2013-12-20; 8:31am, Friday.  Overcast and -15dC, but no additional snow yet!


Diary:  Devonian lunch, forth street walk and chance encounter.

~~John and I enjoy an ancient garden lunch, I shop along forth street and meet up with Ina.~~

The laundry is due in about twenty five minutes and yes it is that time again.  However, I learned from the time when using the laundromat, that doing two loads first and one later is easier to handle.  So, I’ll try that pattern for a while.
	Yesterday John and I had lunch in the Devonian gardens at his suggestion.  The West end of it, I had never visited since its renovation some years ago and I was amazed at the elaborate nature of the changes.  This all adds to the cost of shopping there, but people flock there regardless.  I remarked to John, that compared to my home kitchen I was having lunch - home made - in a temple, one of commerce I might add.  We both agreed on this view, but enjoyed this gift of these capitalist gods no less for it.

On the way back, walking again, I stopped at the Lindt store to buy a few presents for the season and further up the street some wine for that reason!  There I was honked at by my former wife, who was driving out of the alley and had stopped for me.  I did not recognise her at first, but after the honk I turned and made the connection.  We stopped and chatted for a bit.  She still roams and wanders between Calgary and Victoria as she has done for almost twenty years.
	This ‘chance’ meeting reminded me this time that relationships need work, skill and dedication.  The latter was there, but the first two were not sufficient in my case, but at least I am still learning from it as I recall memories and experiences at various times.  
	I can do that, because I decided at divorce time to not let its acrimony over rule or take away the good memories and experiences that we had shared.  This turned out to be a piece of unexpected wisdom and good fortune, enabling me to keep learning from those very significant twenty seven years of my life together with my former spouse.

It was two pm when I got back, so after my snooze I just marked up the daily entry, emailed a bit and got supper ready.  The evening was spent on web news and some copying of links to the Gaia satellite story, followed by the evening news, with a good panel discussion with the issue guys.  Laundry time is here; on return ‘I’m good to go’ until about ten am.


Writings:   One percent solutions and humankind.

~~I compare methods of ancient and modern astronomers, extrapolating them to our global social problems.~~

I have a few thoughts on the one percent (1%) of the Milky Way stars that the Gaia satellite is going to survey and map.  One percent does not appear much, but the expectations are high.  This made me think and I recalled, as I do now, that election outcomes are often predicted on the basis of a few percent of the votes having been counted.
	This in turn reminded me of Edward de Bono, the Maltese author of  “Lateral Thinking”, who studied human decision making as that is based on pattern recognition.  This is a human trait that even today at times outperforms certain computer programmes, such as those for planet detection.

But, I did not stop there and moved on to recall the activities of the ancient Babylonian astronomer priests, who tracked and observed the sun among other heavenly bodies.  They announced the return of the sun, waiting for three days after it had reached its low point, the so called ’winter solstice‘.  Three days, just to make sure it was not a fluke.  This is analogues to the three days that the moon vanishes until its first rim appears again, as is still very much observed by the imams of Islam.
	So, I then made a calculation, three days for the sun to be observed to rise again, or lower again at summer solstice.  Three days after the lowest point out of three hundred and sixty five (365) is close to one percent (1%)!  So, our modern scientists cum priests of knowledge, also go after this one percent, now knowingly that this will be sufficient to make many predictions about the structure, history and future of our Milk Way galaxy.  	This in turn is analogous to the Ancient Mesopotamian priests predicting the coming year’s events based on the three mentioned days plus the other two making up the five odd ones that did not fit their three hundred and sixty (360) days if the twelve thirty day months.  
	These priests consulted for five days with their gods as to their will and intent for the population and than made their announcements.  The data that Gaia gathers will keep our scientist today busy for several decades and in book form, fill a shelf 1,2 km in length.

I marvel at the similarity of our human behaviour  and methods when making this comparison.  Today we know more and are more aware of our methodology, but the pattern can still be recognised and is deployed as well, one percent to make prediction and then check them out.  
	If we would apply this pattern recognition to our social power plays in global politics we would spare humanity much harm.  Are we willing to draw such conclusions and look for solutions using our own known patterns of behaviour?  
	This is similar to the observation in my diary section of today on human relationship, that we need dedication, skill and a willingness to work on sustaining the relationship, now on a global basis.  We certainly know as much as one percent when we combine history, social sciences, sociology and psychology with political science.  
	But, are we willing to let go of our strategies for relative advantage and substitute that those in part with a strategy for shared planet wide benefit?  How mature are we really, with our electronic media, social networks and stores full of superfluous consumer goods?  That is my question for 2014!

Laundry load time at 9:58am and 10:22am back again.

Is it worth the effort?  Combining the situation in Syria and the on going conflict in Palestine and we know that unresolved conflicts can brake down our human society.  Such conflicts will start to take dominance over all other criteria and values, destroying all that was held in common until nothing is left to fight about.  Then we become willing to talk, but look at the losses it took to get there.
 	If you look at the machinery we assemble to launch the Gaia satellite and the one billion dollars it took, then you know that our problems are not in that corner of society.  Our serious problems are wedged, welded and riveted to our sense of identity and traditions.  We know lots about that, but we must be willing to shift our values and change our perspectives, such as to put common solutions to common problems front and center on our global agenda.  What or who are we waiting for?
<10:33am and after laundry and edit 11:28am~