Coping: Does Fire Attract Intelligence?

I got to thinking about yesterday’s column and, honestly, I had a “guilt pang.”  It occurred to me that new visitors to this site would think me quite daft for spending time on (potentially age-reversing) projects like light crowns, and such.

The premise is simple:  When humans began to use fire was approximately coincident to our evolution on the conscious level.

Fact:  Man began using fire about 1.5 million years ago.

Assuming you know what Attention Schema Theory is…

“The attention schema theory (AST) of consciousness (or subjective awareness) is an evolutionary and neuropsychological scientific theory of consciousness which was developed by neuroscientist Michael Graziano at Princeton University.[1][2] It proposes that brains construct subjective awareness as a schematic model of the process of attention.[1][2] The theory is a materialist theory of consciousness. It shares similarities with the illusionist ideas of philosophers like Daniel Dennett, Patricia Churchland, and Keith Frankish.:

You can quickly see how Ure equates lots of exposure to longwave IR radiation from fire use (in about the same timeframe) with the arrival of (tah-dah!) consciousness.  Two measures of AST and a side of IR light to blend and bend…

Sure, call me a crazy-man (nothing new there), but do consider how the humans – especially in the temperate zones – got particularly handy with fire.  Fire and cold weather require more mental effort than living easy in the tropics.

There’s a range of human habitats that require fire to be any good.  Try a winter in, oh, Germany for example, without heat.  And heat does what?  I mean besides bake the bread, keep the house warm, and so on?

Well, heat is a form of light. IR light.

You see, back in times lost to the fog of history, people went to sleep in defensible places like caves.  And, inside said caves were what?

Fires.

And, the fires were burned most of the time to keep animals at bay, and so on.  BUT, the point I’m getting to is that fire puts out infrared energy.  We are used to having some around, especially at bed times.

Just as cats do their purring (a kind of humming, thought by some to have healing properties – it’s where the cats go to Zen-out), humans, too, likely have an ancient (circadian) rhythm that dates with our time in the caves.

To the experiment, then!

You know Elaine and I own a fairly high-powered IR LED array that just happens to operate in that long red part of the spectrum, right?  I keep it handy with the Gen 3 NV goggles for when the aliens land, lol…)

If you didn’t, you do now.  Similar to the CMVision IR130-198 LED Indoor/Outdoor Long Range 300-400ft IR Illuminator With Free 3A 12VDC Adapter you can get on Amazon for $65 bucks, or so.

We know that’s a fair bit of IR lighting power, but on the other hand, its down in the 860 nm range and ours, honestly, unless you stare directly into it, isn’t even visible.  Very soft red presence close it.

We had used it for a while, but our chat yesterday got me to thinking:  Are we may have been using it wrong.

The new protocol, rather than have it come on at night and go off in the morning, will be to use it as though we were trying to emulate what happens with a cave fire.  On at night (bed time) at which point, a cave fire would likely be mainly in the yellow green part of spectrum (around 560 nm, for example) and then – as people go deeper into their sleep cycle – the fire would dim into the dark reds (660-700 nm IR) range. From there, the 860 and 1000 nm range come.

And then, as people are “on their way down” into deep sleep, they would be bathed in the longer IR. No idea what this crude effort at spectral frequency matching over time will result it (if anything), but WTF…science, eh?

We assume you know white and blue are up toward 350-500 NM and then come your greens and yellows and eventually you get to the reds around 600 nm and then things fall off the visual scale around 700 nm or so?

BTW: One of the curses of having cataract removals is that the early lenses (like my first round of IOL‘s) didn’t have any UV absorption so I could “read” under blacklight.  It ruined Pirates of the Caribbean at D World because all those ceiling joists painted black and wires hanging down for “effects” all became visible.  I could  see the glass the ghosts were projected on, too… I digress.

So, that’s the plan… we will let ‘er run for a number of nights – kill the IR feed about midnight (a few hours after bedtime) and see if we noticing anything.

Yes, we are mindful of the studies that document that sleeping in partially lit rooms can statistically increase the risk of breast cancer for women but the flip side is that if fire/IR exposure is related to intelligence, then we may (or may not) see anything as a result.  It may provide a “circadian sync pulse, of some kind…we shall see.

My guess?  Better, deeper sleep.  But without a double-blind placebo controlled…who knows?

And you can bet modern medicine won’t go down this path for a while.  Nothing simple to monetize.  Why do real thinking when you can turn the weather, for crying out loud, into a HNBM (hot new business model?)

New Toy Alert!!!!

Stand by for my latest hare-brained hatchling!  I have a theory about a new ultra cool, not-terribly-difficult (or I wouldn’t be able to do it) way of building cabinets.

Elaine has generously given me permission to tear up the house as I give it a go.  Future article will get into that.

BUT…here’s the thing.

A wise man (me) once told everyone “When you take on a new project, be sure and pad the budget enough so that you can pick up some new tools along the way.”

Brothers and sisters…we have a winner.  Black and Decker has come out with a nifty powered handsaw.  And it’s cheap.

Check out the new BLACK+DECKER PHS550B 3.4 Amp Powered Handsaw with Storage Bag.  I also picked up the blade kit and a couple of spare blades.

Did we need it?  Well…

Several things come to mind.

First, it doesn’t eat a lot of power.  We have a big 12″ compound miter saw on a stand that dims the lights when it rolls up and it goes into the shop vacuum system….so there’s honestly not much, except panel cutting and dado work left for the old table saw to manage.

So honestly?  No, I didn’t NEED it.  But, if you’re a minimalist, who doesn’t to spend oodles for a Disston 26″ 10 point crosscut saw (Found one for $135 over at Jim Bode Tools) and I will never forget pappy telling me that when times were bad (previous depression, not the one just ahead) he knew many firemen (relatives) who would use just about that one tool – the Disston saw) and a hammer and they would craft up a great house out of it.  Uncle Stanley eventually bought himself a table saw…about his third house he built himself on the offshift, or so.

All kinds of lessons here, if you’re paying attention:

  • Pappy Ure figured a 10 point cross cut and an 8 point rip Disston combo of saws was enough to build damn near anything.
  • Second lesson is that times have changed.  One power handsaw is $40 bucks.
  • Hell, I found a 1976 Bicentennial 26 inch Distortion for $425.  There’s a whole eBay subculture on collective hand woodworking tools.
  • Oh, yeah…and everything is screwed now, damn few nails used…
  • AND we don’t have a lot of patience for people who aren’t doers and people who get wrapped around the axles of drama.

These are just oddities of Life passing by. The shock?   Never thought I’d live to see the time when a power saw would cost less than a Disston hand saw.  But there we are.  This is progress and damned if I know what to make of it.

We just live out here on the edge; aghast at how life is collapsing into…what, pray tell?

Write when you get rich,

George@ure.net

33 thoughts on “Coping: Does Fire Attract Intelligence?”

  1. BLACK+DECKER PHS550B 3.4 Amp Powered Handsaw. Great idea George. I have some 4×4’s I was planning to cut by hand. This gives me an excuse to buy another tool.

  2. my friend in the desert here also has old contacts like ures, and can see lots better then me at night!

  3. Don’t you just love Princeton.. I totally love their library.. if I could I would move into one of the halls just to see if I could read everything they have on the shelves LOL… some pretty smart cookies there.. as well as MIT.. love that.. and there is a university in India that I adore their classes.. oh well I am digressing on personal feeling there..

    Mark really got me thinking yesterday.. he had made a comment on how many times DJT had lied since he’s been in office.. now did he or had this been an area of manipulation as well..seems for everything out there there is so much controversy it makes it hard to see what is real and what isn’t the control is enormous.. even if it is true he never even considered that any other politician ever lied and to what extent..I personally think they are all lying the minute they open their mouth who is the one truly saying it which of them hasn’t been put under the controls of the puppeteers.. what was the old child hood saying… lier lier your pants on fire your as honest as a politician..

    anyway it got me wondering is it all programmed.. see I see the world from the underbelly he see’s the world from the top of the hill.. both see the same thing but from a different perspective, one side I think is shielded from seeing the true underbelly and the other that is all he can see. I agree with and understand what DJT is doing and his attempts to do the level best to change the social impact from a lost country to we are great again.. He see’s it from a different perspective that DJT is trying to achieve a totally different end result. I see why DJT would like the money he has to remain the way it is.. and don’t blame the guy I want to see prosperity of the american worker to.In the picture I view if DJT brings back American industrialism and pride his dollar is better and so is the working mans..where with the view of what we had coming was one of hopeless slavery and dependence on programs for our survival.
    I probably won’t be alive when the true game starts to rebuild from the dire situation that we are facing but it is interesting.
    NOW my question.. is both of our perspectives being programmed into us for purposes other than what we see them for.. sort of a three dimensional checkers game..
    anyway it set up my exciting reading list for yesterday I was so enthused ..
    check it out and see what you think..

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3306667/

    https://www-2.rotman.utoronto.ca/facbios/file/C%C3%B4t%C3%A9%20ROB%20forthcoming%20–%20Social%20Class%20in%20Organizations.pdf

    https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311723483_Hidden_advantages_and_disadvantages_of_social_class_How_classrooms_reproduce_social_inequality_by_staging_unfair_comparison

    http://naspaa.org/JPAEMessenger/Article/VOL17-2/04_17n02_wyatt-nicholbrownhaynes.pdf

    https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/204497/determines-americans-perceive-social-class.aspx

    https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/3f67/e1e978b41e8e4f9ec349f76ea3dd4d5e22ad.pdf

    http://irle.berkeley.edu/files/2015/The-Inequality-of-Politics.pdf

    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjso.12251

    http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.335.4678&rep=rep1&type=pdf

    https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c3f1/de0737f958f7182cf6f329565d2b51032f75.pdf

    http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/etd/ucb/text/Piff_berkeley_0028E_12242.pdf

    https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/65766/2000369-Child-Poverty-and-Adult-Success.pdf

    took a couple classes here.. great school..

    https://cew.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/TVOACD.SR_.pdf

    https://socialequity.duke.edu/sites/socialequity.duke.edu/files/site-images/FINAL%20COMPLETE%20REPORT_.pdf

    https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/sdn/2015/sdn1513.pdf

    • Trump can’t see the underbelly. He only see polls and is a puppet of Hannity, Coulter and Limbaugh. He was ready to deal with the shutdown and dial down his ridiculous wall demands until the 3 Stooges of broadcasting pleaded with him to stick to his guns….for what purpose? For their power or for the good of America?

      With the technology We have available, spy satellites, infrared and other motion sensor equipment, drones, etc. a wall in of itself is obsolete. If you listen to not only the Democrats, but also the GOP politicians who are against a wall, they ALL are willing to give Trump $5 billion or even more if he just eliminates the “wall” from the bill. Both sides of the House and Senate want border security…that is a fact! You won’t hear that on Fox News…watch all the other channels for a change.

      Let’s talk about technology. There was an article in today’s Chronicle about how drones are being used to attack an invasive and sometimes fatal Aisian Hornet on the Iberian Peninsula. The drones are programmed to pinpoint the swarms and nests, apply insecticide and kill the tiny and evasive Hornets.

      Now, if that type of technology is available, don’t you think it could be used to locate people trying to cross the border between checkpoints?

      Trumps scare tactics of drugs being smuggled over have nothing to do with those types of crossings. 90% of smuggled drugs come across our own legal ports of entry. They are smuggled and hidden in children’s toys, cars, food and more in shipping containers. Many dangerous gang members are actually assimilated right here in America. The dark web has instructional “classes” available to anyone who wants to profit on the dark side of the law. A wall isn’t going to stop any of that. The biggest drug being smuggled outside of the ports of entry is marijuana…mainly because its odor is easily detected by dogs and even humans at ports.

      But marijuana is legal is most states now…so that business model will slowly die.

      Trump is only playing hardball, because he made it a campaign promise and knew that a physical wall is easier to digest for uneducated voters than saying He will build a fleet of drones to combat illegal aliens. Con men will be con men.

      • I totally agree with you Mark on the wall.. Its a total waste of money and nothing more than a symbol..
        Go after the money. Go after the companies that house illegal aliens and the executives that hire them. The same way you do drug traffickers. Those wishing to enter legally charge all the taxes a citizen is subjected to along with a non resident tax. Along without any federal benefits.
        If an executive of a corporation sees he may be fined if caught and his personal assets seized well I am assuming he’d think twice before hiring illegal aliens.
        We have the weakest borders I think trump is right on that aspect..
        And I think DJT wants to see America secure the dollar secure..
        I say tariff all incoming goods and services..give tax breaks to manufacturers that do it here with American workers. Tax corporations and individuals that hide their profits offshore.

      • No problem with high tech surveillance. Lots of toys in that department. But, how do you physically prevent someone from crossing? Wall is a far superior obstacle to crossing, than just surveillance. You can see them coming, but if you don’t have the manpower to stop them, your toast!

      • “Both sides of the House and Senate want border security…that is a fact!”

        Mark, are you naive or do YOU just pretend? All of our so-called civilisation will eventually be overrun!!! Please do he math! Think, fyog.

      • Having tech and using it effectively are two different things. The later requires political will, and often requires inflicting real damage on the invaders. It took until this century for us to actually monitor I-94’s on exit from the country. Until then we had no real numbers on illegal overstays. I believe in a free country, consistent with maintaining some level of respect for the law. When overseas, I followed their laws to the extent that I could understand them, and foreigners who are in our country need to do the same. I’m agnostic on drugs and voluntary human trafficking. There really are bad guys out there, and we can’t afford to let the entire world into the USA. Do we have reciprocal rights to just wander over their borders? I’m OK with the president’s work so far in office, and I doubt anyone could have done better. Certainly not her lowliness. Yes, there might have been a better candidate than President Trump, but I doubt there was one who could have been elected. If the minions in congress would just let the president lead and do his job, we might actually be better off by 2020. As it is, they’re giving him every excuse to blame them for failure.

      • In Mark’s latest comments regarding our President, he puts forth the opinion (his but not really his) that President Trump is merely the puppet of conservative talk broadcasters.

        Might I purpose yet another opinion. If one looks carefully at the endless attacks upon our current President by Mark, you will see that he is only repeating, like a well trained parrot, the same things that are blasted at us constantly by CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, Maxine Waters, and the list goes on.

        Is President Trump an ideal President, no. Does he tend to blow his own horn, yes. However, a really smart man I once worked for used to say, “He that bloweth not his own horn, heareth not the sound thereof”. He basically meant to make the world aware of your accomplishments, but do not brag constantly.

        Personally, I am not completely sure that “Mark” is not in the employ of those that oppose anything President Trump proposes. If he is, fine. If not, then I would suggest that if “Mark” considers himself to be a liberal, then perhaps he should be “liberal” enough to look with an open mind, not just repeat the same old talking points of the MSM.

        Mark may be a truly great person to know, but he cannot be accused of having an open mind. He has his opinion and I have mine. I will gladly listen to various sides to any story, and form my opinion based upon input from several sources. No matter what our President does, Mark will not be pleased, because President Trump was not his choice. So be it. Was Barrack Obama my choice for President, no. That being said, my choice or not; he was still the President and was given the chance to prove himself or not. History will be the judge of President Obama, as well as; President Trump.

        For Pete’s sake, get over the election and offer some positive alternatives, instead of constantly complaining.

      • Well guess you forgot about Israel who have all the latest tech goodies and still rely on a wall. Or the border agents who say that problems decrease substantially with a wall in place.Or if an emp or for some other reason the power goes out there is still a barrier. Or perhaps we can put all prisoners on monitoring devices an get rid of the prisons, make you feel better? Your hatred of Trump is really a hatred for those who support him and your condescending attitude is getting annoying.

      • Lloyd.. I will stick up for Mark Here.. ( Not that he needs it he is fully capable of doing that himself..but I see his view sort of.)

        Mark has a different perspective than the majority of us do on what is going on.
        In a lot of cases he might even have more information than we do as well..

        I totally see how he comes to his opinion’s and if that was the only thing I could see I would agree with him on his opinions.I personally enjoy reading Mark’s comments.. it gives me the rare opportunity to view the same thing I see and the impacts that are there from his perspective. The minute he says RUN FOR YOUR LIVES the sky is falling.. I will probably start crying because the tower babble is coming down and I am on the bottom..

        I personally think DJT has every right to blow his own horn.. by god he has accomplished more without any help at all on his own than any other president in my lifetime.All the while we still have a do nothing Congress that is so set on doing the directions of the puppeteers that they have stopped doing what they should be doing and havent done since Carter was in office…. being leaders and legislators looking out for the people of the USA… DJT is right again on securing our borders.. not everyone entering our country has our best interests in mind.

        Mark has a totally different perspective on what we see.. and with his social standing probably has information available to him that we are not able to get.

        as far as MSM..

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWyCCJ6B2WE

  4. Looks a lot like my Milwaukee ‘Sawzall’… except mine has metal cutting blades, too.
    Yeah, yeah… the Milwaukee cost more, too.

    • I have the big DeWalt Sawzall – great tool. But, this little guy has metal and plastic cutting in the accessories and by the time I get out the big DeWalt, a 1.5 Hp router – and need to get the case of bits out…no room on the bench for the project!!!
      When’s that new antenna going up?
      One of these days we may want to have a UrbanSurvival net – any ideas? 40 meters? CW or SSB?

  5. My late husband who passed away 20 plus years ago – NEVER – used nails . . . but then he was a machinist . . . screws allow one to take something apart, which is good more often than not.

  6. I have been doing some sun gazing in resent years, lots of claims about that,but I tend to be quite cautious and have been practicing for very short periods. The effects at my short durations are not that noticeable. Any way quite a lot to think about, in regards to all you have written about today…. I also watch a lot of fires since that is how we heat exclusively. Thanks for the great info.

    • “I also watch a lot of fires since that is how we heat exclusively.” Yes, there seems to be magic in them

      • That’s what I waqs getting at. magic, or does it some how resonate with or activate our DNAQ at some level?

  7. With as many times as the electric company has cut the power off on us out at the ranch due to line problems and transformers and such I’m turning my attention to non-powered hand tools now. THOSE are really hard to come by and I’m kicking myself for passing up the ones I have over the years at all the estate sales. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

      • Thanks. I’ve definitely been thinking about putting the well for the house and corrales on solar but it runs on a 220v pump due to its depth and pressure requirements which will make things expensive. The one thing that keeps me from making the leap for that one is the need for batteries. They only last a few years between replacement and are the most expensive part of the set-up. We have two windmills that we’ve put solar pumps on that operate only during the daylight hours and seem to keep up with demand by livestock so far but if either of the two links you’ve given aren’t in my Favorites section they will be soon.

        In regard to the latest solar pump we installed I’m not satisfied with the solar panels that came with the kit. They don’t work very efficiently unless the sunlight strikes them at a very sharp angle whereas the first one we had installed works well at almost any angle. Can you put any solar panel on a regulator as long as it’s getting the voltage it needs to run the pump or load?

    • Also Bill at this point in timeThe way the grid is set up today because there are those that love the power and control of it. makes it extremely vulnerable and liable to have dramatic failures or even a major collapse.
      Solar power gives you the security of having power when they have those dramatic failures happen.
      Depending on where you live gives you financial kick backs to help reduce the expenses.

  8. “new visitors to this site would think me quite daft for spending time on (potentially age-reversing) projects like light crowns”

    I really don’t know why someone would see a subject like the light crown affects etc.. as Daft..

    anyone that has done any reading even with childrens story books has heard of the affects of crystals.. from Reiki stones.. I carry rose quartz in my pocket.. I call it my thinking stone.. my kids use to collect and still do pretty stones.. we would cut them then tumble them to make all kids of things..
    Our drinking water runs through a filter that is filled with rose quartz.. I don’t know if it makes any affects but.. our household is calmer than most of the households that I have ever visited.. no drama here..

    Indian temples that are thousands of years old have been constructed to have the musical pillars that when tapped is suppose to make the sacred sounds.. these have been studied and found out that they weren’t cut from stone like what had been previously thought but constructed using quartz and granite and formed thousands of years before the first known concrete was known to exist..
    Meditation is is by sounds in specific frequencies.. a lot of studies on that.. I myself love to read with meditation music either from musical bowls etc.. at 110mz. One of the first experiments I ever did was make a crystal radio with my father.. now you can buy quartz memory discs and hard drives.. we actually even have a crystal ball.. ( its in a flower pot arrangement but hey)

    https://zalbarath666.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/cunningham-scott-encyclopedia-of-crystal-gem-and-metal-magic.pdf

    https://www.dopemystic.com/dopemystic-blog/2018/3/8/the-science-behind-crystals-the-effects-of-wearing-jewelry

    where does a guy start when you start talking about light sound crystals.. the power of crystals with light going through them..

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2981872/

    https://www.britishmuseum.org/pdf/Gems_of_Heaven_online.pdf

    file:///C:/Users/Owner/Downloads/Friedman_umd_0117N_13936.pdf
    http://www.ejpmr.com/admin/assets/article_issue/1501485745.pdf

    http://www.pcas.org/assets/documents/pagesfromv38n4-5.pdf

    many wear crystals.. whether or not it is a diamond or a ruby etc.. carrying these crystals came from lessons taught through history on their importance..

    https://www.zmescience.com/research/technology/quartz-disk-5d-storage-52543/

    I definitely don’t see anything odd about the light crown and possible effects.. but then I believe everything is a frequency to.. that we and everything we know is held together in a string with the only difference is a frequency separating the bonds..

    • “I definitely don’t see anything odd about the light crown and possible effects..”

      I think manufacturing and offering them for sale on AMZN would be a great business opportunity, JMHO!

  9. Fire and IR! As a fire sign, I resemble that!

    I’ll be buying at least a couple of the IR illuminators for their intended purpose, and perhaps another one for experimentation. I already have some high powered 680 nm sources, and can use more real IR. Mammalian tissue is generally permeable to wavelengths of 700-900nm, and this is the basis of fNIRS, oximetry, and other methods of IR medical imaging. DIY fNIRS is possible, and much less complex than DIY fMRI. On the therapeutic end, there’s so much research on PBM that it would take a semester of reading just to get up to speed.

    I suspect that we evolved such that we naturally exploit the bio-transparency window of NIR. There may even be information encoded in sunlight, for all we know. How nature responds to the NIR spectrum has been one of the less flamboyant aspects of medical research. It’s really fascinating to me, though it’s been relegated to “spare” time, such as that is.

    All of George’s disclaimers apply, and YMMV.

  10. Speaking of intelligence:

    Bruno: XLNX, TER, CY, MXIM, MU, AMD, & STM are the ones I am currently looking at. I have a few more I am researching. Since the trend is down & as the old saying goes, “the trend is your friend until it ends”

    Thank you ECS, for above contribution! AMD seems to me the most reasonable issue to take a chance at, on a technical basis, at this point in time.

    Since trends will change at any moment in time, and no one (knows for sure!!) which way they’ll go it would be smart to use a stoploss of @ 5-10%. This is NOT any investment advice, just some one’s opinion.

  11. $30 each:

    ‘Bought 11 Disston saws a few years ago…
    22 assorted Ames garden tools, mostly spades and hay forks, a couple years earlier…
    23 Ames and Council mattocks, two years ago.

    TBH none of the saws were those carved, black walnut handled Disstons with the fancy brass screws — a few were carved-handled, but the handles were ash. I kept a 6, 8, 10, and 14 tooth. Nothing was fancy or collectible, all were used, a couple mattocks had broken handles — Just seasoned, usable tools. I’m still waiting for some farmer to avail himself of his wall of axes. I clean ’em up, rack a few, and pass the rest on for cheap, to pay the freight.

    Farm rummages are the best, and farmers like to dicker…!

    I wonder if your campfire results would be even better, if the LEDs were dimmable, and set up to grow dim over the course of several hours…?

  12. There have been some suggestions put forth that we can use high tech surveillance to secure our southern border. Nice idea on paper, but a fact that the MSM will never tell is that there are 77 nations that have border walls. In 100 per cent of those countries, illegal immigration is drastically lower, as well as drug traffic is greatly reduced.

    There is no substitute for a physical barrier.

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