ON SLEEP

READ MY ULTIMATE MAGAZINE POST - Posted every Mon, Tues & Fri (inc Poetry)
What’s on today: A little tale of sleep … PLUS … Has the US got the 9/11 trials all wrong? Is there more to genetics than nature/nurture?
YOU KNOW IT’S THE WRITE WAY

ON SLEEP

The professor continued his lecture: ‘ … and … and … it is a well known fact that … the mind keeps working while we sleep …’
It was becoming increasingly hard for him to continue. The world seemed to be spinning. He knew he should have had more sleep; pressures made it impossible; he had an experience of deja vu. He continued: ‘In particular, during REM sleep, we dream.’
‘And what does REM mean?’ asked his only listener, alone in the auditorium.
‘What? Oh, rapid eye movement – it is how we tell a person is dreaming – the eyes … they dart from side to side under the eye lids.’
‘Fascinating,’ said the listener, a sickening expression upon his face. After all, he had reason. He had only recently discovered the identity of the man who had had an affair with his wife.
‘May I continue?’ asked the professor. Receiving a ‘yes’, he said: ‘I even have studies on-going to see if, during the dream state, a person from outside can communicate or direct the dream.’
The listener interrupted once more: ‘And if true, does that mean the dreamer must obey?’
‘My research suggests it is a possibility,’ the professor agreed.
The listener began to laugh at that point, and the professor couldn’t help but notice a similarity to a recent dream. He wasn’t immediately aware that his eyes were darting from side to side, but from the far recesses of his mind, he heard the voice of the listener saying, ‘you will never wake up, ever.’
The professor continued his lecture: ‘ and … and … it is a well known fact that …

© Anthony North, February 2008

NO POEM

A poem, a poem, I need one now,
but at this time, the muse takes a bow;
come back, come back, oh muse so good,
without a poem they’ll be after my blood;
But no, a poem just won’t come out,
my talent I’m now beginning to doubt;
A poem, a poem, I’m ringing the bell,
come back now, I’ve a tale to tell;
but muse just says, ‘go to hell!’
Oh well

This is a post inspired by a Sunday Scribblings prompt. Have you had a go yet?

9/11 TRIALS

The Pentagon is to try six 9/11 plotters through military tribunal. The death penalty has been asked for. Personally, I disagree with the death penalty, but that is up to the US to decide. But this is obscuring a wider problem with these proceedings …
…read more…

THE GREATEST SCAR - my Fiction Friday story

Sam rolled up his shirt. ‘Here it is,’ he said.
The others looked – saw the definite round scar on his stomach.
‘A bullet wound?’ asked Bob …
…read more…

STUBBORN GENETICS

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute recently advised that they had identified the ‘stubborn’ gene. The UK media immediately jumped on the bandwagon, claiming this could be why the average Brit can be so bullheaded … PLUS …

SERPENT

Serpent slithers around the tree,
placing evil thoughts in thee …
… read more …

THE GREATEST SCAR

This is a story inspired by a Fiction Friday prompt. Have you had a go yet?

Sam rolled up his shirt. ‘Here it is,’ he said.
The others looked – saw the definite round scar on his stomach.
‘A bullet wound?’ asked Bob.
He received an affirmative reply.
Harry intervened. ‘And it was because of …’
‘Yes,’ said Sam, ‘because of …’
Bob pulled off his t-shirt; turned his back, disclosing his own scar.
Harry winced: ‘A knife!’
Yes,’ said Bob. ‘He gave me it in the back, the coward. Just because he …’
‘Because of …’ said Sam and Harry in unison.
It was becoming a typical story – tragic but typical. And it had become, perhaps, the greatest scar in the history of the human race. But to the three men gathered, here, together, it was still their own personal hell.
Bob and Sam turned to Harry then.
He offered a sardonic smile. Then he bowed his head. The others could see the scar where he had been bludgeoned.
‘The fight was going well,’ said Harry, ‘and I nearly won – until he cheated, and hit me with the lump of wood.’
‘Because of …’ said Sam.
‘Yes,’ said Harry, ‘because of …’
It was Sam who said the words that were on their lips:
‘There is nothing more ugly than a beautiful woman’s face.

© Anthony North, February 2008

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Have you tried my current affairs Blog?

EYE ON THE WORLD

Super short comment on politics, environment,
crime, media, society and more
THOUGHTS FROM A COMMON MAN
From a real voice of Britain, of relevance
to the world
… PLUS …
Introductory pages on cults, conspiracy
theories, paranormal and true crime

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TIME TRAVEL

READ MY ULTIMATE MAGAZINE POST - Posted every Mon, Tues & Fri (inc Poetry)
What’s on today: Taking a look at time travel … PLUS … UK govt wants internet providers to police the net. Is there a ‘culture’ to UFO sightings?
YOU KNOW IT’S THE WRITE WAY

TIME TRAVEL

One of the greatest mysteries in science is the question: can we travel in time. Well, in one way, we already do. Light takes ‘time’ to travel. Hence, everything we ‘see’ is from the past, dependent upon how long it took to reach us. We see distant galaxies, for instance, how they were billions of years ago.
Fiction loves time travel. From Wells and ‘The Time Machine’, right up to ‘Doctor Who’, the most incredible scenarios have been thought up for the practice. Although I think the theories are more complicated than the good doctor’s ‘timey whimey’.

Relativity suggests that if we travel faster than light we go back in time.

Quantum theory also shows that in the subatomic world an understanding of time may not exist, suggesting an ‘eternal now’. If so, maybe one day we’ll be able to access just one element of that ‘now’ and experience time travel.
However, there are problems. Travelling back in time, for instance, brings up the ‘time paradox’ – in taking action in the past, would we change that past, thus providing a new time line where, possibly, the ‘traveller’ was never born in the first place?

Travelling into the future is even more problematic.

For if the future can be ‘accessed’, then is it already written? If so, what is the point of free will? The law of ‘causality’ offers even more problems. Basically, a ‘cause’ must come before an ‘effect’. Would jumping into the future destroy this fundamental law?
So time travel would cause huge problems. Yet you can guarantee the possibility will be pursued for as long as man can conceive of the idea. Yet, maybe we all have a marvelous ability to time travel within our very being.
For nothing can conjure up the delights – and sometimes the horrors – of the past better than our own little time machine called memory.

© Anthony North, February 2008

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT

I did it last night, but I’m fine,
I travelled right back in time;
You won’t believe that it’s true,
it’s a concept totally new;

I met Hitler and Poe,
and Marilyn Monroe;
I met Caesar and Chaplin,
and it was all happening;

Napoleon, I met him too,
but it wasn’t at Waterloo;
Infact, it was quite a do,
all together in time, it’s true;

All together? Is that what I mean?
How could they all, at once, be seen?
To mix time like this is obscene;
Damn!
It was just a dream

This is post inspired by a Writers’ Island prompt. Have you had a go yet?

THE NON-INTERNET PROVIDERS

Totalitarian creeps relentlessly on. Now the UK government is proposing that service providers be legally made to take action against those who carry out pirated downloads. Talk of being barred from the internet is in the air …
…read more…

UFO – A CULTURE THING

I’ve recently been involved in a debate on The Daily Grail concerning a recent UFO sighting. An ‘object’ some mile in length was seen in the sky, and the military have advised that large scale jet fighter movements were on-going that night … PLUS …

ODE TO ALIENS

Blubbery aliens, two by two,
they’ve got their big bug eyes on you …
… read more …

You can comment on any linked post below if you wish

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Have you tried my current affairs Blog?

EYE ON THE WORLD

Super short comment on politics, environment,
crime, media, society and more
THOUGHTS FROM A COMMON MAN
From a real voice of Britain, of relevance
to the world
… PLUS …
Introductory pages on cults, conspiracy
theories, paranormal and true crime

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