A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME

Oh, damn! That title is already taken. OK, I cannot compete with Dr. Hawking, nor do I wish to. My approach is less knowledgeable, less scientific than his. Mine is primarily experiential.

First, if I'm to talk about time, a definition might be helpful.

From an online dictionary:

TIME:
1. A nonspatial continuum in which events occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future.

2. An interval separating two points on this continuum; a duration: a long time since the last war; passed the time reading.

3. A number, as of years, days, or minutes, representing such an interval: ran the course in a time just under four minutes.

4. A similar number representing a specific point on this continuum, reckoned in hours and minutes: checked her watch and recorded the time, 6:17 a.m.

5. A system by which such intervals are measured or such numbers are reckoned: solar time.

Is that helpful?

I thought not.

When I was a kid, I used to lie awake at night speculating on what time was. Dad said that would drive me bonkers, no one understands time. He might have been right. I read H. G. Wells science fiction classic, The Time Machine. (As an aside, that opened a lifetime love of the science fiction genre) He called time a dimension


OK, definition time again.

DIMENSION:

1. A measure of spatial extent, especially width, height, or length.

2. Mathematics The least number of independent coordinates required to specify uniquely the points in a space.

3. The range of such a coordinate.

4. Physics A physical property, such as mass, length, time, or a combination thereof, regarded as a fundamental measure or as one of a set of fundamental measures of a physical quantity: Velocity has the dimensions of length divided by time.

I think the one from physics is most operative here. Now I am in deep waters. You know much more about physics than I do, so please just humour me, dear friend.

After reading The Time Machine, I started picturing time as a line, a number line. Could it possibly gain another dimension and curve on itself, with the intersecting points making present and future, or present and past into a single point? Does it maker any sense at all to reference time in terms of spatial dimension. Or is this a gross misuse of the venerable number line?

Somewhere along the line, I came to think of time as having three dimensions, past, present and future. This set the stage for what I experienced in an altered state of consciousness, which I will refer to as a Spiritual Experience (SE) for lack of a better term

Now, back to the mundane. Look at some object that has three spatial dimensions, say your dominant hand. It occurs to me that I don't know if you are right-handed or left-handed, so I'll picture both below. When you look at, you see those dimension, length, width and depth, but you do not - cannot! - see them as three separate properties, you see them as one organic whole, the length, width and depth each distinct and yet inseparable. Are you following me so far? Of course you are, we haven't gotten to the difficult part.

Now we get to the difficult part.

You most likely see your hand in only one dimension of time, the present. Now you need to use your imagination. Imagine looking at your hand and seeing it as it was when you were a foetus, a baby, a child, a teenager. Now, return to the present and, in your imagination, travel in the opposite direction, see your hand in ten years, then as an old person. If you have the nerve, see it as dead and decaying.

If you are following me now, we can move on to the really hard part.

Imagine seeing those three dimensions of time as an organic whole, each distinct and yet inseparable, past, present and future all existing together, so when you look at your hand, you are not seeing our usual three dimensional hand, but rather you are seeing a six dimensional hand.

Now imagine seeing the entire spacetime continuum in that way. That is my view of maya (the spacetime continuum) - when I am aware of maya at all - during a SE.

I am aware that this must sound science fiction, and I suppose it is. It is also something I have experienced and continue to experience occasionally.

And that is my explanation of the three dimensions of time, as best I can give it right now.

Now as I don't want to disappoint, here are parts of my three favourite time
songs, with links to the complete songs.

A Hazy Shade of Winter: (edited)
Simon and Garfunkel


Time, time, time, see whats become of me
While I looked around
For my possibilities
I was so hard to please
But look around, leaves are brown
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter

Hang on to your hopes, my friend
That's an easy thing to say, but if your hopes should pass away
Simply pretend
That you can build them again
Look around, the grass is high
The fields are ripe, its the springtime of my life

But look around, leaves are brown now
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter
Look around, leaves are brown
There's a patch of snow on the ground...

TIME IS ON MY SIDE: (edited)

The Rolling Stones
(Meade)

Time is on my side, yes it is
Time is on my side, yes it is

You're searching for good times
But just wait and see
You'll come running back (I won't have to worry no more)
You'll come running back (spend the rest of my life with you, baby)
You'll come running back to me

Yes time, time, time is on my side, yes it is
Time, time, time is on my side, yes it is
Oh, time, time, time is on my side, yes it is
I said, time, time, time is on my side, yes it is
Oh, time, time, time is on my side
Yeah, time, time, time is on my side

Time In A Bottle: (edited)
Jim Croce


If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that Id like to do
Is to save every day
Till eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you

If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
Id save every day like a treasure and then,
Again, I would spend them with you

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
Ive looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go
Through time with

MORE BAD NEWS FROM GAZA - AND A PETITION TO SIGN

This picture from Reuters seems to sum it all up:

By now, we have all heard of Israel's latest attack on the people of Gaza. I do not pretend that the Hamas government is blameless in these attacks. I do say that Israel's response is all out of proportion to the danger Hamas poses to Israel. For those who are into arithmetic, I note that as of this writing, at least 312 Gazans have been killed in this latest offensive. But no matter.

What matters is that again - still - the civilian population of Gaza is suffering. A few pictures from BBC will serve to illustrate what is going on.

AVAAZ, an NGO that I support, has put together a petition calling for an end to the bombardment of the people of Gaza. Please read their letter below and go sign the petition. The children of Gaza continue to die while we do nothing.

From AVAAZ:

Dear friends,

As we watch the Gaza bloodshed with horror, appalled at how the crisis is spiralling further out of control, one thing is clear -- this violence will only lead to further civilian suffering and an escalation of the conflict.

There must be another way. Over 300 are dead and hundreds more injured -- rockets are striking Ashdod deep inside Israel for the very first time, and the sides are mobilising for invasion. A global response has begun, but it'll take more than words -- the immediate violence won't end, nor will wider peace be secured, without firm action from the international community.

Today, we're launching an emergency campaign which will be delivered to the UN Security Council and key world powers, urging them to act to ensure an immediate ceasefire, address the growing humanitarian crisis, and take steps to build real and lasting peace.1 Follow this link now to sign the emergency petition and send it to everyone you know:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_time_for_peace/97.php?cl_tf_sign=1

After eight or more years of ineffective US and global diplomacy -- and now Gaza's bloodiest day in recent memory -- we must issue a global outcry demanding that world leaders do more than make statements if they're to bring peace to this region. The UN, the European Union, the Arab League and the USA should now act together to ensure a ceasefire – which includes an end to rocket attacks into Israel and opening the checkpoints for fuel, food, medicine and other humanitarian aid deliveries.

With a new US President taking office in less than a month, a real opportunity exists to breathe new life into peace efforts. These latest hostilities require not only an immediate ceasefire but a commitment from Obama and other world leaders that resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at the very top of their agendas. As the whole world is impacted by this ongoing conflict - we should demand nothing less.

In 2006 we mobilised for a ceasefire in Lebanon. For years we've worked to encourage a just and lasting peace, taking out billboards and ads across Israel and Palestine. Now as we head into 2009, we need to come together again to demand a peaceful and lasting resolution, instead of a further escalation of violence. Follow this link to put your name forward for peace:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_time_for_peace/97.php?cl_tf_sign=1

All sides to the conflict will continue to act as they have in the past if they believe that the world will stand by and allow them to do so. 2009 is a year that things can be different. As we face this crisis, and the possibilities of a new year, it's time for us to demand a ceasefire and work together to finally put an end to this cycle of violence.

With hope and determination,

Brett, Ricken, Alice, Ben, Pascal, Paul, Graziela, Paula, Luis, Iain and the whole Avaaz team


ABOUT AVAAZ
Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means "voice" in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in Ottawa, London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Buenos Aires, and Geneva. Call us at: +1 888 922 8229 or +55 21 2509 0368

Click here to learn more about our largest campaigns.

Don't forget to check out our Facebook and Myspace and Bebo page

ATROCITY IN GAZA

I CALL ON ISRAEL! I CALL ON EGYPT! I CALL ON ALL THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD TO PUT AN END TO THIS ATROCITY!

Frankly, I no longer care who is to blame. We are all responsible!

I have no time to write a good post today, so just look at the pictures. Then write your governmental representatives of your country to put an end to this murder of innocent children! If enough of us insist and don't quit insisting, they will listen. Do it now, this minute! How many will die horribly while you hesitate?

I have come under considerable fire for harping on this horror that is Gaza. No matter. I will continue harping until it is resolved or I am dead!













Many years ago, I might have had a child who was killed by people full of hate. You reading this now might also have a child that could suffer this sad fate. No mother, no father should have to go through this. No human being should have to go through this. Let us all stand together and put an end to this, so no one will ever have to look at such pictures again!

Atrocity In Somalia

ADULT ALERT!

WARNING! THERE IS CONTENT IN THIS POST THAT MAY BE INAPPROPRIATE FOR CHILDREN. THE OBJECTIONAL CONTENT IS NOT SEXUAL, JUST UGLY, VIOLENTLY BRUTAL AND HARD FOR ANY CIVILISED PERSON TO TAKE.

Once in a while, something comes to my attention that seriously threatens my habitually cheerful, optimistic mood. This in one such story. It is brutal. It is ugly. I warn you, I shall not spare your feelings. I shall be as merciless to you, my readers, as these "men" were to this young girl.

Let me start with a picture. Her name is - was - Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow. In this picture, she is being buried up to her shoulders in the ground, to be executed by stoning. Her crime? She was raped!

I know this girl's face will haunt me for a long, long time.

The English story here is from Al Jazeera. I am following it be a Babel Fish translation from Spanish of the same story. The Spanish version contains many more details, more emotionally written. It is worth wading through the bad translation to read its meaning.

Take a long, hard look at the terror on her face.

Amnesty: Rape girl, 13, killed for adultery

Somali fighters stone 'rape victim'


In recent months the Islamic Courts' al-Shebab group appears to have gained strength [EPA]

A Somali girl who said she had been raped has been stoned to death in Somalia after being accused of adultery, a human rights group has said.

Amnesty International said in a press release on Friday that the victim, Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow, had been 13 years old - not 23 as earlier reports had suggested.

Duhulow was stoned to death on October 27 by dozens of men in a stadium packed with 1,000 spectators in the southern port city of Kismayo, Amnesty International and Somali media reported, citing witnesses.

The armed group in charge of Kismayo had accused her of adultery after she reported that three men had raped her, Amnesty said.

"This child suffered a horrendous death at the behest of the armed opposition groups who currently control Kismayo," David Copeman, Amnesty International's Somalia campaigner, said in a statement.

Initial local media reports said Duhulow was 23, but her father told Amnesty International she was 13.

The Islamic Courts took control of much of Somalia in 2006, triggering an intervention by neighbouring Ethiopia, which propped up the UN-backed transitional government and ousted the Islamic Courts fighters.

While the group's political leadership largely fled the country, the movement's military and youth wing, the al-Shebab, switched to guerrilla warfare.

In recent months the group appears to have gained strength, taking over the port city of Kismayo, and dismantling pro-government roadblocks.

And now, the translation of the Spanish version:

They violate the girl they judge, it in an Islamic court they stone and it by… adulterous!


(PS). - It is the horror. And those that promote smiling the “Alliance of Civilizations” would have to be asked, in silence, if a society as ours it can be allied with those who they perpetrate - endorsed by his law and its governments crimes like the one of Asha.

The news that it had been stoned until the death, untied a lukewarm wave of world-wide rejection one week ago, but the details that arise now cause the vomit.

Asha Ibrahim Dhuhulow neither was a woman, nor was 24 years old, nor was an adulteress. Its crime was to be born and to suffer in a country dominated by the Islamic fanaticism, the piracy and the violence as it is Somalia.

Asha only was 14 years old. It had not committed adultery. It had been violated by three men of the most powerful clan of the city. Helped by the Islamic court imposed by the integrist militias of The Shabab, the death to pedradas of the minor has served the twigs to erase all sign of the crime.

Ash, like many children of countries like his, was born victim already. It came to the world in the field of refugees of Hagardeer, in the south of Kenya, in 1995, where her family had to take refuge three years before, fleeing from Mogadishu from the attacks against his clan, the one of the Galgale, a minority in Somalia.

She was the last one in being born, thirteenth of six brothers and six brothers.

The young, that went to the school in the field of refugees, suffered epilepsy, reason why the family decided to send it with her grandmother in Mogadishu, where she could receive better medical attention. Kismayo was in its way.

From the past August, the integrist militias of The contral Shebab that coastal city.

Asha, “a very sweet girl, very humble”, remained catched in Kismayo, and sobrevió thanks to the charity of some neighbors and people that knew in its winding way towards the north.

where it could survive these two months thanks to the known ones that had done in the way. The money to arrive at Mogadishu finished, according to said to him to its father by telephone. The night of Saturday, three men approached to him they forced and it to accompany them to the beach, they violated where it.

Under paternal advice, it went to the courts and denounced her rapists. And there the suplicio begins that would end the girl tied and buried until the neck, list to be burst to pedradas.

Amnesty International (AI) reveals that the girl was stoned by a group of 50 men in a stage of the harbor locality, before near 1,000 spectators.

The islamists had taken a truck filled with stones - “greater than an egg and smaller than the fist of an adult man” - to the stage, so that people added themselves in the execution.

No of the facinerosos that participated in the violation and torture of Asha has been accused nor arrested.

Young agony d ela was frightful. After being stoned and when already they took it - supposedly dead a nurse discovered that still he breathed and returned to place it in the hole, buried until pechp, so that he continued the lapidación.

AI mentions a subject, call Sheij Hayakalah, that declares proud that “the tests were presented/displayed on the other hand and she confirmed her fault officially”:

“In addition it said to us that he was happy with his punishment by virtue of the Islamic law”.

Several witnesses mentioned by Amnesty count another thing: that the girl tried to fight against her detectors and had to be taken by the force to the stage.

Once there, the militiamen - partners of the three rapists shot against several people who tried to save the girl and killed a boy who was in the neighborhoods.

A spokesman of The Shabab apologized later by the death of the boy and assured that the one that shot to him would be punished.

“This is not justice, nor was an execution, this girl underwent a horrible death ordered by the armed groups competing that at the moment control Kismayo”, it affirms to butcher the person in charge for Somalia de Amnistía, David Copeman.

“Its murder is even another one of the abuses of the Human rights committed by the combatants in the conflict of Somalia, and again demonstrates the importance of the international action to investigate and to document those abuses, through an international commission of investigation”.

BEASTING BARACK BEHIND HIS BACK

[This has nothing to do with this post, except that I'm putting it here. Just heard on Jay Leno, but some woman named Chelsea Something, not Clinton, an actor, I think: "I don't understand people who are still undecided about who to vote for. It's like going into Starbucks. Do you want your coffee black or with expired milk."]

(Note: This post is satiric in nature. Please don't turn me into the Neocon Thought Police.)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average today plummeted 777.86 points. BAD. Very bad. But perhaps worse than BAD.

Perhaps downright EVIL. Pronounced EEEEVIIIIILLLLL! Not evul.


This came to me as I was talking to my brother. "What a shame it was 777 instead of 666, the NUMBER OF THE BEAST.

For those of you unfamiliar with Christian theology, The Beast is the Antichrist, sort of the ultimate bad guy. Not quite The Devil, Satan, etc. No, the devil, you must understand is a fallen angel,



not human, while the Antichrist is a veddy, veddy evil human being in league with the devil.




I probably have the theology wrong; I have a way of getting these things mixed up. Anyway, in the Bible, in the book of Revelation, also called the Apocalypse, somewhere in there it says that the NUMBER OF THE BEAST is 666. Making names, etc., into 666 to prove them evil is called 'Beasting." (I learned this from Leo Tolstoy while reading War and Peace.


Yes, dear reader(s), I have read War and Peace, every word of it, well, maybe not every word, but most of them, in translation, though; I don't read Russian.)



I saw that 777.86 and thought, "Too bad it's not 666.86. Pat Robertson could make much of that!"


Mayana, however has a streak of cleverness in her worthy of a Fundamentalist Christian Evangelist out to 'prove a point.' So consider this - please read slowly and carefully; it's just a little convoluted.


The number three represents Earth.



The number four represents Heaven.




Together the represent perfection. That is the number seven. The number three also represents the Trinity, the three Gods of Fundamentalist Christianity (who are really One, but, see, we humans aren't supposed to be able to comprehend that. It's a mystery. We're just supposed to believe it. On blind faith.) So, here we have three sevens. Let us proceed to 86. Eighty-six is a phrase meaning to throw out, as to 86 the unruly drunk from the club.



So if we 86 the Father from the first seven, the Son from the second seven and the Holy Ghost from the third seven, we are left with 666.






Voila!!

Which proves that Barack Obama








is the Antichrist.

[

[OK, OK. It was actually 68, not 86. But it's making the point that is important, not getting the facts correct.]

Fun With Politics - Rally Against Sarah Palin

Speaking of Alaska...

I spent some of the most difficult years of my life in Alaska, from 1993-1997. I was in very bad shape. In fact I was certifiably insane for much of that time. Hardly a high point of my life. Most of my memories of Alaska are not happy. One good thing, though, I did reunite with my brother after many years of separation.

We lived in Anchorage, a strange city, full of strange people. I fit right in. I was freaked out by the barely visible sun in winter and loved the nearly endless summer days, although I missed seeing the stars.

Alaska is incredibly beautiful and needs to be preserved.

Alaska deserves much better than Sarah Palin.

A friend sent me this article, along with the pictures.

Psssst...pass it on!

[The] Alaska Women Reject Palin rally was to be held outside on the lawn in front of the Loussac Library in midtown Anchorage . Home made signs were encouraged, and the idea was to make a statement that Sarah Palin does not speak for all Alaska women, or men. I had no idea what to expect.

The rally was organized by a small group of women, talking over coffee. It made me wonder what other things have started with small groups of women talking over coffee. It's probably an impressive list. These women hatched the plan, printed up flyers, posted them around town, and sent notices to local media outlets. One of those media outlets was KBYR radio, home of Eddie Burke, a long-time uber-conservative Anchorage talk show host. Turns out that Eddie Burke not only announced the rally, but called the people who planned to attend the rally "a bunch of socialist baby-killing maggots," and read the home phone numbers of the organizers aloud over the air, urging listeners to call and tell them what they thought. The women, of course, received some nasty, harassing and threatening messages.

I felt a bit apprehensive. I'd been disappointed before by the turnout at other rallies. Basically, in Anchorage , if you can get 25 people to show up at an event, it's a success. So, I thought to myself, if we can actually get 100 people there that aren't sent by Eddie Burke, we'll be doing good. A real statement will have been made. I confess, I still had a mental image of 15 demonstrators surrounded by hundreds of menacing "socialist baby-killing maggot" haters.

It's a good thing I wasn't tailgating when I saw the crowd in front of the library or I would have ended up in somebody's trunk. When I got there, about 20 minutes early, the line of sign wavers stretched the full length of the library grounds, along the edge of the road, 6 or 7 people deep! I could hardly find a place to park. I nabbed one of the last spots in the library lot, and as I got out of the car and started walking, people seemed to join in from every direction, carrying signs.

Never, have I seen anything like it in my 17 and a half years living in Anchorage. The organizers had someone walk the rally with a counter, and they clicked off well over 1400 people (not including the 90 counter-demonstrators). This was the biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state. I was absolutely stunned. The second most amazing thing is how many people honked and gave the thumbs up as they drove by. And even those that didn't honk looked wide-eyed and awe-struck at the huge crowd that was growing by the minute. This just doesn't happen here.

Then, the infamous Eddie Burke showed up. He tried to talk to the media, and was instantly surrounded by a group of 20 people who started shouting O-BA-MA so loud he couldn't be heard. Then passing cars started honking in a rhythmic pattern of 3, like the Obama chant, while the crowd cheered, hooted and waved their signs high.

So, if you've been doing the math… Yes. The Alaska Women Reject Palin rally was significantly bigger than Palin's rally that got all the national media coverage! So take heart, sit back, and enjoy the photo gallery. Feel free to spread the pictures around to anyone who needs to know that Sarah Palin most definitely does not speak for all Alaskans. The citizens of Alaska , who know her best, have things to say.

A bunch of pictures of that rally: