Saturday, August 13, 2016

The Law Of Entropy

Since laying down the pen four years ago on this blog, I've focussed on things that really matter in this world.

- Can you really tell the difference between a single malt and a mixed scotch?

- Why do so many people watch Major League Baseball on TV? Seriously, that's like 12 hours of your life you'll never get back.  Go outside or something.

- Trying to find a history show on the History Channel.

And yes, I might as well embrace the horror now.  Our electoral process.  This magnificent experiment in democracy is starting to remind me of my college chemistry class. There were experiments, too, but chemistry is complex and I'm easily distracted by, well, anything other than studying chemistry.

The experiments usually went horribly wrong. Something burned (sometimes it was my flesh), the professor was disappointed, and I usually stayed after class to accomplish what everyone else did during class. But, most of my fellow students went afterwards to watch baseball on TV, so I guess it all works out.

I guess the point is, sometimes experiments go horribly wrong. I'm not saying our democratic process has gone horribly wrong.  But I'm also not saying it's going gloriously right.

As I thought about burning things in chemistry, I was reminded of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, specifically the factor of entropy.  You see, entropy states that eventually everything breaks down.  Systems decay.  For example, if I decide to burn a newspaper, I can't reconstruct the newspaper in reverse.  I would have to use new materials to remake that newspaper.  I got this from a episode on the History Channel.  See what I mean?

Evolution poses a unique challenge to this idea.  If the Big Bang created everything, then how did we become?  That is, the destruction in the Big Bang actually created more complex things than more chaos.

Deep stuff.  But I'll solve the meaning of life in another post.  How hard can it be?

Many in the Republican Party believe that they must tear down the current structure of the party to create something better. You see, to these folks, destruction is good.  It leads to something better.

And here is where entropy comes into play.  If you follow the law of entropy, then you can't just put something back together after it is destroyed.  This logic would state that the outcome of the decision to destroy the party (elect a non-Republican and non-conservative, while at the same time calling for the ouster of current party leadership) is irreversible. The destruction of the party will lead to...well...the destruction of the party.  It will never "be" again.

But, if you contemplate evolution, there must be a different version of entropy.  Evolution shows that even though things were destroyed in the Big Bang, it led to more complex and advanced life.  To people who follow this logic, the Republican party will develop into a more complex and advanced party after it is destroyed.

Hmm.  I'm guessing, though, that a lot of people who think the destruction of the party is a good idea believe in divine inspiration rather than pure evolution led to the human species.  That's a head-scratcher, huh?

Anyway, should be fun to watch to see what happens!  I'll grab the popcorn and a good single malt.  Oh look, Swamp People is on History Channel.  I'm game.

Friday, August 12, 2016

OK Then

Well,

The fun part about DVR technology is the ability to pause anything, anytime.

And then press play when you're ready.

I'm ready.

And back.

Let's do this.  All previous posts have been "re-published."  You know.  For posterity.