Geocentric Universe

Our planet, among other dimensions

Friday, September 22, 2006

Gates

I've been reading a recent book about the end of the western Roman empire by a British historian (Bryan Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization). He argues that the turn among historians away from viewing the German invasions as bringing on the dark Ages and toward seeing them as just one facet of a newly named Late Antiquity goes too far, because the breakup of the western Roman empire in fact brought about sharp declines in trade, an end to workshops that made good pottery, stunted cows, and probably a fall in food production. He correlates changing attitudes toward the Germanic tribes with feelings toward Germany, and suggests that the recent friendly attitude is connected with the desire to establish a European identity that unites Germans with Latin speakers. Since nobody at the time seems to have been collecting much evidence on people's well-being, it's hard to decide who's right: whether the western Roman empire's end was a catastrophe or just the replacement of one exploitative upper class with another. The point is made that there is a large measure of luck in whether a complex government will survive the various threats to control of its economic base that constantly arise - an interesting perspective on the question of societal collapse.

Closer to now, the NY Times published a useful explanation of how the spinach food-poisoning outbreak can be blamed on the cattle industry. See also here.

And happy new month and Jewish new year to all.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Anticipating first night


I have seen the moon
reflected in a well,
a firefly skimming the pulsate water-face.


I have seen the moon
magnified in bonfires
set on far hilltops.


I have seen the moon
broadcast over loudspeakers,
toasted with dessert wine,
whitening a dead man's brow.


I have seen the moon
bubble desert hot springs,
pound taut snare drums,
sizzle our little tent.


I have seen the moon sink in the ocean.
I have seen the folding of the sea.
I have seen the jewels scattered.
I have seen the sky puddle with tears.

Elevation

Read The Way of the White Clouds, a book, originally written in 1964, by Lama Anagarika Govinda, the honorific of a German who studied and taught Buddhism for many years in the Indian subcontinent. The book comprises a pretty travelogue of the author's several trips in the 1930s and 1940s to Tibetian monasteries and ruins to learn about Tibet's distinctive brand of Buddhism, and it vividly conveys the grand desolation of the high, dry plateau. A recurrent theme is that the supernatural is pervasive in Tibetian religion, whether it is the reincarnation of the author's guru, a generally revered master, as a child a couple valleys over, or having visions that people will show up just before they do, or the uncanny accuracy of the god-possessed oracles at certain temples, and the argument is that this side of reality is unjustifiably denied by scientifically minded skeptics.

Most religions have miracle stories and many, me not included, have witnessed events that seem supernatural - are these only examples of believers and some ill-informed outsiders deluding themselves, or do some of these reports point to gaps in the scientific/rational worldview? Postulating a power of people to communicate via thought (telepathy, to use the Greek coined by "parapsychologists" who sought to study such things scientifically) and/or to move things through thought (telekinesis) would explain many of the stories, but hasn't been shown to happen in a predictable or reproducible way. However, these are not exactly hot areas for scientific research, and the effect would surely depend on state of mind, which isn't easily induced or measured. Though even skeptics will admit that we understand little of how mind works, the Dalai Lama's call for research will not, I fear, be quickly answered. For now, I'm going to keep an open mind.