baudrunner's space

Strings are too confining

noreply@blogger.com (S.W. Lussing) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:35:00 +0000

Okay, so we've been to Mars, say (we know enough) and yeah, the "gods" once walked the Earth - read the second paragraph in the account of The Flood And The Tower Of Babel in the King James version of the New English Bible, the one that goes "In those days, when the sons of the gods had intercourse with the daughters of men, there were giants upon the Earth. Those were the heroes of old.". Then a new paragraph begins to introduce those giants – Noah, Moses, Abraham and all those other long-lived "prophets". (Yeah, the gods have figured out the secret to near immortality, but that didn't necessarily prevent them from being stung to death by scorpions or by succumbing to some other other 'act of God'. That's how Toth died. His crew couldn't get to him soon enough to save him).

There are real archeologically ancient skeletal finds the world over, including America, of a race of humans that averaged twelve feet tall. Some were up to eighteen feet tall. They were normally proportioned for their centre of mass, given gravity. Anyway, if you're interested in learning more, all I can say is look it up. We are all Googlers.

But right now I want to discuss very briefly a new analysis of Dark Matter and Cosmic Background Theory. Scattered elsewhere in this blog are various articles in which I touched on the photon background, and also virtual particles, as in the article about the Casimir effect for example. Apparently virtual particles are always popping in and out of existence out of the cosmic background. To my mind, if superstrings exist, then they must exist there, not in the present reality where material existence is more or less stabilized. But then, I never thought that string theory was viable in any event. In fact, I think that in reality the cosmic background is a matrix of sorts, with an organization of closely packed nodes much like a complex three dimensional weave. So – not strings, but nodes.

When you zoom in to see the smallest sub-atomic particles, we encounter a lot of space between them. In fact, if you scaled the nucleus of an atom up to the size of a golf ball, the outermost electrons would occupy a zone about twelve kilometres away. Similarly, space as a contiguous matrix has a pattern, and the fact that it has a pattern implies that there can, at the highest levels of zoom, be internodal interference which leaks energy that can stabilize and precipitate as cosmic dust, from 'between' those nodes. Not so much space between nodes, but boundaries defining each. Space dust are trapped 'virtual particles', really just energy which has manifest as matter in the only stable dimension in which it is possible to actually exist and be aware of it - ie. this one. That dimension is called reality. Obviously then the cosmic background is not perfect, but that is because of the dynamics of gravitational interactions in our constantly expanding 'firmament'. As virtual particles are constantly being produced, so do nodes continually reproduce, probably of course making that happen. It's all part of the program of continuity for perpetuity. It's a beautiful self-perpetuating cycle.

So, I think that Dark Matter is fresh space dust, not yet accreted into dense volumes by way of gravitic interaction. If we find that our observations suggest that this is happening alarmingly more and more, then one might want to assume that the Universe has stretched as far as it's going to go. Don't. The farther you look out, the more that dust gets in the way, that's all. No need to worry, it's all going to be around for perpetuity.

Whew, what a journey!

noreply@blogger.com (S.W. Lussing) — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 23:58:00 +0000

Wow, it's been a long time - just woke up from a Rip Van Winkleishly long nap. <--stretch-->

Well, why so long? To be truthful, ahem, I just got back from Mars. Yes, there's gold there, about a trillion dollars worth, or more, even. Raw, refined ingots showing their age of tens of thousands of years. They look somewhat porous, almost, and rough, but they are easy to rub into a brilliant sheen. A great trove of East African treasure. Stored for what purpose? Wealth. Great riches. Only, I didn't have the resources to bring any back.

Don't believe me? Read this book before you say anything. Read also translations of the Egyptian Hieroglyphs, which tell of the gods' "ships of millions of years". Then study the stones which form the launching platform at Baalbek, in Lebanon, and which existed before the biblical flood, which happened 13,950 years ago when a giant slab of ice the size of a small continent calved off the Antarctic ice shelf, producing a tsunami which made the boxing day event seem but a dribble of slurp crawling up the beach. Ancient Sumerian cuneiform script tells of how the gods ascended into the heavens on great clouds of billowing black smoke, as the earth trembled with a terrible roar all around as far as the eye could see. It's no mystery why the Anunaki chose the Middle East to build their great settlements, the first being "Erdu" (Earth) where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers meet the gulf. The oil fair oozed out of the ground, and it is a simple task to refine and distill the crude into kerosene, a very powerful rocket fuel. They came ashore out of the sea, after splashing down to Earth like the Apollo astronauts did. From whence they came is anybody's guess. I suspect that this part of the cosmos is past its peak in interstellar travels. But then again, it really does take a long time to make those journeys, and we will no doubt witness them again sooner or later. Remember, we are talking thousands of years of ancient history recording on stone for posterity those great events so that future generations would know that something great happened which was beyond the understanding of the minds of those early humans.

Place your mind back to that of an early human of ancient history. The concepts of space, planets, star-hopping, all are far outside the realm of understanding. The world was the center of the Universe, the sky but an interesting tapestry. Even 50 years B.C., relatively recent, Titus Lucretius Carus, the poet (see sidebar), thought that the sun was as big as you see that it is - the size of a walnut. It was just so energetic and powerful that it didn't need to be any bigger.

For better or worse, that collection of manuscripts whose production spanned a time frame of seven hundred years - legend, fable, history, poetry and song, lesson - have been combined into a single tome whose interpretations have been made religiocentric. The purity of their symbolism is magnetic, but painfully lacking in correctness. The cuneiform script on those Sumerian tablets, some over ten thousand years old, are not. They are real accounts of events whose witnesses sought to record in as unbiased a manner as possible. They are worth researching.

Thanks to the Rosetta Stone, we now know what they were telling us. Thanks to Zechariah Sitchin, whose sixty years of dedication to the task of interpreting them and correlating the data with ancient Greek, Hebrew, Babylonian and scriptural writings, we can now begin to rationalize their words. He passed away November, 2010, having published "There Were Giants Upon the Earth" in June of that year. May he rest in peace.

LHC: Feeding the nasty Rumor Mill

noreply@blogger.com (S.W. Lussing) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:13:00 +0000

1.18 Tera Electron Volts (TeV) today. Great. Just a few more..

* * *
It seems that people almost want to fear what the LHC may do to life in this reality, like creating a black hole that swallows up the earth and sun, or perhaps exploding into a mini big bang. My playful nature gets the better of me.

Here's a cool scenario that'll never happen. Or will it?!?! Think of this 'quantum event potential' peering over the horizon at CERN: if the photon background should "rupture", for lack of a better word, as it might, spilling a cascade of massive bosons into time and space, then technically the beam would continue accelerating into the same "place", since there is no dimensional space time reality beyond the photon background. In other words, no time and no place for the beam to travel. At that point it would be feeding itself until some quantum threshold is reached, then trading off in heat and cataclysmic reactions. Oh, no!

Think of it! Mankind might represent the only influence that meets entropy's definition of that Universal Tendency Toward Chaos, and humans might be solely responsible for nova and nebula and other such chaotic stellar events. Chalk it up to curiosity. Anyway, if there is an afterlife than all will be well. At least for we who don't work at CERN, because, of course, they will all be going to hell. If not, then we're not around to know any different anyway, so - c'est la vie.

LHC dangers unfounded

noreply@blogger.com (S.W. Lussing) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:49:00 +0000

Kudos to the team at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Ultimately, the LHC's particle collision energies promise to be a feather in the cap of European particle physicists in that competitive arena. Whether they stand to learn anything new from their experimentation remains to be seen. What I think is certain is that any fear of creating a catastrophic event with those high energy beam collisions is completely unfounded and just plain ludicrous.

What might happen at the extreme is the possibility of slight damage to the collider during experimentation at those high energies. The existence of a photon background is supported by evidence of occasional spontaneous creation of electron-positron pairs during collision experiments, which must be sourced there. An event involving extreme energies may very well cause a very temporary disturbance, or "rift" (for lack of a better word) in that photon background, resulting in a cavalcade of unstable mediating particles. A resonating wave might be produced which propagates the energies producing it and pass those on to the material of which the chamber is constructed, and that might cause some damage, which in turn would just lead to automatic shutdown of the collider. The event can be considered analogous to a tsunami, which of course is just water, analagous to the photon background, and which returns to calm sea eventually.

It might also be that far greater energies than what the LHC can possibly generate might be required to create that particular event. Even were it to happen, it would still produce a wealth of useful information.

Ideas, ideas.. .. and solutions.

noreply@blogger.com (S.W. Lussing) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:55:00 +0000

I occasion to sit around and think up ideas.

I mentally pan the issues of the day and try to discover interesting ways to contribute to the solutions to the problems that they represent. Wait, that means that there are no problems, only issues. Well, there are no issues, only solutions.

The subject of ecology has given way to environmental awareness, which in turn has introduced us to specific issues like ozone layer depletion, deforestation and desertification, global warming, waste, and a myriad of other not the lesser but just as important issues like unemployment, homelessness and poverty.

Lest I feel the burden that all of this world's imperfections begs to heap upon my shoulders if I let them, I tend to gravitate to more interesting and less affectatious notions dealing with matters personal and consumerist. Creations that might yet contribute to the betterment of our individual lives. I guess that's where the money is.

Say, for example, that your cell phone is handy but you're doing business online and even a quick search for where the ringing is coming from, when it finally reveals its whereabouts, just sends you up the wall. What if the caller is as impatient as you - and stops trying just as you grab the phone, or you make it almost in time but the phone is upside down in your hand and it stops ringing just after you have deftly turned it right side up? So.. what if the mouse you're using is really just an iPhone that serves double duty as a wireless mouse with the press of a key, but still takes calls? Just an idea.

Legitimate though these preoccupations of mine be, they never completely drag me away from the more important possibilities for the resolution of matters affecting us in annoying ways. Like the economy, for instance. I think that it might be possible to impact economic growth positively while bringing a large number of financially challenged people out of their frustrating existence.

I am thinking of the surprisingly many who answer the question, "Do you have a bank account?" with the negative. The reason is that one needs a picture identification card like a driver's license. In fact, I know of one who could not open a bank account because she had no driver's license. Obtaining one has become more difficult over the years. Driver education is one economic experiment that still profits from the inadequacy of economics.

But every bank should have a facility for providing a personal bank account picture ID card to anyone who needed to open a bank account but otherwise could not for reasons stated. The card would come with privileges and restrictions, such as the ability to save money, write cheques, make debit card purchases, and use the investing strategy services offered by the bank, and most importantly, to establish one's credibility as a sound and frugal money manager. There is no argument for denying this feasibility, since the same level of security exists with the common debit card.

Just an idea.

Do lobsters feel pain?

noreply@blogger.com (S.W. Lussing) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:45:00 +0000

There are conflicting reports from reputable institutions that have undertaken in-depth research projects which have studied the question of whether boiling a lobster alive causes them to feel any pain. Even the notorious Cecil Adams, of Straight Dope fame and who knows almost absolutely everything, appears to be fence-sitting on this one, passing on this particular assignment to one of his cohorts, GFactor, who reports, "As a recent article on the topic puts it: "It's debatable whether the debate will ever be resolved.""

As far as I am concerned, we only pretend that the lobster doesn't feel any pain and will promote any source which agrees with that viewpoint, because we would like to continue to eat lobster without feeling any guilt over the cruel act of having dropped them alive into a pot of boiling water. I would prefer to have them saturated in vodka or rum before doing the nasty deed, so as to at least numb them. I haven't actually tried that, but then I am no great fan of lobster or crab because they are simply too much work and too messy, and in the case of crab, hardly worth the effort to get at the meat. I prefer shaved roast beef au jus on a kaiser myself, jus on the side.

I sit with those who believe that lobsters do indeed feel pain and gross discomfort when dropped squirming into a pot of boiling water. I have reason to believe this. The Atlantic Veterinary College has an interesting link to its Frequently Asked Questions site, dealing with lobster anatomy. On this page can be found a compelling discussion of the lobster's uncanny sense of smell...

Lobsters "smell" their food by using four small antennae on the front of their heads and tiny sensing hairs that cover their bodies. Their sense of smell is so fine that they can sniff out a single amino acid that tags their favorite food.

Now, that's very, very sensitive. So, it turns out that the lobster is a very sensitive and perceptive creature. Naturally, because of their different anatomy, they will sense things differently. It stands to reason that this must include their sense of touch. They no doubt have tactile sense, are able to perceive, and yes, understand, the difference between sandy and rocky sea floor. I can't imagine any lobster trying to dig out a shelter in a rock.

The conclusion drawn by most researchers is that if a lobster feels any pain, they must feel it differently than we do. Well, of course. Insomuch that lobster "smell" their food by using four small antennae on the front of their heads and tiny sensing hairs that cover their body, you can be pretty sure that these antennae and sensing hairs will feel intense "pain" when they are in contact with boiling water. That would be the same sense that steers them clear of the ocean's thermal vents, to keep from being boiled alive at the bottom of the sea, which to many would be a total waste of a good lobster.

That's not to say that lobsters are not found around hydro-thermal vents. Thermal vents offer a favorable (I doubt the lobster knows any better) environment for the Kiwa hirsuta "yeti" lobster, a species of Squat lobster, which are only found in a region about a mile deep off the Easter Islands. They have evolved a tolerance for super-heated water, and as evidence that proximity to their food source is a valuable asset which contributes to their survival, have also evolved extraordinarily long, what appear to be insulated pincers. Obviously these creatures have a genetic predisposition to wariness and trepidation, acquired no doubt because their food can only be found in that zone around those hot thermal vents where it is most abundant, and where just a little too much heat would render the predator but a wasted delicacy. They are blind, a required sacrifice for the privilege of survival.

Some might argue that those feathery hairs on the pincers allow them to sense their food, but I am more inclined to think that they at least also serve the purpose of deflecting the waves of heat radiating from the thermal vents, to keep their heads cool.

Squat lobsters are among the most abundant decapods (which is what lobsters are). Among the largest of the Squat lobsters - only a few species are found around the hydro-thermal vents on the ocean floor - are the Chirostylids, with their extremely elongated pincers, which are thought to have evolved by way of competitive mating, but it seems to me that these creatures have descended from survivors of an era when the world was volcanically volatile, and the longer one's pincers were, the better one's chances for survival lest one be exhumed by one's proximity to a spume of fatally hot geyser waters.

The specimen in the image below is of the New Zealand shallow-water squat lobster. Actually, that is a misnomer, as these species of squat lobster, called the Galatheids, of which he is Munida gregaria, are found at abyssal depths. They are so abundant that their spawn produces a "red tide" at times. I can just picture this fellow reaching into a hot plume for some tasty morsel not quite out of its reach.

Their numbers, not just their adaptation, suggest that these particular creatures were around long before the Earth cooled enough for surface life to emerge.

Hydro-thermal vents offer a dynamic environment for the highly specialized life forms that are found around them. The actual temperatures around a hydro-thermal vent are subject to constant change. Tube worms are abundant in these environments, helping to serve as markers for the vent openings. A tube worm might experience a 20 to 30 degree temperature gradient over the length of its body. The actual temperatures where these tube worms live vary anywhere from about 2 degrees to 30 degrees Centigrade or more above ambient temperatures, while the plume of water rising from a vent opening is super-heated to much greater temperatures. Extreme temperature variations are a function for evolutionary environmental adaptations and appear very likely to have endowed the squat lobster with its unique ability to survive in close proximity to water temperatures that can easily kill it.

Alzheimer’s disease is preventable

noreply@blogger.com (S.W. Lussing) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:15:00 +0000

A great deal of knowledge about Alzheimer’s disease has come to light as a result of intensive research over the last few years. Some sources estimate that about 50% of people who live longer than 80 years of age will probably develop the symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

More than just cognizance and awareness are affected by this insidious disease. The brain monitors and manages heart rhythm, breathing reflex, the immune response, and so on – in short, all of the transparent physiological and metabolic functions that keep us alive and healthy while we go about our business. People don’t necessarily die from Alzheimer’s directly. The disease causes the brain to malfunction in those areas. The normal communication between neurons and neuron networks are disrupted to the extent that their normal functions cease and the body steadily degenerates as a result, leaving it prone to complications from other causes like cancer.

There is hope, in the form of a particular type of vaccine produced by the Merck Company called Zostavax. Zostavax is a vaccine provided only to people over the age of 60 to protect against the development of shingles in mature adults. Shingles is a painful condition caused by the infection and subsequent deterioration of the myelin insulation which protects healthy nerves. A very common virus lies at the root of this condition.

Chicken pox, and later shingles, are caused by the Varicella zoster virus, or cold sore virus. Herpes zoster remains dormant in the roots of certain nerves and can be reactivated during times of stress. Anyone who has had chicken pox as a child is at very high risk for developing shingles in their maturity.

There are at least 8 viruses associated with the herpes family which can infect humans, of which the most common is the cold sore herpes virus called HSV1. HSV1 is carried by anyone who has had the chicken pox and/or who develops cold sores. That very likely includes almost everyone alive.

Recent studies at the University of Manchester of the brains of deceased Alzheimer’s patients have revealed the presence of HSV1 DNA in 90% of the amyloid plaques found in the affected brain areas. This fact points to a direct correlation between HSV1 and Alzheimer’s.

It follows that a good first line of prevention of Alzheimer’s disease is to treat any HSV1 infection with acyclovir, the anti-viral agent commonly prescribed for herpes. In older people, the best possible deterrent against the development of Alzheimer’s associated with the re-activation of the dormant HSV1 virus leading to shingles is to ask the doctor for the Zostavax vaccine as soon as one is past 60 years of age.

It is becoming apparent that vigilance in the application of preventive measures can probably prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s in people who might otherwise die because of it. I saw my mother go that way recently, and it is not pretty.

125th post on this blog

noreply@blogger.com (S.W. Lussing) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 00:33:00 +0000

Gratifying what one can find on the web if one is half-way inquisitive. I found this great little collection of rock and roll videos on a blog called red food coloring.

The Rolling Stones 1968

Rock on!

Kaballahrama

noreply@blogger.com (S.W. Lussing) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:20:00 +0000

Basically, Kabbalah is the study of the inner secrets of the Torah, which comprise the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew bible, and which happen to comprise the Old Testament of the Bible. Devout Jews and Christians alike believe those five books to be the direct word of God. Adherents to Kabbalah subscribe to the belief that God revealed secrets, including all those about creation and the true nature of the Godhead, to Adam, who is construed to be the first of God's Earth's human expressions.

The bible is rife with mystical experience – the miracles leading to the exodus, for example; the burning bush and the encounter with God on Mount Sinai. Jewish orthodox belief holds that Moses also accepted the Torah on Mount Sinai by divine inspiration, in addition to the Ten Commandments. This places a great mystical importance on the Old Testament to the occasional class of believers so inclined.

Kabbalists seek to understand the hidden meaning of the words of the Torah in the attempt to gain a closer understanding of that which Jewish orthodoxy believes cannot ever truly be understood – the very nature of God, and to perhaps derive some knowledge of the secrets behind the working of miracles, which are perceived as magic.

The revelation of the Pentateuch and the witness of those miracles by the ancients have imbued an almost irreconcilable curiosity in those who yearn to know more about occult things. This thirst for knowledge has persisted, ever since those times when Egypt was under the rule of the pharaoh Ramesses II, and when he acknowledged the great power of the slaves’ God who worked those miracles through Moses. Ramesses released them from their bondage as a result. Since then Kabbalah, in its original intent, which is to find out if it is possible for one of God's creations to do that at will, has become a legitimate area of study by rabbinical scholars. Those of whom who are devoted to it study the Torah for up to three hours a day.

It is probable that the entire history of the evolution of sorcery and witchcraft to the levels where they exist today in all their various manifestations have their origins in the witness of, and wondering about, all divine miracles. And about the mystery of creation, which Kabbalists have attempted to rationalize, and about which they have come to develop theory and hypotheses.

Out of their study of Kabbalah has come their limited knowledge of God – limited because God cannot be understood by human beings because we are too deficient in our capacities compared to him; that he encompasses the universe but that the universe does not encompass him; that creation is a manifestation, extension if you will, of his divine presence and that all matter and spirit are one with him. Curiously enough for their being a part of the same religion, some believe that matter did not exist before God - and yet others believe that matter did exist before God.

Over the centuries, it seems that the study of Kabbalah has seen as many interpretations by scholarly rabbis as there have been scholarly rabbis.

The Jewish Diaspora tended toward a decentralization of the rabbinical college, and this precluded their ever developing an integrated school of thought. As a result, many rabbinical scholars developed original interpretations and ideas concerning the Torah’s hidden secrets. In fact, over 2,000 years ago the hermetical scholar Ben Sira even warned against delving into esotericism, saying, “You shall have no business with secret things”.

It is thought that Kabbalah, as a field unto itself, actually has its beginnings during the middle ages and the Rennaisance. Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534–1572) is considered to be the most influential of the Kabbalist teachers, founder of an important school of mysticism whose understanding of the way of things linked man’s deeds to the secret processes of creation. He taught that through deed, the original order of the cosmos might be restored and that then the way of reality would unfold into the climactic coming of the Messiah. He taught mostly through oratory but his philosophy was expounded in numerous works by his disciple Hayim Vital.

The death of Rabbi Isaac Luria and his disciples left a void which a charismatic and controversial Kabbalah scholar by the name of Sabbatai Zevi (1626-1676) filled - to satisfy the public need for greater spiritual insight, a need made all the more profound by the chaos left by the pogroms of the Ukrainian Cossacks who massacred Jews and Roman Catholics alike, during the years 1648 to 1654. The Jewish masses were convinced that their “Jewish Messiah” had come. Zevi's meditations included mystical chants and incantations.

To the disillusionment of most Jews, Zevi became an apostate to Judaism. He converted to Islam to avoid execution by the Ottoman Sultan for plotting to conquer the world and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. The Sabbatinian movement retained some followers in Turkey, who concluded that his conversion was but a clever ploy to inspire Islamic followers into the way of the Jewish faith. There are Sabbatinian sects today.

The “Frankists” were followers of the pseudo-mystic Jacob Frank (1726-1791), a Kabbalist who eventually became an apostate to Judaism when he converted to Catholicism.

There are sects of Judaic Orthodoxy which maintain that idolatry is sinful, and yet the red string bracelet of Tamar’s first born twin (Genesis 38:28), placed there innocently so that the first named could be re-identified, has become a talisman to dilettantes. The thought among the more occult Kabbalists is that the red string bracelet wards off the evil eye. Apparently, Rachel's tomb was encircled by her devotees with a red string, and bracelets subsequently cut from it. Therein lies the tradition. Talismans are really just small idols.

Between the extremes of divine dignification and its antithesis, however that may be described, lies the gamut of all things pertaining to the supernatural, including superstition. The study of the Torah will continue, because the messages that can be read into them are virtually infinite in number, and they must be realized.

Underlying the real purpose of scriptural study is the establishment of a specialized adaptation to inspired epiphenies so that they manifest into the deeds from which civilization is ultimately hewn, insomuch as curiosity gives rise to invention.

It is acknowledged amongst all religions that there is much more to reality than meet the senses, and that we exist in but a narrow sliver of the entire spectrum of it, insomuch as we can see but a narrow detectable sliver of the range of frequencies that comprise the entire optical spectrum. That is the lure to which real students of Kabbalah are drawn.

What it is that drives this world

noreply@blogger.com (S.W. Lussing) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:28:00 +0000

The "disgraced media baron" Conrad Black (as he is described in the Toronto Star today) has written a poignant critique of the state of America's prison system, which he addressed to the editors of the Sunday Times of London. He should know what he is talking about. He is serving a six-and-a-half year sentence - for being the Canadian owner of American newspapers who had used a portion of his company's income to pay for personal expenses. I personally have a problem wrapping my head around the idea that that is a wrong thing to do, considering that he essentially owns those companies, but who am I to judge. Greedy people who also owned interests in his companies complained. They weren't getting their kickbacks, probably.

Anyway, Conrad states...

"US justice has become a command economy based on the avarice of private prison companies, a gigantic prison service industry and politically influential correctional officers' unions..."

It truly is a prison "system", and a very lucrative one at that, to the point where America incarcerates up to 12 times as many people on a per capita basis than do most other first-world nations. Many people are getting rich from that. What does that say for the concept of freedom?

It should be no mystery to anyone as to what it is that drives this world - some might say that it is money. By the end of Ronald Reagan's presidency, he had expanded the U.S. military budget by almost 45% over the total amount of military expenditures during the height of the Vietnam war. In 2008 the entire world will have spent US$1.47 trillion on military expenditures. Of that amount, US$1.05 trillion will have been spent by NATO countries and US$711 billion of that by America. Don't ask what America is doing in Iraq and Afghanistan. You don't spend money without getting something back for it.

Haliburton Corporation got something back for its huge investment in the Bush-Cheney campaign for the presidency, one that it was so determined to win that many question the legitimacy of the results. That company is the prime contractor for the rebuilding of post-war Iraq, and also for the construction of the all-important largest oil pipeline construction project yet undertaken, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which delivers crude oil from the vast reservoirs under the Caspian Sea to the West via Turkey's Mediterranean sea port. It was constructed in record time. Many construe that logically as America's reason for being there in the first place.

Many put the onus for the resolution of the current economic crisis squarely on the shoulders of the consumer. Wait, aren't those the same people sending their kids to die overseas in some conflict where the business of oil is really its prime underlying cause? Do you really blame the natives there for being upset that their country is being overrun by foreign interests before they themselves have a chance to exploit their own region's resources to benefit the area where they live? The lessons of Russia's exploitation of Afghanistan's oil resources to the extent that those fields are now completely dried up have obviously not been learned. There are only a few reasons for the restlessness of the natives there.

It is clearly evident that America is taking timely advantage of its technological and military superiority to undertake measures to maintain its lead as the world's biggest consumer of petroleum products. The evidence is everywhere, including in those statistics which reflect the ongoing popularity of big pickup trucks, as they continue to be the biggest selling private vehicles in the nation. They are gas guzzlers.

To be fair, it would appear that Conrad Black is just as guilty as the country he is discrediting, because what drives the world is greed, and that is why he is in prison, after all.

Thoughts on god and the economy

noreply@blogger.com (S.W. Lussing) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:43:00 +0000

Here’s what I see happening in the world today, and how I might resolve things if I were boss.

The old system of an elite rulership overlording its minions is folding over onto itself and consuming it.

Unfortunately, that “elite rulership” is slow to catch up. Most are not – give them credit – but some are. The real problem is that the governments of this world have more or less configured themselves around an old system which pays lip service to the elite while it continues to exploit the working classes. That was a way that worked once for the sake of progress and economic growth, often unbeknownst to the elite, but not anymore. In one manifestation, this results in massive government employment which has been largely responsible for creating a definable middle class.

Wars have been fought for personal gain at the expense of others. Case in point - Russia has made war for no other reason than to acquire tasty produce which it did not have, resulting in a dearth of that produce wherever they campaigned for them - the Balkans, actually, and Afghanistan. The Russians are not to be blamed. They are just an example.

The current global economic situation can best be resolved by way of a paradigm shift of such proportions as cannot be readily appreciated.

By way of example, the common belief in a god who existed before anything else, and who created the Universe, is not just untenable, it is ludicrous. The point is, that so long as people have something to believe in which can never be verified or proved, then they continue to be happy to believe in it, and all is fine and dandy. When truth is realized, as a rule, people are happy to believe in it until they bore of it, and then move on to something else. My guess is that no-one who believes in this god will ever be unreconciled. Therein lies a great example of paradox theory.

That does not mean that god does not exist.

According to my education, humankind is made in the image of a god in which he or she is compelled to believe. But my range of perception is limited to a very narrow range of all the frequencies within the bandwidth of that spectrum which encompasses all. In fact, the perception of my visible optical range comprises just a small sliver of the entire optical spectrum. Even birds see more than I do. The same applies to my other four senses.

The concept of ‘other dimensions’ of reality must be appreciated within a rational context of limitations. There is no possibility of other dimensions existing with their own three dimensions of being, any more than there are any “other universes out there”. That makes no sense. The concept of other dimensions should be construed as the addition of parameters to the practical dimensional realm of this one three dimensional reality wherein creation has become manifest, because it is the only one in which it can manifest.

Therefore: the fact that a spiritual realm exists cannot be doubted by virtue of all the recorded experiences which provide the genuine proof of its existence, including my very own experiences. I must conclude that, within the entire spectrum of being, the spiritual realm co-exists with this physical realm wherein we find ourselves, which in totality constitutes reality.

As I see it, the lord of that higher spiritual realm - or god, as we have come to know him - is a very highly evolved and almost inconceivably complex being whose evolution predates ours by many millions, perhaps billions of years, and who has found a way to evict the physical limitations of his corporeal being, yet retain the identity of the self which is his spirit, and who has learned how to maintain it for perpetuity. That is a paramount technological achievement.

Not many can accept such an adjustment in the thinking of their beliefs. Such is the nature of a paradigm shift. It requires readjustment.

All of which brings me to the point of my discourse on the current global economic situation. As I see it, probably, phase two of the global economic future will see the large institutions that are bailing out the smaller ones over the current crisis fail, by over-extending themselves.

A drastic re-assessment of what we believe in the way that things have been done in the past is called for. It may very well be that a bizarre eclectic mix of all the tried politico-economic systems of the past must be implemented globally - a combination of socialism, capitalism, communism, democratic internationalism – what have you, so that we can guarantee economic security for everyone for perpetuity. All it takes is a bit of sacrifice. We, none of us, can continue to pursue the “American Dream” without a huge trade-off in material losses. Paradox, again.

The potential of helium-3 (He-3)

noreply@blogger.com (S.W. Lussing) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:10:00 +0000

Helium 3 (He-3) nuclei contain 2 protons and 1 neutron, unlike regular helium (He-4) nuclei, which contain 2 protons and 2 neutrons. He-3 is a light, non-radioactive isotope of helium and is very rare on the Earth, but relatively abundant on the moon, which is why the moon is being eyed as a tempting source of He-3 for fueling fusion reactions using deuterium here on Earth. Helium 3 can be extracted from the lunar dust by heating it to about 600º C.

In the He-3-deuterium type of fusion reaction, He-3 readily grabs a neutron from the Deuterium atom when the two are subjected to extreme temperatures. This yields a proton and He-4. This is a strongly exothermic reaction, with the net loss of mass in the conversion given off as energy.

Extracting He-3 from the moon is not a preposterous notion. UR Rao, a former director of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has suggested that the moon might have "enough He-3 to produce energy for 8,000 years". China’s head of its Lunar Exploration Project (CLEP), or Chang’e project, has said that "each year three space shuttle missions could bring enough He-3 for all human beings across the world".

1 kg of helium-3 burned with 0.67 kg of deuterium yields about 19 megawatt-years of energy output. The space shuttle is capable of carrying about 25 tonnes of payload. That would represent enough Helium 3 to power the U.S. for one year at current energy consumption rates. Moreover, He-3 fusion reactors are safe. It actually makes sense to consider extracting He-3 from the lunar surface as a viable alternative energy project. Let the competition begin.

Just one rather sticky problem. No working fusion reactor has yet been built.

However, the serious enthusiasm which the scientific world has generated with respect to the generation of electrical energy from a safe and efficient source of fusion power is reflected in the ITER project, “a joint international research and development project that aims to demonstrate the scientific and technical feasibility of fusion power”. Thus far, over $12 Billion has been invested in this enterprise, with the intention of proving that the generation of energy from fusion reactions is possible.

The fusion reaction created by ITER is a deuterium-tritium reaction. Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. Its nucleus contains one proton and two neutrons. Decades of research into controlled hydrogen fusion reactions have yielded no return on investment in the way of energy, just knowledge.

Abundant supplies of He-3 are needed before research into the construction of a deuterium-He-3 fusion reactor can begin. Some catch-22. *sigh*

Two theories of life's origins

noreply@blogger.com (S.W. Lussing) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:03:00 +0000

Two distinct theoretical approaches have emerged in the quest for explanations concerning the origins of life. One school of thought subscribes to the idea that metabolism predated genetics. The main proponent of this theory is Dr. Günter Wächtershäuser, a chemist by training, and now a patent lawyer in Munich.

Dr. Wächtershäuser thinks that life on Earth had hydrothermal origins, - i.e., probably near deep hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor. Metabolism by this reckoning involves the evolution of progressively complex chemical reactions ultimately yielding life out of primitive energy exchange mechanisms in a cyclic process. This process of evolutionary development has come to be known as the iron-sulfur world theory.

The iron-sulfur recipe described by Wächtershäuser can be summed up by the following: bring water to a boil and stir in iron sulfide and nickel sulfide. Mix in carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulfide gas, and then wait for the amino acids to convert into peptides.

In 1997, Wächtershäuser and Claudia Huber actually performed the experiments and successfully produced peptides by mixing carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, nickel sulfide, and iron sulfide particles at 100°C. In 2006 the two collaborators produced glycine, alanine and serine from a similar mixture. These are simple amino acids found in proteins. Potassium cyanide was their source of nitrogen.

A clear description of a proto-ecological system exists, from the establishment of the catalytic environment consisting of micro scale caverns coated by thin membranous metal sulfide walls up to the synthesis of the lipid membrane which finalizes the creation of a true living cellular organism capable of escaping the confines of the alkaline hydrothermal vent environment. The condition of the “life form” up to the evolution of the lipid cell walls represents the “Last Universal Common Ancestor” (LUCA).

RNA world hypothesis is the title given to the other explanation for how life began. In this scenario, RNA predates the emergence of DNA-based life – i.e., genetics before metabolism. The logic in this theory lies in the fact that RNA can act as both a storage mechanism and a catalyst. The thinking is that ribosomal RNA, which catalyzes protein production, is the evolutionary remnant of the RNA world.

Some adherents to the theory suggest that pre-RNA nucleic acids, which manifest in the pre-biotic environment, were the first types of nucleic acids to emerge as a self-reproducing molecule. Among the candidates are peptide nucleic acid (PNA), threose nucleic acid (TNA), and glycerol nucleic acid (GNA), all of which are similar to RNA but for their backbones, which are not composed of the ribose sugars that comprise RNA. For example, TNA is composed of repeating threose units linked by phosphodiester bonds. These molecules do not occur in the natural conditions of today's Earth.

What encourages RNA world hypotheses is the fact that short RNA molecules with self-replicating properties have been synthesized in the lab. What discourages the theory is that stable pre-biotic conditions would have to exist which encourage the proliferation of self-reproducing RNA-like analogs. This includes the ability of these molecules to have been capable of independent life in an environment dense with sugar-phosphate molecules.

The iron-sulfur world theory is very compelling. It is likely that both processes occurred in the earliest stages of the emergence of living organisms, with the RNA world only a phase predated by the iron-sulfur world.

That is not to say that other conditions cannot bring about the beginnings of primitive life forms. In an earlier post, I noted Carl Sagan's description of a prebiotic Earth, and that they were very much the same as those which currently exist on the moon Titan, around the planet Saturn. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if some type of methanogen were periodically struggling to emerge there.

Whichever of the two theories of life's origins holds sway, the fact remains that they are both integral to a theory of origins based on anthropic reasoning, which yet remains uncomfortably lodged in the realm of philosophy more so than in true science. However, one can't deny that life is determined to emerge, however it comes about.

Creation in 'reel' time

noreply@blogger.com (S.W. Lussing) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 13:57:00 +0000

Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) have used a new type of microscope to image the first 24 hours of a zebra fish's embryonic development and have turned the images into a video. This video, shown below, is a provocative demonstration of what happens during the earliest stages of embryonic development.

This is the first time that this feat has been accomplished with a vertebrate, which is a much more complex life form than a simple worm, for example, for which this process has been already been performed. Every single cell must be traced as they divide and migrate throughout the blastosphere and organize themselves into the recognizable pattern of an embryo. This achievement has been compared to following all the residents of a town about for an entire day using a telescope in space.

Presumably, scientists will gain insight into the nature of this highly complex cell organization which ultimately produces a living creature by studying movies like these. For my part, the video only raises more questions, and instills in me a greater awe for the very concept of life itself and how it develops, seemingly as a matter of course, so very miraculously.

Life here, and "there"...

noreply@blogger.com (S.W. Lussing) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 21:00:00 +0000

There are any number of great websites out there in cyberspace which deal with such otherworldly issues as alien artifacts and other anomalous features on the moon and Mars, and with more mundane subjects like evidence of alien visitors and/or their presence on our very own planet by way of archaeological and other evidence. In fact, there is enough "evidence" out there to have one wondering whether this planet is indeed our own. We might very well be guests here, for all we know.

Well, we know quite a bit, and it is safe to say that we are very much at home here on Good Mother Earth, and even if we aren't indigenous to this world we can at the very least satisfy ourselves by claiming ownership by way of what any rational soul must concede to be a safely presumed statute of limitations.

Not that there aren't some very compelling reasons to think that we are not alone in this great and wondrous Universe. In fact, I have done enough research to conclude that there are pretty good odds to support the idea that we have been visited in the past by some far out of this world characters, and by that I mean from other sources in this galaxy, whether from within our own solar system or beyond. Here, for example, is incontrovertible evidence - pictures taken of a ceiling beam at a 3000-year old Temple at Abydos in Egypt...

And below is a closeup of that beam. It is evident from the fact that this was a carefully selected secluded site for these etchings and that the artist was without a doubt saving this information for posterity. It probably might very well have got him into trouble if he had carved them in a more prominent location.

Curiously enough, attempts to rationalize these hieroglyphs as 'palimpsests' by Egyptologists are defeated by evidence published by a respected Arab newspaper, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, of several photographs taken at another Egyptian temple, the Amon Ra Temple in Karnak, of similar hieroglyphs featuring flying machines, and which are also estimated to be around 3,000 years old. It is extremely unlikely that these artifacts are adultered hieroglyphs.

In 1898, in a tomb at Saqquara, Egypt, a very interesting and well-known artifact, among Egyptologists, was found - what seems to be a toy airplane. It was analysed and determined to have been created near 200 BCE. It is shown below.

This brings me to the reason for this current post. I remain very skeptical of most of the online evidence, often quite bizarre, which compare obscure images of surface features taken by Mars rovers and orbiters, and Apollo astronauts, as well as claims of secret Apollo missions of which the general public, by design, knows nothing about, because when seen in their true light reveal nothing more than rocks and retouched photographs. However, there is some pretty irrefutable evidence to the contrary - witness the link to the image at the bottom of the right sidebar on this site. Having said that, I turn your attention to the image below. It is of a dust devil on Mars, a whirlwind of dust and sand particles which are very common on the surface of that planet, and which can easily be misconstrued when taken out of context as a UFO. In fact, they have been interpreted as just that by overly enthusiastic ufologists.

My message is, "The evidence is out there, just be very discriminating."

Still waiting for the evidence

noreply@blogger.com (S.W. Lussing) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:49:00 +0000

Scientists who are still searching for evidence of gravitational waves may have to wait forever. In an earlier post I did not deny the existence of gravitational waves and even suggested an alternative experiment to detect them. Thus far, the hundreds of millions of dollars in funding of the elaborate and ultrasensitive detectors designed to do that have not led scientists any closer to confirming their existence beyond the still theoretical justification for the expense.

It has occured to me of late that if my perception of how gravity works holds true, then gravitational waves do not exist, and therefore they will never be detected. Of course, even my explanation should be taken with a grain of salt, because it includes a description of those constituents of space which I call "space bosons", whereas in fact they are constituents which fall into a category all by themselves and which should not be confused with conventional force and matter particles.

We can analogize how gravity works by comparing it to photon entanglement. The principle of photon entanglement has already been demonstrated. In effect, it is possible to entangle two photon events without regard for the distance which separates those events, and this entanglement occurs over any distance, apparently exclusive of time. In other words - instantaneously.

I believe that gravity occurs in the same way. We can demonstrate just how this works by taking a stretchy fabric and observing that as we stretch the cloth it expands over all points simultaneously. As I see it, this is how space is affected by the presence of large objects. All points between the objects respond instantaneously as the objects vary their position with one another. The process is ongoing and occurring even now within our solar system as the bodies within it are affecting each other by continuously changing their relationships. Any comparison of this behavior to electromagnetic wave behavior is simply an erroneous interpretation of what is really happening. Waves do not play a role.

This theory fits into my model of the "expanding" Universe, wherein creation is an ongoing event at the periphery, where space, time, and matter are created in a perpetual scenario. This model also explains the uniformity of this flat Universe.

Space is indeed a three-dimensional fabric that traps the objects within it, and it is not comprised of nothing. Whether we will ever be able to detect that which to my mind is exponentially tinier than a quark remains to be seen. It is ironic that here again a paradox is at work, that the tiniest components of our reality comprise a whole which acts over a virtually infinite realm almost outside of the dimension of time, and which simultaneously contributes to the relative temporal framework between localities within this same whole.

LHC - The Higgs jig

noreply@blogger.com (S.W. Lussing) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 02:28:00 +0000

The Higgs boson. The physics community requires unanimity to accept the presence of the Higgs boson, but it doesn't have it yet. Mainly, of course, because nobody has found one to prove that it exists. That might happen at the LHC, due to be cold and vacuous enough soon enough - sometime in September. Or it might not. Happen, that is.

The "Higgs boson" is not a gauge boson. The gauge bosons are the photons, gluons, W and Z bosons. The Higgs field, as distinct from a Gauge field, is that theoretical realm which is responsible for the mass which particles possess. The Higgs boson would be that particle which mediates the interaction between all the other particles that have mass, and this field, in doing so, confers upon those particles that property of mass. That's why it has been called the God particle by some.

Others snub those who say that, because they have a deeper perception of how a Higgs boson does that. It's all about that quantum scale where there is no diffusion of possibilities, but where things happen in quanta of events - thin lines of opportunity in that infinite spectrum of probabilities. They see the Higgs field as a sort of three-dimensional grid or matrix wherein probability determinations are a function of a particle's orientation to the grain, or nap of this fundamental fabric. Now, mass is a relative thing, so they argue that just because we cannot observe or measure a photon's mass does not mean that it doesn't have any. It's just so very, very light (pun unintended).

There are alternative ideas that might merit some consideration. Imagine the "Whimsical Particle", one that turns back into itself after some kind of double-looped phase transition. I think that this "Wh", or "whimsy" particle has an equal probability of being found compared with the Higgs boson, because in my opinion the presence of the Higgs field would make such a particle possible.

In my opinion, the Higgs field is really the photon background. Occasionally, electron-positron pairs are observed to spontaneously generate from the photon background. To my mind, this pretty much sums up the limit of finesse which particle nature can achieve in this quantum Universe. A photon's kinetic energy, when subtracted from its mass, probably yields zero. The photon is only responsible for propagating the waves that define reality, a perpetual process in this physical realm where conservation of energy and mass is the law. That makes the preceding a very logical assumption.

I say this because I think that it is that since mass is a function of velocity that particles have mass. That they have motion is established by Werner Heisenberg's thinking. He said it is just so impossible to pin a nuclear particle down, that entirely new mathematical methods would be required to extrapolate what cannot be put into the temporal framework as we know it to be, that is we cannot take a still life photograph to study the relationships of all those particles. We must deduce that about them, because they move so fast. Einstein said that when an object's velocity approaches the speed of light that its mass increases. Sometimes I think that Al is still waiting for the world to catch up. Me too.

Rerunning the Standard Model

noreply@blogger.com (S.W. Lussing) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 03:19:00 +0000

All the information contained in this article is substantiated and originates with experimental results obtained from Fermilab, Stanford, Brookhaven, CERN, et al, and is the accepted dogma of theoretical physics. This information has been lifted for the most part from an online primer of particle physics from another source and has been rewritten for the sake of brevity and for the convenience of not having to turn pages. It can be found here. Additionally, I have provided Wikipedia links for further study and clarification, but the essential purpose of this article is to comprehensibly abbreviate our compendium of knowledge of the Standard Model of the atom.

Almost all of the current evidence that we have for the existence of subatomic particles is first predicted, and then discovered. Enrico Fermi once said, “If I could remember the names of all those particles, I’d be a botanist!”

The Standard Model: 6 quarks; 6 leptons; and force carriers.

All matter is composed of leptons and quarks interacting via force carrier particles - note that gravity is not included in the Standard Model of the atom. 100's of particles are all made from the Fundamental Particles which comprise 6 quarks, 6 leptons, 6 antiquarks, 6 antileptons, and the force carriers.

Quarks make up most of the matter we see around us because the protons and neutrons are both made up of quarks. They are called: up; down; charm; strange; top; and bottom. The proton, which is charged, is made up of two up quarks and one down quark. The neutron, which is uncharged, is made up of two down quarks and one up quark.

Different quarks have different attributes. The K particle, which like the proton and neutron is also a composite particle, was the first particle found to contain the strange quark, so named because K has such a "strangely" long lifetime. The charm quark has no real charm; they just called it that and the name stuck. The bottom quark was detected at the Fermi lab in the composite particle called upsilon back in 1977, and finally the top quark was discovered in 1995 and it has the most mass of all the quarks.

We call the particles that are made up of quarks Hadrons, and they are further divided into Baryons, which are each made up of three quarks, and the very unstable Mesons, which are made up of two quarks. The two quarks that make up the Meson are a quark and an antiquark, like a pion for example, which is made up of an up quark and a down antiquark. The pion has its antiparticle, the antipion, and it is made up of a down quark and an up antiquark. Protons and neutrons are Baryons.

Photonic energy occasionally sources the creation of electron-positron pairs. The positron is the antielectron, and the two can be traced by a detector in the bubble chamber of a particle accelerator as two spiral swirls going in opposite directions from the same point of origin. "Photons" don't leave trails.

The electron is a lepton particle, as are the much more massive muon and tau, which have charges like the electron. Three types of neutrino make up the other three Leptons. Neutrinos are really hard to find because they have no charge and very little mass. All Leptons have their antimatter equivalents. Leptons appear as solitary point sources of energy with no discernible internal features. This makes them very unlike quarks, which are always seen together.

The massive Leptons do not exist around us, because when they occur, they very quickly decay into lighter leptons, like the tau particle, which decays into its corresponding neutrino, in this case a tau neutrino, and a quark and an antiquark. Electrons and neutrinos are stable and we can detect them.

A heavy Lepton can decay into another Lepton and its antineutrino. Leptons always produce their corresponding neutrinos when they decay, and observation has shown that the numbers of each Lepton remain constant, making some decay sequences impossible. In other words, electron number, muon number, and tau number and their corresponding neutrinos are always conserved when a massive lepton decays into other particles.

Neutrinos very rarely interact with other particles since they have no charge, so they can actually travel right through the Earth without touching a single other particle. They are produced in abundance during radioactive decays and their presence was inferred after physicists observed that the electron and proton produced by an at-rest decaying neutron went off into different directions, and that was odd, since they should have had their zero momentum conserved. Some other particle was providing the momentum to produce a balance and this was hypothesized to be an antineutrino. This educated guess proved right. It turns out that neutrinos are abundant.

The leptons and their corresponding neutrinos exist in three sets, as do the up and down, charm and strange, and top and bottom quarks. These are considered to be three generations of matter, organized by increasing mass. Up quarks, down quarks, and electrons make up the first generation of matter. Charm and strange quarks and muons make up the next generation, and top and bottom quarks and tau leptons the third. The unstable heavy generations do not stay around, but quickly decay into the first generation of matter. Remember that each lepton has a corresponding neutrino in its set.

Distribution of the charge types in the first generation of matter can be understood by stacking it with the electron on the bottom followed by the electron neutrino and then the down quark, and then the up quark at the top. The charge types sequence in the following order, from the top down: +2/3, -1/3, 0, 1. Neutrinos have zero charge. The charge type distributions for the muon and tau sets are the same.

There are said to be four fundamental interactions between particles - attractive and repulsive forces, decay, and annihilation. All forces are caused by one of these fundamental interactions. Force carrier particles carry these interactions and can only be absorbed or produced by a matter particle which can be affected by that particular force.

Force carrier particles allow objects like magnets to affect each other without touching. Some speculate that there might be a force carrier particle for gravity. Not me.

Photons are the electromagnetic force carriers which interact between charged particles such as electrons and protons. Neutrinos have no charge so they cannot produce or absorb photons.

Atoms usually have equal numbers of electrons and protons and their opposite charges cancel out, rendering the atom electrically neutral. Interaction occurs between atoms all the time, however, and objects stay together because the electrons of one atom are interacting with the protons of adjacent atoms, and vice versa.

The nuclei of atoms do not fly apart because the quarks that make up their Hadrons have color charge which is very strong. It is called the Strong Force and this is the force that binds quarks together to form Hadrons. The carrier particles for the quark’s color charge are called gluons. Gluons themselves have color charge but gluons are not at all like photons because photons themselves have no electromagnetic charge.

Quarks form color-balanced Hadrons, so the composite particles which they make up do not have a net color charge, and so the Strong Force only works at the very smallest of scales, where quarks interact. The force that binds quarks is strongest when they are far apart, and relaxes as the quarks come closer together.

The color charges of quarks change as gluons are exchanged with other quarks. Gluon emission and absorption always changes color. Color charges come in three types - red, green, and blue, with their antired, antigreen, and antiblue counterparts.

Mesons and Baryons are color-neutral - mesons because their quark-antiquark color charges cancel, and Baryons because the color charges of their three quarks mix to produce a neutral color charge. Gluons can be said to carry both a color and anticolor charge, since color is a conserved quantity. The color analogy satisfies the intent of physicists to describe measured observations about quarks in Hadrons.

It has been shown that there are eight different color-anticolor combinations, or eight different gluon charges, not the nine predicted by the total number of combinations of the three colors and their corresponding anticolors. The mathematics used to describe the Standard Model only accounts for eight gluon charges.

Quarks can only combine to form Baryons and Mesons, because these allow the only color combinations that confer color-neutrality on a Hadron. Particles whose quark combinations cannot permit color-neutral states are never observed. There cannot be a particle made of one up quark and one down quark, for example.

The constant exchanging of gluons between quarks makes up what physicists call a color force-field. When quarks are pulled apart their color force-fields stretch and grow stronger and at some point will even break apart to form a new quark-antiquark pair. The energy needed to create these new particles comes from the energy surplus of the color force-field of the original two quarks, which increases as it stretches. Quarks cannot exist individually.

The complexities of color conservation can be explained as follows. A red quark turns into a blue quark and emits a red/antiblue gluon. The blue color charge is cancelled by the antiblue color charge of the gluon and the red color charge of the quark is maintained. Always within a Hadron the constant gluon exchanges are made in such a way as to maintain the color-neutral state of the bound system.

The nucleus of an atom is held together by what is called the residual strong interaction between protons, which is still strong enough to overcome their electromagnetic repulsive forces.

All the stable matter in the Universe is made up of the least massive quarks (up and down) and leptons (electrons), and neutrinos, which have no mass. Weak interactions cause massive quarks and leptons to decay into lighter quarks and leptons, beyond which they can not decay.

Flavor changes are also caused by weak interactions. Flavor change refers to the decay, or transformation, of a particle into a different particle, such as a muon into an electron. The carrier particles for the weak interactions are the W+ and W- particles, which carry charge, and the neutral Z particle. These carrier particles are very massive.

Electromagnetic and weak interactions have been unified into what physicists call the electroweak theory. The strength of the weak interaction between two particles about 10^-18 meters apart is equal to that of the electromagnetic force, but becomes about 1/10,000th the strength of the electromagnetic force when the distance is increased 30 times. It becomes even smaller at normal distances for quarks in a proton or neutron, which is about 10^-15 meters.

Physicists attribute the relative strengths of the weak and electromagnetic interactions over increasing distances to the masses of the W and Z particles compared to the electromagnetic charge carriers, the photons, which have no apparent mass.

Gravity acts on all particles and objects but at the subatomic scale the effect is so small that it is not necessary to factor it into the mathematics of the Standard Model. This is convenient, because no force carrier particle for gravity has ever been observed. There is general agreement that the Standard Model needs to be extended with a new theory that will explain gravity.

Apart from their electric charge, color charge, and flavor, particles also have a property which is called spin. This does not mean that the particle is actually spinning. The term is used to describe the angular momentum and magnetic moment of the particle, properties which are demonstrated by large objects like planets and marbles.

Spin is quantized to units of 0, 1/2, 1, 3/2 (times Planck's Constant,"h") and so on. In subatomic particles such as electrons and photons, certain physical properties occur in fixed amounts Planck called “quanta”, not as a continuous range of possible values. The constant is used to calculate the values of these discrete quantities.

Another example of the nature of discrete quanta as exist in nature is that electric charges are only found as integer multiples of the electron’s charge. This is in agreement for the case of quarks, which have 1/3 and 2/3 charge but which cannot be isolated and which make up composite particles with electric charges which are integer multiples of the electron’s charge.

Particles which have odd half-integer spin (1/2, 3/2 etc.), such as quarks and leptons, and composite particles like protons and neutrons, are called fermions. These are distinguished from particles which have integer spins, such as the force carriers and the composite particles with an even number of fermions like mesons, and which are called bosons.

Bosons do not obey the Pauli Exclusion Principle, which states that no two particles in the same quantum state can occupy the same place at the same time. It was once thought that all particles obeyed this rule. Fermions obey the rule, but bosons don’t. If the nucleus of an atom contains an even number of protons and neutrons, it is a boson, otherwise it is a fermion.

Supercooled helium does not crystallize, but becomes what is called a superfluid in the condensed state. This is a strange liquid with zero viscosity and no surface tension. Only bosons can become Bose-Einstein condensates, which occur when they are cooled to within a few thousandths of a degree Kelvin above absolute zero. Their wave functions are said to overlap when they are condensed, and they exhibit the properties of a single superatom, thus violating the Pauli Exclusion Principle.

Alpha, beta, and gamma particles are the particles resulting from radioactive decay. Alpha particles are helium nuclei – two protons and two neutrons. Beta particles are electrons, and gamma radiation is a high energy photon. They can be observed when they are subjected to a magnetic field. The opposite charges of the alpha and beta particles cause them to veer in opposite directions. Gamma radiation is straight because it is unaffected by magnetism, having no charge.

Of the three forms of radiation, gamma radiation is the most penetrating, and can only be stopped by a block of lead. Beta particles can be stopped by aluminum, and alpha particles can be stopped by a sheet of paper.

A uranium 238 nucleus decays into thorium and an alpha particle. Subtracting the mass of the products from the mass of the uranium atom leaves 0.0046 amu out of the result. This loss of mass is attributable to its conversion into kinetic energy, that is, the energy of the moving particles. As Einstein said, mass is a form of energy.

Fundamental particle decay is different from radioactive decay. For one thing, fundamental particles cannot be further broken down because they have no constituents, but they can turn into other particles. A charm quark decays into a strange quark, which has less mass, and a W boson, which decays into an up quark and a down quark.

This may seem strange because the W boson’s mass is so great, but because it exists only very briefly as an intermediate particle before it decays the process does not violate the laws of conservation of energy and mass. The sum of the masses of the products plus the mass which is converted to kinetic energy equals the mass of the original pre-decay particle. Only weak interactions can change a fundamental particle into another particle.

The decay of a pi meson, or pion, through the annihilation of the quark and antiquark, produces two photons. This is an example of electromagnetic decay. Strong decay occurs when two gluons are produced through the mutual annihilation of a meson made up of a charm quark and an anticharm quark, ultimately producing hadrons.

Gluons mediate decays involving color changes. The weak force carrier particles, W+ and W-, mediate decays in which particles change flavor and electric charge.

When particles annihilate, which happens when a particle meets an antiparticle, pure energy is produced in the form of a force carrier particle which then transforms into other particles. The annihilation of an up quark and an up antiquark produces a very energetic gluon, which is transformed into a top quark and a top antiquark. The mediating particle, in this case the gluon, exists for only a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a second, and cannot be observed.

What should be remembered is that particles are not small balls that bounce around; they have wave properties. Their exact position can never be accurately determined. They occupy a tiny localized realm wherein determining their location becomes a study in probability.

The Institute of Biblical Defense

noreply@blogger.com (S.W. Lussing) — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 20:50:00 +0000

Every once in a while I like to shake a few noggins clear with some radical departure from reality to deal with some real issues. What I like about The Institute of Biblical Defense is that it represents an opportunity to instill some 'thinking barbs' into creation theory. I sent them a diatribe of sorts..

Being the product of a catholic upbringing and education, I am not new to the concept of the “uncaused cause”, since this idea was once raised for discussion in our high school’s Man in Society class, back in 9th grade. As I think back on it, any student who suggested possibilities as to the nature of this uncaused cause probably made himself potentially liable to allegations of heresy, but such is the fertile young mind that one could easily be forgiven. I presume that it is not a sin to think. It also takes some considerable years of serious study and introspection to arrive at some plausible semblance of a rational explanation for reality.

The paper titled “The Cosmological Argument” contained smatterings of considerations already pondered in my past experiences dating from those early high school years. Having a natural tendency to extrapolate sense out of the complexities underlying a firm understanding of the fundamental nature of reality, I have decided that God and Science can be reconciled, that creationism and evolution can co-exist. In my research I have arrived at a model which, if Saint Bonaventure had known of it, would probably alter modern man’s way of thinking on the nature of God and of the Universe.

I will not expound on the full extent of my theories, just the gist of it, and ask that you consider the following:

• That the Universe was created out of the infinite density represented by nothing, which itself naturally represents infinite potential
• That creation occurs at the periphery of the Universe, and that it will do so for perpetuity, according to that infinite potential
• That space is as much a creation as the matter which displaces it
• That time began when the Universe began and that nothing came before it
• That creation eventually expires as it passes through its historical timeline, where what was once is no more, what is will pass, and what will be has every bit as much a finite temporal relationship with the time cones of past and future
• That God exists if only by virtue of the evidence which we have to support this belief, but in reality he represents, from our experience, currently the highest form of evolved intelligence

This brings us to what that “uncaused cause” was. Well, there was no uncaused cause! The Universe is created by the very profound and awesome depth of the idea that anything would exist at all, and that this impression manifests out of the potential difference which establishes itself as being relative to nothing. Intelligent life then must exist as a predisposition to the consciousness which must needs of course exist to initiate that very important and very heavy idea that begat it all. The idea is a premonition, which requires not the function of time, and which is nothing short of a foretelling of things to come. The entire Universe arises from a fractal expression, and can be considered to be predetermined. In that sense alone, it is an intelligent creation.

The matters of history and humanity’s affairs in it, and the “natural tendency toward human degeneration” are essentially irrelevant. Finite, corporeal, cognizant entities must exist to satisfy the requirements for the predisposition to that idea which began the creation. Evidence shows us that the evolution of life for any specific place in the Universe is an accelerating process, therefore if life had manifested as a single colossal and infinitely occurring entity, it would have grown obsolete over time. Different stages of creation from the beginning in the past to the periphery of the Universe have different temporal relationships, because energy is temporary for any place in time. It will unravel and dissipate, even as the periphery represents the beginning of time for perpetuity, and the WMAP cold spot represents the place where the dynamics of existence once occurred and which has since expired.

The bible teaches us that man is made in God’s image. In other words, he is like us, as much a product of the evolutionary and creative process of this Universe as are we, only he has about a billion years of evolution on us, making his capabilities even beyond our comprehension for the most part. Imagine what our capabilities, both technological and scientific, will be, if we are to survive in order to advance those arts for another billion years. We will probably also learn how to evict those energies from our corporeal and finite physical forms and to retain those energies which define our spiritual selves, to dwell forever in that realm that Carl Jung often referred to as “the Universal unconscious”. After all, the idea that a creator existed before this Universe existed is simply untenable, and to suppose that we are made in his image is therefore arrogant, egocentric, and vain, if this were so. How could God have evolved the same adaptations to an environment that had not yet even been created? Our legs are designed for running from predators - our arms, hands and fingers for fashioning the tools and creations of our civilizations. They are vestiges of the evolutionary process. Apes evolve into better apes, ants into better ants, bears into better bears. As humans, we became better humans and acquired a unique intelligence, possibly because we once pondered our origins, but also possibly because God facilitated this particular adaptation.

God is able to work miracles to save lives and bring about the conception of individuals without human intervention, and on and more. Understand that there is technology behind those interventions, and that at the level where God works his technological miracles there is a very deep logical understanding of the way things work - not magic. God is also constrained by the laws of physics and the quantum and relativistic nature of reality. If one refuses to believe that, than one is deluded by blind faith. The spiritual and physical realms are both contained in this reality.

One must remain practical, even at the risk of shattering the fragile illusion perpetrated by non-scientific and completely ideologically centered minds. That compendium of manuscripts, historical accounts, fables, poetry and song and parables etc, which writings by different authors occurred over a time span estimated to occupy 700 years or more and incidentally bound together into what are now referred to as “the holy scriptures”, are not infallible. Never mind the numerous rewrites, translations, interpretations, and accommodations that have been introduced throughout their history, they are what they always were - merely a collection of old manuscripts, important for their historical relevance and age. It introduces the concept of a God.

Nowadays, anybody can write a book. Back then, not.

"criminal gene" report short on facts

noreply@blogger.com (S.W. Lussing) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:26:00 +0000

The season finale of CSI:Miami on Monday night made reference to the presence of an extra Y chromosome in a suspect's DNA. Very little background information was provided about the double Y chromosome aberration, other than that it was stated that there was "no scientific evidence" that the presence of the extra Y chromosome made one more likely to demonstrate criminal behavior than the normal XY male.

The LA-based web site called cbs2, presumably an arm of the giant media conglomerate, corroborated this declaration with a column expressing very much the same opinion - that there was no evidence linking the double Y chromosome with a propensity for aggression or criminal behavior, and provided no more in the way of statistical or scientific data on individuals who possessed the extra Y chromosome than did the TV show.

However, I am certain that people want more than just a blanket declaration with no scientific evidence to back it up. Having read numerous volumes about the biology and physiology of the brain and having come across some interesting data during those readings and since, as our empirical knowledge grows ever greater on that subject I feel compelled to throw in my two cents with supporting links where I can, because, as it turns out, that blanket statement is not entirely correct, all factors considered.

The Y chromosome contains in the neighborhood of about 78 genes, or 86 genes, depending on the source of information. I have read that the Y chromosome contains about 150 genes, so it appears that the jury is out on the exact number but the differences may be accounted for by individual variations depending on the subject, although that is theoretical on my part. I have no other explanation for the discrepancies. In any case, these genes encode for about 23 proteins.

The X chromosome is considerably larger than the Y, but is considered to be gene- poor in scope because the largest segments of the DNA are thought to be non-coding portions. Depending on the source of information, the X chromosome contains anywhere from 900 to 2,000 or more genes. Therefore, anywhere from about four to ten percent of the genes in human DNA are found on the X chromosome. This great variance tells us that the state of the art in this type of genetic research is still somewhat primitive. On the other hand, it may also very well be that a significant degree of variation actually exists among different individuals.

In my article on this blog titled The ENCODE project: beyond the genome project it is revealed that large portions of what were once considered "junk DNA" are actually integral for the creation of the RNA templates which code for proteins. In fact, during transcription, many portions of different genes and non-genetic material distributed throughout the chromosome are combined to create the template. The functionality of the X chromosome is considerably greater than for the Y, which is essentially a sex-determinant gene and nothing more. There is recent evidence to support the idea that the X chromosome has more important reasons for being than merely for sex determination. It is known that the presence of an extra Y chromosome in about one in one thousand males "displaces" the X chromosome, rendering it ineffective.

Efforts to debunk a genetic link to aggression and violence abound. This makes sense from the legal point of view. Entering a "genetic predisposition to crime" defense should never be allowed because it throws the door open to the possibility of a genetic defense for any arbitrary situation. However, even the most scholarly articles have trouble convincing the reader that there is no basis for assuming that just because a male has an extra Y chromosome that he is at increased risk for running afoul of the law. The fact remains that it appears from a statistical standpoint that this is actually the case. Whereas the normal distribution of XYY males in the general population is about one in a thousand, a 1965 study of 196 dangerous criminals confined to a maximum security institution found eight XYY males. An unrelated Japanese study also found a disproportionate distribution of XYY males among its prison populations.

MRI studies of various aneuploidies of the sex chromosomes - XXX, XXY, XYY etc. - revealed reduced brain volume in all but the XYY karyotype. However, recent PET and MRI studies of XYY males showed negligible pre-frontal cortical activity. The study did not set out to study the XYY male, but rather to study brain activity under various conditions and stimuli. It was discovered that the entire brain is temporarily active when stimulated, just prior to concentrating the neural processing in dedicated areas like the occipital lobe or Wernicke's and Broca's regions, for example. When some subjects showed no neural activity in the pre-frontal cortex a DNA smear revealed the presence of the extra Y chromosome. Further studies of XYY males confirmed the absence of any significant neural processing in this region of the brain.

The pre-frontal cortex is the center of emotion and empathic reasoning, and, from Wikipedia: "This brain region has been implicated in planning complex cognitive behaviors, personality expression, and moderating correct social behavior." It is evident from the displacement of the X chromosome in XYY males, therefore, that much of the genetic content of the X chromosome is geared toward those attributes and functions. Also, since this is a rather large representative portion of the whole brain, it is little wonder then that the XYY male commonly develops learning disabilities as a child compared to the normal population. That alone would provide the impetus for possible anti-social behavior in the child's future if accommodations are not made in his upbringing.

Most XYY males lead normal lives, unaware that they possess an extra Y chromosome. It is therefore unwise to establish a genetic link to the predictability of a person's future behavior patterns. It is a fact that the greatest single influence determining whether a child becomes a criminal is still rooted in their upbringing and environment. Nevertheless, the claim that there is no scientific evidence to support the idea that an extra Y chromosome places the individual at higher risk for offending is obviously politically motivated. It is irresponsible, because it tends to mislead the student.

The future of the taxi industry includes me

noreply@blogger.com (S.W. Lussing) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:19:00 +0000

The conspicuous absence of regular new posts in my blog indicates that something must be happening in my life. Well, that's true. When you factor in the close to three and a half hours of commuting every day back and forth from class then my days are pretty full. Did I say class? I did, and one is never too old to learn anything, is one?

I've decided to take the Taxi Driver Training course for the City of Toronto. I've done cabbying before - in London, Ontario, on and off (mostly off) since 1976, for about seven years.

I was doing some web browsing about all things taxi and I came across this really interesting web site about everything taxi. In it, I found the following image of a coal-gas powered taxicab from the 1920's.

That's one proud cabbie standing next to his money-maker. He still had to refill the gas bag every fifteen miles, though.

It's no wonder that they went to those lengths in those days to economize. According to a post on this site, buying gas in the 1920's was equivalent to paying $10.00 for a gallon today. And we think we have it bad! Don't complain.

Dealing with killer asteroids

noreply@blogger.com (S.W. Lussing) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 22:17:00 +0000

Here's how I would deal with a threatening asteroid. Just firmly tamp a rocket engine into it to affect its velocity just enough to be able to speed it up. Next, place directional attitude control rockets on the apparent nose of the rock to enable the steering feature so that it can be guided out of harm's way and back into the asteroid belt, even if it is suspected that it didn't originate from there. Also, place a few single-engined rockets on its apparent equator to facilitate this realignment of its trajectory, if necessary.

The trick is to catch up with it and then get close enough to plant something on it. The New Scientist Space blog reports in a December 14, 2006 article that the Planetary Society announced a competition to formulate a mission to plant a radio beacon it calls a "tag" on the asteroid Apophis, which might crash into the Earth in 1929 (that's so past 2012 that I don't even know why I bother, but just in case). Its current trajectory will take it inside the orbits of some satellites, and that's pretty close, but it might be a lot closer when it returns in 2036 - with a "small chance" of collision. In other words, it's attracted to us. The asteroid is 320 metres wide. The winner of the tagging contest was announced on Tuesday, February 26, 2008.

Other, less desirable objects might be placed in the asteroid belt. Like a huge convoy of skeletal garbage tugs taking undesirable waste out of our environment to doom it for an eternity of drifting around the sun until in some far flung future some giant salvaging firms chose to engage in a competitive orbital waste reclamation venture.

Imagine what life will be like then. I mean, what would be the transition between running cars for hours on some lightweight air compression motor - literally running on air - to the next stage in civilized progress, and what would we run them on then? My bet is, almost the same thing - hot air.

Tiny turbines like minuscule jet engines could superheat the air and provide literally oodles of instant torque. And that would be one very strong engine which would get phenomenal mileage on the tiny little bit of jet fuel that it used to power it. All we would be doing is to give the compressed air a little boost and that wouldn't require much at all.

They wouldn't work on the asteroid of course. That would require rocket engines.

Top 10 reasons why the Universe is not 6,000 years old.

noreply@blogger.com (S.W. Lussing) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:26:00 +0000

In my perusals of the many great science sites like Sciam.com I chanced upon an interview with Lawrence M. Krauss, Director of the Center for Education and Research in Cosmology and Astrophysics at Case Western Reserve University; The Ambrose Swasey Professor of Physics and Professor Astronomy at Case Western Reserve University, and, no doubt, so on...

Okay, the Scientific American site wants you to buy the interview, but here it is in the .pdf format that I found on the distinguished professor's own site. Admittedly, I was trying to find a contact email so that I could toss some ideas out at him, but, no luck. No wonder, he couldn't possibly have found the time to read it anyway, from the looks of things.

I find the guy's ideas just so compellingly close to my own way of thinking that I wanted to offer some ideas for his approval, even perhaps find a way to incorporate them into the model of the Universe that I think at best satisfies the requirements for some sort of grand unified theory, or at least resolves some of those "unanswerable" questions about the creation riddle. I won't go into them here, those ideas abound throughout my blog. Just look for the labels or use the search box in the navbar at the top of the page. The truth is in here.

No, I wanted to point the reader to professor Krauss's "Top 10 Reasons Why the Universe, the Sun, Earth, and Life are NOT 6000 years old: A Primer". I won't go into any of the details - he does that quite adequately, but here is the list of topics about which he rationalizes concerning the subject:

10. THE UNIVERSE: THE BIG BANG REALLY HAPPENED
  9. STARS AND GALAXIES
  8. RADIOACTIVITY
  7. SUPERNOVA 1987a
  6. THE SUN SHINES
  5. CONTINENTAL DRIFT
  4. ROCK STRATA, ICE CORES, AND ALL THAT
  3. FOSSILS
  2. EVOLUTION
  1. THE DOCUMENTARY RECORD

Have a good read. That document should put those silly creationists in their place. If you still believe that the Universe is 6,000 years old after reading it then your reading comprehension skills are non-existent, and you shouldn't even be reading my blog. You probably think that I'm a crackpot. I'm not. I'm a crank. There's a big difference.

A good example of the arrogance of creationists can be found on the website titled "answers in Genesis", the creationist's "bible", as it were. Specifically, the owner of this site, Ken Ham, is prepared to answer any and all questions raised by doubters and believers - as if he were God himself. How wondrous that any man can know so much. Problem is, he bases his knowledge on a compendium of fables, historical accounts, poems, fantasy, and testaments completed about two thousand of years ago over a time span which scholars have estimated to have been about 700 years. According to creationists, the Book of Genesis would have begun 6,000 years ago, and proceeds to tell a tale without informing us that God told us of the process of creation Himself but just dives in like any other work of fiction. Nowhere in the bible are we told that those words are the words of God. That is an arrogant presumption, to my mind. Creationists are merely riding a ridiculous bandwagon. It's time they fell off.

Someone should remind Ken Ham that archaeological evidence indicates that emerging man was quite a primitive creature, even six thousand years ago. Never mind the chronological discrepancy, we have developed from hairy, knuckle dragging, cave men who used crudely fashioned stone tools into fully upright civilised human beings who fly airplanes, build supercomputers, and entangle photons. How is it that Adam is depicted as a naked twentieth century man in the dioramas of the Garden of Eden at the Creation Museum? In reality, based on the scientifically corroborated evidence, he would have been a wretched figure.

Creationists should stop embarrassing themselves and accept the truth.

Right out of the comics and very real

noreply@blogger.com (S.W. Lussing) — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:49:00 +0000

Real, working rocket-powered backpacks have actually been demonstrated by stunt-men at venues like pro-bowl games and exhibitions. Their practical limitations, such as a pitiful flight duration of only about 30 seconds due to the rapid depletion of their hydrogen peroxide fuel, and the loud eardrum-shattering roar during operation, kept them in the domain of comic books and movies (remember Thunderball?) and pretty much out of the reach of the average consumer.

Not that this is likely to change any time soon. However, a company by the name of Thunderbolt Aerosystems is in the process of developing a practical version of the jet-powered backpack. It will use commonly available jet fuels and, according to an article published in Scientific American online, be able to stay aloft for 35 minutes!

They haven't built it yet. It's still on the drawing board. But they will sell you one that can stay in the air for 75 seconds. And for only $100,000.

The idea is actually pretty old. The rocketbelt was first depicted in Buck Rogers comic strips. The human pioneer who was actually instrumental in making the rocketbelt become a reality was a genius by the name of Wendell F. Moore, a Bell Aerosystems rocket engineer who had worked on the X-1 rocket plane that broke the sound barrier in 1947, with Chuck Yaeger in the cockpit. He was also on the team that developed the X-2 and the infamous X-15, which was the first piloted craft to venture into the fringes of space.

The work at Thunderbolt Aerosystems draws upon Wendell's innovations and, frankly, I have high hopes for it. If they can produce a serious personal rocket pack that can stay in the air for 35 minutes then that will naturally lead to the development of individual moon and asteroid maneuvering systems which will put space exploration light years ahead in our ability to explore the other bodies of our solar system. Kudos to Thunderbolt Aerosystems!

Another skeptic bites just dust

noreply@blogger.com (S.W. Lussing) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:04:00 +0000

A professor Andrew Watson from the University of East Anglia has produced a mathematical model which suggests that the probability for life emerging on earth-like planets is low. Specifically, he says other earth-like planets. He did not compute the probability of life happening here of course, because that would throw his numbers completely out of whack. To my mind, this reeks of the accommodation of his mathematics for a desire to see the outcome of personal theory expressed in the results of his calculations.

How does he account for the determination that life proliferates here on earth even in the most unearthly places? It is apparent that against all the odds that professor Watson has given against that probability that reality seems to be engaged in a deliberate attempt to contradict him. Life is profuse. It oozes out of the very ground through the cracks in our sidewalks. It is swallowed up by the ton by giant lumbering baleen whales. It is superfluous in the algae blooms that form giant lakes of ocean life that can be photographed from space. It swarms by the billions in giant clouds that obliterate the sun and blacken the sky for hours on end. It can be captured by the boatfull in one random toss of a fish net. It has to be tamed by gardening tools lest it take over our environment on a regular basis. We find it in places that can burn us to a crisp and that can cause us to lose our fingers to frostbite. Anaerobic life that expires at the mere touch of an oxygen molecule lives in the backs of our throats and in the ferrite strata containing oil deposits producing methane gas. Life was here on earth before professor Watson's earth had all the earth-like conditions that he says provide a low probability for the life that now exists.

I think that professor Watson is missing a whole lot of factoring into his equations. Doesn't he realize that life is the rule rather than the exception? That even when a comet kills every life form on a planet it will resurge. Even though entire species and families of life grow extinct some other will always emerge to replace it. What compels that, professor Watson?

The man has no philosophy. The man has no science. People like him reach for mathematics, because math can prove the impossible, make plausible the improbable.

Life is superfluous and resilient. You can swipe it all away and it will just come back. His math says no. Life says yes. I think that professor Watson thinks that he is special. The Earth has news for him.