Thursday, 19th February: "Copernicus in a twist"

"1473 - The birth of Nicolaus Copernicus, the Polish founder of modern astronomy"

Copernicus, on a roof

Copernicus, as all good schoolboys and girls of a certain age and above know, was famous for his assertion of Heliocentrism, a massive philosophical leap of thought at the time, whereby the earth no longer stood still at the centre of the universe, all the heavenly bodies revolving around it. Instead, Copernicus thought of the earth as revolving on an axis, orbiting the sun. Wikipedia has a handy summary of his ideas:

1. There is no one center of all the celestial circles or spheres.
2. The center of the earth is not the center of the universe, but only of gravity and of the lunar sphere.
3. All the spheres revolve about the sun as their mid-point, and therefore the sun is the center of the universe.
4. The ratio of the earth's distance from the sun to the height of the firmament is so much smaller than the ratio of the earth's radius to its distance from the sun that the distance from the earth to the sun is imperceptible in comparison with the height of the firmament.
5. Whatever motion appears in the firmament arises not from any motion of the firmament, but from the earth's motion. The earth together with its circumjacent elements performs a complete rotation on its fixed poles in a daily motion, while the firmament and highest heaven abide unchanged.
6. What appear to us as motions of the sun arise not from its motion but from the motion of the earth and our sphere, with which we revolve about the sun like any other planet. The earth has, then, more than one motion.
7. The apparent retrograde and direct motion of the planets arises not from their motion but from the earth's. The motion of the earth alone, therefore, suffices to explain so many apparent inequalities in the heavens.

From this biography on a Croatian university website somewhere:

The enunciation of the heliocentric theory by Copernicus marked the beginning of the scientific revolution, and of a new view of a greatly enlarged universe. It was a shift away from the comfortable anthropocentrism of the ancient and medieval world. A scientific theory that reflected so profoundly on humanity was not welcomed by the church, and it was only after the publication (1540) of Narratio prima (A First Account), by an enthusiastic supporter named Rheticus, that the aged Copernicus agreed to commit to print the theory already outlined in 1514.

Copernicus' theory did not go all the way to explain the universe - after all, we're pretty sure now that the stars are not fixed objects in the firmament and the universe is much larger than just our solar system alone, but this shift was immeasurably important, 'moving things along' for people like Galileo to pick up on the theory and run with it. (and get into more trouble with the Catholic church).

It was only in 1999 when Copernicus received props for his heliocentric view of the world from the then Pope, John Paul II. He said at the time "The discovery made by Copernicus, and its importance for history and science, remind us of the ever-present tension between reason and faith", which is as guarded a statement of "you were right" as you'll get from a pontiff, I suspect.

QUOTE ATTACK:

"By the tune a man finds greener pastures, he can't climb the fence"

Which I take to mean... well, I don't know what I take it to mean. Although this guy takes it to mean something about planes:

It seems that when we finally find greener pastures in our lives, we usually can’t climb the fence. After 34 years of marriage, my wife and I finally went to Hawaii — her lifelong dream destination. My proverbial fence however, was climbing inside an airplane to get there.
I was never enthralled with the concept of hurtling through Earth’s atmosphere at 20,000 or 30,000 feet above the ground.

It was one of the only references I could find to this obviously well-worn (but somewhat old-fashioned and not very web 2.0) phrase. Although, there is reference to it on this page of gardening jokes, which also contains the perennial (geddit?) "Grow your own dope, plant a man" line. Brilliant!

Monday, 16th february - "Lithuania time, Lithuania place, Lithuania where"

"1918 - Lithuania proclaimed itself independent of Russia"

Signatarai.Signatories of Lithuania.jpg Members of Council of Lithuania in 1917

The Independence of Lithuania is a complex affair. The Wikipedia article on its independence sheds some light:

After the Russian Revolution in 1917, Germany conceived the geopolitical strategy of Mitteleuropa – a regional network of puppet states that would serve as a buffer zone – and agreed to allow the Vilnius Conference, hoping that it would proclaim that the Lithuanian nation wanted to detach itself from Russia and establish a closer relationship with Germany. However, this strategy backfired; the conference, held from September 18–22 of 1917, adopted a resolution that an independent Lithuania should be established and that a closer relationship with Germany would be conditional on Germany's formal recognition of the new state.

During WWII, Lithuania fell first into the hands of Soviet Russia, then to Nazi Germany, then back to Soviet Russia. It remained part of the USSR until the 90s. From the main wikipedia article on Lithuania:

Forty-six years of Soviet occupation ended with the advent of perestroika and glasnost in the late 1980s. Lithuania, led by Sąjūdis, an anti-communist and anti-Soviet independence movement, proclaimed its renewed independence on March 11, 1990. Lithuania was the first Soviet republic to do so, though Soviet forces unsuccessfully tried to suppress this secession. The Red Army attacked the Vilnius TV Tower on the night of January 13, 1991, an act that resulted in the death of 13 Lithuanian civilians^. The last Red Army troops left Lithuania on August 31, 1993 — even earlier than they departed from East Germany.

Nowadays Lithuania is part of the EU. The Lithuanian tourist board site blows the country's trumpet thus (all lapses in English grammar are the tourist board's own):

New and undiscovered destination, original and fancy place to go. If you can't find other reasons, go just to satisfy your curiosity!

Friendly and charming people, speaking many foreign languages. For the first moment the Baltic people may seem reserved and formal, but soon you will find them to be very warm and hospitable!

Traditions still alive! Come to the Baltics during the Great Midsummer Eve celebration and you will see how the Baltic people celebrate! Each year the night of June 23 is very special in Baltics, because the cities empty out, most everyone decorates their cars, bicycles, horses etc. (even the yellow public busses are decorated) with leaves and flowers and goes out into the countryside to drink locally brewed beer, eat special Midsummer's cheese, build campfires, wave wreath of oak leaves and flowers, and sing and dance until the morning light

This does honestly sound like great fun, and kind of makes me want to visit Lithuania this summer. The practice is rooted firmly in a Pagan tradition and a firmly Lithuanian Mythology (about which you can read a little bit here)

Bonfires such as the one pictured above are lit, and young couples jump over them. These couples, too, go into the woods to find a mythical flowering fern. Luckily for the couples, the mythical flowering fern remains an intangible myth, and they can get down to it.

It looks like you can get cheap flights to Lithuania through Ryanair and BMI, if you're interested.

Quote time!

"The kindly word that falls today may bear its fruit tomorrow"

Friday, 13th February: "I'm smarter Danube think"

Today in 1867...

"The premier, in Vienna, of Johann Strauss's famous waltz, The Blue Danube"

Johann Strauss Jr: great chops!

wikipedia sez:

The Blue Danube is the common English title of An der schönen blauen Donau op. 314 (On the Beautiful Blue Danube), a waltz by Johann Strauss II, composed in 1866. Originally performed 13 February 1867 at a concert of the Wiener Männergesangsverein (Vienna Men's Choral Association), it has been one of the most consistently popular pieces of music in the classical repertoire. Its initial performance was only a mild success, however, and Strauss is reputed to have said "The devil take the waltz, my only regret is for the coda—I wish that had been a success!"

The waltz originally had an accompanying song text written by Josef Wey. Strauss adapted it into a purely orchestral version for the World's Fair in Paris that same year, and it became a great success in this form. The instrumental version is by far the most commonly performed today. An alternate text by Franz von Gernerth, Donau so blau (Danube so blue), is also used on occasion.

Here it is in 2001: A Space Oddysey:

And here is the Portsmouth Sinfonia version:

Wikipedia on the Portsmouth Sinfonia:

The Portsmouth Sinfonia was a real orchestra founded by a group of students at Portsmouth School of Art in Portsmouth, England, in 1970—however, the Sinfonia had an unusual entrance requirement. Players had to be either non-musicians, or if a musician, play an instrument that was entirely new to them. Among the founding members was one of their teachers, English composer Gavin Bryars. The orchestra started as a one-off, tongue-in-cheek performance art ensemble but became a cultural phenomenon over the following ten years, with concerts, record albums, a film and a hit single. The impact of the Portsmouth Sinfonia was considerable and their name and reputation has endured even though they last performed publicly in 1979.

Michael Nyman wrote a piece of music called The Otherwise Very Beautiful Blue Danube Waltz in 1976. I found this text in a google book search, and typed it up and everything (book previews do not, criminally, allow cut and paste):

"The piece's title is taken from a passage in Arnold Schoenberg's essay 'Brahms the Progressive', where he admonishes Johann Strauyss' use of "slightly varied repetitions... in the otherwise very beautiful Blue Danube Waltz". Schoenberg's comments suggest that he is rather dismissive of the somewhat formulaic and predictable nature of Strauss's waltz, though acknowledging at the same time its "simple beauty". Nyman's use of Schoenberg's quotation, however, pays homage to the work's "otherness" by breaking down and rebuilding each musical fragment from the found soure. In this case, Nyman's composition has been constructed out of Strauss's well-known waltz, An der schonen, blauen Donau"

(from The Music of Michael Nyman: Texts, Contexts and Intertexts By Pwyll ap Siôn)

Last in this little Blue Danube special, is this video of someone's Nan hesitating her way through Strauss's piece on the piano. This is my favourite version so far:

Today's quote:

"Make a point to do something each day that you don't want to"

This isn't attributable to any quote king (not even Churchill), and isn't exactly inspirational, either. I mean, every day I go to work and I don't want to, but that's just life. Yeah, nice one, calendar!

Thursday, 12th February!!!!!

Today in 2002...

"Serbian ex-president Slobodan" Milosevic went on trial for war crimes"

BBC Timeline of the trials here:

12th February, 2002:

Chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte opens the prosecution

Ms Del Ponte accused Slobodan Milosevic of causing "unspeakable suffering" in his pursuit of power. She recalled the "notorious events" of the armed conflict in the former Yugoslavia which brought the term ethnic cleansing into existence and vowed to call highranking witnesses to demonstrate Mr Milosevic's responsibility.

I'm not going to dwell on the confusing and barbaric set of circumstances which led to this trial. I just wouldn't consider trying to either a) enlighten or b) lightly mock something about which, shamefully, I know very very little. The wounds are still fresh on this one, too. I'll leave in this quote from wikipedia "discussion page" for Milosevic, though:

Almost everything about Slobodan Milosevic is a matter of dispute. There are credible people and sources on both sides of virtually every issue. We need to be careful not to make assertions of fact in this article unless there is concensus that it is a fact.

There are competing political agendas surrounding Milosevic's legacy. Some people have an interest in demonizing him and others have an interest in canonizing him. Both sides, unfortunately, seem to have their own set of "facts" which are 180 degrees opposite of one another and both sides flatly accuse the other side of lying.

The only way we're going to get through this is by quoting both sides and doing our best to identify whether the source is pro-Milosevic or anti-Milosevic.

To the pro-Milosevic faction, a statement or a finding issued by the Serbian government can be treated as a fact. To the anti-Milosevic faction, a finding issued by the Hague War Crimes Tribunal can be treated as a fact.

Normally statements by governments and courts can be treated as facts, but not in this case. The anti-Milosevic faction will dispute statements and findings by the Serbian government on the grounds that they were "manipulated by Milosevic". The pro-Milosevic faction will dispute the findings of the Tribunal on the grounds that "the Tribunal has no legal authority to make findings of fact". The Tribunal's legality and the Serbian Government's neutrality are matters of dispute.

When writing the article the best course is to say, "The Tribunal says, 'Milosevic did X', but The Serbian Government says 'Milosevic did Y'." The source should always be identified, and identified as pro or anti Milosevic whenever possible.

You see? It's probably best I stay out of it. I could quote more from, say, the BBC or any other major news organization, I could post links to the youtube documentaries claiming Milosevic was a) innocent and b) murdered by the prosecution in the Hague, I could spend all day sifting through each side of the argument but that's not really what this blog is about... I encourage you to do your own reading if you're interested. I know I will.

Instead, here are two other anniversaries 'on this day'....

Happy birthday Charles Darwin!

Charles Darwin

And Happy Birthday Abraham Lincoln!

Abraham Lincoln (found in /images at http://www.insertfishhere.com/)

AND A QUOTE, yes A QUOTE:

"Conceit may puff a man up but it will never prop him up" - John Rushkin

John Rushkin

You will note that Rushkin here is sporting a fine beard. Today's 'beard top three' is as follows:

3. Abraham Lincoln - normally a well-appreciated beard, he is today under much pressure from the other entrants...

2. John Rushkin - a fine, wispy beard with terrific length but none of the style on the winner...
1. Charles Darwin!!! - A combination of nature and nurture provided our Charlie with fine, full whiskers. Well done Charles!

Wednesday, 11th February: "Just Nippon out to the shops"

"660 BC - The traditional founding date of Japan"

Celebrations for National Foundation Day in Japan

From planettokyo.com:

Kenkoku Kinen No Hi (also known as Kenkoku Kinenbi) is celebrated on February 11 and is a national holiday. The purpose of National Foundation day is to celebrate the establishment of the country -- it is a patriotic holiday.

Subsequent to World War II, Kenkoku Kinen No Hi was abolished, In 1966, law re-established the holiday as it is now celebrated.

Early Japanese history books indicate that on this day in the year 660 BC, the first Japanese emperor was crowned. When the holiday was established to commemorate Emperor Jinmu's taking the throne, it was known as Kigen-setsu. Historians disagree on the details of Emperor Jinmu's enthronement to this day, but the legend remains part of the holiday.

And, from perpetual internet smart-arse wikipedia entry on the Nihon Shoki, the book of Japanese classical history:

Most scholars agree that the purported founding date of Japan (660 BCE) and the earliest emperors of Japan are legendary or mythical. This does not necessarily imply that the persons referred to did not exist, merely that there is insufficient evidence to conclude that they existed or can be assigned to a particular period of history. It is much more likely that they were chieftains, or local kings, and that the polities they ruled would not have encompassed all, or even most, of Japan.

For those monarchs, and also for the Emperors Ōjin and Nintoku, the lengths of reign are likely to have been exaggerated in order to make the origins of the imperial family sufficiently ancient to satisfy numerological expectations. It is widely believed that the epoch of 660 BCE was chosen because it is a "xīn-yǒu" year in the sexagenary cycle, which according to Taoist beliefs was an appropriate year for a revolution to take place. As Taoist theory also groups together 21 sexagenary cycles into one unit of time, it is assumed that the compilers of Nihon Shoki assigned the year 601 (a "xīn-yǒu" year in which Prince Shotoku's reformation took place) as a "modern revolution" year, and consequently recorded 660 BCE, 1260 years prior to that year, as the founding epoch.

Brilliant. More Taoism stuff here.

Today's slice of ugly truism:

"How does a project get to be a year late? One day at a time."

Apparently this quote is from Frederick P Brookes, and his book "The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering"... Amazon describes it as "The classic book on the human elements of software engineering"...

The first link I got to which referenced this quote was from an absolutely frightening-looking website for a piece of software for software managers, Ketura. This appears to be a way of tracking to the last detail employees' actions over time, all in the name of project management. I know nothing more of the program's abilities, it just struck me as an immediately slightly sinister bit of purchaseable control freakery:

"Want to know who worked on an issue, milestone or project? How long it took? How much it cost? Whether team members have managed to spend the intended amount of time on a project? Want that data filtered by a particular time period? Ketura makes all this information readily available."

At the click of a button, no doubt!

Some shouting in an office, yesterday

It's this kind of thing that makes us depressed at work. Micro-management. This from softpanorama.org, "The (slightly skeptical) Open Source Software Educational Society" website, and an article called "Type 3 Corporate Psychopaths: Micromanagers" article:

An unmistakable sign of paranoia is continual mistrust which simultaneously is the most distinctive feature of any micromanager. Paranoid managers are suspicious, touchy, humorless, quick to take offense and slow to forgive, self-righteous, argumentative, often litigious. Prefer to keep distance and avoid any intimacy; often they seem tense, cold and brusque. Paranoid personalities find causal connections everywhere; for them nothing is coincidental.

All PIMM (Paranoid incompetent micromanagers) are bullies but the reverse is not true: not all bullies are PIMM. Still both types of psychopaths have a distinct a tendency toward sadism and derive perverse gratification from harming others. They like to hurt, frighten, tyrannize. They do it for a sense of power and control, and will often only drop subtle hints about what they are up to. At the same time they polish their aggressive, domineering manner in such a way to disguise any intimidation as legitimate corporate behavior.

And with computer programs like that mentioned above now available, it looks like these characters have themselves a new whip! Onward and upward!

Tuesday, 10th February - "Pushkin too hard"

Today in 1837...

"Russian poet and novelist, Alexander Pushkin, was killed in a duel"

Alexander Pushkin, 1799-1837

Defending someone's honour in public used to be much different. Nowadays if someone says something nasty about you, out come the lawyers and the libel game begins. Weeks, months, sometimes years in court. Before the libel laws were created, however, you would go about it differently. First, you would approach whoever slighted or slated you. Then you would throw down your glove, and then you would have it out, either with swords or, latterly, pistols.

It was pistols what got Pushkin. 20 paces. Classic 'defending of a lady's honour' stuff. More on that later..

Extremely thorough Internet research (ie the quick search I just made) throws up a book, Pushkin's Button by Serena Vitale, which deals with the events leading up to this dramatic conclusion to the great Russian poet's life and, obviously, the duel itself. Anyone interested in anything more than a rough'going-over' should probably refer to that book. For everyone else, have a quick glance over the very useful New York Times book review..

."On the afternoon of Jan. 27, 1837, on a snow-covered field outside St. Petersburg, Aleksandr Pushkin was wounded in a duel with a young Frenchman. Carried home, the gutshot poet reclined upon a sofa in his study, blithely attitudinizing until the agony of peritonitis became too much."

You may notice that the day is noted here as the 27th January, 1837... "two weeks ago in history", perhaps? The date appears to be confirmed on this Russian site about Pushkin...

"A duel with d'Anthès took place on January 27, 1837. D'Anthès fired first, and Pushkin was mortally wounded; after he fell, he summoned the strength to fire his shot and to wound, slightly, his adversary. Pushkin died two days later, on January 29 ".

The reason for the confusion seems to be the following:

"He was buried beside his mother at dawn on February 6, 1837 at Svyatogorsky Monastery, near Mikhailovskoe.Today, as annually on the 10th of February, 6th of June, 21st of August - memory day, the poet's birthday and the date of his arrival at exile-at the poet's gravestone a joint pray will be carried out for the repose of the eternal sole of Alexander Pushkin. Nowadays the poet’s grave is declared as the national property of Russian Federation."

But anyway. Why? How could something like this come about?

The interventions of a french dandy, of course!

"In 1834 Mme. Pushkina [Pushkin's wife, who by accounts seems to have enjoyed the odd flirt when out dancing] met a young man who was not content with coquetry, a handsome French royalist emigre in Russian service, who was adopted by the Dutch ambassador, Heeckeren. Young d'Anthès-Heeckeren pursued Mme. Pushkina for two years, and finally so openly and unabashedly that by autumn 1836, it was becoming a scandal On November 4, 1836 Pushkin received several copies of a "certificate" nominating him "Coadjutor of the International Order of Cuckolds." Pushkin immediately challenged d'Anthès; at the same time, he made desperate efforts to settle his indebtedness to the Treasury. Pushkin twice allowed postponements of the duel, and then retracted the challenge when he learned "from public rumour" that d'Anthès was "really" in love with Mme. Pushkina's sister, Ekaterina Goncharova. On January 10, 1837, the marriage took place, contrary to Pushkin's expectations. Pushkin refused to attend the wedding or to receive the couple in his home, but in society d'Anthès pursued Mme. Pushkina even more openly. Then d'Anthès arranged a meeting with her, by persuading her friend Idalia Poletika to invite Mme. Pushkina for a visit; Mme. Poletika left the two alone, but one of her children came in, and Mme. Pushkina managed to get away. Upon hearing of this meeting, Pushkin sent an insulting letter to old Heeckeren, accusing him of being the author of the "certificate" of November 4 and the "pander" of his "bastard."

Things ot out of control from thereon in. The date was set for the duel, and Pushkin did not survive.

...AND ON A DIFFERENT NOTE ENTIRELY, THE QUOTE:

"If we don't take care of the customer, someone else will"

You know how it is. A busy day at work, the resentment is building up and things aren't going well. Maybe you were in a bad mood anyway, but the stress - oh, god,the stress - you're ready to burst. Maybe you're on the phone, or dealing with a customer, and your boss breezes in and asks you to do something trivial yet disruptive, something tiny which for whatever reason absolutely infuriates you, but you can't say anything to your superior - not whilst you're dealing with a customer, anyway. But yet you're niggled, and you cant't help passing on some of the frustration to this poor customer, guilty of nothing except the blameless crime of wanting you to perform whatever service it is they came in to buy.

So you're maybe a bit short with them. Still annoyed with the fatuous demands of your boss. Who the fuck does he think he is anyway? In the time he's been hovering around to reiterate his utterly pointless request he could have gone out the back and done it himself. The rotten bastard!

Anyway, you come off the phone. Unsurprisingly, your boss has been listening to how you dealt with the customer, how tense you sounded, and how unwilling you appeared to be to volunteer extra help, to "demonstrate excellent customer service". This phrase, rattled around your department meaninglessly but regularly for as long as you can remember, is enough to bring a vein or two out, to get the teeth clenching that little bit harder than normal (for work).

And that's when he drops the bombshell.

"If we don't take care of the customer, someone else will!"

Phrases like this should be banned under the European Convention for Human Rights. I'd push for them to be put into the Geneva convention as well, just to be safe. In times of war something minor but odiious like the phrase "blue sky thinking" should be an immediate court-martial.

Anyway, the correct answer to any boss who uses today's quote is "And if you don't shut up, I'll kick your stupid head in, so help me god".

Monday, 9th February: "Farrow, Mr Taxi Driver!"

Monday, 9th February

"1945 - The birth of American film actress, Mia Farrow"

Mia Farrow! Some facts & figures:

2 Marriages!! (Frank Sinatra, 1966-68 & Andre Previn, 1970-79)

15 Children!!! (full list here)

(not all pictured here)

Perfect Pitch!!! (no really, check it out)

Went to visit the Maharishi with the Beatles!!! (just after divorcing Sinatra)

(l-r: Cynthia Lennon, John Lennon, Mike Love, The Maharishi, George Harrison, Mia Farrow, Donovan, Paul Mccartney, Jane Asher)

One long-term relationship with Woody Allen!!!

Allen with Mia Farrow

Which ended really, really badly!!!

(Allen with Soon-Yi Farrow, Mia Farrow's adopted
daughter, pictured here with their 35-year age gap)

Oh, and 56 screen credits!!! check out her imdb listing here

...And is a big old activist!!! Sometimes with creepy consequences!!!!

AND THE QUOTE:

"A critic is a person who knows the way, but can't drive the car" - Kenneth Tynan

Here's Tynan in action interviewing Richard Burton: