COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

The family album, 14.6 billion years ago.






Physicists have long treated time as a variable, yet they have failed to realize the full implications of that fact. If these age estimates are to be taken seriously one cannot escape the conclusion that as time goes on the age of universe not only increases, but does so at an accelerating rate.
Since these results are, at present, based entirely on data from the past, this age increase must be happening in the past. Therefore that point in time representing the birth of the universe, the "Big Bang", may be moving backward in time at an ever-increasing rate.
The rapidly rising trend of the age curve (Fig. 1) strongly suggests that at some finite time in the future the universe's calculated age will be infinite. This will have several important consequences:
(1) All questions relating to the circumstances in place at the time of the beginning of the universe (the Big Bang) will be relegated to history.
(2) All speculation about what was before the Big Bang will likewise be seen as obviously meaningless.
A few theorists suggest an alternate conclusion. They say that the trend of age estimates is due to a fault of time itself. Perhaps the universal expansion of space is accompanied by a universal expansion of the time frame in which all of this happens. Or perhaps the space expansion is only an illusion caused by the time expansion. Their critics say that these theorists just have too much time on their hands.

15 comments:

  1. Just one of the multitude of privilege that goes with being alive, if only for an instant. How absurd that there is ever a reason to give it up willingly or to contemplate the thought that there is a better place to be.

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  2. Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have spotted some of the most distant, dim and ancient galaxies ever detected in a new survey. The images, taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC 3) looks further back in time than any previous Hubble observation, providing information about the conditions in the early Universe.
    “This is like a scientific version of the story of Genesis,” said astronomer Avi Loeb from Harvard University.
    The seven distant galaxies represent a previously unseen population of galaxies that formed more than 13 billion years ago, when the Universe was less than 3 percent of its present age. In these deepest images to date from Hubble, astronomers were able to take a sample of the amount of galaxies at the time. The results show a smooth decline in the number of galaxies with increasing look-back time to about 450 million years after the Big Bang.
    The data provides the first reliable census of this uncharted period of cosmic history, according to the scientists. As astronomers look even deeper into the Universe, galaxy numbers appear to drop off smoothly leading them to believe that the “cosmic dawn” was gradual, not a dramatic event.
    “Observations of the microwave afterglow from the Big Bang tell us that reionization happened more than about 13 billion years ago,” said Brant Robertson of the University of Arizona in Tucson, a member of the survey team. “Our data confirms that reionization was a drawn-out process occurring over several hundred million years with galaxies slowly building up their stars and chemical elements. There wasn’t a single dramatic moment when galaxies formed; it was a gradual process.”


    Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/98959/hubble-census-unveils-galaxies-shining-near-cosmic-dawn/#ixzz2EtkaW54J

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  3. A better way of looking at it, and reasonable too -


    Sometimes we'd have that whole river all to ourselves for the longest time. Yonder was the banks and the islands, across the water; and maybe a spark -- which was a candle in a cabin window; and sometimes on the water you could see a spark or two -- on a raft or a scow, you know; and maybe you could hear a fiddle or a song coming over from one of them crafts. It's lovely to live on a raft. We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made or only just happened. Jim he allowed they was made, but I allowed they happened; I judged it would have took too long to MAKE so many. Jim said the moon could a LAID them; well, that looked kind of reasonable, so I didn't say nothing against it, because I've seen a frog lay most as many, so of course it could be done. We used to watch the stars that fell, too, and see them streak down. Jim allowed they'd got spoiled and was hove out of the nest.

    Chapter 19 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

    The great cackler laid 'em.

    Great Cackler

    Cult Center: Throughout Egypt.


    Attributes: Geb was thought to represent the earth, he is often seen reclining beneath the sky goddess Nut. Geb was called 'the Great Cackler', and as such, was represented as a goose. It was in this form that he was said to have laid the egg from which the sun was hatched. He was believed to have been the third divine king of earth. The royal throne of Egypt was known as the 'throne of Geb' in honor of his great reign.


    Yup, better than a quantum fluctuation in a black soft smoothy nothingness of potential, an adorable seething steamy nothingness....

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  4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siFn9wVaWkI

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    Replies
    1. Loved it.

      So much I just shared it with the world on FB.


      Mel

      Delete
  5. Good times -

    Kairos

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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    This article is about the word "kairos". For the entrepreneurship organization, see Kairos Society . For the Christian retreat, see Kairos (retreat). For the Greek personification of opportunity, see Caerus. For other uses, see Kairos (disambiguation).
    Kairos-Relief von Lysippos, Kopie in Trogir
    Kairos as portrayed in a 16th century fresco by Francesco Salviati

    Kairos (καιρός) is an ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment (the supreme moment). The ancient Greeks had two words for time, chronos and kairos. While the former refers to chronological or sequential time, the latter signifies a time between, a moment of indeterminate time in which something special happens. What the special something is depends on who is using the word. While chronos is quantitative, kairos has a qualitative nature.[1] Kairos (καιρός) also means weather in both ancient and modern Greek. The plural, καιροι (kairoi or keri) means the times.
    Contents

    1 In rhetoric
    2 In Christian theology
    3 See also
    4 References
    4.1 Resources

    In rhetoric

    In rhetoric kairos is "a passing instant when an opening appears which must be driven through with force if success is to be achieved."[2]

    Kairos was central to the Sophists, who stressed the rhetor's ability to adapt to and take advantage of changing, contingent circumstances. In Panathenaicus, Isocrates writes that educated people are those “who manage well the circumstances which they encounter day by day, and who possess a judgment which is accurate in meeting occasions as they arise and rarely misses the expedient course of action".

    Kairos is also very important in Aristotle's scheme of rhetoric. Kairos is, for Aristotle, the time and space context in which the proof will be delivered. Kairos stands alongside other contextual elements of rhetoric: The Audience, which is the psychological and emotional makeup of those who will receive the proof; and To Prepon, which is the style with which the orator clothes their proof.

    In Christian theology

    In the New Testament kairos means "the appointed time in the purpose of God", the time when God acts (e.g. Mark 1.15, the kairos is fulfilled). It differs from the more usual word for time which is chronos (kronos).

    In the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches, before the Divine Liturgy begins, the Deacon exclaims to the Priest, "Kairos tou poiesai to Kyrio" ("It is time [kairos] for the Lord to act"); indicating that the time of the Liturgy is an intersection with Eternity.

    In The Interpretation of History, neo-orthodox Lutheran theologian Paul Tillich made prominent use of the term. For him, the kairoi are those crises in history (see Christian existentialism) which create an opportunity for, and indeed demand, an existential decision by the human subject - the coming of Christ being the prime example (compare Karl Barth's use of geschichte as opposed to historie). In the Kairos Document, an example of liberation theology in South Africa under apartheid, the term kairos is used to denote "the appointed time", "the crucial time" into which the document or text is spoken.

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  6. Going through the Big Horn Mountains, there were periodically signs saying how old the rocks were at that place. One said these rocks are 3 billion years old, and down the highway a few miles the rocks were only 1 1/2 billions years old, that kind of thing. They all certainly looked new born to us, to our first time seeing them. Rock time, cosmic time, observer time, important kairoi time, time in, time out, clock time, get up time, youthful time, elderly time, Miller time, Budweiser time, all the time, infinite time, which is not eternity, which is said to be above or beyond time, time to go to bed.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you but can't get to sleep.

      Living systems are uniquely characterized by two-way flows of information, both from the bottom up and the top down in terms of complexity, the scientists write in the article. For instance, bottom up would move from molecules to cells to whole creatures, while top down would flow the opposite way. The new perspective on life may reframe the way that scientists try to uncover the origin of life and hunt for strange new life forms on other planets. [7 Theories on the Origin of Life]

      http://www.livescience.com/25453-life-origin-reframed.html

      Delete
  7. Great news for the drinkers among us --

    A new scientific study claims that human urine can be converted into brain cells. And the surprising discovery may extend beyond practical applications, allowing a way to circumvent the controversial debate over stem cell research.

    http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/brain-cells-made-human-urine-201443181.html

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  8. Anyone else having trouble with that video?

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  9. In 2009, expenditures were about 15.5% of GDP, and Spending was right at 26% of GDP.

    Spending is, now, down to about 22.4% of GDP (and, will probably be closer to 21% in this fiscal yr,) and Revenues are Still only about 15.5% of GDP.

    So, while Spending is getting down to about the Historical Average (apprx. 21% of GDP,) Revenues aren't budging at approx. 3.5% Below Historical Averages.

    We Do Not have a "Spending" problem. I don't care how many crazy tea-baggers try to claim that we do, or how many ignorant pundits/talking heads parrot the nonsense. It just isn't true.

    We do, however, have one hell of a "Revenues/Growth" Problem.

    And, no, this has Nothing to do with "intuition." This is

    Pure, Bald-faced Numbers

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    Replies
    1. Something of a compromise is we have a recession problem -

      http://hotair.com/archives/2011/07/07/do-we-really-have-a-revenue-problem/

      Looking up 'do we have a spending or a revenue problem?' the list goes on and on, the opinions of course mostly reflecting one's ideological mind set.

      In California these days, taxes for average people are around 50%, including federal, state, sales, property and everything else. And they are still broke.

      No problem with the video here.

      Delete
  10. Was Libya the warning sign, the light bulb that should have gone on? A former high- ranking CIA official unequivocally answered yes. He angrily commented, "Authorities in Washington including the president did not do what they could to defend our people. Libya showed the world we tried to temper our reaction down. We did nothing, not even scream loudly. There is ongoing turmoil in this region. We are in for a hell of a time. I had to laugh when the president said we should pivot away from the Middle East. There is going to be tremendous uncertainty and instability in the Middle East. The problem is that those in the region see us as being weak and do not have much respect for us."

    http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/12/middle_east_exploding_and_obama_nowhere_to_be_found.html


    ThePeeledEye

    Who is Obama? One can, now, conclude that, for all intents and purposes, he is a Muslim. That was a claim recently made by someone in Wright's church to Jerome Corsi.

    Obama is aiding and abetting the Rise of Islam. He is helping the Muslim Brotherhood bring about islam's much vaunted Caliphate.

    Obama has embraced the cause of the Muslim Brotherhood, and We the People of the United States are Barack Obama's unwitting but "useful idiots".



    Yup, that's about it. People who voted for Obama unwittingly voted MB.

    الله أكبر





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    Replies
    1. What a laugh.

      The US is continuing to Stay the Course.

      The one initially set by FDR.
      Followed by Ike, who everyone liked.

      More recently it was GW Bush that confirmed that the US backed the Democratization of the Islamic Arc. That the US would no longer support the Muslim despots, unless they were Wahabbi Sunni.

      Obama maintains that policy perscription.

      Boobie's American Stinker never provides a historical perspective.

      Forgets to show US GW Bush doing a Victory dance in Saudi Arabia.

      Obama, he merely Stays the Course.
      Benghazi a bump in the road, if compared to Fallujah

      Delete