"What?!" you say? Physics and politics? Goodness knows how many kilotons of politics Oppenheimer sent to Hiroshima. Made in America, Tested in Japan. OK, I apologize, but I still get to laugh a hearty if politically incorrect laugh over that one.
Yes, physics and philosophy are not that far apart. When you are sitting around the cyclotron bashing on neutrinos and yukking it up over the makeup of the universe, philosophy counts. If anyone gets to ruminate about the creation of something from nothing(or the reverse for Oppenheimer) its physicists.
While grunting away on the crapper in the physics building of the UW, I always had great guffaws at the grim yet greatly mirthful humor known only to also-grunting physics gremlins. To whit: "Heisenberg may have been here!" This, my moronic and ill educated friends, is hilarious. Heisenberg noted that whatever you use to observe a phenomena introduces a factor that changes the object of your observation. Which is to say, looking at hordes of bats in a large caves by turning on a bright light can lead to the observation that a rain of guano pouring down on your head is a descriptor for bats. Not rabid furry critters all asleep upside down, but torrents of white dung. This, by the way, describes eco-tourism. You can't call a place 100 percent pristine while you yourself have entered the pristine realm. Its impossible! Your presence ends the pristine. Capice?
Well then, on to the more navel gazing aspects of life, aka philosophy. Kuhn's "Theory of Scientific Revolutions" did the same thing as Heisenberg. No, it didn't get him covered with guano. Kuhn introduced the idea of Paradigm Shift. He basically said, without the benefit of a cyclotron or nuclear conflagration, that when a new idea enters the world, the idea that got you there and the world itself are now different by virtue of what you have proposed. The paradigm has changed, the world has changed. All that went before is reorganized based on the new paradigm. Thoughts, ideas, proposals, are permanently in flux. Just when you really believe your new kitten is the bestest and mostest snuggly wuffins puddy ever, it pees on the rug. So much for all kittens being cute. The new paradigm is bigger litter boxes and a swat on the cat's ass.
Barack Obama was not supposed to happen. Hillary, while picking out the diamond for her coronation crown, had ostensibly worked for equal rights, women's issues etc. Democrats have been in the lead on civil rights and equality for more than half a century. I owe my ability to speak freely to their efforts. I can now almost take liberties with animals publicly thanks to them. Ahem.
So when the Clintons were building a Bridge to the 21st Century, they didn't understand that when the last bits of Korean made steel went into the last tie and girder, the very minute the bridge was complete, that the paradigm would shift. And shit, they cut the ribbon, drove to the other side, and there was Barack waiting to greet them in the new paradigm! "Oh crap!, Bill, there's a Negro in the road! Do we stop?" "No! Hillary, he's playing cards in the road, race cards! Only an idiot plays cards in the road! Run him down before he goes forth and multiplies!" Thump, thump.
Obama is the new paradigm and the Clintons are still in the old one. The paradigm shift left them behind, even though they helped it happen. And instead of celebrating this(diversity), they only can see a turd in the punchbowl. How sad.
So, If W doesn't ride one down in the way Slim Pickens did in Dr. Strangelove, drink your morning tea or coffee and enjoy the new mocha paradigm. You will get used to it. You have no choice in the matter anyway!
"When you are sitting around the cyclotron bashing on neutrinos and yukking it up over the makeup of the universe, philosophy counts."
http://www.contracostatimes.com/science/ci_8966802
Posted by: Regality | April 19, 2008 at 06:41 PM
Remember that cordless phones are used for communication so the more mobile you are as a parent, the easier it is to monitor your kids and protect them.
Posted by: wireless camera | July 01, 2011 at 08:39 AM