English: The dying language

I am convinced ever and ever more that English is a dying language, perhaps nearly as dead as Latin itself.

If one now takes a moment to read from the pages of the 19th century or before, he can barely recognize the syntax as his own - for it is not his own. English in our time has been reduced to little more than a never ending succession of colloquialisms, and the grip of death has pervaded even the literature of our time.

The last two works of fiction which I have spent time in, or am now doing, were a stunning example of this. One, actually, was quite brilliant. But it was written from the mind of a young genius who not only understands the language of times past but has a grasp on time and tense that few speakers of the English language will ever know (his name, for the curious, is Akiva Israel).

The other is a popular science fiction novel (perhaps you've heard of it - Monster). Although the story is engaging and the heart can be felt pounding while reading it, the language is, but with a few exceptions, uninspiring.

Where have the days gone when reporting even the dark times of war was an exercise in art, rather than a terse recitation of facts? That is not to say that the facts are not present, but that their description need not be an exercise in mediocrity.

I was reading the account of the grandson of John Quincy Adam's as he told of his haunting experiences in the battle of Gettysburg, when my dad brought me one of the most amazing and disturbing first-hand accounts written by a soldier who would be killed before the end of the war (but who survived, amazingly, Gettysburg).

What follows is a brief excerpt - a witness against those who claim to use the English language but fail to ever scrape the edge of the depths of its efficaciousness in stirring the human soul.


"Who can describe such a conflict as is raging around us?

To say that it was like a summer storm, with the crash of thunder, the glare of lightning, the shrieking of the wind, and the clatter of hailstones, would be weak. The thunder and lightning of these two hundred and fifty guns and their shells, whose smoke darkness the sky, are incessant, all pervading, in the air above our heads, on the ground at our feet, remote, near, deafening, ear-piercing, astounding; and these hailstones are massy iron, charged with exploding fire. And there is little of human interest in a storm; it is an absorbing element of this. You may see flame and smoke, and hurrying men, and human passion at a great conflagration; but they are all early and nothing more.

These guns are great infuriate demons, not of the earth, whose mouths blaze with smoky tongues of living fire, and whose murky breath, sulphur-laden, rolls around them and along the ground, the smoke of Hades. These grimy men, rushing, shouting, their souls in frenzy, plying the dusky globes and the igniting spark, are in their league, and but their willing ministers.

... The shells swoop down among the battery horses standing there apart. A half a dozen horses start, they stumble, their legs stiffen, their vitals and blood smear the ground. And these shot and shells have no respect for men either. We see the poor fellows... pale and weak, lying on the ground with the mangled stump of an arm or leg, dripping their life-blood away; or with a cheek torn open, or a shoulder mashed. And many, alas! hear not the roar as they stretch upon the ground with upturned faces and open eyes... Their ears and their bodies this instant are only mud. We saw them but a moment since there among the flame..."


[This was written by Frank Aretas Haskell shortly after the battle in a private letter to his brother - a heart-pounding and honest account of what went on from the eye of someone there. I've bolded the portion of the text seen here.]

-Matt

My posh little girlfriend... and me...

It seems nuts. For like the last 2 months I've done so little photography. But it doesn't even bother me that much, because... (giant surprise), I'm kinda head over heels for my best friend, my girlfriend Ivy. Some of you know what that's like - your favorite person occupies your thoughts and your time so much that the rest of the world doesn't matter.

Well, life continues nonetheless with a few vestiges of its primordial nature... The cool part is that both of us are photographers. Although I had helped her out on a shoot last year, before we were seeing each other, as she hobbled along on crutches after a friendly bump from a car (hey - I didn't hit her!), and though she had modeled for me once, we'd never shot together before.

Awesomeness = we finally got to shoot yesterday and it rocked. We then got to hit up an awesome little coffee shop and work on photos, so of course I had the camera gear with me and... hmm..

Incredibly cute girlfriend, crazy modern asian coffee house, pretty good lighting... hmmm...

...oh, and maybe a slightly buzzing head loaded on a "20 degrees below" chocolate smoothie.



So I'm running around this place completely oblivious to anybody else there (thankfully it wasn't really busy), putting a wireless flash on random tables and trying to find just the right spot to shoot my amazing Ivy from.

And then she takes my 50mm f1.4, turns the camera around on me, and BOOM... has to show off her insane composition skills.

Yup. Ivy and I make a team. To re-write the techno-pop song "we rock, we rock, we rock the party..." Even with cameras in our hands :P


Ok... I think I'll sign out now and grab some pop tarts.

-Matt

Me and Ivy... or Ivy and I... however you say that.

Man. She is a photographer, I am a photographer, she's super amazing looking, I'm... well, she's super amazing looking, so you'd think we'd take some awesome shots of the two of us. But we haven't yet (I do have some rocking shots of her though!).

Just the kind of little crummy snapshots that I swore an oath never to take.

Funny how that works. I just want to show off my amazing, funny, beautiful girlfriend so badly that I've now resorted to jacking one of the snapshots that we took with her camera.


What has happened to me... the fact that I'm blogging something taken with a point-and-shoot snapped at arms length instead of with an SLR, lens, radio triggers, strobes, and a softbox proves yet again how melted I am...

-Matt

What has happened? Oh, a new cell too...

So if I ever did have any faithful blog readers, they're probably all gone now. I know, no blogging sucks... It seems that every blog, even my favorite blogs from other photographers, goes through this stage... Now even I, who once promised to blog every day.

Anyway. I have actually had more print orders to process in the last 2 weeks than ever, but I've taken a break from new shoots as of recent. Don't worry though - I'll get back to it.

By the way, I've finally changed cell numbers: so scratch the oldie and put in this if you need to call...

(972) 822-4201


-Matt

Obama quote of the day...

I always love it when politicians, trying to sound religious, make complete idiots out of themselves by trying to refer to the Bible...

"You know, when Moses was first called to lead people out of the Promised Land…the Lord said I will be with you."
- Barack Obama, from his campaign site on his faith

I must have missed this part every time I've read the account... Last time I checked Moses never did lead the people out of the promised land - he lead them out of slavery actually.

But maybe Obama's plan is to lead his country out of the promised land.

Oh well.

-Matt

... from the reading room: Science and Religion

Yeah.

My first time to sit down in at least 6 weeks and read some intense philosophy of science and religion... haven't written on the subject in some time so now my brain's gotta blow up on a page for you to stare at.

For those of you who don't know me really well, I like atheists. They are some pretty cool people (ok, some of them aren't, but that goes for any group of humans) because of the perspective they bring to the table. So I get pretty annoyed at Christians who make up total bovine excrement and get away with it by thriving in their little "christian" bubble.

Case in point?

"Scripture never claims to be authoritative except in the area of faith and morals...

His [that is, God's] employment of ancient history and science as if it were really true is a gracious accommodation to the Israelites' limited knowledge.

God accommodated it [ancients' false scientific beliefs] as such for their sakes... Since our knowledge falsifies this history, we should let it go and retain only the lessons of faith and morals it was designed to teach. ... in Genesis 1-11... the scientific and historical data came from human sources."*

Now, if the bovine excrement is not yet readily apparent, I will clarify for you from my handy-dandy, matter of fact atheist's helmet.

Why in the world would you be stupid enough to bet your life's dedication and alleged eternal existence on a book that sells FALSE information as if it is true?

In case the theologians have made it too complex for you, I'll simplify. The Bible says "in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth." It uses context that explicitly implies these were normal length days (from the earth's reference frame, at minimum), and it repeats this claim multiple times.

If it wanted to say "making the earth took billions of years" it could have said about a hundred thousand things other than "in six days" it was made. Difficult? No.

So if you have falsified the book's claims, dump the religion! It's obviously crap!

But alas, our nice neighborhood theologian (actually a Westminster graduate), tells us here that we can believe our comfortable, nice little religion, as long as it only directs our morality and faith. Even though apparently the sourcebook on the issues of faith and morality was written by someone who couldn't master the basics of communication.

Well, good luck on selling your BS to Christians.

The rest of the world isn't dumb enough to want to believe in a book that has been falsified.

-Matt

*Paul Seely, read his "academic" article in the journal "Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith" if you are reeeeeaaaalllly desperate for reading material. Or if the sight of chickens with their heads cut off running around confusedly in pouring rain is entertaining to you.

Whew... done with math...

So yeah.

(*I really need to figure out a better way to start off blog articles than "so yeah"*)

I am officially done studying math at the undergraduate level, as of about 4 hours ago. Basically.

I attended my last classes today in completion of my major requirements, so all that is left to do for this calendar year is take a couple more physics courses and wrap up some general studies requirements.

So what do I do to celebrate? Well, sadly my genius girlfriend had to go tutor some... less genius people, so I got left here by myself... Anyway, instead of going home and working on print orders (which I still plan to do in half an hour - just in case my customers are reading!!), I decided to do something wild and crazy...

Go to the library and read up on world news, politics, and science and religion.

I have such an exciting life... ;)

-Matt

21

Not the movie.

Me.

Crazy to think that I've survived life on a tiny blue speck flinging through space for over 7500 days now.

I see I haven't blogged in a week and a half... I can't be entirely to blame. I've had a kind of super exciting week, aside from studying a certain math topic that I'm not entirely too fond of (yes, there's math I don't enjoy as much), and it's now Friday and I get to chill with a bunch of friends as the year dial goes to the big 30 (base 7).

Hmm... so what does it feel like to finally be an adult? Not sure. I'll let you know when I start thinking and acting like one ;)

As a side note, it's been... interesting not shooting much lately. Two weeks ago the weather killed an e-session, a week ago an experimental session didn't happen (though I got to scout some locations for some production images with author Chris Vitatoe), and I did get to shoot some concert images on Sunday but those have yet to be processed... Sorry if your mouth is getting dry for photography!

-Matt

.... Darn. Ok, so I tried getting through the blog without saying anything. But it didn't work. I have to. Somehow I just snagged the single most brilliant, attractive person on the planet... So if I'm taken away from blogging as often as I'd like, I hereby blame my amazing girlfriend for being a worthy distraction.

Of Colors and Shapes, of Letters and Numbers

So I've picked my copy of "Born on a Blue Day" back up again.

I could go on about the amazing content for a long time, tonight I will not, but just scratch down a few thoughts.

Daniel says:

"Other language scientists have noted that some of the structural features of many words not normally associated with any function, such as initial phoneme groups, have a noticeable effect on the reader/listener. For example, for sl- there is: slack, slouch, sludge, slime, slosh, sloppy, slug, slut, slang, sly, slow, sloth, sleepy, slipshod, slovenly, slum, slobber, slur, slog... where all these words have negative connotations and some are particularly pejorative."

I suppose what I'm curious about is how we derived these linguistic "norms." It is almost like the way in which we think that a deep gurgling sound of any type originating from the throat sounds rude, yet any form of humming reflects lightheartedness. Why?

And something similar with numbers. Have you ever noticed that some numbers feel sharp, some feel round, and some seem just sort of... awkward?

Take the number 3. It is kind of round. But 4 is flat, and 5 is sharp.

6 is kind of round again, as is 9, perhaps because they are made of 3's.

But 7 is sharp and lonely.

It seems almost all the multiples of two are flat - like cards stacked on each other, but some are less flat because they have other numbers in them (like 36 - which is round because it has six 6's in it, which are of course round by themselves).

I want to be handsome like 7. But not sharp and lonely...

-Matt

Profound thought of the day...

... courtesy of Ryan Austin Dean.

"We think a college diploma is more necessary than an education (think about that one)."

For those of you who don't know me, I work at the university where I study. I get to hear the kind of immaturity that modern college "students" bring to the table, and it's sickening.

You should hear students complaining about a course that is already so easy a junior high student from the 1950's could pass, saying that it is way too hard and totally unfair. Seriously? In some of the physical science labs I've worked in, I've had students who can't do math that I was taught in the 7th or 8th grade (not patting my own back here - it was really that simple of math).

Ryan's statement highlights a serious, serious, disgusting, sickening (ok, ok, enough adjectives) problem in modern education. It's a rubber stamp.

Now that everyone thinks everyone deserves a good education, and blames "the system" if they don't get their diploma/degree, we feel compelled to hand out free diplomas and feel guilty for punishing a student who doesn't deserve one. I have a friend (used to take physics classes with him - great, friendly, intelligent guy) who started teaching high school after graduation, only to discover parents were fiercely angry when "he failed" their kid for refusing to do any homework, any studying, or even give any effort in any class. Study? I have to study for my diploma? I deserve my diploma!

Sadly college used to separate the kids from the adults, but not anymore. Now we get college students who think that if they pay their tuition money, they deserve a passing grade in a class.

Education means you tried. When you stop trying and still have a piece of paper showing you got an education then, well, we're all in trouble.

-Matt

Faktion

I'm weird. I'm on like a "music recommending" binge.

So here's the latest. Like good guitar intros?

Check the track "Maybe" by Faktion.

Oh, and they're from Dallas too. Which makes them even cooler.

-Matt

Another 10,000 BC plug

Ok.

So I like good music. One of my friends continues to make fun of me for how I would have enjoyed 10,000 BC even if it had been a black screen the entire time, as long as the soundtrack was still playing. That might be just slightly true.

Anyway, my music recommendation of the week is "The End" track from the 10,000 BC soundtrack. In.cred.i.ble. Period.

Sample it here.

-Matt

Time Travel

I was recently asked a question about time travel by an acquaintance I'd met at a philosophy conference a little while back, so it spurred me to pen down a bit of an exploration of the topic (besides, I've been needing to get back to mulling over science more!).

Time travel is, of course, one of those tantalizingly cool-sounding science fiction topics. The really tantalizing part is where we ask if it could actually happen or not. We will consider two cases: time travel into the past, and time travel into the future. In each case you will see that some pretty insane contradictions come to light.

Before discussing time travel, it is important to understand that causality is normally understood in a unidirectional, linear fashion. To show you what that means, think about cause and effect working like this:

A>B>C

where A causes B which causes C, and where A comes before B which comes before C. (Of course an event may be caused by an "event set" constituting multiple causal antecedents - but this is still a form of linear causality).

So we have a couple important notions here: namely, that an effect must be temporally preceded by its cause, and that the necessary and sufficient causal chain must be in place before an effect can occur. In other words, C couldn't happen before its cause B happened (duh, right?), and if both A and B hadn't happened then C would never have occurred (because if A didn't happen, B wouldn't have existed to cause C).


Ok, now to the time travel part. If you were to travel back into time, it would mean that you would be plopped down in the middle of an earlier sequence of causal events. Now picture causal history like the alphabet, ok:

A>B>C>D>E>F>G>H>I>J>K>L>M>N>O>P>Q>R>S>T>U>V>W>X>Y>Z

Let's say that "right now" (the present) is the letter M. So you now want to experience the past, so you'll jump into the earlier history of the chain - say between B and C. Now we've got two problems; for one thing, you're actually preceding a number of your own causes, so you're violating linear causality. For another, if you in any way remove a necessary causal antecedent from the causal chain then the necessary and sufficient cause for your existence is removed and you can't exist. Which of course would be a problem, seeing as how you are in existence to remove yourself from existence.

Paradoxical, eh?

One can take the second problem a lot further, a preliminary analysis would seem to indicate, using a statistical approach. If we suppose that the universe continues to exist indefinitely in the future, and that there is a nonzero (meaning some real, even if very tiny) probability that time travel will be accomplished, and that there is a nonzero probability that such time travel will causally interfere with your very existence, then you will necessarily not exist at some point.

But more fundamentally, the second point is moot. The violation of linear causality in and of itself is sufficient to deny such travel. In fact, you cannot return to a previous state of the universe because by doing so, your very presence makes it a different state.

To approach the topic from an even more basic point: how do we even know, normally, that time has passed? Entropy. The increase in disorder. We are hardwired, in fact, to recognize it. If you saw the ice in your cup actually form itself into an ice cube in the middle of a warm room, rather than melt from an ice cube into a puddle, you would instantly recognize the difference. If an egg "undropped" from thousands of pieces on the floor into a perfectly solid egg again, sitting on the counter, you'd notice. We call this refusal of nature to decrease in entropy the "2nd Law of Thermodynamics."

So time travel, the transition from a present state to a prior state, would actually let you see an ice cube unmelt, an egg unbreak, and the 2nd LOT would quite simply be violated. And we can't have that.

Now consider the case for forwards time travel. Say, again, that the present is stage M. Now you want to jump down between the last two stages, Y and Z. But here's the problem - the whole N>O>P>Q>R>S>T>U>V>W>X part of the causal chain has not yet occurred! This means that Y and Z cannot be happening yet, because their necessary causal antecedents are not in place, or else you've violated the "necessary and sufficient" condition for causality.

So there you have it. Time travel doesn't happen.

Lastly, though, I will offer a glimmer of hope for those of you willing to accept the next best thing. If you are familiar with a little upper-level physics, you may be aware that time passage is dependent upon the reference frame of the observer.

There are a few ways to actually make time pass at different rates in different reference frames. For example, a reference frame traveling at high speeds will experience time less rapidly than a reference frame sitting still; similarly, a reference frame in a small gravitational field will experience time passage more rapidly than one in a deep gravitational field. As crazy as that may sound, both cases have been experimentally demonstrated using atomic clocks (besides being theoretically sound).

So do you want to time travel? Figure out how far in the future you want to see, then engineer a rocket that will propel you near the speed of light in a deep gravitational field without killing you. Let time fly by as fast and long as necessary, then decelerate yourself and come back to that reference frame and say hi to the future.

The trick is that it is actually the present - you just aged little enough to have survived to see it by distancing yourself from that reference frame.

As for getting to the past, well, good luck with that. If we all stop existing I'll then promptly apologize for being wrong...

-Matt

The Ainu

I am intrigued and saddened by yet another lesson taught, though perhaps too late, by history.

The Japanese people got to the "Japanese" islands a long, long time ago. But there were people there before them.

The Ainu had their own culture, their own religion lead by their own chiefs, their own dress, and their own language and dialects. They looked, spoke, and lived differently than the late comers we now know as the Japanese.

Sadly, it seems somehow to always be the portion of great early explorers that their sons and daughters should be mistreated by those from the older world who come at a later time, and so it was too with the Ainu on the arrival of the Japanese people. They were discriminated against, expelled from their lands, and even had their language outlawed at one time.

The "great" civilization that would move in to replace and eventually assimilate them had little idea that the language they sought to kill held in it the true secrets of the early history of the Japanese islands, and now it appears there are fewer than 20 surviving humans who speak the language fluently.

There are still thousands of Ainu descendants left, but like so many other peoples it seems they too may disappear into the melting pot of their nation's new inhabitants, as is already evident in the loss of their language. To this day many Japanese have some Ainu in their lineage, but parents did not always want to reveal this in order to avoid subsequent discrimination.

This is my poke in your arm to remember that nearly 3 out of every 4 indigenous people in the entire Earth are not just from lost tribes in the Americas or in the Australia/New Zealand islands, but are in the Asia/Pacific Island region. Thousands of years of completely distinct history is dropping dead, being pushed into the oceans, and being absorbed into the machine of 21st century culture, and we can't even know what we are loosing.

I am reminded of the dozens upon dozens of languages that this very continent has lost in the last half millennium, and the many more that we are about to lose. Within a few years the words of the Serrano, the words of the Kalapuya, and the words of the Eyak will be heard no more. For the first time, languages spoken for untold many seasons will simply cease to have breath. And just like the small, dried leaf that falls to into the water when the wind has died down, so too will the testament of these people forever disappear beneath the surface.

And I will weep for what is lost to ignorance.

-Matt

Glisten.

It's the name of the band I'm listening to right now.

I have to say the track "the Last Blueshift" is insane.

I looooove instrumental pieces like this that just roll and roll. It's awesome. Go to their page and listen to it now.

-Matt

P.S. I have this insanely AWESOME track from Haste the Day on my mp3 player right after it, I almost mess my pants everytime I let it play right after the Glisten track because of the awesome intro (think roar). Try listening to the Glisten track all the way through and then listen to "Substance" here (last track on this page) and tell me what a nice transition that is ;)