Four days in Reykjavík

I spent four days in Reykjavík this week. Just going to meetings this time, no time to enjoy the Icelandic nature. It was cloudy, windy and raining most of the time. So, it wasn’t a big sacrifice to stay indoor.

We made some plans for how to proceed with the geoscience in and near the well we drilled one and a half year ago. It was the deepest and hottest geothermal well ever drilled, reaching more than 500 degrees Celcius (930 Fahrenheit) at a depth of 4.5 km (2.8 miles). 

In the evening we enjoyed the local draft beers  in the pubs. Walking back to my hotel in the dark and rainy night, I thought that I’m quite impressed and fascinated by this country.  They have plenty of fish, and plenty of water, both hot and cold. Except from that, naural resources are scarce. There are no trees and the climate is too cold for farming anything but sheep and horses. With a population less than 350,000 people, the Icelanders are doing great in science and in sports. 

When the country went bankrupt in 2008, they restarted the country and got through it with a shrug of the shoulders (to say it somewhat simplified). And they did it without prayers.

Some time ago, I read an interesting poll from the Pew research institue. It was about belief in God by age groups. Like the rest of Northern Europe, Iceland is very secular. Among adults age 50 and older, about 15 percent believe in God. The sensation was, however, for age 25 and younger, the percentage believing in God was none, zero. Iceland is about to come the World's first Atheist country. That would be a great achievement. It would still be worthwhile to see the Hallgrim's Church in Rekjavik for the cool architecture. 

The last night in Reykjavík, we celebrated meetings finished mission completed. We had a great dinner in a downtown restaurant serving exotic local food. We had puffin for starter, and whale meat for the main course. The pale ales we drank were excellent too >:)

(Picture taken in downtown Reykjanes this week. In the background of the picture, you can see the tower of the Hallgrim's Church. The Icelanders still have cars, though not as big as the SUVs they drove before the financial crisis.)

Houses of God and cheese and imperial stout

I've been a little bit sick lately, so we didn't go skiing in the mountains this weekend. Today I went for a walk downtown, to return some books to the public library.  The sun was shining, and it was a nice day for walking. Apparently many people thought the same, because the streets were crowded. There were tall people and short people, skinny people and fat people. All of them carrying bags and backpacks with stuff they had bought.

I took a quick tour around downtown. I visited a shop were I bought a camembert cheese, produced by a local farm. Then, in a different store, I bought a bottle of porter and an imperial stout. The porter was from the town were i live now. The imperial stout was imported, brewed in Denver, Colorado, were I lived for a while in the past. It was a great place to live, by the way.

On the way back home, I passed by the old cathedral. On the other side of the street, the Catholics are building a new church. God is absent in both places. He's just a product of human fantasy, unlike the cheese and the beer I bought, which are real.

The old cathedral was Catholic too, from the time it was built 900 years ago, until the last arch bishop fled from the reformation in the 16th century. Now the Catholics are back. That's fine with me. I just wonder why they have to build a new church. We have plenty of churches already. In most of them both the congregation and God are absent. We could rather have given the Catholics one of the existing churches, giving back some of the property they lost in the reformation.

(Picture taken on my walk today. The old cathedral to the right, the new Catholic church, with the scaffolds, to the left). 

Charlie is back

Last week, we were shocked by the acts of terror in Paris. This week, Charlie Hebdo is back with a new issue. That’s great.  The artists and cartoonists are brave.  

I think duck liver is a hype, but I always liked the French cheese, and the French attitude to freedom of speech. Charlie Hebdo’s satire offends the Muslims. That’s fine. They just have to learn to live with it, like the Christians, Jews and Satanists have learnt.

What’s holy for you is not holy for me.  Mocking the gods and prophets can be fun, for sure. But blasphemy is more than entertainment. Blasphemy is an important part of the freedom of speech. Religion mixed with a political agenda is a bad combo, because it makes the agenda indisputable. Who are you to challenge God?

• Imagine Obama coming to The House proposing a new law received from God, and the Republicans could do nothing to stop it. 
• Imagine the Labor party coming to the Parliament with a political program given by God, and Cameron had to approve it right away. 

The French and the Americans (I think) were the first to develop a secular constitution. This is very important, splitting governing, legislative and religious power. Turkey is Muslim-secular, but develops in the wrong direction. Many Muslim countries are stuck in their political-religious swamp. The list of ridiculous laws and rules coming out of religion is endless:

• Women are not allowed to watch football games (Iran)
• Women are not allowed to drive cars (Saudi)
• Death penalty for blasphemy (Pakistan)
• Separate ski lifts for men and women (Iran)
• One-hour marriage with prostitutes (which makes prostitution compliant with the Quran; Bahrain).
• Men can’t sit next to women on airplanes (orthodox Jews)
• Women can’t become priests (Catholics)
• Priests must live in celibate (Catholics)
• Ban on condoms (Catholics)

None of these rules come from God. They were invented by powerful people as tools to control people. When rules can't be justified by rational arguments, the easiest solution is God. No wonder religious authorities  who make up such laws and rules (and their Prophets and Gods) become subject to satire and blasphemy.

The French author Michel Houellebecq once said that “among all ridiculous religions, Islam is the most stupid”. He was taken to court in Paris for this statement, but was acquitted based on freedom of speech. They are all about equally bad; I dislike religion in general. 

I have plenty of religous books in my shelf; the Bible, the Quran and the Book of Mormon, and I have read a fair part of them (but far from everything). Sharia is mostly useless as legislation for the modern world. But taking the worst of the Bible, it would make a pretty bizarre law too.

Some of the religious texts can be quite entertaining. Once we had fun drinking beer and reading load from the Quran in a pub up north. I think the pub was a safe place for our blasphemy. It's an unlikely place to meet jihadists and inquisition.

In Satan we trust >:)

(Cover page of this week's issue of Charlie Hebdo; link to WIkipedia. The text above Muhammsd's head says "Everything is forgiven".)

Temple of Capitalism

This morning we visited the Temple of Capitalism. The one and only true god is Money. The view from the 86th floor wss magnificent.

Then er walked down to Greenwich Village. I bought a book by Saul Bellow (Ravelstein) for $6 in a second-hand bookstore on Mercer Street.

I met an ice-cream seller on Chelsea Market who was a fan of Opeth (Swedish metal band). So am I. He recognized the band name on my T-shirt. In the bookstore I bought a book by Paul Auster (New York Trilogy).

Buy, buy, buy. Oh great Money; we worship you. Do we?

(Picture taken to day from the 86. floor of the Empire State Building)

My to-write list

It’s February already. January just flew away too fast, without a single blogpost. I was just to busy. Basically, I had three jobs. At daytime I did my regular job for BigOil, as usual. In the night I worked on the refurbishing of our house. Late night I was grading exams. It’s a Hell of a boring job, but I have to do it, since I have a part-time position in the university.

Now the exam-grading is done. Then I only have two jobs, and I hope I’ll get some time to write. I have many topics to write about. Just to remind myself, here are some headlines on my to-write list:

• The white gold
• Russia; good, bad and evil
• War heroes on the metro
• Mekka and Disneyland
• Jerusalem and Hollywood
• Some people still believe in God
• The importance if blasphemy
• Michel Houellebecq
• Haruka Murakami
• Management and leadership
• Monogamy
• I never got a Green Card
• Where does Satan live?
• Skiing in America
• My merits in battle
• Does size matter?

I don’t know in which order I’ll do the list. I’m open for suggestions.

Also, more than a year ago, I started on a one month blogging challenge; 30 posts in 30 days. I got half way through it. Maybe I’ll try to do the rest of it. But n

ot this month; February has only 28 days, it’s skiing season, and soon the Winter Olympics are starting up >:)

(The picture above is the huge Russian nuclear-powered ice breaker Lenin operating in the Arctic. I took the picture a couple of years ago. To be honest, I've never actually seen the ship. There is a big picture of the ice breaker on the wall in the reception of the Poliarnie Zori Hotel in Murmansk, and I took a picture of the picture on the wall, hehe.)

Back to basics

This fall has been quite busy, somewhat too busy, I must admit. It’s all the stuff going on at work, as usual. In addition, my handyman season has lasted longer than usual.

Living in a 100-year old house is like rowing a leaky boat. You need to bail out water continuously to keep it floating. That’s OK. I’m used to it. But this fall there has been more. We have refurbished the ground floor (still going on). We have ripped out everything, and rebuild it from the core; putting in insulation in the walls and floors, installing water-borne heating, and so on.

We have hired craftsmen to do the most difficult and time consuming things, but I’ve done a lot myself too. So, I’ve been working as a scientist at day time and as a carpenter in the evenings and weekends. It’s a nice combo actually. I rest my body when doing research in the office, and I rest my brain while swinging the hammer and saw.

In fact, I enjoy it. It feels like I’m doing some real work, not just fiddling around with physics and mathematics and computers. However, it leaves too little time for reading and writing. Things are too complex right now.

I don’t believe in any gods and superheros, and I think that from the beginning, the (pre)humans were much like any other species of animals. Our mission in life was very simple; to eat, fuck and die. We were supposed to spread our genes to the next generations, and then get our bio-mass recycled.

But at some point, our brains just got too big, and we started to worry about religion and science, and stuff like that. I don’t like religion, but I’m happy with the science.  

But there’s more. There’s no end to this craziness. We shop for hardwood floors and induction cooktops, and what the hell should we do with all the old crap that we have bought at the mall over the years? At work there are company strategies and deliverables and achievements, evaluation systems and key performance indexes (so-called KPI’s). Management is pretty insane. I've developed my own management theory. More about that on a later occasion.

Right now, it feels like I wanna go back to the basics. Fortunately, there’s the Christmas vacation coming up. I don’t like the Christmas part of it, but I do like a mid-winter vacation. Tomorrow we go skiing in the mountains for a week. Great!

To whom it may concern: Merry Christmas.

I prefer to say Happy Winter Solstice >:)

(The pictures were taken some years ago, when little boy was really a little boy. He had heard the Christmas Gospel in the kindergarden, and re-told it at home, in his own way. I made the clay models while little boy directed. There were Jesus and Mary and Joseph and the Holy Kings, and little boy insisted that they played soccer. This was unknown to me, but who cares. I just made it the way he wanted)

Higgs and other fields

 This week, Peter Higgs was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics. More than 40 years ago, Higgs and his co-workers predicted theoretically the existence of an elementary particle known as the Higgs boson. In 2012, the Higgs particle was finally detected in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva.

In a popular-science book by Leon Lederman, the Higgs boson was nick-named the God particle. This name is strongly disliked by both physicists and priests, because it could give the false impression that God has something to do with it. That’s not the case.

Science deals with theoretical predictions and experimental confirmation (or rejection) of the theories. Religion is just a question of belief (or lack of it), and is outside the scope of science.

Lederman, in his book, first wanted to call it the Goddamn particle, because of the enormous efforts and billions of dollars spent in the search for the Higgs boson. But the publisher didn’t approve it

I thought it was really cool when the Higgs particle was found, because I used to work with this kind of stuff when I was a physics student. Elementary particles are the basic building blocks of everything, all kinds of matter, and even light. The weird part of theoretical physics known as “quantum field theory” is the mathematical description of elementary particles and their interactions.

For every particle there is a field, and for every field there is a particle, the observable quantum of the field. Even light has a particle; the photon. And of course, there is a Higgs field, associated with the Higgs particle.

In fact there are many Higgs fields, at least four. Three of the Higgs fields are busy, giving mass to other particles, by so-called spontaneous symmetry breaking. The 4th Higgs field is free (because light, the photon, didn't acquire a mass), and is observable as the Higgs particle.  

More than 20 years ago, I wrote my master thesis on an even crazier part of quantum field theory, something called super-symmetry. In super-symmetry, there are more Higgs-like particles, and a myriad of other new particles, none of which have been observed in the labs so far.  

Working with super-symmetry was very entertaining, but I’m not sure it’s useful. I was in doubt if I should continue with this, or switch to something else. Once, I discussed this with a professor I knew (he was an outstanding teacher). The advice he gave me is probably the best I ever got:

“It doesn’t really matter which wave-equation you solve, but for some you get better paid.”

So, I swapped field (literally speaking), from elementary particles to acoustic and electromagnetic waves. I did my PhD in applied geophysics, and started to work for BigOil. I never regretted, and I even think I’m useful to society, sometimes >:)

(The picture is a random page from my master thesis, written back, in 1992. I still have a copy of the thesis in my bookshelf. I haven't opened it for more than 10 years, until recently, when I wanted to refresh my mind on the Higgs stuff.)

Narrow fjords and narrow minds

On the way back home from our summer skiing vacation, we went via the fjords for a weekend together with family.

We took a boat out in the fjord, and were set on-shore on a strip of rock by the steep cliffs. Then we climbed the trail up to one of the old farms on a narrow shelf some 800 feet above the fjord. The farm was inhabited from the 16th century till the 1950s. Now it's maintained by the descendants of the last farmer.

For centuries people along the fjords  have been living from farming and fishing; hard-working and God-fearing. I guess the hard work is what kept them alive. Still they continued with the useless prayers, and they still do.

Nothing fails like prayer. But tourism helps to make a living in the 21st century.

The fjords are scenic, with breathtaking views. Huge cruise ships arrive every morning in the summer. No wonder that tourists come in thousands to see high and snow-capped mountains and steep cliffs going straight into the green water.

I like the high mountains and the open archipelago on the coast. The narrow fjords are not my place. Roads blocked by avalanche in the winter, hazzle with ferries and narrow hairpin roads.

Beautiful, for sure. But most of all, I find the fjords claustrophobic.

It feels like your mind becomes locked in. Narrow fjords create narrow minds.

(Picture taken from the shelf-farm we visited by the fjord. The farm house and barn were behind my back. In the past, goats and sheeps were grassing on the green field, which ends on the edge of a 800 feet vertical drop into the fjord. If you look closely, you can see a similar farm on the other side of the fjord, above the gray cliff  to the right of the water falls.)

Venus and Satan

This morning there was this rare astronomical event; a Venus passage, where Venus passes in front of the sun. I happened between midnight and 6 am, and we were in a perfect location to watch it.

The public broadcasting was sending live all the time (these long and slow broadcast is one of the things I like about public broadcasting).

But I wanted to see it live, with my own eyes. I enjoy watching astronomical events; last time was the eclipse of the Sun in 2008.

So, I set my alarm clock for 3am. That’s about the time of sunrise in June. I grabbed a piece of over-exposed film (the kind of stuff we used before DC cameras), for eye protection, and then walked up to our 17th-century fortress (a 5-minute walk). The fortress was built to have a good view, of attacking enemies and sunsets and Venus passages. A perfect place to watch the event.

Unfortunately, it was partly cloudy, and the sun was low. I didn’t see much, but at least I got a glimpse of that black little spot moving very slowly across the face of the Sun. Very interesting.

And when I walked back home about 5am, it all became clear to me; the Grand Conspiracy.

Venus is not only a planet, but she’s also the God of love in Roman mythology. When God (the Trinity) conquered the world, she got offended and teamed up with Satan to get revenge.

Today is the 6th of June, the day Satan was born. And there’s more, it’s 6/6/12 which equals 6/6/6*2. Do you see the pattern here? The number of the beast, and the 2 for Venus’ and Satan’s engagement.

The Venus passage was her spectacular present to Satan on his birthday! Pretty scary, isn’t it?

We may argue that the Venus passage yesterday is a consequence of us happening to observe the Sun and Venus from our Earth. Every day there is some point in space with a Venus passage.

However, keep in mind that both Gods (all of them) and Satan exist only in the imagination of man living on Earth >:)

(I borrowed the picture above from the Internet, since I don't have a proper camera to photograph this myself.)

Before Man made God

I just came home after a week in Spain, on a geology field trip in the Pyrenees. They call it work. At least we get paid for it.

The geologists go on field trips all the time. Occasionally (every 10th year or so) they let the geophysicists join in.

We studied the making of the Pyrenees; the Pyrenean orogenesis. We didn’t bother about all of Genesis, just a small part of it, in the southern Pyrenees.

(And we had some great hikes while looking at the old rocks. I know that I’m privileged.)

The Pyrenees are younger than the Rockies, but older than the Alps. The Pyrenees have been there for a long time.

They helped Republicans escape from General Franco during the Civil War. 

They survived the Spanish flu.

They witnessed the Spanish inquisition.

The mountains were carved long before Man made God.

But in the end they will be gone, planed by water and ice. That’s the inevitable faith of a mountain range.

(We hiked a steep and stony trail. After an hour we stopped at the crest of a great moraine. The reward we got was the view of the mountain in the picture above.)

Thanks to Judas

It’s been busy times, a Hell of a lot to do at work. That’s why my blog has been dead recently.

I’ve been working day and night for the last couple of weeks, to finish the stuff we have promised to finish before the end of the first quarter of 2012. That’s the kind of things that managers measure.

Now I’m looking forward to Easter vacation, going skiing as usual.

I’m not very concerned about the religious part of it, but I think the Christians should stop talking shit about Judas. He’s the 2nd most important person in Christianity. What would Jesus been without the acts of Judas? Just imagine Jesus dying in loneliness, from old age in a dark and dusty cabin.

Judas was an important part of the plot, the antagonist who betrayed the hero. Without him the entire story would fall apart; no crucifiction, no suffering, no resurrection. Jesus and Judas had equally important roles in God’s plan, for those who believe in the story.

I think it was just an effective twist of a good fiction writer who knew his craft, almost 2000 years ago.

Anyway, I thank Judas for the annual skiing vacation he gave us, and after Easter, I hope my blog will resurrect.

Happy Easter Holidays >:)

(I got the Easter egg in the picture from my boss today. The egg was on the desk in my office when I came to work this morning. Nice boss, good candy.)

Sublimation

Last Sunday, we had a fantastic winter day, cold and sunny and dry, hardly any wind. A perfect day for skiing above the timberline.

When the weather conditions are like that, the ice cover virtually evaporates from the highway. It's called sublimation, and happens in dry and cold conditions. Water goes directly from the solid phase (ice) to the gas phase (vapor), without passing through the liquid phase (water). It's the same as the process they use to make instant coffee (freeze-drying).

When little boy and I came down to the chair lift in the morning, we found a sign announcing: ski-in mass 11 am. I was curious.

"What the Hell is going on," I said.

"Maybe the priest wanna ski too", little boy suggested.

"Do you wanna attend the mass? Maybe the priest can bless your skis?"

"No, I don't want to waste my time," said little boy.

So, no mass. That's fine with me. Let the priest do whatever he wants, with or without skis. I'm done with that stuff long time ago. Little boy seems to agree.

I was just curious what a ski-in mass is like. I still don't know.

Anyway, the skiing was good. Little boy skied over the jumps. I'm too old for jumping. It hurts too much when I fall. Around noon we could even feel that the sun was warming. Maybe it was just the holy ghost leaking out from the mass.

It was one of those days when skiing is like a sublimation of God. The mountains are my cathedral. I don't need a priest >:)

(These sunny and cold winter days come now and then every year: I had forgotten my camera this time. The picture above was taken in January last year.)

Antichristmas

Today is the 6th of June, 6/6, the day Satan was born.

We're planning a big celebration, at least I do. Mohahhaa, it's scary, isn't it?

Not really. I'm not taking God nor Satan very seriously.

I think the Christians should be happy to have their Satan. He's a nice guy, and the second most important character in Christianity (after Jesus). Satan has been used for centuries to scare people to believe in God. It has been an effective campaign. Satan and Jesus are friends.

By the way, here's a cool joke I heard from little boy some time ago.

Pete and Paul were playing in the sandpit.
Pete said: "Paul, do you beileve that Satan really exists?"
Paul replied: "No, it's like Santa Claus, it's just dad."

Merry Antichristmas >:)

(The picture above is not my work, unfortunately, it's a cool drawing. I found it on the internet some years ago. I have used it in presentations at work from time to time; nobody has been offended so far. We're a country of heathens>:))

A penny candle, you know

The pastor from Florida burnt the Koran, and the Muslim-world exploded in riots and revolts.

It reminds me of this quote, from Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev:

"A penny candle, you know, was enough to burn the whole city of Moscow."

Many people are killed, in attacks on UN officials in Afghanistan, UN officials who were there to help them rebuild the country.

Was it worth it Mr.Pastor? Probably not. Burning a book is a very stupid act. You should rather read it. Maybe you will learn something.

But there's more to it. The Muslims must learn that the right to commit blasphemy is an important part of the freedom of speech. What's sacred to you is nonsense to me. The Christians have learnt to accept this (not without pain), and the Muslims need to learn it as well.

I respect anyone's right to choose their religion, but I don't respect their Gods. None of them. Actually, I have read quite alot in the scriptures, The Bible, The Koran, The Book of Mormon.

The more I read, the less I believe >:)

(I will not burn my copy. The picture above is from the bookshelf in my office. Can you see the Koran, between math and physics books? And next to it is Pretty is as Pretty Dies by Elizabeth Spann Craig)

The beauty of religion

I read in the newspaper about this farm worker in Pakistan. It was a woman who belongs to the Christian minority in the Muslim country.

One day she was sent to the spring to fetch water for the farm workers. The other farm workers refused to drink the water, because it had been carried by a Christian. The woman got pissed off and said: “Jesus died for our sins. What has Mohammad done for you?”

She was sentenced to death for blasphemy. Well deserved, of course, you can't just offend the gods and the prophets like that.

On the big day, she will be painted black in her face and pulled through town by a donkey, to the square where the cheering crowd is waiting to watch the execution. It will be a spectacular show.

It’s the beauty of religion.

The 7th day

I didn't participate in the NaBloWriMo, because I don't have enough ideas to write every day, and I don't have the time. I just write when I want to, as simple as that.

Now I have in fact posted something on my blog every bloody day in the first week of November. It wasn't planned; it just happened. I don't like making plans, because I have too many already.

Today I'm resting, on the 7th day, just like God. Thats about the only thing we have in common, God and I.

I'm the peaceful and tolerant one; mostly harmless >:)

Blogging in Ramadan

There’s apparently something strange with Blogger right now. People are posting comments that don’t show up in the comments area of my blog (I get them in my mailbox).

Maybe it’s because of Friday 13th?

Or maybe it’s because of the Ramadan? You’re not allowed to blog or comment on blogs between sunrise and sunset; it's brain-food. This is probably God’s revenge over an atheist blogger. I post my favorite Mohammad cartoon here (there’s a link to all of them in the right margin). Maybe that will make Him happy >:)))

The worst invention of all time: Religion

Religion is a strange thing; interesting, fascinating and disgusting. I have never liked it, and I don’t need it. Religious belief has screwed up people’s minds for thousands of years, and still continues to do so, more or less. More in Muslim countries, less in the Christian world. What has religion brought us? War, killing, repression (of women), misuse of power, and so on. No good.

Maybe it’s not religion itself that is the problem. Emperors, family fathers, people with power have used religion to justify encroachment and harassment that would have happened anyway, with a different cause. However, many religious texts and leaders support and recommend such acts. For me it doesn’t matter which issue is the more important. The effect is the same. I don’t care what messy thoughts swirl around in the heads of Christians and Muslims and Jews and Hindus. But it has a very bad impact on the world we live in.

Religion has always been challenged by free thinking and science. Religion’s only significant contribution to science has been to slow down its development, banning and rejecting ideas that did not fit in with religious doctrine. The most harmful and tragic effects can be seen in countries where religion still has major impact on government and lawmakers; sharia laws, refusing girl’s education, claiming land on the West Bank with reference to the Bible. It’s insane.

In most countries, the fraction of religious people has decreased with increasing level of education. Religious regimes (like Iran) have the main base of support in the uneducated part of the population. That’s good, there is still hope that rationalism will win in the end. It is easy to understand that people of ancient times called on gods and ghosts and goats to explain strange phenomena that they couldn’t understand; the stars in the sky, volcanoes, earth quakes and floods. Thousand years ago, the scientific domain was small and the religious domain was large. Today it is opposite, due to the development of science.

However, there is still a long way to go. There are countries where the majority of the population supports creationism, rather than evolution (according to polls). Part of the Muslim world is at a development level corresponding to the Middle Age. Religion is irrational, a question of belief. You do believe in God (one or more) or you don’t, as simple as that. As science evolves, it continues to move previous mysteries from the religious domain to the scientific domain. Science is providing a logical and rational explanation.

There will always be things that can not be explained by science. The religious domain is shrinking, but will never become zero (I even know religious scientists!). The existence or non-existence of God can never be proved. There can always be something else, something more, that science has not been able to explain. Who pushed the button to trigger the Big Bang? Who cares? Do we really need an explanation for everything, right now? I don’t, I can live (and die) happily with the fact that there are still things yet to be understood. I have no problems accepting that the death is the end, we’re recycled back to nature. I have no need for an eternal life in Heaven. It would probably be just boring anyway, and God is a mean and tyrant despot (according to the Bible) that I wouldn’t like to be near to eternity and beyond.