Very
late morning. Earlier you and Carol took your walk on the beach then upon the
return you spent an additional forty minutes exercising in the pool. The
immediate plan is to go to Daiquiri Shack for Jamaican chicken wrap and sweet
potato fries lunches a bit later.
1203 hours. The day began partly
cloudy but now it is mostly so; I guess from a cold front heading this way for
tomorrow. A lot of pelicans were out this morning. Our wave breaker had ten and
the one to our south at least that many. In our eleven years here we have never
seen this many pelicans before. Mostly we see one if any. A few boats are out,
one active parasail, a few beach walkers but that is about it. Tomorrow we are
going to head down to Sun City Center and to see Mom and Dad Hammond’s old
house along the golf course in the St. Andrew’s subdivision. It is amazing to
think Dad has been gone since December 1992 and Mom since January 1993. Only
Dad’s younger brother Uncle John is left.
You took a sunset photo last night. Drop it
in. – Amorella
Madeira Beach, 11 November 13
1214
hours. It didn’t seem appropriate to add this in last night’s posting what with
the focus being the vets.
You did not share on Facebook either. Why
not? – Amorella
It doesn’t seem like it is that good
of a photograph. I like it though – it appears to me to be as modern art only
better. I don’t know if it is centered properly. The composition escapes in the
northwest corner. Presently it suddenly makes me think of the Great Fire of
London in 1666 – from the south side of a very wide Thames.
Strangely, it does. Drop in the actual
picture from Wikipedia. – Amorella
The Great Fire of London 1666
by Henry Waggoner
Collection: City of London Corporation
Guildhall Art Gallery
1229
hours. I can see I took some poetic license, i.e. imagination – in drawing the
connection of the sunset to the fire.
Mid-afternoon.
You and Carol are sitting at the nearby
McDonalds dock facing north towards the water. Carol is on page 381 of (a new to
her) Lee Child’s Jack Reacher book, The Wanted Man. You are returning to
your notes on Thinking in Numbers by Daniel Tammet.
On
page 62 Pythagoras says that ‘being friends’ shows equality. So, the Quakers
‘Society of Friends’ concept comes to mind and rest within as a concept not
religious doctrine.
Page
67 suggests for argument’s sake that Siddhartha perhaps lived for 30 years
without any knowledge of numbers and
** **
Plot
summary of Asimov’s “Nightfall”
The fictional planet Lagash (Kalgash
in the novel adaptation) is located in a stellar system containing six suns (Alpha,
Beta, Gamma, Delta are the only ones named in the short story; Onos, Dovim,
Trey, Patru, Tano, and Sitha in the novel), which keep the whole planet
continuously illuminated; total darkness is unknown, and as a result so are all
the stars outside the planet's stellar system.
A group of scientists from Saro
University begins to make a series of related discoveries: Sheerin 501, a
psychologist, researches the effects of prolonged exposure to darkness; Siferra 89,
an archaeologist, finds evidence of multiple cyclical collapses of civilization
which have occurred regularly about every 2000 years, and Beenay 25 is an
astronomer who has discovered irregularities in the orbit of Lagash around its
primary sun Onos. Beenay takes his findings to his superior at the university,
Aton, who formulated the Theory of Universal Gravitation (the in-story
discussion of this makes light of an article once written about Einstein’s Theory
of Relativity, referencing the false notion that "only twelve men"
could understand it). This prompts the astronomers at Saro University to seek
the cause of this anomaly. Eventually they discover that the only possible
cause of the deviation is an astronomical body that orbits Lagash.
Beenay, through his friend Theremon 762,
a reporter, has learned some of the beliefs of the group known as the Cult
("Apostles of Flame" in the novel). They believe the world would be
destroyed in a darkness with the appearance of stars that unleash a torrent of
fire. Beenay combines what he has learned about the repetitive collapses at the
archaeological site, and the new theory of potential eclipses; he concludes
that once every 2049 years the one sun visible is eclipsed, resulting in a
brief "night". His theory is that this "night" was so horrifying
to the people who experienced it that they desperately sought out any light
source to try to drive it away, particularly, by frantically starting fires
which burned down and destroyed their successive civilizations.
Since the current population of Lagash
has never experienced general darkness, the scientists conclude that the
darkness would traumatize the people and that they would need to prepare for
it. When nightfall occurs, however, the scientists (who have prepared
themselves for darkness) and the rest of the planet are most surprised by the
sight of hitherto invisible stars outside the six-star system filling the sky.
Unfortunately, because the inhabitants of Lagash never saw other stars in the
sky, their civilization had come to believe that their six-star system
contained the entirety of the universe. In one horrifying instant, anyone
gazing at the night sky - the first night sky which they have ever known - is
suddenly faced with the reality that the universe contains many millions upon billions
of stars: the awesome, horrifying realization of just how vast the universe
truly is drives them insane. The short story concludes with the arrival of the
night and a crimson glow that was "not the glow of a sun", with the
implication that societal collapse has occurred once again.. In the novel and X Minus One program, civil disorder
breaks out; cities are destroyed in massive fires and civilization collapses,
with the ashes of the fallen civilization and the competing groups trying to
seize control.
Selected and slightly edited from
Wikipedia – “Nightfall”
** **
On
page 71 after reading about the invention of the ‘Google’ I loved Tammet’s
charming conclusion to the chapter "On Big Numbers" with the Emperor Augustus’ paradoxical
conclusion on large numbers.
“You
who measure the sea and the earth and the numberless sands,
you Archytas,
are now confined in a small amount of dirt near the Matine shore, and what good
does it that you attempted the mansions of the skies and that you traversed the
round celestial vault – you with a soul born to die?”
It appears Thinking in Numbers is but
a stepping-stone to what already sets inside your mind. – Amorella
1539 hours. I like to make connections.
In some ways it is like a child’s connect the dot puzzles. The connections draw
forth a shape somewhat with what I did with last night’s sunset this morning. I
was thinking of the Great Fire of London and when I saw several paintings of
the fire online I like the one chosen; however it wasn’t until I put the two
images together that I saw the connection – the inner shape of the clouds in
the sky above the fire and above the lower sunset. The shape of the composition
was unconsciously recognized before I saw it today. I had seen this painting
before but I cannot remember when other to say it was probably in the ‘70’s or
‘80’s when I was doing added research for my lecture on London’s Great Fire in
connection with excerpts on the fire from Samuel Pepys famous Diary. I
did added research for my lectures every year. That was half the fun of it. I
did not get bored giving my lectures and I hoped no one else got bored either.
One way not to get bored was to learn more. It was a necessity for me to remain
comfortable doing what I did. I loved British literature and its correlation
with historical circumstance. I still do – with all the literature I read. In
the correlation, in my mind, is set an existential circumstance and existential
circumstance is how I view the past, present, and project a future in the
books. At least that is my intent though I don’t believe until now I have ever
stated it as such.
Tonight after supper you went to the
car to look for Carol’s keys (which she found in the closet) you met the Swiss
family on their way up to their condo on three. They appeared quite pleasant
and smiling so you said, “I understand you are Swedish. Welcome to America!”
And you are plagued with the thought that you would have if someone would say, “You
are from Iowa aren’t you?” and you would politely reply, “No, we are from Ohio.”
The other person then says, “Iowa and Ohio, they are both from the Midwest,
right?” – Amorella
1954 hours. That’s right. Makes me
appear foolishly under educated because that is how it sounded. We all make
cultural mistakes. I’ll just have to let it go.
Good. Post. - Amorella
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