Last night, I had an interesting and strange dream. There was a young boy, maybe 10 years of age, who was the best karateka. He was undefeated. But somewhere, there lived a woman, who also was a karate master, and he had never battled her. So he challenged her to a match, which she accepted.
The match was arranged to take place in a hotel, in its basement facilities. One got down there by lifts which arrived in an atrium, from where one got into the gym facility.
On the day of the fight, the gym was crouded and it was set in a semi-dark lighting. Everybody attending was excited, but only talked in hushed sounds. I was on duty at the elevator hall, to watch for the boy's arrival, and to announce him prior to his entrance. Finally, he got off the lift.
He held a hand gun, and he walked slowly inside the hall. On his way there, he dropped the gun onto some chair, then proceded to the tatami inside.
The woman, about 40, slender with blond straight hair which she had mounted into a flat bun at the back of her head, was already there.
As the boy approached the tatami, he saw her standing beside the tatami, on the far end, holding an office chair on rollers in front of her, much like an obstacle or shield.
The boy looked at this, and I felt his disappointment. He just sat down on the tatami, in meditation posture, and holding up his left fisted hand to his face. There now was a big, black framed set of glasses on his nose. He talked to his fist as if it were a person, saying: 'you see, this is not what was supposed to happen. You have to always make sure you are prepared for surprises. Now, what are you going to do about this?'.
The woman had come closer to listen to his talk, and at that moment, he got up, grabbed her by the coat, and they rolled over the mat once.
Then, the match was over and judged undecided: no winner, no loser.
I could sense that the boy was not happy about that. She did not seem to mind one way or the other.
Then everybody walked out of the gym, along the ground floor hallway, the boy with his coach, and the blonde in front of them. I was walking beside the coach. It suddenly occured to me that the boy was no longer a boy, but a young man in his mature late 20s or 30. But before I could ponder this transfiguration, I suddenly realized that there was a big commotion in front of us: the blonde woman was collapsing onto the floor. In her fall, I could see a tiny hole in the back of her head, and a little blood. I realized that she had been shot. As I turned around to the man-boy, he was lying in his coaches arms, his head mostly bare of skin and his eye sockets empty of eyeballs, but filled with shiny, dark pools of blood.
I knew that he had killed the woman and himself with one bullet.
As I tried to sort out my confusion and shock over this development, I woke up!
Now, how am I going to solve this mystery? Maybe somebody can help me out!? Mr. Freud, if you, please????
Friday, March 7, 2008
Monday, March 3, 2008
Water under the Bridge...
That is what we say when we mean something is old and should be forgotten.... meaning it is, well, gone!
But what about the water? Is that gone, too? Many people believe there is less and less of it on our planet earth. Is that actually true? Did it vanish? If so, where to? We should be able to answer that question with a little effort of reflection.
First, we need to establish where we are, meaning, what kind of cosmic situation we are living in. Once we have the big, overall picture, we can zoom in on any detail we care to.
So, there is the Solar System, swirling around as part of the Milky Way, and in it, third rock from the sun, planet Earth. Around it, a couple of layers of gazeous matters, 1 % of various gasses, 79 % of nitrogen, and a mere 20% oxygen! I find that surprising, considering it is oxygen that we need to breathe. Looks like those 20 % are enough for all of us to breathe in and out comfortably!
Then, somewhere up there, about 65 miles from the ground, is our oh-so-much debated Ozone Layer. Looks like that one has gone back into oblivion in the public mind, after we were told that it was pierced with holes and about to vanish! Nobody mentions it anymore in the media, it has become an "old hat", water under the news bridge .... I just wonder why? Either there was a real danger of it disappearing, or there never has been! It seems that layer is still there, and any hole - if there ever was one - has closed itself up nicely and neatly! So much for that!
Above our beloved Ozone Layer, there are still two more layers, making up approximately 220 miles of atmosphere. They are the Mesophere and the Ionosphere (as in ions).
And after that... well there is space, the big void as we could call it, even if we now know that it is not absolutely empty.
On our beloved planet Earth, we are under the influence of the gravitational force, which keeps everything neatly here, instead of letting it just float away into space. You know, if you have ever taken a trip on a plane, that oxygen up at about 10 miles or so is already extremely rare. If the cabin lost pressure, we would have to breathe through the provided oxygen tubes. So, gravitational forces keep those 20 % oxygen nicely down here, where we need it most. The gravitational forces act upon all objects alike. We should consider that a boon, as we'd never be able to retrieve anything we dropped outside. Imagine you just dropped your big money purse, stashed with cash, and - whooosh !!! - no more gravitational forces: you can just wave your dough goodbye as it would float ever upwards, never to return to you! Well, inside your house, you'd have to climb on a ladder each time you dropped something, in order to retrieve it from the ceiling..... maybe funny one time, but after that ? pretty tedious and annoying, right! (and these are, of course, just joking images, since you yourself would have to run around permanently tethered to a rail, or else....
So, by the same gravitational forces, our water can't escape Planet Earth either. It is always here, somewhere... If it is not in the oceans and rivers, it may just have evaporated and be sitting in those clouds overhead, and next thing you know, it comes raining or snowing down on you. Or, some of it is trapped in the enormous ice caps and glaciers. But it never stays entirely in any of those states, it goes round and round, from liquid to solid to gaseous and so on.
Now, it may well be that it concentrates and appears - or also disappears - in various locations on Planet Earth, such as the Sahara. But, the sum total of all water can't go anywhere outside Earth, it stays here forever!
So, if there really is less water out there on the planet, taking part of that cycle, then where could it be? Hmmmm let's see..... what is it that has changed in human behaviour? Ah yes! We now put water into containers for long periods of time! That definitely is new to humans, and it was certainly not our habit before, say WWII. Bottles!!! Cans!!! Mineral water like Perrier, Evian, San Pellegrino, just to name three, but most certainly not limited to these! And then some: Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew..... just to name a few of those, and the list is endless! And let's not forget to mention all the beer in bottles! Does anybody have any idea how much water that all represents? Stashed away in containers, and only released into the natural water cycle after we have consumed it and eliminated it again....! There are millions of bottles and cans out there in warehouses around our globe at any given time: America, Europe, Asia, Australia, maybe a little less in Africa, but still: a whoooole lot of bottles and cans! If you think that should not have an impact on our water levels in nature, you might take some time out to think again! I for one am certain it does have a tremendous impact!
Just a few numbers I was able to glean from various sources: the Anheuser website, the Coca Cola site, Wikipedia for the bottled water, and so forth:
In 2005, Anheuser produced 3 billion, 134 million of gallons of beer!
In 2004, Coca Cola produced 17 billion 108 million gallons of soft drinks for Americans alone!
That is 50 billion servings consumed each day in the US of A!!!
In 2004, we consumed 41 billion gallons of bottled water - worldwide!!!
And we also have other usages of water, such as big cities who consume tremendous amounts each day in their water supply system: just one example: Chicago, which draws 2.1 billion gallons each day!!! from Lake Michigan.... at that rate, they can suck Lake Superior dry in about 42o years, half a millenium!
Well, if you want to go find more examples, knock yourself out! The data is out there, it just takes a little effort to round it up! And it is impressive, wouldn't you agree?
But what about the water? Is that gone, too? Many people believe there is less and less of it on our planet earth. Is that actually true? Did it vanish? If so, where to? We should be able to answer that question with a little effort of reflection.
First, we need to establish where we are, meaning, what kind of cosmic situation we are living in. Once we have the big, overall picture, we can zoom in on any detail we care to.
So, there is the Solar System, swirling around as part of the Milky Way, and in it, third rock from the sun, planet Earth. Around it, a couple of layers of gazeous matters, 1 % of various gasses, 79 % of nitrogen, and a mere 20% oxygen! I find that surprising, considering it is oxygen that we need to breathe. Looks like those 20 % are enough for all of us to breathe in and out comfortably!
Then, somewhere up there, about 65 miles from the ground, is our oh-so-much debated Ozone Layer. Looks like that one has gone back into oblivion in the public mind, after we were told that it was pierced with holes and about to vanish! Nobody mentions it anymore in the media, it has become an "old hat", water under the news bridge .... I just wonder why? Either there was a real danger of it disappearing, or there never has been! It seems that layer is still there, and any hole - if there ever was one - has closed itself up nicely and neatly! So much for that!
Above our beloved Ozone Layer, there are still two more layers, making up approximately 220 miles of atmosphere. They are the Mesophere and the Ionosphere (as in ions).
And after that... well there is space, the big void as we could call it, even if we now know that it is not absolutely empty.
On our beloved planet Earth, we are under the influence of the gravitational force, which keeps everything neatly here, instead of letting it just float away into space. You know, if you have ever taken a trip on a plane, that oxygen up at about 10 miles or so is already extremely rare. If the cabin lost pressure, we would have to breathe through the provided oxygen tubes. So, gravitational forces keep those 20 % oxygen nicely down here, where we need it most. The gravitational forces act upon all objects alike. We should consider that a boon, as we'd never be able to retrieve anything we dropped outside. Imagine you just dropped your big money purse, stashed with cash, and - whooosh !!! - no more gravitational forces: you can just wave your dough goodbye as it would float ever upwards, never to return to you! Well, inside your house, you'd have to climb on a ladder each time you dropped something, in order to retrieve it from the ceiling..... maybe funny one time, but after that ? pretty tedious and annoying, right! (and these are, of course, just joking images, since you yourself would have to run around permanently tethered to a rail, or else....
So, by the same gravitational forces, our water can't escape Planet Earth either. It is always here, somewhere... If it is not in the oceans and rivers, it may just have evaporated and be sitting in those clouds overhead, and next thing you know, it comes raining or snowing down on you. Or, some of it is trapped in the enormous ice caps and glaciers. But it never stays entirely in any of those states, it goes round and round, from liquid to solid to gaseous and so on.
Now, it may well be that it concentrates and appears - or also disappears - in various locations on Planet Earth, such as the Sahara. But, the sum total of all water can't go anywhere outside Earth, it stays here forever!
So, if there really is less water out there on the planet, taking part of that cycle, then where could it be? Hmmmm let's see..... what is it that has changed in human behaviour? Ah yes! We now put water into containers for long periods of time! That definitely is new to humans, and it was certainly not our habit before, say WWII. Bottles!!! Cans!!! Mineral water like Perrier, Evian, San Pellegrino, just to name three, but most certainly not limited to these! And then some: Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew..... just to name a few of those, and the list is endless! And let's not forget to mention all the beer in bottles! Does anybody have any idea how much water that all represents? Stashed away in containers, and only released into the natural water cycle after we have consumed it and eliminated it again....! There are millions of bottles and cans out there in warehouses around our globe at any given time: America, Europe, Asia, Australia, maybe a little less in Africa, but still: a whoooole lot of bottles and cans! If you think that should not have an impact on our water levels in nature, you might take some time out to think again! I for one am certain it does have a tremendous impact!
Just a few numbers I was able to glean from various sources: the Anheuser website, the Coca Cola site, Wikipedia for the bottled water, and so forth:
In 2005, Anheuser produced 3 billion, 134 million of gallons of beer!
In 2004, Coca Cola produced 17 billion 108 million gallons of soft drinks for Americans alone!
That is 50 billion servings consumed each day in the US of A!!!
In 2004, we consumed 41 billion gallons of bottled water - worldwide!!!
And we also have other usages of water, such as big cities who consume tremendous amounts each day in their water supply system: just one example: Chicago, which draws 2.1 billion gallons each day!!! from Lake Michigan.... at that rate, they can suck Lake Superior dry in about 42o years, half a millenium!
Well, if you want to go find more examples, knock yourself out! The data is out there, it just takes a little effort to round it up! And it is impressive, wouldn't you agree?
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Happiness still is: Going to the Saint Louis Symphony!!!
This past Saturday, March 1st, the Symphony program was once again, a heavenly menu:
Oliver Knussen, Flourish with Fireworks, then Chopin, Piano concerto # 2, Turina and De Falla's Three Cornered Hat - all of it masterly conducted by the outstanding Maestro Miguel Harth-Bedoya.
What a delightful performance in Chopin's 2nd concerto, by Ingrid Fliter! She truly deserved the Gilmore Artist Award she got in 2006. Ingrid lets her soul flow through her fingers into the piano keys, and she takes us on an imaginary journey of romanticism and love fulfilled: Sweetness, depth, strength, deep emotion and the lightness of being! She is simple, strong and unpretentious, an imposing presence in the world of classical music.
Thanks, SLSO, for bringing her to Saint Louis!
Oliver Knussen, Flourish with Fireworks, then Chopin, Piano concerto # 2, Turina and De Falla's Three Cornered Hat - all of it masterly conducted by the outstanding Maestro Miguel Harth-Bedoya.
What a delightful performance in Chopin's 2nd concerto, by Ingrid Fliter! She truly deserved the Gilmore Artist Award she got in 2006. Ingrid lets her soul flow through her fingers into the piano keys, and she takes us on an imaginary journey of romanticism and love fulfilled: Sweetness, depth, strength, deep emotion and the lightness of being! She is simple, strong and unpretentious, an imposing presence in the world of classical music.
Thanks, SLSO, for bringing her to Saint Louis!
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