Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Off Main Street…

Dear Friends,

This little ditty got my attention as I wandered away from the Main Street…

Res Ispa Loquitur,

S

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Babbage's Difference Engine…

Folks,


Charles Babbage (1791-1871) had ideas that were far ahead of his time. Had his Analytical Engine come to fruition in his lifetime it is entirely possible that computer science would have taken hold in the 1880s. He even saw its output as a printer. Recently, however, work has begun to digitize and open source his plans for the first computer, albeit a mechanical beast, of the industrial age.


The Babbage Difference Engine




The Greeks of 2,000 years ago, however, had already come up with the the Antikythera Mechanism, an ancient mechanical computer[1][2] designed to calculate astronomical positions.


Antikythera Mechanism

We are clever folks, but apparently too apt to forget, perhaps.


Hic Finis Est,


S

Monday, September 19, 2011

Adios, Andy…

Andy,

You were a fine man. Besotted and bedraggled, a rounder, bounder and down and out. But you knew how to share and with whom to share what. When we met in the cot shelter down on Center Street, when I was ragged and worn out at the end of my rope, you offered me a swig of your contraband hooch.

I declined the offer, but was quite impressed that the good folks tending night watch who would otherwise have no tolerance for such poor behavior as yours found some forbearance in the illumination of your inherent sweetness.

Still, you were no innocent. You knew how to find a place to escape the rain in the city and the floods down by the river, the cops in the parks in the late night and early dawn. I cannot share those secrets, as I do not know them as well as you and, like you, would not want to give a friend a bum steer. But, I do thank you for pointing me toward that space under the old church one punishing night that fell upon a particularly hard day.

You gave me other gifts, as well. One afternoon after a hard autumn rain, I found you sitting in a muddy puddle under the trestle on Main Street. You were content, but would entertain some company. It was my privilege to join you. Skinny as your sorry butt was, you were the biggest fish in that pond, and I was your guest. You honored me with a smile and some wry crack about proper people walkin' by. I don't recall what it was you said, it's now lost on the wind, but I felt at the time that there was some wisdom in your observation. I know it made me smile and to be proud to be sitting in that puddle.

That wit! You kept a tight grip on it, but you could fling it like a switchblade to tear the meat off the bones of the pompous and self-absorbed. A few moments later you would be dispensing more kindness to those folks around you who knew what to make of such.

Well, anyhow, in your hours 'tween blood and roses, you did stomp on the floor boards of what can pass for reality to most of us. Your clear eyes, no matter how drenched in that russian wine, never lost their shine until they closed one last time. Your voice is now silent, yet still on the wind. You don't need anymore change nor booze. So, in a way you won when that vein in your head finally blew out. But, your loving friends have lost a treasure.

Thank you, Andy. I gotta go now to steal a twig of evergreen and toss it on a memorial to fine, strange, beautiful man who is gone from this fine, strange, beautiful world that he once graced.

Hic Finis Est,

S

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Beautiful Eyes…

Dear Friends,

My new girlfriend is so lovely. Her eyes are so beautiful! To gaze into them is to be transported beyond worlds away. Yes. She and I met whilst each on vacation and surfing waves of Gravity amongst the frosty dust of the Saturnian E-Ring. We fell at a glance into each other's warm thrall and thence abjured to her cozy, secluded bungalow nestled in a deep cave upon the foggy, cryovolcanic mountains of Moon Titan.

Below is a snapshot stolen from a moment in Time and Space. Here is my prize, my treasure, my vision of Real True Love…

Res Ipso Loquitor,

S

©Solomon
iPhone4 w/PictureMag (free app)