Where do you come from

 

Stardust DNA

with Stephen Johnson • Thu 19 December, 2024 PRESENTED BY Buy once, use forever with Henson Shaving.  Hey Big Thinkers, If you zoom out on the question, “Where do you come from?”, you might point to your ancestors who lived centuries ago. Zooming out further, you could look back on the evolution of Homo sapiens in Africa some 300,000 years ago, or the first vertebrates to crawl out of the ocean 370 million years ago, or life first forming on Earth several billion years before that.  But if you really take the long view, you’ll see that humanity’s story was already taking shape before our planet existed. “All of the rocky and metallic material we stand on, the iron in our blood, the calcium in our teeth, the carbon in our genes were produced billions of years ago in the interior of a red giant star,” the astronomer Carl Sagan wrote in 1973. “We are made of star-stuff.” Sagan was far from the first person to note our cosmic lineage, however. This week, we dive into centuries of history to trace how scientists discovered that we are, in a very real sense, the children of ancient stars. Onward, Stephen

Cheating husband at Texas roadhouse

 

Scotty and the Rib Tips By Bob Holman

 

Scotty and the Rib Tips

Bob Holman

So they tell me, get your act together Write something, make it new for a change Give up on those errant habits Go to Chicago Be there for Birth of Slam Knock down a few bowling pin icons Bowling allies, new stain t-shirts Statues of lint and a make-my-day jockstrap I’ll sit in with Scotty and the Rib Tips Watch true brews slide down that mahogany bar Run it by my man Sergio over at Weeds as we Wait for the Queen of Poetry to drive in from el Boss Town So tune up the poems performed to Marsyas’ flute Keep the meddlesome chthonic wordslingers cranky Invent a bonus alley, grab the moon Climb on top of the speaker system and fly Write a book and get it out Invent a pseudonym to review it, rave Rave rave along the Lake Rehearse the verse all ears radar Michigan And fall in love a few times so nobody knows about it Keep it to myself, a few poems quit, quite, and quiet Outside of so-called competition and the waving blades Making slow smoky patterns at the old Green Mill

Dear Sister by Emma Trelles

 

Dear Sister

Emma Trelles

Winter is ceaseless ~ streets ~ phantom trees caged in fog ~ light and its beautiful doom ~ The scent of leaves ~  green and dead ~ arrives through windows like a timid fantasma ~ There are tiny spiders in the eaves ~ the color of forgettable stones ~ I don’t have the heart ~ to kill them ~ Today ~ I found a squirrel ~ dreaming ~  the sleep of the young and unknowing ~ I pray for a world ~ scatter-starred with that kind ~ of tenderness ~ Nothing hears me ~ Let’s pretend ~ the clock is frozen ~ in its sturdy shroud ~  that our 3,000 weeks ~  are the start ~ We began ~  in the land of mangroves and abandonment ~ hibiscus and metal ~ egret and engine ~  predator sun ~  skin, so much skin ~  sky with its commandments ~  sky like no other ~  concrete rising ~  falling ~  altars and offerings ~ cigar smoke santos hope gold velas blood gallina rum ~ shells to guard the crossroads ~  the drilling eyes of reptiles and men ~  my people who I long for ~  my people who I hide from ~ My sister,  I write these words ~ a lifetime away ~ at the foot of the mountains ~  another sea ~ vaster galaxy ~  primordial and without memories ~ House of my nightmares, gone ~  Graves unattended ~ You ask me why I left ~ I say I am a triple horse ~  forever running ~ to the next to the next to the next ~  Where will I end? ~ My baby cronedom has arrived ~  The track now points to my bones ~ in flecks or stashed beneath ~ the thorned trunk of a ceiba  ~  I know just the one.

Calculus I, II, III Brad Walrond

 

Calculus I, II, III Brad Walrond

man hooded masquerade a museum erected out of paper-mâché stone, blue cotton candied walls hung thick and long  with rooms full of master’s Egos copied Cats cut and paste plantation’s hegemony onto trace paper canvas young guns born too brown for they britches pen-in to kindergarten’s cage where boys are convinced, this calculus —how one body relates to another— that disturbs all the peace is the same as learning their one two threes evidence contrary to belief our boys learn fast science must be, I guess? a hyper masculine story washed brains don’t rinse so simple in and out of class the curriculum writes itself soft boys die hard hot head & class clown grow contagious; broad shoulders & differential equations caliber inches into glocks every where we look Our highest dimensions Learn their limits Without degrees

Imperialism: a black and white issue?

 A study was carried out to test the hypothesis that the variation in the pigmentation of skin colour in the diverse populations, is consistently correlated with the mean measured IQs of the various groups. (1) The notion that people's cognitive abilities can be ranked on a sort of hierarchical scale seems absurd. The main limitation of such a study design is the reasoning behind the causal basis of the correlation. The simple genetic association, due to cross-assortative mating and IQ versus a pleiotropic correlation, in which both of the phenotypically distinct, but correlated traits are manifested by one and the same gene. This is something for the 94 percent of (white) politicians sitting in the House of Commons to think about. (2)

This scientific correlation can be compared to the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century, the intellectual and philosophical revolution which  portrayed Europeans as the embodiment of intellect and beauty (3). These principles were later epitomised in the work of Immanuel Kant, who claimed that the colour of the individuals skin was “clear proof that what he said was stupid” (4: p. 38). Thinking about this more profoundly, the ideology of IQ and intellect was almost founded during the Age of Enlightenment. Therefore, are these scientific tests based on a concept which was created to heighten European superiority?

Blackness depicted as being synonymous with sin, whiteness with purity. Religious folklore overflows with stories of sin turning men black, to stories of black people being born in hell.

The unequivocal link between the psychological damage of the slavery movement and the development of the skin bleaching industry is distinguished by Deborah Gabriel (3). The imperialist domination over African nations ultimately ‘dehumanised’ those who were enslaved, thus establishing an exclusive standard of human beings, based on the superiority of the white race. Between 1526 and 1867, (6) approximately 12.5 million slaves were shipped from Africa to the West. Gabriel pursues this arguing that scars of this "tragic past" (3), developed through centuries of being perceived as “second-class”(3) citizens are inextricably linked to the development of the skin bleaching industry.

Thinking about the concept of colourism further, which Gabriel defines as an “internal form of racism” (3), disregards those with darker skin. Furthermore, Bodenhorn and Ruebeck (6) discuss that colourism developed during the slavery era in America, in reference to the fact that light-skinned slaves were disproportionately selected to work as house-slaves, whereas those with relatively darker-skin were forced into the fields. Developing further, it could be implied that a lighter skin tone was regarded as the basis for a better standard of living (5), which further highlights the exponential imperialist influence. Moreover, centuries of “irreparable cultural damage” (3) from enslavement has established the foundations for the phenomena of skin bleaching to this day.

Imperialism: a black and white issue?

 This issue of colorism is reflected in the media in the forms of advertisement, magazines, movies, television and the internet. Mainstream media  plays an important role in the construction of the black image, shaping society's understandings of blackness and beauty, often dissociating the one from the other. Another issue of colorism comes from privilege. Although many African Americans don't like to discuss the instances of colorism among their particular group, it has proved to a problem of privilege within the community. "If you are privileged, it means you are expected to contribute more, not less, than someone who is "underprivileged." But at the same time, your being in a position to do so may be subject to the same resentment that was directed at the privileges of the ancien regime (Crawford 2018)". Digging deeper into the term privilege within colorism, Crawford has used the idea of contribution. As in the African American community lighter skin gets more privileges because their skin is seen as a "beautiful contribution to society". Whether many like to discuss the accuracy of the issues of colorism in regards to privilege, has remained a big issue resulting on imperialism not only being a White and Black issue but, an issue in amongst the African American sin their community as well.

As argued by Deborah Gabriel (3): “Because white skin is personified as the beauty ideal, lighter skin women are seen as more beautiful than darker skinned women” (p. 28). Even though we live in a diverse society, popular culture keeps privileging light skinned women over their darker counterparts  as they are closer to whiteness and eurocentric features. In 2005, four African American women (Halle Berry, Alicia Keys, Sophie Okonedo and Oprah Winfrey) appeared in People's Magazine list of “50 Most Beautiful People” but all of them except for Oprah Winfrey had a lighter complexion which is a product of their mix race heritage (8). Furthermore, the glorification of white beauty is clearly visible in the fashion industry which is dominated by fair skinned models (3). However, earlier studies have found that even black African American magazines such as Ebony leave little room for dark black women in their pages.(3) This highlights how the colorist bias is also embedded in the minds of the black community. Being light skin a marker of beauty and attractiveness, dark skinned women may suffer from low self esteem in a world that fails to represent them and that constantly rewards and values whiteness. In fact, researchers found that “a change in skin color from dark to light is associated with a .28 increment in self-esteem” (9). That is to say that colorism actively affects women's perception of their dark skinned self in a negative way. The issue is being brought to the attention of the international audience thanks to notable celebrities such as actress Nandita Das. In an interview with The Guardian, Kavitha Emmanuel, founder of Indian NGO Women of Worth, explains how the “Dark is Beautiful” campaign endorsed by the actress in 2009 “is standing up to bias toward lighter skin in India” (10).

Photo taken in a shop in London.

During the nineteenth century, Great Britain was one of the leading Imperialist countries of the West and had colonies in India since the sixteen hundreds. At the end of the 19th Century, British emigration to India increased exponentially as the British Imperialist Government encouraged the ideological reproduction of the Empire (11). Nationalist British who moved to India considered themselves to be a superior race with respect to the black Indians. As they were a minority, the British were mainly interested in Indians for their army and as workforce while higher positions were reserved to the “whites” or in some cases to whiter skin Indians (12). The idea of a lighter skin ruling class being considered more privileged deeply embedded in the Indian culture such that even after independence in 1947 lighter skin was still considered more desirable (12). Market size for fairness cosmetics and creams in India is estimated to be approximately US$450 million today and the market growth rate for this cosmetic branch is 20% per annum (13). According to “A conjoint analyses of consumer preferences” by Dr. Ritesh K Patel (13) “It has been estimated that males constitute 20% of the total sales for fairness creams in India” and teens make up the 10% of sales of fairness skin cosmetics: these products have penetrated the Indian society as a whole.

Skin bleaching products are not only widely diffused in India, but can be found worldwide and are very easily available as we can see from Figure 1, a picture taken recently in central London. Also, internationally renowned Western cosmetics giants such as Garnier, which owns 7% of the total market share (13), are the main actors behind this obsession with fair complexion that continues to grow exponentially.

          Figure 1. Skin bleaching cosmetic products found in London, 1 December 2018

Imperialism: a black and white issue?

 

1. slave-trade-and-slavery [Accessed 4 December 2018].
2. Bodenhorn, H. & Ruebeck, C.S. J Popul Econ. Colourism and African–american wealth: evidence from the nineteenth-century south. 2007; 20: (599-620). Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-006-0111-x
3. Frazier EF. Black bourgeoisie. Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press; 1957.
4. Harrison, Matthew S. Racism in the 21st Century: An Empirical Analysis of Skin Color. New York: Springer-Verlag New York Inc.; 2010.
5. Maxine S. Thompson, Verna M. Keith. The blacker the berry, Gender, Skin tone, Self-Esteem and Self-Efficacy. June 1, 2001. p. 347.
6. Abraham MR. "Dark is beautiful: the battle to end the world's obsession with lighter skin". Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/sep/04/dark-is-beautiful-battle-to-end-worlds-obsession-with-lighter-skin [Accessed 6 December 2018].
7. Kaul C. From Empire to Independence: The British Raj in India 1858-1947, The Government. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/modern/independence1947_01.shtml [Accessed 4 December 2018]
8. Mishra N. Washington University Global Studies Law Review, Global Perspectives on Colorism (Symposium Edition), “India and Colorism: The Finer Nuances”. 2015;14(4). Available from: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1553&context=law_globalstudies [Accessed 2 December 2018].
9. Patel RK. A Conjoint Analysis of Consumer Preferences for Fairness Creams among Small Towns Located near Ahmedabad City. 2014;2(3). Available from: http://internationaljournals.co.in/pdf/giirj/2014/march/2.pdf  [Accessed 4 December 2018].

The Three Kinds of Ghosts (poetry) by Pandeism Fish

 

Search

The Three Kinds of Ghosts

(poetry)by Pandeism FishMarch 17, 2012

Draw close now, my children, and listen up well,
For there's a lesson to learn in the tale I will tell,
Of three kinds of ghosts which may wander the land,
Which you might recognize, should you see them firsthand.

The first kind of ghost haunts the place of its death,
Wherever it was when it drew its last breath
Most often this shade met a violent fate,
And so in the spot where they died they yet wait,
Whether done in by murder, disaster, or war,
They cling to that pocket of ground evermore,
With their phantasmic chills, they remind passers by,
That on this spot, abruptly, somebody did die.

The ghost of the second kind finds its way home,
And there does it stay, no more given to roam.
The house where in life it kept comfort most sure,
Is the place where the spirit in death will endure.
No matter where body became split from soul,
'Tis the manse of its memories which it will patrol.
Forever it wanders the rooms of its days,
There to glimmer in thought of habitual ways.

The third kind of ghost with the body remains,
Whether tucked in a graveyard or tossed out on the plains.
No matter where once it had lived or had died,
It stays near the corpse, thereupon to reside.
The crypts and the graveyards must be thick with such ghosts,
Regarding their gravesites and maintaining their posts.
And this must explain, in the days growing older
Why cemeteries stay just a little bit colder.

Now there are, to be sure, times when things coincide,
Where the body remains in the place where it died,
Where the death came about in the home of its life,
And the corpse stayed right where it had memories rife,
Why the ghost chose this place we may never find out,
But one thing is certain without any doubt:
You've not far to wander, far ahead or behind,
Before one of these species of ghosts you will find

Chaos theory

 Chaos theory studies how deterministic systems can exhibit unpredictable and highly sensitive behavior due to initial conditions, revealing complex patterns and underlying order in seemingly random systems.

Overview of Chaos Theory

Chaos theory is a branch of mathematics and physics that investigates systems that are deterministic yet unpredictable. Such systems follow precise laws, but small differences in initial conditions can lead to dramatically different outcomes—a concept popularly called the butterfly effect. This sensitivity explains why long-term prediction is often impossible despite knowing the governing equations.

Key Principles

1. Deterministic Systems: Chaotic systems are not random; their future behavior is determined by initial states and underlying rules. Even simple nonlinear equations can produce chaos.
2. Sensitivity to Initial Conditions: Tiny variations in starting values grow exponentially over time, making precise prediction extremely difficult.
3. Nonlinearity: Most chaotic systems are governed by nonlinear equations, where outputs are not proportional to inputs, allowing feedback loops and complex interactions.
4. Strange Attractors: Chaotic systems often evolve toward strange attractors, which are patterns in state space that the system tends to orbit, showing both structure and unpredictability. Examples include the Lorenz attractor in meteorology.
5. Fractals: Chaotic systems often display self-similar patterns at different scales, known as fractals, highlighting underlying structure within apparent randomness.

Examples and Applications

• Weather and Climate Models: Small measurement errors make accurate long-term forecasts impossible; chaos theory explains why short-term predictions are more reliable.
• Population Dynamics: In ecology, predator-prey or competitive species models can exhibit chaotic fluctuations in population sizes.
• Physics and Engineering: Turbulence in fluids, electrical circuits, and laser systems often display chaotic behavior.
• Economics and Social Systems: Financial markets and traffic systems can show sensitive dependence on initial conditions, making them hard to forecast reliably.

Significance

Chaos theory bridges order and randomness, demonstrating that seemingly random phenomena may follow deterministic rules, but predicting them requires a deep understanding of the system’s sensitivity and structure. It has changed approaches to modeling complex systems in science, engineering, and beyond, emphasizing the limitations of prediction while revealing hidden patterns and stability within apparent disorder.

Chapter 6: Balance or Collapse

 

Chapter 6: Balance or Collapse

edit

"A bell tolls for hours that never were, and the city folds itself again."

Chapter 6

The Quiet Engine lay beneath the oldest part of the City Hall, a vast, complex mechanism of clockwork, pressure plates, and unseen connections that linked every street, every home, every ripple of consequence. It was not a machine of metal, but of stone and living architecture—the true, dark heart of the lattice.

Vael stood aside, his gaze fixed on his exposed Marginalia. He did not follow. He did not resist. He was broken by the unveiling of his own pattern. “The cost is absolute,” he said, a final warning. “You will pay it, not just the city.”

Dorian, Sera, and Lysa descended into the dark. The air grew cold, smelling of ancient stone and the deep, silent current of the river. The floor hummed with the slow, steady rhythm of the Engine. It was enormous, a dark, spiraling chamber with lines of glowing, rhythmic energy marking the lattice itself. This was the place where all consequences were resolved, where all choices were fed back into the system to maintain equilibrium.

“The Engine records,” Lysa whispered. “It folds time, it re-routes life, it ensures the balance is maintained.” Dorian knew what to do. He reached into his coat and pulled out the single item that could never be accounted for, the one thing that broke the count: the pebble Maren had left, the one he had warmed in his palm. It was the symbol of the pure, arbitrary choice—a small, defiant imperfection.

He walked to the center of the chamber, where the pulsing light was strongest. He held the pebble aloft, then placed it precisely at the heart of the Engine. The stone of the lattice did not absorb it. Instead, the entire system reacted violently. The pulse of light faltered. The rhythm of the hum broke, replaced by a terrible, stuttering sound—a cry of a mechanism trying to calculate an absolute zero. The Engine was forced to accept a permanent, unresolvable irregularity at its core.

The city above them lurched. The noise of a thousand minor things breaking simultaneously echoed from the ceiling. Windows shattered, clocks chimed wildly, lamplighters’ beats were suddenly reversed. The ledger fractured.

But the city did not collapse. The lattice, instead of breaking, stretched. It incorporated the pebble as a new, permanent, central node of calculated, necessary chaos. The hum returned, but it was softer now, more varied. The light pulsated irregularly, reflecting the truth: the Engine was still running, but it now carried a scar, a permanent imperfection that could not be corrected, only accounted for.

Dorian, Sera, and Lysa stood still, waiting for the consequence. The air settled. The hum stabilized, a quiet engine that now contained a flaw. They had found the balance, not by destroying the system, but by forcing it to absorb the cost of its own humanity. The ledger was fractured, but the city had survived. They walked back into the city, now silent, now subtle, now watchful. The lattice pulsed faintly, patient and watchful. Minor nodes stabilized, but only barely. The ledger, fractured yet functional, recorded outcomes in spirals that stretched infinitely across streets and alleys.

Dorian exhaled, trembling. Sera did the same. Lyric and Talin remained poised, alert. The city had survived another cycle of comprehension, another wave of consequences. The lattice remained active, patient, indifferent. Shadows, fog, reflections — all returned to their places, but every node had been tested.

“Balance,” Sera whispered. “Or collapse. That is the choice. Always.” Dorian nodded. The lattice remained. The ledger persisted. And the city of Virelia, alive with subtle patterns, would continue to fold, twist, and test every node — for those who dared to perceive it, and for those who moved through it unaware.

The spiral was never-ending. The shadows never still.