Lake Michigan Blues

It was a bright sunny morning and early afternoon. I hit the beach about 2pm; so did the snowflakes. By the time I got out of the Jeep the clouds and snow had rolled in. I'm convinced the world takes a great degree of glee in messin' with me, not to mention gravity, one side t'other, and water down my sleeve. Connect the dots...

winter's day

allusions from new illusions
something is wrong
nothing matters

a master juggler plays it out
in a world of random chaos
gravity catches on
a solitary bird sings a song
of a joy never in doubt

a mind deliquesces
lean against the wind
find solace in the susurrus

rainforests

The Congo River

The BBC announced today, that after a World-bank backed process, the Democratic Republic of Congo government has cancelled nearly 60% of timber contracts in the world's second-largest tropical rainforest.

We can all breathe a little easier.

Ents Alive

Socratea exorrhiza, the Walking Palm, is a palm native to rainforests in tropical Central and South America. Its common name arises from the fact that the tree's stilt roots enable it to slowly shift position, up to 1 meter a year to get more sunlight.

This tree grows to 12 meters in height. Its trunk is used in the construction of houses and other structures. It is usually split length-wise before it is used, but it can also be hollowed out and used as a tube.

The inner part of the stilt roots is used as a male aphrodisiac.

diffused

it. is all stardust



The Sculptor Dwarf galaxy, with the position of carbon star MAG 29 noted. (Credit: Palomar Digitized Sky Survey)

The Sculptor Dwarf contains only 4 percent of the carbon and other heavy elements in our own galaxy, making it similar to primitive galaxies seen at the edge of the universe. Those galaxies emitted the light we now see soon after they and the universe formed. Carbon stars could have been pumping dust soon after the first galaxies were born.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090115164528.htm

most of the time it seems dust is something i am in a battle with, and i never win; sometimes, dust looks so beautiful as it floats in the air, maybe in a sunbeam; breathe it in

a muse

things must catch my attention for a reason
or do they
why does it seem so difficult to figure things out
or is it
are they already figured out and i don't know it
if i don't know something is it any less true
what if i do know it and don't know that i know
can one really know anything
or does one just think one knows
i don’t think that thinking is the same as knowing
regardless the answer must be yes
unless it is know

Deus ex Machina

Not sure why I like this so much; probably lots of reasons.


Toybox

http://www.archive.org/flow/FlowPlayerLight.swf?config=%7Bembedded%3Atrue%2CshowFullScreenButton%3Atrue%2CshowMuteVolumeButton%3Atrue%2CshowMenu%3Atrue%2CautoBuffering%3Atrue%2CautoPlay%3Atrue%2CinitialScale%3A%27fit%27%2CmenuItems%3A%5Bfalse%2Cfalse%2Cfalse%2Cfalse%2Ctrue%2Ctrue%2Cfalse%5D%2CusePlayOverlay%3Afalse%2CshowPlayListButtons%3Atrue%2CplayList%3A%5B%7Burl%3A%27TomJantolToybox%5F0%2FToybox%5F512kb%2Emp4%27%7D%5D%2CcontrolBarGloss%3A%27high%27%2CshowVolumeSlider%3Atrue%2CbaseURL%3A%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Earchive%2Eorg%2Fdownload%2F%27%2Cloop%3Afalse%2CcontrolBarBackgroundColor%3A%270x000000%27%7D

if I could get there from here

Science fiction is often a precursor to scientific theories and/or facts.




The Matrix - Star Wars

Holographic noise may have been found by scientiests hoping to detect something as vast as astrophysical sources of gravitational waves, and instead inadvertently detecting the minuscule graininess of space-time.

Our everyday experience might itself be a holographic projection of physical processes that take place on a distant, 2D surface.

Theoretical physicists have long believed that quantum effects will cause space-time to convulse wildly on the tiniest scales. At this magnification, the fabric of space-time becomes grainy and is ultimately made of tiny units rather like pixels, but a hundred billion billion times smaller than a proton. This distance is known as the Planck length, a mere 10^-35 metres. The Planck length is far beyond the reach of any conceivable experiment, so nobody dared dream that the graininess of space-time might be discernable.

So, if my day, or life, seems a little fuzzy...

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126911.300-our-world-may-be-a-giant-hologram.html?full=true

red white and blue

Walked about a mile and a half in the f-f-f-freezing cold, through snow drifts just below my knees, uphill both ways, to catch a rare glimpse of a winter sunset over Lake Macatwa. Last pic taken 1 or 2 minutes before the first, from the same spot in the opposite direction. Top pic - clouds coming in over Lake Michigan (in the distance) for another week of snow.

conjunction

in a second
or maybe even less
a man and woman
have no division sign
between the equal one

to share energy
does not diminish an equation
and less is not the same as more
as two prehistoric wolves
touch snouts
kiss in the silence
of a shadowy star lit forest

dear man you burn so hard
a diamond in the sky
so crazy so sad
so little light shed
unhappy soul
share light with me
if you can

hey neighbors, turn that radio down

Absolute Radiometer for Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Diffuse Emission - ARCADE's mission was to search the sky for heat from the first generation of stars.

Instead, it found a cosmic puzzle.ARCADE's revolutionary design makes it super-sensitive to cosmic noise. Chilled to 2.7 degrees above absolute zero by immersion into more than 500 gallons of liquid helium, each of ARCADE's seven radiometers alternately views the sky and a calibration target.

A mysterious screen of extra-loud radio noise permeates the cosmos, preventing astronomers from observing heat from the first stars. The balloon-borne ARCADE instrument discovered this cosmic static (white band, top) on its July 2006 flight. The noise is six times louder than expected. Astronomers have no idea why.

Announced 01.07.09
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2009/arcade_balloon.html

arrange

a pain of words
dammed in my mind
by an echo of music
from the god of the blue
who sighs in the waves and wind
as i stand in the sand
of a bridge of sighs
and hear songs of the universe
before the earth was ever here

huh, guess I must like this pic, found another poem with it from Nov. 14, after a hike in Saugatuck dunes woods

between time

recumbent on a sunny beach
notions of up down west east
were easily kept out of reach
distinctions created by mind
are indistinct and oh so kind
and i believe them to be true
why else would the sky be blue

there and back time is slow
what moves about i do not know
furtive rustles the only sound
stealthily it comes from ground
melts trees my heart pounds
leaves a shimmery haze
enthralls my gaze
counterpoint to wind and waves
homage paid
in the cathedral of forested dunes

mourning light

i want to love you like the morning
i want to kick your butt
and kiss the corner of your lips

i would walk a hundred miles
for just one of your smiles
if you love me like the morning
in the afternoon and evening

i want to wrestle with your mind
i want to feel like a slut
lick the hollow behind your ear
and maybe even tie you up

i want your stomach in a knot
at the very thought
of love like the morning
every afternoon and evening

out of all the possibilities

Stephan Hawking, who holds Newton's Lucasian Chair at the University of Cambridge, UK, and his colleague Thomas Hertog of the European Laboratory for Particle Physics at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, are about to publish a paper claiming that the Universe had no unique beginning.

They argue it emerged out of a profusion of beginnings, the vast majority of which withered away without leaving any real imprint on the Universe we know today. Only a tiny fraction of the beginnings blended to make the current cosmos.

Hawking and Hertog say that the countless alternative worlds of string theory may actually have existed, and we should picture the Universe in the first instants of the Big Bang as a river of all these possibilities.

Hertog says that our current Universe has features frozen in it from this early quantum mixture. If we start from where we are now, it is obvious that the current Universe must 'select' those histories that lead to these conditions, otherwise we simply wouldn't be here.

One could argue that the cosmos has structured itself around one's very own existence.

~ Do you see what they're saying here? It is something I've always believed - I am the center of my own universe. Now, what am I going to do about that...

once upon a time

there was a girl and a boy
living with archaic strife
they played the game
and thought true love came
in a box entitled Life

he knew she could fly
like Icarus too high
he watched as she dropped
the grounding rod from the sky

now time won't even tell
what is hidden
what comes unbidden
from a dark deep wide kell

only against the wind she leans
for who knows what it means
to go on in that abstract way
while never was fades away
and every hope and all her schemes
dance with shadows behind opaque screens


~ i wrote this 10/24/08, and posted in on my xanga site. a musician friend from there (from England, living in France actually) liked it, and just sent me a mp3 of his studio recording, a movie was the only way i could figure out how to post it. Tim played guitar, drums, bass, and sang two voices.

in sane

While living in a northern clime has its beauty year 'round, sometimes the inconvenience of nature in winter leads one to do odd things. Like googling 'insane' to find quotes.

"Lighten up while you still can. Don't even try to understand. Just find a place to make your stand, and take it easy." - The Eagles

"There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life." - Frank Zappa

"I don't pretend to understand the universe...it's much bigger than I am."- Albert Einstein

"The world is tragic to those who feel and comic to those who think."- Robert Walpole
~ sometimes vice versa, which makes it all worthwhile, in some kinda inside-outside-up-side-down-side sorta way

"Don't be so humble. You're not that great." - Golda Meir


on a completely different note:
http://www.boxson.net/groupe/manfred-dylan (+bonus tab)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8jmLec_wEc

a walk in the park

a much more normal winter day in Michigan. tint o'blue is merely a camera illusion, it's gray and snowing - stark beauty.

logic

do you think logically?

take the test: http://www.think-logically.co.uk/lt.htm

i scored 93% (answering quickly), how'd you do?

sunshiny day

blue skies, fluffy clouds, nice walk on frozen dunes

Am Bush

I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully." - September 2000, explaining his energy policies at an event in Michigan.

k, what about zebra mussels?

"Rarely is the question asked, is our children learning?" - January 2000, during a campaign event in South Carolina.

well, is they?

"There's no doubt in my mind, not one doubt in my mind, that we will fail." - Oct. 4, 2001, in Washington. Bush was remarking on a back-to-work plan after the terrorist attacks.

heh

"It would be a mistake for the United States Senate to allow any kind of human cloning to come out of that chamber." - April 10, 2002, at the White House, as Bush urged Senate passage of a broad ban on cloning.

indeed

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." - Aug. 5, 2004, at the signing ceremony for a defense spending bill.

...

"This thaw - took a while to thaw, it's going to take a while to unthaw." Oct. 20, 2008, in Alexandria, La., as he discussed the economy and frozen credit markets.

i taut i thaw a pussycat, er, no, um, ah thot ah thaw a freeze

to say we live in Orwellian times

might be a bit of an understatement

Using data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, the ACLU has determined that nearly 2/3 of the entire US population (197.4 million people) live within 100 miles of the US land and coastal borders.

The government is assuming extraordinary powers to stop and search individuals within this zone. This is not just about the border: This " Constitution-Free Zone" includes most of the nation's largest metropolitan areas.





Fact Sheet on U.S. "Constitution Free Zone"
http://www.aclu.org/privacy/37293res20081022.html


Constitution Free Zone: The Numbers
http://www.aclu.org/privacy/spying/37320res20081022.html



Well, I know where my freedom can be found; in fact, I may have found my next abode.

everywhere a sign

Wax and clay tablets, animal skins and tree bark have been used by humankind to record data for over 4,000 years. Math symbols for addition, subtraction, and other computations have only been around for about 500 years as recorded on paper.

In medieval times p and m, with a bar or wavy line over the top, indicated plus or minus. The first textbook to use the symbols + and - was written in 1498 by Johann Widman, used to indicate business surpluses or deficits.

Robert Recorde, and English mathematician in the sixteen century, introduced the symbols to England, and thereby the rest of the English-speaking world. His mathematical works were written in English; unusual for the time, as most math books were in Latin. (More than one hundred years later, Newton wrote his works in Latin, as did many scholars after him.) Recorde's most famous work was the Whetstone of Witte of 1557. In it he introduced these newfangled signs: “There be other 2 signes in often use of which the first is made thus + and betokeneth more: the other is thus made - and betokeneth lesse”. In the same book he introduced our modern equals sign: “I will sette as I doe often in woorke use, a paire of paralleles, or Gemowe [that is, twin] lines of one length, thus: ======, bicause noe 2. thynges, can be moare equalle”.

The word whetstone in the title of Recorde’s book was a pun on the word coss, then used in English for the unknown thing in algebra (and hence the cossic art or the rule of coss for algebra). This word had come through French from the Italian cosa as a translation of the Arabic shai, “a thing”, but Recorde probably got it from German, where it was also used. The pun arises because in Latin cos means a whetstone. Recorde may have written in English, but he still expected his audience to appreciate a trilingual pun!

The ÷ sign was originally used to indicate writings that were considered dubious, corrupt or spurious. It was first used in a book by Johann Rahn, Teutsche Algebra in 1659, as a symbol for division. Until recently ÷ was used by the Danes to mean subtraction; to avoid confusion they adopted the international usage of division.

The division sign in Rahn’s time was known either as the obelus or sometimes the obelisk, from a Greek word meaning a roasting spit. The idea seems to have been that such dubious matter was thrust through, as with a spit; the word is the same as that for a tapering pillar, another object with a pointed end. Confusingly, the word obelus was later used for the printer’s character we often call a dagger, another symbol with a point.

When people began to write computer languages in the 1950's, there were no keyboard symbols for multiplication and division, so the * and / were used. The forward slash is also known as the solidus, oblique or virgule, among other names.


~ A gull by any other name...

There is math in music, but on an unrelated note, today as I was standing at the bay of Lake Mac, listening to the ice creaking and watching the flocks of gulls, all of a sudden one flock and then another flew up with a raucous cry. As I watched their sky patterns over the middle of the lake, one gull stood out as larger...darker...wait...white head and tail...hmm...always a thrill, bald eagle!