Ultraviolet (Light My Way.)
Our brains, our words, our beliefs are all hard-wired to the idea that what we see... is what is real. If we can't see it, it doesn't exist.Tetrachromatic Vision.Birds can see in the ultraviolet.Red, green, blue... and ultraviolet. "Tetrachromatic" vision.Whereas we can only see three.
I can see what you're saying.The problem is that what we see - and thus, what we think is real - is limited. Only part of the picture. There are all sorts of wavelengths out there - radio waves and microwaves and X-rays and gamma rays. But not only don't we see them, we don't even recognize our close cousin - ultraviolet.Light... that we can't see.But it's out there. Bouncing off things, headed straight back at our eyes. We might like to blink it away, refuse to take it in. But in it comes. And still, our heads, our brains, can't make sense of it.It's happening to you right now.We filter, distort, what everything "looks like." What is.Birds can do better. They can see large stretches of ultraviolet light. Which means every bird we see, the colors we know so well - we're seeing differently than the birds see themselves.Crows, are not pure Black... to other birds. They have great splashes of color. Robins with their Red breasts, Blue Jays, Snowy Owls - we've got them all wrong.We failed in one of the first tasks we were given. We've misnamed them. Mistaken them for what they are not.Birds see everything differently - plants, animals, sunshine, the sky. They're all colored differently, once you can see into the ultraviolet.Even the expressions on our faces look different, if you could see as birds do.Our minds can't grasp what it's like to see in the ultraviolet, because we're locked into seeing the limited color range we're used to. It's not like you can just add another color to the mix. Nope. All the relationships between the colors, all the shadings and patterns, all the brain cells we use for vision - they all would need to change. Each of us color blind, blind, to what is right there before us.Oh yeah. And all those skin colors we think we are? Black and white and red and yellow and all that?Wrong. We aren't any of those colors. Not really.None of us know what color we really are. At least, not in the eyes of God. Nor in the eyes of Science.Fade to black?
Kamaitachi.
Sometimes a person walking in the mountains will be beset by a ferocious wind, and only later discover deep but painless gashes made in their skin, as if by some very sharp instrument.
Toriyama Sekien (1712-1788) was the 1st scholar to identify & document this phenomenon - the work of the Kamaitachi (or Sickle Weasel.) Kamaitachi are lightning-fast weasels that ride in a whirlwind, invisible to us, but each equipped with very sharp sickle-like claws with which to attack.
The Kamaitachi work in teams of three, the 1st rushing upon & stunning the victim, the 2nd cutting the flesh with its claws, and the 3rd applying medicine that eliminates pain & stifles the bleeding.
In late Summer 1987, I returned home after living in California. I had finished university, and had been working on a book with a friend there. It told the story of a generation, our post-war generation, and of how it would sooner or later - God, let it be the former - change American politics. We had researched for years; travelled the US & abroad; talked with the most engaged, intelligent, people we could find; ransacked the polling data. The corruption of Reagan was coming to light, and that of the TV preachers.
We had great hopes. And were well into writing. The history, sociology, attitudes of our generation. The seeds being planted, of new, greener, technology. Of moving beyond markets, beyond state. And of course, of the cultural change all around us. Each chapter had dozens of links - to music, speeches, history, film. We drew red lines on each page, showing the connections & interconnections of people, ideas, events. And the conclusion was all politics. A way forward.
We worked at every job imaginable, to support the project. We spoke to anyone who might be interested. Opportunities appeared, and then... poof. Just. Like. That. Disappearing rabbits. Felt like something larger, playing tricks on us.
And then, we got an offer. The offer. Major publisher. We were ecstatic. To tell the truth, we'd lived the entire time pretty much in a state of ecstasy. Dreams. Visions. No drugs required, the thoughts just... presented themselves. Invisible currents flowed into our heads from the cosmos. Infused the book.
And yet, we wrestled with one truth, which we didn't wish to speak. Oh, it was there in the book - but we never spelled it out. The truth that our numbers weren't yet large enough to create the change we wanted. Not yet. And worse, not likely, for 20 years. The ideas were good, they would eventually happen - but they too were young. Seeds, but just seeds. Not yet fully grown. We looked at each other & said, "But who can maintain hope, knowing they have another 20 years to walk?" And, "'Not yet,' is a hard thing to hear."
Then the editor, who had selected our book, died. And the publisher closed the office. We stood, empty-handed, another rabbit - gone. We ran out of money. Needed to recharge, rethink, reload. I went back to my home, the farm by the water, East Coast. Sobered. Brooding. Perhaps as only a young person can. I walked. Endless miles - hills, coast, mountains, fields. Going over & over how positive the ideas, the writing, had been. The support we had received from so many. But also troubled, by the way doors seemed to open... and then slam shut. And always, that nagging 20 years.
After a few weeks, I received a call from my friend. Someone important had read our stuff. Loved it. Wanted us to write for him. This was it, we figured. This must be the reason all those other doors had opened, then closed. This was the one meant for us. Hope surged.
A huge, late Summer storm came up the coast. I loved storms. Hurricanes, Nor'easters, snowstorms - I loved them all. Went walking in them, whatever the hour, or condition. Always had. I went out in this one, walking, thinking. Utterly absorbed. Thinking of all that had happened. Hoping for guidance. From the invisible current, I guess.
I forgot to pay attention to the storm. When I finally noticed, it was directly over me. I turned & began walking - fast -through the blackness, home. Lightning was ripping the sky. Thunder louder than I'd ever heard. I was on the road at the bottom of the last hill. Rows of apple trees stretching up, maybe 10 yards away on each side.
When I slowed down, then... stopped. Turned round, to look at the trees, their silhouettes flashing. Pitch black... then lit up like noon. Funny, my legs felt riveted to the ground. Then the hair stood up on the back of my neck. Locked me to the ground. Spooky. A feeling started rising in me.
I thought I heard someone call my name. Figured it must be my brother, sent out to find me in the storm, tell me not to be such a damn fool, to come inside. I felt as though I couldn't move my feet, so I turned my head back around to answer him. But as I turned my face, it wasn't him. At all.
When the lightning struck, I thought my heart would explode. Suddenly, it just seemed to swell, filling my chest. I could feel each pulse hammer through me. Upstroke... Bam. Downstroke... WHAM. With each pulse, every muscle in my body seemed to contract into a hard ball, then... tear wide open as the next surge came through. I remember my jaw snapping open so hard I thought it would break.
I was struck blind. By the brightest whitest light imaginable.
I was struck deaf. As though my head was an enormous gong, hammered by Thor himself.
I fell face down, mouth open, eyes open, into the wet, red, dust. Stunned. Unconscious.
When I came to, I staggered home. People had been woken by the sound, the storm had been so close. "Too close," said I, and told them the story. I ached for days, but no bleeding. Ached. Thought my jaw, the entire sides of my head, would come off. But they didn't. Most people survive these things relatively unscathed, it turns out. The force of the strike cascades off them, like a downpour sheeting off an umbrella.
Three weeks later, my friend called again. The person who wanted us to write for them had... had some bad breaks. Events, dear boy, events. "Bad timing," they had said.
I laughed.
I already knew the answer. Had seen it. In the ultraviolet.
Though... "Not yet" was a tough answer to take.
Not with a 20 year walk ahead.
That's how I first met the Kamaitachi. Never saw them coming.
Kelvin.
It's Winter, and we all feel the cold. Once the snow starts, and the rivers & lakes freeze, it feels all-consuming. Just... cold. Our temperature charts confirm this. When it hits 32 degrees Fahrenheit, water's well on its way to ice. We're made up of water, and it seems to be all around us - falling from the sky, frozen in the lakes, piled up along roads and covering the fields. So when we see this stuff change from a clear liquid into solid white stuff we think, "Now... it's cold. In a few months, that'll change. But in the meantime, I have to get inside, and get some warmth."
Kelvin tells the story differently. Kelvin says +32 Fahrenheit is +273 degrees. Even when it's -40 Fahrenheit, it's still about +233 degrees kelvin.
Kelvin tells us there's energy in the air, the water, the soil - even when Fahrenheit tells us there's nothing but cold.
Kelvin's telling us something useful. That there's energy there - even in cold air, cold water, cold ground. And when there's energy there, you can squeeze it out... then pump it into your home, to keep you toasty. Eventually, it'll leak back out again, billions of hot & happy little dogs, radiating & romping back across the outdoors.
Fridges do this. Heat seeps into them. The fridge squeezes the heat out, and pumps it away, into your kitchen.
We no longer think a fridge is magic.
But when someone tells you that you can squeeze the heat out of the air (or water, or the earth), then use that heat for your house - they kinda think you're nuts. And it does sound bizarre. A bit magical.
And yet, right now, there is enough heat in the ground beneath your backyard, even in deepest Winter, to heat your entire house.
By using a heat pump. That's what they do. As the ad says, "All the energy you could ever want, in the ground beneath your feet." You may not be able to see it... but it's there.
And every year, the heat gets returned, renewed. Some from the sun. Some rises up from the center of the earth. Some comes when you run the heat pump as an air conditioner in Summer, when it dumps excess heat back into the ground or the air or the water, so you can use it again next Winter.
Oh yeah. That heat in the ground comes from one other source too. We all know about the Urban "Heat Island" Effect, that makes cities hotter. It comes from the concrete & pavement absorbing heat, and buildings blocking the wind, and heat coming off cars & factories & houses. And we've all heard how it's bad, and old people can die from it, and so on.
But there's something else. That we didn't see.
Y'see, the urban heat island also extends... downward. Stands to reason, when you think about it. That extra heat we produce penetrates down into the soil & sand & rock, year over year flowing deeper, held there. And if there's water down beneath your city, and there usually is, well... it gets heated too.
For instance, the water beneath this very cold, Northern city, is now 10 or 12 degrees Fahrenheit above the temperature it was before settlement. An entire, massive aquifer, has been heated by 3, 4, 5 generations of factories & industry & railroads & cars & buildings & pavement.
All that warm water, wrapped in a big, rock-encased, tank.
All that energy, sitting down there, that we can't even see.
But with heat pumps.... Yeah. You got it. We can pump it up. And return the aquifer to its normal temperature, as part of the bargain.
We measured the heat beneath our city. It's effectively a hot water tank worth... just over $1 billion.
We found a billion dollars.
Invisible... unless you can see in the Infrared. And through the Earth.
Which not even birds can do.
It's as though our Grandparents just... dropped it there. A gift, held in storage, for us. Maybe for when we needed it most. Maybe they dropped some beneath your city, too.
And everyone in the city can have a share. We just have to reach down... into the invisible...
And Pump It Up.
Red Cross
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That is the problem with a 135 IQ attempting to read something by 175 IQ. I have to think about this. And that bothers me because I have to go to the store to get more stuff for my refrigerator so I can put it in my stomach and feel good for ten minutes.
But my first question is this:
Does this mean that I cannot or should not call republicans bird-brains anymore?
February 14, 2009 3:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hardcore Republicans should never be compared to a living thing. (Notice I said "hardcore" - Jason, we can compare to a living thing.)
But birds, sharks, suckerfish, toads, dogs, pigs, rats, skunks, pond scum, viruses (or any living disease, actually), asses, the entire family rodentia, worms, reptiles, dinosaurs, and above all, weasels - they all get DEEPLY offended. (Did I mention pond scum?)
Oh yeah. Could you bring me back a sandwich, Dick? Ham & swiss would be DANDY. I will gladly repay you on Tuesday, for a sandwich today.
February 14, 2009 4:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great post, Wimpy. It made a difference.
February 14, 2009 8:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed. The current hardcore are a lost cause. If Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln come to represent a new hardcore? I think we could be finally seeing in ultraviolet.
February 15, 2009 8:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
Q your writing seems to ramble along at a 100 miles an hour. Sounds like a contradiction but it's not. I'd like to read the book. Can you publish it online?
February 14, 2009 3:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Never finished it, Mark. Just decided that if it was actually good, we were gonna have to just test-drive it & see. Real-world. Turned out, a lot of it had legs. Though some of it just reads... old, 80's-ish. But all our friends knew about it (in too-graphic detail) from university. In the end, a small audience... but a good one. Be interesting to see how much of it applies today.
February 14, 2009 4:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
What is this crap about 'old eighties' stuff.
You know I will start watching a movie and think, gees this just came out. And so I look it up and it came out about 1992.
If 1992 is fairly new to me, 1989 cannot really be that old.
February 14, 2009 4:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
On films & music, I agree Dick. But how many remember Iran-Contra & Ollie North (and Gates)? How many remember Swaggart & Bakker? How many remember the recession of the early 80's? Or Maggie & the Coal-Miners?
Some of us, I guess. I hope so. I had to research to find the 60's. Was born just a bit too late to get it firsthand. And the 50's. !955/56, one of the most extraordinary times I've ever studied, oddly enough. Elvis, ML King, Ginsberg/Kerouac, Jimmy Dean - all, shot out of a pistol, within just a few months of each other.
But I had to dig to find it. Rebel Without A Cause - archaeology.
February 14, 2009 4:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
I just had to explain the S & L melt down to a college kid today and how the S & Ls were nationalized and it ended up okay.
When I went looking for info about CEO excessive pay I got recent stuff and then a big cluster from Enron days and I got confused about what decade I was in.
February 14, 2009 5:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
When was Enron anyway? The 1870's? That stuff went down the memory hole faster than Sonny Liston in that 2nd fight.
February 14, 2009 7:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh man, don't you remember the day in the summer of 2002 when Bush went on the teevee with "corporate accountability" splashed across the backdrop behind him and the DOW counter in the corner dropping 300 points, when 300 points was a big deal, as he spoke?
By August Cheney was warning us that no doubt about it, Saddam was building a bomb. Right around the 1st anniversary of Bush getting the "Osama determined to attack" daily brief.
There was a war to fight fellas! Nothing was gonna get in the way of the propaganda campaign that'd launch them to victory in November. War fever buried a lot of things they didn't want to talk about.
February 14, 2009 8:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
7 years of war fever, anthrax fever, airport fever, OMG they're gonna get me here in North Dakota fever, water supply fever, natural gas terminal fever, WMD fever, the invincible Republican Guard fever, on and on and on and on. These guys fed us a fever every 7 or 8 hours, by my count.
Whatever happened to "starve a fever?"
February 15, 2009 11:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hmmm. I dunno. My kid, a few years ago, saw a copy of "rebel without a cause" in some discount bin in some store. The title and the picture of James Dean intrigued her, and she asked me to get it for her.
She loved it. She must have watched it 100 times. Some things never die. They just, fade...in and out.
February 14, 2009 8:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Be interesting to see how much of it applies today.
That's what I was thinking.
February 14, 2009 4:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
So, it's shelved? Been 20 years, no?
February 14, 2009 4:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yup, shelved. Always interesting to go back to things you once did, though. To see what still lives. "Demarketing" the economy. "Green Tech." Re-wiring ourselves toward "Neighborhoods & Networks." The substantive chapters hold up quite well.
The overall storyline told the post-war generation's story (seen broadly, as much more than the "Boomers") as a parallel to the Exodus. The rebellion, plagues, liberation/fleeing. Then the 40 years in the wilderness, with the grumbling & hankering back toward old ways. Until the youngest ones, those born after the grand exit (in our case, after say, '68), not having as much attachment to the old - and finally being able to move us into new ways. That story/myth still works quite well - the attitudinal/value-shift polling was bang on - but only if you're into that story, eh?
But too much of it was focussed on why & how the Reaganite, Thatcherite, Yuppie 80's was deeply distorting... and dangerous. An attempt to go back to something impossibly lost. And ultimately, unworkable. But all the characters, events - they've thinned out with time. Ollie North - just a wraith now. Those parts are too narrow, too defensive - I guess it came with writing it in the face of that gale.
So as I say, shelved, as a book. Probably thankfully so. But lived, nonetheless.
February 14, 2009 5:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe you should dust it off, Quinn. I came across SC Senator Demint on c-span this week while he was talking about Margaret Thatcher. I didn't pause to hear what pronouncements he was making about her (I thought it might be a time warp), but clearly the era is alive to them and something they would like to revive.
February 14, 2009 6:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thatcher walks on today, I swear, more like the undead than she ever was. She's lost all her short-term memory now, which means she lives - more than most of us - in that era. If she should ever recapture her soul, and come to lament what she'd done, I think that'd probably be a perfect description of hell. To have known what you'd done, but to be stuck there with it.
Thatcher is one of the few human beings on Earth I have almost no sympathy for. Ok. I exaggerate. Not "almost." For her, I have none.
February 14, 2009 7:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
hahaahahahahahahah
February 14, 2009 8:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think I agree with you on this one, quinn. I always suspected Cheney was Thatcher in a suit (albeit with even less charm), and that Iraq was his/her Falkland Islands.
Great essay, by the way. And jeez, I wish you would look at picking up where you left off with the shelved project. I really enjoy your writing style - and the wit that underscores your comments here. Truly unique and refreshing. Kinda' like seeing the world suddenly in splashes of ultra-violet.
On a related note, I saw the garbage man get hit by lightning - struck the tree next to him and came right outta' the ground after him. Blew the soles of his shoes apart as it lifted him seemingly ten feet off the round and then dropped him like a bundle of rags. I visited him in the hospital, where he informed me the charge cured his arthritis. I was just a kid, but I was going to write it up for the New England Journal of Medicine. Didn't do it, and became a truck driver instead.
There's a moral here someplace about not following through on getting published. Think about it.
February 15, 2009 5:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
Great stories, as always SJ. Cured his arthritis? All I can say is, "Lucky bastard." ;-)
Thanks also for the warning about publishing. The way you escaped a life of crime, drug abuse & sordid company... and instead, found the freedom & deep soul-satisfaction of the open highway.
I'm with ya all the way on that.
February 15, 2009 11:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
It would be difficult to imagine that you wrote as well twenty years ago as you do now but, given your combination of brain and wit and energy, maybe you did. And if so, there may be several parts of your book that are definitely worth playing forward, as well as, or in combination with, what you are writing now. (I reread some of my older stuff recently and discovered, much to my combined delight and chagrin, that the best thing I've ever written was a long piece about the Blues, which I wrote in 1991 before the little gray cells were zapped in great numbers.)
February 15, 2009 11:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
The zapping of writing-related brain cells has always been of real, practical, interest to me, WW. Truth is, I once (right around 1991, funny enough), wrote poetry that is - looking back - far & away the best stuff I ever did.
But when I wrote longer pieces, they were... appalling. Dozens of connections, endless sentences (yes, even worse than today!), every statement qualified to death. Yech. Part of it was lack of confidence, hearing the critics in my head. But more, it felt like my brain made 38 connections from every 1 point.
So I became quite excited about the idea of having those brain cells & connections "pruned." Even if it was random, and I lost some good stuff, I felt like it might, one day, become manageable. Only 2 or 3 sideways connections per point.
And blogging lets me drop down a link, for those who wish to follow it, while enabling me to press on, pursuing some sort of at least minimally-coherent line.
('Course, I suppose I always could have just let someone edit my stuff. But at 21 or 31.... NO way! Sigh. Yoof.)
February 15, 2009 1:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nicely done. Rec'ed.
February 14, 2009 4:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cheers, Old Grouch. Aren't you the Santana fiend, OG? What'd you think of this one?
Oddly, it relates this post - things we can't see - because it was written by the lead singer for the New Radicals, who went big in the 90's, and then the guy just... disappeared. But was eventually discovered, writing hits in Europe - plus this one for Santana. Tough to stay invisible these days, I guess.
February 14, 2009 8:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Unless you're Harry Potter.
Curious -- that wish to quest, but to be invisible -- at least from a woman's, or a minority's point of view. Yet actually understandable, because a quest -- as compared to a pursuit -- requires what is, for most of us, the unimaginable courage to be completely revealed in the moment of truth. (Not judging, just musing.)
February 14, 2009 9:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
As you say, WW. I suspect any real quest has to pass through invisibility - precisely because the task is so far beyond that individual, the need for courage so far beyond the capacity, and the energy of that moment of revelation, more than can be handled. For myself (and a few tens of millions of others), Aragorn/Strider was probably the model for how to do this.
And I suspect more than a few see those years spent as a community organizer in Chicago in just such a light, eh?
February 15, 2009 3:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Pump it up" is British slang for masturbation.
Interesting.
February 14, 2009 4:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, it is. Was wondering who would know that.
Interesting. ;-)
February 14, 2009 5:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Friend of mine scored an exceptional quarter in Dallas a couple of weeks ago. Swore that for about 10 minutes, he could see in UV as well as the low end of the AM radio spectrum.
February 14, 2009 5:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Depending on what stations he picks up, and what kinda sound quality you can get out him, sounds like your buddy could be a useful addition on a road trip.
Next time, yank his ears a little, see if he picks up any good FM stations.
Hell, maybe even satellite radio.
February 15, 2009 2:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
Do all birds see ultraviolet quinn? I never knew that. Do you know if they've modeled how a bird sees? That's really fascinating, actually. I never should have spaced through all of those high school science classes in the middle-70s. After that, the only science class I ever took in college was a freshman seminar called "Science as Literature". Did we know this about the birds back then? What do people look like to pigeons anyway? Is it a pretty site?
February 14, 2009 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Apparently, a lot of fish, turtles, some other reptiles & maybe worms (if I remember) can as well. But mammals/apes lost the ability somewhere. It evolved OUT. How strange is that?
Interesting on the pigeon. Get this. The Wiki link describes them as "eyes with wings." They actually have 5 sets of cones, are Pentachromic. So who knows what they can see.
Apparently, tetrachromatic color is brutal to model, because you're trying to map a 4th dimension onto 3. You can map a bee onto human vision, because they only see in 3-D, one of which is ultraviolet. The more you think about it, conceiving it gets harder. Mapping 4-D onto 3. Quite a trick. Like, what happens when something you look at has both green and ultraviolet in it? Maybe infrared works better because you essentially strip it all back to black, and then just show color ranges for the intensity of the heat. I donno. Here's a university group working on UV vision.
P.S. I suspect people look like toilets to pigeons. No other excuse for that behavior.
February 14, 2009 5:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Have you heard about this young man?
Apparently, he has been thinking of birds and ultraviolet vision too...
http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=d3e2f6d0-8d8e-4833-9acc-7ce979c17e5f
February 15, 2009 7:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Brilliant. I can barely get my head around the fact that birds can see in the UV - and a 13 year old kid turns the idea into a possible solution that'd save millions of avian lives. Be interesting to see what the window-makers can do with this. If it works, I expect to see birds, planet-wide, initiate a "Charlie Sobcov Day." Thanks for the link, Druidity.
February 15, 2009 11:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
Kids seem to just accept what adults insist on understanding. There is more of an attitude of "how can I use this information" instead of "what does this information mean?"
February 15, 2009 1:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
.
Now . . .
If they applied that idea to wind turbine blades it may keep birds from flying into them.
~OGD~
February 15, 2009 5:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
OGD, that's a really good idea. Seriously. I'm gonna have to check into it. I know they pain them with stripes sometimes, use sound devices, even stop them at times - but it'd be interesting to see whether painting them in UV would alert the birds. Thanks!
February 16, 2009 10:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Birds see.
Stuff.
Thanks. Maybe others can see if, if they squint a certain way....?
February 14, 2009 5:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
I find crossing my eye helps.
February 14, 2009 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe the lightning gave you an extra eye or two. It sure seems like it sometimes.
February 14, 2009 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Naw, Harry Potter was the lucky one. He got all the good powers.
All I got was a new Cardinals hat... and a rattled nervous system. ;-)
February 14, 2009 5:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't misunderestimate yourself.
Send my warm regards to Mildred the fortunate.
;D
February 14, 2009 5:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cheers, Bwak. M's happily wandering the great outdoors with a new camera, seeing if she can catch the sun on the snow juuuust right. I'm hoping she manages a shot that catches that ole ultraviolet, sneaking through the shadows. We'll see. ;-)
All the best.
February 14, 2009 5:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
I love rippled snow at sunset with the orange warm light on one side, and the cold blue twilight on the other. Not all humans see that. She must be special.
(clink)
February 14, 2009 5:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nicely done Q. Try reworking the book as a screenplay. Lots of special effects, maybe a rework of the armageddon plot, with energy depletion and environmental calamity in starring roles. Schwarzenegger may be looking for a role in the not to distant future. The lightning experience must have been remarkable to have survived. I've lost one friend to lightning, (on a golf course to complete a sad cliche), and another good bud lost his arm from a quick jolt of 7200 volts from an uncovered transformer when he was a kid. He paddles class 4 whitewater in his kayak, and always sings to the electrical gods, (¿Thor, etc?), when thunderstorms threaten. He believes they have an affinity to certain persons, himself among them. With his metal 'hook' I tend to support his aversion to meeting them again. Just mentioning, as they might have a taste for that Quinn guy from NS now, and songs may be in order.
February 14, 2009 5:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yez. Watch yerself, quinndude.
¡¡¡¡¡Escuchar el peegalito.!!!!!
February 14, 2009 5:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
I gotta admit, it makes you a little gunshy - I tend to duck when thunder hits now. Should have known better. When I was 18, a strike came through the window of the room we were sitting in, burnt the carpet. But when you're young & stupid, you think you're invincible. Wrong.
Met one other guy who'd been hit. Bringing in a boat off a lake, with his brothers. He was lucky too. His Mum was watching them from the window, though - and said she almost had a heart failure. Seeing all 3 of her sons lit up like that. Can't imagine it.
When I see any lightning now, I tend to ask it to please move to Florida, where - I understand - they'll have the most company. "Hey you! Doesn't Orlando sound GOOD this time of year? I hear all your friends are there! Bye-bye! Don't worry about us!"
February 14, 2009 5:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now don't go bringing Orlando into this. She's got enough to think about without you bringing PNG brujos to pester her with lightning storms. Heh... I think your story of lightning thru the window as a kid confirms you´re on the E-gawds ´most favorite list'. You do NOT want to come visit 'The lightning Field' in NM, (http://www.lightningfield.org/). Speaking of untapped energy sources, what about differences in atmospheric electric potential? Find a way to harness/capture that, and we can get this fossil fuel monkey off our back for good.
February 14, 2009 6:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Believe me, M2O, a split-second after I sent that comment mentioning a certain Florida town, I knew I was in the muck.
And leave Dick's monkey over in his story, willya? I don't care if he's fossil-fuelled or not.
February 14, 2009 8:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I gotta admit, it makes you a little gunshy - I tend to duck when thunder hits now. Should have known better. When I was 18, a strike came through the window of the room we were sitting in, burnt the carpet. But when you're young & stupid, you think you're invincible. Wrong.
---------------------------------------------------
It always amuses me when someone who has chosen to not live a life of quiet desperation and survives comes to the conclusion that they are not invincible or invulnerable. I'm come to the opposite conclusion.
Some people are just destined to be here for the whole show. Its magic.
So buck up old boy. Your life, and the lives of some others, is proof that you are invulnerable and invincible. Don't be backing down now when there are so many risks to take, with all those interesting learning experiences that go along with them.
Don't need no safety belt for this ride and no reason to grip tight to the roller coaster bar.
February 15, 2009 3:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Awesome to see you, Oceankat! And where have your adventures been taking YOU??
As for me, will take your advice to heart. Tough not to hunch the shoulders, tuck the head in, get all bunkered, when the storm hits.... But I think the real lesson, as you say, is to get the hell out of the bunker, and have at it.
Thanks for the reminder, and lemme know how things are in Ocean-world. Cheers, dude.
February 15, 2009 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just my tendency towards introversion kicking in. I've been reading here and elsewhere but sometimes everything I have to say just doesn't seen worth saying. Those mid-night bike rides through the woods with my dog when the moon is bright feel more useful. Its dark and quiet and nice for contemplation. I need my quiet times.
I think I was reminding myself more than reminding you. Not so much about the risk taking, I do what I please without worry, but about my need to keep getting out there in the world and not play the hermit too much.
But then, not much to do now. We could be at one of those cusps. Just wait and see if we got a parachute, whether we'll get some wings to fly some where new, or whether we'll be bruised and bloodied as we crash on the rocky shores. waiting is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfiW9KVHiSo
February 15, 2009 6:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
We can start up the "almost struck" club, Quinnesque.
Struck by lightning. Yeah. I almost got fried once when I was up in the northern part of the Idaho panhandle. A lake, a nice one; a near mystical spot, in my reckoning of geography. Got really dark and the wind was high and I sat on the beach watching the water get choppy and change color as the storm got more riled up. Was absolutely beautiful. And then BAMSZZZT one struck, like, really close -- light-blinding me. Felt my hair frizz. Seriously. I screamed and ran blindly into the cottage. That was my one close encounter and then I found this book on my father's shelves. Seemed serendipitous at the time.
Ultraviolet. I love this movie. My fav. Well, one of them, anyway. ;)
Ciao. Gotta make a living now.
February 14, 2009 6:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Loved the book link - sounds like a great story. Saw "Ultraviolet," loved some scenes, wished the story had been better. I donno. Maybe add a talking weasel or something.
Ok. I'm gonna start my list - "Places not to go, if you want to avoid lightning." Idaho panhandle, ranches in Wyoming....
And, "BAMSZZZT?" Much more descriptive spelling. Mind if I borrow it? Happy work! (Wow. Can't believe I said that.)
February 14, 2009 6:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
You may borrow it, Quinnesque. ;)
Of a certainement, weasels would have improved Ultraviolet. ;)
Still, I really liked it. I wish it had been fleshed out a bit more, the story line. That would have helped.
Also, I really like Jem.
'night!
February 15, 2009 1:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Quinn, I LOVeD your post. You tell me birds can see what I can't see and I say good on them but can they see what I can see?
Whats with your karma and lightening man, move somewhere .... not near me. Geothermal sounding good. I saw something about it being good for buildings in cities because they can go down under them and except for avoiding the infrastructure it's not affected like it would be on the outside of the building (windmills and solar panels). I hope thats true.
Thank you
February 14, 2009 6:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks Bluesplashy.
I figure birds can see pretty much everything I can, plus. Which is why I don't let 'em in the house. Once they case the joint, your pantry's history.
Sometimes though, I like to just stand at the window, and practice touching all my fingers to my thumb. Then I grin, and mouth, "Figured THAT one out yet, smart guys?"
Drives 'em beaky.
We're getting more & more city center buildings going geo-thermal. Apartment buildings, big office towers, banks, arenas, car dealers - it's busting into the mainstream now. Part of the reason Geo grew so slowly is just because it's so unsexy, compared to solar or wind. I mean, what do you even point at when you want to show it to people? "Urrrrm. It's down there. In the ground."
What people can't see, they pay a lot less attention to.
Cheers.
February 14, 2009 8:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
There are two different versions of red for humans, with the frequency center being slightly displaced between the two proteins found in the cones.
Music is also species-specific, in that all our music would be a tape on fast-forward to a whale, and soul like whale music to a hummingbird.
I was almost famous in the dizzy 70s, record offers, etc. Steady work and family ain't so bad, though.
Cats see black and white, it's all they need. We see colors useful for distinguishing veggies and fruits, as well as cats and other predators hunting us. Birds need more info, having to see stuff on the fly, I guess. Shorter wavelengths can yield more detail.
Do you save this stuff up?
February 14, 2009 6:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
BTW, what editor app is letting you embed video as well as images?
February 14, 2009 6:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Also, thanks for the perspective.
February 14, 2009 6:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm no pro, but for videos, I -
1. Switch the "Format" box from "Rich Text" to "None"...
2. Copy & paste in the "Embed" link from YouTube...
3. Switch back to "Rich Text"...
4. Then remove the extra spacing I've inevitably inserted.
Seems to work. Much simpler than inserting images, I find. Those drive me insane.
* Oh yeah, some videos block any "embedding," so sometimes I have to search around for a copy which allows it. ** And even then, some get removed in the weeks afterward, so I end up having old posts with dead video links. Argh.
February 14, 2009 6:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
I loved reading about dogs & cats vision, which apparently - in the respect discussed here - is crap. One description said cats basically see "blurred pastels." Made me think of Mr Magoo.
Unless, of course, you move. They can detect movement about 10 times better than a human. And better night vision, of course.
I don't really save anything up, just "these are a few of my favorite things." (Well, except the lightning.)
Question - Do you close your eyes when you play? And do you see anything different than, say, a non-musician would see?
February 14, 2009 6:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
I see architecture, sometimes, when thinking of a piece. Close eyes often, if not reading the page.
Oliver Sacks says professional musicians all have an enlarged corpus callosum. Not sure if that is useful for anything else.
Thanks for the images. Best to the ice weasels.
February 14, 2009 8:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
I saw a recent documentary where Sting participated in an MRI-based set of experiments with the "your brain on music" prof at McGill U, Daniel Levitan. He too said he "sees" music as architecture.
That has me curious. If there is a 3-D experience of music, is there also a similar phenomenon for people who study light - visual artists, photographers - do they experience light as holding another dimension? Or do the have another way of experiencing light?
Thought provoking.
This whole piece filled with light, Quinn. Thank you.
February 15, 2009 12:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks Starwalker. I think Tom (our Asian correspondent) may be in transit today, but a quick comment if I may - because this has always interested me. My biological father (who was a classical musician) always saw color - a bit of synesthesia, apparently. For me (a non-musician), hearing music, or even thinking in any creative way, produces an almost simultaneous "seeing." When I'm thinking or explaining things to colleagues, I HAVE to draw it, sketch it - and almost always in color. And seemingly inevitably, both he & I found ourselves drawn to "mind-mapping," which - for all its limits - plays at the edges of these things, the place where senses connect/overlap & relate to thinking through complexity, thinking creatively. But it's more about color for me, than "architecture" or anything 3-D.
But when you ask about people who study or work in "light," what their experience is... you might as well be talking to me about life in a root cellar. It's a black box to me. Another language. Visually, I like certain colors, boldness, contrast - but beyond that, I literally feel incapable of "grasping" it. Perhaps part of the visual areas in my brain have simply been wired over for additional use by music, I donno.
Hopefully, there are other visual artists & photographers & such here, who can talk about how their mind, their world, connects.
And thanks again, Starwalker.
February 15, 2009 12:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I also do photography and had painters in my family. Light values feel like balance or pressure in the body, to me. Kind of tactile.
February 15, 2009 7:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Birdseye views:
Johannes Itten's Vogelthema
And Polar Bears?
February 14, 2009 6:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks FDRDog. I love looking at the pictures (and paintings) where people either use UV light, or try to imagine what it would look like. Your polar bear, or flowers & plumage, the sun, even this rock.
But they still have to somehow map the UV spectrum over onto our existing colors. But I don't think a bird does this - they have our colors plus UV.
Maybe if I just slap the side of my head hard enough, often enough, I can simulate it. That's my next plan.
I'll let you know how it goes.
February 14, 2009 7:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Quinn:
Understand completely now why "not yet" resonated with you.
But now, Quinn -- isn't the time now? Or, must some of us -- not you, but those of us who are just that potentially tipping point older than you -- accept that "we may not all live to see the Promise Land"?
Actually, not. Because isn't this, this era of Obama, the Promise Land (as compared to the land of the Fait Accompli)? And, therefore, if correct priorities are identified, and correct choices are made in "light" of them, isn't it now that "we are the people we have been waiting for"?
In quieter, saner moments, one can see, like Lux, that the view from Bearclaw/tooth (?) Plateau is timeless. And that "light may be both wave and particle," but....
What about "the fierce urgency of now"?
February 14, 2009 7:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, my co-author & I became distinctly more nervous when we hit the "40 year" mark in 2008. ;-) I'm trying to tiptoe around that marker & the other one that comes from a too-literal reading - that we all (me included) get to die in the Wilderness. Unless you happen to be named Joshua (or one of the few others to make it - Caleb, maybe?) Though I WAS interested that Obama named his outreach to religious youth the "Joshua Generation" & spelled it out, specifically, in his '07 Selma speech:
"The previous generation, the Moses generation, pointed the way. They took us 90% of the way there. We still got that 10% in order to cross over to the other side. So the question that I have today is, what's called of us in this Joshua generation? What do we do to fulfill that legacy; to fulfill the obligations and the debt that we owe to those who allowed us to be here today?"
One of the problems with this sort of terminology is that it attracts narrow literalists, who stick on dates, or want to have debates about what a "generation" is (usually adopting silly media terms), or who make "Wilderness" or Promised Land" too narrow. It's an old American tradition, of course, using these references & resonances - Michael Walzer had a useful book on it, "Exodus & Revolution."
But yeah, one way or another, let's stick around this time.
February 14, 2009 7:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm smashing into the 68 year mark in just over two months. It isn't a biggie, but I will no longer be able to claim to be closer to 65 than to 70. I guess this makes me the Noahccount generation--absolutely antediluvian. :-)
Glorious post.
February 14, 2009 8:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
First, a salute, for Noahaccount. ;-)
They tell me aging all comes down to how much insulation we keep on the mental wires. Somehow I suspect yours is in fine shape, amike. Not convinced about mine own, given the overheating event I described - but we make do with what we have, eh?
Cheers.
February 14, 2009 9:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Next time you don't have anything better to do, take your digital camera and point your TV (or any) remote control at it. Push any button on the remote and look at the camera display.
This little phenomenon got Sony in hot water about fifteen years ago, when it was discovered that it was possible, indeed, to "undress a woman with your eyes" if she was wearing a lightweight dress.
Fantastic post, by the way.
February 14, 2009 7:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks, E.
Now THAT is what I call useful, practical, information!! Betcha about 175 TPM'ers end up bookmarking this post, just because of that comment.
* Now where did I put that remote? * ;-)
February 14, 2009 7:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I had used that trick to test the IR response of my camera, knowing the remote used that light, but not knowing how much filtering the camera had. Shows as purple on camera's CCD chip.
In near-IR, from 700 out to 1200 nanometers, green leaves are bright and the blue sky is dark.
February 14, 2009 9:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Only in Sony's NightShot mode (0 lux) with an infrared filter on it. Aiming a remote at the camera will only tell you whether the imaging sensor can "see" infrared light. Without a display mode to "show" it to you, you'll never see what's under those thin dresses and shirts...
As a retail camera salesperson, i remember when Sony had to remove NightShot from its cameras for awhile. They have since made sure the new NightSHot mode is unable to accomplish this feat.
...
February 15, 2009 7:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Can birds see a window?
February 14, 2009 7:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Reminds me of a poem I read once:
Mr. Science
Q - "Mr. Science,
where do animals go to die?"
A - "Well son, scientists have proven that
(statistically-speaking)
animals go to the highway
to die."
Windows may function the same way for birds.
(JUST KIDDING, BIRD-LOVERS! I know, I know... windows are bad, and there's lots we can do to reduce avian mortality!)
They're a savage lot, bird-lovers.
February 14, 2009 7:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
morning glory seeds
freon
banana peel
marijuana
paragoric
hash
hash oil
mescaline
mushrooms
cocaine
acid
speed
peyote
morphine
ultraviolet
Ultraviolet? That sounds weird, don't remember that one. Not yet. Loved the whole post and the Costello clip was a perfect closer. Dancin' on a Saturday night, thanks Quinn.
February 14, 2009 8:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
For a minute there, I thought you were listing the line-up for the '67 Leafs. I'm sure Davie Freon played center, and ole Banana Peel was on defence. Or maybe nets.
Dude. Somehow I suspect a Black Light came into these proceedings, eh? UV, baby.
A little something to feed the early '80's jones. A bit more anti-Mags.
Town Called Malice.
February 14, 2009 8:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Quinn, Why don't you just pull your best blogs together and publish them as essays? I know the idea of picking up an old project can seem like too much, but if you got your essays out there you just might feel the inspiration you need to dust off the book.
Not to gush or anything, but you are really really good!
February 14, 2009 8:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks Cville. I suspect one barrier to translating the blogs into essays is the way they're so heavily integrated with music videos & such. Perhaps the day will come when things are primarily published on the web, and then all our comments would be saved.
Which is more than a bit worrying, in my case. ;-)
But thanks for the support, and glad you enjoyed it.
February 14, 2009 9:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm bestowing this with one of my coveted recommendations even though I have yet to read it as I don't have the free time right now (estimated time to read and absorb being approximately 38 minutes, and that's with fast forwarding the video links). Based upon experience, however, I am confident that it will be time well spent. Hopefully, I'll get to it soon. I could of course pretend to have read it, like so many other worthy (and sometimes unworthy) writings. Come to think of it, there's very little out there I haven't pretended to have read. In fact, I am as prolific a pretender as you are a writer.
February 14, 2009 9:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Laugh of the night, AG.
Though what could be more important than this, on a Valentine's Day evening... I can't (and won't) imagine.
But just in case you're with that Someone Special, I'm sure they'd appreciate this. You can tell 'em it's your Theme Song. ;-)
February 14, 2009 9:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Quinn, that was naughty. I am pretending that I watched the whole thing.
February 14, 2009 9:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
This isn't exactly on-topic, but seems as good a place for it as anywhere. Did anyone else catch that story on animals that get high/drunk off various materials in nature? ('Cept the elephants - apparently they just barge into someone else's kegger and drink all the beer. The frat guys of the animal kingdom, I guess.)
February 14, 2009 10:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have seen several different docs about this subject, over the last five years. History Channel, National Geo, PBS.
My god, the mammals alone that go after mushrooms in the wild would tell you something.
Now it looks like 'man' however you define it was building fires--cooking their food and keeping warm--eight hundred thousand years ago as homo erectus. Supposedly we were only growing our weeds domestically for ten thousand. But we know that after the first harvest, we were making beer.
It would be fun if you did a blog on this though.
Mood altering mammals.
February 14, 2009 11:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Humans have been eating happy food for at least 2,700 years.
Just this year, I saw M feed her cat some catnip. Talk about HAPPY.
Tried it myself. Nada. Damn.
February 14, 2009 11:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
This one was always my favorite "drunk animals" video - gotta love PBS.
February 15, 2009 12:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sure Miguelito (porky lad? the one with the slippers?) is already trying to suppress this video - seeing as how his wart hog cousins seem to have become utterly debased.
My... how the mighty are fallen.
February 15, 2009 3:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
OMG, that was hilarious! Thanks!
February 15, 2009 3:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm gonna watch that after I get back from that little cerveza palapa down the beach.
February 15, 2009 4:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
.
Rated five-stars * * * * *
Yes ... You at the 20 mark.
And here I sit at the 40 mark.
No one remains in the wilderness.
If one continues to mine the mind.
Season 3 Premier
~OGD~
February 15, 2009 12:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Green Dude is TOUGH on furniture, isn't he? I'd like to see him tangle with Mr Clean sometime. Always hated THAT guy. ;-)
40 years. How many remain stuck there? That's the question. I was speaking with someone earlier today, and they just said, "Everybody Knows." Everybody Knows the game is rigged. Everybody Knows this gig is over. I talk with pols and policy-makers, hedge fund managers and media types. And they ALL know, OGD. We've all SEEN into the ultraviolet - but we're just not used to talking about it, are we?
Weird things happen in society when they hit certain obstacles, and there's that big, unspoken, "Everybody Knows" in play. The Soviets and the Eastern Bloc hit that Wall, and they already knew. The whites in South Africa hit it, and they knew. Ok, everybody knew, some didn't WANT to change, but enough. And their worlds changed. Not easily, not well - but that's up to us.
I'm hoping we're coming to that point. Where we can just say it, and dump the truckload of shit we've all had to speak these past decades. Wall Street my ass.
Rock on, Dr. Duck. Here's hoping that no one remains behind. And thanks for the Hulk. My God, that Banner dude was one hell of an actor, eh? ;-)
February 15, 2009 1:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
And that, your honor, is the case for the defense.
February 15, 2009 1:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
Dick. I donno why. But that line always makes me laugh like hell.
Get some sleep, Minnesota-man. Cheers.
February 15, 2009 2:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
The Quinn-t-essential time is now!
More brilliant then lightning, more determined then fate is destiny. You have to publish.
As I read this post, I thought of poor Jimmy Carter. He had the whole green thing down in the 70s. He has been abused and scorned and neglected by so many, but he was right. He's a happy guy today, it seems. Why? He spoke his truth and whether anyone heard it or not was irrelevant. It needed to be said.
February 15, 2009 3:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm with you on Jimmy, G-Zap. The guy didn't have all the answers, and he sure as heck didn't have the tools we have now, but as someone who genuinely went after peace, greening & a fair bit of truth-telling, I rank him higher than any others going back 40 years.
They slammed him for stating the obvious (malaise), for suggesting even small sacrifices (sweaters), then the GOP did him dirty with the Iranians. And the reaction of the Christian Right to Carter - as opposed to Reagan - blew me away. They mocked Carter for even thinking about adultery, but gave Reagan a free pass for committing it. I still mark that as a distinct turning in our recent history - the deliberate, conscious decision to turn towards a pleasing set of lies, toward Reagan.
But as you say, Jimmy spoke his truth, and seems the happiest of the ex-Prez lot. More power to him.
February 15, 2009 11:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Awesom writing and a killer voice. Very distinctive. I have to agree with the many others who say you should dust off the old manuscript and bring it up to date.
You theorized that Gen X would be the ones leading the charge (change?) and that generational shifts might produce an equally seismic shift in how we model society. I have been chasing that idea since waking up to my own responsibilities to the effort in 2004.
Twenty years later. How well dot he theories hold up and is there anything we can do to assist in the transition? From the chapter run-down you left as a comment, sounds like a book that is very timely.
Those who can see in ultraviolet (whatever that happens to mean to them as an individual) need to take a minute to explain it to the rest of us as a public service.
Get crackin, son!
February 15, 2009 8:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Cheers, Jason. On the generations, I think what we need is to recognize that pretty much anyone born since the war has more in common with each other than they do with previous generations. I'm hoping that what each group learned (at their various stages of initiating, adopting, spreading & growing these ideas) can be brought together into a more general approach to how we move forward.
And thanks for the encouragement on the writing.
February 15, 2009 11:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
On the generations, I think what we need is to recognize that pretty much anyone born since the war has more in common with each other than they do with previous generations
As an example of that point when the US reinstituted the draft in 1940 something like 17% of the young men picked were rejected because of malnutrition. Think about that. Then think about the number of the elderly who must have been starving before 1937 when Social Security came into being. Seniors were the poorest demographic back then. Saw Gore Vidal last night on CSPAN. He was talking about flying with his dad I guess it was during the time of the Bonus March on DC in the early 30s. That's when WW1 vets marched on DC and set up a huge Hooverville demanding the government pay their WW1 bonuses that were due in 1946 immediately. Vidal said from the air it looked like Halloween down there every day cuz so many men looked like skeletons.
Yeah we all have a lot more in common with each other than we do with previous generations.
February 15, 2009 2:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the ride, quinn.
February 15, 2009 9:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
Cheers, Dr Toad. Sorry I didn't focus much on the amazing visual capabilities of the toad, which (I believe) ALSO include UV vision. Wiki did offer this, a step-by-step guide to toad vision & behavior.
Natural toad behavior: The common toad responds to a moving insect or worm prey with a series of stereotyped responses: (1) orienting toward prey, (2) stalking up to prey, (3) binocular fixation, (4) snapping, (5) swallowing and (6) mouth-wiping with fore limbs.
However, it doesn't say whether this technique varies when orienting toward friends vs. trolls, so I'm just gonna leave this comment here quietly, and be about my business. ;-)
February 15, 2009 11:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
Brilliant post Q, as usual. So do you think we can get some real bird brains at the SEC this time? Maybe they can use their ultraviolet skills to tell when money is being counterfeited.
February 15, 2009 10:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
And. Also. (Just pretend this was left her by a Wonkette).
February 15, 2009 10:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm increasingly suspicious you may BE one of those "Wonkettes," so-called Dij. Got some hints on your Wonkette name?
Great clip. English, I take it. Can they show stuff like that on North American TV?
And thanks for the new avatar the other day. Though the Phil Collins resemblance is more than a little frightening. As in, "a LOT frightening."
February 15, 2009 11:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
And dogs can hear sounds we can't...
Late to this party, quinn, but thrilled by your post. Kudos to the skies!
Others are interested in what you wrote in the past. I'm more interested in your efforts to "see" into the future. That's where we're headed. And I have to presume that your thoughts about that are being shared here with us - in various ways.
We are indeed fortunate that you chose this site for these stabs at the present and the future.
Like many here, I feel dwarfed by your abilities, but thankful that you keep trying to lead us along with you, as you try to make trail in this uncharted territory.
P.S. Don't tempt lightening twice. ;)
February 15, 2009 12:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Too kind, TheraP.
I find the chance to read people's thoughts here, and to write my own, to be genuinely helpful to my own thinking. Academia-alone ties itself in theoretical knots & labels, pure politics plays a game of maneuver, single-person personal anecdote leaves us feeling isolated, unsure. Here, the mix is good - and I look forward to it becoming even more mixed, as more return or join the site.
As for what I see, I admit, I have some confidence in it. But only when I compare it to the truly one-eyed stuff the media presents. I know full well that what I see is about as close to reality as looking through a pair of fractured prisms. But. I also know that if we all describe what we see, in all its fragmented color, we have a chance at something closer to white light.
As opposed to the blue-light projected daily by that accursed box in the corner of the room.
And thanks again.
February 15, 2009 2:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
This post has touched so many interesting areas that "tetrachrome" seems almost 1-dimensional... but it's a Spectrum, right? I mean, it's like the musical 'scale' where we have assigned certain resonances an Identity (eg 440 A), but the increments aren't discrete (like, say, electron shell values), I don't think. So, those birds just have another puddle on the palette... like those South Sea islanders who sing some tunes with "quarter-tone" changes (ostensibly as an aid to navigation?) while out & about on the briny.
I had a fascinating experience last month, staring out the window watching the sun rise in haze (so no blink, no pain), and being aware of 'rays' around the disk... and then something like a two-lobed spider's body in the center (super-imposed on the sun), which seemed to be filled with tiny dots that migrated from the 'lower' lobe to the upper... while the upper lobe seemed to project... Something... into the rays, and widen as it simultaneously absorbed the lower lobe completely and shrank into a rounded shape. I'm wondering if I was watching my pupil adjust to the visible light... and seeing it from the "inside".
Thanks for keeping the disaster of the Reagan anti-revolution fresh in our minds. There's gonna be a bit of "mourning in America" in our immediate futures... ^..^
February 15, 2009 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bang on - just another "puddle on the palette." I find the really good artists & scientists (etc.) get it. They'd give a lot to be able to play with a new palette, different puddle.
But politicians? Economists? My sad-ass social science brethren & cistern? Ye Godz. Whaddya hear from them these days? Keynes. FDR. And they're hard-pressed to stretch THAT far.
I'd rather give the last word to the madman, than that lot. At least he had the courage to stare into the sun, and its innards, and who came out with a Howl:
"What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open
their skulls and ate up their brains and imagi-
nation?
Moloch! Moloch! Nightmare of Moloch! Moloch the
loveless! Mental Moloch! Moloch the heavy
judger of men!
Moloch the incomprehensible prison! Moloch the
crossbone soulless jailhouse and Congress of
sorrows! Moloch whose buildings are judgment!
Moloch the vast stone of war! Moloch the stun-
ned governments!
Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose
blood is running money! Moloch whose fingers
are ten armies! Moloch whose breast is a canni-
bal dynamo! Moloch whose ear is a smoking
tomb!
Moloch whose love is endless oil and stone! Moloch
whose soul is electricity and banks! Moloch
whose poverty is the specter of genius! Moloch
whose fate is a cloud of sexless hydrogen!
Moloch whose name is the Mind!
Moloch who entered my soul early! Moloch in whom
I am a consciousness without a body! Moloch
who frightened me out of my natural ecstasy!
Moloch whom I abandon! Wake up in Moloch!
Light streaming out of the sky!
Moloch! Moloch! Robot apartments! invisible suburbs!
skeleton treasuries! blind capitals! demonic
industries! spectral nations! invincible mad
houses! granite cocks! monstrous bombs!
They broke their backs lifting Moloch to Heaven! Pave-
ments, trees, radios, tons! lifting the city to
Heaven which exists and is everywhere about
us!
Visions! omens! hallucinations! miracles! ecstasies!
gone down the American river!
Mad generation! down on
the rocks of Time!
February 15, 2009 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
.
A slight respite to the past . . .
. . . as our present slides down into the future.
Many ... if not all of my mind's visions remain unchanged.
Exhibit . . .
~OGD~
February 15, 2009 6:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
.
And just in case . . .
If you didn't tour that site, this page outlines, with tongue firmly planted in cheek, what my outlook was at 20. And if you have an imagination, it doesn't take much to understand what I was really feeling by forty. But overall I continue to see my world through those eyes of that Golden Decoy...
~OGD~
February 15, 2009 6:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
And thanks for dropping by, Ridovem.
Hope to see you again.
February 15, 2009 4:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
I read it. No more need to pretend.
Lacking anything of pith to contribute that hasn't been said already, I will simply say in the vernacular of the Islands: "Much respect."
I remember when I first saw Elvis Costello on Saturday Night Live (probably around age 13-14). At the time I thought it was a skit, this weird skinny dude spazzing out all over the stage.
February 15, 2009 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
My nephew (a music fiend) said Elvis' dancing looked like he was "trying to break his own ankles."
Cheers, AG. Hope it took something less than 38 minutes this time. I'm working towards brevity. ;-)
February 15, 2009 5:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
I never guessed it was all -- the bird vision, the weasels, the lightning strike -- building to a promo for geothermal energy. Never.
You're right, geothermal is the real renewable source. Solar and wind try to capture the sun's energy on the fly, which is sort of a futile effort when we live directly on top of a limitless heat sink. Don't see why we haven't tapped the oceans, either.
As for the bird thing, human sight has evolved for utility. We see only as much as our brains find necessary and practical to process, discarding wavelengths our atmosphere tends to filter out anyway.
Then there's even more cutting corners, filling in blanks and referencing stored templates as the image is "displayed."
That's not only true for colors and sight; all our senses take in way more information than we bother to process -- it's just too much work for marginal gain.
But sometimes, seemingly by chance, you grasp something you didn't realize you had seen or heard. That's usually a happy moment.
February 15, 2009 7:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was going for the big climax at the end, but after the lightning bit... just felt it was a bit safer to keep both feet on the ground. ;-)
Utility? If evolution was so keen on utility, surely it would have brought us wings. Or a kangaroo's pouch. Or retractable razor-sharp claws.
Or even wrist-top ATM machines.
Evolution... bah. I blame God.
February 15, 2009 7:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Always with the razor-sharp claws! Look, the weasels beat us to it. We could start evolving like crazy now, and still not catch up in a million years.
Better to evolve deadlier anti-weasel defenses -- like, I dunno, nuclear weapons. Threaten the beasts with mutually assured destruction.
Is it really two centuries since Darwin's birth? He'd be proud of how far we've come.
February 15, 2009 9:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Reality is clearly not what we think it is. I am glad you brought up the light spectrum issue. We could throw in the question of "what if our hearing was in a slightly different range?"
However, our physical limitations (or abilities) are not the only transformer of reality. So to does our culture socialize into us what is meaningful to perceive - and what is not. Both physical and cultural boundaries are placed upon what we DO perceive. But the real twist comes in UNDERSTANDING what we perceive, and that "understanding" is subject to all kinds of variables.
It difficult for people to step outside a box that quite frankly we do not know (or only dimly perceive) we are in.
And the same goes for the great ideas that occur "before their time." Actually, they are not before their time, it is just that the pattern of perception and thought that brings them into being is not shared by enough people for it to become "real." And that is truly frustrating to the point of hopelessness some times.
There may indeed be a usable heat sink under our feet created by the excesses that are killing the world above the ground. A kind of yin/yang type of thought. I can see the argument now: We need to make even more heat to sink into the ground so that we can use that to fuel "our way of life."
When the idea that was born decades earlier comes to the public reality, tears can fall at the way those ideas are put into practice. We can cry "But that wasn't where MY vision went." Ask the scientists who looked to the atom as an energy source.
So it is not just our understanding of reality, or our limitations, that need to breach awareness. So too must our understanding of our biases and human relationship to the whole. If that conceptualization does not change, I fear that every path will ultimately lead back to the same tragic consequences.
To avoid total desperation, I have chosen t