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Interesting developments and postulations indeed. Tell me more about calabi yau. I haven't heard of this discipline.

Where are you situated at present? Where are these boxes being delivered to? (I would also ask where are they being delivered from, but assume that isn't yet known.) Are you on campus in UK or have you returned to the US? If a similar operation is being begun this side of the atlantic, this could be the beginnings of a second round of soft cells. Either a single replication of experiment 31, or else one of many second generation repeat projects. We must keep alert.
As for locating Dan, I suggest you look underground. In the cellar, or on the ground floor at least.

I await Epstein's opinions on using softness to access other dimensions.

Multi-dimensional crochet & campus deliveries

hmmm.... The crochet/yoga angle is an interesting one. Perhaps the yogic prep is key to the outcomes of the hook. Maybe the exercise is no mere pre-stitch warm up, this flexing could be flexing fibres, not muscles, a la don genaro, allowing the practitioners to tap into other realms/dimensions [possibly one of the curled up dimension thought to be universally hidden in calabi-yau shapes], which allows them to execute crochet manouveres otherwise impossible. in short, they may be knitting in more than 3 dimensions, but we 3-D dwellers may not be able to see it. Perhaps this is why you struggled to understand the finely woven structures of your dutch associate.



For my part here, I have been trying to find and/or contact Dan Stairs. I feel he may hold information which may help unravel this whole mystery. Campus-based investigations have led me to discover the daily deliveries of large cardboard boxes, which seem suspiciously light for their size when one observes the delivery men carrying them. Enquiries with the receptionist allowed me to learn that such deliveries are 'for the Knitting Society'. I did not possess sufficient front to begin opening the boxes there and then, so cannot confirm their specific content, but the lightness of the boxes suggest woollen thread [or perhaps pre-knitted structures , possibly to be joined together into yet larger structures] and the amount of them being delivered daily implies a large-scale operation. I shall keep my eyes and ears peeled for possible evidence of their purpose.



The thought now occurs to me that the point of the softness could be exactly that - it is not rigid, but flexible; possibly flexible enough to be bent into space dimensions beyond our familiar 3. Perhaps the soft michigan group are attempting to [or even successfullly] building a new softer world in a new dimension which the average joe is not aware of. I must confer with Epstein on this matter. I am sure Stairs could also shed light on this were he to be found, but would he be willing?



Mr. Marbles

Yogic Crochet & Michelson-Morley

Just going back over a few things… We live in a world of fibres. The Michelson-Morley thing – this was taken as a rejection of the view of mechanised spacetime, whereby the universe is not empty but full of complicated devices, nodes, mechanisms… If there are indeed suggested failings in the Michelson-Morley model, this could be a pincer thrust against the empty spacetime view, in which there is nothing mysterious hovering behind and between atoms; ie. the thruster could be a proponent of a fibrous multiverse theory.

Just the other day I became acquainted with a Dutch yoga practitioner, through a number of mutual friends. The girlfriend of a brother of a friend. After a considerable time spent on various yogic postures and moves in a porch where we were all staying, as dinner was cooking, this dutch girl then went to the crochet, still in her sweat top and jogging cottons. Her hook was very thin. Ultra-thin. I took the chance to get talking crochet with her. I have in my back pocket as I sit here a thicker alternative crochet hook to lend her, but have not seen her again since then. Her crochet book (in Dutch) was full of intricate works, floral designs, motifs. She was working on a spiral form, in soft merino-like light yellow-green. The spiral form looked very complicated, and given the thin hook, was very tight – hard to make out the pattern in order to copy it. It was I think a single rather than double helix, but perhaps a double helix would also be possible. If I can get her to replicate this spiral design using my lent hook, I may be able to get to the bottom of the technique used.

Perhaps where one hook (crochet) yields a single helix, the two sticks of a knitter could double it.

I don’t know exactly how the science and the crafts relate to each other, but I feel a connection does exist. The patterns, threads, fibres being postulated could be the same in each case.

But how does closed-loop technology relate to this?

The yoga postures also seemed relevant. Perhaps the shapes and positions formed were a representation or replication of the types of stitches.

And there’s something about that loose-fit cotton-wear...

The Eleventh Dimension

Was reading last night about how the 11th spacetime dimension is believed to be almost invisibly small [according to some equations, not all]. If it is so, and searly is hiding in there, we have no chance of finding him, at least not this side of a CERN-based revolution.

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Finings are generally eggwhite or gelatine based. Mine were pretty much just dried eggwhites according to the packet. Didn't work though. Nor did sieving through several layers of cheesecloth. There's something in that wine and i can't gettit out dammit. An abundance of small particles suspended in the liquid, approximately a planck length across. I must consult the old masters of wine production and see what remedies they speak of.

Yes, the case may well be blown wide open; but the question still remains, just who is Ronald Searly?

My man on the veg stall gave me an ETA on the cherries of about 6 weeks. I will be ready with yeast and tannins.

Keyhole Sam

Clarity ...

Eggwhite, egg shells, or gelatine.
Finings?? I wouldn’t use nothing where I didn’t know what the word even meant. Well maybe I would if the word was smoof. Or yurve. Or hoomsmeed. They’d go in the mix.

Get onto Epstein. I’ll contact the MIT crew. I think we could soon have this case opened right up. Micro to macro. Damn on.

Super-strung out on a car seat

Quite so. I was reading up on superstring theory last night and it struck me that it seemed applicable to the case - alternate realities, strings, fibres and loops. It's all there in the text, in the theory. I now strongly believe that the soft michigan group are trying to create a new reality, a new american dream, by stitching it together with their own bare hands. No need for large particle accelerators etc. Make the microscopic macroscopic and you have your new world. S string theory is the foremost likely leap in our understanding of the universe, it seems the logical one to base a new method of reality on. The fact the terminology is transferable to sewing techniques and woven matter is highly fortuitous. These cats are knitting a new, softer american dream, all we need to do is find the right thread and we are in there, part of the Pattern.

I must speak with epstein asap.

New wine sounds good. Have been tucking into first batch of parsnip - my first brew. Is good, but a bit earthy. Missing elderflowers, I imagine. Plan to get some more cherry wine on once I get round to clearing space in most recent apartment base.

Any idea on how to clear a cloudy/earthy one? Wine finings failed to help much.

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Superstring theory – I keep meaning to read up on. I’m sure it involves closed loops as well as unclosed strings.

Detectives always wear hats because it is a wintertime activity, indeed. [in response to a suggested document exchange in late oct/early nov autumn/winter crossover period, in a cold room with steamy mugs of tea nearby.] Trying to light a pipe hunched up against a lamppost with the wind to your back, cursing telephones and dames… that’s the life of a true detective.

I think your string theory is worthy of investigation. Low-lifes in high physics. String vest technology.

A New Thread ...

Re: searly case:

I have theories on the knitters' plans, based on 'string theory'; fabricating a new reality for us all to live in once the current one is unworkable - just cross over onto a new thread and leave the old world behind.

Loneliness of the Long Distance Drummer - a conversational aside

[beginning in response to advanced word of imminent photographic evidence of a UK-based beat group, 'the hum':]

Hope the drummer ain’t obscured by no swaying mic stand or neck of bass…

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Perhaps ron searly is hiding behind a drumkit in a basement practice room somewhere.

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I wonder if the psychology of a drummer bears any similarity to that of the long distance runner? alone and steady on the road, alone and steady behind the kit - persistance, consistency and an ability to continue in the productive rhythm unfalteringly no matter how adverse the conditions. these are similarites that immediately come to mind. of course, one involves moving about a lot and one involves sitting fairly still, though i guess a runner's torso is almost stationary and all movement is propelled by the limbs - another similarity.

the question is, do drummers make good runners or do runners make good drummers, or are neither indicative of each other?

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The post-end pub rock outro final du-dum-pah crash must then be the collapse onto the ground after sailing through the tape at the finishline.

My new disguise as bassist also has me considering bassist psychology. The Quiet Man. The pulse… The low notes approaching the subliminal dialogue and instructions… Makes me think of walking blind through tall grass for some reason, playing the bass. Intuition…

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I was an ok runner...and a drummer [quality? dunno...].

not sure if it's a definite correlation. but there is a good range of examples of drummers requiring a bit of fitness...

barring mo tucker.

and she didn't look like much a runner come to think of it.

buddy rich though...he had energy.

zzzzz

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Why I ran, man, Why I ran…

Your comparison is astute. Torso ‘motionless’ – I know what you mean – straightline motion only. Like a donut in freefall. Apparent rest state.

A runner has to keep a beat, certainly. The persistence. The endurance. The heart-rate of a drummer is certainly one of the highest in any discipline. I think beyond what the figures say should be endurable. Over 100 BPM I believe, during particularly energetic fills and syncopations.

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indeed. a drummer also takes the song somewhere - from beginning to end. an intro could be described as the song's startline, the outro the finish line. the song/run is the journey in between. a drummer can also build natural rests into his rhythm if required and the 'sprint finish' is analogous to the pub rock ending. in fact, now i think about it, my half marathon training of circa 2004 probably prepared me more for my current role of drummer than 15 years of guitar playing and other musical practices ever did. left, right, left, right, breeeathe, tom fill....

[conversational aside ends]

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in. deed.

"common sense is an oxymoron, don't you know we've got a war on?"

a phrase latched onto during an early evening walk by the stack over achmelvich way, i seem to recall.

Bob Fuscate

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Eschew… Now there’s a word I haven’t heard in … well, many years. A word as cryptic and obfuscatory as the act the slogan demands we eschew. Which I guess to be the point of the slogan. The statement itself contradicts its content, just like ‘Don’t give orders’ or ‘Hate Hatred’. A sloganistic form of the oxymoron?? As two agents once said, ‘truth is an oxymoron / don’t forget there is a war on’. Or somesuch. So … the slogan may as well read ‘Obfuscate!’ to my eye. In which case it says the very opposite of what it looks like it says. A classic obfuscationist technique…
But a car bumper sticker? This is strange news indeed. They are truly among us.

Car Sticker

Saw a car sticker the other day, which if i recall i've seen before on the same car in York, saying 'Eschew Obfuscation'. The term seems to have a bit of a history...look at wiki entry for 'obfuscation'.

Who is the driver of this car? is the sticker a straight term? can it ever be such...it's loaded, but by who? Are there other examples of this slogan?

hmmm.