SlashBe

How Do You See The World

2009-07-05T04:22:56Z

An interesting thing happened as the family was heading home after watching the 4th of July fireworks display.

We were driving through an area that I had not been to since last year. I noticed a new hotel had been built during that time frame. This was the conversation that followed:

Me: When the fuck did they build that?

Wife: A few months ago

Me: Huh…

Wife: I like it. It gives the parents that visit their children at basic training graduation someplace nice to stay. I never understood why they did have nicer hotels outside of base for the parents. Instead all they have to choose from is dirty motels in shitty neighborhoods. It makes no sense.

Me: No. It makes perfect sense. Why build new hotels and have a high overhead when you can offer the parents shit and they readily take it cuz it’s the only thing around. This way they make more profit since their overhead for maintaining a shitty motel I’d imagine to be pretty low.

I thought about this conversation on the way home and it struck me how we both viewed the same situation in such dramatically different ways….

Human Attention Span and Blackbody Radiation

2009-07-02T07:41:09Z

Human Attention Span

Theoretical Blackbody Curve For 5000K

We Are All Fucked

2009-06-30T22:46:46Z

That was the only logical conclusion I could come to. The question was: Is it too late to stop or even reverse the damage that humanity has brought upon our earth?

If anything I figured the laws of entropy would keep humanity from taking a highly disorganized, chaotic mess of decisions and consequences, and turn it into something controllable that we could then benefit from.

But say humanity does figure out how to do that.

You would then have to deal with the compartmentalization of power and decision making authority. The consequence of which creates an apathetic society of sheeple. Bringing world chaos into world order will require the support and effort of ever single individual on earth. The only means to ensure that those requirements are met would be a new system of power and authority that is equally divided amongst the world’s population. Only then would society feel as if it indeed did have the power to bring forth change and only then would become active participants in the search for a solution.

But say humanity does figure out how to do that as well.

You would then have to deal with individual perspective and how each individual perspective then brings about a different view of which of the worlds problems are the most in need of our attention. Somehow you would have to ensure that a majority of individuals share the same perspective and view of which issues are of importance. Otherwise, you will find that instead of a world majority of agreement you would have fragmented societies based on perspective and view. The result of which would be what we have now, chaos.

Perhaps we are fooling ourselves into thinking that we actually matter in the complex dynamical scheme of things. Maybe we are just along for the ride.

It’s all relative anyways.

Phase Three of My Life

2009-06-30T20:46:42Z

Throughout my life I had always had difficulty with remaining focused on a single topic. My interests would fluctuate wildly from one extreme to another. I went to college twice…got kicked out both time. I think I might have a cumulative GPA of about 0.9, but that may be too optimistic. It wasn’t that the courses were too difficult, it was the opposite. I often found myself sitting in class staring at the professor, watching them sleepwalk through their lectures with no passion, no interest whatsoever in whether or not anyone was paying attention. I often thought to myself why I had to PAY to be FORCED to take classes covering subjects I had already taught myself. So I just never went to class. Of course, I was 18…and then 21 when I went to college and had never heard of a C.L.E.P. test.

At 23 I joined the Air Force. I desired a job for which the training would be difficult. I enjoyed a challenge and new that only if the training was difficult would it hold my attention. I chose to be a linguist. The training would last from October of 1998 until May of 2000. I would not be full qualified to do my job without supervision until February of 2001. Two and half years of training. The job did hold my attention, for 10 years.

This August I will be heading back to college for a third time. Third time’s a charm right? I’ve chosen to declare as a Physics major upon entering. I’ve decided that physics is the underlying force that fuels most of what I’m interested in: Quantum Physics, Particle Physics, Astronomy, Cosmology, Meteorology, Neuroscience, Philosophy.

I will also be taking the required curriculum to obtain a teachers license. I’ve found that as I get older I enjoy more and more talking to younger adults and getting inside their heads, trying to understand what makes them tick. During my time in the Air Force I served as a supervisor to many, many young men and women. I like to think that I made a positive impact on their life. I’m beginning to realize the neither myself nor my generation can fix all the shit that’s fucked up in the world right now and that the only possible solution to our problems is to give the younger generations the tools necessary, both physical and mentally, to over come our past mistakes.

Or maybe I smoke too much weed. Who knows?

Will the American Government Ever Allow Alternative Energy Sources?

2009-06-27T17:36:16Z

Unfortunately, I believe the answer to be a resounding: No.

Let me introduce you to a man named Dave Nichols. Mr. Nichols has recently modified his own personal vehicle to run strictly on bio-fuels. Given the lack of available vehicles which run strictly on bio-fuels you would think the process to modify existing vehicles to burn only bio-fuels instead of gasoline would be an expensive and difficult endeavour. But as Mr. Nichols himself states on his website: 21st Century Motorworks

The current prototype (our fifth version) is mounted on a 1989 Ford F-150 pickup truck with an unmodified 6-cylinder gasoline engine. While this hybrid vehicle has a gasoline backup, it is capable of running entirely on biomass – wood, wood chips, pellets, brush, used construction debris, clean demolition wood, leaves, grass clippings, hay, weeds, cardboard, paper, cotton-based clothing, shoes, old pallets, food – and we are testing more materials.

When running on gasoline, the truck gets 12 miles per gallon (a gallon weighs about 6 lbs), with a top speed of about 90 mph. Running on biomass, the truck can go an average of 1.5 to 2 miles on a single pound of some solid materials, with a maximum speed of 75-85 mph. It responds beautifully on the road with very few stumbles in performance.

Mr. Nichols and his company has built and tested their FIFTH prototype that runs strictly on biomass and if implemented could reduce our carbon footprint and more importantly free us from our dependency on oil.

Unfortunately, as is usually the case when an “average” person, i.e. someone who is not a billionaire and has no say in world policy, creates an invention that would benefit mankind and the world, with the potential byproduct of a loss of millions, perhaps billions, of dollars in oil revenue, those in control have all but ignored him and his company.

Our government is spending billions to create costly liquid bio fuels that will take years to implement and still tie you to an expensive and vulnerable infrastructure. At present, there is no federal funding available for projects like ours to develop efficient, cost-free, and clean energy to power your personal home and vehicle. Help us to secure the proper funding to get these systems to market by educating congress that this option exists.

We have all the money in the world to bail out irresponsible corporations, but not so much as a dime to help a man like Dave Nichols and his company 2st Century Motorworks.

When did we become all talk and no action?

Turn Off The Damn Lights Already

2009-06-26T20:31:23Z

Truth or Stereotype?

2009-06-25T22:15:13Z

I was reading through a post on MSNB written by Alonso Duralde in which he states:

The storyline, such as it is, exists mainly as an excuse to reassemble much of the cast of the first film, including Sam’s sexpot mechanic girlfriend Mikaela (Megan Fox), conspiracy theorist Agent Simmons (John Turturro, who also voices cranky old Autobot Jetfire), and Sam’s goofy parents (Kevin Dunn and Julie White). Many of the robots from the last movie return, and there’s the new addition of “twin” cars whose speech and behavior patterns are appalling stereotypes of young African-American men; the movie should just name the duo Step and Fetchit or Shuck and Jive to drive home the point. (Emphasis mine)

I have a question for Mr. Duralde, at what point does a stereotype become empirical fact?