Saturday, September 10, 2011

Constant like -- sunlight?



Many things in this world are constant. The ratio of the perimeter of a circle to its diameter, for example, is the particular constant known as π. The brilliance of Janelle Monae's music could also be called a constant, albeit in a somewhat looser sense.

Now sunlight is quite obviously not, by any stretch of the imagination, in this category. You need proof? Go stand outside your door and look at the sky. (But mind you don't look straight at the sun or you'll destroy your eyesight). Now remain standing like this for twenty-four hours. And what you will discover (unless you are in Iceland in the middle of the summer, but we can safely assume that the Funky Homosapien known as Del is not in Iceland, and even if he were, we could prove our point by choosing some larger number of hours than twenty-four) is that the sunlight is not constant. Night falls. The sun disappears. Wait long enough and the seasons change. The amount of sunlight that you experience will NOT be constant.

But someone will say, Maybe he's not talking about our subjective experience of sunlight, maybe he's talking about the objectively constant flow of sunlight from the sun towards our funky-homosapien-inhabited planet. Which sounds like a valid defense. But such a defense can be shattered by two simple words: solar flare.

So TWO STARS OUT OF FIVE. Needs to improve his grasp of metaphor. And let's be honest, the "electric juice" which is being looped is a bit repetitive.

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