Random Thoughts XI: Listen to the Whispers

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I think that this month I will be paid more than the previous one,
but this doesn't mean much because reasons two seminars are now running & I will be paid for completing the second one as well (one time pay, obviously).
Money sucks, but the Summer is dead season for seminars, so I'd do well to amass some money now.
 
It has just now occurred to me to think how odd it is that the main item in the universe is huge burning balls of fire, whereas the main stuff of the universe (vacuum) is an environment utterly unconducive to fire.
 
It has just now occurred to me to think how odd it is that the main item in the universe is huge burning balls of fire, whereas the main stuff of the universe (vacuum) is an environment utterly unconducive to fire.
Well, not really.

In the currently popular model of the Universe, 70% is thought to be dark energy, 25% dark matter and 5% normal matter. :)
 
Oh, ok. Do dark energy and dark matter burn well?

Which, by the way, don't bother answering. I don't understand any of this new cosmology. Just let me live on in my antiquated universe of vacuum and stars

I'm like a guy in 1635 who says, "Yeah, I could pick up this Galileo guy, but you know, the earth at the center of the universe has worked pretty well for me for fifty years. I'll just stick with that."
 
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The bright lights of the night sky
Find their way to our searching eye,
And our thoughts turn to building ladders
But the real mystery hides in Dark Energy and Matter.
 
The night sky is one vast question mark.
Cries the modern cosmologist, "Hark!
Space is energy!" Swell.
"Yes, and matter as well."
It's the answers leave me in the dark.
 
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The night sky is one vast question mark.
Cries the modern cosmologist, "Hark!
Space is energy!" Swell.
"Yes, and matter as well."
It's the answers leave me in the dark.
Isaac Asimov would approve (he wrote a couple of books of limericks, though most of his were NSFW). :yup:

My own 100% unscientific, completely unsubstantiated hypothesis is that dark matter includes lost single socks.
 
I have already algebraically™ determined that every sock is one half of a pair of socks.
What it that could extend, like complex numbers, into a normally intangible realm?
So there's one half of a pair of socks, and then the other half of a pair of socks, and then their ghostly counterparts in this normally unreachable, incorporeal plan of existence. Whenever the latter pair are entangled, then we get the earthly phenomenon known as ‘lost socks’.
 
I have already algebraically™ determined that every sock is one half of a pair of socks.
What it that could extend, like complex numbers, into a normally intangible realm?
So there's one half of a pair of socks, and then the other half of a pair of socks, and then their ghostly counterparts in this normally unreachable, incorporeal plan of existence. Whenever the latter pair are entangled, then we get the earthly phenomenon known as ‘lost socks’.
Except that not every sock is one half of a pair of socks. Knitting socks is a craft activity that has come and gone over the years, and became popular again some time back - at least I gather that from the pages of sock patterns and yarns in my Mary Maxim catalogues. Some of my older male relatives took up knitting socks a few decades ago, because they found it a way to pass the time in winter and also create something practical they could use.

But not every sock knitter manages to complete a pair. So there are some single socks in the universe that never had a mate.

(no, I have never attempted to knit socks. I'm hopeless at knitting, at least according to my grandmother who tried and failed to teach me either knitting or crocheting)
 
I tried to knit a scarf once. I am told that most people drop stitches.

But I seemed to insert extra stitches so the scarf got wider as I progressed.

Probably due to my then miserly nature.
 
I have already algebraically™ determined that every sock is one half of a pair of socks.
What it that could extend, like complex numbers, into a normally intangible realm?
So there's one half of a pair of socks, and then the other half of a pair of socks, and then their ghostly counterparts in this normally unreachable, incorporeal plan of existence. Whenever the latter pair are entangled, then we get the earthly phenomenon known as ‘lost socks’.

Regarding socks, there's always the principle of choice.
While you can't be certain that if you pick one shoe at random, it will be right or left, with socks it doesn't matter - because they are all the same.
 
Regarding socks, there's always the principle of choice.
While you can't be certain that if you pick one shoe at random, it will be right or left, with socks it doesn't matter - because they are all the same.
Unless they come with the toes attached. Those are not interchangeable.
 
That's what the socks want you to think.
My serious point in that is that when people are knitting their own socks, they don't always manage to produce a pair.

But I agree that socks are a very sneaky lifeform.

They are also deceptive in that Maddy will often use mine as a pillow. I have a perfectly good normal pillow I don't mind if she uses, but she prefers socks.
 
But I agree that socks are a very sneaky lifeform.

They are also deceptive in that Maddy will often use mine as a pillow. I have a perfectly good normal pillow I don't mind if she uses, but she prefers socks.

Have you not heard how a bird
from the sea was blown inshore
and landed outside the capital of Lu?

The prince ordered a solemn reception,
offered wine to the seabird
in the Sacred precinct,
called for musicians to play
the compositions of Shun,
slaughtered cattle to nourish it.
Dazed with symphonies,
the unhappy seabird died of despair.

How should you treat a bird?
As yourself or as a bird?
Ought not a bird to nest in deep woodland
or fly over meadow and marsh?
Ought it not to swim on river and pond,
feed on eels and fish,
fly in formation with other waterfowl,
and rest in the reeds?

Bad enough for a seabird to be surrounded by men
and frightened by their voices!
That was not enough!
They killed it with music!

Water is for fish, and air for man.
Natures differ, and needs with them.
Hence the wise men of old
did not lay down
one measure for all.

(Chuang-Tsu)
 
Have you not heard how a bird
from the sea was blown inshore
and landed outside the capital of Lu?

The prince ordered a solemn reception,
offered wine to the seabird
in the Sacred precinct,
called for musicians to play
the compositions of Shun,
slaughtered cattle to nourish it.
Dazed with symphonies,
the unhappy seabird died of despair.

How should you treat a bird?
As yourself or as a bird?
Ought not a bird to nest in deep woodland
or fly over meadow and marsh?
Ought it not to swim on river and pond,
feed on eels and fish,
fly in formation with other waterfowl,
and rest in the reeds?

Bad enough for a seabird to be surrounded by men
and frightened by their voices!
That was not enough!
They killed it with music!

Water is for fish, and air for man.
Natures differ, and needs with them.
Hence the wise men of old
did not lay down
one measure for all.

(Chuang-Tsu)
Well, that was random, and I don't see what it has to do with my post, which was about my cat's relationship with my socks.

(tragic for the sea bird, though :()
 
The prince failed with the sea bird, because he treated it as he would have liked to be treated, instead of how the bird would have liked to be treated.
You say:

I have a perfectly good normal pillow I don't mind if she uses, but she prefers socks.

Your kitty clearly knows what's better for her. An amendment to the Gospel: do unto others as they would have them do unto themselves.
 
One seminar has 32 members already, another 31 members already, and still almost a full week to go.
This all basically means a considerable number of the largest euro notes.
It's not that I am that good as a seminar writer for literature. It is that (apparently) everyone else is so lame as one, at least in this country.
 
One seminar has 32 members already, another 31 members already, and still almost a full week to go.
This all basically means a considerable number of the largest euro notes.
It's not that I am that good as a seminar writer for literature. It is that (apparently) everyone else is so lame as one, at least in this country.
You do not need to be good, you just need to be better than the others ;)

Though I am sure you are good, people have lots of choice in learning these days.
 
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