Dimensionally Barrett

Biphoton state holographic reconstruction. Image reconstruction. a, Coincidence image of interference between a reference SPDC state and a state obtained by a pump beam with the shape of a Ying and Yang symbol (shown in the inset). The inset scale is the same as in the main plot. b, Reconstructed amplitude and phase structure of the image imprinted on the unknown pump. Credit:  Nature Photonics  (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41566-023-01272-3 Quantum entanglement flies in the face of our quotidian “us-scale” reality. For that matter, post-Euclidian math and physics are for the most part, contradictory of the so-called “real world” and yet, humanity continues to live as though it knows what is real. In large measure, we don’t. Am I making a claim that quantum mechanics is the truest depiction of reality? Well, let’s put it like this; it seems to provide a telling proof that things are not as we perceive them (which any artist or philosopher or mystic over the past 10,000 years would av...

(Getty Images) “Just because we’ve temporarily gone over 1.5 degrees doesn’t mean we’ve breached the Paris Agreement limit,” cautioned Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus program. For that to happen the globe needs to exceed that threshold for a much longer time period , such as a couple of decades instead of a couple of weeks. From The Associated Press: “June temperatures briefly passed key climate threshold. Scientists expect more such spikes” With all due respect to Burgess, I sense hedging here. From another climatologist, there’s this: Rob Jackson, a Stanford University climate scientist who like Rahmstorf wasn’t involved in collecting the Copernicus data, said its significance is still unclear. “But sometime in the next few years we will shatter global temperature records,” he said. “It’s the coming El Nino, yes. But it isn’t just El Nino. We’ve loaded the climate system. No one should be surprised when we set extended global records. 1.5 C is coming fast; it ...

Of late, a number of the great Tibetan older guard of teachers has passed, among whom are a couple I’ve had the honor of meeting and studying under/attending their teachings. These passings are reminders of the impermanence of phenomena and at the same time, the lessons of non-self/anatman/annata/བདག་མེད་, in a couple of ways.  One is that all phenomena is composite, each phenomenon the result of patternings of causes and conditions. No substantial self obtains from the impermanent, ever-shifting and metamorphosing of conditioned existence. Every Buddhist teacher I know - Tibetan and otherwise - stresses the transient,་insubstantial nature of the self. That said, and this is a doctrine that falls under scrutiny for reasons of suggesting otherwise, there is posited and particularly emphasized in Tibetan Mahayana, persistently existing mindstreams. Now, any good madhyamika is going to say that even that mindstream is subject to impermanence and therefore, the positing of such is a ...

It is far too easy to get upset, angry, and apoplectic every time a politician, a so-called “elected leader” offers “thoughts and prayers” for the victims of the latest mass shooting and the bereaved and then, in nearly the next breath, declare that “the other side” is guilty of politicizing the issue when the subject of gun control is brought up. It is also exhausting. I live in Houston where there is permit-less conceal carry. My situational awareness spikes whenever I’m out, although so far, not to the point of dread. However, for someone who enjoys movies and writing about them, I sometimes wonder if someone is going to go off in a theater. Or if I’m strolling down the street on a walk, is someone having a bad day going to decide one white bearded guy is less necessary or when I’m grocery shopping, what are the chances that someone else is going to lose their shit or decide to take out a store out of grievances along a spectrum (maybe racism, political orientation, gender orientat...

His Holiness the Dalai Lama wearing a traditional Himachali cap and shawl offered to him by the Chairman of M3M at the start of their meeting in the courtyard of the Main Tibetan Temple in Dharamsala, HP, India on February 28, 2023. Photo by Tenzin Choejor Oh, dear lord, not again. How many more of these old folks are gonna slobber on me? Here she comes…one of Grandaddy’s sisters-in-law? Some ancient cousin? What did mom say? Oh, crap, here goes… “C’mon, give us a kiss! Oh, my! Look how little Nicky’s grown!” <plants sloppy kiss; pats me on the head….ugh….> I can’t remember whose funeral this was, but I was still in the single digits. Old enough, though, to take umbrage at the old folks and their patting me on the head and bestowing dribble pecks (on the mouth! Ew!) I mostly took umbrage at being mistaken for my older brother (by 12 frikkin’ years!) who some of these oldsters hadn’t seen since he was my age (obviously). Of course, I did put up with this sort of thing because...