Theodicy

5:40 PM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT
Theodicy (/θˈɒdɪsi/ from Greek theos "god" + dike "justice"), in its most general form, is the attempt to answer the question of why a good God permits the manifestation of evil. Theodicy attempts to resolve the evidential problem of evil by reconciling the traditional divine characteristics of omnibenevolenceomnipotence, and omniscience, in either their absolute or relative form, with the occurrence of evil or suffering in the world.[1] Unlike a defense, which tries to demonstrate that God's existence is logically possible in the light of evil, a theodicy provides a framework which claims to make God's existence probable. The term was coined in 1710 by German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz in his work, Théodicée, though various responses to the problem of evil had been previously proposed. The British philosopher John Hick traced the history of moral theodicy in his work, Evil and the God of Love, identifying three major traditions: the Plotinian theodicy, named after Plotinus, the Augustinian theodicy, which Hick based on the writings of Augustine of Hippo, and the Irenaean theodicy, which Hick developed, based on the thinking of St Irenaeus. Other philosophers have suggested that theodicy is a modern discipline because deities in the ancient world were often imperfect.
German philosopher Max Weber saw theodicy as a social problem, based on the human need to explain puzzling aspects of the world; sociologist Peter L. Berger argued that religion arose out of a need for social order, and theodicy developed to sustain it. Following the Holocaust, a number of Jewish theologians developed a new response to the problem of evil, sometimes called anti-theodicy, which maintains that God cannot be meaningfully justified. As an alternative to theodicy, a defence may be proposed, which is limited to showing the logical possibility of God's existence. American philosopherAlvin Plantinga presented a version of the free will defence which argued that the coexistence of God and evil is not logically impossible, and that free will further explains the existence of evil without threatening the existence of God. Similar to a theodicy, a cosmodicy attempts to justify the fundamental goodness of the universe, and an anthropodicyattempts to justify the goodness of humanity.

GMO DNA in human blood

2:50 PM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT
Abstract
Our bloodstream is considered to be an environment well separated from the outside world and the digestive tract. According to the standard paradigm large macromolecules consumed with food cannot pass directly to the circulatory system. During digestion proteins and DNA are thought to be degraded into small constituents, amino acids and nucleic acids, respectively, and then absorbed by a complex active process and distributed to various parts of the body through the circulation system. Here, based on the analysis of over 1000 human samples from four independent studies, we report evidence that meal-derived DNA fragments which are large enough to carry complete genes can avoid degradation and through an unknown mechanism enter the human circulation system. In one of the blood samples the relative concentration of plant DNA is higher than the human DNA. The plant DNA concentration shows a surprisingly precise log-normal distribution in the plasma samples while non-plasma (cord blood) control sample was found to be free of plant DNA.

Projective Geometry website : http://www.nct.anth.org.uk/

7:04 PM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT
SIMPLE CHAOS THEORY
Simple Chaos Theory

Can chaos be explained in a very fundamental way, without resorting to Hamiltonians and phase space, to give an intuitive feel for what is going on? This is attempted here.

Chaos theory is to be found in many places from the giant red spot on Jupiter to dripping taps, and in the biological realm in heart fibrillation and brain seizures. Feigenbaum discovered a way of describing it, although he was not the first to discover chaos, it being known to Einstein, and even before him in the 19th Century from the study of dynamical systems where phase-space orbitals could cease to be well defined. It was largely ignored until the meteorologist Lorentz found that his simple model of the atmosphere did not give repeatable results. The advent of the PC with sufficient power to implement chaotic systems finally opened up the subject to wide research and application, although we might recall that Feigenbaum used a simple calculator to make his initial discovery! The actual existence of chaos as a fundamental fact rather than a mere appearance arising from inadequate precision in the calculations interested the engineer writing this. In other words he was sceptical: was it just 'hype'? What is actually happening is not easy to grasp from the advanced maths used. Below we show the classic figure for the equationy=rx(1-x) when handled recursively i.e. the calculated value of y is re-inserted as x in the equation, and so on. The value of r is increased from 1 to 4 along the x-axis.

Projective geometry

6:45 PM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT
In mathematicsprojective geometry is the study of geometric properties that are invariant under projective transformations. This means that, compared to elementary geometry, projective geometry has a different setting, projective space, and a selective set of basic geometric concepts. The basic intuitions are that projective space has more points than Euclidean space, in a given dimension, and that geometric transformations are permitted that move the extra points (called "points at infinity") to traditional points, and vice versa.
Properties meaningful in projective geometry are respected by this new idea of transformation, which is more radical in its effects than expressible by a transformation matrix and translations (the affine transformations). The first issue for geometers is what kind of geometric language is adequate to the novel situation? It is not possible to talk about angles in projective geometry as it is inEuclidean geometry, because angle is an example of a concept not invariant under projective transformations, as is seen clearly inperspective drawing. One source for projective geometry was indeed the theory of perspective. Another difference from elementary geometry is the way in which parallel lines can be said to meet in a point at infinity, once the concept is translated into projective geometry's terms. Again this notion has an intuitive basis, such as railway tracks meeting at the horizon in a perspective drawing. See projective plane for the basics of projective geometry in two dimensions.
While the ideas were available earlier, projective geometry was mainly a development of the nineteenth century. A huge body of research made it the most representative field of geometry of that time. This was the theory of complex projective space, since the coordinates used (homogeneous coordinates) were complex numbers. Several major strands of more abstract mathematics (including invariant theory, the Italian school of algebraic geometry, and Felix Klein's Erlangen programme leading to the study of theclassical groups) built on projective geometry. It was also a subject with a large number of practitioners for its own sake, under the banner of synthetic geometry. Another field that emerged from axiomatic studies of projective geometry is finite geometry.
The field of projective geometry is itself now divided into many research subfields, two examples of which are projective algebraic geometry (the study of projective varieties) andprojective differential geometry (the study of differential invariants of the projective transformations).

Compass-and-straightedge or ruler-and-compass construction

5:49 PM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT

Creating a regular hexagon with a ruler and compass
Construction of a regular pentagon
Compass-and-straightedge or ruler-and-compass construction is the construction of lengths, angles, and other geometric figures using only an idealized ruler and compass.
The idealized ruler, known as a straightedge, is assumed to be infinite in length, and has no markings on it and only one edge. The compass is assumed to collapse when lifted from the page, so may not be directly used to transfer distances. (This is an unimportant restriction, as this may be achieved via the compass equivalence theorem.) More formally, the only permissible constructions are those granted by Euclid's first three postulates.
Every point constructible using straightedge and compass may be constructed using compass alone. A number of ancient problems in plane geometry impose this restriction.
The most famous straightedge-and-compass problems have been proven impossible in several cases byPierre Wantzel in 1837, using the mathematical theory of fields. In spite of existing proofs of impossibility, some persist in trying to solve these problems.[1] Many of these problems are easily solvable provided that other geometric transformations are allowed: for example, doubling the cube is possible using geometric constructions, but not possible using straightedge and compass alone.

The point at infinity

5:36 PM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT

The real line with the point at infinity.
The point at infinity, also called ideal point, of the real number line is a point which, when added to the number line yields a closed curve called the real projective line\mathbb{R}P^1. The real projective line is not equivalent to the extended real number line, which has two different points at infinity.
The point at infinity can also be added to the complex plane\mathbb{C}^1, thereby turning it into a closed surface (i.e., complex algebraic curve) known as the complex projective line, \mathbb{C}P^1, also called the Riemann sphere.
The concept of infinity point admits several generalizations for various multi-dimensional constructions.

Desargues' theorem

5:34 PM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT

Perspective triangles. Corresponding sides of the triangles, when extended, meet at points on a line called the axis of perspectivity. The lines which run through corresponding vertices on the triangles meet at a point called the center of perspectivity. Desargues' theorem states that the truth of the first condition is necessary and sufficient for the truth of the second.
In projective geometryDesargues' theorem, named after Girard Desargues, states:
Two triangles are in perspective axially if and only if they are in perspectivecentrally.
Denote the three vertices of one triangle by ab, and c, and those of the other by A,B, and C. Axial perspectivity means that lines ab and AB meet in a point, lines ac andAC meet in a second point, and lines bc and BC meet in a third point, and that these three points all lie on a common line called the axis of perspectivity. Central perspectivity means that the three lines AaBb, and Cc are concurrent, at a point called the center of perspectivity.
This intersection theorem is true in the usual Euclidean plane but special care needs to be taken in exceptional cases, as when a pair of sides are parallel, so that their "point of intersection" recedes to infinity. Mathematically the most satisfying way of resolving the issue of exceptional cases is to "complete" the Euclidean plane to aprojective plane by "adding" points at infinity following Poncelet.
Desargues's theorem is true for the real projective plane, for any projective space defined arithmetically from a field or division ring, for any projective space of dimension unequal to two, and for any projective space in which Pappus's theorem holds. However, there are some non-Desarguesian planes in which Desargues' theorem is false.

THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERY

5:18 PM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT

by George Adams Kaufmann

                In a beautiful passage of his Outline of Occult Science, Rudolf Steiner sums up as follows the quintessence of the Rosicrucian teaching, the wisdom of the Holy Graal, which forms the content of this book:--

       “. . . The ’Cosmos of Wisdom’ evolves into a ’Cosmos of  Love.’  Out of all things that the ‘I’ of man can unfold within, Love shall become.  As the all-embracing ‘pattern of Love,’ the sublime Being of the Sun--the Being whom we were able to name in describing the Christ-evolution -- manifested Himself.  Into the inmost heart of man’s being the seed of love was thereby planted.  Thence it will flow into the whole of evolution.  Just as the Wisdom, formed before, is manifested in the forces of the outer, sense-perceptible world of the Earth--in the ‘forces of Nature’ that prevail today--so in the future Love itself will be revealed in all phenomena, as a new force of Nature.  It is the secret of all future evolution, that knowledge, and also all that man does out of true feeling for evolution, is the sowing of a seed which must ripen into Love.  So much as comes into being of the force of love, so much is done creatively towards the future. . . . The Wisdom, prepared through Saturn, Sun and Moon evolutions, works in the physical, in the etheric and in the astral body of man; in the ‘I’ it is made inward.  From Earth-evolution onward, the ‘Wisdom of the outer World’ becomes inner Wisdom in Man.  And when in man it is made inward, it becomes the seed of Love.  Wisdom is the necessary forerunner of Love; Love is the outcome of Wisdom re-born within the ‘I.’ ”#
               
In the first Mystery Play, described by Rudolf Steiner on the title page as A Rosucrucian Mystery, this theme of the growth of Love as Wisdom re-born in the I of man is developed, as it were, through countless golden threads.  The four Mystery Plays are so filled with wisdom that as their writer said the spiritual teaching he could give in countless lectures was contained in them, for those who would take pains to draw it forth.  We find it ever more as we read and ponder them again and again, and above all as we see them performed on the stage, as we are now privileged to do at the Goetheanum.  It can at best be one among the many golden threads which with all reverence we touch in the following remarks, concerning the theme of Wisdom and Love as it appears in the first play, The Portal of Initiation.*

Micro-PK

3:59 PM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT
A simple definition of psychokinesis (PK), is the apparent ability of a human being to affect objects, events or even people around him or her without using the usual intervention by the muscular system (Broughton 1991). Any movement of physical matter that can be attained by using only mind inducing techniques would be considered as a form ofpsychokinesis.

Though one may think that psychokinesis is just the act of moving things with the mind, they are actually quite wrong. Psychokinesis definitely covers a wider range of complexity than that. As a matter of fact, there are two certain categories that psychokinesis can be separated into. They are called macro-PK and micro-PKMicro-PKconcentrates more on the mind’s direct influence on atomic particles or electronic devices, and macro- PK involves more of the direct movement of large objects such as bending metal. The distinction is largely based upon whether one can simply see the effect (macro-PK) or whether one needs a statistical evaluation to determine if something unusual happened (micro-PK) (Broughton.1991).

Even though there are many different categories that are included in the subject of psychokinesis, the main one that will be concentrated on is micro-PK. Micro-PK is very similar to basic PK, except a smaller target is used. A subject is asked to cause a change in a physical system using only mental effort, and then the overall change is observed. By all appearances the micro-PK subject has been able to cause a noticeable change from a distance (Broughton.1991).

Nuzhat Yasmin's Overview

3:56 PM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT

Nuzhat Yasmin's Overview

Past
  • Resident Medical Officer (RMO) at Labaid Cardiac Hospital
  • Research Assistant at Dhaka Medical College Hospital
  • GA ( MPA) at University of Alabama at Birmingham,USA
Education
  • Dhaka Medical College
Connections
8 connections

Inverse-square law

1:19 PM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT
inverse-square law is any physical law stating that a specified physical quantity or intensity isinversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source of that physical quantity. In equation form:
\mbox{Intensity} \ \propto \ \frac{1}{\mbox{distance}^2} \,
The divergence of a vector field which is the resultant of radial inverse-square law fields with respect to one or more sources is everywhere proportional to the strength of the local sources, and hence zero outside sources. Newton's law of universal gravitation follows an inverse-square law, as do the effects of electricmagneticlightsound, andradiation phenomena.

Psychokinesis

1:11 PM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT
Psychokinesis (Greek ψυχή κίνησις, "mind movement"),[1][2] or telekinesis[3] (Greek τῆλε κίνησις, "distant-movement") is an alleged psychic abilityallowing a person to influence a physical system without physical interaction. Psychokinesis and telekinesis are sometimes abbreviated as PK and TK respectively.[4] Examples of psychokinesis could include moving an object, levitating and teleporting.[5]
The study of phenomena said to be psychokinetic is part of parapsychology. Some parapsychologists claim psychokinesis exists and deserves further study. Current research has shifted focus away from large-scale phenomena to attempts to influence dice and random number generators.[6][7][8][9]
There is no scientific evidence that psychokinesis or telekinesis are real phenomena.[10][11] PK experiments have historically been criticized for lack of proper controls and repeatability.[11][12][13] Furthermore, some experiments have created illusions of PK where none exists, and these illusions depend to an extent on the subject's prior belief in PK.[14][15]

Sai Baba of Shirdi

12:14 PM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT
Sai Baba of Shirdi (unknown – 15 October 1918), also known as Shirdi Sai Baba, was a great spiritual master who was and is regarded by his devotees as a saint, fakiravatar (an incarnation of God), or sadguru, according to their individual proclivities and beliefs. He was revered by both his Muslim and Hindu devotees, and during, as well as after, his life on earth it remained uncertain if he was a Muslim or Hindu himself. This however was of no consequence to Sai Baba himself.[1] Sai Baba stressed the importance of surrender to the guidance of the true Sadguru or Murshad, who, having gone the path to divine consciousness himself, will lead the disciple through the jungle of spiritual training.[2]
Sai Baba remains a very popular saint,[3] especially in India, and is worshiped by people around the world. He had no love for perishable things and his sole concern was self-realization. He taught a moral code of love, forgiveness, helping others, charity, contentment, inner peace, and devotion to God and guru. He gave no distinction based on religion or caste. Sai Baba's teaching combined elements ofHinduism and Islam: he gave the Hindu name Dwarakamayi to the mosque he lived in,[4] practised Muslim rituals, taught using words and figures that drew from both traditions, and was buried in Shirdi. One of his well known epigrams, "Sabka Malik Ek" ("One God governs all"), is associated with Islam and Sufism. He also said, "Trust in me and your prayer shall be answered". He always uttered "AllahMalik" ("God is King").[2]

Ravi Shankar (spiritual leader)

12:11 PM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT

Spirituality[edit]

Shankar teaches that spirituality is that which enhances human values such as love, compassion and enthusiasm. It is not limited to any one religion or culture. Hence it is open to all people. He feels the spiritual bond we share as part of the human family is more prominent than nationality, gender, religion, profession, or other identities that separate us.[18]
In Shankar's view, "Violence-free society, disease-free body, quiver-free breath, confusion-free mind, inhibition-free intellect, trauma-free memory, and sorrow-free soul is the birthright of every human being."[19]
According to him, science and spirituality are linked and compatible, both springing from the urge to know. The question, "Who am I?" leads to spirituality; the question, "What is this?" leads to science. Emphasizing that joy is only available in the present moment, his stated vision is to create a world free of stress and violence. His programs are said to offer practical tools to help accomplish this. He sees breath as the link between body and mind, and a tool to relax the mind, emphasizing the importance of both meditation/spiritual practice and service to others. In his view, "Truth is spherical rather than linear; so it has to be contradictory."[20]

Cynicism

11:27 AM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT
Cynicism (Greekκυνισμός) is a school of ancient Greek philosophy as practiced by the Cynics (GreekΚυνικοίLatinCynici). For the Cynics, thepurpose of life was to live in virtue, in agreement with nature. As reasoning creatures, people could gain happiness by rigorous training and by living in a way which was natural for humans, rejecting all conventional desires for wealth, power, sex, and fame. Instead, they were to lead a simple life free from all possessions.
The first philosopher to outline these themes was Antisthenes, who had been a pupil of Socrates in the late 5th century BC. He was followed by Diogenes of Sinope, who lived in a tub on the streets of Athens.[2] Diogenes took Cynicism to its logical extremes, and came to be seen as the archetypal Cynic philosopher. He was followed by Crates of Thebes who gave away a large fortune so he could live a life of Cynic poverty in Athens. Cynicism spread with the rise of Imperial Rome in the 1st century, and Cynics could be found begging and preaching throughout the cities of the Empire. It finally disappeared in the late 5th century, although some have claimed that early Christianity adopted many of its ascetic and rhetorical ideas.
By the 19th century, emphasis on the negative aspects of Cynic philosophy led to the modern understanding of cynicism to mean a disposition of disbelief in the sincerity or goodness of human motives and actions.