Category Archives: Carpe Diem

Seize the Moment

Clocks and Time

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Time is weird, and clocks are all around us because of our relationship to time, calendars, that allow social meetings.

Today we got a historical gem on YouTube: the history of Big Ben. Many many men (women seem not to exist) have been involved in this UK project: all for a tower, a broken bell, and zillions of photographs taken by tourists ….. of a CLOCK.

Big ben had to send exact time to Greenwich. Why? Because of the Oº meridian and counting time zones from that line, but?

It sounds like “time” is much more complicated than “telling time” on your watch.

But what is time? Why is there a yesterday, a now and a tomorrow?
The channel Minute Physics tries to explain:

Time in relation to the 2nd law of thermo dynamics:

Or Ted-Ed gives another look:

And if you want to dig deeper: here’s the discovery channel take on time as it is seen and understood today. At this time, we are far from the Big Ben saga. Take a deep breath before diving into these new concepts!

Which brings us back to time for the individual born one day, dead another. Should we take care of the time given to us? Should we take care of our planet to give time to others? Should we give birth to other humans so that they too can have a life time? Should we allow ourselves to waste time if such a thing exists? Are these considerations important?

Halloween: Why do we need to be mortal? or do we?

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The day before All Saints Day of the Catholic church is the eve of the day of haloes (the rings of light around Saints’ representation in art), ie. Halloween. Don’t worry Halloween is a Pagan feast (Samhain), and the church piggy backed that day with one if its most important feasts November 1st. Samhein was the end of harvest and the start of Winter. Bonfires were lit and some cattle came in barns for the Winter and some were slaughtered and the meat conserved for the Winter months. People were scared of Winter and
Is it a need of the planet to be mortal? As we celebrate the mocking of death with Halloween, it seems the reaper is all part of a joke. But when I visit the elderly as I do more and more being an elder myself, I can only observe that only those who really REALLY suffer want to die at all. Death as part of life may be a myth. Grey gives us a taste of the problem:

Therefore CGP Grey tells us that to think of death as a positive is a deeply floored thought. But in the following video, Craig Benzine offers us this perspective. Death has to exist, because the planet changes, the climate modifies itself, and following this life evolves to fit the change. So for these scientists and thinkers, death has to be.

So if we are called to die one day, and can’t do much about it, let’s live in the best way possible. Let’s try to be fit of the body and of the mind. “The finite nature of life is what drives us to do our best.” This is Bill Nye’s big idea.

The mischievous Lesley Hazelton expresses the same concern in different words.

What’s wrong with dying?

So everyone, enjoy your Halloween the ghouls, and the candy, the ghosts and the styrofoam grave stones, but one day you’ll take time to reflect on your own immortality. I’ve got a maximum of 70,000 more days to live. I don’t pay insurance to a church or other religious entity to buy the promise of an immortal life. If you are a believer, I sure hope you are not wasting good money that could have gone towards a glass of wine here on earth. Carpe Diem.