The blog of amazingness

Isn’t it amazing that..? Projectors.

Isn’t it amazing that projectors can project black onto a white screen?

Think about it. 

Black is only the absence of light, so why, then, do we see black when the background is white? If no light is projected, shouldn’t we see the white background?

I think this is my most confusing post yet, and I might be totally wrong in my rationale. But supposing what I said was true, the reason we see black text would be because the white light projected onto the white screen is bright enough that the contrast with the supposedly white background is so great that the not lit bits appear black.

You dig?

Anonymous asked: I am thoroughly amazed! After stumbling on to the site I thought to myself, yes.

Oh my, such high praise! Glad you liked it!

Isn’t it amazing that…? Imagination.

Isn’t it amazing that we have an imagination?

Just imagine it.

Cream — Dreaming

Isn’t it amazing that…? Dreaming.

Isn’t it amazing that we dream?

Sleeping is amazing enough as it is – how our bodies just shut down for several hours — but dreaming is such an odd phenomenon.

We create alternate realities, or things which, it seems, we’ve never seen before. However, no images in dreams are original; it’s all taken from our memory – the murderer in your next dream might be someone you glanced at at a petrol station several years ago.

What purpose does dreaming serve?

I looked this up on the Internet and the most interesting answer I found was that it is used to discard images and half-formed ideas that we collected over the day. Like a way to clear the mind.

In a recent sleep study, students who were awakened at the beginning of each dream, but still allowed their 8 hours of sleep, all experienced difficulty in concentration, irritability, hallucinations, and signs of psychosis after only 3 days. When finally allowed their REM sleep, the student’s brains made up for lost time by greatly increasing the percentage of sleep spent in the REM stage. 

I found this amusing because I would be irritable having been woken up several times during my sleep, regardless of whether I was dreaming or not!

It’s fascinating that dreams can sometimes be so realistic, and sometimes make no sense at all. The part of our brain controlling our rationality shuts down while we are sleeping.

I once had a really realistic dream where I saw the silhouette of a man standing outside my window, watching me. I was dreaming I was lying on my bed, so I thought I was awake. He said something incoherent and walked away towards the back door. Then I woke up, but I still thought it was real. So I was all too ready to scream for help but I was too paralysed by fear to make a sound – have you ever had that feeling? It’s terrifying!

I often dream that I’m going down stairs and miss a step (I live in a bungalow, if that makes it seem less weird) and find myself flailing around on my bed in reality.

I also once had a LUCID dream. That’s a dream wherein you know you are dreaming and can even control the dream. I was definitely aware that I was dreaming but I’m not sure to what extent I was controlling it or whether that was just me thinking I was controlling it – if you’re following me? It was definitely one of the best dreams I’ve had. It was a sort of FBI-chasing-a-sociopath-scenario; very cheesy, but incredibly clear and incredibly fun. Since I could choose what to do, it was like CREATING an alternate reality as opposed to simply EXPERIENCING it, as in most dreams.

Blind people dream too, not in images but in their other senses – in sound, smell, touch and emotion.

Isn’t it amazing that dreams can evoke such strong emotions, too?

One thing I find particularly fascinating is ‘dream incorporation’ – this is when external stimuli invade our dreams. Sounds from reality or physical feelings, like thirst, are incorporated into our dream. Ever had your mum or dad calling you whilst you’re asleep, and suddenly they’re saying your name, for some other reason, in your dream?

Isn’t it amazing that we can DAY-DREAM? We just lose all awareness and go into our own world. I constantly find myself day-dreaming — even when I WANTED to concentrate on whatever was going on. It’s interesting how, when you start day-dreaming, all sounds around you seem to mute and you don’t even see what’s directly in front of you.

The mind is pretty powerful.

Edgar Broughton Band — Freedom

Isn’t it amazing that…? Freedom.

Isn’t it amazing that freedom is not necessarily a good thing, in and of itself?

Well, John Stuart Mill, in On Liberty, argues that power over someone can only be exercised to prevent harm.

However, for one person’s rights to be protected, does not another’s have to be limited? You don’t have freedom to steal from another person because it is harmful to them. But let’s go further than this – we are prevented from committing acts of ‘public indecency’, but we can’t really say this is HARMING anybody, can we? So are we free?

And sure, freedom of speech may allow us to exchange false dogmas for truths, but with that comes the upheaval of a split society. If society is better off believing a falsehood, should we disrupt that for truth using freedom of speech? What is more valuable or efficient; a blissful, ignorant society or an enlightened, restless one?

Is freedom worth the repercussions, especially for the state?

Even private religion can become harmful to society. Others might take offence in particular behaviours, or take it as a threat to the cultivation of their own religion – does this mean we should not have the freedom to choose our religion? If we prioritise the general good, then probably not. Then is it worth prioritising?

Probably not.

What freedom does allow is MORAL PROGRESS, and isn’t development the basis of a good society?

Nonetheless, if our own freedom centres around limiting the freedom of others – and ourselves in relation to others — are we not, as philosophers have said before, ‘FORCED TO BE FREE’? Paradoxical. And amazing.

Isn’t it amazing that…? Savants.

Isn’t it amazing that savants exist?

I’m sure you’ve heard of a few. Their talents are widespread and no less than amazing.

Kim Peek has read approximately 12,000 books and remembers everything in them. He can read two pages at once – one with his left eye and the other with his right — and it takes him about 3 seconds to do this. He can also tell you what day of the week it is on any given date, and remembers all music he has heard.

Leslie Lemke and Ellen Boudreaux only have to hear a musical piece once before they can play it perfectly on the piano. Furthermore, Ellen is blind and can walk without touching anything by making little sounds – like a human sonar. She also always knows the time of day without seeing a clock, having listened to an automatic time recording when she was younger.

Alonzo Clemons can, after seeing any image in the television, sculpt a perfect copy down to the last muscle fibre. Similarly, Stephen Wiltshire can draw an accurate and detailed picture of a city after seeing it in a helicopter ride.

Daniel Tammet is a man I find fascinating. He can recite Pi up to 22,514 decimal places. He says he sees numbers in his mind, having unique colours, shapes and textures. He can see the result of a mathematic calculation and can sense whether a number is a prime number or not. He also knows eleven languages, including Icelandic!

Amazing.

Isn’t it amazing that…? Dictators.

Isn’t it amazing that dictators are undoubtedly aware of the hate their people have for them, but yet they will not give up their power?

There’s too many to name. Hitler, Stalin, Hussein, Mugabe, Mao, Gaddafi, Mubarak.

What is it that motivates them to continue reaping their country of its benefits for personal use? Purely money? On obsession with power? Personal insecurities?

WHY would Hitler murder so many to create a superior race? Why did Stalin continue pursuing evidently failing reforms, insisting that he was creating a socialist state but, in fact, exploiting workers as fully or worse than any capitalist state he condemned?

(I confess, I have a bit of an OBSESSION with Russia. I’ve done way too much research into Russian history and the Russian economy to be healthy — but it is such a fascinating country. And I highly recommend reading some Russian literature; Dead Souls, and The Master And Margarita are great books.)

There’s a book called ‘Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia’ by John Gray. It’s not, by any means, an easy read, but it puts forth a very interesting view; that all political actions are guided by religion. Sure, we can see this evidently in some recent events — 9/11 was a supposedly Islamic act, and America’s reaction to it, highly Christian. Either the Defence Secretary or Secretary of State (I can’t remember) had explicitly highlighted the ‘Christian’ motives of the War On Terror. It was very interesting. Unfortunately, I don’t have a copy of Black Mass at the moment so I can’t look up the quote. Apologies. You’ll have to verify this yourself for the time being!

So recent events aside, how is politics influenced by religion? Gray argues that, in early Christian doctrines, there was a belief of an ‘end-time’, where there would be an ultimate struggle, one side would prevail, and there would then be utopia under the winning ideology. He uses a variety of historical events to illustrate this. For example, in the Soviet Union, communism was — according to Gray’s theory — motivated by this same religious zeal. The ultimate struggle would be between the proletariat and the elite, the proletariat would prevail and then there would be utopia — communism.

Dictators, I suppose, may have unbeknownst Gray-ian motives for their persistent misuse of power. Nonetheless, it’s definitely amazing that they do hold on to power in this way. If I could meet any three people, it would surely be Hitler, Stalin and Bin Laden, just to ask them WHY.

I can’t help but end this with another of my favourite parts from Rousseau’s writings. This is from his Discourse on Political Economy but is so apt for the issue mentioned here.

‘With force at one’s disposal, no skill is needed to make all men afraid, and little even to win their hearts; for peoples have long ago learnt by experience to give a ruler much credit for all the harm he does not do, and to worship him when he is not an object of hatred. A fool who is obeyed is as capable as anyone of punishing crime, but the true statesman knows how to prevent it; he earns respect by imposing his authority on men’s wills rather than their actions.’

Isn’t it amazing that…? Humans.

Isn’t it amazing that humans are essentially just a huge mass of cells, but yet we can… do things?

I wonder how and WHY we can THINK. I wonder why we exist. I wonder why ANYTHING exists. If things exist because of God, why did God come to exist? If things exist because of the Big Bang, why did the Big Bang happen?

Well, back to humans, here’s a list of the top ten most amazing things I could find out about humans!

10. A higher IQ means you have more dreams.

9. Charlie Chaplin once came third in a Charlie Chaplin look-alike competition.

8. Zeuxis, a Greek painter in the 5th century BC, laughed himself to death whilst looking at one of his paintings.

7. Humans share one third of their DNA with lettuce.

6. You could comfortably fit the entire population of the planet into a cube with sides 1km long. 

5. If you shouted for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would produce enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee. 

4. Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories per hour.

3. Beard hair grows at twice its usual rate when you’re in a plane.

2. The average woman consumes 6lbs of lipstick in her lifetime.

1. It takes 40 muscles to smile, but only 4 to pull the trigger of a decent rifle.

Isn’t it amazing that…? Coca-Cola.

Isn’t it amazing that Coca-Cola was invented in 1886?

Can you imagine these swell chaps,

drinking this?