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Monday, June 25, 2012

Coming soon to a funeral home near you!

Today we're going to talk about death. We know, touchy subject. Most of us spend our lives trying NOT to think about death. But it is inevitable. There is no escaping it. (Unless of course you are a Turritopsis nutricula, an immortal jellyfish. But that is for another posting.) If you are reading this, you are going to die. (Hopefully not as the result of this reading, we hope our writing isn't that bad.) Oh... also if you are dead and you are reading this, please contact us. We would be very interested in hearing about that! Specifically we are going to discuss near death experiences. Most of us have heard the stories, the tunnel, the bright light. The friends or relatives or sometimes the mysterious voice telling you, "you have to go back." The commonality of these experiences has led to all sorts of discussions. Some people think it's the door to heaven, others think it's a re living of the birth experience, you know, the tunnel being the exit from the womb, the bright light being the hospital birthing room. And that makes sense, except for the problem of culture. It seems that people with different cultural and religious backgrounds have completely different near death experiences. The Japanese people for example often see water, and remember wading in a river (one man was walking on his hands across the river.) Indian (the Hindu kind, not the native americans) Near death experiences are strange, but similar to each other. For example one man explained his near death experience as being dragged before the Hindu God of the dead, where the God told the men who had brought him that they had brought the wrong man and sent him back to life.  In another case the man was dragged before God and when he tried to resist they cut off his legs. After the God realized he had the wrong man they showed him some legs and he correctly picked his own, they then returned him to life. In many cases of Hindi near death experiences it seems that the people who run the afterlife have brought the wrong person. (Perhaps the denizens of the Indian afterlife should outsource their personnel department to another country.) Hindi near death experiences differ in another way also. It seems that the Indian people don't view their body as they are leaving it. (Which is common in western near death experiences) Native Americans who have near death experiences generally are visited by men who tell them "your grandfathers wish to talk with you." and they are taken to a place (sometimes on horseback) where old men are seated. One man described them as "older than the stars." There have only been a few recorded Native American near death experiences, but enough to see that clearly the culture and religious belief of the individual seems to be the key to what the experience is like. Atheist near death experiences run the gamut from experiencing a biblical hell to transcending and spiritually exploring the universe. Some atheists have met God in their near death experience and come back as religious converts. One atheist, Carl Jung (the father of analytical psychology) came back from his near death experience because the spiritual form of his Doctor came and told him he must return. Interestingly his Doctor was bedridden the same day the Carl Jung was first able to sit up in bed. The Doctor died of septicernia shortly after. Dr Yung describes seeing the Earth from space, and preparing to enter a chamber where all would have been revealed to him when his Doctor spiritually appeared and told him he had no right to leave the earth and must return. It should also be noted that Test Pilots when subjected to high centrifugal force (or intense zero G maneuvers in jets planes) have recorded having out of body experiences where they see themselves as if from above. So what do we learn from all of this. Well for one thing the theory that near death experiences are the result of physiological rememberance of the birth experience seems to be wrong. After all, Hindu's, American Indians, and the Japanese all have near death experiences completely unlike the type western individuals have. And yet they come into the world in the same way.  So... does your personal belief system have an effect on what sort of afterlife you experience? If one believed in reincarnation would you come back into another body? If you are an extremist Muslim would you awaken in paradise with 72 virgins attending to your needs? (notice we said "extremist" most Muslims don't believe this version of  things. Also do female Muslims get 72 male virgins? Just wondering.) Anyway we hope we have given you something to think about.  If you are interested in reading about some of the near death experiences go here. We must warn you however that this site makes presumptions based on personal opinion. But it does have some interesting near death experiences listed. That's about it. Ciao for now.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

To error is human.

Just a quick note to mention that we were wrong. I know, we can't believe it either. But in one of our  recent blog posts we mentioned that there is no evidence Mars is warming.  Unfortunately for us one of the two people who read this blog pointed out that there is some evidence that Mars is indeed warming. Citing recent evidence that the Mars ice caps are melting. (Actually evaporating as it's believed they are primarily dry ice.) And in reviewing the evidence, we have to agree with him. (Damn it) So Mars might be going through a warming cycle. But again, no evidence it's caused by the sun.  Also, we are not saying that global warming on earth is caused by man. (Although we do believe that it is folly to think that 6.8 billion or so people living on earth don't have some sort of effect.) But we have to insist that saying the other planets in the solar system are warming is balderdash. (like that word, balderdash) Again if you are reading the blog and we make a statement you know to be wrong. Comment on it. If your argument is valid, and you can change our minds, we aren't too proud to admit our errors. (Sure there will be much gnashing of teeth, and possibly name calling. After all we have our egos to consider.) That's about it. Ciao for now.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

No solicitors...

(A quick point to make here, we in no way believe that the message conveyed to us by the Door to Door religious salesman represents the views of  the Biblical Jesus Christ. We are not in this post declaring our belief or disbelief in the trinity or any deity for that matter. We are just making a point about our view of the world. And the tactics of some religious organizations... which shall remain nameless)

It started with a couple of pamphlets in our front door, we found them one morning as we were going to an appointment. A few weeks later we received a postcard with his picture on it, telling us the end was coming. Asking how we would face eternity. These are not implied threats, they are clear cut out and out predictions of our imminent death. That's right, Jesus Christ is stalking us. Telling us that all the signs are there and we are surely going to die. (One of the pamphlets had the nerve to ask us to send money.) The other day a man  came to the door and told us the world is fast devolving into chaos. We tried to explain that there is no more chaos in the world than there has always been, that 24 hour news stations spouting all the bad news everyday just made it seem like there was more. How actually there are less wars now than in half of human history. How diseases that wiped out entire cultures have been eradicated, how crime rates are actually falling in most major cities. But he would have none of it. He mentioned the recent major earthquakes. The terrorist activity. We pointed out that there are over 600.000 measurable earthquakes every year. About 134 of them averaging 6.0 to 6.9. We pointed out that there have always been terrorists, the Christians of the middle ages for example trying to drive the Muslims out of Jerusalem committed atrocious acts of barbarism. We tried to explain how we live in a wonderful time, humankind is perched on the edge of great changes, some of the keys to aging are being found, we may have found ways to increase food production ten fold and wipe hunger from the face of the planet. Free energy for everyone is a real possibility. We are on the threshold of deep space exploration. Major discoveries are being made at the subatomic level that will change our lives forever. We explained how in the last hundred years humans have begun to completely change the industrial dynamic, information and communication are beginning to become the primary industry in many countries. We hope that he left our door with a new understanding of the world we live in. But sadly we doubt it. We can't speak for Jesus Christ, but one would think that a man who spread a message of love to the world would be offended by people trying to sell him door to door like a vacuum cleaner. Just a thought. We could be wrong. Ciao for now.

Monday, June 18, 2012

People actually read this!?!

Someone anonymously responded to one of our blogs with the information that the solar system is heating up. And therefore global warming is not man made. We can't answer here as to global warming being man made. (We think the jury is still out on that one.) But we can clearly point out that there is no empirical evidence the solar system is heating up. First of all NASA data clearly shows the sun to be in a cooling trend in the last three decades. As for the other planets, let's take them one at a time shall we? We'll ignore Mercury as it's simply too hot and too close to the sun to get accurate temperature readings. We'll skip over Earth as we all know the arguments on that one pretty clearly. So next is Venus which is currently under a run away greenhouse effect, so it would be simply impossible to prove or disprove any outside influence is having an effect on that planet, so, on to Mars. The Warming deniers are telling us Mars is heating up. They base this on the fact that temperature readings were taken in 1977 and again in 1999. Two readings on a planet that has little atmosphere, dust storms that sometimes engulf the entire planet (raising the temperature at times by 30 degrees centigrade.) and an atmosphere of 95% carbon dioxide. So what the Global Warming Deniers have done is base the belief that Mars is warming on two days of weather, and not decades of weather data. Sorry not good enough. Ok on to Jupiter there is no evidence of Jupiter warming. None. Zero. As a matter of fact we haven't observed Jupiters temperature long enough to be sure of  anything other than the fact that the storms on Jupiter raise the temperature at the equator and cool the temperature at the poles. Ok on to Saturn which takes 29.7 Earth years to orbit the sun. Which means that we have been observing Saturn for two (count em 2) seasons.  How can we possibly discern long term temperature patterns based on two summers. Sorry, not good enough. And that same argument could hold true for Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Ok Uranus has a year of 84 Earth years, Neptune 164 Earth years. How in the hell can we possibly get warming trends on a planet that's been in one season for as long as we have been aware of it's existence. Maybe this will make the deniers feel better. Pluto is warming. That's right, a planet that gets about 900 times less sunlight than Earth has shown in the last year or so a slight temperature increase. Of course since we have only observed Pluto for the equivalent of about three weeks out of a season on Earth we might be a little presumptuous to assume the sun is causing it. Especially since the sun is in a cooling trend. Anyway that's about it, Ciao for now.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

If you are left handed, reverse this.

Although we posted recently we stumbled across a little psychological study that we found intriguing and thought we would share with you. While you are reading this we would like to point out that you may not be alone. Perhaps someone else is reading this also, someone sitting right there with you. Actually someone sitting in your exact spot and looking through your eyes. In 1908 a woman was brought to a psychologist because she had a problem, it seemed her left hand had a nasty temper, and a murderous nature. It would try to strangle her during the night. Normally she was a quiet woman of even temper, but when she slept, and sometimes when she was awake her left hand would suddenly lash out and attack people, seemingly at random. Many people of the time believed her hand had become possessed by the devil. The Doctor could find nothing wrong with the woman, and although she had recently had a stroke she seemed to be fully recovered. It wasn't until years later, when she had died of natural causes that the Doctor removed her brain and found that the stroke had damaged her corpus callosum (The area between the two halves of the human brain.) Unfortunately there was no way to prove that it was that injury which caused her hand to seemingly have a mind of it's own.  It wasn't until 1972 that Doctors were able to verify that yes "Alien hand syndrome." does exist. What makes the illness (if that's what you can call it) so strange is that the hand doesn't just randomly move, it seems to have intent. One mans hand insisted on grabbing his collar and shaking him awake in the middle of the night. (It wasn't until he put an oven mitt on it while he slept that the hand stopped.) In one case if food was present at the table the man's hand would attempt to feed him. (Another mans hand attempted to masturbate, no matter where the man was at the time.) The reasons for alien hand syndrome (some people are calling it Doctor Strangelove Syndrome, anyone who has seen the movie should be able to figure out why.) are clear, a separation or damage of the corpus callosum, unfortunately that doesn't explain why the hand has a mind of it's own. Although people who have brain damage in other areas of the brain can have problems with hands acting on their own, it seems only the separation of the lobes of the brain causes clear seemingly conscious action by the left hand. And that is a puzzle, is there a separate distinct personality in each lobe of the brain? Is this why some people are unable to control their baser instincts? Are we ALL schizophrenic? That's about it for now. Keep an eye on your hands. (Especially that left one, it can be a sneaky little thing) Ciao for now.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

George Washington died here!

It's been a week since we posted here. And to be honest we are having a tough time finding anything interesting (or at least different) to post about. We have been reading a lot of news on the right wing rag The Blaze (we won't put a link to yellow journalism sites like that one) but gotta say it disappoints us daily with extreme views and downright lies about our current President. Of course like all news stories there will be some truth thrown in to just to confuse us. It amazes us how vitriolic politicians are getting these days. Although to be honest there have always been lies rumors and mud slinging in politics, And President Washington was happy to leave office, as his statement to John Adams clearly points out. "Ay, I am fairly out and you fairly in! See, which of us will be happiest!"  It would have been interesting to see what Washington would have had to say about those who took office after him, but within three years he was dead of what historians called a throat infection. (Although he might have lived longer if three separate doctors were not called in, each of them doing a bloodletting, with estimates that about three pints were taken.) George Washington knew he was dying, telling his Doctors and aides "I feel myself going, I thank you for your attention but I pray you take no more trouble about me, let me go off quietly, I cannot last long." His last words were "Tis Well." And he attempted to take his own pulse by moving his hand to his wrist. It slid off and he was dead.  We find it interesting that George Washington who some believe was a devoutly religious man had very little to say about such things during his final hours.  You can read more about it at http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/project/exhibit/mourning/scene.html if you are interested. That's about it for today, hope you all have a good weekend, ciao for now.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

A little nostolgia goes a long way.

The Drive in will never die!
This is a Link to an article about the drive in theater. Yesterday was the anniversary of the first drive in which began showing movies79 years ago. All of us here at the Crazy love the drive in. But can't remember the last time we went to one. The nearest open one is called the Moonlight Outdoor Theater, in Shawano Wisconsin. We are very tempted, (Not just tempted mind you, but VERY tempted) to attend. But of course we would have to rent a motel room, and spend the gas to get there which would make the normally eighteen dollar fee a bit high for an evening at the theater. But still... tempted.  In the article it states that people are setting up Gorilla Drive ins. Just projecting onto any large surface and showing the movie. Again, sounds like fun. (Illegal probably, but fun.) We don't know why we loved the drive in so much, maybe it was because we could drink while we were there. And we never had a designated driver, those were different times folks.  Also there was the fact you could sneak a few people in inside your trunk. (Although our Plymouth Duster had a fold down back seat that made it easy to get people out without having to go out and open the trunk.) And of course there was the privacy. Or the illusion of it anyway. You could do things in your car you would never think of doing at a walk in theater. (Especially if you had tinted windows.) It was FUN going to a drive in. Sure sometimes it would rain and they would cancel the show. (If it rained hard enough.) Although if the rain was light, the show would go on. Sometimes the speaker you picked didn't work and you had to move from spot to spot until you found one that worked. We remember the Marquette drive in theater (or was it called the Negaunee Drive in Theater.) switched over to AM transmission not long before they closed, so you would just tune your radio to the stations broadcast frequency and enjoy. (We don't remember what the station number was though, does anybody else?) We also remember having an old style window speaker lying around, as we had accidentally driven off and left it in our window. (How often did that happen, we wonder?)  There used to be a television show with a guy named Joe Bob Briggs, his closing quote used to be "The Drive in will never die!" which we sort of hope is true. Joe Bob has a website Joe Bob Briggs, drive in move critic. But he doesn't list drive in movie theaters anymore. And his stuff has gone decidedly political. Such a waste. (Yes we understand we also get political from time to time. But we try not to let it override our purposes for this blog. Whatever they are.) Anyway we thought we would wax nostalgic for a bit, and that is what we have done. We hope it didn't cause any of you to nod off and frighten yourself by snoring yourself awake. That's about it for today, ciao for now.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Good news for liars.

In an attempt to find anything interesting to post here, we spent hours and hours (well, maybe one hour) reading news stories and literature to find something to write about. And stumbled across an article about strategic lying. For example a group of golfers were given a putter to use while playing, they were told that it had once belonged to Professional Golfer Ben Curtis. The same club was given to other players who were not told anything special about it. The golfers who thought the club had been owned by the famous golfer putted better than the ones who thought it was 'just a normal club'. In a similar experiment Bicycle riders were pitted against a computer avatar which they were told had been recorded at their top speed on a certain course. When those same riders went up against themselves they matched the speed of the avatars. But what would have surprised them is that the avatars had been sped up by 2%.  So this would be an effective coaching tool. Obviously lying can be good right?  Ciao for now.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Back at it again... No really!

     It's been a little over a year since we posted here at the crazy, we posted a few more things over at Crazysaidwhat.com, but found that web page designer too much like work. Also we seem to no longer have an account there, not sure why. What we like about posting here is it's a simple type and enter format which works well for our feeble minds. Anyway, we are going to begin posting again. My Wolfie (you know, my wife, Lisa) pointed out that I seemed to be a little happier when I was able to vent my frustrations into word form for other poor bastards (or basterdettes?!?) to read. So be it. Anyway the last post here was May 27th, 2011. It is now Jun 2, 2012. So a lot has happened in the world. But really it all comes down to the same old, same old. Republicans hate Democrats, and vice versa, Liberals don't much like Conservatives, and vice versa. Recently in the news a naked man attacked another man and began chewing his face off, so the zombie apocalypse seems to be on the way. (Or it may have been the Bath Salts the crazy naked cannibal was using.) There is a lot of vicious spewing of overblown ideas in the press, everybody has an opinion and by God, if you don't agree with them you are some sort of communist, marxist, dirty hippy loving fool. So politics hasn't changed one whit from the days of George Washington, on through Abraham Lincoln. Politicians still throw a lot of feces at each other just to see what sticks (like zoo monkeys recently captured from the wild,) a lot of rhetoric, and not much else. Our wish at The Crazy is to post ideas, interesting and strange bits of news etc. Dotted occasionally by bits about Politics and Religion, and any other flotsam that our culture belches out into the world. Again, we don't wish to offend anyone. But we will occasionally. We don't wish to insult anyone. But we will occasionally. Communication isn't black and white. Any person commenting on any subject will inject a little of themselves into the mix, that's what makes life interesting. So if we do say something that offends you, please comment on the post. We promise to read it, and who knows you might change our minds about some things. (Although most of us here at The Crazy are old and crochety and liable to be a bit set in our ways.) Anyway, we will begin trying to post once a week again. Don't abandon us. We won't abandon you. Ciao for now.