You Don't Know Jack Taco

Turtles All the Way Down

2010-05-13T12:04:00.003-05:00

I heard this phrase just the other day, and was intrigued by its implications. It was popularized by Stephen Hawking years ago in a book. It refers to the problem of "infinite regression" - meaning one proposition requires the support of a second proposition to be true; and the second requires support of a third... and so on, and so on. Another, more simple way to say it is "which came first, the chicken or the egg?"

Here is the opening paragraph of Stephen Hawking's book, with the story of the phrase's origin:

A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever", said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"

The Human Brain

2009-06-29T14:40:00.005-05:00

I read a really interesting article about the Human Brain last week. I'm always so fascinated by how we work and what's happening in the proverbial grey matter. An aside, a few years back I was accepted into a PhD program at Baylor in Neuroscience, and I was really excited about it... I really didn't want to change career paths in the middle of life to something so incredibly different than what I do now.... so, sad to say, I ultimately decided against going back to school for too many years... (but I still love to read about it).

In Discover Magazine's May 2009 issue, Carl Zimmer wrote a fascinating article about the nature of "twin hemispheres in the brain." You can read the article in its entirety here: The Brain, by Carl Zimmer.

I won't go into too much detail, but it really delves into right-brained vs. left-brained people, and how the two halves work together. Symmetry of the human body (2 eyes, ears, arms, legs...) although we aren't perfectly symetrical (heart on left, appendix on right...) And the two halves of the brain work together to make us who we are.

My wife was bored to tears by the end of the first sentence of this post... but I know she loves the fact that I love this stuff... hope you do too.

Skater Dude

2009-06-28T17:41:00.006-05:00

Peter decked out in the knee pads, elbow pads, wrist guards and helmet

Peter got a skateboard for his birthday... he's been wanting one for a while. His Aunt Jes and Uncle Matthew delivered it and now he is determined to learn this new mode of transportation, and maybe a trick or two along the way.

Posing with the new board

Derby's not too sure about Peter on wheels...

2009-06-28T13:49:00.003-05:00

Finished a book a few weeks ago called One Second After by William R. Forstchen... it's about the threat of something called an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) used as a weapon. Basically, nuclear detonations always give off an EMP, and can be tweaked to make them more powerful, and if one is detonated high up in the atmosphere where it won't cause any physical damage or radiation problems, it can still send out an EMP that makes anything electronic stop working. It more or less fries circuit boards...

So, I know at first thought that doesn't sound so bad, but just think about it. It's like losing your electricity plus losing all transportation and communication (cars, planes, radios, tv, etc.) For a day or two its no big deal. A month or year is quite different. It was fascination to see modern civilization basically revert to medieval times. Fighting for food, not knowing what happened and no way to get new information, dying from basic health issues that typically are no big deal, etc.

And the scary part is that it is a very real threat... and much more likely because even the most archaic, crazy nations of this planet that might possibly obtain nuclear weapons, most know that detonating one on the ground anywhere on the Earth will cause problems all over.

All in all, a good read. Natalie and I talked about a "game plan" on what to do if one day all the electricity goes out AND all the cars stop running at the same time...

Sunday Afternoon

2009-06-28T13:17:00.000-05:00

So here we go...

Never had a personal blog before, and this is my first post. I have to give my wife Natalie the credit for the name... she often uses the phrase "jack taco" when the situation arises for one to measure the amount of knowledge another has on a given subject. So the conversation might sound something like this:

A random piece of information is dispersed carelessly in a conversation about an important subject...

Me (whispering to Natalie after the said person has left earshot) - "Do you think he knows what he's talking about?"

Natalie (with the standard eye roll that all females learn perfectly by the age of 6) - "He doesn't know Jack Taco."

So there you have it. I thought I'd disperse some random information as it befalls upon me that I deem worthy to pass on... not that you'll find it interesting in any way - so take it for what it's worth.

Talk to you soon...