The AnkiDroid Collection (Part 9) – Bosons, Zeitgeist & Ludwig Boltzmann

Ankidroid additions related to Science, History and Philosophy.
You can find more information about Ankidroid in my post – Learning a Second Language and Ankidroid.

Bosons

Bosons are a type of force field of nature which can oscillate wildly, so they can effectively pile up on top of each other. They describe forces or acting on between ‘Fermions‘ such as gravitons. For more information about this subject I can point you to this presentation by Sean Carroll – What is Higgs Boson? – Sean Carroll discusses the God Particle. The discovery of the Higgs Boson was made in 2012 in the the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. In the above video Sean talks about this greatest machinery ever built at 21.00 minutes onwards.

Zeitgeist

Zeitgeist is an 18th – 19th century German philosophical term referring to the ‘spirit of the age’. It’s an invisible agent or force dominating the characteristics of a given epoch in world history. Eg..the free love, progressive thinking of the 60’s.

Ludwig Boltzmann (1844 – 1906)

Ludwing Boltzmann was an Austrian physicist and philosopher who predicted how the physical properties of atoms (such as mass, charge and structure) determine the physical properties of matter (such as viscosity – thickness, thermal conductivity and diffusion). The second law of Thermodynamics (entropy) is due to to his view that the second law is probably a world of mechanically colliding particles and disordered states.

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Posted in Reading, Science

Even Flow (1991) – Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam – Ten

Even Flow is the third song to appear here from Pearl Jam’s debut masterpiece record – Ten. More information about my connection to this music and the founding of Pearl Jam is in my article on their debut single ‘Alive‘. Today’s track Even Flow is the second single from the record and features lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music written by guitarist Stone Gossard. It peaked at No.3 on the Billboard Rock Tracks.

Even flow, thoughts arrive like butterflies
Oh, he don’t know, so he chases them away
Oh, someday yet he’ll begin his life again
Life again, life again

It is one of the first Alternative-Seattle music songs I remember hearing. I was blown away by the rawness of it. Even Flow, like the rest of the record presented a cutting-edge new sound that stripped all the varnish off the ostensible music which preceded it. It paved the way for others to follow a similar ‘grunge’ sound in their recordings. The contrast between what we were accustomed to hearing in the late 80’s to this groundbreaking new sound on Ten couldn’t be more stark. My bohemian friends and I way back then were sold and we listened to little else than Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Nirvana, and Sound Garden.

Despite Even Flow’s huge success as a single, the band members recall doing upwards to a hundred versions of the song, but none were completely satisfied with any of them. Guitarist Mike McCready stated, “We did ‘Even Flow’ about 50, 70 times. I swear to God it was a nightmare. We played that thing over and over until we hated each other. I still don’t think Stone is satisfied with how it came out.

Even Flow was first performed live at the band’s October 22, 1990 concert in Seattle at the Off Ramp Café. Pearl Jam performed the song for its appearance on MTV Unplugged in 1992. It has gone on to become the band’s most performed live song, having been played more than 800 times.

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27/12/21 – 2/01/22 Survival Shelter, 2021 Movie List & Advice for Young People

news on the march

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

Building complete and warm survival shelter – Bushcraft earth hut, grass roof and fireplace with clay
Video at Cyprien Outdoor Adventures

It was a nice surprise to receive this video in my YT feed.

I built my little mud house to hide in nature,I used dead wood for the structure,clay and stones for the fireplace and grass for the roof. Here there are a lot of wild boars,I settled on their territory!
I was fascinated to watch this from start to finish. It was kind of a meditation watching the entire process. A video without music, just the sounds of nature, which was good fuel for the brain..….(Watch entire video here)

Reely Bernie’s Top Ten Movies of 2021
Article at Reely Bernie

I’m a frequent reader of Reely Bernie’s movie reviews. He has a unique and provocative voice and I respect his opinions about movies although we don’t see eye to eye all the time. Here is a list of his favourite movies from 2021:

For me, 2021 was all about raising a wonderful baby daughter and being a goofball dad and supportive husband. Movies were far and few between, but they continued to be dependable coping devices during the ongoing pandemic (and rare evening off). More theatres were opened and maintained safely, the promised releases of 2020 played catchup, and the cinematic quality accompanied the quantity.

Below is my humble Top Ten of 2021. As with any list, it is subjective, nonsensical, and extremely personal. These movies fulfilled the “3 E’s” Reely Bernie looks for in any movie – Empathy, Entertainment, and Escape‘. (Read entire article here)

Elon Musk: Advice For Young People – Lex Fridmen podcast clips
Video interview at Lex Clips

Elon Musk is the CEO of SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, and Boring Company. This part of the interview was so insightful and interesting. There are lots of great quotes here, but I particularly liked: “The people you want as leaders are the people who don’t want to be leaders.” and “Try to have a positive net contribution on society.

Lex Fridmen has improved substantially as an interviewer in the last few months. He used to waffle a lot and talk in circles. Now he is more succinct and allows the interviewer to express themselves freely. (Watch entire interview excerpt here)

news on the march the end

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Posted in Movies and TV, News, Reflections, Sport and Adventure

Eugene Onegin Overture (1879) – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

It’s raining again here in Bogotá and by golly did I need this tune on New Years Day to lift the spirits! Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. The Eugene Onegin Overture is the second featured Tchaikovsky piece here. This is from the opera of the same name where he organised the libretto himself constructed from Alexander Pushkin’s 1825-1832 dramatic novel. The story concerns a selfish hero who lives to regret his blasé rejection of a young woman’s love and his careless incitement of a fatal duel with his best friend.

Tchaikovsky believed that its performance required maximum simplicity and sincerity. With this in mind, he entrusted the first production to the students of the Moscow Conservatory. Outside of Moscow the performance wasn’t overly well-received, but in Prague 1892 Tchaikovsky got curtain calls and in October a bit later in England. It didn’t make the US until 1920 at the Metropolitan Opera.

Tchaikovsky was initially trained as a civil servant, but entered the Saint Petersburg Conservatory and received a more western-oriented teaching in music than his predecessors, but formed a unmistakeable Russian style and counter to those that governed Western European music. Despite his successes, his life was dogged by depression including his mother’s early death and of a close friend.

Wikipedia states also: ‘His homosexuality, which he kept private, has traditionally also been considered a major factor though some musicologists now downplay its importance‘. Really, I didn’t know about this until now and what does his sexual proclivity have to do with anything? Also Tchaikovsky’s music has always been popular in western classical circles as long as I have known it.

References:
1. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – wikipedia
2. Eugene Onegin (opera) – wikipedia

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Posted in Music

Young Frankenstein (1974) – Mel Brooks (Friday’s Finest)

I can’t believe this comedy classic was made the year I was born. This is my favourite from Mel Brooks and he even said in this documentary it was his best picture. It is the second feature from Mel to feature here on Friday’s Finest. Young Frankenstein or as its pronounced Frankensteen is a joint favourite amongst my kids starring Gene Wilder, along with Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Interestingly Elon Musk told in 2020 of Gene Wilder’s house which he had procured and just recently sold, ‘And there’s doors to nowhere, and strange corridors and tunnels, and odd paintings on the wall‘. Very Frankensteenish if I must say‘.

IMDB Storyline:
A young neurosurgeon (Gene Wilder) inherits the castle of his grandfather, the famous Dr. Victor von Frankenstein. In the castle he finds a funny hunchback called Igor, a pretty lab assistant named Inga and the old housekeeper, frau Blucher -iiiiihhh!-. Young Frankenstein believes that the work of his grandfather is only crap, but when he discovers the book where the mad doctor described his reanimation experiment, he suddenly changes his mind.

The movie was co-written by Brooks and Wilder. Its has a stellar cast many appearing in other Mel Brooks movies including the previous entry here High Anxiety. The standout in Frankensteen is Marty Feldman as the hunchback with misaligned eyes, but all co-stars are superb.
For trivia buffs, much of the lab equipment used in the movie was created for the 1931 film Frankenstein. Mel adopted the aspects of earlier films including to do it black and white and a 1930’s stylised opening credits and fades to black between scenes to name just a few.

Despite it being a big box-office and critical success, this film is scantily mentioned in recent times. I don’t think many younger generations are even clued onto it. Brook’s later movies got a bit juvenile and cheap, but Frankensteen I can see again and again. It is wonderfully loopy, naughty and an ingenious send-up of universal horror clichés. Who can forget the scene with Igor behind the book-shelves when they were looking the skulls? The facial expression and the breaking into song kills me every time. Below are some of the best 5 minutes of the movie.

References:
1. Young Frankenstein – Wikipedia
2. Young Frankenstein – IMDB

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Posted in Movies and TV

Etud Op 10 No. 3 (1832) – Frédéric Chopin

Étude Op. 10, No. 3, in E major, is the first piece to appear here from Polish composer Frédéric Chopin. He was a virtuoso pianist from the Romantic period who wrote primarily for piano. Today’s piece was first published in 1833 in France, Germany, and England as the third piece of his Études Op. 10. This is a slow cantabile study for polyphonic and expressive legato playing.

Despite achieving worldwide fame as a leading musician Chopin only lived until 39 years old. He was a child prodigy and completed his music education at age 20 and left Warsaw for Paris, France. He gave just 30 public performances preferring the intimacy of the salon. For most of his life, Chopin was in poor health and died in Paris in 1849 probably of pericarditis aggravated by tuberculosis.

Chopin himself believed today’s piece to be the most beautiful he had ever written. He told his German pupil that he “had never in his life written another such beautiful melody” and on one occasion when his student was studying it the master lifted his arms with his hands clasped and exclaimed: ‘O, my fatherland!’ Personally, my favourite by Chopin is Nocturne op.9 No.2. This étude is sometimes identified by the names “Tristesse” (Sadness) or “Farewell (L’Adieu)”, neither is a name given by Chopin, but rather his critics.

References:
1. Étude Op. 10, No. 3 (Chopin) – Wikipedia
2. Frédéric Chopin – Wikipedia

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Posted in Music

The AnkiDroid Collection (Part 8) – Neutron Star, Anthropomorphic & Bacteria

Ankidroid additions related to Science, History and Philosophy.
You can find more information about Ankidroid in my post – Learning a Second Language and Ankidroid.

Neutron Star

Neutron Stars have magnetic fields a trillion times that of earth. It’s a type of Pulsar and emits Pulsars from its rapid rotation emitting extremely short variability radio electromagnetic energy. The heavy nuclei contains a ratio of 1.5 neutrons to 1 proton. The weight of a sugar cube on a neutron star would weigh as much as humanity and has 200 billion times the gravitational weight of Earth’s gravitational field. They are the dense remnant (Neutron degeneracy) of a massive dying star (supernova). There are thought to be 1 billion neutron stars in the Universe. White dwarf stars like which our sun will become are made from low mass stars (lower than 10 times the mass of the sun) which results from electron degeneracy.

Anthropomorphic

Anthropomorphism is a term used to describe by having certain human characteristics – the attribution of human characteristics. Examples are Winnie the Pooh or Simba from the Lion King.

Bacteria

A type of biological cell and amongst the first life forms and a branch of microbiology. They possess the genes and enzymes to synthesise Vitamin B(12), which is involved in the metabolism of every cell. Particularly important in the functioning of the nervous system.

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Estrellitas y Duendes (1990) – Juan Luis Guerra

This latina song I could hear over and over and never grow tired listening to. Juan Luis Guerra has featured here many times, but if I had to pick just one song of his which I could have on repeat then Estrellitas y Duendes (Little Stars and Goblins) would be my choice. It is from his famous 1990 record Bachata Rosa which music has featured prominently here.

What is excellent about this song and different than just about any other is the rejection of the typical song structure. Luis just raises the verses from one to the other in intensity and makes the listener expectant of a chorus at some point, but it doesn’t arrive. I have always been a fan of songs which place more emphasis on verses, like Leonard Cohen’s meditative Alexandra Leaving. The chorus’ and bridges especially can take you out of the meaning of the song.
A loose English translation follows:

I will live in your memory
Like a simple downpour
Of stars and goblins
I will wander through your belly
Biting every illusion

You will live in my dreams
Like indelible ink
Like a stain of steel
The language is not forgotten
When two make love

This song gives rise to a thousand interpretations, each more diffuse. I’m still attached to its charm. Life reveals the phrases. Verses in consonant, and a dream band creating the saddest and most beautiful love song.

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Posted in Music

20/12 – 26/12/21 Happy XMAS (War is Over), The Mirror & Robin Williams.

news on the march

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

John Lennon – Happy XMAS (War is Over)
Music article at PowerPop

Here is another article from a good friend in virtual world, Max at PowerPop. This is one of my favourite contemporary XMAS songs which I listened to countless times as a kid. Christmas day 2021 passed here 2 days ago, but that doesn’t mean we can’t soak some of our wretched hangovers with a bit of John & Yoko Christmas passion!

In 1969 John and Yoko had rented billboard spaces in 12 major cities around the world, for the display of black-and-white posters that declared “WAR IS OVER! If You Want It – Happy Christmas from John & Yoko”. Two years later this slogan became the basis for this song when Lennon decided to make a Christmas record with an anti-war message…plus John said he was sick of White Christmas.….(Read entire article here)

Everybody Looks into the Mirror
Prose at Intellectual Shaman

Intellectual Shaman is a regular here at News on The March and I am always enlightened to read his poetry. He is so gifted and I hope some day he will be published in actual books.

All one must do in the current state of humanity
is to go to a public place
and wait.
If you don’t think about your dreams
you start to gather a sense of the people.
I go to the gym
where everybody watches each other
inside of mirrors.
The girls look good, with their legs, and pullies, and iPods
and they admire their bodies, and the men talk about sports.
The freak on the treadmill makes strange sounds
and I think about what I want
It all boils down to feelings…
like a chemical soup—sex, fame, adventure, and a good death.
(Read entire prose here)

Robin Williams – The Complete Pioneers of Television Interview – Steven J Boettcher
Video interview at Pioneers of Television

Robin Williams is not one of my favourite comedians, but his ability to be innately funny, eccentric and unpredictable on the spot is mightily impressive. You can see here how his mind takes him to strange, but interesting places and also his humility and transparency to go deep down on how he got to be the legend he became was a pleasure to witness. 

Robin Williams talks about improvising in high school, his time at Julliard, working with Christopher Reeve and John Housman, developing standup, “Mork and Mindy,” Pam Dawber, Richard Pryor, Jonathon Winters, Johnny Carson, Mort Sahl, “Happy Days,” “Good Will Hunting,” “Awakenings,” “Good Morning Vietnam,” entertaining the troops in Afghanistan, and Shakespeare. (Watch entire interview here)

news on the march the end

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Opinion Piece – ‘We are now governed under Chinese-Rule’.

Above is an excerpt of the latest article today from BBC news. Their exists just one of two reasons for such measures. One, the Omicron variant of the Coronavirus is very deadly which we haven’t been told about, on the contrary – all evidence shows that it’s mild.. even less harmful than a variant influenza strain; or we as individuals worldwide are being forced to take further measures shredding our individual liberties unlike previously seen for no real cause after 2 years. Whichever of the two reasons above is correct, we know we are being lied to.

One might argue, ‘But we are not under Chinese rule and it’s just exaggerated conspiratorial thinking! I just spent Christmas with my family and celebrated Saint Nicholas and Jesus Christ and the traditions seem to be in keeping‘. The worldwide tsunami of mandatory requirements since the Pandemic hit and World Economic Forum initiative The Great Reset of neo-Marxist and Post Modernist policies has inundated leaders of Government and nearly all of the institutions and left none of its constituents unscathed in its wake.

They are upping the anti despite myself, my kids under 12 years old being already vaccinated. I had to show my Vaccine passport and ID to enter a fair 2 weeks ago, my kids can’t enter a cinema without it. Vaccinated or not, we still can’t go outside here in Bogotá unmasked after 2 years! My kids haven’t studied in person at school for the same period.
What do these forms of draconian policies and document checking seem like to you? Which society does it appear we are living in now? What a lot of people don’t seem to understand, especially younger generations – ‘Lack of Freedom is more probable than Freedom….(Freedom) is always under threat…

I referred in the Mass Formation as precursor to Totalitarianism article to a video by leading expert of the history of Totalitarian regimes – Clinical Psychiatrist Mattias Desmet from Ghent University in Belgium. The video linked in that article has now been pulled down from You Tube.
Based on my estimation all western modern democracies and almost the entire human race now effectively live under Chinese-Rule. We are now governed under a a world-wide socialist-totalitarian regime where all the major institutions are in cohorts dictating the following:

What and where we can enter; what we can see, read and enjoy in quiet moments (see ‘cancel culture’ by mainstream institutions pulling various episodes of Seinfeld, Fawlty Towers and even a Dr Seuss book amongst God knows what else); if my kids can play in a school, where we can watch events if indeed they will occur because of COVID outbreaks. Oh this game cancelled and another and another…
The list goes on about how the normal functioning of society is upended by these wretched policies and almost all of us accept them trying to be ‘good-citizens‘ helping a larger cause. Enough is enough, I say!

I’m surprised by how little time passed after the US Navy (see here), Mattias Desmet, Brett Weinstein, Jonathan Haidt, Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro warned us this was coming and now to see it in full exposition in our lives is something else. The Western democracy and Judaeo-Christian ‘divinity of the individual‘ logos has been shelved. What amazed me was how quickly this would envelope without nearly any opposition by Government – actually they seem all for it just like the major institutions. The oppositional voices are silent.

Follow the money and origin of the virus…The US future of War video makes more sense every day and coming into realisation. We are in deep guano.

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Posted in News, politics, Reflections

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