Oh damn, still in this dream.

Not sure if user error or not. The AA are coming to check it over. I hope it’s not a fuel problem. I put the requisite £30 on Friday and drove for a bit. Pretty sure I didn’t misfuel it, but... and it has been not idling properly on and off for a while; normally after I have refuelled. I’m beginning to wonder if some supplies of petroleum spirit are slightly, er, um, adulterated. Of course if it turns out the fuel tank is full of diesel it is definitely user error, else it points to some other problem in the car, or externalities. I await the verdict of the experts. Of course if it is user error I will start thinking that cognitive decline is approaching; and double-checking myself on all accounts. Here’s hoping I’m not headed for dementia quite yet; that would have left me such a small window for intellectual activity of a level appropriate to my ego.

Oh well. That any of us lose our cognitive abilities at any time is a tragedy. Give me a couple of thousand years of existence and I will eventually understand how great Ramanujan was, or Gödel. I have an inkling of how great Wittgenstein was in a slightly different field; and Shakespeare in another; and Goethe, and Homer, et al ad infinitum. And we lost them without much fuss.

But when it comes to losing yourself while still living; I would not lose myself, given a choice. Indeed, if given a choice, in such circumstances, I would find the ideal balance between enjoying life, being independent within reason, and the descent into imbecility; with the option to end the process quickly and painlessly at any point along the paths, even on a whim; and fold myself into the embrace of the infinite before the drawing of a veil over my brief period of lucidity.

I’m not sure what any of the organised religions would say about that attitude. I suspect they would excommunicate me had I been a member of any of them. I was born into the Catholic faith but found it impossible to continue in it beyond my teens, though some of the church’s prejudices remained with me longer, to my shame.

Methinks Omega is of an order of magnitude only appreciable to the arithmeticians of infinity. So I guess Georg Cantor is a prophet who unlocked some of the secrets of the multiverse and the universe in which we find ourselves. Mapping the shape and size of the potential/possible god is such a presumptuous thing to do I’m surprised we are allowed to exist... mind you if I were god I’d have given Georg a handclap and merit-badge rather than the short existence he had, poor lad. I guess to make up for that, this universe did contain Bach, so Omega may not be entirely beyond redemption.

To be Manichæistic should be the default position of existence; for we should hold our gods to account.

update:

According to the AA guy it is one of the car’s head gaskets. I didn’t misfuel. Not demented yet.

As an update Prof Jones discussed the problems he comes across when teaching students with Islamic backgrounds. 

"To a man and to a woman, there are parts of science they will not accept. 
That means that, in their early lives, they have been told deliberate lies by people who, I'm sure, know they are deliberate lies. I don't care how charming they are, I don't care how pleasant they are, these people are evil."

Now to my mind, these islamic folk ain't the only ones who can't belive in science either. Vide fundamentalist Christianity, who also go around inculcating their kids with nonsense in the name of faith.

For some reason or other this makes me happy.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070526/sc_nm/usa_museum_dc_2;_ylt=Ai8RCQ2ge90mxOTtjIyqq8GEDvII


At least the lines are being drawn and now we all know where we stand.
The non-rational can no longer use Gödel's incompleteness I & II as an excuse.
There is just no way that in an universal flood, a representative breeding pair of every known species in the world could have fitted onto a small boat the dimensions of which are laid out in Genesis. (450ft long with a gross volume of some 1.5 million feet, considerably less than required to have repopulated the world with reasonable genetic diversity after the deluge.) One also wonders how the exotic species that exist only in locations hugely distant from the ark could have made a journey across oceans and continents. How do the wombats manage to travel to get into the Ark? Or the Koalas, or the Possums. Never mind. I'm not entirely certain that specimens of every land based arthropod could be fitted into such a small space, but...I'm sure someone will prove me wrong.

The evening when we English Catholics (extremely lapsed in my case) traditionally feel somewhat excluded. Either we can celebrate along with our Proddy fellow-countrymen, by burning poor old Fawkes in effigy, and lighting enough fireworks to fill every A&E unit in the nation, whilst simultaneously secretly wishing that Guy had succeeded and the houses of Parliament had been blown to smithereens, or we can ignore the whole sordid episode.
Notwithstanding global warming, I like bonfires and fireworks. And, actually, am none too proud of my Catholic heritage - most of the time the Church were Fascist murderers anyway*, whether they admit it or not. So might go and light a sparkler or two, deplore the need for violence and torture, and then drink some beer, as I am single and there's no one to complain about it.

Might have to take The Old Man to hospital today. He's not any better really. I've never known him so weak and low. Wish I had some sort of magic wand to wave to make things better. Fingers crossed that it's only temporary.

A singer chum of mine has been on the 'phone pouring out her tales of woe. I will admit it's not just women who treat chaps unfairly, most chaps seem to need a horsewhipping as well. ARgh...other people, as Sartre opined. Whatever happened to honour? (But why does she still emote over the little shit? We do have some tendancy to caress the hand that beats us, but honestly...)
I think I sympathise with Dante's profane lovers: despite their self-dramatising, they at least treated each other with love and courtesy.
I'll take TS Eliot to the hospital and continue trying to get 'Little Gidding' by heart to crown a lifetime's effort, or whatever.

Not enough practice and too many spliffs.
Damn.


* e.g.
The 1st Crusade and the Massacre of Jerusalem
The 2nd Crusade
The 3rd Crusade
The 4th Crusade and the sacking of Constantinople
The Albigensian Crusade and the Cathar Extermination (Which was more complete than the Nazi's final solution - not a single Cathar escaped with their life.)
The Inquisitions (which is a whole set of chapters listing the crimes, not detailing them)
Alexander VI and his ilk
The burning of heretics (which is all Protestants, as well as any other heretics that could be found - old women with warts, for example)
Galileo
etc etc.