Tag Archive for 'science'

My life as a tiger

Published by
boris kislitsin
 in memory. 5 Comments

Once there was a Bengal tiger in Russian zoo. It was born and spent most of his life in a small cage. He had just enough space to make a couple of steps, jump, make a couple of steps and jump again. Then the tiger had to turn around and repeat the same routine in opposite direction. I have read somewhere that usually in wild a grown up tiger needs something like 16 to 20 sq.km of habitat, otherwise it get stressed. I wonder how much space a human being needs. Anyway, that’s not the point. The point is, that particular tiger lived in a cage the size of 16 or 20 sq.m, and, obviously, was very stressed. When such an animal as tiger get stressed, it feels uneasy, and can’t rest. That tiger was restless. All it did from dusk till down is pacing the cage. 2 steps, jump, 2 more steps, another jump, turn, 2 steps, jump, 2 more steps, jump, turn around, 2 steps, jump… You have the picture. Naturally, tiger’s living conditions had to be improved. The story goes in the time just after the collapse of the Soviet Union and total collapse of everything on the 1/8th of planet’s landmass, circa middle 1990’s. As it happens in times like this, some people used the situation to the full, and made crazy fortunes. If you ever tried to get from 0 to 100 in just above 3 sec., let’s say on a powerful motobike, you can figure out how it is. Somebody, let’s call him Mr.S., made it from living in a shared with few our families run down apartment in sleepy suburbs to amassing a fortune Imelda Markos could only dream of, comparing to each a budget of a middle size African country is just a pocket money, in a couple of years time. So one day this Mr.S. visited zoo by chance. He spent a good deal of time in front of this cage with Bengal tiger, watching it moves. Maybe he was in nostalgic mood, maybe this cage reminded him the apartment he grown up in, or probably deep down he was a very sensitive person. Some say he was bored, some he was drunk. Whatever the reason, Mr.S. was touched. He went to the zoo director straight away, and asked him, how much money zoo needs to improve tiger’s living conditions. I know this story from the first hands, as a friend of mine, non compromise poet and alcoholic, worked there as a zookeeper, as it was one of very few jobs he could fit himself in. Next day the construction has begun, and soon everything was ready for the grand opening. They set an artificial landscape, so tiger could have a little lake to bath, a cave for him to hide and a little forest resembling jungle; that small provincial zoo somethat tripled in size. In attendance of TV crew, press and Mr.S., they brought in crane and lifted the cage.

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Living in the Story

Published by
Jacob Haqq-Misra
 in memory. 5 Comments

Perhaps my most bizarre experience in the entire NaNoWriMo process occurred as a conversation with a random seat mate on the flight home from Thanksgiving, the short leg from Detroit to State College. In general I know that I tend to solicit conversation about spiritual topics, including religion as well as the philosophical discussion of scientific ideas. While visiting my family in Minnesota, for instance, such conversations are commonplace and I had already had my fill of this discussion. The lady sitting next to me, a Pakastani woman and a current Hubert Humphrey fellow at the Penn State college of education, started talking as we sat down and reminded me a bit of one of my great aunts. I typically don’t talk with airplane passengers, not because I don’t enjoy it but because I never seem to be next to talkative ones.

After asking me my field of study, she remarked that she was skeptical as to whether or not we had really landed on the moon. I was taken aback a bit that a Hubert Humphrey fellow doubted the space program, but the conversation drifted to psychology–her field of specialty–and spirituality. She was a Muslim, “by the book” in her words, yet she also believed in the universality of religion. I found myself alternating between agreement and disagreement with her statements. After she had expounded the value in adhering to your religious tradition while realizing that they do not really conflict with others, she proudly proclaimed “for after all, we are the dominant species, the masters of this world”. Our conversation only lasted for about the first third of the flight, but I was surprised at how quickly our discussion had cut to the core of these issued I had been working through all month. I know that the word astrobiology always gets interesting reactions, but how likely was it that the conversation would involve spirituality in a manner so relevant to my month-long project? She brought it up after all. Maybe I just radiate an aura to people that invites religious dialogue, or maybe I just signal for it in uncanny ways. Still, it seems almost too convenient that the one break I took from writing while flying was my conversation with this woman. In all honesty, during that conversation I felt like I was living in my book. I almost included a version of that conversation as a chapter in this book, but I decided against it. My character’s story is what it is, a process that unfolded as he met new people and discovered new ideas, but my story is the journey of constructing this book as I live out my life. The process consumes you and becomes part of who you are, shaping your experiences, interactions, and even your dreams.

Jacob Haqq-Misra

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Feeling of being human

Published by
boris kislitsin
 in void space. 2 Comments

In 1687 Sir Isaac Newton published Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, which laid the foundation of determinism. Through Newton’s ideas in what we call now the Age of Reason, rose the idea of ”clockwork universe”, generally stating that by measuring things as they are, we can accurately explain all the Nature’s phenomenae and predict the future using the laws of science.

 One probably could wonder, what does Newton’s work has to do with my memories. Though I haven’t read the original and was born nearly 300 years later, it had a certain impact on me. As a matter of fact, we perceive reality and interpret it through the prism of our cultural and educational background. It’s never “as it is”, but as worthy as it’s description. My father was a strong believer in science, and wanted me to be a mathematician, a kind of a weird wish keeping in mind he was a poet himself. I remember him trying to come up with a precise word, which could describe what he felt at the moment best. He often felt stressed about it as  he couldn’t. I guess he thought it is easier to operate with numbers rather than words. I remember refusing going to my 1st grade in school: I demanded science. I wanted to study physics and maths, I wanted to understand the mechanics of existence. That’s why my parents have sent me to a school with advanced maths and science programs,  and determinism was what they taught in school too.

My belief in numbers was ruined after I’ve read at the age of 12 some popular books on astronomy and quantum mechanics: it turned out that, with the course of time any system behaviour starts to “fluctuate” and become disordered, behaving randomly. Even orbits of planets, massive bodies, never quite follow the same path. We live in a universe which is rather chaotic, then orderly. Our brain waves,  or the pattern of it’s electric impulses, is also being chaotic. This could be the origin of consciousness , free will and creativity. Our mind is ruled rather by Chaos, then Order. Continue reading ‘Feeling of being human’

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Memento Mori

Published by
viil
 in memory. 0 Comments

This will be my first experimental post here taken from my blog http://viil.livejournal.com/

Eng:
I always wondered why so many are interested in longevity, long-living. What for? In order to accomplish plans, projects, ambitions… It’s all vanity. And death? Death frightens people. Death is unexplored, obscure. Obscurtity always frightens. I see no sense in extending own existence longer than the norm, even for a few years. Does everyone think that after-death is worse than before-death? I in no way encourage suicide, on the contrary, being a religious person I disapprove of it in all ways possible. Death is an essential part of life. I am not afraid to write or to discourse on it. Someone would say, how would he discourse at gun point or in profuse bleeding… I don’t know. But I am interested in the subject of death and in everything regarding it. Many people reproach me for having too much gore in my LJ. But take a look at the interests on my profile page: death, decadence, thanatology (studies of statics and dynamics of death, and kinds of death). I am not going to reject those interests. There even exists a science studying death. Why are average people shocked when mentioning death. Another argument here is losing a close friend or a near relation. It is a true bereavement… But look into your heart and be honest. It is nothing but egoism. The dead should not be pitied. A dead man does not suffer, does not feel pain. He is pure and free like never before. He should be rejoiced over. And why are we sad? “I wish he could be with me! We were so happy together! Why have you forsaken me!” Think about it, you pity yourself. Stop being egoists, and accept misfortunes of life philosophically.

P.S. The word “death” is used 27 times in this post.

viil

Рус:
Всегда удивлял интерес других к долгожительству, долголетию. А зачем??? Ну как же… чтобы реализовать планы, проекты, амбиции… Суета все это. А смерть? А смерть людей пугает. Смерть - неизвестность.

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