Our dad holding JP as a baby.

2012 was life changing for me to say the least. There was no Mayan Apocalypse. There was no Mega CME that destroyed modern civilization. There was no zombie outbreak.

My beloved father died in August and his mother followed him one month later.  I did not expect this to have been so swift and so sudden.  Shortly, after high school, I lost my dear mother to drunk drivers.

Our mother, Olivia Valverde

At times, I feel the sting that most of my friends still have their parents and grandparents. I experience the sadness instead of joy during Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. I’ve experienced my first Christmas without my loving father.  As before with my mother’s death, my faith in the afterlife and in God has been shaken and tested to the limit.  I was orphaned.

Me, Andy Valverde

In the past couple of months, I have re-emerged to life and have begun the challenge of being my own man and to use the lessons of love and life my parents instilled in me the short time I had with them.

Is there an after a soul? Does the life after death exist?  These questions are difficult for me as I sway back and forth with my beliefs. My mother was very religious and believed that God gave us life and that when it was time he would call us back to him.  My father taught us so much about science and evolution and the cosmos.  My dad was a pragmatic man rooted in this life.

After my mom died, all my dad longed for was to be reunited with her. For about 15 yrs, each day my father prayed and hoped that he would be reunited with her one day.  We had two funeral for him. He was cremated in the beginning of September.  In December, we reunited him with the love of his life in a single grave on their wedding anniversary.

Mom and Dad

I was watching ‘Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman,” today and the episode was “Is There Life After Death?”  I tend to be a stickler for science, theory and evidence.  However, I was fascinated with the Dr. Stuart Hameroff and his ideas of Quantum Consciousness.

Inside our brain cells are microtubules. They determine the architecture and structure of the cell.  They are designed to allow neurons and the brain to function as a quantum computer.  Quantum processes may play a role in consciousness in the brain.  If there is neural activity in one location of the brain there may be coupled through quantum non-locality to processes in other locations of the brain.  The neurons are connected even though spatially separated.

Quantum theory says that every point in space can contain information.  This may very well mean that the information in the micro tubules can connect and become entangled with the universe outside of the brain.  The information of the whole brain is entangled and can exist in the universe.  When we die, the microtubules lose their quantum state but the information cannot be destroyed.  Amazing!  Although a theory, our consciousness or soul may actually be part of the fabric of the universe and cannot be destroyed.   Do I continue to exist after my body expires?

What I found as beautiful are the ideas of Dr. Douglas Hofstadter.  Consciousness is the way the brain puts together patterns of information together in thought.  The pattern of our soul can be passed on to other brains. It may be strong in our own brain but it can be captured in others.

Our experiences  and everything we have experienced leave their mark in life. We exist in life after death. Both my parents died suddenly.  They were so much a part of my life and suddenly their existence was gone. What part of them survived and where is it?  In a rudimentary sense, he believes that they exist in our brain. Their souls have been transplanted to our brain by their experiences with us, their emotions with us and their life with us. That I found to be so beautiful. This gives me hope to move on, to continue to live with them and continue to love them.

For more information:

Quantum Consciousness: www.quantumconsciousness.org/views/Topological.html

Douglas Hofstadler:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Hofstadter

Experiment testing blindsight

I enjoy watching science documentaries especially on Science Channel.  Anyone who has purused the 400 HD hours on my DVR notices that most of the items filling my DVR are science related.  I especially love watching ‘Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman.’ I love that cutting edge science is now part of mainstream pop culture.

One episode that struck me was one called ‘ Is There a Sixth Sense?’.   Researchers in Amsterdam are conducting studies to test a phenomena calles Blind Sight.  The study involves individuals who have had strokes and are now blind in one why due the damaged caused to a portion of the visual region of the brain from the stroke.

Patients  are shown images of facial expressions. However, the images were only shown to the blind eye.  Incredibly, they were able to sense the image shown to the blind eye and would unconsciously mimic the face expression.

What is Blind Sight?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindsight

Blindsight is defined as the ability of people who are cortically blind due to lesions in their striate cortex, also known as primary visual cortex or V1, to respond to visual stimuli that they do not consciously see. The majority of studies on blindsight are conducted on patients who are blind on only one side of their visual field. Following the destruction of the striate cortex, patients are asked to detect, localize, and discriminate amongst visual stimuli that are presented to their blindside often in a forced-response or guessing situation, even though they are not able to actually see the stimulus. Research shows a surprising amount of accuracy in the guesses of blind patients. This ability to guess, at levels significantly above chance, aspects of a visual stimulus, such as location, or type of movement without any conscious awareness of any stimuli is known as Type 1 blindsight. Type 2 blindsight occurs when patients claim to have a feeling that there has been a change within their blind area, for example, movement, but that it was not a visual perception.  This phenomenon challenges what we once believed to be true, that perceptions must enter consciousness to affect our behavior. Blindsight proves that our behavior can be guided by sensory information of which we are completely unaware. It may be thought of as a converse of the form of anosognosia known as Anton–Babinski syndrome, in which there is full cortical blindness along with the confabulation of visual experience.

There are two types of blindsight. In Type 1, subjects have absolutely no awareness of any stimuli, but, if forced to “guess”, are able to predict (at levels significantly above chance) aspects of a visual stimulus, such as location or type of movement. In Type 2 blindsight, subjects have some awareness, for example, of movement within the blind area, but no visual perception.

Describing Blindsight

Simply described, the brain contains several mechanisms involved in vision. Consider two systems in the brain which evolved at different times. The first that evolved is more primitive and resembles the visual system of animals such as fish and frogs. The second to evolve is more complex and is possessed by mammals. The second system seems to be the one that is responsible for our ability to perceive the world around us and the first system is devoted mainly to controlling eye movements and orienting our attention to sudden movements in our periphery. Patients with blindsight have damage to the second, “mammalian” visual system (the visual cortex of the brain and some of the nerve fibers that bring information to it from the eyes).  This phenomenon shows that how, after the more complex visual system is damaged, people can use the primitive visual system of their brains to guide hand movements towards an object even though they can’t see what they are reaching for. Hence, visual information can control behavior without producing a conscious sensation.

Blindsight may be thought of as a converse of the form of anosognosia known as Anton–Babinski syndrome, in which there is full cortical blindness along with the confabulation of visual experience. Blindsight patients show awareness of single visual features, such as edges and motion, but are unable to gain a holistic visual percept. This suggests that perceptual awareness is modular as well as the process of perceptual integration that unifies all information into a whole perception. Therefore, object identification and object recognition are thought to be separate process and occur in different areas of the brain, working independently from one another. The modular theory of object perception and integration would account for the “hidden perception” experienced in blindsight patients. Research has shown that that visual stimuli with the single visual features of sharp boarders, sharp onset/offset times, motion, and low spacial frequency contribute to, but are not strictly necessary for, an object’s salience in blindsight.

Theories of Causation

There are two theories for the explanation of blindsight. The first states that after damage to area V1, other branches of the optic nerve deliver visual information to the superior colliculus and several other areas, including parts of the cerebral cortex. These areas might control the blindsight responses, but still many people with damage to area V1 don’t show blindsight or only show it in certain parts of the visual field.

Another explanation to the phenomenon is that even though the majority of a person’s visual cortex may be damaged, tiny islands of healthy tissue remain. These islands aren’t large enough to provide conscious perception, but nevertheless enough for blindsight.

Evidence of blindsight can be indirectly observed in children as young as two months, although there is difficulty in determining the type in a patient who is not old enough to answer questions.

Case Study

In 2003, a patient known as TN lost use of his primary visual cortex, area V1. He had two successive strokes, which knocked out the region in both his left and right hemisphere. After his strokes, ordinary tests of TN’s sight turned up nothing. He wasn’t even able to detect large objects moving right in front of his eyes. Researchers eventually began to notice that TN exhibited signs of blindsight and in 2008 decided to test their theory. They took TN into a hallway and asked him to walk through it without using the cane he always carried after having the strokes. TN wasn’t aware at the time, but the researchers had placed various obstacles in the hallway in order to test if he could avoid them without conscious use of his sight. To the researchers delight, he moved around every obstacle with ease, at one point even pressing himself up against the wall in order to squeeze past a trashcan placed in his way. After navigating through the hallway, TN reported that he was just walking the way he wanted to, not because he knew anything was there.

Research

Lawrence Weiskrantz and colleagues showed in the early 1970s that if forced to guess about whether a stimulus is present in their blind field, some observers do better than chance. This ability to detect stimuli that the observer is not conscious of can extend to discrimination of the type of stimulus (for example, whether an ‘X’ or ‘O’ has been presented in the blind field).

Electrophysiological evidence from the late 1970s has shown that there no direct retinal input from S-cones to the superior colliculus, implying that the perception of color information should be impaired. However, recent evidence point to a pathway from S-cones to the superior colliculus, opposing de Monasterio’s previous research and supporting the idea that some chromatic processing mechanisms are intact in blindsight.

Marco Tamietto & Beatrice de Gelder performed experiments linking emotion detection and blindsight. Patients shown images on their blind side of people expressing emotions correctly guessed the emotion most of the time. The movement of facial muscles used in smiling and frowning were measured and reacted in ways that matched the kind of emotion in the unseen image. Therefore, the emotions were recognized without involving conscious sight.

A recent study found that a young woman with a unilateral lesions of area V1 was able to scale her grasping movement as she reached out to pick up objects of different sizes placed in her blind field, even though she could not report the sizes of the objects.  Similarly, another patient with unilateral lesion of area V1 could avoid obstacles placed in his blind field when he reached toward a target that was visible in his intact visual field. Even though he avoided the obstacles, he never reported seeing them.

Brain Regions Involved

Visual processing in the brain goes through a series of stages. Destruction of the primary visual cortex leads to blindness in the part of the visual field that corresponds to the damaged cortical representation. The area of blindness – known as a scotoma – is in the visual field opposite the damaged hemisphere and can vary from a small area up to the entire hemifield.Visual processing occurs in the brain in a hierarchical series of stages (with much crosstalk and feedback between areas). The route from the retina through V1 is not the only visual pathway into the cortex, though it is by far the largest; it is commonly thought that the residual performance of people exhibiting blindsight is due to preserved pathways into the extrastriate cortex that bypass V1. What is surprising is that activity in these extrastriate areas is apparently insufficient to support visual awareness in the absence of V1.

To put it in a more complex way, recent physiological findings suggest that visual processing takes place along several independent, parallel pathways. One system processes information about shape, one about color, and one about movement, location and spatial organization. This information moves through an area of the brain called the lateral geniculate nucleus, located in the thalamus, and on to be processed in the primary visual cortex, area V1 (also known as the striate cortex because of its striped appearance). People with damage to V1 report no conscious vision, no visual imagery, and no visual images in their dreams. However, some of these people still experience the blindsight phenomenon.

The superior colliculus and prefrontal cortex also have a major role in awareness of a visual stimulus.

Modern-day replica of Thomas Young's double-slit experiment.

Over the past few years, I’ve been increasingly consumed with the idea in quantum mechanics and also Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle.  I am fascinated with the idea that our subatomic particles can and indeed do exists in more than one place as once. Therefore, we exist in more than one place at once as well. This opens the possibility of parallel universes or the “many worlds” theory.  There are an infinite number of each of us existing at the same time and believing we are the truly only individual in reality. Each of us living our lives either ever so slightly varying or infinitely different ways. Essentially, over time each and every possibility will occur.

"Uncertainty Principle by Jonny The Great"

Double-Slit Experiement

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_slit_experiment

The double-slit experiment, sometimes called Young’s experiment, is a demonstration that matter and energy can display characteristics of both waves and particles. In the basic version of the experiment, a coherent light source such as a laser beam illuminates a thin plate pierced by two parallel slits, and the light passing through the slits is observed on a screen behind the plate. The wave nature of light causes the light waves passing through the two slits to interfere, producing bright and dark bands on the screen — a result that would not be expected if light consisted strictly of particles. However, at the screen, the light is always found to be absorbed as though it were composed of discrete particles or photons. This establishes the principle known as wave–particle duality.

If light consisted strictly of ordinary or classical particles, and these particles were fired in a straight line through a slit and allowed to strike a screen on the other side, we would expect to see a pattern corresponding to the size and shape of the slit. However, when this “single-slit experiment” is actually performed, the pattern on the screen is a diffraction pattern, a fairly narrow central band with dimmer bands parallel to it on each side.

Similarly, if light consisted strictly of classical particles and we illuminated two parallel slits, the expected pattern on the screen would simply be the sum of the two single-slit patterns. In actuality, however, the pattern becomes wider and much more detailed, including a series of light and dark bands. When Thomas Young first demonstrated this phenomenon, it indicated that light consists of waves, as the distribution of brightness can be explained by the alternately additive and subtractive interference of wavefronts. Young’s experiment played a vital part in the acceptance of the wave theory of light in the early 1800s, vanquishing the corpuscular theory of light proposed by Isaac Newton, which had been the accepted model of light propagation in the 17th and 18th centuries. However, the later discovery of the photoelectric effect demonstrated that under different circumstances, light can behave as if it is composed of discrete particles. These seemingly contradictory discoveries made it necessary to go beyond classical physics and take the quantum nature of light into account.  The double-slit experiment (and its variations) has become a classic thought experiment for its clarity in expressing the central puzzles of quantum mechanics. Richard Feynman was fond of saying that all of quantum mechanics can be gleaned from carefully thinking through the implications of this single experiment.

Double-slit

With particle detectors at the slits

The double-slit apparatus can be modified by adding particle detectors positioned at the slits. This enables the experimenter to find the position of a particle not when it impacts the screen, but rather, when it passes through the double-slit — did it go through only one of the slits, as a particle would be expected to do, or through both, as a wave would be expected to do? Numerous experiments have shown, however, that any modification of the apparatus that can determine which slit a particle passes through reduces the visibility of interference at the screen, thereby illustrating the complementarity principle: that light (and electrons, etc.) can behave as either particles or waves, but not both at the same time. An experiment performed in 1987 produced results that demonstrated that information could be obtained regarding which path a particle had taken, without destroying the interference altogether. This showed the effect of measurements that disturbed the particles in transit to a lesser degree and thereby influenced the interference pattern only to a comparable extent.

There are many methods to determine whether a photon passed through a slit, for instance by placing an atom at the position of each slit. Interesting experiments of this latter kind have been performed with photons and with neutrons.

Delayed choice and quantum eraser variations

The delayed-choice experiment and the quantum eraser are sophisticated variations of the double-slit with particle detectors placed not at the slits but elsewhere in the apparatus. The first demonstrates that extracting “which path” information after a particle passes through the slits can seem to retroactively alter its previous behavior at the slits. The second demonstrates that wave behavior can be restored by erasing or otherwise making permanently unavailable the “which path” information.

Copenhagen interpretation of the experiment

Like the Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment, the double-slit experiment is often used to highlight the differences and similarities between the various interpretations of quantum mechanics.

The Copenhagen interpretation is a consensus among some of the pioneers in the field of quantum mechanics that it is undesirable to posit anything that goes beyond the mathematical formulae and the kinds of physical apparatus and reactions that enable us to gain some knowledge of what goes on at the atomic scale. One of the mathematical constructs that enables experimenters to predict very accurately certain experimental results is sometimes called a probability wave. In its mathematical form it is analogous to the description of a physical wave, but its “crests” and “troughs” indicate levels of probability for the occurrence of certain phenomena (e.g., a spark of light at a certain point on a detector screen) that can be observed in the macro world of ordinary human experience.

The probability “wave” can be said to “pass through space” because the probability values that one can compute from its mathematical representation are dependent on time. One cannot speak of the location of any particle such as a photon between the time it is emitted and the time it is detected simply because in order to say that something is located somewhere at a certain time one has to detect it. The requirement for the eventual appearance of an interference pattern is that particles be emitted, and that there be a screen with at least two distinct paths for the particle to take from the emitter to the detection screen. Experiments observe nothing whatsoever between the time of emission of the particle and its arrival at the detection screen. If a ray tracing is then made as if a light wave (as understood in classical physics) is wide enough to take both paths, then that ray tracing will accurately predict the appearance of maxima and minima on the detector screen when many particles pass through the apparatus and gradually “paint” the expected interference pattern.

Path-Integral formulation

The Copenhagen interpretation is similar to the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics provided by Feynman. The path integral formulation replaces the classical notion of a single, unique trajectory for a system, with a sum over all possible trajectories. The trajectories are added together by using functional integration.

Each path is considered equally likely, and thus contributes the same amount. However, the phase of this contribution at any given point along the path is determined by the action along the path (see Euler’s formula):

A_path(x,t) = e^iS(x,t)

All these contributions are then added together, and the magnitude of the final result is squared, to get the probability distribution for the position of a particle:

As is always the case when calculating probability, the results must then be normalized:

To summarize, the probability distribution of the outcome is the normalized square of the norm of the superposition, over all paths from the point of origin to the final point, of waves propagating proportionally to the action along each path. The differences in the cumulative action along the different paths (and thus the relative phases of the contributions) produces the interference pattern observed by the double-slit experiment. Feynman stressed that his formulation is merely a mathematical description, not an attempt to describe a real process that we cannot measure.

"One of an infinite number of equally likely paths used in the Feynman path integral."

Relational interpretation

According to the relational interpretation of quantum mechanics, first proposed by Carlo Rovelli, observations such as those in the double-slit experiment result specifically from the interaction between the observer (measuring device) and the object being observed (physically interacted with), not any absolute property possessed by the object. In the case of an electron, if it is initially “observed” at a particular slit, then the observer–particle (photon–electron) interaction includes information about the electron’s position. This partially constrains the particle’s eventual location at the screen. If it is “observed” (measured with a photon) not at a particular slit but rather at the screen, then there is no “which path” information as part of the interaction, so the electron’s “observed” position on the screen is determined strictly by its probability function. This makes the resulting pattern on the screen the same as if each individual electron had passed through both slits. It has also been suggested that space and distance themselves are relational, and that an electron can appear to be in “two places at once” – for example, at both slits – because its spatial relations to particular points on the screen remain identical from both slit locations.

Use both exists...

Near the banks the waters are calm

It has been a turbulent year to say the least for me. So many changes have happened that I could not have expected a year ago.  I have grown as a man and have faced some of my fears with trepidation but seek to conquer the darkness that may lies ahead.

The relationship has been up and down with joy and heartache. We amicably and mutually agreed that it was time to split and to pursue our own health and goals.  We are friends and there is still love but together there is a myriad of conflict and disagreement that is the downfall of the relationship.

Near the edge but it's not too deep.

At the moment, I have Keifer, our German shepherd, but with the his mother having purchased a new home this week, she will be going with him soon.  I truly love her and know that she would be happier with him with a big backyard near the river and plenty of room for her to explore the world around her. She and he are so bonded that it is much more therapeutic that they be together.  As I miss his company, she has given me the opportunity to focus on myself with her as an ever loyal friend.  Her departure will be the next stage in my growth. I will know what it is to truly be on my own.  This is a lesson which has been coming for a long time and I must face it headstrong and bravely.  I have never been on my own. I have always lived with family, friends and recently with him for these past years.  These are lessons in life that should be learned early in adulthood, I believe.  It must be learned at some point.

Last year, I left NEC for a company in North Dallas which aggressively recruited me. It was a thirty percent increase, my own office, and minutes from my home.  I was elated.  I left the security and six year seniority of NEC to take a risk.  Six months into the new job, I was laid off.  I was devastated and beside myself. What was I to do? How would I pay for my house, and other financial responsibilities. Luckily I was given a 6 week severance, and I made looking for a job my job.  As cliche as it sounds, I went to interviews daily, and studied to be prepared for the interviews.  I was hired by a telecommunications company in Plano. I am so happy there and so grateful. Most in this economy have been unemployed for years. I found a job in a month.   I’m in a laid back and relaxing atmosphere of intellectuals where I am challenged and rewarded for my work. What more could I ask for?

I've made great friends.

I have made new and responsible friends over the past year. I have met individuals who support me and are fond of me.  I am part of an intellectual and stimulating circle of friends. I have reconnected with old friends I had not spoken to in years.  Friends should encourage and support one’s growth.  I now have a voice and I am now heard.

I now have a voice.

I stand before a vast ocean of possibilities.  Near the shore the waters are calm and safe. I can wade there for a while where I feel safe but I do need to and want to go into the deep.  There lies the beauty of exploration and the flora and fauna of life.  I thank you for reading this entry and for supporting my journey.  My name is Andy.

There is so much life to live.

Renowned physicist Leonard Susskind

I was watching a fascinating documentary on Science Channel called “What Is Reality?”  The show progressed and discussed Fermi Lab and the Tevatron.  Atoms smashed together and in time we learned about The Standard Model of elementary particles as called “the particle zoo.”

However, what shocked me and took me aback was the topic of the Holographic Principle. I had read of this principle before online but I had never heard it explained as eloquently as it was explained by Leonard Susskind at Stanford University. I was left speechless.

The idea that we may be simply a holographic project onto matter from the reality which actually exists far away at the edge of the universe. What are the implications? What does it say about reality?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_principle

The holographic principle is a property of quantum gravity and string theories which states that the description of a volume of space can be thought of as encoded on a boundary to the region—preferably a light-like boundary like a gravitational horizon. First proposed by Gerard ‘t Hooft, it was given a precise string-theory interpretation by Leonard Susskind who combined his ideas with previous ones of ’t Hooft and Charles Thorn. In fact, as pointed out by Bousso, Thorn observed in 1978 that string theory admits a lower dimensional description in which gravity emerges from it in what would now be called a holographic way.

Calabi Yau

In a larger and more speculative sense, the theory suggests that the entire universe can be seen as a two-dimensional information structure “painted” on the cosmological horizon, such that the three dimensions we observe are only an effective description at macroscopic scales and at low energies. Cosmological holography has not been made mathematically precise, partly because the cosmological horizon has a finite area and grows with time.

The holographic principle was inspired by black hole thermodynamics, which implies that the maximal entropy in any region scales with the radiussquared, and not cubed as might be expected. In the case of a black hole, the insight was that the informational content of all the objects which have fallen into the hole can be entirely contained in surface fluctuations of the event horizon. The holographic principle resolves the black hole information paradox within the framework of string theory. 

Black hole entropy

An object with entropy is microscopically random, like a hot gas. A known configuration of classical fields has zero entropy: there is nothing random about electric and magnetic fields, orgravitational waves. Since black holes are exact solutions of Einstein’s equations, they were thought not to have any entropy either.

But Jacob Bekenstein noted that this leads to a violation of the second law of thermodynamics. If one throws a hot gas with entropy into a black hole, once it crosses the horizon, the entropy would disappear. The random properties of the gas would no longer be seen once the black hole had absorbed the gas and settled down. The second law can only be salvaged if black holes are in fact random objects, with an enormous entropy whose increase is greater than the entropy carried by the gas.

Bekenstein argued that black holes are maximum entropy objects—that they have more entropy than anything else in the same volume. In a sphere of radius R, the entropy in a relativistic gas increases as the energy increases. The only limit is gravitational; when there is too much energy the gas collapses into a black hole. Bekenstein used this to put an upper bound on the entropy in a region of space, and the bound was proportional to the area of the region. He concluded that the black hole entropy is directly proportional to the area of the event horizon.

Stephen Hawking had shown earlier that the total horizon area of a collection of black holes always increases with time. The horizon is a boundary defined by lightlike geodesics; it is those light rays that are just barely unable to escape. If neighboring geodesics start moving toward each other they eventually collide, at which point their extension is inside the black hole. So the geodesics are always moving apart, and the number of geodesics which generate the boundary, the area of the horizon, always increases. Hawking’s result was called the second law of black hole thermodynamics, by analogy with the law of entropy increase, but at first, he did not take the analogy too seriously.

Hawking knew that if the horizon area were an actual entropy, black holes would have to radiate. When heat is added to a thermal system, the change in entropy is the increase in mass-energy divided by temperature:

  dS=dM/T

If black holes have a finite entropy, they should also have a finite temperature. In particular, they would come to equilibrium with a thermal gas of photons. This means that black holes would not only absorb photons, but they would also have to emit them in the right amount to maintain detailed balance.

Time independent solutions to field equations don’t emit radiation, because a time independent background conserves energy. Based on this principle, Hawking set out to show that black holes do not radiate. But, to his surprise, a careful analysis convinced him that they do, and in just the right way to come to equilibrium with a gas at a finite temperature. Hawking’s calculation fixed the constant of proportionality at 1/4; the entropy of a black hole is one quarter its horizon area in Planck units.

The entropy is proportional to the logarithm of the number of microstates, the ways a system can be configured microscopically while leaving the macroscopic description unchanged. Black hole entropy is deeply puzzling — it says that the logarithm of the number of states of a black hole is proportional to the area of the horizon, not the volume in the interior.

Later, Raphael Bousso came up with a covariant version of the bound based upon null sheets.

Black hole information paradox

Hawking’s calculation suggested that the radiation which black holes emit is not related in any way to the matter that they absorb. The outgoing light rays start exactly at the edge of the black hole and spend a long time near the horizon, while the infalling matter only reaches the horizon much later. The infalling and outgoing mass/energy only interact when they cross. It is implausible that the outgoing state would be completely determined by some tiny residual scattering.

Hawking interpreted this to mean that when black holes absorb some photons in a pure state described by a wave function, they re-emit new photons in a thermal mixed state described by adensity matrix. This would mean that quantum mechanics would have to be modified, because in quantum mechanics, states which are superpositions with probability amplitudes never become states which are probabilistic mixtures of different possibilities.

Troubled by this paradox, Gerard ‘t Hooft analyzed the emission of Hawking radiation in more detail. He noted that when Hawking radiation escapes, there is a way in which incoming particles can modify the outgoing particles. Their gravitational field would deform the horizon of the black hole, and the deformed horizon could produce different outgoing particles than the undeformed horizon. When a particle falls into a black hole, it is boosted relative to an outside observer, and its gravitational field assumes a universal form. ‘t Hooft showed that this field makes a logarithmic tent-pole shaped bump on the horizon of a black hole, and like a shadow, the bump is an alternate description of the particle’s location and mass. For a four-dimensional spherical uncharged black hole, the deformation of the horizon is similar to the type of deformation which describes the emission and absorption of particles on a string-theory world sheet. Since the deformations on the surface are the only imprint of the incoming particle, and since these deformations would have to completely determine the outgoing particles, ‘t Hooft believed that the correct description of the black hole would be by some form of string theory.

This idea was made more precise by Leonard Susskind, who had also been developing holography, largely independently. Susskind argued that the oscillation of the horizon of a black hole is a complete description of both the infalling and outgoing matter, because the world-sheet theory of string theory was just such a holographic description. While short strings have zero entropy, he could identify long highly excited string states with ordinary black holes. This was a deep advance because it revealed that strings have a classical interpretation in terms of black holes.

This work showed that the black hole information paradox is resolved when quantum gravity is described in an unusual string-theoretic way. The space-time in quantum gravity should emerge as an effective description of the theory of oscillations of a lower dimensional black-hole horizon. This suggested that any black hole with appropriate properties, not just strings, would serve as a basis for a description of string theory.

A Holographic Universe

In 1995, Susskind, along with collaborators Tom Banks, Willy Fischler, and Stephen Shenker, presented a formulation of the new M-theory using a holographic description in terms of charged point black holes, the D0 branes of type IIA string theory. The Matrix theory they proposed was first suggested as a description of 2 branes in 11 dimensional supergravity by Bernard de Wit,Jens Hoppe, and Hermann Nicolai. The later authors reinterpreted the same matrix models as a description of the dynamics of point black holes in particular limits. Holography allowed them to conclude that the dynamics of these black holes give a complete non-perturbative formulation of M-theory. In 1997, Juan Maldacena gave the first holographic descriptions of a higher dimensional object, the 3+1 dimensional type IIB membrane, which resolved a long-standing problem of finding a string description which describes a gauge theory. These developments simultaneously explained how string theory is related to quantum chromodynamics, and afterwards holography gained wide acceptance.

Limit on information density

Entropy, if considered as information (see information entropy), is measured in bits. The total quantity of bits is related to the total degrees of freedom of matter/energy.

For a given energy in a given volume, there is an upper limit to the density of information (the Bekenstein bound) about the whereabouts of all the particles which compose matter in that volume, suggesting that matter itself cannot be subdivided infinitely many times and there must be an ultimate level of fundamental particles. As the degrees of freedom of a particle are the product of all the degrees of freedom of its sub-particles, were a particle to have infinite subdivisions into lower-level particles, then the degrees of freedom of the original particle must be infinite, violating the maximal limit of entropy density. The holographic principle thus implies that the subdivisions must stop at some level, and that the fundamental particle is a bit (1 or 0) of information.

The most rigorous realization of the holographic principle is the AdS/CFT correspondence by Juan Maldacena. However, J.D. Brown and Marc Henneaux had rigorously proved already in 1986, that the asymptotic symmetry of 2+1 dimensional gravity gives rise to a Virasoro algebra, whose corresponding quantum theory is a 2 dimensional conformal field theory.

Energy, matter, and information equivalence

Shannon’s efforts to find a way to quantify the information contained in, for example, an e-mail message, led him unexpectedly to a formula with the same form as Boltzmann’s. Bekenstein summarizes that “Thermodynamic entropy and Shannon entropy are conceptually equivalent: the number of arrangements that are counted by Boltzmann entropy reflects the amount of Shannon information one would need to implement any particular arrangement…” of matter and energy. The only salient difference between the thermodynamic entropy of physics and the Shannon’s entropy of information is in the units of measure; the former is expressed in units of energy divided by temperature, the latter in essentially dimensionless ”bits” of information, and so the difference is merely a matter of convention.

The holographic principle states that the entropy of ordinary mass (not just black holes) is also proportional to surface area and not volume; that volume itself is illusory and the universe is really a hologram which is isomorphic to the information “inscribed” on the surface of its boundary.

Claimed experimental test at gravitational wave detectors

The Fermilab physicist Craig Hogan claims that the holographic principle may imply quantum fluctuations in spatial position that would lead to apparent background noise or holographic noise measurable at gravitational wave detectors, in particular GEO 600.

For more information:

The Holographic Principle:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_principle

TED – Leonard Susskind:  http://www.ted.com/speakers/leonard_susskind.html

The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli , 1781

Update:

I wanted to revisit this blog. Last night I as I lay in bed and began to drift off. I could feel a presence almost coming through the walls of my bedroom and watching over me. I recognized this presence and feeling.  I did not recognize who the presence was but what the presence was and what I was experience. I was in absolute terror and mustered all my energy to get up in bed and open my eyes and look around. I had to double check that I not only believed that I was awake but that I truly was awake.

This continued to happen three more times through out the night until I finally turned the lights on in my room and decided that I was probably only going to have a light sleep for the remainder of the night.  Sleep terrors or Pavor Nocturnus are indeed mystifying to me and to most.

My twin and I had only been discussing them two nights before and I actual her a podcast on them the night before on Mysterious Universe. Mind you, I’m not one to be easily swayed by suggestion. I’m pretty sure that we have a genetic predisposition to them and the intense amount of stress I’ve had this past week and exhaustion must have played a part.

The presence of Shadow People

I had also heard of the phenomena of Shadow People recently. Sinister individuals that flicker in and out of our existence and prey on our fear and hover or watch us during our sleep. I’m not sure if I can say I felt it was a shadow person but it definitely was a menacing presence that was in my room which was there for me.

Original:

Most of our are aware of the sleep paralysis and night terrors. The state between wakefulness and sleep where we find ourselves paralyzed in our bed, terrified, with the feeling of a presence in the room with us and fully conscious of the event, or so we think.

Having been recently laid off, I have naturally found myself under stress and with some anxiety. It is natural to fear the unknown and to embark in circumstances with some trepidation. I forgot how active and expressive the unconscious mind is when sorting out stress.

One night last week, I decided to go to bed early. I had so much on my mind and was understandably worn out. I was tossing, turning and would stare at the light coming from the hallway through the slightly opened door. I then felt someone was in the room. I tried to call out to Marshall but nothing came out of my mouth. I tried to turn my body to see who was in the room with me but I was paralyzed. I could not move any part of my body.

I could feel my heart pounding and the fear come over me. I mustered every ounce of energy in my body and yelled out, “Marshall, help! Help me!” I could hear him running upstairs and into the room to my safety. The next thing I noticed was that Marshall was not in the room, the door had never been opened, and there was no one in the room with me. What had just happened?

I have had sleep paralysis and night terrors as a child and adolescent but I could not remember having one as an adult. I had actually been dreaming the whole sequence of events. I was safe in my bed and there was no intruder. I was still a bit beside myself. I waited a few minutes and text Marshall to come upstairs. He ran up and I was alright. I returned to sleep.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

Sleep paralysis is paralysis associated with sleep that may occur in healthy persons or may be associated with narcolepsy, cataplexy, and hypnagogic hallucinations. The pathophysiology of this condition is closely related to the normal hypotonia that occurs during REM sleep. When considered to be a disease, isolated sleep paralysis is classified as MeSH D020188. Some evidence suggests that it can also, in some cases, be a symptom of migraine.

Symptoms and characteristics

Physiologically, sleep paralysis is closely related to REM atonia, the paralysis that occurs as a natural part of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Sleep paralysis occurs either when falling asleep, or when awakening. When it occurs upon falling asleep, the person remains aware while the body shuts down for REM sleep, and it is called hypnagogic or predormital sleep paralysis. When it occurs upon awakening, the person becomes aware before the REM cycle is complete, and it is called hypnopompic or postdormital. The paralysis can last from several seconds to several minutes “by which the individual may experience panic symptoms”. (described below) As the correlation with REM sleep suggests, the paralysis is not entirely complete; use of EOG traces shows that eye movement is still possible during such episodes. When there is an absence of narcolepsy, sleep paralysis is referred to as isolated sleep paralysis (ISP).

How sleep paralysis occurs.

In addition, the paralysis may be accompanied by terrifying hallucinations (hypnopompic or hypnagogic) and an acute sense of danger. Sleep paralysis is particularly frightening to the individual because of the vividness of such hallucinations. The hallucinatory element to sleep paralysis makes it even more likely that someone will interpret the experience as a dream, since completely fanciful or dream-like objects may appear in the room alongside one’s normal vision. Some scientists have proposed this condition as an explanation for alien abductions and ghostly encounters. A study by Susan Blackmore and Marcus Cox (the Blackmore-Cox study) of the University of the West of England supports the suggestion that reports of alien abductions are related to sleep paralysis rather than to temporal lobe lability. Some authors have warned of the possible misconnection between child sexual abuse (CSA) and hypnagogic/pompic phenomena and have noted that some clients after having described such an event to a fortune teller or psychic that the psychic may have suggested CSA.

Several studies have concluded that many or most people experience sleep paralysis at least once or twice in their lives.[citation needed] A study conducted by Sedaghat F. et al. has investigated the prevalence of sleep paralysis among Iranian medical students. 24.1% of students reported experiencing sleep paralysis at least once in their lifetime. The same result was reported among Japanese, Nigerian, Kuwaiti, Sudanese and American students.

Many people who commonly enter sleep paralysis also suffer from narcolepsy. Some reports read that various factors increase the likelihood of both paralysis and hallucinations. These include:

Sleeping in a face upwards or supine position
Increased stress
Sudden environmental/lifestyle changes
A lucid dream that immediately precedes the episode.
Excessive consumption of alcohol coupled with lack of adequate sleep.

In The Terror That Comes in the Night, folklorist and behavioral scientist David J. Hufford argues that sleep paralysis is related to an anomalous experience known in Newfoundland as “the Old Hag.” According to Hufford, the Old Hag is “an experience with stable contents which is widespread, dramatic, realistic, and bizarre,” and elements of the phenomenon cannot be fully explained either by psychology or culture. His works have explored the connection between the Old Hag and parapsychology in what he labels the “experience-centered approach” to hauntings.

Treatment

Treatment starts with patient education about sleep stages and about the muscle atonia that is typically associated with REM sleep. It is recommended that patients be evaluated for narcolepsy if symptoms persist.

Stages of Sleep

Related phenomena

Many perceptions associated with sleep paralysis (visceral buzzing, loud sounds, excited mental state, presences, and the paralysis itself) also constitute a common phase in the early progression of episodes referred to as out of body experiences. Mental focus varies between the two conditions; paralysis sufferers tend to fixate on reestablishing operation of the body, whereas subjects of out-of-body episodes are more occupied by perceived non-equivalence with the body.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_terror

A night terror, also known as a sleep terror or pavor nocturnus, is a parasomnia disorder that predominantly affects children, causing feelings of terror or dread.

Children

Children from age two to six are most prone to night terrors, and they affect about fifteen percent of all children, although people of any age may experience them. Episodes may happen for a couple of weeks then suddenly disappear. The symptoms also tend to be different, like the child being unable to recall the experience, and while nearly arisen, hallucinating. Children who have night terrors are usually described as ‘bolting upright’ with their eyes wide open, with a look of fear and panic, and will often scream. They will usually sweat, breathe fast and have a rapid heart rate (autonomic signs). Although it seems like children are awake during a night terror, they will appear confused, will not be consolable and will not recognize others. Strong evidence has shown that a predisposition to night terrors and other parasomniac disorders can be passed genetically. Though there are a multitude of triggers, emotional stress during the previous day and a high fever are thought to precipitate most episodes. Ensuring the right amount of sleep is an important factor. Special consideration must be used when the subject suffers from narcolepsy, as there may be a link.

Adults

Though the symptoms of night terrors in adolescents and adults are similar, the etiology, prognosis and treatment are qualitatively different. These night terrors can occur each night if the sufferer does not eat a proper diet, get the appropriate amount or quality of sleep (eg. Sleep apnoea), is enduring stressful events in their life or if they remain untreated. Adult night terrors are much less common, often trauma-based rather than genetic, and often respond to treatment in the form of psychotherapy and antidepressant medication or treatments to rectify causes of poor quality or quantity of sleep. There is some evidence of a link between adult night terrors and hypoglycemia. In addition to night terrors, some adult night terror sufferers have many of the characteristics of depressed individuals including inhibition of aggression, self-directed anger, passivity, anxiety, impaired memory, and the ability to ignore pain.

Treatment

Since night terrors are most commonly triggered by being overtired, sometimes no treatment is necessary except for a bedtime schedule that ensures proper sleep. If the night terrors are more frequent, however, it has been suggested that the sufferer should be awakened from sleep just before the time when the terrors occur most to interrupt the sleep cycle.

For more infomation:

Sleep Paralysis:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

Night Terrors:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_terror

Addition to Blog:

Shadow People

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_people

Shadow Man

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Shadow People are supernatural shadow-like humanoid figures that, according to believers, are seen flickering on walls and ceilings in the viewer’s peripheral vision.  They are often reported moving with quick, jerky movements, and quickly disintegrate into walls or mirrors. They are believed to be evil and aggressive in nature, although a few people consider them to be a form of guardian angel.

In 2010, the apparitions were described as one of the most regularly reported paranormal phenomena in the United States. This is attributed to occasional reports on the Coast to Coast AM show, where paranormal researcher Heidi Hollis has been interviewed several times on the subject of shadow people. Hollis believes that shadow people have always existed, that they feed upon emotions of fear, and that they can be repelled by thinking positively. Others believe that shadow people may be the extra-dimensional inhabitants of another universe.

The stories of shadow people have been compared to those of the Raven Mocker, a witch from Cherokee mythology who sometimes appears as a shadowy phantom, and the Islamic Jinn.

Several scientific principles can be used to explain reports of apparitional experiences such as shadow people. These include optical illusions or hallucinations brought on by physiological or psychological circumstances, drug use or side effects of medication, and the interaction of external agents on the human body. Another reason that could be behind the illusion is sleep deprivation, which may lead to hallucinations.

Along with dark matter and dark energy, "dark flow" has gotten some considerable press of recent years. In late Autumn of 2008, a research team led by NASA astronomer Alexander Kashlinsky observed that clusters of galaxies huge distances apart seemed to be attracted to the same empty region of the Universe: effectively flowing towards nothing! Kashlinsky and his team (Atrio-Brandela, Ebeling and Kocevskii) measured the peculair velocities of some … Read More

via D.669: Neopallium 2.0

I am Andy, TheDallasGeek.

I was laid off on Friday. I was given permission to come in late Friday to get my driver’s license renewed and then get my hair cut. It was a hectic and long morning getting errands completed. I arrived at work just before 1PM. I was clued in that something was wrong because I could not log into our corporate chat program. Trying over and over, I failed repeatedly. I went to my bosses office (Director of IT) and asked if there was an issue with chat this morning. He said he would have to get someone to look into it after they got back from lunch.

Minutes later, my boss comes to my office and asked if I would come to his office. I enter and the Director of HR is there. She says that the company has decided to terminate my employment and that I am being offered a separation agreement.

She says that I am being laid off because there was no work for the position and that the position is being eliminated. There is no work for a full time Network Administrator. I am told that the Director of IT has never complained about me or my work.

She walked with me to my office and helps me collect my belongings. I am discretly escorted to the elevator and my relationship with the company effectively ended. I carry my belongings to my Jeep and I return home.

I had known that there was a problem for about a month and a half now. I just didn’t truly act on the feeling. Basically, the work that I was given had stopped coming from my boss. I had provided incredible and well organized network proposals that he had requested. However, a month ago, he stopped reading them or even acknowledging my work. I believe he knew a month ago or earlier that the position just wasn’t ready to be created and that he should have just stayed with his part time Network contractor. I just cannot believe that my boss could not tell me or let me know that situation before hand. I had even asked him if my job was in jeopardy a week ago and he just did not reply to my question at all.

I was completely embarrassed and felt so humiliated. How could this happen to me? I so thought my life was made from now on with this company. I felt so secure and confident with this job and this company. I felt betrayed.

I think it is only natural that I had such feelings and thoughts. The lay off hit me like a jackhammer and I was a bit confused. I am thankful that I had the support and reassurance from my partner, Marshall. However, I felt that I had let him and us down.

He told me that I had nothing to be ashamed of and that I had not let him down. He is kind and loving. I am lucky that I do not have to face this alone. Marshall has been so helpful.

Marshall and I during one of our best times together so far.

Now the unknown stands in front of my path. This part of my life is new again and I know that I have experience and maturity on my side. I feel young again like I could do anything in life now. However, I know I must be intelligent, informed and calculated in my decisions at this point.

I’ve made some changes already. I reduced and canceled some services we had that were just indulgences and really just unnecessary. I know we will be ok and that I will come out stronger and more successful than ever. I want to align myself with a company I can truly identify with and be happy.

Spending time with people I care about.

I have so many friends and family on my side who believe in me and I know that my family and I will be well. I truly have so much to be thankful for.

Friends I enjoy spending time with.

Life continues and so will I.

The 'dark flow' of wayward galaxy clusters.

Much attention has been recently given to dark flow. We know that the universe is expanding in an ever accelerating rate. We know the expansion is in all directions. However, there exist galaxy super custers which are moving in a direction independent of the surrounding clusters. What force could exist that could attract such large masses as a super cluster?

Studies have been published suggesting that something massive on a large cosmic scale may exist whose gravity is attracting the galaxy super clusters. Some suggest that is gravity is that of an adjacent universe near the edges of our universe. This may be a clue to what exists beyond our light horizon, beyond the edges of our universe.

Super galaxy cluster map.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_flow

Dark flow is a term from astrophysics describing a peculiar velocity of galaxy clusters. The actual measured velocity is the sum of the velocity predicted by Hubble’s Law plus a small and unexplained (or dark) velocity flowing in a common direction.

According to standard cosmological models, the motion of galaxy clusters with respect to the cosmic microwave background should be randomly distributed in all directions. However, analyzing the three-year WMAP data using the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect, the authors of the study found evidence of a “surprisingly coherent” 600–1000 km/s flow of clusters toward a 20-degree patch of sky between the constellations of Centaurus and Vela.

The authors (Alexander Kashlinsky, F. Atrio-Barandela, D. Kocevski, and H. Ebeling) suggest that the motion may be a remnant of the influence of no-longer-visible regions of the universe prior to inflation. Telescopes cannot see events earlier than about 380,000 years after the big bang, when the universe became transparent (the Cosmic Microwave Background); this corresponds to the particle horizon at a distance of about 46 billion (4.6×1010) light years. Since the matter causing the net motion in this proposal is outside this range, it would in a certain sense be outside our visible universe; however, it would still be in our past light cone.

The results appeared in the October 20, 2008, issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters. Since then, the authors have extended their analysis to additional clusters and the recently released WMAP five-year data.

The Dark Flow was determined to be flowing in the direction of the Centaurus and Hydra constellations. This corresponds with the direction of the Great Attractor, which was a previous gravitational mystery originally discovered in 1973. However, the source of the Great Attractor’s attraction was thought to originate from a massive cluster of galaxies called the Norma cluster, situated merely between 150-250 million light-years away. This may reveal that the source of that attraction might lie even further away, and which the Great Attractor itself is heading towards.

In a study from March 2010, Kashlinsky extended his work from 2008, by using the 5-year WMAP results rather than the 3-year results, and doubling the number of galaxy clusters observed from 700. The team also sorted the cluster catalog into four “slices” representing different distance ranges. They then examined the preferred flow direction for the clusters within each slice. While the size and exact position of this direction display some variation, the overall trends among the slices exhibit remarkable agreement.

The flow of such clusters

The team has so far catalogued the effect as far out as 2.5 billion light-years, and hope to expand their catalog out further still to twice the current distance.

Astrophysicist Ned Wright posted an online response to the study arguing that its methods are flawed. The authors of the “dark flow” study released a statement in return, refuting three of Wright’s five arguments and identifying the remaining two as a typo and a technicality that do not affect the measurements and their interpretation.

A more recent statistical work done by Ryan Keisler claims to rule out the possibility that the dark flow is a physical phenomenon because Kashlinsky et al. do not consider primary CMB anisotropies as important as they are.

In March 2010 it was reported by Discovery News that NASA’s Goddard Space Center confirmed this could be the effects of a sibling universe or a region of space-time fundamentally different from the observable universe. Data on more than 1,000 galaxy clusters have been measured, including some as distant as 3 billion light-years. Alexander Kashlinsky claims these measurements show the universe’s steady flow is clearly not a statistical fluke. Said Kashlinsky: “At this point we don’t have enough information to see what it is, or to constrain it. We can only say with certainty that somewhere very far away the world is very different than what we see locally. Whether it’s ‘another universe’ or a different fabric of space-time we don’t know.”

Dark flow mapped with WMAP.

Great Attractor

The Great Attractor is a gravity anomaly in intergalactic space within the range of the Centaurus Supercluster that reveals the existence of a localised concentration of mass equivalent to tens of thousands of Milky Ways, observable by its effect on the motion of galaxies and their associated clusters over a region hundreds of millions of light years across.

These galaxies are all redshifted, in accordance with the Hubble Flow, indicating that they are receding relative to us and to each other, but the variations in their redshift are sufficient to reveal the existence of the anomaly. The variations in their redshifts are known as peculiar velocities, and cover a range from about +700 km/s to −700 km/s, depending on the angular deviation from the direction to the Great Attractor.

The first indications of a deviation from uniform expansion of the universe were reported in 1973 and again in 1978. The location of the Great Attractor was finally determined in 1986, and is situated at a distance of somewhere between 150 and 250 Mly (million light years) (47–79Mpc) (the latter being the most recent estimate) from the Milky Way, in the direction of the constellations Hydra and Centaurus. While objects in that direction lie in the zone of avoidance (the part of the night sky obscured by the Milky Way galaxy) and are thus difficult to study with visible wavelengths, X-ray observations have revealed that the region of space is dominated by the Norma cluster (ACO 3627),a massive cluster of galaxies, containing a preponderance of large, old galaxies, many of which are colliding with their neighbours, and/or radiating large amounts of radio waves.

Debate over apparent mass

In 1992, much of the apparent signal of the Great Attractor was attributed to the effect of Malmquist Bias. In 2005, astronomers conducting an X-ray survey of part of the sky known as the Clusters in the Zone of Avoidance (CIZA) project reported that the Great Attractor was actually only one tenth the mass that scientists had originally estimated. The survey also confirmed earlier theories that the Milky Way galaxy was in fact being pulled towards a much more massive cluster of galaxies near the Shapley Supercluster which lies beyond the Great Attractor.

Spencer, Brian and Allan

I had a wonderful time Saturday night. It was Brienna Becker’s and Brian Scate’s birthday celebration and we all got together to spend it with them.

Hillstone in Dallas, TX

I started the evening early and had dinner with my friend Spencer at Hillstone (formerly Houston’s) in Dallas. After dinner, drinks and great conversation, we proceeded to meet everyone at Barcadia.

Spencer and Sean

Brienna and Meghan at Barcadia

The pub was packed as usual, but a table had been reserved on the patio. I was happy to meet Brienna’s brother Sean and his girlfriend Meghan. Spencer and Sean decided on a game of Jenga with giant blocks. We watched and laughed as they played and was surprised to see that Spencer was winning so many games. He would wage a free drink for the winner and he won a lot of drinks.

Sean taking his turn at Jenga

Spencer contemplating his next move.

We ran into Ryan. He was on a bunny pub crawl.

More friends showed up and we enjoy the crowd and the music. After a while, we decided to proceed to Kismet Lounge. After a momentary hiccup (I was wearing flip-flops), we got in and found a great area to sit at the lounge. The music was great and the crowd was definitely hopping. I had a couple of good moves myself but definitely the award for dance moves went to Micah Boswell and Sean Becker.

Micah and Sarah, The Boswells.

Bev and Sarah

Sean, Spencer, Neil

Allan, Brian and Neil

The night ended late and we almost closed down the bar. It was good to spend the evening with good friend and to make new friends as well. I look forward to the next group outing in the future and ready to show off those moves.

For more information:

Barcadia - www.barcadiabars.com/barcadia-dallas

Kismet Lounge – www.kismetdallas.com