Starry night in my head

I am now back after a long and arduous trip home. I doubt I shared any of this, but we were scheduled to leave Denver on Lufthansa on April 12. On April 11 we got an email from Lufthansa telling us our flight had been cancelled. The reason was a pilots strike, but also around that time, there was a cabin attendant strike. A person we met while traveling, a German national, told us that flying Lufthansa can be a problem because they have more than one union, and any of these unions can shut down the airline. So, right around our 4/12 departure date there were two strikes, and the one by the pilots shut down the airline. Hundreds of flights were cancelled, including ours.

So, after receiving the email from Lufthansa on 4/11, I realized that there was going to be an exodus of passengers and that any other available seats on other airlines would quickly be snapped up. I went to my Delta account and entered our dates, and we could fly on 4/12 directly to Lisbon, Portugal rather than through Frankfurt, Germany, as Lufthansa had routed us. I didn’t think too hard about it and grabbed the seats, hoping that we’d get a full refund from Lufthansa.

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Note to self: JFK must have vaporized due to speed of limo

We are in the closing hours of this long European trip, in fact, have been here long enough that all of the ads I receive on YouTube are in French. I no longer need to turn off the sound as I cover them with my hand. The French language is, some might say, guttural, that is, they seem to be flowing words more than speaking them plainly. I’ve picked up a few, and use translate apps for signs, and so can manage.

I had the privilege of meeting and spending time with an occasional commenter here, Jan  Spreen. We ended up in proximity by chance in the Provence area of southern France, so he drove a few kilometers to meet with us. I had a delightful time picking his brain.

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Pump this …

While planning for our soon-ending trip, we decided to avoid checking bags and so minimized stuff to bring. We rented several dwelling units of various types, most having washers and dryers. Thereby, and you neither want nor need to know this, I brought only four skivvies and several pairs of socks that qualify as hiking grade.

The first place where we did laundry had an odd machine, and a dial completely written in Portuguese. I translated it, and thought I understood the machine to be basically normal. However, at the end of the washing and spinning cycle our clothes were soaking wet. I ran them again, same result, and then on a cycle that promised to spin them really fast, which it failed to do. We ended up with a load of soaking-wet clothes and a small deck to dry them on. I wrung them out by hand.

Finally, on what I later decided was a fool’s quest, I went searching for a laundromat. It took several hours to find one,  get change, and finally run our clothing that otherwise refused to dry. The machine I used had a heat button, but I could not make it hotter. I ran the clothing for two fifteen-minute intervals, and while not dry, the items were kind of warm,  and seemed to have been in the process that may well have required three our four more fifteen-minute cycles. I decided the machine was defective.

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Who knew? Certainly not me!

I awake early. Sometimes I get up as early as 3:30 AM. We are currently in France. Jet lag in the past has been a real problem, not so much travelling west to east. When we do that we usually arrive on an overnight flight and are sleep-deprived that day. But, we power through as best we can so that we stay awake as late as possible and then try to hit the ground running the following day. Usually after the arrival day and one complete day, we are acclimated.

I often wonder how presidents and business executives handle air travel to Europe, Asia and other places. They usually appear fresh no matter where they are. I know they can sleep in luxury aboard their aircraft, but who can just fall asleep at will and switch to a European or Asian schedule? Not me, for sure.
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Twenty-First Century Love

A Short Story
Twenty-First Century Love
Jan Spreen
https://janspreen.com

1 – A conference
Some time ago I’ve been listening to a very interesting conference about the HIV=AIDS equation. Two of the most important speakers were Dr Chermann, member of the Prof. Luc Montagnier research team in the 1980ies and co-discoverer of the left part of the equation, as he likes to call himself, and Dr de Harven, professor of pathology and director of a Canadian electron microscope laboratory during the 80s, who doesn’t agree at all with the currently admitted HIV and AIDS concept.

Dr Chermann was the first to speak, and he told us a lot of things. For instance, he explained that the famous virus is very difficult to track, because it changes all the time.

He even thinks that all beings might have a different virus. Trying to imagine the difficulties arising when somebody attempts to discover an unknown virus in these circumstances, it became clear to me that his team must have been composed of very talented people indeed. But I started to feel really excited when he pointed out to us the reason why sometimes a virus cannot be found, even if a person was tested HIV positive. In that case, Dr Chermann explained, the viruses are pooling in a place where they cannot be detected. And he simply added: the fact that a virus cannot be seen doesn’t mean that it’s not there.

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Toddler Thinker and Professor Know-it-all

Jan Spreen – https://janspreen.com

Justification of the exchange here-after

A radial force cannot possibly make an object rotate tangentially – the well-known stone on a string gets its momentum from a tangential force – from which it follows that artificial satellites cannot exist. To that assertion, people invariably react, very indignantly, with the argument that the moon rotates around the earth under the influence of gravity. So I am completely wrong. Or if not, how then do I explain the moon’s orbit? I have always refused to go into that, because such an explanation can only be a very questionable metaphysical hypothesis, on which I could very easily be shot down. But because I’m not getting anywhere with my ideas anyway, I thought: “What do I have to lose? I’m going to make an attempt. Interesting and exciting, such a daring hypothesis!”

Below is a dialogue between Toddler Thinker – as he modestly calls himself – and a kind, presumably quite elderly scholar. The latter has apparently introduced himself with some self-mockery to Toddler Thinker as Professor Know-it-all. Know-it-all has nothing to defend, it seems, and he apparently finds it amusing to have his somewhat dusty and enumerative way of expressing himself refreshed by a funny little fellow with challenging ideas.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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A treat in store …

We are going on a three-week trip, first to Algarve on the southern Atlantic coast of Portugal, and then to the island of Madeira, a Portuguese “possession?” closest to Morocco. From there we head to Geneva, or thereabouts, to visit our daughter, who will take us on a tour ot southern France. She’s an excellent tour guide and fun traveling companion.

In the past in our travels I have strived to avoid making this blog a travelogue, as in visiting new places I know less than anyone there. I need to just observe and be quiet. I have stumbled on matters that became thrilling blog content, as with the crypt of Eva Peron in Buenos Aires, Argentina, leading to the discovery of her fake death and married life in Michigan, producing a daughter we came to know as the pop singer Madonna, explaining both her fame despite lack of talent at once.

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Wilson Bryan Key analyzes, Jordan B. Peterson anthropomorphizes

“It is no random accident that most U.S. presidents have pet dogs in the White House, at considerable taxpayer expense for damaged rugs, furniture and draperies. Consciously and unconsciously , the presence a of loving , obedient, trusting dog produces a positive image of the owner. The president must have a dog. Voters would reject a politician who preferred cats, pigs, boa constrictors, or chimpanzees. (Wilson Bryan Key, The Age of Manipulation, p 134)

Cats, however, are their own creatures. They aren’t social or hierarchical (except in passing). They are only semi-domesticated. They don’t do tricks. They are friendly on their own terms. Dogs have been tamed, but cats have made a decision. They appear willing to interact with people, for some strange reason of their own. To me, cats are a manifestation of nature, of Being, in an almost pure form. Furthermore, they are a form of Being that looks at human beings and approves. (Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life, Page 352) Continue reading “Wilson Bryan Key analyzes, Jordan B. Peterson anthropomorphizes” →

The curse of the ad man

No one, including me, is able to unravel the meaning of the Bud Light ad in the post below, making me think that I am doing what I often do, overthinking. This morning as I reflected on it, I realize that the opening of the yellow-arched door at about 30 seconds in contained the message of the ad, that the people on the other side of the door were having real fun. Why? Bud Light, of course, but more generally, beer, or more generally, alcohol, or more generally yet, escape.

This morning I recalled something I’ve long … accepted … more than understood, that in life there is an 80-20 rule. 80 percent of anything we do is going to be dominated by 20 percent of the people doing it. It applies to religion, eating chips, chocolate chip cookies, ice cream, and drinking.

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