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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

They call this a touchdown?

Ok, most of you aren't going to care one whit about this but here goes. It seems that The Green Bay Packers (peace be with them) were robbed of a game last Monday night. The last play of the game involved a hail mary pass into the end zone by the Seattle Seahawks (Henceforth known as the Seahags.) The ball was clearly caught by a Packer player.  Packers cornerback M.D. Jennings came down with the ball. And is seen holding it to his chest on the ground in this photo.  It appears as if a touchdown in the NFL now consists of catching the guy who caught the ball.  Looking at this Photo we cannot for a second understand how the official signaled a touchdown. Nor can we figure out how the NFL after seeing the replay and studying it decided to let the ruling stand. We can only assume that we exist in a different reality than them. Perhaps a wormhole has opened up between our two universes and somehow the video from this other universe (The one where catching a player catching the football is considered a touchdown.) managed to slip through. It is our hope that scientists can somehow close this wormhole before a video showing the Detroit Lions as a good team manages to slip through. It appears as if the result of this other universe leaking into ours is that the NFL is going to give the professional referees most of what they have asked for and they might be returning soon. So at least things should be back to normal soon and The Green Bay Packers (peace be with them) will take their place among the elite of the NFL again. We can only hope. That's about it today, ciao for now.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

For the last time...

Again we have been hearing and reading some really crazy stuff about the Mayans, and Dec 21st, 2012. So we are going to try and set this straight one more time. First let's set down what people are saying about the Mayan Calendar ending on the 21st of December and it's meaning for the apocalypse. It seems somebody somewhere has discovered that the Sun will be standing precisely on the equinox between the Earth and the Center of the Galaxy. At least that appears to be what some of the crazies (not to be confused with we here at The Crazy) are saying. So is it true? Well, sort of. Dec 21st is the Winter Solstice. The exact half way point between Autumn and Spring. It happens every year. It is the shortest day and the longest night of the year. Is the sun also lining up with the center of the galaxy? Well... No.. not at all. As a matter of fact the Earth, (and our solar system) are currently above the plane of the galaxy (note the italics). We are five count em.. five light years above the plane of the galaxy.  If you believe in astrology yes the sun will be centered in the galaxy as seen from earth. Last year for example the sun was .01 degree difference from where it will be this Dec 21st. Read that as "point zero one percent" difference. Will there be a huge difference in gravity when we have moved that .01 percent. Well.. again.. No.. As a matter of fact, if you are drinking a cup of coffee (or tea, or a beer, etc.) Then the gravity from that cup is having more effect on you than a .01 degree difference of the sun will have. Ok, so how about the Mayan calendar ending as being significant? Well, it would be if the Mayans intended the calendar to simply end. But there are hundreds of dates carved into the stone of the Mayan temples and pyramids deep in the jungles of South America. And many of them are far beyond the date listed by the calendar in question. (One of them actually dated out to the 4700's by our calendar.) Of course if you aren't sure about the source on this you could always ask a Mayan. What's that you say? The Mayans are extinct? Really? Maybe somebody should tell them that. There are many villages of Mayans still extent throughout the jungles. Many still speak the ancient languages. Sure the great civilization that built the cities and pyramids of Chichen Itza, Palenque, Tikal and Uxma no longer exist. But the people are still there. And they will tell you that the Mayan Prophecy of the end of times for Dec 21st, 2012 is a complete load of crock. Invented by some gringo up north to make a buck. (And many bucks have been made.) If all of this doesn't convince you that the current prediction of end times is a load of horse hockey, then my friends you are beyond help. That's about it. Ciao for now.

Friday, September 14, 2012

From an old coot...

Recently read a short blog called the Rant, and the author posted a few ageist remarks denigrating old people. You can read it HERE. Most of us here at The Crazy are what you might call old. It's true, this blog is mostly written by a few crotchety old farts who soon might be seen sitting around the nursing home waiting for the grim reaper to come calling. Getting older is hard to describe to someone who hasn't yet had the advantage of our years of listening to young folks whine about how the world is treating them unfairly. But for all of us at some point in our lives, the future is going to become shorter than the past. Unfortunately for this writer that point has probably long passed. And not to put too fine a point on it, we think it's a good thing. We have seen many of this countries young cutting down the oldsters (we refuse to use the word elderly) as if the young had some sort of magic potion to stem the onslaught of time. And honestly there have been some amazing strides in scientific research on the aging process. But inevitably, time will circle these young folks like a pack of ravening wolves. And one by one, injury by injury they will be brought down. Will they remember the folly of their own youth, when they felt themselves to be immortal? Will they stop for one moment while viewing the Dorian Gray like dissolution of themselves in the mirror and remember when one of we ancient heralds trumpeted "where we are now, you soon will be!"? Probably not, Youth is wasted on the young. Just a short note to make a point, or maybe just to write this down before the Alzheimers takes us. Ciao for now.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Time to throw away your watch!

Let's talk a little bit about time shall we? Not the time that we all perceive because of the clock on the wall. (Which is entirely subjective by the way, we'll get to that later.) But the time that exists while you are reading this, the time we will call the NOW. Oops, there it went. You can look back at the page and read the word NOW again. But that moment is gone. You will never get it back. But the question is, where did it go? Some people believe that time is just an illusion created by we humans to help us better understand ourselves, and our place in the universe. But others theorize that every moment exists just as it does NOW. Think of the universe as a series of snapshots, (extremely rich and detailed snapshots, that contain everything in the universe.) each snapshot exists NOW but also still exists despite the fact that we can no longer perceive it. Strangely enough this idea has a very old start. The Greek Philosopher Parmenides postulated in the 5th century BC, (Or BCE if you don't believe in the divinity of Christ) that all motion was impossible. Let's say you shoot an arrow at a target. Parmenides said that the arrow could never reach the target. Why? Because it would be mathematically impossible for it to do so. It would first have to go half the distance to the target, than half that distance, than half that distance, and so on through infinity (or eternity, we are discussing time after all.). Some physicists believe that time works that way. That each moment is an eternity. (We at The Crazy have felt that way sometimes when being forced to watch reality television.) Of course when looking at time that way some questions come up. Does the future exist before we get to it? Is all of time here and NOW, also NOW and forever? (We here at The Crazy are not responsible for any brains that may have been broken by this thought idea.) Ok, lets talk a little about that clock on the wall. If you look at it right now. (The Clock on your computer will work just as well.) It will tell you the time as decided by the International Meridian Conference in 1884, when British Mariners decided that Greenwich Britain would be the the starting point or the "0" point on the Meridian by which all Mariners would set their clocks so as to locate themselves longitudinally. Entirely subjective as we said. But does time move at the same speed everywhere. Not according to scientists and atomic clocks. Two extremely accurate atomic clocks were placed side by side, and fully synchronized to the exact nano second. Then one clock was raised twelve inches above the other. And the higher clock began to move faster. Physicists agree that this was due to gravity having an effect on time. Astronauts have said the same thing after spending time in space, they discuss how time seemed to move faster while orbiting the earth. But does this prove that times exists outside of human experience, or simply that human perception is tied deeply into the flow of time?  We don't know. And neither do physicists, or philosophers, or watchmakers. But we at The Crazy are very interested in current experiments to discover the properties of time. (Or the lack of properties if that is what experiments reveal.) It is important to point out one thing when discussing time however. It seems to be tied almost directly into entropy. (the rule that shows that matter moves from order to chaos.) Nobody has ever seen the pool balls on the table automatically jump from their pockets and reform the triangle of balls at the end of the table. And probably never will. Well there are things we have to do here at The Crazy, and we need to get them done NOW. Shoot, too late. Ciao for now.