Cura > curiosity

 I am reading Philip Ball's book Curiosity: How Science Became Interested in Everything. It claims that curious comes from the Latin cura, to care and that earlier uses of the word included working "with diligence and caution." 

I have a conjecture based on this -- one would not be at all surprised is completely wrong -- that as curious take up the usage we currently see it used that the word "care" came in to fill that vacuum.  

I would like this to be true because I have always been a bit confused by the etymology of care, which comes from the old English for sorrow, whereas the was we use the word is important to the way a real artist works.  Using the word care the way we do, it is safe to say that when we look at an artifact we evaluate it by how much care we believe was put into it.  We don't mean sorrow here; we mean something like one of the archaic uses of curiosity.   And we very much need to a word with that meaning, especially those of us who see art as our salvation from the the void.  

Onward Meta-rationality

 I'm glad someone -- here Scott Alexander -- showed me the front door on Dave Chapman's project. 

https://metarationality.com/introduction

Simple Benny Graham

 More for my own bookmarking:

http://www.ndir.com/SI/articles/MS1005.shtml

Simple Benny Graham, for simple people. 

Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_St_John,_1st_Viscount_Bolingbroke

Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (/ˈsɪndʒɪn ˈbɒlɪŋbrʊk/; 16 September 1678 – 12 December 1751) was an English politician, government official and political philosopher. He was a leader of the Tories, and supported the Church of England politically despite his antireligious views and opposition to theology.  He supported the Jacobite rebellion of 1715 which sought to overthrow the new king George I. Escaping to France he became foreign minister for the Pretender. He was attainted for treason, but reversed course and was allowed to return to England in 1723. According to Ruth Mack, "Bolingbroke is best known for his party politics, including the ideological history he disseminated in The Craftsman (1726–1735) by adopting the formerly Whig theory of the Ancient Constitution and giving it new life as an anti-Walpole Tory principle."

Hume summing up Charles II

 . . .  and, really, the Stuarts as a whole.  

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/19216/19216-h/19216-h.htm : 

The French greatness never, during his whole reign, inspired Charles with any apprehensions; and Clifford, it is said, one of his most favored ministers, went so far as to affirm, that it were better for the king to be viceroy under a great and generous monarch, than a slave to five hundred of his own insolent subjects. 

Threads the needle as a starting point for both Hume's and T.R.'s view of the Stuarts -- as well the wider topic of Parliamentarianism versus Monarchism 

But more on this interesting person of a most interesting time.  

If we survey the character of Charles II. in the different lights which it will admit of, it will appear various, and give rise to different and even opposite sentiments. When considered as a companion, he appears the most amiable and engaging of men; and indeed, in this view, his deportment must be allowed altogether unexceptionable. His love of raillery was so tempered with good breeding, that it was never offensive; his propensity to satire was so checked with discretion, that his friends never dreaded their becoming the object of it: his wit, to use the expression of one who knew him well, and who was himself a good judge, could not be said so much to be very refined or elevated, qualities apt to beget jealousy and apprehension in company, as to be a plain, gaining, well-bred, recommending kind of wit. And though, perhaps, he talked more than strict rules of behavior might permit, men were so pleased with the affable communicative deportment of the monarch that they always went away contented both with him and with themselves.

Gallica

 So, I just found out the National Library of France is super psyched about the notion of sharing information with me, ie any random citizen of the world.  

https://gallica.bnf.fr/accueil/en/content/accueil-en?mode=desktop

Viva free books!

Marin Mersenne

 The book I read described him as a hub in the intellectual internet of his time.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marin_Mersenne : 

Marin Mersenne (also known as Marinus Mersennus or le Père Mersenne; French: [mɛʀsɛn]; 8 September 1588 – 1 September 1648) was a French polymath, whose works touched a wide variety of fields. He is perhaps best known today among mathematicians for Mersenne prime numbers, those which can be written in the form Mn = 2n − 1 for some integer n. He also developed Mersenne's laws, which describe the harmonics of a vibrating string (such as may be found on guitars and pianos), and his seminal work on music theory, Harmonie universelle, for which he is referred to as the "father of acoustics". Mersenne, an ordained Catholic priest, had many contacts in the scientific world and has been called "the center of the world of science and mathematics during the first half of the 1600s" and, because of his ability to make connections between people and ideas, "the post-box of Europe". He was also a member of the Minim religious order and wrote and lectured on theology and philosophy.

A deeply religious Catholic -- though notably in France not in the Spain of the Inquisition.  

Milton on his Italian visit

From Areopagitica: a speech for the liberty of unlicensed printing. To the Parliament of England via

 https://www.gutenberg.org/files/44733/44733-0.txt

I have seen and heard in other countries, where this kind of

     inquisition tyrannizes; when I have sat among their learned

     men, (for that honour I had,) and been counted happy to be

     born in such a place of philosophic freedom, as they supposed

     England was, while themselves did nothing but bemoan the

     servile condition into which learning amongst them was

     brought; that this was it which had damped the glory of

     Italian wits; that nothing had been there written now these

     many years but flattery and fustian. There it was that I found

     and visited the famous Galileo, grown old, a prisoner to the

     Inquisition, for thinking in astronomy otherwise than the

     Franciscan and Dominican licensers thought. And though I knew

     that England then was groaning loudest under the prelatical

     yoke, nevertheless I took it as a pledge of future happiness,

     that other nations were so persuaded of her liberty.

Milton and a love of learning

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/44733/44733-0.txt : 

vou are often to me, and

     were yesterday especially, as a good watchman to admonish that

     the hours of the night pass on (for so I call my life, as yet

     obscure and unserviceable to mankind), and that the day with

     me is at hand, wherein Christ commands all to labor, while

     there is light

But if you think, as you said, that too much love of learning

     is in fault, and that I have given up myself to dream away my

     years in the arms of studious retirement . . . yet consider that, if it

     were no more but the mere love of learning, whether it proceed

     from a principle bad, good, or natural, it could not have held

     out thus long against so strong opposition on the other side

     of every kind.

Robert Howard (playwright)

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Howard_(playwright)

As the 18-year-old son of a Royalist family, he fought at the battle of Cropredy Bridge and was knighted for the bravery he showed there. In the years after the English Civil War his royalist sympathies led to his imprisonment at Windsor Castle in 1658.

After the Restoration, he quickly rose to prominence in political life, with several appointments to posts which brought him influence and money. He was Member of Parliament for Stockbridge in the Cavalier Parliament (1661 to 1679) and for Castle Rising (1679 to 1681 and 1689 to 1698), and believed in a balance of parliament and monarchy. All his life he continued in a series of powerful positions; in 1671 he became secretary to the Treasury, and in 1673 auditor of the Exchequer. He helped bring William of Orange to the throne and was made a privy councillor in 1689. His interest in financial matters continued, and in later life he subscribed to the newly founded Bank of England while continuing his work on currency reform.

The Meta-politics of John Dryden

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dryden :

Returning to London during the Protectorate, Dryden obtained work with Oliver Cromwell's Secretary of State, John Thurloe. This appointment may have been the result of influence exercised on his behalf by his cousin the Lord Chamberlain, Sir Gilbert Pickering. At Cromwell's funeral on 23 November 1658 Dryden processed with the Puritan poets John Milton and Andrew Marvell. Shortly thereafter he published his first important poem, Heroic Stanzas (1659), a eulogy on Cromwell's death which is cautious and prudent in its emotional display. In 1660 Dryden celebrated the Restoration of the monarchy and the return of Charles II with Astraea Redux, an authentic royalist panegyric. In this work the interregnum is illustrated as a time of chaos, and Charles is seen as the restorer of peace and order.

After the Restoration, as Dryden quickly established himself as the leading poet and literary critic of his day, he transferred his allegiances to the new government. Along with Astraea Redux, Dryden welcomed the new regime with two more panegyrics: To His Sacred Majesty: A Panegyric on his Coronation (1662) and To My Lord Chancellor (1662). These poems suggest that Dryden was looking to court a possible patron, but he was to instead make a living in writing for publishers, not for the aristocracy, and thus ultimately for the reading public. 

. . . 

At around 8pm on 18 December 1679, Dryden was attacked in Rose Alley behind the Lamb & Flag pub, near his home in Covent Garden, by thugs hired by the Earl of Rochester,  with whom he had a long-standing conflict.[10] The pub was notorious for staging bare-knuckle prize fights, earning the nickname "The Bucket of Blood." Dryden's poem, "An Essay upon Satire," contained a number of attacks on King Charles II, his mistresses and courtiers, but most pointedly on the Earl of Rochester, a notorious womaniser.  Rochester responded by hiring thugs who attacked Dryden whilst walking back from Will's Coffee House (a popular London coffee house where the Wits gathered to gossip, drink and conduct their business) back to his house on Gerrard Street.  Dryden survived the attack, offering £50 for the identity of the thugs placed in the London Gazette, and a Royal Pardon if one of them would confess. No one claimed the reward.

Nell Gwyn

 Following up from last post.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nell_Gwyn :

Eleanor Gwyn (2 February 1650 – 14 November 1687; also spelled Gwynn, Gwynne) was a prolific celebrity figure of the Restoration period. Praised by Samuel Pepys for her comic performances as one of the first actresses on the English stage, she became best known for being a long-time mistress of King Charles II of England and Scotland. Called "pretty, witty Nell" by Pepys, she has been regarded as a living embodiment of the spirit of Restoration England and has come to be considered a folk heroine, with a story echoing the rags-to-royalty tale of Cinderella. Gwyn had two sons by King Charles: Charles Beauclerk (1670–1726) and James Beauclerk (1671–1680) (the surname is pronounced boh-clair). Charles was created Earl of Burford and later Duke of St. Albans.

Analysis of Puritan Disdain for Theatre

 https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/culture-magazines/restoration-drama-england : 

Puritan opposition to the theater arose, in part, from an astute understanding of the role that the medieval church had played in the development of drama, and the many figures that attacked the theater in the period realized that the custom of staging plays had arisen from the mystery and morality plays that had been common in the country before the rise of the Reformation. At the same time, Puritans shared an abiding distrust for all ritualized and theatrical displays, and they believed that evil lay at the heart of the pomp and magnificence of the stage as well as in the elaborate rituals of kingship and the Church of England.

And this is another interesting tidbit: 

 Elizabeth I, James I, and Charles I had each thrown their support squarely behind the theater and had opposed Puritan efforts to rid the country of drama. As a result, most of London's actors, playwrights, and theater owners had been royalist supporters during the Civil War, and when their side was defeated, many were consequently forced into exile.

My word, Mr. Pepys! 

The English diarist Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) left one of the great records of life in the Restoration age. He attended the theater almost daily and recorded his thoughts about almost every play performed in London during the 1660s.

My word, your majesty! 

The present entry from 20 February 1668, is notable because he remarks how that evening's play was intended to criticize the immorality of King Charles II, who was in attendance. Charles II, though, was fairly tolerant, and what might have caused the government to close a theater in an earlier period was now allowed to proceed relatively unhindered. It is interesting to note that Pepys refers to Nell (Nell Gwyn) speaking the prologue of the offending play, The Duke of Lerma. She herself was soon to become one of the king's mistresses.

3 10 2021

 It was a clear, beautiful night with the temperatures fine for a walk. 

I stopped several times to gaze at the few stars I can see here in town.

Quote on Literature

From the opening essay from a book that excerpts heavily from Milton: 

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/44733/44733-0.txt: 

The great function of literature, namely, to bring 

into play the spiritual faculties, is very inadequately recognized, and

the study of English Literature is made too much an objective job—the

fault of teachers, not students. When the literature is studied as a

life-giving power, students are always more interested than when

everything else except the one thing needful receives attention,—the

sources of works of genius, the influences under which they were

produced, their relations to history and to time and place, and whatever

else may be made to engage the minds of students in the absence of the

teacher's ability to bring them into a sympathetic relationship with the

informing life of the works 'studied'—with that which constitutes their

absolute power.

3 8 2021

 I did look at the sunrise today.  It was *almost* nice enough to stay out and watch it develop instead of look at it through a window.  

It was a very pink sunrise, more rosy and wispy and there was a crescent moon visible, making the whole thing a little unworldly.

Thomassons

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperart_Thomasson

refers to a useless relic or structure that has been preserved as part of a building or the built environment, which has become a piece of art in itself. These objects, although having the appearance of pieces of conceptual art, were not created to be viewed as such. Akasegawa deemed them even more art-like than art itself, and named them "hyperart." In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in Thomasson, especially since the publication of Akasegawa's work on the subject in English in 2010

. . . 

The term Thomasson comes from the professional baseball player Gary Thomasson, who was signed by the Yomiuri Giants for a record-breaking sum of money, and spent his final two seasons with the team (1981–1982) coming close to setting the league strikeout record before being benched.[2] Akasegawa viewed Thomasson's useless position on the team as a fitting analogy for "an object, part of a building, that was maintained in good condition, but with no purpose, to the point of becoming a work of art.

(h/t 99% Invisible site). Although I got it from their book

California Oil

 I saw in a book and then ran to verify in Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_oil_in_California_through_1930:

The story of oil production in California began in the late 19th century. In 1903, California became the leading oil-producing state in the US, and traded the number one position back-and forth with Oklahoma through the year 1930.  As of 2012, California was the nation's third most prolific oil-producing state, behind only Texas and North Dakota. In the past century, California's oil industry grew to become the state's number one GDP export and one of the most profitable industries in the region.

The first question this brings to me is how did California avoid the resource curse?  (To my non-technical outsider's view, Texas, Oklahoma, and North Dakota haven't since they don't tend to invest in their citizens -- but just writing this out is clarifying for me how muddled my thoughts on this matter are). 

While at the Wiki, this is cool: 

Native Americans were keenly aware of oil reserves in California, and they relied on its utility for thousands of years, albeit not for energy sources. The most abundant oil seep in the ancient California territory was the La Brea tar pits, in present-day Los Angeles. Native Americans used oil from La Brea and other seeps primarily as a lubricant, but they also used it as a sealant to waterproof canoes. When Spanish explorers arrived in California in the 1500s, they also used oil to seal cracks in their ships and the roofs of their homes.

Steak Temp

Note to self [1]:

Steak at 425, keep flipping every 5 minutes. 

Also, golly, I am sick of looking at recipe sites.  They are the worst. 

[1] Which is what I assume this blog pretty much is all the time, but if it ever gives value to others, that is for the good.  

John Hampden

 I'm moving into the 1600s now in my history arc, so I'm getting my Puritan on.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hampden :

John Hampden (c. June 1595 – 24 June 1643) was an English landowner and politician whose opposition to arbitrary taxes imposed by Charles I made him a national figure. An ally of Parliamentarian leader John Pym, and cousin to Oliver Cromwell, he was one of the Five Members whose attempted arrest in January 1642 sparked the First English Civil War.

After war began in August 1642, Hampden raised an infantry regiment, and died of wounds received at the Battle of Chalgrove Field on 18 June 1643. His loss was considered a serious blow, largely because he was one of the few Parliamentary leaders able to hold the different factions together.

However, his early death also meant he avoided the bitter internal debates later in the war, the execution of Charles I in 1649, and establishment of The Protectorate. This makes him a less complex figure than Cromwell or Pym, a key factor in why his statue was erected in the Palace of Westminster to represent the Parliamentarian cause in 1841.

A reputation for honest, principled, and patriotic opposition to arbitrary rule also made him a popular figure in North America; prior to the 1774 American Revolution, Franklin and Adams were among those who referenced him to justify their cause.

Thought on dreams -- not my own

 Someone else's shower thought: 

Why is it that when you are dreaming, and you talk to someone, why don't you know what the person is going to say?  

3 4 2021

 I tell you, I am moving more toward the soundscape and "sniffscape" of the early mornings.  

Just remember to really be alive, and remember that is free. 

===

Opened a window to better listen to rain hit the roof.  My second favorite cat was with me and just lit up when he was hit by the sniffscape.  Always a joy to see a being you love struck by wonder. 

Otium

 TIL the term Otium. 

Otium, a Latin abstract term, has a variety of meanings, including leisure time in which a person can enjoy eating, playing, resting, contemplation and academic endeavors. It sometimes, but not always, relates to a time in a person's retirement after previous service to the public or private sector, opposing "active public life". Otium can be a temporary time of leisure, that is sporadic. It can have intellectual, virtuous or immoral implications. It originally had the idea of withdrawing from one's daily business (negotium = neg-otium) or affairs to engage in activities that were considered to be artistically valuable or enlightening (i.e. speaking, writing, philosophy). It had particular meaning to businessmen, diplomats, philosophers and poets

Gemini

 Via Ran Prieur is a piece on the "smol" internet, calling Gemini the real dork web.  

It looks like starting with this could be as simple as using gemlog blue, just learning a new mark-up type language for a post and get going. 

So why seek a small internet? Bloat is destroying the computing experience and senselessly wasting natural resources.  Bad design isn't just bad. . . it's a sin. 

3 2 2021

 Even when the sunrise isn't all that much, I grow more and more in love with the golden hour, especially when it features such birdsong as is here in early March.  

==

 We drove into the sunset running an errand.  It was an orange based one, and it was glorious.  We drove on an overpass at it was quite the view.  

On Voltaire attacking the powerful

What motivated him, then, to start up? Partly it must have been that he so much enjoyed vexing stupid powerful people that he kept forgetting that stupid people who had gained power were never stupid about threats to their power. Each time he poked the silly tiger and the tiger clawed back, he was genuinely shocked. 

Next sentences in the paragraph are a different concept, and while interesting, the first block is what completely resonanted with me. 

And then there is a kind of egotism so vast and so pleased with itself that it includes other people as an extension of itself. Voltaire felt so much for other people because he felt so much for himself; everything happened to him because he was the only reasonable subject of everything that happened. By inflating his ego to immense proportions, he made it a shelter for the helpless.

The New Yorker is really good. 

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/03/07/voltaires-garden 

Better Explained (for when I want math. . .)

 . . . to be better explained. 

https://betterexplained.com/

Razor Update

 I'm still on the Mach 3 razor cartridge that I wrote about here.  Let's call this Blade B to clarify.

I've been on Blade B for a year and two months.  I simply dry the blade by shaking it out and dabbing it on a towel and then use run my thumb on it backwards stropping it (to some extent) and applying some natural oil from my skin.  I then put it in a ziplock baggy that has some old desiccate from something else and a tiny bit of rice.  The theory is that micro-rusts are the enemy. 

In a way, this is now becoming an experiment in how long a ziplock bag can last being sealed several times a day.

Perserving 42

 I actually saw the sunset yesterday, an it was as glorious as any of the year.  I didn't record this fact yesterday, however, because I noticed that both January and February had 42 posts, and I thought that would be something fun to maintain. . . I don't imagine I will try for it again in March. 

Also, because of the new frenetic style of posting, I should break last year's record of 93 total posts this month.  It's not an accomplishment, and I will not feel it as such, but just something to notice.  

Sure you can smell the roses, or pet the cat, but sometimes you gotta just stop and notice the patterns. 

Sack of Rome (1527)

 Holy Shit.  From La Wik: 

The Sack had major repercussions for Italian society and culture, and in particular, for Rome. Clement's War of the League of Cognac would be the last fight for Italian independence and unity until the nineteenth century. Rome, which had been a center of Italian High Renaissance culture and patronage before the Sack, suffered depopulation and economic collapse, causing artists and thinkers to scatter. The city's population dropped from over 55,000 before the attack to 10,000 afterward. An estimated 6,000 to 12,000 people were murdered. Many Imperial soldiers also died in the aftermath, largely from diseases caused by masses of unburied corpses in the streets. Pillaging finally ended in February 1528, eight months after the initial attack, when the city's food supply ran out, there was no one left to ransom, and plague appeared.Clement would continue artistic patronage and building projects in Rome, but a perceived Medicean golden age had passed. 

A power shift – away from the Pope, toward the Emperor – also produced lasting consequences for Catholicism. The Emperor, for his part, professed great embarrassment that his troops imprisoned the Pope despite having sent armies to Italy with the goal of bringing the latter under his control. This done, Charles reformed the Church in his own image. Clement, now making decisions under duress, rubber-stamped Charles’ demands – among them naming cardinals nominated by the latter; crowning Charles Holy Roman Emperor at Bologna in 1530; and refusing to annul the marriage of Charles' beloved aunt, Catherine of Aragon, to King Henry VIII of England, prompting the English Reformation.  Cumulatively, these actions changed the complexion of the Church, steering it away from Renaissance freethought personified by the Medici Popes, toward the religious orthodoxy exemplified by the Counterreformation. After Clement's death in 1534, under the influence of Charles and later his son King Phillip II of Spain (1556-1598), the Inquisition became pervasive, and the humanism encouraged by Renaissance culture came to be viewed as contrary to the teachings of the Church.