Is Heartburn diagnosed in the BiBle?

Those who know the writer and his delight with puns and other word play probably already expect an affirmative answer and are racking their brains for an answer. Well, the gospel of Luke, probably the most poetic of them qll begins with guys camping out with the sheep to chase off the wolves, and ends with the Easter story. A couple of men from the suburb 10-12 km from Jerusalem are heading home, greatly depressed. A third man draws near and asks what is depressing them. They say, are you the only pilgrim to Jerusalem who has not heard or Jesus of Nazareth, who we thought would rescue us from the Romans, but the priests turned him over soldiers, who crucified him. But, they could not kill the idea and rumors are flying that people hAVE SEEN HIM ALIVE. The man starts explaining that the prophets predicted all this. Presently, they arrived at the home of the two men and they invite the stranger in for a bite. He blesses the food and and at least one exclaims the original form of OMG! and the stranger vanishes. They eat not a bite but head back to Jerusalem, saying "Did not our hearts burn within us when he was opening the scriptures to us?"

The writer wondered about medical knowledge in King JAMES' dAY. Did the doctors of the day know that stomach gas and nausea might accompany a heart attack? The writer is not quthoritative in tat area. If, however one is obsessed with cylindricq streams of electrons flowing through qn evacuated, pipe, There, he has well placed authority and a Ph.D. Happy Hunting!

Remember Wotan?

No? Remember Anna Russell? No? Remember Veronica Lake? Aha, perhaps a glimmer of recognition? Remember Bryn Terfel? Well, then. Anna Russell was a standup commedienne in the 1960's and onward. She had very good vocal training, but one day she accidentally discovered she could make people laugh and that became her act. She set up to explain the entire 4 opera series of Richard Wagner called Der Ring Des Niebelungen. At the very beginning, she says "The Opera opens in the Rhine River. IN it." It seems there is a hoard of gold there, which if one appropriated it, made a magic ring of it and renounced Love, he could rule the world. Since the dwarf Alberich was even then being mocked by the Rhinemaidens he thought his chances for love were non-existent and he may as well rule the world. Meanwhile, the head god, named Wotan after whom the Germans named Wednesday, had engaged some giant brothers to build a auitable mansion for his family and decided the way to pay them was to trick Alberich out of his gold. Alberich being a sore loser, put a curse on the ring that anyone who had it would surely die. The giants quarrel over the ring and one (Fafner)slays his brother (Fasolt) so we all know "The curse is working" But, as a defensive measure Wotan, to whom marriage vows are a big handicap, makes it with Erda, the goddess of Earth, who presents him with 9 daughters, called the Vakyries, and put them to work gathering up dead heroes to guard Valhalla.
Veronica Lake was a movie actress of the 1940's who wore a "peekaboo" hairdo with one curled wave covering one eye. Remember Wotan? Well, to woo Erda, he plucked out an eye (Funny what will impress the ladies) Current publicity pictures show the current Wotan, played by a fine Welsh baritone named Bryn Terfel, with one eye covered by a curl in his wig. It looked better with Veronica Lake; However, Terfel sings a lot better.
So how does it all end? A woman scorned brings it all down. Wotan's (Remember Wotan?)Favorite daughter is so offended by the betrayel of the great hero Siegfried that she deals with the bad baritones to kill him. Right away shs is sorry and makes a huge funeral pyre for him, Valhalla catches fire and burns up those rather dense gods, the Rhine floods and the Rhinemaidens retrieve the ring, and we are right back where we started 20 hours ago.
So we might say that in some unexpected way, the power of love wins over the power of gold. It might be deeply depressing, were it not for the joys of German cuisine not only on the days between operas, but even at intermissions between acts. One just has to plan ahead a little and order ahead for those entracts. Or the very original creations of "That German girl that Charles married" are almost alone worth the price of the trip. Guten Appetit!!

"Do you know Art?"

"Art Who?""Artesian" "Oh yes, I know Artesian Well"
I would like to offer, that at the new DeYoung Museum of San Francisco, it apparently can be a statue depicting the head of Jesus on a dressed ready-for-the-prom body of Aphrodite; diverting, but slightly startling. In another room, people in a painting looked unexceptional until one read the title "John Brown on his way from courtroom to gallows." Depending on ones poltics, the emotions roused by a work of art can vary from "He got what he deserved" to "He gave his life for a worthy principle." Saturday, from the Metropolitan Opera we got the pathetic end of the lovers in Sir Walter Scott's novel. Lucia. And soon we get to thrill to Emerson's "Here the embattled farmers stood and fired the shot heard round the world." Those colonies were apparently so small that the noise carried all the way to New Hampshire, according to the fact-challenged republican congressperson from Minnesota.
Of course, art is not just paintings: Shakespeare did wonders with words"Antony, ket me have aro9und me men who are fat, sleek-headed men and such who sleep anight. Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look. Such men are dangerous."
But this writer really loves the art of music. Yesterday, we got a dozen or so people to hear J.S.Bach's B-minor Mass. The mind just keeps repeating that finale. There is just one word "Amen" for 5 minutes or so,a choir singing in four parts. totally stunning.

What makes you sick

Science is most importantly about running controlled experiments. The difficulty with finding the cause of human illness is that being human practically guarantees the subject is out of control. Furthermore, if the subject's environment is a contributor, everyones environment is unpredictable and potentially toxic or infective. A current very active controversy concerns the effect of electromagnetic fields (abbreviated emf's) in causing brain tumors to develop. Since an increased incidence of brain tumors coincides with a spectacular increase of cell phone use, accusations of cause and effect swiftly arose, and recently, this writer observed organized opposition to the building of a new cell phone tower in a lightly settled residential neighborhood. But to this student of electrical engineering, a number of pertinent questions arise. First, what aspect of an electromagnetic wave is responsible? For over 100 years,our scientists have pointed out that radio waves and the like contain both electric fields and magnetic fields. If one considers what the electric utility delivers to our homes to produce hear and light, It is dramatically changed just before it enters the house. The utility has known since the time of Edison that if it distributes the power to a neighorhood at high voltage, it loses much less of the energy (for which it is being paid) than if the current were high. Thus, the practice is to distribute at high voltage, then to step down to 120 volts just before intering the house.

Now, if high voltage is the villain in producing brain tumors, one might expect linemen and other professionals to have a high incidence of tumors; this has not been observed. Some investigations of magnetic fields in domestic settings have found them to be higher near machines, such as vacuum cleaners, mixers and hair driers. In our civilization, electric and magnetic fields cannot be avoided, although a careful individual can reduce, but not eliminate exposure.

And so, what about thsse cell phones? They contain very low power transceivers, "Listening" for incoming signals and producing a ring-tone if a call is intended for that receiver. The user then turns on more circuitry to receive the call. Since the power comes from a tiny battery, the phone is designed for high efficiency, and this family's IPhone 3 will stay charged for more than a day if not heavily used. Oh course, the brain receives maximum emf's when the phone is pressed to the user's head. The cautious might prefer to listen through earbuds. The thinking human will give some thought to which risks he/she would prefer to avoid.

Don't expect "Good Kids" to solve global warming

The author was a staggeringly well=behaved child. He was so well behaved that his teachers were doubtless very frustrated at having to seat him up where he could see the blackboard. until he got glasses. Big brother. on the other hand was a rebellious child. One remembers a famous line from ourn maternal
grandmother, "Raymond,why can't you me a bood boy?" "I don't want to be a good boy". Yours truly was wonderful at learning the conventional wisdom ar rules of grammar and teaching them. Ray, however had the spark of creativity enabling him to synthesize solutions to difficult questions. This skill is next to impossible to teach. On the other hand, the writer remembers one of his first students. At age 20, he had patented a motorcycle ignition system. During my lectures. he sat there soaking it up, never putting pen to paper, then when his colleagues had gotten to their feet to leave, he would ask astonishly perceptive questions. This is what Obama needs a number of, to solve the world's technical problems. 40 years have not suggested how to teach such skills. We are left with a faint hope there will be some perceptive teachers who can nurture such skills and not beat them out of the kid. Planet Earth desperately needs such teachers.

Would new bifocals have helped Picasso?

The wruter is in possession of a flyer from the DeYoung Museum which promotes an upcoming show with Picasso exhibits. The painting serving as a come-on which claims to be a lady's portrait; Her nose seems located such that both eyss seem to be on the same side of the nose. Since I have worn bifocals, I have personally observed such an anomaly if the object I am inspecting falls at the dividing line between the two sections. This is not the first time one has seen artistic effects that some experts attribute to vision defects; apparently Van gogh showed what he actually saw in his "Starry Night", with perhaps a small amount of exaggertion for artistic effext. One should not confuse a painting to a photograph taken with a good camera.

Lincoln had an inkling

As he rode the train from Washington to Gettysburg, Lincoln wrote "The world will little know nor long remember what we say here---" Telegraph had been invented, so he could expect that a diligent operator could flash his words over much of his domain. I just finished waTCHING the telecast of the Rose Parade,presimably watched by millions of people worldwide. Now these people probably never wonder about what came to your writer, Who has watched these parades perhaps for 50-60 years. This morning, I wondered "what and where is the city of Sierra Madre? Well, accordingto Google, in 2000 they had 10,000 men , women and children, and yet they consider it worthwhile t0 have a float in the parade. Only in this U.S. of A do towns assert their identity in this way. Now, of course, I asserted my identity by writing a blog and after a year and a half I have 7(seven) people who will admit following it. In comparison, resulting from the work of Time"s person of the year 2011. countless people submit reqauests to be my "Friend". Gee, if I agree, what do I do then? What, out of thin air, should I say? Better, people should read my blog. The talkative part of my soul is exposed there. The link is cgnnenatelgranada@blogspot.com. Stay in touch. Maybe this year I will get really productive.