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I promised a follow-up article to "The Truth About God" and although I know (pretty much) the ideas I wish to convey, the approach to doing so has been somewhat elusive. With today being officially "Freethought Day," I figured it best to simply begin the task and work my way toward the end. To wit...

A proposed discussion of God will probably elicit eye-rolls from the vast majority of potential readers while a minority might actually be intrigued. Those with long-held traditional beliefs may have zero desire to explore what others of differing ideals would have to say on the subject of a "Supreme Being."

Religion is big business. There seem to be more religious based institutions and houses-of-worship than coffee shops, which suggests to me that folks must need their God as much as (if not more than) their coffee. Like coffee, God seems to be available in several popular flavors: from the trendy to the traditional, chances are somebody, somewhere has a God for you.

It is this apparent discrepancy in God's identity that no doubt, turns many people away from a quest for the truth about God. With so many options on what to believe, many have determined the "safe bet" is to disregard the whole debate and live their lives like none of this matters. Others of course, will cling to their beliefs like nothing else matters. The fact of the matter is that God is Real whether we believe in Him or not .

Him. So many talk about God in the third person; like "He" is somehow apart from mankind. Big Bossman God, watching over his creation just waiting for someone to screw-up his hard work. "He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake." Oh wait, that's Santa Clause... "meh, same difference," some would say. Me? I really don't think God is that cute or concise.

I say God is REAL. More properly God is Reality; God is the reason for Reality. So many believers speak of God as existing somewhere "out there" - separate from "His Creation" - This cannot be. For God to be the Supreme, "He" must encompass the outermost. (Now stick with me here...) If it were possible for God to create a dwelling place that existed apart from his own essence then the space which contains that place would be greater than He. Therefor, "Everything that exists does so within this Supreme Being." Any quest for truth must begin with this undeniable fact.

Another essential fact - often overlooked, surprisingly - is that our existence is a series of consecutive "NOW" moments in time. Nothing can ever be any different than it is in each moment. A recognition of expectation that the next moment "will be" is perhaps the quintessential, defining characteristic of humanity.

Science has made tremendous strides in defining the boundaries of our universal existence to the extent of our ability to perceive. Religious beliefs are a testament to many aspects of our reality which are beyond our ability to readily perceive. A recognition that we all exist within the Reality that is God will go a long way toward understanding the truth of human equality and should bolster the cause of "COEXIST" - as if it were even a choice.

     Do you believe in God?  Yes   No   Unsure

Regardless of how you answer this question, mankind has found it desirable for you to be identified with one of these labels:

• If you answer "Yes" you are considered a Theist.
• If you answer "No" you are an considered an Atheist.
• If you answer "Unsure" you are considered Agnostic.

Given this reality:

• Many theist will have the unwavering opinion that their beliefs are true and those who do not agree are somehow wrong (or at the very least misguided.)
• Many atheist will have the unwavering opinion that their beliefs are true and those who do not agree are somehow wrong (or at the very least misguided.)
• Many agnostics will have the unwavering opinion that their beliefs are true and those who do not agree are somehow wrong (or at the very least misguided.)

This may be the one religious "Trio" we can all agree on.

A realistic examination of a human being's existence will show that any one of these labels may well be applicable to an individual at any given moment. Labels can shift when the devout worshiper has a moment of doubt or a died-in-the-wool atheist is caused to wonder (if even for an instant,) when the agnostic feels a pull from one side to the other for instance. This is certainly a topic that has worked to shape human civilization throughout history and affects us all (for better or worse) on a daily basis.

One troubling aspect of the entire debate - if we can at least agree on the "debatability" of God's existence - are the great many defining characteristics ascribed to the role of a "Supreme Deity." Whether known as God, Allah, Jesus, Mohamed, Buddha, Vishnu, Yahweh, Zeus, Jupiter, Allah, Xavier, Waheguru, Jah, Ngai, Baal or countless other "handles", people around the world have found at least some benefit in the recognition of forces that permeate the universe which appear greater than what can be entirely comprehended by mere mortals. Even the unbelieving atheist is not generally willing to disregard the fact that science, in its attempts to explain all that is, falls short in a great many troubling ways.

Many folks simply take it on "faith" that their God is real. Many claim to be looking for signs or proof before they will subscribe to such notions. Still others will entirely turn away from any such thoughts, preferring to live their lives devoid of any and all fruitless struggles and attempts to know the unmistakably, unknowable. 

Another of those timeless human conundrums is embodied in the question, "Why are we here?" Any answer to this is undoubtedly going to be in "essay" form. In many ways the world's religious institutions owe their very existence to the persistence of humanity's desire for an answer to that very question. Whether the question is asked at the personal, internal level: "Why am I here?" or on a more cosmic scale: "What does it all mean?" any answer we are likely to come up with in our present situation - particularly if expressed in a global forum - is going to result in quintessentially unresolvable matters of opinion with an "agree to disagree" outcome at best. If only it were possible to actually and truly "agree" on our rights to "disagree" this world would be a far better place (of course you may disagree with this assessment.)

I believe in absolute Truth; that there is to be found a common, universal explanation for all that "was, is or ever will be." I intend to explore this reality from the standpoint that:

1. we cannot all be right (but what if we are?)
2. we cannot all be wrong (but what if we are?)
3. we are all in this together (whether we want to be or not.)
4. knowledge of Truth is a reasonable expectation (even if many of its aspects are ultimately, unknowable.)

Oh, and yes... God is Real.

To be continued...

 [tag:musing God religion philosophy living educational]

 

 

masodo's IP_Basher Script ~

TLDR: There was precious little reporting about the demise of DtDNS so I thought I would help spread the news. I look forward to many years with DYNU and only hope if they decide to go away they might give a little more of a "heads-up" than we got from the other guy.

Not one to let this internet fad get too far beyond my grasp, I have been obliged to explore the inner workings of the new HTML5 protocols for the construction of web pages. My studies have been mostly in the form of deconstructing some of the HTML5 games I have been installing over at the DeBurger Game Room online arcade.

It must have been within the confines of that more methodical - dare I say, logical - mode of thinking that my pet thought exercise - the previously revealed inspiration for my gravitar icon [see: Mathematical Obsession? ] - concerning geometry of circumscribed square inscribed with circle, returned once again to my center of consciousnesses. This simple geometric construct has always suggested, to my mind, some hidden, cosmic significance. Beckoning me  with those forces of the universe that can really only be explored through carefully administered mathematics.

Not one to let my inability to carefully administer mathematics hinder me in an attempt, I took it upon myself to create within the esoteric mechanics of the javascript programming language, a representation of this geometric abstraction/distraction that offered an added dimension to my usual 2 dimensional envisagement of form by the inclusion of the fourth with a suggestion of the third; an exercise I entered into with all the certainty of a theoretical physicist albeit without the typically manditory, prerequisite education.

Armed only with the preconceived notion of what I wanted to depict I - by way of the internet - became myself, a virtual cog in the machine with which the global, computational hive-mind works tirelessly to replicate itself through the dissemination of knowledge among the hairless apes in a way that stresses the inevitable futility of resistance.   

It was while immersed in the vagaries of determining the proper expansion rates of circles in comparison to squares that I happened upon a quite irrational little discovery that I have learned has been known since 1600 - 1800 B.C. Mesopotamia, as evidenced in the Babylonian clay tablet known as YBC 7289 (from the Yale Babylonian Collection. Image to the left †)  The required incantation invoked in order to bring to life my vision of the infinitely expanding, nested shapes was what is commonly referred to as "The Square Root of Two" or more precisely: "approximately 1.41421356237..."

The result of this exercise is presented within the "iFrame" below followed by the code required to draw the effect. Those who do not understand such things should stand in awe of my achievement. Those who can see quite clearly when they peer into the supplied code will rightly bust-a-gut at the hack chosen to render the desired effect. In either case, I hope that when you gaze upon this meager point-plot animation you will remember those early humanoids as well as this somewhat more recently developed model together in that same moment wherein you wonder, "what were they thinking?"

"CubeSphere" by masodo

The HTML5/javascript code to render the above animation:

† A black and white rendition of the Yale Babylonian Collection's Tablet YBC 7289 (c. 1800–1600 BCE), showing a Babylonian approximation to the square root of 2 (1 24 51 10 w: sexagesimal) in the context of Pythagoras' Theorem for an isosceles triangle. The tablet also gives an example where one side of the square is 30, and the resulting diagonal is 42 25 35 or 42.4263888... Source: Bill Casselman and the Yale Babylonian Collection.
 

 [tag:musing mathematics geometry computing html5 educational art historic strange]

Warning: May contain articles depicting graphic violence
(but don't worry, they deserve it...)

 

The Case for "Fire and Brimstone"
The Discussion Has Begun in "The Vestibule":
 

Join the Conversation!

The number of times a specified periodic phenomenon occurs within a specified interval is called its frequency.

Whether discussing the frequency with which the Earth revolves around the Sun (vise versa for our "Flat Earther" friends) or the waves of the various types of light emanating from that boring ol' Class G Star of ours there can be little doubt that frequencies are not only the spice of life, in many ways they are what give life to our reality. 

In String Theory of Theoretical Physics it is postulated that the smallest particles that make up everything (elementary particles) are nothing more than invisible one dimensional vibrating strings and that the only thing differentiating these various constituents of our very existence is their rate of vibration (or frequency.)

Differing frequencies in the waves of light is what gives us colors (eg. blue is higher frequency than red.) Vibrations of the air are responsible for the sounds we hear (eg. low notes are slow waves high notes are faster waves.) Electromagnetic waves are useful for all sorts of radio related activities (including television and cellular phones.) So it should be obvious that you don't have to be fascinated with frequencies to find yourself totally immersed in them.

There has been quite a bit of investigating by scientist as well as pseudo-scientist regarding the WSOGMM and how the various frequencies that surround us might be beneficial or detrimental if applied willingly to our person in some form or other. Michael Triggs over at Papercut Suicide has compiled a "listing of frequencies that various parties have claimed can affect the human mind or body in some way." See: Brainwave Frequency Listing for one of the Internet's best assemblage of information on this topic.

There are actually quite a lot of YouTube videos that offer "tone therapy/brainwave entertainment" of one form or another; I have decided to throw my hat into that ring.

The production highlighted in this article is a unique blend of audio and video and draws on an earlier discussion about freeviewing stereo image pairs. Since the act of 3D viewing (depth perception) is actually a mental construct whereby the brain blends information collected by each eye so as to present the consciousness with valuable information regarding the environment of this existence; it is hoped that by combining a few key frequencies and including an alternating stereophonic earth resonance pulse piggy-backed upon the stereo vision brain function that something interesting might manifest itself in the exercise. This approach has yielded an audio/visual experience like none other. Is this a good thing or is this a bad thing? You be the judge...

The video presented here features positive and negative images of the BlogDogIt signature 'God's Eye' avatar rendered in black and white and alternating left for right at a frequency of 33 cycles per second as the visual component. The legendary Schumann Resonance (normally inaudible) has been rendered by a saw-tooth waveform to serve as the metronome for the piece. The 7.83Hz (cycles per second) 'ticking' alternates between left and right channels in an attempt to force both hemispheres of the brain to take part in the entertainment. The sound track is further infused with pure sine-wave tones of the 9Hz, 33Hz and 108Hz frequency. The 108Hz being responsible for the audible tone and the other two detectable as impressions upon the available auditory sensation.

A One Second Sampling Of Raw Audio Tracks

---

 

The Brain Frequency Listing by Michael Triggs had the following to say about these included frequencies (visit the page for complete details):

---

7.83 - Earth Resonance, grounding [×], "Schumann Resonance." [TS, ESR+HSW, MAG]; anti-jetlag, anti-mind control, improved stress tolerance [SS]; psychic healing experiments [ESR]; pituitary stimulation to release growth hormone (helps develop muscle, recover from injuries, rejuvenation effects) [HSW]; Earth Resonance Frequency - 'leaves you feeling revitalized like you've spent a day in the country.' [PWM via DW]; reports of accelerated healing/enhanced learning - "the earth's natural brainwave" [MAG]

[HSW] notes that higher octaves of the 7.83 Schumann Resonance can also stimulate the pituitary in the same way that 7.83 HZ can - especially 31.32 HZ. (One needs to be careful to distinguish between octaves of the 7.83 Schumann Resonance, and the other six Schumann Resonances, which are not higher octaves of 7.83 HZ.)

---

8.6-9.8 Induces sleep, tingling sensations [SS]

9.0, 11.0, 16.0 [bad] documented calcium ion migration (brain tissue) [SS]

There's some disagreement over whether these frequencies offer anything to fear when used for binaural beats. Here's the thread from the Brainwave Generator message board : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bwgen/message/4592

9.0 - 13.0 - Alpha Range (according to [VUG]) - relaxed, not thinking about anything in particular, sometimes a pleasurable feeling of "floating". Often dominant in certain kinds of meditation, alpha waves have for the past twenty years been associated with calm, lucid mental states (the "alpha state"). They're also often detected during dream sleep. This pattern typically occurs in daydreaming, relaxed awareness, guided or focused imagery & smoothly rhythmic athletic activity. There's often a euphoric, effortless feeling of "flow" as the doer is absorbed in activity and subject + object are felt to be united. [VUG via DW]

9.0 - 14.0 Alpha range (according to [AWI]) - Relaxed & detached awareness, visualization, sensory imagery, light reverie. Also, gateway to meditation - provides bridge between the conscious & subconscious mind. [AWI]

9.0 - Awareness of causes of body imbalance & means for balance[×] Blind person phantom touch reading (somatosensory cortex) [RA]; Associated with Sacral/Svadhisthana chakra (Color=Orange) (Body Parts=Gonads, Reproductive System) (Effects=Relationships/Sexuality) (Note=D) [OML]

---

 33 Christ consciousness, hypersensitivity, Pyramid frequency (inside) ; Schumann Resonance (5th frequency of 7) [TS]

Funky coincidence it lines up with the Christ Consciousness & Pyramid frequency, eh? I've had some interesting results with this one -- particularly when I overlap waves at 9.0 HZ (pyramid outside frequency). The mind tends to wander in funny ways.

---

 108 Total knowing

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It is very hard to say how this audio/visual presentation will effect you so understand that if you choose to experience this video you are doing so at your own risk. Headphones are recommended to make the most of the audio component just as stereo free-viewing is the suggested way to view. Parallel viewing of the native size video or crossed-eye viewing in full-screen mode seem to offer the same degree of stimulation.

 

 

Download the uncompressed  2 minute version in AVI format.
(The original 10 minute video is available upon request.)

 

Listen to full 10 minute presentation of the original WAV audio

 

Be sure to check out the BlogDogIt YouTube Channel
for some other variations on this theme.

[tag:strange spotlight science living listen youtube science computing entertainment]

 

Don't you just hate it when bloggers feel the need to apologize for not posting in a while - as if the absence of a single blog would have any noticeable impact on anyone's day-to-day life? It is usually a waste of words and if anyone really cared what they had to say then that sort of "Welcome me back everyone!" language only gets in the way of what it is they really have to say. So I will spare you all the apology and go right for the excuse: I have been busy building a Streaming Internet Radio Station.

Through the years I have toyed with streaming internet radio so I was somewhat familiar with the technologies when the Church asked if I thought it possible to broadcast the Sunday Morning Services live via the internet. I've heard it said that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing but through the last few weeks the knowledge has increased and the danger is subsiding. I wanted to share a little bit about what it took to get this station on the air in case anyone else gets the "calling" to go to work on "The Master's Radio."

Mt. Zion General Baptist Church on the South Side of Indianapolis is a quaint chapel and education center with a diverse congregation and very much in touch with the world outside of their doors. From their active Facebook presence to a preacher who has forsaken the classic pulpit for a freestanding, lightweight iPad on a floor stand, it might be safe to say you are likely to find the Luddites squirming in their seats even more-so than the sinners when 10:30 Sunday morning rolls around.

Microphones have long been a staple of those whose labor has them taking the stage and as a result a sound control booth has been installed in the rear of the sanctuary. The hymnals have all but been replaced by the projector that shines the sing-along song lyrics on the large screen in the front of the hall. And while the booth was equipped with a computer what it lacked was a connection to the internet. So the plan was simple: 1.) Connect the computer to the internet. 2.) Connect the mixer board to the computer. 3.) Stream the output of the sound system to the world.

In addition to broadcasting the Sunday show live each week we decided it would be a good idea to record the show for rebroadcasts throughout the week. Rather than having a Radio station that featured dead-air a large percentage of the time it was also decided that we should be streaming something 24 hours a day / 7 days a week.

I will spare you all the step-by-steps it took to get this thing going but I would like to discuss some of the bigger hurdles that had to be crossed in the realization of our goal to get this broadcast "on the air." First of all, to everyone who ever snickered at me for still working in the world of the Windows XP Operating System I say "he who laughs last, laughs best" -HaHa!

"Back in the day" it was no problem to record or broadcast the very sound coming from the speakers of your computer, but were you aware that computer manufacturers along with Windows 7 have removed that ability from the modern system? Neither was I. This meant that although I could record the broadcast as it was coming in through the input on the computer I was unable to play the file back out for later rebroadcasts. There were several workarounds for this however, from using a cable to take the output from the headphone jack and feed it back into the "Line-In" jack,  to a $500 DJ Software package. Neither of these approaches appealed to me especially in light of my knowledge that this was a built in feature of a Windows XP - Pentium 4 machine.

The Church's technology director donated a newer Dell machine which was running XP to the project but as its integrated audio was already a victim of the "Thou Shalt Not Stream" edict I was forced to dust off an old SoundBlaster PCI expansion card and install it into the server to add "Wave Out" to the software mixers. We were therefor ready to rock-it old school!

The most popular server software for Streaming Internet Audio is - without a doubt - "Shoutcast" which I installed and configured but after a brief trial run soon learned that the features provided by the second most popular streaming server "Icecast" would be better suited for our situation. While Shoutcast worked just fine for general broadcasting I encountered a problem where listeners were getting dropped when making the transition from prerecorded to live audio. Icecast is designed to seamlessly transition listeners from one source to another and as such has become our choice. Both of these software packages are open-source and freely available.

In my previous forays into Streaming Internet Radio I had only ever used a rather questionable bit of software known as Winamp since it had a plug-in that would turn it into a streaming audio source, connectable to the server software. I had come to know Winamp as being a bit intrusive into the host system so decided I would scour the internet for another option from the world of open-source and came across a gem of a program known as "butt" (ha ha, I know, right?) B.U.T.T. actually stands for Broadcast Using This Tool. Not only is this software aptly named, it is probably the only sourcing software you would ever need (provided you could get your sound card to deliver it the noise it needs.)

Although butt has the built-in ability to record the stream as it goes out, I was only interested in recording the Sunday Morning Service for later broadcast so I turned to MPlayer to piggyback and dump the stream to a file at the required time. Once the pieces were in place it was time to automate things. If you ever use a computer for repeated tasks and are not automating these tasks (at least to some degree) then you are missing out on one of the best things about personal computing. This custom project "cried-out" to be automated and before too long I found myself in the middle of a fun little logic puzzle / programming challenge.

Since I am no stranger to the DOS command line I knew I could get this thing running with batch files. What I was not quite aware of was how troublesome it is to get the Scheduled Tasks feature of Windows to play along and run batch files without fail. When it was all said and done however, I learned many valuable lessons and ultimately delivered on my promise to bring Streaming Internet Radio to MtZionIndy.org.

Tune-in, won't you?

If this sounds like something you are into and need help working through some of the "finer points" feel free to leave any questions you might have in comments or email me for more information.

Today (2014 November 29) NASA's - Astronomy Picture of the Day features a stereo anaglyph of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko created from images taken on November 12th during the much-ballyhooed Rosetta mission. The image and its accompanying verbiage is reproduced below:

3D 67P

Image Credit: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/ROLIS

Explanation: Get out your red/blue glasses and float next to a comet! The Rosetta mission lander Philae's ROLIS camera snapped the two frames used to create this stereo anaglyph for 3D viewing during its November 12 descent to the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The comet's curious double lobed nucleus is seen nearly end on from a distance of about 3 kilometers, about 1 hour before Philae arrived at the surface. Philae's initial landing site is near the center of the front facing lobe. Part of a landing gear foot cuts across the upper right corner, in the close foreground of the 3D-view. Philae bounced twice in the comet's weak gravity after its first contact with the surface. Using high resolution camera images from the Rosetta orbiter along with data from the lander's instruments, controllers have followed Philae's impromptu journey over the comet's surface and have identified a likely area for its final resting place.

I did round up my Red/Blue 3D Specs and found this to be a most awesome stereo view. For those who might not have ready access to their own 3D glasses I have created a serviceable stereo pair for freeviewing. (If you are not hip to freeviewing, take a look at this dandy tutorial designed to get you moving in the right dimensions.)

StereoView built by masodo

Ever since the completion of the Recesky twin lens reflex camera kit I have been anxiously awaiting a bright sunny day to test it out but after waiting for 8 days I could not take the suspense a minute more. I decided to get the show on the road and loaded the new box with some 15 year old Plus-X "roll your own" and headed out into the mostly-cloudy afternoon world. I was hoping for plenty of sun mostly because of the severely out-dated film stock but I was also hoping to get some high contrast lighting for the sake of higher impact images. Perhaps the 'Stones said it best, "...you get what you need."

All in all - I must say - I am fairly pleased with the resulting pictures and can now hardly wait to try it out with some fresh film (and sunshine.) Using the Recesky feels a little debilitating with its single shutter speed and single f-stop* and peering onto a 35mm sized "ground glass" is a bit of a challenge with my reading glasses; next time out I am going to take along a loupe so as to focus a bit more critically. [*The Recesky does offer the ability to remove the aperture disk from behind the taking-lens for a larger f-stop (and reduced depth of field) but I would just as soon not mess with dismantling the taking-lens assembly.]

The best results from test roll number one are presented in the slide show above. Click on the image for a higher resolution example. There is a stray internal flare that shows consistently in the images. I need to determine if that is from a light leak or just shiny guts.