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Quid Pro Quo With The Gods

Discussion in 'Cheeniya's Senile Ramblings' started by Cheeniya, May 20, 2017.

  1. Novalis

    Novalis Gold IL'ite

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    I was intrigued ... did Saint Simeon Stylites or Diogenes remind you of "House of Bamboo" song by Andy Williams as you abruptly intercut to that song. Then I reasoned... both could be featured in the descriptive song for their minimal living.

    I could not have come up with a better song to honour such frugal retreat.

    I share your enthusiasm for Diogenes. No extended talk about him would sap me. He is our implicit patron of QPQ.
     
  2. Novalis

    Novalis Gold IL'ite

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    3 out of 5. Why? Worth a buy? (not provoking to rhyme with why)

    Few chapters were interesting like that on political correctness. Another recent read on English language is Simon Heffer's Simply English. I mentioned this book in my earlier post from days ago. Finally, finished reading the book. The book is too dense with instructions on the usage of standard English. The author's note in the prelude to the book aroused my attention:

    "As in Strictly English, to avoid prolixity and tedium only the male gender is used in examples. As always used to be the case, the male should be taken to include the female whenever suitable."

    It is high time English introduced a genderless case to exempt writers from such explicit intention. This deficit has been a bane for many conversationalists even in social forums, indicted for being male chauvinists as they happened to carelessly drop a male pronoun over the gendered possibilities.
     
  3. Novalis

    Novalis Gold IL'ite

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    Growing up, classic movies were prevalent: be it Hindi movies on Doordarshan or English movies on TNT or International movies on niche channels. A lot of yesteryear movies were watched by me because the channels were commonly accessible. Today, most of the broadcast and subscription channels hoard up new releases. I wonder if kids these days watch the golden age movies. Would they know Frank Capra, Fritz Lang, Jean Renoir or even watched any Satyajit Ray's film?

    Deborah Kerr in 'The King and I' , 'Black Narcissus', 'Separate Tables' ...you would feel three different women.

    What a coincidence! I mentioned the same song, cover by There Might Be Giants, in another post. I enjoy these novelty songs. The lyrics are amusing.

    Every gal in Constantinople
    Lives in Istanbul, not Constantinople
    So if you've a date in Constantinople
    She'll be waiting in Istanbul
     
  4. Novalis

    Novalis Gold IL'ite

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    Hehe! My reading is fitful. I skip, I jump, I backpedal and leapfrog. Not every page in a book is riveting. Usually, when I utter 'I read', it means I swung the pages disorderly.

    Going by that, last night I read The Unknown Universe by Stuart Clark. The book is a chronology on the study of cosmos, how and when the greatest cosmological discoveries and enigmas were sought. Amidst the pickings in the book, a German chemist by the name of Heinrich Schwabe (chapter: Gravity's crucible) from the nineteenth century intrigued me.

    Our man Heinrich became disillusioned in life with his mundane apothecary that one day in 1820 he decided to sell his family business to invest the sale proceeds in a telescope. No more drugs and potions as he was hellbent to study the twinkling star map. With no scholarly induction in astronomy, Mr Schwabe approached the university professors of his city to guide him of assistance to them with his optical toy. He was assigned the sun! Schwabe was pleased that he need not forfeit his sleep over the nightly stars. While other amateur astronomers were busy with constellations and stars, Schwabe was devoted to the sun. Days of frenzy and speculative planetary discoveries, someone tipped him off that he might spot a new planet close to the sun in his solar undertaking. Thus, Schwabe, the former pharmacist, the reborn astronomer obligingly explored the anomalies of the sun.

    He neither discovered a new planet nor any mysterious flyby.

    But his foray into astronomy did change the history of the sun with his meticulous study of sunspots. He was the first one to notice the cyclical nature of sunspots which he observed for eleven painstaking years.

    Such trivia in books delight me. Till yesterday I didn't know Heinrich Schwabe. Now having known the unremitting passion of an eccentric man to contribute to humankind, our QPQ madness is justified. We all have a tinge of madness in us. Some subdue it, some flaunt it! But Qpqians exchange it with each other.
     
  5. sokanasanah

    sokanasanah IL Hall of Fame

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    You too can follow sunspots this very day, with a simple pinhole camera, as I used to do with my friends back in the day. Good family project for people with kids!
    These days I just peer through this.
     
  6. Novalis

    Novalis Gold IL'ite

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    In the same book The Unknown Universe (chapter 2: Selene's Secrets), the discovery and subsequent contention around the tenth planet 2003 UB 313 discovered in 2005 led to the eventual demotion of the prematurely identified ninth planet Pluto from planet to dwarf planet. Officially, only eight planets in the solar system since 2006.

    Whilst the conflict over planet definition was ensuing back then, the scientists were soliciting names for the alleged tenth planet. The top contenders were 'Xena' inspired by the lead character in the television series Xena: The Warrior Princess and 'Lila'.

    Lila fancied me!

    "Mike Brown had originally wanted to call the world Lila, a concept taken from Hinduism that can be used to describe the cosmos as the outcome of the divine being's pastime or sport."​

    If planets were cropping up unreasonably, then it must be the divine creator's playfulness or Lila. I love that metaphor! If the earlier definition of planet sustained, then the solar disc would have been ringed by Mercury, Venus, ... , Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Lila. How cute! (Note: The dwarf planet 2003 UB313 was later named Eris.)
     
  7. Novalis

    Novalis Gold IL'ite

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    Those exact lines punched a smile on me too! "I tried to phone but they don't list 'em"

    Another cosmic song with social message is Supersonic Rocket Ship by The Kinks:

    Let me take you on a little trip
    My supersonic ship is at your disposal
    If you feel so inclined. Well alright.
    We're gonna travel faster than light
    On my supersonic rocket ship
    Nobody has to be hip
    Nobody needs to be out of sight.
    Nobody's gonna travel second class
    There'll be equality
    And no suppression of minorities.​


    Whilst the current aviation endorses business-aligned priority boarding, only such supersonic rocket ships travelling faster than light might encourage egalitarian flight. Though - supersonic means faster than sound and not light, so the aspiring musician's fantasy might be mechanically flawed even before the take-off.

     
  8. Novalis

    Novalis Gold IL'ite

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    To write an unpleasant review is challenging because you are befuddled from where to criticize as it sinks appalling from all heights. Barbarella slumped even with an umbrella of stars but Mrs Bali in her sari of stars ascended to fame.



    Positioning of stars matters whether they are on pleats of the umbrellas or saris.
     
  9. Novalis

    Novalis Gold IL'ite

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    Blimey! I do not know any.

    I had no idea about the sentimental analyser in artificial intelligence. I had to look up.

    'A basic task in sentiment analysis is classifying the polarity of a given text at the document, sentence, or feature/aspect level—whether the expressed opinion in a document, a sentence or an entity feature/aspect is positive, negative, or neutral. Advanced, "beyond polarity" sentiment classification looks, for instance, at emotional states such as "angry", "sad", and "happy".'​

    Sentimental analyser even in human sensory is fickle. The same act might appear gratifying or hostile to different brains. Designing that in a computational notation is tricky.

    Thus, body language (also called paralanguage: the non-lexical component of communication by speech, for example intonation, pitch and speed of speaking, hesitation noises, gesture, and facial expression) aids in human communication.

    Tact is the subversion of this sentimental giveaway in which the nastiest imprecation is uttered in sweetened tone.

    A computer would smoke up in detecting the devious tact in everyday interaction. Even if it detects the sentiment or tone in communication, it could still be duped on tact by a clever human.
     
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  10. Novalis

    Novalis Gold IL'ite

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    I often recommend Terry Pratchett to disenchanted souls. Terry enlivens up banality and disappointment of living. Just read what he had written in Reaper Man:

    "Bill Door had carefully ensured a local representation as the worst bowman in the entire history of toxophily. It was amazing how many friends you could make by being bad at things, provided you were bad enough to be funny."​

    Stabbing with the jocular "toxophily" over the lay archery, he still relieves us with practical insights.

    Next,

    'I am afraid wizards don't often listen', said Windle.
    'Why not?'
    'In case, I heard what rubbish I was saying.'​

    Are incessant talkers inattentive listeners fearing their own voice.

    If a person had read both PG Wodehouse and Terry Pratchett, sublime is that soul fortified in know-how of human representation.
     

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