kimmy

Yeah, spending 1:45 of your 1:53 promo doing a cartoon of Stephen Harper... that's a great way to convince people that this is going to be an informative and thoughtful film. -k

I have no problem with anything that your NASA and Professor Huber have said on the subject. I have a problem with the claims of US Patent 6891310. That patent isn't held by NASA or the University of Virginia. It's held by "Bob Beckwith" of Clearwater Florida, a guy who apparently thinks he knows a lot more about neutrinos than NASA, Professor Huber, SNO, CERN, Fermilab, or any other research institutions who have been studying neutrinos for a long time and yet have made no claims at all about neutrinos being able to carry information from organic matter all over the universe. Yes, all of the credible science agrees on that much. But here you have left the credible scientists behind and are going it alone, just you and "Bob Beckwith". Professor Huber proposes that we may someday be able to transmit and detect neutrinos reliably enough to form a rudimentary low-bandwith communication link, but that's far far different from the claim that neutrinos are picking up information from everything they pass and carry that information with them to be received elsewhere in useful form. In fact, if you spend a few minutes reading through the patent "Bob Beckwith" received, you'll find out how truly fantastical some of his claims are: He: -rejects the "Big Bang". -rejects the existence of "dark matter". -argues against the concept of curved space -claims the universe is an infinite, flat, straight grid of "force tubes". Do you think a retired (and now deceased) engineer who spent his working life on electrical distribution and the power grid knew more about the origin and structure of the universe and about general relativity than the scientists who have devoted their entire lives to this topic? What possible reason is there to think the human mind is receiving information in the form of neutrinos? What possible reason is there to think that neutrinos convey any information worth receiving? Neutrinos are flowing through the human body. But my position is not defeated unless you can demonstrate two things: -a reason to think the human mind is capable of receiving neutrinos. -a reason to think information can be recovered from the neutrinos we might receive. You can't. Maybe some day Professor Huber will succeed in building a giant neutrino flashlight and a submarine-mountable neutrino detector, and will show that we can send Morse Code or OOK-modulated signals using neutrinos. Good for him. Still wouldn't prove that human minds could be receiving neutrinos, or that there is any information we could be receiving from the neutrinos around us. hey, maybe gravity is the medium of all human experience. We all transmit gravity. We all receive gravity. Hey, maybe communication is taking place through the medium of gravity right now. I certainly can't prove it isn't. Can you? Hey, maybe methane is the secret medium that inspires human experience. We can transmit information using methane. We have the ability to detect these transmissions with our noses. Maybe flatulence is the communications medium you are seeking. The human body... and all kinds of inanimate matter as well. If we were chatting over coffee, I would probably be receiving more neutrinos from the materials in my chair and my coffee than I would be receiving from you. And I would be receiving so many more neutrinos from the earth and the sun that the amount of neutrinos I was receiving from you or my coffee or my chair are utterly insignificant in number. -k

This has nothing to do with the IOC and everything to do with Canadian politics. This is some official in the Harper government eager to show Quebec voters that the Conservatives will stand up for French Canadians. "Le Stephane 'arper, 'e is not such bad guy at all, eh?" -k

Wow, so nearly 1.25% of British Columbians report French as their mother tongue? Including nearly 1% of Vancouverites? Holy! I bet that almost puts French in the top 10 languages in BC! Of course. Sure, it's part of Canada's history. There are lots of other aspects of Canada's history that have no relevance to my life either. French voyageurs might have been among the Northwest Company traders who were among the first Europeans to see the lands where my parents families eventually settled. The natives were there long before, and unlike the French voyageurs, they're still there. So are the Scandinavians and Slavs who arrived later and put plow to soil. The canoe guys are long gone. They vanished centuries ago and left little trace this far west. I accept the history. I just see no reason why I should spend any time venerating something that has so little importance to me. "The French Fact" in Canada is "the French Myth" in Western Canada. It's reputed to exist, people have heard of it, but nobody has actually seen it. It's like Ogopogo. As I'm currently living in BC, I actually kind of feel that the Chinese workers who came here achieved more of lasting significance here than the canoe guys. -k

Apparently you've decided that the only way you can continue to advocate for c-r is to completely disregard what he's actually said. Confronted with mutually exclusive ideas, yes, it's a contest. They can't both be right. You have to pick a winner. And why do you consider that to be "key"? It seems pretty rudimentary to me, not anything that puts us on new ground in this thread. I've never disputed that photons and electrons are part of the "stacked communications path" as you put it. However, we're in control of both ends of the "stack". Don't want to transmit your thoughts to me? Easily done. Don't want to receive my thoughts? Easily done as well. When c-r is talking about quantum mechanics being a proof of god and spiritual connection, do you really think he's describing television? Magnetic influence on animals may occur, some animals at least... but it's (a) a one-way communication path, and ( contains very little information. What can animals learn from being sensitive to magnetic fields? Which way is north. That's basically about the extent of it. I believe the modulation rate of the earth's magnetic field is on the order of eons... so while some animals may have a functional receiver, the information capacity of this channel would be on the order of a iota of a bit per recipient lifetime, if there were somehow information being modulated onto it. How could it be anything other? Are you saying the receiver could somehow look at quantum noise and determine which random processes contain information and which do not? Perhaps you could elaborate on that thought. -k

Let's be clear on something: the US Patent Office does not make any decisions on the scientific validity or technological feasibility of a patent application. The US Patent Office decides whether the idea is covered by existing patents, and whether it is unique enough to be patentable. The US Patent Office is not in the business of scientific research, nor do they make any claims to be. If you want to learn about neutrinos, go to Fermilab or CERN, not the US Patent Office. Google for "crazy patents" and you will get a whole wealth of side-splitting humor, and the claims in that Neutrino Matrix patent are laugh-out-loud funny. whowhere himself was talking about carrier frequency earlier on in this thread, so even he has the starting point to unravel why phase modulation of neutrinos is a nonsensical idea. -k

Let's get one thing straight here: society isn't asking for an apology from Tiger Woods. Tiger is the one pleading for society to listen to his apology, not the other way around. Society was content to accept that the clean-cut guy was actually a tail-chasing liar. He is the one who wants us to change our minds on that judgment. So, why? Why isn't he comfortable being who he is? Tiger has enough money (read: power, freedom) that he never has to do a single thing he doesn't want to do ever again. So spend a moment and think about why he has decided to do this. Why is Tiger Woods apologizing for his actions, when many athletes have been unapologetic for not being angels? Tiger's fellow golfer John Daly, for example, has been a hardcore drunk, a hardcore gambler, a glutton, chain-smoker, has had 4 wives, a history of altercations with his spouses, and at least a couple of dust-ups with the police. John Daly has never apologized for any of it. Why does Tiger Woods want to apologize when John Daly doesn't have to? Because John Daly isn't on TV trying to sell people a Buick Rendezvous or a Tag Heuer watch. If Tiger was in some other sport, being famous for banging skanks would probably *increase* his "street cred", just as much as an arrest for marijuana possession or a firearms violation. But since he's in the stuffy business of golf, he is pitching products that rich old-people might buy. And a pimp isn't quite the sort of pitch-man those products are looking for, is it. It's all up to Tiger. He can go around nailing skanks, or he can apologize and cry and tell us he's a changed man. But let's not pretend this was anybody's choice other than his own. Society didn't "de-ball" Tiger. Tiger did it to himself. -k

If the IOC had a complaint about the ceremonies not having adequate French translation, I would expect the complaints would have come from the IOC and not from Canadian politicians trying to score points with Quebec voters. -k {James Moore, and any other politicians wishing to discuss "Canadian biculturualism" or "les deux solitudes" or similar can feel free to go do a backflip into an empty pool as far as I'm concerned.}

What I'm trying to say is that when some native leader steps up to the podium and accuses the government of racism and of oppressing their native traditions and so on and so on, any government appetite for accountability is going to vanish in a hurry. -k

Yeah, it's great to call for accountability. It seems like a reasonable request. At least right up to the part where some native leader steps in front of some cameras and says... "Who is the white man to say how we spend money in our own communities? The white man does not know our lands, our people, our needs. We want our rights. We want to decide what is best for our own people. Why is the white man trying to force his way onto our lands to take control of our councils? This is an attack on our people." ...then we'll see how calls for accountability work out. -k

That's amazing! Any idea what kind of engines it would have? When I was very young, daddy took me to an air show where I was enchanted by one of these little guys (flown under the name Coors Silver Bullet, I think.) That plane was powered by this engine which weighs about 80 pounds. Whatever is in that model must be even smaller... -k

Yes, that is what I was saying. Was there some ambiguity? -k

He did call me Lady Gaga earlier, which is one of the funniest things ever. I too have the gift of prophecy, and my insight into the future tells me that his "FINAL POST!" is not his final post. -k

Argus was a government employee under the warm-n-fuzzy Liberals too... I don't think his outlook is any different today than it was at the time. I don't think the turd-stains wrecking stuff in Vancouver have anything to do with the poor. I think they're just a bunch of angry idiots who want to destroy things. -k

Light? I'm glad you've finally had a Eureka moment here, but I talked about this 2 weeks ago... And yet you're able to type? How come your fingers don't just pass right through the keys? Why does that mountain stay a mountain? Why doesn't air start turning into mountains? How do you eat? Why do you even bother eating? How come your body hasn't just vanished into disassociated quarks traveling in random directions at high velocities? Why does nuclear fission require work to achieve? Why does nuclear fission release so much energy? Do nuclear explosions just randomly occur where you live? Why don't they? Ponder the answer to these questions, and then ponder how that relates to your argument, and let us know what you come up with. ...and the only response I got was some cracks about my hair color. No. c-r has been arguing all along against the existence of "context" as we've just described it. There's no difference between you and me, there's no difference between mountains and air, there's no difference between ions and electrons and electromagnetic waves, it's all the same, it's all part of one big amorphous mess that he has called "electron soup." He has stated this stuff over and over. You can believe in c-r's "electron soup", or you can believe in "context" as we've just described it, but you can't believe in both because they're mutually exclusive. What difference does a "stacked communications path" make? If the collective intelligence we're discussing is a network of many independent processors, then you're with me and against c-r's idea that everything is a part of a single nondistinct entity that just "Is". For such a system to be described as "collective", then information must be communicated between the nodes, and we can discuss the requirements for such communication to occur. And I again argue that such communication must occur through our senses through what I earlier referred to as "social" means. The idea that human society as a whole could be considered a single collective intelligence composed of billions of independent processors exchanging information through our mass media and internet is a concept that I'm entirely open to considering. However, I'm not open to the idea that humans are unknowingly exchanging ideas through neutrinos and radiation and electromagnetic waves and the other pseudoscience ideas being presented here by some people. Whatever form noise at the quantum level were to take, it would certainly represent a sum of an incalculably huge number of random processes, which would statistically guarantee a net zero "signal" would result-- so again Shannon's Law tells us that's an unworkable communication path. Now, there could be some way of influencing those statistics to generate a non-zero result... but the signal wouldn't be "noise" anymore, the signal would be whatever influence is applied to influence the noise. -k

I drive through a nearby reserve on occasion on the way to visit a friend who lives there... and the reserve is definitely a dump. Pretty much literally... dead cars and appliances and rotting furniture in every yard, dilapidated houses that nobody can be bothered to put a coat of paint on... And yet, the band council members all drive around in brand new $50,000 pickup trucks. I asked my friend what the deal is, and he explained that every year the government provides grants to the band council for some project, and the expenditures for the project usually consist of new pickups for the band council, and then hiring few friends or relatives to allegedly provide labor, which basically consists of driving around the reserve (with a shovel in the bed of their truck) for a couple of months. And by the end of the "project", no actual work has been done, but the friends and relatives have received a few months of salary and the band council got new trucks, and nobody actually knows what the supposed project was even supposed to be for so nobody actually notices that it hasn't been done. -k

Good point about Gaetan Boucher. Could have been there instead of the car-racing guy, unless the Piston Cup got added to the games without my noticing. I thought that k.d.lang was very impressive, but Leonard Cohen himself has pleaded for a moratorium on "Hallelujah", and I think we should respect his wishes. I was glad to see Rick Hansen among the final torchbearers. -k

It's not being blocked by the government or the CRTC. Canadians can't watch this for the same reason they can't watch SNL videos or video from Hulu.com. The source website won't stream it to addresses outside the United States, for reasons relating to licenses or copyright. -k

While I don't particularly "miss him" yet, I think it is hilarious, and (making assumptions about its intended purpose) probably quite clever as well. Astute comments, particularly point 2. Literally? I am suddenly picturing President Obama competing in the Iditarod. He did promise to visit Alaska someday... -k

"wheeeeeeeeee!" Back before the election some of the Obama boosters were challenging people to make fun of him without referencing his race, and I suggested that his pipe-cleaner arms were ripe for comedy and that when he threw out the first pitch he might not reach home plate. As it turns out... Oh, he's good at basketball. I've seen youtube videos, the guy is flat out good at basketball. I suddenly feel deeply ashamed. -k

Oh, I was referring to Oleg's generous, yet slightly creepy, offer to "show me God" and melt the universe with a kiss. sigh.... born just a little too late. -k

Well, depending on what you mean by "context", I actually agree with this. But there's the rub, because as far as I am concerned, that "context" would have to include all of the structure and organization that makes you what you are and makes me what I am and makes c-r ...well, whatever c-r is. c-r clearly doesn't believe that "context" in that sense even exists. I, on the other hand, feel that "context" in that sense not only exists but is essential to the discussion. If your quarks, protons, neutrons, electrons, etc etc, aren't organized into the structures that they exist in, then you're not "you", you're not an intelligence or an entity, you could just as easily be a coffee table or a pile of sand or a cloud of plasma. As you said earlier, we're all made out of the same stuff as everything else. So what's the difference between you and me, or between you and a pile of sand? The organization, structure, or "context". You already agreed that there is a physical component to a collective intelligence, and a physical component to communication. You introduced the OSI communications model to this thread, presumably because you believe we're talking about a multi-node communication model rather than a big amorphous cloud of Tao, yes? Would you also agree that if there's no communication, there's no collective intelligence? Once we decide that, we'll have agreed what we're actually talking about. The premise was how neutrinos might influence the human brain, not whether they could be the basis of a high-tech radio. About the only possibility for neutrinos to influence thoughts would be if they were harnessed for a communications technology, but again I would put your radio into the realm of what I called "social" communications earlier. I'm not going to pretend to understand what "synchronically" means or what you're trying to express here. Perhaps you could explain it in more straightforward terms. You're talking to a blonde, remember? -k

Good effort, but no. This wasn't confusion, this someone claiming to be knowledgeable completely failing to recognize well-known terminology of the field. I certainly knew what Toadbrother was referencing, and I don't know much about quantum mechanics. How could an "expert" fail to recognize it? I'm also perplexed as to why you're so determined to apologize for c-r's shortcomings. You ridiculed me earlier for allegedly trying to invoke Toadbrother as a "knight in shining armor". It seems to me that rushing to c-r's aid with such lame rationalizations for his mistakes makes it appear that you're trying to be exactly that. Why? Do you owe him cash or something? Medieval? Considering the tone of the comments that have been directed toward me, I think I've been quite restrained. And this response has me becoming skeptical of your knowledge of this subject as well. I've been very forthright about my credentials in this area. Would it be unreasonable of me to ask you to do the same? -k

Is this like some kind of pick-up attempt? -k

First off, my apologies, c-r. For some reason I've always been under the impression that you're female. I guess because I've seldom met males who are so whiny and so scientifically illiterate. Sorry. I'll respond to Shwa and the rest of your message when I get home from work, but I just had to address this... Did ToadBrother actually say nothing can penetrate rock? Let's have a look at that. Here's that exchange from earlier... Neutrinos as an example have very little trouble traveling (or tunneling as you say) through 3 foot brick walls, even a mile of rock or even 1000 tons of heavy water. ...and here's the thing, c-r: Anybody who actually knows anything about Quantum Mechanics knows that when ToadBrother referenced Electron Tunnelling, he wasn't talking about penetrating rock! The fact that such an obvious reference went right over your head has exposed how much you really know about this topic. At least I'm honest in my assessment of how much I know about modern physics. You sure aren't. -k