Heat vs. Cold/Good vs. Evil
We recently went through a time where we didn’t get above freezing for over a week and our apartment uses radiators so at night it can get a bit cold. But that’s the way Krista and I like it. We love to snuggle under warm covers. However the other night, the covers weren’t good enough so Krista put an extra blanket over me (I married a good one!). In the morning, Krista made the comment that that extra blanket really puts out the heat. That’s when the physics brain in me kicked off and I immediate explained to her that the blanket doesn’t actually generate heat but it retains heat and that this blanket did that particularly well. At that moment, a cold wind blew in from her direction.
But this got me thinking about how the term “cold” is a relative term. How 32 degrees F (0 C) is “cold” compared to our body temperature of 98.6 F (37 C) but 32 degrees F (0 C) is much “warmer” than the -90 F (-67.8 C) that was the recorded low in Siberia. “Heat” however is an absolute term. There’s just heat and then there’s less heat or there’s more heat. Then there’s the term of “absolute zero” which is the removal of all heat and now that’s COLD as nothing can be relatively colder!
Now from there that got me to thinking about the terms “Good” and “Evil”. I think sometimes that people think that “good” is a relative term. Read more >>
The Crisis of Credit
The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.
Thanks to Matt for showing me this video. It really helped me understand how we got into this economic mess although I think that these things were happening before 9/11 and the dot-com bust as I remember being pre-approved for an almost $200,000 loan when we were just trying to figure out how we were going to pay for a $139,000 loan back in 1997. The loan officer’s answer was that we do all this credit maneuvering that I almost felt like we’d have to go back to college to get a degree in loan management before we could make it work. Luckily, we just bought a cheaper house and it worked out for us.
One thing I do think this video shows is that everyone in this financial circle was at fault. So when these times pass (and they will pass!), how will you be thinking about where your money is invested or how you spend it?
Village Fireballs
The red line is a fire ball being shot down the hill
Tonight as I was coming home from hanging out with some friends, I noticed there were big bonfires happening up on the hill behind our apartment. I knew this was coming as its a tradition every year. This last week ended the celebrations of Fausnacht (similar to Carnival or Mardis Gras) in our area and this next week begins the time of Lent. Therefore tradition in our small town of Kandern has it that there’s a big party up on the hill over looking the town where they take logs, on fire, and throw them towards the town in hopes of scaring evil spirits out of the town.
Now, I don’t think these flames flowing through the air are going to scare any evil spirits but they do put a little scare into me as my place is in the direction that they are throwing these things. Now in the old days, they could barely get the glowing logs past the clearing that is below their launching point but today they are using some pretty good equipment and I’m seeing them hit some good distance. Luckily, those that are getting really serious distance (the kind that really could start hitting houses like ours) have altered their trajectories and are going into the side valley where the sheep are the only moving targets. I have a feeling as the more beer is drunk, the funnier they will think that is.
I’m not sure why this tradition is still honored as I don’t think anybody up there really believes that are getting rid of evil spirits in town (yet some might but not like it as we do have witches in town – yes, they really do believe they have special powers) but I think the idea of drinking beer and playing with fire is the primary reason. Well, just wanted to share with you some of our life here in Germany. Anything like this happen in your neck of the woods?
Here is a little perspective of the how close the fires are