What happened to the three wheels he didn't smash in a fit of rage?

[ken_behrendt]

James...

Interesting info on Paganini! Actually, I think his ending wasn't that bad at all. I would not mind being mummified myself should I ever actually die, but I would like to be kept in an dry above ground vault rather than being subjected to "wet burial" in the ground. I figure that IF resurrection ever becomes technologically possible someday, then I would then be able to supply my resurrectionists with something more intact to work with! Hopefully, we will have the secret of Bessler's wheels by then so that I will not have to continue the "quest" during my next incarnation. That way, maybe I'll finally have some time to work on Asa Jackson's wheel...

Oh, yes, congrads on the elevation of your rep bar status.


Jon...

Sorry to read that the "bent" pieces of wood did not work out. If you based that on Wolff's description of what he supposedly "saw" between chinks in the wooden slats covering one of Bessler's wheels, then you should know that there seems to be some contention amongst us as to the validity of that observation. I think I tried several curved board WM2D models last year, but none gave any hint of wanting to work.


ken

[John Collins]

"...should I ever actually die."

Ken are you an immortal?

JC

[LustInBlack]

Immortal, incarnation . . . .

That's really off-topic. And pardon me, but how can we be taken seriously as a group, with that kind of conversation !?

[John Collins]

It's irony.

JC

[primemignonite]

James...

Interesting info on Paganini! Actually, I think his ending wasn't that bad at all. I would not mind being mummified myself should I ever actually die, but I would like to be kept in an dry above ground vault rather than being subjected to "wet burial" in the ground. I figure that IF resurrection ever becomes technologically possible someday, then I would then be able to supply my resurrectionists with something more intact to work with! Hopefully, we will have the secret of Bessler's wheels by then so that I will not have to continue the "quest" during my next incarnation. That way, maybe I'll finally have some time to work on Asa Jackson's wheel...

Oh, yes, congrads on the elevation of your rep bar status.

* * * * *
ken

Ken,

I'm glad you liked it. Some is fact but some is apochrypha, so . . .

Paganini was a unique icon and a true inspiration for an entire generation of Romantics to come. Liszt, for example, was utterly transfixed by the spectacle of him and his performances, and went on to write a number of his finest works in his honor, the famous "La Campanella" for piano solo, being but one of seven that I know about. It was the beginning of the 'virtuoso style' that Liszt established for the pianists of his time, all the way to ours, and thankfully it has never stopped.

In the "Off Topic" section, I plan to put out a few words soon, about how PM served as inspiration to various music composers. They were not at all prejudiced against it as the natural philosophers mostly were and still are.

The Moslem kings, and like-elevated persons of the Middle East, were/are laid to rest on a 'bier', I think. The late King Farouk of Egypt, as well as his father Fuad, both had special mausoleums built where they were sort of mummified by the Egyptian air and time. I have a wonderful photo of Farouk's tomb taken from the inside. Fit for a real king, alright.

The Asa Jackson Wheel: hasn't anyone yet made any sense of it? It sure appears to have been something serious. A lot more is there physically to be studied than brother Bessler left to us.

Thanks about the rep, but I am a little mystified as to why I am up by two in less than a week. Possibly Scott is manipulating those weighting controls once again, from behind that wizard's curtain?

James

[1712]

Ken, John,

You may want to follow in the footsteps of the English Philosopher Jeremy Bentham.

He had put in his will that he wanted to attend meetings of his society "forever", so after he died, they mummified his body so it could be rolled into each meeting thereafter...

http://www.utilitarianism.com/bentham.htm

Click on the picture of his stuffed body...

[ken_behrendt]

John...

Yes, I am an immortal, but I only got started in 1951 AD!

Actually, my theory is that people only really get old, sick, and die because they have been brainwashed into believing that will happen to them. They see all of their contemporaries doing that, so they naturally assume that is their inescapable fate, too.

I, however, am of the belief that the human body is really meant to last far, far longer than a mere 70 years, but only if one does not allow negative messages to enter one's unconscious mind concerning the so-called aging process. I think that once these negative messages enter the uncritical unconscious mind of a person, that part of his brain then accepts them as true and proceeds to shutdown the parts of his cellular machinery that are responsible for repairing oxidative damage to the cells and keeping their longevity genes operating at full power. From my study of psychology, particularly hypnosis, I am convinced that a person's unconscious mind actually, via the nervous and endocrine systems, controls the functioning of every cell in his body!

The cure for this death inducing negative cultural programming? Simple. Just convince oneself that one will live forever and it will happen! Even if it didn't (which is, of course, unlikely), then one might still get, say, 140 years on one's odometer before things really started to get ugly. By that time, cellular biologists will have developed an immortality serum and that should do the trick in perserving one ad infinitum.

Consider, for example, the lowly sea tortoise. These creatures tend to be solidary and only get together when it is time for mating activity. Generally, each swims about all day not seeing another of its kind and, most importantly, not seeing one of its kind grow old and die. The result? Some of these creatures have been found that had dates carved into their shells by long gone sailors. Some of those dates are from the 1700's! That right, these guys live happily for hundreds of years, yet, genetically, they are not much different from other higher forms of life like human beings.

So, as part of my anti-aging program, I totally refuse to even acknowledge that I could be aging and might eventually die someday. So far, it seems to be working and I intend to continue with the method. I'm 55 years YOUNG now and am looking forward to celebrating my 100 birthday in the year 2051. Hopefully, by that time we will finally know the secret of Bessler's wheels.



ken

[Michael]

Ken you can never become completely immortal, but you can stick around an awful long time - doing useful work. Unfortunately this involves losing a little bit of mass each year until you weigh nothing.

[winkle]

Ken wrote

Yes, I am an immortal, but I only got started in 1951 AD!

does that imply you're going to forever keep repeating lead weights loose mass over billions of years

mabe in a couple of billion years you can weigh one of them weights and test you're theory

good luck with that

[Fletcher]

Ken .. the case of the sea turtle & land tortoise are interesting. I believe they have a slow metabolism like the tree sloth (which doesn't live to similar great ages IINM). In many cases longevity is related to the animals size & number of heart beats in a life time which is reasonably consistent across the animal kingdom.

As you know there is good evidence that minimal calorie intake slows cellular aging by reducing the number of damaging free radicals, so eating frugally helps extend life.

Additionally it seems that monks know a thing or two in that celibacy also appears to extend one's life, along the lines of the number of heart beats in a life time. I'm not sure a monastic lifestyle is for everyone & besides your partner might not appreciate your reasoning.

Reminds me of a bloke who went to the doctor for his second consultation. The doctor told him the tests were in & the bad news that he had 3 months to live. The guy plaintively asked if there was anything he could do. You could take up some exercise, give up alcohol & sex & give away your worldly wealth to the poor, said the doc. Will I live longer if I do that asked the bloke ? No said the doctor, it'll just seem longer ;)

Sorry for the diversion of topic, hope it was at least a little entertaining if not informative.

[jim_mich]

so eating frugally helps extend life.

So, where can I buy some of that frugally stuff?

[winkle]

i think that frugal stuff sea turtles eat is jelly fish

orange roughy don't breed until until 25 or 30 then live to 150

tough way to get to 150

sea turtles and orange roughy both drink water that's been peaed in by fish and turtles

huh drinking their own pea

early death is looking better

[Thomas]

My wife tells me I could stand to lose a little mass myself.

Ok Ken, I guess I can give up some of my junk food.... BUT I'M NOT GIVING UP THE SO-CALLED SEX I GET ONCE A YEAR ON MY BIRTHDAY!

(He's scaring me again.)

Tom

[ken_behrendt]

Well, I was glad to see my thoughts on the prospect of immortality stimulated others to chime in with their own observations.

It's a sad commentary of "modern" life that the average urban dweller of the 21st century is being exposed to more free radical producing substances in a single day than his or her great grand father was in a lifetime! The body has many built-in defense systems to cope with this, but, in most cases, it gets overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of free radicals that need to "arrested" or neutralized and then escorted out of one's body before they can bond to various structures within cells. Such ongoing bonding processes eventually lead to the disabling of the normal functioning of a bodily cell and can corrupt its genetic information. Once a cell's chromosomes are altered, there is an increased risk that the disabling alteration will be transmitted to any new cells that are derived, via binary fission, from the original cell. In extreme cases, the cell may turn cancerous with catastrophic consequences for the entire organism.

The solution to this problem is to both limit one's exposure to these substances while simulateously maintaining a high intake of anti-oxidant rich foods. Where diet is lacking, supplements can play an important role. Drinking pure water, eating whole unrefined foods grown with as few chemicals as possible, and breathing air with as little pollution in it as possible are a major step in the right direction.

Next, avoid exposure to chemicals whenever possible and this includes such things as household cleanesers, pesticides, herbicides, tobacco products, excess alchohol, and unnecessary prescription medications which it has been estimated that about 80% of which are either optional or marginal...meaning that 80% are not really needed or, if they are used, only make a small improvement in a condition.

The pharmaceutical industry on this planet is currently raking in hundreds of billions maybe trillions of USD per year selling people over priced and over hyped drugs and is constantly looking for new health problems to "treat" (curing problems is only of secondary concern to them...the emphasis, from a profit point of view, is on continously "controlling" various health problem symptoms with lifetime medication). They are even now talking about how it is important for people to start taking their drugs before they actually get an illness! You read that correctly! Soon, people will be brainwashed via media advertising into taking, say, high blood pressure medication just because they have someone in their family who had the problem. Thus, a person without the problem should start medicating themselves for life so as to avoid possibly getting that problem because they share some of the same "bad" genetics as their relative.

The average senior citizen in the US is currently wolfing down about a dozen prescription medications throughout the day and, if the pharmaceutical industry gets its way, that will spread across the entire range of ages all the way down from senior citizens to infants! In most cases (maybe 90+%), the person's health problems can be sucessfully treated with far more conservative measures involving proper diet, supplementation, exercise, and rest.

I personally also avoid watching the prescription drug commercials that now saturate various television network news shows. Apparently, the advertisers for these items have reached the conclusion that the demographic that actually still watches news shows is the over 50 crowd and they are the ones most apt to buy any drug that comes along and promises to relieve their various aches and pains. For a health conscious person, those advertisements could begin to program their unconscious mind to expect the get ill.

I try to maintain a state of mind in which I consider disease and aging to be abnormal states of the body (the exact opposite message one gets from the tv drug ads) and, if they should ever occur, completely my responsibility for ignoring some important principle of health. On very rare occasions when a problem pops up, I take immediate action to learn as much about its causes as possible and then take steps to eliminate those causes. I do not run to the first doctor I can find in search of a prescription.

However, with all of this said, I want to caution the reader that certain people do, in fact, require ongoing medication in order to either function normally or, indeed, to remain living and they should never consider making any changes until and unless it is fully approved of my their health care advisor. I'm only suggesting that it is my opinion that maximum longevity will be achieved when one eliminates, as much as possible, all unnecessary medications from one's life. Deciding exactly what is "unnecessary" can be a complicated matter so that is why it is important that one have trustworthy and competent medical advice at all times.


Calorie restriction is one way to extend one's lifespan. The less oxygen entering the body to metabolize food and generate calories, the less free radicals and the damage they do, over time, to the body's cells. However, I still think that a far more impressive effect can be achieved by maintaining a high intake of antioxidants. That means plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, optimal nutritional supplements, and, as stated above, eliminating various artificial sources of free radicals from the body.

Give up sex?! No, that actually causes more problems than it solves!

Sexual activity is a form of exercise which stimulates all of the systems in a body and helps speed up the elimination of toxins from cells. There are, sadly, a lot of older males that have allowed themselves to become sexually "sluggish" over the years and, eventually, also allow society to convince them that this is an activity that is no longer for them.

Nonsense, I say to that! In most cases, a nutritional make-over and modest exercise regimen can restore nearly full virility to even a 90 year young man. For example, it has been noted that testosterone levels in males past 45 years young tend to drop off and this must therefore lead to the male equivalent of menopause known as "andropause".

However, what many do not know is that the real reason for their declining androgen levels may have nothing to due with cellular atrophy, but everything to do with adipose tissue hypertrophy! That's right. That spare tire many older males grow past 45 contains fat cells that are busily at work churning out plenty of an enzyme known as "aromatase". One of its functions is to convert a male's healthy supply of testosterone directly into the female hormone estrogen! As the ratio of testosterone to estrogen drops in a male's body so do other parts of his anatomy! The solution to this menace in the body of the maturing male is to make sure that he is not taking in the daily amount of calories that will maintain the testosterone robbing spare tire he is carrying. Cut back on the gut maintaining calories each day and watch your spare tire deflate as your testosterone level and virility soar!



Well, there has been much discussion about things like immortality and health in this thread. These are, ultimately, I believe linked to the mobilists' ongoing quest to obtain a working gravity wheel. Perhaps, those who have been convinced that they will not go on forever hope to find a mechanical device to represent them which would, in actuality, be able to move forever. Thus, in effect, the mobilist seeks to obtain a kind of immortality through the creation of such a device and the eternal fame that its discovery would confer upon him.

However, how much more interesting it would be to construct a perpetual motion machine and personally be around a thousand years from now to see that it was still running!



ken

[Fletcher]

Jim .. you get frugally from your green grocer or the supermarket, it's usually next to the brocoli ;)