Favorite line from a book I read this year /  by Mirena Rhee

.."since there is only one electron field, only one up quark field, and only one down quark field, you and I, dear reader, are connected to each other. Each of our atoms is a ripple in the same cosmic ocean. We are one with each other, and with all of creation."

How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch: In Search of the Recipe for Our Universe, from the Origins of Atoms to the Big Bang by Harry Cliff

The Metaverse /  by Mirena Rhee

Anyone remember Active Worlds? My first 3D virtual worlds job was making a 3D virtual marketplace in Active Worlds. This is the technology that made me absolutely love working in real time 3D building worlds and eventually doing video game art, and VR art. The company I worked for was called VWorld technologies, I believe the v was for virtual. This was in 1999.

But before that were the shadows on the wall of a cave.

I don't believe in the goggles side of the metaverse but I do believe that certain advances in representational technology can inspire people. I can be very excited in the possibility of a 3D reality, an immersive reality that is not necessarily a built environment.

But the device doesn't have to sit on your nose.

The particle physics of you and bananas! anti-matter /  by Mirena Rhee

Not only are we made of fundamental particles, we also produce them and are constantly bombarded by them throughout the day

https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/the-particle-physics-of-you

Yes, this does include anti-matter.

Especially if you like and eat bananas. A banana makes one positron or anti-matter particle per hour.

The average banana (rich in potassium) produces a positron roughly once every 75 minutes.

I am an anti-matter factory on my banana bingeing days.

https://www.quantumdiaries.org/2009/07/21/positrons-from-bananas/

Atomix /  by Mirena Rhee

I remember one day my dad told me that I'm crazy and that's why I don't have kids.

I never thought that I would have kids, I was never drawn to that idea.

But I will have many kids, my atoms will become many many things and probably other universes.

When I leave this body all the veils will fall, and all my parts will be recombined and I will be part of everything that is to come.

Some people remember being in the womb of their mothers, I remember when my atoms were part of supernovas.

I feel dark matter filling all my cavities and dark energy pulling on my joints.

The most awesome book about everything, plus I love apples so it's indeed absolutely everything /  by Mirena Rhee

How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch: In Search of the Recipe for Our Universe, from the Origins of Atoms to the Big Bang

by Harry Cliff

“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

—Carl Sagan”

It gets pretty Jabberwocky

in a

weirding way

There is the value of the Higgs field≈246 GeV

which is the equivalent of

42

From this wonderful book I learned the following words:

Protyl
Gazump
Phratry
Gawp
Barmy

“What's more, since there is only one electron field, only one up quark field, and only one down quark field, you and I, dear reader, are connected to each other. Each of our atoms is a ripple in the same cosmic ocean. We are one with each other, and with all of creation.”

field after field

where the absence of a field is also a

field

and that is the

standard model

which only gets us to 5 percent

the rest 95 percent is the weirding way

Starstuff Recipes

“A RECIPE FOR HELIUM— THE PROTON-PROTON CHAIN

Step 1: Two protons collide, briefly forming a highly unstable two-proton nucleus.

Step 2: Before the two-proton nucleus can disintegrate, one of the protons decays into a neutron, forming a deuterium nucleus (one proton, one neutron) and releasing a positron and a neutrino.

Step 3: Another proton collides with the newly formed deuterium nucleus to form helium-3 (two protons, one neutron) and releasing a gamma ray.

Step 4: Two helium-3 nuclei smack into each other and form a nucleus of helium-4 (two protons, two neutrons) sending the two leftover protons flying out.

”

“A RECIPE FOR HELIUM— THE CARBON-NITROGEN-OXYGEN CYCLE

Step 1: A proton tunnels into a carbon-12 nucleus creating a new nucleus of nitrogen-13, which then decays into carbon-13, emitting a positron and a neutrino.

Step 2: A second proton tunnels into the carbon-13 nucleus creating nitrogen-14.

Step 3: A third proton tunnels into the nitrogen-14 nucleus to create oxygen-15, which then decays into nitrogen-15, emitting a positron and a neutrino.

Step 4: Finally, a fourth proton tunnels into the nitrogen-15 nucleus, breaking it apart to form a helium-4 nucleus and the same carbon-12 nucleus we started with.

”

“THE RECIPE FOR CARBON— THE TRIPLE-ALPHA PROCESS

Step 1: Deep inside a star, smack two helium nuclei together to form a highly unstable beryllium-8 nucleus.

Step 2: Quickly now, and by quickly I mean in around one ten-thousandth of a trillionth of a second, fire in another helium nucleus and cross your fingers.”

“Step 3: If you’re very lucky, that helium nucleus will fuse with the beryllium-8 before it can spontaneously disintegrate, producing a nucleus of carbon-12 in Fred Hoyle’s special excited state.

Step 4: Time to cross your fingers again. Some of the time, that excited carbon-12 nucleus will just fall apart again, leaving the three helium nuclei you started with. But with a bit more luck, the excited state will instead de-excite by firing out two gamma rays, leaving us with a newly minted nucleus of good old carbon-12.”

”

“THE RECIPE FOR OXYGEN— THE ALPHA PROCESS

Step 1: Take a freshly baked carbon-12 nucleus and smack it with a helium-4 nucleus.”

“Step 2: Voilà! Oxygen-16 (plus a bit of leftover nuclear energy in the form of a gamma ray).”

Excerpt From: Harry Cliff. “How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch.” iBooks.

“The apparent “blockiness” of matter dissolves when we look closely enough. Particles are not particles, they are passing disturbances in quantum fields, entities that strain the imagination and yet fill every last cubic centimeter of the cosmos. All objects—apple pies, humans, stars—are agglomerations of vast multitudes of these vibrations, moving together in a way that creates the illusion of solidity, of permanence. What’s more, since there is only one electron field, only one up quark field, and only one down quark field, you and I, dear reader, are connected to each other. Each of our atoms is a ripple in the same cosmic ocean. We are one with each other, and with all of creation.”

I'm very enthusiastic about science and particle physics but until I read this book I never found anything coming even close to explaining the contemporary views among scientists.

This was an astonishing book in my opinion tackling very very difficult concepts and being able to convey them with clarity and wit.

There was a lot of insight compressed in this book and I understood almost all of it.

They're really startling sentences in there, I had to keep rereading some parts and googling. The best I've heard or read on the subject, served on a platter, with antimatter.

And there is the antimatter in a jar, he saw it, it's real, you're going to love it. I've never heard anything so fascinating as that.

I spent my entire day yesterday at the met museum strolling among the greatest art artifacts and mummies from 3,000 years ago /  by Mirena Rhee

I wanted to ground myself into things from the past, I strolled among the Egyptian artifacts and artifacts from Japan and Korea.

The Egyptian area of the Met is my favorite not because just the art but because it is so old and so epic, All these Pharaohs that made great battles and built great pyramids, and all the mummies laying in that museum with all these 21st century people snapping their phones.

It is where history meets today.

I looked at Rubens and Rembrandt and all the great Dutch masters, and I finished reading the Dalai Lama book on the history of Tibet and about how all Tibetans started wearing Mao suits.

I am also currently listening to a small course on ancient civilizations, and Egypt among them.

And today in the library I found really marvelous books and one of the books is about the cooking of all the elements of life in the soup kitchen of the stars.

Thank God for the greatest treasures in the world like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Public Library, I don't think I would live in New York if it wasn't for its great public institutions. I'm really sad that many people in the US are really isolated from culture and especially inexpensive access to great culture and books. A lot of people just sit in there living room staring at televisions and watching ads on YouTube. I think this is bigger problem then global warming it's the isolation and diminishing literacy among people with proliferation of information.

Above the Mao suits Tibetans wear and below is Rubens

Speaking of uniforms I went to see the David show also at the met, there were some really nice drawings there but to be honest David's art was not as interesting to me as the politics when David operated, it was the newly minted French Republic. I think one of his strongest works was inspired by French Republic's proclamations, it must have been pretty exciting to witness the toppling of monarchy, I personally will be really excited to see say British royals become just what they should be - citizens of their state.

Below here is an excerpt from The met and also a picture of one of David's uniform designs. It's so funny all revolutions want to standardize people, That's one thing I'd be totally opposed to. It seems revolutions and terror are quite close.

After the National Convention proclaimed France a republic in 1792, there was a strong impetus to reimagine many aspects of daily life to reflect new egalitarian principles. Clothing, which had been a key means to distinguish social class and privi lege before the revolution, was one area targeted for change.

In 1794 David produced a group of designs for civil, military, and judicial uniforms, a project reflecting his political clout during these years, as well as his training as a history painter. The designs are eclectic in influence, with nods to the styles of antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance.

Below some David drawings.

below is David's drawing of the Head of Marcus Atilius Regulus

Roman general and consul; taken prisoner by the Carthaginians (255 BC) who, according to the legend, sent him to Rome to negociate peace or an exchange of prisoners; he adviced the Senate against both proposals and, true to his parole, returned to Carthage where he was tortured ant executed

The lesson is never trust murderous bastards autocrats dictators and other blood thirsty gangsters, especially in war.

I guess it's a good idea if you want to be the stuff of legends.

Which dictator would you rather give your money to? /  by Mirena Rhee

Which dictator would you rather give your money to?

1. The one with the good smirk. I like sacks with straps, they're made for $5 but they cost $5,000 and are made by people who probably work 10 hour shifts with few bathroom breaks. But these sacks with straps give my life meaning and purpose, are beautifully styled as handbags, and are much better than trash bags. When I post pictures of them strangers click and make happy sounds.

2. They're both cute, I like cheap underwear.

3. The one on the right because I like computers made by slaves, computers never let me down, don't smell and never sleep on the subway. Computers let me press their buttons and never talk back but make chirping sounds and make me feel like a God.

4. Not pictured. I like cut-up shards dug up deep underground by poor people in countries I can't spell. These shards give me a deep sense of belonging, I feel most loved when presented with these shards around my neck and all my fingers. But I'm not a shaman.

5. Probably the one on the left, I can travel to 58 countries for five bucks each, and let the world know how good I am at purchasing tickets and sitting in chairs in the air. I'm a world traveler and when I post about my cheap adventures to cheap countries where I eat cheap food I get cheap adoration. I actually don't like to do anything, and by moving around spending cheap gas I can justify not doing anything at all with my life. I can bask in the sun and let morons do work and press buttons for no apparent reason other than wishing they are not doing anything also.

6. Neither, I enjoy their work for free. In my house I have a couch and a television, and whilst using those I can watch with impunity other people's children die. I can switch the channels between different dictators making different atrocities so I never get bored.

7. All of them. I'm a dictator myself and my word is law, I get good grades at making billions of dollars. I rule not only factories but countries and planets. In fact, I plan to make even more trillions in space and other planets. My employees kneel deep before me and crawl around the warehouse looking for their minimal wages wearing colostomy bags. When it's my time to die I'll shred all the bills and slowly chew on the pieces. I'll be the most expensive mummy.

Today, I begin a boycott of all products made in China over their rock solid friendship with killings of children, including Apple products made in China /  by Mirena Rhee

Join me in protesting China’s rock solid friendship with killings of children by not funding it with your wallet.

I can live without a Mac, can't live without freedom.

Anything made in China goes back to the shop in case I order it by mistake.

Apple and such can make factories here in New York and countries that do not support the killing of children.

I can spend the rest of my life without products made by dictatorships, but I cannot live without freedom.

Over many years educated technocrats like myself have silently condoned and funded dictatorships around the world. We used our silence to acquire miracle products for cheap.

The invasion of Ukraine, the killing of children, we are directly responsible for it by being silent for many years in quietly funding a regime that directly opposes our values.

Today is a day of reckoning. Today we pay for our indifference and our basking in products that should not have been made in the first place.

Instead of teaching children how to make incredible technology products here at home instead, we have thousands of homeless children and thousands of children that will never get to make great things. Because instead, a dictatorship regime is going to deliver the goods.

We must look into how far we have come in eroding our own values and consuming ourselves to the death of all freedom.

we are fat with the suffering of others

All the making of these amazing miracle products for amazingly cheap has led to one thing, has led to the assurance of deeply flawed regimes, that we rather be fat than do right.

Why is woman’s sex scary? /  by Mirena Rhee

I see kalashnikovs, I see tanks I see dead bodies, I see burning and bombs, I see the face of evil, I see the face of you know who. None of that is covered up.

But a pair of breasts and a vagina has to be covered up because it is scary, when they see it everyone runs. God forbid they see a penis and they start running the other way.

Boris Mikhailov Ukrainian, born 1938

Untitled from the series Case History 1997-98

Chromogenic color print

Gift of Susan and Peter MacGill, 2013

Mikhailov's Case History series examines the social oppression and devastating poverty of a disenfranchised community in Kharkiv, Ukraine: those who had been left homeless by the rise of the capitalist oligarchy following the collapse of the Soviet Union. "The rich and the homeless-the new classes of a new society-this was, as we had been taught, one of the features of capitalism," Mikhailov observed. A haunting document of post Soviet urban conditions, the series captures the failed promise of capitalism with poetry and grit.

When a woman sells sex everyone screams unless it’s a Picasso

The face of evil should be blurred and not sex

I stand with Ukraine with all my heart

Ads are insufferable so i am rebelling any way i can. Who needs all that stuff? /  by Mirena Rhee

i spend my time hunting for adblockers. I use ad blocking browsers on my android. I disabled the youtube app on my phone because it has become an ad fest. One of the reasons i am not getting an iphone is because it can’t block ads.

most people on youtube advertise stuff that is totally irrelevant and absurd, you wanna checkered toilet brush with homer simpson standing on the handle? cut the crap

Youtube started putting ads on my videos although my channel was not monetized so i was like if you can’t beat them join them right?

I cant stand watching youtube videos of people constantly shilling stuff. If you promote on your video I wont watch it, no matter how smart I think you are. If you actively advertise on your channel you are dumb, period.

you know why?

I cut the cord because of ads in the first place

rest assured i am pirating on principle.

I use

AdGuard
uBlock origin
Adblock Plus
all three simultaneously just in case

extensions for chrome firefox and

disabled chrome app on android and only use bromite browser

History repeats itself - I am watching Russian tanks going deep into Ukraine on a youtube stream near NOVA KAKHOVKA on Р-47 road /  by Mirena Rhee

russian tanks into ukraine stream on youtube


I am debating with myself the moral issue of watching a terrible tragedy of an invasion on youtube. I am trying to reason with myself  what right do I have and on what ground do I stand morally, as an artist, as an American and as a citizen of the world. What is even more crazy is that there is the usual chat on the livestream where kids from all over the world offer their real life commentary and count the tanks and armored vehicles on the screen. I can’t believe my eyes. But I want to remember for the future, for when I talk to my representatives in Congress on what we owe to the world.

The column of tanks stopped moving and then now just started again

My grandfather who was an enemy of the communist state watched Russians kill his friends who as communist invaders occupied Bulgaria. My aunt used to tell me the story of my grandfather who watched the muzzle flashes of the invading communists, shooting people all night from the terrace of his house, smoking cigarettes all night.

Grandpa was told late that night that his life would be spared because of a friendly lawyer who intervened on his behalf.

The communist regime was allowed to ruin the lives of generations of Europeans as the West watched

Many people were never able to realize creatively during their lifetime due to the communist regime in Bulgaria. My grandfather was one of those people, in my opinion a genius, an architect, a painter, a humorist, and a caricaturist, I used to copy his paintings in pastel when I was little. His name is Marin and I was named after him.

He was a very successful businessman, and when the communist regime invaded they confiscated his house and all his property. Him and my grandma were only allowed to live in two rooms in the house and they had a live-in communist with them for 20 years.

Growing up nobody ever talked about it, nobody ever told me what's happening. I was 18 years old when the Berlin Wall fell and I moved to the states not knowing anything about the history of my family or who my grandfather was. On my occasional returns to Bulgaria I was able to glimpse my grandparents history and my grandfather's history and I was told stories by my aunt.

My aunt says that my grandfather was about to be shot because they were shooting everyone who was considered an enemy but he was saved by a friendly lawyer. Basically before the Soviet occupation this lawyer, a friend of my grandfather’s, was sent to prison and my grandfather took care of his family while he was in prison. After the Soviet occupation it turned out that the lawyer was high up in the communist hierarchy. So a person was sent to my grandfather's house to tell them that he's going to be safe and that he's not going to be shot. My aunt told me that my grandfather spent the entire night on the terrace of his house chain smoking cigarettes and looking down into the valley where there were shots and muzzles flashing, basically a series of night executions.

My grandfather passed when I was 16 due to complications they said from the Chernobyl disaster.

When I go back to Bulgaria I try to photograph and keep a visual archive of my grandfather's work. Unfortunately my aunt passed in 2019 and afterwards my mom was overtaken by dementia and the memories may get lost forever. My mom also started destroying photographs and documents from the past due to dementia. It has been harder during covid.

There are many documents which I've seen with my own eyes from years ago from the archives at City Hall in my hometown. These documents pertain to various activities of my grandfather. I remember one slip of paper saying that my grandfather was a hidden enemy of the state, this was anonymous. I want to find and photograph these documents that may be lost forever.

My grandfather was also a godfather to Bulgarian king and I found a city hall minutes from a meeting where my grandfather wanted to give the Bulgarian king the town’s historical fortress. And everybody's like what are you doing Marin, this  belongs to Bulgaria we can't give it to the king. He was kind of a royalist.

I've included a photograph of him where he had a business meeting in Sofia and he couldn't find a babysitter for my aunt and so there is a picture of 38 businessmen and my aunt in 1938 in the restaurant.

Grandpa - to the right of the little girl, my aunt. Sofia, 1938.

My grandfather had beautiful handwriting, absolutely magnificent, I occasionally encountered small pieces of paper written by him.

There’s a beautiful letter which my grandfather wrote to my grandma, on his company's letterhead.

My grandfather used to listen to the BBC and the voice of America during communist times. And because authorities knew that he was one of the enemies, people came and put seals on the knobs on his radio so he couldn't listen to Western stations.

My brother knew all about these listening parties because he was in on it because he was much older 10 years older than me but I was never allowed to listen because I could tell at school.

After the establishment of the communist regime in Bulgaria My grandfather was sent to a labor camp and after his return he was never allowed to work. He was told that he should be glad he was allowed to live. So he never worked and did small jobs like modeling for the art academy for portraits.

Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped

https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/garry-kasparov/winter-is-coming/9781610396219/