The Shortest Distance Between Two Points Is A Straight Line

http://boldt.us/humor/no_parking_fire_hydrant_bmw_windows.jpg.html

I'd love to have been a bug on the wall in the Insurance Company Agent Office when the owner of the car tried to explain this one.

The Truth of Fish is Less Than The Failure of Leadership

When we fear truth and profound discoveries we fail ourselves. Our personal definitions grow dimmer. We open ourselves to ill repute. The ladder of Excellence becomes that much longer for now we add ill currents which must be traversed before we can reach our potential....

Rejection of the wonder which is reality breeds disillusion with leadership....it is a mortgage placed upon tommorrow whose balloon payment none can make.


Mars Anomalies, Water, Plants, Life! HD

Mind Is Not Limited to Time, Space, or Place...New Gains On An Old Idea

Is Quantum Mechanics Controlling Your Thoughts?

Science's weirdest realm may be responsible for photosynthesis, our sense of smell, and even consciousness itself.

by Mark Anderson

published online January 13, 2009

A sea slug neuron may tap quantum forces to process information. In humans quantum physics may be integral to thought.

Dylan Burnette/Olympus Bioscapes Imaging Competition

Graham Fleming sits down at an L-shaped lab bench, occupying a footprint about the size of two parking spaces. Alongside him, a couple of off-the-shelf lasers spit out pulses of light just millionths of a billionth of a second long. After snaking through a jagged path of mirrors and lenses, these minus­cule flashes disappear into a smoky black box containing proteins from green sulfur bacteria, which ordinarily obtain their energy and nourishment from the sun. Inside the black box, optics manufactured to billionths-of-a-meter precision detect something extraordinary: Within the bacterial proteins, dancing electrons make seemingly impossible leaps and appear to inhabit multiple places at once.

Peering deep into these proteins, Fleming and his colleagues at the University of California at Berkeley and at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered the driving engine of a key step in photosynthesis, the process by which plants and some microorganisms convert water, carbon dioxide, and sunlight into oxygen and carbohydrates. More efficient by far in its ability to convert energy than any operation devised by man, this cascade helps drive almost all life on earth. Remarkably, photosynthesis appears to derive its ferocious efficiency not from the familiar physical laws that govern the visible world but from the seemingly exotic rules of quantum mechanics, the physics of the subatomic world. Somehow, in every green plant or photosynthetic bacterium, the two disparate realms of physics not only meet but mesh harmoniously. Welcome to the strange new world of quantum biology.

Green algae may rely on quantum computing to turn sunlight into food.

On the face of things, quantum mechanics and the biological sciences do not mix. Biology focuses on larger-scale processes, from molecular interactions between proteins and DNA up to the behavior of organisms as a whole; quantum mechanics describes the often-strange nature of electrons, protons, muons, and quarks—the smallest of the small. Many events in biology are considered straightforward, with one reaction begetting another in a linear, predictable way. By contrast, quantum mechanics is fuzzy because when the world is observed at the subatomic scale, it is apparent that particles are also waves: A dancing electron is both a tangible nugget and an oscillation of energy. (Larger objects also exist in particle and wave form, but the effect is not noticeable in the macroscopic world.)

Quantum mechanics holds that any given particle has a chance of being in a whole range of locations and, in a sense, occupies all those places at once. Physicists describe quantum reality in an equation they call the wave function, which reflects all the potential ways a system can evolve. Until a scientist measures the system, a particle exists in its multitude of locations. But at the time of measurement, the particle has to “choose” just a single spot. At that point, quantum physicists say, probability narrows to a single outcome and the wave function “collapses,” sending ripples of certainty through space-time. Imposing certainty on one particle could alter the characteristics of any others it has been connected with, even if those particles are now light-years away. (This process of influence at a distance is what physicists call entanglement.) As in a game of dominoes, alteration of one particle affects the next one, and so on.

The olfactory bulb of an adult mouse (seen here at 800x magnification)may provide its sense of smell via quantum vibrations.

Dr Adam Puche/Olympus Bioscapes Imaging Competition

From tunneling to entanglement, the special properties of the quantum realm allow events to unfold at speeds and efficiencies that would be unachievable with classical physics alone. Could quantum mechanisms be driving some of the most elegant and inexplicable processes of life? For years experts doubted it: Quantum phenomena typically reveal themselves only in lab settings, in vacuum chambers chilled to near absolute zero. Biological systems are warm and wet. Most researchers thought the thermal noise of life would drown out any quantum weirdness that might rear its head.

Yet new experiments keep finding quan­­tum processes at play in biological systems, says Christopher Altman, a researcher at the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience in the Netherlands. With the advent of powerful new tools like femtosecond (10-15 second) lasers and nanoscale-precision positioning, life’s quantum dance is finally coming into view.

INTO THE LIGHT

One of the most significant quantum observations in the life sciences comes from Fleming and his collaborators. Their study of photosynthesis in green sulfur bacteria, published in 2007 in Nature [subscription required], tracked the detailed chemical steps that allow plants to harness sunlight and use it to convert simple raw materials into the oxygen we breathe and the carbohydrates we eat. Specifically, the team examined the protein scaffold connecting the bacteria’s external solar collectors, called the chlorosome, to reaction centers deep inside the cells. Unlike electric power lines, which lose as much as 20 percent of energy in transmission, these bacteria transmit energy at a staggering efficiency rate of 95 percent or better.

The secret, Fleming and his colleagues found, is quantum physics.

To unearth the bacteria’s inner workings, the researchers zapped the connective proteins with multiple ultrafast laser pulses. Over a span of femto­seconds, they followed the light energy through the scaffolding to the cellular reaction centers where energy conversion takes place.

Then came the revelation: Instead of haphazardly moving from one connective channel to the next, as might be seen in classical physics, energy traveled in several directions at the same time. The researchers theorized that only when the energy had reached the end of the series of connections could an efficient pathway retroactively be found. At that point, the quantum process collapsed, and the electrons’ energy followed that single, most effective path.

Electrons moving through a leaf or a green sulfur bacterial bloom are effectively performing a quantum “random walk”—a sort of primitive quantum computation—to seek out the optimum transmission route for the solar energy they carry. “We have shown that this quantum random-walk stuff really exists,” Fleming says. “Have we absolutely demonstrated that it improves the efficiency? Not yet. But that’s our conjecture. And a lot of people agree with it.”

Elated by the finding, researchers are looking to mimic nature’s quantum ability to build solar energy collectors that work with near-photosynthetic efficiency. Alán Aspuru-Guzik, an assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University, heads a team that is researching ways to incorporate the quantum lessons of photosynthesis into organic photovoltaic solar cells. This research is in only the earliest stages, but Aspuru-Guzik believes that Fleming’s work will be applicable in the race to manufacture cheap, efficient solar power cells out of organic molecules.

TUNNELING FOR SMELL

Quantum physics may explain the mysterious biological process of smell, too, says biophysicist Luca Turin, who first published his controversial hypothesis in 1996 while teaching at University College London. Then, as now, the prevailing notion was that the sensation of different smells is triggered when molecules called odorants fit into receptors in our nostrils like three-dimensional puzzle pieces snapping into place. The glitch here, for Turin, was that molecules with similar shapes do not necessarily smell anything like one another. Pinanethiol [C10H18S] has a strong grapefruit odor, for instance, while its near-twin pinanol [C10H18O] smells of pine needles. Smell must be triggered, he concluded, by some criteria other than an odorant’s shape alone.

What is really happening, Turin posited, is that the approximately 350 types of human smell receptors perform an act of quantum tunneling when a new odorant enters the nostril and reaches the olfactory nerve. After the odorant attaches to one of the nerve’s receptors, electrons from that receptor tunnel through the odorant, jiggling it back and forth. In this view, the odorant’s unique pattern of vibration is what makes a rose smell rosy and a wet dog smell wet-doggy.

In 2007 Turin (who is now chief technical officer of the odorant-designing company Flexitral in Chantilly, Virginia) and his hypothesis received support from a paper by four physicists at University College London. That work, published in the journal Physical Review Letters [subscription required], showed how the smell-tunneling process may operate. As an odorant approaches, electrons released from one side of a receptor quantum-mechanically tunnel through the odorant to the opposite side of the receptor. Exposed to this electric current, the heavier pinanethiol would vibrate differently from the lighter but similarly shaped pinanol.

“I call it the ‘swipe-card model,’?” says coauthor A. Marshall Stoneham, an emeritus professor of physics. “The card’s got to be a good enough shape to swipe through one of the receptors.” But it is the frequency of vibration, not the shape, that determines the scent of a molecule.

THE GREEN TEA PARTY

Even green tea may tie into subtle subatomic processes. In 2007 four biochemists from the Auton­omous University of Barcelona announced that the secret to green tea’s effectiveness as an anti-oxidant—a substance that neutralizes the harmful free radicals that can damage cells—may also be quantum mechanical. Publishing their findings in the Journal of the American Chemical Society [subscription required], the group reported that antioxidants called catechins act like fishing trollers in the human body. (Catechins are among the chief organic compounds found in tea, wine, and some fruits and vegetables.)

Free radical molecules, by-products of the body’s breakdown of food or environmental toxins, have a spare electron. That extra electron makes free radicals reactive, and hence dangerous as they travel through the bloodstream. But an electron from the catechin can make use of quantum mechanics to tunnel across the gap to the free radical. Suddenly the catechin has chemically bound up the free radical, preventing it from interacting with and damaging cells in the body.

Quantum tunneling has also been observed in enzymes, the proteins that facilitate molecular reactions within cells. Two studies, one published in Science in 2006 and the other in Biophysical Journal in 2007, have found that some enzymes appear to lack the energy to complete the reactions they ultimately propel; the enzyme’s success, it now seems, could be explained only through quantum means.

QUANTUM TO THE CORE

Stuart Hameroff, an anesthesiologist and director of the Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona, argues that the highest function of life—consciousness—is likely a quantum phenomenon too. This is illustrated, he says, through anesthetics. The brain of a patient under anesthesia continues to operate actively, but without a conscious mind at work. What enables anesthetics such as xenon or isoflurane gas to switch off the conscious mind?

Hameroff speculates that anesthetics “interrupt a delicate quantum process” within the neurons of the brain. Each neuron contains hundreds of long, cylindrical protein structures, called microtubules, that serve as scaffolding. Anesthetics, Hameroff says, dissolve inside tiny oily regions of the microtubules, affecting how some electrons inside these regions behave.

He speculates that the action unfolds like this: When certain key electrons are in one “place,” call it to the “left,” part of the microtubule is squashed; when the electrons fall to the “right,” the section is elongated. But the laws of quantum mechanics allow for electrons to be both “left” and “right” at the same time, and thus for the micro­tubules to be both elongated and squashed at once. Each section of the constantly shifting system has an impact on other sections, potentially via quantum entanglement, leading to a dynamic quantum-mechanical dance.

It is in this faster-than-light subatomic communication, Hameroff says, that consciousness is born. Anesthetics get in the way of the dancing electrons and stop the gyration at its quantum-mechanical core; that is how they are able to switch consciousness off.

It is still a long way from Hameroff’s hypo­thetical (and experimentally unproven) quantum neurons to a sentient, conscious human brain. But many human experiences, Hameroff says, from dreams to subconscious emotions to fuzzy memory, seem closer to the Alice in Wonderland rules governing the quantum world than to the cut-and-dried reality that classical physics suggests. Discovering a quantum portal within every neuron in your head might be the ultimate trip through the looking glass.

http://discovermagazine.com/2009/feb/13-is-quantum-mechanics-controlling-your-thoughts

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Here kitty, kitty, kitty...

I really like cats...all sorts. I like their independent self-confident nature. The few I have known in life make their own decisions, know what they want and when they want it, and are competent enough to take care of themselves with no help from people if push comes to shove. In my experience house cats hang with us because they want to not because they have to...and they seem to view us people with resigned patience and a bit of humor...If' you have a cat in your home you probably know exactly what I mean.

Ran across an article on the Sun online news source that claims Britains big cats have been confirmed in the wild....go to website for a terrific pic of a black panther snarling.

FEROCIOUS big cats DO live in Britain — after being seen by Forestry Commission rangers.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2100752.ece

Oh yeah!

Score one more for kitty.

Good Advice From America's Past

Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results. ~ George S. Patton

I've been comparing this idea with things for the last couple of days....and he's right the results are surprising.

I've also learned that when you spend most of your time doing big, complicated things then the mundane becomes not so simple after all....like being a retired steep slope roofer who's never fallen off a roof but crash & burns big time just trying to get over a baby gate, or smashing a finger hammering in a fencing brad, or making a pizza and then wearing flour in places it really is obnoxious to clean up like in ones eyes for instance. It's been an interesting week so far and its only Thursday. So what's next on the 'to do' list? I don't advise getting between me and whatever I'm doing...it could be hazardous.

Synchronicity, Ignorance, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Ancient Cowboys

My partner's family background is that of farming. He grew up that life and can tell you just about anything about it, can plant and grow barley under unbelievable conditions successfully because farming is something you're 'just born knowing', lol. Well, cows aren't. Cattle are a whole different experience. One you only learn by getting in among them. One which you usually only learn from cowboys.





And by my partners current fate he has landed in the middle of the mother of all cowboy havens as one middle aged, obstinant employee among a whole slew of old geizers still slogging the bovine trail in cold, windy Montana. He's been learning cattle now the hard way from them for several months. He's only just cracked the tip of the glacial berg there in the volumes of knowledge yet to be learned. And he has yet to find the core of true value which comes with working with a series of co-workers who's ages top seventy consistantly. And knowing my partner, I'm sure despite all effort in his eyes to be gruffly cordial, I'm certain it shows.





So what does all this have to do with synchronicity you ask? Do you even know what synchronicity is? If you don't then I'd recommend a good book for your evenings before bed titled: The Celestine Prophecy. In my mind it is the melding through expanded awareness sensitivity, of the functioning of one's higher self with one's environment on both a physical and spiritual level. I won't go much more into it because that is not the primary purpose of this discourse.





Well, now that you are really confused I will say that it, as a consequence, gives the ability to know certain things at certain times. And sometimes even someone as dense as myself can put it to truly decent use. Like knowing that today, a particularly ancient cowboy who still works, plugging away at his rough trade, will be spending his morning fighting the snow to accomplish his bovine chores and thinking miserable thoughts related to his age and life in general. It's knowing that unlike most days when my partner and him break for lunch both are sitting at opposite ends of the pasture, no it is today where both will be taking lunch together...I simply know this...woke up knowing this. Expanded Awareness does that to you sometimes and it also calls you to action when it discerns a need...today it needs the sharing of a special lunch...It needs me to pack a few extra of the chocolate chip cookies I baked yesterday.





My partner asked me this morning what I was doing. He couldn't eat all those extra cookies I was putting in his lunch bag. I said they aren't for you. They're for Kenny. My partner says but Kenny and I don't eat lunch together, he's usually at the other end of the pasture. I said today will be different...see to it he gets them. Ok, says he, giving me one of those looks that says I shouldn't be advertising. Well, sometimes there are more important things....like getting the ignorant and the knowledgeable together where empathy and interchange, and improvement in self value can all mix and work the wonders it tends to do. Where the down trodden can brighten for there is yet things of importance to be done even if it is to break ice in the mind of the agri-hardened for they run in tandem for reasons neither yet suspect. Can you imagine kickstarting a branch of the future with Chocolate Chip Cookies? Can you imagine lifting the spirit of the gruff and the aging with the sent, the smell, and the bite from one of those universally beloved confections? Oh yeah!





I'm certain of how this story will play out. It's happened before. Some thirty-eight plus years ago there was a young man with a new wife. He was raised a farmer as well, but the parents died when he was still a kid. So as could be assumed much was lacking in his knowledge base. Well synchronicity was on a roll back then too and threw that young fellow in with another old geizer in the year 1969.





The old geizer was married, drove a Dodge 1960 3/4 ton baby blue pickup and was of an age to have been a young man on the last big interstate cattle drive between Montana and Texas before all the new wire fencing relagated such things to a thing of the past. He'd finished that drive and then with his small share of the booty bought himself some Herefords and went to Oregon where he married and settled down to tend his cattle on a small acreage. His cattle were too many to keep all year only on his own land so he generally found ways to trade his interest/skill in mechanics and ranching for use of spare pasture for his critters...well as it happened when the young man bought his first ranch he ended up meeting the gruff, sparse speaking old man, who by then was topping the big 7-0.





And the deal turned out that if Old Geizer could run a few Hereford Cows on his acreage then he'd get his first cow and all future breeding for his own hered for free by the Old Geizer's bulls. The young man took the deal and landed something better, a friendship that lasted a lifetime, and through it he learned everything he knows about ranching and mechanic-ing today. Through the final years of the historic Old West, a lifetime was changed and brought back to the land in the midst of the age of technology. Today the young man is no longer young. His kids are all grown up and gone. So too is the Old Geizer, who died a few years ago at the age of 102 while out tending his cows. But his legacy lives on in people he grew close to and took the time to 'tell a few stories, and show a few things". His interaction enriched an entire family who took the knowledge and is even today passing it on.





So here I relate an older story to shed light on the beginning of a new one. One initiated by chocolate chip cookies which in another three hours shall bring together a new round of life linking and a fresh tweaking or fine tuning of a portion of the future. For we are all interconnected in everything we intend, everything we think, say, and do.





Everything and Everyone Matters.





Seems to me I'm seeing the theme for 2009. Yeah, so all you young bucks out there, go find an old geizer and break past his gruff shell. He still has things to teach you. Let it uplift his life, enrich yours and inspire the next generation.





Here's to Ancient Cowboys; Old Geizer's everywhere! You are eternal by consequence of that which you pass down to young hard heads.





Cyrellys








from the hard heads of the past to the hard heads of the future, this post dedicated to:


Paul Ellenberger








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http://www.cowboypoetry.com/photowk2.htm

About the photo:

Fifth-generation rancher, poet, and writer Deanna Dickinson McCall shared this circa 1912 photo of her grandfather. Deanna told us:

The picture was a post card (that was quite a fad), of my grandfather Perry Preston Dickinson. He went by "P.P." He was born in Denton County, Texas in 1896 to a ranching family. He got itchy feet and rode to AZ at the age of 12 and stayed there quite awhile. He "courted" my Granny back in Texas and had the card made for her. The picture was taken in the vicinity of Grand Canyon. It is signed "The 10X Bronc fighter," as he was the rough string rider and was working on the 10X ranch at the time. (Men weren't boys for very long in those days!) He was a great influence in my life and taught me many of the old stories, songs, and how to ride. He later was a Marshall and a special agent of the Texas Rangers.

You can read more about Deanna Dickinson McCall and read some of her poetry here.

My First Frustration of The New Year

Ok, I don't often complain but today after perusing my options for replacing my aging veterinary medicine supplies for my little flock of fluff balls out in the barnyard, I have come to the realization that the medicinal manufacturers and livestock supplies vendors have little comprehension as to how futile their idea of dosage labling is. You see most adult sheep are extremely healthy hardy critters...it's the little ones that usually end up needing meds most often...yet when you read the dosage lables they read something like this " 4.5ml per 100lb body weight", yeah sure one should be able to easily extrapolate weight adjustments but it is a pain in the posterior to do so when the patient to be treated weighs 3lbs. That puts the quantity of medicine somewhere below 1cc at which point it becomes debatable just how much is enough or too much. Sigh.

Kudos to Bovi Sera Antiserum for treatment of pneumonia and enterotoxemia, passive immune failure in newborns and shipping fever complex who is carried by Hoegger Supply Company, who is most appreciated for labling the dosage in their catalog of 10cc sub-Q injection for adults and 5cc sub-Q injection for newborns...bless them for being practical.

Cy