Despite the fact that there is a risk a lot of the old seasonal joy for one reason or another has been sucked out. It is still a season to be Quirky
And since it is supposed to be religiously inclined season
Some religiously inclined or inspired musings
Is the current pre-pre presidential nomination spat between ex-occupant of the Whitehouse Trump and Govenor of Florida De Santis with Trump’s threat to form of third party and thus tear apart the Republican Party God’s way of saying to the rest of us ‘Hey guys. I’ve got this covered,’?
There again
Considering the proliferation of popularity and adherence to one of possibly one of the most idiotic beliefs ie Qanon. Is it possible that down in Hell Satan is saying to his devils and demons ‘Hey guys. Don’t fret none. I’ve got this covered,‘?
And yet
Evidence of God’s Unfathomable Love is the fact that we are still around. Although don’t get too complacent, there’s some unsettling evidence in the Old Testament that like all parents, His patience is not infinite. (Sobering, Wry Humour or Just Another Christain Sounding OFF? I dunno, you decide – Meanwhile all challenges to my personal faith will be explained in a post coming here, sometime before 25th December)
About that previous one. Here are some thoughts on perspective.
Earth- 4 billion years old. Life 3.5 billion (about). Humanity (sort of) about 1 million- tops. Current estimated life expectancy of Planet Earth about 7.5 – 8.0 billion years. Even if we make it to another million, that’s only 0.00025 of the whole time span. Be humble people.
Gee- That’s a BIG universe. (Latest estimate 90 billion light years and counting). Gosh- Are quarks that small. (43 billion-billionths of a centimetre).
Put those those two together and on a cosmological scale and you’ll know how a quark feels. Like I said, be humble people.
Ok, I’m done for today
Writing Despite Computers and Programmes 
Great musings but I always wonder why physicist’s named that particle after a German and Austrian dairy product. 🤔
LikeLiked by 3 people
Wikipedia has an interesting info on the etymology of the word. It mentions James Joyce and cheese!
LikeLiked by 3 people
I’ve just bombarded Bee with a nerdish reply on the same subject and same reference. 😀
Reading a dictionary on Cosmology and Particle Physics was my first introduction to James Joyce!
Ever since then
‘Three quarks
For Muster Mark’
Has stuck in my head as a go to phrase when meeting something peculiar.
LikeLiked by 3 people
There are connections between all kinds of things, and reading can take you to strange and wonderful places.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is true Audrey.
One of my favourite reads was The Oxford Dictionary of Cosmology (a bit out of date now- this was 2008). The entries on even the most complex of maths which although not understood would send me off into flights of imagination.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nerd reply warning…..Nerd reply warning…..🤓🤭
In the early 1960s when physicists Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig were researching their work on this particle, they naturally looked n for a name. This extract from the Wike entry are Gell-Mann words:
“In 1963, when I assigned the name “quark” to the fundamental constituents of the nucleon, I had the sound first, without the spelling, which could have been “kwork”. Then, in one of my occasional perusals of Finnegans Wake, by James Joyce, I came across the word “quark” in the phrase “Three quarks for Muster Mark”. Since “quark” (meaning, for one thing, the cry of the gull) was clearly intended to rhyme with “Mark”, as well as “bark” and other such words, I had to find an excuse to pronounce it as “kwork”. But the book represents the dream of a publican named Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker. Words in the text are typically drawn from several sources at once, like the “portmanteau” words in Through the Looking-Glass. From time to time, phrases occur in the book that are partially determined by calls for drinks at the bar. I argued, therefore, that perhaps one of the multiple sources of the cry “Three quarks for Muster Mark” might be “Three quarts for Mister Mark”, in which case the pronunciation “kwork” would not be totally unjustified. In any case, the number three fitted perfectly the way quarks occur in nature.”
And if you go ‘wikying’ on ‘Quark’ and its emetology, you’ll find more detail
(And another ‘Fun Fact’. One Christmas in work we had a ‘pop quiz’ and I drove everyone crazy with the question:
‘When reading a classic by Irish Author James Joyce, why could the reader be forgiven for drifting to thoughts of particle physics and German dairy products?’ (One guy cracked it) 😀
Glad you enjoyed the post.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well said, Roger! I sometimes reassure myself with similar thoughts that the earth will probably survive Homo sapiens.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you Audrey.
Indeed, our tenure on this world might only qualify for a smear on the fossil record; most of the evidence will come as a mass-extinction event and high levels of deposits from our pollutions. We as a Species might even be missed as a contributory factor and future folk will be puzzling why ‘this event’ happened.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Ideas to inspire writers of science fiction.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh yes. To name but one…
And already there before us in 1948, Isaac Asimov, with ‘No Connection’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Connection
(Somehow it would have had to have been Asimov 😀)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sounds interesting! I admit I’ve never heard of this story. Will have to read it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
74 / 75 years old and still packs a punch.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The nuclear threat was a new thing then, and it’s still with us.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It never really goes away, does it? The reason why that particularly story is so fresh.
LikeLiked by 1 person