As we dream by the fire
At some point I came across the phrase ‘sine qua non’ for the third time in my book and had to ask the hippie who was rather 'perched' on a booth seat at the table across from mine whether he spoke French. He answered in French so I said: “can you tell me what this means?” and showed him the line. He informed me that it was in fact Latin and meant, in essence, “the be all and end all.” Then he asked if I was studying music and I said “kind of” pause pause pause “the philosophy of music”. He didn’t ask any more questions after that I assume because a girl who is supposedly studying philosophy should probably know the phrase “sine qua non.” I feel a bit sheepish and lie down across the booth seat on my belly like an animal that does not wish to expose that vulnerable area. From this position my gut is protected and upon further questioning I may more naturally be able to peer up over top of my glasses.
It’s hard to say how we ended up discussing the details in methodology surrounding measurements of ocean temperature using satellites in space to detect heat changes in the infrared emitted from the ocean's surface. It’s hard to say why this conversation took place on a country road between train tracks and a deserted warehouse in the dead of winter on the outskirts of the town of Hornpayne, Ontario. But these are truths that I have come to terms with as fundamental in our interaction thereafter. He is a professor at Dalhousie University. During his PhD studies he took 400 measurements from a boat on the Atlantic Ocean measuring concentration of Methyl Bromine- a compound which was used in the 1980s to sterilize soil on farms (particularly those in California). Like CFCs, Methyl Bromine can deplete the Ozone layer by producing a free radical (with lone pair electron) which forms a stable bond with one Oxygen atom in the O3 molecule, thus reducing it to plain old O2. The ocean can both produce and destroy this compound, and my friend Wayne came up with a formula which accurately predicts, based on the aforementioned infrared satellite measurement, approximately how much Methyl Bromine exists in any area of the ocean at any given time.
It’s hard to say how we ended up discussing the details in methodology surrounding measurements of ocean temperature using satellites in space to detect heat changes in the infrared emitted from the ocean's surface. It’s hard to say why this conversation took place on a country road between train tracks and a deserted warehouse in the dead of winter on the outskirts of the town of Hornpayne, Ontario. But these are truths that I have come to terms with as fundamental in our interaction thereafter. He is a professor at Dalhousie University. During his PhD studies he took 400 measurements from a boat on the Atlantic Ocean measuring concentration of Methyl Bromine- a compound which was used in the 1980s to sterilize soil on farms (particularly those in California). Like CFCs, Methyl Bromine can deplete the Ozone layer by producing a free radical (with lone pair electron) which forms a stable bond with one Oxygen atom in the O3 molecule, thus reducing it to plain old O2. The ocean can both produce and destroy this compound, and my friend Wayne came up with a formula which accurately predicts, based on the aforementioned infrared satellite measurement, approximately how much Methyl Bromine exists in any area of the ocean at any given time.