Light is Timeless

Any object, or organism, traveling at the speed of light will not experience the passage of time. Everything around that object not traveling at light speed will experience time (even if at 99.9% the speed of light). So, if a spaceship left earth at light speed and returned in 20 years (our 20 years on the ground), those aboard would not have aged.

In the garden the sunflowers absorb all light but yellow, and so yellow is the only color reflected and is then what we see. In fact, the sunflower is every color but yellow. And yet, our perception of that sunflower--which visually is the perception of the speed of light being reflected--must be timeless. Our visual perceptions are timeless because everything we see, what is reflected to us, is traveling at light speed.

The sunflower will fade and turn to seed, but our perception is timeless, and not only because we remember it or write about it, but because observing it, seeing it, is timeless. Experiencing it is timeless. I don't mean this romantically, I mean this practically. When we allow ourselves to drop into the moment, into perceiving the sunflower, time does literally fall to the side. All of our outward perceptions slip away and all life is the moment, is the sunflower.

We can "lose" ourselves in any moment of course, and not realize the passage of time until we look at the clock with amazement, or we can not look at the clock at all and travel beyond ourselves into the now which has always been and will always be. Through a moment in our lives we can travel at the speed of light and glimpse the origins of the universe.

How To Trim A Tree In 57 Seconds

Or, how to use an LED stick-light-thingy dealy you got at World Market.


















Grad students have, on average, only 57 seconds to spare in any given day, so this worked out perfectly. Two quasi trees make one real tree, right? And do you ever watch those videos of fireplaces on cable access during the holidays, where all of a sudden an arm comes in, tosses a log on the fire, then it's another 20 minutes of flame? Let us pay homage through my short tribute video:



Fa la la la la, la la la la....

Who's a Twinkie?

The Minnesota Twins begin their heroic campaign for 3rd or 4th place in their division tonight, 6pm, ESPN2 (if yer in the upper midwest). Yes, it's a tough division. Half the starters are new. We traded Johan Santana to the Mets for a bunch of silly players. Johan will be winning the NL Cy Young this year because 1/9 of the batters he faces will be pitchers. I say he gets 300 Ks.

And I champion having baseball in a dome. With 6-8" of snow forecast today, why wouldn't you want to be at 65 degrees in the Metrodome? And in July, what, 90 degrees and blood-sucking bugs the size of birds coming at you? No thanks.

Anywho, what better way to start out spring than cheering for overgrown teenagers getting paid as much money as some smalls country's GDP? Is there any? At least you might as well watch a small market team, where there is still some shadow of real American baseball.

The good thing about opening day is even though you know it won't happen, you still believe in your team, you still think maybe, just maybe, somehow, they will win it all and ease the numbing pain of your life for a few hours. Cubs fans, know what I mean? Pirates?

You could watch the NHL Minnesota Wild make the playoffs as a 3rd seed this week, but hockey has too much action, like basketball. Give me something hypnotic like baseball or football where people stand around for large chunks of time just thinking about what to do next, then anticipating it while thinking some more. (does that make them stupid?)