Happiness is a Warm Gun (1968) – The Beatles

Posted on May 22, 2022 by observationblogger — 4 Comments

I was approaching to writing this article like I had a warm gun held to my head. Happiness is a Warm Gun is the first song to appear here at my music library project from The Beatles. What entails the ‘Music Library Project’?
I write this with some trepidation because my library contains few Beatles tracks. I wrote in my scrappy post – Meanderng Thoughts about the Beatles Anthology why I never took so heartily to them unlike most of my contemporary music enthusiasts. Below is a part of that article:

In Australia, my first recollection of hearing The Beatles was at the tender age of six. In primary school we danced incessantly to Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da and Yellow Submarine. It was a daily exercise ritual and I became increasingly disheartened and uninspired and nothing has really changed for me since about the Beatles. 36 years after the Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da drilling, I decided to watch the eight episode Anthology of the Beatles, to confirm if indeed I had missed something.

It’s not as though I didn’t try to absorb the Beatles. I will always relisten to a Beatles track when it is relayed by someone I follow. There are very few songs I haven’t already heard from them. I think I ingrained ‘Hey Jude‘ and ‘Yesterday‘ after first listen even singing the latter at my Year 12 farewell (see image left). I like relistening to some of the Beatles early hits including: ‘We Can Work It Out‘, ‘Twist and Shout‘ & ‘She Loves You‘. I could understand why they were tremendously popular and I don’t underestimate their influence on contemporary music, but I didn’t find them irrepressable like most others. I preferred each Beatle’s solo contribution ‘post- Beatles’ much more.

Today’s featured song ‘Happiness is a Warm Gun‘ is one of their later-experimental hits and if it were not for the phenomenal Chorus which starts from 1:35 and ends the track, it’s unlikely I would have included this song based on the merits of the proceeding verses. All four 4 Beatles identified it as their favourite song on the album and it was banned by the BBC due to its sexually suggestive lyrics; so it had all that going for it:

She’s not a girl who misses much
Do do do do do do, oh yeah
She’s well-acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand
Like a lizard on a window pane
The man in the crowd with the multicoloured mirrors
On his hobnail boots
Lying with his eyes while his hands are busy
Working overtime
A soap impression of his wife which he ate
And donated to the National Trust

According to wikpedia: Lennon derived the title of “Happiness Is a Warm Gun” from that of an article in the May 1968 issue of American Rifleman, the magazine of the National Rifle Association (NRA). The magazine belonged to George Martin, the Beatles’ producer, who had brought it with him to the recording studio. Lennon recalled his reaction to the phrase: “I just thought it was a fantastic, insane thing to say. A warm gun means you just shot something.”

I’m sure more of you, including my good friend – Max at Powerpop can add intrigue and contextualising to this song which I failed to do here today.

Tagged with: beatles, happiness is a warm gun, white album
Posted in Music

Hand in Glove (1983) – The Smiths

Posted on May 21, 2022 by observationblogger — 2 Comments

I was umming and erring whether to include today’s song here since I just released an article about The Smith’s Half a Person. I consider Half a Person the superior track and I am still deliberating whether I rate Hand in Glove highly. Hand in Glove was the debut hit by the English rock band and they were united in their belief that it was a song of real quality and it’s now revered as one of the best Smiths songs. I’d intrigued to know what your opinion is of this song.

“It was to be our first record and it was important to me that there’d be something searingly poetic in it, in a lyrical sense, and yet jubilant at the same time,” Morrissey explained in an interview with Star Hits in 1985. “Being searingly poetic and jubilant was, I always thought, quite difficult because they’re two extreme emotions and I wanted to blend them together.”

Hand in glove
The sun shines out of our behinds
No, it’s not like any other love
This one is different, because it’s us

Hand in glove
We can go wherever we please
And everything depends upon
How near you stand to me

And if the people stare, then the people stare
Oh, I really don’t know and I really don’t care

Hand in Glove written by singer Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr was released as the band’s first single in May 1983 on independent record label Rough Trade. The group booked a one-day recording session at Strawberry Studios in Stockport at the cost of £250, which they produced themselves. It peaked at No. 3 on the UK Indie Chart but did not make the top 75 of the UK Singles Chart, settling outside at No. 124.

Guitarrist Johnny Marr recalled the origins of the song in an interview in 2018 tracing it back to an evening late in 1982, when Marr decided to mess around with an old toy guitar at his parents’ house. “I was playing this riff that I thought was a Chic hit… I thought, I really like that, but I had no means to record it.” Their usual composition method was for Marr to add music to Morrissey’s lyrics, though for “Hand in Glove“, Marr had the music first.

Determined not to forget his new riff, the guitarist played it over and over during a journey to Morrissey’s house, though Angie (now Marr’s wife)– an avowed Iggy Pop fan – also threw in a suggestion which inspired Marr to make a crucial refinement to his promising new idea.

“She said, ‘Make it sound like Iggy!” Marr recalled. “So I just took that Nile Rodgers thing and just played Iggy Pop chords“. She said, ‘Yeah that’s cool!’ And I was like, ‘Oh really!’” Fortunately for Marr, Morrissey was at home and able to produce his tape recorder. Indeed, the singer was so impressed by Marr’s melody that he reputedly wrote the song’s entire lyric in just two hours. By the time the band got hold of it and further honed the arrangement, The Smiths’ four members were convinced Hand In Glove was their strongest song to date.

References:
1. Dig!- Hand in Glove: How the Smiths’ debut single Made for a Perfect Fit
2. Wikipedia – Hand in Glove

Tagged with: hand in glove, the smiths
Posted in Music

Hallelujah (1984) – Leonard Cohen (Rufus Wainwright version)

Posted on May 19, 2022 by observationblogger — 4 Comments

Adam (Leonard Cohen’s son) tells the story of an amusing moment between Cohen and perhaps his closest creative peer, Bob Dylan.

“A lot of people have made the comparison between Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen over the years and there’s some hilarious stories.”

“Like the two of them are sitting in a cafe in Paris and Dylan says to him, ‘How long did it take you to write Hallelujah?”

“And my father completely lied to Dylan and said, ‘Oh you know couple of years.’ “

“I think it was [actually] seven years”, says Adam.

“And then my father returned the favour and said, you know, ‘How long did it take you to write Just Like a Woman?’ and Dylan said ‘Fifteen minutes’.

“And that’s very much about process I think. Dylan had this quality where he would ‘from the hip’, you know spit and polish, spit and vinegar and then this old man of mine was much more like chiseling marble.
– BBC Scotland

Hallelujah is a spiritual masterpiece in contemporary music. Hallelujah is a Hebrew word meaning ‘Praise the Lord‘. The song was released in 1984 on the album Various Positions, but achieved little success initially. Not until it was covered by the likes of Jeff Buckley, Bob Dylan and Rufus Wainwright did it start to garner wider attention. After being featured in the film Shrek (2001), many other arrangements have been performed in recordings and in concert, with over 300 versions known. The song has been used in religious ceremonies, film and television soundtracks and televised talent contests.

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew ya
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I find each listen as I try to absorb the lyrics an ineffable experience. I made a family DVD many moons ago for my eldest son’s 3rd Birthday which included his Baptism set to Cohen’s Hallelujah. It is the first song I remember my son being enamoured with – so Hallelujah will always be ‘his’ song. We dedicated another Cohen song to our daughter after she was born called You Got Me Singing.

Written in the key of C major, the chord progression in Hallelujah matches the lyrics from the song: “goes like this, the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift“: C, F, G, A minor, F. Cohen wrote around 80 draft verses for Hallelujah, with one writing session at the Royalton Hotel in New York where he was reduced to sitting on the floor in his underwear, banging his head on the floor. His original version contains several biblical references, most notably evoking the stories of Samson and Delilah from the Book of Judges (“she cut your hair”) as well as King David and Bathsheba (“you saw her bathing on the roof, her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you”).

Cohen’s lyrical poetry and his view that “many different hallelujahs exist” is reflected in wide-ranging covers with very different intents or tones, allowing the song to be “melancholic, fragile, uplifting [or] joyous” depending on the performer. Rufus Wainwright’s version below offers a “purifying and almost liturgical” interpretation.

References:
1. Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song) – wikipedia

Tagged with: hallelujah, leonard cohen, various positions
Posted in Music

The AnkiDroid Collection (Part 16) – Epistemology, Abuse of Language & Heresy

Posted on May 18, 2022 by observationblogger — Leave a comment

Ankidroid additions related to Science, History and Philosophy. More information about Anki can be found in this article.

Epistemology

I heard the words Epistemology or Epistemic discussed in Intellectual debates and philosopher discussions, but I didn’t inculcate their meaning. The image above goes a long way towards enabling a better grasp of its inclusivity. Epistemology is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemologists study the nature, origin, and scope of knowledge, epistemic justification, the rationality of belief, and various related issues. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics.

One could suggest that epistemologically there has been a stark move away from objectivism and behaviourism in education towards subjectivism and a synthetic philosophy which will be expanded in the vocabulary entry below.

The Abuse of Language

I heard the concept ‘The abuse of language‘ in an interview with James Lindsay, but I am unable to locate it at the moment. I did take the following notes from it:
The concept of ‘abuse of language‘ is related to a hyper reality and super syncretic future where people prefer to live in the hyper-real world (pseudo reality) as opposed to the pre-digital analogue one. We are creating a synthetic philosophy and moving to a way of living out of deconstruction by banging the thesis and antithesis together.
Josef Pieper, a German Catholic Philosopher wrote an essay Abuse of Language – Abuse of Power (see image above) about synthetic discourses creating counter-hegemonies; a fake concensus which everyone will be compelled to hold up. Where true communication stops and propaganda begins the moment that words are chosen to influence people rather than to accurately represent reality. For example, ‘If you don’t believe us, you must be a racist’.

Heresy

A belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious doctrine (especially Christian). Heresy is mainly derived from the Inquisition which started in the 12th century Kingdom of France. A group of institutions in the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, by conducting trials of suspected heretics.

Tagged with: abuse of language, Epistemology, Heresy
Posted in politics, Reading

Half a Person (1987) – The Smiths

Posted on May 17, 2022 by observationblogger — 12 Comments

*Half a Person* is another Smithian treasure tucked away on a B-Side. Their songs can be an acquired taste and I find that especially true of this track. The more I hear it, the more I like it. *The Smiths* guitarist Johnny Marr is famous in his own right (listen to what he does on *William It Was Really Nothing* at the top of this blog which contains some of the best guitar licks I have heard in any one song), but I love also what he does miniscule on this one. His guitar sound with *The Smiths* is really rustic and expansive. After Morrissey sings the line ‘*I went to London and died*‘ Marr jangles with a rudimentary metallic sound like this and after other lines too.
They are just a tight-sounding pub group and Morrissey’s melancholic-black humour trickery is always fun to listen to.

Call me morbid, call me pale
I’ve spent six years on your trail
Six long years on your trail
Call me morbid, call me pale
I’ve spent six years on your trail
Six full years of my life on your trail

And if you have five seconds to spare
Then I’ll tell you the story of my life

Sixteen, clumsy and shy
I went to London and I
I booked myself in at the Y.W.C.A
I said “I like it here, can I stay?
I like it here, can I stay?
Do you have a vacancy for a back-scrubber?”

The lyrics above seem mostly taken from a fan-letter to Morrissey. Speaking to The Face in 1990, Morrissey said that the song was autobiographical. About the woman who writes the letter, he said, “Yes, that is all absolutely true. She does exist.” However, years later, when introducing the songs during a concert in New York, he said, “This is about someone who’s not really a full person.” Then added sarcastically, “Who could that be? I’ve no idea.”

This song to me signifies that no matter how famous and rich Morrissey is; it’s not actually going to change his life. He’ll always be 16, clumsy and shy. He even repeats, ‘It’s the story of my life‘ – like his fan who reached out. The song, written in 1986 by Johnny Marr and Morrissey – allegedly on the stairs of Mayfair Studios, London – is one of the lesser known songs by the group. It has remained a fan favourite, although rarely played live by Morrissey.

In case you were wondering, like I was when he referred to the Y.W.C.A and to work there as a ‘backscrubber’: The Y.W.C.A is the Young Women’s Christian Association; a welfare movement with branches in many countries that began in Britain in 1855.
Half a Person was released in 1987 on their compilation album The World Won’t Listen and reached No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart, staying there for 15 weeks. The album was conceived as a collection of the band’s singles and their B-sides from 1985 to 1987.

References:
1. Fashion Music Style – Random Obscurities: The Smiths – Half a Person

Tagged with: half a person, the smiths, the world won't listen
Posted in Music

9/05/22 – 15/05/22 Bivol shocks Canelo, Teaching a future PM & If all Humans Die

Posted on May 16, 2022 by observationblogger — 10 Comments

news on the march

Welcome to Monday’s News on the March – The week that was in my digital world.

Dmitry Bivol Shocks Canelo Alvarez, Wins Dominant Decision

Sports article by Boxing Scene

Last Saturday night Connie and I sat astounded watching one of the greatest recent underdog boxing victories in recent times. Mexican Canelo Alvarez – the undisputed greatest Pound for Pound boxers of this current age was bizarrely presented in Las Vegas like Apollo Creed in Rocky IV as he confronted the looming Russian boxer Ivan Drago. And we all know how that went down and I remarked to Connie at the time, ‘Don’t you think that’s an ominous sign that they show-biz Canelo up like that before meeting a Russian fighter?‘.

The prefight entertainment and the fight itself on Saturday played out not in dissimilar fashion to the movie. Canelo was moving up in weight to fight a bigger opponent (A Russian no-less) and he was draped by laudits and a huge legion of Mexican supporters at the event and was 5-1 favorite. Understandably Russia is not held in the best regards in the West currently; so while Russian Bivol waited humbly a good portion of time in his corner (like Ivan) as the entertainment rained down on Canelo at the Las Vegas venue; something felt always a bit-off.

The article relayed here is an excellent summary of the fight. Canelo has a contract and brings lots of money to the sport and I knew (and commented to Connie) that Bivol would just about have to knock Canelo out to win the scorecards from the judges (See his Golovkin fight 1) – such is the prevalence of ‘fightfixing’ in the sport. Oh and here is an excellent video of legendary trainer Teddy Atlas talking about ‘How Judges Tried to Rob Dmitry Bivol in Canelo Alvarez Fight‘.

Below are the Bivol – Canelo fight statistics as published in Boxing Scene:

According to CompuBox’s unofficial statistics, Bivol beat Alvarez even more definitively than the scorecards indicated.

CompuBox credited Bivol for landing 68 more punches than Alvarez (152-of-710 to 84-of-495). He landed more power punches (106-of-292 to 74-of-266) and more jabs (46-of-418 to 10-of-229).

Nevertheless, Bivol needed to win the 12th round on two of the three scorecards to avoid a draw. Cheatham, Moretti and Weisfeld all had Bivol in front by only one point, 105-104, entering the final round.

Alvarez should’ve needed a knockout to win when the final round began, but he couldn’t muster much offense against an opponent that simply was better than him on this night. (Read entire article here)

Parliamentary Sub-committee Meeting
Blog article by Bruce Goodman at Weave a Web

This blog story/utterance by a friend I follow daily on WordPress is very short; even by his standards, but he reveals a lot more about it in the comments.
First, the story:

I can understand you wanting a pay rise.

At the end of the day the bottom line is on a go-forward basis. To be honest the reality at this moment in time, if you really think about it, is that it all boils down to it being what it is. The fact of the matter, with all due respect, is that it all adds up to the one thing that matters.

To make a long story short, that really is it in a nutshell.

Have a nice day.

In the comments section Bruce from the ‘actual’ shire reveals the following:

‘At one stage in New Zealand I had taught 5 members of Parliament – including the Prime Minister! In fact the Prime Minister remembered me saying to him in class: Sit down and shut up. You’ll be Prime Minister one day so learn to shut up now!’
And after Bruce wrote: The Prime Minister one was probably the brightest kid I’ve ever taught!

Thanks be to Bruce for changing the course of political history in that little country across the Tasman beside the huge Australia (Read entire article here)

What Will Happen If All Humans Die
Video excerpt at Lex Clips

This is a sober, but eyeopening little inspirational video about the limited-realisation of our individual legacies in the big-picture due to inherent ‘Entropy’ (2nd law of Thermodynamics). I like how the interviewee connects Entropy with his argument, specifically how ants create order through their home-building and how we homo-sapiens also release ‘our heat signature’ through energy to offset Entropy with individual merit and effective collaboration.

Upon reflection of this subject matter, it seems to me that living and truly savouring the moment is the most satisfying aspect of our lives, especially how it affects the people most important to you. Legacy, houses, podcasts, money and statues will be lost to entropy. The only thing we can do is leave our offspring, other family and friends with the moments that hopefully make them better for our existence. (See full Lex clip here)

news on the march the end

Tagged with: Bivol, Boxing, Canelo, Entropy, politics
Posted in politics, Science, Sport and Adventure

I Recall a Gypsy Woman (1973) – Don Williams

Posted on May 14, 2022 by observationblogger — 20 Comments

Did you know that when he got bored the great country music artist Don Williams would mow the high school baseball field and the city park? He also donated heavily to charities and the local Churchs. How do I know this? Well, fellow blogger Max at Powerpop told me he interracted with Don. He lived a few miles from where Max grew up about 30 minutes from Nashville. ‘He (Don Williams) was always nice to me and the people in town knew him, but he never acted like he was anything special‘.

I Recall a Gypsy Woman is the second song to feature here from Don Williams. The first song Amanda is where Max described meeting Don (see comments section). In 2010 Don was an inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He began his solo career in 1971, singing popular ballads and amassing 17 number one country hits.
Williams has had a strong influence over a variety of recording artists of different genres. His hits have been covered by artists such as Johnny Cash, Eric Clapton, and Kenny Rogers. According to Max, curiously Don was good friends with Eric Clapton. ‘Clapton really started to admire Don in the mid to late seventies. That is when Eric started to do some country tinged songs like Lay Down Sally and Promises. He covered one of Don’s songs on Slowhand…We’re All The Way…‘

I Recall a Gypsy Woman

Silver coins that jingle jangle,
Fancy shoes that dance in time
Oh, the secrets of her dark eyes,
They did sing a gypsy rhyme
Yellow clover in tangled blossoms
In a meadow silky green
Where she held me to her bosom,
Just a boy of seventeen

[Chorus:]
I recall a gypsy woman
Silver spangles in her eyes
Ivory skin against the moonlight
And the taste of life’s sweet wine

I Recall a Gypsy Woman is a song written by Bob McDill and Allen Reynolds, and originally recorded by Don Williams in 1973. In 1976, at the height of the country and western boom in Britain, his version charted at number 13 on the UK Singles Chart, the best position for Williams on this chart. The song was previously the B-side of Williams’ 1973 single “Atta Way to Go”, which peaked at number 13 on the Hot Country Songs charts in 1973.

Williams had some minor roles in Burt Reynolds movies. In 1975, Williams appeared as a member of the Dixie Dancekings band in the movie W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings, alongside Reynolds. Williams also appeared as himself in the Universal Pictures movie Smokey and the Bandit II, in which he also played a number of songs

References:
1. Don Williams – Wikipedia

Tagged with: don williams, I recall a gypsy woman
Posted in Music

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) – Wes Anderson (Friday’s Finest)

Posted on May 13, 2022 by observationblogger — Leave a comment

The Royal Tenenbaums is the second Wes Anderson movie to feature here. It is an epic – depressive comedy with lots of sardonic giggles and a humane and rather sad feeling at its core. I was reminded to include this movie when I explored the evocative ballad Fly by Nick Drake on Tuesday. The Royal Tenenbaums contains one of the best film soundtracks I have heard. I couldn’t help but get a kick-out-of Anderson’s quirky inclusions of Dylan’s Wigwam and Billy -Main Title.

Wikipedia Storyline

The Royal Tenenbaums follows the lives of three gifted siblings who experience great success in youth, and even greater disappointment and failure in adulthood. The children’s eccentric father Royal Tenenbaum (Hackman) leaves them in their adolescent years, then returns to them after they have grown, falsely claiming he has a terminal illness. He works on reconciling with his children and ex-wife (Huston).

The Royal Tenenbaums is by no means a perfect film. It’s not as consistently wise or amusing as it wants to be —but it has many prodigious moments. It’s an absurdist and whimsical film that ‘marked’ Wes Anderson as “imaginatively visual” and one of the most original and distinctive storytellers in film. His style was most effectively incorporated in his 2014 masterpiece – The Grand Budapest Hotel.

I haven’t seen The Royal for a long time since I wore out the DVD in the first 5 years after its release, but I’m looking forward to revisit it in the next week or so. My favourite scenes from the movie are: Richie’s tennis meltdown; Chas and his Father’s moving reconciliation “I’ve Had A Rough Year, Dad.“ after Chas’ dog is run-over; Bill Murray as Raleigh St. Clair analysing Dudley; and Royal Tenenbaum and his grandchildren ‘swinging’ by their late-mother’s grave. Another sequence which I included below is where Royal (Gene Hackman) is taking his grandsons out for some old fashioned fun time. To be honest there are too many great scenes to recall here.

Anderson did such a marvelous job building this odd little world. It’s just one indelible image after another. Gene Hackman is just marvelous and won a Golden Globe for best actor in this. A 2016 poll of international critics assembling BBC’s 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century also voted it one of the 100 greatest motion pictures since 2000.

Interesting Trivia:

Wes Anderson admitted in interviews that his one regret of his career thus far, was that he could not make the experience more enjoyable for his lead Gene Hackman. Gene Hackman had signed on knowing he only had a few roles left in his career and wanted something “fun” for his last few movies. However, making The Royal Tenenbaums was proving quite grueling for Hackman, which came to a head when in the middle of filming and in front of the crew Hackman shouted out, “Hey Wes, you said this was suppose to be fun and relaxing for me…well I’m not having fun”. Wes Anderson admitted that this comment broke him and that he wished he could have done more for Hackman.

Tagged with: The Royal Tenenbaums, Wes Anderson
Posted in Movies and TV

Go Wild (2019) – Friedberg

Posted on May 12, 2022 by observationblogger — Leave a comment

The reason I didn’t buy a second game controller for my computer is because my son and I would consume all our time playing FIFA 20 against each other. BBC just reported here that EA Sports will stop making FIFA titles. Today’s song is the second to come from the FIFA 20 soundtrack and I was in love at first listen. It’s sexy as hell and don’t mention Anna Friedberg the Austrian singer-songwriter playing tambourine in the bath. Wowee!

Pull’n up love
Full enough’s my deaf heart
Gotta be in style
You gotta go wild

Chewing up love
Oh howling inside
Like a pink leopard
You gotta go wild

Anna supported Lenny Kravitz on his tour a decade ago and achieved two gold selling solo albums. Anna was only supposed to do one show for Kravitz, but he asked her to support him for the rest of his European tour. It’s hard to blame him really. She stated: ‘It was a logistic nightmare since we had to organize everything within 2 days – a tour bus, hotels etc. including raising money for the whole trip, since of course I had to pay for everything myself’…

Her new band Friedberg was formed in London.. ‘I met some really great people in the music industry who introduced me to some wonderful musicians who eventually happened to become my new band – my first all-girl band…I just knew from our first rehearsal that we have a very unique and great energy together, that just gives us all such a good feeling on stage and feels incredibly powerful‘.

And looking to the future Anna stated: ‘If I ever had a vision, it’s me with 60, alone on stage playing super dark and melancholic songs with my guitar. So yeah there might be! But you’ll have to wait for a bit‘.

She began singing in childhood, and cites the first records of her parents including Bob Dylan, Alanis Morissette and Joan Baez. That’s good musical pedigree right there.

References:
1. Cryptic Rock – Your Entertainment Odyssey – Anna Friedberg of Friedberg

Tagged with: friedberg, go wild
Posted in Music

The AnkiDroid Collection (Part 15) – Philodemic, Stochastic & Calumny

Posted on May 11, 2022 by observationblogger — 4 Comments

Ankidroid additions related to Science, History and Philosophy. More information about Anki can be found in this article.

Philodemic

‘Philodemic’ is characterised by a love for the ordinary person (Love for the people). It also relates to the name of the Philodemic Society (founded 1830), a student debating organization at Georgetown University. The society’s first debate was on the topic of “Napoleon Bonaparte or General Washington: Which was the better man?“

Stochastic

Stochastic is used to describe having a random probability distribution. It was originally used as an adjective with the definition “pertaining to conjecturing”, and stemming from a Greek word meaning “to aim at a mark, guess”, and the Oxford English Dictionary gives the year 1662 as its earliest occurrence.

A coherent stochastic theory of quantum mechanics was put forward by Hungarian physicist Imre Fényes who was able to show the Schrödinger equation could be understood as a kind of diffusion equation for a Markov process. Louis de Broglie felt compelled to incorporate a stochastic process underlying quantum mechanics to make particles switch from one pilot wave to another. While on the subject of quantum mechanics, I’ll point you to my favourite video – The Secret Of Quantum Physics: Einstein’s Nightmare (Jim Al-Khalili).

Calumny

Calumny is the making of false and defamatory statements about someone in order to damage their reputation; slander; defamation. ie ‘He was the target of calumny for his unpopular beliefs‘.
Calumny was first recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Latin calumnia, equivalent to calumn-, perhaps originally a participle of calvī “to deceive”.

Tagged with: Calumny, Philodemic, Stochastic
Posted in Reading

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