Jul 14, 2015

The LHC and Another Mystery Particle

 photo hadron-collider-1024x678_zps3buil1fr.jpg


Here's where I pretend to understand quantum physics well enough to relate some very important news. The Large Hadron Collider, which enabled the detection of the elusive Higgs boson, or "God particle," has also revealed the pentaquark. It is effectively a new state of matter.

In 1964, two physicists - Murray Gell Mann and George Zweig - independently proposed the existence of the subatomic particles known as quarks.

They theorised that key properties of the particles known as baryons and mesons were best explained if they were in turn made up of other constituent particles. Zweig coined the term "aces" for the three new hypothesised building blocks, but it was Gell-Mann's name "quark" that stuck.

This model also allowed for other quark states, such as the pentaquark. This purely theoretical particle was composed of four quarks and an antiquark (the anti-matter equivalent of an ordinary quark).

I was just the other evening listening to an older interview with William Henry, in which he touched once again on the LHC. Henry has noted the similarity between the LHC and the 8 spoked wheel of Mayan prophesy.

Jul 7, 2015

Cameron Clark On Not Being a Victim



This is a really great, in depth interview with Cameron Clark. Her months long experiment in living and working in Teal Bosworth Scott Swan's "intentional community" has been previously discussed in a lengthy interview posted here and in the Cameline video posted here. This discussion brings much needed clarification of some of the finer points of her experience and perspective.

Cameron endured a great deal in a relatively short period of time, including not so subtle pressure to kill herself. Despite all this, she says that she has never considered herself to be a victim. She feels she made choices and learned valuable lessons. So, I thought it was awfully funny that the Ask Teal episode posted the following weekend dealt directly with victimhood. That whole idea of not seeing yourself as a victim? She's against it.

For a true believer in the "law of attraction" to stand against the idea of personal responsibility requires some rather profound convolutions of thought.

The unhealthy Ego is concerned with power. Not the good kind of power (like empowerment), the kind of power that needs something to be less powerful in order to feel powerful by comparison. And the ego can gain this power by being the good guy. People who are trapped in victimhood mentality are after the kind of power that belongs to someone being righteous or good. But the ego that is concerned with being righteous or good needs someone to be the bad guy to exist. Similarly, an ego can gain power by being the victor. People who are trapped in victor mentality are after the kind of power that belongs to someone superior and strong. This kind of person cannot ever admit to vulnerability. This kind of ego may be unwilling to admit to any negative emotions at all. Or it may not have a real problem with expressing anger or negative emotional states that it perceives as strong, while refusing to admit to negative emotional states that it perceives as weak. This ego crumbles at the thoughts of admitting to fear and especially hurt. Admitting that their feelings got hurt is like a death sentence. This ego thinks that by denying vulnerability, especially any notion of victimhood, it is a victor. It was won.

See? Feeling like a victim is bad, except when it's good.

Jul 2, 2015

Sea Change

 photo rainbow-over-ocean_zps8mtszfx2.jpg


When I was a kid, I got into an argument with some of the grown-ups at my church. (Yes, I have always been as I am today.) I had been at a youth service where we had sung fun, kid-friendly songs instead of hymns. One of the songs was "They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love." These are the lyrics.

We are one in the Spirit
We are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit
We are one in the Lord

And we pray that all unity may one day be restored
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yes, they'll know we are Christians by our love

We will work with each other
We will work side by side
We will work with each other
We will work side by side

And we'll guard each man's dignity and save each man's pride
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yeah, they'll know we are Christians by our love, our love
By our love, our love, by our love, our love, by our love, our love
By our love, by our love, by our love, our love
by our love