Europe's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has produced record-breaking high-energy particle collisions.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8593780.stm

I know I'm living system because....

I am a natural organism with a cognizant nature, in a state of constant change, slowly decaying and vulnerable to millions of factors which could end this living state I am in at any moment.

Descartes has alot to answer for!

However ludicrous Descartes' ideas seem now, he was of an entirely different era and I can't blame him for just trying to figure it all out. On the other hand, with notions like "we are separate from nature' and "Most of the universe is dead" he somehow managed to have a profound influence on western thought, which in my opinion has set us back by hundreds of years. I wonder where western culture would be now if we weren't operating from belief systems that reinforce a disconnect between us and nature.

Our energy efficient culture

I think the U.S. got so hyperexcited about development and production of new, improved technology to support our modern lifestyles that we gave little thought to how dependent we would so quickly become on energy. Since this wasn't a consideration for so long, we became really lazy and a bit spoiled about how much energy we have been using. On the bright side, we now have a government that regards energy efficiency a top priority and are making moves to bring about change. However I don't think there is any overnight solution. We have gotten too far ahead of ourselves without considering the consequences, so even with all of the new advances in energy efficiency, it will still take alot of effort on our behalf to retrain our old, wasteful habits.

Week 8 Catch up Newton's three laws and me

My poor little brother. We always teased him because he would drop things, break things, spill things, bump into things. He used to be incredibly clumsy, although when it came to his gross motor skills in sports he was really precise and proficient. At home though, he was pretty much like a bull in a china shop. He was the force that would change the state of motion of any given object around him. Then we found out that he had a condition called Dyspraxia, which is an impairment of the organization of movement and very much affects coordination. Don't feel too badly for him though- he now likes to overuse his dyspraxia as an excuse for everything he messes up- even things that aren't really relevant to his condition.

Speaking of my brother, he has grown up mainly in England, where you pretty much have to be a football (soccer) fan whether you like it or not. His obsession leaked out on to me and so when I think about "The acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the force acting on it" I am reminded of the major force with which the players kick the ball, accelerating it at an incredible (directly proportional) speed, a la Stevie Gerrard


"For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction" There is an obvious connection to the laws of cause and effect, as minor as when you put an egg in boiling water and it cooks, or as major as the millions of ways that we are polluting our planet and the immense damage that it has done on our health, our environment and the animals. We are probably only witnessing a fraction of the reactions that will occur due to to ours and past generations treatment of the earth.

Consciousness out of chaos

Through our consciousness, we have created many patterns to understand and relate to the world around us which at first glance seem logical, but examining them closer they become more like a feedback loop that we rely on and from which we develop certain habits or ways of thinking which can get us stuck. I think in all the chaos we get a bit swept up in seeing things from only one (often dramatic) perspective, but its like that saying "you don't have to believe everything you think". There is always a way to come out of the patterns we create.

Fractals as patterns of complex systems

I like the idea of fractals representing "worlds within worlds". It kind of reminds me of those Russian nesting dolls. It also warps my sense of reality which is often operating from a very human centric place, not only taking me through all of the patterns of systems within my body but also all of the systems without, of which we are such a minor pattern in the midst of mountains, rivers, clouds and beyond.

What does "ordered chaos" mean to me?

I have always had an aversion to routine and although I am sure this is in part due to lack of discipline, I also feel that it comes from the experience that so little of what we plan actually works out how we intend it to, so why set up that expectation in the first place? I think lately I am coming to the conclusion that, it is somewhat necessary to create a sense of order so that we can function within society, but it is important to combine with the understanding that the world is chaotic and this order that we create is an illusion that can break apart at any time.