What's the difference between an auto mechanic and a quantum mechanic?

Another shadow pic. Just because. It reminds me of the early morning which I love so dearly. There is no better time of day for me. And the extended shadow reminds me of infinity.
Question: What's the difference between an auto mechanic and a quantum mechanic?
The quantum mechanic can get the car inside the garage without opening the door.
The cats chose to stay out last night but they certainly seemed anxious to get in to the food this morning. It's the sound of the can opening that gets them front and center.
Which reminds me of the Sound of Music. Which reminds me of 76 Trombones which doesn't remind me of anything at all but the music. They don't make 'em like that anymore.
Music from Broadway shows is proof that were all on this flight together.

Dick

It was downright chilly this morning and the cats elected to stay out all night. Well, to each his/her own. The overcast will burn off around 11 am and the sun will pour a plethora of photons upon us. Bringing warmth to us all.
I considered getting the bike out for a short ride when I realized that I can't lift my head back far enough to see ahead of me on the bike. Tres dangereux. But with the good weather the temptation was surely there.
Apropos of nothing I am re-reading Leonard Susskind's book "The Cosmic Landscape". Leonard Susskind, the physicist /plumber was born and raised in the Bronx. Another of the great physicists born and raised in the New York area.
Proving that space is quantized would prove that we're all o this flight together.

Dick

It's August ugh.

Overcast and much cooler today. Both cats have adopted an outdoor life, coming indoors only to eat then outside and freedom again. How can I, who named his airplane "Sound of Freedom", deny the cats their choice? I hope their attitude changes with the weather. It can get cold out there. Maybe I'll install the cat door. Trying to get them inside at night is like herding wild animals. Challenges, challenges.
Last night, in an exhibition game, the SF 49er's beat the Oakland Raider by getting touchdown in the closing seconds. Looks like they might have a good season. But I miss the class the deBartolos showed.
A 48er win is proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

There's bluegrass music on the air (and in the air).

It must be Saturday already. How quickly time flys. And why does certain kinds of music touch me in such a deep way. Sitting quietly letting the music flow over me reminds me of another experience.
I hadn't thought of it before but experiencing music in that manner is similar to experiencing the benefits of magic mushrooms.
The touch is deep and personal. The auditory experience of the music is similar to the visual experience of the psilocybin. The flowing notes replaced (or augmented by) the intense colors being the result of the 'shrooms. Even today I can close my eyes and 'see' the geometric images. Somehow the music and the psilocybin reach and affect the same neurons in my brain.
Today the music is Flatt & Scruggs recorded in 1962 at Carnegie Hall. They started off with Salty Dog and right now it's the classic Wildwood Flower. How could they outlaw music? That's a topic for another day. Shades of Jazz and Rock 'N Roll!
Or not.
Outlaw music is proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

Gold is up.

Gold is up and the forecast is for (slightly ) cooler temperatures today. Yesterday it hit the high 90's in the afternoon. Today? The low 90's. It could be worse. We could all be in North Dakota. Ugh. Then again.... this too shall pass.
Poor Trigger and Budda. They desperately search for a spot of shade and flop down exhausted. They both have chosen to spend the cool nights outside. I consistently warn them of the coyotes but they choose to ignore my warnings which have not been actualized as of last night.
Cool nights are proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

It's too hot!

It's too hot but I'm still here.
Here-ness is proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

Kudos to me.

3 aeroplanes, one cat, one dog (on a leash) and no terrorists. On the other hand there were no natural or un-natural catastrophes. Unless one consders this oppresive heaat to be a antural disaster. Since adopting the Historic Flabob Airport and the City of Fullerton to be under my protectorate there haven't been even any suspicions of terrorists. Come to think of it there haven't been any credible terrorist attacks in the entire US of A. Roosevelt was right when he said,"We have nothing to fear but fear itself". It worked in 1941 and it works today. A good song to sing to as it were.
Living without fear is proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

It's gonna be HOT.... again.

I was greeted by the lily as I left for my walk this am. Side lit by the early morning sun.
It's gonna be HOT! I was out at 7am and was overheated in a turtle neck. The temperature was already in the 70's with the forecast to be in the high 90's with high humidity. There was a single small helicopter flitting about and I did hear a small plane pass over. No animals and no natural catastrophes. No correlation there.
Due to the heat my goal today is to get through the day uncooked.
A lack of correlation is proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

Still as a statue.

The photo of the day was taken yesterday morning. The foreshortened shadow struck me as being of interest so I stopped and took this. It's even stretched out more in real life because the shadow starts at my feet while the camera was at my waist. But the idea is there. Use your imagination to stretch it out.
On my walk this morning I passed a black cat I frequently see looking out from atop a low railing and watching the world go by. Today he was sitting facing away from the street with his face about 3 inches from the side of the house. Still as a statue. I wonder what is going on in his head relative to that shadow. Does he think it's another species? Does he recognise it as his shadow? Or was it something in solely his mind? He certainly was deep in thought about something. Does he recognise the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle in his thoughts?
Meditating cats are proof that we're all this flight together.

Dick

Small thoughts to brighten the day.

Three laws to follow:

1. On current politics, You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be misquoted, then used against you.

2. On current science, Grabel's Law: 2 is not equal to 3--not even for large values of 2.

3. On collective logic, Arabic numbers were invented in India. By Hindus.

Confusion is proof that we're all on this flighty together.

Dick

A perfect correlation.

A perfect correlation. On my morning walk today I passed no cats, no dogs, no unusual people and heard (but didn't see) one airplane. With no annual events, this is perfect correlation. The answer to my search. It fails as a predictive device since the day has to pass before it can predict the kind of a day it will be. That's to late so I'll keep searching.
It's been hot lately and expected to be more of the same today. Oh well...
Red Bull is sponsoring the Flugtag day tomorrow. Those with the courage (or lack thereof) will 'fly' unflyable vehicles off a 30 foot cliff into the Long Beach Harbor. Sounds like fun.
Perfect correlations are proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

It shines like gold.

On the left is the black and white cat that has the severe matting. But a real nice cat. On the right is a photo of Diane's Senior Softball Hall of Fame ring. It shines like gold. She wears the same ring as the HOF guys. Congratulations again to the red headed dynamo.
Shimmer is due to the quantum jitters of the protons.
Or not.
Black and white cats are proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

Yesterday I drove out to Historic Flabob Airport.

The friendly black and white cat that lives around the corner was out this morning. He still has numerous mattes in his fur which must drive him nuts. Maybe that's why he won't let me pass until I liberally scratch his belly. But he surely is friendly. I guess he recognized one who is pussy whipped in the literal sense.
Yesterday I drove out to Historic Flabob Airport for the monthly meeting of EAA Chapter One. The speaker was a young woman who had flown a Cessna 172 around Australia, a dream I let slip by forty years ago. I didn't, she did it. 24 years old and with 125 hours total time flying around the LA basin, she flew with a gaggle of five airplanes. She was a delightful speaker and I really enjoyed it. She showed a 74 minute video she had made of her adventure.
The maximum amount of information that can be contained in a structure is proportional to the area of the outside of the structure rather than to the intuitively determined volume.
Or not.
70 hours in a Cessna 172 is proof that we're all on this flight together..

Dick

We don't really exist!

Last week brother Bob kindly lent me a copy of his latest literary work. Titled "Hello. I'm Your Father". He wrote it for his children. Wow! clearly written it contains thoughts and memories of a sort I have long forgotten. As an aside, maybe as a measure of genius could be a good memory. Surely his engineering bent resulted in his literary organization. A fascinating tale of adventure in life thanks for the loan Bob. As the middle son we both fit the first born-second born tendencies that are there.
I've started to re-read "The Black Hole War" which leads to the conclusion that the Universe exists as a hologram. We don't really exist, only as a complex mixture of electric fields! Finally a reason for the equation of state. Reduced to an equation. Just thought that we aren't really here stretches my mind.
A universal equation of state is proof that we're all on this flight together.
Dick

What's it all mean Alphie?

I've often wondered here and in other places what it is that separates the way the ordinary person thinks and the way a genius thinks and less importantly why some in physics and others in the arts? I've recently come to the conclusion that the difference could be competition. Great scientists are intensely curious driven by a competitive need to succeed. An excellent example is the competition between Leonard Susskind, the Bronx plumber and Steven Hawking, the smartest man in the world. Although Susskind won in the end, Hawking went down fighting to the last. And it was based on an arcane physics theory that that threatened the foundation of modern theoretical physics. But the competition drove them both to greater insights.
Figuring out the meaning of the title of this entry to the blog is proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

A virtual interactive blog.

I have nothing to say of interest so I decided to offer an interactive blog. The photo on the right is imagined to contain psilocibin powerful enough to provide the theme of your imaginary entry. Pretend to eat it. Then sit back and let'er rip!
An interactive blog is proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

On the ephemeral nature of life.

Expressing the fragility and ephemeral nature of life, I show you a photo of the beautiful white flower shown in the blog yesterday. This is two days later.
On a more pleasant note: I think of Dick Deboer every time I watch one of the lifeguard shows on the electric TV. Dick is the angel from heaven who stabilized my neck until the ambulance arrived after my incident. I felt fine and would have just gone about my business if Dick had not been there. Every time I look at the x-ray image of my neck, as received I get shaken to the bone. Another few degrees of twist or a few mm lateral movement would have left me a paraplegic or at worst...dead. Thank you , Dick.
Dick is proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick H

It's happened!

It's finally happened, I've lost contact with reality. I got up this morning as usual. Budda had climbed up on my sleeping form to let me know it was time to get up. Coffee, reading and the other morning duties. When I stepped outside for my walk it seeded awfully dark. Then I realized when Budda climbed up on me I checked the minute hand but ignored the hour. The little bastard had gotten me up an hour early. Oh well, an extra hour to nap away this afternoon.
The book on hyperspace has an interesting section on symmetry. I finally start to understand it all. It just took 5 times to start to get it. Good old Michio. He is a good teacher.
There will be a show on the electric TV later this month about what makes a genius. My mental wandering over the last few months may be quieted. There was an interesting segment on another show last week which showed a guy stimulating the right temporal lobe of a subject to stimulate them to see 'god' in a darkened room. The thesis was that god exists inside all of us.
I continue to see no connection between events in my life and outside events. Maybe it's a negative correlation similar to my ability to keep terrorists from Historic Flabob airport and the
Fullerton neighborhood.
Or not.
That god exists inside all of us is proof that we're a all on this flight together.

Dick

August Ughh. But the funnies are in color.

August Ughh. The August equivalent of June Gloom. It surely stays dark resulting from the intense overcast in the morning. It usually clears up in the afternoon. It could be worse. We could be in South Dakota!
On my walk this morning I was accompanied for a short distance by a friendly squirrel. He stayed ahead of me running from tree to tree as I dutifully followed. Then after twenty or thirty yards he disappeared up a tree and was gone. Like old friends, they are never gone. Just hiding up a tree somewhere.
The cheery reminder of the day is that of the blossom from a street tree. I think it's a magnolia. That flower is about 6 inches across, very dramatic. With touches of magenta around the edges.
Dramatic flowers are proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

I had a great topic planned for the blog this morning.

I had a great topic planned for the blog this morning. But I forgot what it was. However all is not lost. There's bluegrass in the air so that means it's music all day hot damn. Saturday morning is my favorite time of the week.
Budda has taken to spending large parts of the day on the chair on which I sit when I am in front of the computer. There was no blog entry yesterday because I chose not to disturb him. Anyway as I mentioned I forgot the topic.
Saturday morning is proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

George Bernhard Riemann and me.

George Bernhard Riemann developed the math that Einstein used on his way to E=MC^2. It was he who first demonstrated the possibility of extra dimensions in our Universe one hundred years before Einstein. And through him even I with my limited abilities can follow his math from Pythagoras to metric tensors. Real slow but step-by-step. So now I can see the meaning of 'forces unify in higher dimensions'. Now that I see how simple it is I can't understand why it wasn't obvious before this. I guess I needed some internal rewiring. Like many great mathematicians of his age he died prematurely of consumption which resulted from malnutrition during his childhood.
However, my challenge to myself remains: Is space quantized? Riemann may have proved that there is a metric tensor at each point in space but what is a point in space? A metric tensor? Just a number representing all the forces in each dimension. Pythagoras to me.
Or not.
George Bernhard Riemann is proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

Extra dimensions, a reality?

I've finished "The Holographic Universe". Now I've started a book by Micio Kaku, a favorite author. It's about extra dimensions, written in 1988 so it's a little dated. Maybe a re-read will answer a few questions. First: Is it possible that one or more of the extra dimensions are time dimensions rather than spatial? And second: Is space quantized or is it a continuum?
Transformational questions are proof that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

Ants.

Ants. Those pesky little creatures who run on perfumery. It's picnic time in the valley so they're out and around. But I haven't seen any great numbers crossing my path in the morning. It's more like a straggle here and there. This morning the question arose in my mind (where ever that is) about whether there is a correlation between the number of ants and the temperature. Sort of like crickets and their chirping. Who's to say. I see an immediate challenge in determining the number of ants. When they start out they occur more or less as random individuals. Then as numbers increase they tend to form columns. But the columns do not usually form in the same place every day. A serious sampling problem. Of course I could count ants just in one block but I think the residents might get nervous about an old man staring at the sidewalk.
Ants are proof that we're all on this flight together.
Dick