Baseball and Quantum Physics

Even if you don't know exactly what Quantum Physics is, there are some well-known games that weave the principles of Quantum Physics into them...some games better than others, depending on which team one was hoping to overcome those "quanta" limits...for example there are always EXACTLY three(3) "outs" to every inning of baseball, once they are gone...that's all you get...then time to change hats.

The underlying unpredictability of each inning is averaged over the whole game. Even though each inning may have its own excitement, after 9 (18*) outs, the game is history, literally.

I'm not talking about creation ex-nihilo here. Just baseball. And though in the winter you may have forgotten of its existence...it appears that there WILL be a 2008 baseball season. Hence a bit more predictability among the quantum weirdness.

The 2008 baseball season is just around the corner. In the celestial sense, as well as the literal one.

Winter has the quality of being like a giant reset button before the next season's Spring Training.

There will be a next season, I predict.

Fact Check:
Okay there are a total of 18 outs in a game of baseball, 9 on one side, 9 on the other. But that just adds to my point. All the weirdness that transpires in those 18 outs is bound forever in the final score of that particular game. Yet Cubs fans will still be Cubs fans tomorrow.

Fact Check 2:
You know I'm ALWAYS checking your better judgment with the very mistake I make...then don't find until sometime later...the more observant of you inwardly protest what I've missed...I don't mind.

Fact Check 3:
I hated extra innings...especially when I was pitching.

Weighing The Merits

Despite what you may think...I'm not partial to someone just because they have Multiple Sclerosis, although I AM certain that people don't really understand just how traumatic the disease can really be.

Just as an example, I have always been more of a thinker than a jogger...but not being able to jog anymore has both physical and psychological repercussions that can't be underestimated.

I used to jog everywhere. Now, I can barely take the bus. I'm not looking for sympathy, but I'm sure that even a novice could conclude that the difference between being able to jog recreationally and NOT AT ALL is huge.

It's difficult to qualify, in the "legal" sense, but having become physically disabled in the middle of life...with no "lifestyle change" that would have made ANY difference is a bit depressing. It's not like I was being irresponsible and acquired a disease because of a lackadaisical attitude about my health...in fact, my EKGs tell the neurologists that I wasn't just a couch-potato...I was fit in both mind AND body.

I was struck by the fact that the late tenor, Luciano Pavarotti's most recent wife herself suffers from MS and is engaged in a legal battle with his daughters over the disposition of his estate.

Now I don't know the merits of the case, but I do know that there is probably a lot of misunderstanding on ALL SIDES of the matter...simply because MS is a disease that is frankly unbelievable.

Again, I'm not taking sides in this matter, but I AM aware that people tend to judge others based on appearance...a method of judgment that fails badly when looking at someone with MS.

The problem is that you can't determine that a person even HAS MS by just looking at them.

It takes one of the most advanced pieces of technology known to mankind to "see" what's going on with MS--Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the brain and spine.

There are chemical tests that POINT to MS (like a spinal tap), but there is nothing outwardly visible that informs the general public of the daily agony that MS incurs.

And chances are, if you know someone with MS, they are doing a fair amount of acting just to appear normal.

They are "normal", they just suffer from an illness that is largely invisible by-nature. What you see is a sort of clumsiness that seems out-of-place.

And because charlatanism has become so widespread in American culture, often the assumption is that one is pining for sympathy, when the disease is in-fact far more severe than meets-the-eye.

Again I'm not taking sides one way or the other, I just know some of the difficulties I have experienced in getting people to understand that, for people who actually have MS, the responses in public are often cold...for odd reasons.

I couldn't imagine the agony that an estate dispute places on a person with MS.

Tech-addendum:
In actuality I would say that Positron Emmission Tomography (PET-Scan) is the most advanced non-intrusive technology available for peering inside the skull/bone/flesh of a living human. While generating antimatter (hence Positron) is by far the MOST advanced technology available, with few exceptions the generation of ANTIMATTER is far more expensive than the MRI, which employs good old-fashioned AC-POWERED ELECTRO-MAGNETISM to chart minute valence differentials (which show up as either bright or dark patches on an X-ray-like photograph), without the cellularly destructive effects of focussed X-ray radiation.

They Call Them Santa Anas

Many U.S. residents are themselves largely unaware of the actual size of the State of California...but I assure you it is "area-wise", the Third largest State in our country...after Alaska and Texas.

...and the terrain is as varied as one could possibly imagine.

Around the San Diego area in particular, the thermal effects of the many hills coupled with a gusty proximity to the Pacific Ocean, dense coniferous forests, and the renown "Santa Ana" winds...make San Diego one of the MOST DANGEROUS places in the world to have a fire burning out-of-control.

So my sincerest respect goes out to the people who fight fires under these highly unpredictable conditions, and my best wishes to the local residents...

Santa Anas Wreaking Havoc

WEIRD ADDENDUM:
If you haven't heard, former Vice President Al Gore of Tennessee won a share of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 (along with the contributing researchers), for his environmental patronage and promotion of environmental science worldwide.

What's next...SIR Al Gore?

WEIRD ADDENDUM 2:
I guess my facts around this honor conferred upon Al Gore are mistaken...he won a SECOND QUILL (which is no small honor, I guess), for the issues he addressed in his book: The Assault on Reason.

The Perfect Geometry of Motion

I was reflecting today about the paranoia I've witnessed vis-a-vis the electric disposal units that keep people's drains from getting clogged with food refuse.

I think people base their mental-pictures of what is really happening on images they have formed when some metal object has inadvertently found it's way down the proverbial chute and clinked and clunked so loudly, and ultimately jammed the disposal.

While it's not a good idea to go putting your hand in there, unless you have long fingers, the most you will ever risk is touching the SIDES or the BOTTOM of a running disposal. Despite what one may have imagined, the central area of the disposal is relatively safe, because centrifugal forces created within the spinning DRUM (that cuts up the food) keep the center of the disposal generally free of dangerous (high-velocity) matter.

One design DOES use a free-spinning metal cog affixed to the spinning floor of the unit, and as you may have experienced, THAT DOES infrequently become jammed if it gets wrapped in a thread of synthetic matter.

Anyway the principle at work here is basic Newtonian physics, the idea that an object in motion tries to follow a course perfectly in line with the force that initially propels it.

To alter that course requires some LATERAL force. If you think about it, you'll realize that this is EXACTLY what a disposal unit does, it propels food in one direction, and then applies force to it to change its trajectory.

The persistent agitation (of the forces holding the food together) are disrupted and the matter simply falls apart.

Newton's Laws-of-Motion indicate that the forces can be produced by a small 1/2 horsepower engine spinning a 4-inch drum at high-speed.

Hence the modern disposal unit.

But as far as being proximately dangerous to flesh and bone, it's not...even when you are pressing a mass of food into it with your bare hand (but be wary anyway!)

MMMMMW, Revisited

Part of memory is in strategically sifting the old stuff with the new stuff. Here's another article I wrote in February 2005, for your contemporary perusal. ;)

I've read maybe three thousand books in my life, and browsed thousands of websites.

That in itself doesn't make me anything special. But I pride myself on being aware of trivia that most people are completely blind to.

There's some really weird stuff to be considered out there. Not all of it is true.

It takes a really special person not to throw out the baby with the bath-water, when it comes to the truly bizarre.

Attached is some of the weirdest stuff you'll ever hear about. I'm not saying it's all true. Just weird.

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The Stanford Prison Experiment

Long before the scandal at Abu Ghraib erupted, there was a well-known experiment that showed that prison does wierd things to normal people that can't be rationally explained.

Satanic Cult at the Presidio

UFO investigator Jacques Vallee once noted, "Every organization has its share of unbalanced minds, and some of them are in uniform." This chilling story rocked the San Francisco Bay Area in the mid-80's.

The Cremation of Care at Bohemian Grove

Bohemian Grove is an exclusive resort in northern California where the rich and powerful come to engage in bizarre rituals every summer--the Bohemian Grove Action Network pickets the resort every summer.

The JFK Assassination

Probably the most widely known piece of wierdness of our time. There are just as many conspiracy theorists as there are debunkers. The most interesting material is the actual witness testimony before the Warren Commission.

The Mexico City UFOs

Mexico City seems to to have experienced more than its fair share of UFO activity in the last 15 years, including well-documented sightings in 1991, 1997 and 2005.

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Most rational folks dismiss these odd coincidences as being nothing more than the ravings of lunatic minds. But they share a few features that make them more than mere oddities:

1) all of them have the distinction of being widely-documented by people of diverse educational, religious and socio-economic backgrounds

2) they all represent either precedent-setting or copy-cat examples of other equally well-documented occurrances

3) they all have been echoed into the public consciousness in the plot-lines of recent popular films (see if you can guess which ones)

In addition, just before I got ill, a member of the Washington jet-set inadvertently confirmed to me (albeit indirectly) that one of these occurrances was something more than mere trivia, public awareness of which nearly brought the Bush Administration to its knees.

If you take the time to review them thoroughly, it won't be too hard to figure out which one. Or will it?

FF&FF, Revisited

I decided to republish this February 2005 article, just so people could see from whence I've come. If you missed this one, a lot of the rest of this stuff may not make sense.

One thing about growing up in a church-going household is that it's difficult to get any real perspective on what's knowable, and what isn't.

If you've grown up in a strongly Evangelical tradition, often the tendency is to simply reject anything that doesn't fit into your worldview as being part of some sort of Satanic conspiracy to confuse you.

But if you get in the habit of rejecting information simply because it's unpalatable, you may in fact be deceiving yourself.

There's no denying that you need a lot of real-life experence to get to the core of any matter--even if it means entertaining material that is controversial, heretical, or just plain out-there.

There's a kernel of truth in every story--even an unbelievable one--though it may not be the whole truth. Even if someone is trying to fool you, or manipulate you, the truth often becomes apparent with a little critical thinking.

Here are some books that, for various reasons, will encourage you to examine life's many mysteries with a critical eye. They're all entertaining reading, if you can find them.

Pick one up and you'll see what I mean.

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Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Robert Cialdini

Cialdini is a master of marketing psychology and shows you how advertisers and con-artists alike exert almost unbelievable control over the mind of unsuspecting victims.

Addendum:
Technically, Cialdini is a Doctor of Psychology...not merely a master. I was using master in the general adjectival sense: the quality of having attained a mastery of the WHOLE FIELD of psychology. But the term doctor is so frequently associated with a hospital medical practitioner (of which the majority cited in this blog are Neurologists, not Psychologists) that I shied away from using the term doctor to avoid the confusion between the man's academic credentials and his medical experience (which obviously rely on each other).

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Revelations: Alien Contact and Human Deception

Jaques Vallee

A refreshing departure from the usual UFO literature. Vallee exposes the misty world of deception that protects the world's nuclear arsenals and secret aircraft development. Illuminating.

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The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: An Investigative Reporter Exposes the Truth About Globalization, Corporate Cons, and High-Finance Fraudsters

Greg Palast

Not for George W. Bush fans. Palast exposes the seedy underside of western politics and Big-Money hucksters. Facts about the 2000 election will make your blood curdle. Be sure to check out his website

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The Universe in a Nutshell

Stephen Hawking

About as far out as it gets. If you understand any of this, maybe you can explain it to the rest of us.

Seasons Changing

I don't know about your calendar but here...the seasons really begin to change in mid-October. From the fallen twigs I trip over on the way to get the mail, to the kids' actual desire to "bundle-up", there are telltale signs everywhere that winter is on its way.

Late fall often brings the rain in my neck-of-the-woods, but this year the weather is particularly cold.

Last year we had 80F days into November. October--this year--is turning into a house-painter's nightmare.

Technically, I WAS a HOUSE-PAINTER just prior to the M.S. episode that convinced me that playing trapeze-artist on 2-story roofs was NOT in my best-interest ;)

Anyway I don't miss those days. But like the squirrel that hides nuts for the winter, I'm glad I invested in Social Security for all those years.

People complain about the money compulsorily taken out of their paychecks, but it is just an investment in their own futures. Trust me. ;)

Editor's Note:
Aparently there is some controversy over whether "roofs" or "rooves" is the correct English spelling for the plural of roof. My spell-check says "roofs" but my common sense tells me "rooves" would be the correct form.

If you listen to a native born American, it's usually pronounced "rooves", but when I was a professional Painter's Assistant, I heard a lot of both pronunciations.

I guess people would let EITHER spelling go uncorrected, but I did change "rooves" to "roofs" at the behest of my spell-check.

I feel so weak. ;)

Deluginal

All during my youth and young-adulthood, there were great SOCIAL trends occuring that fomented a flurry of heated debates about the origins of the universe and of mankind itself.

Most of these debates were spirited forward by even MORE complex REAL-WORLD SOCIAL DYNAMICS occurring throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

It's tough to acknowledge that arguably the most scientifically elucidating decades before the 21st Century were fueled in large part by the anticipation that Mankind was on it's way out (and that we had better do SOMETHING!).

But it's true. The human race was PERCEIVED BY MANY to be nearing extinction: either by Global Warming, Alien Invaders, Widespread System Failure or the decree of God Himself.

The point is that even though our knowledge is advancing at an exponential rate, there is still a lot of ambiguity about our perceptions about own origins and (potential) demise left to sort out.

Realizing that each person must set his/her own course (or follow the only course in life still navigable to them), I see that there is really no sense in questioning one's own origin, but rather ACCEPTING his/her own VALUE/ROLE on this planet (in this era) does make a difference.

And thus I have reached a sort of laissez-faire understanding that simply because Mankind is an apparently rare feature of this corner of the universe, we owe it to ourselves to try understanding each other's rationale for doing what we do, because we (and our biology) seem to be the most influential visible force for Billions of miles around .

Did I mention the reality of Gravity drawing all things together making peaceful co-existence a necessity for survival? ;)

It's apparent now that life on Earth came about as a result of very extreme precipitation early in Earth's history, no matter who you talk to. ;)

The Crystals of Language

Image from: james.fabpedigree.com

Language is a subject that has always piqued my interest in history, because in the true Turing sense, the endless replication of little thinking machines (people) has created a computer (the society) that never collapses for lack of memory.

Each subtle nuance of language caries with it a piece of the whole 4-dimensional story of humankind.

If we only had the right 4-D glasses, we might be able to see a holographic image our own past floating above our own DNA, no?

The 5th Dementia

Various attempts at humor evoke the concept of dementia in presenting a concept as being foolhardy, delusional or merely ill-thought.

While on the outset this would seem to be an innocuous epithet, in reality Dementia is a very serious condition that strikes a wide cross-section of otherwise alert and sober people, and can be extremely humiliating for them.

Although I myself have endured brain-damage (or more correctly, Neuro-motor damage) as a result of Multiple Sclerosis, my cognitive functions have remained largely unaffected (with the exception of rare bouts of confusion that are distinctly disorienting.)

But people who experience Dementia have SERIOUS difficulties thinking, and should be treated with a lot of sensitivity...more than most people would think is necessary.

Again, I am only giving a voice to people who don't really have one in the public sphere--I see them struggling to "get out" whenever I must visit my own Neurologist.

To put things in perspective...imagine that some of the wisest people on the planet are treated as idiots because the very brain in their head is experiencing a kind of "mental hurricane", 24 hours a day.

It's like living in New Orleans during Katrina and NOT being able to escape.

Or worse.

I just try to remember that people go through all sorts of trials that result in odd behavior...this seems to be the loving thing to do.