The Note

T h e  N o t e

Some bullet points:

• • Imagine a ball being thrown straight up into the air.  It rises then it falls.  During that trip, up and then down, does the ball ever stop? Does it stop for a fraction of a second at its highest point, when it no longer is rising and has not yet started to fall?

  • Only humans conceive of future.  Every other species lives entirely in the now.

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  • She assembles iPads for 12 hours a day, six days a week, and she alternately sits and sleeps on her bunk in the dormitory until the Earth rolls round again.  One of her roommates snores.

  • My cat, Memphis, is in the advanced stages of kidney failure.  She's over 18 years old.

  • The ball in the air:  If one plots the altitude of the ball against time, one gets a parabola. 

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The left half of the curve represents the rise of the ball.  The speed slows as it nears the top.  Then you see it drop again, accelerating as it goes.  The maximum height is, of course, the moment in changes direction. It is the single point at the apex of the parabola. Up to that single point it's rising and then, at the next point on the parabola, it's falling again.  The only point on the parabola when the ball is not in motion is that single point at the top of the curve.  As you'll remember from school, a single geometric point has no dimension and so no width and so no amount of time on the x-axis. So, the answer is:  The ball stops, but for no time. But for something to occur for no time is to say it doesn't occur. So, does the ball stop?  Yes, it must to change direction.  And, no it doesn't because there is no amount of time in which it is stopped.

• • Translation of lines from an ancient Chinese ballad:

From you, separated alive.

Between us, a million odd miles.

Each of us at opposite ends of the sky.

Here we are in Issue 48. Thanks to all the writers and artists who contributed; and our readers Eric Burke, Doug Draime, Howie Good, Vivian Faith Prescott, & Scot Siegel.  Special thanks to my fellow editors F. John Sharp and FJ Bergmann.  

When you finish the issue, there's a super short poll to take.  There's a link to it on the Contributors page.

And, as always, thank you for reading Right Hand Pointing.  

Enjoy!

Dale