A flock of Seagulls and The Green Revolution.

Iran. (So far away)

If you have managed to avoid any sort of credible news outlet in the last week, you may not know there's some upheaval in Iran. Then again, if you're a major America Media Outlet, you probably did miss it.

So here is the background:

Blah blah ancient history blah blah 1921 Reza Khan (not the star trek guy) overthrows the Qajar Dynasty and becomes Shah. Reza attempts to stop Soviet and British influence in Iran. Here comes world war deuce. Standby, because Reza is starting to get friendly with perennial bad guy Hitler and company. The Soviets and Britain invade Iran and dipose Reza in 1941. They replace Reza Khan - Shah with his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

In addition to the new Shah was an elected Prime Minister, Mohammed Mossadegh. He is a very popular man in 1951 and essentially controls the nations oil. That makes the US and allies pretty nervous. So in 2003 George Bush authorizes the invasion of... oh wait. What I meant to say was in 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower gives the green light to run something called Operation Ajax. The CIA and company essentially run a private coup and Mossadegh is hooked up. A new pro-Western guy gets the PM gig. His name is Fazlollah Zahedi .

Zahedi doesn't get to do much though because the Shah takes on more and more power. The country begins to modernize with western support. The shah also suppresses opposition with his security and intelligence forces.

Enter Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Khomeini is not a fan of the Government or its actions. Khomeini criticizes the Shah and company. In 1964 Khomeini gets arrested, does 18 months in an Iranian prison and then is exiled. The exile world tour included Turkey, Iraq, and France. While on tour, he continues to say not-so-nice things about the Shah and the pro-Western government.

This is where it gets good. Or not so good.

Starting in early 1978 there are protests, civil disobedience, strikes, and mayhem. The economy falls apart. The Shah sees the writing on the wall and beats feet. In January 1979 Khomeini starts the Islamic Revolution Reunion Tour with a sold out show in Tehran. The military says they don't know nuthin bout birthing no babies and won't get involved to stop the Ayatollah.

April 1st 1979, the Iranian people approve a national referendum to make Iran an Islamic Republic with a theocratic constitution.

So what exactly is the structure of the Iranian Government? Imagine the southern baptist convention with suicide bombers. Ok, its somewhat a modern democracy within an Islamic theocracy.

At the top is the Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah. He is the highest ranking religious and political bearded guy in the country. He gets to pick the chiefs of the military, highest ranking judges, and 6 of the 12 members of something called the Guardian Council.

The supreme leader is picked by an 86 member body called the Council of Experts.

There is an elected President. Currently, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad holds that job. He was elected in 2005. He reports to the Supreme Leader and is responsible for the management of the country and acts as the executive of the country. He also gets to appoint his cabinet which must be approved by an elected Parliament.

Back to the Guardian Council and its 12 members. Remember the Supreme Leader gets to appoint half of the Council. The other half is chosen by the Parliament. The Guardian Council can veto anything the Parliament has to say or do. They also get to approve anyone who runs for office.

The Parliament (Maljis) consists of 290 elected seats elected by popular vote. Of course, it's a popular vote of those who survive the Guardian Council's approval process.

Right now, the Guardian Council and Maljis are controlled by conservatives. As late as 2001 the Parliament was a little more reform minded.

Back to the present and enter Mir Hossein Mousavi. He's selling himself as the Reformer. Ranting against much of the current political system. Interesting. Ask Azar Nafisi about it. You see, during the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Mousavi became Prime Minister and implemented many of the repressive measures he now denounces. Nafisi was a University Professor at an Institution Mousavi shut down.

There was an election held on June 12th. The "official" results show Ahmadinejad getting 62 percent while Mousavi held about 34 percent. The truth of the matter, or at least the less dishonest versions that are somewhat independent, actually believe Ahmadinejad legitimately won the election. Just by a smaller margin.

So why the protests? I'm still sorting that one out in my mind. Not so much why, but for what. The why is because they are upset they lost the election. Add to that, those in power made it look as though they lost by more. A legitimate recount would likely end up with the same outcome but closer race. Do the current actions of the establishment strike such a chord in the hearts of the Iranian people that a new election would provide for a different outcome?

What about the US? We've thrown one coup party in Iran and they didn't even have a fledgling nuke program at that time. Probably because Donald Rumsfeld was right when on 02/12/02 he said:

There are known knowns. There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don’t know.

The last thing the United States wants right now is an unstable, potentially nuclear armed Iran on the border of Iraq. You see, Ahmadinejad is a known known. Mousavi is either a known unknown or unknown known. This is completely different from a known gnome.

There is an interesting story being published on Fark and Google sites using Twitter services to get updates from Tehran and the protests. Take it for what it's worth, but perhaps worth reading. The writer asserts a call to prayer on Friday may be a big show down. The writer also claims approximately 5000 Hizbollah (Army of God) Fighters are running around dressed as Riot Police ready to do some dirty work.

If you're interested in finding out more about this debacle check out the sources I used:

http://www.voanews.com/english/
http://english.aljazeera.net/
http://www.stratfor.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/
http://www.reuters.com/
http://www.spiegel.de/international/
http://english.pravda.ru/
http://www.lemonde.fr/
http://www.csmonitor.com/
http://www.npr.org/
http://www.ap.org/
http://www.globalsecurity.org/
http://www.mir-hosseinmousavi.com/

Archaeologists vs. Johnnie Cochran

Archaeologists have it easy. Sure there is peer review, but c'mon! They don't have to prove anything to the extent of a criminal investigation.

The scientists use DNA, biological, and carbon evidence. You ever notice how often during these site excavations they are bare handed, hair exposed, and dropping trace evidence of themselves and who knows what else all over the scene? Locard anyone?

I watched a documentary on a skeleton discovered in a mass grave in Egypt. The body had a substantial and likely fatal head wound. None of the internal organs remained. There was no regrowth of the skull. This means the skeleton was not alive after the damage and only that.

A early weapons expert "duplicated" the wound using a rock and sling to hit a terracotta pot on a stick. The conclusion was the victim was a Coptic Christian killed by Roman soldiers.

Wow. Must be nice. There is no discussion that the damage to the skull could have likely been post mortem. For craps sake, the body was in a mass grave. We all know how careful bodies are handled in mass graves. Any exculpatory evidence reference internal injury or disease garnered from an autopsy with all available information (the entire body) is unavailable. Since it's not available it's okay to ignore it in the world of archaeology.

How about the wrongly accused Roman Soldier. Prove to me the soldier was the one who slung the rock. The likelihood that slings were widely available is pretty good. There could have been a second rocker. Not to mention friendly rocking.

It's not like you can do chemical analysis of the explosives used to blow the target to pieces. More simply, no ballistics on the rock supposedly used to kill this skeleton. Again, we don't know the skeleton was alive when he received the skull damage.

The best archaeologists likely couldn't get a Judge to agree there is even a crime, let alone probable cause to charge someone. Heaven help them with a jury. No chance when a defense attorney attacks their conclusions.

Like I said, it must be nice. I'd say the Roman Soldier has a good civil rights violation case.

I hate suspense and television has allowed me to avoid it.

The perfect example is Law and Order. Its a glorious thing. The beginning of the show is someone finding a body, some clues and at 15 minutes past the hour a suspect is developed. Half past the hour, bad guy is in custody and the legal wranglings start. There's 15 minutes of legal arguments about some take of criminal court rule 3.5 and 3.6. With 15 minutes left, maybe a new piece of evidence or strange twist to be battled by the Prosecutor. At the end of the hour, all is well.

Any deviation from the above itinerary means the arrestee is not the right guy. I don't have to worry about something terrible happening to the cast now, because, quite frankly, its 47 minutes after the hour. All will be well in 13 minutes.

Life, sadly, does not adhere to this.

Stupid reality. Maybe the archaeologists are finding the bodies at 47 minutes after the hour.

Speaking of...

Speaking of gravity...

What do you mean? Well I was talking about it and it's my blog so if you don't like it you can leave. There will still be millions of people looking at it.


Oh fine. Thousands.


Crap. Okay 4 people will still read this blog. 3 of which are my mother, my psychiatrist, and the guy with the black helicopter from the NSA. (I think he's onto me.)


That being said, if you drilled a hole completely through the earth and jumped into it you would accelerate all the way to the center of the planets mass. Your momentum would then propel you past the center. At which point you would begin to decelerate at the same rate you initially accelerated until you reached the far side of the Earth.


Now, I recommend you stop and hold onto the other side of the Earth. If you don't you're going to drop back toward your other side of the earth starting point. I expect you could encounter loss of momentum due to drag and eventually get stuck in the 5000 degree liquid metal center of the Earth.

Speaking of Drag. US Senator Slade Gorton goes away and Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn appears. Coincidence?






Speaking of something not even remotely related (not even in my brain), you ever wonder what TV censorship sounds like for African Click Languages?

Speaking of things that pop-up, Doctors are out of control. They're pushing Viagra on kids. (Legitimate reference here.)

If you do go to the above mentioned NSA website, you'll get a browser notification telling you the website wants to install a media player extension. Yes, that sounds like a good idea. Then again, I went to their office and I got this microchip in my brain. Its worked for me so far.


Good news on the Uighur front. According to the BBC they have their choice of tropical island to live on. Some of em are headed from Guantanamo to Bermuda.

Personally....

... Maybe they need to make better use of sign space and put a longer message in the blank space. I might be a bit more sympathetic to their cause if they gave me more background on why they "need to freedom". They really need to sell themselves. Better yet come to the capitalistic dark side and sell some advertisement rights to that space. What would work... maybe a spot from Steve's Water Boarding Supplies?

Speaking of selling things, the economy must be really bad. The availability of velvet Elvis paintings is at an all time low. Probably because everyone has switched to their obsession of the Snuggie.

Lastly, speaking of Elvis, he isn't dead. He simply is stuck in the center of the 5000 degree Earth.

PS The websites for NSA and Rob van Winkle both want to install the same media extension. Subsequently, Vanilla Ice is actually a tool of the NSA to control the minds of the masses. Nah, he's just a tool.

Apophenia Matters!

It's all in the details. Details the media won't tell you about. Yet, I shall waste your time with them. You'd expect no less.

The United States Shadow Government is at it again. True American Art Bell has been banished from the country by those Illuminati -New World Order types. Just because the guys tells the truth about things like Bigfoot, UFO's, Area 51, and other staples of the lunatic fringe, er well-informed. That or Immigration lost his wife's paperwork.

The good news, for some, is Gitmo has been discombobulated and people are being sent to other places. Some of them like Gitmo better than home. A group of Chinese Islamic Extremists have determined to not be "Enemy Combantants". They were just "Enemy Thinkers About Doing Bad Thingers". If they are sent home, they will be tortured and executed. Hell, at least Gitmo didn't do the whole public execution thing. Ergo, Gitmo is better than China.

They will get to live in their own personal version of Survivor Palau. Interestingly enough, these people are called Uighur. Though the word is pronounced the same, it is completely different than a descriptor of Vanilla Ice.

Speaking of dead careers, another foot has been found detached from it's body. There's a lot of that going around here. I've been trying to arrange a reasonable explanation from this. I think it must be out there. Other than previously mentioned purple lesbian chinchillas gone rabid, I'm at a bit of a loss. Stranger things have happened. I mean people like Kid Rock for craps sake. Maybe its a form of Swine Flu.

Apophenia can be described as finding significance in insignificant phenomena. I supposed that's what this blog is all about. It also describes my favorite radio show. TBTL. In the words of Ferris Bueler - If you have the means, I highly recommend it.

Physics chooses the third option

Does light have mass? If light does have mass, does your weight change at night? This is probably another reason some people turn off the lights during... never mind.

What the hell is mass?

Mass can be expressed as a function of energy. Well, the energy of something divided by the squared speed of light. m=E/c^2.

What?

There are a number of definitions of mass which include:
The quantity of matter in an object.
The measurable property of an object to resist change in its state of motion when force is applied. (Perhaps not a definition, but you can see the effect of mass as the gravitational force exhibited by said mass on another mass. This is the definition used by Einstein in his theory of Special Relativity as the mass-energy equivalent. )

Mass is experienced as weight here on Earth. Weight is the mass of an item subsequent to the effective gravity sum of all other objects within the system. In lesser gravity environments objects weigh less, but retain the same mass. In fact, depending on where you are on Earth, your weight may change. Mass multiplied by a gravitational state is the weight. (mg=weight)

Mass is also one observable information about a thing.

Matter is anything that possesses gravitation and inertia. So matter has mass, but does it mean everything that has mass is matter? No matter...

Inertia is the tendency of matter to resist change to its state of movement or non-movement.

Isn't this the same as one of the above definitions of mass? Actually the mass of the object defines its inertial qualities in combination with force. So inertia depends on mass and force. Inertia changes but mass is constant.

Gravitation is the shared attraction between objects. These objects are masses or have mass.

Momentum is a measure of how much a thing is moving somewhere. Mass multiplied by velocity is the momentum. (p=mv) This momentum can be measured as a force exerted by light. Light has momentum. We know it has a velocity (299,792,458 m/s) and since it has momentum we can see in this line light has mass.

Potential Energy = mass x acceleration of gravity x height (PE=mgh). We know mass is constant and gravity is dependent on the mass of the gravitating body or bodies. Add to that, height, and we have potential energy. (This assumes a mass providing gravity and a lesser massed object at some distance from the greater body.) Any mass has an associated energy, or more correctly; an “energy equivalence”. That energy (E) is equal to mass (m) multiplied by the speed of light squared (c^2). (E=mc^2.)

Hey… Nothing can move faster than the speed of light, so how can you square it? (Actually, this doesn't indicate an increase of the speed of light. Rather, since you are equating Energy to mass, it's a conversion factor for the equation.) Equally we can define the speed of light as the square root of the known Energy of an object system divided by its mass. (Good luck with it but E/m=c^2)

Let’s define the mass of a particle as its rest mass. There is a problem with doing this because it denies movement and subsequently we're kind of screwed with previous assumptions.

Getting sucked into a black hole does it lose it's light but not it's mass. Light is a wave-particle. Well it presents itself like it is. Relative mass is total energy divided c2 (e/c2=m). Given the mass of anything, multiplying it by the speed of light squared should provide it's energy. We now have every piece of information about the system. Unless it goes past the event horizon. Stupid paradox.

Since something gets sucked into a black hole and cant escape does it stop at the center including its subatomic particles and subsequently render its energy: zero? Equally does its mass increases relationally and add mass to the hole? Since you can’t see anything beyond the event horizon and light cant escape but nothing can be destroyed, is it really bright in there? Or is stuff really massive?

So when the weight (That stupid mass thing in a given gravitational field) is so high because the gravity is so high the velocity of an object system is less than the required escape velocity for that black hole. If light loses it's mass but retains its energy it can escape, but then its no longer light, just energy? Can energy exist disembodied from some mass?

Since energy is dependent upon the speed of light in the equation

How does the speed of light effect gravity? Can the gravity of a black hole be limited because the speed of light is constant? Can the speed of light be affected by the mass of a black hole? If the speed of light is the fastest thing period, yet gravity can be shown to be dependent on the speed of light and thus limited, light should be able to escape a black hole.

The gravity of a black hole, while immense, must be a real and definable quantity and not infinite.

Since light cannot theoretically escape a black hole.

Assume you have 4 black holes (s, t, u, v), equidistant, of equal strength, and with their absolute centers on one plane. Their spheres of influence (at which they deny the escape of light) intersect at one finite point on the plane, x=0 and y=0. A source of light is aligned to this point on the z axis, transecting the above plane at (r) x=0, y=0. What the hell happens?

The light arrives within the area of effect of all four black holes. They all pull irresistibly and equally. Does the light suspend motion?

The whole farking thing doesn't work for me. Unless this. What happens if the black hole accelerates the speed of light beyond the speed of light and the accelerated speed of light is faster than the speed of information. Can information actually be faster than the speed of light? Wow, Einstein would be wrong.

Mark Twain said “Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't.” To which I add “Physics chooses the third option.”

The event horizon has been delayed.

I am sorry to inform all of you, the event horizon has been delayed for approximately 2 weeks while a defective light is being replaced. You may ask, how did anyone know the light beyond the event horizon had gone out? Many more however will ask, what's the event horizon? I'll get back to that later.

I took a quiz about depression and I failed. There are at least 6 people more depressed and crazy than I am. At this point, I think I would fail a urine test.

I changed the blog colors. Why? Just because I could.

OK, back to the event horizon thing. The event horizon can be defined as a boundary in spacetime, from beyond which nothing can be observed. In general relativity space and time are completely intertwined. Bend space you bend time. Bend time and you bend space. Therein, you can travel anywhere instantly if you can bend space without breaking it. Given a pair of wire cutters and a clue about the programmers family I could hack the password and break both. (Sidenote: The perfect T-shirt for me)

We start with the black hole. No, not her. A black hole is thought to be a thing (technical term) with absolute definition and such mass (and subsequently gravity) that nothing can escape it's grasp. This would include light and stuff defined as "anything".

Since that which we see is a function of things, or in the case of seeing them, light, we can not see anything beyond this boundary. The bigger the black hole, the greater the grasp and the less we will see.

So, if THE CAT is beyond the event horizon, even if we attempted to see what the cat was doing we couldn't. Does that mean we wouldn't influence the outcome? (Schrodie's Cat T-Shirt)

Nevermind.

The thing (different but still technical term) that gets me, is what the hell happens to all that stuff. Take our favorite scalar physical quantity known as energy. According to the law of conservation of energy Energy can not be created or destroyed. Its a LAW and it's on the interweb so:

1. must be true
2. don't screw with it.

So, nothing can be destroyed and nothing can escape the hole. So what exactly is going on in there?

Entropy (Another LAW) basically states that all things are moving from a state of order to disorder. (Wait, how does evolution work then???) Yet, you have a collection of energy which cannot escape the event horizon. Stupid Chaos Theory.

What is going on in there is very similar to a small child losing their intestines to a swimming pool cleaning system. (Sadly, the poor girl has died.)

None the less, where does it go? Damn it!!!!!! Its annoying me. I can't get over this. Are you with me? You can't destroy or create energy. (Everything is energy.) It goes beyond the horizon and disappears forever. But everything is going from order to disorder.

Right at the heart of this is the gravitational or spacetime singularity. You can only measure this in infinite terms. Holy crap. Infinity? Wait, what happens if I bust past the event horizon at infinite speed?

Better yet, according to General Relativity (actual NASA link) the Big Bang occurred at one, single, finite, specific, uno, point. Yet a singularity occurs within all these black holes. Okay, you're right, these are curvature singularities.

Actually, singularities are commonly separated as conical and curvature singularities. The differences is whether or not they have an event horizon.

I'm guessing there some serious wackiness going on. I suspect the oil companies are involved too.

Did I mention I'M SINGLE?

Back to the Cat.

Schrodengers cat has so many good uses. 1)Homework 2)Prompt arrival for work or dinner 3) Every fight you have ever had with a spouse.

OK, you all want to know about this cat. The cat is dead and not dead. The outcome of any future scenario is unknown. The only way to know the outcome is post facto. If you observe the incident you influence the outcome. (The cat was and was not and is and is not long before refrigerators had lights.) So ultimately everything in the future exists with all possible outcomes. The part people don't like is when there is a bad outcome. You only know the outcome because you observed it. Ergo, it's your fault for looking.

1) Yes I did my homework unless you asked me for it. Therefor, I don't have it because you wanted it.

2) I was both early and late for this important engagement. I was on time until you asked.

3) Yes Dear. I did say that, but you can't be mad because you wouldn't have been mad if you hadn't asked me. I rightly may have had a completely different answer had you not asked.

It's everyone else's fault. Except the cat. But since you read this YOU made it the cats fault. Or not.