| Happy spinning! | 4 comments |
 7 Jan 2010 @ 19:43Don't you feel dizzy? No, that is not only from the after effects of the new year party. Our blue planet has just celebrated the completion of another cycle around this local medium sized star, called the Sun. The planetary population signifies this special occurrence by some typical actions: in Denmark throwing dishes at friends doors, in Spain eating 12 grapes, in Italy and Hungary cooking lentils and in Brazil putting on bright yellow underwear... What all this have to do with completing another full circle around the Sun? Beats me. I guess we just love to think in cycles. Of course it is a good reason to celebrate - as our home planet is still in one piece, it was not blown up by humans, was not hit by a stray asteroid or comet, its magnetic field is still in place - though not very stable. Have you realized, that we are spinning around and around, in many different direction at once, all the time? First of all, Earth is spinning around its axis, very fast (too fast) - many of us would prefer to slow it down a little, so a day would last more like 30-40 hours... Then, Earth is cycling around the Sun, giving a good reason to have a big party and legally explode a large amount of fireworks at midnight once a year. But it goes further. The whole solar system, with the sun in the middle, is spinning around the center of our galaxy called the Milky Way (no, it's not the chocolate bar) on a complicated orbit at a pretty high speed of 217.215 Km/s. The Solar System completes one track around the galaxy each 226 million years, so it is unlikely that we will celebrate a new galactic year's eve nowadays, unless we assign the start of a new cycle as of now. 
Here is some more info about all the different motions the solar system is performing on its way. Finally our galaxy is also spinning around on its course through the space and dark matter of this universe... maybe the whole universe is also spinning, on that subject I have not yet found many references - but there are times when I have a strange feeling... Dizzy yet? Dizzy or not, there is almost no way to get off of this carousel ride! So, we just keep on spinning happily - looks like one can get pretty much used to it. There are some interesting stellar times ahead, as it is just confirmed by official sources that our solar system is just passing through an interstellar cloud consisting of 6000 degree Celsius hot Helium atoms held together by a magnetic field. But don't trouble your mind over all this. The chance of being hit by a sizable asteroid is pretty small, it only happens once in every 100 million years. To end off on a lighter note, I tell you a secret that I heard new years eve, which you can test next new years eve: standing on a table or couch, holding your wealth in your hands and jumping off exactly at midnight, will bring wealth and double whatever you held in your hand. I was holding my cat accidentally, so I can certainly expect some kittens in 2010... HAPPY SPINNING! More >  |
| How far can you go? | 1 comment |
 15 Nov 2009 @ 23:45I have not written much lately, reason being that I cannot (or should not) type. One of my shoulders suffered a hard blow and got crippled last Monday in a sport accident. The doctors advised me of course not to move at all for about three to six weeks – doctors are known to give realistic, easy-to-keep advices… So here I am, after only a short week, doing the chores around the house, typing away on the computer, playing piano, gardening. As my body is not used to sitting around, I even tried some light workout, all in an effort trying to rest the bad shoulder. So, how have I got into that situation? Truth of the matter is that I have made a mistake. Not even one, but actually a whole bunch of mistakes, resulting in the accident. It actually turned out quite lucky in compare to the circumstances. I fell under and was simply run over by my horse – and horses tend to be heavy when they trample over a shoulder. At this time I was able to conclude from a subjective experience that one needs to omit a whole bunch of safety precautions in order to manage a nice accident. It is not enough to make just one small error. It is a whole list of things that have to be overlooked, causing trouble. What have I learned? Well, a lesson, that in technical sports one always needs to check the equipment and take the usual precautions. Regardless of all those years of experience, one should not get too cocky. Regardless of being an expert, one just needs to play by the rules, as the physical world is cruel and unforgiving. Yesterday I went back to my sport club and chatted to some people about what happened. In an honest mood, I confessed all the mistakes that lead to the accident. I also added that it can happen despite more than 20 years of experience. At that point an intellectual looking college student-type girl, overhearing the conversation asked, how could one err so badly? She nailed me, telling it’s simply NOT POSSIBLE to make such mistakes, especially when one is so experienced. So there I was, my sole reality questioned. It’s not possible. So maybe it did not happen? But it did. Her question raised my interest. So if it’s not possible – how could it happen anyway? I started to look at it philosophically. How come, we know exactly what to do, how to do something correctly – still we just don’t do it? How come we don’t care sometimes and go into all kind of dangerous situations, and see if we can pull it off? The proverb “to err is human” did no satisfy me. I looked for some deeper answers. Then I asked around from my friends, and the answers I got confirmed my ideas. It seems to me there are the following reasons: One: We like to stretch the limits. Yes, we do. And it seems that without doing that, there is not much progress. Playing it safe has not brought any breakthroughs for mankind. Most discoveries, forward steps in history were involving some risky business. Two: We like to learn. The desire to learn is a deep and ancient need. It saturates most of our experiences. And how can one ever progress or learn, after having fully mastered an area, and always using “best practices”? Sometime we choose to learn by letting things slip a bit, so new situations can emerge, that we need to figure out. It involves taking risks of course, and sometimes “bad” things happen. But, some learning always results. Three: We like surprises – to experience something new. It’s simply not much excitement to always know the next event. After a while it’s boring to have total control. When the behavior of something is fully predictable, a large part of the fun is gone. So one needs to set up situations with some unpredictable factors, so surprise gets a chance. And so we create some fun – sometimes the outcome is a little hard on the body, but we must admit it is still fun. Ask any racer. Actually the three reasons are very similar, coming from a basic polarity. There are two ends of the pendulum swing: one is to keep total order, to get everything fully under control. The other end is to see how far can one go with it? And the pendulum swings, back and forth. We learn how to control an area – then we reach a point where it is “too much”, too predictable – and we start to swing toward the other end, let it go out of control to some degree and stretch the limits. The long and short of it, if you want to play it safe, if you don’t want surprises then learn your subject well and play by the rules. Check and double check your equipment, and do the usual. But if you are ready for some fun, unpredictable changes, learn some new things, involving some risks, then by any means, go for it! I will not even add, to know your limits – I know it is exactly the question: what are the limits!? More > |
| The clouds of the Apocalypse | 6 comments |
 1 Nov 2009 @ 00:08Very good subject for the night of Halloween. It would also fit well in a disaster movie. Such clouds first appeared in 2009. The meteorologists have no clue how these clouds form, but of course they've put a name tag on the phenomena. They named it Asperatus-cloud, or Apocalypse-cloud. Typical way to deal with observations that don't fit into any category - in other words, mysteries. Let's be blunt: it looks freaking scary, out of this world! But it is real. Welcome to Planet Earth, 2009. These clouds were first observed in Iowa, while the weather was totally still, no storm, nothing. There are ideas that the phenomena has to do with gravitational vawes, but of course there is no evidence. Only guesswork and semi-scientific theories. Only one thing they are sure about: such clouds could only form if there is a huge amount of energy and humidity present in the atmosphere. But then it is even more bizarre that there was no storm, no super cell, no tornado in the area of the sightings. And if it is not enough, there is more. Just a few days ago, in October 2009, an even more bizarre cloud formation appeared above Moscow - a sort of bright ring. You can see a short video on YouTube. 
The local meteorologists acknowledged the observation, but they only provided an short, funny explanation, that it was the sun shining in a strange angle from the West. Well, I am not a specialist, but this seems a little weak story for such a fascinating, shining cloud ring. Of course, UFO enthusiasts went wild. But lets stay on the ground for now. There are no explanations yet, only question marks. Is this the climate that is changing? Pollution? An experimental weather influencing project? An invisible jet? Or was it really a flying saucer that has just passed by Moscow? I'm looking forward to hear your explanations, on this scary, dark, full-moon Halloween night! More > |
| It takes only TWO points ... | 1 comment |
 15 Oct 2009 @ 09:51...to move the entire universe. It takes at least two points. It takes the observation and comparison of two things, to observe how something is, what happens to it, what has changed or what effect have you created. We tend to focus on what is the same, holding it as only one point, be it an idea, an observation of a condition, or anything we fix our attention on. We hold a though, a justified idea I must admit, for example that our finances are out of control. How I come to the idea to mention that example? I do not know. But just let's suppose you have that idea. The ONLY thing wrong with that it is ONE idea. It does not allow for observation, a change or a shift. It is rigidly held in place by our mind, apparently supported by hard reality. Now, what about another reference point? More > |