Update

I know that no one reads this, but I'm going to post this despite that little fact. In a few days I will post the three movie reviews I wrote for my college newspaper this semester, and I hope to be soon writing some movie reviews on my own time. In fact, right now I am working on a review of Sean Penn's new film, Milk. That review will be posted within one day of my newspaper articles. So, if someone out there really does read this...I'M STILL ALIVE....kinda.

Playing for Change: Peace Through Music

Hello internet world, I've been on a bit of a hiatus, but I have returned to bring you something I discovered just about 2 hours ago.

I woke up around 4:45 am this morning and looked at the TV where Bill Moyers Journal was playing, and recognized instantly Grandpa Elliot. Grandpa Elliot is a local street musician in downtown New Orleans(where I'm from and currently reside) and he is the sweetest old man. Definitely one of the most fascinating and most interesting people I know. I've seen him perform on the corner or Toulouse and Royal several times as well as in front of the court house in the Quarter. Oh, and when I worked at RadioShack I had helped many times put minutes on his phone. But anyways, I saw this on TV and thought, "Wow, Grandpa's on TV....but why?" I then noticed that the scenes of the show were transiting between different street performers from around the world, including two others from New Orleans(Washboard Chaz and Roberto Luti). They were performing, in sync, the song Stand By Me. It was beautiful. Well, after the song/video finished, Bill Moyers came on and started talking about what we just saw. It was an exert from a documentary, Playing for Change: Peace Through Music, by Mark Johnson and Jonathan Walls. I was fascinated by it, at first by the simple fact that Grandpa Elliot was in it, but then by the idea about it. The interview Bill Moyers had with Mark Johnson revealed the intent behind the film, and it was simply...to bring together the world through music. I further researched and discovered the Playing for Change Foundation (PFCF) and what they were doing. In addition to making this documentary, they have and are still building music schools around the world. The fist I believe was in South Africa, which they built right smack-dab in the middle of a lower-class community where one of the performers in the film live. I believe in what this foundation is doing, and for the first time in a long time...if not ever, I see a cause that I am truly motivated to stand behind. I hope everyone checks out the website and blog, and the video from Bill Moyers Journal, and support what the PFCF are doing.



Websites: Playing for Change(flash)
Playing for Change

Bill Moyers video: Here

It's called a Sphygmomenometer!

I'm not a big fan of rap. Not even a little bit. Well, I take that back. I recently discovered 3 rappers that made me look twice. Now, they're not exactly in the same league with Snoop Dog, or Lil' Wayne...but they are BITCHIN'!!!!!

First, let's take a look at MC Mr. Napkins. What? Mr. Napkins? Yeah well, I personally think he's badass. I mean, come on, he's rapping about medical equipment!




For more, check out his Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/mrnapkins

Second, we look out the rapper of funny titles, and very nerdy themes. With a name like Dragon Boy Suede, you have to be a little nerdy.



Yeah, ya heard? Better quit that video game playing and get laid: http://www.myspace.com/dragonboysuede

Ok, and last but not least is a rapper who, unlike the previous two comedians, is actually a musician. Very talented German raised, half French/half African-American Reginald Lucien Frank Roger Watts(or Reggie Watts for short) brings mixing and sampling to a whole new level. This man gets 2 videos.





And you can find out more at: http://reggiewatts.com

That LHC is a little bitch

Back again. See, I'm not a one hit wonder....BOOM!

Ok, so I was checking out Chris Hardwick's(from WIRED magazine and the band Hard'n'Phrim) blog, the Nerdist(which can be find among my links over there > on the side), and found a little comment on the Large Hadron Collider. And here it is:

""LHC Acting Like A Little Bitch

Is a hadron a lazy bitch who won't do its work? If so, then the LHC is a large one of those. Black Hole enthusiasts will have to wait until Spring '09 to be crushed into a singularity after a recent electrical tantrum thrown by this 5-billion dollar Swiss celebutante. Described in schematics as "the part that looks like Optimus Prime's eye," the LHC is too cool at the moment to be entered by scientists but researchers feel that their "intense Frenchness" will warm it up and get them inside it in about a month, right before it takes the winter off for ski season. During that time, CERN officials will fill their days with "soft hitting contests," whereby an excessively hard punch will forfeit the match on the first try.

The Large Hadron Collider is ranked #32 in FHM's upcoming "Mechanical Sluts" issue.""

And of course being Chris Hardwick, he had to add this picture:

I personally now believe one of the following. Either Optimus Prime's eyes are made of LHC's, or these scientist are actually making Optimus Prime(I favor that one). Well, I suppose I should probably talk a little about the LHC incase you have no idea exactly WHAT I'm talking about.

The Large Hadron Collider is the world's largest particle accelerator/atom smasher. It is located underneath the Fraco-Swiss border in the neutral country of Switzerland and reaches the seemingly unpractical length of 17 miles. Imagine those thousand of scientist that put this thing together ramming 2 hydrogen atoms stripped of their electrons at 99.99% the speed of light each. That would mean each one is traveling approximately 299,762,479 m/s. That's equivalent to 670,549,568 MILES PER HOUR. Now, also realize that this is the speed of each one, and they are headed straight for one another. Which would put the closing speed at about 1,341,099,136 mph. Now, what happens when these two particles collide next spring? Optimistic scientist say it will create the legendary Higgs boson, which is some particle that will supposedly reveal the Grand Unified Theory. But the pessimists of the science world say black hole. Which means we will all die instantaneously. Sounds fun huh? Don't you just love science?

Well, that's all I have for now. Hope you keep reading (or should I say I hope I get readers).

Until next time, just remember, if a black hole does happen, it will be quick and painless.

Why Schrodinger's Cat?

Alright...GREETINGS INTERNET WORLD. Let me begin by introducing myself. They call me "Big Poppa."  Well, at least they should. I am a student at UNO(that's in New Orleans for those of you from Omaha) and that's all you need to know...for now.

I decided to start a blog for the simple reason--why not?--and I tend to do just that. Wait...WHAT!? Anyways.

The purpose of this blog is for me, the blogger, to share with the inhabitants of the internet what I really care about. Mostly you should expect some theories and/or rants...with the occasional artsy post thrown in here or there. So, I hope you enjoy and let this COMMENCE!!!!!!!

Why Schrodinger's Cat? Well, let us first talk about what is Schrodinger's Cat.

Schrodinger's Cat is a thought experiment developed by Erwin Schrodinger(get it, it's his name) in the mid 1930s. This experiment was to show that the quantum theory of superposition just doesn't work outside of subatomic particles. Hmm...perhaps we should touch on superposition as well.

Superposition is the theory in quantum mechanics that says that if an object(such as a particle or a cat maybe?) has more that one possible states of being, that at anytime that object can in exist of some mixture of those states. A simpler way to look at this is by looking at position(where is this object). High school taught us that an atom has a nucleus and an electron cloud. We were taught that electrons move around that cloud, but never really touched on where in that cloud. We can't see the electron due to its immense speed in such a small area. Measuring exactly where an electron is pretty much not going to happen. It's just too small and moving way to fast, not to mention that whole photon electron thing which I'll touch on in a later blog. But to help cope with the question, where is the electron exactly, the theory of superposition suggests that the electron is in every position in the cloud at once. This complies with experiments and tests conducted on atoms and does not seem to conflict with anything in quantum mechanics. Well, its a different story when you look at bigger things. And that finally brings us to that damned cat.

The thought experiment basically gives this case. Take a solid steel box. Inside the box, you place a cat and a mechanism consisting of a single radioactive atom, a hammer, and a flask of hydrocyanic acid. The radioactive atom has a 50/50 chance of decaying in one hour. If that atom decays, it will trigger the hammer which will smash the flask, therefore killing that cat(pretty gruesome huh?) Now, we as the observer can not know if the atom will decay, so we do not know if the poison will be released killing the cat. Now to the nitty gritty. The cat has two possible states, alive or dead. And we, the observer, will not know until we open the box one hour later having the cat revealed to us. According to superposition, that cat is both alive and dead because we can not see or possibly measure whether it is alive or dead, and upon opening the box and having the state of the cat revealed to us, only then will the cat come to either alive OR dead.

Basically, superposition says that because we can't see something, it remains in all possible states until we can accuratly see otherwise. Of course you're asking how something can be alive and dead. Well, this theory that actually has math supporting it works on a subatomic level, but just doens't make sense at a larger scale. Thus bringing us to the whole issue involving the Grand Unified Theory.

And now I can finally say "Why Schrodinger's Cat?"

I chose this title because I felt that it truly captures how my mind works. Paradoxes do take up much of my time, and things like this just make me think WOW. And I don't mean World of Warcraft.

Well, I hope people read this blog and think long and hard...or at least think for a little while. And soft I guess? But I do hope someone will read this and give a comment or two. Whether you liked it, hated it, agreed...anything really.

Until next time, "live long and prosper."