Tag Archives: science

Where My Interest In Health Comes From

Posted by Michael Wood on

I’ve been thinking lately that I must come off as a pretty odd duck. I draw goofy pictures, play awful music and write terrible poetry…so what’s the deal with peppering my artsy-fartsy blog with the occasional health-related rambling? Seems pretty inconsistent if you ask me, but there is good reason for it, which I will share in this post for the whole zero of you interested. Kinda in the mood to write right now anyway, so it’s a good excuse to write about something.

This will be a long one, and I REALLY get to rambling in this one, so I’m putting in a link for those who might be interested in reading more…

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Evidence that we could be living inside “The Matrix”

Posted by Michael Wood on

Warning: nerd stuff ahead…

8 minute audio on youtube of the theoretical physicist discussing his discovery. This video, is of course, someone else’s work. I try to keep my blog “my crap only” as possible, but this was just too weird to pass up.

I’ll try distill what he’s saying as best I can. He’s saying that there’s evidence that within the fundamental fabric of reality dictated by superstring theory, there exists a subtle, yet deliberate form of computer-like error-checking. What he’s describing is the backbone to TCP/IP; Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. The protocol that allows our computers to connect via the world-wide-web and talk to each other.

Back before there was a world-wide-web, there was a network that ran on connection-less UDP. UDP simply broadcast data packets to any computer that might be listening, similarly to how television broadcasting worked over airwaves. Within the first packet-switching networks out of DARPA in the late 60′s, they implemented a computer networking protocol that was more like a handshake.

Instead of blasting out data to anyone who might be listening, TCP ensured a connected state: computer A would connect to computer B, and computer B would ACKNOWLEDGE the connection, and send a message back to computer A saying “Okie-dokie, I am now prepared to receive information from you now.” The actual data you wanted to send was only a piece of the whole envelope being sent. There was all sorts of data included in your actual message, like how many bytes was in this packet, which packet is this one in the series of the message, and lots and lots of error checking bits and checksums and the like. Very similar to things like how big is the envelope, how many stamps does it have, which mailman picked it up, and which post office is it going to.

What this theoretical physicist is saying, is that the equations found in superstring theory are showing evidence that the very binary “checksums” found in our modern computer network error-checking are also found in the superstring equations of reality.

Discarding, or accepting and interpreting what this implies is an exercise I leave to the reader.

The Plecebo Effect

Posted by Michael Wood on

I find myself thinking about the placebo effect often.

As my mind tiptoes through the minefield of unorthodox thoughts brought forth from somewhere, deep within the dark recesses of my crippled brain, the placebo effect is one of those things that my mind returns to for contemplation. In my opinion, it’s an utterly fascinating phenomenon.

What the placebo effect does is absurdly simple. If the mind believes that a health-related treatment will work, there is a universal chance that it will work. Pretty simple, right? The baffling, spooky science lies in how the mechanism works.

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Mouthwash vs. Scotch & the Hayflick Limit

Posted by Michael Wood on

So here’s an incredibly stupid thing that cropped up in my brain this morning. And yes, that is redundant.

I’m taking a shower and I realize that I’m out of mouthwash. The stuff that “kills germs and bad breath.” And I started thinking as I wont to do. I started thinking about, who was it…Michael Douglas, who got throat cancer from drinking harsh alcohol? Then I started thinking more…and came to the brilliant conclusion that harsh mouthwash could possibly lead to oral cancer and here is why:

The Hayflick Limit.

Basically, the Hayflick Limit is a limit to how many times new cells can divide in any living organism, and it appears there is a direct link to cancer once the Hayflick limit has been breached. Basically, the idea is, is that once your cells can no longer divide, cancer appears to do ad hoc patchwork. I think there is merit to this theory, but you will be labelled a lunatic if you speak of it within earshot of a hospital.

If harsh liquor strips away cells from the mouth, throat and stomach, spurring the process of cellular division prematurely that may lead to a breach of the Hayflick limit, then, harsh mouthwashes must also “may lead” to a premature breach of the Hayflick limit; resulting in cancer. Because, both substances are harsh on organic tissue.

This, of course, assumes that cancers can be directly linked to the breaching of the Hayflick limit.

It’s thoughts like these that keep me from making new friends.

Oh well. It’s my stupid thought that came out of my stupid brain, so up it goes onto my stupid blog.

(I haven’t looked into it in a very long time, but maybe I’ll go poke around and see if the medical establishment has anything new on the Hayflick limit, and its possible link to some cancers. If you’re interested in the subject of cancer, maybe looking into the phenomena could help you understand what is going on behind the scenes)

A boring post about math (blah, blah, blah)

Posted by Michael Wood on

This is how it's done, right?

So, I’m trying (and have BEEN trying for many years) to crack the math nut. It may be rather obvious by now, but I’m a “right-brained” individual. Art, music, poetry, writing etc.

Then I started learning how important mathematics is to the arts. The golden ratio in particular. It can apply to both music and art and has been used for centuries, even in Greek architecture. So, I’ve been trying for many years to strengthen the logical side, the “left” side of my brain. (And failing miserably I might add)

The subject is extremely difficult for me, but I have found solace in books that define the history of the subject to give it a little more context for sanity’s sake. Where it came from. Who came up with this nutty crap. Well, it turns out there’s a perverse irony hidden behind this baffling subject.

There was a deliberate conspiracy by the priest caste of ancient Egypt and Iraq (and even priest castes from even earlier) to keep their math and geometry secret, from the masses. Back then, it paid greatly, both in coin and stature to be able to predict eclipses, floods and other events. The irony lies here:

There was a point in time when the grubs were forbidden access to mathematical and geometrical knowledge. Now, that that knowledge is freely available, it is almost certainly ignored.

I find that deliciously ironic.

(further inquiry into the methods of teaching mathematics in the public school system is entirely left to the reader)

For those interested in cracking the math nut, with baby steps, Lawrence Spector‘s treatment of the subject is unparalleled. (get it? HAR!) His presentation is by far THE BEST I have ever found on the World-Wide-Web. And believe me, I have searched far and wide for a tutor that can speak math in my language.

Use his site on conjunction with this awesome math trainer over at mathisfun.com. I use the math trainer for about an hour for each operation about 3 times a week.