A Quantum Internet

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/514581/government-lab-reveals-quantum-internet-operated-continuously-for-over-two-years/

I can’t help but recall how many times Japanese science fiction has used quantum mechanics as the basis for the plot or a world creation. The fact that they expect the common consumer in Japan to understand these things while the US is mostly concerned about making money off of Hollywood gun violence, porn, and abortion is its quantum paradigm.

Using Computers to Analyze Human Communication

Now this is interesting.

Which brings us back to speed dating.

See, one of the things that Pennebaker did was record and transcribe conversations that took place between people on speed dates. He fed these conversations into his program along with information about how the people themselves were perceiving the dates. What he found surprised him.

“We can predict by analyzing their language, who will go on a date — who will match — at rates better than the people themselves,” he says.

Specifically, what Pennabaker found was that when the language style of two people matched, when they used pronouns, prepositions, articles and so forth in similar ways at similar rates, they were much more likely to end up on a date.

“The more similar [they were] across all of these function words, the higher the probability that [they] would go on a date in a speed dating context,” Pennebaker says. “And this is even cooler: We can even look at … a young dating couple… [and] the more similar [they] are … using this language style matching metric, the more likely [they] will still be dating three months from now.”

This is not because similar people are attracted to each other, Pennebaker says; people can be very different. It’s that when we are around people that we have a genuine interest in, our language subtly shifts.

“When two people are paying close attention, they use language in the same way,” he says. “And it’s one of these things that humans do automatically.”

I analyze body language visually. Humans do indeed notice these things, but often times only on a subconscious level that does not require thought.

Improving your pain threshold

Glen Levy has some good information for those who are interested in this subject. part 2 Part 1

This is often how fighters condition themselves to take hits, to at least reduce the pain. A person that has never been hit, will freak out the moment they get hit by almost anything. They are like stunned, more than hurt.

The other side of the equation, Injury Management, fills in the potential gaps.

If you wanted to fly in your car…

People are still working on them. Unless the government slaps them with death taxes and nationalizes their business, that is.

Relieving Stress and Recovering Energy

These are some basic guidelines from my study and practice of chi gong. The body produces a fixed amount of oxygen and sugar, that can be used for mental concentration or physical exertion. Eventually the brain cells decrease in efficiency due to fatigue toxins and overuse: same for muscles.

The basic breathing method is Buddhist breathing, where upon inhaling, the belly gets big as the lungs expand from the bottom up. By controlling how long and how much air you inhale vs exhale, you can modify the rate at which your body replenishes oxygen to your cells. Considering that the brain cells use 10 or 12X more than other cells, thinking and creative use can often expend copious amounts of oxygen and nutrients. While you can control how much nutrients you can intake and digest, controlled breathing is a method not often taught or known in the West. By inhaling and exhaling quickly, you are able to energize the body with fresh oxygen, allowing it to do more work and apply more strength, for a brief burst.

Here are some natural examples of breathing that people may not have ever thought about. Laughter, longer exhalation joined with short inhalation, produces heightened emotions, tension, and energy. The opposite, deep inhalation with short exhalation, produces a decrease in energy and is the normal way people who are sad breath. Neither one is 100% good to do all the time. Eventually as you keep laughing you will find that you will run out of oxygen and the cells in your body will start emitting pain as a result. Often a consequence of people who can’t stop laughing. If you are sad for a long time, you can get into a major depression where your body starts malfunctioning.

These two types are generally what you can use to relieve your stress and recover your energy. The longer you exhale, the more energy you send to your muscles and the surface of your skin, causing an increase in physical and mental energy. The second type is the long inhalation: the more you inhale, the more oxygen is stored in your lungs, allowing you to concentrate energy but not release it. Inhalation relaxes the body and calms the mind, while at the same time supplying the body with a reserve of oxygen to use for many things. Since people should be relaxed when inhaling, this energy goes to their brain and removes the toxins, rather than goes to the muscles via breathing out.

First, learn how to breathe in, by making sure that your belly expands first, and then your chest. Then relax and let the air out, or if you are focusing on doing some physical activity (try this with opening a jar lid), harden the abdominal muscles and force the air out like whistle or funnel as you apply power to the muscles. For mental energy balancing, the process is relatively the same except in reverse: breath in more and exhale softly and quietly.

If you feel yourself too stressed, breath in long and breath out short. Stress is unused energy and a result of too much thinking. Re-balance yourself providing additional oxygen to the brain and supplying oxygen to the tense body. If you are coming home after a day of hard work, mental or physical, it can pay great dividends to breath in and breathe out, longer on the out than in. By taking in extra oxygen, you are giving your body more resources to achieve harmony, and can speed up your recovery. When you are given an opportunity to fix the problem causing your stress, then you can heighten your energy levels and exhale faster, to produce more energy for your body and your mind. More oxygen to the brain means clearer thinking and better focus. More oxygen to your muscles means greater endurance and strength.

Try it out and see for yourself. You may just realize that it’s a more affordable and more efficient method than taking external supplements like caffeine or energy drinks. Even better if you have both resources at your command.

P.S. If you feel uncomfortable during your practice, simply breath in and then release the air in your lungs as you breath out. This allows equal in and equal out, so you don’t have to worry about complexities. It’s not much different from telling people to inhale deeply as a way to calm down. But there are great depths to this, which are only unlocked with diligent practice and study. Relaxation is the best way for beginners to feel the full benefits. Tension will usually interrupt things. It’s not enough to do this for a few seconds or a few breathing cycles. Breath work or chi gong, is done for 30 minutes or even 60 minutes. A beginner, however, can usually see benefits almost immediately because they probably have never utilized such breathing methods and will see a remarkable difference. The large rewards, however, only come through diligent practice. Which is why chi gong is often associated with gong fu or martial arts.

EDIT: Some corrections have been made to clarify the distinction between breathing in vs breathing out. For more information on this, I recommend people buy Dr. Yang’s book or DVD set at YMAA. There’s no way I can cover the subject in detail on a blog. I can only provide you some tips that beginners can use.