Why is the number 13 evil?

In Sunday school last week, our teacher explained to us how numbers can be evil. I don't like going to Sunday school anymore since my friend Steve got kicked out. (If you want to know how it all happened, you'll have to read my post on 'So, when was God invented, then?'). But my parents think it's a good idea to have at least some religious education. Most of the stuff we get told doesn't make any sense to me, but I still go because my dad promised to get me a new bike for Christmas...

I think what our teacher was trying to tell us was that the devil has a number and that we should avoid using it (it's 666 - in case you're interested). He wanted us to know that 13 can be evil too. I didn't believe any of it and so I tried to think of more interesting things (such as building a fort this winter and playing Quidditch with my friends - we use broomsticks as well, but none of us can fly). I also tried to think of my new bike.

But I know that some people like to believe in strange things. My mom for example thinks that our uncle Herbert is special because he was born on Christmas Day. He believes in angels and sees people who aren't there. (He also uses aluminum foil to wrap his furniture in case aliens want to steal his lunch.) I think Uncle Herbert is schizophrenic. But my mom is convinced that he has visions. And when I asked her about the numbers, she couldn't explain any of it. So I decided to do some more research ...

Here's what I found: a normal year in our calender has a little over 12 lunar cycles, so there's an odd month every four years or so. In the old days, some of the monks who were responsible for coming up with new calenders didn't like this because it was too difficult. That's probably why they thought the 13th month was unlucky. (Find out more about lunar cycles and the blue moon on space.com)

13 is also important for Christians because, when Jesus had his last supper, there were 12 apostles at his table (13 people altogether). One of them betrayed him, so I guess he must have thought 13 was evil. 

In the Jewish religion, a boy achieves maturity when he turns 13. He then becomes a full member of the community (although I don't know if this is a good or a bad thing.) I think witches are cool, so I think it's important that there are normally 13 witches in a coven.

I guess people are a little afraid of the number 13 because there are some very complicated things you can do with it in Maths (and Maths is always scary). There are 13 Archimedean solids, for example, and people say that there are 13 ways for the three fastest horses to finish a race (if you're into this kind of stuff, you will be interested to know that this is because 13 is the third ordered Bell number - you can find out more about Bell numbers here). 

I also think people believe 13 is unlucky because it's an odd number that doesn't seem to fit in anywhere. Some people think it's bad to start a new project on a Friday or on the 13th. But I think that's mostly because you would run way into the weekend before you could finish it...

I like funny words, so I think it's pretty cool that fear of the number 13 is called 'Triskaidekaphobia'. But - as it turns out - the number 13 is not an evil number after all, it's just been a bit unlucky. Not because it's evil but because superstitious people don't seem to like it very much. 

I'll have to talk to my Sunday school teacher on Sunday. Steve and I wanted to start building a boat next Friday. If I talk to him about his superstitions this week, I think there's a good chance that we'll have enough time to finish it next Sunday morning. If I do it right, he'll kick me out too and I could tell my dad it wasn't my fault ...

If you want to know a little more about why people don't like the number 13, check out this post on mentalfloss.com. I took the Quidditch picture from Harrypotter.wikia.com. The first 13 came from the Telegraph website and the calendar with Friday 13 came from a blog called blog.pch.com.
  

What do people think of when they die?

I have been wondering what people think of when they die for quite some time now. I have already asked my dad. But he doesn't know. And every time I ask her, my mom only keeps talking about angels and how people with special birthdays (such as Christmas) see special things others can't see. So I decided to do some research.

People used to be dead once their blood circulation stopped. But nowadays, medicine has found a number of ways how doctors can prevent this from happening (check out some info on Advanced Life Support in this article on Wikipedia. There are also a few reanimation techniques such as CPR - Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation - that can help save people's lives.) Some doctors even claim that they can resurrect people. Someone called Dr Sam Parnia has written a book about cases where people had been dead for more than 40 minutes (check it out on Amazon). So I guess, in the 21st century, you're only dead once your brain has finally stopped working.

My granddad died of a heart attack when he was 89. Technically, it was not his heart that killed him but the fact that - after his heart had given up - his brain was no longer supplied with oxygen. It's too bad I can't ask him what he was thinking when it happened. But there are lots of people around who have worked with people dying or who came back after a near-death experience. So I thought it might be a good idea to have a look at what they're saying...

I found lots of stuff, but most of it was not what I was looking for. In the Guardian, for example, there was an article about what people regretted most when they died. The article was about a woman named Bonnie Ware who used to be a nurse and who wrote a book about the 'Top Five Regrets of the Dying' (you can have a quick look at the book here). What she says is that most people regret that they had to live an unhappy life in which they weren't truly themselves. Having worked too hard came in second place. Bonnie Ware didn't record any young people, and most of her patients were old men, so I think most of the things she has to say are fairly common sense (or just sell very well). Her book didn't answer my question because it didn't mention what people were thinking of when they died. It only went on and on about what they were talking about before it happened.

You can find out all kinds of stuff on near-death experiences (NDEs) online. I think this is because people are really afraid of dying. My granddad used to tell me lots of times that he was tired of life because most of his friends and family were dead. So I think he didn't mind dying that much in the end. But I'm sure he was still pretty scared when it happened.




Psychologists think that most people in our Western World are scared of death. They even have a name for it: it's called 'Thanataphobia'. So I think people will definitely think about how scared or not scared they are when they are dying.

Anyway. There are a few common things in the NDEs I looked at. A priest named Don Piper had a near death experience and was singing along to 'What a friend we have in Jesus' after being hit by a truck. He says he went to Heaven and he's also written a bestseller book about it. He's now a baptist priest with his own church in Texas, so I don't know if he invented the story afterwards to sell a lot of books or if this really happened.

Other people tell stories about how they saw their own surgery or how the paramedics tried to reanimate their lifeless bodies. But they all described their outer body experiences from memory, so I guess they all may have made up at least parts of it. Maybe they were trying to make sense of what happened to them and those were the only explanations they could find. What all near-death experiences have in common is that people saw or thought of something that was connected with who they were or what they believed in.

Sam Parnia says:

'People tend to interpret what they see based on their background: A Hindu describes a Hindu god, an atheist doesn’t see a Hindu god or a Christian god, but some being. Different cultures see the same thing, but their interpretation depends on what they believe.' (I took this quote from an interview on Wired.com)

What this means is that what you think of when you die pretty much depends on who you are and what you believe in. Just before death, the brain goes through some exciting stuff. It is bombarded with a huge amount of sensory information. This happens because of a sudden loss of oxygen or of some traumatic injury (when you get shot in the head, for example). Just before you die, the brain cells then fire one last electrical impulse. Sometimes they also release a chemical called dimethlyltryptamine (DMT). This is exactly the same compound our brain releases when we dream.

So what some people describe as near-death experiences might just be their brain trying to make sense of an enormous sensory overload. And what people later describe as a tunnel or as a white light might just be their memory trying to make sense of a few confusing images...

As it turns out, it is quite difficult to tell what people really think of when they die. Apparently, you can have a near-death experience just by thinking that you're dying. So I think our brain plays all kinds of tricks on us when it is about to stop working.

But I have found out at least one thing that is true. No matter where we're from, which religion we believe in or what our regrets may be. We don't think of shopping lists or money problems when we die. What we think of always has to do with death.


Check out this article on the Daily Mail's website on the thinking you're dying experience. For a few more recorded cases of NDEs have a look round websites such as this one: near-deathexperiences.org. If you always wanted to know how to do CPR, then have a look at this NHS site. There's an interesting video on there with someone showing how to do it properly.

The Zombie Boy was drawn by someone called Rick Lucey, I took it from his blog. The surgery picture came from the National Geographic. The boy in the tunnel can be found on the Paranormal Encyclopedia; the painting is by someone called Mike Pettygrew.


   

So when was God invented, then?

On Sunday my friend Steve got kicked out of Sunday school for asking who invented God. He's a pretty strange kid too (he likes dismantling things). But on Sunday I think he just asked one too many questions. Our teacher didn't answer but got all red in the face and started yelling at him. Then he called his parents and told them to pick up their devil-child and not to bring him back.

I have to say I didn't understand what all the fuss was about. I always thought Sunday school was about learning something. (If you have never been to Sunday school, this story about Sunday schools in Britain will tell you what it's all about.) I even found this quote on a website called time4thinkers:

'What is Sunday School all about?
It’s an environment where you feel totally supported. You can ask the hardest questions as you’re figuring out how to apply spiritual truths to your own experiences.'

I am thinking of bringing it to Sunday school next Sunday and showing it to our teacher. But I have a feeling that this might tip him over the edge.

I thought Steve's question was really interesting. So I asked if it was OK for me to use it on my blog. His parents didn't want me to. But when they called my dad to complain about it, he said he had no idea what blogging was. My dad can be really funny sometimes.

Anyway. 'When was God invented?' is quite a difficult question to answer. Most people would say that he wasn't invented at all, but that he has always been around. (While we're on it, I have to say that I don't understand why God has to be a man. He might as well be a woman. But that's something that will have to wait until some other time. Here's a website on God and Science that goes some way in answering the question. It's still not very clear, but it basically says that 'God is not male, since He is not a physical, but a spiritual, being.')

For people who believe that earth was created in seven days, God has to be something that came first because otherwise he wouldn't have been able to create everything. This means that for creationists (that's what you call them), God was 'invented' before everything else. But for people who believe that God is only an idea, he has been around pretty much as long as people have, because they are the ones with the ideas.

Other religions such as Islam and Judaism have a God too. This complicates things a bit because some religions have been around a lot longer than others. It seems that people have always had to believe in some God-like creature, no matter where they're from. In ancient Greece, people even thought that there were several Gods sitting on a hill called Olympus. Those gods enjoyed messing with people, so they sent all kinds of challenges their way and watched them struggle. It's not clear when the Greek gods were invented but they pretty much died after the fall of the Roman empire. I think that Gods in general only live as long as the culture that believes in them.

Here's a cool website about all of the Greek gods and their relationships. (Check out this Wikipedia picture if you want to know what the Greek gods on Olympus looked like). I think you can say that every culture invents or discovers their own gods. And depending on the culture, these can then be around for quite some time or disappear when the culture that invented them goes down the drain.

The problem with Steve's question is that most people act a little crazy when religion is involved. I think this is because people have to believe in something that can structure their lives. But I don't think they should go all red in the face when they have to explain it to someone. If it is true that God gave his only son to the world as a payment for our sins - as we were told in Sunday school -, I'm sure he won't mind us asking a few questions about his age.

After all the stuff I found, I think it really doesn't matter if God was invented or if he has always been around. If you're a religious person, you should always act as if he's watching you. And if that helps you be a nicer person, it also doesn't matter if God is Jewish, Christian or if he is a Muslim.

I took the picture with the religious fanatic from http://bellitta.com. The picture of God was painted by Michelangelo.

What happens if you fart in Space?

When Superman is on a mission to Krypton (or when he's orbiting Earth to pick up stuff from somewhere else), he can fly through space without a space suit. This is because he's super strong and doesn't need any oxygen or pressure regulating gadgets. But sometimes I wonder what happens to his farts up there.

I mean, he is up there for quite some time, usually. And  it's pretty cold in space. So, the question is: what happens if he has to cut one loose on one of his space missions? Will it become solid and then stick to his cape? Farts are gassy, after all. And in school we were told that gas becomes liquid when it's cold enough.

I found out that human farts consist of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, methane and of hydrogen sulfide. The sulfide is what makes them smelly. But the other gasses are mostly there because of your digestion. Check out some interesting facts on farts on Brenna Lorenz' Blog here. As it turns out, Superman's farts are a bit of a mystery, so I just assumed that they are human.

I did some research on temperatures in space and it seems that space is pretty unpredictable. NASA says that temperatures in space are always around absolute Zero (-270 degrees Celsius). This is because space is a vacuum. But there is some back radiation that makes bodies a bit warmer or colder, depending on the sun (you can check out some rather complicated NASA stuff here). So what they're saying is that, if you're in the shadow of a planet, you could freeze to death at -180 degrees. If you're in the sun, you could happily burn at 115 plus. (I had to ask one of my teachers to explain the NASA stuff to me a little. Check out this website at Universe Today for an explanation of space temperatures that is a bit easier to understand.)

Anyway. For Superman this means that it pretty much depends on where he's flying and when. If he's got the sun in his face, farting might not be a good idea. Hydrogen sulfide is highly flammable, so he might burn his trousers off. If he's flying close to the Ozone layer, he might leave an explosive condensation trail because nitrogen reacts with ozone. And then everyone would mistake him for a plane.

But it turns out that some of his fart gas could actually end up in his cape. If Superman is flying at night and in the shadow of a planet, liquid nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and methane can get stuck in his costume. Nitrogen turns into a solid state at around - 196 degrees, Methane at -161 and hydrogen sulfide at -82.

It's good to know that no one will ever see Superman with a wet cape from farting though because most of the nitrogen will be burnt off by the ozone layer on his way back from space. The rest of his skid marks will probably evaporate into our atmosphere on his re-entry.

If you ever wanted to know what happens to normal Astronauts when they fart into their space suits, check out these cool facts on sciencemuseum.org.uk.

   


I found the cool Superman picture on Odin's Ravens Blog.