the dark side

I've read the "Satanic Bible" by Anton Levay. I've also read "The Necronomicon" - originally written, in the 8th century, by the "Mad Arab" Abdul Alhazred, it is the Book of the Dead, the Book of the Black Earth (so the claim goes).

genetic code

What do you think of cloning? Should we do it? I say "why not..."  Mother Nature has been doing that since the beginning of time. How else do you explain identical twins?

life elsewhere

possibilities of life elsewhere. In the book "The 12th planet", Zecharia Sitchin, proposes that humans are descendents of the Nefilim - a superior race from Marduk, the 12th planet.

quantum mechanics

I read an interesting book by Sheldon Glashow: "Interactions". This follows his career in quantum mechanics. Everything you ever wanted to know about: gluons, quarks, electromagnetic properties, various laws of physics - but were afraid to ask.  I read this for fun :)

astronomy

My favourite book is: "END: Cosmic Catastrophe and the Fate of the Universe" by Frank Close. Everyone worries about man-made disasters. They pale in comparison to what the universe is ready to throw at us.

genetic manipulation

Mother Nature has been doing that since the beginning.  Bees cross-pollinate flowers don't they? Besides, would you rather have chemicals on your food (no one knows the accumulative effects all those chemicals have, by the way). Or would you rather have foods that have been modified slightly to survive more harsh conditions, as well as not be devastated by insects.

alien technology

"The Day After Roswell", Philip Corso, explains how some of the technology we have is reverse engineered from the craft that crashed in Roswell.

atlantis and lemuria

Atlantis. we've all heard about, but did you know that there was another civilization called: Lemuria. It was first proposed by an English zoologist: Philip L. Schlater. He was trying to figure out how the same form of lemur could be found in Madagascar, Africa, India and Indonesia. Lemurs can't fly or swim; they have to walk across land. So Schlater suggested that all of these areas were once connected by a vast continent, for which he proposed the name of Lemuria. A German naturalist, Ernst Heinrich Haeckel, proposed that Lemuria was the "cradle of the human race".

time

"Time: A Traveler's Guide" by Clifford Pickover. Now, here's an interesting book - it's all about time. Is time travel possible? Is time real? Does time flow in one direction only? Does it have a beginning and end? Various arcane subjects are discussed: space-time diagrams, light cones, cosmic moment lines, transcendent infinite speeds, Lorentz transformation, superluminal and ultraluminal motion, Minkowskian space-times, Godel universes, closed time-like curves, and Tipler cylinders. Now, I admit I don't understand most of that, but I'm reading it for fun :)

the origins of life

Humans, as we know this form, are an accident. Humans have adapted to this environment. If anything, in the beginning when life was formed, was different (i.e. air, gravity, light, etc) then we would be different.

something to start with

every month, starting in March, I will post some random topic for discussion.  so stay tuned for some rather bizarre subject matter.
post your comments, ideas, thoughts, or opinions on the topic of the month. or feel free to start another topic for discussion.

cerebral cafe

The Cerebral Cafe is now open for business.
Most anything philosophical is open for discussion.
Come in, pull up a chair and take a load off.

Okay, I know what you're thinking: just what the heck is the "Cerebral Cafe"?
Well, let me answer that in two parts:

According to Webster's Dictionary of the English language:
Cerebral adj. pertaining to the brain; relating to the cerebral hemispheres; marked by intellectual rather than passionate qualities.
Cafe n. a place where coffee, other drinks, and occasionally food is served.
So there, in a nutshell, is the whole purpose of the Cafe: keeping the brain active with ideas and discussing them over coffee.
Could life be so simple? :)

I find all sorts of topics interesting and intriguing.  My library contains a wide range of subjects - everything from "The Hobbit" to Isaac Asimov to socio-biology to UFO's and aliens to the value of zero.  I read and discuss all sorts of topics: from science and technology, to ESP, to space and astronomy, to the bizarre and mundane.  Years ago my friends and I would do "all-nighters" drinking coffee and talking about all sorts of things.  And back then, let me tell you, the coffee was gross!!

So, what fires up your neurons?  What puts your brain into overdrive?
And, no, nothing like finances, politics, or sports [boring...]
What topics do you like to chat about over a cup of java?
Are you a right-brain or left-brain thinker?  Artist or Mathematician?
What wonders of the this universe, or others entrance you?
What mysteries of the mind do you find astonishing?
What do you talk about to stretch your cerebral cortex?
What do you find fascinating: past, present, or future?
We ponder those and other topics at the Cafe.