A Philosophical Morning

Today I had a Philosophical morning.

With a cup of coffee on my left hand and the keys on the other, I silently walked out of the green and yellow building where I live, with a desire to retreat before giving a two hour lecture on linear algebra. At that time, the Sunday morning still had most of my neighbors caught in undisturbed reveries, except from a middle aged man that was cheerfully jogging along with his puppy, who seemed equally inspirited for motion. Albeit I had noticed his presence in the beginning, I did not keep up the sight so as to exchange glances, which would have preceded a courteous, however cold salutation.

I deliberately let him walk in front, as I slowly made my way to the end of the street to witness once again the transformation of a place that used to be a beach with gray sands and marine debris, into a landscape that Godfrey Reggio himself would have captured for a movie like Koyaanisqatsi. The vast and infertile monochromatic landscape was only discontinued by the presence of bright orange, robust and metallic caterpillars in rest position, but that would keep delving the soil the next day at a time no later than the sunrise. The sky, however, was rather clear and poorly populated by puffy clouds at the distant horizon; a picture that Baudelaire would have not been fond of, but that would have awakened the muse of painting to inspire Piero Della Francesca.

I sipped again my cup of decaf which was almost empty, while I graciously acknowledged how lucky I was to be alone in front of the thought provoking scenery. My feet were hanging from a small cliff, and my position in front of the void was similar to that of fishing. Then I thought to myself: here I am, in words of Deresiewicz and Thoreau, fishing in the Walden pond of my own nature, baiting hooks with darkness. Contrary to common intuition, there were no trout or bass bites (or their metaphorical counterparts for that matter) in this fanciful recreation. I would say it was rather the idle receptiveness to the world the actual scene produced in my head that betrayed the impulse of providing peace and tranquility. The latter did not last much, as a loafer suddenly parked her bike close to me, probably to quench her whim for contemplation, or to take a quick look to the latest works in the neighborhood regarding coastal geotechnics.

Perhaps I should not have blamed the slight interruption of her bike brakes for pinching the bubble of my temporary absent mindedness, as a snowball of petty concerns was only seconds away from jostling me with extraordinary vim. The reason for this intermission is something I have yet to fish, but I am prone to believe it is due to a learned awareness of the world, where the sensitive attention is demanded at all times, in other words, an idea of control. At this time there was no coffee left, and I decided that it was about time to head back to the normal course of the day. Quickly, I found myself putting my feet back to the ground, and turning around facing the street where I had come from. I realized that only a few minutes had really passed, and that it was about time to walk to the house where I was going to give the lecture on the fundamentals of vector analysis. Apparently, the tight agenda of four Business Management students and their understandable aversion to geometry, were the factors that exhorted them to hire this engineer who never thought of doing this      kind of work, after being on an oceanographic expedition in the Artic Circle.    

On recommended readings

I strongly recommend the following readings:

• The art of travel by Alain de Botton: An awesome book on introspection while traveling. De Botton creates trips where the tour guides are thinkers or writers such as Baudelaire (one of my all time favorites), Flaubert, Van Gogh and Ruskin.

• The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing by Richard Dawkins: This is a collection of good writing by professional scientists, not excursions into science by professional writers. Contains very small, nontechnical articles.

• The disadvantages of an Elite Education by William Deresiewicz. "Our best universities have forgotten that the reason they exist is to make minds, not careers" This is a highly recommended reading.

• Truth and Beauty: Aesthetics and Motivations in Science
  by Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. He starts with Heisenberg's definition of beauty as “the proper conformity of the parts to one another and the whole”, and then ponders about the value this concept of beauty has in science. (Simplex sigillum veri. Pulchritudo splendor veritatis)

• Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar – Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein. My rating for this book 5/5. I love reading it and writing important ideas on my moleskine.

I have gotten all the items from the list online for free: Google with patience (library.nu being a good site)

Flying over hurricanes

Hurricane Irene is about to reach the Bahamas. This is a satellite picture (current as of AUG 23rd 09:39pm ET)

I was curious about current passenger airplane pathlines across this hurricane. I wanted to see if there was a significant deviation from a regular (loxodromic) path. Turns out that there isn't, as this picture shows for the flight from American Airlines (Boeing 737-800 AAL 1555), scheduled from Miami Intl (MIA) to Luis Muñoz Marín (SJU), retrieved also at the same time of the previous screenshot:

What is intriguing is that even though airplanes can fly above the hurricane, there are unusually high clouds associated with hurricanes (namely Hot towers, pic below) that can protrude from the troposphere.

I don't know Aeronautical Meteorology, but I would not be comfortable on that plane.

Edit: Introverted intuition at its best.

Pitfalls on phone instant messaging

I am truly impressed to see the amount of people here subscribed to Blackberry products. I think that the main attraction of this is the Blackberry Messenger that uses a Personal Identification Number or PIN. While I like the idea of instant messaging, I find its connection to a specific device quite enslaving. I wonder why most people, after having instant messaging with MSN messenger, Yahoo, or Google Talk which are independent of the device, just open a new Blackberry account that they cannot retrieve from another non Blackberry phone. For me, it seems that belonging to the BB network for the sake of belonging stems probably from a desire of a sense of importance, and an attempt to fit in. 

I am not against Blackberry per se though. I do not have one, but if I had, I would keep using the instant messaging I have used before. Besides, I am not sure if I want to be available 24 hours to everybody, unless it's nuclear family or so... just weird to me.

Far from surprising, the new Live Profile PIN has been launched to do the same with non-Blackberry phones. Now Androids and iPhones have more chatting options available for them, and most of the Blackberry users I know also use this new PIN. All this seems counterproductive for me. I think that belonging to a plethora of social networks and using multiple instant messaging options may create a false idea of being connected and engaged, when in reality the attention is being dispersed and the communication channels, in the best case, are duplicated. 

A Sand Clock effect

I wrote this some time ago...


Yesterday was just another day; my sand clock was full again, but it was getting ready to turn around and count more time. It was one of those days in which the winds, the rain, the water droplets and all that is lovely in my meteorological mind, did not even attempt to rescue me from going under.
Not even a raindrop.

It was around six in the afternoon, another sunset I don’t see. People were getting ready to leave their offices and workplaces to welcome a deserved weekend. As I walked on the crowded avenue, I saw some of them standing on the sidewalks, staring at all the curious things some people put on sale on a blanket on the street because there’s no traffic after 6. Other people stand on line waiting for the woman who sells phone calls, $0.10 dollars a minute. She was relatively young, pregnant, standing up leaning to a light post. She looks tired. A man lasts 2 minutes or so talking to the other person he’s going to meet… I looked his face… he hangs up as he gives her some coins; then she gets back the phone that is tied to a belt on her waist with chains.

An octopus.

I witnessed all this as I kept walking; trying again to find the reason for my way of thinking, trying to figure out why is it that I am not comfortable or happy. No answers. Then I get to the traffic lights on red that made me stop on the edge of the sidewalk. Good chance to see to the other side of the street and look at people standing, waiting… like me, a bizarre mirror.

Once lights turn yellow, some adventure to run across, some of us stay standing; we get hit by the Friday dusk rushing crowd.

It’s alright.

In the middle of the street, my music player finished another song and then started to play the other. Every three minutes or four, I remember that I have to study statics, and wastewater, and prepare a report about the same clouds that betrayed me that afternoon.

I still like them though.

After having walked more than ten blocks away from my building, I got hungry, or at least I thought so. Then started thinking about the mouth, and how it moves. Then started asking myself about the way the skull finds balance on the beginning of my vertebral column, and then remembered again that I had to study. It’s getting late; it’s time to go back.

This is when the sand clock turns around. I don’t know why I felt better by 7pm. I stopped using my earphones and I put my hands in my pocket. I think that I have to get home and take a pill, or drink some milk and go sleep. Remembered again about statics and wastewater and got anxious. I have to keep showing people good grades, that’s my totem, my fortress. It doesn’t give me anything back though.

Now, Saturday afternoon I am having a coffee and cookies as I write this.

Chocolate chip cookies, the ones than mom used to buy in a box, waiting for my full smile and hug.

I don’t know why I write this, I haven’t studied statics, or prepared my report… it’s fake, isn’t it? I need a grade printed on a paper, then I’ll get happier, and then get ready for another grade.

That’s it.

Today at night, there’s a meeting at a friend’s house. I don’t even know how to get there, but I’m sure I’ll find a way. Someone will tell me.

They want to see me.

I will sit down and talk, of course being aware of how the building stands still or how the breeze hits the window. It’s all set. At the end of it, I’ll say good bye and thanks, minutes before telling the cab driver my favorite sentence of the night: 2nd avenue, 16th street, Building 5 please.