The Butterfly Effect

The "butterfly effect", and term, is the work of Edward Lorenz,
and is based in Chaos Theory and sensitive dependence on initial conditions,
first described in the literature by Jacques Hadamard in 1890.

The idea that one butterfly could eventually have a far-reaching ripple effect on subsequent historic events seems first to have appeared in a 1952 short story by Ray Bradbury about time travel, but it was Lorenz
who made the term popular in 1961.

Lorenz was using a numerical computer model to rerun a weather prediction, when, he shortcut on a number in the sequence, and entered .506 instead of entering the full .506127 number the computer would hold.

The result was a completely different weather scenario.

Which caused quite a flap.

Lorenz published his findings in a 1963 paper for the New York Academy of Sciences and he noted;
"One meteorologist remarked that if the theory were correct, one flap of a seagull's wings could change the course of weather forever.". In later speeches and papers by Lorenz used the more poetic butterfly.

According to the actual theory, if history could be "changed" at all (so that one is not invoking something like the Novikov self- consistency principle which would ensure a fixed self-consistent timeline), the mere presence of the time travelers in the past would be enough to change short-term events and would also have an unpredictable
impact on the distant future.

Therefore, if one could travel into the past, they could never return to the same version of reality he or she had come from and could have therefore not been able to travel back in time in the first place, which would create a phenomenon referred to as a time paradox.

Chaos theory describes the behavior of certain dynamic systems – systems whose states evolve with time – that may exhibit dynamics that are highly sensitive to initial conditions

Chaotic behavior is also observed in natural systems, such as the weather...politics and the economy.

This may be explained by a chaos-theoretical analysis of a mathematical model of such a system, embodying the laws of physics that are relevant for the natural system.Turbulence in the tip vortex from an airplane wing shows the critical point beyond which a system creates turbulence which is important for Chaos theory, analyzed by Soviet physicist Lev Landau who developed the Landau-Hopf theory of turbulence.

The Chaordic Age, as coined by Dee Hock, refers to a system that blends characteristics of chaos and order.

The mix of chaos and order is described as a harmonious coexistence displaying characteristics of both, with neither chaos nor order behaving predominately. Some maintain that nature, and the universe, is largely organized in such a Chaordic manner; particularly, living organisms and the evolutionary process by which they arose are often described as chaordic in nature.

oh the chaordic turbulence we unwittingly incur.

Here's Looking at you Earth Day

Responding to a huge oil spill off the Californian coast in 1969, Gaylord Nelson, a United States Senator from Wisconsin, called for an environmental teach-in, or Earth Day, to be held on April 22, 1970.

Over 20 million people participated that year. Earth Day is now observed each year by more than 500 million people and national governments in 175 countries.

oh the irony given that, in September 1969 at a conference in Seattle, Washington, U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson spoke of the great concern about overpopulation and about a movement towards "Zero Population Growth."

Nelson viewed the stabilization of the nation's population as an important aspect of environmentalism and later said: "The bigger the population gets, the more serious the problems become...We have to address the population issue".

Earth Day 2007 was one of the largest Earth Days to date, with an estimated billion people participating in the activities in thousands of places like Kiev, Ukraine; Caracas, Venezuela; Tuvalu; Manila, Philippines; Togo; Madrid, Spain; London; and New York.

More than a half billion people participate in Earth Day Network campaigns every year.

Senator Nelson chose the date as the one that could maximize participation on college campuses for what he conceived as an environmental teach-in. He determined that the week of April 19-25 was the best bet. It did not fall during exams or spring breaks, did not conflict with religious holidays such as Easter or Passover, and was late enough in spring to have decent weather. More students were likely to be in class, and there would be less competition with other events mid-week, so he chose Wednesday, April 22.

Asked whether he had purposely chosen Lenin's 100th birthday, Nelson explained that with only 365 days a year and 3.7 billion people in the world, every day was the birthday of ten million living people.

“On any given day, a lot of both good and bad people were born,” he said. “A person many consider the world’s first environmentalist, Saint Francis of Assisi, was born on April 22.“

April 22 is also the birthday of Julius Sterling Morton, the founder of Arbor Day, a national tree-planting holiday started in 1872. Arbor Day became a legal holiday in Nebraska in 1885, to be permanently observed on April 22, to coincide with the best tree planting weather."

Butterflies are notable for their unusual life cycle with a larval caterpillar stage, an inactive pupal stage, and a spectacular metamorphosis into a familiar and colourful winged adult form.

Butterflies migrate over long distances. Particularly famous are the migration of the Monarch butterfly from Mexico to North America, a distance of about 4,000 to 4,800 kilometres (2500-3000 miles).

Other well known migratory species include the Painted Lady and several of the Danaine butterflies. Spectacular and large scale migrations associated with the Monsoons are seen in peninsular India.

Butterflies are seen as the personification of a person's soul. And symbolize immortality.

One Japanese superstition says that if a butterfly enters your guest room and perches behind the bamboo screen, the person whom you most love is coming to see you.

The Russian word for "butterfly", бабочка (bábochka), also means "bow tie".

In some old cultures, butterflies also symbolize rebirth into a new life after being inside a cocoon for a period of time.

The Earth, and every living thing upon it, would benefit if we all morphed meta-lly, like the butterfly, and lived with a light footprint, so as to strengthen the fragile and retain that which has taken literally eons to evolve and be, and marvel at how everything has come to be.

So get out there and hug the earth with your eyes and heart.

Wooden Post

So as not to splinter too far from the previous post...

On Kizhi Island, in Lake Onega, in Karelia, Russia is a work of wooden wonder, art & architecture.

With it's twenty-two Aspen wood spires, The Church of the Transfiguration was built in 1714,
and was only added to UNESCO's Heritage List in 1990.

The wooden church is a testament to man and Nature's capability, complexity, adaptability, beauty, harmony of form and function.

It defies every can't ever uttered.

It inspires, as only nature can.
Is there a better built environment to and for worship than with Nature's elements itself?

It stands as a symbol, without using a single nail.

The nature of wood, being wood, it has a penchant to disintegrate, so it has been a continual struggle for people to learn the ancient artisan's ways and replace the decaying wood before the structure [and people's] integrity is lost to time.

The most stunning image of this church I've seen was taken by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, in his book: Earth From Above. 366 Days. Sadly, it is neither of these photos, but I highly recommend Yann's photography. His are some of the most beautiful images, and locations to behold. Seek it. Find it.

If only to remind yourselves....to let your imagination soar, and look at the beauty that is all around.

Wooden Church & Easter Pysanky

I noticed a gorgeous wooden church from the road today, so took a detour to have a better look and learn more.

It was St. Elias Toronto Ukrainian Catholic Church a waaaaaay out on rural Heritage Road.

And, it turned out they were selling pysanky Saturday 12pm - 3pm!

In Eastern Europe

Elijah was described as ascending into heaven in a fiery chariot, the Christian missionaries who converted Slavic tribes likely found him an ideal analogy for Perun, the supreme Slavic god of storms, thunder and lightning bolts. In many Slavic countries Elijah is known as Elijah the Thunderer (Ilija Gromovnik), who drives the heavens in a chariot and administers rain and snow.

And, in Eastern-European folklore, Elijah is portrayed in his "Thunderer" persona:

It was said; Jesus, the prophet Elijah, and St. George were going through Georgia. When they became tired and hungry and wanted to eat. They saw a Georgian shepherd and decided to ask him to feed them. First, Elijah went up to the shepherd and asked him for a sheep. After the shepherd asked his identity, Elijah said that he was the one who sent him rain to get him a good profit from farming. The shepherd became angry at him and told him that he was the one who also sent thunderstorms, which destroyed the farms of poor widows. (After Elijah, Jesus and St. George made attempts to get help and eventually succeeded).

As in many ancient cultures, Ukrainians worshipped a sun god (Dazhboh). The sun was important - it warmed the earth and thus was a source of all life.

Eggs decorated with nature symbols became an integral part of spring rituals, serving as benevolent talismans.

A pysanka Ukrainian: писанка, plural: pysanky) is a Ukrainian Easter egg, decorated using a wax-resist (batik) method.

The word comes from the verb pysaty, "to write", as the designs are not painted on, but written with beeswax.

Pysanky were thought to protect households from evil spirits, catastrophe, lightning and fires.

The Hutsuls––Ukrainians who live in the Carpathian Mountains of western Ukraine––believe that the fate of the world depends upon the pysanka. As long as the egg decorating custom continues, the world will exist. If, for any reason, this custom is abandoned, evil––in the shape of a horrible serpent who is forever chained to a cliff–– will overrun the world. Each year the serpent sends out his minions to see how many pysanky have been created. If the number is low the serpent's chains are loosened and he is free to wander the earth causing havoc and destruction. If, on the other hand, the number of pysanky has increased, the chains are tightened and good triumphs over evil for yet another year.

Many other eastern Europeans, including the Belarusians (пісанка), Bulgarians (писано яйце, pisano yaytse), Serbs (pisanica), Czechs (kraslice), Lithuanians (margutis), Poles (pisanka), Romanians (ouă vopsite or incondeiate), Slovaks (kraslica), and Slovenes (pisanica or pirh) decorate eggs for Easter.

Happy Easter

Traditional & Modern Ukrainian Pysanky

All a Twitter

The streets of Chişinău Moldova were quiet Wednesday morning.

Protesters had left the scene of the rioting on Tuesday night, and police retook control of parliament.

But opposition leaders said protests would continue.

Vlad Filat, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, called the demonstrations
"a spontaneous action by protesting young people".

He said the opposition had tried to prevent excesses, like the attacks on parliament, but said:
"We are not scared of arrests or intimidation. The people do not want to live like this and want
to live free and without fear."

Word of the demonstrations was spread by text message, via the internet, and on social networking tools.

"We sent messages on Twitter but didn't expect 15,000 people to join in. At the most we expected 1,000," Oleg Brega, of the activist group Hyde Park told the Associated Press news agency.


In Moldova's general election on April 5, 2009 the Communist Party won 50% of the votes, followed by the Liberal Party with 13% of the votes and the Liberal Democratic Party with 12%. The opposition leaders have protested against the outcome calling it fraudulent and demanded a repeated election.

A report by OSCE said Sunday's vote was "generally free and fair".

However, one member of the OSCE observation team questioned that conclusion: Baroness Emma Nicholson said that she and a number of other team members feel that there had been some manipulation, but they were unable to find any proof.

But opposition leaders organized a protest demonstration on April 6 and 7, 2009, with thousands of young protesters in Chişinău, accusing the Communist government of electoral fraud.

The demonstration spun out of control and turned into a riot when a crowd attacked the parliament building and broke into the presidential offices, looting and setting them on fire.

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF MOLODVA
Adopted on the 29 th of July 1994

“The State of the Republic of Moldova
(1) The Republic of Moldova is a sovereign, independent, unitary and indivisible state.
(2) The form of government of the State is the republic.
(3) Governed by the rule of law, the Republic of Moldova is a democratic State…”

After 188 years of ink...

The Guardian Switches to Twitter (2009)

The Guardian announced it would become "the first newspaper in the world to be published exclusively via Twitter, the sensationally popular social networking service that has transformed online communication," thus rendering its printing presses obsolete. It also revealed an ongoing project to rewrite its entire news archive in the form of "tweets" (Twitter's text messages that are limited to 140 characters each).

Twitter switch for Guardian, after 188 years of ink

• Newspaper to be available only on messaging service
• Experts say any story can be told in 140 characters

Consolidating its position at the cutting edge of new media technology, the Guardian today announces that it will become the first newspaper in the world to be published exclusively via Twitter, the sensationally popular social networking service that has transformed online communication.

The move, described as "epochal" by media commentators, will see all Guardian content tailored to fit the format of Twitter's brief text messages, known as "tweets", which are limited to 140 characters each. Boosted by the involvement of celebrity "twitterers", such as Madonna, Britney Spears and Stephen Fry, Twitter's profile has surged in recent months, attracting more than 5m users who send, read and reply to tweets via the web or their mobile phones.

As a Twitter-only publication, the Guardian will be able to harness the unprecedented newsgathering power of the service, demonstrated recently when a passenger on a plane that crashed outside Denver was able to send real-time updates on the story as it developed, as did those witnessing an emergency landing on New York's Hudson River. It has also radically democratised news publishing, enabling anyone with an internet connection to tell the world when they are feeling sad, or thinking about having a cup of tea.

"[Celebrated Guardian editor] CP Scott would have warmly endorsed this - his well-known observation 'Comment is free but facts are sacred' is only 36 characters long," a spokesman said in a tweet that was itself only 135 characters long.

A mammoth project is also under way to rewrite the whole of the newspaper's archive, stretching back to 1821, in the form of tweets. Major stories already completed include "1832 Reform Act gives voting rights to one in five adult males yay!!!"; "OMG Hitler invades Poland, allies declare war see tinyurl.com/b5x6e for more"; and "JFK assassin8d @ Dallas, def. heard second gunshot from grassy knoll WTF?"

Sceptics have expressed concerns that 140 characters may be insufficient to capture the full breadth of meaningful human activity, but social media experts say the spread of Twitter encourages brevity, and that it ought to be possible to convey the gist of any message in a tweet.

For example, Martin Luther King's legendary 1963 speech on the steps of the Lincoln memorial appears in the Guardian's Twitterised archive as "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by", eliminating the waffle and bluster of the original.

At a time of unprecedented challenge for all print media, many publications have rushed to embrace social networking technologies. Most now offer Twitter feeds of major breaking news headlines, while the Daily Mail recently pioneered an iPhone application providing users with a one-click facility for reporting suspicious behaviour by migrants or gays. "In the new media environment, readers want short and punchy coverage, while the interactive possibilities of Twitter promise to transform the online media guru Jeff Jarvis said in a tweet yesterday, before reaching his 140-character limit, which includes spaces. According to subsequent reports, he is thinking about going to the theatre tonight, but it is raining :(.

A unique collaboration between The Guardian and Twitter will also see the launch of Gutter, an experimental service designed to filter noteworthy liberal opinion from the cacophony of Twitter updates. Gutter members will be able to use the service to comment on liberal blogs around the web via a new tool, specially developed with the blogging platform WordPress, entitled GutterPress.

Currently, 17.8% of all Twitter traffic in the United Kingdom consists of status updates from Stephen Fry, whose reliably jolly tone, whether trapped in a lift or eating a scrumptious tart, has won him thousands of fans. A further 11% is made up of his 363,000 followers replying "@stephenfry LOL!", "@stephenfry EXACTLY the same thing happened to me", and "@stephenfry Meanwhile, I am making myself an omelette! Delicious!"

According to unconfirmed rumours, Jim Buckmaster, the chief executive of Craigslist, will next month announce plans for a new system of telepathy-based social networking that is expected to render Twitter obsolete within weeks.

April Fool.