I’m not sure what set it off, but long-time readers will remember that I’ve had occasional dreams that have had what’s seemingly “prophetic content.”
The last “biggie” I had was before the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, which I wrote up as having aspects of oil/petroleum industry, murder, file, and warehouse which was posted here some 18-hours before the events. (I’d put it up, but I took down the old site…though if you’re studious, it’s likely in archives on the net somewhere.)
The dream overnight was weird because it involved Elaine and I planning to go somewhere over a holiday (which we are, so nothing special there) but it also involved an Elvis Presley type singer who was belting out…
In the Harriers
Down on the carriers
holding on the deck…
And – making this even stranger – was the presence of a female officer in charge who was making this decision and a sense that something was going very badly and it might somehow impact our flying plans (Elaine and me). Oh, and where the carrier involved was seemed pretty warm.
Is this strange, or what?
Needless to say, I’ve asked Grady to add the words “carrier” and “Harrier” to our www.nostracodeus.com project that’s searching of the internet for rising and falling word use.
Admittedly, the odds of a female-in-charge telling the Harriers on a carrier to remain on the flight deck leading to (some negative outcome) which ripples widely is an incredibly low probability, so ifs something comes of it, well….
And if not, it gets me to the other idea that came along with this little IMAX-like mental event: The idea that as Earth goes hurtling around in space, we run into invisible clouds of thought or expression of how the Universe works.
So, for example, we could be transiting (the last 20,000 years, or so, plus or minus a weekend) through an area of space where people pick-up (sort of like tuning forks) certain kinds of behaviors. “Resonance of humans.”
As such, you wouldn’t need to actually employ any of your (traditional) five senses. Your other senses (there may be six, or more additional ones as science keeps finding out more capabilities feeding the mind inside the skin-bag) aren’t even needed to pick up on the Noumenon. It just is…and we’re all “tuning forks” –like it or not – and it’s an interesting notion around holiday time.
How does this “striking of that which resonates humans work? Wikipedia’s discussion of the Noumenon is worth a look:
The noumenon /?n?u?m?n?n/ is a posited object or event that is known (if at all) without the use of the senses.[1] The term is generally used in contrast with, or in relation to “phenomenon“, which refers to anything that appears to, or is an object of, the senses. In Ancient philosophy, the noumenal realm was equated with the world of ideas known to the philosophical mind, in contrast to the phenomenal realm, which was equated with the world of sensory reality, known to the uneducated mind.[2] Much of modern philosophy has generally been skeptical of the possibility of knowledge independent of the senses, and Immanuel Kant gave this point of view its classical version, saying that the noumenal world may exist, but it is completely unknowable to humans. In Kantian philosophy the unknowable noumenon is often linked to the unknowable “thing-in-itself” (Ding an sich, which could also be rendered as “thing-as-such” or “thing per se“), although how to characterize the nature of the relationship is a question yet open to some controversy.
Which is where, perhaps, George’s “tuning fork” was pointing this morning – to the idea that we all go through our own assemblage points (thanks, Castaneda) of whatever it is that makes up the sharp pointy of here and now which slides down the wave front of the Eternal Now.
Dreams (and thoughts throughout the day) likely have these little “tuning fork” moments and relationships are perhaps in one sense, just shared mutual tuning fork striking.
Suppose – the End of Worlders are right. Noumenal world make it possible to simply transit to a different area of space-time where we don’t need to consciously go collectively nuts. We’re just struck: and in an instant what will seem a mass madness arrives. Cheery, huh?
End Times Note: Watch February 22, 2014
A timely headline – which few but the Rune throwers may appreciate – is how we are at a time when a lot of the world’s religions are talking End Times.
While everyone has been standing-by for the return of Jesus, and Muslims are on the lookout for the arrival of the 12th Imam. we find it a rather bothersome little nit to realize that as many of Nostradamus’ predictions would fit nicely in here too (e.g. Black King, etc) not to mention the fact that we now have yet another big marker coming 89-days from now:
This is when the god Odin gets killed by Fenrir the wolf and things go very badly for humans.
Oh, pay particular attention to the big “noise-makers” due, as well.
In Biblical texts, Revelations 8:6 says “Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them…” And in this account linked above of the Norse legend, we are also told to expect some kind of big horn which will call the “sons of Odin” off to the final battle.
In Biblical accounts, Gabriel is the trumpeter but as Wikipedia notices: “In Islamic tradition, though not specified in the Qur’an, the trumpeter sounding the trump of doom[21] is not Gabriel, but Israfil.”
So one questions is whether Israfil has anything to do with the trumpet calling the sons of Odin, too?
There seem to be many points of agreement among major religions pointing to a terrible racket to come at the end of things, along with all their differences, as well. But, when the points of agreement seem to herald similar kinds of things, it occurs to me to go shopping on the off chance that the noumenal world has given us signs and portents of what’s to come in phenomenal world.
In the interests of science, I’ve made a note this morning to call Bose and ask “Are ya’ll’s Bose® QuietComfort® 15 Acoustic Noise Cancelling® Headphones End Times Certified?”
I’m not planning to depart in 2014…or many years there after, but in the meantime, when it comes to trumpet players, have you ever heard of Lee Morgan?
Here…try some of Morgan’s “Sidewinder” – it’s the kind of music I grew up with. Along with tunes like Freddie Hubbard and Art Blakley (Jazz Messengers) doing Moanin’. I gotta wonder if they can keep out this final trumpet stuff?
I’ll pass on the Big Trumpet for now. Besides, anyone looking for Tribulations doesn’t need to look further than the alarm clock and calendar. It’s Monday and pretty damn early.
That’s punishment enough.
Still, Time Flows Oddly (Wu)
I was asking last week if anyone else has noticed time flowing strangely. Either getting incredible amounts of stuff done in “no time” or getting nothing done in large time blocks? Reader “am” sees it:
I too have noticed a great variability in the subjective nature of time over the last few years. It has been more pronounced lately. I forget where, but I remember some philosopher opining that time was like water. Yes, it flows,( but more or less can flow down the river depending on the weather, snow melt, etc.)
Not sure what time weather is, but it has been a bit tempestuous of late.
Like regular water, you can surf it. I’ve found that, on some days, no amount of effort will fix some problems. Other days, getting things done is so easy it’s ridiculous! My techniques don’t change, just whether I accomplish anything or not. It is not easy to do in modern times. You can’t schedule it. If the wave comes at 3am, you surf at 3am!
I notice others doing things that take them all day, but I can do the same amount in an hour if I time it right. In the down time, I don’t try to hard these days. I still accomplish what I did when I always worked hard, just not as stressful.
Word of warning though…
Learning to let go of excess need to control is step #1 on this path. It’s a big one and may hurt. I almost died during that phase. Good luck and hope you enjoyed my ramblings!
By the way, if you want a good movie (about the letting go stuff), Steven Spielberg’s Always was a very good one. Might put it on your list of flicks, if you haven’t seen it. Or, as a stocking suffer – $8 bucks: Always.
More Wu: Legend of the Vac
Then there is the odd field report from Paulette:
“Last Wednesday I went to use my Dyson stick vac. When not in use, it resides, connected to it’s charger in my (large – walk in type) closet. This ensures that it is always charged and ready to use. I started vacuuming and a few seconds later, it stopped. I pressed the button again but no go. I thought to myself that the darn thing wasn’t that old but I guess I will have to buy another one. I connected the charger to it (banana type connector) on the off chance that I hadn’t seated it properly (doubtful but what the hell) and then added to my Target list. I then unplugged my MacBook Pro from it’s charger and picked it up to take it into my living room. There are two power strips directly behind the 2 laptops (the Mac and a HP) and when I picked up the Mac, I saw the plug for the Dyson stick vac unplugged from the power strip. Ah – that explains why it isn’t working. BUT how did it get unplugged. Unplugging it from the power strip is a two handed operation, one to hold the strip down and one to yank the plug out (hard) – it’s a very tight fit. So how did it become unplugged – did it “pop” out? What law of physics relates to this? I live alone except for my cat and she is no where near strong enough to unplug anything nor is she motivated to do so. I do not walk in my sleep and eat and unplug things. I have been pondering this for well over a week. It is bugging me. Finally I decided I really need to send it to you as you might have a plausible explanation.”
Given the cat didn’t do it, do you rent and did the landlord come in and do something (or borrow your vac)? Some un-announced repair?
Wu: Adventures of Dr. Jimmy
And if all this stuff this morning doesn’t have you wondering about how “solid” things are around us, try on this one for size:
“Greetings George,
I recently took a trip to Nevada for a training program. The morning of 14 Nov I boarded a plane in Toronto for the first leg to Chicago. As I was sitting in seat 2B I could see the nacelle of the right engine just outside my window. I noticed there were two inspection ports open on top of the nacelle. I thought about that, as I always dislike sitting next to a prop or turbine. I didn’t pay much more attention to it as I settled in and got out my noise-cancelling headphones along with my digital player. We left pretty much on time and somewhere before we got to Chicago I looked out the window again and realized there was no engine in sight! I knew it had not fallen off (I think everyone would have noticed that!). I had to strain to look back far enough even to see the wing. Yes, there are stretch versions of various planes, but I never heard of a stretch-in-flight model!
I am a pretty decent observer, I was not sleep walking, I take no drugs, probably done a million miles on airliners plus hundreds of hours on my own planes, but never before have I seen an engine that changed places!
I wonder if somewhere else someone suddenly had an engine appear out their window??
73 Jimmy
By the way, since it will come up in shorthand around here now and then, 73 is the ham radio shorthand for “best regards” and save key strokes, written or pounded out on an old Morse key.
Or, if you’re a high speed CW op (north of 20 WPM, preferably 28-35) you won’t pound it out with a straight key, but you’ll use a keyer paddle [I have two, one for each HF radio). If you press the paddle to the right, the keyer in the radio makes a series of “dits” (dots) and when pressed to the left, if makes a series of “dahs” or dashes.
The old-school tube radio gear doesn’t come (stock) with a keyer, so that middle box up there with the light on it just left of center is called an electronic keyer and that’s one of the most famous: A Hallicrafter’s T.O. keyer.
If you find it sort of odd that I’d launch into a discussion of the finer points of being a CW op (we could continue with a discussion of iambic mode a versus iambic mode b) but the simple reason is I’m stalling for time while I puzzle out Jimmy’s disappearing engine.
The “inflight disappearing engine” paradox has pretty important implications for us single-engine pilot types. As things get wonkier, flying may become one of those hobbies to be jettisoned. (If that’s not to ugly a play on words for this hour)
—
I suppose I could have summarized this morning’s column for you into something much shorter:
- Ure’s got another weird dream
- Three religions expect a noisy End of World
- Time, vacuum cleaners, and airplanes are subject to wujo effects
- You-know who is a ham radio nut.
But you know? No one would find that very interesting. Like relationships and gourmet food, the enjoyment is in the details.
More tomorrow.. normal schedule around here EXCEPT: No column on Thursday. One turkey a day ought to be enough for you.
George george@ure.net
