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 |  "Putting on the Game Face" |
  This blog is a doorway into the mind of Percy Goodfellow. Don't be shocked at the lost boys of Namby-Pamby Land and the women they cavort with. Watch as his caricatures blunder about the space between audacious hope and the wake-up calls of tomorrow. Behold their scrawl on the CRT, like graffitti on a subway wall. Examine it through your own lens...Step up my friends, and separate the pepper from the rat poop. Welcome to my abode...the armpit of yesterday, the blinking of an eye and a plank to the edge of Eternity. Note: This blog is my journal. I've no interest in persuading anyone to adopt my views. What I write is whatever happens to interest me when I start pounding the keys. |
| The Hangman’s Daughter Last night I had trouble sleeping. (See yesterday’s blog) My wife had put me onto a series of book written in German by Oliver Potzsch and translated into English. The first was the Hangman’s Daughter. I read it and was hooked. The second was The Dark Monk and the third was The Beggar King. Anyway I was reading the Beggar King after getting home from the treatment and trying to get my mind off the feeling, akin to a bad case of sunburn. I finished at 3:30 this morning. Linda kept rolling over and giving me hell. I recommend the series. It was 12 below zero last night and as soon as I awakened, went outside to put some wood into the outdoor furnace/boiler. The wood heats the boiler, the boiler heats the water and pumps circulate the water into the house and workshop. In the last three days I have burned a full pick-up trailer of wood. I had to pull the empty trailer down to the landing where the wood processor is located. Then I hitched onto a full trailer and pulled it back up next to the wood stove. At any rate, when I finished that I laid down for “Forty-Winks” and woke up around 11:00. We had some shopping to do and went to Portage. On the way I dropped off Himers food and he was nowhere around. On the way home however, we noted that the food had been eaten. Then I did the evening chores. Tonight “Justified” comes on and Linda and I are really hooked on that one. What I like most about the series is that the characters resonate with authenticity. I try and get my students to develop such charactres and think I’ll suggest they watch “Justified.” After getting the chores done I want downstairs and worked on my model airplanes. I need to keep my mind off my “sunburn.” The first day is the worst and the cream and Motrin really helps. There is a forth book in the Hangman’s Daughter series but it is still being translated. Can’t wait for it to come out. |
| Today I had an appointment at the Marshfield Clinic that I’ve been dreading. It is something I call the “Nuclear Facial.” I spent much of my life out of doors and my skin shows it. My Dermatologist gave me an examination a couple of years ago and said I needed the “Facial” as a cancer preventative. Well last week he saw me again and said it was time I had another. For those who are not familiar with the treatment and have a perverse curiosity I will explain what it entails. First they slather the areas to be treated with cream that makes you skin super heat sensitive. For me it was my face and forearms. Then you sit in the waiting room for two hours while it soaks in. The next phase is the bad part. They turn on the ultra-violet heat bulbs and stick your arms and face inside. First they do the arms and then the face. For me it meant two seventeen-minute sessions. The forearms were not too bad. The “Facial” however, was very painful. Your face gets real hot and the skin seems to cook off your head. There is a fan blowing and the technicians spray your face with cold water. One was really good and kept talking nonstop, asking me all manner of questions to take my mind off the heat. She kept counting down the minutes, first twelve, then eight and finally two before it was over. Then I was told to stay indoors for a coupe of days, take Tylenol (Motrin) and keep my face well oiled with the creams they provided. It might hurt but I was amazed last time with how well it worked. I went in a scaly old man and came out handsome and debonair…  Only kidding.When we got home I took some food to the drop-off place for the wayward Lab (HIMER) I have been feeding. Something has been eating the food and the large footprints led me to believe it was him. Imagine my surprise to see him watching me from back in the woods as I set the food out. I whistled but he just sat motionless. I came home. It will drop to twelve below tonight but at least HIMER is getting plenty to eat. I hope my K-9 friend does all right. |
| Himer, the Dog There has been a lot of reader comment on the abandoned Labrador retriever I’ve taken an interest in. I haven’t seen Him/Her (Himer) for several days but have put food out every evening. I put it in a clear plastic container and check the following day. It appears that either Himer is taking it to a safer place or the telephone company service technician doesn’t like the location I’ve chosen next to one of their little service towers. These towers are those green metal things spaced about in the country. They stick up about a yard high and in the snow make a good reference point. Anyway I think Himer is taking the bowl off to a safe place because I see big paw prints. When I put the food down I whistle like I do for the cats. If he’s watching from a hidden location at least he can associate the sound with his mysterious benefactor. I thought about tracking him but decided against it. Right now a confrontation would be traumatic and probably do more harm than good. If the dog is getting enough to eat things will probably be all right, if there aren’t some other issues stemming from malnutrition or cold weather injuries. So far the winter has been mild and we are getting into January, the first of the two really cold months. |
| Swap Meet On Sunday my friends John, Chuck and I (I’m on friendly terms with myself ) went to the Radio Control (RC) Swap meet in Waukesha. It was held in one of those convention/trade centers and there were tables on tables of RC models. I was like a kid in a toy store and bought three bargain airplanes. However, two were missing components and by the time I acquired those my purchases went from a “Great” to a “Good” buy.Anyway it was two wonderful days first with my friends and then with Linda to buy the necessary parts. On the way I put out food for my stray Lab who is eating it when nobody is around. It’s either him or a wolf because there are some big paw prints. I think its him because he saw me put down the bowl a couple of days ago. My class, the Exploratory Writing Workshop has three students so far and it will be starting up next week. One of the students did a chapter template from her favorite novel and did quite well with it. Some of my students have trouble “getting” the value of doing a template and what the process entails. This lady however, had no trouble figuring out what was required and doing it. I have such a spread of talent in my classes and I try and tailor the class to each individual and the skill set they bring to the workshop. Linda found me a couple of novels on Amazon and loaded them into my Kindle. I’ll let you know how they pan out. My wife is remarkable in many ways and knows the type of books I like to read. I am seldom disappointed in her selections. The same is true for eating out. If I order the same as she does off the menu, I’m seldom disappointed. When I don’t I almost always regret it. I hate it when her selections are mouth watering and mine look like shoe leather. Linda and I came from very different backgrounds… Her family was very religious, strict and controlling. My parents gave me a free reign, only insisted that I be home for dinner and were too busy with their own lives to worry about controlling mine. Try and imagine what our first year of marriage was like? For that matter how it continues to this very day? |
| Flashbacks I am inclined more to dogs than cats but love both... How can you not love a creature that loves you? I can't. This is true even though as a soldier I have led a calloused life. It was at times like descending down the ladder of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. I had to depend on what I knew was right even if I didn't always feel it in my heart. My upbringing gave me a moral compass to right and wrong. What I’m saying is that soldiers can cease to feel a civilized sense of decency but still make recourse to it as a sort of abstraction. For this reason it is very hard for someone to understand what a soldier goes through without having been one. Most of us have enough to eat, get eight hours sleep and are not under a constant fear of being killed or maimed and cooked in the sun or plunged into the deep freeze . Living up to a year without many of the social amenities can wear thin, the social padding of civilized behavior. It is a brutal and primitive existence and there is a huge difference in how a hardened combat veteran and how a normal person maintain their world view. The point is that someone, without a gut understanding of the mindset and conditions under which a soldier lives, should not be too judgmental. For that matter having been a soldier makes me more tolerant and forgiving of some of the awful things that people say and do. The point is that we need to understand the shoes somebody is walking in before we fly too far off the handle. One of these is abandoning a pet by driving out into the country and turning them loose. Cats do better than dogs. They have a different relationship with humans and tend to be more pragmatic. This does not mean that they don’t suffer as much but rather that they tend to deal with it better.. Dogs love too much and when abandoned are clueless. They don’t do well when cast out and suffer terribly. My inclination is to feel a deep and terrible anger towards those who abandon a pet in this manner. However, since I don’t know the full story put my judgment on hold. How could anyone do such a awful thing to a dog or cat that loves them? Even in Wisconsin during the wintertime if a dog or cat is fed they will get along fine. The problem is that for dogs they no longer have a strong enough instinct for the wild and don’t do well when starving, the snow gets deep and the temperature drops. For a while they can forage on road kill but when the snows come and temperature really drops all bets are off. For those who toss an animal out, it is going to be an act that comes back to haunt them. It might not seem such a big deal at the time, faced with other “important” considerations but like the soldier that is hardened to the point of being almost sociopathic, one day they will look back on what they did and cringe as a flash back washes over their recollection. I’m reminded of the Lords injunction… “Forgive them for they know not what they do." |
| What would I change? I suppose I should choose some macro concept, like End War, or discover a cure for some debilitating disease. My response however, is to consider trying to change something my wife and I have some control over…. not much, but something we can try and do something about. This is a gut-wrenching topic to me so if your life is dreary enough already don’t read on any further. I live on my old family farm homestead. It is only ten acres but nestled out among the potato fields, surrounded by bluffs. It is a common practice that when somebody wants to get rid of a pet they drive out into the country, let them out and drive off. I always assume the best about such people. Maybe they have to move to get a new job, maybe they’re afraid if they take the pet to a shelter it will get put down or maybe the dog or cat will find a new home in the country with a loving owner. This blog today is not about the people who toss a pet out on a deserted country road but rather how a local somebody deals with it. For Linda and I, we learned about the practice when a large black cat showed up, taking residence in the equipment shed next to the old granary. It was the dead of the winter and I took to feeding her. In the spring two kittens crawled out and we took the whole lot to get neutered. Even worse is what happens to a dog. They tend to hang out along side the road waiting for their owners to come back. The have this forlorn and wistful look, convinced that if they wait long enough the family who abandoned them will drive up, open the door and their life will return to normal. Usually these dogs get reported and the animal welfare people (Dog Pound) send someone out to get it. However if the animal has been abused, they are very suspicious of strangers. This is the case with the black lab that is roaming around now. He/She frequents a mile square of farmland bordered by paved roads. We first saw the lab out in a field where a deer carcass had been dragged and was out there with a couple of bald eagles. Later on I saw the dog cross the road and go into a stand of trees. Whenever I try and approach, the poor creature takes off running in the opposite direction. With a foot of snow on the ground and dropping temperatures it is only a matter of time before he perishes. Linda and I have taken to dropping off a food dish whenever we see him. I whistle, put the container on the ground and we drive off. Something is eating the contents… I hope it’s the Lab. So if I could change anything it would be for that dog to show some trust and let us give it a new home. Dogs have an enormous capacity for love and seeing this K-9 waiting patiently along side the road… really gets to me. |
| Parting With a Sense Problem: Define the sense I would part with first. General: Our creator gave us an array of senses to help deal with the day-to-day events of our lives. Facts bearing on the problem: These senses are Sight, Hearing, Touch, Taste and smell. Assumption: There is also a sixth that is sometimes referred to as a sense of Intuition. This last one is interesting indeed and the source of endless comment and speculation, however since its very existence is questionable I won’t include it as a possible answer. Anyway, it doesn’t bear directly on the problem. Definition of Taste: The ability to sense the nature and perhaps the texture of substances that cross the plain of our lips. There is another connotation however, part 2, which refers to Appreciating Excellence. Discussion: The question is, which of the senses would I surrender, faced with the need to do so. I am inclined to answer, The Sense of Taste, unless the definition is expanded to include part two. Hesiod, a contemporary of Homer, wrote words to the effect… “There are three types of people; Ones who create excellence, ones who know it when they see it and ones who can do neither. “ To these classifications he went on to say… “The Creators are the highest form, the Recognizers deserve honorable mention and the third are worthless.” So, from this it seems evident that the value of a sense rests in part on definition. Further, if you could ask a dog the same question, a K9 might rank the five as smell, hearing, taste, touch and sight. So I guess it also depends on how we define ourselves. Conclusion: I would part with my sense of taste as long as the definition was not expanded to include part 2. It might help me shed a few extra pounds. |
I have said it before but it bears repeating… Life follows the creation model. By this I mean that what we create follows the same patterns by which life was created in the past. For example take the automobile. It is built along a central axis with redundant appendages. Instead of hands and feet it has wheels. It uses coiled suspension instead muscles, has an energy engine, pumps and an electrical system, that is analogous to the neurons which carry signals to different parts of the body. It has mechanisms for dissipating heat and regulating fluid pressures. In other words the auto is built on a familiar model using many of the design features consciously or unconsciously found in life. Another great example is the computer that draws much of its design inspiration from the human brain. There is Read Only Memory (ROM) that runs the body functions and Random Access Memory (RAM) that is available to our awareness for meeting the environmental challenges of day-to-day living. So while there is a creation model, how it is used depends on the materials that are on hand and what the creator is most familiar and comfortable with using. What we are doing in this stage of our evolution follows the creation model and I have little doubt that we are on the verge of creating a life form that will be composed of materials we use in our every day existence. Human beings are much too fragile and short lived to go to the stars but rest assured we will send robotic life forms out there and beyond. We are doing it now on Mars and it is no great stretch to see where the early developments are heading. These man-made life forms will be designed on the guidelines of the creation model. Whoever created life in general and human kind specifically, liked working with the carbon dioxide molecule. From this starting point they coaxed out the carbon atoms to build the molecules of life. These molecules, to name a few, include carbohydrates, proteins, amino acids and lipids. Using the sun as an energy source and using photosynthesis these carbon atoms were taken from the air, water and soil to become the basic organic building blocks of life. We like working at a higher level of resolution with materials and processes that are the result of our unique technological development and understanding. Biochemistry is not our tool of choice even though we are learning more about it every day. Let me offer that Creation was not a one-time event but rather a chain of events that began in the distant past and continues, ever evolving and adapting to the needs and conditions of tomorrow. Evolution is not the genesis of creation any more than is a murky pool of chemicals arranged by chance. Evolution and raw materials did not create life any more than the automobile and computer invented themselves. Don't confuse evolution with creation! |
| The Inner World of Creation Sometimes while I am out working on my wood supply my mind goes off on a tangent. Sometimes it is a repetitive song that cycles over and over and at other times it takes a question and begins peeling back the layers of the onion. For example, today’s question was, can we draw some conclusions about our creator from ourselves. Do our bodies tell us something about who or what it was that created us? For example suppose an archeologist found a tomb with a robotic device inside like the first Mars Rover. After all the excitement calmed down... say a preliminary study showed that it was built by no technology we are aware of. Well let me submit that the human body is built with a technology we are all but clueless about. Anyway, the first question would be, “Where did this thing come from?” and the second would be, “How does it work?” In response to the first question, the initial hypothesis would be that it came from outer space. That long ago a space ship entered our orbit and finding the atmosphere inhospitable sent down this probe to check things out. This robotic probe was picked up by an early humanoid and became an icon of worship and was buried in a tomb with its founder. There is however, a different and perhaps better hypothesis. Suppose our bodies are analogous to that robotic device. Further that we are inclined to look to the cosmos for the source from whence it came. There are however, a number of issues that come to mind in assuming that our origins came from the cosmos. The first is the small scale on which the runes of life came to be written. Second are the materials that were used. Third that life uses levers, elastic organs and squeeze pumps, instead of electrical circuits, wheels and bearings. If you are a believer that life was created and not spontaneously generated, then you might wonder what the environment was like where the laboratory of creation was located. First off it was a much smaller world than the one we are used to and second the creator(s) could probably not see the Cosmos. If they could they would have seen (if they had that sense) that the sun is round and the moon is round. From roundness it is a small connection to come up with the wheel, a useful and marvelous structure indeed. They are (were) it would seem of a dimension where their worldview is like a cavern is to a mole. They know that something exists beyond themselves but it is a world they are not able or suited to enter. So, to explore this hostile world beyond themselves they created life forms that ventured out, reported on their findings and did the bidding of their creator. Now this might sound like a reach but it explains the facts better to me than some of the other hypothesis being bandied about. Suppose in this dark and cavernous dimension, many times smaller than we can see, they developed a pervasive understanding of the environment and materials that surrounded them. These were water, and chemicals, which they were intimately familiar with and these became the building blocks used in the creation of life. |
| Picking my Name and Handle When I arrived at WDC, like everyone else, I was faced with coming up with two names. One was my WDC name and the other was my pen name. My WDC name is trebor and my pen name is Percy Goodfellow. Now the trebor name was chosen because it was something I could remember easily. It is my first name spelled backwards. The pen name was a little more complex and came to me sort of out of the blue. The Percy part came from a romance novel character called Lord Percy. He was a character in Baroness Orczy’s novel the Scarlet Pimpernel. He was an English Lord who operated in secrecy rescuing members of the French nobility from the guillotine. He recruited a band of faithful followers and had many exciting adventures. The French went to great lengths to discover his secret identity and he masqueraded as a Fop… an effete, sort of guy, so nobody would ever guess that he was the bold and audacious Scarlet Pimpernel. His signature was the flower he took the the name from. There was a poem he would recite at parties he threw at his lavish estate. I don’t remember the whole thing but one of the stanzas went like this. They seek him here, they seek him there... The Frenchies seek him everywhere. Is he from heaven or from hell? That damned elusive pimpernel. These Ortzy novels were wonderful reading and ranked right up there with Alexander Dumas and another of my favorites, The Three Musketeers. In more recent times Raphael Sabatini and his classic, Scaramouche, and Captain Blood were of the same genre. Swashbuckling Romance Novels have always been a hit with me. As a youngster they helped me escape into a world that was quite a contrast to the real world I lived in. So I chose “Percy” to be my pen name. Where I got the Goodfellow part from I’m not sure. It sort of went with Percy and together the two names had a resonance. So, that is how I got the WDC name trebor and the pen name Percy Goodfellow. |
| Cloning There is plenty I don’t understand about cloning but I need to write down what I think I know in order for the thread of it to settle into my pea brain. First allow me to set forth a few fundamentals. There are several variations on the cloning process but this is the one I think I understand best. In cloning there is no cell reduction leading to a sperm fertilizing an egg. What basically happens is that a nucleus from a cell is stripped out and inserted into an egg that has had its nucleus removed. Once this happens the egg is stimulated, electrically or chemically, to get it to begin dividing. A famous example was in Scotland where a sheep, Dolly, was cloned. Once the cell started doing its division thing it was implanted, in the womb of a ewe (female sheep host) and allowed to develop to maturity. As a result the offspring is identical to the donor of the implanted DNA nucleus. The female egg and the incubating host added none of their DNA to the process… Well not exactly. You see… in the cytoplasm that surrounds the de-yoked egg there also exists some DNA and RNA. So the biologists used 99.9 percent clone instead of 100 percent clone. What I didn’t realize was that a cell from a differentiated organ can be used. Even though the cell providing the nucleus might have come from an utter, it still remembers (most?) everything it knew at conception. (I thought they were using the nucleus of a cell from a newly conceived embryo... this is where "stem cell" research is mucking about.) Now the process is something of a hit and miss proposition. In cloning Dolly, I think the study said there were around 200 failures before achieving a success. Further, that many of the “successes” often have immune issues and something called "Oversized Syndrome." The life expectancy of a clone tends to be significantly less than from a conception accomplished and carried to term the “Old Fashioned Way.’ Presently the Koreans are hard at work trying to clone a monkey. If this can be accomplished science is a short step from having the capability to make it happen in humans. In mice that have been cloned for scientific study it was recently found that over time the genetic code had been compromised. I hope they keep the cage doors locked tight. Think of what might happen if these botched lab animals got into the general population of rodents. Dolly had four (4) calves the old fashioned way. You might want to roll that marble around in that can. Anyway, we are messing around with things we don’t really understand yet and I suspect it is only a matter of time before something really bad happens. Like all science, cloning is expensive and it is justified by claims that this research will lead to new cures for diseases and ways to grow organs instead of using current collection and replacement techniques. For example growing an organ from a person’s own cells could avoid rejection issues. This is the direction that our “industry” is taking us and we need to pay attention to what is happening. We are coming in out of the ”Wild” and if Governments can control cloned and hybrid humans the way the agro industry controls hybrid corn, we are in for some troubling times. |
| Blogging Circle of Friends 29 December 1012 An Odd Event After retiring from the military I returned to the home site of what had once been the family farm. The house had burned down and the outbuildings were ramshackled and well past the ends of their service life. I had not been prepared by my upbringing for living on a farm and everything about the culture of my forefathers was totally foreign. One area where I was totally lost was on agricultural equipment and machinery. As a result I enrolled in Midstate Technical College in Wisconsin Rapids, in the Diesel Technician Program. Here again I was thrown into a culture where I had very little frame of reference and not only was I the oldest student but certainly the most inept. Still I struggled to learn and with persistence became more and more familiar with how my diesel tractor operated. One of the phases of the course required the students to rebuild a diesel engine. A two-person team was assigned an engine and we tore it down and put it back together again. My partner had been raised in a farm shop and had a great interest and aptitude for what we were doing. I was his assistant. As the semester neared its end everyone in the class was anticipating the day when our work would be complete and we would find out if our engines ran. At lunch we were in the classroom, finishing up with our brown bags. The instructor, Jim Koehntop, was getting ready for his lecture when out in the shop we heard a rumble. Since everyone was in the classroom, Jim wondered who could be there working and we all followed into the main shop area to find out. There on the shop floor was an engine on its stand. It was one that nobody was assigned to work on and it was running. At first I thought it was a bit of foolishness, but nobody fessed up. Jim got serious and demanded to know who was behind the practical joke. It got utterly silent in the shop. He carefully examined the ignition for evidence of some sort of remote starting device. There was nothing irregular to be found; just the engine, droning with that heavy diesel resonance, smoking and filling the shop with fumes. Now I had gotten to know these fellows (12 in all) pretty well and practical jokes of this sort were not part of the shop culture. If Koehntop was behind it (He was certainly no stand-up comic) he deserves the Academy Award. Several years later I ran into him in Walmart and the conversation turned to that mysterious engine startup. He shrugged, looked me in the eye and said in all seriousness. “I don’t know how it happened but it was one of the darndest things I ever saw. “ |
| Michael Pollan We know for a certainty that we are alive. We might not know if there is life on Mars or elsewhere in the Universe but we do know that it resides in our bodies. We know this to be true because we are aware of it. Given that this is true, would it not be a more fertile avenue to explore, looking to unravel its secrets, rather than poking about on the outback of Mars? While the Bible takes a cosmic perspective it also makes reference to a mustard seed. A mustard seed is a package on nature’s shelf that is ready and waiting to spring to life. If we want to find out more about our origins this would seem a good place to start. What we need is a National Trifle Association. Its mission, to explore the inner world of life, and instead of looking outward into the cosmos to look inward at the ever decreasing size of structures that take life to the far reaching depths of the infinitesimal. I know that DNA is ten percent understood and ninety present redundant. There are strings lying about that don’t seem to have a clear purpose. I submit that this is a library of sorts, maintained by a cell with barcodes for strings of proteins, the genome has happened upon in the course of evolution. They are scattered about in a clutter that might not appear organized but the cell knows where to find these unique combinations when the need arises. I am reading a book called the Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. It was recommended by one of my doctors at Marshfield Clinic. Dr. Mennen doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the walk and is deep into healthful nutrition. Anyway the first part of the book is about corn and the revelations are amazing indeed. One of the themes Pollan kept returning to is: “There exists a fundamental tension between the logic of nature and the logic of human industry.” I won’t go into it here except to say that where biology has brought us and where our industry intends to take us are two different paths. Technological developments in raising animals and plants occur much differently in nature than in the factory farms of the agro-industry. There is a huge and profound transformation taking place and along with a growing understanding of how the human genome works, does not necessarily bode well for the future of mankind. |
| Politically Incorrect Often as I drive about in Central Wisconsin in the wintertime I see people out on the ice fishing. They say nothing is better than the fish caught over a hole in a frozen lake. In yesterday’s blog I talked about placid lakes and thin ice and how people like to pretend the world is like a pleasant day, fishing on the ice, talking with friends about all those politically correct things. Well…, Where you might ask, are all those politically incorrect things hiding as we hear sleigh bells ringing? (Are you listening?) Metaphorically speaking they are under the thin ice we walk every day. Whether we realize it or not, life is a journey, never more than a step away from the deep plunge. There is a dark side to life as elemental forces, totally without remorse are waiting to return, each of us, to the dust from whence we came. And if that isn’t possible in the short term, these forces are content to steal the bloom from the rose, rob our health, and take away the very means of existence. Things might look fresh and beautiful from the up side of the lake but the down side is cold indeed. Just ask the passengers of the Titanic, who didn’t get into a lifeboat. Along with natural disasters and the psychopaths getting all the headlines, are a host of lesser murderers, rapists, blue and white-collar thieves, drug dealers and the list goes on and on. In the course of life chances are you’ll get to meet such people and if you survive the experience, count yourself lucky. Organized crime is not what Tony Soprano cracks it up to be. If life is going good, then by all means enjoy it, but don’t take it for granted. There are some bad encounters waiting under the thin ice of our placid social surroundings. Don’t be so quick to chuckle at the little boy who is afraid of the boogey man, asleep under his bed. By any measure of material satisfaction, human beings have it better than ever before. Our ancestors, going back to the cave man, led a miserable existence fraught by war, disease, cold, heat, droughts, famines and the list of the causative agents of human agony and suffering go back in history, for as long as man kept score. So in these times of rejoicing take time for celebrating and good cheer, but keep in mind that not long ago, six million poor souls perished under the most inhuman circumstances ever recorded. |
| Vapors I wonder sometimes that if the telescopic universe is expanding… what about the microscopic. I mean doesn’t it follow that if the constellations are getting further and further apart so are the structures we see, looking down the dimensional rabbit hole? Since we are unable to see ourselves for but the short duration of a lifetime could it be that after a very long time, life has gotten larger, just as a consequence of the space between atoms? (This is not about diets…) One of the things that the Hubble Telescope shows is gasses. Some of the images coming back are incredible, demonstrating that much of the cosmos is in a gaseous state. A Gas is one of the three common forms of an element. A whiff of gas can be called a vapor… Dentists sometime use gas as a painkiller. Did you hear the one about the woman who returned home from the dentist and discovered her underwear on backwards? In the Bible reference is made to spirits and spirits are said to look like a vapor. So does Casper the friendly ghost. That’s right a living (or once living thing) that is now floating around, unconstrained by a husk. Now I do hope this observation is not something my readers find too shocking, like the lady home from the dentist. A virus can live in a droplet of water, and I 'm sure most of you are familiar with water vapor. You know, the stuff that comes out of a teakettle or runs one of those old steam locomotives. For example when a person sneezes the fluids inside their nostrils are atomized and if someone has a cold, they can pass it, via the atmosphere, from one person to the next. Remember how your mother told you to cover your nose when you sneezed? So we know that life can exist in a vapor, moving about in the atmosphere and thus the idea of a spirit is not as arcane as most would have you believe. Animal life consumes vegetable matter or other animals to derive energy to motor about the world. Plants have roots going down into the ground that extract nutrients and through a process called photosynthesis convert sunlight into energy. A plant is like a light bulb. It makes its bubble from the elements, drawn from the soil, and uses its leaves to convert light into usable energy. However there is one type of plant, CORN, to be specific, which also uses the air (vapor) to extract nutrients. This ability makes corn an interesting plant indeed. It has a sort of parasitic relationship with mankind. Corn can no longer be found in the wild or even anything that vaguely resembies it. While man might be able to live without corn, corn is nothing without man. If nobody is around to cultivate it, this amazing plant will quietly fade into the scrap heap of evolution. So when the Bible talks about spirits, this isn’t just a bunch of voodoo. Remind me to talk some more about corn because without this discovery, many of our ancestors would have perished and if that’s not enough, our cabinets would have plenty more extra space. If you don’t believe me check the labels. |
| Mutternicht The reason evolution takes so long is because there is this Elf named Mutternicht who must do the actual programming. Each day he devotes his time to a different species of life and decides the changes necessary to make them more adapted to their environments. Now in each species there lies a master genome copy. Ten percent is dedicated to servicing the organism and the other ninety percent is hanging about the passages and walls, and this provides a library, an inventory if you will, of all the proteins and combinations there of, necessary for the species to exist in its environment. Now as an organism putters about from day to day everything runs as programmed. However when a life-threatening situation is encountered, and the fear meter pegs out, an Evolution Red Flag (ERF) goes up and a report is written describing the situation. As the evolution reports build up they are filed for Mutternicht to take up in his Centennial Recapitulation and Product Enhancement Review (CRAPER). Once every hundred years all the reports are consolidated on a chart and given to the old Elf. He reviews them and makes changes to the genetic code to enhance their survivability. You see everything is connected and it is important to make changes but in a way that doesn’t muck things up too bad… you know the balance of nature and all that. For Example suppose too many Bees were having their hives raided by bears to the point where the bees were approaching extinction. Well Mutternicht would take out the Bee Blueprint and see if they needed an enhancement…. perhaps a stinger, which he would then program into the genome… If one hundred years later this was still not enough he might add a venom sack to the stinger, to make the pain even more acute for the bears. If a hundred years later this was still an issue he might make the venom lethal in large doses, thereby reducing the bear population that was growing too large anyway, off all the bee honey they were stealing. GET the IDEA? I’m sure you do. |
| The Ideal State When I was in the military there was this idea regarding “The Ideal State.” The notion was that leaders should aspire to the ideal of perfection, realizing that achieving it was all but impossible. Still by aiming high a better outcome would be achieved than being guided by mediocrity, the status quo or going with the flow. Now who could argue with this as an operating philosophy? The problem in implementing this lofty idea, was not in the standard but rather that leaders often got it in their minds that the ideal state was achieved on their watch and was already inherent in their organizations. They became euphoric in this false belief and rather than becoming disabused, encouraged their subordinates to paint a picture of their organizations in the rosiest of terms. Well done, they congratulated themselves believing they had achieved an optimal sort of social equilibrium and efficiency. When something happened to pop their bubble and reality reared its ugly head, they looked for somebody to blame and hence, many of those who had aspirations of success, were shameless in promoting and reinforcing the boss’s ill conceived world view. Are you familiar of the tale of the Emperor's Fine Robes? Now I'll concede that leadership carries a heavy burden of responsibility and after awhile the crush of the weight becomes hard to bear. The answer however, is not taking pain killers and pretending it doesn’t hurt but getting into the details that are the source of all the anguish. Thus, as a subordinate, I found myself constantly reminding my bosses that regardless of how placid the frozen lake appeared, we were all treading on thin ice. To my regret, it was not always something they wanted to hear . Some of my “mentors” felt that they had worked hard to get where they were and now it was time to kick back and enjoy the fruits of their office. They wanted to play with the gratifications of their power and not be burdened with the dark side. Let others deal with the small stuff they reasoned while I focus on the big picture. While they might pretend to want to know the full story the truth was they were usually less than interested. For the subordinate in this type of culture the trick was to remind the "gifted one" of the hazards of the thin ice and remind him/her of the bone chilling cold water that laid underneath. Imparting this understanding came at great peril to the messenger, a role nobody wanted, when dealing with someone who was becoming more and more clueless with each passing day. Inevitably the day of reckoning rolled around, when posturing and stamping feet was no longer enough... when the boss went too far afield and got to experience first hand what he had stubbornly here-to-for refused to grasp. Hopefully the water wasn’t too deep and we could pull the fool back onto the ice and get him/her dressed in some warmer attire. |
| NASA I am not a detractor of The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). I am as excited as everyone else about the rover “Curiosity” and the discoveries this amazing robot might uncover. Sometimes thought I get a bit paranoid and wonder how much their findings get filtered in the public interest. For example what if the rover found an obelisk with runes etched on it? Would we be told or would the finding have a veil of secrecy thrown over it and get classified “Close Hold?” Is there a small hand picked group who filters the data first and decides what will and won’t be released? I remember the photo sequence that seemed to show a face on Mars and how we were subsequently told it was an optical illusion. There was a great deal of speculation at the time, not on just the face like object but the surrounding structures. Then there was another flyover and expectations were dashed… Sorry folks, what you saw was a rock that looked like a face… something you might see in the Mohave Desert if you flew over enough rocks. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Well if there weren’t filters in place before that incident you can bet there are now. Still the most recent leak came over the possibility that Curiosity had found something that might indicate the presence of life. The Soviets hinted that we on the verge of an important discover, but alas, Sorry folks, what we meant to say is that we expect to learn more about Mars in the next two years. Anyway you can bet there is a small hand picked group ,postured to be the first to see the data streams and make sure that anything that might be of public interest is filtered first until the NASA and government bureaucracies can decide what to release. I know that scientists want to get the facts straight before they make announcements, but these agencies have the power of knowledge that “Gatekeepers” have always coveted. I hope they don’t take it personally to find out that many don’t expect them to be open with what they’re learning. The priesthood always wanted to keep the “Unwashed” ignorant and in the dark, and it would be natural for the scientists to continue the long proud tradition. And if the scientists aren’t holding back the government has never been shy to act in the “best interests” of the people. Gatekeepers are not always trustworthy. For example the Dead Sea Scrolls were in the possession of the Catholic Church for thirty years before they were deemed suitable for release. This seems a rather long time for assuring the material contained no revelations that might shake the core dogma of Christianity. Early on there were hints that these scrolls contained writings that would lead to a new understanding. When they were finally released, you can imagine the letdown in discovering there was nothing worthy of note. (Or was there?) Scientist: Somebody with analytical skills (note the anal... part), socially challenged and short on common sense. |
| Gatekeepers of Knowledge Physicists say the universe is expanding. This is not something I made up. Further they claim that there are dimensions beyond the scope of our current understanding, that keep popping up in mathematical models. When we look out into the heavens we see a vastness that boggles the mind. The same can be said when we look into a microscope… the more powerful the images we coax out of the microscopic the deeper we realize lie worlds that can only be hypothesized. These are very small spaces inhabited by the double helix, molecules and atoms. These are dimensions that are ever bit as real as the cosmos that explode before our eyes on a clear night. The difference is we can see the sun, moon and stars, but the worlds smaller than a mustard seed are all but invisible. Human beings are awed by big things. So it is reasonable for one to think that our creator is something bigger than we are. However, what is so hard about conceiving that our creator came from the microscopic rather then the telescopic? Are we not prepared to concede that good things sometimes come in small packages? I believe the case that God is small carries a heavy weight of evidence. Assume for a moment that you were God and decided to create life. No doubt it would be some form of robot with a computer for a brain, a carbon fiber skeleton, some wires for a nervous system, sensors and some appendages for locomotion and handling things. All these components would be of a size that could be seen and manipulated. They would not be larger than a skyscraper or smaller than a microchip. Now all these components are huge in comparison to the size of most of the seminal bio building blocks of life. Thus, is it not reasonable to assume that whatever created us was smaller than we are? Science is in denial about any sort of creation theory for reasons I have already discussed. For those who missed that installment it is because scientists feel threatened by possibilities that involve priests, (The custodians of a spiritual dimension) and philosophers (who speculate on things that can’t be proven by empirical means.) As unlikely as the Primordial Pool Hypothesis (PPH) seems to most, it does have the advantage of keeping science as the gatekeepers of knowledge. While I must concede they have done a better job with the power than the philosophers and priests ever did, the PPH demonstrates the absurd lengths they will go in order to guard their turf, and the constraints that will forever keep mankind inside the box of their discipline. |
| God is Small As mentioned in past blogs, I believe that life was created. In a nutshell (Yes indeed, a dimensional nutshell) I believe this because life tends to have a balance, symmetry, a capacity to reproduce, and performs a variety of complex functions that can’t be attributed to randomness or chance. Bear in mind that the geological evidence of life does not stretch back to infinity (where ever that is) but appears on this rock some time after the planet was born; actually a long time after earth was formed. I doubt that we will ever be able to trace our origins to a single source but will discover instead a host of intermediaries along the way. I will speculate that our creator was much smaller in stature than we are today. This hypothesis is at odds with traditional thinking that sees God as an omnipotent and all pervading force that fills the cosmos we see at night. Instead, let me offer that God is within us and instead of looking at the stars with awe, we need to look with the same wonder at the biology that scuttles around the milieu of our environment. Most of this biology is much smaller than what we observe, so small in fact that it can hardly be seen. Still if someone really wants to know our origins we need to turn our focus to the smallest structures that go into the making of life. It is my suspicion that our creator was of a dimension that allowed Him/Her/It (HIMHERIT) to work comfortably with the materials laying about. That would make our creator small indeed. HIMHERIT would have worked with proteins like we handle knives forks and spoons. I say this because when we create something we need to be able to see, hear, feel, taste, and smell it close up. Life has grown beyond a sensory understanding of the basic components that combine to make this possible. Instead we make recourse to computers, microscopes and chemistry to try and unravel the mysteries that are beyond our sensory grasp. What might once have been self-evident has become so incredibly small that it is all but impossible to discern or comprehend. Yet, here we are walking around in these amazing bio-chemical machines with only a vague notion of how they work. The more science tries to understand and explain the more questions it raises. The answers are inside our bodies written in a code of nucleic acids on a scale so small the characters approach invisibility. |
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Love it! Especially the safety measures for us homo sapiens...
