Frog Went A Courtin' And He Did Ride...

"Animals who move or are in a world that moves around them—as long as there are things moving somehow relative to you—will be selected to have perceptions that are true. We have about a tenth of a second delay between the time light hits the retina and the time of resultant perception, which is considerable given that you move 10 centimeters in that amount of time even if you're only walking one meter per second. That means that if you didn't compensate for this neural delay, anything you perceive to be within 10 centimeters of passing...would have just passed you by the time you perceive it. You'd always be seeing the world as it was a tenth of a second earlier and seeing what the world looks like 10 centimeters behind where you in fact are--if you hadn't run into whatever it is you're looking for...."

Mark Changizi

Sara Teasdale At Fontainebleau

Sara Teasdale At Fontainebleau

Infant
she arrives in Etruscan autumn
bearing the gift of ghosts
sighing across centuries of sea.

Barren
she sees endless Fall
in halls bare of the dead boar
of Saint Louis.

Woman
she tastes victory
under the sign poetess
birthing breathing souls
on the blood red floor
of October foliage.


[copyright EAC]


NB: The animation is a new type of 3D animated .GIF image, which I call the Gasperini Wiggle, after the inventor, Jim Gasperini: http://www.well.com/user/jimg/

The reference of the text is to Sara Teasdale's "Fontainebleau".

Aphorismatica

Aphorismatica (I)

In The Beginning

Is the letter “C” the first and beginning element of the word “CAT”
because that is the way the word is written, or because that is the way the word is read?

One reads C¹A²T³--unless perhaps one is dyslexic--but it could just as easily have been written, as far as most readers know, C³A¹T².

Convention governs reading, technique governs writing.




Applied Science

The aversion of the ancient Greeks to applying mathematics or science to practical ends had little or nothing to do with aristocratic contempt for rolling up one's sleeves, getting one's hands dirty and doing work. Thales made money with his meteorological and astronomical knowledge, in the process inventing the futures contract.

He did it to show how easily it might be done, and too, how worthless it was.




Contemporary Prophet

Contemporary prophets specialize in predicting the past.

Their accuracy? About five right out of ten.




Lacan Before Lacan

Lacan looks in the mirror.

And sees someone else.




Universal Health


It is a singular observation that when the ancient Greek physicians first began their work of untangling the ways of nature, they found the cosmos in good working order.

[copyright EAC]

Vera

Vera

L’inconscient n’est pas pulsation obscure du prétendu instinct,
ni coeur de l’être mais seulement son habitat.

[Jacques Lacan]

She enters sinuously
between the clatter of rainfall
and the silence of thaw
whispering promises to greybeards:

"Do you have an ear for Spring? Do you reverence green? Is your last winter dead and gone?"

At first you humor her, unbelieving
the faintest giggle of any future.

Then
suddenly--she's all there,
laughing maid with overflowing glass
slightly tipsy, exuberant of all flesh.

[copyright EAC ]

The Un-Geisha

The Un-Geisha

Physis kruptesthai philei...

The geisha mocks with smile

and fans with dancing eyes.

She has sung in the language of birds.

She has fingered the samisen

And lingered over the words of an almost found chord.

She has whisked the foaming green tea.

Now to hide abed bored and boring and be ridden

By blind need....

[copyright EAC]

Cheese Toys R Us

Cheese Toys R Us

She: “Why are you running away?”

He: “Why are you chasing me?”

She: “Because I want to ask you a question.”

He: “You just did.”

She: “Did what?”

He: “You just did ask a question.”

She: “I did?”

He: “You did.”

She:”No, I didn’t. I just answered your question.”

He: “Yes, but before that you asked me why I was running away.”

She: “Well, why were you running away?”

He: “Why were you chasing me?”

She: “I already said—I wanted to ask you a question.”

He: “What’s the question you wanted to ask?”

She: “Do you think my toes are ugly?”

He: “Your toes?”

She: “Yes, my toes. But why are you running away again?”

[copyright, E.A.C Aphorismata]

Twisted Sister (Ode To La Physique Rottweiler)

Twisted Sister (Ode To La Physique Rottweiler)

"L'esprit de système est dans la physique ce que la métaphysique est dans la géométrie...."

[d'Alembert]

Where were you lost

Before you were born?

How did you find yourself?

In what woods, following

what breadcrumbs?

What frog woke you up

with a kiss?

In what mirror did charming toad

share your secret vices?

When did you wake up

and say it is only I who suffer?

It is only I who am at a loss?

It is only I who can remember

Every which way to Erehwon?

[copyright EAC]