Starry Starry Night

From Anton Petrov's amazing What Da Math Youtube channel, we're acquainted with the fruits of this awesome period of astronomical discovery. We've learnt that the Terran system extending past the moon's orbit, is a sea of hydrogen, the real source of the water gas that comets generate as they pass through to us, not themselves as the classic ice balls at all. We've photographed a supposed black hole and seen amazing multi-star systems. 

We have created a fifth state of matter and tracked space hurricanes. Everyday, new worlds fill our catalogues and entice our wanderlust. One thing, our Jupiter and Earth are cosmic midgets among the super Jupiters and super Earths that make up the majority of the planetary population. 

And yet, not so much as the signature of microbial life to ease the uniqueness of our creation. As yet, Perseverance has yet to tip over that rock with microbes at the bottom. As yet, a few questionable radio signals indicate who and what awaits us in the great beyond. 

Amidst the dimming of Barnard's Star, are there brothers from other seas, other mediums, observing us even as we speak? Do they have three hands, gills for lungs, strange epics for their reptilian race? As great as our instruments and men have reached, as far as our imaginations have crossed paper and celluloid, still we await the great transformation of our truths that meeting Them would grant us. 

At which point, the new alien civilization we would be watching and studying, wouldn't be theirs. It would be ours, the great city state of the species irredeemably changed in outlook. What then our beliefs and attitudes, what then our very view of ourselves in this infinite cosmos?

 Georgics

I'm afraid both the passing of the ages and the distortions of the popular imagination have lost to us the actual nature of the Romans of the Empire. So what were they, inbred tyrants, untrammeled militarists, a species as domineering as they were craven in their appetites? At least, that seems to be the impression you get at times, even from 'highbrow' entertainment and literature.

In truth, go back to the era of Rome in its full bloom, anywhere from the beginning of the 1st century BC to the end of the 1st century AD and what do we find? From the palatial estates to the beggars at the Colosseum, we find farmers. As my old teacher once said, "scratch any Roman and you'll find a farmer!"

A man whose whole worth, whose honor, whose dignity and whose legacy was tied to the land he owned, the seasons, what crops came to bear. The heritage of cultivating the richness of the earth, of truly investing wealth in that and what labor came with it, is the heritage the Romans bequeathed to all their cultural heirs, including ourselves. The legacy of cultivating the land, exploiting it as opposed to merely conquering and claiming it, meant that the barbarians who took over after them not merely had a basis in organizing their cities and countries to come, but the habits needed to feed them as well. 

There is no higher regard I can think of for this constant labor of growing from the willing and furtive earth. What greater pleasure than feeding your family from your own plot, of providing for them from one's own efforts? Perhaps I should take up a garden myself, sometime.

 La Tempesta

Art nowadays may be too good to subject the artists' perspective to something as crass and filthy as lucre. In the Middle Ages however and especially those centuries ennobled in the academic perspective by the term, 'Renaissance,' painting was as much a business as, say, breeding hogs, or paying off lovers. In terms of its specific reference, this painting was commissioned by a Venetian noble named Gabriele Vendramin, somewhere between 1506 and 1508, the High Renaissance.  When it was completed and paid for, it entered into his estate and stayed there for long after his passing.

To my mind, much of the piece's famed ambiguity could be explained by the context in which it hung in the Vendramin household. As it was not a personal representation, or a historical depiction, or any other straightforward description of its subject, it was indeed allegorical. By the way, such ambiguous storytelling through art was much more common than we may think today. Consider for instance, that it may have hung in a summer home, awaiting lengthy, lethargic days and happy, playful nights.

Then the painting can clearly be seen as representing the intended spirit of the place. A place that was sheltered from the traumas of nature and man, nurturing and calm. The soldier is set against both the lightning and thunder beyond and the adjacent city, both contemplating and guarding both the poor gypsy woman and her suckling child. 

Yet as well, those same forces and powers beyond can potentially be harnessed in this place, this indolent little paradise where dreams can flourish unimpeded and all manners and forms of the imagination can take root. Especially for children, those themselves still nursing, up to those ready for an early marriage. Such lightning bolts of creativity and genius we long for as children, such force and readiness in the soldier to meet the challenges of the day, do we hope to attain even as still children.

So much of the detailing as well, calls to mind the works of Arthur Rackham, Maurice Sendak and other fantastical children's artists of the past. The meandering subtle blues and stark brightness of the burning reds and yellows in the sky. The dreamy cityscape just above the drifting waters of the river. The lush but ordered state of the trees and foliage. Finally, the soldier, smart in his uniform, lance jauntily by his side, as the descending darkness will allow him to be, positioned before the ruins of an ancient estate, probably guarded in its glory by men much like him, far in the past.

He is juxtaposed beside the lovely bather suckling an infant. The implied relationship between the two of them is probably the biggest real question mark of the whole piece: lovers? guard? chance encounter? We will never know and even those of us who dismiss potential drama, have to admit to the sheer possibility.

As for the woman herself, she is usually described as a gypsy, but at first glance, this description would seen unlikely. By her pale skin, her self-assured manner and her coiffure, she would have more likely been a straight depiction of a woman in the Vendramin household. At any rate, she is no low born woman, who would have been an unlikely subject in those days, at any rate. Not that any of that does or should matter to the modern eye, or real eyes for that matter.

Whatever the full truth of what is probably this tragically short-lived artist's best known work, it succeeds as a dreamscape. Which is probably why it has attracted the devotion of artists, especially literary ones,  throughout the ages. It may not be entirely an accidental work, but it is certainly a wonderful example of the painter's magic.

 Bitcoin?

Name: R MK

Initials: R M

Next letters down: S N

Name Order: 1)R 2)MK 3)Satoshi 4)Nakamura

Number of syllables: 1 2 3 4

First four numbers added together equal 10

1,0 a binary set

Satoshi Nakamura- Intelligent History, Central (or Market) Village

Just felt like a little devil tonight, so I'm throwing it out there. I'm sure if there was something to it, better minds than mine would have figured it out a long time ago.

 Valentine's Day

This was once St. Valentine's Day, but alas the feast day for this particular St. Valentine has long been relegated by the Church calendar to only local celebrations. Be that as it may, this Roman custom was especially beguiling to Englishmen on the Grand Tour. So much so, that like so much, this was replicated into their own culture.

And so what has regretfully has become largely a commercial exercise has passed another anniversary. And so, whatever true sentiments have been felt this day pass into memory. Cards, bracelets, letters of often genuine passion, packed into drawers or boxes, one day hopefully to be rediscovered. In far-off Japan, innumerable chocolate molds gather in wash basins, their owners relieved from having to make treats for all the men in their lives, whether they actually like them or not.

In warehouses and storefronts throughout the world, cheap chocolates and withering arrangements gather, to know the indignity of a bargain sticker later. Even the China flu doesn't seem to have overly affected the expression of love and may nothing ever. Simple love, having someone in your life, why really does anything else matter?

 Future Shocking

If the byword of past warfare was destruction, usually total, the byword of future warfare might be disruption. That is to say, less the total elimination of an undesirable opponent and its transformation by shaping action into either a non-factor or a desirable partner. Much has been made of the organized force end of society, military, security and elsewhere, to do so by smart weapons, large computer arrays and so forth.

Less has been made of how private citizens have the means to astonishing ends through smart phones, networked computers and other resources. Powerful means exist to disrupt organizational functions, both governmental and private, organize mass movements and track and digest vast amounts of information. Such capabilities will enable smaller and smaller groups to effect astonishing and frightening effects on their societies in the future, as the capability to wage warfare moves from large institutions, to smaller, less centralized, more informal bodies that will be more autonomous and self-directed.

 Anti Lasers?

Recently, the concept of an anti laser was foisted. A laser as we know it, emits a coherent beam of directed light energy. An anti laser on the other hand, gathers photons on its path in a causal but still coherent stream. An off the cuff analogy I can bring bear, is that of a bullet, that instead of expending its energy once it's shot out, instead hits the primer of another bullet, which sends it out to hit another primer and so on. 

In theory, there should be hardly any energy loss from the time the anti laser is 'fired' to the time it strikes an object. In this case, it isn't intended to destroy the object, but more usefully, recharge it. In theory there should be almost 100% energy transfer regardless of distance. In fact, researches claim a transmittal of over 99% of transmitted energy. The technical name for this process, is Coherent Perfect Absorption, or CPA.

One wonders if other forms of radiant energy can achieve such coherence. If we think of wireless transmittal of microwave energy for instance, we can imagine a microwave stream that doesn't dissipate over time. Instead, a kind of domino structure is initiated that incorporates microwaves already transmitted naturally from other artificial or natural systems into what is theoretically, an infinite stream of power. A line of causal relationships is set up that keeps transferring a given amount of energy, until the stream is interrupted, probably by some sort of receiver.

Therefore, future power transmission might be less dependent on unleashing singular streams of force. Rather, they would rely on sending out streams tailored to interact by timing, wavelength and frequency to a given topology of potential energy interactions. In such a case, one stream would bounce against an equally powerful stream, then another, then another. 

Could this be is at least partially what Tesla meant by resonant streams, near perfect transfer of power from one point to the other? Power streams that less depend on how much finite force they inject into a system as how much that force interacts with and directs other forces already present. A feature less about how far and with how much strength the beam has, as to is it just enough to send other forces down the line the way it wants them to go.

Perhaps the age of wireless transmission is closer than we think.