Quote taken from the movie ”The Matrix”:
“I’d like to share a revelation I’ve had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you’re not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we are the cure.” – Agent Smith

Matrix

In the movie he says “…we are the cure,” but in class msingh was saying how natural disasters that often kill many is really like the “cure.” I don’t know, I thought this was interesting.

]]> http://www.elemental-philosophy.org/our-relationship-with-the-planet/feed/ 3 http://www.elemental-philosophy.org/goldsworthy-and-nature/ http://www.elemental-philosophy.org/goldsworthy-and-nature/#comments Sat, 01 Dec 2012 21:43:54 +0000 wcturgeon http://www.elemental-philosophy.org/?p=693 Dr. MacAuley wanted to share the link for the following video on Goldsworthy.  Check it out!

A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity prevents anything, including light, from escaping. They are commonly known as objects in space that “suck in anything.” Out of all of the things that we know about in space, this is one of the things that we know very little about. Work by James Bardeen, Jacob Bekenstein, Brandon Carter, and Stephen Hawking  in the early 1970s led to the formulation of a new division of physics known as black hole thermodynamics. We as humans try to understand everything around us, and this is another thing that we are working on.

I couldn’t resist with this one. In a description, “Starry Night” is a portrayed as a night with all of the darkness and fear taken out of it. There is only an array of bright colors of the night left. This is a paradox to what Batman is. He uses fear from the darkness to defeat his enemies. So in a way, this is like a representation of Gotham City after Batman’s work is done, if it is ever done, a bright and safe city.

This picture was taken at Oulanka National Park in the far north of Finland, just south of the Arctic Circle. A great time to see this is early in the season (October, November) and late (March, April).

Canada’s smallest and most westerly territory, Yukon is sparsely populated, incredibly beautiful and an excellent place to see the Northern Lights. They make appearances between September and April, but January to March is the period you are most likely to encounter them.

A thousand miles north of mainland Norway and the same distance again from the North Pole, the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard is well inside the Arctic Circle, and is a great place to view the Northern Lights. December offers the most likely sightings here, as it is dark all day and generally dry, meaning less cloud cover and clearer skies.

Remote Abisko National Park in Swedish Lapland is often claimed to be one of the best places on earth to see the Northern Lights.

This is a picture of aurora austrailis. It captures the northern lights in Antarctica.

• Polar lights (aurora polaris) are a natural phenomenon found in both the northern and southern hemispheres that can be truly awe inspiring. Northern lights are also called by their scientific name,aurora borealis, and southern lights are called aurora australis.

• Colors and patterns are from the types of ions or atoms being energized as they collide with the atmosphere and are affected by lines of magnetic force. Displays may take many forms, including rippling curtains, pulsating globs, traveling pulses, or steady glows. Altitude affects the colors. Blue violet/reds occur below 60 miles (100 km), with bright green strongest between 60-150 miles (100-240 km). Above 150 miles (240 km) ruby reds appear.

]]> http://www.elemental-philosophy.org/diwali-the-festival-of-lights/feed/ 1 http://www.elemental-philosophy.org/higgs-boson-particle/ http://www.elemental-philosophy.org/higgs-boson-particle/#comments Sun, 11 Nov 2012 22:15:55 +0000 bplotke http://www.elemental-philosophy.org/?p=619 Continue reading →]]> This is the full episode of Through the Wormhole that explains the Higgs Boson particle.

This next video is the segment of the episode that focuses on the Higgs Boson for anyone who does not have the time to watch the whole 45 minute video.

There are tons of other videos on youtube on this subject if this video does not make the idea clear.

Identify the images below as they are referenced in the text.

The Hurricane Sandy disaster that hit Long Island on October 29th, 2012 plunged most of us in darkness, a darkness even more overwhelming given the time of year as each day was shorter, each night longer.  Without the comfort and warmth of power, we huddled around candles, flashlights, fireplaces (those lucky one).  Alas the cloud covered skies deprived us of that chance to see the night sky revealed as so beautifully described by Diane Ackerman.