Its Chaos Theory time. No – not when everything goes awry – although given the situation in the world today that could well be true(-ish). I’m talking about the mathematical version of chaos – small changes in initial conditions make huge differences in outcomes – another subject that I have talked about often. Its most ‘famous’ instantiation is perhaps Lorenz’s “Butterfly Effect” – but as the title says we cannot blame the butterfly this time – or perhaps, more correctly, it is likely that no butterfly was involved – we cannot be sure.
Every Little Thing They Do…
….is magic! The coronavirus pandemic has triggered two different posts – this being the first – which are not necessarily about the virus itself, but comment on some aspects of life that the current outbreak highlights rather well. We hear a lot these days about invisible illnesses and – whilst covid-19 is not always such, sometimes there are no symptoms and neither the person who is ill, nor their friends and relatives will have any idea that they are carrying and spreading the virus.
Democracy Is Great…
…but flawed! After writing my previous post I had a bit of a “lightbulb moment” regarding the democratic system. I am not saying for one minute that I have in any way solved the problem – but perhaps my lightbulb will shed a little luminance on it.
More Than Politics
Its almost a year since my last post – and slightly strange that the trigger should be (nearly) the same. There have been a number of things that, perhaps, could have been written about in that time – maybe a few that should have been – but my thoughts never got written down. This does not mean that there is only one thread going through my mind these days – although the fact that the previous post was on a very similar topic may make it look like that.
Usandthemism
Maybe its not a real word – but it is perhaps a description of a ‘disease’ that seems to be increasingly threatening our stability all around the world. This, perhaps, is nothing new – whether it was sectarianism in Ireland or racism in the USA or apartheid in South Africa or countless other instances throughout history the disease of usandthemism has never worked out well. Perhaps it is all in our imagination, but it seems to be thriving in the current climate with plenty of people/groups happy to open themselves up to infection.
From Little Acorns
It is only a few posts back that I asked (rather tongue-in-cheek) what was the purpose of spiders. Last night I watched a programme that – whilst not answering that question – did illuminate rather well the whole interconnectedness theme that permeates many of my posts in this blog. What is more, it also went beyond the focus that I tend to have – i.e. the way in which we are connected to others – to illustrate that this interconnectedness is really widespread across species.
It’s Not Just Me
This blog is predicated on the fact that there is a huge amount of ‘stuff’ that I don”t know – the quotation from Einstein sort of sums it up and I find it proven almost daily. Even so it is always comforting when there is some sort of independent corroboration in the form of someone else saying similar things – even if that does rather smack of confirmation bias.
A Matter of Perspective
I was watching TV the other evening and switching between a few channels to see what was on and came across something on BBC4 which was described as “A spectacular aerial journey following the world’s longest monument … in slow-TV style”. I have watched bits of other programmes which were “in slow-TV style” and generally they are, actually, rather attractive – in that they draw you in to watch what is, often, not very much!! This one was the same – although actually compared to the journey along a canal this was not quite so slow as it was more like ‘highlights’ than true “slow-TV”. Doing the maths they were in effect travelling at over 1500km/hr – hardly slow.
What Are Spiders For?
Can I just start this by saying that nowhere in this post will you find a definitive and precise answer to the question posed in the title. The poor spiders are chosen for investigation not because they are particularly relevant, nor because they have a great and mysterious purpose, but rather because there is one that has been web building outside our kitchen window for weeks and every time I do the washing up I am staring at it!!
To Forget
There have been plenty of posts in this blog about our selective memory – the way we remember some things but not others – the way we find it difficult to distinguish between reality and fiction when looking back at past events – the way we tend to exaggerate, one way or another, those memories that we retain – the way that something someone else says or does will trigger a memory, sometimes even triggering a memory that is fictitious.