The Teeth of Time

On this day in 1452 Leonardo, (illegitimate) son of Piero, was born in Vinci.

Happy birthday, Nardo, wherever you are.
Your life may not have been as wasted as you yourself felt it was.

On this day in 1912 the Titanic sank.

And it appears today that not even its skeletal remains may make it to the 100th anniversary.

Apparently a "gigantic organism" - with "social intelligence", no less - is devouring it.

But you can still hear the Titanic's wail. 

Time has a hard time silencing wails.

On this day in 1993 I returned from a one month stay in Italy and absolutely magical five hours in Venice. (If you think Venice is the same as Italy, think again.)

The return was just as eventful as the stay.

On this day in 2011 I found myself to be the ugly cousin of myself.

Not just today or this year, but since the day I was born.

But this, too, will pass.

And experience tells me that not necessarily further in the southward direction.

Life is only as expected as you expect it to be.

(Yes, sometimes even platitudes are true.)

The Man Who Did Not See God

50 years ago today the first human was ejected into space, and the Space Age began in earnest.

He was, of course, Yuri Gagarin, a young Soviet (Russian) pilot, whose life was cut short only seven years later, in an airplane crash.

Yuri Gagarin: his life in pictures

Gagarin is famous for his alleged statement that he "didn't see any God up here". In fact, this statement of his is almost as famous as Neil Armstrong's first words on the Moon.

Only - much like Armstrong's words - these words weren't his. What's more, nobody ever heard him say them. There is no record of them in the transcripts of orbit-to-Earth conversations. In fact, the only source appears to be a speech by Khruschev, the then-president of the USSR, who used Gagarin's achievement and popularity for political and ideological purposes, much like the USA astronauts' achievements were used by politicians and propaganda as a source of reflected glory.


Specifically, Khruschev used - or just plain invented - Gagarin's alleged words for anti-religious propaganda during a speech of his: "Gagarin told me he didn't see any God up there!" Maybe it wasn't even a quote; maybe it was just a clumsy joke.

According to a reported recent interview with a high official of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Gagarins used to celebrate Christmas and Easter, and Yuri had his two daughters baptised. (If you think this is purely a formality, think again. In the USSR such "formalities" were strongly frowned upon, and could cost a person their job and all chances of promotion in the future.)

According to Gagarin's friend, cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, upon his return to Earth Gagarin was asked by Khruschev did he see God up there, to which Gagarin supposedly replied: "Yes, sir, as a matter of fact, I have." You can read the rest of the anecdote here.

To me, this sounds like one of those "tall tales" that people are prone to spin, especially when they age and look back with nostalgia to their youth, and then gradually start to believe them themselves. But of course, I wasn't there, so I could not possibly tell whether it's the truth or not.

This is what Gagarin did say, according to his friends:

"Someone who never met God on Earth, 
would never meet Him in space"

Whatever anyone may think of the notion of God - amen to that.

***

P.S. Have you noticed how similar Gagarin and Neil Armstrong look? 

It's uncanny.


I will go a step further and venture this question: was perhaps Armstrong chosen - that is,given priority amongst possibly several equaly qualified potential astronauts - BECAUSE of his physical similarity to Gagarin?


It is just a thought; and it is a thought that is not unthinkable if Gagarin's image was a truly iconic image of the time: an icon, the icon of the new space age.


What do you think?

Going, goeing... gone

It is here. If anyone needed conclusive evidence of the downfall of elemental culture - AKA literacy - and the internet's deleterious contribution to it, it is neatly encapsulated in this little "bubble" that pops up in the popular pop oracle called Yahoo Answers.

Hmm...it looks like you have a lot of punctuation.

If it were a joke, it would have been a delightful one.

It reminded me of a scene in Forman's film Amadeus. If you've seen the film, you'll know which scene I mean.

Alas, it is no joke.

And unlike Forman's emperor, this naked emperor has no mouth, or even a mind of its own, to reply to the only pertinent, logical question: "And which punctuation marks did you have in mind, Your Majesty?"

Then again, there are also precious few "Mozarts" around to ask the question.

I dislike the word "despise" as I dislike the sentiment itself; I dislike it with a passion. All right, I hate it.

But there really is no other word that would describe my sentiments towards Yahoo Answers quite as accurately as despise. 

Once in a blue moon - perhaps once a year or once every two years - a question happens to catch my eye, that I feel I could answer in a way that the asker might profit from it.

Which is why I only found this pop-up in question now. 

Apparently it has been around - or at least bugging people - since the summer of 2008, at least.

And yet, three years later it is still here, unabashed.

What does that tell you?

It tells me why the name "Yahoo" is uncannily befitting.

It also tells me what its consumers are being reared and encouraged to be.

Yahoos, rednecks, yokels, hillbillies who are liberally throwing away the intellectual and personal liberty, the freedom so hard-won by generations before them, in exchange for convenient, cozy servitude to money- and power-hungry pimp-bots.

It also tells me that in this WWWorld there aren't enough people who care enough to revolt against the onslaught of mental vulgarity, sloth and debasement, to make it go away. Because if there were, it would have gone away by now. Virtual visitors mean cash; angry virtual visitors mean that much less cash.

And punctuation, while we're at it, means fine articulation of thought. 

But only thought that is articulated needs it. And given enough time, many people who still try accurately to express the meanders of their thought might cave in under the weight of inertia and start to feel that punctuation is, after all, redundant. A luxury. Something that few have and few care to understand, let alone appreciate, anymore.

Then, the arcane law of reciprocity will kick in, and eventually their thought will not need punctuation anymore. They will have become intellectual and emotional flatliners. Lobotomised Cro-Magnon creatures, (un)dressed in designer clothes, with cell phones instead of ears and the internet instead of their own brain. 

People who need oracles.

Ήξεις αφήξεις ουκ εν πόλεμω θνίξεις

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