What the Bleep Do We Know? Pseudoscience At It's Best...

"If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics".
-Richard Feynman 

     Neo was stuck in a tub. In the movie The Matrix, the main character finds out that the 'real' reality wasn't known to him. A fabricated dream, that he and the entire population of Earth had been subjected to. This type of theory is nothing new, and existed long before The Matrix turned it into popular discussion. Plato's Cave Allegory, which is taught in every Philosophy class around the world, discussing the idea of being shielded from the true level of consciousness.

     New age thinking has begun to try to incorporate science and the idea of quantum physics, and light, and resonances, with spirituality  and some pretty bizarre ideas. In the movie "What the Bleep Do We Know?" They try to  lead the blind public into a belief of false information, and half formed theories. I'm not necessarily against New Age thinking, but just against what this movie trys to lead you to believe about quantum physics 

Let me basically break down what this movie says...


> They make the argument that quantum physics leads us to believe that our reality isn't always static. That because on the subatomic scale particles come into existence only by observation, that we actually create the universe around us.


>Even though our mind and brain has enormous potential for heavy cognitive ability, we only use a small portion of that ability. So we actually miss things and can't perceive certain things .(other dimensions, new levels of consciousness)

    With those two foundations they make the wildly out of left field conclusion that because of both of those 'facts', that humans can create their own reality, simply by observing, and training their minds to craft and mold reality as they want it.

    I'll let you draw your own conclusions, but there is a list of some of the arguments and assumptions they make in the world of quantum physics. I haven't professionally studed quantum theory, and the math of it all is almost unknown to me, but principles and idea's I've read up on, and I'm going to attempt to disprove some of their theories from what I understand at this point...

                                              THE IDEA'S AND THEORIES

The video above is an interesting watch, and I suggest you watch. This is the only part of the movie that was done right. It breaks down the double slit experiment that is easy to understand


Theory #1
Because physical reality is made up of tiny particles, nothing exists. These particles don't exist unless you observe them, that being said, our sight, and minds, create the world around us.

 My Reasoning #1
They're refering to the fact that sub atomic particles like electrons, and protons are almost impossible to measure. That being said, its not that they don't exist, its just that they can't be measured, but they still exist . our sight doesn't solidify an object. The particles bumping around and touch each other, keeps the object measurable.

Theory #2

Because we can only perceive about a fraction of the information that our brain deals with, we're apparently missing out on a world that we can't see, or a new dimension, and that if we were privy to this mind bogglingly large amount of information, we'd be omnipotent beings

My Reasoning #2
While I may entertain the idea that we may be masked to another sort of dimension that we can't see or feel, I'm not even going to pretend to try to reason with the idea that if we used our brain to its full potential, and were able to 'see' all the information coming in, that we'd be these super beings with cosmic powers...

Theory # 3

There's a part in the film where a scientist ( I use that word liberally here), freezes different samples of water in bottles. One bottle has the word love attached to it, and is given loving thoughts and cherished. And the other bottle has the word's "you make me sick" and disregarded and treated like a red headed step child.  Miraclously, the sample that was loved, when frozen formed beautiful ice patterns, and the one with angry thought patterns directed at it, formed ugly, broken ice patterns

My Reasoning #3

I don't understand how they can try to pass this off as trying to prove that our thoughts change reality.. While yes, I do think that the way we think can change how we see things in life.. (glass half empty or half full), I don't think that it works in the literal sense.. If I go and hug and love my turd, its not going to turn into a rose.


Theory # 4

Without human beings, the universe would be this everchanging super position of expanding possibilities. Basically without human observers the sun may or may not exist, or a black hole may or may not suck up Jupiter... because there is no one around to observe anything

My Reasoning # 4
This is absolutely the worst argument they have... What the hell? So if everyone in the world closes there eyes, the universe would become a shifting, ever changing space of possibilities? This theory doesn't hold up and has far too many holes. Human beings aren't on Venus right now... so according to their theory, the surface of Venus could be a big swimming pool filled with  clowns? or it may not even exist



For the sake of time and getting frustrated, I'm going to stop here, this movie, in all honesty...is a joke. A smack in the face to science, and any reasonable person. In one point in the film, the women, who is taking medication for whatever illness plagues her, throws out her medication, and realizes that because she controls her own reality, she can survive without it. Ok Neo sure, go ahead and through away your meds...see how long you last...

Another thing, ( I know I said that I was done, but this one really bothers me) some goofy guy in the movie says that when Columbus came to the new world, on his ships, that the Natives here couldn't really see the ships. That even though they hung in the horizon  before coming to land, the natives couldn't see them, because they had no concept of what a ship was.....
.......


.............................................

Really? Are you serious? I've never seen air molecules, a kangeroo, or Angenlina Jolie's breasts, so your saying if I saw any of the afore mentioned items, I wouldn't be able to see them?  The movie lost any ounce of credibility it had for me. Anyway, I'm seriously done with my argument. I hope you guys do indeed watch the movie, just for the sake of giving yourself a headache. And hey, if you guys have any arguments supporting the movie, write them in the comments section and we can have a debate!
Thanks guys and chime in.



Here have some links to chew on

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fWtBq8uWKE&feature=related

Rasputin The Mad Monk part 2..

A political Cartoon depicting Rasputin

    From an early age, Rasputin got the reputation of someone with strange blessed powers. Rumors would spread across his small home town that he could heal malady ridden farm animals or cure sick people with the touch of his hands.

   This quiet reputation followed Grigori in adolescence, so when he left his home and went to St. Petersburg, the rumor's of his gifts went with him. Grigori quickly found work in St. Petersburg, and his commanding and power presence allowed him to rise above the other mere peasants and lower class and he soon found his way to working in the royal palace. Rasputin was a bit of a braggart and his boasting about his healing powers, given from god, caught the ears of one of the guards to Tsar Nicholas. The Tsar's only son was a very sickly and feeble boy. He required constant medical attention, and treatment, even the slightly blow could bed stricken him for days. The guard quickly introducted Rasputin to Tsar Nicholas, and his wife. Upon learning of the heir's plagued body, Rasputin wished to see the child.

Tsar Nicholas...

...and his wife Tsarita Alexandra

   After much debating, they finally allowed Rasputin into the bed chambers of their stricken son. Over night, after Rasputin delved deeply into prayer, the boy was felt fine, and his internal bleeding was abruptly healed.  Over joyed by this, Tsar Nicholos and his wife took Rasputin into the palace. Unfortunately the reason for Rasputin's stay wasn't known to the public. The royal family kept the boy's sickness a closely guarded secret and didn't want anyone knowing about that the heir to the throne could potentially be killed from falling from a stool. People, around the palace and the city began seeing this strange and quite frankly, intense looking figure creeping around the palace, and hang around the Tsar.

Unfortunately Rasputin wasn't subtle or quiet, he would drink heavily, and boast in the streets about his power, and his sexual prowess. The people of the St. Petersburgs would see and hear him reveling in himself and insulting the high level of aristocracy. This doesn't sit well with the people of and even the government. The vultures began to circle as Rasputins power grew. The Tsarista had put so much faith and love into Rasputin, that he walked with unparrelled power. Government official began finding out about Rasputin's affairs, and debauchery with women, drinking and strange sexual acts at night. Instability was shaking Russia and rumors of a wild drunken wizard with mystic powers, spready thoughout the dark city.

The final nail in the coffin was, that Russia entered into open war with Germany, and to say the least it wasn't going well.. Defeat after defeat cause the Russian people to despair. Great misery spread through the land, as money was spilled into the war machine. As an act of desperation, Tsar Nicholas steps up to lead the troops from the front lines himself. He leaves his wife Tsarista Alexadra in charge of the empire. She of course turns to Rasputin to co-rule the country. This proves to be such a fatal error, that it would end up as one of the greatest tragedy's in Russia's history...

Concluded later on..

Google for your Wallets?

Keeping it short here, but Google..in their quest to find out everything about you, will now be finding out how much money you have in the bank! Well not really. Google is launching something to rival Paypal's online buying service. Retailers around the world will be sent special e-readers that can scan a NFC (near field communication device..more on this later) with a cell phone. You see, Google would like you to deposit money into "your" Google account, just like paypal. But instead of sending you a debit card, you can sync it to your smart phone.

So let's say Joe Whathisface decides he wants to buy a new porn film. The new release that everyone's been raving about.. And its Joe's lucky day, they have a copy of Smutty Girls Vol. 9 at the counter of his favorite shopping store. He waltz's in, grabs his copy in his hands, on decides to use his new Google account. Which has his name, address, email address, bank, and all those good things registered. He scans the phone with the reader and whamo! The payment is deducted, and he's out the door to do what his has to do...

Now thats fine.. for other companies.. but Google? I'm not so sure about... Google is like that really creepy neighbor that peers into your house from time to time, but you must rely on cause he cuts your lawn for free... Anyway, yea so Google will now know what you buy, from porn, to groceries, to magazines, games, appliances and underwear...Later on that day you'll get emails, and banner ads relating to the things you've bought..Anyone signing up for this?

Grigori Rasputin "The Mad Monk" part 1...

Take a trip back with me to the early 1900's. Imperial Russia, a cold, dark place, in a darker time for the country.  More specifically, in 1916, whilst Russia was entangled in a long brutal war, and the country tetering on complete collapse, something even dark and mysterious laid in the lands of the late Russian Empire.

Born in a small village in Siberia in 1869, to a pair of peasant parents, Rasputin actually grew up as a fairly normal child. It wasn't until he was 8, when his life seemed to steer away from the calm quiet peasant life in which he had grown acustomed to. His brother Dimitri was killed, he fell into a river and was pulled along and died of pneumonia some time later. This caused great turmoil, and moodiness in Rasputin, and some argue that he was never the same afterward. The young innocent boy known as Grigori Rasputin was forever changed into a more dark, quiet and contemplative young man.

Later in his life, accused or multiple counts of adultery, theft, and being loud and unruly while drunk, Rasputin was nearly chased out of town. He left accordingly on a religious pilgrimage to find a meaning in life.

Grigori Rasputin would eventually meet up with a monk in a famous monastery and began learning about religious rites, rituals, and Rasputin was forever changed. The Monk, Makai, told Rasputin that he indeed possessed something powerful, a spiritual vocation.  He lived there for a number of months with the Monk Makai to 'develop' his spiritual power. Upon his return to his village, he came back a changed man. Full of religious fever and zealot, he eventually join a roving band of religious monks.
 

Rasputin, was very, very charismatic, he would stare at people right in the eyes when talking to them with a burning glare. He was a commanding figure, and his compelling stare is what carried his bold appearance. He eventually found his way to the capital of Russia, at the time, St. Petersburg, and would meet up with the Russian Royal family and the Emperor himself, and begin a chain of events that would leads to the deaths and fall of the entire Royal Family. ...
To be continued...

So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish!

Well, if any of you have anything important to accomplish in life, you may want to start getting it done within the next few days. That trip to Europe?, Sky diving?, Write the great American Novel?, Eat sushi, whatever it is, you have a very limited time left. Why you may ask? Didn't you hear? The world is coming to an end. Before you start constructing that space shuttle, our solar system, galaxy and the entire universe are all going to be met with a fiery, doomsday. I'm not talking about the Mayan prediction of 2012. I'm refering to a completely Christian based sect. Under the banner, of Family Radio, one Harold Camping, and a few others set up shop to create a radio station that spread the word of God to the masses. Now to be fair, Camping says that the first day of Rapture is May 21st 2011, and that the true end of the world (universe) will be five months later on October 21st. So we'll have a cliff hanger for five months...
According to him, going to a regular church is no matter. The power of the Church he says, is dead, and that they Satan now rules the Churches.  Only by turning your back on such false idoltry and the like, can you be saved. But the good news is that if your not saved, you don't burn in eternal damnation, you just cease to be..like before you were born.

So....yea.. kind of hard to follow up something like this.. but I'll try anyway. First of all, this guy, Harold Camping, falsely predicted the time of rapture once before in 1994. At least back then, he gave himself an exit by saying he could be wrong, and that the dates may not match up. But now, he's tossing all his chips in, and saying that May 21st will most positively be the Rapture, and the countdown to the end of days is here.

Most other Christians believe that the time of Christ's second coming, is unknown. As they say, he will come as a thief in the night. But, according to Camping, he knows the end is nigh by all of these signs that everyone else has apparently missed, but only he's picked up on.. You can go to the Family Radio website and click 'Gay Pride' on the side bar, and in the PDF you can read about all his signs that the world is upon the brink of destruction. Obvously just from the name you can tell that homosexuality, is a big factor in our 'punishment'.

I'll gladly let you make of this, what you will.


http://www.familyradio.com/index2.html

Pay Phones and The Hunt For The Perfect Dial Tone

It's not unusual to have the humble pay phone mentioned on this blog, as it stands for one of the earliest methods of telecommunication to the average person. The pay phone while a dying breed are still fun to poke into, play with, try to find. At least here in Jersey, New York is still pretty rife with payphones, at least Manhattan. Well, as you know, Pay Phones are located all over the place, and the remaining survivors may have some fun outcomes if called. And there's nothing more mysterious than a ringing pay phone! I'm not saying go and call these numbers and annoying passer bys, but there's nothing wrong with a little phone line exploration.
With that said... have some pay phone numbers. I live in NJ, so all these are numbers from my home turf. If you guys like this, perhaps I'll post more pay phone digits in an area near you.

(201) 342 - 9624
3rd Floor Payphone at a the Academy of Technology, in Hackensack, NJ. It's located in the Freshmen dorms, so you may get some interesting conversations.



(609) 730 8792
A Telephone located outside a Mobil Gas Station, a sort of 'phone from your car" setup.

(908) 289 - 9767
This is one of my favorites, this is a payphone in a psychiatric ward for the patients to use.. McMurphy, Harding, and Martini could answer...

(973) 242 9821
A payphone located in a very sheek and classic looking pay phone booth. More importantly its located Newark, Nj's frat house of Kappa Xi Kappa.


(732) 246 9030
Outside of a computer lab at Rutgers University]


(908) 232 - 9864

This one is right outside the Verizon Central Office in Westfield, call

this phone tomorrow around 5pm and I may just pick up to answer! The central office 

is where your phone calls, are routed to, before being switched to their different

locations.

Hope you enjoyed this mini tour and hope you have fun with some of these dialings. 

Don't be obnoxious and annoy people, just call, and explore.

A big PS here guys.  1800- 801- 920 it will actually give you the number your calling from. A great and easy way to find out payphone numbers! Note that this won't work on all payphones, its called a ring back. Most carriers have this, this is the most universal that I've tried and found to work. You can find more online, and many numbers are test numbers which will get you different messages. Fun to play around with! Remember you have dial from a land line phone though.

Of Fate, Men, and Time

You come into possession of a time machine. You think back through your life, and reflect upon the time when your father died from being accidentally pushed down some stairs at work. The police never found out who did it, and if it was even intentional. That day was been replaying in your head since you were young. You know can solve the mystery. All this time, and now you can travel back into time to find out who it was, and if it happened on purpose. So you boot up your time machine, set in the year, and with a loud whiring, and a crack, you're instantly shot back in time. You step from your time machine, and race to your fathers place of work. He should just be getting off, soon and the time of his fated death is near. You run to his office. It's almost 5pm, so every one's getting out of work and the hallways are swarmed with people. You push your way to his office, it looks exactly the same as you remember it. Shaking off the nostalgia, you frantically looking around the jostling crowd. As you reach the stairs, you feel your feet give out under you. Someone left a Styrofoam cup on the ground, and you lose your balance. You instinctively push your weight forward, and slam into the person in front of you. You regain your composure, but the older gentleman in front of you, is knocked down the stairs, toppling head over heels, and lands at the bottom, his neck twisted in a deathly fashion. You stair down the cold marble stairs, to the face of your father. You were the cause of your father's death...

Now lets stop the story here. As you probably have asked, who pushed him then before? Or, would he still have gotten pushed, if his son never went back in time to find out? The implications of a story like this are so paradoxical that they really can't be answered. The same goes for that great scene in the movie The Matrix. Neo walks into the Oracles house, and the elderly, wise woman, tells him not to worry about the vase. Perplexed, Neo asks, 'what vase?', and turns to look around, and knocks over the vase. She rhetorically asks him, does he think he would have knocked it over if she wouldn't have said anything. These loopy questions and idea's are part of the much bigger picture, and that is of Fate. ( I capitalize Fate on purpose.)

Some people believe that our Fate is predetermined. That even as I'm typing these keys, it is written in some cosmic book somewhere, that I'm meant to type these keys. Even me thinking about Fate, is predetermined. Not to get too religious, but most people who believe in this prescribed Fate are generally religious. God has determined all our moves before hand, and watches our movements like a released wind up toy. (When I refer to God, I don't speak to one religious sect). This leads to the belief that God who is omnipresent, knows of the results to all our choices, and therefore approves of all our paths, for he has not changed them. 

The other camp believes that we determine our own outcome. That our Fate is what we make, and that nothing is set in stone.


In the movie, "Big Fish" The movie's main character a very charismatic, all American guy, is given the rare glimpse when he's a child. He gets to see how he dies. This means that for the rest of his life, he can do anything he wants, cause he knows only what he saw is how he's going to die. He could jump out of an airplane with no parachute and someone be promised to survive it. This would be the biggest example of a pre determined Fate. Nothing at all, can change the fate of his life. So we obviously see a problem with this. If his Fate is determined, then he could literally do anything and get away with it.

Another Fate problem is the Back to the Future problem. Another time machine example. If I were to go back in time, and murder my parents, or prevent them from ever getting together, then how could I be born? If I was never born thanks to killing my parents, then who went back in time and killed them? This grisly  question is one that stumps and really puts a wrench into the idea of time travel.

So which do you favor? The idea of Fate as this mysterious figure who you encounter every so often, showing up in the biggest moments of your life? Or a collar and leash, rigidly attached to your neck, dragging you along, kicking and screaming?