The Hydra

For those who didn’t know, the Hydra was a particularly nasty monster from Greek mythology, which lived in the swamps near to the ancient city of Lerna in Argolis. In some versions of this myth the Hydra was the offspring of Echidna (half maiden - half serpent), and Typhon who had 100 heads, other versions hold that the Hydra was the offspring of Styx and the Titan Pallas. Questions of lineage aside, the various versions agree that the Hydra had the body of a serpent and a whole bunch of heads, although the number of heads deviates from five up to one hundred (generally nine is accepted). One of these heads was immortal and could never be harmed by any weapon, and if any of the other heads were severed two more would grow in its place – fun pet huh? Also the stench from the Hydra's breath was supposed to be enough to kill man or beast (in some versions it was deadly venom). When it emerged from the swamp it would attack herds of cattle and local villagers, devouring them with its numerous heads. It totally terrorized the vicinity for many years, and was generally not too good for property values.


As one of his twelve labors (his penance for killing his wife and family), Heracles journeyed to Lake Lerna in a chariot, taking with him his nephew and charioteer Iolaus, in search of the dreaded Hydra. When they finally reached the Hydras' hiding place, Heracles drew the monster from its hole with flaming arrows, which would have gotten my attention. Having brought the beast out of hiding, Heracles courageously attacked the beast, slashing at each head with his sword, (in some versions it was a scythe) but he soon realized that as one head was severed two others grew in its place. Heracles called for help from Iolaus, telling him to bring a flaming torch, and as Heracles cut off the heads one by one from the Hydra, Iolaus cauterized the open wounds with the torch preventing them from growing back - kind of like electrolysis. Eventually, with the help of Iolaus, Heracles removed all but one of the Hydras' heads. The one remaining head could not be harmed by any weapon, so, picking up his hefty club Heracles crushed it with one mighty blow, he then tore off the head with his bare hands and quickly buried it deep in the ground, placing a huge boulder on the top.

I know you are probably wondering what this all has to do with anything? Let me first explain that our myths form the basis of our culture and are used to communicate complex ideas and images, used as a basis for framing and understanding our experiences, and are used as springboards for new ideas. Thus, it is often a good exercise to review the myth or myths that are being invoked in order to sharpen that metaphorical tool. In this case I am preparing to offer a comparison between the mythical Hydra and my “to do” list – ah, now you see it, and are probably thinking, "Oh this again". OK, so I know I’ve been beating this drum a lot lately, but it is a valid analogy and it’s my blog anyway – so there!

I have been instructed, have accepted and am now in the habit of doing the next right thing - whether I want to do it or not (usually not). At issue is the fact that after you do the next right thing, there is always the one in the on-deck circle that becomes a new next right thing to do. They say (did you ever wonder who “they” were?) that no good deed goes unpunished – I heartily agree. Each time I accomplish one of the labors on my list of next right things, I am rewarded with two new tasks to perform, hence my musings on the mythical hydra. If I were a man of wealth, I would pay Kevin Sorbo handsomely to take care of the problem for me. He could shoot my "to do" list full of flaming arrows, slash it to pieces with a sword then rip it's spiral-bound head off with his bare hands, placing the whole mess under a large boulder or apartment block as a warning to anyone from Mead Corp. - such are my fantasies these days. I suppose that there's nothing wrong with putting one foot in front of the other and knocking items off the list one by one - at least it gives me something to do.

Springtime Monkeyshines

We started this weeks installment of Monkeyshines off right with an infusion of new (hand-me-down) books from one of our favorite benefactors, Aunt Susie and Company. Daddy went to the post office while Zachy was doing his Sensory Gym thing and picked up a shoebox full of literary treasures. We had fun spreading them all out on the living room floor and rolling around in them - we actually read a few too. Aunt Susie also included some really cool glow-in-the-dark space stickers which we haven't found a good place for yet, but Daddy has some ideas.

We had a very nice visit, although we never made it to the park, as a helper to go with us was not available. We did, however, take a nice long walk that featured stops at every gumball machine on 3rd Avenue to by colorful superballs.

We walked all the way down to Riteaid because Daddy needed some things, and because our little people were so well behaved, they got to each pick out an item from the toy aisle. Fortunately for Daddy, Riteaid tends to be pretty cost-effective. We stopped and ran on the grass at the big convent/school on Ridge Blvd., down the street from Daddy's house - hopefully the sisters didn't mind too much.














The evening was pretty uneventful and both little monkeys went to bed pretty early - but they didn't stay there. Zachy got up at 2:30am and was really up, and it didn't take him long to wake up his sister. I got Miranda back to sleep at about 4:30 am but Zachy stayed up partying with his toys until 6am. Daddy got a little sleep until about 8am, but then gave up and started making breakfast. In a roll reversal, Miranda ate two whole scrambled eggs for breakfast and Zach was the one who just picked at his food.

We continued our tradition of a Sunday morning walk and ended up at Cafe Cafe again. The kids had their snack while Daddy grabbed a cup of much needed java. We all had a nice time playing with our toys on the table and playing with the colored packets of sweetener.

As part of our art project this week, we broke into a Christmas gift that we hadn't used yet, only I'm not sure anymore who it was from - it was the Crayola Color Rainbow Explosion markers and tablet set (see picture above). We had great time with it, and used the stencils to make puppies and kittens and butterflies, etc. The only drawback was that the invisible ink stuff on the tablet seems to react with sticky fingers, creating a blue mess that doesn't wash off. Fortunately, it is non-toxic which is a good thing because Miranda got it all over her fingers and lips, making her look like she had just eaten a purple crayon or a barrel of blueberries. Many thanks to whomever anyhow - we did have fun (post a comment to let me know who Santa was).

There's lots more to tell, but I've been reminded about the positive aspects of brevity, so I'll stop here with one last note: the store had a 2 for 1 sale on the disposable digital cameras with the built in view screens, so I got some real nice pictures that should appear next week when we reconvene for Monkeyshines.

The Great Global Warming Swindle

I just got done watching this documentary, which I found very interesting - so I thought that I'd share it with you. I found the views of the co-founder of Green Peace particularly telling. Enjoy and let me know what you think.

Video: The Great Global Warming Swindle

Saved by the Stinky Guy

It is interesting how sometimes things that we would normally think of as defects or shortcomings can turn out to be advantageous. I experienced an example of this phenomenon this very morning. I was standing on the subway platform at 59th Street in Brooklyn, having just gotten off of the R-train and was waiting for the N-train, which is an express train. The N-train is always jam-packed, having made previous stops in Beijing and Mexico City, leaving no seats available by the time it reaches 59th Street, and usually only a scant amount of breathing room. My normal strategy is to avoid the jockeying for position on the platform that precedes the train’s arrival, opting instead to go for a good leaning spot by the train car’s doors. Thus, I spend most of my hour and a half commute standing up, but not having to touch anything.

Imagine my surprise this morning when, after the train screeched to a metallic halt, the car doors opened revealing seats galore. Obviously God was smiling upon me and blessing me with great favor - cash and prizes! My fellow commuters and I rushed into the car in a flurry of backpacks, briefcases and patent leather shoes, quickly occupying the treasured empty seats (I got the coveted one next to the window). As I glanced about, I was surprised to see the expressions of the other passengers turn from gleeful to smug, to startled, to gravely concerned, to revolted. In a matter of moments most of them had abandoned their seats and fled from the train car, or at least to the other end of the car. "Snakes," I thought, watching the last of the fleeing travelers pass by, "maybe rats and snakes?" But I turned and looked behind me and there were only a couple of migrant workers and across from them a homeless guy (complete with plastic bags and the surprisingly vast array of paraphernalia that it takes to be homeless) passed out on two seats at the very end of the car. It was he who was obviously the source of all the hubbub.

Let me back up a bit. In 1984 I was a sophomore chemistry major at the University of Pittsburgh and was taking my second semester of Organic Chemistry. The heart of this course was the lab component, thus I spent innumerable hours in the chemistry building, in the organic lab, watching flasks of various liquids slowly simmer and bubble. Contrary to popular belief, 99% of "lab time" is spent doing nothing but waiting for reactions to finish... well... reacting. I am notoriously impatient and notoriously careless and on one occasion, while turning up a gas jet to get the Florence flask of concentrated NH3 I was refluxing with toluene to cook a little faster, my impatience caused a small explosion, sending the bulk of the reactants splashing into my face. Smelling salts use a very dilute form of NH3 and pack quite a punch - the ammonia that splashed into my face was several thousand times stronger.

I'm told that I was out for about 15 minutes, and though I had to pay for the glassware I had broken, I was none the worse for the wear - almost. Since that day I have never had much of a sense of smell, although my sense of smell was not particularly acute even before the accident. I got used to it the way people get used to all sorts of things like blindness, missing limbs, etc. This morning it paid off handsomely because, try as I might, I simply could not smell the stinky homeless guy a dozen feet behind me.

Each time the train stopped the same scene was repeated - people rushed onto the train, eager for a seat, sat down (some didn't even make all the way to a sitting position), gagged and scurried hastily to another car. One woman actually spun (as if struck) back out of the train door at 14th Street in Manhattan retching, thus I gather that the smell was pretty horrific. A couple of brave souls out of each batch decided that the comfort of sitting was worth any price and wrapped their scarves around their faces, set their jaws and toughed it out.

I arrived in Times Square well rested and happy, in a car with plenty of vacant seats still available, grateful for the stench of one of my fellow human beings. I could have probably cut a deal with the gentleman in question, and arranged for his presence on a regular basis for only a nominal sum, but the thought was late in coming. There is always tomorrow.

Time

I’ve been thinking about time a lot lately – something that I have a great need for, but a very limited supply of. It seems to be a pretty slippery customer to deal with, expanding and contracting in the most absurd fashion imaginable. Time does not seem to be fixed or static, rather it seems to be dynamic, malleable and fluid. In fact, I have been wondering about its nature and trying to decide whether time is real or just some artificial construct that I have created in order to understand my universe. Did you ever become aware of how time seems speed up during moments of joy or excitement and slow down during periods of tedium? We need action now! We need the DHS to stand up, do its job and protect us. As Stark-Raving Chandler said, time should be ordered to arrive on time!

Have you ever noticed how age seems to compress time? Consider the summer vacations from school when you were very young. My own experience of this was that these periods of time lasted a lifetime – from the point when we came bolting down the three cement steps of Markham Elementary School, breaking our number 2’s and chanting “no more pencils, no more books, no more teacher’s…” as we dashed across the heavily clovered field, past the tennis courts, racing towards the parking lot and freedom beyond - to the point when, clad in a new pair of Sears Toughskins (preferably with a cool iron-on patch on the knee, like a wolf or something) we would troop bravely back into the maw of that monument of lower education - could be measured in years. Great deeds were done in those three months. Lifetimes were lived, adventures were had, eternal friendships were formed, passive verb tenses were used...

Simple mathematics may offer some explanation: a year for a five-year-old child is 20% of his entire life up to that point; however, for a 50 year old adult, a year is only 2% of his entire life. Thus with increasing age, each segment of time is a decreasing percentage of the person's total experience. I suspect that this is the reason why the elderly are always asking what time it is – time is moving so quickly for them, as to be a blur. Perhaps this is the real cause of Alzheimer’s or dementia?

Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems - but as you approach the present, it inevitably seems incredible.
~ Salman Rushdie

Time has historically been closely related with space, together comprising space-time. Newton believed time and space form a container for events, which is as real as the objects it contains. Modern physics views the curvature of space-time around an object, to be as much an accepted feature of that object as are its mass and volume, except when the extreme mass and curvature of that object takes up more than one seat on the subway. Einstein showed that if time and space are measured using electromagnetic phenomena (like light bouncing between mirrors) then due to the constancy of the speed of light, time and space become mathematically entangled together in a certain way (called Minkowski time-space) which in turn results in Lorentz transformation (see below) and in the entanglement of all other important derivative physical quantities (like energy, momentum, mass, force, remaining hit-points, etc) in a certain 4-vectorial way as described by special relativity.

According to these theories, the concept of time depends on the spatial frame of reference of the observer(s), human perception, as well as the measurement by instruments such as clocks, and that it is different for observers in relative motion. Even the temporal order of events can change, but the past and future that are defined by the backward and forward light cones described by Einstein never change. The past is the set of events that can send light signals to the observer, the future is that set of events to which the observer can send light signals. All else is the present and within that set of events the time-order differs for different observers. Confused yet? Einstein commented on this in his typical understated fashion, saying that the only reason for time is so that everything does not happen at once.

Newton and Einstein’s perspectives, and indeed that of most modern physicists, are consistent with the realist's view of time. A contrasting view is that time is part of the fundamental intellectual structure (together with space and number) within which we sequence events, quantify the duration of events and the intervals between them, and compare the motions of objects. In this view, time does not refer to any kind of entity that "flows", that objects "move through", or that is a "container" for events. This view is in the tradition of Gottfried Leibniz and Immanuel Kant, in which time, rather than being an objective thing to be measured, is part of the mental measuring system, and is therefore a human construct.

Kant, in the Critique of Pure Reason, described time as an a priori intuition that allows us (together with other a priori intuitions, such as space) to comprehend sensory experience. For Kant, neither space nor time is conceived as substances, but rather both are elements of a systematic mental framework, necessarily structuring the experiences of any rational agent, or observing subject – typical Kant, huh?

Ralph Waldo Emerson considered time as presentness, where past and future are but our present projections (of our memory, hope, fear, etc.). For Emerson, time needs a qualitative measurement rather than a quantitative one. Leave it to old Ralph to change the rules – the quality of time…hmmmn. Physicist David Bohm stated that worldview is the lens through which our thoughts are formed “the general tacit assumption in thought is that it's just telling you the way things are and that it's not doing anything - that 'you' are inside there, deciding what to do with the information. But you don't decide what to do with the information. Thought runs you. Thought, however, gives false info that you are running it, that you are the one who controls thought. Whereas actually thought is the one which controls each one of us." Perhaps this is why Persig was institutionalized.

“Time is the justice that examines all offenders.”
~ William Shakespeare

Time can be thought of as linear, cyclical, discrete, continuous and any combination thereof. In general, the Judeo-Christian concept, based on the Bible, is that time is linear, with a defined beginning: the act of creation by God. But does time have a beginning and if so, what happened before that beginning? Did God get up that morning, toast a Pop-Tart, check his “to do” list, give Mrs. God a kiss on the cheek, roll up his sleeves and set about the business of creating time, some time shortly after breakfast? Stephen Hawking has commented that statements about what happened "before" time began are self-contradictory, and thus without meaning, but he doesn’t like Pop-Tarts. The Christian view also assumes an end, the eschaton, expected to happen when Christ returns to earth in the Second Coming to judge the living and the dead – a good day to be wearing your helmet.

This view of space-time, one of space-time as discrete phenomena, while seemingly more intuitive and in tune with our human lifestyle, carries with it the burden of several paradoxes, most notably those credited to the sophist Zeno. Several of Zeno's eight surviving paradoxes have been preserved in Aristotle's Physics, such as Achilles and the tortoise. In this paradox the fleet-footed Achilles nobly gives the tortoise a head start before commencing the race. Achilles starts running and reaches the starting point of the tortoise, but by that time the tortoise has moved forward a short distance, thus Achilles arrives at the point where the tortoise was. Again, Achilles runs to the point where the tortoise was, but the tortoise has again moved forward a short (albeit shorter) distance. In this way, Achilles will never catch the tortoise, as he will always be running to where the tortoise was, covering an infinite number of ever-decreasing distances.

"In a race, the quickest runner can never overtake the slowest, since the pursuer must first reach the point whence the pursued started, so that the slower must always hold a lead." (Aristotle Physics VI:9, 239b15)

In the arrow paradox (this paradox is also known as the fletcher's paradox, where a fletcher is a maker of arrows), we imagine an arrow in flight. At every moment in time, the arrow is located at a specific position. If the moment is just a single instant, then the arrow does not have time to move and is at rest at that instant. Now, in following instants, it then must also be at rest for the same reason. Thus, the arrow is always at rest and cannot move: motion is impossible. Whereas the first paradox presented divides space into discrete segments, this paradox divides time into discrete points. Eternalism addresses these various difficulties by considering all points in time to be equally valid frames of reference - or equally "real", if one prefers. It does not do away with the concept of past and future, but instead considers them as directions, rather than as a state of being. Whether some point in time is in the future or past is entirely dependent on which frame of reference you are using as a basis for observing it, and whether or not you have a fresh set of AA batteries in you global positioning unit.

Planck time (~ 5.4 × 10^−44 seconds) is the unit of time in the system of natural units known as Planck units. Current established physical theories are believed to fail at this time scale, and many physicists expect that the Planck time might be the smallest discrete unit of time that could ever be measured, even in principle. This is a quantum view of time. Scientists have come to some agreement on descriptions of events that happened 10^−35 seconds after the Big Bang, but generally agree that descriptions about what happened before one Planck time after the Big Bang will likely remain pure speculations.

The practice of meditation, central to all Buddhist traditions, takes as its goal the reflection of the mind back upon itself, thus altering the subjective experience of time; the so called, 'entering the now', or 'the moment' or “walking the rice-paper”. The practitioner seeks to stop time, or render it irrelevant. Hinduism, like Buddhism, has a concept of a wheel of time, that regards time as cyclical and quantic, consisting of repeating ages that happen to every being of the universe between birth and death. In recent years this cyclical vision of time has been embraced by theorists of quantic space-time and systems theory.

So where does that leave our hero? It leaves him still stranded in Harlem, still with too much to do and not enough time to do it in. An extension that follows directly from special relativity, one that has been empirically proven, is time dilation, and on the surface, would seem to provide an “out”. Simply stated, this is the observation that time slows as acceleration (or gravity) increases. It then follows that if I want to “create” more time for myself, all I really have to do is find a way to accelerate myself to a significant fraction of the speed of light (the greater the fraction the better). As I accelerated, time would increasingly slow for me, relative to the rest of you who are comparatively motionless. I’d do it (set phasers to “kill” and give me warp speed Mr. Sulu), but it just seems like an awful lot of effort to go through, only to have to get up tomorrow and face yet another day with too little time for the tasks at hand and no Pop-Tarts anyway. So here I am 2,035 words later and what have I learned? I’ve learned that you can't change the past, but you can ruin the present by worrying about the future – so, fuck it!

Abbreviated Monkeyshines

I had a short visit with our favorite little people this past weekend. It seems that a trip to Atlantic City preempted the usual visit and even Zachy’s sensory integration therapy – priorities, priorities. Be that as it may, I picked up the gang of two bright and early Sunday morning and strolled them over the partially shoveled sidewalks, over the bumpy bumps (with both of them thought was great fun) and up to Daddy’s house.

We had a very nice time playing with all of our toys, though we broke out a fresh 24-pack of Crayolas and spent a lot of time polishing up our artistic skills – several priceless masterpieces resulted – Daddy is accumulating quite a collection of priceless masterpieces.

The visit was pretty uneventful – we had lots of fruit and everything-free spaghetti for lunch (Miranda opted for cheese and yogurt). We also relaxed and watched a couple of our favorite shows (Blue’s Clues and Chicka-Chicka-Boom-Boom) while playing with our trains and Make-a-match cards.

One funny thing of note: Daddy was casting about, looking for something new and entertaining to do with the dynamic duo (we need to get some new toys) when he happened across his vintage Duncan Imperial (a yo-yo for the uninformed). I only had to (what is the correct verb here?) yo a couple of times in front of Miranda and her eyes got as big as pizzas. She got this look of wonder that was really quite beautiful and said in a slow husky two-year-old voice, “I… WANT.. that!”

Of course as both she and Zachy found out, it takes years to become a yo-yo master like Daddy. But school was in session, so we studied “walking the dog”, “around the world”, “shoot the moon” and “rock the baby”. Mostly we just ran around the apartment dragging the yo-yo around by the string and playing a combination of “keep-away” and “I’m gonna get you.” Exhausting? Sure. Entertaining? Absolutely!

By the time 4:30 rolled around, Zachy had crashed, so Miranda and I loaded him into the cruising vessel and headed down Third Avenue (over the bumpy bumps) to Mommy’s house. Miranda made it about three blocks and she too was out for the count. Thus ended another wonderful installment of Monkeyshines.

Double-Time Monkeyshines

OK, so it's been a way long time between posts (my bad), but I was just as sick as can be and really swamped on top of that.


Fortunately, I seem to have recovered and I am much better now, thus your patience has finally paid off. The last two weekends have seen really great visits with our favorite little people. We have not had any big new adventures like trips to the toy store, but we did make it into Riteaid on one occasion and have been generally much more mobile.


After braving the coldest weather of the winter so far, the weather moderated and has been nice enough that we made it out to the park on both Saturdays with the help of Daddy's friend Mike (even though Miranda has fallen asleep in the stroller and slept through it on both occasions).








We have also started the new routine of a Sunday morning walk. This seems to have relieved the cabin fever that seems to materialize after a long night and morning of playing in Daddy's little Brooklyn apartment.








I can't even begin to give you all of the yummy little details of all that has transpired since my last post, but I can give you pictures and lots of them. Consider this post then to be a feast for the eyes. Please note that these images span several weeks (3 or 4 maybe) and I've quite forgotten what happened when. I'll get it together at some point I suppose - enjoy!

Nothin' Doin'

Today I am neck deep in paperwork and although I can imagine a host of nastier things to neck deep in, I still don't like it. What has been going on the last couple of days?... Well, we went to look at yet another school for Zach Wednesday night. The Children's School (a.k.a. PS-72) in lower Park Slope was having an open house. This is an inclusionary public school that is doing a remarkable job considering the resources and red tape that they have to deal with, however, the kindergarten classes have a 25:2 student to teacher ratio and the speech and other services that they can deliver are limited. It was good to go anyway and see all of the other parents that we have gotten to know from the special needs school circut.

Not much else to report today, except that the monsoons have ended and this afternoon is shaping up to be a dandy (56 degrees and sunny!) so I may dust off my bike and get a little exercise this evening. Tomorrow I will have the kids for the usual visit, which I am very much looking forward to, as always - golden time. That's it for now (short and sweet for a change - huh?).

May God stand between you and harm, in all the empty places you must walk.
~ ancient Egyptian blessing.