I saw the void blink. and then i knew

Just as frequently, however, there was no tragedy that preceded people’s transformations. Rather, they changed because they were embedded in social groups that made change easier. One woman said her entire life shifted when she signed up for a psychology class and met a wonderful group. “It opened a Pandora’s box,” the woman told researchers. “I could not tolerate the status quo any longer. I had changed in my core.” Another man said that he found new friends among whom he could practice being gregarious. “When I do make the effort to overcome my shyness, I feel that it is not really me acting, that it’s someone else,” he said. But by practicing with his new group, it stopped feeling like acting. He started to believe he wasn’t shy, and then, eventually, he wasn’t anymore. When people join groups where change seems possible, the potential for that change to occur becomes more real. For most people who overhaul their lives, there are no seminal moments or life-altering disasters. There are simply communities⏤sometimes of just one other person⏤who make change believable.

One woman told researchers her life transformed after a day spent cleaning toilets⏤and after weeks of discussing with the rest of the cleaning crew whether she should leave her husband.

“Change occurs among other people,” one of the psychologists involved in the study, Todd Heatherton, told me. “It seems real when we can see it in other people’s eyes.”

The precise mechanisms of belief are little understood. No one is certain why a group encountered in a psychology class can convince a woman that everything is different, or why Dungy’s team came together after their coach’s son passed away. Plenty of people talk to friends about unhappy marriages and never leave their spouse; lots of teams watch their coaches experience adversity and never gel. 

But we do know that for habits to permanently change, people must believe that change is feasible. The same process that makes AA so effective⏤the power of a group to teach individuals how to believe⏤happens whenever people come together to help one another change. Belief is easier when it occurs within a community.”

The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics - James Kaklios 

Well. The subtitle lied. This is NOT a ‘math-free’ exploration. But that was obvious going in, largely because Math is the language by which we consolidate descriptors of observable and calculable phenomena. Math isn’t magic that controls the universe, it simply reduces the description of what’s already happening down to its core components. Like taking all the nebulous adjectives out of a sentence, instead of saying 'this thing is moving quickly’, it defines both the thing and the speed its moving relative to what it’s moving more quickly than. This book while not genuinely 'math-free’ does go to great lengths to elaborate on how math as a concept is really more akin to a very specific, very concrete linguistic construction than it is to a magic number-thingy. The most fascinating aspect of this book, from my perspective as a tech-savvy Millennial who wasn’t born in an era before Quantum Mechanics had already become an accepted part of Science to the point that it had trickled out into commercial markets, was the illuminating comment on what schism of understanding left futurist thinkers of sci-fi tech in the 50’s & 60’s (and even in the 70’s & 80’s) swinging so wildly off-base in their projections of 21st century tech… While I am still waiting for the hoverboard Back to the Future promised me, I have a much better understanding why such promises seemed plausible back then and yet so impossible now: our future-tech revolution struck the wrong vein of development.

The problem that scientists and futurists were focused on back then was the efficient production, storage, and transfer of Energy. The solution that we found to catapult ourselves into a digital age was one of efficient storage, transfer, and reproduction of Information.

The advent of transistors made power usage slightly more effective, but it changed everything in terms data movement and processing. I’d known that on a logical level, but I hadn’t quite realized how focused the previous generation’s gaze was on energy-related tech-developments until Kakalios linked aspects of futurist projections to both the cutting edge of 50’s science culture, and to the pop-culture creations that came out of each new 50’s science revelation. (I always knew it made sense to them, but this IS the generation who flung 3 people at the moon in a gold-covered toaster with less digital processing power than the watch I had in middle school, soooooo… 'sense’ has always been something I took with a few hearty grains of salt).

Kakalios breaks everything down into understandable, bite-sized pieces, relates those pieces to both a pop-culture event and a scientific development, explains the math that describes the concept, and creates a coherent, over-arching narrative about how these concepts have both literally built and conceptually inspired our modern world.

Overall, it’s an extremely well done, fantastically well researched, and deeply informative pieces of physics non-fiction that was also delightfully entertaining.

Message me if you want to play, you will be under the blackmailers control the entire time so play at your own risk.

Roll 1:

1: topless photo no face

2: fully clothed photo face

3: topless photo half face

4: photo outside full face

5: fully clothed photo no face

6: all of the above

Roll 2:

1: name of one friend

2: name of school attended

3: phone number

4: street name

5: Facebook link

6: tumblr login

Roll 3:

1: nude photo no face

2: ass photo

3: visibly horny photo

4: nude photo full face

5: fully body nude public

6: visibly horny nude photo in public

Roll 4:

1:full name

2: phone number

3: name and link of best friend and Facebook friend

4: 2 friend email addresses

5: name of significant other/ work colleague

6: all of the above

Roll 5:

1: toy in ass no face photo

2: video of you edging, time at discretion of blackmailer

3: toy in ass full face photo

4: 5 fully nude photos including face

5: public restroom fully nude photo including face

6: all of the above

Roll 6:

How long will you be blackmailed for?

1: 1 hour

2: until the blackmailer is done with you

3: 6 months

4: 1 day

5: 1 year

6: 1 week

Remember you play at your own risk. Once you start the blackmailer has full ownership of whatever you send them and can do as this they wish with this info. If you finish the game and complete your time then the blackmailer has to delete all info and photos they own.

(a part of the positive aspects will follow soon!! IMPORTANT: not everybody embodies these negatives aspects, nor are you doomed to have them just because it’s your mars sign)

Aries Mars: a headstrong warrior who will not lose the battle no matter what the situation is, has the forces of volcanos in them and as easily angered as wildfire can be spread during a hot period, can lose rationality easily during a fight, can get physical or at least has the urge to get physical

Taurus mars: thinks for themselves and is calm like a cow eating grass, but once their first two warnings are ignored and their line’s crossed the bull will overrun and stomp on you till you don’t move anymore, principle oriented, black and white thinkers (which can be for better and for worse of course)

Gemini mars: a trickster, will gossip around you or search for information that could benefit them, sneaky, switches between active and passiv/cowardly and confident, when angered their words can hurt badly, sadistic smiles

Cancer mars: pro master in avoiding confrontation, heavily emotional and bottles it up, frustrated ranting in front of friends and family after trying to convince them everything is fine, when they explode it’s a tsunami and you better hide, can cry out of anger, can have a tendency to victimize themselves

Leo mars: Majesty of massive ego and it’s one of their biggest weak points, gossipy and will try to ruin your reputation, disloyal people will be punished, is confident in their actions and has a lot of pride but feel more confident when supported by their pack (like a real lion)

Virgo mars: critical and never forgets (be aware!), too high expectations, a perfectionist and only they can do it correctly, can be sneaky, even cowardly, will cut you with facts they gathered for years but kept for themselves, will not get sensetive or emotional over you when things get bad, ice queens and kings

Libra mars: can be the biggest wolf in sheep clothes due to being unable to express anger (can turn into having no backbone!), false smiles and purposefully hurtful words, passiv!! and will try to diplomatically discuss about problems but when unable to hold themselves back they explode and can lose all sense of rationality

Scorpio mars: seeks power and control and sometimes too much of that, plans quietly, when they attack you won’t see it coming but they will be prepared to knock you out no matter what (pay attention for revenge), very emotionally driven which can make them lose touch with reality, don’t open up to a fault, blow up and won’t give you a chance to clarify

Sagittarius mars: spontaneous and will spontaneously lose their temper as well, think their right and can have a superior complex, can be compared with a wild horse that tries to be captured, can blow up and after a short time laugh about it even tho it hurt the other party badly

Capricorn mars: can be cold and even cruel, will strategically make sure what you did wrong, where you went wrong and what you need to to in order to make up for it, can be unforgiving and when they lose their composure they forget everything about the person in front of them

Aquarius mars: will justify what they did and can have a superior complex, can think people are just below them and that’s the reason they are misunderstood, can be either very cold and cruel or overfill with anger (drastic changes in behaviour even during an argument)