Sunday 30 September 2012
Saturday 22 September 2012
Belief
I am totally puzzled as to why a 'belief' trumps a fact.
Now I expect that you, dear reader, will be familiar with such diverse words as; wapentake, resurgence, honesty...
In nuclear physics, the tiny words (if you like) of the particle zoo maybe a mystery to you, and me too, up to a point, and yet we can carry out experiments at home that confirm that our world is stranger than we think.The double slit experiment, for example, showing diffraction, can be carried out on your own kitchen table. Any flat surface will do. Particles or waves?
Atoms are made of mainly nothing, and yet we can touch things, alter our environment, sit down. Type on a keyboard, modulate pressure waves to make sound, see wavelengths at around 400–790 THz ! You can perceive sound from nearly 20Hz to 20 Khz (that is if you haven't been stupid enough to expose ones hearing to sounds so loud as to permanently damage your hearing). This doesn't take much to damage, trust me. I used to work with Firestreak air to airM> s, most of my contemporarys lost their high frequency hearing due to the air turbine generator noise of M> s under test. Those who think they are 'cool' with their car audio thumping out loud beats, are screwing their hearing up. Which of course , will make them turn it up more... And then the NHS pays for their stupidity. But of course, the NHS doesn't pay for their care, we do. We pay for the NHS. Taxpayers. *Note*, Taxpayers pay for the NHS. We pay for the police too. But I bet that taxpayers receive less, and a poorer service than those that do not.
We had the misfortune to visit the local A&E recently. A family of absolute awfulness, whom we have the pleasure of maintaining with our taxes, had the run or the place. Demanding this that and the other. For amusement, they were having wheelchair races around A&E. As most of them were smoking, (Including barely teenagers) and it wasn't raining, they were outside. Thank fuck. Their 'rights', in their minds obviously trumped everyone else's. Fortunately, for us, our youngest only had a sprained ankle. Not a break. And we left after excellent service and patience from the staff. We left with relief, they were stuck there dealing with the scum, who pay nothing in voluntarily contribution. No, tax on tobacco does not count as a voluntary payment. The 'illness' of their poorly family member was indeed smoking related, COPD was mentioned. Now I had a friend die of COPD due mainly to smoking. And a sad loss too, she worked until she could not. She knew what caused it, and blamed no one else but her own stupidity for her condition. Dignity she knew. These, however, knew nothing of dignity, or of waiting lists, or of triage.
This is a bit of an aside from my first thoughts of the evening. Apparently, a bunch of god botherers have taken it into their tiny heads that killing someone because possibly, someone else has made a mockery of something that never existed, would bring peace. Or some shit. Now I know there is, and never was and never will be a 'super being', unless of course we evolve into it. Look around you, do you think we will? Really, no. Thought not. There is no god, allah, buddha. Just us. Actually, Buddha probably did exist, as did Jesus, I know at least one Jesus. And he drinks more alcohol than I do.
Now I expect that you, dear reader, will be familiar with such diverse words as; wapentake, resurgence, honesty...
In nuclear physics, the tiny words (if you like) of the particle zoo maybe a mystery to you, and me too, up to a point, and yet we can carry out experiments at home that confirm that our world is stranger than we think.The double slit experiment, for example, showing diffraction, can be carried out on your own kitchen table. Any flat surface will do. Particles or waves?
Atoms are made of mainly nothing, and yet we can touch things, alter our environment, sit down. Type on a keyboard, modulate pressure waves to make sound, see wavelengths at around 400–790 THz ! You can perceive sound from nearly 20Hz to 20 Khz (that is if you haven't been stupid enough to expose ones hearing to sounds so loud as to permanently damage your hearing). This doesn't take much to damage, trust me. I used to work with Firestreak air to air
We had the misfortune to visit the local A&E recently. A family of absolute awfulness, whom we have the pleasure of maintaining with our taxes, had the run or the place. Demanding this that and the other. For amusement, they were having wheelchair races around A&E. As most of them were smoking, (Including barely teenagers) and it wasn't raining, they were outside. Thank fuck. Their 'rights', in their minds obviously trumped everyone else's. Fortunately, for us, our youngest only had a sprained ankle. Not a break. And we left after excellent service and patience from the staff. We left with relief, they were stuck there dealing with the scum, who pay nothing in voluntarily contribution. No, tax on tobacco does not count as a voluntary payment. The 'illness' of their poorly family member was indeed smoking related, COPD was mentioned. Now I had a friend die of COPD due mainly to smoking. And a sad loss too, she worked until she could not. She knew what caused it, and blamed no one else but her own stupidity for her condition. Dignity she knew. These, however, knew nothing of dignity, or of waiting lists, or of triage.
This is a bit of an aside from my first thoughts of the evening. Apparently, a bunch of god botherers have taken it into their tiny heads that killing someone because possibly, someone else has made a mockery of something that never existed, would bring peace. Or some shit. Now I know there is, and never was and never will be a 'super being', unless of course we evolve into it. Look around you, do you think we will? Really, no. Thought not. There is no god, allah, buddha. Just us. Actually, Buddha probably did exist, as did Jesus, I know at least one Jesus. And he drinks more alcohol than I do.
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