Moose Pic
From my back door this morning.
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Busy, Busy, Busy
Recently finished re-reading the Kurt Vonnegut novel Cat's Cradle (1963). It was on my make believe list of high school/early college reading that I intend to revisit in my newly old age. Great book...relevant beyond its commentary on Cold War technologies and nuclear proliferation.
Vonnegut introduces the reader to an entirely new religion. Wikipedia definitions from Bokononism, the fictional (and severely outlawed) religion of the novel:
Foma - harmless untruths, the basis and essence of Bokononism.
Karass - a group of people who, often unknowingly, are working together to do God's will.
Wampeter - the central point and focus of a karass that unites seemingly random people. A wampeter may be something tangible...Vonnegut gives the Holy Grail as an example.
Granfalloon - a false karass; i.e., a group of people who imagine they have a connection that does not really exist. An example is "Hoosiers"; Hoosiers are people from Indiana, and Hoosiers have no true spiritual destiny in common, so really share little more than a name.
Busy, Busy, Busy - words Bokononists whisper when they see an example of how interconnected everything is.
A few quotes from the Indiana native:
(On what's encouraging about the writing trades) ... They allow mediocre people who are patient and industrious to revise their stupidity, to edit themselves into something like intelligence. they also allow lunatics to seem saner than same.
One of the few good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vain. You will have entertained us.
Thanks to TV and for the convenience of TV, you can only be one of two kinds of human beings, either a liberal or a conservative.
I think that novels that leave out technology misrepresent life as badly as Victorians misrepresented life by leaving out sex.
Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college.
Afterthought: The pictures below (click for larger image) reminded me of something else Vonnegut wrote:
So now I believe that the only way in which Americans can rise above their ordinariness, can mature sufficiently to rescue themselves and to help rescue their planet, is through enthusiastic intimacy with works of their own imaginations. I am not especially satisfied with my own imaginative works, my fiction. I am simply impressed by the unexpected insights which shower down on me when my job is to imagine, as contrasted with the woodenly familiar ideas which clutter my desk when my job is to tell the truth.
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Germs Help Find Missing Senator!
The "random walk" approach to exploring new places is my favorite. Take the first time I visited Fairbanks, for instance. The method's easy...drive one direction, turn when the urge hits you, drive a bit more, change direction, and so on. Engineers use this general approach (semi-random initial placement) when finding local or global solutions in a vector field. The putting green is a great place to find individuals using random walk towards a defined goal.
Wiki Link: Random Walk and Random Walk Hypothesis
Wiki Link: Vector Field and Putting Green
Many bacteria take this mindless approach. They go about their exploration in a similar way as I do. Spin propeller-like hair, move forward towards good (interesting things)...reverse propeller and move backwards away from bad things. Bacterial chemotaxis involves one of the only biologically-formed rotating structures by the way.
Wiki Link: Bacterial Locomotion
So, I've found coincidentally that Fairbanks, Alaska was named after a Republican Senator from Indiana and Vice President of the United States under Theodore Roosevelt.
Wiki Link: Fairbanks, AK
Wiki Link: Charles W. Fairbanks
Afterthought: A quote from E.L Doctorow's award-winning novel Ragtime (1975), which involves Charles W. Fairbanks as a minor character follows. This quote concerns the power of the gifted to retain their human importance despite the commonly-held perception that technology forms barriers to individualism:
Why do you suppose an idea which had currency in every age and civilization of mankind disappears in modern times? Because only in the age of science have these men and their wisdom dropped from view. I'll tell you why: The rise of mechanistic science, of Newton and Descartes, was a great conspiracy, a great devilish conspiracy to destroy our apprehension of reality and our awareness of the transcendentally gifted among us. But they are with us today nevertheless. They are with us in every age. They come back, you see? They come back!
Wiki Link: E. L Doctorow (author)
Wiki Link: Ragtime (novel)
Sunday Driving At Its Best
Here are some photos of "my" new back yard. Note the differences in snow and shadow coloration in just 45 minutes. It was a balmy -20 F, the digital camera to faked a "change batteries" error after about 5 minutes of exposure to the elements. The batteries were fine, it just wanted to warm up.
Extra Credit: Can you spot the sun dog in the pic above?
Wiki Link: Haystacks (Monet's series focusing on changing coloration)
Wiki Link: Haystacks (Monet's series focusing on changing coloration)
He Invented the Internet
Nudged by the USSR's launch of Sputnik 1 on October 4th 1957, the US created the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA now DARPA) in early 1958 to produce advanced technology.Wiki Link: ARPA
An early ARPA project was the development of ARPANET, a web of interconnected computing devices using a packet switching methodology. Packet switching, unlike a direct communication method, takes the sent message and chops it up into smaller pieces (packets) which are sent thru a mesh-like collection of pathways and nodes. The recipient receives these packets in no particular order, then orders them to reconstitute the original message.
Wiki Link: Packet
Wiki Link: ARPANET
A particular advantage (crucial for government and military use during emergency or war) of using packet-based communications over its predecessor, circuit switching, is that pathways and nodes may be destroyed without cutting communication between the sender and the recipient. If a packet encounters a dead end, it is routed around the roadblock using a different path and still has a good chance of reaching the recipient. Think 2 tin cans connected by 3 strings instead of the traditional 1 string. If a string is cut, the children will still hear each other thru the other 2 strings. Now imagine those 3 strings are a vast mesh of connections...
Wiki Link: Tin Can Telephone
Wiki Link: Mesh Networking
The first ARPANET link was connected in late 1969. It was conceived in its modern sense largely from the mind of J.C. R. Licklider who wrote memos concerning the "intergalactic computer network" in 1962 and championed the ARPANET project. This gives the internet an age of about 38 years with a gestation period of 8 years. Its birthday is November 21st.
Wiki Link: J.C.R. Licklider
Wiki Link: Intergalactic Computer Network
Link: Licklider Memo (humble isn't it?)
Afterthought:
Wikipedia's listing of Al Gore's notable contributions to the internet can be found by clicking on his picture.
TYHT: Make Snow
Strange Visual Loops
Due to the shallow angle of the sun this time of year, civil twilight (dawn and dusk) draws longer than in lower latitudes. This, combined with other atmospheric effects, creates "abnormal" shifts of light and color. For instance, exhaust from a steam plant may look grey or dark purple instead of white. Most noticeably, sunlight paints the snow golden, leaving shadows an eerie electric blue color (see top right pic of tree shadows). Wiki Link: Sunlight
The non-traditional coloration of shadows by the French Impressionists (compared to the black and grays common at the time) played a large role in defining their revolutionary style. Monet's series of Rouen Cathedral paintings are good examples of this effect (see left pic). Although it seems boring now, aparently painting shadows in electric blues or lavender was nerve-racking to the average art "critic" back then.
Wiki Link: Impressionism (gallery tip: look at each separate quadrant of an impressionist painting from a 2 or 3 ft viewing distance - each quarter appears to be nothing but random splotches - now back away to the intended viewing distance, usually 20 ft or more, soften your eyes and the painting comes alive...the mind happy to fill in "missing" movement and detail)
Snow dogs are another interesting visual oddity up here. Think of them as rainbows caused by the refraction of light thru airborne ice instead of water. I noticed a few while driving yesterday, both as colored clouds to either side of the sun and as a single rainbow "leg" sticking straight out of a mountain top (see 2 bottom right pics). Polarized sunglasses are a must, as sun dogs are faint compared to the glare of the sun.
Snow dogs are another interesting visual oddity up here. Think of them as rainbows caused by the refraction of light thru airborne ice instead of water. I noticed a few while driving yesterday, both as colored clouds to either side of the sun and as a single rainbow "leg" sticking straight out of a mountain top (see 2 bottom right pics). Polarized sunglasses are a must, as sun dogs are faint compared to the glare of the sun.
Wiki Link: Sun Dog
Locals tell you that sun dogs are predictors of colder temperatures. It's now 2 days after I first observed them and the weather has dropped from -20 F to -45 F.
The Alaskan landscape is far from a bland snowy white, containing all sorts of visual strange loops. I wait curiously to notice Mother Nature’s next optical "illusion".
Wiki Link: Strange Loop
Afterthought:
For more examples of strange loops, consider picking up Douglas Hofstadter's book I Am a Strange Loop.
Wiki Link: Douglas Hofstadter
Frigid Trickster
I caught myself wondering out loud this morning, "How does that bird stay warm?" Listening to one on a light pole while it let out deep series of “Rupp…Ruup…Rupp” sounds, intrigued me...surely, this ice cold bird should make a higher-pitched sound than that. Five seconds went by and another quietly returned the call from a distance. The raven's poofy black feathers help it conserve energy, but I don't know how its toothpick-sized legs stay warm at temperatures reaching -40 F.
A few bits of trivia about the not-so Common Raven (corvus corax):
· A grouping is properly described as an “unkindness” instead of a "flock"
· First migrated to Alaska 2 million years ago across the Bering land bridge
· Have one of the largest brains of any bird species
· Known for their problem solving skills and intelligence (for birds)
· Are capable of imitating sounds from their environment, including the human voice
· Will lead predatory animals to food, waiting for them to rip the carcass open for easier scavenging
· Participate in horseplay as juveniles, even playing catch-me-if-you-can with wolves and dogs
Wiki Link: Common Raven
I’ve always thought of ravens as having a death or ill omen-related notion about them. Poe’s poem "The Raven" comes to mind (where a distraught lover mourning the death of his lover is taunted by a raven repeating one word – nevermore) is a good example of my cultural bias. Eventually the poor fellow comes to the conclusion that the bird has trapped his soul within its shadow.
Wiki Link: The Raven (poem)
A few bits of trivia about the not-so Common Raven (corvus corax):
· A grouping is properly described as an “unkindness” instead of a "flock"
· First migrated to Alaska 2 million years ago across the Bering land bridge
· Have one of the largest brains of any bird species
· Known for their problem solving skills and intelligence (for birds)
· Are capable of imitating sounds from their environment, including the human voice
· Will lead predatory animals to food, waiting for them to rip the carcass open for easier scavenging
· Participate in horseplay as juveniles, even playing catch-me-if-you-can with wolves and dogs
Wiki Link: Common Raven
I’ve always thought of ravens as having a death or ill omen-related notion about them. Poe’s poem "The Raven" comes to mind (where a distraught lover mourning the death of his lover is taunted by a raven repeating one word – nevermore) is a good example of my cultural bias. Eventually the poor fellow comes to the conclusion that the bird has trapped his soul within its shadow.
Wiki Link: The Raven (poem)
Link to the full poem here
While the morbid symbolism of the Raven generally holds true in the European/American culture, the birds traditionally hold pull higher rank in colder regions like Alaska, Siberia, and Scandinavia. Norse mythology held that two ravens sat on the god Odin’s shoulders, informing him of the goings on throughout the world. The artic Inuit culture considered the raven both a creator of the world and a cunning trickster. Another North American indigenous culture believed that the bird, tired of its own world (a bit of truth...it came over prehistorically from Asia after all), flew from the heavens with a stone in its mouth…eventually dropping it and creating the planet we now live on.
Wiki Link: The Raven in Popular Culture
Wiki Link: The Raven in Mythology
While the morbid symbolism of the Raven generally holds true in the European/American culture, the birds traditionally hold pull higher rank in colder regions like Alaska, Siberia, and Scandinavia. Norse mythology held that two ravens sat on the god Odin’s shoulders, informing him of the goings on throughout the world. The artic Inuit culture considered the raven both a creator of the world and a cunning trickster. Another North American indigenous culture believed that the bird, tired of its own world (a bit of truth...it came over prehistorically from Asia after all), flew from the heavens with a stone in its mouth…eventually dropping it and creating the planet we now live on.
Wiki Link: The Raven in Popular Culture
Wiki Link: The Raven in Mythology
After Thought: The trickster/mischievous nature of the raven reminds me of stories about The Coyote, a Native American mythological creature, read to me as a child. Some of these tales are hilarious, and I suggest them for further reading on the trickster archetype.
Wiki Link: The Coyote
Wiki Link: the infamous Wile E. Coyote
