Part 2 Understanding Yang and Ying's Defense

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Doubling Process

It is impossible for either ying or yang to exist without the other. To imagine death without birth is a logical impossibility. To imagine birth without death, quickly leads to unimaginable over population. For our first step in understand these powerful forces, we will imagine yang without ying.

When a quantity increases very rapidly, we say that it increases exponentially. A precise measurement of its rapidity is the period of time during which the quantity doubles. The smaller the doubling period the faster that quantity increases. Thus, the power of the exponential function, the thing we call yang, reduces to one number, the doubling period. We examine the incredible growth of a number when it is doubled repeatedly.

A commoner once performed a great deed for a king. When the king asked what the commoner wanted for a reward, the commoner replied, “give me one grain of wheat for the first square of the chess board, 2 for the second, 4 for the third, and for each subsequent square double the number of grains of the present square. That is he wanted:
1+2+4+8+16+ 2⁵+2⁶+ … + 2⁶³ = W, grains of wheat.
It would appear that in calculating W, one needs to perform the laborious task of adding up the 64 numbers,1, 2, 4, 8, … 2⁶³. There is, however, a clever short cut.

There was a person who had the remarkable ability to glance at a heard of sheep and know immediately their number. When asked about this ability, he explained that he counted the number of legs and divided by four. While you might not think this funny, you will certainly agree that it is silly. Let us modify this story to a person who had the same ability to count pigeons. He might reply that he counted their wings and subtracted all of the left (right) wings, depending on his political persuasions. We will apply this method to the calculations of W.

Assume that each grain of wheat as two wings. Count the wings and subtract all the right wings. That is, 2W-W=W. Our calculations look like this:

2W – W = [ 2 +4+ 8+16+ … 2⁶³]+ 2⁶⁴-1 -[2 +4+ 8+16+ … 2⁶³] = 2⁶⁴ - 1 = W!


2 multiplied by itself 64 times minus one, well 2⁶⁴. (No one could possibly notice that extra grain of wheat).

Now we have a new problem, imagining
2⁶⁴ =1. 8446744072 x 10¹⁹ = 18,446,744,072,000,000,000 grains of wheat. (2⁶³ = 9.223372036 x 10¹⁸ grains on the last square, rounded off to about 10¹⁹ )

It is estimated that the age of the universe is 13.8 billion years, that is 1.38 x 10¹⁰ years. To change this to seconds multiply by 365x24x60x60 to get:
30758400 x 1.38 x 10¹⁰ seconds = 42446592 x 10¹⁰ =
4.2446592 x 10¹⁷ seconds.

This means that if we were to count 44 grains of wheat per second (2⁶⁴/4.2446592 x 10¹⁷ = 43.45871648 grains of wheat) and started at the Bing bang, we would just be finishing.

Another way to imagine this enormous number, 2⁶⁴, is to consider the thickness of a stack of 2⁶⁴ papers.

Take a standard sheet of paper, 11 X 8 ½ inches. Fold it exactly in two. Fold the result in two, and continue folding it in two, alternating the fold on the vertical and horizontal. Each fold doubles the thickness of the paper and halves the area. Most people can do about 6 folds. The result has the thickness of 128 sheets of paper.

(One could do better if they took a larger and thinner sheet of paper to begin with. Try a full sheet of newspaper. It is 0.07 mm thick. One would do well to get seven folds, about the equivalent of 256 thickness of newspaper, which is 17.92 mm thick, 0.7055 inches. A Sunday newspaper of 1024 layers is 2.8 inches thick.)

Each sheet, of ordinary typing paper, is about 0.1 mm thick, so 24 sheets plus 2 reams, of 500 each, gives us a stack of 1024 sheets of paper about 1024 x 0.1 mm or 102.4 mm = 10.24 cm (4.0315 inches) thick.
How thick is a stack of 2²⁰ sheets of paper?

344.021 feet

# of sheets	thickness
1	0.0039 inches
128	0.35275 inches
256	0.7055 inches
210 = 1024	4.0315 inches
220	344.021 feet
230	66.7192 miles
240	68320 miles
250	70 million miles
264	280 light years

280 light years about 1.64567176 x 10¹⁵ = 1,645,671,760,000,000 miles. To put this in perspective, it is only 93,000,000 miles from the earth to the sun. So this thickness is 12,522,227.7 times the distance between the earth and the sun!

(The stack of 2⁶⁴ newspapers would only be 196 light years thick, a difference of 84 light years. Small differences become huge during the doubling process, a lesson useful when applied to IRA’s and Roth IRA’s).

When we consider the time interval for the doubling to take place, the power of pure yang reveals itself. We now apply yang (the power of birth) to the very beginning of human life.

The Beginnings of Life

After fertilization, the human egg divides into two cells. These two cells divide in to 4 cells. The next division yields 8 cells and each further division doubles the number of cells. This is like folding paper, or putting wheat on the chessboard, above. The time interval for this yang is somewhere between 10 and 30, let us say 24 hours. In 64 days, how many cells does the fetus have? We made the calculation above. The answer is the same as the number of grains of wheat on the last square of the chessboard, 2⁶³ = 10¹⁹ cells. This is outrageous! An average adult human has approximately 100 billion (10¹¹) cells. If there were no cell death in the first 64 days, our two month old fetus would have same number of cells as 10¹⁹/10¹¹ = 10⁸ = 100,000,000 adults.

This does not happen because the power of ying restores a perfect balance. Ying, the power of death, kills off cells at an enormous rate. We can infer its power by the job that it must do in restoring the perfect balance against the very powerful yang. Clearly, many of the cells die from starvation because the mother cannot eat enough food. Ying must kill cells from the very start, otherwise yang will become too powerful. If one of the first two cells dies in the second day, without dividing, the production is cut in half. On the other hand, a cell dying on the 64 day makes no discernable effect.

How long do embryonic cells live? After viewing the exponential growth of yang, we know that they must have a short life, certainly much less than 64 days. I also expect that as the embryo ages, the rate of division increases. I have heard that the adult human replaces every cell in their body in 7 years. If this is true, adult cells have a much longer life and a much longer dividing time than embryonic cells.

Of course, we have only covered the first two months of a pregnancy. There are seven more months of this incredible battle between ying and yang.

So it is, the perfect balance between ying and yang bring forth the miracle of a baby.

I am a monkey’s uncle!

Another balancing of ying and yang might alter your feelings towards fellow humans. Everyone has two parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great grandparents, 16 great great grandparents and so on, or do they? If a generation is 20 years (the doubling time) where time is moving backwards into history, how many direct ancestors do you have 64 generations ago (64 x 20 = 1280 years ago or in the year, 725ad)?

From the calculations above, for 64 doubling periods we get the outrageous answer of 10¹⁹ ancestors! However, the world population in the year, 725, was about 210 million (2.1 x 10⁸). Some of these people had no children, no grand children, etc. and hence were not ancestors of anyone alive today. To be generous, assume 2 x 10⁸ of them have progeny. If every one of them were in your ancestral tree, then each of these people in the year, 725, would need, on the average, to play the roll of 10¹⁹/2 x 10⁸ = 5 x 10¹⁰ = 50,000,000,000 of your ancestors. What is the controlling counterforce to this exponential madness? We cannot kill off our ancestors like embryonic cells, but each of them must perform duplicate rolls. This power of ying is not of death but of duplication.

If you marry your sibling, your children have only two grand parents, not 4. Your parents are both maternal and fraternal grand parents to your children. Marry your first cousin and your children have 6 great grand parents, not 8. Mary your second cousin and your children have 14 great great grandparents, not 16. (It is possible that your second cousin qualifies through two sets of great great parents and hence you have only 12). Clearly, there is a lot of marrying nth (n = 1, 2, 3…) cousins.

Just like in the death of embryonic cells, this ying must act quickly and often to reconcile the incredible discrepancies in the numbers, 10¹⁹ and the total number of possible ancestors, 2 x 10⁸. In other words, n is much smaller than one might think (15 or 20 would be huge!). It inspires a new feeling that all people are much more closely related than they imagined. The problem of cousin closeness is incredibly complex. “n” is relatively large between the queen of England and an Australian aborigine and quite small among the residents of Iceland. Next time you see a homeless person or a person of a different color, remember he/ she is probably a close cousin, much closer that you might have imagined.

Too many people

The exponential is not only important in studying our ancestors, but is quite crucial in counting progeny. The yang of population growth is very complex. The doubling period changes over time and location. For many years, the knowledge of the power of this function had demographers predicting doom. However, ying comes to restore balance. It is in the form of disasters, pandemics, war, and even technology like the green revolution that postpone doomsday. Will aids save us as the black plague once did?

If one thought ying was a bad force, consider this. By preventing juvenile death and supplying family planning to developing countries, their birth rate is reduced. Ying’s power can be revealed in paradoxical ways.

In part, 3 we will derive the mathematical equations of yang. It requires a little calculus, but everyone will understand the basic assumptions.

DICK

Part 1 Introduction- Ying-Yang: The Theory of Everything

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Ancient Chinese philosophers believed that everything contained two energies called “ying” and “yang”. Yang represented birth, light, heat, and strength; it was very active and virulent. Ying represented death, darkness, cold, and weakness; it was very passive and showed strength only when confronting yang. The symbol on the left shows these two forces intertwined, ying is black and yang white. Neither ying nor yang can exist without the other. There is no birth without death or death without birth. Perfection is when these two forces are in balance as the symmetry of the symbol shows. There is a tendency to see yang as good and ying as bad. This is a huge mistake! Too much of a good thing is bad, whether it is caloric intake, economic growth, population, or wealth. This is the lesson of the ancient Chinese philosophers.

One can use the theory of ying-yang to described processes as grandiose as the big bang and as small as the microscopic beginnings of life. In the big bang, the dense, hot, radioactive stars represent yang. This yang is the creator of life as these atomic furnaces produce the very stuff that we are made from. Ying is the void of space, cold, dark, and dead. Our earth maintains a delicate balance of ying and yang, not too dense or sparse, not too hot or cold, not too light or dark, with birth and death in a delicate balance. The same theory can be used on the microscopic level. Life begins with the exponential growth of the fetus, sustainable by the death of individual cells. We will examine this in the next of several articles, that we will call, “The Ying-Yang Articles.” They will all be marked with the ying- yang symbol above.

Many of the ying-yang processes, like the two above, are beyond human control. We will pay special attention to those that can be influence by man and show the importance of maintaining the balance of perfection, advocated by ancient Chinese. An important advantage we have, that was not availed to the ancient Chinese, is the invention of calculus. With this valuable tool, we can formulate yang in a precise mathematical form. In fact, a single deferential equation can describe yang. The solution to this equation is the exponential function. Ying is much harder to describe. It takes many different forms, and, in most cases, its ability to control yang is the only measure we have of its power. Knowledge of calculus is not a prerequisite to understanding of the process of yang. Paradoxically, it makes our calculations easier. Anyone able to calculate interest on a loan or investment will be able to understand the basic process.

Here are the ying yang articles currently planned:

Part 1 Introduction- Ying-Yang: The Theory of Everything
Part 2 Understanding Yang and Ying’s Defense
Part 3 Get the Most Yang for the Buck
Part 4 The Tale of Two Taxes
Part 5 Retirement Troika
Part 6 Riding the Exponential Curve
Part 7 The Disaster of Excessive Yang

_

DICK

Backward Numbers

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I read with great interest a statement by an elementary teacher, “Developmentally, children will write numbers backwards until they are 8 years old “

No! These children write numbers, as they should be! The rest of us write numbers backwards! For example, the number 6154 should be written 4516. (In the Scandinavian countries, it is common usage to speak of numbers under 100 in the reverse order. They say the number “24” is four and twenty. “56” is spoken of as six and fifty, but they still write numbers backwards like the rest of us.) Justification for my claim requires the consideration of the way we developed written words and numbers.

The languages of the Western world were derived from Latin, which is read and written from left to right. There is no particular advantage in doing it this way. We could just as well read from right to left, top to bottom, or from bottom to top, but whatever we do, it is vital that we be consistent. When one finishes reading a line of text, the beginning of the next line must be easily located. To facilitate this, almost all written text is left justified. Our typewriters and computers do this for us automatically.

The Latin languages work very well for words, but are an abomination when it comes to numbers. Try adding the numbers, MCX XIII and MCCXI. the correct answer is MMCCCXXIV. There is a very good reason we limit Roman numerals to clocks and Super Bowl games. While our written words come from the Hellenic civilization, our written numbers come from the Arabic civilization, and as you might guess, the Arabic-based languages are written and read from right to left, and are right justified.

Try adding up the numbers, 8045, 24, 906, 5, and 83. I think that everyone would agree that the job would be made easier by arranging these numbers in a column.

8045
24
906
5
83

____

?????

This is still not the best way. Try:

8045
24
906
5
83

_____
9063

Much easier!

Now try writing the numbers backwards and adding left to right (the same direction we teach our children to read and write):
--2 1 1
5408
42
609
5
38
____

3609

5+4+6+5+3 = 32 (23); put down the 3 and carry the 2
2+4+2+0+8 = 61 (16); put down the 6 and carry the 1
1+0+9 = 01 (10); put down the 0 and carry the 1
1+8 = 9; put down the 9. The answer is 3609 (9063).

I first became aware of the problem, when using an old key punch machine. These were the machines that one used to punch little holes in IBM cards, which were read by computers. The cards contained words of written instructions as well as numbers. The machines automatically left justified everything, which worked quite well for entering words. However, there was a real problem when entering numbers. Each number was placed in a field of fixed length, and needed to be right justified. The operator had to stop, and count the number of digits in the number and subtracted it from the length of the field, in order to know the precise place to start typing the number so that would be right justified.

The handheld calculator illustrates the modern version of this problem. Calculators automatically right justify all numbers even though we enter them from left to right. Observe that when entering a digit all of the previous entered digits march magically to the left. One can observe this phenomenon by setting your word processor to right justify, and start typing.

You
you get
you get something
you get something just
you get something just like
You get something just like this!

Bizarre!

I certainly do not plan a crusade to have everyone write numbers in the correct direction, but I hope that you will better understand a young student’s dilemma.

DICK

The Meaning of Words

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"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."
Through the Looking Glass- Lewis Carroll


Recipe for establishing a strong political movement

We blame some fellow human beings (bad people) for all of our troubles, so it helps if these “bad people” can be easily identified. Historically, we have used color or ethnicity as identifying markers, but increasing integration has made it more difficult to identify the “bad people”. One way we now attempt to identify them is by labeling them with an identifying word and conditioning their followers to believing the word is bad. The true meaning of the word is of no consequence as long as the context makes it clear that the word is truly bad.

For example, a strong political movement in this country owes its strength to this tactic. Consider the list of their bad words:

LIBERAL: The context has changed over time. At one time, “bleeding heart liberal” was an invective. They dropped bleeding heart when it identified a liberal as “compassionate.”
More recently, a President referred to liberal as the “L” word in the same way we demonize words by refusing to say them and refer to them by their first letter. Thus, the “L” word now joins the “F”, “N”, and “S” words as unspeakable.
What does it mean to call someone a liberal? My Standard English Thesaurus says we are accusing them of being open minded, broadminded, noninterventionist, freethinking, laissez-faire, generous, copious, abundant, profuse, substantial, large, tolerant, forward thinking, non-judgmental, charitable, understanding, and, yes, even compassionate.

ELITIST: This could be defined as, exclusive, discriminatory, superior, better, better-quality, improved, enhanced, a cut above, excellent, high-class, top-quality, exclusive, first-class, best quality, or expert. According to Sarah Palin, an elitist is someone who thinks they are better than everyone else. It is unlikely that she would label herself an elitist. Therefore, logic requires us to conclude that Sarah Palin believes she is no better than Obama!

INTELLECTUAL: The people who consider this a bad word are those to whom this word could not possibly apply.

ARAB: This word is so bad that even McCain felt obligated to defend his opponent when one of his supporters accused Obama of being an Arab. He was inspired to say: “Obama is a decent person”. Does this mean that McCain believes Arabs to be indecent? If so, I have a perfectly good English word to describe McCain.

SOCIALIST: This word is the ultimate insult! It is even worse than liberal. Who are these terrible socialists, the ones who want to spread the wealth around? Before criticizing someone for being a socialist, one should take measure of his or her own socialistic tendencies. For that purpose, we have devised a test.

DICK

TEST FOR SOCIALIST!

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TEST FOR SOCIALIST!

We owe a great debt to the McCain campaign for pointing out the basic differences between the two major parties. The spread-the-wealth notion of the Democratic Party is Socialism, and McCain has accurately labeled Obama a socialist. However, you must realize nobody is perfect and most of us suffer some socialistic tendencies.

We have devised a test for you to discover the strength of your socialistic tendencies. In each of the following questions, pick one of the two alternatives with which you most agree.

1) How do you feel about the federal income tax?
A. The income tax should never be used for distributing the wealth. Taxes should always be cut and everyone should be allowed to keep the maximum amount of their hard-earned money. After all, you are a better judge of how to spend your money than the government. Each, according to his or her own conscience, can give voluntary contributions to charities that help the poor. The government has no responsibility to help the less fortunate. The ideal income tax is a flat tax where everybody pays the same percentage of his or her income.
B. The income tax should be used for distributing the wealth. Those that are fortunate enough to stay healthy and keep a good job should be willing to support the government in helping those that have come upon hard times. The ideal income tax is a graduate tax where the wealthy pay a higher percentage of their income.


2) How do you feel about Social Security & Medicare Tax Rates?
A. The rates should be high and should apply to a relatively low maximum amount of one's income, since those who have income above that maximum derive very little benefit from these programs.
B. The rate should be kept low and should apply to a higher maximum. This will give relief to those who find this tax more burdensome than the income tax.

3) How do you view the Marshall Plan? This US program helped the European countries recover from World War II.
A. We had no moral obligation to these countries. After all, we rescued them from brutal dictatorships. Volunteer organizations like the Red Cross should have financed their recovery.
B. The cost of the Marshall plan was money well spent. We gained much goodwill throughout the world.


4) Do you think the G.I. Bill of Rights bestowed upon our service men and women was a good idea?
A. No! Veterans should be responsible for their own education.
B. Yes, this welfare program allowed many young people an education and the opportunity to purchase their own home.

5) What do you think about the government-sponsored Social Security program?
A. Everyone should be responsible for their own retirement and plan for support of their own dependents if they should become incapacitated. The main effect of this program is to spread the wealth of young, hard-working Americans to the elderly.
B. This program allows many people who have worked hard all their life to retire with dignity.

6) How should we defend our country?
A. We should rely more on private armies of mercenaries, such as Blackwater. They specialize in the business of warfare.
B. The Government should nationalize our defense and rely on citizen soldiers in the proud tradition of the Minutemen.

7) Do you support the big bureaucratic programs of Medicare and Medicaid?
A. It is the duty of every American to provide medical care for their family. The government has no business competing with the insurance companies.
B. Everyone has a right to medical care - even the very old and the very poor.

8) Would you support an extension of Medicare and Medicaid to everyone in this country? (Socialized Health Care)
A. This would be a bureaucratic nightmare. Government personnel, not necessarily trained in medicine, would be telling you what doctor you should go to and what medical procedures you should have. Such a program would destroy the health insurance industry.
B. We are the only developed nation that does not have some form of universal health care. Insurance companies limit peoples’ access to doctors and treatments. In America, the first question a health provider asks is, “Who is your insurance carrier?” In the rest of the westernized world, the first question asked is “What problems do you have with your health?”

9) Do you believe the interstate system of highways, developed under the Eisenhower administration, was a good idea?
A. It would have been much better for many private companies to establish toll roads. The competition among these private companies would insure that the tolls collected would be less than taxes charged for the construction and maintenance of these roads.
B. The burden of collecting tolls would have greatly diminished the value of our interstate system. The almost universal system free roads is a great stimulus to our economy.

10) Do you think it would be a good idea to privatize our fire and police departments? In particular, should we rely on privately owned prisons?
A. Yes.
B. No.

11) Should we privatize all schools?
A. Yes, competition will ensure the best education.
B. No, the greatness of our country depends on universal education. If we relied on private education, many of our children could not afford to go to school.

12) In the drama of Sherwood Forest, which of the two characters do you admire the most?
A. The Sheriff of Nottingham - he protected the hard-earned wealth of the nobility.
B. Robin Hood - he was well-known for the redistribution of wealth.

13) In Dickinson's Christmas Carol, who do you believe to be the better person?
A. Ebenezer Scrooge before Christmas.
B. Ebenezer Scrooge after Christmas.

For every answer of A., score a +1. For every answer of B., score a -1. A higher score places you on the political right. Low scores indicate you are a socialist.

If you score positive, vote for McCain, negative vote for Obama.

DICK