remote c

Line Drawings

2012-01-30T16:25:00.003+01:00

Zeus is masquerading as a friendly and beautiful bull to get a Phoenician princess to climb onto his back.Her name is Europa.........................................................................................................................

Greek mythology is full of stories of this kind.Zeus was always trying to seduce the ladies in many far-fetched ways.Once he famously changed himself into a swan.The idea was to seduce Queen Leda of Sparta.

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Aktaion is getting torn to pieces and killed by the dogs he had raised, even as Artemis draws her bow at him.

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Apollo lets his friend Hyakinthos ride the oceans on a swan. --

The stories are not deep, but they were great to illustrate, because they are about beautiful heroes, courageous winners, and tragic victims.The drawings are figured out much more carefully than the stories they represent................................................................

Achilles killed Penthesilea.They were both heroes, and according to legend she killed herself in the simplest of ways:
She stopped breathing.

These stories have always carried a lot of weight and have been studied by the most influential people.They are similar to rumors and sometimes meant to be entertaining, but also feel "sort of" mindless.

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In modern times, the most famous line drawings are Picasso´s.

Line drawing is taught and encouraged in all art schools.These two are from the Madrid art school by ghD:

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Anonymous, Snoopy, and Peridis: most drawings are line drawings. Everybody draws lines around things.

Since these lines do not in fact exist, the question is whether this is learned like an early form of writing, or whether it is even ritualistic or ceremonial:

"One has to do first a circle and then one has to put on a smile and some eyes and then it is almost finished, but one can also do some legs and arms left and right."

Children often attach arms and legs directly to the head. And even those who live in a flat in a city, will draw a little house always with a chimney stack and smoke coming out.

This is a pirate in his boat and a house with somebody sitting on his bed. -- Notice the smoke stack.
The drawing is part of a study by Norman H. Freeman published at http://www.answers.com/topic/children-s-drawings-of-human-figures

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Below is an Egyptian drawing.
It shows "The Heart being Weighed" :-)
It is at Egyptian Museum,Cairo, Egypt.

The photo is by Hajor, released under a CC Attribution-Share Alike 1.0 Generic license at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Egypt.Papyrus.01.jpg

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Their drawings were narrative, but so conventional that in hundreds and hundreds of years they did not change a bit.
And since they never changed, little by little they were used as signs representing words and later these signs became the letters of our alphabet:

The complete list of those letters is at http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/alphabet.html Quote: "

If you don't recognize the letters, keep in mind that they have since been reversed (since the Phoenicians wrote from right to left) and often turned on their sides!"...............................................................................

Define "line drawing":delineation: a drawing of the outlines of forms or objectswordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

A black-and-white drawing with no graduation of gray tones; usually done in India ink.www.bctsouthflorida.com/BCT_Help_Center.php

A graphic representation made with lines and solids, as opposed to one made with tone gradations.www.diydoctor.org.uk/projects/buildingdictionaryl8.htm

Drawing based on line, rather than brush or wash, in which hatching effects providefaculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf/Research%20Library/Technology%20ERIC%20Abstracts/ART%20TERMINOLOGY.doc

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The Greek drawings are from.

A Headful of Friedman Butterflies

2012-01-04T11:32:00.000+01:00

Quote:
"Right now, though, notes Levin, America is focused too much on getting “average” bandwidth to the last 5 percent of the country in rural areas, rather than getting “ultra-high-speed” bandwidth to the top 5 percent, in university towns, who will invent the future. By the end of 2012, he adds, South Korea intends to connect every home in the country at one gigabit per second."

Quote
"Therefore, the critical questions for America today have to be how we deploy more ultra-high-speed networks and applications in university towns to invent more high-value-added services and manufactured goods and how we educate more workers to do these jobs — the only way we can maintain a middle class."

End of quotes

The complete article was published today at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/04/opinion/friedman-so-much-fun-so-irrelevant.html
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So this is the difference:
In South Korea it is going to be EVERY household, in the United States it is going to be the "smart cities".

It shows the money being spent on shady warfare in the depressing absence of clean priorities.

What To Do on the Moon

2012-01-04T10:36:00.001+01:00

There seem to be only two places of any use outside of
Earth but within the Solar system.

NASA: http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/luceneweb/caption_direct.jsp?photoId=AS11-44-6549

The moon is one. The moon's far side is where we should put the telescopes. Who needs Hubble when you can build super interferometers on farside? Eventually we should be able to read license plate numbers in cars on extra-solar planets.

The other place is Mars. At some stage Mars could be used as a jump off point for mining the asteroid belt.

Any other place in the solar system should be privately funded by whatever fun seekers who want to go to Jupiter or Saturn or the outer planets.

As for the stars, forget it.

RJK at http://tinyurl.com/7xrkdnu

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The Potato Sorter

2011-12-31T10:54:00.001+01:00

This is about that intelligent design that you can see in the Creation.

"I want you to think of a multi-level potatoe sorter. The top level has 4
inch holes. It is right above a level with 3 inch holes which is right
above a level with 2 inch which is right above a level with 1 inch holes.

"The levels are horizontal and separated and held together by rigid bars,
and netting surround the entire sorter to keep the potatoes in.

"Introduce a mix potatoes of various sizes and shake vigorously. After a
one the top level will have potatoes of 4 inches or larger diameter, the
next leve will have potatoes of 3 inches or larger but less than 4. The
next level will have potatoes of 2 inches or larger but less than 3 and
so ont untill the bottom which will have have potatoes smaller than 1
inch in diameter.

"You look at this lovely orderly array of potatoes and think, isn't
nature worderful to order the potatoes so? But hark, it isn't nature so
much as the structure of the sorting device. In short , the order was
not Out There but in the device itself."

By rjk at http://tinyurl.com/6pk5y2t

Phenomenology = ?

2011-12-19T10:07:00.002+01:00

Phenomenology emphasises that meaning is generated through the influence of consciousness on perceptions.

(and see Kolker: "Notions of force and gravitation simply did not exist in those days. So the name of the game was to account for the appearances. Astronomy was 100 percent phenomenological. Kopernik's theory was constructed with this approach".)

# The study of things as they are perceived, leaving out what those things really are.

# The philosophical investigation and description of conscious experience in all its varieties without reference to the question of whether what is experienced is objectively real.

And people like myself, of German and Kantian background, would anyway say that no thing is "objectively real".

Objectivity can be construed by conventions: my idea of a meter is not subjective; and there is nothing subjective in quotes and references to printed material; and in general, as long as there are numbers and measures, some agreement has to be possible.

The problem is all in words, words, words, which hardly ever mean the same to different people.

F a u s t -- short

2011-11-23T09:08:00.001+01:00

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Summarizing:

Faust curses his books and his papers and wishes he could get out. He even considers suicide but is held back by childhood memeories.

A few weeks later, around Easter, he goes out for a walk. A black poodle follows him home. The black poodle turns out to be Mephistopheles.

Mephistopheles is a most entertaining elderly cynic dressed up as a gentleman who has come to offer Faust a deal: "I will show you the wonders of the world, and in return, when you die I will get your soul."

Faust accepts.
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Fast forward:They travel and end up at a beer cellar where Mephistopheles produces free wine for everybody by drilling holes in their table, but Faust insists that he wants better and greater things.

So Mephistopheles helps him seduce a teenage girl called Gretchen who gets pregnant and in despair drowns her baby. She faces the death penalty. Mephistopheles comments: "She is damned". From Heaven comes an answer: "She is saved".

That is where the first part ends. It is easy and great reading.
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Faust II is indigestible because it is full of Greek mythology and German witchcraft, and I have read only part of it.

The most famous passage is where Mephistopheles in the role of a court jester finances a bankrupt emperor by creating a flood of paper money.

Another good read is Faust's death where some angels sent by Gretchen's prayers come down from Heaven. Mephistopheles, too, arrives in time to catch Faust's soul, but he lets it escape because the angels successfully seduce him with their splendour.

Goethe's introduction to Faust is based on the Biblical Book of Job where God and Satan bet on the soul of a man.

Below are some lines from the beginning of Faust I with prose translations to show the liquid elegance of Goethe's verse.

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Noah's Ark seen by Marcel Proust

2011-11-20T09:18:00.001+01:00

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In short: truth in art is remembered and recalled, but not copied.

The Spanish poet Antonio Machado says the same.

(c) Drawing of Noah's Ark by ghD

Quote Marcel:

"When I was little, no story of the Holy Bible seemed to me as sad as Noah's, because of the flood which kept him shut up in the ark for forty days. Later I was often ill, and for lots of days I also had to remain "in the ark". I understood then that Noah could never have seen the world so clearly as from his ark, though it was closed and it was night on Earth."
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Quote Machado

Pensar el mundo es como hacerlo nuevo

de la sombra o la nada, desustanciado y frío.
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To think about the world is like making it anew from its shadow or from nothing, cold and almost lifeless.

Pensar: borrar primero y dibujar después,

y quien borrar no sabe camina en cuatro pies.

To think is to erase first and draw afterwards. Those who don't know how to erase walk on four feet.
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Cow Town Tyranny

2011-10-24T10:13:00.001+02:00

In these small towns the Mayor holds all the strings, absolutely every one of them:

The town is that little white line on the hill

Do you need a job? are you looking for a place to rent? are you looking for a tenant? do you have a job to offer? Are you trying to get a subsidy or a grant? A recommendation of any kind?

This is Spain. I know it's not the same everywhere. Here you have to be related to the mayor's cousin's wife's sister in law's niece.

And if you have a little issue pending because somebody on this mayor's government in fact privately owes you some 40 dollars and simply acts as if he had never seen me before...

Each time you try to talk to some new acquaintance carefully about the mayor or the guys in his entourage, you'll face an odd smile saying oh, yes, I know these people very well, they are friends of mine, because my father's uncle's adopted daughter's boyfriend was a class mate of the mayor's in grade school....

And so there is nothing you can do, except shut up and wait.

Wait! Some mayors have been in for 20 years and more. And yet they say that nothing lasts forever.
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Postscript
This is not about the little town of the photo though it is certainly of the same kind.

#Occupy! in Spain

2011-10-12T10:30:00.000+02:00

Though originally not directed against the banks, the motivation is certainly most tenacious and justified among those who got hooked on rigged mortgage contracts, as for example:

There was a flat for sale at 250 000 euros. There were commissions and red tape expenses of 25 000 euros or more. The expenses included a charge for a tasador = assessor who predictably evaluated the flat at 280 000 euros. Accordingly the buyer was encouraged to get a mortgage for 280 000.

Next the buyer lost his job, and when he could not pay his mortgage anymore, the bank sent another assessor who now evaluates the flat at 140 000 euros. The ex-owner will have to pay off the remaining 140 000 plus red tape expenses as long as he lives.

Very often the buyers were very young people who simply wanted to get married:

The Story of the Bubble + Crisis >→ >→ Youtube >→ >→ ESPAÑISTÁN by Aleix Saló

Saló's cartoons are in Spanish but with a little guesswork they would be intelligible anyway:

Bank Manager and Brother Plan Bank Robbery

2011-10-11T11:20:00.000+02:00

This is a true story:

A man in his car put on a wig, a hat, a beard and a mustache, then left the car and entered the offices of a bank, but after a minute came out again.

A witness alerted the police and they arrested the man. At the bank the police were told that some individual had come in to ask about various banking products.

The police located the man’s car and discovered that he was the bank manager’s brother.

The bank manager and his brother confessed that they had planned the robbery for months because of economic problems at home.

From
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/Detenido/director/banco/intentar/atracar/propia/oficina/Vitoria/elpepuesp/20111010elpepunac_14/Tes

Disband the Eurpean Union?

2011-09-21T09:51:00.000+02:00

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The second possibility would be to disband the union entirely, leaving everyone to go back to their own national currency. This would be a disastrous outcome for all concerned, and for the global financial system.

Coordinating the unwinding of cross country counter liabilities would be a nightmare given the level of interlocking in the corporate and sovereign bond markets, and the sudden disappearance of one of the major global currencies of reference would cause havoc in financial markets.

The dollar would most likely be pushed to unsustainably high levels in the rush for safety, and it is only necessary to look at what is currently happening to gold, the Swiss Franc and the Japanese Yen to catch a glimpse of what would be in store.

Evidently this kind of violent unwinding would never be undertaken voluntarily, but that does not mean that it is an eventuality which might not take place, if solutions are not found and the force of market pressure continues and even augments.
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For anyone that understands no matter how little about economics and would like to know a little more, this is the site.

See http://spaineconomy.blogspot.com/

Heinrich Heine: Belshazzar

2011-09-19T10:24:00.000+02:00

It was going towards midnight and all of Babylon was asleep. Only high up in the King’s castle there was light and noise.

Up there, in the royal hall, Belshazzar had a dinner party. The knights sat in shiny armour drinking heavily. They toasted to each other and sang to please the stubborn king.

The King’s face was glowing red, and alcohol made him bold. So his mood carried him off and he cursed God. And he swaggered and cursed to the roaring applause of his knights.

With a proud look he called his servant who ran and came back with utensils of gold that had been stolen from the temple of Jehovah. The king took a holy cup filled it to the rim and empties it and calls out:

Jehovah! I’ll forever laugh at you, for I am the king of Babylon.

But as soon as he had said that, the King felt secret anguish. The loud laughter in the hall stopped at once and a deadly silence set in.

And look! look! on the white wall something like a human hand appeared and wrote and wrote on the white wall in letters of fire and disappeared.

The King sat there staring and trembling. The knights felt cold fear and did not say a word anymore.
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The magicians came but they did not know how to read the flaming writing on the wall. However, that same night Belshazzar was murdered by his followers.
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There is a good literal translation and a music sheet plus some information on the origin of the legend at
http://www.bachlund.org/Belsazar.htm

Below is
the original German text parallel to my own simplified translation

Understand them when they speak?

2011-09-15T09:50:00.000+02:00

Worst : the telephone.

How can you guess if you can't see the speaker's face? And what if he announces his dozen syllable name in Spanish and then sets out to spell it for you, also in Spanish ?

To understand well, you must be able to guess one out of every three words.... or one out of four.....which is what you naturally do in your own language.

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As long as you need to identify the lexical items one by one, you depend on your friends' coming half way by speaking slowly and not too much all at once.

So, even if you understand your teacher, it will still be some time before you understand anybody else.

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It takes time, that's all. That is the only real problem with all language learning, but it is a big problem, because most people do not really believe it and keep looking and paying for faster ways.

Most learners prefer to spend money rather than time.

There is a fast way: Go abroad.

But that is not always possible and sometimes it does not work either, when learners meet people from their own country. Foreigners invariably spot each other abroad and make friends with strangers more easily than at home.

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Postscript

Language learning always pays, but only in the long run or if you make reading rather than speaking your priority.

The drawings are by Raphael Wünsch

Galileo: brilliant, but arrogant

2011-08-24T10:31:00.000+02:00

Galileo was brilliant, Galileo was a genius. But Galileo was also an arrogant man who was ill disposed to listen to others who crossed him. Maybe he should have taken Kepler more seriously.

Even if there was not a sufficient basis for postulating a gravitational law, Galileo stubbornly refused to account for the most important components of the tidal periods, the monthly and dail components. Only the moon could account for these. Galileo dismissed the idea of the moon's influence on the tides out of hand.

Kepler, in the mean time, was struggling to articulate the concept of force. He did not quite succeed, but he was convinced that the motions of the planets were due to some "emanation" from the sun.

Neither Kepler nor Galilleo articulated the concept of force in a satisfactory manner. That distinction goes to Newton.

RJK

extracted from
http://groups.google.com/g/0747fef5/t/3c8ea8d54145a5ae/.../8e3a7bd364a18e5b?...

or shortened
http://tinyurl.com/3jzcsc7

On Greek Claptrap

2011-08-09T10:47:00.000+02:00

You believe that reality can be deduced from logically necessary principles. That is how we got Aristotle's theory of motion plus a geocentered kosmos. In short, we got Greek claptrap. The fact of the matter is we have to generate our
scientific truths and hypotheses a posteriori. If one does not look and learn, one will not know much about reality.

You cannot get reality straight from your head by appealing to first principles. That is rationalist balderdash, dead and buried with Descartes.

We have to do our science the old fashioned way. Look, measure, guess, experiment. Look, measure, guess, experiment. That is the way that works.

from

The Unexplainable Paradox

Google Groups http://tinyurl.com/3u57jlw

or

http://groups.google.com/group/humanities.philosophy.objectivism/browse_thread/thread/a239730484173e1c/26297ff271a192af?hl=en&amp;q=%22rationalist+balderdash%22&amp;lnk=nl&amp;

Question: Why is USA belly-up?

2011-08-08T10:50:00.000+02:00

Answer: Because of those wars.

These wars were not paid for, and nobody asked about the cost or how it was going to be financed. In fact, most people do not know it. Worse: they don't care, beause they have given up trying to understand.

Now nobody wants to talk about "these things" because these things are messy.

In other words, the reason why the US is belly-up is psychological. It is in people's passivity greatly helped and encouraged by the dollar printing presses that has made it possible for each successive government to go to war without asking for money.

Professor Wolff gives two more reasons: a wriggly tax law and expensive emergency help for the biggest companies.

Wolff is an economist. His web page is at http://www.rdwolff.com/. It is full of wonderful stuff like CAPITALISM HITS THE FAN

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The politicians seem to have abandoned the people.

Question: Should the politicians be more like nannies?

Madrid, Spain, 15M

2011-08-06T11:02:00.000+02:00

"It seems that while the Titanic is about to sink, the 15M movement complains about the repertory of the orchestra." (quoted from El País, August 6, 2011)

"Parecería que cuando se hunde el Titanic el movimiento 15M se queja del repertorio de la orquesta."

Spain has had 10 years of free cash. There was so much of it that it would not have been possible to spend it wisely.

Around my town you would see avenues leading nowhere with densely planted street lights illuminating nothing but planned for 1000 little houses to be built soon:

Young people on their first job were told to buy a flat and a car.

The older experienced people were getting rich by stiffing the young.

Now these are out in the street singing: "It is not a crisis, it is a system!"

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The Story of the Bubble + Crisis >→ >→ Youtube >→ >→ ESPAÑISTÁN by Aleix Saló

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How Doth the Little Crocodile

2011-07-09T11:35:00.000+02:00

How doth the little crocodile
    Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
    On every golden scale!

How cheerfully he seems to grin,
    How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in,
    With greatly smiling jaws!

Lewis Carroll

Complete text with the original Tenniel illustrations available at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rgs/alice-table.html

"We called him tortoise because he taught us, said the Mock Turtle angrily."

who are you?

2011-07-02T10:03:00.000+02:00

I had to launch this blog because Wordpress bloggers often can't comment on Blogspot and on blogs connected to DISQUS.

Today it happened again in TIME online.