Thursday, July 21
A Rogue Star & Our Solar System
In 1687, Sir Isaac Newton published his magnum opus, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, which effectively synthesized his theories on motion, velocity, and universal gravitation.
In terms of the latter, Newton offered a means for calculating the force of gravity and predicting the orbits of the planets. Since then, astronomers have discovered that the Solar System is merely one small point of light that orbits the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. On occasion, other stars will pass close to the Solar System, which can cause a dramatic shakeup that can kick objects out of their orbits
These “stellar flybys” are common and play an important role in the long-term evolution of planetary systems. As a result, the long-term stability of the Solar System has been the subject of scientific investigation for centuries.
According to a new study by a team of Canadian astrophysicists, residents of the Solar System may rest easy. After conducting a series of simulations, they determined that a star will not pass by and perturb our Solar System for another 100 billion years. Beyond that, the possibilities are somewhat frightening!
The research was led by Garett Brown, a graduate student of computational physics from the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences (PES) at the University of Toronto at Scarborough. He was joined by Hanno Rein, an associate professor of astrophysics (and Brown’s mentor) also from the PES at UT Scarborough.
The research was led by Garett Brown, a graduate student of computational physics from the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences (PES) at the University of Toronto at Scarborough. He was joined by Hanno Rein, an associate professor of astrophysics (and Brown’s mentor) also from the PES at UT Scarborough.
The paper that describes their findings was recently published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Journal. As they indicated in their paper, the study of stellar flybys could reveal much about the history and evolution of planetary systems. READ MORE...
Faster Than Light Travel
Physicists are not the kind of people who give up easily, though. Give them an impossible dream, and they'll give you an incredible, hypothetical way of making it a reality. Maybe.
In a 2021 study by physicist Erik Lentz from Göttingen University in Germany, we may have a viable solution to the dilemma, and it's one that could turn out to be more feasible than other would-be warp drives.
This is an area that attracts plenty of bright ideas, each offering a different approach to solving the puzzle of faster-than-light travel: achieving a means of sending something across space at superluminal speeds.
There are some problems with this notion, however. Within conventional physics, in accordance with Albert Einstein's theories of relativity, there's no real way to reach or exceed the speed of light, which is something we'd need for any journey measured in light-years.
That hasn't stopped physicists from trying to break this universal speed limit, though.
While pushing matter past the speed of light will always be a big no-no, spacetime itself has no such rule. In fact, the far reaches of the Universe are already stretching away faster than its light could ever hope to match. READ MORE...
Wednesday, July 20
Having and Using the Mind is Wonderful - Part II
Sadly some of you who read the first part do not agree with me, but there are some of you that do agree with me... so lets proceed.
There are an increasing number of scientists that not only believe in UFOs but who believe extraterrestrials or aliens... and, I suppose one could say that UFOs don't fly themselves... but yes they can... so we actually have two distinct events here.
- UFOs
- Aliens
Now, once you have agreed to aliens... then you face another challenge as to whether or not these aliens have visited earth before... and, once you get over that hurdle, you have to decide if these aliens bred with both males and females from our human race... if that conclusion is in the affirmative, then there must be alien/human race offsprings.
These are some difficult conclusions to make based entirely upon logic and speculation.
Some DNA specialists are now saying that our own human race evolution has been far too fast to get to where we are today... and, there is speculation that aliens altered our DNA so that we would advance/evolve faster.
How is it that we are able to have only a handful of very smart people, like:
- Einstein
- DaVinci
- Michaelangelo
- Von Braun
- Turing
- Tesla
The United States went from the atomic bomb to space flight in 12 years (1957) and to space travel in 16 years (1961)... this is accelerated knowledge and technology that had to come from somewhere...
And, what is even more amazing is that the first functional digital computer was designed and used to break the German code in 1944 in Bletchley Park, England.
HOW DID WE GET SO SMART SO QUICK?
The Science of Aliens
All cellular life on Earth is based on DNA, which transfers information—about everything from hair color to personality traits—from one generation to the next. The four chemical bases that convey this information are adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T).
The other essential “information molecule” on Earth is RNA, in which thymine (T) is replaced by uracil (U). RNA has a one-string structure rather than a double-string structure like DNA.
The first cellular life on our planet is thought to have relied exclusively on this means of transferring genetic information—in the so-called “RNA world”—and even today there are viruses (like the one that causes COVID) that only use RNA.
In a paper recently published in Science, a research group led by Dona Sleiman from the Institute Pasteur in Paris has discovered that some viruses show more variation in their genetic coding than was previously known. In the RNA of these viruses, adenine (A) is replaced with Z, where Z stands for diaminopurine.
This follows an earlier study by Zunyi Yang and colleagues at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution in Gainesville, Florida, showing that an artificial genetic system could be created by adding two additional non-standard bases to ordinary DNA.
In a paper recently published in Science, a research group led by Dona Sleiman from the Institute Pasteur in Paris has discovered that some viruses show more variation in their genetic coding than was previously known. In the RNA of these viruses, adenine (A) is replaced with Z, where Z stands for diaminopurine.
This follows an earlier study by Zunyi Yang and colleagues at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution in Gainesville, Florida, showing that an artificial genetic system could be created by adding two additional non-standard bases to ordinary DNA.
Amazingly, the artificial six-base system continued to evolve rather than reverting back to the natural four-base system. This implies that the DNA we take as standard—made of A, C, G, and T—is just one of many viable solutions to the challenge of biological information transfer.
The variability does not stop here. Strings of DNA are organized in base triplets that determine which of the standard 20 amino acids are assigned to synthesize proteins. However, these triplet assignments are not universal.
The variability does not stop here. Strings of DNA are organized in base triplets that determine which of the standard 20 amino acids are assigned to synthesize proteins. However, these triplet assignments are not universal.
For example, CUG, which usually codes for the amino acid serine, instead codes for the amino acid leucine in some types of fungi. Also, some organisms naturally encode for two additional amino acids instead of the standard 20 amino acids. READ MORE...
The Aliens are Us
On a geologic timescale, the emergence of the human “dataome” is like a sudden invasion by extraterrestrials or an asteroid impact that precipitates a mass extinction...
Something very old, very powerful and very special has been unleashed on Earth.
Humans are strange. For a global species, we’re not particularly genetically diverse, thanks in part to how our ancient roaming explorations caused “founder effects” and “bottleneck events” that restricted our ancestral gene pool. We also have a truly outsize impact on the planetary environment without much in the way of natural attrition to trim our influence (at least not yet).
But the strangest thing of all is how we generate, exploit, and propagate information that is not encoded in our heritable genetic material, yet travels with us through time and space. Not only is much of that information represented in purely symbolic forms—alphabets, languages, binary codes—it is also represented in each brick, alloy, machine, and structure we build from the materials around us. Even the symbolic stuff is instantiated in some material form or the other, whether as ink on pages or electrical charges in nanoscale pieces of silicon.
Altogether, this “dataome” has become an integral part of our existence. In fact, it may have always been an integral, and essential, part of our existence since our species of hominins became more and more distinct some 200,000 years ago. This idea, which I also pursue in my upcoming book, The Ascent of Information, leads to a number of quite startling and provocative proposals.
For example, let’s consider our planetary impact. Today we can look at our species’ energy use and see that of the roughly six to seven terawatts of average global electricity production, about 3 percent to 4 percent is gobbled up by our digital electronics, in computing, storing and moving information.
That might not sound too bad—except the growth trend of our digitized informational world is such that it requires approximately 40 percent more power every year. Even allowing for improvements in computational efficiency and power generation, this points to a world in some 20 years where all of the energy we currently generate in electricity will be consumed by digital electronics alone.
And that’s just one facet of the energy demands of the human dataome. We still print onto paper, and the energy cost of a single page is the equivalent of burning five grams of high-quality coal. Digital devices, from microprocessors to hard drives, are also extraordinarily demanding in terms of their production, owing to the deep repurposing of matter that is required.
And that’s just one facet of the energy demands of the human dataome. We still print onto paper, and the energy cost of a single page is the equivalent of burning five grams of high-quality coal. Digital devices, from microprocessors to hard drives, are also extraordinarily demanding in terms of their production, owing to the deep repurposing of matter that is required.
We literally fight against the second law of thermodynamics to forge these exquisitely ordered, restricted, low-entropy structures out of raw materials that are decidedly high-entropy in their messy natural states. It is hard to see where this informational tsunami slows or ends. READ MORE...
They Are The Borg
In the TV series Star Trek, the Borg are cybernetic aliens that assimilate humans and other creatures as a means of achieving perfection. So when Jill Banfield, a geomicrobiologist at the University of California, Berkeley, sifted through DNA in the mud of her backyard and discovered a strange linear chromosome that included genes from a variety of microbes, her Trekkie son proposed naming it after the sci-fi aliens.
The new type of genetic material was a mystery. Maybe it was part of a viral genome. Maybe it was a strange bacterium. Or maybe it was just an independent piece of DNA existing outside of cells. Whatever it is, it's "pretty exciting," says W. Ford Doolittle, an evolutionary biologist at Dalhousie University who was not involved with the work.
Researchers have found many examples of DNA floating independently outside the chromosome or chromosomes that make up an organism's standard genome. Small loops called plasmids, for example, exist inside microbes and ferry genes for thwarting antibiotics among different kinds of bacteria.
But Banfield wasn't looking for DNA that could move between organisms. Instead, she and graduate student Basem Al-Shayeb were searching for viruses that infect archaea, a type of microbe often found in places devoid of oxygen.
Researchers have found many examples of DNA floating independently outside the chromosome or chromosomes that make up an organism's standard genome. Small loops called plasmids, for example, exist inside microbes and ferry genes for thwarting antibiotics among different kinds of bacteria.
But Banfield wasn't looking for DNA that could move between organisms. Instead, she and graduate student Basem Al-Shayeb were searching for viruses that infect archaea, a type of microbe often found in places devoid of oxygen.
They would dig 1 meter or more below the surface and collect mud samples that might harbor archaea and their viruses. Next, they would sequence every stretch of DNA in the samples and use sophisticated computer programs to scan for sequences that signified a virus, rather than any other organism.
"We started off with a piece of mud and 10 trillion pieces of DNA," Banfield says. One sample, taken from the mud on her property, contained a gene-filled stretch of DNA almost 1 million bases long—and more than half the genes were novel.
"We started off with a piece of mud and 10 trillion pieces of DNA," Banfield says. One sample, taken from the mud on her property, contained a gene-filled stretch of DNA almost 1 million bases long—and more than half the genes were novel.
This linear stretch of DNA also had a particular pattern of bases at its beginning and end, distinct stretches of repetitive DNA between its genes, and two places along the sequence where DNA duplication could begin—which indicated the Borg could make copies of itself. Together, this suggested it was not just a random concoction of genes.
After they identified the first Borg sequence, the researchers began to scan microbial DNA in public databases to see whether they could find anything similar. They found a few variations in groundwater from Colorado—there, the first purported Borg showed up about 1 meter deep and got more abundant deeper down.
After they identified the first Borg sequence, the researchers began to scan microbial DNA in public databases to see whether they could find anything similar. They found a few variations in groundwater from Colorado—there, the first purported Borg showed up about 1 meter deep and got more abundant deeper down.
Other versions showed up in DNA from the discharge of an abandoned mercury mine in Napa, California, and from a shallow riverbed of the East River in Colorado.
Altogether, the researchers isolated 23 sequences they think may be Borgs—and 19 they have identified as having all the characteristics of the first Borg they discovered, they write this week on the preprint server bioRxiv.
Altogether, the researchers isolated 23 sequences they think may be Borgs—and 19 they have identified as having all the characteristics of the first Borg they discovered, they write this week on the preprint server bioRxiv.
Some are almost 1 million bases long. "I don't think anything else that's been discovered is as big as these guys are," among previously known extrachromosomal DNA elements, Doolittle says. READ MORE...
Tuesday, July 19
Morning Coffee
Morning coffee gets me to reflecting to myself since there is no one up but me and the cats and they don't give a shit about what I am thinking.,
Illegal Immigration is on my mind this morning and not just because they are breaking the law but because the current administration is bussing these illegal immigrants all over the USA to spread the joy.
But what happens next?
- Who takes care of them?
- Who pays for their food?
- Who pays for their shelter?
- Who pays for their clothes?
- Who checks them for diseases?
- Who takes them where they need to go?
- Who gives them work?
- Who protects them from crime?
- Who stops the females from getting raped?
- Who stops the children from being trafficked?
- Who keeps slums from developing?
- Who sends the children to school?
- How do they learn with no English?
- Who takes care of them when they are sick?
- Who buries them when they die?
My morning coffee is a ritual just like you and others have their morning rituals... I cannot begin my day without coffee... And, I cannot drink my morning coffee without thinking... My thoughts are not always pleasant but they are honest, fair, and truthful and try to reflect my current concerns about our country. No one pays any attention to my reflections but I write them down anyway... it is just some sort of silly habit.
Social Justice Revisited
Social justice refers to a political and philosophical theory that focuses on the concept of fairness in relations between individuals in society and equal access to wealth, opportunities, and social privileges.
Right now, we are mainly focused on the fact that social justice favors the white population instead of the black population, even though there are thousands of very wealthy black Americans...
There is an undercurrent that flows through Americans between the wealthy and the not so wealthy.... which again favors the whites and the blacks point to:
- privilege
- education
- healthcare
- law enforcement
- living conditions
- available jobs
BUT.... these bitching blacks do not take into consideration:
- white senior citizens
- white handicapped
- white disabled veterans
- white christians
- white jews
- white heart patients
- white cancer patients
- white terminally ill
How do these people fair when it comes to social justice?
Why are we not including them in our bitching?
Is it because they are white?
We all have equal access to wealth... it is just that some people want to work harder than others... and, while there is some privilege going on, many wealthy people did it on their own without help from others with discipline and determination...
SOME HAVE THAT PERSONALITY AND OTHERS DON'T... the government cannot change your personality through legislation and laws... Only YOU can change YOU...
Think about your own personality the next time you think that it is all about white privilege...
AND, when you have time what about this?
Where's the social justice for all the families whose loved ones have been killed by crime and violence?
Where's the social justice for the victims of mental or physical abuse?
Where's the social justice for the victims of rape?
Where's the social justice for all the students who were bullied by other students in public education?
Where's the social justice for all the down syndrome children who were laughed at?
Where's the social justice for all the unwed mothers?
Where's the social justice for single parents?
Where's the social justice for mothers when husbands won't pay child support?
ARE YOU THE TYPE OF PERSON WHO JUST WANTS SOCIAL JUSTICE FOR THEMSELVES AND THOSE WHO LOOK LIKE YOU AND NO ONE ELSE?
Patronizing a Restaurant
I moved to East Tennessee in 1990 from North Carolina and have never looked back... In 1993, I was introduced to Perkins Family Restaurants where a group of us had stopped for breakfast on our way to a company outing.
I had the TREMENDOUS TWELVE which was 4 eggs, 4 sausage patties, and 4 pancakes... needless to say I ate everything several cups of coffee that also tasted outstanding.
At that time, this Perkins location was managed by a German/American named Otto who supported a rather long pigtail down to the middle of his back. He had worked his way from busboy to cook to server to waiter to assistant manager to manager... A few years later, he became the owner of that particular franchise and it was considered the flagship of Perkins restaurants in Tennessee.
I have been eating there at least once a month since 1993 or for 30 years in 5 months.
Today, my wife and I went to Perkins and I ordered the Everything Omelet with breakfast potatoes and pancakes and she got the magnificent seven or 2 eggs, 2 strips of bacon, and 3 pancakes. We get this everytime.
My routine is to eat half the omelet and half the breakfast potatoes. She gives me one of her pancakes so I take 4 pancakes home along with the omelet and potatoes.
For the ne xt 3 days I have breakfast ready to heat up in the microwave. I have 2 pancakes each morning with jelly.
The price has gone up from $11.95 to $13.95 but the average cost of these 4 meals is under $4/meal... Not that I am trying to save money, but the fact is that what I do does save us money...
Otto's son manages the business now as he is still the owner and believe it or not, he visits the restaurant every day. His son keeps his hair short but when he was living at home, his father would not let him grow long hair and have a pigtail. Otto's son smiles about that now.
THIRTY YEARS is a long time to make sure this restaurant got my/our business. And yes, the food is really good...
Having and Using the Mind is Wonderful
Some people think that spiritual and/or religious pursuits, meditation, and contemplation is the sole purpose of life.
Some people think that living off the government, one's family, and/or parents is the sole purpose of life.
Some people think that living a mediocre life and not complaining is the sole purpose of life.
Who is right and who is wrong?
Maybe both are right...
I think that having a mind and the desire to use that mind is the ultimate joy in life... in other words... THINKING... and perhaps the acquisition of knowledge and/or understanding from that thinking... is what we were really intended to do.
Unfortunately, people don't really like to think... over analyze... as it becomes boring and tedious to listen to someone explain what they are trying to think about...
- Should I buy this house?
- Should I buy this car?
- Should I date this person?
- Should I work for this company?
- Do I deserve a raise?
- Do you want to get married?
- How many children do you want?
- Where do you want t?o live?
And yes, those are all boring questions and the discussion could go on and on and on...
But what about LOGIC?
Logic that leads to problem solving...
problem solving that leads to solutions...
solutions that lead to growth...
growth that leads to knowledge...
knowledge that leads to understanding...
understanding that leads to wisdom...
wisdom that leads to enlightenment?
Our ancestors have been around for about 6 million years... but, the human race only started to really evolve about 200,000 years ago... and, civilization as we know it has only been around for 6,000 years.
THINK ABOUT THAT!!!
It only took us 200,000 years to evolve into the complex human being we are today... for those who have studied evolution in biology class know that 200,000 is a rapid acceleration of evolution and it (logically) highly unlikely... but possible... maybe???
So, how did we get here? A species this complex...
Well... how big is our solar system?
- Our solar system is in the Milky Way Galaxy.
- There are millions of solar systems in our galaxy.
- There are billions and billions of galaxies in our KNOWN UNIVERSE...
Logically... isn't there a high probability that there are other forms of life in our solar system, and in our galaxy, as well as in our universe?
Give yourself some time to think about this concept...
Renaming Clingman's Dome
The view from Clingmans Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The mountain is the tallest peak in the park and sits on the Tennessee-North Carolina border. It's sacred to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, who hope to see the name of the mountain changed to Kuwahi, which their ancestors called the mountain for hundreds of years. Hulton Archive/Getty Images
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Tribal Council passed a resolution Thursday in support of changing the name of the highest peak in Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Clingmans Dome.
Long before the mountain on the Tennessee-North Carolina border was a National Park attraction, the Cherokee referred to it as Kuwahi, which translates to "mulberry place." Tribal medicine men would journey up the mountain and pray for guidance, then share the visions they had with the rest of the community.
Lavita Hill, treasury specialist for the tribe, said she and her friend, fellow activist Mary Crowe, spent the last month preparing the name change proposal for the tribal government's approval. Hill said she was inspired by Yellowstone National Park's renaming of Mount Doane to First Peoples Mountain, which was based on the recommendation of the Rocky Mountain Tribal Council.
Long before the mountain on the Tennessee-North Carolina border was a National Park attraction, the Cherokee referred to it as Kuwahi, which translates to "mulberry place." Tribal medicine men would journey up the mountain and pray for guidance, then share the visions they had with the rest of the community.
Lavita Hill, treasury specialist for the tribe, said she and her friend, fellow activist Mary Crowe, spent the last month preparing the name change proposal for the tribal government's approval. Hill said she was inspired by Yellowstone National Park's renaming of Mount Doane to First Peoples Mountain, which was based on the recommendation of the Rocky Mountain Tribal Council.
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