planets and death (look, here come the Vogons!)

On Tue, 18 Mar 1997, Ray Tomes wrote:
> Forget gravity. There are many low frequency e/m waves in the solar
> system. I believe that these are responsible for, amoung other things,
> the location of the planets.

Planets and moons tend to have simple harmonic periods and distances
because of orbital resonance, a well-understood phenomenon caused by
gravity.

On Tue, 18 Mar 1997, Aline Surman wrote:
> Morrison's response to Marcus's comments was a hoot; when Hobbs pointed
> out that there were deeper forces working on us from the cosmos, Gary
> said that Sagan's response would probably be to ask him to identify the
> forces. Well, I would surely say death is one of those forces. I'm pretty
> sure "science" doesn't have a clue just yet as to how to explain what's
> going on there. Death comes for all, and we know not when, or how it will
> occur...absolutely natural, and out of our control.

"This isn't right. This isn't even wrong." --unknown

Death is not particularly mysterious. Death is not a force; it is a
phenomenon which occurs when a living being sustains too much damage,
though any of countless possible causes, to continue living and becomes,
like the vast majority of matter in the universe, unliving.

(Life, I'll grant you, is rather mysterious, although we've been
learning about it for eons and have learned a respectable amount by now.
Death, however, is simple.)

As for the specific question "Where is Carl Sagan?", well, where is the
Soviet Union? Where is the flame after you snuff a candle? They're not
there anymore. The individual components that made them up may still be
there, but the sustained, organized collection of processes to which we
shorthandedly refer as "the Soviet Union" or "a candle flame" or "Carl
Sagan" are gone. This is only mysterious if one subscribes to the
misguided notion that conservation laws apply to epiphenomena. Sorry,
Charlie; 'tain't so.

Now, if anyone intends to convince me of the psychoacoustical
significance of any phenomenon in the future, please come prepared with
something more than "look, simple harmonic ratios!" Lots of things have
simple harmonic relationships, for multitudinous reasons. Doesn't
automatically mean we can hear them.

--pH http://library.wustl.edu/~manynote
O
/\ "'Jever take'n try to give an ironclad leave to
-\-\-- o yourself from a three-rail billiard shot?"


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On Thu, 20 Mar 1997, Andrzej Gawel wrote:
> My friend Tom made me to send You attached paper.
> All comments You can send to Tuning Digest or directly to my
> email address.

Andrej: your paper came in some encoded format that I don't recognize.
Could you give us some hint as to how to decode it?

--pH http://library.wustl.edu/~manynote
O
/\ "'Jever take'n try to give an ironclad leave to
-\-\-- o yourself from a three-rail billiard shot?"


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