Fashionable Thinking and Black Holes

by John Clements

There is a wildly held view that there exists a black hole at the centre of our own Milky way galaxy. This black hole is not fashionable, it cannot be bought and sold, it is not commercial. Nevertheless it has been there for billions of years quietly doing itâ s own thing oblivious to our own small fashionable planet on the edge of it's galaxy.

At the other end of the scale Universities investigating Black Holes are subject to all sorts of fashionable thinking depending on grants and other income. . Ideas. commerce and fashion , play a huge part, some ideas are fashionable someare not. Some scientists maintain there is a singularity of high density at the centre of each Black Holes that can break open space-time into another universe while others say everything including time stops at the 'event horizon'or firewall and therefore singularities do not exist.

Pigeon racing is also subject to fashion. At different periods in our short history long races both North and South were once in fashion. Long races eventually gave way in importance to super fast sprint competitions. Generally it was studs or those that placed huge pages of commercial advertising that decided the fashion of the day. Fashion is determined by how much is bought andsold and by how many buy.

Everyone, including those that run our clubs, ordinary fanciers and our controlling Associations are subject to the influences of fashions or trends. Most are not aware they are influenced by fashion - mistakenly they think they are making independent logical decisions in truth they are making fashionable ones.

In modern times 'One Loft' races seem to be in fashion as are injections againstpara typhoid and the use of anti-biotic drugs for extra fitness. Fashion in our thinking is very much alive in today's sport.

Geographical Position or the benefits of flying to a good location are big fashionable topics. Pigeon Racing is not racing by any conventional definition simply because every competitor runs a different course. It is like some Grand National horses having to jump 15 fences, some 20 and some the full track. Thiskind of fashion thinking about geographical position has led to clubs and Federations splitting up, while at the same time a few individuals, who can afford to send a lot of pigeons or enter more than their competitors, are also doing what is thought to be clever and fashionable. Unfortunrately single or twobird nomination clubs in long races are not fashionable. Neither are awards for repeated performances over many seasons by individuals pigeons.

The opposite to fashionable thinking is intellectual thinking or a type of thinking that tries to step outside current trends in an attempt to find what isof real value and what are our best pigeons and where they are to be found. This type of thinking seeks to find pigeon reliability rather than â man ??madeâ first prizes based on a speed calculation. Intellectual type of ??thinking seeks to find reliable pigeons that can home in reasonable time from long distances in the type of race that can test determination, physical ability and navigation rather than races that test speed but don't physically test the pigeons reliability. Even in this marathon type racing the fashion for speed has recently intruded into current thinking.

There are now more yearlings being clocked than there ever was. This type of thinking depends on using the mad strong-headed attribute of youth to win races. The downside is that many are lost attempting it and many are burnt out also in the attempt. Yearlings generally do not represent reliability. They, unlike the reliable black hole at the centre of our galaxy, are a short lived