Books AD 2025

 

When I initially did a search on books and clip art. AI initially provided kiddi images of books in primary colors, then books with flowers until I found this image. I didn't want to spend a considerable amount of time looking for the right image but my search terms in the past think that that's what I was looking for. I posted this one out of lassitude.

I was fortunate in that my parents had a library, there was a constant supply of books and my personal library probably contains about 5000 books, which does not come close to the actual books I've read. Books are knowledge. Knowledge is power and my concern that buying digital books is going to be a problem is coming true. They are no longer yours to keep gift or pass on, you're paying a small rental fee to buy them and if that particular ebook device goes under good luck with the purchases that add up quickly. I like the convenience and when it comes to tech thrillers, I'm not interested in keeping them.

Right now with the school year starting we're talking about books then forget the topic. I miss bookstores that one could browse through to find something interesting, people discussing books from the best seller lists and connecting.

There is a trend of posting the amount of books a year that one has read as an incentive to read. 

Behavior is not changing. We are told how to change it and to replace it with poorly written articles and an onslaught of 'news' on our digital development ices (devices). This is what I am talking about. Choices that are being made for us and terminology that is being selected for us so it becomes what we think about.

A few years back when various countries were fleeing their own, publishers responded by publishing and promoting nothing but diaspora stories. A decade ago when Twilight and Hunger games took off, the amount of shelving space devoted to young adult supernatural romance was bigger than the fantasy science fiction section combined. The geeks are aging I'd like good adult themed (philosophical) sci fi.

Then comes generation alpha brought up in a digital ADD world while people are told to reduce their libraries, which reminds me of my favorite scenes in a mediocre movie: the library before and after an apocalyptic change.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=JDD1mUjUjBk&pp=0gcJCRsBo7VqN5tD

https://youtube.com/watch?v=0CWZ7ywzDnA

Books as the remnant of civilization. Let's not end up there.

My friend Fred

 Fred came into my life when I was temporarily petless. In fact I almost swallowed Fred the first time we met and then had to rescue her.

 I was having my morning coffee with milk, placed the mug down beside me, wrote something, reached for the half empty mug and there was Fred swimming for dear life. I reached in with a Kleenex, lifted her out and placed her on the windowsill where she eventually crawled away. The next day Fred was back. This time she carefully hung on to the side of the mug to drink.

 I left her net alone in the corner that she had claimed amazed at how much it caught. For a few weeks she showed up everyday then for months afterwards more sporadically. Always at the same time. Sometimes my left over coffee provided some extra protein for her. Other times she just waved her front legs at me. I waved back. "Mornin' Fred".

I enjoyed her company. She became an individual. We had mutual respect for eachother and she was the cheapest pet I ever had.

Life is awe-inspiring

Today is one of those days where my old personality peeks through. A reminder to myself how precious individual lives are. How awe inspiring that we exist. That I exist. That everyone of us is a descendant of species who survived. The awe I felt in museums as a child and an adult that somehow between magma and various rocks we came to be. As the old saying goes The possibility that life exists on earth is like winning the lottery billions of times. The incredible awe at dinosaurs never left me. How and why did they get so big? How did they exist in a CO2 environment ten times our own?

I need to remind myself every now and again.

Especially when we call ourselves the worst species that ever existed. No. A minority is pure evil but generally we can do and create some amazing things.

A new dinosaur was discovered. I don't know if that is what the animal looked like. But if it did, what was it up against that required such spikes for self-defence? *gulp*

By Matthew Dempsey

This is an excellent article: https://lamont.columbia.edu/news/you-asked-dinosaurs-survived-when-co2-was-extremely-high-why-cant-humans

This is a hostile planet and yet life thrives. 

Life is precious. We exist. We are here. I am here. And life is bigger than a dinosaur.

Stereotypes

 This is not a cat blog, but cats and silly songs bring me joy and there is very little that is particularly joyful at the moment. The post is also not about good ol' Walt and the many problems the earlier cartoons and animated movies had.

But sometimes there is too much left, right, up and down. In 2019, Disney decided to remove this song from Lady and the Tramp in its remake to appease some unknown group because the accented song by two siamese cats was deemed an offensive cultural stereotype.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ly_vxI4nllA&pp=0gcJCRsBo7VqN5tD

I watched it incessantly as a child and sang it to the point of driving my parents crazy. As an adult I did not understand what the fuss was about. I owned a rescue Siamese and that is exactly what they're like in their movement and behavior. They pair up, get into and onto everything because they are vertical, LOUD and demanding. They're also the most loving breed imaginable.

A hilarious video that displays the drama and concern for their favorite human who needs to be rescued from the shower box illustrates what they're like. The comments are also amusing: "Let me sing the song of my people"

https://youtube.com/watch?v=WwSYm1NPHP4&pp=0gcJCRsBo7VqN5tD

I have friends from all over the world. We often laugh at eachother's cultures complete with imitating accents and traditions. Always in good jest. But we have become either indifferent or too sensitive. There is either too much political correctness or too little. So. I salute the world with a catchy tune:

We are Siamese if you please. We are Siamese if you don't please...Badumdumdum.

The pebble cat

 This is a Pebble cat. (Lapillus felis catus) It's ancestry can be traced back to the pet rock. If you pet it it will purr, it can also bark for preferred communication. It's fur is soft and silky. The satire has been removed, this is a real pet that will be with you forever.

This is the future we are heading into where marketing and advertising will convince people to accept any claim from health care to cutlery.

My recycled bamboo fork is now a spoon that broke in half. The break in half pill required a chainsaw and flew off somewhere, my beverage tastes like the cardboard straw it came with and my personal AI tried to replace Felis with Melissa.

The future is stupid. Now let me sell you a watch that can measure your mood.

Circadian rhythm or biorhythm

 

Above is the circadian rhythm in simple terms. The research studies are interesting. When volunteers were put into rooms without any external cues, they automatically went into a 25 hour cycle.

30% of people have a biorythm that starts an average of four hours later. The so called night owls. For whatever reason they are at the most alert in the evening and early morning hours. This remains the case ones whole life. People used to believe that individuals who were not up with the birds were somehow lazy when that is obviously not the case. It's simply a matter of one's individual genetics and can't be changed. The myth persists however.

Marcel Proust was among one of the most famous. He was up all night writing. Many lawyers end up in that profession because they can study and prepare the cases at night. There are employers who are starting to offer later shifts at night because people who have that difference are more productive as a result. There is additional research that they may be more intelligent but that may simply be due to the fact that there are less distractions in the evening.

Health problems occur when people are forced to be up earlier than they can be simply because the majority of society runs nine to five.

Additionally, we do most of our immune system repair while sleeping (neutrophils, lymphocytes) which is why people who get a good night's sleep are healthier.

Musical Interlude: Shrimps on a Rock

Blue Dragon

We used to call this music new age ambient or chillout. The millenials have renamed it Lofi; music to relax, study or fall asleep to. They also self-diagnose as suffering from ADHD when in fact it's just background white noise music that helps one focus.

BBC Earth and the Monteray Bay Aquarium have produced a few videos where you can also watch Nudibranchs, Jelly fish and Shrimps on a rock while listening to ambient sounds. Great idea and the pun force is strong in this one. Here's the MBA Krill waves radio station with Nudibranchs:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=FOeQVbL0Dgc

and crustaceans on a rock doing their thing:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=UXWckTAw3JY

Enjoy.