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Quid Pro Quo With The Gods

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

  1. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    On Gold

    The Aztecs dubbed gold as the sun god's sweat. They worshipped gold because it was god's asset or secretion in this case. Then, in the early twentieth century when gold's mystery was solved in quantum mechanics, it was awed greatly. Here is a simplified article on why gold is gold in color.

    The colour of metals such as silver and gold is mainly due to absorption of light when a d electron jumps to an s orbital. For silver, the 4d→5s transition has an energy corresponding to ultraviolet light, so frequencies in the visible band are not absorbed. With all visible frequencies reflected equally, silver has no colour of its own; it's silvery. In gold, however, relativistic contraction of the s orbitals causes their energy levels to shift closer to those of the d orbitals (which are less affected by relativity). This, in turn, shifts the light absorption (primarily due to the 5d→6s transition) from the ultraviolet down into the lower energy and frequency blue visual range. A substance which absorbs blue light will reflect the rest of the spectrum: the reds and greens which, combined, result in the yellowish hue we call golden.

    Warmly glowing gold,
    What gives it that autumn hue?
    Relativity.

    Special relativity is also responsible for gold's resistance to tarnishing and other chemical reactions. Only the most reactive substances can tug gold's 6s1 electron out from where it's hiding among the others, and hence not only the colour of gold, but its immunity from tarnishing and corrosion are consequences of special relativity.

    What keeps that golden
    twinkle bright?
    Mass increase near
    speed of light!



    I have never been enamoured of gold, even the matt finish, because I find it too bright. However, knowing that the brightness has primordial origins in quantum relativity and speed of light, I find the metal fascinating. I should check out platinum collection. I rarely visit jewellery stores.

    Alas! You are doomed to rub shoulders with Iravats instead. Nevertheless, here's golden diwali for you. Wish us both more rambling.


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    Last edited: Oct 21, 2017
  2. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    Few weeks ago, a friend called up and inquired, "Do you know X, she says she went to the same college as you did, she might be few years your junior"?

    "Yes, that name rings a bell. I just know her by face but not through friendly chat."

    "She lives in my neighbourhood now and when we struck a conversation, and she mentioned the college she graduated from, I asked her casually about you. She remarked that you were very quiet. You ...is that you .. quiet ...I thought there were two of you. I told her ...she is anything but quiet. She is explosively chatty."

    "You know me. I am withdrawn. I talk only when I connect to the topic, to the person, and to the fun. Rest, I stay away."

    "I told her that she missed knowing you in college. You are a crazy bat and a sonic piece!"

    500 responses from this crazy bat and sonic piece should convey how well I connect to the topics, to the person, and to the fun here. I am sparse with praise. But, every now and then I would like to remind myself on how fortunate I have been to find such connects and people amidst the quiet ploy.
     
  3. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    On nobody

    This is that jumping out of the sofa moment. Hope you don't mind such excitement, should you, well, you have to get used to these excitatory moments. I was going through EE Cummings' sketch work. That dude knocked up prose, poetry and also paint! What a triade of skills! Then, I stumbled on his playful poem that resonates with anyone who guns to write poetry with paint. Your undersigned is one of those gunning junkies.

    Why do you paint?
    For exactly the same reason I breathe.
    That’s not an answer.
    There isn’t any answer.
    How long hasn’t there been any answer?
    As long as I can remember.
    And how long have you written?
    As long as I can remember.
    I mean poetry.
    So do I.
    Tell me, doesn’t your painting interfere with your writing?
    Quite the contrary: they love each other dearly.
    They’re very different.
    Very: one is painting and one is writing.
    But your poems are rather hard to understand, whereas your paintings are so easy.
    Easy?
    Of course — you paint flowers and girls and sunsets; things that everybody understands.
    I never met him.
    Who?
    Everybody.
    Did you ever hear of nonrepresentational painting?
    I am.
    Pardon me?
    I am a painter, and painting is nonrepresentational.
    Not all painting.
    No: housepainting is representational.
    And what does a housepainter represent?
    Ten dollars an hour.
    In other words, you don’t want to be serious —
    It takes two to be serious.
    Well, let me see… oh, yes, one more question: where will you live after this war is over?
    In China; as usual.
    China?
    Of course.
    Whereabouts in China?
    Where a painter is a poet.

    Arguably, my calling is not China. I dug further and came across another charming quote:

    To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting -- ee cummings

    I have often wondered on my blithe disposition. Why I don't get troubled by the world around me ..why I am not distraught at the unfairness meted out in life ...why I am not rattled by the iniquities of the world...how I can beam myself into a remote island and stay happy on my own ..why I fail to empathise with misery and agony of human condition ...why I have no spiritual leanings, why I have no fear of alienation ...why I have never experienced or even tasted what it is to be dispirited in life.

    That quote hit me. To be nobody but yourself is the key to unlock enduring happiness. Perhaps, others find it challenging and daunting but being myself comes natural to me. My explosive happiness can be attributed to that inescapable truth.
     
  4. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    On Animals

    I think you have read A confederacy of dunces by JK Toole. We spoke about that book some time ago. In that book, our eccentric Ignatius Jacques Reilly never leaves home without the philosophy of Boethius in his pocket. His mind and soul are saturated with the teachings of Boethius. Similarly, I cite a lot of our modern Boethius, that is, Alain de Botton, in my everyday interactions. Mind you, Botton is not an original thinker, nevertheless he does a fantastic job in transforming dense philosophy into democratic and playful directives. He too wrote a modern book called Consolations of Philosophy in the style of medieval Boethius. While Boethius offered a singular consolation, our man Botton dispensed several consolations (plural). I love reading his work repeatedly only to discover hitherto missed funny teachings. Why all this now? I recollected a chapter on Montaigne that mentioned Pyrrho's pig to demonstrate how animals fare better than man in dealing with life.

    Animals knew instinctively how to help themselves when they were sick: goats could pick out dittany from a thousand other plants if they were wounded, tortoises automatically looked for origanum when they were bitten by vipers, and storks could give themselves salt-water enemas. By contrast, humans were forced to rely on expensive, misguided doctors (medicine chests were filled with absurd prescriptions). Animals also instinctively understood complex ideas without suffering long periods of study. Tunny-fish were spontaneous experts in astrology. ‘Wherever they may be when they are surprised by the winter solstice, there they remain until the following equinox,’ reported Montaigne. They understood geometry and arithmetic, too, for they swam together in groups in the shape of a perfect cube. Dogs had an innate grasp of dialectical logic. Montaigne mentioned one who, looking for his master, came upon a three-pronged fork in the road. He first looked down one road, then another, and then ran down the third after concluding that his master must have chosen it: Here was pure dialectic: the dog made use of disjunctive and copulative propositions and adequately enumerated the parts.

    The Greek philosopher Pyrrho once travelled on a ship which ran into a fierce storm. All around him passengers began to panic, afraid that the mutinous waves would shatter their fragile craft. But one passenger did not lose his composure and sat quietly in a corner, wearing a tranquil expression. He was a pig.


    Do I need to say anymore that we should all adopt a Pyrrho's pig to reassure us through life's upheavals rather than kowtow to a spiritual demagogue who might abandon the ship at the first sign of trouble.
     
    Last edited: Oct 22, 2017
    SwatiSri likes this.
  5. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Silence (516)
    Silence is not the absence of noise. I have heard of a ametuer poet telling me of the 'deafening noise of a thousand flowers blooming'. And noise can be frustrating silence if your mind is elsewhere.
    This side of Jeeves gets on my nerves. This is not the way to respond to a simpleton of a boss. Do you notice that phrase 'as a child'? He simply boasts of a mature mind even in childhood. Aunts are fine for a folklore but do they really read this kind of stuff to a child? Jeeves has an oversized ego!
     
  6. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    On Chocolates (517)
    Kamarkats of my childhood used to be much darker in colour and almost rock-like to bit. You have to keep chewing on it till it becomes soft enough to eat. Children eating kamarkat almost resemble a cow chewing the cud! Yet another novelty is the sticky tubular toffees wound around the kid's hand like a watch!
    Ice creams are real fun. They are the greatest mood lifters in the world. There are hours of Ice Cream songs in on the You Tube. When I don't have an ice cream to consume, I enjoy these clips!
     
  7. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    On Soaps (518)
    Certain brands of soaps may launch you into the Hall of Foam but there is a population that swears by foamless soaps. They say that soaps that foam a lot may eventually damage your skin. I have been a Mysore Sandal fan from childhood. I cannot differentiate a soap that women use from the ones that men use. The one thing that I have learned from TV commercials on Soaps is that women start preparing for their bath right from the drawing room whereas men need of lot persuasion to get into their bathroom!
    Once a young lady pulling her dusty and shop soiled son into the bathroom told me that she could clean three Augean Stable with ease then giving her son a bath! Such children eventually grow up into a stubban anti bathing men.
     
  8. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    On Animals (519)
    I watched the clip carefully and I find nothing sarcastic about this creature. It is perfectly hateable. But we can't judge creatures on the basis of human standards. When a child is born in a family, the most challenging task is the selection of a name for it. There are hundreds of websites on this aspect and they are least helpful. I have seen people breaking their heads about choosing a name for the infant. They want the most modern names and eventually select the name of an obscure character in Ramayana or Mahabharat! And after selecting such a name with great difficulty, they start calling the baby as something like Cuchippa, dinky or ottips!
     
  9. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    On Names (520)
    That includes me! As you must have guessed by now, I hardly use a blade except for sharpening the pencil for my granddaughter. I find Gillette as the most ideal one for the purpose. They must advertise the blade as 'Good for 50 human shaves and countless pencil sharpening'!
     
  10. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    On Gold (521)
    "Warmly glowing gold,
    What gives it that autumn hue?
    Relativity." is the sentence from the article you had appended that pricked my fascination for abstract sentences. I loved that 'mellow glow' title too. If you want to see the craze for gold ornaments down south, you must observe old ladies whose ear pierce grown to two inches diameter! My mum who never had any fascination for gold would often say that Gold looked divine in the necks of the idols of gods but not on human beings. Here is a Kerala bride for you swathed in gold:
    [​IMG]
     

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