The Unthinkable Became Normal
A world in which everything once unthinkable became normal, would not be livable.
Read More The Unthinkable Became NormalCategory: science
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year (we hope) It’s the five thousand, seven hundred and eighty second birthday of that fourteen-billion-year-old ball of rock and water we call home (see Happy Quantum New Year for the math). The day is relevant to all humans, not just the Jews. After a year like 5781, everyone should take it seriously. […]
Read More Happy New Year!COVID: The Questions Stand
Though answers may change, many questions stand. Dr. Anthony Fauci made an important statement about the fluid responses to the Wuhan virus. “So when you hear someone say something at one point and then two or three months later, if you stick with what you said at the original time when you had one-fifth of […]
Read More COVID: The Questions StandTwo Plus Two Equals Five: the Miracle of Limited Understanding
1921-22, among the Iglulik Eskimo (Inuit): “I once went out to Aua’s hunting quarters on the ice outside Lyon Inlet… For several evenings we had discussed rules of life without getting beyond a long and circumstantial statement of all that was permitted and all that was forbidden. Everyone knew precisely what had to be done […]
Read More Two Plus Two Equals Five: the Miracle of Limited UnderstandingI’m Grateful It’s Cold
I’m grateful it’s so cold outside. Not just bitterly cold, but skin-numbing cold. Frostbite cold. Not to mention windy, making the weather even more unpleasant, maybe dangerous. (Much warmer though, than what the exiles face in the novel Quantum Cannibals) I’m Grateful for Wood Maybe I should go chop some firewood. On a cold day […]
Read More I’m Grateful It’s ColdControl of Cultural Achievements
There is no denying the great cultural achievements of western civilization, its technological brilliance. Virtually all modern innovation, and most of contemporary science comes from Europe and North America- a handful of countries representing a small fraction of the world’s population. Not coincidentally, these are the regions of the world where democracy and economic freedom […]
Read More Control of Cultural AchievementsA Black Hole in His Heart
The groundbreaking theoretical physicist Dr. Jacob Bekenstein died on August 16, 2015, at the age of sixty-eight. Although not well-known in popular culture, he played a key role in developing ideas which transformed much of modern physics. He was the Polak Professor of Theoretical Physics for many years at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Racah […]
Read More A Black Hole in His HeartThe Physics of Lynch Mobs
For Every Action There is an Equal and Opposite Reaction Forces always occur in pairs. For example, when you push a cart, the cart pushes back against you; when gravity pulls you down against the ground, the ground pushes up against your feet. When you fire a rifle, you feel the recoil. When gravity pulls […]
Read More The Physics of Lynch MobsPhase Transition: What Can We Kill?
What is the difference between humans and animals? What right do we have to take the lives of the latter for our own benefit, whether for research or food? It’s a challenge often repeated by PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who compare the slaughter of chickens in abattoirs to the slaughter of […]
Read More Phase Transition: What Can We Kill?A Different Kind Of War
A Manifesto Redefining the Battlefield Our civilized world is in a different kind of war, aimed at dragging it back to the 8th century. Our values are the enemy’s main weapon against us. We must adapt if we are to survive. Forget “religion.” Forget “nation” and “geography.” Don’t even think about “ideology” or “economy.” The […]
Read More A Different Kind Of WarA Deadly Epidemic, More Dangerous Than Ebola
There are many diseases afflicting the world today. Some have immediate and horrifying consequences while others may seem benign until it’s too late to do anything about them. Health authorities stumble around, looking for ways to protect the populations, but run into barriers of cost, politics, human and constitutional rights. We don’t know what deadly […]
Read More A Deadly Epidemic, More Dangerous Than EbolaDangerous Religion
Dangerous Classification Classification can help you sort things out, make informed decisions. If someone was to threaten you with a gun, it would be helpful to know whether it was an assault rifle or a Nerf gun (soft foam bullets). Sometimes classification can be used to obscure, to prevent the making of informed decisions. The […]
Read More Dangerous ReligionHappy Quantum New Year
Our four-billion year old world came into being 5,781 years ago, with the creation of man. So… Happy New Year. A Scientific Explanation This Friday evening, September 18 , 2020, marks the five thousand, seven hundred and eighty first year since the creation of the earth. This celebration may be a little problematic for many people, […]
Read More Happy Quantum New YearAre You A Man or a Mouse?
A More Human Mouse Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently spliced the human gene associated with language into the brains of a mouse. While the rodents didn’t say anything about the experiment, they were better able to find chocolate in a maze then regular mice. This is perhaps another example of science mimicking […]
Read More Are You A Man or a Mouse?It Used To Be Easy To Conquer The World
It’s still easy, if no one resists It used to be easy to conquer the world; it wasn’t a very big place. The Mauryan empire of ancient India was no more than five million square kilometers, but included over forty percent of the planet’s population. The Mongol Empire was six times that size, covering one fifth […]
Read More It Used To Be Easy To Conquer The World