Rhythms, rhyme and reason

True to form, I not only use stream of consciousness as a technique within blog entries, I also use it between entries, although I usually try to filter out the most irrational (and therefore hard to follow) stuff. In The Alien Perspective (2), I mentioned a few types of rhythms people have in their life as a result of how we live. But there are lots more. Here's a quick overview, ordered more or less in order of increasing frequency (or decreasing wavelength) within each category:

• rhythms in the inanimate world (and their effects): 
• Milankovitch cycles (23 000 years) (see the Wikipedia article for an explanation), which cause rhythm sedimentation
• sunspots: 11 year cycle (which in turn may be the cause of 11 year cycles of magnetic activity on Earth)
• years and seasons, caused by the Earth's orbit around the Sun (which cause year rings in trees)
• monthly rhythms (tides, the menstrual cycle, emotional cycles) - the Moon around the Earth
• daily (circadian) rhythms (sleeping and waking), caused the rotation of the Earth around its axis
• waves and ripples on the surface of water, seismic waves (earthquakes) 
• pulsars, radio waves, sound waves (singing, chirping, purring), light waves and other types of radiation (X-rays etc.)
• life-forms
• growth and development
• death from influenza (3 year pattern)
• spasmodic growth of the crocus (every 20 seconds)
• transport (with the rhythm depending on the number of legs, if any)
• snakes slithering
• inchworms inching
• centipedes and millipedes crawling
• snails snailing (?)
• people walking, jogging, running
• a horse's gait (trot, canter gallop, etc)
• biorhythms (related to internal anatomy)
• the peristaltic movement (primary wave every 8-9 seconds)
• respiration (10-18 breaths a minute, for an adult)
• heartbeat (60-160/minute, depending)
• man-made machines
• lighthouses (like pulsars)
• pylon drivers
• jack hammers
• motor engines (0-6000 rpms) 
• CPU clock speeds

• economic rhythms: several patterns (according to Dewey and Dakin, 1947), including a 54 year pattern for wheat prices, and a 18 year rhythm for real estate.

All of these rhythms influence our lives in some way or other (rhythms resulting from walking and from the heartbeat are the basis of most western music today), and they are all superimposed on each other.


Just a thought.