Crow in color

Last time I saw Crow he presented me with a portrait painted by an artist who's obviously very skilled and sensitive.. a veritable Renoir of Corvid Classicism was my first thought. My second thought was, 'Now I know why he asked me to press those weird pants'. He still hasn't told me who the lady is.

still in space

Have you ever wondered how amazing total eclipses are? Some weeks ago I ran across this photograph taken last summer during the total solar eclipse that was visible in southern India and parts of China and wondered, not for the first time, about the possible meanings of something we marvel at when it occurs locally but generally don't consider much at all. I remember hearing it said that if one found a watch one immediately knows it was made by a watchmaker and if one found a watch on Mars we would look for a watchmaker there.

It is very strange that the disc of the Moon should seem, from an Earthly perspective, to be exactly the same size as the Sun. Although we take it for granted that the two main bodies seen in Earth's skies look the same size, it is actually something of a miracle. Most people are fully aware that the Moon is tiny compared to the Sun but that it is much, much closer to us causing them to appear as equal discs. To be precise the Moon is 400 times smaller than the star at the center of our solar system, yet it is also just one 400th of the distance between the Earth and the Sun.

The odds against this optical illusion happening at all are simply huge - but how bizarre that both values are the same, perfectly round number. It's very puzzling. Isaac Asimov described this perfect visual alignment as being:

"The most unlikely coincidence imaginable".

This perfect fit of the lunar and solar discs is a very human perspective because it only works from the viewpoint of someone standing on the Earth's surface. I'm sure there are many wonderful sights in the galaxy but it seems to me that if there were aliens doing a Grand Tour of this particular spiral arm of the Milky Way stopping by the earth to watch a total solar eclipse and that magical diamond effect might be a high point. Perhaps we should watch out for 'people' wearing very bulky suits or viewers who stay inside large vehicles next time there's one occurring in the neighborhood.

An even more amazing thing that's true about the Moon's movements above our heads is that by some absolutely strange mechanism of nature, the Moon also manages to very precisely imitate the movements of the Sun. The full Moon is at its highest and brightest at midwinter, mirroring the Sun at midsummer and at lowest and weakest at midsummer when the Sun is at its highest and brightest.

I don't know about you but I'm beginning to think something weird is going on around here. I may have to go and look for a Watchmaker.. or maybe I'll go and do something useful like making chocolate brownies.

past future dreaming

Considering the fact we just moved another step into the future I thought I'd take one more quick peek into the past to see what it was supposed to by by now. In the 1970's lots of people were very excited by the possibilities that had been made to seem reasonable by the moon landings. The ideas are still far from dead but for the most part they have been either forgotten (ie, by NASA which has become very much a political entity) or simply tossed into the sci-fi 'how could they have been so dumb?' trash heap. Still, it's worth noting there were some very fine minds devoted envisioning how humans could live and work in space colonies as early as 1990 (!).

One of them was Princeton physicist Gerard K. O'Neill who developed the concept of the O'Neill Cylinder with 'Island 3' envisioned as pairs of large rotating space habitats with an Earth-like environment on the inner surfaces with artificial gravity produced by the rotation. O'Neill was one of the first people to ask the question: given current technology (in 1969), how large could such a structure be built in zero gravity? When the calculations came back with an answer in the tens of miles, O'Neill knew he'd found something significant. A key idea in his thinking was that such large structures could be built out of material mined from the Moon or asteroids to avoid the high cost of launching out of Earth's much larger gravity well. The configuration consists of a pair of cylinders, each 20 miles long and 4 miles in diameter. Each cylinder has three land areas alternating with three windows, and three mirrors that open and close to form a day-night cycle inside. The total land area inside a pair of cylinders is about 500 square miles and can house several million people. The cylinders are always in pairs which rotate in opposite directions, canceling out any gyroscopic effect that would otherwise make it difficult to keep them aimed toward the sun.

In 1973, George Hazelrigg, also of Princeton, suggested to O'Neill that the L4 and L5 Lagrangian liberation points might be ideal locations for the large habitats that O'Neill envisioned. L4 and L5 are points of gravitational equilibrium located on the Moon's orbit at equal distances from both the Earth and the Moon. An object placed in orbit around L5 (or L4) would remain there indefinitely without having to expend fuel to keep it in position. Since the orbit around L5 has an average radius of about 90,000 miles there's room for a very large number of space settlements even at this one location.

Abundant solar energy and large amounts of matter from the Moon are keys to successfully establishing a community in space. Not only does the sunshine foster agriculture of unusual productivity, but also it provides energy for industries needed by the colony. Using solar energy to generate electricity and to power solar furnaces the colonists could refine aluminum, titanium and silicon from lunar ores shippped inexpensively into space. With these materials they would be able to manufacture satellite solar power stations and even more new colonies. Power stations would be placed in orbit around the Earth to which they could deliver pretty much limitless electrical energy. In the 60's neither an energy crisis or global climate change had been imagined. Now we're very close to having reached the limit of what the planet will bear from our continued use of fossil fuels so the economic value of space power stations would go far to justify the existence of the colony and the construction of more colonies.

In his 1973 science fiction novel Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke provided a vivid description of a rotating cylindrical spaceship that is about 50% larger than the classic 20-mile long O'Neill Cylinder. Artist Eric Bruneton has created this striking 3D animation of Rama.



In a caption under the famous drawing of an O'Neill cylinder it says, “Human colonies in space — not a luxury, but a necessity. Earth is overcrowded, running out of raw materials, in desperate need of a growing energy supply, and being ecologically destroyed. The problems are worse with each passing day, and there are no solutions to be found on Earth itself. Mankind's destiny — its very survival — is in space.… But a commitment is needed, a decision to go for it and the determination to see it through.”

O'Neill died from leukemia in 1992 but there are still those who continue to be energized by his dreams of a future we could make happen. Of course, it wouldn't be easy but I believe a collective vision is one we need if we're to have any future at all. We have the brains, we have the capacity - all we need is to get our collective heads on straight.

decades come and go

not perfect but okay

Congratulations to all of us who've made it to this point and now it's that time for reviewing the year and decade just past and plan on what we have to look forward to for the coming one. Being as old as I am I'm not sure I have the courage to try to imagine the entire next decade. The very idea there are people who ten years hence will be looking at these as the good old days is kind of distressing.

One thing we should now all be perfectly sure of is that our government is not all about helping we the people. A year ago some of us may have experienced a few tremors of the Advertising Age award winning 'hope' campaign that swept the nation faster than a swine flu virus but even though we never expected all kinds of positive change to happen all at once, I don't think many of us imagined so much would get worse. Okay, the big banks, the military industrial complex and the health insurance industries are all happier but none of that has been to the general benefit of most of us. So let us begin the coming year with the understanding that empire and democracy don't mix. Never have and never will. If you ask where's the emperor all I can answer is that he isn't a person but a mind set that's entrenched at the highest levels of our power structure - he's the end result of social darwinism (a philosophy of 'I've got mine and the hell with everybody else').

Where does that leave the rest of us? Well, the good news is that it's always best to have the bad news out of the way. If I sat here long enough I'm sure I could come up with some good things to look forward to but it seems to me the best things always come as surprises and usually little ones at that. All we can do is to make an effort to be kind to one another, to see the best in people that they may respond in kind. It's a big world after all and there are many mysteries still hidden from view.

I hope my next painting is a better one but I give you this one for now with my wish that love rains down on you.

magic and Magi

I mentioned I've been painting again and want to share Mr. Crane who appeared this weekend when I sat at my table for a few quiet hours.

Among my favorite Christmas stories is the one by O. Henry called 'The Gift of the Magi'. I've linked to the original for those few who aren't familiar with the story of the poor young couple on Christmas Eve each of whom gave up their only physical treasure in order to buy a present for the other. It's a sweet and wonderful tale whether you think the two of them were idiots or not. Grand gestures are sometimes what love is about but not always. Every gift, no matter how small, is a sacrifice of the heart for the hope and beauty of the future.

O. Henry goes on to say:

'The Magi, as you know, were wise men--wonderfully wise men--who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the Magi.

Wishing you a very Happy Christmas.

opinions are optional

Every so often I consider making a web page so there'd be a single place to go if someone wants to look at my artwork. Most of it's already somewhere here on the blog but there's no way to see it other than scrolling through older and older posts and nobody has time for that. The problem is I have little enough time for posting anyway and every time I look at web design software I get a headache.

The only other quick solution is to add a new blog but there are already three. Three is enough. Phantsy has to stay because it's the main one. Adventure's Ink is kind of unique and I might just get into writing and drawing more stories because there are more lurking about in the back of my mind. That leaves Baby Days which has been up since October of '07 and is rarely looked at. I was so new at blogging when I posted the story that I did it in 18 separate posts because I didn't know how to arrange the pictures and text any other way. Perhaps there's a way of saving it in the background but it appears to me the only option in Blogger is to delete all of it.

I don't know. There aren't a lot of paintings I still have access to since the ones done longest ago were sold or given away long before I took an interest in keeping a photo record of them but there are probably twenty or so. Baby Days is old news and I am painting again so there will be additions as time goes on. Maybe I should just forget the whole thing. What do you think?

crow gets sentimental

Crow here and I have news for you. Dinosaurs never really left. They’re still here. I'm still here. In a new book by my old friend Scott D. Sampson called Dinosaur Odyssey: Fossil Threads in the Web of Life is a remarkable statement right near the beginning: “Today, most experts agree that birds are the direct descendants of dinosaurs and thus are, in a very real sense, dinosaurs themselves.” Oh no, you say, birds have feathers. Of course they do. And so did dinosaurs. It’s now been shown that the crow-sized Archaeopteryx wasn’t a bird at all, but a dinosaur. Now I'm talking about my ancestors here and this is a family oriented time of year so don't laugh. I told you I've been around a long, long, loooong time but you wouldn't believe me.

Well, I just thought I'd drop in to say hello before flying back to Copenhagen. I must have a word with the Canadian Government representatives about them continuing to allow the Tar Sands to be dug up. Do you have any idea what a mess that stuff makes of my feathers? I don't even want to talk about all the rest it's messing up. Which brings me back to dinosaurs. Everybody knows the dinosaurs (except for birds) finally became extinct 65 million years ago after the K-T event but before that they were around for 170 million years. What do you think of people's chances to last a fraction of that, Mr. H. Sapiens? Besides, my great great great great (ad infinitum) grandmother was a very beautiful and charming Archaeopteryx. Just look at this picture I found of her in an old album. No wonder my ggggggggggggggggggggggg (ad infinitum) grandfather fell in love.



Now I just have time for a quick snifter before take-off. I'll be back soon and in the meantime if you're going to party don't forget what gggggggggg GD used to say to ggggggggg GM - Bend over, let me see you shake a tail feather. Hey, it worked for them and it just might work for you too.

considering memory

Every so often I find a song stuck in my mind. It might be one I haven't heard for years but all at once the whole thing is there - music, phrasing, lyrics, everything. I know it's not an unusual experience, lots of people mention such things and if they tell you which song has been haunting them you'll find yourself singing it to yourself hours later. It can be annoying but if you think about it for a minute it's also very interesting.

For most of human existence on Earth people didn't have written languages. A large part in our pride of modern culture is the fact we are literate and there's hardly any worse insult than to call someone illiterate. Nevertheless, even up until fairly recently the larger part of humanity was illiterate since only the wealthy, the monastics or the very determined had access to any books at all. Yet it's inarguable that architecture and shipbuilding thrived as did every aspect of a growing civilized culture long before people were able to read a morning paper before they headed off to work on the building site of the local cathedral.

It's generally understood among archeologists that the first forms of written language were the hieroglyphs developed in Egypt around 2500BC. Socrates reported the ancient Egyptians said that writing had been invented by the mythical god-man Thoth who took his new system to Amon 'the god-King of all Egypt' and urged him to introduce it to the populace saying: 'Oh King, here is something that once learned, will make Egyptians wiser and will improve their memory'. It's said that Amon replied:

'Oh, most expert Thoth, one man can give birth to the elements of an art, but only another can judge how they can benefit or harm those who use them. And now since you are the father of writing, your affection for it has made you describe its effects as the opposite of what they really are. In fact it will introduce forgetfulness into the soul of those who learn it: they will not practice using their memory because they will put their trust in writing, which is external and depends on signs that belong to others, instead of trying to remember from the inside, completely on their own. You have not discovered a potion for remembering but for reminding; you provide your students with the appearance of wisdom, not its reality. Your invention will enable them to hear many things without being properly taught, and they will imagine that they have come to know much while for the most part they they will know nothing.'

From what I can understand there was an even more ancient tradition that was adamant that certain things not be written down. Even now archeologists have been unable to decipher the Indus Valley script in spite of having found thousands of small tablets, all of which appear to be in reference to trade goods. Lengthy works of Indus cuneiform might allow the texts to be deciphered but none have ever been discovered, a fact that might lead one to think they didn't trust the medium of writing for anything more important that the strictly mercantile.

The oldest elements of the ancient world's oral traditions are the Hindu Vedas, essentially hymns and very very long ones at that - the Rig Veda has 1028 hymns made up of more than 10,580 verses (and there are three other Vedas). The interesting thing is that they're in a very old form of the Sanskrit language and weren't written down until about 1200 years ago. Before that, for thousands of years they were memorized in their entirety. Really. It's hard to imagine, isn't it? But then I come back to those songs that stick in my head from time to time - the silly ones mostly - and I wonder if that penchant we all have might just be a little reminder of just how powerful our minds might be.

The Australian Aboriginals have a recognized 60,000 year history in Australia (although they say it's much longer). When groups met one another in the vast landscape they would sing the story of the path they'd travelled to each other, a memorized history known as the Song Lines. That story goes all the way back to their memory of walking the unfinished landscape with the gods singing the world we know into existence.

But obviously things are better now that we have the Google. I think I'll go find that song that keeps returning:

apple genius * SUCCESS!

Today is Thursday and last night I wrote about my worries that the new computer would have to be shipped back . It turned out the Mac Genius was able to fix her today by deleting all the information on the hard drive (!). Apparently some bizarre corruption had manifested and he didn't know why which is a bit worrisome too. Oh well, she's being updated now but still doesn't remember me. I guess I'll be spending a few days reminding her about all the fun we were having together and convincing her to be ready for more.

Thanks for all the good wishes :-)

***

My computer is still sitting on its corner shelf taking up space while I'm tapping away on numb's MacBook. He's been very generous about allowing me whatever time I want but you know how it is. I prefer my own.

Tomorrow we have a 15 minute appointment with an Apple Genius. I thought that name was a joke but it turned out to be true. Before we called them numb hauled out the troubleshooting manual and read that we should unplug the computer from its power source and remove the battery before pressing more keys all at once than the average person has fingers.

First, it turned out there's no little panel on the back where you'd normally access the battery so he got a small screwdriver and removed about a dozen tiny screws that were almost all different sizes. There turned out to be a big warning sign on the battery saying, 'Do Not Remove'. So he screwed the back on again. Then he went online to look for Apple Support where the instruction was to call the local store. The call was like something out of a Franz Kafka novel when the girl at the store insisted he had to make an appointment online.. even though she was obviously looking at the times available on her own screen. Okaaay..

We couldn't go there last weekend because they don't have Geniuses on hand during prime time sales hours. They're there to sell i-pods and other fancy bits and really don't want anyone showing up with a broken machine while they're trying to push the product. I guess I can understand that but it doesn't say much for customer service. So tomorrow we have a planned day off and a previously unplanned 10am appointment. What we'd like is if they would remove the hard drive and my custom screen and put them in a new MacBook Pro. I have a creepy feeling the Genius is going to take 15 minutes removing the back and telling us to make another appointment. Maybe not. They're more likely to instruct us to Fedex it back to Apple HQ. It's Christmas for heaven's sake. Wish me luck.

By the way, I did find another new drawing for a small painting I can share with you. It's called 'Float' and one I remembered I'd emailed to a friend. Hopefully, I'll be able to work on it this weekend. I'll be visiting and meanwhile Crow sends regards.