Ancient Egyptian Pharmacopia
Andre Willers
14 Feb 2008
See article in 15 Dec 2007 p40 New Scientist “The Pharaohs’ Pharmacists”
www.newscientist.com/channel/health
Synopsis:
Dr Jackie Campbell of the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology at the University of Manchester has painstakingly deciphered four papyri dated between 1850 BC and 1200 BC for medical effectiveness . These contain hundreds of recipes for complaints.
They seem to be on par with treatment you would have gotten from a medical practitioner in Britain circa up to 1850 AD (before general asepsis and theory of germs ) .
Some points of interest:
The papyri date after the interregnum caused by the collapse of the Old Kingdom . One suspects that these are memorized recipes written down on perishable papyrus by medical practitioners who could no longer rely on a steady flow of students to hand down hoarded knowledge . More permanent records (like copper tablets – melted down by the neo-barbarians for weapons , or stone – too expensive in man-power . Not clay , like Sumeria , since fuel to bake the tablets would have been too expensive in fuel-poor Egypt . )
The interesting point here is that Campbell compared these recipes with present Bedouin healers in the Sinai and found an nearly identical correspondence .
This strongly suggests that the Papyri recipes written down were already oral remnants . If they survived a few centuries , a few millennia more is no sweat . The more complicated bits got lost .
Dentistry seems to be one of these bits . From archeological evidence (cf “History Today” ) , the Old Kingdom seems to have had a fairly sophisticated dentistry , but this had vanished completely in the New Kingdom , and never recovered .
If this sounds strange , consider the step-child relationship of present-day dentists to doctors .
The answer is in the home-remedy nature of dentistry . Even a toothless human can get nourishment by using an external gut (ie a soup pot) . So a painful tooth is removed without too big a penalty . (Pull it out , home remedy . You do not need dentistry to survive . )
Gum disease is a different kettle of fish . It has been directly correlated with heart-disease on a cause-effect basis . There is also statistical correlations with metabolic diseases like diabetes .
So where are the gum-disease epidemics in history ? Were they documented ? Perhaps they were written as something else .
Gingivitis epidemics must have been ( and must still be ) rife . Kissing is an old hominid custom .
2. Sailing ships , scurvy and gingivitis epidemics .
One of the puzzling aspects of medical history is why it took so long for the importance of fresh vitC bearing fruits to be realized . The reason lies in the confusion between gingivitis (a germ caused disease) and scurvy (a deficiency of vitC) .
In the confined space of a sailing ship on a voyage of six months , the food is not cooked thoroughly . The +-200 passengers are in touching contact daily . If at the start , one passenger had (say) 10 forms of gingivitis of various degrees of virulence , then the most virulent will tend to colonise the other passengers the most . There they mutate (remember that the bacteria monitor the density of themselves and other bacteria , so-called quorum mechanisms ) . Over certain thresholds , they switch on deletrious mechanisms .
Now , gingivitis is an old , old fellow-traveller with hominids . They don’t kill outright , but spin out the decomposition process to maximize their chances .
The ship becomes a hotbed of gingivitis activity , breeding into ever more virulent forms . Death rates of 90% were not uncommon .
These little bubbles of virulence on ships had little effect on Western societies in Europe as a whole . There was a tendency for immigrant populations in sailing ship days to have very good genetics as far as teeth are concerned (cf South African boers vs Europeans)
The effect on native societies was disasterous . Native here includes the Europeans who had immigrated previously . The bubbles of virulence of diseases like measles , whooping cough , etc brought by the ships hit even the Europeans hard , but devastated the locals who had no traditions of quarantine .
Of course , it worked in reverse too . Waves of infection spread from the European ports as ships went back and forth .
Ho ! Ho! Ho!
3. The White Man’s Grave .
White men survived quite happily in areas where they had little or no contact with ships . It was the ports that brought in diseases from all over the world , bred to a new virulence on the long voyages on the sailing ships . It must be said that most of these diseases were also variants of well-known European diseases .
4. The Boer War Concentration Camps .
The Boers were relatively isolated from the pathogen gene-pool in Europe . Ever wondered why such a hardy lot succumbed in droves to diseases in circumstances which were not much different from what they were used to ? Most of them were bywoners , used to a hard-scrabble life . A few big landowners had swallowed up most of the land , due to the Boer habit of partitioning inheritances equally amongst very large families . ( Work it out yourself . They arrived around 1840 . By 1900 , 60 years had passed . Three generations . Each generation had about 7 surviving males .The families were large . This gives 7x7x7x14 =4802 people that had to wrest a living out of grazing land that was originally good for a comfortable living for 2+14 . This does not include the black servants who were also merrily multiplying .
As you can see , this was not tenable . Even in 1900 , most of the whites were poor whites , scrabbling a living as bywoners or in the towns as dependants (clients in the Roman sense) of the wealthy large landowners . (The same thing happened in South America) . These were the guys who were the bitter-enders . The well-off landowners made accommodations with the British (the Hendsoppers) . Some of the poor joined the British (the Joiners) . The rest kept on fighting . The life on commando was for most better than what they had before .
These were landless men with no prospects . Like Roman soldiers circa 80 BC until Augustus strictly limited the number of legions , condottieri up until Napoleon , German mercenaries like Von Stutterheim .
It is interesting to note that one of the reasons for the success of the US model is that they never paid their troops directly in land . This can be traced back directly to Washington , when he prevented the coup by the officers of the Continental Army to force Congress to pay their arrears . Even today , US mercenaries (called Contractors) like Black River get paid in money , not in promises of land . In a general collapse this will not hold , as the only real wealth will revert back to the food production of land .
To get back to the Boer War , when the relatively isolated population of Boer women and children came into contact with English disease carriers of things like measles and whooping cough , especially the children were vulnerable . The overcrowding and malnutrition did not help , but the Boer population would died in large numbers even if they well-fed and housed . The critical factors were the close contact on a daily basis with carriers of disease . Not only the English soldiers , for whom these were childhood diseases , but each other once they became infected . The Boers had no tradition of quarantine . The survivors clustered around , trying to aid and care for each other . They took pride in the fact and considered it a Christian Virtue . Exactly like the Amerindians did in North America . They can thank the elements of immunity in their systems that their mortality was only about 25% . Emily Hobhouse traipsing around , trailing infection in her wake probably killed more than she helped .
The situation was as bad in the Boer prisoner of war camps on Ceylon , St Helena ,etc . The equivalent of Guantanamo Bay today . The death statistics are still classified , or unavailable today . But about 25% seems likely .
Notice the importance of quarantine . As discussed before , even a new disease in a virgin population can be contained with about 30%-40% death rate (Black Death) , but without quarantine (like colonial territories in Americas or Africa , where the community tried to care for the sick) , the death rate is 95%-99% . The Black Death natural immunity was about 1 in 40 000 . As near as 100% death rate without quarantine .
5. To get back to ships:
So , even ships with vitC supplies usually ran into teeth disease problems . Hence the tardy recognition of the importance of vitC . Scurvy only stopped after the bacterial nature of most diseases became known . Hygiene improved . The length of voyages also decreased dramatically (steam) , with changeover of personnel .
Even so , lately super-tankers voyage for months on end with the same crew isolated from the general gene-pool of pathogens . NASA should examine them for the effects of prolonged isolation from rapidly evolving pathogen pools .
6. To get back to Ancient Egyptians :
The Old Kingdom of Egypt was brought to a catastrophic end by climate shift . There was a prolonged drought (about 80 years ) in the Nile catchment areas in Abyssinia . Humans had populated the Egyptian area of the Nile up to carrying capacity . 80 years of failure of the Nile floods reduced the whole area to a fraction of it’s population . Cannibalism has been hard-documented in the archeological remains of many towns in the delta . Significantly , these town-sites were shunned , which is why their remains are still there after about 4000 years . Of course , more strategic sites were simply built over . (“I can’t stand it . Pass me that brick.”) .
7. What must be understood is that Abyssinia (Ethiopia) is the Holiest Land on the planet as far as humans are concerned . This is where it all started .
After Toba , this is where the survivors created a new relationship between themselves and the gods . Whether the Matriarchy Mythos is valid or not , Egyptian aristocracy traced their claim to nobility to their descent from Abyssinia. Tibetans were also offspring , with maybe a soupcon of other Homo species , judging from the evidence of human body-lice .
Note the equivalent in Asia : Han-Tibetan and Mongolian-Tibetan are the majority population groups . Genghis Khan took pride in tracing his lineage to Tibet , even though his beard was red and his eyes grey .
Peking lap dogs have been genetically analyzed . They are not only directly descended from Tibetan lamasery dogs , but there has been continuous genetic interchange for the last 2000 years .
Han Chinese are Tibetans .
Abyssinia is not where old religions come to die .
It is where they return to their roots . It is the only place where all the major Western Religions ( Judaism , Christianity , Islam , Communism) have living temples . If one scratches around , I would not be surprised to find Mithraism , Roman and Greek , Celtic , Buddhist , Hindu remnants (maybe not Shintu) or older . It is a large , really rugged country that has seen more human history than all the rest put together . It has seen climate shifts come and go . It has seen the ice-ages in and it has seen them out in the long-ago memory of humans .
8. Myths .
It is why the Ark of the Covenant is rumoured to be there . Note that the rumour is more important than the fact . We are dealing in myths .
“We deal in hot lead , friend.” - Colt and Kalashnikov .
“We deal in misty myth , friend.”- Christ and Buddha .
Who’s winning ?
Why did the Italians attack Abyssinia in the 1930’s ?
It made no logical sense in terms of European politics .
It was on the instigation of Hitler ( actually the Ultima Thule group ) , who saw it as one of the key religious and esoteric points on the planet . They also had their eye on Tibet . The SS launched an exploratory mission (documented). They were rumoured to have imported several hundred initiates of the left-hand path who supposedly committed suicide before the fall of Berlin .
9. Sigh .
Anybody who knows Tibet can tell you that the only reason they do not rule the planet is that you cannot find any three that can agree to follow any path , right , left , center or any other direction . Their world-view allows not only that the end justifies the means in one single time-line , but in all possible time-lines . Calculus of any type only clumps various time-lines together . There remains a very large (which can be infinite , depending) number of time-lines .
Various lamaseries meddled ( and still meddles ) incessantly with surrounding cultures . But all are rife with factions . The Chinese are in the position of exasperated children trying to keep some check on their madcap parents .
Tibetans are tourists , in other words . Surfing the time-lines .
10 .To get back to Ancient Egyptians :
One of the major reasons (some would say THE reason) why Egyptian Civilization lasted millennia in balance with the environment was that funny religion of theirs with all the animal-headed gods . Their religion was in a one-to-one correspondence with their environment . Each animal had its sect of human protectors . Significant percentages of the human priests had a vested interest in protecting their tutelary deity .
Kill too many jackals , and you had the priests of Anubis on your neck .
Do you see how it went?
If we had had a god of birds , we might still have some passenger pigeons in the sky .
The point is , it worked .
11. Ho , Ho , Ho !
There is no reason why this cannot be reinvented . There is no reason to suppose that the priests of various Egyptian gods really believed in them . But they had a vested interest in them . Cf Gaia .
Note that the thin little strip of land next to the Nile is extremely vulnerable to human population growth and concomitant extermination of wildlife . Yet the ancient Egyptians kept it going for more than 5 000 years . The only major interruption from climate was at the end of the Old Kingdom . Yet the survivors managed to struggle on for a further 2 000 years until overwhelmed by the Romans , Christians , Muslims , Ottomans , English , etc .
It was not just hanging on either . They created writing , including the alphabet , the compound saw and bow , lathes , fine metallurgy , good medicine , ships , etc and exported these ideas throughout the their north via mercenaries (what we would today call contractors) . Some of the greatest art originated in this period .
12. The Top Kingdom .
We have to ask why such a vital , powerful civilization did not move deeper into Africa . The clue lies in their name for themselves . Egypt was divided into the Upper Kingdom and the Lower Kingdom . The Upper Kingdom was the part nearer to Abyssinia (past the cataracts) .
Note : not the Top Kingdom . The Top Kingdom was Abyssinia until the catastrophic drought that brought all the kingdoms to disaster .
( Cf Chinese Middle (ie Center) Kingdom . The hierarchies and worldviews were different . The Himalayas were at the center of the Chinese world , from which many rivers flowed , while Abyssinia was at the top of world , from which only the Nile flowed .)
The climate change and drought that brought the Egyptian Old Kingdom to a crash was seen as a massive betrayal by the gods . Ironically , the ones with the biggest sense of grievance were the upper classes , starting with the Pharaoh .
Hence the Anhknaton rebellion . A significant fraction of the priesthood must have participated in the new rejection of the old gods . Interestingly , the reason why the counter-reformation (cf Tutankhamun) succeeded was the environmental degradation that went with the suppression of the old temples . The Nile riparian areas are very fragile ecosystems , and deficiency diseases (notably lack of protein as birds and fish were over-hunted) would quickly have shown that the new ways were demonstratively worse than the old ways . Note that teeth from this period were excessively worn by grit , indicating turbidity of the Nile due to environmental disturbance . (Intervening just about anywhere in the Nile’s eco-cycle would screw things up , resulting in turbidity , low fish and crop yield and starvation . Very quickly too . )
A more vicious round of religious civil wars erupted .
All ties with Abyssinia were severed , and the tradition of erasing politically non-correct previous rulers started .
Abyssinia was in pretty poor shape as well . Huge influxes of refugees from Egypt and the Arabian peninsula swept over the land . The genetic evidence of this is now being traced . Some has been found as far as Zimbabwe (refugees from the collapse of the Saba dam in Yemen , in three stages .The ruins of the dam and the huge irrigation works are still there . Cf Queen of Sheba .)
In any case , Egypt had problems of its own . Their equivalent of the refugee influx was the Sea Peoples , which they survived by the skin of their teeth .
After that it was the relentless pressure from barbarians from the hills and desert who took over the productive land in the Middle East as rainfall recovered . They were militaristic and expansionist , being survivors of a process where only these characteristics were selected .
13 . Knowledge not essential to survival was lost .
The verbal equivalent of an emergency clinic was transmitted , and later written down by some despairing medical practitioners lamenting the past and making the best of a bad situation .
Remember , this was not overnight . It took decades to get worse and worse .
14. Dung .
A fascinating aside is feral ass dung , which is used by the Bedouin as a tea for stomach complaints . This is reminiscent of the Nguni use of fresh cow dung to slap on open wounds (like with circumcision) .
The keys here are
14.1 Free range animals
14.2 Animal self-medication .
14.3 Enlightened altruism (now called pre-adaptation)
Animals that can roam freely and are not overgrazed , self-medicate . This is a well-documented phenomenon . The dung not only has anti-bacterial properties , but has large populations of indifferent or even benign bacteria that out-compete harmful bacteria . The cow-food is deliberately not optimally utilized , so that at every process of digestion there is sufficient energy and nutrients for commensal bacteria not harmful to the host , as well enough left over for grass to grow on .
It can even be utilized as a building material .
But only if the animals are free-ranging and not over-populated . Hence the flight to the cities (or a major reason) . Traditional huts became unhealthy as the dung became unhealthy . Something similar happened in Europe with the Celtic tribes .
Elephants utilize only about a third of their food . This was seen as a handicap , but it is actually the key to their survival as the most successful large animal in
Africa . See below .
In other words , the ecology optimizes , not the species .
“The Selfish Gene “ and “Kin selection “ is out and “Pre-adaptation” is in . The human monkeys have undergone a “paradigm-shift” (ie some common-sense has seeped through the leafy boughs of academe) , and gone screaming after the new troop-direction .
See E.O. Wilson’s “Superorganism” . He was the father of sociobiology , but has now done a u-turn . Selfishness is not good anymore .
It would be funny if not so much damage has been done by business schools like Harvard and Yale using these half-baked ideas as templates and excuses for short-sighted greed .
We know the exact limits of greed as well .
15 . How much of available resources must we use and how much must we leave for others to exist ?
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “ Infinite Probes” .
The boundaries of instability are 27% - 37% of usage of resources .
Things get more unstable as you approach 27% . There is turbulence and singularities around 27% . Between 27% and 37% things appear more stable , but steadily grow tougher . At 37% , turbulence becomes extreme . Extinction looms .
It usually takes some fancy co-operative footwork around the 27% boundary to survive . Most competitive species go extinct here in a welter arms-races for diminishing and ever more specialized resources .
Please note that humans are now utilizing at least 25% of photosynthesizing biomass on the planet . They are already deep into the instability zone , and being very competitive , it is doubtful whether they will survive the boundary . Numbers mean nothing . It is actually the numbers that drive the extinction process .
Recent Chinese demand has probably pushed this into the real instability zone .
There was only a 2% margin to uplift them to start with .
16 .The Coal Instability .
Humans think of coal like the ancient Egyptians thought of the Nile .
Old Faithful .
When all else fails , coal will see us through .
Most of the energy generation on the planet is still coal-based .
Ho , ho , ho !
Rutledge of Caltech has analyzed coal reserves using Hubbert’s Linearization technique . Google it , or see “The Great Cole Hole” in New Scientist of 19 Jan 2008 p38 . I have checked the numbers for UK production , and the argument seems solid .
(This is the same technique used to successfully predict Hubbert’s oil peak .)
We are close to global peak in coal production , and rapidly nearing zero production in some of the older regions . By 2030 we will have used 70% of remaining exploitable coal reserves . (ie in 20 years time electricity will be a very expensive luxury if present population numbers are maintained .
The UK is an old region . By about 1015 it will produce no coal . Zero . Oh , there is a lot of coal left . Here and there .Thither and yon . Poor quality stuff . Nothing for a large power station .
South Africa is a semi-old region . The richer , easily accessible regions have been mined . The deposits are in seams (ie discontinuous) . In South Africa they are also “complex” . Geology-speak that they suddenly vanish due to folds and faults . The coal does not peter out . It suddenly vanishes . Then a new mine of poorer quality has to be dug (if you can find the coal ) . Can you see where this is going ?
The present Eskom coal crisis will never get better . Coal will only get scarcer and more expensive . South Africa is already past it’s coal-peak . Every new large power station will require a large coal mine to fuel it , and they do not exist . The coal does not exist in sufficient concentrations .
The politicians lie and do more of the same .
The only energy source that has sufficient capacity is nuclear power .
As you can see , the 27% instability has come to bite us from the one direction in which we thought we were secure : coal .
Water and sewerage are next , then food , then air (hopefully only storms , but oxygen dead-spots are possible as climatic instabilities concentrate oxygen-poor zones from the oceanic deserts .)
New you know how the old Egyptian medic felt .
Get your papyrus and scribble !
But best is verbal paring down . Oral knowledge seems to have survived as long as humans have . Lock in using meme-engineering .
Andre
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Ancient Egyptian Technology
Ancient Egyptian Technology
Andre Willers
27 Jan 2008
How did they shape and transport large stone masses using copper and wood ?
Discussion :
Shaping hard stone :
They sawed it .
Copper is a soft metal . Hard silica grit (sand or quartz) gets impregnated and fixed in the soft copper saw and these hard bits cut the rock .
How they did it :
From jewelry we know that they knew how to draw copper wire .
A tensioned copper wire is sufficient to form a cutting edge . The tension was supplied by a bow-type saw .
The economic trick : the copper was recycled . The metal was very expensive , but it is an element .
They could recover nearly every particle of copper abraded away .Simple smelting would suffice .
The cutting wire is sluiced continuously by a cooling liquid , which is collected and reprocessed . The sides of cut is also later brushed down . The workers were washed down as well . Really high efficiencies of recycling can be obtained (99%) , especially if a slightly sticky liquid is used .
Evidence :
The Narmer Tablet (google it) . Very old (at least 5 000 yrs before present)
On the front and back at the top left and right of the tablet are stylized bow-saws .
Figure : connect BACGH and JEDFI .
C D
- -
A- - G F - - E
- - H I - -
B---------------------------J
BACGH is one horn fixed to beam BJ . H is the point of the left horn .
JEDFI is another horn fixed to beam BJ. I is the point of the right horn .
The horns are tensioned by sinews wound tight between BAC and CGH for the left , and likewise between JED and DFI for the right .
(If you examine the front left top horns of the Narmer Tablet , faint lines can still be seen showing the sinews .)
The copper wires strung between the left horn CGH and the right horn DFI are thus placed under an even elastic tension . Many wires are strung (looking like a harp) . Faint traces of these can be seen on the top front left bow of the Narmer Tablet
Note that the horns are curved much more than is natural because of the tensioning . See the bottom back of the tablet for a natural depiction of a bull . The horns are very different .
The length of the copper wire is not limited by the limitations of how long a wire can be drawn , as shorter lengths can knot-welded together . Indeed , some photos of the Narmer saws show thin lumps like splices or welds . This would not affect the sawing action , as this is dependant on abrasion .
So quite big blocks of stone can be sawed .
The user starts with a full harp of wires . As one wears away and breaks , they simply continue with the next wire . When all wires are used up , the bow is restrung .The shavings recycles continuously into copper wire .
A sawayer team can saw all day if they have the necessary backup team .
These would all be skilled professionals .
An intriguing note are the “ears” on the tablet bows . Close examination shows that they look more like leaves . The actual bull on the reverse does not show the same ears . One speculates that this might be the plant that is the source of the stickiness in the lubricating fluid .
Wire-drawing , chisels , drills and lathes .
The middle figure on top of both sides of the tablet schematically shows these .
The “catfish” represents the wire-drawing apparatus . It seem like a plate-type wire drawing process . The “whiskers” are the wires . Google wire-drawing .
The chisel is the Y shaped squiggle in the centre . Usually bronze or copper edged . This is a generally agreed interpretation .
Next to it on both sides are what looks like two cricket-wickets . One “cricket-wicket” is a drill . The center is drill-stave , tipped by an abrasive soft-copper bit (the same principle as the stone-saw) .
The two staves on the sides are guides to keep the drill in place and to guide the bowstring that powers the drill . (Drill-bows are a stone-age technology .)
With this , long straight holes can be drilled through rock .
Or gemstones . This is still the technology used in jewelry manufacture . A sticky drillbit coated with an abrasive is drilled into the target .
Two drills rotating around an axis while drilling is a primitive lathe . Good for making columns , pillars ,etc . Hence the two “cricket-wicket” drills on the tablet .
Moving large stones .
This problem has been solved by the Egyptian Department of Antiquities during their excavations of the workers’ quarters near the Pyramids . They found toy quarter-circles in childrens’ graves . They were mimicking in play what their parents did .
Strap four wooden quarter-circles to square and you have a circle . The stone blocks were not dragged , they were rolled . (This has been done in actual reconstruction with pyramid blocks) . Really large blocks (thousands of tonnes) can be moved by this method . The only limitation is the strength of wood and the strength of the surface over which it must roll . It can easily be calculated , but even cursory examination shows that it must be very large (cf mass capacity of wooden , wheeled cart)
Ancient Egyptian Wheelbarrow .
Since a large percentage of the pyramids is large fill-in rubble , they must have had an efficient way of transporting smaller , irregularly shaped rocks . It is speculated that nets filled with packed rubble were fitted with circle-segment strap-ons and rolled . Like our wheelbarrow , except that the wheel goes around the load .
Some Speculations :
Compound Bows :
The Egyptians probably invented compound-bow technology in their efforts to increase the efficiency of the bow-saw as described above . It then percolated back north via the mercenaries (like the alphabet) .
Nomads cannot even make a good compound bow . The reason is that the layers of glue between the strips of horn must be kept absolutely still for months to set properly. A really good bow around 1200 AD (Mongols) took about a year to make . The factories were around the edges of the steppes and were not nomadic . Places for artificers , pregnant woman , children , wounded convalescents and old people . About a third of the Mongol population resided here .
No nomad population could develop a compound bow . The development process would have involved long trial-and-error with different glues , thicknesses and types of horn , curing pressures and rates , temperatures , record keeping and lots of time in a stable environment . Only the Egyptians qualify .
But once the recipe was known , duplication was fairly easy .
Both the Egyptians and Middle Easterners like Assyrians used compound bows , but it came into its own with the horse . The Parthian shot is proverbial .
What amuses me is that the single weapon that killed more people than any other was developed as a better saw .
Incas
Resin coated strings impregnated with obsidian or quartz flakes will slice through stone . Cheap and easy to make . But not as easily guided . Look at the wavering joins at Sacsahuamen .
How did they join them ?
First , bring two rough blocks together using the strap-on roller technique . Then use parallel sawing strings repeatedly till the edges fit tightly . Then roll them into place .
What about the wheel ? Note that they were aware of the wheel . We know that from their childrens’ toys . Note that the evidence for the Egyptian technique was also found in childrens’ toys .
Sigh .
No anti-gravity . No advanced Ancient Civilizations with Mysterious Knowledge .
Just a bunch of priest-kings out for number one , a large number of suckers and lots of elbow-grease .
And so it goes .
Andre
Andre Willers
27 Jan 2008
How did they shape and transport large stone masses using copper and wood ?
Discussion :
Shaping hard stone :
They sawed it .
Copper is a soft metal . Hard silica grit (sand or quartz) gets impregnated and fixed in the soft copper saw and these hard bits cut the rock .
How they did it :
From jewelry we know that they knew how to draw copper wire .
A tensioned copper wire is sufficient to form a cutting edge . The tension was supplied by a bow-type saw .
The economic trick : the copper was recycled . The metal was very expensive , but it is an element .
They could recover nearly every particle of copper abraded away .Simple smelting would suffice .
The cutting wire is sluiced continuously by a cooling liquid , which is collected and reprocessed . The sides of cut is also later brushed down . The workers were washed down as well . Really high efficiencies of recycling can be obtained (99%) , especially if a slightly sticky liquid is used .
Evidence :
The Narmer Tablet (google it) . Very old (at least 5 000 yrs before present)
On the front and back at the top left and right of the tablet are stylized bow-saws .
Figure : connect BACGH and JEDFI .
C D
- -
A- - G F - - E
- - H I - -
B---------------------------J
BACGH is one horn fixed to beam BJ . H is the point of the left horn .
JEDFI is another horn fixed to beam BJ. I is the point of the right horn .
The horns are tensioned by sinews wound tight between BAC and CGH for the left , and likewise between JED and DFI for the right .
(If you examine the front left top horns of the Narmer Tablet , faint lines can still be seen showing the sinews .)
The copper wires strung between the left horn CGH and the right horn DFI are thus placed under an even elastic tension . Many wires are strung (looking like a harp) . Faint traces of these can be seen on the top front left bow of the Narmer Tablet
Note that the horns are curved much more than is natural because of the tensioning . See the bottom back of the tablet for a natural depiction of a bull . The horns are very different .
The length of the copper wire is not limited by the limitations of how long a wire can be drawn , as shorter lengths can knot-welded together . Indeed , some photos of the Narmer saws show thin lumps like splices or welds . This would not affect the sawing action , as this is dependant on abrasion .
So quite big blocks of stone can be sawed .
The user starts with a full harp of wires . As one wears away and breaks , they simply continue with the next wire . When all wires are used up , the bow is restrung .The shavings recycles continuously into copper wire .
A sawayer team can saw all day if they have the necessary backup team .
These would all be skilled professionals .
An intriguing note are the “ears” on the tablet bows . Close examination shows that they look more like leaves . The actual bull on the reverse does not show the same ears . One speculates that this might be the plant that is the source of the stickiness in the lubricating fluid .
Wire-drawing , chisels , drills and lathes .
The middle figure on top of both sides of the tablet schematically shows these .
The “catfish” represents the wire-drawing apparatus . It seem like a plate-type wire drawing process . The “whiskers” are the wires . Google wire-drawing .
The chisel is the Y shaped squiggle in the centre . Usually bronze or copper edged . This is a generally agreed interpretation .
Next to it on both sides are what looks like two cricket-wickets . One “cricket-wicket” is a drill . The center is drill-stave , tipped by an abrasive soft-copper bit (the same principle as the stone-saw) .
The two staves on the sides are guides to keep the drill in place and to guide the bowstring that powers the drill . (Drill-bows are a stone-age technology .)
With this , long straight holes can be drilled through rock .
Or gemstones . This is still the technology used in jewelry manufacture . A sticky drillbit coated with an abrasive is drilled into the target .
Two drills rotating around an axis while drilling is a primitive lathe . Good for making columns , pillars ,etc . Hence the two “cricket-wicket” drills on the tablet .
Moving large stones .
This problem has been solved by the Egyptian Department of Antiquities during their excavations of the workers’ quarters near the Pyramids . They found toy quarter-circles in childrens’ graves . They were mimicking in play what their parents did .
Strap four wooden quarter-circles to square and you have a circle . The stone blocks were not dragged , they were rolled . (This has been done in actual reconstruction with pyramid blocks) . Really large blocks (thousands of tonnes) can be moved by this method . The only limitation is the strength of wood and the strength of the surface over which it must roll . It can easily be calculated , but even cursory examination shows that it must be very large (cf mass capacity of wooden , wheeled cart)
Ancient Egyptian Wheelbarrow .
Since a large percentage of the pyramids is large fill-in rubble , they must have had an efficient way of transporting smaller , irregularly shaped rocks . It is speculated that nets filled with packed rubble were fitted with circle-segment strap-ons and rolled . Like our wheelbarrow , except that the wheel goes around the load .
Some Speculations :
Compound Bows :
The Egyptians probably invented compound-bow technology in their efforts to increase the efficiency of the bow-saw as described above . It then percolated back north via the mercenaries (like the alphabet) .
Nomads cannot even make a good compound bow . The reason is that the layers of glue between the strips of horn must be kept absolutely still for months to set properly. A really good bow around 1200 AD (Mongols) took about a year to make . The factories were around the edges of the steppes and were not nomadic . Places for artificers , pregnant woman , children , wounded convalescents and old people . About a third of the Mongol population resided here .
No nomad population could develop a compound bow . The development process would have involved long trial-and-error with different glues , thicknesses and types of horn , curing pressures and rates , temperatures , record keeping and lots of time in a stable environment . Only the Egyptians qualify .
But once the recipe was known , duplication was fairly easy .
Both the Egyptians and Middle Easterners like Assyrians used compound bows , but it came into its own with the horse . The Parthian shot is proverbial .
What amuses me is that the single weapon that killed more people than any other was developed as a better saw .
Incas
Resin coated strings impregnated with obsidian or quartz flakes will slice through stone . Cheap and easy to make . But not as easily guided . Look at the wavering joins at Sacsahuamen .
How did they join them ?
First , bring two rough blocks together using the strap-on roller technique . Then use parallel sawing strings repeatedly till the edges fit tightly . Then roll them into place .
What about the wheel ? Note that they were aware of the wheel . We know that from their childrens’ toys . Note that the evidence for the Egyptian technique was also found in childrens’ toys .
Sigh .
No anti-gravity . No advanced Ancient Civilizations with Mysterious Knowledge .
Just a bunch of priest-kings out for number one , a large number of suckers and lots of elbow-grease .
And so it goes .
Andre
Monday, January 21, 2008
Why do Doctors love golf ?
Why do Medical Doctors love golf?
Andre Willers
22 Jan 2008
Why do they like golf ?
Because they are effortlessly better at it than others .
Why ?
Because they know where their fingertips are . Their tactile and resonance training is quite intensive . All that tapping on the chest , probing into the abdomen and long hours on their feet train them into a good golfer’s body image . It is easier to translate this into a better game of golf than somebody who has not spent seven years doing this .
Can it be better ?
Of course . Fingertapping execercises as set out in http://andreswhy.blogspot.com
“Athlete” will not only dramatically better their golf , but also their professional expertise . It works both ways . A sport that improves hand-eye-ear co-ordination also improves the doctor’s medical expertise . But good luck in getting your Club fees past the Receiver .
Note that the musical (resonance) is essential in any of these methods . It ties the ancient resonance mechanisms in the fingertips and feet together in an effortless manner . You get better , but only notice it if you actively monitor your scores . There is no sense of strain .
What about typists?
Has anyone ever looked ? Are touch-typists better at some sports ? Their body is obviously aware where their fingertips are , but there is no rhythmic or resonance accompaniment to the training . In other words , a hard slog not using existing pathways . Therefore not integrated either . Retraining using fingertip-music mechanisms should quickly integrate .
Resonance.
There must be some sort of resonance using the ( ½,1/4,1/8,1/16,…) scale to activate the old mechanisms in the fingertips and the feet .
What about Chinese music?
No physical instrument can produce sound without resonance . All resonance effects use this halving scale (physical law) . But electronic instruments do not . Thus the injunction to use classical or semi-classical music in training .
What about balance ?
All shoes involving balance are studded . Tennis shoes have very broad studs . The studs are primarily for the balancing sensorium and only secondarily for traction .
A balanced person always has traction .
The optimum boot has lots of little studs (up to one per sq mm) , and a very thin sole .
No ankle support , as this hinders learning balance and actually increases the frequency of injuries .
(Exceptions : rugby scrums , where the players are not in balance , and yachts , where pristine planking is more important . Old sailing ships had barefoot sailors and the planking was riffed on the joins . Good ships had lots of knots on the deck-planking . Ice hockey has curved blades , the equivalent of fore-aft studs .)
Diabetic peripheral Neuropathy .
This illustrates the importance of the local nature of balance in the feet . The long nerves are out of action , but the person does not fall over . His brain might feel as if he is walking on blocks of frozen flesh , but local nerves ladder up the legs , maintaing balance and giving important data to the muscles of the leg and the brain . Walking balance can be maintained even with the eyes closed , which is pretty nifty if you think about it .
Of course , this can be improved with training (as discussed) .
An interesting aside here is some recent developments in dentistry . Only the pain nerves are targeted . A variant of lignocaine that cannot cross the cell-barrier is used with capsaicum . The capsaicum receptors open to let the lignocaine operate only in those neurons associated with pain perception . This has obvious applications in elderly patients whose balance system has shut down because of over-stimulation from pain-receptors . Intuitively , one would expect that this would have an effect (even a dramatic effect) on rheumatoid arthritis . “If there is a pain , there must be something wrong . Attack!”
Andre
Andre Willers
22 Jan 2008
Why do they like golf ?
Because they are effortlessly better at it than others .
Why ?
Because they know where their fingertips are . Their tactile and resonance training is quite intensive . All that tapping on the chest , probing into the abdomen and long hours on their feet train them into a good golfer’s body image . It is easier to translate this into a better game of golf than somebody who has not spent seven years doing this .
Can it be better ?
Of course . Fingertapping execercises as set out in http://andreswhy.blogspot.com
“Athlete” will not only dramatically better their golf , but also their professional expertise . It works both ways . A sport that improves hand-eye-ear co-ordination also improves the doctor’s medical expertise . But good luck in getting your Club fees past the Receiver .
Note that the musical (resonance) is essential in any of these methods . It ties the ancient resonance mechanisms in the fingertips and feet together in an effortless manner . You get better , but only notice it if you actively monitor your scores . There is no sense of strain .
What about typists?
Has anyone ever looked ? Are touch-typists better at some sports ? Their body is obviously aware where their fingertips are , but there is no rhythmic or resonance accompaniment to the training . In other words , a hard slog not using existing pathways . Therefore not integrated either . Retraining using fingertip-music mechanisms should quickly integrate .
Resonance.
There must be some sort of resonance using the ( ½,1/4,1/8,1/16,…) scale to activate the old mechanisms in the fingertips and the feet .
What about Chinese music?
No physical instrument can produce sound without resonance . All resonance effects use this halving scale (physical law) . But electronic instruments do not . Thus the injunction to use classical or semi-classical music in training .
What about balance ?
All shoes involving balance are studded . Tennis shoes have very broad studs . The studs are primarily for the balancing sensorium and only secondarily for traction .
A balanced person always has traction .
The optimum boot has lots of little studs (up to one per sq mm) , and a very thin sole .
No ankle support , as this hinders learning balance and actually increases the frequency of injuries .
(Exceptions : rugby scrums , where the players are not in balance , and yachts , where pristine planking is more important . Old sailing ships had barefoot sailors and the planking was riffed on the joins . Good ships had lots of knots on the deck-planking . Ice hockey has curved blades , the equivalent of fore-aft studs .)
Diabetic peripheral Neuropathy .
This illustrates the importance of the local nature of balance in the feet . The long nerves are out of action , but the person does not fall over . His brain might feel as if he is walking on blocks of frozen flesh , but local nerves ladder up the legs , maintaing balance and giving important data to the muscles of the leg and the brain . Walking balance can be maintained even with the eyes closed , which is pretty nifty if you think about it .
Of course , this can be improved with training (as discussed) .
An interesting aside here is some recent developments in dentistry . Only the pain nerves are targeted . A variant of lignocaine that cannot cross the cell-barrier is used with capsaicum . The capsaicum receptors open to let the lignocaine operate only in those neurons associated with pain perception . This has obvious applications in elderly patients whose balance system has shut down because of over-stimulation from pain-receptors . Intuitively , one would expect that this would have an effect (even a dramatic effect) on rheumatoid arthritis . “If there is a pain , there must be something wrong . Attack!”
Andre
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Athlete
Athlete
Andre Willers
20 Jan 2008
Athlete .
Athletic prowess is intimately bound to the body self-image .
Body self-image :
Your body knows where it is by knowing where its fingertips are , then eyes , then ears , then feet soles in this order .
Why fingertips first ?
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com
The scared hominid perched on a branch in the dark while the leopard-class predator stalks nearer , disturbing the elastic branch in certain very specific harmonics , is primarily reliant on sense-pads and computing in its fingertips to survive . Later on , visual systems became more important , but the primary , underlying sense of self-image is in feedback from the fingertips .
This can be easily shown :
Play some rousing semi-classic or chorus music that can be finger tapped to .Try to tap the fingertips of each hand against the other in time to the music :
a. With your eyes closed
b. With your eyes open
You will notice that you miss more with your eyes open . Your eye-hand system is not properly co-ordinated , and the fingertip sense is better and messed up by the visual input .
Training :
You will notice that eye-ears are coupled because they are on the same head - chassis , which is coupled to the body-platform housing the arms and fingertips .
We simply train each fingertip to know where every other fingertip is , with or without visual input .
This is done not only in the brain but also on local level (ie at the level of fingers , hands ,arms) . This better self-image leads to better performance .
The recipe:
Once again , play some rousing semi-classic or chorus music that can be finger tapped to . Move the head back-and-forth through an arc of about 5 degrees .Try to tap the fingertips of each hand against the other in time to the music .Keep on for at least 10 minutes . You will notice that you rapidly improve . It is because you are using existing brain-body mechanisms .
Stop after 10 minutes and do not try again until after a sleep .
This potentiates long-term memory .
Take some cod-liver oil .The cod-liver oil gives essential fatty acids for memory formation .
Moving the head compensates if you are using a CD , but also integrates the visual system .
Comment :
The first improvement is extremely rapid ( 10 minutes ) and also permanent after the next day .
Then you will wonder why you could not do such a simple thing before . There is no sense of strain .
You are simply relearning things that you should be doing naturally . Further improvement increments are smaller as per law of diminishing returns .
Whether you are playing golf , tennis , hockey , basketball , etc , knowing where your fingertips are relative to your body , or rather ,where your body is relative to your fingertips , is the thing defining athleticism in these sports .
Overtraining:
These are fairly simple neural-networks . If you over-work them , they start to learn minutae .
If your pinkie lifts while drinking tea , stop!
Da Feet ,da feet!
Originally , proto-homonids had the same sensitivity on toes . When they transferred to the ground , a lot of this sensitivity transferred to the soles of the feet for balance . This sensitivity has been quantized (roughly one node per square cm of sole .) Fairly coarse , but sufficient to give enough feedback for normal balance .
But what about abnormal balance ?
Dojo mats for judo and karate (where balance is critical) , uses rough fibres woven to these dimensions .
Old people lose their sense of balance because of degradation of feedback from their soles . Their body-image is not in balance .
Old age sensitization of soles using stimuli on this order is now commercially available .
Sportspersons use them as well .
What to do if you cannot afford a $7000 vibrating sole from Switserland or the US ?
Well , move your feet in a rhythmic pattern . Have a floormat with a knobby surface and dance barefoot on it to the time of the music . The thing is to train the system .
Integrated Training System :
Watch ITARIN (while wearing your glasses) on a computer screen while listening to some rousing beat classical music , while moving your head side-to-side over a about 5 degree arc , while dancing barefoot on a knobbly mat , all the time tapping your fingertips together .
Repeat this three times daily about once every three months .
Apart from looking ridiculous , you will be :
1. Training your eyes for better vision with/without glasses.
2. Integrating your self-image with your visual and auditory system.
3. Improving your balance.
Yes , but what about my hair ?
Your bodyhair defines the envelope of your body .
Note that the most potent , in-your-face , body-to-body , contact warriors the planet has ever seen were the Greek Hoplites . They were scraped clean of all body-hair by strigils . For hairy monkeys , the only real sense of self they could feel was in mano-a-mano combat ,or wrestling . This definition of male beauty is still with us . Ever seen a hairy Greek statue?
As discussed , the invention of soap did a lot to do in the Roman Empire .
So what can you do ? Long ,straggly hairs are markers of old age . ( See previous discussion) . Short chest hairs are a sign of manliness among some cultures . So , cut them .
Males have sort of x-ray vision that can see straggly armpit hairs in females . A sort of subliminal friction and smell effect . Similarly , females can detect smelly old men , even when they are young .
Sigh .
Endit
Andre Willers
20 Jan 2008
Athlete .
Athletic prowess is intimately bound to the body self-image .
Body self-image :
Your body knows where it is by knowing where its fingertips are , then eyes , then ears , then feet soles in this order .
Why fingertips first ?
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com
The scared hominid perched on a branch in the dark while the leopard-class predator stalks nearer , disturbing the elastic branch in certain very specific harmonics , is primarily reliant on sense-pads and computing in its fingertips to survive . Later on , visual systems became more important , but the primary , underlying sense of self-image is in feedback from the fingertips .
This can be easily shown :
Play some rousing semi-classic or chorus music that can be finger tapped to .Try to tap the fingertips of each hand against the other in time to the music :
a. With your eyes closed
b. With your eyes open
You will notice that you miss more with your eyes open . Your eye-hand system is not properly co-ordinated , and the fingertip sense is better and messed up by the visual input .
Training :
You will notice that eye-ears are coupled because they are on the same head - chassis , which is coupled to the body-platform housing the arms and fingertips .
We simply train each fingertip to know where every other fingertip is , with or without visual input .
This is done not only in the brain but also on local level (ie at the level of fingers , hands ,arms) . This better self-image leads to better performance .
The recipe:
Once again , play some rousing semi-classic or chorus music that can be finger tapped to . Move the head back-and-forth through an arc of about 5 degrees .Try to tap the fingertips of each hand against the other in time to the music .Keep on for at least 10 minutes . You will notice that you rapidly improve . It is because you are using existing brain-body mechanisms .
Stop after 10 minutes and do not try again until after a sleep .
This potentiates long-term memory .
Take some cod-liver oil .The cod-liver oil gives essential fatty acids for memory formation .
Moving the head compensates if you are using a CD , but also integrates the visual system .
Comment :
The first improvement is extremely rapid ( 10 minutes ) and also permanent after the next day .
Then you will wonder why you could not do such a simple thing before . There is no sense of strain .
You are simply relearning things that you should be doing naturally . Further improvement increments are smaller as per law of diminishing returns .
Whether you are playing golf , tennis , hockey , basketball , etc , knowing where your fingertips are relative to your body , or rather ,where your body is relative to your fingertips , is the thing defining athleticism in these sports .
Overtraining:
These are fairly simple neural-networks . If you over-work them , they start to learn minutae .
If your pinkie lifts while drinking tea , stop!
Da Feet ,da feet!
Originally , proto-homonids had the same sensitivity on toes . When they transferred to the ground , a lot of this sensitivity transferred to the soles of the feet for balance . This sensitivity has been quantized (roughly one node per square cm of sole .) Fairly coarse , but sufficient to give enough feedback for normal balance .
But what about abnormal balance ?
Dojo mats for judo and karate (where balance is critical) , uses rough fibres woven to these dimensions .
Old people lose their sense of balance because of degradation of feedback from their soles . Their body-image is not in balance .
Old age sensitization of soles using stimuli on this order is now commercially available .
Sportspersons use them as well .
What to do if you cannot afford a $7000 vibrating sole from Switserland or the US ?
Well , move your feet in a rhythmic pattern . Have a floormat with a knobby surface and dance barefoot on it to the time of the music . The thing is to train the system .
Integrated Training System :
Watch ITARIN (while wearing your glasses) on a computer screen while listening to some rousing beat classical music , while moving your head side-to-side over a about 5 degree arc , while dancing barefoot on a knobbly mat , all the time tapping your fingertips together .
Repeat this three times daily about once every three months .
Apart from looking ridiculous , you will be :
1. Training your eyes for better vision with/without glasses.
2. Integrating your self-image with your visual and auditory system.
3. Improving your balance.
Yes , but what about my hair ?
Your bodyhair defines the envelope of your body .
Note that the most potent , in-your-face , body-to-body , contact warriors the planet has ever seen were the Greek Hoplites . They were scraped clean of all body-hair by strigils . For hairy monkeys , the only real sense of self they could feel was in mano-a-mano combat ,or wrestling . This definition of male beauty is still with us . Ever seen a hairy Greek statue?
As discussed , the invention of soap did a lot to do in the Roman Empire .
So what can you do ? Long ,straggly hairs are markers of old age . ( See previous discussion) . Short chest hairs are a sign of manliness among some cultures . So , cut them .
Males have sort of x-ray vision that can see straggly armpit hairs in females . A sort of subliminal friction and smell effect . Similarly , females can detect smelly old men , even when they are young .
Sigh .
Endit
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Sunspots 2
Sunspots 2
Andre Willers
16 Jan 2008
See discussion in Appendix A on Vukcevic empirical approximations on sunspots.
From this it follows that in the present century , the maximum number of sunspots per 11 year cycle will decrease from 2007 until about 2050 , then rapidly increase again . The insolation will decrease by about 0.1% . This will partially mask CO2 heating .But the major effect will be stagheating . After 2050 , global heating and climate change will take off with a vengeance .
The poles will seem to be heating faster than the equator . (This effect is already seen) This is because CO2 heating is all over (the climate) , but insolation temperatures directly caused by sunlight is proportional to the Cos(degree of latitude) . The insolation also varies with sunspot activity , by about 0.1 %
Weather systems , especially wind-patterns , are driven by relative temperature differences , which are driven by insolation .
With stagheating :
Insolation decreases , but heating due to CO2 increases .
In general , winter wind-patterns persist into summer .
In the southern hemisphere the effect is easily predictable because there are few landmasses . More La Nino’s (not El Nino’s) . The westerly’s move north even in summer . Lots of rain and floods in South Africa , Australia and South America .
The Northern Hemisphere is more difficult because of the land-masses .In general , the rain-belts will move closer to the equator , but with much heavier rain .Think Sahara circa 8 000 BCE . The tropical monsoons will become more unpredictable . India will have one monsoon failure in five . After 2050 it will be more like 4 failures in 5 .
The picture is even bleaker in North America . Cold air from the north (remember relative cold due to reduced insolation) wedges the rainbelts far south . This has happened many times before in America’s history . Ferocious droughts lasting 80 – 150 years have happened , destroying entire civilizations . One such one is underway now . The American south-west has had about 30% normal rainfall for the last 15 years . The Oglalla aquifer is about exhausted . Yet they pump fossil water like tomorrow will never come . Mexico is even worse off .
Tectonic consequences.
Northern Hemisphere :
Expect increased seismic activity in the 6-7 Richter range , with a few big ones .
Arctic ice was about 6 feet above sea-level and locked into the Arctic circle . When this melts , it has to go somewhere . Surprise , surprise . It has to flow south . This is in addition to the normal circular ocean current . All these trillions of extra tons of mass has to be accelerated to the speed of rotation at the equator . The paddle is the Eastern Seaboards of the continents . It is simple physics .
The old , usual currents had dredged channels , but all this new water surges up against the eastern margins of the continents . The regions close to the shore become turbulent and turbid from massive oceanic rivers flooding from the Arctic . Small fish fry cannot survive . Fish species like cod who previously bred in protected estuaries and harbours , now had to move elsewhere . The cod population off the north-eastern Newfoundland coast did not collapse because the scientists got their numbers wrong . It collapsed because their breeding grounds and habitat got washed away . The shore and continental shelf was scoured away . The cod went into the deep ocean (see below)
The stresses on the North American continent are enormous . It has to accelerate millions of tons of extra water mass from zero to about 1500 mph . The stresses gets transmitted to the interior . The North American continent has a major fault : The Mississippi-Missouri valley . In 1812 there were 3 major quakes over 8 on the Richter scale in the Missouri valley . Literally , thousands of square hectares got lifted hundreds of meters . This can be seen now . This area is overdue for a major quake .
New York has the Ramapo fault : an offshoot of the Missouri fault right underneath it.
I draw your attention to two massive spikes in solar activity in 1765 and 1795 . The polar runoff from this probably triggered the Missouri quakes .
Japan and China are not any better off .
Arctic floods are exerting enormous acceleration pressures on the eastern shores of Japan especially . This is an area overdue for a large earthquake .
What about Western Seaboards ?
Disturbance of the big currents will disturb the pressure on unstable areas , probably lessening the force on the land-area . Of special concern are the Canary Islands (land-slides ) and the San Andreas Fault .
The Gulf Stream keeps the western side of the Canary Island pasted to its parent . Relaxing the pressure will probably cause a collapse . Yet it can be used as a power generator . Use the gravitational energy to generate compression steam to power turbines . Turn a lemon into a lemonade . But will this be done ?
What about the Southern Hemisphere?
Cold , dense , deep meltwater from the Antarctic flows northward along the fault-canyons, scouring as it goes . Deepsea fish are forced to the surface (qv) . Huge new pressures are exerted on the sides of the oceanic trenches in the Pacific . The tectonic balances here on the Rim of Fire are fragile . Note that the earthquake that caused the the Dec 2004 Tsunami was preceded by two 8+ quakes deep in the South Pacific . Land masses with extended east coasts next to trenches (ie New Zealand , Eastern Australia , Indonesian archipelago ) are especially vulnerable . Indeed , increased seismic activity in the 6-7 range has already occurred in New Zealand and Indonesia .
Notice the La Nino effect .
What about South Africa ?
Huge plumes of cold , dense water is flowing into the South Indian Ocean . Refer to the recent sightings of icebergs far north (One yacht was nearly capsized by icebergs in Jan 2008 ) . This is occurring on roughly the same latitude as Port Elizabeth . These masses of cold water also has to accelerated to 1500 mph . Even if there is no land directly to the west , there is a domino effect on the currents to the west . The momentum transfer has to come from somewhere
Notice the La Nino effect .
The Aghulas current is squeezed closer to the African continent . Mauritian volcanoes become more active (already happening). Expect more killer waves in the Mozambique channel and off Port Elizabeth and Durban .
Cyclones (hurricanes) will move slightly south , but after 2050 will move far south . Squeezing the aghulas current will have an effect of raising a higher surface water temperature . If it goes over 27 Celsius , expect some really interesting weather in South Eastern Africa .Hurricanes as far south as Cape Aghulas , maybe even Cape Town .
Up to 2050 the Western Cape will have heavy rain , after that it will dry rapidly from the west if the Westerlies are pushed South . There is a probability that the westerlies will be pushed so far south that the tropical convergence will reach as far as Cape Town (ie become a summer rainfall area .)
Cold water from the Antarctic flowing north along the West coast of Africa will have the effect of weakening the Benguella current .
If the combination of cold Antarctic water squeezing the Aghulas current and weaker Benguella Current causes the warmer current to pass Cape Point and flow up the West coast , a different weather pattern will establish itself , especially after 2050 .
The trick:
While the Westerlies won’t blow the moisture ashore , the subtropical convergence will shift to the west .(Over the moist , warm air of the new current-call it the Namib Current ) . Present desert areas will become like the Free State .
Now there is a real-estate opportunity . Buy the Namib desert .
What about South America?
Pressure on the eastern seaboard will probably cause severe seismic activity in Chile . Tristan da Cunha will probably erupt . Submarines in the Falkland trench will have an interesting time of it .
What about fishing?
There’s some good news and some bad news .
The good news is that the fish biomass is increasing nearly exponentially . The fingers of cold , nutrient rich water from the poles are causing mid-oceans blooms . Plankton and krill are washed from the arctics along the nutrient-rich streams stirred up from the sea-bottom , continental shelves and trenches . Oceanic stretches normally deserts are literally exploding with life . Note the decrease in krill population in the Antarctic .They didn’t die or get eaten . They were washed away to warmer , central oceans where they are proliferating . Remember , this is not the first time this has happened . They have gene mechanisms to cope with this fortunate event .
The bad news:
Fishing is only viable commercially because the fish are concentrated on continental shelves . If the fish move off into the vastnesses of the ocean , the frequency of catching even a large fish becomes so low that it becomes uneconomical . Once there is enough nutrients in the ocean , the fish stocks dilute until it is not economical to catch them .
Note the recent invasion of small jellyfish of Ireland’s coastal estuaries .This can be seen as either too much food , or too few predators . Too much food seems to be the answer . There has been no complaints from fishermen about exigent catches , and since they are a vociferous lot , this already tells us a lot . The normal predators of jellyfish already have so much to eat that they cannot be bothered to go after such obstreperous prey .
Humans are on the wrong side of this evolutionary equation . Survivors will breed to populate the oceans . During this episode of global warming , the oceanic biomass will increase , but the biomass usable by humans will decrease . And it does not matter how fine they make their mesh .
Appendix A
The Vukcevic Aproximation .
He made an empirical Fourier series to plot the number of sunspots against time . It does not explain anything (which is why he is unknown) , but does give a good degree of correlation for the period 1813 – 2008 . It gives the 11 year cycle , but also the increase/decrease in the maximum of the number of sunspots per 11 year cycle . We can extrapolate from 2008 until 2100 with a good degree of confidence .
2002 was a maximum .
Thereafter , it generally decreases to 2050 .
Then it increases again to 2088 .
The confidence decreases after this ,
I have sliced and diced it .
There seems to be 530 – 600 years period between Maunder Minima , centering on 1650 AD .
The basic formula is
Y=A * abs[cos*2*pi*(t-T0)/P1 + cos(2*pi/3 + 2*pi*(t-T0/P2) ]
Where
A=100
T0=1941 yrs
P1=19.86 yrs
P2=23.724 yrs
T=terran years
Note that 12*1941= 23 292 = Earth’s precession period .
Why 12 ?
Lunar , of course .
A large moon seems to play even a more important role than we thought .
The resonance coupling would seem to be both gravitational (small) and electromagnetic (large).
Andre Willers
16 Jan 2008
See discussion in Appendix A on Vukcevic empirical approximations on sunspots.
From this it follows that in the present century , the maximum number of sunspots per 11 year cycle will decrease from 2007 until about 2050 , then rapidly increase again . The insolation will decrease by about 0.1% . This will partially mask CO2 heating .But the major effect will be stagheating . After 2050 , global heating and climate change will take off with a vengeance .
The poles will seem to be heating faster than the equator . (This effect is already seen) This is because CO2 heating is all over (the climate) , but insolation temperatures directly caused by sunlight is proportional to the Cos(degree of latitude) . The insolation also varies with sunspot activity , by about 0.1 %
Weather systems , especially wind-patterns , are driven by relative temperature differences , which are driven by insolation .
With stagheating :
Insolation decreases , but heating due to CO2 increases .
In general , winter wind-patterns persist into summer .
In the southern hemisphere the effect is easily predictable because there are few landmasses . More La Nino’s (not El Nino’s) . The westerly’s move north even in summer . Lots of rain and floods in South Africa , Australia and South America .
The Northern Hemisphere is more difficult because of the land-masses .In general , the rain-belts will move closer to the equator , but with much heavier rain .Think Sahara circa 8 000 BCE . The tropical monsoons will become more unpredictable . India will have one monsoon failure in five . After 2050 it will be more like 4 failures in 5 .
The picture is even bleaker in North America . Cold air from the north (remember relative cold due to reduced insolation) wedges the rainbelts far south . This has happened many times before in America’s history . Ferocious droughts lasting 80 – 150 years have happened , destroying entire civilizations . One such one is underway now . The American south-west has had about 30% normal rainfall for the last 15 years . The Oglalla aquifer is about exhausted . Yet they pump fossil water like tomorrow will never come . Mexico is even worse off .
Tectonic consequences.
Northern Hemisphere :
Expect increased seismic activity in the 6-7 Richter range , with a few big ones .
Arctic ice was about 6 feet above sea-level and locked into the Arctic circle . When this melts , it has to go somewhere . Surprise , surprise . It has to flow south . This is in addition to the normal circular ocean current . All these trillions of extra tons of mass has to be accelerated to the speed of rotation at the equator . The paddle is the Eastern Seaboards of the continents . It is simple physics .
The old , usual currents had dredged channels , but all this new water surges up against the eastern margins of the continents . The regions close to the shore become turbulent and turbid from massive oceanic rivers flooding from the Arctic . Small fish fry cannot survive . Fish species like cod who previously bred in protected estuaries and harbours , now had to move elsewhere . The cod population off the north-eastern Newfoundland coast did not collapse because the scientists got their numbers wrong . It collapsed because their breeding grounds and habitat got washed away . The shore and continental shelf was scoured away . The cod went into the deep ocean (see below)
The stresses on the North American continent are enormous . It has to accelerate millions of tons of extra water mass from zero to about 1500 mph . The stresses gets transmitted to the interior . The North American continent has a major fault : The Mississippi-Missouri valley . In 1812 there were 3 major quakes over 8 on the Richter scale in the Missouri valley . Literally , thousands of square hectares got lifted hundreds of meters . This can be seen now . This area is overdue for a major quake .
New York has the Ramapo fault : an offshoot of the Missouri fault right underneath it.
I draw your attention to two massive spikes in solar activity in 1765 and 1795 . The polar runoff from this probably triggered the Missouri quakes .
Japan and China are not any better off .
Arctic floods are exerting enormous acceleration pressures on the eastern shores of Japan especially . This is an area overdue for a large earthquake .
What about Western Seaboards ?
Disturbance of the big currents will disturb the pressure on unstable areas , probably lessening the force on the land-area . Of special concern are the Canary Islands (land-slides ) and the San Andreas Fault .
The Gulf Stream keeps the western side of the Canary Island pasted to its parent . Relaxing the pressure will probably cause a collapse . Yet it can be used as a power generator . Use the gravitational energy to generate compression steam to power turbines . Turn a lemon into a lemonade . But will this be done ?
What about the Southern Hemisphere?
Cold , dense , deep meltwater from the Antarctic flows northward along the fault-canyons, scouring as it goes . Deepsea fish are forced to the surface (qv) . Huge new pressures are exerted on the sides of the oceanic trenches in the Pacific . The tectonic balances here on the Rim of Fire are fragile . Note that the earthquake that caused the the Dec 2004 Tsunami was preceded by two 8+ quakes deep in the South Pacific . Land masses with extended east coasts next to trenches (ie New Zealand , Eastern Australia , Indonesian archipelago ) are especially vulnerable . Indeed , increased seismic activity in the 6-7 range has already occurred in New Zealand and Indonesia .
Notice the La Nino effect .
What about South Africa ?
Huge plumes of cold , dense water is flowing into the South Indian Ocean . Refer to the recent sightings of icebergs far north (One yacht was nearly capsized by icebergs in Jan 2008 ) . This is occurring on roughly the same latitude as Port Elizabeth . These masses of cold water also has to accelerated to 1500 mph . Even if there is no land directly to the west , there is a domino effect on the currents to the west . The momentum transfer has to come from somewhere
Notice the La Nino effect .
The Aghulas current is squeezed closer to the African continent . Mauritian volcanoes become more active (already happening). Expect more killer waves in the Mozambique channel and off Port Elizabeth and Durban .
Cyclones (hurricanes) will move slightly south , but after 2050 will move far south . Squeezing the aghulas current will have an effect of raising a higher surface water temperature . If it goes over 27 Celsius , expect some really interesting weather in South Eastern Africa .Hurricanes as far south as Cape Aghulas , maybe even Cape Town .
Up to 2050 the Western Cape will have heavy rain , after that it will dry rapidly from the west if the Westerlies are pushed South . There is a probability that the westerlies will be pushed so far south that the tropical convergence will reach as far as Cape Town (ie become a summer rainfall area .)
Cold water from the Antarctic flowing north along the West coast of Africa will have the effect of weakening the Benguella current .
If the combination of cold Antarctic water squeezing the Aghulas current and weaker Benguella Current causes the warmer current to pass Cape Point and flow up the West coast , a different weather pattern will establish itself , especially after 2050 .
The trick:
While the Westerlies won’t blow the moisture ashore , the subtropical convergence will shift to the west .(Over the moist , warm air of the new current-call it the Namib Current ) . Present desert areas will become like the Free State .
Now there is a real-estate opportunity . Buy the Namib desert .
What about South America?
Pressure on the eastern seaboard will probably cause severe seismic activity in Chile . Tristan da Cunha will probably erupt . Submarines in the Falkland trench will have an interesting time of it .
What about fishing?
There’s some good news and some bad news .
The good news is that the fish biomass is increasing nearly exponentially . The fingers of cold , nutrient rich water from the poles are causing mid-oceans blooms . Plankton and krill are washed from the arctics along the nutrient-rich streams stirred up from the sea-bottom , continental shelves and trenches . Oceanic stretches normally deserts are literally exploding with life . Note the decrease in krill population in the Antarctic .They didn’t die or get eaten . They were washed away to warmer , central oceans where they are proliferating . Remember , this is not the first time this has happened . They have gene mechanisms to cope with this fortunate event .
The bad news:
Fishing is only viable commercially because the fish are concentrated on continental shelves . If the fish move off into the vastnesses of the ocean , the frequency of catching even a large fish becomes so low that it becomes uneconomical . Once there is enough nutrients in the ocean , the fish stocks dilute until it is not economical to catch them .
Note the recent invasion of small jellyfish of Ireland’s coastal estuaries .This can be seen as either too much food , or too few predators . Too much food seems to be the answer . There has been no complaints from fishermen about exigent catches , and since they are a vociferous lot , this already tells us a lot . The normal predators of jellyfish already have so much to eat that they cannot be bothered to go after such obstreperous prey .
Humans are on the wrong side of this evolutionary equation . Survivors will breed to populate the oceans . During this episode of global warming , the oceanic biomass will increase , but the biomass usable by humans will decrease . And it does not matter how fine they make their mesh .
Appendix A
The Vukcevic Aproximation .
He made an empirical Fourier series to plot the number of sunspots against time . It does not explain anything (which is why he is unknown) , but does give a good degree of correlation for the period 1813 – 2008 . It gives the 11 year cycle , but also the increase/decrease in the maximum of the number of sunspots per 11 year cycle . We can extrapolate from 2008 until 2100 with a good degree of confidence .
2002 was a maximum .
Thereafter , it generally decreases to 2050 .
Then it increases again to 2088 .
The confidence decreases after this ,
I have sliced and diced it .
There seems to be 530 – 600 years period between Maunder Minima , centering on 1650 AD .
The basic formula is
Y=A * abs[cos*2*pi*(t-T0)/P1 + cos(2*pi/3 + 2*pi*(t-T0/P2) ]
Where
A=100
T0=1941 yrs
P1=19.86 yrs
P2=23.724 yrs
T=terran years
Note that 12*1941= 23 292 = Earth’s precession period .
Why 12 ?
Lunar , of course .
A large moon seems to play even a more important role than we thought .
The resonance coupling would seem to be both gravitational (small) and electromagnetic (large).
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Sunspots and Global Warming
Sunspots and Global Warming
Andre Willers
8 Jan 2008
StagHeating .
The evidence strongly suggests that sunspot activity is decreasing at close to the rate of global warming due to CO2 . See articles below . (Wikipedia one)
What does this mean ?
Insolation (sunlight reaching Earth) decreases with the decrease in sunspots . Thus the minimum of sunspot cycle 23 (June 2006) means a lower insolation . This is an immediate effect . The weather is like winter but warmer .
But energy retention increases due to more CO2 . This is the Global Warming Effect . It is slower .
Example : The Effect on the Southern hemisphere in South Africa .
The summer westerly’s of 2007 are not pushed down as far as normal , but there is still an abnormal amount of energy (hence moisture) closer to the equator . The effect is more moisture than normal being underswept by westerly cold fronts moving much further north than usual during summer .
Heating and cooling at the same time , but in different places .The system is stagnant , but heating up . Hence StagHeating . The increase in energy-differential means more violent weather .
Why are the number of sunspots decreasing with increasing Earth temperature ?
(See previous discussions in http://andreswhy.blogspot.com)
Briefly , sunspots are feedback magnetic structures looping out above the corona . As such , the are extremely sensitive to disturbances from magnetic fields of the planets . Jupiter’s effect is noted below , but Earth’s magnetic field can have an even larger effect .
But we are more concerned with fluctuations . Taken that the solar magnetic feedback system known as a sunspot is extremely sensitive (since a large part of the feedback loop occurs outside the sun proper) , even minor perturbations in the magnetic field of Earth can upset sunspot formation . (Plasmas are notoriously hard to corral.) .
So , extra heating of Earth will cause fluctuations in its magnetic field (via Hadley cells in thunderstorms , ionosphere , etc) . This will disrupt sunspot formation until a new solar equilibrium is formed . This will mean a new insolation . etc . A slow oscillation will form .
This effect might seem minuscule , but remember we are talking about feedback loops outside the sun . Small perturbations can have big , non-linear consequences .
Another way in which Gaia regulates temperature .
The rapid heating of Earth 1000 to 1300 AD due to agriculture thus caused the Maunder Minimum , and hence the Little Ice Age . The same is happening now , but there is a lag between the driver effect on Earth and the sunspot activity . Hence the close lagging correlation . We are heading for a Maunder Minimum .
Ho-ho-ho!
Planetocide
Take three planets like Venus , Earth and Mars . If life on them can influence Solar behaviour , they will force optimization of solar behaviour . Only one can win then .
Your favourite Gaia !
The Magnetic Habitability Band .
Any stellar system will also have a very broad magnetic habitability band . If there is a planet or double planet in the center of the band , that is where life will be . The stellar-planetary coupling will inhibit life outside it .
Interventions :
This is absurdly easy .
Even a tunable EM Array from Earth’s surface coupled with a supercomputer now used for nuclear weapon simulations should be able to :
1. Suppress sunspots . Halt global warming for a while .
2. Sunspot laser : zap your neighbour for fun or profit .
3. Solar sails
4. Seti signaling (typically human : champagne tastes and beer income . A typeII civilization can be emulated . )
5. Terraform Luna or Terra .
6. Terraform Mars or Venus .
7. Move asteroids into close Earth orbits .
8. Hell , move Venus to one of Earth-Moon Lagrange points using its extra CO2 as reaction mass and solar lasers as energy . If you do it right , you end up with new habitable planet .
9. If you do it even better , the CO2 from Venus can be streamed to be captured by Mars . This can be used to terraform it in-situ or as reaction mass to move it to another Lagrange point around Earth .
10. Ditto for the moons of the gas giants . Make a Klemperer Rosette .
Maunder Minimum .
There might be a teensy little problem in restarting the extra-solar fires in our favourite sun . There are nearly an infinite number of ways for a sensitive feedback structure like a sunspot to go wrong , and only a few for it to go right . This is how feeble planetary magnetic fields can have an influence .
Thus , we can say that Sol is heading for a Maunder Minimum because of the rapidly changing magnetic fields of Earth are disrupting the extrasolar fusion processes in the magnetic bands on top of the sunspots . These give that 1-2 % extra insolation , but they can also quickly change . None of this waiting for millions of years while a photon struggles from the center of the sun . We want it , and we want it now!
I do not know what a Sun will do with a prolonged period without sunspots , but I suspect it is nothing nice . Massive chaotic outbursts spring to mind . Cepheid variables ?
A healthy star needs life around it . Quite literally .
Analysis of stellar spectra should show healthy stars with a high probability of life around them . Look for a high variability in sunspots .
Andre
Some actual data :
Vukcevic Data Fitting Equation .
http://side.oma.be/index.php3
Interesting datafitting . To be read with theory below and above .
---
From New Scientist:
'Maverick' sunspot heralds new solar cycle
· 19:30 07 January 2008
· NewScientist.com news service
· Maggie McKee
A new 11-year solar cycle has officially begun, now that a sunspot has been found with a magnetic field pointing in the opposite direction from those in the previous cycle. But researchers are still divided over how active – and potentially damaging to Earth's satellites and power grids – the new cycle will be.
Sunspots are relatively cool regions where magnetic fields from within the Sun have risen up and broken through its surface. They vary in number – going from a minimum to a maximum and back to a minimum again – about every 11 years, the same timescale on which the Sun's magnetic poles reverse direction.
But predicting when the cycles will begin and end and how many sunspots they will produce is a tricky business, says David Hathaway of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, US. For example, he had predicted that the new sunspot cycle, cycle 24, would be quite active. Since active cycles usually start earlier than average, he expected the cycle's first sunspot to appear a year ago – but it was only observed on Friday, 4 January.
"I'm happy to see this spot," he told New Scientist late on Friday. "For more than the last year, I come in every morning and look at the pictures from SOHO [the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory satellite] and say, 'No, not yet.' And today, someone beat me into work and said, 'Go take a look – I think there's a spot."
The spot – along with a couple of previous magnetic hints that cycle 24 was underway – suggests the Sun is at or near solar minimum, a time when sunspots in the new cycle outnumber the old.
Just when solar max will occur is up for debate, with some research teams predicting 2011 and others 2012. "The bigger the cycle, the shorter the time it takes to get there," says Hathaway. "A number of us believe it's going to be a big cycle and hence it will peak earlier."
Conveyor belt
The differing predictions come down to how quickly magnetic fields are shuffled around within the Sun, he says.
A model by Mausumi Dikpati of the High Altitude Observatory in Boulder, Colorado, US, and colleagues suggests that the magnetic field remnants of sunspots ride a conveyor-belt like flow of plasma through the Sun.
The flow takes them from the sunspots' appearance at low latitudes to the poles, then drags them to a depth of 200,000 kilometres, where they get stretched out and strengthened before resurfacing at low latitudes. "Once they get strong enough, they rise like balloons or bubbles and where they pop to the surface, they [can] make sunspots," says Hathaway.
"Her model explains a lot of things well," he adds. "In particular, why the sunspot cycle is 11 years as opposed to 7 or 20. In her model, it comes down to how fast that conveyor belt is moving."
Bubbling motions
Because the belt takes so long to move magnetic fields through the Sun, the magnetic fields near the poles at any given time should not be used as an indicator for the following cycle's strength, according to the model. Instead, they feed into the cycle after that. The remnants of sunspots in cycle 23, for example, appear relatively weak at the poles, suggesting that sunspot cycle 25 should be wimpy.
The model predicts that the new cycle, 24, should be quite active, however, generating about 150 sunspots per day near solar max (see Bumper sunspot crop forecast for next solar cycle).
In alternative models, the conveyor belt is not so important for moving magnetic fields through the Sun. In those models, the fields diffuse downwards quickly, "shuffled down by bubbling motions within the Sun", says Hathaway. Those models predict the magnetic fields at the poles should affect the strength of the sunspot cycle that immediately follows. That suggests that the new cycle should be unimpressive, producing just 75 sunspots per day near solar max.
"This cycle will tell us a lot," says Hathaway. "It should discriminate between these models and may even tell us that neither one is right, which would make it even more interesting."
Solar storms
If the new sunspot cycle does turn out to be strong, that could mean trouble for satellites and electrical grids, since they can be disrupted by solar eruptions, called coronal mass ejections, that often accompany sunspots.
But Hathaway says solar observatories such as Japan's Hinode satellite are helping to give scientists a 'heads up' for potentially dangerous solar storms, so that satellite instruments that may be sensitive to blasts of radiation and charged particles can be switched off ahead of time.
"We're far along enough now that we can basically see the signs there's going to be a coronal mass ejection," he says. "It's still a little like predicting tornadoes – a weatherman can look at Doppler radar and winds within a cloud and say it's apt to produce a tornado. But [whether it will produce one] here, at this time – they still can't do that."
He says tracking the number of sunspots that appear from now until mid-2009 should settle the question of when solar max will occur – the sunspot number ought to rise quickly if it's an active cycle.
The following is from from Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunspot
However, the surrounding areas are brighter and the overall effect is that more sunspots means a brighter sun. The variation caused by the sunspot cycle to solar output is relatively small, of the order of 0.1% of the solar constant (a peak-to-trough range of 1.3 W m-2 compared to 1366 W m-2 for the average solar constant)[3][4]. This range is slightly smaller than the change in radiative forcing caused by the increase in atmospheric CO2 since the 18th century[5]. During the Maunder Minimum in the 17th Century there were hardly any sunspots at all. This coincides with a period of cooling known as the Little Ice Age. It has been speculated that there may be a resonant gravitational link between a photospheric tidal force from the planets, the dominant component by summing gravitational tidal force (75%) being Jupiter's with an 11 year cycle[6].
---
Jupiter's influence
· 20 March 2004 New Scientist
While the work of Mausumi Dikpati suggests that meridional flows in the sun's convective layer may allow us to forecast sunspot activity (6 March, p 38), other forces may also be at work. In particular, the giant planets in the solar system may play a role through the gravitational pull they exert on the massive amount of fluid flowing in the outer layer of the sun.
Curiously, this gravitational force can be expressed as a Fourier series whose most important terms have interesting periodicities: one of these coincides with the 11-year cycle of the sunspots. What we may be seeing, therefore, is the direct influence of planetary tidal forces and their effects on the stability of the magnetic loops created in the meridional flows in the sun's convective layer. These forces could be a major factor in the cycle of magnetic loops believed to create the sunspots.
Jupiter is the largest contributor to the solar plasma tides. It may eventually transpire that its influence contributes to our climate.
From issue 2439 of New Scientist magazine, 20 March 2004, page 32
---
Andre Willers
8 Jan 2008
StagHeating .
The evidence strongly suggests that sunspot activity is decreasing at close to the rate of global warming due to CO2 . See articles below . (Wikipedia one)
What does this mean ?
Insolation (sunlight reaching Earth) decreases with the decrease in sunspots . Thus the minimum of sunspot cycle 23 (June 2006) means a lower insolation . This is an immediate effect . The weather is like winter but warmer .
But energy retention increases due to more CO2 . This is the Global Warming Effect . It is slower .
Example : The Effect on the Southern hemisphere in South Africa .
The summer westerly’s of 2007 are not pushed down as far as normal , but there is still an abnormal amount of energy (hence moisture) closer to the equator . The effect is more moisture than normal being underswept by westerly cold fronts moving much further north than usual during summer .
Heating and cooling at the same time , but in different places .The system is stagnant , but heating up . Hence StagHeating . The increase in energy-differential means more violent weather .
Why are the number of sunspots decreasing with increasing Earth temperature ?
(See previous discussions in http://andreswhy.blogspot.com)
Briefly , sunspots are feedback magnetic structures looping out above the corona . As such , the are extremely sensitive to disturbances from magnetic fields of the planets . Jupiter’s effect is noted below , but Earth’s magnetic field can have an even larger effect .
But we are more concerned with fluctuations . Taken that the solar magnetic feedback system known as a sunspot is extremely sensitive (since a large part of the feedback loop occurs outside the sun proper) , even minor perturbations in the magnetic field of Earth can upset sunspot formation . (Plasmas are notoriously hard to corral.) .
So , extra heating of Earth will cause fluctuations in its magnetic field (via Hadley cells in thunderstorms , ionosphere , etc) . This will disrupt sunspot formation until a new solar equilibrium is formed . This will mean a new insolation . etc . A slow oscillation will form .
This effect might seem minuscule , but remember we are talking about feedback loops outside the sun . Small perturbations can have big , non-linear consequences .
Another way in which Gaia regulates temperature .
The rapid heating of Earth 1000 to 1300 AD due to agriculture thus caused the Maunder Minimum , and hence the Little Ice Age . The same is happening now , but there is a lag between the driver effect on Earth and the sunspot activity . Hence the close lagging correlation . We are heading for a Maunder Minimum .
Ho-ho-ho!
Planetocide
Take three planets like Venus , Earth and Mars . If life on them can influence Solar behaviour , they will force optimization of solar behaviour . Only one can win then .
Your favourite Gaia !
The Magnetic Habitability Band .
Any stellar system will also have a very broad magnetic habitability band . If there is a planet or double planet in the center of the band , that is where life will be . The stellar-planetary coupling will inhibit life outside it .
Interventions :
This is absurdly easy .
Even a tunable EM Array from Earth’s surface coupled with a supercomputer now used for nuclear weapon simulations should be able to :
1. Suppress sunspots . Halt global warming for a while .
2. Sunspot laser : zap your neighbour for fun or profit .
3. Solar sails
4. Seti signaling (typically human : champagne tastes and beer income . A typeII civilization can be emulated . )
5. Terraform Luna or Terra .
6. Terraform Mars or Venus .
7. Move asteroids into close Earth orbits .
8. Hell , move Venus to one of Earth-Moon Lagrange points using its extra CO2 as reaction mass and solar lasers as energy . If you do it right , you end up with new habitable planet .
9. If you do it even better , the CO2 from Venus can be streamed to be captured by Mars . This can be used to terraform it in-situ or as reaction mass to move it to another Lagrange point around Earth .
10. Ditto for the moons of the gas giants . Make a Klemperer Rosette .
Maunder Minimum .
There might be a teensy little problem in restarting the extra-solar fires in our favourite sun . There are nearly an infinite number of ways for a sensitive feedback structure like a sunspot to go wrong , and only a few for it to go right . This is how feeble planetary magnetic fields can have an influence .
Thus , we can say that Sol is heading for a Maunder Minimum because of the rapidly changing magnetic fields of Earth are disrupting the extrasolar fusion processes in the magnetic bands on top of the sunspots . These give that 1-2 % extra insolation , but they can also quickly change . None of this waiting for millions of years while a photon struggles from the center of the sun . We want it , and we want it now!
I do not know what a Sun will do with a prolonged period without sunspots , but I suspect it is nothing nice . Massive chaotic outbursts spring to mind . Cepheid variables ?
A healthy star needs life around it . Quite literally .
Analysis of stellar spectra should show healthy stars with a high probability of life around them . Look for a high variability in sunspots .
Andre
Some actual data :
Vukcevic Data Fitting Equation .
http://side.oma.be/index.php3
Interesting datafitting . To be read with theory below and above .
---
From New Scientist:
'Maverick' sunspot heralds new solar cycle
· 19:30 07 January 2008
· NewScientist.com news service
· Maggie McKee
A new 11-year solar cycle has officially begun, now that a sunspot has been found with a magnetic field pointing in the opposite direction from those in the previous cycle. But researchers are still divided over how active – and potentially damaging to Earth's satellites and power grids – the new cycle will be.
Sunspots are relatively cool regions where magnetic fields from within the Sun have risen up and broken through its surface. They vary in number – going from a minimum to a maximum and back to a minimum again – about every 11 years, the same timescale on which the Sun's magnetic poles reverse direction.
But predicting when the cycles will begin and end and how many sunspots they will produce is a tricky business, says David Hathaway of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, US. For example, he had predicted that the new sunspot cycle, cycle 24, would be quite active. Since active cycles usually start earlier than average, he expected the cycle's first sunspot to appear a year ago – but it was only observed on Friday, 4 January.
"I'm happy to see this spot," he told New Scientist late on Friday. "For more than the last year, I come in every morning and look at the pictures from SOHO [the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory satellite] and say, 'No, not yet.' And today, someone beat me into work and said, 'Go take a look – I think there's a spot."
The spot – along with a couple of previous magnetic hints that cycle 24 was underway – suggests the Sun is at or near solar minimum, a time when sunspots in the new cycle outnumber the old.
Just when solar max will occur is up for debate, with some research teams predicting 2011 and others 2012. "The bigger the cycle, the shorter the time it takes to get there," says Hathaway. "A number of us believe it's going to be a big cycle and hence it will peak earlier."
Conveyor belt
The differing predictions come down to how quickly magnetic fields are shuffled around within the Sun, he says.
A model by Mausumi Dikpati of the High Altitude Observatory in Boulder, Colorado, US, and colleagues suggests that the magnetic field remnants of sunspots ride a conveyor-belt like flow of plasma through the Sun.
The flow takes them from the sunspots' appearance at low latitudes to the poles, then drags them to a depth of 200,000 kilometres, where they get stretched out and strengthened before resurfacing at low latitudes. "Once they get strong enough, they rise like balloons or bubbles and where they pop to the surface, they [can] make sunspots," says Hathaway.
"Her model explains a lot of things well," he adds. "In particular, why the sunspot cycle is 11 years as opposed to 7 or 20. In her model, it comes down to how fast that conveyor belt is moving."
Bubbling motions
Because the belt takes so long to move magnetic fields through the Sun, the magnetic fields near the poles at any given time should not be used as an indicator for the following cycle's strength, according to the model. Instead, they feed into the cycle after that. The remnants of sunspots in cycle 23, for example, appear relatively weak at the poles, suggesting that sunspot cycle 25 should be wimpy.
The model predicts that the new cycle, 24, should be quite active, however, generating about 150 sunspots per day near solar max (see Bumper sunspot crop forecast for next solar cycle).
In alternative models, the conveyor belt is not so important for moving magnetic fields through the Sun. In those models, the fields diffuse downwards quickly, "shuffled down by bubbling motions within the Sun", says Hathaway. Those models predict the magnetic fields at the poles should affect the strength of the sunspot cycle that immediately follows. That suggests that the new cycle should be unimpressive, producing just 75 sunspots per day near solar max.
"This cycle will tell us a lot," says Hathaway. "It should discriminate between these models and may even tell us that neither one is right, which would make it even more interesting."
Solar storms
If the new sunspot cycle does turn out to be strong, that could mean trouble for satellites and electrical grids, since they can be disrupted by solar eruptions, called coronal mass ejections, that often accompany sunspots.
But Hathaway says solar observatories such as Japan's Hinode satellite are helping to give scientists a 'heads up' for potentially dangerous solar storms, so that satellite instruments that may be sensitive to blasts of radiation and charged particles can be switched off ahead of time.
"We're far along enough now that we can basically see the signs there's going to be a coronal mass ejection," he says. "It's still a little like predicting tornadoes – a weatherman can look at Doppler radar and winds within a cloud and say it's apt to produce a tornado. But [whether it will produce one] here, at this time – they still can't do that."
He says tracking the number of sunspots that appear from now until mid-2009 should settle the question of when solar max will occur – the sunspot number ought to rise quickly if it's an active cycle.
The following is from from Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunspot
However, the surrounding areas are brighter and the overall effect is that more sunspots means a brighter sun. The variation caused by the sunspot cycle to solar output is relatively small, of the order of 0.1% of the solar constant (a peak-to-trough range of 1.3 W m-2 compared to 1366 W m-2 for the average solar constant)[3][4]. This range is slightly smaller than the change in radiative forcing caused by the increase in atmospheric CO2 since the 18th century[5]. During the Maunder Minimum in the 17th Century there were hardly any sunspots at all. This coincides with a period of cooling known as the Little Ice Age. It has been speculated that there may be a resonant gravitational link between a photospheric tidal force from the planets, the dominant component by summing gravitational tidal force (75%) being Jupiter's with an 11 year cycle[6].
---
Jupiter's influence
· 20 March 2004 New Scientist
While the work of Mausumi Dikpati suggests that meridional flows in the sun's convective layer may allow us to forecast sunspot activity (6 March, p 38), other forces may also be at work. In particular, the giant planets in the solar system may play a role through the gravitational pull they exert on the massive amount of fluid flowing in the outer layer of the sun.
Curiously, this gravitational force can be expressed as a Fourier series whose most important terms have interesting periodicities: one of these coincides with the 11-year cycle of the sunspots. What we may be seeing, therefore, is the direct influence of planetary tidal forces and their effects on the stability of the magnetic loops created in the meridional flows in the sun's convective layer. These forces could be a major factor in the cycle of magnetic loops believed to create the sunspots.
Jupiter is the largest contributor to the solar plasma tides. It may eventually transpire that its influence contributes to our climate.
From issue 2439 of New Scientist magazine, 20 March 2004, page 32
---
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Infinite Probes in Optimization
Infinite Probes in Optimization .
Andre Willers
5 Jan 2008
Definitions:
n! = n*(n-1)*(n-2)*(n-3)*…*1
The Euclidean Constant e .
e = (1/1! + 1/2! + 1/3!+ 1/4!… )
=2.178…
I will make it as simple as possible using costs and temporal sequences as examples .
Assume that the elements of a system are identifiable and repetitive .
The rules of Arithmetic can then be applied .
Take any such system . By definition it can then be subdivided indefinitely . Each subdivision of r elements can have r! possible permutations (or states) .
Let there be a CostReserve to cover unknown costs in the failure of any element in a group .
Key Assumption
Let at least one element of each r be Aristotelian False (ie a failure cost item)
The Total cost of failure will be the sum of the cost of failures of the elements.
(ReserveCost) *( (1/1! + 1/2! + 1/3!+ 1/4!… ))= (TotalCost)
Your Reserve times the sum of individual failures = total
This defines the boundary .
This is the optimization equation .
This is equal to
ReserveCost / TotalCost = 1/e ~ 0.37
This means that you should not consider an endeavour where the rate of return is less than 37% . This is the long-term break-even point from a probabilistic viewpoint .
This equation is independent of space or time .
Any society (any at all ) that does not deliver 37%+ returns gets zapped by the chaotic downturns .
Since vested interests always decrease rates of returns , empires rise and fall .
The probe can be used in any infinite series , but care has to be taken to define the terms .
An Interesting corollary :
The alert reader would have noticed that the above is true for when there is always at least one false item per group .
What if there is at least one true item per group ? This is approached as follows:
In trading systems , individual items can be identified . The cost of failure in an individual item is then = 1/ (r!/r) = 1/ (r-1)!
The summation is then
(ReserveCost/Item)*(1*1/1! + 2*1/2! + 3*1/3!+ 4*1/4!… ))= (TotalCost)
(ReserveCost/Item)*(1 + 1 + 1/2!+ 1/3!… ))= (TotalCost)
(ReserveCost/Item) / (TotalCost) = 1/(1+e) ~ 0.27
As can be seen , trading systems will survive the collapse of empires . There is a whole 10% difference favouring traders . Recovery systems will then also favor traders .
This is the underlying reason why Stalinistic Communism failed and Chinese went trader . The VOC and East India Co . are good examples .
Ten percent is just too much .
Ho-ho-ho !
The average between 0.37 and 0.27 is roughly 0.33 . A third .Can you see where this is relevant in any infinite situation where uncertainty rules?
Non-Failure Ratio
A non-failure ratio of (1- 1/3) ~2/3 summated over infinity = (2/3) / (1-2/3) =2 .
This means that any system that can be described or broken up into smaller groups is strongly ordered . Successful subgroups survive by a factor of 2 . This is built into the mathematics of the Universe . Life is one such sub-group , so are particles ,etc . Negative entropy is the rule . Life is everywhere . Positive entropy only holds in the most primitive and earliest systems .
Beautiful!
Quantum and non-quantum systems are the same .
Singularity Points.
27% and 37% are singularity points , as are (100-27)=63% and 53% . SocioEconomic systems destabilize at these points . Regardless whether they are human , alien , japanese , chinese or any other sort of ese .
Any society where more than a third of productive enterprise is spent without engendering new wealth creation is doomed .
Tax rates of more than 27% reduce trade . Tax rates between 27% and 37% will let it limp along . Tax rates over 37% is a disaster waiting to happen . It is that simple , and no amount of pontificating will change the realities of economics .
The tax rate anchored between 0% and 27% will follow a catenary . The optimal will be halfway (12.5%) . This would be the optimal VAT rate . Note that deviations from this (up or down) leads to social unrest . The unrest is not linear , but catenary . In other words , it gets rapidly worse as it approaches the anchor points of 0 or 27 % . This is true of any civilization , human or alien . It is inherent in the mathematics .
These are absolute rates , not relative .
The RepoRate .
The tax on new money . If the reporate plus profits stay away from the singularity points (27% , 37%) there is no problem.
What about undefined realities ? Refer to
http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Topos:
Note in the definitions above , that as groups are divided by n , and n->infinity , the system approaches undefined “thingies” . Hence , it can be used as a probe into undefined realms .
Marriage:
An interesting corollary is optimizing pairings of two . The theory above says that random pairing will lead to a failure rate of 37% . Observation seems to bear this out .
To optimize : Note and keep track the best features of the first 37/100 daters , then seriously consider the first anybody after that who equals or better the standards of the first 37
This optimizes your chances .
This result has been independently reached in games theory
Note that your body is independently doing this sort of infinite analysis . Hence speed dating , cocktail parties , mingling , etc .
A good algorithm is to speed date at least 50 persons . Do not do this if you cannot handle rejection , since this concentrates years of normal rejection into a few weeks .
A therapeutic mechanism? Sects use this whipsaw mechanism of rejection (by the outside world) and warm acceptance by the sect to create mini-societies .
Hence cold-canvassing . Rejection binds them closer . Any converts are a bonus . Most real converts are made by on-on-one contact .
But that is also the definition of most successful families .
If you are stupid and ugly , and can handle speed dating , you are a better man than I am , Human .
Virtual speed dating .
Analogous to cures for fear of heights , fear of confined spaces , etc . Considerable success has been achieved in reprogramming the amygdala for these and related phobias using virtual reality .
A Virtual Rejection website will make money .
That’s OK if somebody learns from it .
Another way for actresses or avatars to make money .
“I was rejected 1000 times by Lara”
“Balls rejected by Lara TombRaider as not dusty enough.”
The mind boggles .
Andre
Andre Willers
5 Jan 2008
Definitions:
n! = n*(n-1)*(n-2)*(n-3)*…*1
The Euclidean Constant e .
e = (1/1! + 1/2! + 1/3!+ 1/4!… )
=2.178…
I will make it as simple as possible using costs and temporal sequences as examples .
Assume that the elements of a system are identifiable and repetitive .
The rules of Arithmetic can then be applied .
Take any such system . By definition it can then be subdivided indefinitely . Each subdivision of r elements can have r! possible permutations (or states) .
Let there be a CostReserve to cover unknown costs in the failure of any element in a group .
Key Assumption
Let at least one element of each r be Aristotelian False (ie a failure cost item)
The Total cost of failure will be the sum of the cost of failures of the elements.
(ReserveCost) *( (1/1! + 1/2! + 1/3!+ 1/4!… ))= (TotalCost)
Your Reserve times the sum of individual failures = total
This defines the boundary .
This is the optimization equation .
This is equal to
ReserveCost / TotalCost = 1/e ~ 0.37
This means that you should not consider an endeavour where the rate of return is less than 37% . This is the long-term break-even point from a probabilistic viewpoint .
This equation is independent of space or time .
Any society (any at all ) that does not deliver 37%+ returns gets zapped by the chaotic downturns .
Since vested interests always decrease rates of returns , empires rise and fall .
The probe can be used in any infinite series , but care has to be taken to define the terms .
An Interesting corollary :
The alert reader would have noticed that the above is true for when there is always at least one false item per group .
What if there is at least one true item per group ? This is approached as follows:
In trading systems , individual items can be identified . The cost of failure in an individual item is then = 1/ (r!/r) = 1/ (r-1)!
The summation is then
(ReserveCost/Item)*(1*1/1! + 2*1/2! + 3*1/3!+ 4*1/4!… ))= (TotalCost)
(ReserveCost/Item)*(1 + 1 + 1/2!+ 1/3!… ))= (TotalCost)
(ReserveCost/Item) / (TotalCost) = 1/(1+e) ~ 0.27
As can be seen , trading systems will survive the collapse of empires . There is a whole 10% difference favouring traders . Recovery systems will then also favor traders .
This is the underlying reason why Stalinistic Communism failed and Chinese went trader . The VOC and East India Co . are good examples .
Ten percent is just too much .
Ho-ho-ho !
The average between 0.37 and 0.27 is roughly 0.33 . A third .Can you see where this is relevant in any infinite situation where uncertainty rules?
Non-Failure Ratio
A non-failure ratio of (1- 1/3) ~2/3 summated over infinity = (2/3) / (1-2/3) =2 .
This means that any system that can be described or broken up into smaller groups is strongly ordered . Successful subgroups survive by a factor of 2 . This is built into the mathematics of the Universe . Life is one such sub-group , so are particles ,etc . Negative entropy is the rule . Life is everywhere . Positive entropy only holds in the most primitive and earliest systems .
Beautiful!
Quantum and non-quantum systems are the same .
Singularity Points.
27% and 37% are singularity points , as are (100-27)=63% and 53% . SocioEconomic systems destabilize at these points . Regardless whether they are human , alien , japanese , chinese or any other sort of ese .
Any society where more than a third of productive enterprise is spent without engendering new wealth creation is doomed .
Tax rates of more than 27% reduce trade . Tax rates between 27% and 37% will let it limp along . Tax rates over 37% is a disaster waiting to happen . It is that simple , and no amount of pontificating will change the realities of economics .
The tax rate anchored between 0% and 27% will follow a catenary . The optimal will be halfway (12.5%) . This would be the optimal VAT rate . Note that deviations from this (up or down) leads to social unrest . The unrest is not linear , but catenary . In other words , it gets rapidly worse as it approaches the anchor points of 0 or 27 % . This is true of any civilization , human or alien . It is inherent in the mathematics .
These are absolute rates , not relative .
The RepoRate .
The tax on new money . If the reporate plus profits stay away from the singularity points (27% , 37%) there is no problem.
What about undefined realities ? Refer to
http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Topos:
Note in the definitions above , that as groups are divided by n , and n->infinity , the system approaches undefined “thingies” . Hence , it can be used as a probe into undefined realms .
Marriage:
An interesting corollary is optimizing pairings of two . The theory above says that random pairing will lead to a failure rate of 37% . Observation seems to bear this out .
To optimize : Note and keep track the best features of the first 37/100 daters , then seriously consider the first anybody after that who equals or better the standards of the first 37
This optimizes your chances .
This result has been independently reached in games theory
Note that your body is independently doing this sort of infinite analysis . Hence speed dating , cocktail parties , mingling , etc .
A good algorithm is to speed date at least 50 persons . Do not do this if you cannot handle rejection , since this concentrates years of normal rejection into a few weeks .
A therapeutic mechanism? Sects use this whipsaw mechanism of rejection (by the outside world) and warm acceptance by the sect to create mini-societies .
Hence cold-canvassing . Rejection binds them closer . Any converts are a bonus . Most real converts are made by on-on-one contact .
But that is also the definition of most successful families .
If you are stupid and ugly , and can handle speed dating , you are a better man than I am , Human .
Virtual speed dating .
Analogous to cures for fear of heights , fear of confined spaces , etc . Considerable success has been achieved in reprogramming the amygdala for these and related phobias using virtual reality .
A Virtual Rejection website will make money .
That’s OK if somebody learns from it .
Another way for actresses or avatars to make money .
“I was rejected 1000 times by Lara”
“Balls rejected by Lara TombRaider as not dusty enough.”
The mind boggles .
Andre
Sunday, December 23, 2007
How to enhance enjoyment of CD music.
Andre Willers
19 Nov 2007
And How to Enhance enjoyment of CD music .
now for something more cheerful!
CD music seems flat because it does not reproduce sound in the 60 kHz + range . This was because knowledge at the time of laying down the standards did not encompass later findings that the higher frequencies were essential to direction location and the richness of music .
Sound waves of these higher frequencies wrap around the head . Our ears and associated neural networks are hardwired to interpret these signals .
But , we can mimic some of these effects .
If the sound waves can’t move around the head , we can move the head .
The built-in neural networks compensate , giving actual distance estimates and the sense of musical richness (ie multi-frequency analysis from distance variant bases).
How to do this :
Look ahead while listening to the CD music .
Move your head to the right about 1 to 2 degrees from center in about one second .
Then Move your head to the left about 1 to 2 degrees from center in about one second
Repeat steadily while concentrating on the music .
You will notice an immediate sense of enrichment of the music .
Try it ! It is the only way .
What happens behind the scenes :
The sweep rate of the head (2 to 4 hz) is close to the brains theta rhythms : the aural input is easily integrated into the general awareness model in the mirror systems .
The brain hears an enhanced version .
Training:
You will notice that if you do this at first , while tapping fingers or moving the head or limbs in time to the music , the enrichment effect vanishes . This is because different neural systems are involved . This combination has to be trained in .
The reason for this is that we did not evolve in an environment deficient in 60+kHz soundwaves .
To compensate for this , all we have to do is give our neural networks a chance to learn the association between the new aural input and the already established rhythm pattern recognition systems in the fingers , toes , muscle-memory in upper-thighs and upper-arms .
Did I forget to mention the pattern recognition in the upper thighs or upper arms ?
Oops !
Think sexual excitation . Erogenous zones . Patterns of touches . Sequences .
Sweeping the head side to side over 2 degrees at 3 Hz while tapping with fingers in rhythm on the upper thigh will give an easy bridge between the different pathways .
Children growing up with CD’s .
They develop head-tics of various proportions or hyperactivity (the head is attached to the body) to hear better . The neural networks do what they are supposed to do : optimize .
Hyperactivity is a violent head-tic involving the whole body .
The outside observer sees tics or attention deficit disorder .
Roll-on Ritalin !
How long does it take ? And what does it mean ?
Ask your nearest shaman with the papers and all .
Andre
19 Nov 2007
And How to Enhance enjoyment of CD music .
now for something more cheerful!
CD music seems flat because it does not reproduce sound in the 60 kHz + range . This was because knowledge at the time of laying down the standards did not encompass later findings that the higher frequencies were essential to direction location and the richness of music .
Sound waves of these higher frequencies wrap around the head . Our ears and associated neural networks are hardwired to interpret these signals .
But , we can mimic some of these effects .
If the sound waves can’t move around the head , we can move the head .
The built-in neural networks compensate , giving actual distance estimates and the sense of musical richness (ie multi-frequency analysis from distance variant bases).
How to do this :
Look ahead while listening to the CD music .
Move your head to the right about 1 to 2 degrees from center in about one second .
Then Move your head to the left about 1 to 2 degrees from center in about one second
Repeat steadily while concentrating on the music .
You will notice an immediate sense of enrichment of the music .
Try it ! It is the only way .
What happens behind the scenes :
The sweep rate of the head (2 to 4 hz) is close to the brains theta rhythms : the aural input is easily integrated into the general awareness model in the mirror systems .
The brain hears an enhanced version .
Training:
You will notice that if you do this at first , while tapping fingers or moving the head or limbs in time to the music , the enrichment effect vanishes . This is because different neural systems are involved . This combination has to be trained in .
The reason for this is that we did not evolve in an environment deficient in 60+kHz soundwaves .
To compensate for this , all we have to do is give our neural networks a chance to learn the association between the new aural input and the already established rhythm pattern recognition systems in the fingers , toes , muscle-memory in upper-thighs and upper-arms .
Did I forget to mention the pattern recognition in the upper thighs or upper arms ?
Oops !
Think sexual excitation . Erogenous zones . Patterns of touches . Sequences .
Sweeping the head side to side over 2 degrees at 3 Hz while tapping with fingers in rhythm on the upper thigh will give an easy bridge between the different pathways .
Children growing up with CD’s .
They develop head-tics of various proportions or hyperactivity (the head is attached to the body) to hear better . The neural networks do what they are supposed to do : optimize .
Hyperactivity is a violent head-tic involving the whole body .
The outside observer sees tics or attention deficit disorder .
Roll-on Ritalin !
How long does it take ? And what does it mean ?
Ask your nearest shaman with the papers and all .
Andre
AttentionDeficitDisorder 2
AttentionDeficitDisorder 2
Andre Willers
8 Dec 2007
Key Concepts:
AttentionDeficitDisorder (see previous post)
HyperActivity
VitD
Biologically active sulfur for the skin
Essential Fatty Acids
Discussion:
I hereby give the overview and sources not mentioned in the previous post on AttentionDeficitDisorder .
Vitamin D
An excellent overview given in November 2007 issue of Scientific American “ Cell Defenses : Sunshine Vitamin”
www.beyonddiscovery.org/content/view.article.asp?a=414
“1,25 diHydroxyvitaminD3 is a direct inducer ofAntimicrobial Peptide Gene Expression” by Wang et al Journal of Immunology vol 173 p2909-2913,2004
“The Pleiotropic actions of vitaminD” Lin BioEssays Vol26 .p649 March 2004
“Vitamin deficiency” by Holick “New England Journal of Medicine , Vol357,no3,p266-281.july 19,2007.
Biologically active sulphur .
I have discussed this before . It is sufficient to note that animals whose skins we want to use for things like shoes and furs , need additional supplements of sulphur to be usable . (Google “MSM animal feeds”)
This means that humans are also deficient in biologically active sulphur .
Discussion:
Sulphur is essential in the normal deployment of skin organelles .There is a synergistic effect .
The less sulphur , the less Vit D.
Cheap clothing and urbanization means that most humans only expose a small part of their body for small periods to UVB . A general shortage of sulphur exacerbates the effect , as the skin cannot function optimally .
The net effect is a chronic shortage of Vitamin D .
In Utero effects:
Switching on and off of genes are especially important during gestation . If there is general shortage of 1,25D during this period , the available supplies are switched to the most important systems . (This is a very ancient system) . Certain later genes do not get switched on . This leads to immune problems . Notice the dominant effect of VitD vs Folic Acid .
Can this be rectified?
Yes . During growth spurts . The puberty+ stage is important .
As discussed before , AttentionDeficitDisorder and HyperActivity is not only normal in the spurt of growth in neuromass after puberty , but essential . Every human goes through this stage .
Intervention :
Northern latitude Europeans used to have a cheap source of VitD and Essential Fatty Acids in oily fish . They have destroyed these fish stocks and are now paying the price .
The problem is not only an on-going shortage of 1,25D , but an accumulated shortage of gene switches which did not happen .
Which is why there is an upper limit to VitD dosages . Too much , and the accumulated by-products of long-delayed gene-switch-on’s poisens the organism .
Why do these delays build up ? Because these steps are essential in maturing sperm and ova cells . The corrollary is , of course , that fertility rates in far northern latitudes are very low . This is borne out by evidence (Laps , Mongols , Esquimeaux,etc)
Actual Case study:
A male youth entering puberty with symptoms of chronic VitD deficiency .
Certain gene-sets do not switch on (extended neotony) . This is observed as babylike behaviour: hyperactivity and inability to concentrate for long periods .
Puberty makes this much worse .
Available resources of VitD , Essential fatty acids and Sulphur are stretched to breaking point by development imperatives .
Intervention is simply making these building blocks available.
The dosages :
Sulphur is critical . Cells divide ,especially brain and muscle-cells .
Give a lot of MSM : 10 gm /day
VitD uptake will be enhanced , if sunshine exposure of about ½ hr per day is followed . You will tan rapidly and skin will be smooth .
If this is not possible , supplementations should be done . But note upper limit .
Essential fatty acids : the building blocks of the brain . Two tablespoons of flaxseedoil and codliveroil a day
Adults:
If you plan lots of MSM and sunshine , be sure to include antioxidants .Make sure the exposure is logarithmic : a little at the start , then increasing rapidly . You will notice that you tan more rapidly (1/2 hr instead of days) . You are also more sane . (Less unstable)
Pak protector .
A theoretical construct by Larry Niven . Also known as grandmothers .The genetic effect is real .
Surviving Grandmothers are all Pak protectors to some degree .
Grandmothers like fish (all the ones I know) . Essential fatty acids etc .
Adding megadoses should be interesting .
Pak protectors on the female line are well known and real . But are there male Pak protectors ? We know that it would be an ancient system . The females groom the male into being the Pak protector . The effect is real . The male lives longer and is dominant . But the females are also caught in the same trap .The planet might have only one male Pak protector , and millions of female Pak protectors . Yet the females cannot co-ordinate without a nominal hierarchical head .
Any male can declare himself Pak protector . This has not been done for about 4 000 years . Interesting times indeed .
The Grandmother Party can indeed sweep the planet .
Who , after all , keeps the whole shebang together?
A toast to the Pak Party .
Andre
Andre Willers
8 Dec 2007
Key Concepts:
AttentionDeficitDisorder (see previous post)
HyperActivity
VitD
Biologically active sulfur for the skin
Essential Fatty Acids
Discussion:
I hereby give the overview and sources not mentioned in the previous post on AttentionDeficitDisorder .
Vitamin D
An excellent overview given in November 2007 issue of Scientific American “ Cell Defenses : Sunshine Vitamin”
www.beyonddiscovery.org/content/view.article.asp?a=414
“1,25 diHydroxyvitaminD3 is a direct inducer ofAntimicrobial Peptide Gene Expression” by Wang et al Journal of Immunology vol 173 p2909-2913,2004
“The Pleiotropic actions of vitaminD” Lin BioEssays Vol26 .p649 March 2004
“Vitamin deficiency” by Holick “New England Journal of Medicine , Vol357,no3,p266-281.july 19,2007.
Biologically active sulphur .
I have discussed this before . It is sufficient to note that animals whose skins we want to use for things like shoes and furs , need additional supplements of sulphur to be usable . (Google “MSM animal feeds”)
This means that humans are also deficient in biologically active sulphur .
Discussion:
Sulphur is essential in the normal deployment of skin organelles .There is a synergistic effect .
The less sulphur , the less Vit D.
Cheap clothing and urbanization means that most humans only expose a small part of their body for small periods to UVB . A general shortage of sulphur exacerbates the effect , as the skin cannot function optimally .
The net effect is a chronic shortage of Vitamin D .
In Utero effects:
Switching on and off of genes are especially important during gestation . If there is general shortage of 1,25D during this period , the available supplies are switched to the most important systems . (This is a very ancient system) . Certain later genes do not get switched on . This leads to immune problems . Notice the dominant effect of VitD vs Folic Acid .
Can this be rectified?
Yes . During growth spurts . The puberty+ stage is important .
As discussed before , AttentionDeficitDisorder and HyperActivity is not only normal in the spurt of growth in neuromass after puberty , but essential . Every human goes through this stage .
Intervention :
Northern latitude Europeans used to have a cheap source of VitD and Essential Fatty Acids in oily fish . They have destroyed these fish stocks and are now paying the price .
The problem is not only an on-going shortage of 1,25D , but an accumulated shortage of gene switches which did not happen .
Which is why there is an upper limit to VitD dosages . Too much , and the accumulated by-products of long-delayed gene-switch-on’s poisens the organism .
Why do these delays build up ? Because these steps are essential in maturing sperm and ova cells . The corrollary is , of course , that fertility rates in far northern latitudes are very low . This is borne out by evidence (Laps , Mongols , Esquimeaux,etc)
Actual Case study:
A male youth entering puberty with symptoms of chronic VitD deficiency .
Certain gene-sets do not switch on (extended neotony) . This is observed as babylike behaviour: hyperactivity and inability to concentrate for long periods .
Puberty makes this much worse .
Available resources of VitD , Essential fatty acids and Sulphur are stretched to breaking point by development imperatives .
Intervention is simply making these building blocks available.
The dosages :
Sulphur is critical . Cells divide ,especially brain and muscle-cells .
Give a lot of MSM : 10 gm /day
VitD uptake will be enhanced , if sunshine exposure of about ½ hr per day is followed . You will tan rapidly and skin will be smooth .
If this is not possible , supplementations should be done . But note upper limit .
Essential fatty acids : the building blocks of the brain . Two tablespoons of flaxseedoil and codliveroil a day
Adults:
If you plan lots of MSM and sunshine , be sure to include antioxidants .Make sure the exposure is logarithmic : a little at the start , then increasing rapidly . You will notice that you tan more rapidly (1/2 hr instead of days) . You are also more sane . (Less unstable)
Pak protector .
A theoretical construct by Larry Niven . Also known as grandmothers .The genetic effect is real .
Surviving Grandmothers are all Pak protectors to some degree .
Grandmothers like fish (all the ones I know) . Essential fatty acids etc .
Adding megadoses should be interesting .
Pak protectors on the female line are well known and real . But are there male Pak protectors ? We know that it would be an ancient system . The females groom the male into being the Pak protector . The effect is real . The male lives longer and is dominant . But the females are also caught in the same trap .The planet might have only one male Pak protector , and millions of female Pak protectors . Yet the females cannot co-ordinate without a nominal hierarchical head .
Any male can declare himself Pak protector . This has not been done for about 4 000 years . Interesting times indeed .
The Grandmother Party can indeed sweep the planet .
Who , after all , keeps the whole shebang together?
A toast to the Pak Party .
Andre
AttentionDeficitDisorder
AttentionDeficitDisorder
Andre Willers
24 Nov 2007
Key Concepts:
AttentionDeficitDisorder
HyperActivity
Melatonin
Serotonin
VitD
MkIII and MkIV humans
CamelType
Discussion:
Four states are possible:
1.NoAttentionDeficitDisorder and NoHyperActivity
-> MkIII human -> desultory concentration -> lack of long-term application.
2.NoAttentionDeficitDisorder and HyperActivity
-> MkIV human -> obsessive concentration .
3.AttentionDeficitDisorder and NoHyperActivity
-> Learned helplessness -> neural weights are randomized ->apathy
4.AttentionDeficitDisorder and HyperActivity
-> HyperActiveFlea -> hop around ->fads utilized by state 1 and 2 humans .
Problem states:
State 3 is pathological , while State 4 is generally associated with children and juveniles of various ages .
State 4 to State 2.
Note that it is easier to shift State 4 to State 2 . This is one of the major driving forces in the epigenetic explosion of MkIV humans . HyperActivity can be left intact , while AttentionFocussing is conditioned .
The conditioning is social (schools , etc) and chemical (Ritalin , etc) .
A less problematic way would be to increase interest at a neurological level .
CamelType is one such way . (“The humps , the humps in the walls” a-la-HPLovecraft)
Originally evolved as adspeak , it is a way of increasing attention at a basic neurological way by alternating lower and upper cases in a pseudo-random way . This can be done dynamically on-screen , or better , on smart paper .
For example :
I TalK SenSe
i taLK sEnSe
i tAlk seNsE
There are 2^n ways of CamelTyping n letters in a sentence .
If in groups of three , a sense of order is engendered .
A neural-network mind looking at a screen where the upper and lower cases change pseudo-randomly is seduced into trying to deduce the rule .
Even if there is no rule , partial sequences of threes will be used and defended as rules
The neural-network cannot help it . It HAS to try and find correlations .
This is a well-known mechanism in horse-races , casinos and lotteries .
See also Sudoku , Chess , Go , Bridge , History , Science , etc .
State 3 to State 4.
State 3 is learned helplessness . This is Extremely difficult to work with , as there is no handle . The line of least energy is to convert State 3 into state 4 (AttentionDeficit stays the same , but induce hyperactivity) , then convert State 4 into State 1 or 2 .
State 4 seems to be a way-station for juveniles and other emotional cripples .
This is a favourite pathway for religious systems or armies .
Note that the most difficult pathway is from State 4 to State 1 . This can be observed in history .
This translates into “The weirdos seem to control all the committees.”
Where does , Melatonin , Serotonin , VitD fit in ?
VitD (or to be more exact , one and only one metabolic breakdown product (1,25D) is essential to trigger the expression of a large number of genes . Literally thousands of proteins cannot be formed without the intervention of this chemical . It is generally systemic . This means that you need it all the time . Gross shortages lead to things like rickets , but long before that metabolic abnormalities like auto-immune diseases strike , as juvenile immune responses are prolonged . The body cannot mature .
The genes expressing serotonin require VitD (hence Winter Sadness) .
Surface animals like humans have retained the capability of manufacturing VitD in their skins . Subsurface animals like fish (cod) have retained the necessary genes without solar input . Refer Esquimeaux.
The dosages : where the ping hits the plenum .
One healthy bikini clad girl needs about ½ hour of sunlight at median latitudes to get enough VitD (about 10 000 units) . A tbs of cod liver oil will give her about 1 000 units . Wearing clothes just leaving the face exposed is insufficient to generate enough VitD for procreation .
What a beautiful trap .
Humans in the high latitudes either have to migrate once in a lifetime to an latitude where there is enough sunshine (UVB) for enough VitD for essential gene-triggering to ensure fertility , or they had to eat fish products like codliver , caviar , salmon , etc to ensure the maturity of their own cell-cycles .
When neither is possible , human fertility rates fall . As what happened in the last century . What this stirs is ur-volkewanderung . All to be prevented by a VitD supplement .
The turnaround in Russian birthrates can be ascribed to the re-establishing of the Black-Sea holiday resorts .
And so it goes .
Andre
Andre Willers
24 Nov 2007
Key Concepts:
AttentionDeficitDisorder
HyperActivity
Melatonin
Serotonin
VitD
MkIII and MkIV humans
CamelType
Discussion:
Four states are possible:
1.NoAttentionDeficitDisorder and NoHyperActivity
-> MkIII human -> desultory concentration -> lack of long-term application.
2.NoAttentionDeficitDisorder and HyperActivity
-> MkIV human -> obsessive concentration .
3.AttentionDeficitDisorder and NoHyperActivity
-> Learned helplessness -> neural weights are randomized ->apathy
4.AttentionDeficitDisorder and HyperActivity
-> HyperActiveFlea -> hop around ->fads utilized by state 1 and 2 humans .
Problem states:
State 3 is pathological , while State 4 is generally associated with children and juveniles of various ages .
State 4 to State 2.
Note that it is easier to shift State 4 to State 2 . This is one of the major driving forces in the epigenetic explosion of MkIV humans . HyperActivity can be left intact , while AttentionFocussing is conditioned .
The conditioning is social (schools , etc) and chemical (Ritalin , etc) .
A less problematic way would be to increase interest at a neurological level .
CamelType is one such way . (“The humps , the humps in the walls” a-la-HPLovecraft)
Originally evolved as adspeak , it is a way of increasing attention at a basic neurological way by alternating lower and upper cases in a pseudo-random way . This can be done dynamically on-screen , or better , on smart paper .
For example :
I TalK SenSe
i taLK sEnSe
i tAlk seNsE
There are 2^n ways of CamelTyping n letters in a sentence .
If in groups of three , a sense of order is engendered .
A neural-network mind looking at a screen where the upper and lower cases change pseudo-randomly is seduced into trying to deduce the rule .
Even if there is no rule , partial sequences of threes will be used and defended as rules
The neural-network cannot help it . It HAS to try and find correlations .
This is a well-known mechanism in horse-races , casinos and lotteries .
See also Sudoku , Chess , Go , Bridge , History , Science , etc .
State 3 to State 4.
State 3 is learned helplessness . This is Extremely difficult to work with , as there is no handle . The line of least energy is to convert State 3 into state 4 (AttentionDeficit stays the same , but induce hyperactivity) , then convert State 4 into State 1 or 2 .
State 4 seems to be a way-station for juveniles and other emotional cripples .
This is a favourite pathway for religious systems or armies .
Note that the most difficult pathway is from State 4 to State 1 . This can be observed in history .
This translates into “The weirdos seem to control all the committees.”
Where does , Melatonin , Serotonin , VitD fit in ?
VitD (or to be more exact , one and only one metabolic breakdown product (1,25D) is essential to trigger the expression of a large number of genes . Literally thousands of proteins cannot be formed without the intervention of this chemical . It is generally systemic . This means that you need it all the time . Gross shortages lead to things like rickets , but long before that metabolic abnormalities like auto-immune diseases strike , as juvenile immune responses are prolonged . The body cannot mature .
The genes expressing serotonin require VitD (hence Winter Sadness) .
Surface animals like humans have retained the capability of manufacturing VitD in their skins . Subsurface animals like fish (cod) have retained the necessary genes without solar input . Refer Esquimeaux.
The dosages : where the ping hits the plenum .
One healthy bikini clad girl needs about ½ hour of sunlight at median latitudes to get enough VitD (about 10 000 units) . A tbs of cod liver oil will give her about 1 000 units . Wearing clothes just leaving the face exposed is insufficient to generate enough VitD for procreation .
What a beautiful trap .
Humans in the high latitudes either have to migrate once in a lifetime to an latitude where there is enough sunshine (UVB) for enough VitD for essential gene-triggering to ensure fertility , or they had to eat fish products like codliver , caviar , salmon , etc to ensure the maturity of their own cell-cycles .
When neither is possible , human fertility rates fall . As what happened in the last century . What this stirs is ur-volkewanderung . All to be prevented by a VitD supplement .
The turnaround in Russian birthrates can be ascribed to the re-establishing of the Black-Sea holiday resorts .
And so it goes .
Andre
Augustus Caesar : A Roman Disaster .
Augustus Caesar : A Roman Disaster .
Andre Willers
12 Dec 2007
General Discussion :
Innovation is always at the expense of vested interests . If the vested interests have control of the society’s power levers , innovation is stifled . A bad collapse is then inevitable somewhere down the line .
A small number of competing states can only survive if they encourage innovation . (This is the generally accepted reason why Western Europe is dominant over China .)
Western Europe in Augustus’s time already had the basic building blocks of an industrial revolution .
Universities (Alexandria , steam engines)
Upward social mobility
Adoption of any new ideas (a Roman Republic speciality)
All this was brought to a crashing halt by Augustus freezing the status-quo into the Empire . Even that would have been tolerable if he had not been so damn good . He calculated the exact military forces the Empire would need to remain stable . (Hence his moans about Varus and his 3 legions.) He set it up . Not too many soldiers or too few . For two centuries it lasted . A magnificent achievement .
Note that technological advancement resumed in the low-areas of Netherlands , Belgium .(Windmills , watermills , metallurgy , weaving) If you look at the historical population densities , these are the areas that showed no dip in population figures . The fall of the Western Roman Empire did not affect them at all .
Augustus had some help from China , where Emperor Shi Huangdi had created the Qin Empire in 221 BC . The Chinese had practical , hands-on advice about how to stabilize conquered territories . The contact was via the silk trade initially , but was kept very quiet up till recently
It was in the Chinese interest to steer a far Western Empire into a constitutional stasis . They had definite records of Alexander the Great , and had no desire to repeat the experience .
There is some evidence that the formula for gun-powder was deliberately leaked to western states because they could better use the destabilizing effects against the Mongol and Islamic threat in the west . In the long term , this was a correct thing to do from the Chinese and Western viewpoints . But it was a desperate thing to do .
An Alternative History .
Augustus dies young . The nascent Roman Empire fragments into Western and Eastern parts . These fragment in turn till they resemble western Europe during the Renaisance .
Rome is just one state amongst many . It’s genius for pragmatism and necessity for incorporating Egyptian grain supplies (and the Alexandrian University) , together with the paper supply from Egyptian reeds , leads to a technological and scientific revolution .
Paddlesteamers .
Eminently suitable for the shallow harbours and estuaries of the Med . Basically , steam driven galleys . It is a niche never utilized in our time-line because propeller-driven craft developed for Atlantic crossings made better gunpowder weapons platforms. Yet , without guns , a Med paddlesteamer would have been a killer .
Grain and troops (think logistics) could be delivered against the wind and at any time of the year .
But would this not lead to the same Empire ?
No , because the slavery meme would be broken . A machine can do it better .
In our time-line this happened when Jethro Tull invented the seed-planter(1700) , AND it was adopted in England . The pulse of wealth (a factor of 4) fuelled the Industrial Revolution . To put it into perspective , an Acre of ground planted with Jethro Tull’s planter yielded four (4) times as much . In an agrarian society , this multiplied any farmer’s income by four . Think of your salary being four times higher . Not just this year , but every year after .
Other inventions followed as everybody wanted to get rich quick . Slavery cannot compete .
Note Gallic ball-bearings and harvesters .
Something similar would have developed in the alternative time-line .
And so it would have went .
Andre
Andre Willers
12 Dec 2007
General Discussion :
Innovation is always at the expense of vested interests . If the vested interests have control of the society’s power levers , innovation is stifled . A bad collapse is then inevitable somewhere down the line .
A small number of competing states can only survive if they encourage innovation . (This is the generally accepted reason why Western Europe is dominant over China .)
Western Europe in Augustus’s time already had the basic building blocks of an industrial revolution .
Universities (Alexandria , steam engines)
Upward social mobility
Adoption of any new ideas (a Roman Republic speciality)
All this was brought to a crashing halt by Augustus freezing the status-quo into the Empire . Even that would have been tolerable if he had not been so damn good . He calculated the exact military forces the Empire would need to remain stable . (Hence his moans about Varus and his 3 legions.) He set it up . Not too many soldiers or too few . For two centuries it lasted . A magnificent achievement .
Note that technological advancement resumed in the low-areas of Netherlands , Belgium .(Windmills , watermills , metallurgy , weaving) If you look at the historical population densities , these are the areas that showed no dip in population figures . The fall of the Western Roman Empire did not affect them at all .
Augustus had some help from China , where Emperor Shi Huangdi had created the Qin Empire in 221 BC . The Chinese had practical , hands-on advice about how to stabilize conquered territories . The contact was via the silk trade initially , but was kept very quiet up till recently
It was in the Chinese interest to steer a far Western Empire into a constitutional stasis . They had definite records of Alexander the Great , and had no desire to repeat the experience .
There is some evidence that the formula for gun-powder was deliberately leaked to western states because they could better use the destabilizing effects against the Mongol and Islamic threat in the west . In the long term , this was a correct thing to do from the Chinese and Western viewpoints . But it was a desperate thing to do .
An Alternative History .
Augustus dies young . The nascent Roman Empire fragments into Western and Eastern parts . These fragment in turn till they resemble western Europe during the Renaisance .
Rome is just one state amongst many . It’s genius for pragmatism and necessity for incorporating Egyptian grain supplies (and the Alexandrian University) , together with the paper supply from Egyptian reeds , leads to a technological and scientific revolution .
Paddlesteamers .
Eminently suitable for the shallow harbours and estuaries of the Med . Basically , steam driven galleys . It is a niche never utilized in our time-line because propeller-driven craft developed for Atlantic crossings made better gunpowder weapons platforms. Yet , without guns , a Med paddlesteamer would have been a killer .
Grain and troops (think logistics) could be delivered against the wind and at any time of the year .
But would this not lead to the same Empire ?
No , because the slavery meme would be broken . A machine can do it better .
In our time-line this happened when Jethro Tull invented the seed-planter(1700) , AND it was adopted in England . The pulse of wealth (a factor of 4) fuelled the Industrial Revolution . To put it into perspective , an Acre of ground planted with Jethro Tull’s planter yielded four (4) times as much . In an agrarian society , this multiplied any farmer’s income by four . Think of your salary being four times higher . Not just this year , but every year after .
Other inventions followed as everybody wanted to get rich quick . Slavery cannot compete .
Note Gallic ball-bearings and harvesters .
Something similar would have developed in the alternative time-line .
And so it would have went .
Andre
Old Age Markers
Old Age Markers
Andre Willers
23 Dec 2007
Why do men growing older get grey hair and bald pates?
Why does their ear-hairs , nostril-hairs , eyebrows and pubic hairs grow much longer than younger men’s ?
Why are old men smelly ?
Involuntary Altruism .
We know that evolutionary mechanisms operate even after the last child , because we have evidence of the GrandMother effect . Older Females in a family (ie with the same genes as their offspring) have evolved menopause and an extended lifespan . More and healthier grandchildren survive with a grandmother . The mechanism is part of general evolutionary theory .
So what about old men ?
They are sacrificial old goats !
A family fleeing predators would have a markedly better chance of its genes surviving if the older males are marked for predators . The predators gain by not having to expend too much energy . But the evolutionary kicker is that predators on hominids are usually of the big cat family . Their cubs have to be taught to hunt on easy prey . Older , slower , weaker hominid males are recognized by their markers .
So , they learn from early on what the markers are . A tacit bargain was struck .
The Leopard-class of big cats specialized in hominids . A saber-toothed variety evolved pari-passu with homonins . A desperate arms-race of survival ensued . I refer you to the tooth-holes in the skulls of some unlucky homonins found fossilized in Africa . The end-cat was a large black leopard with widely spaced saber-teeth and a high intelligence . Black because it was a night-hunter (when homonins nested) , widely-spaced saber-teeth to fit the growing skulls of homonins , high intelligence to keep up with the growing intelligence of their prey . But they did not have hands . They were exterminated , probably by concerted human effort . The last fossil record found was about 200 000 BCE , roughly contemporaneous with MkI Humans . The development of weaving probably had more to with their demise than anything else .
The present survivor of this class (the spotted leopard) preferred baboons and monkeys , and thus survived .
This went on long enough (estimated 7 million years) for a true instinctive fear to have been programmed into the amygdala(like for spiders and snakes) .
Go to the Zoo and look at a black leopard .
If he looks at you , you feel a frisson of fear . This is your amygdala kicking in . (You don’t feel the same looking at a lion .)
Of course , the black leopard is a pussy-cat compared to the previous terrors .
But , we can create an ideal hyper-image (idoru) .
A Black cat-head , broad with very widely spaced reflecting golden eyes , widely spaced saber-teeth . I suspect that saber-teeth wider than the eyes will immediately kick in the amygdala responses . The same effect is noticeable in horror-movies . The ratio of width-of –mouth to width-of-eyes seems to play a critical role .
So , if you have eyes close together and a wide mouth , do not show your teeth . The response is not rational , but instinctive .
Psychopaths are reputed to feel no fear . Is this true a for genetically programmed response like this ? There might be some therapeutic benefit in making psychopaths or extreme sociopaths feel terror . The mirror-neuron structures of empathy that should have formed in childhood can then be reconstructed .
To resume the argument :
Ropes and nets woven from plants by hands negated physical strength . Hence , MkI human males and females were roughly the same size and strength . Unfortunately , these fibres left no physical record until the impressions left in ceramics circa 30 000BCE . But we know that clothing became widespread as a result of the Toba-winter (72 000 BCE) . There was no time to invent new technologies , so old weaving technology was adapted to provide insulation in the survivors .
The old-age markers .
The smelly bit first (ie the evolutionary oldest)
The hairs around the glands extruding smelly compound grow longer with age .
Normally , body hair grows a certain length , then stops , dies and is replaced . Normal body hair around glands are crinkled , twisted and convoluted to give maximum surface-area to the scent-molecules . Pubic hair is the best example .
Ears : Tufts growing out of the ears broadcast the earwax scents. Also , hearing gets harder .
Nose : Nose hairs are unique to humans and supposedly evolved due to the smoke-filled environments after the usage of fire . The effect is to capture molecules on exhalation , store them , then release them on inhalation . In other words , a short term memory . The vomenerosal organs in the upper palate and connected to the nose are also connect to very ancient parts of the brain concerned with identity . Pheromones and other chemicals (like antibodies) extruded by the body are stored by the nostril hairs and fed back to the vomenerosal sensors . The body is continually reminding itself of its identity . This also happens to be the definition of self-awareness .
The intriguing speculation is that this method of base-line identity setting extends to the immune system . Evidence from yoga not only indicates self-awareness shifting due to concentrations of “I am I” pheromones by breathing through the nostrils , but that the immune self-definition is affected as well .
The Rapunzel Syndrome .
Too small a concentration of nasal hairs causes insufficient self-definition . Auto-immune diseases like arthritis , asthma , diabetes etc follow , as well as meme-diseases like low self-esteem , drug-abuse . Note the effect of cocaine sniffing on personality coherence .
Too large a concentration of nasal hairs like in old men , makes the person very self-assured with “presence” , the presence being molecules broadcast . “Charge! and damn the torpedoes .”
Notice that breathing masks like worn in very cold or very hot climates have similar concentrating effect , but weaker by an order of about 10 . (Norse , burkas,etc)
Intervention !
Cheap and easy . Noseplugs mimicking dense nosehairs will do the trick .
I am actually embarrassed that nothing more complicated is needed .
Noseplugs made of coarse organic wool should do the trick .
Even cottonwool will work , though it is a bit too dense .
Moustaches.
The poor man’s noseplug . Notice that individuals with moustaches always were always self-assured ,even if they were completely wrong . Societies with moustaches were losers . Celtic tribes had moustaches . So did Hitler and Stalin . Breathing in their own definitions of I all the time explains a lot .
Note the law-enforcement fashion for moustaches .
It is not a fashion , but a statement .
The Eyebrows.
Eyebrows have a long and honorable history of enabling mammal survival , going back to the dinosaur days . The eyebrow is dense with sebaceaous glands , pumped out onto the eyebrows and spread onto the environment . For a burrowing rodent , it was essential to know where it had been (identity and location) , as well as who had been there before and how long ago . Refer to muskrats ,beavers , etc . Humans do the same . This is why dogs jump up and try to lick your face . They are not trying to lick your face . They are trying to lick your eyebrows . Your scent-identity is being broadcast all the time by the glands in your eyebrows . Hence old men with bushy eyebrows .
But , while this would have been fatal when lots of predators were around , in “civilized” surroundings this gives the person a certain edge as being wise .
The normal heat-envelope around the body ensures that most of these pheromones go upwards , but standing on your head a lot will change that . Sigh . Another yoga shibboleth bites the pheromone . A full head covering like middle-age armour would have exaggerated effects on self-esteem .
Ice-hockey masks ? I rest my case.
A Christmas Present :
Millions of dollars can be made by an Eyebrow Scent . You owe me 5% for the idea , whoever you are . I hereby claim intellectual property right on the idea at Cape Town on 24 December 2007 AD .
The act of kissing only exists to bring the nose and eyebrows into proximity . Lots of compatibility signals ensues .
Applied scents are lies . Will an Eyebrow Scent significantly change human society ?
No . But you can make a shitload of money out of it , since nobody has thought of it before .
Armpit hairs .
Not much to be said here . Too fat , and they are worn away . Otherwise long and straggly .
Pubic hairs .
Pubic hairs in men grow long and straggly in old age . These capture more urine scented molecules and sets him up for a predator .
Grey Top Hair
As you can see , changing the colour of
hair to grey is a long range signal to a predator . This was sufficient at first .
Bald Pate .
Since females can also go grey , albeit later than males , the bald pate evolved to signal predators . Imagine a family running through the long grass with the cats in pursuit . They see a flashing bald pate bobbing up and down in the grass . They know that this is an old hominin male . Note that females do not go bald .
Self-referencing scents .
As you can gather from the above , the very definition a person makes of itself down to immune-level can be determined by scent-feedbacks .
Interventions:
As I promised , smelly old men .
Barber pubic hair and underarm hair to about 2 cm .
Bad feedback mechanisms are halted . Simple noseplugs restores some degree of selfpride .
Always shave .
The same holds for normal ages (20-40) . Variants of ice-hockey masks where the top holes are blocked might be considered .
And so it goes .
Andre
Andre Willers
23 Dec 2007
Why do men growing older get grey hair and bald pates?
Why does their ear-hairs , nostril-hairs , eyebrows and pubic hairs grow much longer than younger men’s ?
Why are old men smelly ?
Involuntary Altruism .
We know that evolutionary mechanisms operate even after the last child , because we have evidence of the GrandMother effect . Older Females in a family (ie with the same genes as their offspring) have evolved menopause and an extended lifespan . More and healthier grandchildren survive with a grandmother . The mechanism is part of general evolutionary theory .
So what about old men ?
They are sacrificial old goats !
A family fleeing predators would have a markedly better chance of its genes surviving if the older males are marked for predators . The predators gain by not having to expend too much energy . But the evolutionary kicker is that predators on hominids are usually of the big cat family . Their cubs have to be taught to hunt on easy prey . Older , slower , weaker hominid males are recognized by their markers .
So , they learn from early on what the markers are . A tacit bargain was struck .
The Leopard-class of big cats specialized in hominids . A saber-toothed variety evolved pari-passu with homonins . A desperate arms-race of survival ensued . I refer you to the tooth-holes in the skulls of some unlucky homonins found fossilized in Africa . The end-cat was a large black leopard with widely spaced saber-teeth and a high intelligence . Black because it was a night-hunter (when homonins nested) , widely-spaced saber-teeth to fit the growing skulls of homonins , high intelligence to keep up with the growing intelligence of their prey . But they did not have hands . They were exterminated , probably by concerted human effort . The last fossil record found was about 200 000 BCE , roughly contemporaneous with MkI Humans . The development of weaving probably had more to with their demise than anything else .
The present survivor of this class (the spotted leopard) preferred baboons and monkeys , and thus survived .
This went on long enough (estimated 7 million years) for a true instinctive fear to have been programmed into the amygdala(like for spiders and snakes) .
Go to the Zoo and look at a black leopard .
If he looks at you , you feel a frisson of fear . This is your amygdala kicking in . (You don’t feel the same looking at a lion .)
Of course , the black leopard is a pussy-cat compared to the previous terrors .
But , we can create an ideal hyper-image (idoru) .
A Black cat-head , broad with very widely spaced reflecting golden eyes , widely spaced saber-teeth . I suspect that saber-teeth wider than the eyes will immediately kick in the amygdala responses . The same effect is noticeable in horror-movies . The ratio of width-of –mouth to width-of-eyes seems to play a critical role .
So , if you have eyes close together and a wide mouth , do not show your teeth . The response is not rational , but instinctive .
Psychopaths are reputed to feel no fear . Is this true a for genetically programmed response like this ? There might be some therapeutic benefit in making psychopaths or extreme sociopaths feel terror . The mirror-neuron structures of empathy that should have formed in childhood can then be reconstructed .
To resume the argument :
Ropes and nets woven from plants by hands negated physical strength . Hence , MkI human males and females were roughly the same size and strength . Unfortunately , these fibres left no physical record until the impressions left in ceramics circa 30 000BCE . But we know that clothing became widespread as a result of the Toba-winter (72 000 BCE) . There was no time to invent new technologies , so old weaving technology was adapted to provide insulation in the survivors .
The old-age markers .
The smelly bit first (ie the evolutionary oldest)
The hairs around the glands extruding smelly compound grow longer with age .
Normally , body hair grows a certain length , then stops , dies and is replaced . Normal body hair around glands are crinkled , twisted and convoluted to give maximum surface-area to the scent-molecules . Pubic hair is the best example .
Ears : Tufts growing out of the ears broadcast the earwax scents. Also , hearing gets harder .
Nose : Nose hairs are unique to humans and supposedly evolved due to the smoke-filled environments after the usage of fire . The effect is to capture molecules on exhalation , store them , then release them on inhalation . In other words , a short term memory . The vomenerosal organs in the upper palate and connected to the nose are also connect to very ancient parts of the brain concerned with identity . Pheromones and other chemicals (like antibodies) extruded by the body are stored by the nostril hairs and fed back to the vomenerosal sensors . The body is continually reminding itself of its identity . This also happens to be the definition of self-awareness .
The intriguing speculation is that this method of base-line identity setting extends to the immune system . Evidence from yoga not only indicates self-awareness shifting due to concentrations of “I am I” pheromones by breathing through the nostrils , but that the immune self-definition is affected as well .
The Rapunzel Syndrome .
Too small a concentration of nasal hairs causes insufficient self-definition . Auto-immune diseases like arthritis , asthma , diabetes etc follow , as well as meme-diseases like low self-esteem , drug-abuse . Note the effect of cocaine sniffing on personality coherence .
Too large a concentration of nasal hairs like in old men , makes the person very self-assured with “presence” , the presence being molecules broadcast . “Charge! and damn the torpedoes .”
Notice that breathing masks like worn in very cold or very hot climates have similar concentrating effect , but weaker by an order of about 10 . (Norse , burkas,etc)
Intervention !
Cheap and easy . Noseplugs mimicking dense nosehairs will do the trick .
I am actually embarrassed that nothing more complicated is needed .
Noseplugs made of coarse organic wool should do the trick .
Even cottonwool will work , though it is a bit too dense .
Moustaches.
The poor man’s noseplug . Notice that individuals with moustaches always were always self-assured ,even if they were completely wrong . Societies with moustaches were losers . Celtic tribes had moustaches . So did Hitler and Stalin . Breathing in their own definitions of I all the time explains a lot .
Note the law-enforcement fashion for moustaches .
It is not a fashion , but a statement .
The Eyebrows.
Eyebrows have a long and honorable history of enabling mammal survival , going back to the dinosaur days . The eyebrow is dense with sebaceaous glands , pumped out onto the eyebrows and spread onto the environment . For a burrowing rodent , it was essential to know where it had been (identity and location) , as well as who had been there before and how long ago . Refer to muskrats ,beavers , etc . Humans do the same . This is why dogs jump up and try to lick your face . They are not trying to lick your face . They are trying to lick your eyebrows . Your scent-identity is being broadcast all the time by the glands in your eyebrows . Hence old men with bushy eyebrows .
But , while this would have been fatal when lots of predators were around , in “civilized” surroundings this gives the person a certain edge as being wise .
The normal heat-envelope around the body ensures that most of these pheromones go upwards , but standing on your head a lot will change that . Sigh . Another yoga shibboleth bites the pheromone . A full head covering like middle-age armour would have exaggerated effects on self-esteem .
Ice-hockey masks ? I rest my case.
A Christmas Present :
Millions of dollars can be made by an Eyebrow Scent . You owe me 5% for the idea , whoever you are . I hereby claim intellectual property right on the idea at Cape Town on 24 December 2007 AD .
The act of kissing only exists to bring the nose and eyebrows into proximity . Lots of compatibility signals ensues .
Applied scents are lies . Will an Eyebrow Scent significantly change human society ?
No . But you can make a shitload of money out of it , since nobody has thought of it before .
Armpit hairs .
Not much to be said here . Too fat , and they are worn away . Otherwise long and straggly .
Pubic hairs .
Pubic hairs in men grow long and straggly in old age . These capture more urine scented molecules and sets him up for a predator .
Grey Top Hair
As you can see , changing the colour of
hair to grey is a long range signal to a predator . This was sufficient at first .
Bald Pate .
Since females can also go grey , albeit later than males , the bald pate evolved to signal predators . Imagine a family running through the long grass with the cats in pursuit . They see a flashing bald pate bobbing up and down in the grass . They know that this is an old hominin male . Note that females do not go bald .
Self-referencing scents .
As you can gather from the above , the very definition a person makes of itself down to immune-level can be determined by scent-feedbacks .
Interventions:
As I promised , smelly old men .
Barber pubic hair and underarm hair to about 2 cm .
Bad feedback mechanisms are halted . Simple noseplugs restores some degree of selfpride .
Always shave .
The same holds for normal ages (20-40) . Variants of ice-hockey masks where the top holes are blocked might be considered .
And so it goes .
Andre
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