Not So Common Misconceptions

It's the time of year when Catholics (some of them, any ways) practice Lent, that is to give up something you love to have every day for what is it, a week? I'm not Catholic, but I practice something similar: it's called Spent, and it's almost all year long. It mostly involves spending money, sometimes balanced by making money, and losing both by spending my time doing nothing important. I don't really love those things, so maybe I worship at the wrong altar?

So I wrote about some of my own misconceptions from childhood, revealing a natural curiosity for the world I found myself in. Now I'm an adult and I'm still curious, although my search for answers has been stifled by a quest for money and a place to call my own. I've been succeeding lately, so now I actually have a little more time to go exploring again. These traits are probably common amongst us all and children should be curious because they know so little. Another trait I noticed about my self is how I enjoy sharing what I've learned. Even at an early age I was so eager to share my knowledge of "potential black holes that travel through space devouring solar systems, even light itself" and how one day our sun will probably explode in a super nova...but not for billions of years. I always paused at that part. That was third grade.

Whether or not you become jaded by learning too much about something you shouldn't get involved in depends on how much discipline you have. There is a side effect in learning where you may become a know it all, which is likely an indication that you don't know enough! That was me in third grade, all my excitement about space was met with disinterested faces, which I responded to with disgust since my classmates didn't feel interested in cool shit like outer space.

At some point I stopped being so unique and became interested in things that were more popular, a common theme that dominated High School. Almost everyone has an opinion on politics, education, and "ooh" freedom of speech. Hot topics no doubt, but a lack of experience or education on these subjects leads to many popular misconceptions.

I don't like to be jaded, so I won't talk about those common misconceptions. Plus, there are articles (done with real research and junk) that aid in deconstructing the most common myths. Instead, I'd rather get back into the subjects I'm more interested in, that aren't commonly discussed but still come up randomly, which is part of why I'm willing to call myself an expert. I am an expert of random crap!

Let's delve into my favorite and oldest subject: space! The sun is made of fire...is inaccurate. The sun is indeed a hot ball of blazing material, in fact it's so hot this stuff enters an uncommon terrestrial state of matter known as plasma. In space, however, plasma is the most common state, evidenced by all those stars at night. The sun is mostly elements of hydrogen and helium, with many other elements divided into much smaller proportions, reacting at very high temperatures. Hydrogen is the lightest of all elements, and also the most common. It's also very flammable. Being so abundant, it is also the longest lasting element to remain as a plasma, so stars continue to shine for billions of years before they burn out.

Plasma is what happens when a gas like Hydrogen, or the air inside the path of a lightning strike, is heated to a star like temperature of 10,000 degrees Farenheit or higher (lower temperatures don't exclude the existence of plasma, this is just my example). Lightning overcomes the insulation of air at a temperature five times higher than the surface of the sun (in most cases, some lightning can reach 25 times this temperature) when it strikes in the form of plasma.

A quick definition of plasma is a gas heated so much it only leaves electrons and other charged particles behind, behaving the way we expect electricity to instead of gas.

So fire is a reaction of the elements at lower temperatures, in the states we are familiar with on Earth-solid, liquid and gas, but plasma continues this reaction at much higher temperatures where matter behaves differently. I like to think of the sun as a big ball of "electric fire that is also lightning on fire" even though that earns me funny looks.

Dark matter...isn't dark, or anything we know of at all. It's a mathematical component to the problem of how much total mass should be in the universe. Our best calculations of known matter leave a large portion missing from the equation, so we plug in "dark matter" to see how much we are missing. Trouble is it isn't matter at all, or we'd be able to detect it somehow, especially when the missing amount is a quarter dark "mass", and three quarters dark "energy". I think this label is misleading, and so is the calculation, because we presume to be looking for matter and energy, only in a state that we haven't recognized yet. From there we could go into theoretical stuff, but I'll pretend it's "dark paragraphs" that cannot be detected yet.

God is a white man with a white beard...or so imagined the painter Michelangelo. Now I know I've set after uncommon misconceptions, with the intent of replacing them with facts, but sometimes just pointing them out when I don't have a fact to replace it with must do. My real goal is to encourage critical thinking, although these words make me cringe because I sound like an assignment heading from a text book.

I'm not suggesting that what Michelangelo painted wasn't a personal vision of God, or that he was wrong for doing so. There is a trap, however, that I notice many people fall into when arguing over the existence of God. Some people truly take offense to the idea that God is a man, a white man at that (with a ZZ Top beard), and will argue that this is clear evidence that God is a figment of our imagination. Trouble is, it is correct that we do imagine God in a fashion that suits us. However, that alone does not disprove God, it only reveals we have a creative imagination.

So it doesn't offend me, some people prefer to imagine God as a woman, some prefer God be an angry bolt of lightning, hellfire and brimstone. Whatever, this process reveals more about ourselves and our relationship with God and the present culture than it reveals the image of God. Hmm, God creates people in His own image who imagine God via their own creations? Difference being our creations don't come to life and imagine their own creations, of course.

And my current image of God? I like the "Father" metaphor, especially in the older original context, where the father was leader of the household, provider, and protector. That's how I commonly imagine God's characteristics, although the idea of a white man in a white cloak is silly to me. I cite these descriptions from the Bible, I try not to imagine God being contained in one image or word (including the word "God", it's another invention of ours that references a power beyond our own). What's important for me to remember is that however I imagine God to be like, my thoughts cannot influence God, and that my thoughts and intentions are always known to God even when I don't know them myself.

Lightning rods attract lightning...is false. Nothing attracts lightning, it is an exchange of powerfully charged opposite electrons. These charges always try and seek each other, regardless of what they are contained in. One way to remember this is to understand that lightning, and electricity in general, follows a path of least resistance. The critical point is how the path of least resistance is impossible to predict, even the lightning doesn't know where it will meet an opposite charge whether in the clouds or on the ground. Air itself resists lightning because it's an insulator, although this resistance is what allows lightning to reach such incredible charges.

The term lightning rod can be used in a misleading way. For example, Charlie Sheen has become a "lightning rod" of media attention, and gets people talking about controversy. Here, a lightning rod is someone who "attracts" attention. In this case the key is in the idea of attraction. This isn't how or why lightning rods work. If they did, why in the hell would any body want to install a lightning rod on their roof? This would also suggest that lightning rods could collect all strikes, thus saving everyone and everything from ever being struck, and we could potentially transform all that plasma energy into workable electricity.

The real purpose is to possibly save your home from being struck, directly discharging an immense current around and into any conductive surfaces. A danger from lightning to your home is from the large currents blowing out wiring, sparking fires from electric wires or appliances, and electrocution from being in contact with conductive surfaces inside the home. I've seen photos where pieces of drywall were blown out from the wires inside the wall, leaving large burn patterns around electrical outlets. Most of the electricity gets discharged into the ground, still, a direct strike on the home leaves this much damage or worse. A lightning rod therefore helps conduct the massive current along a copper wire that is deeply rooted into the ground, leading the energy safely into the earth and sparing the home.

All said, lightning is unpredictable, but it is more likely to hit things that are tall, pointy on top, and isolated.

Lightning begins as a charge seeking an opposite charge (in a cloud or on the ground) moving at speeds we cannot see. Slow motion cameras show us the process which takes less than one second. Stepped leaders fall to the earth like fingers, getting close enough to attract opposite and invisible charges from objects on the ground (like trees, antennas, people, and lightning rods). When these two make contact, the charge returns from the ground up to the cloud, filling each "channel" created by the leaders, in a flash we see as lightning bolts.

If a stepped leader gets close enough to your house, an opposite charge may connect at some point on your roof. Since a lightning rod is taller, pointier, and isolated on the tallest part of your roof, lightning is more likely to follow this path of least resistance, into the copper wire and into the ground instead of the wires to your computer, telephone, and microwave.

So let's try that phrase again, correctly. If Charlie Sheen is a lightning rod (with Tiger Blood) of attention, we are saying that he increases the odds of getting attention himself thereby diverting attention away from the people who installed him on their roof. Hmm, that just doesn't work at all.

Did you also know that lightning is not as big as it appears? Average bolts of lightning are a silver dollar in diameter, it's just so damn bright that the bolt appears much larger.

Bold coffee has more caffeine...is false. Boldness of coffee refers to the duration the beans were roasted for, to give them a darker or richer and full flavor. The level of caffeine isn't affected by this.

Modern airplanes fly themselves...yeah right, that's a scary idea. Usually this refers to the technology involved in autopilot systems. These are advanced machines indeed, but they require input and programming from the pilot before and during all phases of flight to be safe and efficient. Sure, an autopilot will fly a plane straight and level---into the side of a mountain. The pilot is still required to know the flight plan, maintain course, and most of all communicate with Air Traffic Control. Autopilots still aren't designed to handle the unexpected, and can create disasters themselves if the pilot doesn't intervene.

Autopilot is most efficient at maintaining altitudes, air speeds, course settings, and keeping the pilot from having a lot of work to do with his hands during the busiest portions of aviation. Takeoff and landing procedures are simplified as well, but all of this depends on correct inputs from the pilot. It would be more accurate to say that airplanes fly themselves the way the pilot tells them to.

Guys think about sex every...3 to 5 minutes...or more often as I've heard before. I don't know about other guys but I don't think about it that frequently. This might be too much information, but I only think about it several times a day on average, in intervals of hours on average. So yeah, that seems a lot for one thought, but we all have our proclivities. Maybe other guys do think about it this much? Perhaps I'm spending too many hours thinking about plasma and fire lightning bolts.

Ron Paul cannot win...is a broad claim that appeals to apathy in voters. This one counts as a not so common, because even though it has to do with politics and the general election from 2008, I feel the argument that we shouldn't vote for this candidate because he "cannot win" is so effective that nobody talks about it. Did Ron Paul win the Presidential Election in 2008? Nope, so case closed? NO!

My problem with this is its circular logic: don't vote for Ron Paul, why? He cannot win. Why? Because HE CANNOT WIN! Is there some clause in the Constitution that declares "One day a guy named Ron Paul will be born in the USA, he is forbidden from becoming President (even though he maintains a 10 year seat in the Senate and is admired by his constituents)", or was he not born in the USA? At least offer a reason along with that statement, then we can think critically about his qualifications.

Nope, those who display this "argument" offer no other reason. It's a disgusting ploy to minimize the candidate and ignore his ideas, and encourages the belief that we must vote for one popular candidate versus another popular candidate, regardless of whether or not we believe they are genuine and suitable leaders.

I regret my vote in 2008 because I voted based on a belief one was the "lesser of two evils". I completely ignored Ron Paul and fell totally for the argument of apathy. It's true, Ron Paul cannot win if we don't vote for him because we don't think he will win. Stupid.

Since I discovered Ron Paul again this year, I find I agree with everything he proposes. He appears to be a superb economist and his speeches are quietly charismatic and moving. His response time during the debates was sharp, on point, and honest. He put those other putzes to shame, yet we were discouraged from supporting him.

Actual arguments that have been raised to challenge him are that he is too radical, that if his plans were put into effect the country might collapse, and our national security would suffer. I won't list his ideas here, just to say that Paul is a defender of the Constitution and his ideas are within the bounds of the Constitution. I believe today our government has dismissed the Constitution in a trend that has steadily increased for forty years, so anybody who challenges that trend is a threat to the power of the government.

I don't know any better way to end this entry than with that rant right there.

Child Savant I Was Not

I was watching a news clip that popped up on Yahoo today about a young boy who is a kind of math savant, who was talking briefly about some problems related to one of Einstein's equations (not E=mc square) and the propagation of light. Needless to say it went over his mother's head, but the boy seemed to understand what he was talking about. Maybe he will learn how to explain it in simpler terms.

I guess the point I want to make is how impressed we are when children are really good at something, like math or music. Even more so when there is a disability or disease in the background, like this kid I saw on Yahoo today who was born with Asperger's syndrome. My biggest question is really how well do these kids understand the subject they are talented at? I know when I was a kid I was interested in all kinds of things that were completely beyond me, except in my case I was usually wrong in my assertions about the world around me. I thought I might list them here:

1. The "dome" for a sky. When I was really little, like 5 or 6, I remember observing the sky and concluding that it was a dome that started from the ground (the horizon) and covered the Earth from end to end. The problem with this meant the earth would be cut in half, so whenever I saw a globe I couldn't reconcile my understanding with what the Earth was supposed to look like. I thought about that a little too much!
2. The color of countries. Again while studying the globe I initially associated each country (like Canada and USSR, yeah it was before the Union collapsed) with the colors they were illustrated in (like Pink and Green). I'm not sure I really believed the land there was colored that way, I just couldn't help but associate each country with the colors on my globe. This actually helped me remember most of the countries in the world before they taught about it in school (US states were more difficult because they were each a different color).
3. Black and white movies. Again with the colors, or lack of color, I began to associate specific eras in time with the colors used in the movies from those years. So life in the 70s was always technicolor, while the 80s were dark and grainy (crappy VHS) until the 90s introduced vibrant colors (just search You Tube for some of the TV ads from the early 90s, it was out of control style). I really believed for a while that the reality from the days my parents and grandparents were kids was living in black and white. How bland!
4. The Devil. I was too young and too curious to know about Satan, the Ultimate bad thing. Mostly I wanted to make sure I would always avoid the devil, so one night I asked my mom exactly where is the devil? Her answer was "The Devil is everywhere!" Her response will always resonate with me, it's so deep, but inappropriate for a kid because kids think literally. I remember being outside that night, and staring at the moon after she said this, thinking "the Devil is in the moon right now, and he sees me!". She couldn't have said something else like "the Devil is in a place you will never go because God loves you" or something sweet like that? I know she was just being honest with me, but I was only 5 or 6!
5. Black Chinese people. This one has to do with politically correct language. Again I was too young to understand (not that adults do a good job making sense out of things) our label for African-Americans, and thinking like a kid, this made me wonder if there were literally African-Chinese, like Chinese people who were black, but from China and not America. I didn't know about slaves being taken from Africa, or the origins of different cultures yet, and just thought that every country had "white" Americans and "black" African-American-Japanese, Chinese, Canadian or whatever people. Oops! Even now, does PC language make sense in any other country? If a black person is a citizen of China, does that society deem it proper to call them African-Chinese, or just Chinese, or something else? And what about the people from Africa who aren't black, would they be considered African-American?
6. Clouds crash into each other, causing thunder. OK, sadly I was in 4th grade before this idea was challenged. At least most of the other kids in my class thought the same way. Where I was raised we didn't have many thunderstorms any way, so why give it much thought? In case it isn't clear what causes thunder, lightning is hotter than the surface of the sun (like I got to learn about this stuff in school, I read about astronomy on my own time, but skipped over meteorology) and that snapping, crashing, booming sound is from vaporized air that was expanded in a flash, followed by many echoes across the land.
7. The question of "why?". This subject still applies to life today, but usually in a more practical approach like "Why do I work so hard for so little? Is this what I was meant to do in life?" In third grade I was staring outside my classroom after finishing some test early, so it was a quiet moment. Gazing deeply into the dark blue sky of another early morning in class, I began to ponder "why", as in "What am I doing here, why am I alive, in this class, at this time, staring at this strange blue sky? Why is the sky blue, why are there giant planets and other stars beyond the sky, what point does my life have and why does this all make me feel so empty inside?" Whoa, crazy deep thoughts for a kid, it was actually so much I became depressed by it. I was scared of feeling this way, and afraid I might not want to live, so naturally I shared these difficult thoughts with my mother a few days later. Instead of hearing something comforting, or being acknowledged for having a curiosity about the meaning of life, my mother (being typical as we've seen) overreacted, which freaked me out as well, by scorning me, suggesting that "I was suicidal, and that my thoughts were frightening" to her. She added " I must not think that way any more" and that she "didn't know what put those thoughts into my head" (mind control, now that's a concept to introduce to a kid like me at a time like that). That quickly put an end to that nonsense, for a while any way. At some point I probably considered thoughts like these were being slipped in by the Devil, if I followed her logic. I was a weird and nervous kid (now I'm a weird and nervous adult)!
   

Something I Hate

Besides inconsiderate people at work or on the roadways, something I really hate is when you get a new box of crackers, like Cheezits, and you find that more than half the box is made of burnt crackers! These must be the boxes that get filled towards the end of the shift, when the workers get lazy and let the final workload simmer a while longer than they should.

I'm thinking of writing a strongly worded letter to the makers of Cheezit (Wheat Thins are next!).

The Rude People

A rant is in order, but before I unfurl my specially honed words at the general public, I offer this non sequitur. When I was a young teenager, an awesome cartoon show appeared on Cartoon Network called "Space Ghost: Coast to Coast" and it was a late night comedy talk show setup, but they used the old Hannah Barbera (I guess all HB stuff is old) cartoon characters from Space Ghost. Today the minds behind this hilarious television are responsible for the ever more popular and outrageous TV segment "Adult Swim" also on Cartoon Network.

I was viewing some episodes from SGC2C on the Adult Swim website (sadly, there are no new episodes of Space Ghost that I know of) when I caught one of my favorites. Do you ever think of the Olsen Twins? Don't they look weird? I love this episode because the character Tad (Space Ghost's unlikely evil twin) mentions the Olsen Twins, that he doesn't like them because "they look like those awful Troll dolls". It's funny, but it's also true! I especially like this because I always thought the same thing before I ever saw this episode, so I'm glad somebody else agrees. That's it.

Now, the topic: customers at work. I have worked the same retail store for two years now, and I can no longer help but notice these particular traits amongst the general shopping public. Some people stand out more than others, but what dumbfounds me is the bad behavior or habits of most people in this public setting. It's just rude!

First, littering. The shopping cart that you borrow while you make the rounds is not a trash can. Who thinks it's OK to leave napkins, diapers, Starbucks cups, ICEE cups, and just trash in the cart when you're done with it? Some carts become selected as dumpsters, they just sit in the corral for days or weeks filling up with trash. Who do you think is responsible for cart cleanliness, the employees? They aren't, it's you, litter bug. Because in five minutes some sucker will come after you're finished to use that cart, only they'll need to pick another one because you can't be bothered to throw away a cup! The employees are too busy putting the carts away for you, answering your questions, taking your payments, etc. to pick up after you.

This continues with cart replacement, or returning the cart to it's place in line. We keep the carts lined up for easy access and convenience, so why is it OK to just randomly abandon the cart where you last stood before leaving the store? And it's contagious, people won't return carts to the orderly lines because it takes 10 seconds longer than "hey let's leave this here where there are 6 other carts abandoned in front of the exit door". Do you enjoy weaving in and out of carts on your way out the door? And what about the people behind you who need to take their cart outside, don't they exist too? This one is just pure lazy, and inconsiderate.

I get to see parents with their fussy, nasty little children, and I can tell they are not focused on anything else. Multiply this by a dozen, and that's the average customer in our store. But I can't accept distractions as an excuse to be rude and inconsiderate. What lesson do you teach your kids by littering where you find it convenient, and being lazy about putting away what you borrow so that the person behind you can move along?

Again I suspect our spoiled culture expects some unspoken service to come along and sweep up behind them. The reality is when you disrespect the folks who work in the public they begin to resent you, and your quality of service will suffer. We are constantly struggling to keep up with the mess people leave at work, and we are always oriented in customer service, but that must be a two way exchange. Help your self by not helping yourself to whatever you like, but be mindful of your impact on other people who are working and shopping around you.

We have these machines on the checklanes for reading credit cards, and they're terrible. They use touch screen buttons that only work when they want to, and they require too many confusing steps before anything gets transacted. But keep in mind, I am not the technical repair chief, I don't have any training in card reader repair and functions. People always look at me like I can do something to "make the machine go", and it seems like nobody ever learns this. It's like entering a modern store for the first time dozens of times a day, every day for most people. I don't get it, snap out of your daze folks!

Back to carts, when somebody finally does get a chance to return the carts to orderly lines, please do not step in-between the carts being moved and the front of the line they are moving to! I see this all day, people walk in, ignore you, and pass right in front of your objective without a second look. I've determined this is another huge time saver for people, because walking around 8 or 9 feet the other way is a costly detour. Better to take the shortest route possible, no matter what's happening. But if I don't look out for you, I very well could squish you in-between two rows of carts.

Does it make sense, would you go walking under a row of ladders? Forget bad luck, if a ladder collapses, you will get crushed. If you weave in and out of the ladders, you could tip them over. So it's better to walk around them from a distance, and it's the same for the carts.

This continues outside in the parking lot as well. Everyone is in such a hurry, everyone has such important business to attend to, so every second saved must lead to successful completion of each task. That must be why people risk their lives and vehicles by speeding down the aisles and cutting diagonally across seemingly empty spaces. What confounds me is the speed at which people exit the parking lot, since they probably zig zagged across coming in to the store, and now they speed straight out without looking for the next zig zagger. I'm surprised no one has been hurt or wrecked yet, at least I haven't seen it.

If there was ever a stop sign to always stop for, it would be the one at the main entrance where pedestrian traffic is highest. I especially enjoy the driver who only inches towards me as I walk across, it's like saying "I'm not going to punch you in the face, but I will raise my fist and aim it at you". What if I stop, trip, or you miss the brake and hit the gas? What point does it serve to drift into the crosswalk without stopping, even if someone is already in the crosswalk? If it were up to me these drivers would have no license. It's not just rude at this point, it's dangerous.

The general mentality of the public seems to be "faster, less attention to detail, more convenient, less time" and yet the opposite becomes true. If you try and outpace yourself at a task you are familiar with, it becomes less familiar and harder to sustain. Like typing, I can only go so fast, and that's good enough. At some point it becomes irresponsible, you can't walk over and ignore people because they might slow you down. These rude people shouldn't be surprised at how messy things can become after they've spent a couple of weeks, months, and years being in a constant hurry.

Slow the hell down, and then get out of my way!

Radiohead

Best band ever. Move over Beatles!

I could just end there, but I'm serious. Every song is memorable, each one captures a time in my life when all I could do was listen to Radiohead and dream up music videos in my head. The best news is that Radiohead continues to deliver, as the latest video "Lotus Flower" has the internet's attention. Here we see Thom Yorke dancing/quivering/looking homeless (also looking a lot like Adrian Brodie) and I can't help dig the whole thing. It makes me laugh and it strikes me impressed at the same time.

While it's a choreographed dance, I can't help but feel like Thom improvised his moves. I can see people behind the scenes "OK Thom, let's begin with a classical ballet and...oh, what are you doing?" and someone else says "No no, it's alright. Let him get into it, Thom's a genius!"

Many Radiohead songs sound alike, but they are each emotive in their own way. Some are eery, some dreamy, some funny, and quite a few (of my favorites) are so sad you must cry. I'm always amazed by the variety of sound they come up with. Sometimes we have good dance beats (well I don't dance but if I did) sprinkled with funky guitar and Thom's sly lyrics, or a slow haunting piano melody.

I don't usually promote the bands or music I listen to, so I'll stop here, but I've been rediscovering Radiohead lately so I'm damn glad they still produce music.