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I saw this sign on the way home from picking up groceries today. Some clever person had modified the sign from its original text, which was something to the effect of “Forest Park Blvd. is under construction, expect delays,” to, “Free Mandela,” flashing over and over. How they did it, I don’t know, but I’m glad they did. Of course, Nelson Mandela has been free for over 13 years, but the sentiment remains. Even after his release from prison, there was a lot Nelson Mandela had to do before he could become free. And even today, as a father of a nation, and a symbol of peace and solidarity, whenever anyone is not free, Nelson Mandela is not free. I think the ‘editor’ of the sign intended for us to remember what Mandela went through. To that end, here is a nice “biography of Nelson Mandela”:http://www.anc.org.za/people/mandela.html that has both a detailed section, as well as a brief bio near the bottom.

So lets obey the sign, and do everything we can to make Mr. Mandela, and all the people in the world that he cares about, free.

Just to let everyone know, I’m not dead. Billy and I got back on Sunday afternoon from Schwagstock without incident. I proceeded to sleep for a very long time. The past few days have been interesting. It has been raining incredibly heavily, and our house even leaked a little bit. Its something I’ve been getting used to out here, weeks of endless precipitation.

I got a few beers in the mail. Through homebrewing forums, I hooked up with a guy who wanted to trade some beers he could get locally, for some beers I could get locally. I sent him a few “New Belgium”:http://www.newbelgium.com beers which he could not get on the east coast, and he sent me a few local brews he was proud of. It was a fun trade, and I got to try some interesting beers, a Yards Extra Special Ale, and a Flying Fish Dubbel that was quite charming.

I also received some scooter parts in the mail, which will help me improve the performance of my scooter a little bit. Not much, but a bit.

Today I worked 13 hours, starting at around 9ish this morning, and ending around 10pm. There was a whole day of gallery stuff that needed to be done, and then a special event in the evening where a group of salespeople had reserved the planetarium for dinner and drinks. I got to shuttle them up and down in our ‘star shuttle’ elevator, which is basically an elevator souped up with plasma displays, launch timers, scads of switches, controls and buttons, and a little speech I give where I describe our launch to the planetarium space station, and then our subsequent return to Earth. It is quite entertaining, but it gets tiring after a few hours.

On a plus note, I got a whole handful of glowing customer comment cards from my presentations today. I give short presentations about science to kids as part of my job, typically 4 a day, lasting around 15 to 20 minutes each. The presentations are stimulating, exciting, interactive and quite cool, if I do say so myself. There is a customer comment box next to the demo site, and when I emptied it out at the end of the day, it was full of cards from my shows. They were all 100% satisfaction, with great comments written in little kid handwriting that said things like, “Now I love sound more than I used to!” There was even one from an adult that said, “Great show, I’m really starting to appreciate the sounds we take for granted!” As you might have guessed, my shows for the day were about sound and vibrations. It feels good to know that people are getting something out of what I do. Its all simple stuff, with very little emphasis on facts or details. I try to make people love science as much as I do, make them love discovery, and the wonder of the universe around us. Science isn’t about facts or numbers or equations or laws. Science is about a willingness to open yourself to new possibilities and a desire to examine the truths we take for granted. The universe is a giant onion, and the act of peeling back a layer and seeing what’s underneath is a very special one, and its something I’m excited to be a part of, at least for a few kids a day. After you peel back a lot of layers, you eventually need numbers and equations in order to actually talk to people about it, because it has gotten very complex down there, but those are secondary to the actual peeling. You can peel a long way without needing a single equation. The end result of any scientific discovery is not an answer, it is not a solution. It is just a door to more questions. Science needs no ‘end goal’. The act of discovery is the reason. The journey is why we do it. The destination, if one even exists, is inconsequential. Enjoy the peeling.

Its like a story my dad told me once about a young monk who was trying to understand the universe. He went to his master and asked, “What is the true nature of the universe?” The master told him, “The universe is like an onion, as you peel back each layer, you arrive closer to the true meaning.” The young monk mediated on this, and was satisfied. But many years later, the monk was getting older, and getting very frustrated. He returned to his master and asked, “Master, I’ve been peeling back layers for many years, and I do not seem to understand any more than I did the day I first came to you! What is wrong?!” The master calmly replied, “Well, it is a very big onion.”

I enjoy eating with chopsticks. One reason I like them is that they make me more mindful of my food, by forcing me to slow down a bit, and grab each item of food individually. One Buddhist concept is that of ‘mindfulness’ where being aware of your surroundings and your interactions with your surroundings is encouraged. The food you eat is a very critical part of your day, and what you eat can affect the health of your body as well as your mind. When we shovel food down as fast as possible, we aren’t being mindful of what we are eating. We aren’t paying attention to it, enjoying it, or taking the time to really experience eating. This isn’t a good habit, so things that help you slow down can be nice.

Chopsticks require modest concentration, and are best suited to picking up each piece of food separately. While some people can certainly eat very fast with them, they aren’t well suited to ‘shoveling’ your food down with the same voracity as say, a large fork. Each bite of food is distinct, and can be contemplated and enjoyed on its own merits. A bit of pepper, a piece of tofu, a slice of carrot, each one comes to you, presents itself, and proceeds to be eaten. You are very aware of what you are eating.

I think everyone should try using chopsticks at least some of the time. There is some food it is better suited to than others, but most foods can be enjoyed with chopsticks. Eating with one’s fingers is also a good way to better experience one’s food. Far from being a childish game, this is actually the custom in parts of the world, namely India and Ethiopia. If anyone has any other interesting ways to make their eating experience more mindful, I’d love to hear about it.

Today I got my haircut by a large woman with an even larger hairdo. She did an OK job, which is good, because I have a job interview tomorrow at a hi-fi audio store. Hopefully it goes well! I have some bad news to report as well, namely that I am an ass and didn’t realize it. I didn’t tip my hairdresser, because I didn’t know that it was customary to tip them. This stems from the fact that I’ve only had my hair cut by people who aren’t family members or friends a few times in my life. So to that mystery woman, sorry I didn’t tip you. You probably said dirty things about me to your coworkers after I left, and you were right to do so. I’ll tip next time, I promise. Thanks to Madalene for informing me of my faux pa.

As many of your probably read, NASA finally ended communication with the “Pioneer 10 spacecraft”:http://www.spacetoday.net/Summary/1524 today. The craft is now 12 Billion kilometers from Earth, well outside the solar system. They are still able to detect it’s carrier signal, but they are unable to lock on for telemetry. Additionally, Pioneer 10′s radioisotope power source is probably reaching the end of its lifetime as well. As Pioneer 10 falls silent, it will fly as a ghost ship, arriving at the great red star Aldebaran in about 2 million years.

The Pioneer series spacecraft were relatively simple, but were solidly built. Pioneer 10 completed its primary mission objectives, including flybys of Jupiter, in its first 21 months after its launch on March 3rd, 1972. It has been a great workhorse since then, and it has been said that NASA really got their money’s worth on that one.

In a time when troubles here on Earth are pressing, there is a tendency to take our interest off the skies. There is too much to worry about here, we feel, and we look away from space exploration, and look to war/social problems/economic issues, etc. I’d like to put forth an idea put in my head by the late great Richard Feynman, a Nobel prize winning physicist with unique and amazing views on science. He saw science not as something you do in a lab with grant money, but as something you do because you have a desire to learn. A desire to uncover the great mysteries of the universe. He never felt that he had to justify his research in terms of practical applications. While much of his work resulted in practical applications, and even nefarious applications, including the atomic bomb, he never tried to define his research on those terms. Practicality, he felt, was not part of science. Science is about recognizing that the universe is an amazing place, filled with beauty and wonder, and recognizing that we don’t know but a tiny fraction of all there is to know about it. Each bit we peel back, each time we learn a little more, we see something more wonderous than we had seen before. We learn that no matter how _sure_ we are of something, that there could be a discovery just around the corner that could prove us all wrong. Doubt keeps us humble, and keeps us flexible. When we perform research that has no outright practical application, we aren’t wasting time, or wasting money. We are expanding our knowledge, and honing our ability to separate truth from fantasy. Richard was wary of anyone who claimed they had all the answers, in any subject, because he knew that no one has all the answers. By reminding ourselves through scientific discovery that answers come through careful examination and creative new ideas, we remind ourselves to be more humble in our lives, and to base our political, personal and moral decisions on the idea that learning comes through personal experience, and careful examination of evidence, rather than straight from a book, or from a leader’s mouth.

Richard didn’t realize it at the time, but his philosophies are very Buddhist in nature. Buddhism has no dogma, no absolutes. The Buddha himself continually reminded his followers that they shouldn’t take anything he said as the truth, unless they learned through experience and contemplation that it matched their views and understanding. When people ask the Dali Lama for advice, he gives suggestions, but only suggestions. He says, “This is what works for me, and I have seen it work for others. Try it if you like, but if it isn’t right for you, or you think it should be changed, please do so.”

I’m rambling, but the point I want to make is that space exploration isn’t useless. We might get practical benefits from it in the future, but the reason it is valuable isn’t because of the promise of riches, but because of the opening of the mind that occurs when we peel back more layers of this wondrous universe. Pioneer 10 was one of our first successful attempts to reach out into the sky. When I imagine what _12 billion_ kilometers looks like, and I imagine a piece of humanity hurtling into deep space, carrying a seed of knowledge and exploration, I’m filled with awe at the vastness of the universe, and I feel renewed in my desire to uncover even a fraction of its secrets. Its a reminder that we still know so little, a reminder to be humble when we think of political and religious leaders (and even some scientific leaders who have perhaps lost sight) who claim to have the solution to all the problems. A reminder that knowledge comes only when we leave ourselves open to doubt. When we feel like we know everything, we turn a blind eye to the truth.

My father has a quality I’ve always admired, that being that he seems to know something about everything. He has an intelligent answer for nearly every question you might have for him, and knows how to work his resources to find any answer he doesn’t already have. One example of this is that he is an excellent short order cook. He had worked as one many many years ago, picked up some valuable skills, and never forgot them. He could have four pans going on the stove at once, eggs here, hash browns there, bacon, sausages, what-have-you. Each item requires its own special care, and has different temperatures, starting times and finishing times. Yet he could keep each one under control, and time them all to be ready at the exact same moment, so he could grab some of each, put them on a pre-warmed plate, and send them out to be consumed by his family.

Today I shall impart to you a lesson I learned from him concerning the cooking of eggs. When you are cooking eggs, perhaps an omelet or scrambled eggs, you are eventually going to find yourself in the position of needing to get some cheese to melt onto the cooked eggs. But, the eggs are cooking fast, and you don’t have time to let the cheese melt by itself, because the eggs would be burned by the time the cheese was done melting. A solution is to examine your stove. Nearly every stove burner tilts one direction or another, meaning there is a ‘high side’ of the pan, and a ‘low side’. Take a large lid, like the kind you’d put on a big huge pot, preferably about the size of your pan. Then move the eggs up to the high side, and place a small piece of ice on the low side. It will instantly start to melt and form hot steam. Put the lid over the pan, and wait a moment. The ice melting will release a steady stream of hot steam into the confined area, which will almost instantly melt your cheese. The ice doesn’t melt too fast, so you don’t get a bunch of water all over the bottom of the pan. If you managed to get the ice into the low side of the pan, you’ll have even less water to deal with. When you pull the lid off, be careful not to drip too much water onto the eggs, put the lid to the side, and pull out your perfectly done eggs, with cheese melted perfectly on top. People will admire your kung-fu.

Which leads me to a related topic… Frequently you hear of people describing non-martial arts activities as ‘kung-fu’. Hip-hop artists, chefs, etc. all being described as having kung-fu. At first it sounds like just a silly thing, people goofing around and comparing their activity to martial arts. But in fact, the literal translation of kung-fu is “Skill with effort” meaning any skill that has been learned with great effort can be accurately described as kung-fu. I recommend using that in your day to day speech. If someone criticizes you, pull out the real definition of kung-fu, and prove their criticism is without merit. They will admire your kung-fu.

Many of you probably know about Tibetan prayer wheels, or “Mani” wheels. A prayer wheel is simply a cylinder set on a rotating axis, and inscribed with Buddhist mantras, such as “Om mani padme hum.” The wheels can be anywhere from small and handheld, to larger tabletop versions, to huge wheels over 6 feet high in temples. The wheels are spun clockwise by hand, wind power, water power, or anything handy. The effect is that the mantra engraved on the wheel (or written on rolls of paper inserted into the wheel) gets ‘recited’ once per turn. Mantras are short prayers which are intended to be repeated over and over again as a method of purification and meditation, so the more repetitions, the better.

This begs the question, what about the files on my computer’s hard drives? They are spinning round and round at over 7000 revolutions per minute. Turns out that the Dali Lama has even commented on this, and noted that it was very effective to have files containing the mantras on one’s hard drive, as the rotating drive would serve as a continual purification device, emanating waves of healing spiritual energy. As such, I suggest that everyone keep a few copies of the mantras around on their computer. I’ve got 4 hard drives, each whipping the mantras around 24/7. I’ve got two more 10,000RPM drives coming on order, which should do wonders for my holiness.

However, it would be suggested that the true benefit of having them around isn’t the constant rotating, but rather the fact that they will come to one’s mind more frequently, and serve as a reminder of the six qualities of the enlightened heart: generosity, harmonious conduct, endurance, enthusiasm, concentration and insight. Keeping the goals in mind helps the path stay clear.

More on Prayer Wheels.
More on Digital Prayer Wheels.
More on the mantra “Om mani padme hum”.

Incidentally, now that you are reading this, your computer is currently a prayer wheel, because anytime you read “Om mani padme hum” on this page, the file you are reading is cached on your drive, and hence whirling about at this very moment. Enjoy.

Josh made this interesting statement today, it reminds me a bit of a post I made the other day.

I think he might be talking a little bit about me, especially since recently I’ve been posting in a sort of shotgun manner, just spurts every few days. This is mostly because I’ve been very busy, and have generally been too tired to post. But when I get the postin’ urge, I’ll spank out several posts in a row. Like I’m doing right now.

However, I think the most interesting part of his statement is the idea that people might just ‘run out’ of things to say. Imagine if this happened! One day everyone just, runs out. You see someone on the street, and say hi, and they just say hi back, and you stare at each other for a minute, and walk along. The news for the week is all pictures, just random footage taken from a camera at the mall. Webpages would sit un-updated. Authors would lay down their pens. Classes would be cancelled. It would be, in a word, sad. I certainly hope that Josh is right, and that we don’t run out of things to write, because that sure would be a shame. However, I’m confident that the well-spring that is human conciousness is quite capable of creating many many millions of terabytes more than we have currently created, and that quenching the simultaneous efforts of intelligent discourse, creative exposition, stream-of-conciousness output, poetry, essays, novels, textbooks, speeches, notes and so much more would be an impossible task.

Once again, three huzzahs for communication. Huzzah, Huzzah, Huzzah!