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| Shrimp Boat Reflections, Shem Creek, Mount Pleasant, SC © Doug Hickok All Rights Reserved The word of the day is chaos. It is a noun that means disorder or lack of organization. The word derives form the Greek meaning of chasm or abyss, but was extended to mean utter confusion by the 1600's. In Greek mythology, the personification of the word, Chaos, refers to the void preceding the creation of the universe. Ovid described it as "a rude and undeveloped mass." Chaos is also the genus name of a giant Amoeba. In science and math, chaos can refer to randomness, or the lack of intelligible pattern. Chaos Theory applies to many fields of science and mathematics. It attempts to explain how the most subtle influences can have significant impacts on system dynamics. In general it shows the difficulty of long term predictions, say for example in weather patterns or baseball scores. So my picture today perhaps incapsulates some of these ideas. Oh, and chaos often refers to the state of my hair when I first wake-up in the morning. |