathmatics

Leonard Susskind and other prominent physicists tell us that the mathematics used by them predicts that we actually live in a two dimensional universe controlled by a holograph located at the far end of the universe.  I need more information on this.  I think that they understand that the maths can be true in allowing the prediction but not requiring it.  They ran into this problem before when their maths told them that time had two directions, it could run both backwards and forwards.   To date they have not proven the multi-direction of time by observation and they most likely will not be able to prove the two dimensional reality either.

We Are The Champions

"We Are the Champions" is a power ballad written by Freddie Mercury, recorded and performed by British rock band Queen for their 1977 album News of the World.  One of their most famous and popular songs, it remains among rock's most recognizable anthems.  

Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara (Gujarati ફ્રારુક બલ્સારા‌), 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British musician, best known as the lead vocalist and a songwriter of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals over a four-octave range.

As a songwriter, Mercury composed many hits for Queen, including "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Killer Queen", "Somebody to Love", "Don't Stop Me Now", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "We Are the Champions". In addition to his work with Queen, he led a solo career, penning hits such as "Barcelona", "I Was Born to Love You" and "Living on My Own". Mercury also occasionally served as a producer and guest musician (piano or vocals) for other artists. He died of bronchopneumonia brought on by AIDS on 24 November 1991, only one day after publicly acknowledging he had the disease.  (Thanks Wiki...)

Everybody Hurts

This work of music was awarded a "Davey" in 2011.  The prestigious "Davey" award is never awarded timely because Davey needs years for things to penetrate this skull and get into his awareness.

When the day is long and the night, the night is yours alone,
When you're sure you've had enough of this life, well hang on
Don't let yourself go, 'cause everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes

Sometimes everything is wrong. Now it's time to sing along
When your day is night alone, (hold on, hold on)
If you feel like letting go, (hold on)
When you think you've had too much of this life, well hang on

'Cause everybody hurts. Take comfort in your friends
Everybody hurts. Don't throw your hand. Oh, no. Don't throw your hand
If you feel like you're alone, no, no, no, you are not alone

If you're on your own in this life, the days and nights are long,
When you think you've had too much of this life to hang on

Well, everybody hurts sometimes,
Everybody cries. And everybody hurts sometimes
And everybody hurts sometimes. So, hold on, hold on
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on
Everybody hurts. You are not alone

Scientific American editors respond to Obama's State of the Union address

President Barack Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday night touched on topics that are near and dear to us at Scientific American, including technology, green energy sources, health care and innovation. Four of our editors give their thoughts on Obama's speech and provide some context in the video below:

Thought Provoking

My Winter 2011

My Flickr

Thousands of my pictures.  I hope they are getting better after all these years.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/victor3701/ 

Living in Texas Today

I would not wish to be young with a family and in the middle class and live in Texas.  The public schools are becoming overcrowded and unable to service the intellectually elite with subjects like advanced mathematics.  All children are subject large class sizes where actual learning is greatly lessened. Private schools in the community are not an answer.  They tend to be unaffordable or operated by fundamentalists with weak intellectual content and outdated ideology. 

Further, living in Texas below the middle class as more and more Texans are finding out is totally destabilizing not only to those below the poverty line but to the state in general.

What we are witnessing in Texas and other reactionary enclaves is a wave of foolish selfishness that weakens the society economically and dynamically.    

Neurosciences and Free Will Symposium 2008

 Will neuroscience explain free will? Will science distinguish between right and wrong? Will morality be explained as an evolved trait under positive natural selection? On Sunday and Monday, March 30-31, 2008, the Center for the Study of Science and Religion at the Earth Institute, Columbia University, in collaboration with the Fetzer Institute of Kalamazoo, Michigan, held a public symposium to discuss Neurosciences and Free Will at Columbia University. For two days, this program brought together leaders in the fields of neuroscience, physics, philosophy, psychology, and theology from a variety of religious traditions to discuss the scientific, philosophical, and moral questions raised by recent findings in the sciences on free will.

Session I--Free Will in the Natural World Sunday, March 30, 2008 Welcoming Remarks: Paul Gailey, Jeffrey Sachs Introduction/Moderation: Bob Pollack "The Volitional Brain": Darcy Kelly "I'm Not a Heretic, I'm a Pagan": David Helfand "Behavioral Genetics and Free Will": Paul Appelbaum«

Observations from the Sideline

Taken from Bob Herbert's column in today's New York Times.

Eric Thompson, owner of the online firearms store that sold a .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun to the shooter, Seung-Hui Cho, did not think that his appearance at Virginia Tech was disrespectful or that his position was extreme. He felt so strongly that college students should be allowed to be armed while engaged in their campus activities that he offered discounts to any students who wanted to buy guns from him. 

Thompson spun the discounts as altruistic. …“This offers students and people who might not have otherwise been able to afford a weapon to purchase one at a hefty discount and at a significant expense to myself.” 

The slaughter of college students — or anyone else — has never served as a deterrent to the gun fetishists. They want guns on campuses, in bars and taverns and churches, in parks and in the workplace, in cars and in the home. Ammunition everywhere — the deadlier, the better. A couple of years ago, a state legislator in Arizona, Karen Johnson, argued that adults needed to be able to carry guns in all schools, from elementary on up. “I feel like our kindergartners are sitting there like sitting ducks,” she said. 

The contention of those who would like college kids and just about everybody else to be armed to the teeth is that the good guys can shoot back whenever the bad guys show up to do harm. An important study published in 2009 by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine estimated that people in possession of a gun at the time of an assault were 4.5 times more likely to be shot during the assault than someone in a comparable situation without a gun.

“On average,” the researchers said, “guns did not seem to protect those who possessed them from being shot in an assault. Although successful defensive gun uses can and do occur, the findings of this study do not support the perception that such successes are likely.” 

The Psychopath

Something this weekend tweaked my interest in understanding anti-social behavior.  The first thing I did was go for definitions and I came upon sociopaths and psychopaths.  My ultimate goal will be to learn the medical and physiological connections to these conditions; In the meantime I downloaded this video as a beginning reference.

 

Life’s Lessons Learned

                                                Life’s Lessons Learned

When I was (I guess) between six and twelve I had this strange concept that people would automatically look out for each other, in most every situation.  If I were walking down the street and was hungry, someone would feed me.  If one were sick the doctor would be there, if necessary.  If a widow and her children were evicted from their home to the streets, people would be there for them.  

I actually had to learn otherwise.  I never considered that such mercies needed to be purchased on an individual basis.  Money, money, money, makes the world go ‘round. I still find it amazing that in this country we do not properly take care of those who can no longer (or never could) care for themselves.  

I have my treasure, I earned it, it is mine and nobody else’s.  I can do with it what I want.  I have no civic responsibility and what’s more, the government should not tax me.  Every bridge should be a toll bridge, and if inadequate tolls are collected it should be allowed to fall down.  What if a person comes down with a costly illness and has insufficient funds or insurance, what then?  Like the bridges, just allow him or her to cave in and go away.   

It can be argued that the “Ayn Rand” approach to civic responsibility is what makes society thrive in a “survival of the fittest” sort of way.  On the contrary, this approach leads to malfunction and disorder and inevitably chaos.  I would argue that a system that holds off the second law of thermodynamics is a stronger system and ultimately provides a passage to a better system.
 David Evans

The following are two works of art that exemplify the above ideas:

No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

John Donne

And;

Money makes the world go around
...the world go around
...the world go around.
Money makes the world go aroung
Of that we both are sure...
*rasberry sound* on being poor!

Money money money money
Money money money money
Money money money...

When you haven't any coal in the stove
And you freeze in the winter
And you curse to the wind at your fate.
When you haven't any shoes on your feet,
Your coat's thin as paper,
And you look 30 pounds underweight
When you go to get a word of advice
From the fat little pastor,
He will tell you to love evermore.
But when hunger comes to rap,
rat-a-tat rat-a-tat at the window
*knock knock* (at the window)
Who's there? (hunger) oh, hunger!!
See how love flies out the door...

For, money makes the world go around
...the world go around
...the world go around.
Money makes the world go 'round
The clinking, clanking sound of...
Money money money money
Money money money money...
Get a little, get a little
Money money money money...
Mark, a yen, a buck or a pound,
That clinking, clanking, clunking sound,
Is all that makes the world go 'round,
It makes the world go 'round!

Money Song Lyrics Sung by Liza Minnelli

Some Questions Imbedded in Krugman's Latest Article

Paul Krugman offers a powerful observation on the political landscape but unfortunately no meaningful solutions. Krugman is correct in observing that most economic issues have consequences that are grounded in incompatible moral principles.  


The liberal moral test is what does the legislation do to strengthen the nation's economic foundation? Should cost of medical treatment, education and insurance against joblessness, and old age, etc. be the responsibility only of the individual or that of society as a whole? And finally what are the consequences on society's stability and prosperity if such things are left only to the individual to solve? 


This comment concerns an article written by Paul Krugman in today's New York Times.  

THE TEMPTEST

THE TEMPTEST

A palimpsest memory

so effecting the whole.

Words now forgotten 

once forming a whole,

Evoke an inner quality

evokes inherent distrust. 

The  thoughtless, 

reactionary citizen,

polarized within the day. 

Quickset impulse,

oblivious to precious 

enduring time. 

Thin sheeted ghosts

stomp on by,

gaining nothing 

from Whitman, 

or Longfellow. 

Nothing farsighted

evoking the sublime.

"I think I could turn and live with animals

they are so placid and self-contained,

I stand and look at them long and long,

They do not sweat and whine about their condition;

They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins;

They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God.

Not one is dissatisfied--not one is demented with the mania of owning things. 

Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind

that lived thousands of years ago;

Not one is respectable or industrious over the whole earth" (With Animals by Whitman).

Dim sheeted ghosts,

turning away from earth. 

Indignant, malignant, viperidae,

Slither up amongst your swooning

group and see past your narrow palisades

to a deeper, steeper condition.  

The sides of the machine a cold nothingness, 

far harder to reach the sun. 

Wthin closed mind -

A rout from our closed-off enclaves.

We grow farther from the sun,

but my feet still kiss the earth, 

heeding a song not yet sung,

evermore green

I follow the sun.

"Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

Life is but an empty dream!—

For the soul is dead that slumbers,

And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!

And the grave is not its goal;

Dust thou art, to dust returnest,

Was not spoken of the soul." - ( A Psalm of Life byLongfellow).

© D. Cardew Evans 01/10/11

Modern Grace

Modern Grace

Remarkable Earth’s

Glorious position from the Sun.

Incubating diverse, ever changing,

Enchanting Temples

Of magnificent carbon life forms.

Challenging rugged biosphere

Never insipid climate.

Nature’s temperament, thin shell,

A balance between our

Heaven and our hell.

O’vast deep ocean of Oneness,

I hear your waves upon the shore.

Creatively I nurture your warmth

Artistic passion to open your door.

Your pulse my heartbeat

Balanced beat for beat.

Listening in our shell

Fragile waves

Form lucid ocean walls.

Ingredient of love

For life in nature.

A resounding spiritual call.

Beauty, harmony, and spirit

Resonating from our core.

Someday my shell,

Harmoniously, in ash, scattered

Upon our shore.

Epitaph uplifts as eternal pinion

Into the heavens it calls:

Mere shadow this carbon frame,

Yet benchmarking spiritual actions

between cradle and our grave.

Mere carcass this carbon frame,

Leading to a oneness

the eternal flame.

Yet no inspiration carries

an inerrancy.

The artist or creative

no different.

We travel unknowingly,

Technology as our beacon

and sword,

Science to measure,

Empreal radiance.

Cognitive experiences,

Ruffle or preen our feathers

Until We shed our frame.

© David Cardew Evans (My Son)

01/09/2011

Did You Know...

...a report this week by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life about the religious composition of the 112th Congress caught my eye. According to the report, the unaffiliated (atheists, agnostics, the unchurched, uncommitted, etc.), at 16.1 percent of the population, is the largest religious group in America without representation in Congress. (Six members, about 1 percent, did not specify a religious category.)

For perspective, there are almost two-thirds as many unaffiliated people as there are Catholics in this country and nearly as many as there are Baptists. Their number is more than twice that of Methodists, and more than nine times the numbers of Jews or Mormons. Yet, no unaffiliated representation. Why?

(from CHARLES M. BLOW New York Times)

This fascinating documentary looks at obesity. Stockholm’s Dr. Stephan Rossner, an obesity specialist, proves beyond doubt that obesity is a man-made epidemic. Super-sized fast foods and a $12 billion ad industry are proving to be lethal when mixed with a car-dominated culture, urban sprawl and labour-saving technologies. This film was launched by the NFB and the CBC in partnership with the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and Physical and Health Education Canada.

Increase in Obesity

The Charlie Rose Science Series: Obesity & Nutrition The panel discusses the rise in obesity in the US, along with its accompanying health concerns, such as type 2 diabetes. A number of obesity experts voice their opinions on the best measures to prevent further weight increases and to treat the existing health concerns.

From Paul Krugman in the New York Times, Dec 7, 2010

Right now, triumphant conservatives in Washington are declaring that they can cut taxes and still balance the budget by slashing spending. Yet they haven’t been able to do that even in Texas, which is willing both to impose great pain (by its stinginess on health care) and to shortchange the future (by neglecting education). How are they supposed to pull it off nationally, especially when the incoming Republicans have declared Medicare, Social Security and defense off limits?

People used to say that the future happens first in California, but these days what happens in Texas is probably a better omen. And what we’re seeing right now is a future that doesn’t work.

World Science Festival 2008: Beyond Einstein

THIS IS PART OF MY ONGOING PROJECT TO TEACH MYSELF MODERN PHYSICS.