Letting Go

I'm not sure if this is a Buddhist tradition, or an Indian tradition, but regardless, it's beautiful. Little candles that create fragile balloons which float off into the sky (probably landing and starting brush fires).

We are little candles that float in this world, for a time. This world is a little candle that floats in space, for a time. We're all just points of light, floating.

Gallows Jape

9/11 is here again. I'd almost forgotten, which I think is a great sign. The sooner this tragic event fades into the mists of time, the better - ONLY so it can no longer be used as jingoistic fear bait by deplorable Republicans and other Fundamentalists. 9/11 was their best tool for many years, and we're all still paying the price for their wielding of it. Thankfully, that too is fading, as the fascist tide recedes.

As I've said before, I lament the loss of life on 9/11, but then I lament the loss of life in a Bangladeshi ferry crash, or an Iraqi market bombing, or some jungle skirmish in Africa. People are dying all the time for all the wrong reasons, and sadly they often go unremarked. Once we ALL understand that people are people and we all want the same things - peace, happiness, children, and a pleasant old age - then we'll have a chance for no more terrorism, no more wars, no more violence, especially in the name of some "movement".

That's a ways off, though. Alas! In the meantime, I will continue to mock the Authoritarians, any who would have you bend your knee out of fear. Fear is never the answer. Laughter often is. Here you go (by the by - the pic above "The Accidental Tourist" was one of the first internet hoaxes after 9/11, and lives to this day. It is a hoax - here's the backstory.)

A real, pirated product.

The death of OBL was a big step forward in sending 9/11 to the archives. Thanks Obama!

As I've been making fun of 9/11 for a while now, I've seen more and more 9/11 cakes each year. I've got dozens on the old hard drive, but this one will suffice for now. Funny!

An actual "memorial" product. How better to remember that tragic day than flicking on a novelty lighter and smoking a butt? Or blunt.

 

Smoke 'em if you got 'em.

Beneath You

If I were to ever get a tattoo - willingly, and of sound mind - which I would never do - I think a science tat would be a good bet. I like this particle collision one, though of course it's totally stupid and hideous. But anyways! Everything I described below is at a macro and uber-macro level - that is, bigger than us. Way, way bigger. But of course something very similar is happening for things smaller than us - in fact, we sit in the middle of an endless progression from big to small, a spectrum, or wave, if you will. Not the exact middle, because - where's that? But a middle. Everything does, since, what is the middle of an infinity? Everything is, basically. Further anyways, also (WARNING: Gonna get super sciency!):

 This little chart shows the interactions of the various elementary particles we believe make up our reality. You can get an idea how pivotal the Higgs Boson is by looking at it's relationship to the other particles - it imparts mass - and thus how important the work being done at CERN right now to try and discover the Higgs Boson. If discovered, it validates 30 years of Quantum Mechanics. If not discovered, well, either they need a better machine, or better testing method, or the Standard Model (as it's called) was incorrect and needs to be changed.

 Click for big - this is the Standard Model, in poster form. Super sciency, beware, but also dive on in. It won't bite. I can summarize it by saying it's basically a model for how the most fundamental particles we know of today interact, and how they also contribute to the basic Forces we know and feel, like electromagnetism, and the strong nuclear force. It was the principles enshrined in the Standard Model that allowed us to crack the atom, so discarding it would be a major deal. It's important to note - as with ALL theories and "laws" of science - that everything discussed here is subject to change. For example, there are many theoretical physicists working in area called "String Theory", which if proven to a sufficient degree, would overwrite much of the working knowledge in physics - as in above, the quarks would be made of tiny strings, and extra-dimensions might contain a mult-dimensional gravity, etc, etc. It's all quite fascinating, but the biggest point to get across is: Everything's temporary. Even the most established fact. All "truths" are subject to revision if new evidence present itself. And so with that in mind:

A representation of an atom. It's important to grasp this concept: Even the most basic block of what we consider reality is not what we think it is. The blue surrounding the red dot in the center is the electron probability cloud, which means: Electrons don't truly exist in our reality until definitively measured/observed. Till then, they're kinda here, kinda there. That is the basis of our reality: Uncertainty. Temporary. Ephemeral. Miraculous and Mysterious. And no one does, or can ever, know it all. 

And thus a true scientist is humble, and operates with a wondrous mind straddling two worlds: Current, operational facts that have proven successful to date, but always open to the idea of new facts, new ways of being, that are truer, better, more close to the real than before. And one needs to adapt at any time to these new facts. Some people can't do this, it seems. Some can.

Which are you?


Also too, for scale purposes:

So small that it's beyond our minds. So, consider this in the larger view: Above us, galaxies and galaxies and maybe even Universe upon Universe, so vast that I can't possibly describe it accurately; and beneath us, smaller than us, an equal vastness that is ever driving down to smaller and smaller realms. And perhaps completely separete dimensions. One of my favorite theories at this scale is called "quantum fizz", and it means that at the quark level, quarks and anti-quarks pop into existence all the time, to quickly annhiliate, in a manner similar to the fizz in a soda. Random, spontaneous, and short lived. But this fizz is our reality, at least one level. There's many others.

Or, as Granny said:

It's turtles all the way down.

Steps on the Path

The Sun. We're gonna have to work on a new name at some point, since how stupid will it seem to refer to our star as "The Sun" when we're orbiting around Sirius? We should start a naming competition! Anyways, here's our Big Brother. Many will refer to the Sun as our Mother or Father, but technically, the relationship is Big Brother/Sister who then has supported our poor asses since childbirth, since you, me, The Earth (need another new name!), The Moon (and another!), and all the other planets, all the asteroids, comets, etc, in the Solar System were created from the same ginormous cloud of dust and gas that the Sun was created from (the cast off remains of some other, far bigger star that exploded). We're all brothers and sisters in the Solar System. Represent!

The Sun (any star) is a dynamic place. By definition. This pic shows the powerful magnetic waves around the Sun, and you can see how chaotic they are. The chaos is caused by the extreme conditions within the sun coupled with its fluid nature. Magnetic effects, in part, cause Sunspots, which are like pimples on the clean skin of the star. Here's one forming:

 Looks like a ripple in a pond, which in a sense, I suppose, it is. Here's a developed sunspot at close range:

 Click for big. I suspect you might be shocked to see the surface of the sun looks like living tissue under a microscope. I was! The Sunspot is darker because it is cooler than the surrounding areas, but that's just a relative matter to you and me: Still hot! And active. Here's an even closer view of a sunspot:

As with many things, seeming order on the surface become chaotic when looked at closely (my definition of order/chaos by the way: Just a matter of perspective). You can see the turmoil at this range - again, all caused by the twisting, snapping, crazy magnetic fields that whip all across the star.


And again, like with many (every?) things, the closer you look at something, the less concrete it becomes. On a day to day basis, we think of permanent, static "things", and we base our worldview on this false view. Only when change happens unexpectedly to us do we remember the truth - but we'll suppress it. Deny it. Think of your self - are you permanent? Or temporary?


Answer: You're temporary. Like everything. In fact, it might be far more realistic to get rid of the concept of "things" - objects, and instead, think of "processes unfolding over time." Because that's a closer approximation of the truth - a set of temporary conditions that allows for certain situations to arise, situations that will disappear when the underlying conditions change. For example, take a star, any star. Our star, for example:

The business part of a star is the thermonuclear core - where fusion takes place. This is the center of creation, and the very process that defines a star. Here's what the Proton-Proton fusion process which occurs in our star looks like:

And so, I draw closer to my conclusion: As with phase changes, fusion is the result of matter being compressed to such a degree that there's literally no where for these protons to go without hitting another proton, or something else. When this starts happening, that's fusion - as simple as that: Elementary particles smashing into each other with enough energy that they fuse. This fusion process releases energy as well, and part of that is what we know as "Sunlight". 


And now that were at the core, and you see that for our Star, it is this Proton-Proton collision process which powers everything, perhaps you glimpse how nothing is a "thing", a permanent object, but rather everything's a temporary process. For this process above is massively powerful - if left un-contained, it would result in a huge explosion. However, gravity wants to compress anything with mass, and stars have lots and lots of mass (mostly hydrogen, some helium). So, gravity is pushing in with everything it's got, and nuclear fusion is pushing out, and there is a harmony reached, a balance. We call this balance a "star". That's all it is. And when the balance falters, the star goes BOOM. And then it's something else.


Do you see? How the most important object in our lives (our Star) is just an ongoing dialectic between fusion and gravity? And if this MOST important thing is simply a basic process, what do you think this world is then? Or you? Or everything?


Permanent and forever? Or just another temporary process?

Marketing Campaigns Become Our Desires

Big winner! This guy was the lucky person who was allowed the opportunity to buy the first iPad in China. His T- shirt reads "I BUY IPAD NO1"; I'd add it appears #2 as well.

I can't help but shake my curmudgeonly  old head whenever I see expressions of such sincere passion over buying a consumer product - like when folks around the world camp out the night before an iPhone release. It's crazy! And I suppose a testament to the effective marketing campaigns of Apple.

But it speaks to a deep and fundamental absence in so many people's lives - that they are so wrapped up in Consumer Culture that their desires are imported, created on Madison Avenue, and willingly incorporated into their very sense of SELF. To the point that I'm sure many are familiar with: You become defined by your social group (and yourself) by the products you own (or, conversely I suppose, don't own).

If I was an ad executive, I would light my fat cigar with a $100 bill everytime I saw a picture like this, and laugh, laugh, laugh all the way to the bank.

We become our delusions, and when the rush eventually fades away, and you're left with this gaping sense of "what's next, want more..." fret not: There will be another shiny bauble to get your temporary attention.

Levels of Reality

Since I graduated from the prestigious Harvard Training Academy - AS YOU CAN SEE! - I feel I have obtained the proper WISDOM, you see, to opine on this, our reality. Our should I say, realities. I propose that we - living beings - exist in all these realities, however, our operational awareness of them differs from person to person. True WISDOM, then, would be the complete understanding and reconciliation of these different realities. As it is normally, there's no necessary correlation from one reality to another - what might be true in one could be false in another, and vice versa. They're independent in this regard.

Now, I've thought about this for many minutes now, so I'm sure it's correct. However, there might be some small chance I could change this in the future. But what do I care? I've got a diploma!

In order:
1. Societal reality - living in the world. These realities are location and era specific. The societal reality of Medina, Saudi Arabia, for example, is not the same as Seattle. All religion, government, etc, fits into this realm, and it dominates our attention.
2. Familial reality - a family is a society in microcosm, with less options for moving. 
3. Personal reality - what goes on in your head. Could be completely delusional, and in fact, it's always subjective. 

These are the big three. Most of us, and most of our day to day lives, are completely dominated by these levels, and in fact it would be easy enough to stop here and analyze the heck out these, since progress could be made. However, that's not my goal. Documentation only. So:

4. Chemical reality - hormones and other chemical triggers in the body. We might be completely unaware of this reality, but its certainly affecting us.
5. Biological reality - The actual biology that makes up living systems.
6. Physical reality - the atoms which make up the structures in our bodies and the rules governing their interactions.
7. Quantum reality - The underlying quantum nature of everything

And that's as far back as I go, for now. I strongly suspect science will peel back yet another layer - another reality - and I'll add that at the bottom.

To wit: One can analyze any given object, topic, concern, by using each of these levels. For instance, ask yourself what a mountain is at the the physical level. Each level has its own truths, and each level can appear to subvert the others. 

Most importantly, one can see how the bottom 4 levels can be viewed as fairly straightforward scientific concepts, whereas the top 3 are all subjective, hurly-burly creations of humans/humanity.

Point being: We spend most of our time in the top 3 levels, swimming in various delusions, and most likely completely unaware of the underlying levels that actually hold more objective truths.

Illusions all, however, even the quantum.

Iron!

Here's to Iron (Fe #26!), the most stable element in existence and the state to which all the other elements strive.

To the left is a nice looking Iron meteor hanging out on Mars. Expelled from some star, probably the same star that made the iron currently in your blood.