Art vs. science

We held another quiz last night, run by Edwin and Andre. HouseParty has a limit of 8 channels, so this time we used Google Hangouts, which allows more participants, and worked very well. Edwin has a mug with "Don't make me put on my school-teacher's look", and took on has school-masterly voice to present, with Power-Point illustrations. This time, Ann and I won. Some people were saying, "Clever dad", and other complementary comments, but these days I am brain dead and it was Ann who gave the majority of the correct answers.

Walking the dogs yesterday, it was so hot it was hard to remember it is still spring. The track was lined with huge arrays of hedgerow flowers, the chestnuts are in glorious display, and the path had a thick carpet of catkin blossoms underfoot. Through my window this morning was a solitary vapour trail, clearly visible on Flight-Radar in its isolation as an ancient Douglas MD-11 cargo plane from Liège to Whidbey Island in USA. Nothing else was flying north of London. Whidbey Island is so small it was hard to find on a map, and there seems to be nothing much there. The sky has been so clear, warm and dry recently, more like the summers we imagine from our childhood. I wondered if there is a link; could huge numbers of vapour trails world-wide affect the weather, bringing cloud and rain? Air traffic has fallen by over 95%, an unbelievable change, so perhaps it is having an effect beyond just blue skies and peaceful days.

Moon over Glastonbury Tor by Ann

Yesterday, we continued our art work. At least, Ann did - producing a beautiful picture of a full moon over Glastonbury Tor. I am realising how little I know about art. Artists go to art school for a reason - to actually learn about mixing colours, brush technique, and a thousand other topics of which I am totally ignorant. I have tried watching some lessons on YouTube, but every artist has a different way of doing things, often completely opposite to each other.

The beauty of science is when the equations work out. One can repeat the experiments, or re-do the maths, and generally the results are in agreement. Where they are not, either we have discovered a new understanding of nature or - more likely - we've made a mistake. To my mind, the biggest mystery in science now is why our two greatest theories - quantum mechanics and general relativity - are irreconcilable, but even there we live in hope and expectation that one day another Einstein will provide an answer. Art has no right or wrong way - it is supposed to be an expression of feeling, or of the inner soul for the more spiritual. My art is just a blobby mess, and doesn't express anything except a total lack of ability. There may be no one right way to do things in art, but there sure are a lot of wrong ways.