|
Comments for Friday,
December 1, 2023, thru Sat., Dec. 9, 2023:
December 3,
2023
- An
NBC News article about
George Santos's expulsion from
Congress seems to say what
needs to be said:
Rep. Anthony
D’Esposito, R-N.Y., a fellow Long
Islander and one of 105 Republicans
who voted for expulsion, said Santos
deserved it for lying his way into
Congress and defrauding his
constituents.
“Unfortunately, they
voted for someone who — they didn’t
even know who it was. It may as well
have been a Disney character, because
it wasn’t a real person,” D’Esposito
said.
Rep. Jamie Raskin,
D-Md., said Santos was merely taking
his cues from the leader of the
Republican Party, the former president
and 2024 primary front-runner Donald
Trump.
“Where did George
Santos get the idea that you could
lie, cheat, steal, corrupt your office
and still succeed in the Republican
Party? Where does that come from? It
comes from the top, because it’s
Donald Trump who has set that standard
of corruption for the GOP,” Raskin
said on the Capitol steps after the
vote.
The comparison to Trump
is valid. The main question seems
to be: How did they get away with
it for so long?
I keep recalling what I
read years ago in a book titled "The
Right Brain," by Thomas R. Blakeslee.
I still have the book. Here's what
it says on page 6:
each half of the brain
has its own train of conscious thought
and its own memories. ... the
two sides of the brain think in
fundamentally different ways: While
the left brain tends to think in
words, the right brain thinks directly
in sensory images.
the left brain handles
language and logical thinking
By thinking in images
instead of words, the right brain can
recognize a face in a crowd or put
together the pieces of a jigsaw
puzzle, which would totally baffle the
left brain.
Trump's ability to bring
together a crowd to listen to his
illogical rantings seems to be a clear
indication that it is the right brain
that is making things happen, both for
Trump and for his audience. The
same for George Santos and his
audiences.
Both Trump and Santos now seem to be
losing their audiences. That is definitely
a good thing.
December 1, 2023 - Right now,
everyone just seems to be
sitting around waiting to see
if George Santos will be
expelled from Congress.
How he managed to get a seat
in Congress in the first place
seems a more interesting
question. The same with
Marjorie
Taylor Greene of
Georgia. The answer
seems to be that the people
who elected them (and Donald
Trump) just do not think
logically, they think emotionally.
They have to "like" the person
they vote for, and they like
people with screwball ideas
who want to shake up the
political scene. They don't
like politicians who
just want to whatever
politicians are supposed to
do. That's boring.
With people like George
Santos, Marjorie Taylor Greene
and Donald Trump around,
things are never
boring.
|
Comments for Sunday,
November 26, 2023, thru Thur., Nov. 30,
2023:
November 26, 2023 - I'm still
spending a lot of time nearly
every day listening to
podcasts. And it appears
that a lot of other people are
doing the same thing.
Lately, the hosts on late
night talk shows have been
talking about podcasts quite a
bit. And when they do,
they generally talk about
podcasts I've never heard of,
so I may have to check them
out. It appears that
most late night TV talk shows
are also put out as
podcasts.
Unlike nearly everyone else in
the world, I don't listen to
podcasts directly from some
web site, I download the
podcasts into an MP3 player
and then listen to the
podcasts on a speaker. I
download hundreds of podcasts
per session, filling up the
MP3 player, and then I listen
to the podcasts until I've
heard them all. Then I
download a new batch. I
think it takes over a week to
get through a typical
downloaded batch.
Yesterday,
I listened to a very interesting episode
of the "Why
This Universe?"
podcast. The episode is titled "Life
Beyond Earth (Ft. Avi Loeb and
Garrett Graff at the Chicago
Humanities Festival)."
Among other interesting topics, they
discussed the 'Oumuamua
interstellar object which was
first spotted on October 19, 2017, as it
was heading away from the sun, about 40
days after it passed at it closest point
to the sun. Here's a picture of
what it is believed to look like:
Its angle and its speed indicated it was
an object from outside our solar
system. Some
observations found it to be shaped like
a cigar, as seen in the image
above. Other observations
indicated that it was flat, like
pancake, and shiny on one side. It
was definitely unlike any other object
ever observed in space. Some
speculated that it was a piece of flat
metal from a super-civilization that had
the capability to enclose its sun in a
sphere of photo-electric cells that
allowed that civilization to capture and
utilize ALL of its sun's energy.
Most of the episode was about arguments
about astronomy and how many astronomers
argue opinions against opinions, while
the best course toward understanding is
just to examine the known facts.
You can speculate on what the facts
mean, but you shouldn't argue opinions
against opinions.
It was a truly interesting episode.
|
Comments for Sunday,
November 19, 2023, thru Sat., Nov. 25,
2023:
November 23, 2023 - I wish everyone a
very happy Thanksgiving!
November 19, 2023 - Every morning I go
through a list of 87 different podcasts
to see if they have anything interesting
for me to download. While some
podcasts only produce new episodes once
per week, others produce as many as five
a week.
I enjoy learning new things about
science, technology and politics.
Listening to podcasts is similar to
watching the Science Channel or
the National Geographic Channel on
TV. The main difference is that
the TV shows are all 1 hour in length,
while podcasts range in length from 5
minutes to 3½ hours.
The problem is: Not every podcast
episode contains something new and
interesting. I download the
episodes that look like they might be
interesting, and when I go through them
I may turn some of them off after just a
few minutes because they turned out to
be uninteresting.
My full list of podcasts consists of 175
different shows. #1 to #49 are my
favorites, #50 to #87 are okay, and #88
to #175 are no good, I just keep them on
the list so that I know I've already
checked them out and found them to be no
good.
What I need to do is keep better track
of things. Instead of just trying
to remember what I liked and didn't
like, I need to make notes about which
podcast episodes I liked and don't
like. For example, yesterday I
listened to several episodes of Business
Wars Daily. I listened to
episodes about cryptocurrency,
the
merger of some theme parks, and how
fried mushrooms might replace potato
chips as a top snack. The
episodes were all surprisingly
interesting. So was an episode of
Curiosity
Daily about how
buildings might soon have the ability
to change colors. White
buildings reflect sunlight, reducing the
need for air conditioning, and dark
buildings absorb sunlight, reducing the
need for furnaces. Here's the
blurb for another
interesting episode I listened to:
Today, you’ll learn
about a new way to turn saltwater into
drinking water, research that suggests
stuffing your bad feelings deep down
might actually be a good thing, and an
amazing 500,000 year old discovery in
Tanzania.
Neither Business
Wars nor Curiosity Daily
are on my favorites list. They're
on the "Okay" list. I think I may
need to take notes while listening to
podcasts in order to keep better track
of which podcasts are truly my
favorites.
|
Comments for Sunday,
November 12, 2023, thru Sat., Nov. 18,
2023:
November
17, 2023
- For the past few days I've been
in an argument with someone named
David Thomson on my Time
and Time Dilation Facebook page.
It's been a long time since I last
argued about Time Dilation, but
Thomson doesn't believe in
it. Here's his basic
argument:
Without
proof of physical matter existing in
time frames other than the present
moment, there is no evidence to
support a physical linear timeline.
Physical matter doesn't
exist in different time frames.
It's all here and now in "the present
moment." Physical matter just ages
at different rates depending upon its
altitude and speed.
I've been trying to explain that in
various ways, but he cannot accept the
idea that time can tick at different
rates in the "present moment." The
"present moment" is HIS view of time,
which has nothing to do with how time
passes for everything else in the
universe.
November 13, 2023 - Yesterday I
spent $179 on a new radio that
also includes a record player
and a CD player. So, for
the first time in about 20
years, I was able to play and
listen to some of my vinyl LP
records. I listened to
records by Cher, Barbara
Streisand and The Modern Jazz
Quartet. They're still
great records from great
artists.
In the picture below, the new
radio/record player is in the
upper left corner next to the
Brook Benton
album. My
collection of 84 pop music
albums is on the floor propped
against the cabinet
door. I also have a
collection of classical music
records that is inside the
cabinet.
Now I need to decide if, when
I finish writing this comment,
I should listen to podcasts or
to some more records. I
think I'll listen to some
records. Listening to
music while also trying to
listen to a podcast will
probably turn the music into
noise.
November 12, 2023 - A couple days ago, my
office stereo system stopped
working. It simply wore out.
Here's a picture I took years ago,
showing the tuner/amplifier next to the
tape player. The tuner/amplifier
simply stopped working. And
without it, the tape player was
useless. The two huge speakers on
the other side of the room are useless,
too.
You can see part of my tape collection
on the shelf below the player.
There's another shelf of tapes under
that one. Nearly all of the 210
tapes are recordings I made from radio
jazz broadcasts years ago.
Atop the stereo is an MP3 player that
contains copies of all of my tapes plus
a Bluetooth speaker that replaces the
stereo speakers. When I took the
photo, I thought the MP3 player would
eventually replace the big stereo
system. It never did. There
were problems with both.
The main problem with the stereo system
is that everything is connected by
wires. And no modern equipment
uses wires or the same connectors.
I think it's illegal to toss this kind
of electronic equipment into a trash
bin, so, I hauled the stereo, the tape
player, a record player (not shown) and
the two huge speakers to an electronics
store nearby that accepts old electronic
equipment. And I moved my
front-room stereo system into my office
to replace the equipment I had given
away. I'm listening to the CD
player as I'm typing these words.
However, I now have no stereo system in
my front room, and a big empty shelf
where the moved equipment was
located. I don't really need a
second stereo system. What I need
is a record player for my collection of
vinyl records. The player I used
decades ago cannot connect to anything I
now have. That's why I gave it
away, too.
So, I'm pondering whether I should buy
the $140 or the $170 dollar vinyl record
system they have for sale at
Target. I haven't listened to any
of my vinyl records in 20 years or
more. I'm looking forward to it.
And it gave me something to write about
as my Sunday comment.
|
Comments for Sunday,
November 5, 2023, thru Sat., Nov. 11, 2023:
November 8,
2023
- Yesterday, I finished
reading very interesting book
titled "The
Mysterious Case of Rudolf
Diesel."
Rudolf Diesel was the inventor
of the diesel engine. He
mysteriously vanished on
September 29, 1913, while
traveling on the steamship Dresden
from Belgium to England.
At the time, he was one of the
most famous men in the world,
on par with Thomas Edison, who
was a friend of
Diesel's. But Diesel
also had powerful enemies,
such as Kaiser Wilhelm II of
Germany and John D.
Rockefeller, the founder of
Standard Oil and the richest
man in the world.
Prior to reading this book, I
really hadn't thought much
about how the diesel engine
changed the world.
Virtually all ocean going
vessels are now powered by
diesel engines, instead of
steam engines, and so are most
railroad and truck
engines. A diesel engine
is vastly more efficient than
steam engines and require less
fuel per mile than gasoline
engines. It was also the
only engine that
was used in submarines prior
to the invention of the
nuclear engine.
In 1913, Germany had more
submarines than any other
nation in the world, and they
were preparing to take over
Europe. World War 1
would begin in 1914.
When Diesel disappeared from
the Dresden, he left
his coat and some personal
belongings on the deck.
There's some thinking that his
death may have been a staged
hoax to keep Germany from
trying to hunt him down and
kill him, but Diesel was never
seen again.
It's a very interesting book,
and I highly recommend it.
November 5, 2023 - Yesterday's comment
reminded me of something else that
mathematicians seem wrong about: The point
of the Big Bang.
Mathematicians seem in unanimous
agreement that the Big Bang began at a
point of "infinite density." If
all the matter in the expanding universe
is traced back to its point of origin,
that point must have been an actual
point. And if it was a "point,"
that point must have been of
infinite density, because a point has no
dimensions. A point can have no
width, because it would then be a spot
or sphere of some
diameter.
Because I am not a mathematician, I can
easily imagine a point with no
dimensions, it's simply a location where
two lines intersect, But I cannot
imagine a point that contains
matter and still has no
dimensions. Therefore, when the
subject of the originating point for the
Big Bang comes up, I envision a sphere
of incredible density (but NOT
of infinite density) which has
been compressed (by gravity) to the
point where its components can no longer
withstand the gravitational forces that
are being applied to it. So, it
explodes. And we have a Big Bang.
This model of the universe also implies
that the expanding universe will
eventually stop expanding due to the
forces of gravity, and it will collapse
via "The
Big Crunch" back into a new sphere
of incredible density, which will again
explode in a new Big Bang. It's
called the
Oscillating Universes Theory.
Einstein first proposed the idea in the
1920s, and there are many different
versions of it, but none is fully
accepted. That doesn't mean it is
invalid, it just means it hasn't been
proven beyond any reasonable doubt.
Maybe someday it will be, but until then
I view it as the best theory for
explaining how the universe works.
|
Comments for Wednesday,
November 1, 2023, thru Sat., Nov. 4, 2023:
November
4, 2023
- A couple days ago, I listened to
the latest episode of my favorite
podcast "The
Infinite Monkey Cage."
The episode is titled "The
Infinite Monkey Cage's Guide
to Infinity."
This morning I listened to it
again, because there were things
said in the episode that just
didn't seem right to me. And
then I listened to it a third
time. (The episode is only
18 minutes long.) And I
wrote down some interesting
quotes:
Our brains are big
enough to fit in the simple symbol for
infinity, but when it comes to the
actually contemplating the infinite
infinitynessness of infinity, then we
do start to get into a little bit of
cosmological vertigo.
Infinity is a word
that belongs to the wordy people, not
to the numbery people.
You cannot place a
numerical value on infinity, therefore
you cannot have infinity plus 1.
What those three quotes
seem to me to be saying is that
mathematicians cannot cope with
infinity. A non-mathematician,
like myself, has no problem with the
idea that our universe is expanding into
an infinite universe. Here's an
image I created years ago:
The universe beyond the Big Bang
Universe must be
infinite. If it wasn't infinite,
how would it end ... with a wall of such
gigantic size that it should be visible
across the universe? If we cannot
see the wall because it is black and
does not produce light, what would be
beyond that wall?
An infinite universe is perfectly
logical and fits all known facts.
It's also quite possible that there are
countless other Big Bang universes out
there, expanding and then collapsing due
to gravity, and then a new Big Bang
causes it to expand again. It's
just sad that mathematicians cannot cope with
such a thing.
November 1, 2023 - I'm still struggling
to find something to write about on this
web site. There is a lot going on,
particularly with all the trials the
Trumps will be attending, and the
testimony that they will be
giving. It should be interesting
to see Donald Trump on a witness
stand. Can he say anything
without lying about something?
Time will tell.
|
|
|
, b
