I feel moved to write in support of Sam J.'s comments, at least as it tangentially pertains to physics, quantum mechanics, etc. I have observed that some people engage in a hobby that I call "getting your mind blown by physics." It might be a subset of the hobby of having sexual relations with science that is popular on facebook.
To achieve a basic understanding of quantum mechanics would take a moderately talented person about 10 years of mathematics studies and 2 years of dedicated physics studies, in a reasonably functional public school setting. You need arithmetic, geometry, algebra, trigonometry, and differential and integral calculus, as well as some early linear algebra, learning to work with matrices. Once you have a solid footing in algebra, you can begin the physics course and proceed simultaneously, saving the heavier physics until you have developed the math, starting with Newtonian laws of motion, simple harmonic motion, electro-magnetism, fluid dynamics and optics, and only then you can begin to appreciate the wave-particle duality of light, and then dig in to the subatomic particles and see what quantum physics is all about. Then you can try out the special theory of relativity (but not the general theory) and get an idea of what Einstein was talking about with that e=mc2 equation. All this can be done by high school graduation, again assuming a moderately talented kid and decent public school resources. I did it, it was fun. I did a little physics in college too, and I can tell you it gets a lot harder pretty quickly, right alongside the math.
Ok, what is the point of all this bragging? Around where I grew up, the drug of choice is cannabis, and some of these stoners like to sit around and say stuff like "It's all relative, and we are all like, made of star dust and shit." These are the people who like to get their minds blown by weed and physics, and like to make sweeping statements about what primitive people knew about quantum mechanics. I have read a bunch of your stuff on weapons, fighting and aggression, I think you put out great material and I feel well informed, but I am smart enough to know, as a girl who has never fought anyone but my pre-pubescent brothers, that I don't have anything to say on the topic. So it is with quantum mechanics. Out of all the things we might learn from North American Indians, quantum mechanics is not on the list. Physics, and the mathematics you need to understand physics, are virtually the sole intellectual labor of European men (and yes, European Jews). Tell me about hunting the buffalo, scalping your enemies, and carrying your babies around strapped to boards, but please, do not tell me about quantum mechanics.
All over this country, from the smallest hamlet to the great metropolises, millions of things, people, animals, plants, dead bodies, dessert confections, etc., are chilled below the ambient temperature, frozen solid, or gently caressed by a cool breeze. How is this possible? Are great chunks of ice carved from Canadian glaciers and shipped by rail over the vast plains, in a race against melting and evaporation, black smoke pouring from the chimneys of steam locomotives? No. The answer is much simpler, while being infinitely more complex. The men of the paleface breed have discovered, developed, designed, built and maintained the following incomplete list:
-Fossil fuels
-Hydro-electric damns
-Massive motors that generate electric current
-Power grid to deliver energy to millions of end users
-Electrical motors to power fans and compressors
-Gasses whose compression and expansion causes heat to flow from a cooler place to a hotter place, the equivalent of making a river flow up hill
-Self contained units combining compressors, gasses and fans with highly insulated compartments - refrigerators
-The principles by which buildings may be designed and erected to incorporate refrigeration units, such that vast interior spaces may be maintained in a narrow band of safe and comfortable temperature
Thus, the magic box keeping the cheese cold is fighting with the magic boxes keeping the store slightly warmer than the cheese. Without the paleface asking "why" the magic boxes don't exist.
Your bosses, and you yourself, as well as the innocent cheese, have been victims of corporate managerialism. I am not defending your bosses or managerialism. Only stating the truth that there is no other way to run a grocery store, than to have checklists, technicians, inspection schedules, sell-by dates, HR manuals, separation of duties, and on and on. This is not your father's fruitstand. The paleface tendencies to create surpluses, to accumulate technology, to expand his influence, have created this crazy situation where a man has to throw away the cottage cheese because he is not permitted to use his own judgment, because it is a slippery slope to begin deviating from the corporate checklists and all hell will break loose, and he can trust James to know what to do, but he will have to add a chapter to the freezer manual about seasonal peculiarities and no one will ever read it anyway. As an aside, can you imagine if everyone, even those doing the most menial jobs, were as smart as you... welcome to Japan.
You and I might take our chances on a world without refrigerators, but there are about 5 billion or more people on this earth that would not exist without paleface technology, and managerial systems, and we don't get to choose for them. And just about everyone chooses the paleface lifestyle, and I would happily make a bet with anyone with a time machine, that the vast majority of pre-Colombian Americans would choose the 21st century paleface life too.
For some reason the first part of the response I gave in that post didn't make it through. Reading just the last two parts of three people might get the wrong impression. In the part I:
James said,""...Cottage cheese, Whiteman Sam. Who is wider, the savage who stops putting it where it rots simply because it rots there, or the civilized man who spends a life time debating the cause as it rots?
This is the salient difference between civilization and barbarism. ..."
I think you meant wiser not wider. You give me two unpalatable positions. I refuse both and will find a ladder and move or modify that vent so it will stop blowing all the cold air off of the top shelf.
And that is exactly the point. I'm not denying that Indians didn't have some connection with the land but always leaving a portion of the shelf empty because it wasn't cold enough is not solving the problem. Thinking that you need to drag several thousand people up to the top your temple, rip their hearts out and eat them to appease the Gods and make it rain is not civilization. It's not a good thing. Many things the Indians did were not good things. I've seen no credible evidence that Indians had some super special "whatever" that I can't get if I looked for it hard enough.
(I can't help but think of that line in Forest Gump,
Lt. Dan Taylor: Have you found Jesus yet, Gump?
Forrest Gump: I didn’t know I was supposed to be looking for him, sir.)
I'm certainly not giving a pass to so called "civilization" you know yourself I bitch about the irrational behavior of the crazed people who run the country. None the less due to the fact that they are supposed to be civilized they have to at least give the populous some sort of rational reason that why whatever completely stupid thing they're doing this week is needed.
It's really not even the White Man vs. the Indian. It's that civilization however flawed is closer to reality than "if we don't rip out hearts then the sky God will not send rain". The structure of civilization forces you to, however irrationally, try to at least come closer to some sort of manageable truth. A civilization doesn't necessarily preclude uncivilized people living in the midst of it so just having a civilization doesn't solve all problems. It does set a standard to meet even if no one lives up to it.
I've only gone as far as physics 101 and 102 but I know for fact there's a lot of bullshit in the physics world. Did you know that the experiment that every one says proves that light is a constant speed...didn't. That's right the Michelson-Morley experiment. They say the Sun is run by fusion but the outside is hotter than the inside?????????? White Man doesn't have all the answers either.
Bravo Lynn! Well said. Yeah, all the Aboriginal Americans who say they wish Columbus had never discovered America are really saying they wish they were wiping their asses with leaves.
"You and I might take our chances on a world without refrigerators, but there are about 5 billion or more people on this earth that would not exist without paleface technology, and managerial systems, and we don't get to choose for them. And just about everyone chooses the paleface lifestyle, and I would happily make a bet with anyone with a time machine, that the vast majority of pre-Colombian Americans would choose the 21st century paleface life too"
About that 'we don't get to choose for them' part ... Huh. That's why the Navajo had gambling rammed down their throats after rejecting it twice in tribal referendum, I don't suppose. Ok, so you could say the 'tribal council' forced it through despite the result. But that doesn't work because that form of government was forced on the Navajo by...? (put your best guess here___________) And then, electricity was forced on those last Navajo holding out to live their traditional life off the grid (put your best guess as to whose grid here___________)
And after, you could look at the USA centered new 'corporate manifest destiny' where the world has become (or is fast becoming) an Indian reservation; i.e. TTP, TTIP....
globalresearch.ca/the-ttp-and-ttip-trade-agreements-a-dystopian-future-in-which-corporations-rather-than-elected-governments-call-the-shots/5447643
Another good example would be @
scribd.com/document/154386424/USAID-in-Ethiopia
For those who prefer satire:
ronaldthomaswest.com/2013/05/20/napi-in-the-new-age