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Quick answer: Yes!
However it is very complicated. Time and Space (I capitalized "space" in this instance because I thought it would look sort of neat), are connected. They are linked by a cosmic fabric which is not unlike rayon. Rayon, despite it's semi-techie name, is actually a natural fiber, composed of plant junk, so it wrinkles. If you are keeping up, that means that time and space are bound together by a fabric that has wrinkles in it. You need to remember this, as I will return to it later, maybe.
We all learned in math class (or was it drafting class, or maybe wood shop?) that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. The Discovery Channel has lately been trying to explain to those of us who watch it that the shortest distance between two points is NOT a straight line. They demonstrate by placing two points on a sheet of cardboard, and drawing a line between them. Then they curl the cardboard, bringing the points very close together and they say -- see, the points are closer now than the straight line. Well, think about it -- they are only closer if you draw another straight line from point to point, which brings us back to the closest distance between those two points is still a straight line, just a new, shorter straight line. Nevertheless, the important thing they fail to point out is that the paper is now wrinkled. It is these wrinkles that will allow us to go back in time.
Imagine those two points again, and imagine they are one light year apart (that's like 9,446,849,280,000 kilometers, for you non-yanks, or roughly about 12 months). If you pointed a movie projector from point A toward point B and began to play "Murphy's Romance," It would take one year before the folks sitting on point B would be able to see it. More than enough time to set up a movie screen, park their cars, buy popcorn and a Coke, and maybe even sneak a few smootches, climb in the back seat and have a kid before the movie started.
However, if you turned on the projector and then ran really fast to point B, using the secret wrinkle-route, you would be there in like four days and three and a half hours. What you have actually done is gone back in time, at least as far as how it appears to the folks on point B, because from where you are now (on point B) the movie hasn't even started yet. It's relative to the perspective of each person, regardless of whether they are a relative or not (Mitakuye Oyasin).
The real trick is to find the wrinkles in the fabric. I believe there are a few just south of Indianapolis, but I promised some people I would not mention exactly where. There is also a big one in Tromso, Norway, but it's mostly filled up with discarded old 7 oz. Nehi grape soda bottles.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
What makes dandelions weeds and not flowers?
It is all due to the dandelions happy-go-lucky nature. Unlike more serious plants, like the snippity rose, or even the black-eyed Susan, the dandelions have never attempted to brand themselves as anything special. Despite their Latin name of "Taraxacum officinale," which roughly means "really good for healing ailments," the lazy flower simply refused to promote itself. It would rather propogate, scare away grass, and entice little girls into believing they can predict whether a boy loves you or not.
If it's any help, I find it best to let my neighbors determine whether something is a weed or not. They wander over into my *space* quite often, and they are only too happy to point their toe at various plants around my home and inform me, "that's a weed." I mumble "uhuh," and make a mental note to transplant it into their yard, after dark. Weeds are easy to transplant, so when you see it growing well a week later, that is further proof it was a weed. Dandelions are one of the easiest plants to transplant, so it is indeed a weed, but they are quite beautiful. They make an attractive path of yellow along the far edge of any property line, and if you want to know if a boy loves you, you can quickly run over and pick one.
If it's any help, I find it best to let my neighbors determine whether something is a weed or not. They wander over into my *space* quite often, and they are only too happy to point their toe at various plants around my home and inform me, "that's a weed." I mumble "uhuh," and make a mental note to transplant it into their yard, after dark. Weeds are easy to transplant, so when you see it growing well a week later, that is further proof it was a weed. Dandelions are one of the easiest plants to transplant, so it is indeed a weed, but they are quite beautiful. They make an attractive path of yellow along the far edge of any property line, and if you want to know if a boy loves you, you can quickly run over and pick one.
Where do birds go after they leave my feeder?
Here's a question for Ask Old Stu: There are six goldfinches on my bird feeder right now. When they are not on my bird feeder, I never see them. Where do they go?
This was a challenging question, because as I began to research it, I realized that your feeder is like 1,000 miles away from me. As my research budget is currently somewhat limited, I was forced to speculate, rather than verify with visual proof.
Once they leave your feeder you would no longer see them if you continued to look at the feeder, so it is very important to look for them at other places besides the feeder. I would suggest you begin looking for them at your neighbor's feeder. Birds such as goldfinches require enormous amounts of food, and they will often eat ninety-two pounds of food a day, or something like that. I'm not exactly sure, but they will leave one feeder, and travel to the next. You can prove this by placing another feeder 2 feet - 3 inches from the existing feeder, and watch the birds go from one to the other, over and over. If you add enough feeders (minimum 422), they will never leave, except for the instances described below.
One must determine first why they left in the first place. Perhaps a cat was approaching, and they simply flew to a safer place for the time being. Another option would be that they needed a drink to waRsh (that's the way I pronounce it) down the food. Songbirds will often fly a distance much farther than all shorter distances, just to get a drink of water. They especially like regular water more than the heavy water used to produce nuclear fuels, because the heavy water is heavier. That is why there were so few goldfinches in Norway, during WWII.
If the bird happened to leave your feeder to die, they will fly to a place on the ground which offers cover where they can hide until they leave this world -- and then they are gone. The birds may have left your feeder because of bad weather. During a rain storm, you can find them hiding under any sort of shelter -- usually about 2/3 up a tree, under crossing branches or thick leaf cover.
One final though is that your birds just got ticked off at the same old feed stuff, and they left to actually forage for healthier foods (worms, bugs, seeds, stale chewing gum stuck to the sidewalk at WalMart, or perhaps they will feed on those dying birds hiding under ground cover. Despite they attractive appearance, goldfinches are actually vicious creatures and will often take on a puma. One theory is it was a common goldfinch that caused the death or the woolly mammoths.
This was a challenging question, because as I began to research it, I realized that your feeder is like 1,000 miles away from me. As my research budget is currently somewhat limited, I was forced to speculate, rather than verify with visual proof.
Once they leave your feeder you would no longer see them if you continued to look at the feeder, so it is very important to look for them at other places besides the feeder. I would suggest you begin looking for them at your neighbor's feeder. Birds such as goldfinches require enormous amounts of food, and they will often eat ninety-two pounds of food a day, or something like that. I'm not exactly sure, but they will leave one feeder, and travel to the next. You can prove this by placing another feeder 2 feet - 3 inches from the existing feeder, and watch the birds go from one to the other, over and over. If you add enough feeders (minimum 422), they will never leave, except for the instances described below.
One must determine first why they left in the first place. Perhaps a cat was approaching, and they simply flew to a safer place for the time being. Another option would be that they needed a drink to waRsh (that's the way I pronounce it) down the food. Songbirds will often fly a distance much farther than all shorter distances, just to get a drink of water. They especially like regular water more than the heavy water used to produce nuclear fuels, because the heavy water is heavier. That is why there were so few goldfinches in Norway, during WWII.
If the bird happened to leave your feeder to die, they will fly to a place on the ground which offers cover where they can hide until they leave this world -- and then they are gone. The birds may have left your feeder because of bad weather. During a rain storm, you can find them hiding under any sort of shelter -- usually about 2/3 up a tree, under crossing branches or thick leaf cover.
One final though is that your birds just got ticked off at the same old feed stuff, and they left to actually forage for healthier foods (worms, bugs, seeds, stale chewing gum stuck to the sidewalk at WalMart, or perhaps they will feed on those dying birds hiding under ground cover. Despite they attractive appearance, goldfinches are actually vicious creatures and will often take on a puma. One theory is it was a common goldfinch that caused the death or the woolly mammoths.
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