More Gibberish about Waves

On the smallest (perhaps biggest, it's hard to quantify) scale - that of Oxides and Neutrinos (not the UK garage sensation, two of the greatest unsung lynchpins of British music.  Yes you can get a rewind, boys, always) and Electrons and all those other things which we could barely bring ourselves to muster a tear for at school - waves are everything.  On this level, the Everythingness of the Universe is merely the transfer of wave after wave after wave after wave.  There is something quite glorious about this, I think.  The Universe is just a big fat Newton's cradle, I guess.  Or perhaps a domino thing:

But waves are also the carrier pigeons of change.  Look at the incredible and quite literal wave of change that is happening in the Arabic world right now.  Waves have become such an integral part of the way that we discuss change and newness that it has become somewhat of a tired cliché, but it is perhaps interesting to note that what is happening in all those amazing countries is just the same as when you create your own tidal wave in the bath - next time you have a bath make a mental note that you have become, Gilbert & George stylee, a brief living incarnation of social change.  But, like, with less genocide and camels and shit.

It will be interesting to see how far these particular waves spread out, and how much damage they do when they roll back, full of the bubbles of aftermath.  If we remember that when waves happen, the water moves relatively little, then it would be warming to think that these waves will not displace the peoples (see, I'm doing a people as water comparison now.  I didn't expect that this was where I was going with this) too much.

I will move on to talk about things I have more than a vague mimsy notion about next, I promise. 

Cherry (Bubble) Pop (or The Act of Tucking One's Skirt into One's Undergarments and then Striding Forth)

In a magnanimous gesture of outward stretching towards the world at large, I am finally and tremulously  bellyflopping into the pool of the internet.  I will be squinting at the world through my muggy peepers and trying to make some sort of coherent record of what swirls about in my mind.

If I were to suggest a landscape of what you will see in there, I would urge you to picture an Arctic forest, chock full of deer and bears and hooting shinyeye birds.  It is equally possible that you will step on a badger skull, or indeed come across a lovely dyke.  A dyke of facts.  Probably the least good kind.

Something which has blown my mind rather a lot recently is something called The Secret Life of Waves which I saw a few weeks ago on BBC4.  It talks about the incredible physics (not often I can say that phrase without a sardonic eyebrow hoist) behind what waves actually are.  In particular, it made me realise that the water doesn't actually move (that much, relatively), the wave does.  I don't know if everyone else knew that, but waves are energy which is transferred through water, like as through a piece of silk or something.  The whole universe is filled with waves of energy of different frequencies, but can be most clearly seen on water.  (Like the sun, for example.  If he had a hat on at the moment it would be some kind of St Patrick's Day, devil-may-care-who-gives-a-shit-I'm-letting-it-all-go felt jester number, is kindly beaming down extra specially damaging waves of radiation or Coronal Mass Ejections [it's only a matter of time before that gets twisted into a porn title - suggestions please.  I'm going with a topical Royal Wedding Coronation Mass Erections, but am aware that that's pretty lame] which the earth is currently bobbing about in like an O2 promotional duck.  For more info and some incredible NASA images of the sun doing a jizz, check out: http://www.tbd.com/blogs/weather/2011/02/2011-solar-flare-causes-magnetic-storms-today-video-photo--8657.html)

The most beautiful thing, I think, though, is the idea that the crashing of the waves, which I assumed is the smashing of water against the sea-floor, is actually nothing more than the cumulative cacophony of billions of tiny bubbles popping en masse.  Can you imagine such a thing?  No need, here's a nice science man to explain:

I'll just let that settle into your conscience for a bit.