Wrote Taboo and Avolon in 5,200 words on 12/30
Taboo
I watched the bartender serve this green drink in a glass tumbler and asked the nearby bar-waitress what that was.
"A tokya iced tea." She mentioned a barrage of ingredients in it. I went outside in the back area and met an accountant named Amonn and his cousin, Doll. They were warm, cheerful, african american, people in probably late 20s early 30s. Later that night I learned Doll was probably 34. She was showing a lot of cleevage but you could tell she had a mind on her. She was good, almost maternal and looked out to make sure people didn't drink too much and had real ambitions. Needless to say, while I could have focused on her breasts the whole time, I didn't because her mind was unusally more interesting. Amonn and I seemed to hit it off with a good friendship. "This is a nice place, it's sophisticated" he said.
"Yeah! totally. Definitely sophisticated."
The song "Tipsy" came on and a short kind of round-faced hispanic kid came out and started rapping to use three. It was pretty awful and embarassing but Amonn and I laughed in a kind of cheering him on kind of way.
"I just did a show here earlier," he said.
"Wow. That was good man. Can't imagine what you're like when you're tipsy!" We all laughed.
Amonn and Doll were solid people.
I went inside the bar and made my third attempt at trying to penetrade the bar to get an order in. I don't really like drinking especially in bars. Unless it's a raging party and everyone's getting hammered, but that hasn't happened in years. Red wine has been my fancy recently. I usually end up drinking just as "false confidence juice" which doesn't really work. So not being able to get a drink in didn't bother me. Water is always my favorite anyways.
I glanced up at the television and thought I saw Kobe in a Chicago jersey. I turned to the shaved headed, kind of husky dude with an earring to my right. He looked slightly white-trashy, a little rough around the edges, but likely a good heart. I asked him,"Who's Kobe play for these days?"
"Lakers," he said giving me kind of an odd "duh!" look, still focusing on the bar.
"Oh right. Okay cool. Good. that's what I thought. I just thought I saw him in a Chicago jersey and was like what?!" He nodded in approval. I continued, "Yeah I was in Chicago and followed the Bulls during the late 90s when Jackson was there --"
"Michael Jordan," he interjected almost questioningly.
"Yeah, yeah. Andddd Pippin and Armstrong and Kerr and Kukoc!" I said smiling, going on. "So now that Jackson is with the Lakers it's awesome being in LA, Lakers fan now, with Jackson here too!"
He smiled approvlingly again and we both seperately focused on the bar. I think I've cultivated this gift of talking with people. I follow so many things -- sports, soccer, biology, math, academia, news, celebrity stuff, etc. etc. to get in conversations with people. That could be really potential for sales. Befriend, and then recommend a product or service.
Finally on the left hand side of the bar I found a spot and stood there.
This blonde, short, women with great about C-D breasts in a gold shoulderless fancy tank top thing under a gold dress coat looked at me out of the corner of her eye and then back at the bartender and said, "He'll pay for my drink." The bartender looked at me and back at her and then said, "Okay, I've never seen anyone do that. So you owe him [gesturing to me] 6 dollars." I looked back and forth between them and muttered something about paying for the drink. This bartender I liked. That's how it was supposed to work! Emphasize how unoriginal it is for someone to pay for another's drink! Exacty! I stared their at her untouched "dirty martini" with 3 olives in it as I tried to make eye contact with the nice cheery little bartender to try to order a glass of red wine. I wasn't sure I wanted to drink anythingShe laughed and joked with her asian friend. They were easily in their late 30s to early 40s. Okay maybe early 30s if they hadn't aged well. I asked, "What's your name?"
She said, "Iris."
"Oh cool, like the eye!" pointing to a portion of my eye.
"Oh no! I hate it when people say that! Like the flower."
"Ohh, okay! So what's your favorite kind of flower? Hmm I can't think of that many flower types. Something exotic?"
She thought about and said, "Orchid".
"Hhmmm yeah wow. Orchid." I had no idea where this was going. "Haha! Don't think I've ever talked about botany in a bar before!"
"Botany" was a new word for her. "What?"
"Botany. Plants. You know?" She muttered something garbled "close to botany" but, amused at the cuteness, I decided to move on. I touched her shoulder as I said a few other things which she seemed warm to.
I mentioned something about a martini and she gave me sip. "Wow that's good! I don't think I've ever had a martini before!"
"A dirty martini".
We talked a bit more. She was Irish, apparently "leaving tomorrow". Her asian friend with a weathered face was jumpy and wanted to dance. I asked, "Want to dance?!" She held my hand and we said a few more things. Wow. I'm going to have sex with this total hotty tonight I thought to myself! We mosied over to this corner table and she took off her over jacket. Wow she had perfectly shaped breasts. She was tiny. About 5'4 maybe. She never really looked at you, her eyes were always flitting about. So we hit up the dance floor after setting our drinks at the table. She pulled me towards the floor holding my hand. Wow! This was moving fast. Already holding hands and dancing after meeting about 10 minutes ago! It was a close quarters floor so we started a little bit far away but then were close-up grinding after about a minute.
"Do you like ballroom dancing?" I said in my attempt to be audible, after a few more minutes of laughing and joking and smiling at things we couldn't hear each other say!
"I Love ballroom dancing!" We then did a few spins and I accidentally bumped elbows with this woman who looked like a girl I knew from high school acting class, Meg Grunewald. I later learned this elbow-bump woman was named Vanya Gale (Dr. Vanya Gale).
So I continued doing this kind of clunky half-ballroom dancing with Iris. Then "Take a look at my girlfriend" song came on. and we started doing grinding her ass pressed up against me. The way she was holding my hand and acting all giddy she "did" feel like a girlfriend at the time! Sweet! She's attractive and small, but her movements were so clunky and clumsy like she had just gotten out of a wheelchair and decided to celebrate with 10 shots of vodka. haha!! :D But she wasn't drunk as she talked with sobriety and did everything with sobriety, maybe a little tipsy, you could just tell she wasn't the most elegant dancer. She was trying though and she was very hot. She almost wobbled over and said, "You better hold on to me. You'll regret if you let me go." Hmmm a kind of loaded demand. So I picked her up in a big hug and spun her around. That type of "playfulness" probably made her feel uncomfortable. She kept brushing her boobs up against my hand for fractions of a second and as we grinded I started to get a partial boner. I didn't know if I should focus on concealing it or the opposite, get sexual right there on the the dance floor. I'd danced with some women before and the latter had definitely been the most mutually fun and exciting thing to do. But I realized with hindsight this ambiguity of asking "hhmm what's appropriate or inappropriate behavior" for this relationship at this moment -- the very asking and uncertainty of that question -- revealed the fragility and poor communication on her part in the relationship. I didn't really know what she wanted! So we continued to grind, joked, and laughed more at things we couldn't hear because of the noise. I was really hot and feeling kind of sweaty, but kept my black sport coat on. We went back to the corner table in the bar potion of Taboo. And she sat down on the booth not making any room for me to sit next to her so I kind of half-leaned up against the wall. She engaged in conversation with these other people at the table whom I hadn't met so I glanced around the bar. For a split second I made eye contact with a slender and attractive women waiting in line for the bathroom. She flinched a smile at me and I instinctively smiled back. Iris then practically verbally slapped me with the comment, "I saw you looking around! Don't look at other women!" I must have apologized or said I was just looking around because that other woman was waiting in line for the bathroom. Wow, a controlling and insecure side to Iris. I moved in close to try to peck her on the check with a kiss, but she craned her face away!! What a brat!
"Kiss and make-up?!" I said playfully.
"He's really controlling and a vulture" she said pointing to this guy who could have been a lazy-eyed manican sitting in the corner with another woman who hadn't moved a muscle. "I'm a vulture too," she said.
I rolled my eyes. There was no way this clumsy-dancing, very attractive, but little woman was going to intimidate me thinking I was being "preyed on" by her. Was that really the message she was trying to send out now? So unconvincing!! I think she wanted me to feel intimidated by her. I certainly didn't feel that. Maybe apalled, not even confused, but just like wow, this woman really doesn't know how to communicate.
"Can we make room on the booth so I can sit?" I asked.
"I need space!" She said and kind of annoyed voice and made this gesture like she was shooing away a fly. She mentioned something about needing space but I got the picture. Dropped the table and her and hit up the dance floor. I think Iris wanted to make me feel used, but it didn't work. She just created the impression of being an attractive women with great breasts, but with really weird mannerisms. Maybe she was wanting to be some predator, manipulative person, or maybe she was but I had just seen through so many people like that and just saw insecurity written all over her, that I the only way to see her was ridiculous, but in any case, I realized that 90% of my interest in her was her boobs (and they were fantastic boobs), so I kind of apathetically left.
I instantly found myself dancing with the elbow-bump woman. I guess she had been watching me ballroom dance with Iris and wanted to do some spins.
"Move your hips from side-to-side." she instructed. "I'm a doctor" She said.
I played along and danced some. "Oh cool! Do you have a stephoscope?!" I asked.
"I do. At home."
"Do you know all 206 bones of the body?"
"I do!" She rsponded somewhat surprised that I knew that too.
"I think I broke my carpal bone" I commented but that wasn't heard. I think I asked those questions because they were unique and expressed and interest in her profession, but I also new that I'd get a "yes" response (yes a doctor has a stephoscope, yes they know all 206 bones of the body).
I learned her name was Vanya and later from her asian friend, Kimberly, that her last name was Gale.
Then she pulls me in and makes out with me. It wasn't my usual lusting, intense passionate making out session. It was a 5 second, tongue, quick lip kiss.
She was an aggressive woman. Pretty strong too. Maybe B-C boobs. She wasn't wobbly like Iris, but kind of like she had just strong bones, strong mind, but all amidst being a bit tipsy. It was funny.
"Wow I didn't notice the wine cellar there!" I commented pointing to the wine cellar oddly placed next to the DJ-sound area.
She kept kind of drifting towards the door of the bar. Eventually we went outside and I asked "Sweet! So where's the after party!"
"My house!" she said. Hhmmm wow she really wanted to party. But I'd heard "conversations" about after parties. Conversations about and actually doing were very different things. I wasnt' that attracted to her. I recognized her as that old acting friend I knew but wasn't that turned on by. I said "I've got to go close the tab." and jumped back in the bar.
It took me awhile to swim towards the bartender and when I got there instantly started talking with Doll.
"You and Amonn seem like awesome people! You were the first people I talked to at Taboo here!"
I invited them over for an after party. "We should go dancing!" I said enthusiastically. There was a long saga of talking about an after party and more dancing. This a reoccurring and common theme of the night. At this point in the night it's the climax, the rising action has reached it's Zenith and it keeps going up (with after party and sex) or starts to close-out falling action. Usually at this time of night you know whether or not you're going to get laid. I hadn't had sex in almost a year. I had been dogged, insane, desperate, nonchalant, apathetic, hopeful, hopeless, furious, enraged, afraid, timid, accepting -- all those things. I have learned just to have fun with it. But it's almost like this last panicked breath for air as you suddenly realize that hope doesn't die. It's just your hopes suddenly converge all towards this baseline of reality and the reality was that Doll is driving Amonn home and hell-bent on being maternal to his cousin (likely out of some insecurity in being able to care for her own needs, she obsesses about the needs of another -- still a noble soul she is); Vanya is sicker than a dog and wants to sleep, Iris left and was focused in creating some predatorial image, and Kimberly is trapped in her engaged-to-be-married stifled role and can't allow herself to have fun. Sigh.....
I've experienced that sensation and dreaded it easily over a couple hundred times. Probably closer to half a thousand times. Where you've partied, laughed, talked, felt a good vibe, and danced with a lot of women and then suddenly you learn a bout all these things preventing them, distracting them, creating obstacles from having sex -- be it, too much drinking, a fiance, an insecurity, an obsession with caring for her cousin, etc. I normally let my enthusiasm carry the invitation for an after-pary as that's safest because if they're interested they'll only go if they want. Unfortunately, there won't be a next time, but if there was I'd invest a tiny scruple of energy into persuading them to go to an after party instead of whatever excuse they conjured up. I just don't like being persuaded to do things I don't want to do, so don't want to do that ot others, but if I know they'd have fun, then all the better for us all.
"Do you know what's going to happen if I go to your house?" Doll said. "I'm just going to get there and fall asleep on your bed!" We laughed. She was tired. The night was young for me though. Amonn mentioned a 7am place called Forbidden City in Hollywood.
We launched off into a conversation. She had acting experience with commericals but now was focusing on starting a health club or health process or some sorts. I told I was doing acting but had other interests and we hit it up. She sounded and acted a bit like my aunt JoAnn! Caring, nice, playful, but business and kind of "getting things done" before play. When I ordered one last shot before closing the tab she said something like "John, be careful. Are you driving?" Clarity. She seemed like family in a way. Amonn and I started to say goodbye as Doll was acting like his mom chasing after him trying to get him to go. Amonn and I shook hands and we instantly did this 3-move handshake! Doll gave us a look of suprise like "What was that?!"
"Pure improvisation! That was awesome! The last time I did a cool handshake like that was in gradeschool! Best times!" I said. We laughed.
Doll and Amonn left out of the back way and I ran to say goodbye to them. I had gotten Doll's number earlier so asked for Amonns.
"There's a bunch of accountants and a party" he mentioned but I didn't catch all of it. He invited me to some party next weekend.
Vanya came back into the bar and looked really sickly drunk. She kept asking the bartender for her card for literally a half hour and the bartender said that she already closed her tab, reminding her a dozen times. She had totally shut down. I sat next to her friend Kimberly in this booth. She kept asking about my age, very adult-like haha. I learned she was 34. She put her scarf around me.
"Oh my good! What is that aroma?! This smells Soo good!" I exclaimed.
"It smells like cigarettes" she laughed.
"No it's like some exotic essence. Oh man! That's awesome! What is that smell! wow!" I was half elaborating half being genuine. You could tell this woman was trapped in a marriage she didn't like. She flitted her ring like it was some kind of manacle. She mentioned her fiance numerous times, too. I guess I wanted to make her feel that she still had pheromones, that she had sexiness, and sexual aromas oozing out of her that her love life hadn't ended. Later that night I glanced at her from the other side of bar. There were about 4-5 bar employees, Vanya, me, Kimberly, and maybe 2 other people in Taboo at the time and she looked kind of wild and sexy, so I told her that. She laughed and liked the compliment, but denied it. haha.
Kimberly and Vanya drove me to my car. Why do chicks always do that? It's like a 1-minute walk away and I've had about dozen women drive me to my car. I can't think of any magic to work when I'm in the back seat and they're driving and sleepy and acting like a chauffeur. Anyways, kimberly was nice, exchagned contact info and talked about buying the bar taboo. She was in real estate.
I got in my car, drove off to a side road and looked up Forbidden City on my trusty iphone. Vine Street. Right off the Hollywood 101. Okay! Off I went!
I found the exit and parked after making a few loops around blocks and saw a place with tons people people pouring in. It was some old theatre warehouse place turned to a massive concert-like dance floor, called Avalon. It looked like some kind of awards event so many people outside. I asked where Forbidden City was and the team of 6-8 employees dressed in back kind of scoffed at me and one looked with superiority at me and said, "Across the street." I examined the other side of the street and saw nothing going on. I later learned it wa closed. They served egg rolls there but Avalon was the all night place. I wanted to burn off steam so I walked to this hotdog venor (yes this was about 3:30 am) and I asked, "Do you know what time it is?" Just to make it look like I had a conversation with about something. She probably saw my own watch but pulled up her sleeve and told me the time. "Okay thanks! that's what I have too!" I said. "Shoot!" and acted like I was late for something and I sprinted towards the next intersection and rounded the bend after fake looking at my watch like full ahead sprint. People could think that my parking meter was up or whatever. Was a great sprint. Wearing boots, white colllared shirt, black jeans, and black sport coat. I did probably about 400m before I stopped infront of the Knickerbocker to catch my breath and stretch. These approaching to young men looked at me like I was some kind of intriguing, odd, wild animal.
I talked with them and learned that Evan and his friend had grown up in Hollywood but new Calabasas and Taboo. They were film students.
"So like behind the camera stuff? Cinematography?"I asked. Yeah. We exchanged numbers and talked and I said I wasn't sure how it works but if they wanted to make a movie I'd definitely be on board. They seemed like cool people. A bit odd. The other one had a huge floppy mop of hair, but they seemed nice most certainly. I stretched while talking with them
A bus made a broad veering curve. "Woah! is that going to hit that car?!" Evan exclaimed watching this bus come swerving towards us.
"Oh man! that was crazy. It just like swooped. that's a wild turn!" I said and we laughed.
We talked a bit more and I said, "Well, gotta go. Awesome meeting you guys!"
Then evan said back "Awesome meeting You!" with a lot of enthusiasm and emphasis on the "you". Like saying that it was most awesome for them to have met me not the other way around. Not sure what he meant by that. I'm not famous or anything, maybe they were just appreciative of someone talking with them and being congenial and expressing interest in their cinemtagraphy stuff. So that was cool. Then I walked up to Avalon. Amazing how a good run clears things up. There were only about two black-coated employees out now and none of them smug. I waited in line and joked with the bouncer about fake ids.
"Hhmm so if they have a good backstory. Believe backstory. You'll let 'em go?!" I joked?
"Yeah, that's it." He said.
I approached the booth and paid an outrageous $35 entry fee to what was like a movie ticket booth and walked in.
Avalon (Utter Crap)
I daned around a ton. It was this massive stage, concert like area. The main dance floor was probably the size of a basketball court, but there was tiered balconies dimmed out in the back. It looked like an old theatre where the seats had been ripped out. One thing I couldnt' get over was how all these hundreds of people dancing looked drugged or monkey-like. Many could have possibly been drugged, but maybe it was just fatigue (after all it was 3am - 6am that I was there). I was astonished how "in their own little worlds" everyone seemed. You were brushing shoulders with a dozen people, in a room with hundres and hundreds, and some people were just sitting down half asleep. The extremeties of liveliness were huge. It went from some people sitting down half asleep, to other people dancing wildly. The shadowy darkness was sparked up by light blasts and the DJ's music frequently slowed and almost stopped and then ascended quickly after declining in pace. Somehow someone had a drum. How did they get a hand drum in there? It was kind of interesting to see just how few people cared. But at that time in the morning it definitely felt somewhat tribal. I'd say a little less than half all the people in the club were asian. I met an armenian, asian, iris was Irish, Kimberly was korean. Wow talk about a trip around the world via people. It felt like something out of the scene in the Matrix in Zion but this was like a darker Zion without the warmth without the inspiring speech and a lot of compartmentalization. CA is warm so I love it for that though. Finally approached this women with amazing probably D-D+ breasts woman and I said, "You look like my dad's secretary!". It was the first thing that popped in my mind. Because of my romantic courage I have the ability to say what's on my mind.
She asked kind of coyly, "and what does she look like?". You could tell she wasn't merely being facetious and actually valued the answer to her question. Out of insecurity with herself or more likely, actually, probably just a genuine interest in how I saw her -- a craving for another's perspective possibly -- she eagerly awaited in what light I saw her.
I simply said the first thing that came to mind, "A woman," and smiled boldly and sincerely. Her eyes widened and my message looked like it jolted her back a bit. Ding! I had hit a potential softspot with a bulls-eye compliment. Saying your a man or a woman to anyone in their around-middle 20s is a unique compliment I think. Anytime you're in an era of trying to define and become something (like an adult, or even a fully formed man or woman, or say a doctor, or anything you're trying to define for yourself) and someone defines you already at what you seek to achieve, it feels like your work to metamorphasize is complete. I followed that up saying, "She's polish. Eva...Sosnowska" I couldn't remember the secretary's last name, so said the last name of another eva I knew from gradeschool.
I asked, "So what's your name?"
"Tasha."
"Hey, Tasha, I'm John." We shook hands. "I'm going to go dance. So do you want to go dance, Tasha? Last chance!"
For a flash of an instant their was a glimmer in her eye as if she truly did want to jump out on the dance floor with me. I hadn't seen her dance the entire night. But then that gleam vanished and out of what seemed like comfortable routine of hers she gestured to some guy wearing shades, shirt unbuttoned almost down to a few inches below his sternum, and could probably bench close to 300 pounds, and said "This is my boyfriend." I don't mind guys who dress well, stay fit, and look "cool", but it's usually ridiculous when that's the "only" thing going for them. You could tell, like probably 87% of that guys "gifts" I was looking at...just seeing him stand their flex pecs. Unlike him, I had numerous internal -- intelligence, humor, grace, genuine confidence -- and external gifts -- conversational mastery, attractivness, warmth. I wasn't jealous nor pissed because I didn't set myself up for failure. I phrased the invitation to dance as if it was a "one-time offer" and I knew that there was going to be a 95% chance that she'd say just what she said. I'd recieved the "Boyfriend" line hundreds and hundreds of times. There's no point in someone saying that and getting so wound up by it that it ruins your night, so you learn to gauge the situation, stay hopeful and alive nad spirited with no expectations, but use your deductive intelligence to scrutinize people and frame what they will and will not say or do. This gives you more control and allows you to have more fun because you won't waste your time trying to convince someone to, for example, dance when you know they haven't danced with anyone but their boyfriend for a few months. There's also the other argument that those confined restricted people should be helped. "Get her to dance! Help her break free! Be her salvation!" But I've learned from a lot of pain that if people do not specifically approach you and and convince you that they seek active change towards something, trying to change them will bring you tremendous pain and futilety. No one can change unless they willingly tell you to do so. So you've got to protect yourself and them. If they don't express interest and active, conscious focus on changing, any opportunity you see to "change them or help them" is an illusion. So stick with reality. If someone wants to pay me and actively says they want to change something I'll help; otherwise I'm free to do what I want. Besides, why waste time with someone who's stuck and is focused on staying stuck, when there's cooler people and more fulfilling people out there. Anyways, I expressed my love out to Tasha in a kind of mindful way. She had a gorgeous kind of Valley Girl body. Probably D boobs. Dirty Blonde hair. Kind of voluptuous curves. But kind of the bubbliness about her as the Boy Meets World girl -- kind of a little bit of dirtier Topanga Lawrence. So she was surprisingly nice. Normally you get those women that give you scoff that says no way anything's happening here!
I revisited the dance floor and with my best efforts to dance with people and have fun, but also to not intrude if they didn't want to dance, I did what most all other people did: kind of dance with yourself, half-hover near some people you want to dance with as they did the same thing. This one kind of smaller framed woman kept dancing by shaking her head back and forth. I asked, "Are you Russian?" with a smile on my face. If she smiled, I couldn't tell, but kept on shaking her head dancing. Probably on some kind of ecstacy drug. I saw a really wild asian dancer in a read christmassy sweater dancing. She could have been a professional dancer with all kinds of nonstop looks and hand movements, or just really feeling the music. I said to myself if I danced with her I'd be successful. So I did that kind of hovering dancing thing that everyone does in front of her which definitey counted as dancing with her. I give myself these little pushes.
So then I wandered around to the other bars and rooms in the huge club and saw Tasha walking alone into one of them as I walked out. I wasn't even really expecting her to acknowledge me, but in any case I did a quick little wave which ended up looking like a "good bye" wave. She smiled pretty deeply at me. Maybe she did feel some good chemistry after all! But she presented to many obstacles: reluctance to dance, boyfriend, and now this chasing game. Sometimes you've got to just refocus elsewhere. I remember having seen her outside the club before we got in. She was easily one of the hottest women in the club. Probably the hottest, I thought. I had actually talked with her! Something I doubt many other guys could say. I bet she was enchanted by the "woman" compliment and since very few other men had approached her, and her boyfriend's best conversational talent was merely flexing his pecs, she probably found me intriguing. But I have no regrets, there was nothing I could have done. Going back to find her, try to break the ice again and again wasn't in my capacity at the time. It's highly unlikely and I'm more likely just projecting what I want to be going on onto the scene, but at that point, after having fully flirted with over five women that night, I had no way of knowing what was going on. She failed in that one by not dancing in the first place! A lot of chasing women seems like "heart endurance" where it's like you go out to these places work up tremendous confidence just to talk to a woman and then hang on as she takes you for a little roller coaster where you feel progress then failure then progress then failure ad infinitum and then it's over and then you don't want to do it again, but somehow find yourself doing it again. With the constant fear of some boyfriend beating me up, some woman getting pissed or embarassing me, or just the constant effort, it's not very fun at all. I guess it built a lot of character though. In any case, it's something I'm proud of having done -- building that kind of "heart in a blender" resilience -- but even more glad that I'm going to focus elsewhere. It's that "She's the one. All the others were getting me primed for this!" mentality that simultaneously keeps me going to shove my heart into these tornados time after time and also nearly drives me insane. I think looking at it as a love rollercoaster is a lot healthier of an outlook actually, so I'll do that. But for now THEY failed. I gave 1000% effort in meeting women and instead of for the millionth time saying to myself "Oh, if I would've said this, or tried that one more time or this" and mounting regret, I know and fully understand that it was their fault. It was their insecurity, their insensitivity, their poor conversation skills, or their lack of intelligence, or lack of romantic courage that caused failure not me!! It's important to recognize that!
So I revisited the dane floor and urgently had to pee. Out if boredom for a challenge, not wanting to revisit the restroom, or some bizarre warped irrational belief that if I hold my urine some woman relationship will magically manifest itself infront of me -- I held it from about 5:25 am to 6:00. I gave myself permission to leave at 6am. And at around 5:50am I was checking my watch more than every minute, just dying to get out of there because it disgusted me. The whole scene disgusted me. The thought "you're supposed to have this success-failure confidence-shattering experience with women; that's how you find the one you like!" plagued me but I knew I had already done that. I knew that I was the most romantically courageous and intelligent person in the entire club, hell maybe in Hollywood that night. You can recognize people with a lot of romantic courage because of all the skills they possess -- the skills I possess -- paitence, intelligence, charm, devotion to doing what's good, and incredibly attention to intuition, and boldness and initiative in meeting new women. So I could say I was my fault if I did this or that, but I know that's not true. It was their fault. They're too blame. But I forgive them, but I won't forget and I won't go back. Ever.
Knowing that is distressing because a part of me says "The type of woman I like is the voluptuous, ditzy, Topanga, clubby woman" how else will I meet one? Well if that's the case, you have to know that you'll never meet one AT a club because that's when they have all their defenses up and additionally that's a fallacious belief. You pitied Tasha because she was trapped. Sure she was attractive, but attractive with issues. The right woman -- gorgeous, hot, fun, sexy, etc. -- will come my way especially when I don't focus on it and that's what I'll do -- not focus on it. At all.
There was this women older than she looked no doubt in a white long-sleeved dressy sweatshirt type shirt. She looked like the girl obsessed with Kangaroos from Chocolat. I liked her kind of clear, peaceful, but not cheesy energy but she act liked there was some force field up. I couldn't even get close to her. It was interesting how I'd say like over 60% of all the people in the club acted like they were dancing with themselves looking at the huge DJ booth-throne on stage. Almost like some bizarrely warped chanting. I didn't like it at all. Will tell you that much. But the common theme was this incredibly strong drive to mate, to have sex. The pursuit of women was only slightly more potent that the outrageous failure I had in having sex with one of the over half a dozen women I sincerely connected with or pursued. I mean just look at them all.
√Iris
√Doll
Kimberly
Vanya
√Kangaroo Girl
√Tasha
Wild Dancer girl.
Two girls who went downstairs
Russian Head-shaker girl
With checkmarks next to the women I was most sexually attracted to.
That type of "no pain, no gain" logic with women has been a really destructive program playing through my brain. I've got to relinquish that crap and embrace the new improved logic "no pain, no insane waste of time":D But it's an incredible drain doing all that chasing. It makes you feel weak, deprived, wounded, evaporated, burdened, heavy; it's not fun. Anthony Robbins is right though, if you don't replace an old pattern with a new more fulfilling one, you slip back into the old. So I've GOT to find new more fulfilling fun pattern than all that bar-women-chasing hellishness. I've just got too. It's pretty clear though that my 60% goal of the evening is meeting to have sex with women, the other 40% is having fun and ensuring good people I like have fun too. But going to bars feels like work to me. What's the point if like 95% of all the nights you put all these tremendous amount of tiring work into meeting and dancing with women and then you're left alone thinking of all the things that "I could've tried or said or kissed this way or that" to be having sex instead. It makes you feel evaporated if that makes any sense. I actually believed that only after getting shot down, rejected, over and over again will I meet dream babe. Not true at all. I don't want to do that any more. That's not how I want to spend my time. The problem is, I know my sexual drive has a mind of it's own and sometimes convinces me to chase after women but I'm in control of my body and mind. I won't give way to the impulses that end up wasting my time; I'll follow the fulfilling urges from now on!
The Lesson of Knowing When to Actively Observe amidst Acting: A Sub-Lesson of "The Best Commitments Never Bind and Allow Advantageous Flexibility"
One thing I realized I NEVER do in life is watch the movie of life. I'm OBSESSED With acting in it; engaging, moving, being active in life. All very good things. After all many a great wise man can espouse the value of being active and interacting with life instead of being a passive observer. However, what I recently realized is that constact acting, nonstop Yang, all the time is out of balance. While activity engagement, and initiative and just "doing stuff" is fantastic and a valuable energetic quality (and no doubt a necessity for success), knowing when to remain just as alert and focused as you are in acting mode, but to sit back and observe on select occasions is of equal importance.. I was at this club the other day and there were a few people there that, amidst all this blaring techno music, gleaming lights, hundreds of people moving and dancing, they weren't moving an extra muscle even trying to dance. Now this wasn't laziness. These people were alert. Sure, there were people that were half-asleep slouched in a chair sitting or spacing out. But these 2 people I saw were always in the middle of this huge dance floor, smack dab in the center of all these dancing partying people, and they were alert and observant and not lazy. It wasn't as if they didn't make an effort to dance; it was as though the thought didn't even consider to them or it wasn't in their interest. They weren't acting haughty or "above" the party or group; none of that. I couldn't figure out what was going on, but later I realized they were "watching the movie" of the club. Watching the movie of that small slice of life. Most interestingly to me was that they appeared to fully have validated their simply standing there fully observing.
Those two people had validated their active observation -- the choice to merely watch amongst crowds that were moving and dancing. The funny thing is what made me realize that. When I entered the club the cover fee was at a booth at which you normally by movie tickets! Wow! haha. I think we've got to ensure that we realize that any commitment mustn't be a "bind". The taoist beliefs emphasize the necessity of the balance between activity and stillness. You grow the best out of utilizing both those. Our very essential bio-rhythms function at such pattern - wakefulness (active engagement) and then sleep (stillness). Committing to being active shouldn't bind you from ocassionally observing, when observing actively could be more valuable at a certain time. Committing to eat certain types of food, mustn't "bind you" to occasionally eating some different type of food that at the time could be more valuable. So in a way the lesson of "allowing yourself to actively observe in the instances where observing would be the most valuable thing to do -- more valuable than acting", is a sub-lesson of the grander idea of remembering to maintain flexibility in your commitments and knowing that the best commitments are those that never bind or lock you into something but enable the flexibility to do something slightly different if that adjustment has more present value. The best commitments allow advantageous flexibility. You have to give yourself permission to do the most valuable thing at a given time within the construct of a commitment -- that's advantageous flexibility. It doesn't mean abandoning your original commitment or goal; just allowing it to expand through a different medium on select occassions.
Knowing When to Actively Observe or Actively Engage.
See, I had felt guilty out of simply actively observing around people. But actively observing doesn't violate that commitment to stay active. So I'm going to focus on being active and constantly doing things but give myself the permission to engage "active observation" when that's best at a certain time or place. How do you identify in which places or events are best to actively engage or actively observe? Excellent question. The best way to know is to ask yourself "is this place or event set up so that I could be the apex center performer? Or is there ropes, boundaries, an inaccessible stage or some kind of hierarchy? If there's a stage you can't get up on and a main event that other people have paid to see then such a situation is best to actively observe because actively engaging will eventually cause problems in such a scenario. If there's already a main event and you excel through exceptionally talented active engagement at that event eventually you'll hit a the ceiling where you aren't permitted to go on stage or use the mic or lead the seminar or whatever the main event is. In this situations simply accept that the maximal utilization of such a scenario is to actively observe. Feel guilty about actively engaging in such a situation because trust me from many many experiences of getting kicked out of places, running into security, hitting that ceiling where someone else is the center, the star because actively engaging is the best use of your time. Then where there's more of an open field in a different scenario you can actively engage.
12.29.2008
The Lesson of Knowing When to Actively Observe amidst Acting: A Sub-Lesson of "The Best Commitments Never Bind and Allow Advantageous Flexibility"
The Lesson of Knowing When to Actively Observe amidst Acting: A Sub-Lesson of "The Best Commitments Never Bind and Allow Advantageous Flexibility"
One thing I realized I NEVER do in life is watch the movie of life. I'm OBSESSED With acting in it; engaging, moving, being active in life. All very good things. After all many a great wise man can espouse the value of being active and interacting with life instead of being a passive observer. However, what I recently realized is that constact acting, nonstop Yang, all the time is out of balance. While activity engagement, and initiative and just "doing stuff" is fantastic and a valuable energetic quality (and no doubt a necessity for success), knowing when to remain just as alert and focused as you are in acting mode, but to sit back and observe on select occasions is of equal importance.. I was at this club in Hollywood earlier this weekend. It was a massive dance club with multiple bars, hundreds of square feet of space. Massive ceilings in a former theatre hall and a huge stage and dance floors cluttered with hundreds and hundreds of dancing partying people. Amongst all that there were a few people there that, amidst all this blaring techno music, gleaming lights, hundreds of people moving and dancing, they weren't moving an extra muscle even trying to dance. Now this wasn't laziness. These people were alert. Sure, there were people that were half-asleep slouched in a chair sitting or spacing out. But these 2 people I saw were always in the middle of this huge dance floor, smack dab in the center of all these dancing partying people, and they were alert and observant and not lazy. It wasn't as if they didn't make an effort to dance; it was as though the thought didn't even consider to them or it wasn't in their interest. They weren't acting haughty or "above" the party or group; none of that. I couldn't figure out what was going on, but later I realized they were "watching the movie" of the club. Watching the movie of that small slice of life. Most interestingly to me was that they appeared to fully have validated their simply standing there fully observing.
Those two people had validated their active observation -- the choice to merely watch amongst crowds that were moving and dancing. The funny thing is what made me realize that. When I entered the club the cover fee was at a booth at which you normally by movie tickets! Wow! haha. I think we've got to ensure that we realize that any commitment mustn't be a "bind". The taoist beliefs emphasize the necessity of the balance between activity and stillness. You grow the best out of utilizing both those. Our very essential bio-rhythms function at such pattern - wakefulness (active engagement) and then sleep (stillness). Committing to being active shouldn't bind you from ocassionally observing, when observing actively could be more valuable at a certain time. Committing to eat certain types of food, mustn't "bind you" to occasionally eating some different type of food that at the time could be more valuable. So in a way the lesson of "allowing yourself to actively observe in the instances where observing would be the most valuable thing to do -- more valuable than acting", is a sub-lesson of the grander idea of remembering to maintain flexibility in your commitments and knowing that the best commitments are those that never bind or lock you into something but enable the flexibility to do something slightly different if that adjustment has more present value. The best commitments allow advantageous flexibility. You have to give yourself permission to do the most valuable thing at a given time within the construct of a commitment -- that's advantageous flexibility. It doesn't mean abandoning your original commitment or goal; just allowing it to expand through a different medium on select occassions.
Knowing When to Actively Observe or Actively Engage.
See, I had felt guilty out of simply actively observing around people. But actively observing doesn't violate that commitment to stay active. So I'm going to focus on being active and constantly doing things but give myself the permission to engage "active observation" when that's best at a certain time or place. How do you identify in which places or events are best to actively engage or actively observe? Excellent question. The best way to know is to ask yourself "is this place or event set up so that I could be the apex center performer? Or is there ropes, boundaries, an inaccessible stage or some kind of hierarchy? If there's a stage you can't get up on and a main event that other people have paid to see then such a situation is best to actively observe because actively engaging will eventually cause problems in such a scenario. If there's already a main event and you excel through exceptionally talented active engagement at that event eventually you'll hit a the ceiling where you aren't permitted to go on stage or use the mic or lead the seminar or whatever the main event is. In this situations simply accept that the maximal utilization of such a scenario is to actively observe. Feel guilty about actively engaging in such a situation because trust me from many many experiences of getting kicked out of places, running into security, hitting that ceiling where someone else is the center, the star because actively engaging is the best use of your time. Then where there's more of an open field in a different scenario you can actively engage.
One thing I realized I NEVER do in life is watch the movie of life. I'm OBSESSED With acting in it; engaging, moving, being active in life. All very good things. After all many a great wise man can espouse the value of being active and interacting with life instead of being a passive observer. However, what I recently realized is that constact acting, nonstop Yang, all the time is out of balance. While activity engagement, and initiative and just "doing stuff" is fantastic and a valuable energetic quality (and no doubt a necessity for success), knowing when to remain just as alert and focused as you are in acting mode, but to sit back and observe on select occasions is of equal importance.. I was at this club in Hollywood earlier this weekend. It was a massive dance club with multiple bars, hundreds of square feet of space. Massive ceilings in a former theatre hall and a huge stage and dance floors cluttered with hundreds and hundreds of dancing partying people. Amongst all that there were a few people there that, amidst all this blaring techno music, gleaming lights, hundreds of people moving and dancing, they weren't moving an extra muscle even trying to dance. Now this wasn't laziness. These people were alert. Sure, there were people that were half-asleep slouched in a chair sitting or spacing out. But these 2 people I saw were always in the middle of this huge dance floor, smack dab in the center of all these dancing partying people, and they were alert and observant and not lazy. It wasn't as if they didn't make an effort to dance; it was as though the thought didn't even consider to them or it wasn't in their interest. They weren't acting haughty or "above" the party or group; none of that. I couldn't figure out what was going on, but later I realized they were "watching the movie" of the club. Watching the movie of that small slice of life. Most interestingly to me was that they appeared to fully have validated their simply standing there fully observing.
Those two people had validated their active observation -- the choice to merely watch amongst crowds that were moving and dancing. The funny thing is what made me realize that. When I entered the club the cover fee was at a booth at which you normally by movie tickets! Wow! haha. I think we've got to ensure that we realize that any commitment mustn't be a "bind". The taoist beliefs emphasize the necessity of the balance between activity and stillness. You grow the best out of utilizing both those. Our very essential bio-rhythms function at such pattern - wakefulness (active engagement) and then sleep (stillness). Committing to being active shouldn't bind you from ocassionally observing, when observing actively could be more valuable at a certain time. Committing to eat certain types of food, mustn't "bind you" to occasionally eating some different type of food that at the time could be more valuable. So in a way the lesson of "allowing yourself to actively observe in the instances where observing would be the most valuable thing to do -- more valuable than acting", is a sub-lesson of the grander idea of remembering to maintain flexibility in your commitments and knowing that the best commitments are those that never bind or lock you into something but enable the flexibility to do something slightly different if that adjustment has more present value. The best commitments allow advantageous flexibility. You have to give yourself permission to do the most valuable thing at a given time within the construct of a commitment -- that's advantageous flexibility. It doesn't mean abandoning your original commitment or goal; just allowing it to expand through a different medium on select occassions.
Knowing When to Actively Observe or Actively Engage.
See, I had felt guilty out of simply actively observing around people. But actively observing doesn't violate that commitment to stay active. So I'm going to focus on being active and constantly doing things but give myself the permission to engage "active observation" when that's best at a certain time or place. How do you identify in which places or events are best to actively engage or actively observe? Excellent question. The best way to know is to ask yourself "is this place or event set up so that I could be the apex center performer? Or is there ropes, boundaries, an inaccessible stage or some kind of hierarchy? If there's a stage you can't get up on and a main event that other people have paid to see then such a situation is best to actively observe because actively engaging will eventually cause problems in such a scenario. If there's already a main event and you excel through exceptionally talented active engagement at that event eventually you'll hit a the ceiling where you aren't permitted to go on stage or use the mic or lead the seminar or whatever the main event is. In this situations simply accept that the maximal utilization of such a scenario is to actively observe. Feel guilty about actively engaging in such a situation because trust me from many many experiences of getting kicked out of places, running into security, hitting that ceiling where someone else is the center, the star because actively engaging is the best use of your time. Then where there's more of an open field in a different scenario you can actively engage.
12.25.2008
Go Obama!
Obama is a story of a person inspiring and leading a disillusioned country. I'm adamantly a supporter of Obama.
Man he definitely has tremendous words of hope, unfathomably inspiring hope, but they aren't hollow; you can tell what Obama says is authentic and originates from a source of true belief.
In terms of his speaking style, the way he floats from a comical message, like the puppy in the whitehouse, to the seriousness of his mother's death.
But belief is contagious, so you believe like he believes in the positive shaping of our country. With his very words Obama has launched the country already into a positive uplifting state of change. Additionally, he's realistic in his promises. He doesn't say we'll fix everything 100% with 0% setbacks. He acknowledges the few bumps in the road. And in that flexibility, lies is his strength. You believe in Obama, hearing him believe! I believe in Obama!
Self-reiance, indiviudal liberty, national unity -- he knows the best values. I feel more faithful and more empowered just HEARING Obama; so having him actually make changes galvanizes just heaps of goodness. haha.
I actually heard this author on presidency speak in person and Greenstein
"gives Obama high marks for running his transition with the same brand of assertive self-confidence he showed during the campaign. The transition has been characterized, he said, by "a very strong sense of maintaining control and professing to be waiting in the wings but filling up all the presidential space, and doing things in textbook order."
A former Clinton aide thought,
"I find it hard to believe that, no matter how skillful he is, he can sustain this level of hope and support,". Well, that's where our part comes in. Obama has the right stuff -- the intelligence, the action-oriented certainty, the confidence, and the clarity to make the best changes; we just need to continue believing in his capacity to inspire, create, and galvanize things to the way they should thrive!
Obama Article
11.11.2008
Tuesday News Blip: Phoenix Lander!
Astronomy: The Phoenix craft of the "Mars Scout Program" to mars is a $475 million mission to launch and land the Phoenix spacecraft on the surface of Mars and explore it. When you consider the massive undertaking of such a project, NASA's slim budget of $475 million is extremely frugal, pennies really, but despite it's relatively slim budget, it's been an incredible success. The Phoenix lander was set to explore Mars for 90 "sols" (Martian days, or about 92 earth days). But instead of lasting a mere 3 months, it lasted almost 5, and only lost transmission to the approaching harsh Martian winter. Phoenix broke the barrier setting a lot of discoveries in previously uncharted territory.
The Phoenix included a set of ovens to heat minerals and materials it picked up as well as an electronic "wet chemistry lab" to run various experiments on the substances it sampled. Phoenix was the first spacecraft to ever "break the surface" (pun somewhat intended) and dig beneath the ice of another planet. This technological advancement revealed that the northern plains of Mars are more habitable for life than expected. Instead discovering inhospibility soil acids, Phoenix discovered alkaline soils, which could be actually conducive to potential plant life!!! It may not be green aliens with three heads and phasers, and rather possible microbes, but the Phoenix has come the closest mankind ever has to discovering life on another planet!The Future of the Mars Scout Program will include an exciting "SUV-sized" Mars Science Lab (MSL -- and yes, and actual "laboratory") hehe. Like its predecessors Spirit (January 4, 2004 landing) and Opportunity, (January 25, 2004 landing) the MSL will have vehicular mobility.
11.09.2008
Science: The journal of Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion
Science: The journal of Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion just announced a possible breakthrough for astronauts enduring long-distance space travel. The earth is protected from meteorites, high velocity cosmic rays, and other space debris from its surrounding "magnetosphere". Cutting edge physicists aim to simulate this magnetosphere around a space craft. Scientists intelligiently merely mimicked the sophisticated protection mechanism already surrounding the earth and voila, a new breakthrough that could extend space travel incredibly.
Bottom-Line: Magnetic Force field aims to protect astronauts from space harshness.
Future astronauts could benefit from a magnetic "umbrella" that deflects harmful space radiation around their crew capsule, scientists say.
The super-fast charged particles that stream away from the Sun pose a significant threat to any long-duration mission, such as to the Moon or Mars.
But the research team says a spaceship equipped with a magnetic field generator could protect its occupants.
Lab tests are reported in the journal Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion.
The approach mimics the protective field that envelops the Earth, known as the magnetosphere.
Astronauts' risk
Our star is a constant source of charged particles, and storms that arise on the Sun's surface result in huge numbers of these particles spilling into space.
As well as this plasma, or "solar wind", high velocity particles known as cosmic rays also flood through our galaxy.
The Earth's magnetosphere deflects many of these particles that rain down on the planet, and our atmosphere absorbs most of the rest.
The first time we switched it on, it worked
Ruth Bamford
International space agencies acknowledge that astronauts face a significant risk of ill health and even death if they experience major exposure to this harsh environment.
And even the spacecraft themselves are not immune to the effects. A solar flare crippled the electronics on Japan's mission to Mars, Nozomi, in 2002, for example.
But researchers from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), the Universities of York and Strathclyde, and IST Lisbon have shown how it might be possible to create a portable mini-magnetosphere for spaceships.
People scale
In its experimental set-up, the team simulated the solar wind in the laboratory and used magnetic fields to isolate an area inside the plasma, deflecting particles around the "hole".
It was not initially clear the idea would work, said Ruth Bamford, who led the research.
"There was a belief that you couldn't make a little hole in the solar wind small enough to do this at all," Dr Bamford, from RAL, told BBC News.
"It was believed that you had to have something very large, approaching planetary scale, to work in this way."
The team has had to take into account the physics of plasmas at the comparatively tiny human scale. To create its metre-sized trial, the team used a plasma jet and a simple $20 magnet.
"The first time we switched it on, it worked," said Dr Bamford.
What is more, the trial field seems to adjust itself automatically. "It does have the capacity to be somewhat self-regulating, just like the Earth's magnetosphere is," Dr Bamford explained.
"When it gets a strong push from the solar wind, the bubble gets smaller. The video shows us increasing the pressure of the solar wind, and the shield gets smaller but brighter."
Power issues
Many more experiments are needed, Dr Bamford admits, to understand how best to harness the effect; and a practical implementation is probably 15 to 20 years away.
The approach mimics how the Earth's magnetic field deflects cosmic rays
To protect a spaceship and its crew, she said, the craft itself might carry the magnetic field generator. Alternatively, it was possible to envisage a constellation of accompanying ships dedicated to the purpose of providing the umbrella where it was needed most.
The approach will probably also work with a field that is not on constantly, but cycles on and off - conserving the power that is precious on long-term missions. The details of how to cycle the field and control its shape must be hammered out, however.
"There're a lot of things to work out, like control, reliability, weight to launch, and so on," said Dr Bamford.
"I don't think it'll come down to as little as sticking fridge magnets on the outside of the spacecraft."
Bottom-Line: Magnetic Force field aims to protect astronauts from space harshness.
Future astronauts could benefit from a magnetic "umbrella" that deflects harmful space radiation around their crew capsule, scientists say.
The super-fast charged particles that stream away from the Sun pose a significant threat to any long-duration mission, such as to the Moon or Mars.
But the research team says a spaceship equipped with a magnetic field generator could protect its occupants.
Lab tests are reported in the journal Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion.
The approach mimics the protective field that envelops the Earth, known as the magnetosphere.
Astronauts' risk
Our star is a constant source of charged particles, and storms that arise on the Sun's surface result in huge numbers of these particles spilling into space.
As well as this plasma, or "solar wind", high velocity particles known as cosmic rays also flood through our galaxy.
The Earth's magnetosphere deflects many of these particles that rain down on the planet, and our atmosphere absorbs most of the rest.
The first time we switched it on, it worked
Ruth Bamford
International space agencies acknowledge that astronauts face a significant risk of ill health and even death if they experience major exposure to this harsh environment.
And even the spacecraft themselves are not immune to the effects. A solar flare crippled the electronics on Japan's mission to Mars, Nozomi, in 2002, for example.
But researchers from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), the Universities of York and Strathclyde, and IST Lisbon have shown how it might be possible to create a portable mini-magnetosphere for spaceships.
People scale
In its experimental set-up, the team simulated the solar wind in the laboratory and used magnetic fields to isolate an area inside the plasma, deflecting particles around the "hole".
It was not initially clear the idea would work, said Ruth Bamford, who led the research.
"There was a belief that you couldn't make a little hole in the solar wind small enough to do this at all," Dr Bamford, from RAL, told BBC News.
"It was believed that you had to have something very large, approaching planetary scale, to work in this way."
The team has had to take into account the physics of plasmas at the comparatively tiny human scale. To create its metre-sized trial, the team used a plasma jet and a simple $20 magnet.
"The first time we switched it on, it worked," said Dr Bamford.
What is more, the trial field seems to adjust itself automatically. "It does have the capacity to be somewhat self-regulating, just like the Earth's magnetosphere is," Dr Bamford explained.
"When it gets a strong push from the solar wind, the bubble gets smaller. The video shows us increasing the pressure of the solar wind, and the shield gets smaller but brighter."
Power issues
Many more experiments are needed, Dr Bamford admits, to understand how best to harness the effect; and a practical implementation is probably 15 to 20 years away.
The approach mimics how the Earth's magnetic field deflects cosmic rays
To protect a spaceship and its crew, she said, the craft itself might carry the magnetic field generator. Alternatively, it was possible to envisage a constellation of accompanying ships dedicated to the purpose of providing the umbrella where it was needed most.
The approach will probably also work with a field that is not on constantly, but cycles on and off - conserving the power that is precious on long-term missions. The details of how to cycle the field and control its shape must be hammered out, however.
"There're a lot of things to work out, like control, reliability, weight to launch, and so on," said Dr Bamford.
"I don't think it'll come down to as little as sticking fridge magnets on the outside of the spacecraft."
11.04.2008
Tuesday News Blip: Obama, Magnetosphere, and Oil
Great News: Man, amazing passion speech. It was really wise to speak of unity, a topic that gets people charged, instead of complex policies from the get-go of his opening speech. Obama appears extremely intelligent, honest, good, and unlike his predecessor, Obama truly understand and most importantly believes the words that he communicates. Obama should be awesome. Hope reigns in america again.
Science: The journal of Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion just announced a possible breakthrough for astronauts enduring long-distance space travel. The earth is protected from meteorites, high velocity cosmic rays, and other space debris from its surrounding "magnetosphere". Cutting edge physicists aim to simulate this magnetosphere around a space craft. Scientists intelligiently merely mimicked the sophisticated protection mechanism already surrounding the earth and voila, a new breakthrough that could extend space travel incredibly.
Bottom-Line: Magnetic Force field aims to protect astronauts from space harshness.
Politics: Arnold Schwarzenegger cast his vote for McCain, joking that McCain has now 100% of the vote from 'Austrian-born bodybuilders', a joke that was just clever and a bit goofy. Meanwhile his wife, being a member of the Kennedy lineage, has voted for Obama. It'll be interesting to see how the rest of the nation votes.
Bottom-line: Election process before Obama won.
Economy: Oil Prices have evened out after spiking in July. In London, Brent crude oil was up to $65.91 but have tapered off to $58.38. In the U.S. the $71.77 July peak has dropped to $69.88. I remember in July hearing stories of automobile commuters who practiced "stepping on the gas" the least amount possible. By using inclines and avoiding stop lights to "save on gas". But trade in oil in the U.S has slowed. It's hopeful that recent growth in China and India will help re-establish equillibrium with the oil market.
Bottom-line: Oil prices begin to balance out after spike in July.
10.28.2008
Tuesday News Blip: Crappy News, Genetic Mutations, and Greenhouse Auspiciousness
Legal Crap and Frightening News: There's a lot of lame crap going on in the legal world. The attorney general of California sued three small trucking companies for violating labors to avoid paying payroll taxes. Alaska Senator Ted Stevens was convicted on 7 counts of corruption and should serve 5 years for each count, but apparently may serve much less. On a much scarier note, the Alchohol, Tobacco, Firearms bureau successful stopped anotehr school killing spree before it started. Some idiot neo-nazis had some heinously inhuman plan to decapitate African Americans and assassinate Barrack Obama. Wow. It's times like these where corruption, illegal earning, and racist brutality seem to clog the news that you feel pretty pathetic calling yourself American. At the very least it certainly doesn't make you feel safe! In fact, the news in America has gotten so foul and disturbing (I can't believe there's still racist neo-nacist hate group buffoons still around), there's really no point in continuing to cover it. But just the fact that dangerous hate-group racism still exists in America really causes you to scrutinize that irrationality. The opinions on slavery from the Civil War really might have left a scar and some racist people remain dangerously confused and primitive, but this chunk of news just reeks of a lot of fear. Jeez, just the thought that if Obama gets elected he could be under the threat of a racist assassination is, well, a sad sign that maybe some haven't evolved as much as they should have. Fortunately, tomatoes have evolved!
Bottom-line: Sometimes current events are so atrocious, at times it's good just to not pay attention to the news.
Health: Interesting news, very intriguing. The genetically modified research has sprouted a new invention: purple tomatoes cross-bred with a snapdragon flower. The resultant creation is jacked with antioxidant and supposedly has huge cancer-prevention properties! The combination of snapdragon with the tomato produces anthocyanin which is an extremely antioxidant-rich pigment.
Bottom-line: New snapdragon genetically-infused tomato may help cure cancer.
Environment: Good news on the horizon of environmental conservation, specifically emissions control! While,
"there is currently no agreed method of allocating international emissions to individual countries", members of the British Parliament are
"determined that international aviation and shipping should be part of a comprehensive approach for tackling climate change". I guess you never factor in exhaust from airplanes polluting the atmosphere contributing to the green house effect, but it's good to know that emission control standards on that form of communication are being set in place.
Bottom-line: Airplanes' emissions control will help environment.
10.21.2008
News Blip: Marathon, Apple Tech, and Felines
Athletics: Roger Bannister, born almost 80 years ago, in 1929, was the first human ever to run a mile in under four-minutes. He accomplished this amazing feat in 1954 during a track meet in Oxford, UK. The winds were high at first, died down, Bannister ran, and when the announcer announced his time of "3..." the crowd went mad. His official time was 3:59.4.
That's a great achievement but what was even more fascinating that the psychological barrier was shattered. Instantly after Bannister did a sub-4, other runners believed it was possible and consequentially more and more sub-4 miles were accomplished. John Walker went on to run 129 sub-4 miles, alone, and Daniel Komen of Kenya, in 1997, doubled up Bannister's original record to run a sub-8 minute 2-mile (two sub-4 miles back to back). So all this "breaking the barrier" business in athletics -- or any arena of accomplishment -- has a big emphasis.
Certainly, three sub-4 miles back to back resulting in a sub-12 minute 3-mile race is certainly a goal for some, but an even more prominent goal is the sub-2-hour marathon barrier. People have gotten close, but no one has ever run a marathon in an amount of time that begins with "1-hour"...x minutes, x seconds. Right now, the person to do that most likely is Gebrselassie, an amazing Ethiopian runner. You can read the full article, but basically prior to Haile Gebrselassie's race in Berlin about 2 weeks ago a 2-hour 4-minute marathon was a barrier. Gebrselassie went on to break that with a 4:44 mile pace to get 2:03:59. There are skeptics and optimists of the 2-hour marathon barrier, but if anything, Gebrselassie brought the world a whole lot closer to the accomplishment of shattering such an outstanding barrier.
Bottom-line: Gebrselassie pushes the sub-2-hour marathon record.
Bizarro News: I normally don't cover the disturbing or unsavory news, but this murder trial of a former "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" actor was just too, well, bizarre. He lured some yacht sellers out onto the boat and apparently tied them to an anchor, plunging them to a watery death. I'd like to know how they discovered his guilt, maybe they had Angela Lansbury on the case, and frankly this sounds like something out an episode of Murder She Wrote, as opposed to real-life!.
And for some comic relief from the above incident "SNL's People getting punched in the face just before eating!".
Technology: I know I covered Apple's "iBrick" rumors last week, but frankly, I just love this IT company. New news with Apple is that they've released an LCD screen designed for it's simplicity in connected with a macbook notebook and a new macbook notebook, sleeker and more polished in its appearance, making it someone visually similar to a miniature macbook pro. Personally, I liked the sturdiness of the older version macbook, which was built like a tank. But nothing can beat the humor of the iBook version 1 which has become notoriously known around the mac community as the "toilet seat notebook" because of its uncanny, um, hardware design.
Kudos for Apple's release of the new macbooks, but honestly I think the LCD was a bit overkill. Apple has released some incredible monitors and LCDs for high-end graphics, those are only mainly used for high-end graphic designers; the typical consumers will just vie for a cheaper LCD screen to connect their macbook to a desktop environment. But it's certainly excellent to know that the LCD option exists for die-hard apple fans (like myself).
Works for me, too. Clicker-training has a fascinating background and Skinner's operant conditioning functions as its fundamentals. It's fun for the pet; fun for you, and simply illuminating (pun unintended) to see the applications of science in your pet from turning on a light switch to other tricks!
Bottom-line: Operant conditioning applies to household pets.
Real estate: Apparently there's some discrepancies in data that show southern californian homes being some of the most expensive, and now, they apparently look as though the prices of plummeted, resulting in a greater number of house sells in recent months.
"Last month's median home price in the six-county region fell 33.2 percent to $308,500 in the six-county region, compared to $462,000 in September 2007, San Diego-based MDA DataQuick said". Interesting, well high or low-priced, still a great place.
Bottom-line: House prices decreases, causing house sales to increase.
Good Times: At least the Aussies still know how to have fun Graduating 12 years from Xavier College allegedly streaked through their school wearing the ties as g-strings, set off fire works, and caused a ruckus like no other on their "Muck up Day" as a graduation prank. It's hysterical if you read the readers comments. Some woman apparently got her her gnomes beheaded and bird bath tipped! And another '68 alumni praised the pranksters! Ah, the life down under! hehe.
10.14.2008
Tuesday News Blip: Apple Innovations, Stocks Skyrocket, and More D
Technology: Apple's innovation cease to amaze. The cutting edge rumor is that they intend to release a special laptop known as "the brick". Doing its name justice, "the brick" is supposedly carved out of a solid "brick" of titanium, making it seamless and screwless! The price for such water-blasting crafted item sounds like it would be extraordinary. While it may not be 100% indesctructible, the durability of Apple's new laptop technology will be a practically unprecedented release sturdy portability. Here are some cool factoids about it:
Macenstein had the best prediction of its bizarre codename:
"it is likely that it is simply a name for an upcoming product (or group of products) that Apple thinks will be sexy enough to pull a huge marketshare away from Microsoft. After all, how do you break “Windows”? You throw a brick through them!"
iPhone Savior predicts it will be some kind of new mac mini:
"a re-design of the Mac Mini super-sized to reveal a Mac Mini Pro of sorts."
Whatever this new innovation will be, it officeally releases (if on schedule) today. So it will be exciting to find out.
Bottom-line: Apple's iBrick's creating a sensational quality hype.
Economy: We've heard a lot of people griping (others outright wailing) about the economic slump, specifically of the stock market. Well, good news for all. Pessimists complained that the stock market was as bad as it was during the Great Depression. Maybe, but I'm an optimist and now I recognize is as flourishing as it was during the Decade of the Glorious (but of course after the Great Depression and without the distorted Keynesian economic blunders that caused the drop nearly 6 dozen years ago). And evidence of our recently flourishing economy lies in the crisp numbers of the stock market: stocks skyrocketed 11% yesterday, which is the biggest jump since 1933. So clearly, optimism will always prevail over of the pessimists.
The cause of this? Not so reassuring. Many believe this will hurt more then help the economy, but the Bush Administration shifted into a "$250 billion of the $700 billion bailout program recently passed by Congress to purchase stock in U.S. banks, providing the banks with desperately needed money" and the FDIC will temporarily provide insurance loans for the banks as well. Why would the Bush administration do such a maneuver when he's practically no longer in office? Possibly a somewhat desperate attempt to boost the economy, or malevolent ploy to screw with the economy before it shifts into more adept hands. hehe. Probably the former.
Apple stock shot up a whopping 13.26 points yesterday, too, so apparently "the iBrick" (see above) made an impression on shareholders.
Bottom-line: Stocks sky-rocket because banks rework a bailout plan.
Health: New breakthroughs in nutritional science have shown recent significance of Vitamin D in building bones and preventing cancer. Preventing cancer, after all, is simply about creating balance in the body. Scientists don't understand the direct cause of cancer so they create all these assumptions of measures to take to indirectly prevent it. Undoubtedly taking more of a balance of Vitamins will create body balance and it's that physiological equilibrium that ultimately prevents any kind of deterioration in the body (cancer included). So in another few months scientists will have a "big breakthrough" stating that we need to be taking more Vitamin A! And then more Zinc! etc. Framing these as real breakthroughs would be impractical; they do serve a good purpose though; old-fashioned reminders to take in healthy Vitamins. People are more apt to change their habits (in this case "vitamin consumption") if it's labeled as a "new breakthrough". In any case, you can get more D in smelly fish like mackarel, tuna, and sardines, supplements, or our sun.
Bottom-line: Double your intake of Vitamin D.
9.16.2008
News Blip: LHC
The Large Hadron Collider was such massive news that it definitely needs its own article.
LHC will reveal to us details about dark and antimatter. It's like an opportunity to replicate some never before-seen conditions, and answer millions of unknown questions; doing that, sometimes scares people! haha.
It excites me and most scientists, too, though.
Basically it gives us an inside look into how the universe was created, re-manufacturing some big-bang like instances that will answer jumbles of of scientific questions, clarify models (like the Stand Model) that were purely theoretical practically, and illuminate a lot of "shaky and uncertain" areas of science. Basically the LHC will provide is with a "Director's Cut Edition" on the making of the movie of the "Universe". haha!
Here's the breakdown of what the components will do. They basically track different things, some of which we haven't ever known about until now.
Anti-matter tracking -- LHCb is in charge of this. We've got a TON of matter in the universe, but can't seem to find the anti-matter! The big bang had equal amounts of matter and anti-matter, but all we've been able to put our fingers on is matter. LHCb will track where the anti-matter goes in the miniaturized, microscopic Big Bang replica.
Quark-Gluon Plasma tracking -- ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) will track liquid-like plasma that existed ONLy after the big bang, so that'll clear that up.
Dark Matter & Higgs Boson tracking -- CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) and ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC Apparatus) both function as the core kind of general all-purpose tracking dark matter and the so-called "god particle". Understanding the Higgs Boson particle's (the only unobserved particle of the Standard Model) role in the univese could reveal how massless energy transformed into mass.
Other Dimension, Origins of Matter, and new Physics tracking -- ATLAS will scope out all of these new ground-breaking discoveries.
The Higgs Boson particle (along with quarks, leptons, photons, and gluon particles) is a key particle in the Standard Model, but unlike all the other 4, it's purely theoretical. The LHC will hopefully prove the existence of the Higgs Boson, completing a major puzzle piece to the cosmological big picture.
While the LHC Rap video
is award-winning, this debriefing
is the most ilustrative I've seen.
Finally, this video
had some great invterviews from an eclectic handful of CERN scientists and physicists.
LHC will reveal to us details about dark and antimatter. It's like an opportunity to replicate some never before-seen conditions, and answer millions of unknown questions; doing that, sometimes scares people! haha.
It excites me and most scientists, too, though.
Basically it gives us an inside look into how the universe was created, re-manufacturing some big-bang like instances that will answer jumbles of of scientific questions, clarify models (like the Stand Model) that were purely theoretical practically, and illuminate a lot of "shaky and uncertain" areas of science. Basically the LHC will provide is with a "Director's Cut Edition" on the making of the movie of the "Universe". haha!
Here's the breakdown of what the components will do. They basically track different things, some of which we haven't ever known about until now.
Anti-matter tracking -- LHCb is in charge of this. We've got a TON of matter in the universe, but can't seem to find the anti-matter! The big bang had equal amounts of matter and anti-matter, but all we've been able to put our fingers on is matter. LHCb will track where the anti-matter goes in the miniaturized, microscopic Big Bang replica.
Quark-Gluon Plasma tracking -- ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) will track liquid-like plasma that existed ONLy after the big bang, so that'll clear that up.
Dark Matter & Higgs Boson tracking -- CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) and ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC Apparatus) both function as the core kind of general all-purpose tracking dark matter and the so-called "god particle". Understanding the Higgs Boson particle's (the only unobserved particle of the Standard Model) role in the univese could reveal how massless energy transformed into mass.
Other Dimension, Origins of Matter, and new Physics tracking -- ATLAS will scope out all of these new ground-breaking discoveries.
The Higgs Boson particle (along with quarks, leptons, photons, and gluon particles) is a key particle in the Standard Model, but unlike all the other 4, it's purely theoretical. The LHC will hopefully prove the existence of the Higgs Boson, completing a major puzzle piece to the cosmological big picture.
While the LHC Rap video
is award-winning, this debriefing
is the most ilustrative I've seen.
Finally, this video
had some great invterviews from an eclectic handful of CERN scientists and physicists.
9.09.2008
POP Suite Part 5: Email Organization
Welcome back to the Productivity and Organizational Progress (POP) Suite. Today we're talking about Email Organization.
Here's my two cents on email productivity.
THE source for clarity on [Gmail] IMAP bugginess.
When add the [Gmail] Pretext to my Gmail account only certain gmail folders pop up:
All mail
Deleted messages
Spam
Starred
and One other folder
When I remove that, my massively annoying byzantine infrstructure of google labels pops up. What the hell is going on?
Well, any "prefix you use" [Gmail] will be the only folders that Mac Mail loads. So if you have 7 folders called [ABC]/Folder1 [ABC]/Folder2, etc. Mac Mail will only load those seven folders.
Google is so infuriatingly buggy, I can't even begin to describe how much its IMAP features suck.
So many 3rd-party programs have done that. Even open office (neooffice is slow as fracking hell). So I've made an ultimatum with myself. I only use Apple software. Period! I'll likely switch to mobile me within a few months because that looks so smooth and inecredible.
I'm talking EVERYTHING mac. Sure, I'll use quicken, and one or two other third parties, but everything else: apple. Why not? It's complete, it works great, its's designed for yoru ocmputer by the company that designed hte hardware, too. It's smoother to keep the kinds of software congruent and do you actually "need' all of those crap, hack third-party programs? Definitely not. Most certainly not. They're all impulse buys. Anything that you can do with apple software is all that you need. They have a built in xcode sdk and script editor for applescript for crying out loud! They give you the tools and the freedom to create your own apps! Signing up for non-apple email, apps, upgrades, etc. before was just something I had an aversion to, (Being a devout apple fan), now signing up for or using 3rd party programs has ceased being an aversion and has simply become a massive source of pain and sheer frustration. I hate non-apple apps. I frankly hate tehnology right now I ahve spent so much time debugging and trying to get things to work, but if I can take a few small doses of technology, I'll only settle for Apple.
I just got fed up reading reviews on Macword because what use is a review from a really awesome program that I can't afford in the first place?!!! Untill I can actually afford this software, reading about it seems kind of boring.
I'm seriously at the point where I'm so sick of these little installations from xyz software that wreak disgusting, foul, putrid discombobulated havoc and disgusting clutterfests on my life. One of those, most undoubtedly is google. I hate google. Their IMAP configurations wiht mail.app are so sickenling buggy, it's basically like setting up and debugging your own email server in the beginning ages of the internet. It's causes me so much painful frustration for hundreds and hundreds of hours of my life. I didn't even realize that google mail was the cause of it. I had a couple gmail accounts and I finally "settled" in one
Email Folders
We've got @Later, @Noisy, @Archive, @Action, and @Respondto. Now honestly those are a bit redundant. I like the A, B, C method of prioritizing all those folders, meaning
C
Noisy
Laters
B
Respondto
A
Action
Because A, B, and C reflect the amount of mental energy you should put towards a response. If you don't want to right a long response, drop the message in C! C messages should be limited to 5 lines maximum for each response. NO MORE! Stickign to that methodology will give you so much freedom in life because instead of seeing dozens of emails where some might involve actions or long or short responses, if you have collected 10 emails in "C" just dash out responses to those and it should take you 10 minutes, tops!
Rules about rules!
Key word to the wise regarding Google Filters or Mail.app Rules. Use them sparingly and ONLY if you have absolute 100% assurance that the rule will get highly utilized. think of the filters/rules as large conduits -- the main "plumbing" if you will, if your email. On my gmail account at one time I had over 30 filters -- Thirty! That just creates (trust me. I know from experience) a fragile, and convoluted email routing system. I think rules and filters should max out around 10, with a few strange exceptions. Good reliable filters that i always use are routing my Facbook and Myspace emails into @LATER/C and @LATER/Myspace, respectively. I get a lot of those updates Consistently -- the consistency is the key parameter for making a rule --and this way they're all consolidated in a seperate folder that I peruse leisurely, "@Later". Consistency is key. At one point, I set up all messages from certain friends to be automatically labelled as "friend". That's cool. Except that when you do that with 10-20 email address and then those people write irregularly, you've got 10-20 extra filters/rules clogging your "email plumbing" which just adds ot confusion, instead of subtracts it. Bottom-line: Rules/Filters should have a high threshold of criteria before they're applied:
1. Regularity -- You must Consistently Receive certain type of email (like Social-networking updates)
2. Consolidation -- Would prefer to have this messages redirected out of the inbox in a seperate folder
3. Decreases Confusion & Clutter -- Adding said filter/rule decreases confusion, instead of adds to it.
With the "Auto-labelling-as-friend" filter, I'd have a friend email me every month or so and "miss" the email because it popped up in "Freinds" instead of inbox. All emails that are irregular (meaning that it's up to the recepient, instead of some auto-responding program like Facebook notifications) should be unfiltered and go to your inbox for you to process directly. Here's an example using all three criteria: Filtering newsletters rerouted to @LATER or @LATER/Newsletters fits reflects "regularity" because you'll recieve those like clockwork weekly or monthly or whatever the scheduled frequency was; "Consolidation" fits because why would you want to read a 4-page newsletter in the midst of processing your main email. You want those in the "@LATER" folder, consolidated and out of the way to optionally read after you've handled stuff that could potentially "blow up". Finally you can check of "Decreases confusion and clutter" because seeing a swelling "Inbox" can cause alarm but if all of those are "Newsletters" you'll just see a swelling "@LATER/NEwsletters" which decreases confusion and panic!
Another example: Bank and Financial NOtices. Any important alerts that you want to receive immediately should, obviously not be filtered, but your weekly or monthly bank statement that sends via email, as long as it can't possibly contain something that could "blow up" or an action coudl be routed to @Later or @Later/Finances, for your Liesure perusal of your financial emails.
On the Nature Of @LATER Emails: Stopping the Dam
It's important to note that all emails directed to @LATER should be emails that could potentially go unread for months or years and nothing "would be missed". Anything important or tied to an action should never be filtered. This is why you don't filter friend's emails because they could have an action buried in there (the rare exception is the loving aunt who only always sends just "Checking in" emails). Don't Assign a rule to something you need to see in your inbox! So given that everything auto-routing to @Later or its sub-folders is just "Leisure reading", the question arises "If I don't Need to read that stuff, why do I even subscribe to it?" Answers will vary, but it's immensely valuable to just plug the leak and simply unsubscribe to junky newsletters or updates you rarely read in the first place. Redirecting All newsletters and automated notifications to @LATER is half the solution. The next solution is eliminating via unsubscribing the junk @LATErs (i.e. the junky newsletters or notifications that you dont' care about in the first place). This is just stopping the dam intstead of redirecting the fluidity of your flow to another folder. If what accumulates in @LATer is primarily "sewage" in other words, eliminate the sewage from the source and stop just "redirecting it around" for goodness sake!
So to conclude we've talked about the "Rules for Rules" or the Three criteria of Regularity, Consolidation, and Decreasing Confusing for assinging a rule and we've talked about just eliminating and being SELECTIVE about the @LATER emails you recieve in the first place.
Those to excellent solutions is your calling card to the delightful and enlightening experience of lightning fast inbox-zero anti-clutter email.
Here's the down-low summary on how to work email with the most simplistic methods possibly (i'm drawing from merlinn mann, David allen, some macworld gurus and other productivity experts and my own experience).
I've detailed the horros of the overly-byzantine system above.
Possible Emails -- Email_IDEAS
Responses
This folder should contain REsponses that you foresee as plausible. When I email. I typically already know what a person will say in response so This way I have the responding part covered. Alternatively, which is the best to do, this should be in Drafts and labeled a different color indicating that it's a "canned response" to a pre-written email. When you know how people think, you already know the type of response you expect to get, so just write your response to that future response then so you don't have ot worry about thinking about in the future.
Edit GMail Filters -- remove most
Ensure I'm aware of what emails are skipping inbox.
AFter some consistency has been established with these folders add in mail-acton and mailtags features ONLY if those programs are non-trial
READ about Mail-acton
Read about Mail-Tags
Get Mail-acton to work
Get a license for it for free or buy it before fully using it
Learn how it works and create some useful rules
Set up mailtags
Elminate all archiving folders after setting up mailtags
Find Mail Aggregator for myspace and facebook accounts
Tuesday News Blip
Transportation: Interestingly enough, local Californians and many other commuters have grown a liking to the public transportation method of commuting they adopted to deal with outrageous gas prices not too long ago. Now that gas prices have dropped, many commuters still prefer the public transportation method. Hey, better for the environment, less pollution, and cheaper; they just have to make sure they get a good bus driver!
Real Estate: Californian real estate continues costs top dollar, especially compared to other places around the U.S. Take La Jolla's average house cost of $1.8 million compared to Sioux City's average house cost of $133,000. You'll get comparable actual houses for 13 times more or an additional $1.67 million in California. One small factor is unemployment in some mid-west states like Ohio or Michigan, unemployment rates have slashed home values, but that's not the bulk of the price variation. So what's the deal? I think local home owners would agree that mountains, ocean, surfing access, and perfect year-round whether is well worth 20 times the amount of paying to live in a place with no ocean, no mountains, and colder temperatures half the year. So in a sense, CA real estate is a bargain! Going international, however, it turns out Dubai, United Arab Emirates takes the cake for most expensive home, costing $2.5 million, or a 1/3 more than the average La Jolla cost. However, some east coast places like Greenwich, CT ranked in at comparable prices to the expensive California coast cost. While on the other end of the spectrum, the study showed house prices like Jackson, MI, Akron, OH, and Arlington, TX as the lower end prices, but obviously, that cost cut reflects the cut in climate quality and environmental resources.
Technology: Google plans on ousting Microsoft's Internet Explorer with its own browser, Chrome. While Microsoft remains convinced its newest IE 8 will hold the market, Google's browser undoubtedly will be tough competition given their dominance in internet searches already. The announcement could've effected stock prices already as MSFT dropped a few cents while GOOG jumped over a $1 but those prices could have been coincidental. Some features of Chrome are going to be tough breaks for Microsoft though. Like "protected tab surfing" or "crash control" where (not unlike the protected memory feature of Mac OS) if one tabbed page crashes while surfing only that single tab will restart, not the entire browser, making for much less glitchy web surfing. And features like "incognito" which keeps hidden your Internet navigation history as well as an auto-updated list of top site visits. It's quite possible that the introduction of the iPhone, Bill Gates' departure, and now Chrome poking tough competition at IE 8, could have started a slippery slope for Microsoft, inhibiting it from holding the monopolizing technological stance it once had. However, it's important to point out that most all features present in Chrome alreasy existant in Apple's Safari browser.
Immunology: New discoveries in the origins of poison ivy reveal insights into developing an immunity to the plant, but a consistent cure remains to be found.
Science: Oh...and there's just one more thing. The Large Hadron Particle Collider could change the way we view the entire universe, gravity, and our relationship between matter and energy. Just one last tidbit to throw in there. I found this little rap pretty convenient and instrumental in explaining all the fine details of the process:
LHCB is where the antimatter's gone. ALICE and ATLAS looks at collisions of lead ions. CMS and ATLAS are two of a kind. They're looking for whatever new particles they can find. The LHC acclerates the protons and the lead and the things that it discovers will rock you in the head.
The LHC will reveal to us details about dark and antimatter. It's like an opportunity to replicate some never before-seen conditions, and answer millions of unknown questions; doing that, sometimes scares people! haha.
It's amusing how much irrational fear this amazing scientific breakthrough has caused. Talks of "the end of the world", "silly Jesus stuff", "recreating the big bang's destructiveness" are just ignorant and irrationally loony. It's astonishing how far ignorance and blind naivety will allow people to take them; some people even went as far as trying to have a legal barring of this incredible and fantastically monumental breakthrough in science. But people always fear what they don't understand albeit one the biggest cosmological breakthroughs ever, so hopefully the above rap will eradicate that fear with a simple explanation:
size = 17 miles, cost = 8 billion, energy consumption = 14 trillon electron volts
but a complex explanation could be even more enlightening, but this inside look is what really takes the cake for being the most helpful. Of course, learnign something about Higgs boson and the Standard Model couldn't hurt either. This is a the collaborative product of over 8000 physicists and 85 countries. It's a grand uplifting event not a destructive one! The collaborative efforts of that type are second only to things like the Olympics. This most certainly is a fine day for the world and for science.
C to the E to the R to the N...ahh that's the best part of the rap.
Conclusively, I say:
The LHC will reveal to us details about dark and antimatter. It's like an opportunity to replicate some never before-seen conditions, and answer millions of unknown questions; doing that, sometimes scares people! haha.
It excites me and most scientists, too, though!
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