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Page Two is a blog, but the headings have possibilities. Below is a list of older headings from the current year. Since I sometimes update earlier entries, the list includes the date of the most recent post. The most recent heading is always first, both in the blog and the list below.

List of Headings - Page Two

- Internet Broadcasting - Aug. 21, 2008
- Mars: The Quest for Life - Aug. 14, 2008
- The Oil Crisis - Jul. 19, 2008
- Obama Wins Over Fox News - Jul. 8, 2008
- Y2K2: Armageddon 2012 - Updated Jul. 4, 2008
- Hydrogen Fueled Cars - Updated May 6, 2011
- The Petroleum Industry - Updated Jun. 22, 2008
- On Monsters - Jun. 19, 2008
- ChoicePoint - Updated May 24, 2008
- Discovering Psychology with Philip Zimbardo - May 12, 2008
- Theories in Cognitive Science: Belief and Experience - May 8, 2008
- NewsKing Challenge: Rupert Murdoch - Updated Apr. 20, 2008
- Defense Spending - Apr. 13, 2008

- Zeno's Arrow - Mar. 10, 2008
- Jeremy Butterfield - Updated Feb. 26, 2008
- The "Real" Question - Feb 8, 2008
- Why Man Creates - by Saul Bass - Jan. 18, 2008
- Universal Healthcare - Updated Jan. 29, 2008
- Evolution vs. Creation - Jan. 9, 2008
- Atheism - Updated Jan. 9, 2008
- God - Updated Jan. 3, 2008
- Einstein and Maxwell - Jan. 1, 2008
- Nietzsche and Descartes - Jan. 1, 2008
- Happy New Year - Jan. 1, 2008

Archives

- 2007

Page Two Blog

Internet Broadcasting - Aug. 21, 2008

There should be minimal barriers to the NewsKing Broadcast System - the future of broadcasting in the digital age...

The broadcast industry is arguing that microwaving Stouffer's Frozen Dinners could cause a slight blip for people without cable who live under very specific conditions. (I don't know about you, but I like lasagna.)

They will reach a "final decision" in "a few months?" WTF? They're not even giving us a chance to develop the "noise filters" now used by most cable companies - if there turns out to be any interference at all!

It's clear that this has become as much of a political debate as it has a technical one. On the one hand, the National Association of Broadcasters is pointing to the tests as evidence that interference can't be avoided.

On the other side, ...the technology community says that these are simply proof of concept devices and not even prototypes that could be used in commercial products. In fact, [one executive] said he is certain his company and others would pour millions of dollars into development if the FCC approved the use of white spaces and gave specific guidelines and rules for products (CNET).

You have to realize that HDTV...

...allows the U.S. government to implement its plans of removing a portion of the VHF and UHF spectra from television uses and auctioning (resulting in a revenue stream of perhaps billions of dollars) some frequencies off to make them available for commercial voice and data services. Other frequencies will be reserved for government and public service (Wikipedia).

Mars: The Quest for Life - Aug. 14, 2008

The Oil Crisis - Jul. 19, 2008

In President Bush's recent speech on the free market and the oil crisis, Bush mused that the high price of gas will force people to drive less.

Click HERE to watch this episode from TheDailyShow.com.
Click HERE to watch this video on YouTube.

That doesn't help anyone. His ideas are reminiscent of the ideas behind the gas crisis of the 1970's (1973 | 1979), although the current situation is a bit different. In the 1970's, there were long lines at gas stations where people waited to get gas that was in short supply. Today, gas is not in short supply.

The reason the current gas crisis is similar to the crisis of the 1970's is that oil companies are still trying to crash our economy if they don't get their way (particularly with off-shore drilling and ANWR). They do not want to reduce our dependence on oil in any meaningful way, and they'll do anything to maintain that dependence far beyond what people need or want. We will need oil, but we can reduce our dependence more rapidly than oil companies would desire.

Bush has also stated that the oil crisis is "psychological."

Click HERE to watch this episode from ColbertNation.com.
Click HERE to watch this video on YouTube.

In other words, oil companies are willing to bid up the price of oil if they don't feel better, psychologically, about maintaining our dependence on oil for far too long. Hopefully they will find a way to lower the price of gas without drilling off-shore or in ANWR. But they are willing to sacrifice the environment, as evidenced by Bush's recent remarks at the conclusion of the G8 summit. (He said "goodbye from the world's biggest polluter" and proceeded to throw punches in the air.)

It is more profitable for oil companies to bank on the military, and crash our economy, than invest significantly in the development of alternative sources of energy. They seek to profit from oil by as much as possible by dragging out the move to alternative sources, destroying the environment, and controlling the oil market by manipulating our government. These are the ideas behind Cheney's energy policy.

I've heard the debate put in terms of national security vs. the free market. That seems extreme. It seems more a matter of appropriate legislation. Again, we will need oil, but we can reduce our dependence more rapidly than oil companies would desire.

Obama Wins Over Fox News - Jul. 8, 2008

In an on-air statement July 7, 2008 (1), Fox News' oil "expert" endorsed Barack Obama's plan to lower oil prices. The news personality claimed "the price of oil is about the future," endorsing Barack Obama's plan to close the "Enron Loophole" and end rampant price speculation.

Hopefully "the Rupe-ster" won't fire or otherwise harass this guy for exposing his political views. He has a right to work!

[S]uspensions or other reprisals are given to reporters and producers for not promoting the channel's political point of view (Wikipedia).

The documentary film Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism contains a lot more information about Fox News. You can check out the preview below.

Click HERE to watch this video from Outfoxed.org.
Click HERE to watch this video on YouTube.

See Also: NewsKing Challenge: Rupert Murdoch

Related:
- Outfoxed.org
- VIDEO: Interviews

Notes:
- 1) I wasn't recording otherwise I would post the video. I can't even remember the guy's name. But I was watching sometime between 3pm and 5pm EDT July 7, 2008.

Y2K2: Armageddon 2012 - Jul. 3, 2008

[UPDATE - July 4, 2008: The text below has been edited for accuracy.]

I found an article on ABCNews.com about the end of the world coming in 2012, and I decided to post some excerpts from the article in this blog. I also decided add some comments. Excerpts from the article are in the blue boxes below. My comments appear beneath each box.

Two years ago, Patrick Geryl, then 51, quit his job as a laboratory worker for a French oil company. He'd saved up just enough money to last him until December 2012. After that, he thought, he wouldn't need it anyway.

Instead, Geryl, a soft-spoken man who had studied chemistry in his younger years, started preparing for the apocalypse.

That's because Geryl believes the world as we know it will end in 2012. He points to the ancient Mayan cyclical calendars, the longest of which last renewed itself approximately 5,125 years ago and is set to end again, supposedly with catastrophic consequences, in 2012.

So... he studied chemistry. I think he must have skipped Earth Science. Although working for oil companies may or may not cause apocalyptic thoughts...

And he points to science: NASA predicts a sharp increase in the number of sunspots and sun flares for 2012, he said, sure to cause electrical failures and satellite disruptions.

NASA has satellites that watch the sun so we can aim the other satellites away from trouble. There has been only one recorded power failure (that I know of) associated with such phenomena, and it was over pretty quickly. We can even warn about it now.

First, a polar reversal will cause the north to become the south and the sun to rise in the west.

There is a scientifically-based theory that predicts the Earth's magnetic fields may flip, but the Earth itself will not flip. The sun will still rise the same way it always has. The best predictions put this event far beyond 2012.

"It's bigger than Y2K," said Mark van Stone, a specialist of Mayan hieroglyphic writings and author of a forthcoming book on 2012. "The year is like a pop song or a popular movie. You type in 2012, and you get hundreds of thousands of hits."

It's bigger than Y2K on the Internet.

"Whatever happens, I'm just trying to be prepared for it," [said Thomas Lehmann, a 25-year-old factory worker from Cape Girardeau, Mo.]. "I'm just learning to be independent of the system. I mean electricity, vehicles, alternate sources of energy. I'm learning to live without gas, basically be self-reliant."

George W. Bush is not "self-made!" His dad was the president! You would be better off learning people skills in case you're not alone.

"If this stuff does happen," Lehmann said, adding, "I have a way to eat. I can hunt, I can fish and I can purify water. I think it's people in the big cities that need to be worried. People that can't provide for themselves."

I bet you're storing gas in the shed. Why not drive to the city and show them how to hunt, fish, and purify water. They might have some canned food - and can openers - they would be willing to share in exchange for your help.

[T]he Maya saw their "long count" - the longest of their cyclical calendars - coming to an end in 2012 but also beginning anew on that date, without disastrous consequences.

"Really, it's a conversion of people's anxieties about our times, and finding some remote mythological precedent or prediction of it," [Professor] Houston said about the origins of the current 2012 myths. "People like to believe that ancient wisdom is somehow predicting this time of upheaval."

Yes. They're combining information from books, movies, and the Internet with the Mayan calendar. But they can also study subjects like economics, the environment, philosophy, physics, politics, psychology, sociology, etc. on the Internet. Maybe try to help people out.

"They are looking to buy a plot of land high up in African mountains, where they'll be able to withstand the monstrous tidal waves and wait out the cloud of volcanic dust that they said would block out the sun."

I thought they wouldn't need money after 2012. Why not get a savings account and just squat on the land until 2013? I don't think people would notice or care.

Hydrogen Fueled Cars - Jun. 24, 2008

[UPDATED: May 6, 2011]

There are new cars out now, such as the FCX Clarity from Honda, that run on hydrogen fuel. Here is a photo and schematic of a fueling station that can make very cheap hydrogen fuel from water and solar power.

The FCX Clarity at a Hydrogen Fueling Station

Schematic of a Solar-Powered Water Electrolyzing Hydrogen Station

Related:
- Honda FCX
- Honda FCX Clarity
- Honda Solar-Powered Water Electrolyzing Hydrogen Station

The Petroleum Industry - Jun. 20, 2008

[UPDATE - June 22, 2008: The text below has been edited for accuracy.]

A burning oil field in Iraq (SoHo Blues).

"The petroleum industry barely existed 100 years ago and will probably be largely gone 100 years from now. Nevertheless in this relatively brief period oil and gas have become fundamental to our modern technology-oriented society. The use of oil as fuel can be thought of as a time of growth from about 1860 up to 1975, a time of maturity to the turn of the twentieth century, and a time of decline after that" (OCE 815).

A beach after an oil spill (Wikipedia).

"The other challenge is in the development of alternative fuels. [...] [I]n the long term energy supplies will become tight unless other new and cost-effective alternatives are developed in the realms of hydroelectricity, solar, wind and tidal power, and hydrogen and alcohols from crops" (OCE 817).

A bird caught in an oil spill (Google Images).

See also:
- Dangerous Profits: Energy, Economics, Environment
- Defense Spending

Abbreviations:
- OCE: Hancock, Paul L. and Brian J. Skinner eds. (2000). The Oxford Companion to the Earth. New York: Oxford University Press.

On Monsters - Jun. 19, 2008

"From the earliest times, the learned and the unlearned have believed in monsters. For many, they made up a necessary part of natural history, either representing punishment for sin or the fecundity and diversity of creation, blended seamlessly with mythological beliefs in devils, spirits, ancestors, and legendary beasts. Monstrous births, both human and animal, particularly inspired fear. Curious natural objects such as strange shaped horns, fossils, skins, and minerals, and human artifacts such as gravel stones from the bladder, were all subjects of allegory and commentary. Folklore, cultural history, medicine, morality stories, and scientific curiosity mingled together, as reflected in the works of Albertus Magnus" (OCMS 545).

Detail from a painting by Matthias Grünewald, 1515 (Wikipedia).

"In early modern Europe, 'naturalists' were philosophers who (often covertly because of ecclesiastical censorship) endorsed the materialistic tenets of Epicurus, Lucretius, and their followers in the Renaissance tradition. During the seventeenth century similar positions were credited to philosophers like Thomas Hobbes and Baruch Spinoza. The latter inspired a literature, circulating mostly underground, that attacked traditional beliefs in spirits, sorcery, the devil, and the supernatural, and was thus regarded as atheistic in its consequences if not in its premises" (OCMS 565).

Saint Wolfgang and the Devil by Michael Pacher, 1471-1475 (Wikipedia).

Abbreviations:
- OCMS: Heilbron, J.L. ed. (2003). The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science. New York: Oxford University Press.

ChoicePoint - May 21, 2008

[UPDATE - May 24, 2008: The text below has been edited for accuracy.]

"ChoicePoint is a data aggregation company... that acts as a private intelligence service to government and industry" (Wikipedia 2008).

After my arrest (which the court dismissed and expunged) in 2006, I discussed the implications of companies like ChoicePoint with a court employee. I discovered that the state charges a fee for "expungement data" to private companies like ChoicePoint, though government databases get updated. At the time, no private company paid those fees. So potential employers would see "ARRESTED - DISMISSED" as opposed to "NO ARRESTS."

It is interesting that there is nothing like the EEOC to protect people from the kind of political judgements influenced by companies like ChoicePoint.

Why is ChoicePoint (and over 70 other companies as of 2006) blaming the consumer?

If there is information in your reports that you believe to be incorrect, we will show you how to dispute it, free of charge [minus legal and employment costs] (ChoicePoint 2008).

"I called ChoicePoint and they showed me what to do. 2 years later, they fired the other guy and I got the job!"

Click HERE to watch this video from ChoicePoint.
Click HERE to watch this video on YouTube.

As it turns out, I'm not a "convicted sex offender," as ChoicePoint labeled me HERE.

-----HUMOR-----

BREAKING NEWS: ChoicePoint provides armbands to employers to issue to employees. The bands indicate various information using symbols and stripes, similar to the military.

RELATED: Military issues similar armbands to employers.

"Terrorists bomb database managers' homes..."

Then shut down ChoicePoint!

-----------------
See also: Context (Election Years)

Related:
- Lexis-Nexis Parent Set To Buy ChoicePoint
- Reed Elsevier to Acquire ChoicePoint
- Data Broker Merger Threatens Privacy
- VIDEO: CNBC Clip

Discovering Psychology with Philip Zimbardo - May 12, 2008

Below you can view an episode of Dr. Philip Zimbardo's PBS Telecourse entitled Discovering Psychology. This 30 minute episode features the Milgram Experiment, the Stanford Prison Study, and several other interesting studies. Some of these include the "Line Study" (Line A, Line B, or Line C) and the "Air Force Vision Study."

Click HERE to watch the entire series ("Program 19" is featured below).

Click HERE to watch this series from Learner.org
Click HERE to watch this video on YouTube

Theories in Cognitive Science: Belief and Experience - May 8, 2008

According to a number of theories in cognitive science, it is possible that some people interpret sense data using cognitive resources that may be modeled, generally, as "mini minds." Using these theories, it is possible to explain why some people may believe they "see" or "hear" information that may seem "new" or "unrelated" to their conscious experiences.

These theories may or may not be interpreted in relation to near death experiences, religious phenomena, ESP, telepathy, psychic phenomena, and "supernatural experiences." Of course, this does not necessarily mean that none of these things exist, only that cognitive science can be interpreted in ways that seek to provide a scientific explanation for various experiences and phenomena.

NewsKing Challenge: Rupert Murdoch - Apr. 18, 2008

[UPDATE - Apr. 20, 2008: The text below has been edited for accuracy.]

Rupurt Murdoch is an Australian tycoon who wields considerable influence over American politics. He "owns" Fox News. Unlike Bush or Cheney, Murdoch is not responsible to the American public - he can seclude himself from both the media and everyone else.

I would like to explore Mr. Murdoch's political philosophy.

Murdoch on morality:

Murdoch said just before the war, "We can't back down now - I think Bush is acting very morally, very correctly" (Murdoch qtd. New York Times, 4/9/03; Guardian, 2/12/03; American Progress, 7/16/04).

"Once [Iraq] is behind us, the whole world will benefit from cheaper oil which will be a bigger stimulus than anything else" (Murdoch qtd. Guardian, 2/17/03; American Progress, 7/16/04).

Defense Spending - Apr. 13, 2008

Consider the information (1) below:
[1000 billion = 1 trillion]

Total Outlays (Federal Funds): $2,650 billion
MILITARY: 54% and $1,449 billion
NON-MILITARY: 46% and $1,210 billion

How These Figures Were Determined

"Current military" includes Dept. of Defense ($653 billion), the military portion from other departments ($150 billion), and an additional $162 billion to supplement the Budget's misleading and vast underestimate of only $38 billion for the "war on terror." "Past military" represents veterans' benefits plus 80% of the interest on the debt.

The Government Deception

The pie chart below is the government view of the budget. This is a distortion of how our income tax dollars are spent because it includes Trust Funds (e.g., Social Security), and the expenses of past military spending are not distinguished from nonmilitary spending. For a more accurate representation of how your Federal income tax dollar is really spent, see the large chart (top).

[What would you do with 1.5 trillion dollars?

I would put a new government department in charge of all "automated defense" ("various computer-related," drones, robots, satellites, etc.). For missiles and nukes there could just be staff members there from this new department. Then cut the military budget. Just an idea... Maybe I'm wrong (2)...]

Notes:
- 1) http://www.warresisters.org/pages/piechart.htm
- 2) I spent, like, 30 minutes thinking about this. Technically, NewsKing requires a trip to the library here.

Zeno's Arrow - Mar. 10, 2008

I decided to talk about Zeno's Arrow tonight.

Jeremy Butterfield - Feb. 21, 2008

[UPDATE - Feb 26, 2008: The text below has been edited for accuracy.]

I recently discovered Jeremy Butterfield's neoNewtonian paper entitled The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence (Part A | Part B). There appear to be a number of similarities to my ideas, though there are also some differences. I thought The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence was a very good paper, and I enjoyed reading it. An interesting quote from this paper:

[On] the existence of spacetime (or spacetime) points as objects on a par with the rest of one's ontology (so called 'substantivalism')[:] The popularity of this claim reflects the rise of scientific realism from the mid-1960's onwards. For scientific realism holds that one is committed to believing in the existence of those entities that are ineliminably referred to or quantified over by one's best scientific theories. And our best physical theories are presented as quantifying over spacetime points -- with never a hint of how to eliminate such quantification (Butterfield 9).

These ideas may be related to Dr. Butterfield's papers on pointillism:

http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/butterfield/Papers/AgainstPointilliismeGeometry.pdf
http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/butterfield/Papers/AgainstPointillismeMechanics.pdf

I also found another paper by Jeremy Butterfield that looked pretty interesting.

If I could ask Dr. Butterfield one question, it would be about the following sentence:

[T]he precise metaphysics of mathematics is open to interpretation, so long as it is realist (Newton, Metaphysics and the Mind).

The "Real" Question - Feb. 8, 2008

The "real" question I want to ask is what can be done, philosophically, with a "timeless particle?" How would it alter our understanding of determinism?

Why Man Creates - by Saul Bass - Jan. 10, 2008

Click HERE to watch this video on YouTube.

Universal Healthcare - Jan. 10, 2008

[UPDATE - Jan 29, 2008: The text below has been edited for accuracy.]

The city of San Francisco has contributed positively to the debate about healthcare reform in California. But state-wide healthcare reform may still be a ways off.

Evolution vs. Creation - Jan. 9, 2008

Evolution is an empirical theory. Empiricism - the observation of the senses - is the foundation of human knowledge. So it makes sense that evolution should be taught in schools, while other "origin theories" should not.

Atheism - Jan. 7, 2008

[UPDATE - Jan. 9, 2007: The text below has been edited for accuracy.]

The atheist movement may be showing signs of internal strain. [Some] atheists cannot seem to reach philosophical agreement on a number of important issues. [A small number] appear to be looking to philosophers like Nietzsche, who said "God is dead." Others appear to look to empiricism, which is hotly debated by a number of competing philosophical approaches. The result seems to be disagreements among [some] atheists that have grown by an order of magnitude on the Internet.

God - Jan. 2, 2008

[UPDATE - Jan. 3, 2008: The text below has been edited for accuracy.]

People often ask me about my religious beliefs, and I usually don't answer. But here it is...

As best as I can figure, I'm an agnostic - I don't know whether or not there is a God.

If I were a professor, and a student brought me a "God proposal," or "telepathy proposal," or anything like that, I'd want to know what they thought about paradoxical objects. People believe all kinds of things.

Proposing that there is no God or no telepathy is easy - there is no empirical evidence for God or telepathy.

Proving that there is or is not a God (or telepathy, etc.) seems pointless. People believe all kinds of things.

It's the kind of answer you only want on really hard days. It doesn't really give you a warm embrace, but it does the job...

Einstein and Maxwell - Jan. 1, 2008

Einstein was the E=mc² guy (among other things). The "c" represents the speed of light in a vacuum.

Einstein used Maxwell's equations for the speed of light. I am wondering about the effects of changing Maxwell's equations, in various ways, on Einstein's theories. Just to see. (Apparently I'm not the only one - read this article's last sentence.)

Nietzsche and Descartes - Jan. 1, 2008

There is a lot of information about these two philosophers. For now, I want to call my idea "Nietzsche was stuck on Descartes."

If I ever decide to seriously explore that, I also think it would be possible, using Russell and Whitehead, to generate statements like:

"Postmodernism is a mathematical concept."

That's supposed to be funny...

Happy New Year - Jan. 1, 2008

Happy New Year!

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