The Sibling-Hood of the Big Goofy Grin

I forgot!

I can't believe I forgot, but I did!

I was standing in one of the chambers of the Great Pyramid this morning. I was the first one in line, so I was in the chamber all by myself. The entryway to the chamber was about 100 yards long. It consisted of three foot high passageways that went upwards and downwards straight through the middle of the pyramid. I could hear the voices of the group behind me projected by the passageways. I wondered if they would be shocked to find a person already there when they arrived.

The first person of the group came into the chamber. She looked like she was 17, and about as tall as me. As she stood up, she looked at me and gave me one of the biggest goofiest grins I've seen in a while. And my heart lit up a little bit.

Her boyfriend who must have been 27 came into the chamber after her. I looked again and sure enough, she was about 27 as well! She was 27 now, but that grin had taken 10 years off her age for an instant!

We all know the kind of grin I'm talking about. Like the grin from a puppy or a five year old. That grin that all at once says:

"Hi! I don't know you, but I think we going to be best friends! Wanna play!?"

I can't believe I forgot the power that kind of a smile has!
The power to disarm.
The power to brighten the day of a total stranger.

I fogot the brightness that comes back into your day knowing what you've just done when you give that kind of smile. (You can see the reaction in the face of the recipient of that sort of grin instantly!)

I am a Freemason. One thing that I share with all my brothers is a way to identify each other anywhere in the world. And, finding each other in the same town or half way around the planet is always a pleasure. We're reminded of everything we stand for. I know that I'm in the presence of someone I've never met yet I know all about them!

We're all members of an even larger brotherhood, a sibling-hood I guess. The Sibling-Hood of the Big Goofy Grin. And like any good society, initiation reveals mysteries. Mysteries that were self-evident upon reflection, but that may have remained hidden forever in plain-sight none-the-less. Like any good society initiation also reveals the means of identification.

What's the initiation? Giving or receiving one of these grins! We're all members as kids, but as the world grows-up and becomes serious, some of us forget. I did for awhile.

What are the means of identification? In this case, they are exactly the same as the initiation: exchanging one of these smiles!

What mysteries are revealed by one of these grins?
The lightness each day has.
The instant connection that's made between two people.
The feeling that we're all friends and we're all for each other.
The amusingly disarming effect the grin has on non-members who "just don't get it."
The heart-warming feeling of seeing the shock and then the smile of another initiate remembering what they had forgotten.

As I rode out to the pyramids with my guide this morning, she told me that gravity in the pyramid was weaker, and that a knife left inside the pyramid would sharpen itself. I wondered what mysterious experiences I would have that morning. I figured 'probably nothing'. I never would have guessed that the incredible mystery I'd be reminded of in the center of the pyramid would have nothing to do with the pyramid itself, but would be the result of the simple gesture of the second person into the chamber.

The Valentine's Day Magnetic Monopole

There's an assymetry to the form of the two Maxwell's equations shown in picture 1. While the divergence of the electric field is proportional to the electric charge density at a given point, the divergence of the magnetic field is equal to zero. This is typically explained in the following way. While we know that electrons, the fundamental electric charge carriers exist, evidence seems to indicate that magnetic monopoles, the particles that would carry magnetic 'charge', either don't exist, or, the energies required to create them are so high that they are exceedingly rare. That doesn't stop us from looking for them though! Keeping with the theme of Fairbank[1] and his academic progeny over the semester break, today's post is about the discovery of a magnetic monopole candidate event by one of the Fairbank's graduate students, Blas Cabrera[2]. Cabrera was utilizing a loop type of magnetic monopole detector. Its operation is in...

Cool Math Tricks: Deriving the Divergence, (Del or Nabla) into New (Cylindrical) Coordinate Systems

Now available as a Kindle ebook for 99 cents ! Get a spiffy ebook, and fund more physics The following is a pretty lengthy procedure, but converting the divergence, (nabla, del) operator between coordinate systems comes up pretty often. While there are tables for converting between common coordinate systems , there seem to be fewer explanations of the procedure for deriving the conversion, so here goes! What do we actually want? To convert the Cartesian nabla to the nabla for another coordinate system, say… cylindrical coordinates. What we’ll need: 1. The Cartesian Nabla: 2. A set of equations relating the Cartesian coordinates to cylindrical coordinates: 3. A set of equations relating the Cartesian basis vectors to the basis vectors of the new coordinate system: How to do it: Use the chain rule for differentiation to convert the derivatives with respect to the Cartesian variables to derivatives with respect to the cylindrical variables. The chain ...

More Cowbell! Record Production using Google Forms and Charts

First, the what : This article shows how to embed a new Google Form into any web page. To demonstrate ths, a chart and form that allow blog readers to control the recording levels of each instrument in Blue Oyster Cult's "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" is used. HTML code from the Google version of the form included on this page is shown and the parts that need to be modified are highlighted. Next, the why : Google recently released an e-mail form feature that allows users of Google Documents to create an e-mail a form that automatically places each user's input into an associated spreadsheet. As it turns out, with a little bit of work, the forms that are created by Google Docs can be embedded into any web page. Now, The Goods: Click on the instrument you want turned up, click the submit button and then refresh the page. Through the magic of Google Forms as soon as you click on submit and refresh this web page, the data chart will update immediately. Turn up the:...

Copasetic Flow

Search This Blog