Archive for October, 2009
Large Hadron Collider ‘Being Sabotaged from the Future’
Scientists claim the giant atom-smashing Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is being jinxed from the future to save the world.
In a bizarre sci-fi theory, Danish physicist Dr Holger Bech Nielsen and Dr Masao Ninomiya from Japan claim nature is trying to prevent the LHC from finding the elusive Higgs boson
. Called the “God particle,” the theoretical boson could explain the origins of mass in the universe — if physicists can find the darn thing.
The scientists say their math proves nature will “ripple backward through time” to stop the LHC before it can create the God particle , like a time traveller who goes back in time to kill his grandfather.
“One could even almost say that we have a model for God,” Dr Nielsen says in an unpublished essay. “He rather hates Higgs particles, and attempts to avoid them.”
“While it is a paradox to go back in time and kill your grandfather, physicists agree there is no paradox if you go back in time and save him from being hit by a bus,” Dannis Overbye wrote in the New York Times.
“In the case of the Higgs and the collider, it is as if something is going back in time to keep the universe from being hit by a bus.”
“It must be our prediction that all Higgs producing machines shall have bad luck,” Dr Nielsen told the New York Times.
European science agency CERN designed the world’s biggest particle accelerator to shoot beams around a freezing 27km concrete ring underground near Geneva, smashing atoms together in search of the elusive “God particle“ believed present at the Big Bang.
The multi-billion-dollar machine, built over almost 20 years, was set to launch in late 2008 but broke down after it overheated during a test run.
The relaunch was pushed back to late 2009 as more parts had to be replaced, and CERN was recently scandalised when a LHC scientist was found to have approached al-Qaeda for work.
The LHC – which features in sci-fi plots such as Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons and the new TV show FlashForward – has been dubbed a “doomsday device” with claims it will open black holes.
Last year, Professor Brian Cox of Manchester University told the UK Telegraph that LHC scientists had received threatening emails and phone calls demanding that the experiment be halted.
But Prof Cox, ex-keyboardist for 1990’s pop group D:REAM, dismissed the hysteria in rock-star style.
“Anyone who thinks the LHC will destroy the world is a tw—,” he said.
The LHC is set to start up again next month.
Something I couldn’t help but notice in this article:
The relaunch was pushed back to late 2009 as more parts had to be replaced, and CERN was recently scandalised when a LHC scientist was found to have approached al-Qaeda for work.
Checking Account Balance
It’s very late at night now but I cannot sleep undisturbed as usual. I am in a forgettable location but I have enough bars to dial in and upload this video and post. I decided to check my piddly checking account tonight and thought it might make an interesting video. I was at a Bank of America branch in the very well-to-do town of Glen Ridge, NJ. Yes, I know it’s pathetic and morose to make a video of such a thing.
Was a time when I would just keep all of my money in my checking account. I would have 20-30 thousand dollars in there and like an idiot, didn’t bother to move it to a better place in order to get some decent interest. I guess I thought the amount would be miniscule. Of course, that interest would be vital to my survival if I had it now. I mentioned in a previous post how bad I was with money. Nothing could demonstrate this further.
I am up against it now. I have about maybe $400.00 left in my pocket which needs to sustain me insofar as gas and food. At some point my phone will get cut off, my virtual server will get “downed” and I will once again be relegated to libraries and coffee shops in order to maintain a semblance of hope. On this bright note, I conclude this post.
Was a time when I would just keep all of my money in my checking account. I would have 20-30 thousand dollars in there and like an idiot, didn’t bother to move it to a better place in order to get some decent interest. I guess I thought the amount would be miniscule. Of course, that interest would be vital to my survival if I had it now. I mentioned in a previous post how bad I was with money. Nothing could demonstrate this further.
I am up against it now. I have about maybe $400.00 left in my pocket which needs to sustain me insofar as gas and food. At some point my phone will get cut off, my virtual server will get “downed” and I will once again be relegated to libraries and coffee shops in order to maintain a semblance of hope. On this bright note, I conclude this post.
A Walk in the Woods Part 2
This is the second part of a two part video I made on June 26. I thought it would be a nice day to take a walk in the woods of northern NJ in the area I grew up in. While fulfilling, I felt like it might not have been the best thing for my particular frame of mind. When things look so bleak, it’s not good to live in the past but lately, I cant seem to help myself.
A Walk in the Woods Part 1
This video, part 1 of 2 was taken yesterday, October 26 by me while walking in the woods in northern NJ. Fortunately, it’s not as morose as part 2. I think perhaps people who enjoy the outdoors and the names of plants and animals etc…might enjoy this. I certainly did. I was always interested in Ecology, Botany, and Entomology.
I just watched it and noticed that I said it was Monday, June 26th! Needless to say I meant October 26th.
I just watched it and noticed that I said it was Monday, June 26th! Needless to say I meant October 26th.
Childhood – Happiness, Forever preserved in 1’s and 0’s
Fortunately, about 10 years ago I had the foresight to rescue about thirty 35mm reel to reel tapes from my childhood. They were damp and decaying in my mother’s basement. I had everything converted to DVD’s. I have since converted many of these into .wmv. I especially like this clip of me playing football with my cousins in the mid 70’s. I am the one with the strawberry blond hair.
Beautiful Sunrise over NYC Skyline
I woke up to a beautiful sunrise today. I was sleeping in a parking lot in the West Orange, NJ Eagle Rock Reservation where there is a 9/11 memorial. It was quite cold but I wasn’t harassed at least. I took a photo with my camera.
Mentok MindTaker Rants about Baby Boomers, Outsourcing, and Economics
Thanks to Mentok for his post about my situation. Check out his blog if these issues resonate with you.
Click HERE
Intelligent Design Advocate David Berlinski at Empire State Building Today
I decided to actually DO something today like normal people. There was this guy named David Berlinski speaking in a room at the Empire State Building. He’s someone I love to hate. I took the train into the city. Only cost $10.00 round trip. I walked from Penn Station to the building. The room where he was going to speak was on one of the lower levels. I got there in the nick of time. So, I go to sit in the back and am apparently surrounded by a group of Christians from some school (seemed about College age). They had pen and paper out to take notes. I felt like an alien in their midst. Didn’t care of course. They all seemed very naïve and gullible. I have found this before when dating Christian women. They have often not known the most rudimentary things. For example: what is the sun?
This guy was all I expected and more. I have NEVER heard someone so pretentious and conceited. He actually used this term when referring to his parents’ feelings about his early career choice:
“They were insouciantly apoplectic”. I thought I knew what the words meant so I checked just now and they are basically what I thought except that they don’t go together at all. He was disparaging Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins with this very wry sort of humor. Most of the audience laughed of course because Dawkins is their arch nemesis. I have actually had a sneaking suspicion about this guy that he actually believes wholeheartedly in evolution and thinks his acolytes are morons, but, that there is more money to be made by proselytizing about Intelligent Design.
When it was over I decided to do something I hadn’t done since the 70’s, namely go to the observation deck. I remember in the 70’s one could just walk in, get on the elevator, get off at 80 and switch to the other one, and take it to the top. No security checkpoints or magnetometers. No salespeople accosting you at every corner trying to sell you something. Between the salespeople and the security personnel, there was never a moment when I was not being accosted or reprimanded. One step in the wrong direction or at the wrong time and there is someone there to discipline you!! Similar to what you have to go through when flying nowadays. Going thru the checkpoints are an exercise in self control. You feel like snapping at the nasty screeners but God forbid, if you show anger, they pull you out of line and make your life miserable – even threatening to prevent you from boarding because they don’t let “angry people” fly.
So, that’s it. I feel good about doing something. In the meantime, I want to thank those people who have suggested that I try to get to a warmer climate rather than trying to ride out the winter in my car. I just cannot get myself to do it. Call it an attachment to this area, or a fear that my car will break down at some point while heading south.
How did it all go so wrong?
Yes, the outsourcing and loss of job and home were the catalysts for my most recent calamities but I often think back on my life and wonder, how and when did things begin to change for the worse? Was there one decision or event which lead me inexorably down a path which, despite its’ many branches, was not the one I should have been on. Did something happen to me or did I sabotage myself, over and over again? Would I have done so had I been on the right branch.
I don’t want to work on my projects anymore. When nothing works, when the only hope of making them work requires things which I don’t have – money, shelter, time, it is easy to sit back huddled under blankets and old clothes in the back of a shit car; to dream, and to regret…every decision I ever made, every goal unattained, every contingency disregarded, year wasted, and love, every love – unrequited. I want to sit there with a cheap six pack, writing up some self recriminating blog posts, waiting for the day the car breaks down. I have the urge to just lay there like a beaten man and go over my life, misstep by misstep. Certainly when I was 10, lying in a field of tall grass, staring up at jet contrails in a blue sky, certainly THEN things were okay.
I used to have moments, when, after another shattering defeat in the game of life, I would hang my head and sulk for a week. Then, by some force of will now seemingly absent, I would punch a wall, scream some obscenity, and, right the ship – ready to once again hoist sail and pursue my dreams. So, on this cheerful note I will sign off and hope for a better day tomorrow. Maybe I can once again summon some old reservoir of strength.
How do I sell my application?
I have never been good at sales or schmoozing but I have never needed this talent more than I do now. I have advertised many of my projects on this blog since I started it but sadly, not a lot has happened. I think the stock market stuff is very niche oriented so, despite advertising it here and requesting feedback, there is no one who comes here who has any idea what all the esoteric details mean, nor should they. I have also found that, in this hectic world, people simply don’t have the time to read elaborate documents which lay out how an application works and which touts the merits of it. Successful business people like “high level overviews”. They want a synopsis, then a face to face meeting, doodling on a napkin, then a handshake deal following by all sorts of legal machinations. I am terrible at this stuff. I often have the feeling that (especially now) I will get ripped off by selling some of the things I have worked on for years. Things which I wanted to keep to myself in order to make good money in the long run. Anyway, once again I am going to embed a document from Scribd.com where I have posted a new document advertising a VB.NET application which I have finally put the finishing touches on. Not only do I not know how to go about selling this, I can’t even seem to find any way to find out what it’s worth. I guess I need to hire a salesperson (with what money) and to offer them a commission. Then, I need to find some other way of advertising. Google Adwords is an option but costs money of course. Then again, it’s back to the problem of presenting someone with “low level” granular information. Maybe I could send them some sample data and a portion of the code so that they could see how it works. It’s not for the average Joe trader or investor. In order to make use of the application you need to know programming, database stuff, and reporting.
This is another one of those things which, were I to get ONE break, I can not only resume a normal life, I might even be able to thrive. Actually I might be better off than ever. It’s been incredibly difficult to continue working on my projects in a piecemeal fashion like this, and, with the increasing cold – even more so. The Amazon Cloud computing stuff is almost a dead duck. Hardly any more activity on that front. All I have is a nice website to show for it. Oh, and a FEW people still booting up my virtual servers, although I have noticed this number steadily diminishing for some reason. I guess they are learning to build their own.
FOR SALE: VB.NET SOLUTION TO POPULATE SQL TABLE WITH HISTORICAL STOCK DATA
