Cats and Physics

The other day, I was sitting on my couch. Suddenly I hear a rumble from across the room. It is my dog chasing my cat again. So as they both race into the room in which I am sitting, my cat leaps into the air, and with complete precision, hits the top part of my couch and ricochets to hit the floor and keep running. I know this is hard to visualize because I am poor at describing my cats movements at that point. To give an easier example of my point, I see my cat jump from ledge to ledge with complete precision all the time and so this always gets my mind going.

Being a man of science and more specifically a man of physics, I always wonder how much knowledge of physics cats must have in there brain. Even if they don't really understand anything they must have locked away in there a calculator that is always calculating physics equation after physics equation to be able to time and time again completely astound me with there accuracy.

I was listening to a podcast called "Radio Lab" which is a science podcast with a lot of interesting topics. On one particular episode they were talking about sleep, and so they played a clip of what a cat brain sounds like when it sleeps. Actually I wasn't all that surprised at what I heard for I knew that cats must have some very active brains, but it was quite interesting that at night, a cats brain sounds like a war zone with neurons firing constantly. So then I thought if this is what it is like at night I can't even imagine what it is like during the day.

This all relates back to my initial question which was what kind of physics knowledge cats have in there. Now of course I am not talking about the kind of knowledge that I have but the ability to make a jump from a ledge to another ledge with complete precision must require your brain to be able to calculate how much power you must use, and at which angle you must leap at to obtain the correct trajectory to complete the jump. So going back to cats having very active brains my conclusion is that in a part of this active brain is a little physicist in there making all of the necessary calculations in split second time so that when my fierce dog is chasing him, he will never fail at being quicker, and evidently smarter than my dog. 

Fast Food Chains

OK so I have to talk about this at some point in time on this blog and I've decided for that time to be now. At the present time, I have one of the most veil, disgusting, wretched, despicable jobs that this nation has to offer. It is called McDonald's and it is a fast food chain. I am not proud to say I work there nor can I say that I am happy working there. Remember those commercials with people saying that it is like getting paid to smile? Yeah how bout the complete opposite of that. 

My father tells me that it is a learning experience for me but for some reason I don't understand how I am learning anything. In fact I think I may be killing brain cells every second I spend at that place. All the grease, degreaser, sanitizer, grill cleaning solutions. I mean give me a break, I can't see how this is helping the development of my brain one bit. I think he means like learning as in me realizing that if I don't get a good education I will end up in a place like that the rest of my life, which is a plausible argument, buuut I already knew that and don't feel like learning it anymore.

I do try to get other jobs, but the only jobs that I am able to apply for at the moment are quite frankly, worse than McDonald's, plus the fact that they won't hire me because I looked like I am 14 when I really am 18. Just the way the world works I guess. I would quit my job but then I wouldn't have any money for school. Kind of ironic really. The thing that I must use to make me smarter later on is killing my brain cells that I need for later on.

Now off of the subject of me and onto the subject in question. My big question here is WHY? Why is it that hundreds of people come to McDonald's to eat everyday when there are millions of other places that are way way way healthier than this place. Oh I get it though you need something that is quick. Umm ever heard of just packing your own healthy lunch from home? Here's the odd thing though. I see these regulars that come in EVERY DAY and eat at McDonald's EVERY DAY and these people are SKINNY. SKIIINNNYY!! What is happening? Well I have figured out what is happening and it is McDonald's plan to wipe out life on this wonderful planet. So here it is: People go and eat there. They don't get fat. They say to there friends, "Hey, I eat at McDonald's every day and I haven't gained a pound!" so their friends go and eat there. Well, after years and years they all die of kidney failure. Good work friend. Now your whole group of friends has died because of McDonald's. That's just an unproven hypothesis I have so don't quote me on it.

Then again I also see the other type of regular. Now these ARE the fat people. I can't even begin to understand what is going through these people's head at any given time during the day. "So guys I am fat. Let's go eat more McDonald's so that we can get even more fat!" This is what i think is going through there head. Maybe they have just given up. "Well I am fat and I have tried every 'get slim quick' drink on the market. Guess it is time to give it up and just eat myself to death!" Yep that must be it. To tell you the truth, I say good on you. Go eat as much as you like so that you can die and be gone from this wonderful planet which would be a better place without you.

I am sorry for my harsh statements, but sometimes.. they must be said. Stay tuned for more of my thoughts on other things to come.

Obama takes it.

Well, it's all over folks. I turned on my TV when I got up this morning and what did I see? McCain making a speech :O ABOUT OBAMA's WIN! So I am happy about this for many reasons, one being that we don't have a crazed war-nut as our president anymore(yes I know that I live in Canada but I see myself as an American because I plan to move there in a few years so this will effect me eventually). Some might say, "Well McCain isn't a crazed war-nut." Let me give you a little tidbit of information people. If you have spent a part of your life as a POW and you have been torchered and mutilated by these people, what do you think the first thing that you would do once you are running a country is? I think I'd want to bomb the motherfuckers!!! 

Now obviously my calculations are always correct. Therefore my prediction about who would win was correct, and my prediction about how all the southern states would still be republican due to the fact that they are all incompetent, hick, gun-slinging, war-mongering, christian, bullshitters. Oh... excuse my tone there.

Another thing that makes me extremely happy is that Obama is actually down to earth, and realistic. Most importantly, he is not against science at all and and he knows what he is talking about. So if I could talk to Obama right now I would say one word: Congratulations

On an upcoming post, I will talk about... oh shoot it just left my mind aaaargh well I guess its a mystery for now but stay tuned.

hmm november 3rd

Well, the big day is almost almost here and you all know what I am talking about... ELECTION DAY! I am a big fan of politics. I really don't know why. But anyways I have been following this election since day 1 which was like 2 years ago. OMG is right, that is a long time. Well, I'll tell you my opinion on this and that is that everyone hates George W. Bush. That is pretty much fact nowadays so what I think is that they wanted to give people hope that there will be somebody else running your country soon... in 2 years. That's not long at all.

So tomorrow is the big day and it is a pretty close call at this point to who might win it but what I am about to do is lay it all on the line and hopefully not offend too many people. Here is how I think this is going to go down. first and foremost, 90% of black people (no racist implication) will vote Obama, on the other hand all the catholics and true believers (which is meant to be derogatory) will vote McCain because all these people care about is the abortion issue believe me my dad is a catholic and this is true. Personally I am pro-choice but we will leave that for another day. Now obviously there is no getting around the fact that there is still a race issue in the states and there are still white-supremacists whether people like to admit it or not. So obviously we know who gets there vote. Aside from racial and religious issues we have the science crowd who right now I think will vote Obama do to the fact McCain has made some anti-science implications possibly intentionally but also possibly not intentionally, but in any-case they will come and bite him in his rear end. One for example being that he was saying that Obama was wasting money by voting for the 3 million dollar projector. Well, guess what McCAIN!! THAT WAS FOR A PLANETARIUM! So good job bud. You are stupid.

Just to let you all know, I am for Obama woots! though I live in Canada at the moment and cannot vote I still am a fan of America and it's politics. So all that said, that leaves us with the age issue and swing voters. I think that younger people and the intelligent crowd will vote Obama, and I think that the older, possibly richer, possibly more incompetent crowd will vote McCain. And lastly swing voters will go either way on this one because it is so close.

I can only imagine what the country would be like under a McCain, Palen government, and the worst part is that that situation is entirely possible. I think the worst thought about that is if McCain dies which is not an impossibility. The country will be run by Palen and I mean nothing against women or down-syndrome babies here but she just lacks every quality to make a good president.

But I guess we will have to see what happens and just hope that the American people make the right decision on this.

Janny McCarthy can be described in many many ways

Jenny McCarthy can be described as many things. One being good looking, another being rich. How about... Terrorist :O Ya that doesn't seem like a bad description, and I'll tell you why. Jenny McCarthy is going around telling everyone that loves her and masturbates to her picture, that vaccinations in children induce the condition called autism. Now obviously this is totally an out there claim not supported by any real evidence what so ever. The problem is that people are believing her because of her other descriptions that I mentioned above. She is using fear that your kid could get autism to make people believe that vaccines are bad for there child. Now in my opinion if you are that stupid maybe your kid should just die anyways, but on the other hand this is wrong and is (in my opinion) a form of terrorism. She is someone who is part of a cult against vaccines and she must be stopped along with all the others in the cult therefore go visit stopjenny.com which was created recently for the purpose of running jenny into the ground. I say to that good work.

So there you have it that is my opinion of terrorist jenny. Still I don't care what you say her picture still turns me on.

Ugh.. church

Today is Sunday. Yaaaay the day of rest right? Well not in my family unfortunately. It's kind of odd though that my family is now made up of 2 catholics (my parents) and 1 atheist (me) and today is not the day of rest. Because as we all know in the catholic religion it is supposed to be. OK OK you are confused.. in fact so am I. Well the point is I was woken up at 9:46AM this morning with my mother telling me, "Peter, get up it's time for church!". Whoa Whoa Whoa church? Yes let me explain. Though I am an Atheist, I go to church. Not because i like it or it gives me some sort of spiritual healing, but because my parents want me to go. It's sort of like a white lie in that the only people that I haven't told that I am an Atheist are my parents. I am 18 in case you were wondering why I live at home, and until I move out, I will still be a catholic in my parents eyes. Then of course after I move out and I don't have to endure living with them anymore, I will break the news that I have been lying to them for.. however many years I have been atheist.

Going back to that thing about the day of rest. Ya why exactly is it a day of rest if you have to get up and go to church. I'd call that more of a day of aggravation. Church isn't all bad though. Gives me a reminder of why I hate the catholic church so much, plus it gives me a few more minutes of shuteye since I tend to doze off a lot. 

Nowadays church is almost a fun experience. There are so many things to pick out and make me realize how cultish the catholic church is. Take this for an example: At one point in the mass, everyone says this in unison, "It is right to give him thanks and praise". Now I don't know about you but that sounds to me like something people would say when they have been brainwashed. Oh wait I got it! THEY ARE BRAIN WASHED! 

Anyways that my theory about church. One of these days I will tell my parents what I think but I really just don't have the balls, because my dad is kind of scary, so ya. That's church and coming up next I will talk about how Jenny McCarthy, though hot is a terrorist.

I wish I could stop thinking for once

It is said that monks spend their whole lives calming there minds until their minds are clear of all thought. I sometimes wonder what that is like. Because when I think about it, I am always thinking. There is never a time when I am just not thinking of anything at all. If I am not thinking of the present situation infront of me, I am thinking of things going on in my life, or what I am going to do tomorrow, or what I did the day before. It's all racing through my mind all at the same time. So sometimes I do wonder what it would be like if I could just for even a few minutes just clear my mind of all of that.

Some people maybe argue that in sleep is when you are not thinking, but that's the complete opposite of the truth, infact I think that your brain is possibly doing even more when you sleep than when you are awake. It's only logical to think this due to the fact that when you are asleep the only thing that is working is your brain. You are not doing anything useful with your body physically so your brain has the chance to use all your bodies power to it's advantage. This shows through when you are dreaming. I think personally that dreaming is just what is going through your head when you are asleep, and since you are not aware of your surroundings, you take your thoughts as being reality. Until ofcourse when you wake up and say those famous words, "Oh boy am I glad that was just a dream.

Speaking of dreams I may aswell point out to you how powerful I and many other scienctist beleive the brain really is. I am a skeptic and as a skeptic I think that there must be a plausible explanation for something or it's just not true. So I think that 95% of things that are "supernatural" are just the mind having what I call a "malfunction" relating it to being almost like a computer system which the human body is actually a lot like in many ways. 

First you have the heart which is essentially like a power supply, then you have all of your vital organs and whatnot which would make up like a human motherboard, then your brain is basically the cpu, harddrive, and videocard all in one. Then you have your eyes as the monitor, and your hands and feet as keyboard and mouse. So as you can see, the human body is like a computer system and that computer system can malfunction especially the all in one cpu/videocard/harddrive system. So when it malfunctions is when you get things like claims of the supernatural.

Sometimes we intentionally invoke these malfunctions using things like drugs, and something that is not manually admitted but has the same effect are types of deseases and conditions that the body gets. The only difference here is that we know what is causing the malfunction here. But when we have malfunctions that are "unexplainable" thats when the claims come in that, "oh I saw a ghost in my room last night at 3am" and its like no you were just coming out of a sleep perhaps still sleeping and your mind was like, "why not lets just turn that shadow of a chair into a ghost and scare the living hell out of my host"(that was a rhyme booya!). 

So in the end we still have a ton to learn about the brain and how it works. It's likely that I am completely wrong here but this is my rambling opinion as it stands at this very moment in time. So since you probably lost interest it this point thank you to whoever could hold on till this point and I will ttyntitty and since that is the first time I use that abbreviation I shall reveal it's meaning. Talk To You Next Time I Talk To You. 

My first entry.... ever

Hello everyone out there in internet land, my name is Peter Vlasveld and I am writing this blog for many reasons, one is that I have nothing better to do with my life. The second is because I am a bad writer and want to become better at writing things.. or typing things. So I thought hey why not make a blog since everyone is doing it and it seems like fun to kinda put yourself out there. Though there probably won't be very many readers of this I am mainly just doing this for fun anyways.

So to tell everyone a little about myself I live in Ontario and I am a bit of a nerd.. ok a little more than a bit. My main interests include Physics, Chemistry, Biology. So all science basically. One thing that has always fascinated me is the human brain in which I will probably blog about a lot. If you could catagorize this blog at all I would say it is in the realm of science because thats basically the boring life of Peter Vlasveld. I am a self-proclaimed Athiest, the only people I havent told this to are my parents because they are insane catholics and if I were to tell them, they would behead me, which is not the most pleasent thing to go through.

So basically that is the start of my blog and this is the end of the first entry. I have another entry to write after this one that relates to another subject so.. read on my friends. Oh and by the way I'm too lazy to go back and read over what I just wrote so if there are gramatical errors or spelling errors I really don't care... even though this is to strengthen my writing ability.. hmm wierd.