Famous Five Plus: Magical, Mystical Nature of Science

Famous Five Plus: Magical, Mystical Nature of Science: Top selling author, Eileen Schuh on the magical, mystical nature of science If folks from just a generation ago, my great grandpa...

SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT in simple terms

You know how when a fan is spinning at top speed and you can't see exactly where each individual blade is? The particles that make up atoms (quanta) exist in a state like that--smeared out in space and time. One quantum theory says it is not just that they are moving too fast for us to see, they are in reality, spread out like that (a wave function).

The theory says they remain in this state until we observe them, whereupon they condense into particles in a particular place. (Kind of like sticking your hand into a fan to stop the blades so you can see each blade and exactly where it is.)

This theory about quanta, the building blocks of all matter, was fine and good until physicist Erwin Schrödinger pointed out that it doesn't make sense in reality. He asked what would happen if a cat was in a box that was set up to release poison and kill the cat if a quantum was fired at it and hit a certain spot. If quanta don't gel into particles and therefore are unable to 'hit a certain spot' until we observe them, and we fire one at the box, what happens to the cat before we make our observation? Is it dead or alive, neither or both?

He was saying that contrary to quantum theory, reality must exist independent of our observation of it.

However, despite Schrodinger pointing out the nonsensical implications of the theory, it to this day remains an important and accepted explanation for the behaviour and nature of quanta, a theory adhered to by the world's top physicists, many great mathematicians and countless rational scientists of many ilks.

Reality, therefore, does not condense out of the realm of all possibilities into one point in space and time until we observe it.

 
Very simply put, this theory is the scientific way of saying existence is mind over matter.


Eileen Schuh, Author
FIREWALLS
FATAL ERROR
Schrödinger's Cat
THE TRAZ

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Social Media Networking--a classy act

"Social media networking" has a classy ring to it. Lately I've had several aspiring authors ask me for information on how to promote themselves and their work online. There are many networking opportunities and it is wise to select the platforms you feel most comfortable with as there simply isn't enough time in a day to socialize on all of them. The sites I am most active on are Twitter and Facebook, but that's not to say they are the best for everyone.

Some other sites popular with authors, to name just a few, include GoodReads, LinkedIn, Flickr, LibraryThing, Google Plus, Pinterest, MySpace and YouTube.

Adding video to your advertising on the networking sites is vital. Here is one of my favourite book trailers--look closely, I'm in!


There are several excellent reasons for using  online social networks. If you ask your local newspaper or radio station about the cost of an advertising spot, you'll receive a clue to perhaps the biggest reason--the social networks are free. At least their basic services are at this point in time. That may change in the future but for right now there is no cost to join these sites and post your ads.

A great thing about advertising on the social networks is that you are promoting your books around the world--that is a vast audience of potential readers.

I find social networking fun. That I can interact with fans (and sometimes foes) around the world 24 hours a day all year round without cost is a treasured fact.

If it goes against the grain of your personality to 'toot your own horn', step back a bit and realize you are not bragging when you post ads--you are sharing information. You are letting people know you have a product (book) for sale. I view my online promotions as sharing my passion for my career, my books, my characters. There is nothing egocentric about wanting others to read the novels I wrote. There's nothing wrong with telling others it took me half a century, but I made my childhood dream of becoming a novelist, a reality.

My books are a value to my community, to my world. They not only entertain, they teach, they explore, they elucidate. I must let people know they are there.

A classy act is brought
        to you by

 SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT

All these reasons for participating in social networking should be tightly entwined to make your online experience both enjoyable and effective. Splashing ads across cyberspace works only up to a certain point, you must interact with prospective readers in order to attract attention to those ads. People are prone to buy books from famous authors, their favourite authors, and books written by people they feel they know. Interacting online in ways other than pure self-promotion, allows people get to know you.

Before doing any of that, though, it is necessary to establish your own little corner on the Web. That is, to truly have an effective online presence one must have a personal blog and a website. And, because the WWW is lovely, there are free tools you can use to link all these sites. Your tweets can appear on your blog, facebook posts can be duplicated on Twitter, and so on.

Although those tools are free, one has to pay a fee to register a blog and website and for those of us un-tecky people, we may have to pay a web designer to get started. Compared to the cost of TV, radio, and print ads, the fees for having your own site are negligible. If your budget is really strict, you can always team up with other authors and share the advertising space, the costs, and the upkeep duties. (Cross-promoting other authors is a huge blessing--another free form of advertising.)

I do share my personal space with other authors via hosting guest blogs, but I shy away for placing formal advertisements for unrelated products and services on my sites. Although some authors do it to help defray the cost of a website and blog, to me, Magic of the Muses and eileenschuh.com are MY advertising platforms. I don't want any distracting popups and links that take people away from my pages. I want to showcase MY books and MY talent.

If you are bit tech-savy and have books on Amazon, you can put their link on your site and they'll pay you a referral fee if someone clicks on it and buys your book.

Tech-savy or not, authors often miss out on the obvious--post ads for your own books on your blog posts and websites. Every time I blog I include a "This blog has been brought to you by...THE TRAZ" (or one of my other books).

Make your website and blog visually appealing, with an easy to read font and easy-on-the-eyes colours and graphics. Keep blog posts short (under 750 words) and include graphics and pictures to add interest. Advertise your blog and website on your social networks, and vice-versa.

I'll be back with some more tips on using Twitter and facebook.

Eileen Schuh, Author

FIREWALLS
FATAL ERROR
Schrödinger's Cat
THE TRAZ

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Meditation this is not...

Noise, white
Stars, bright
Tub, hot
Meditation this is not

Must clear the mind of conscious thought
Cease all fine poetries
Quit pondering infinities

Breathe deep through the nose 
Relax the fingers, 
Relax the toes 
Let the eyelids gently close. 

Those stars that now I cannot see
How did they start to be and when
and someday will they ever end?

Breathe deep find that space 
That quiet place 
Like at your birth 
when you first 
arrived on earth 
and had no words to guide your thoughts--

And no defined sense of self
I was one with everything else
No sense of me and you and them
Of now or never, how or when--

Breathe deep through the nose
Relax the fingers and the toes 
Lay back, supine pose
Let the water cradle bones
Let your ears sink below

Noise white
Stars bright
Tub hot--

Air cold, strange about that cold I caught...

Meditation this is not.

Brought to you by: 

SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT  

Where everything that can possibly happen, does.