Skip to main content

She was good at playing abstract confusion in the same way that a midget is good at being short.


The gang is all here! Argyle Street, Hobart. February 2012.

Maybe I posted this on Theme Thursday to get a REACTION. My face is so rarely seen on this here blog that it usually causes a flurry of judgements, whispers and swoons belly-laughs.

Yet that little internal conversation set me thinking (understandably) about the third of Newton's laws of motion. You know, the one about how forces occur in pairs. Actio et reactio. "Every action is accompanied by a REACTION of equal magnitude but opposite direction."

So then I wanted to write it down. First, I thought that it looks like this:
Action → REACTION


But then I thought that it might be better expressed like this:
Action ↔ REACTION


That is not right though. Therefore, I thought that it must be.
Action → REACTION ↔ REACTION


However, even that does not seem right. Ultimately, I have settled for:
Action → REACTION ↔ REACTION ↔ REACTION ↔ REACTION ↔ REACTION ↔ REACTION [repeat to infinity]


But I'm still not certain. Are there any physicists out there you can help a brother out?
Labels:

Comments

smudgeon said…
For some reason, I imagine it's a moebius strip of action - rather than going to the step of including a reaction. Not that I'm arguing with Newton, of course - dude knows his shit, knowmasayin'?
1 March 2012 at 10:18
Mrsupole said…
I am with you about the fact that there had to be a first action and then after that everything else was a reaction to a previous reaction. The real question is what was the first action and in which galaxy it first occurred. And is there a first galaxy somewhere so far out there that we humans have no clue that it exists? Strange how we both came to the same conclusion. I guess it is true that great minds do think alike.

And are you sure that is you? I'm just saying because if you took the picture, which does not seem like a reflection then who is the dude in the pic? Just kidding, well I think so.

God bless.
2 March 2012 at 00:15
JANU said…
That's a complicated analysis of Reaction...liked the picture.
2 March 2012 at 01:55
Steve Isaak said…
Interesting, chess-wendy piece made my head hurt, which means it was (probably) clever.

Kudos to you for being able to write/soar at such heights. =)
2 March 2012 at 11:50
Mary B. Mansfield said…
Wow, very thought provoking. I'm no physicist, but your argument seems to make sense. Loved the pic too!
2 March 2012 at 12:44
Roddy said…
Smile! You look kike Laurie Oakes.
2 March 2012 at 15:43
Roddy said…
Sorry! That is LIKE, Laurie Oakes.
2 March 2012 at 15:44
Janice said…
I need to ponder this. Let me put on my thinking cap...
2 March 2012 at 16:10
Tom said…
i think it may be a chicken or the egg sort of thing. nice to see you, said by the guy who's rarely more than a shadow
3 March 2012 at 09:48
Arian Tejano said…
A very innovative piece. I like this. A great deal to do with our writing life.
3 March 2012 at 13:09
Anonymous said…
I think I'm most impressed by the photo and your ability to get your family on board with your self portrait.

My reaction is: great shot! ;)
6 March 2012 at 02:22
Tash said…
My reaction is that I like seeing the whole family even with a frowny face dad.
7 March 2012 at 12:47
Carola said…
I can't help. That is to much theory for me. But here are my impressions. Just a reaction following an action.

First: Nice to see you all four together. A great shot!
I was a bit surprised of your pants. You are so tall, aren't you? Henry does look tall too.
8 March 2012 at 07:31
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it...

I still have the robot on the job. Here you can see the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery . And here is a poem: Soliloquy for One Dead Bruce Dawe Ah, no, Joe, you never knew the whole of it, the whistling which is only the wind in the chimney's smoking belly, the footsteps on the muddy path that are always somebody else's. I think of your limbs down there, softly becoming mineral, the life of grasses, and the old love of you thrusts the tears up into my eyes, with the family aware and looking everywhere else. Sometimes when summer is over the land, when the heat quickens the deaf timbers, and birds are thick in the plumbs again, my heart sickens, Joe, calling for the water of your voice and the gone agony of your nearness. I try hard to forget, saying: If God wills, it must be so, because of His goodness, because- but the grasshopper memory leaps in the long thicket, knowing no ease. Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it... I like Bruce Dawe. He just my be my favourite Austral...
5 comments
Read more

There was nothing left. No reason, no conscience, no understanding; even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, good or evil, right or wrong.

Here is a self portrait. I’m calling it Portrait of a lady in a dirty window . Shocking, isn’t it? However, it is apt! Samhain , Nos Galan Gaeaf , Hop-tu-Naa , All Saints , All Hallows , Hallowmas , Hallowe'en or HALLOWEEN . It’s Theme Thursday and we’re talking about the festivals traditionally held at the end of the harvest season. Huh? No wonder Australians have trouble with the concept of HALLOWEEN. For the record, in my thirty-two L O N G years on the planet, I can’t say I’ve ever seen ghosts ‘n goblins, trick ‘n treaters or Michael Myers stalking Tasmania’s streets at the end of October. [That said, I did once see a woman as pale as a ghost turning tricks that looked like Michael Myers in late November one time.] Despite the best efforts of Hollywood, sitcoms, and innumerable companies; it seems Australians are impervious to the [ahem] charms of a corporatized variant of a celebration of the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darke...
38 comments
Read more

In dreams begin responsibilities.

A life at sea, that's for me, only I just don't have the BREAD. That's right, Theme Thursday yet again and I post a photo of a yacht dicking about in Bass Strait just off Wynyard. The problem is, I am yet again stuck at work, slogging away, because I knead need the dough . My understanding is that it is the dough that makes the BREAD. And it is the BREAD that buys the yacht. On my salary though, I will be lucky to have enough dough or BREAD for a half dozen dinner rolls. Happy Theme Thursday people, sorry for the rush.
36 comments
Read more