Any Colour You Like

(Originally posted on Facebook Apr 11, 2007)

I sometimes like to consider myself a scientist. Probably not a scientist by the traditional definition. But I like thinking about questions that don't have any solid answers, and trying to see if I can come up with something of my own. I guess after reading what I just wrote, I see that pretty much is what it means to be a scientist. I don't get paid for it anyway (just made fun of) so I don't have the title, only what I call myself in my head. OK, so even I can barely understand what I am trying to say here so I am just going to move on.
Humans have free will. This allows them to think about, and do, whatever they want, theoretically(that is for another time though). We also have faith and beliefs that are crammed into our brain alongside the free will section of our heads. This addition tends to make us very stubborn and set in our ways when it comes to changing something we believe in.
Indulge me for a minute and take a trip back five hundred years to Germany or Poland or somewhere, the borders were a little fuzzy back then. This is where Copernicus first came up with the idea for a heliocentric (sun centered) solar system. His idea began to circulate around the western world.
Flash Forward another 100 years in Italy and you will find Galileo. He defended heliocentrism to the church. The churches reasoning for denying his claims was from a few bible quotes as follows....
Psalm 93:1, Psalm 96:10, and Chronicles 16:30 state that "the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved."
Psalm 104:5 says, "[the LORD] set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved."
The reason I bring the Bible into this is because while I was researching Galileo I came across these bible quotes and they reminded me of something. What was it? oh thats right. I hear it all the time from Christian fundamentalists arguing against atrocities that have the potential to tear our society apart, such as gay marriage( A man shall not lie with another man as he lies with a woman--- or something to that effect). Societies change, people change, perhaps the thing that these people use to guide every decision they make in their day-to-day life, then in turn try to force on the rest of us, should be updated. Now before you get outraged I am not suggesting that we rewrite the Bible. We need to take it down a peg or two. I think these people, these fundamentalists need to realize that this book was NOT written by God. It was written by the same bald pink monkeys that write everything else on the world.
Now I am not just bagging on Christians, but since I am one, I have the most material to do so. It is happening all over the world. A first grade text book from Saudi Arabia has the following quote( as well as I can remember it) "Islam is right, all other religions are false" . They are saying this to first graders in school, not in church.
Crap, this kind of turned into a rant about religion, thats not what I am trying to to I am just trying to illustrate man's stubbornness to changing his ideas/beliefs.
When Chemistry was first introduced, it was met with great disbelief. Things that we can't see affect every little part of our lives? Yeah right. But now it is taught in all our schools. (an interesting tidbit about the father of modern chemistry, Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier, is that right before he was beheaded for being a scientist/ tax collector, he performed his last experiment. He asked the executioner to count how many times he blinked his eyes after he was decapitated in order to see how long the head remains conscious after it is separated from the body(dedication)).
Noone has ever seen a proton, neutron, or an electron before. We see evidence of their presence so we can assume that they are there. but we still can not see that they are there. We have all the equations written down in laguage that we(well some of us) can understand. But what if, in the future, it all gets proven wrong. Would you be able to accept it? or would you become angry and defensive because it goes against what you chose, or were told to believe?
In closing I just want to say that just because something makes sense to you does not, by any means, mean it is right. Keep an open mind about things and come and join me in the gray area. It is very comfortable here and I don't find myself getting offended by much of anything, except ignorance....and Paris Hilton
Well I hope you all managed to get through this mess of thought fragments, and bad grammar all right. Until I see you again...
Have a scientastic day,
--Seth

Nothing to do with the topic... I just think it is fun to look at.

Life, the Universe, and My Chain

(Originally posted on Facebook Mar 9, 2007)
For those of you that don't know, I am not much of a jewelry person. I like it on other people, but I don't like adorning myself very much. I do have one piece of jewelry I like to wear. I usually don't take it off, even when I sleep. It might sound a little weird but I almost feel naked if I don't have it on my neck. The story of how this necklace came to rest around my neck is an interesting story, at least I think so, that spans both time and lots of space.
Around 13.7 billion years ago (or a couple thousand, whichever works for you (heh, zing bitches!)) a mass that was infinitly small and infinitly dense; something we like to call a singulartiy. This singularity eventually grew tired of being what it was for some reason or another and began to expand outward at an alarming rate. Shortly after this, the matter that came out of it, mostly hydrogen, electrons, protons, neutrons, and some quarks thrown in for fun, began to be drawn to each other by gravity. The more material that gathered together, the larger the gravity force became and more material was drawn into this mass.
Over time, enough hydrogen clumped together and the hydrogen at the center of this mass became crushed together from all the weight above it and formed helium. This simplified reaction, called fusion, produces tremendous amounts of heat and radiation and is the basis for why the sun shines. As the sun goes through its 10 billion year(give or take) life span the matter in the center is kept under heavy pressure. This pressure adds new parts to the atoms turning them into different heavier atoms. This eventually results into an iron core in the star.
Other atoms result from this as well. Every once in a great while a gold atom forms in the center. If you must know, there is about 1 gold atom for every million or so iron atoms. Once the star's life cycle is up and it runs of of hydrogen to fuse, the star expands into an enourmous red giant. To give you an idea of how big they get, when our sun dies it will expand out far enough to where it will consume Mars, the planet right after us. Most of the time the star fizzles out and becomes a hunk of mostly iron floating around space. But if the star is big enough something else happens...
After the star has expanded to a red giant, the core cools faster than the outside and it begins to collapse on itself. As the outside races toward the center it gains heat. This makes a fusion chain reaction which causes the star to explode with more brightness than an entire galaxy. This spews all of the atoms it fused together, including the gold, across the galaxy in a hellstorm of cosmic fury vaporizing anything it comes into contact with.
Eventually, this matter will condense into another star. The leftover material will begin to clump up on its own to form a planet, while still attracted to the larger mass of the sun, and begin orbiting the new star. Mixed in with this leftover material was a few tiny gold atoms. This gold lied in wait inside the planet for a few billion years until it was stumbled upon by a wandering human. This man thought, "I like the look of this stuff, let us use it as money," and so it was. Over the years, gold was exchanged for other goods and then became popular to wear as decoration.
Then, a few trillion of these gold atoms were brought together to form a a series of concentric, interlocking circles by some douche who wanted to make money to buy his girlfriend a tightly compacted piece of carbon that she will not think is good enough for her.
But anyway, I digress, these circles form the very chain that goes around my neck. That is why I feel it is special, it is a little piece of the history of universe around my neck. It has traveled billions of years and who knows how many miles to arrive here, on my neck.

If you think about it, everything you are made of, except hydrogen, has come from these firey cataclysms. I'm not trying to freak you out or anything by saying that, it is just that these are the kind of things I like to think about. I also think that this is about it for me. Until I speak with you next, have a nice vacation, I know I will.
---Seth

Lessons From Squirrels

Origianally posted on Facebook Feb. 14, 2007

"When problems overwhelm us, and sadness smothers us, where do we find the will and the courage to continue? Well the answer may come in the caring voice of a friend, a chance encounter with a book, or from a personal faith. For Janet, help came from her faith, but it also came from a squirrel.
"Shortly after her divorce, Janet lost her father, then she lost her job, she had mounting money problems; but Janet not only survived, she worked her way out of despondency and now she says life is good again.
"How could this happen? She told me that late one autumn day, when she was at her lowest, she watched a squirrel storing up nuts for the winter, one at a time he would take them to the nest and she thought if that squirrel can take care of himself with the harsh winter coming on so can I. Once I broke my problems into small pieces I was able to carry them, just like those acorns, one at a time."


This little story came from this White Stripes song that I heard not too long ago, and it got me thinking. It does have a point.
First though, lets take a look at squirrels,

Squirrels love nuts, especially acorns. That is one of the rare stereotypes you can use freely and no one will disagree with you; I bet the squirrels would even agree with you and they wouldn't be offended or ashamed. They would welcome your inquiries about what kind nuts they like the best, where they can find the best nuts, and what time of the year the nuts taste the best. Just don't ask it where it hides it's nuts. Chances are that if a squirrel isn't doing something to do with nuts, he is enjoying his second favorite pasttime, running out in front of cars.
Problems seem to pile up on us in this society. I have to deal with my studies, while at the same time, working to have money to pay bills and buy the nessesities, and planning for my future as a coporate sellout (hopefully not); not to mention the maze that makes up a social and love life. Without boring you with the details, when I feel overwhelmed by all these factors (plus more I may have left out) it does help to not look at all these factors in the big picture, that can get very heavy.
Breaking all of them apart and focussing on the little pieces one at a time makes things a whole lot more managable. I know that sounds like common sense, but I have been consciously trying it out recently and it actually makes a difference. I am not stressing out about school as much anymore, plus my grades have gotten a little better. I am back to my easy going self and it feels good. So try it out.
Well my time is up, I hope you got at least something out of this.
Have a good Valentine's Day. Give you're lover something special, Greeting cards and Flowers are available at Wal-Mart. That should be a clue to not buy them for your lover. Make him/her something personal. A meal, or a hand drawn card, or any of that other crap you see in movies.
Peace out,
Seth
PS - That is what the alphabit would look like if we took out R and Q.

George Bush Does Not Like Paris Hilton

Religion is an interesting thing. It can make someone stop on the side of the road to help you change your tire, help you out with a few bucks if you're in need, or it will make someone kill you because their god has a different name/attitude/color/whatever. Staying away from that topic and moving to something a little more local. A new brand new bill was just passed in the North Dakota Senate (or House, I can't remember which) that would deny anyone an abortion unless the pregnency was threatening their life.
For all of you prol-lifers out there, good for you, for all the pro-choicers, serves you right. Damn left-wing hippies. Anyway, The pro-life march across the country has its plusses. Life is indeed a gift and we here in the U.S. need all the little gifts we can get. America has pretty close to three hundred million people. Thats a big number, but China has over 1.3 billion. Damn, they got us by a billion people.
If America is going to hang on to its world superpower status, we need to bolster up the numbers. What better way to do that than let people believe they are commiting murder if they have an abortion, or that there is a strong possibility they will go to Hell if they use a condom or some other form of birth control.
This means that when Sally has a one night stand with Harry after meeting him on the dance floor at Gilly's, the little result growing inside of her is a life and to take it out early would be murder. But this Harry fellow seems like he would be a good father. He just got promoted to assistant manager at Office Max, this man is going places.
Sometimes you have to look at the evolutionary side of things. People that troll for tail at Gilly's or any similar place usually aren't the brightest people around. Their brain set-up will mix in with the mother's (who promises to quit smoking and drinking after the first trimester). These kids will come out and probalby be encouraged by their father to play football and hockey. Then, while drinking after the game they go right ahead and fuck some cheerleader ("Like, oh my God, he can like, throw that football so far); she gets knocked up and the whole vicious cycle starts over again.
Well I think I set out to say what I wanted to say. It didn't end up where I thought it would but thats just the way it goes sometimes. Don't hate me if I offend you, but let me know if I do, I need the feedback.
Have yourselves a good superbowl weekend, and don't do anything the Good Lord woun't do. I may even swing by your place and bring you some food, if I am in a generous mood.
Seth

This has nothing to do with this note. But I do get a kick out of it

An Introduction

(originally posted on Facebook Jan. 22, 2007)

To everybody,
Hi, my name is Seth for those of you that don't know me, which I think you should since this is a facebook profile. But if you don't, welcome, kick off your shoes and stay awhile.
I have been having a lot of thoughts lately and I need a place to put them because my head doesn't really hang on to them for very long. Since I am too lazy to start a blog or a myspace profile or whatever else you can do these days, I decided to use this nifty little notes feature to see if I can't give some of you that decide to read a little insight... maybe even change your mind about something. I do my best with grammer and sometimes things just sound better if you say them with bad grammer. Also if you have seen any of these thoughts before, it is probably just a coincidence.

For my first rant I would like to talk about humans,

The picture is what we think our galaxy might look like if we looked at it from above. Now the location I have pointed out isn't the exact location but I am doing it to make a point. everything you have ever seen (not counting other stars), touched, felt, heard, tasted, smelled, loved, and hated could fit on the tip of this arrow with plenty of room to spare.
So why is it that we think we are so great. Some people say God created heaven and Earth for us. so we have this planet and maybe the solar system. What is the rest for? We think the universe is about 10 or so billion years old because that is the oldest light that has reached our eyes. Thats seems like a lot of wasted space for one little race of people.
In the interest of keeping this short (plus I am late for work) I will wrap up. The next time you think you are the greatest thing in the universe or even the world, I know some of you do, but I still love you, just think about how small we are in all reality. I know this thought isn't really complete but I will most likely have some tangent thoughts off this is the future.
Stay Swinging,
Seth
P.S. I am trying to think of a snappy sign off phrase (such as "Seacrest Out!")so it might change a couple times before I find something I am comfortable with

The Reason

Well hello, this is my new blog. I figured it was time. I started writing notes on Facebook a little over a year ago and I have gotten about 10 or 11 of them written and I guess I would like to put them out among the general public to see what kind of feedback or criticisms I can get from all the crazy people on the internet instead of just my friends.
Plus I have found that for most things in my life, it takes me about two years later than average to adopt them. For example, about 6 months ago, I got my first MP3 Player. Even developmental wise, I lost my last baby tooth about two years after most of my classmates. I could get into even more detail about those sort of things... but I will wait a little while before I get perverted on here. I think you get the idea. I don't feel comfortable bearing those kinds of secrets on the web yet....
Another reason I got this started is because the fascist bastards that run this bloggy site now make you have some sort of google account in order for me to compliment on my friend Bigsby's blog over at The Bigsby Factor. So let me say... Fuck you Blogspot! or google or whoever owns you now. Eat a dick.
Well that will do it for me... over the next week or two I will be putting the notes up on here periodically.
Peace out,
Seth