#ron paul funeral city etc. etc.

[elancholia]

Our children are alienated pussies and we lack social cohesion.

Bring back chariot racing.

We don't build things any more! Modern public architecture sucks!

Turn the National Mall into a colossal neoclassical hippodrome.

Literature and the humanities are in decline!

Chariot races will furnish a perfect occasion for the composition of odes.

The male loneliness crisis and/or social atomization of late capitalism!

Consider the bond—presumably homoerotic—between two charioteers of the same faction cooperating to hem in and crush a rival against the spina.

Uhh sports gender biology spaces!

Chariot racing is open to all. A chariot is even sort of like a wheelchair (disability win!). All are equal before the terrible will of the gods, the merciless intensity of speed and mass, and the idiot mania of panicked horses.

[elancholia]

The parallels are uncanny

And God said, "Behold! I have created the fourth primordial force: the weak interaction!"

And the angels all clapped and nodded politely, and there was a long silence; and finally Verchiel, the Angel of Grace, spoke up and asked, "Er, what exactly does it do, O Fashioner?"

And God said, "What do you mean, 'what does it do?' It's the fourth fundamental force of the universe."

And Verchiel said, "You mentioned that. Um. But it's just that the other three sort of have a brand, you know? Gravity helps build large-scale structures, acts over vast cosmic distances, shapes time and space. The strong force is secret, hidden, binding together quarks and all that. Electromagnetism, very cool stuff, somewhere in between. We're all big fans of the whole magnetic monopole double bluff, very clever. But, er. What does this 'weak interaction' do?"

And God said, "It mediates radioactive decay. Sort of."

And Verchiel said, "Radioactive decay? All radioactive decay?"

And God said, "No. Just some kinds."

And Zephaniel, the Chief of the Ishim spoke, and he said, "A whole independent force just to mediate some kinds of radioactive decay?"

And God said, "Well. Not totally independent. Technically it's related to electromagnetism."

And Zephaniel said, "Wait, it's not even a real force?"

And God said, "It's totally a real force. It's just that it's one aspect of a combined electromagnetic and weak force. An electro-weak force, if you will."

And Metatron, the Celestial Scribe, scratched his head at this, but said nothing.

And Cambiel, the Angel of Transformation, said, "Maybe you can walk us through it from the top."

And God Sighed an immense Sigh, and said, "All right, fine.

"So the way it works is that all of space and time is permeated by a field that has imaginary mass."

And Cambiel said, "Imaginary mass, O Generous Provider?"

And God said, "Yes, imaginary mass. It's tachyonic, d'you see?"

And Sarathiel, the Angel of Discipline, said, "Wait a minute, I thought we agreed nothing was going to travel faster than light? All that 'c' business and the whole Lorentz transformation thing. What's happening with that?"

And God said, "Let me finish. The field is tachyonic. The particles in the field all move slower than light."

And Sarathiel had to think about this for a second.

And God said, "The point is, a field with imaginary mass has a non-zero vacuum expectation value."

And this really gave Sarathiel trouble, since he had never been very good at math.

And God, seeing this, went back to explain. "Most fields, like the electromagnetic field, have no effect when they are at their lowest energy state. It's like they're not there at all. If you give a field imaginary mass, then it vanishes only when it's at a very high energy state, and at a low energy state, it has a nonzero value everywhere."

And Sarathiel nodded, but he was confused, because he didn't understand why God would create such a thing.

But Verchiel thought he saw where God was going with this, and he was amazed.

"Truly, you are cunning beyond measure, O Only One Certainly Sound and Genuine in Truth! Only now do I understand your design! For in order to make the universe homogenous and isotropic, it is necessary that all large-scale fluctuations in temperature and mass must be evened out early in the history of the cosmos; and therefore, you have designed a field which will rapidly expand space after the Big Bang, many orders of magnitude in brief moments, and then swiftly and spontaneously decay as it gives up the energy it began with, giving rise to radiation and particles of all kinds as it does, which will condense into the material universe! It is a wonder to behold."

And God said, "What? No. I mean I did, but this isn't the inflaton field I'm talking about. This is something else."

And Verchiel said, "Wait, it's not?"

And God said, "No, I'm going to use a different field to drive cosmic inflation. The properties of this field are totally different."

And now Verchiel was also confused, and lapsed into silence.

And God said, "Like I was saying, this field is a scalar field with imaginary mass, and it does spontaneously decay to a ground state with a non-zero value. But it's not the inflaton field. Instead it combines with the W1, W2, W3, and B bosons."

And Metatron began to flip back through the pages of the Heavenly Record trying to figure out where he'd lost the thread.

And Zephaniel said, "The what bosons?"

And God said, "The W1, W2, W3, and B bosons. I'm sure I mentioned them. You know, the massless bosons?"

And Zephaniel said, "I'm pretty sure we only talked about the W+, W-, and Z0 bosons. All of which you said were going to have mass, O Owner of All Sovereignty."

And God said, "Yes, but this is how they get them, you see. Once this field acquires a nonzero value everywhere, the massless bosons interact with it and get mass. Well, some of them do. They turn into the W+, W-, and Z0 boson. And the photon."

And Zephaniel said, "…and the photon, O Accepter of Invocation?"

And God said, "Well, I did say I was going to unify the electromagnetic force and the weak interaction, didn't I? This is how. Above the critical temperature--right now I'm thinking 10^15 K, but I'm open to feedback on that one--electromagnetism and the weak force act as a single unifying force. Below that temperature, the field gets a nonzero value, you get three massive bosons to mediate the weak interaction, and the photon pops out seperately."

And Zephaniel said, "That seems… a bit overly complicated, doesn't it, O Reinstater Who Brings Back All?"

And God said, "No, it's exactly what we need. Look, that way the W and Z bosons have something to do, but the weak interaction still only travels short distances. Gravity is still the star of the show on cosmic scales, as it were. But now quarks and leptons can swap their flavor!"

And Zephaniel said, rather weakly, "Their… flavor, O Source of Good?"

And God said, "It's this new quantum number I'm trying out, to give the three generations of matter more unique identities."

And Cambiel said, "Three generations of matter? Now I'm really confused."

And God said, "I'm sure I mentioned this. You've got the lightest quarks and leptons, and then two heavier versions of each that can decay into the lighter versions."

And Cambiel said, "What do they do? New kinds of chemistry, is it?"

And God said, "Well, no. Mostly they just decay in a couple microseconds. Or even faster."

And Zephaniel began to rub his temples, and Cambiel sniffed.

And Cambiel said, "This all seems a bit ad hoc to me. Not really the stuff of an elegant and obviously ordered Creation. Why not have four generations of matter? Why not a trillion?"

And God began to grow irritable, and said, "Well, that's not really up to you, now is it? We're going to have three generations of matter, and the electroweak force, and that's that!"

And Zephaniel said, "As long as we are unifying fundamental forces, perhaps we could somehow also unify the electroweak interaction with the strong interaction, or even gravity."

And God hesitated saying, "Well, I haven't decided about that yet. I'm not sure I want gravity to be quantized, you know? Seems to take some of the geometric elegance out of general relativity."

And now it was Zephaniel's turn to sigh, and he bowed his head. "As you wish, O Possessor of Authority of Decisions and Judgement."

[billandkenride]

Across the Prairies...by automobile

Good morning,

On Friday we racked up the bikes and headed west. The Ks whipped by. A few reflections in the day:

-On our trail over the past three weeks, we noticed the first towns we pedaled through in eastern Alberta and western Sask were incorporated in the era of 1912-1915. By the time we were in southeast Sask, the villages boasted of being around since 1906 or 1910. In Manitoba it was more likely 1893 or 1899 that the communities started. Such is the story of the settlement of the West.

-A good way to see Canada is by car

-Ticks linger around for some time

We are in Moose Jaw this morning. On our way to Calgary we will stop in Morse to attend the memorial service of a dear lady, the mother of a friend.

Speaking of Moose Jaw and friends, Janice Anderson (Thompson), who follows our blog, sent us additional memories of this city from times we visited in our childhood. See below the photos for her highlights.

Final blog from Calgary tomorrow.

Cheers,

Bill & Ken

P.S. A reminder that we have set up our fundraising page for the Heart & Stroke Foundation again this year. To donate, click here.

From Janice:

The Friendly City/Band City indeed had much to offer in the 60’s and 70’s and I couldn’t resist adding my memories......

-Civic Centre hosting Canuck hockey games, the Shrine Circus etc.

-The band parade marching down Main Street on the May long weekend

-At Christmas there was Christmas Card Lane winding around the east side of Crescent Park

-In the summer there were swans and ducks to feed in the park as well as the kiddie paddling pool. Later years we cooled off inside and out at the “Nat”

-Every Dec. there was a big decorated evergreen at the foot of Main St. and garlands draped across the road

-The animated holiday displays in the Eaton’s store windows were magical. I’m so glad they were preserved and now reside at the WDM in Saskatoon - I’ve taken my kids and now my grandkids to see them every year

Places to eat:

-A&W- with car hops!

-Burger Baron- not many of those left

-KFC in River Park- when the flood waters receded each spring

-The Modern- where “Paul” knew everyone and their families within a 100 mile radius of the city

-The 722 and Uptown cafes

-Lunch counters at Woolworths and Kresgies- great for a sandwich

-The National Cafe for Chinese food (and juke box songs) and upstairs in the Arbor Room for special occasions

- The Regal Room at the Harwood or dining room at the Grant Hall when fine dining was required

-Grad corsages, wedding bouquets and funeral arrangements either came from Moffats or Evans

-Hair cuts and colourings were done at the Artistique or Ron Muir’s (I believe Gladys preferred the latter)

-Groceries were bought at Loblaws, Safeway, Co-op, or Economart (they used to sell Pic a Pop). Smaller grocers were the Supermarket and BC Fruit on Main St.

- Baked treats came from Dutch Bakery (wedding cakes were a specialty) or Maple Leaf Bakery on South Hill (best Eccles Cakes in town)

-The Times Herald kept us informed of national, provincial and local events, not to mention wedding photos, birth and death announcements, and the police lists of drivers fined for speeding (Jack Thompson appeared here more times than he wanted!)

—Swingin’ Sam’s was the best place to pick up ‘45’s and the CJME weekly list of top songs

-The Studio was where you got Stooges reruns and if you were lucky there would be a new Disney or Elvis flick at the Cap. It was ok to enter half way through a movie and then stay to rewatch the whole show again

-Memorable fires: the National Cafe, St. Andrews church and Joyner’s Dept. store

That’s my trip down memory lane....

—

Song of the Day

[elancholia]

Of course, this is all happening around the summer solstice. In Slavic culture, this is the most auspicious possible season for coup attempts, when the god Perun favors

[elancholia]

Tired: The Roman Empire was the Western China. The big question is why the Mediterranean Basin and Western Europe did not (as China did) remain a coherent polity in the long term once the initial Imperial continuity was broken, despite the linguistic and religious unity of the Empire and the enduring cultural strength of the Latin tradition.

Wired: the western China was the great Sumero-Akkadian cultural continuity of Near Eastern paramount kingship, marginalised by the Roman era, but finally laid to rest only by the Arab conquest.

[elancholia]

Joe Biden’s public live burial of a dog at that campaign rally was actually a deeply spiritual act, sensitive to the Ancient North Eurasian motif of the dog as keeper of the underworld, intermediary between life and death, and scapegoated absorber of sin and sickness. Parallel expressions of this impulse include the ancient Slavic dog-burials associated with the Iron Age Wielbark Culture and also found at various sites in Pomerania, the live mass-burial of dogs as sacrifices in Shang Dynasty tombs, and (of course) the myth of Cerberus. Don’t disrespect what you don’t understand.

[elancholia]

Conceptual link between Lenin and the pharaohs: the chodetee.

lenins big forward-jutting beard is kinda... sexual. didya ever think about that. kinda penile. like o_O sir put that thing away hehheh. or dont.

[elancholia]

With millions across America questioning the president's suitability for office in the wake of his recent debate performance and current illness, the Democratic Party faces a critical choice. While there are no easy options, one course of action has clear potential to rescue Biden 2024 and keep Trump out of the White House — but it has seen little play in the mainstream press.

Some, both within and outside of the party, may have misgivings — especially given how well dogs poll in the Rust Belt — but restoring the ancient customs of the Bronze Age has historically been a key driver of turnout for Democrats and Republicans alike across much of the Upper Midwest and in swing states like Pennsylvania. What's become clear in recent weeks is that the electorate hungers for more. The electorate hungers for the customs and rituals of the Mal'ta–Buret' culture of Upper Paleolithic Siberia. The electorate hungers for dog burial.

It was these rituals, quiet and haphazard though they may have been, which allowed President Biden to defeat Trump in 2020, rescuing our democracy. Furthermore, savvy, agile candidates like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., desperate to curry favor with the cthonic deities so near and dear to voters in Ohio and across America's agricultural heartland, have already adumbrated the terrible outlines of this design. But Joe Biden has always been a risk-taker, a man who will go above, beyond, and below — deep below — to bring home real wins for all Americans.

This idea shines especially in light of our president's recent contraction of COVID-19. The dog, with its infinite capacity to absorb illness, bad fortune, and looming death, offers a solution unattainable to conventional medicine.

It would also avoid the dire missteps and wrongheaded ideas currently circulating on social media and in the feverish atmosphere of D.C. Should we sacrifice him as an instantiation of Frazier's priest-king, as my esteemed colleagues in Politico and Current Affairs have recently suggested? No. The dog must journey to the underworld in his place, reaffirm the boundary between life and death by crossing it, and restore the cosmic order — and the soul of our nation.

Joe Biden’s public live burial of a dog at that campaign rally was actually a deeply spiritual act, sensitive to the Ancient North Eurasian motif of the dog as keeper of the underworld, intermediary between life and death, and scapegoated absorber of sin and sickness. Parallel expressions of this impulse include the ancient Slavic dog-burials associated with the Iron Age Wielbark Culture and also found at various sites in Pomerania, the live mass-burial of dogs as sacrifices in Shang Dynasty tombs, and (of course) the myth of Cerberus. Don’t disrespect what you don’t understand.

[elancholia]

On this fateful day, we must recall that our future president calls upon us not only to exist in the context — but to exist as what can be, unburdened by what has been. In this vast and pluripotent expression, the Kamallenium promises many things — in fact, all things — for, like the Net of Indra, Kamala's America is the sum not only of its infinite potentials but of the relation of every potential to every other potential. Every part within the whole, and the whole within every part.

All our nominee requires of us is an ecdysis, a transfiguration, a shedding of our finite past, limited as it is by the path-dependency of definite history, in favor of an infinity of potential futures, existing in eternal and perfect interrelation without compromise, reduction, or the limitations of causality. Many nominees offer to promote economic growth, foster individual liberty, or enhance America's stature on the world stage. Only Kamala — a candidate not only of all Americans, but of all possible Americans — offers everything.

Choose plenitude. Choose America. Choose the Kamallenium.

Are you ready to usher in a thousand years of Kamala? Are you prepared...for the Kamallenium?

[elancholia]

Alright.

Listen.

I see that ignorant slacktivists are once again using this cudgel to attack Our Fatigued Lord. So here? Here's a little PSA for them. Enjoy.

Joe Biden’s public live burial of a dog at that campaign rally was actually a deeply spiritual act, sensitive to the Ancient North Eurasian motif of the dog as keeper of the underworld, intermediary between life and death, and scapegoated absorber of sin and sickness. Parallel expressions of this impulse include the ancient Slavic dog-burials associated with the Iron Age Wielbark Culture and also found at various sites in Pomerania, the live mass-burial of dogs as sacrifices in Shang Dynasty tombs, and (of course) the myth of Cerberus. Don’t disrespect what you don’t understand.