{"id":6576,"date":"2010-01-15T13:42:43","date_gmt":"2010-01-15T18:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=6576"},"modified":"2010-01-18T13:42:13","modified_gmt":"2010-01-18T18:42:13","slug":"the-sky-calls-to-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/the-sky-calls-to-us\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sky Calls to Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

From whiskey river<\/em><\/a> (italicized portion):<\/p>\n

The landscape opens its eyes and sits up,
\nsets out walking followed by its shadow,
\nit is a stela<\/span> of dark murmurs
\nthat are the languages of fallen matter,
\nthe wind stops and hears the clamor of the elements,
\nsand and water talking in low voices,
\nthe howl of pilings as they battle the salt,
\nthe rash confidence of fire,
\nthe soliloquy of ashes,
\nthe interminable conversation of the universe.
\nTalking with the things and with ourselves
\nthe universe talks to itself:
\nwe are its tongue and ears, its words and silences.
\nThe wind hears what the universe says
\nand we hear what the wind says,
\nrustling the submarine foliage of language,
\nthe secret vegetation of the underworld and the undersky:
\nman dreams the dream of things,
\ntime thinks the dream of men.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Octavio Paz [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and<\/a> (italicized portion):<\/p>\n

If you had never been to the world and never known what dawn was, you couldn’t possibly imagine how the darkness breaks, how the mystery and color of a new day arrive.<\/em> Light is incredibly generous, but also gentle. When you attend to the way the dawn comes, you learn how light can coax the dark. The first fingers of light appear on the horizon, and ever so deftly and gradually, they pull the mantle of darkness away from the world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(John O’Donohue [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Not from whiskey river<\/em>:<\/p>\n

On a clear day one should look west to see the dawn. On the Pacific Coast, a little south of Big Sur, is a spot known as Willow Creek where a rivulet pours out of the mountains into the ocean. I was there early one morning as a thin white fog was lifting to show the western sky full of light from the rising sun — a sky far and deep, a luminously blue transparency with a few flat-bottomed clouds hanging over but beyond the horizon. Into such a sky the mind expands without actually seeking or visualizing anything beyond, such as the South Sea Islands or the China Coast. Simultaneously one goes out and stays put. The view is from here<\/em>, and in Hawaii it is still the night; yet such a sky is like the green mist of buds buds breaking in a spring woodland, when it is almost a pity to think of it turning back into the thick foliage of summer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Alan Watts, In My Own Way: An Autobiography<\/em> [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

September 6, 1985<\/p>\n

Dear Cecil:<\/p>\n

Ever since I was a tiny infant, I have sneezed when going out into the bright sun. My momma confirms this fact, but can’t give me a more satisfactory cause than the empirical statement that I’ve always done it.<\/p>\n

Three decades later, I still produce the obligatory two or three sneezes seconds after walking into bright sunlight. (It doesn’t happen on a cloudy day or at night.)<\/p>\n

I remember several years ago reading in the paper that some percentage of people experienced sun-induced sneezing fits, but they didn’t say why. What’s the deal?<\/p>\n

— Alan C., Dallas<\/p>\n

Cecil replies:<\/p>\n

You are thinking this is a matter of idle curiosity, Alan? Au contraire–it’s a threat to our national security.<\/p>\n

Listen to this frightening headline: “The photic sneeze reflex as a risk factor to combat pilots,” Military Medicine<\/em>, Breitenbach et al, 1993.<\/p>\n

“Photic sneeze reflex” is the medical term for what you’ve got. Researchers fear they’ll get a guy like you in a screaming dogfight, you break through the clouds into bright sunlight, you sneeze, your eyes snap shut, and the next thing you know they’re picking you up off the landscape with a rake.<\/p>\n

Photic sneeze reflex occurs in something like one-sixth to one-quarter of the population. It occurs more often in Caucasians than Afro-Americans or Orientals.<\/p>\n

According to a Johns Hopkins medic named Stephen Peroutka, the trait is passed along genetically, with a 50 percent chance of inheritance.<\/p>\n

Researchers in Sweden found that out of 460 subjects, 24 percent sneezed in bright light, and 40 percent had at least one sneezing parent.<\/p>\n

Sixty-four percent of children with one sneezing parent were themselves sneezers, but two nonsneezers never produced a sneezer. (Isn’t it amazing how I can make these things so easy to understand?)<\/p>\n

Nobody’s exactly sure what causes photic sneeze reflex. I see here in one of the journals we have an impressive discussion of the role of the trigeminal nerve nucleus.<\/p>\n

Basically what this is saying is that you’ve got a lot of nerves crammed together in the front of your head, and maybe there can can be leakage of sorts from one nerve pathway to another. So perhaps the reflex is just a case of congenitally crossed signals.<\/p>\n

At this point nobody’s prepared to go in there with a pliers and fix it. So your best bet is to wear sunglasses and stay out of fighter jets.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(from The Straight Dope<\/em> [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

And for today’s last free association…<\/p>\n

Symphony of Silence<\/del> Science<\/a> is one of those idiosyncratic little back corners of purpose which the Web seems to cultivate. From the About page:<\/p>\n

Hey — I’m John Boswell, the head musician and producer behind the Symphony of Science. The goal of the project is to bring scientific knowledge and philosophy to the masses, in a novel way, through the medium of music. Science and music are two passions of mine that I aim to combine in a way that is intended to bring a meaningful message to listeners, while simultaneously providing an enjoyable musical experience.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here’s the project’s first effort, “A Glorious Dawn”: Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking meet electronica (“lyrics” below):<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

Lyrics:<\/p>\n

A Glorious Dawn<\/strong>
\nby Symphony of Silence<\/del> Science
\n(verbal contributions by Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking)<\/em><\/p>\n

[Carl Sagan]<\/em>
\nIf you wish to make an apple pie from scratch
\nYou must first invent the universe<\/p>\n

Space is filled with a network of wormholes
\nYou might emerge somewhere else in space
\nSome when-else in time<\/p>\n

The sky calls to us
\nIf we do not destroy ourselves
\nWe will one day venture to the stars<\/p>\n

A still more glorious dawn awaits
\nNot a sunrise, but a galaxy rise
\nA morning filled with 400 billion suns
\nThe rising of the milky way<\/p>\n

The Cosmos is full beyond measure of elegant truths
\nOf exquisite interrelationships
\nOf the awesome machinery of nature<\/p>\n

I believe our future depends powerfully
\nOn how well we understand this cosmos
\nIn which we float like a mote of dust
\nIn the morning sky<\/p>\n

But the brain does much more than just recollect
\nIt inter-compares, it synthesizes, it analyzes
\nit generates abstractions<\/p>\n

The simplest thought like the concept of the number one
\nHas an elaborate logical underpinning
\nThe brain has its own language
\nFor testing the structure and consistency of the world<\/p>\n

[Hawking]<\/em>
\nFor thousands of years
\nPeople have wondered about the universe
\nDid it stretch out forever
\nOr was there a limit<\/p>\n

From the big bang to black holes
\nFrom dark matter to a possible big crunch
\nOur image of the universe today
\nIs full of strange sounding ideas<\/p>\n

[Sagan]<\/em>
\nHow lucky we are to live in this time
\nThe first moment in human history
\nWhen we are in fact visiting other worlds<\/p>\n

The surface of the earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean
\nRecently we’ve waded a little way out
\nAnd the water seems inviting<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From whiskey river (italicized portion): The landscape opens its eyes and sits up, sets out walking followed by its shadow, it is a stela of dark murmurs that are the languages of fallen matter, the wind stops and hears the clamor of the elements, sand and water talking in low voices, the howl of pilings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,1393,95,251],"tags":[178,1211,1532,1593,1594,1595,1596,1597,1598,1599,1600,1601],"class_list":{"0":"post-6576","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ruminations","7":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","8":"category-science-medicine","9":"category-poetry-writing_cat","10":"tag-whiskey-river","11":"tag-alan-watts","12":"tag-john-odonohue","13":"tag-dawn","14":"tag-daybreak","15":"tag-octavio-paz","16":"tag-cecil","17":"tag-the-straight-dope","18":"tag-photic-sneeze-reflex","19":"tag-symphony-of-science","20":"tag-carl-sagan","21":"tag-stephen-hawking","22":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-1I4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6576"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6612,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6576\/revisions\/6612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}