The same day that brought nifty clouds also presented an opportunity for catching the lightning…

Thanks to Rob for the idea to “picturify” the shelf cloud. More fun with nature in my back yard – or close to it.

A thunderstorm approaches Oswego, IL

Punctuated equilibrium is a refinement of natural selection theory. To cut to the chase, it proposes that speciation happens in bursts during periods of rapid genetic change; often in response to environmental factors.

It occurs to me that bursts of creativity and innovation also sometimes stand as bookends to periods of status-quo in other areas besides evolution; specifically in sociological contexts. Consider political upheavals from revolution to constitutional amendments, scientific revolutions and cultural fads.

It would seem that on occasion, new ideas or attitudes compel a break with tradition, if not whole or parts of prevailing frameworks and theories, over relatively brief time-scales.

Perhaps I’ll write more about this later, but for now I wanted to record another instance of universality.