Thursday, April 30, 2015

Caitlin Green: Thanet, Tanit and the Phoenicians: Place-Names, Ar...

Caitlin Green: Thanet, Tanit and the Phoenicians: Place-Names, Ar...: Recent work suggests that the name of the easternmost part of Kent, the Isle of Thanet, is one that is of considerable potential interest, p...

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Saturday, April 25, 2015

Friday, April 24, 2015

Speaker: Jeremy England, MIT: Statistical physics of self-replication




Humanities and the Sciences





Speaker: Jeremy England, MIT: Statistical physics of self-replication



Published on Sep 11, 2014


What is life – lecture: A new theory for evolution. Speaker: Jeremy England, MIT.




“The formula, based on established physics, indicates that when a group of atoms is driven by an external source of energy (like the sun or chemical fuel) and surrounded by a heat bath (like the ocean or atmosphere), it will often gradually restructure itself in order to dissipate increasingly more energy. This could mean that under certain conditions, matter inexorably acquires the key physical attribute associated with life.” https://www.quantamagazine.org/20140122-a-new-physics-theory-of-life/


Tagged: Bertalanffy, Biology, Chem, Complexity, Data Visualization, Dispersion Mechanics, Jeremy England, MIT, Physics, Radiance Models, Systems Theory






Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Astro-confusion




Humanities and the Sciences





Astro-confusion



Joshua:

Important source for LIT, SEV, ICS and REN classes.


Originally posted on The Renaissance Mathematicus:


Dean Burnett is a neuro-scientist who has a blog on Guardian Science Blogs, Brain Flapping, that is usually fairly humorous and mostly satirical.  However last week he decided to take a pot shot at astrology that was rather banal, displaying, as it does, Burnett’s total ignorance of astrology both past and present. Basic rule, if you wish to send something up successfully you should at least be well informed about that which you are trying to ridicule. As I am currently preparing a public lecture on the history of astrology[1], I was halfway tempted to let loose another of my diatribes about the significant role played by astrology not only in the history of science but also in the cultural, social and political histories of Europe in the last two thousand plus years but in the end I couldn’t be bothered. On that score you will have…


View original 706 more words








Monday, April 6, 2015

Designing beauty




Humanities and the Sciences





Designing beauty



Originally posted on British Museum blog:


Caroline Ingham, Senior Designer: Exhibitions, British Museum



Doryphoros Detail of a Bronze reconstruction of around 1920 by George Römer of the Doryphoros or ‘spear-bearer’ by Polykleitos, made around 440–430 BC. H 212 cm. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich



Defining beauty: the body in ancient Greek art is the first major temporary exhibition of sculpture at the British Museum since Hadrian: Empire & Conflict in 2008. It is also the first sculpture show in the new Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery (Room 30). For the Museum’s Exhibitions team this is the culmination of over a year of intensive work with the exhibition’s designers, Caruso St John architects and Matt Bigg, Surface 3 graphics.



Doryphoros, Diskobolos, Ilissos2 Sculptures on display in the exhibition, from left to right: Bronze reconstruction of around 1920 by George Römer of the Doryphoros or ‘spear-bearer’ by Polykleitos, made around 440–430 BC. H 212 cm. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich. Marble statue of the Diskobolos or ‘discus-thrower’. Roman copy from 2nd…


View original 536 more words


Tagged: Art, Biology, Cultural Studies (class), Sculpture






Sunday, April 5, 2015

The Great Experiment (Video) & observation notes




Humanities and the Sciences





The Great Experiment (Video) & observation notes



Prof. Michael Hunter speaks on the formation of the Royal Society. Video from RS Youtube channel. Useful for current Bacon research


:


06:56, Motto (declined) from Instauratio magna frontispiece.


12:20, frontispiece of Sprat’s history.


~13:50, echoing Bacon’s imperatives on mech arts & records of experiments.


16:23–16:56, 16:57–17:12, JACKPOT: temporal extensions insinuating that Bacon’s petition is realized, after a fashion; direct support feed into thesis statement.


17:12, last point extended to other august bodies; direct induction vs deduction reference along with rib at Cartesians’ armchair tendencies.


18:34, RS abandons overly ambitious, initial dabbling in proto systems science (or at least the GUT) and forms 8 committees for spec., yet this too gives way. All fascinating and applicable at a 2nd tier but not for paper (?) unless in paper conclusion this is addressed, espec. the cleaving unto the exotic in lieu of comprehensiveness [~19:00]


~23:00, adaptive functions begin to define value of appropriate corporate structure, “assess and adjudicate”


~25:35, solidifying role in “accreditation and demarcation,” example of German savant Eckard Lieichner (?) : link to Bac. sep. of Relig. & Sci, cf. Rossi chapt. Sci, Mag. & Mecharts


~27:00 back to solidif. of arenas of domain; central importance of conventional def. of science arising therefrom.


27:15 thus excluding magic; div. in mem. interests.; further points of interest.


Tagged: Bacon, Hooke, Lord Verulam, Michael Hunter, Royal Society






Saturday, April 4, 2015

“How to learn a new language: 7 secrets from TED Translators” (2014)




Humanities and the Sciences:





“How to learn a new language: 7 secrets from TED Translators” (2014)



Invaluable pointers from Krystian Aparta on the TEDblog (2014) on learning a new language:


blog.ted.com/how-to-learn-a-new-language-7-secrets-from-ted-translators/


Personal reflection: #3 works well for Chemistry too!


041 042 043 044


Tagged: Art, Chem, Data Visualization, Learning and Memory, Linguistics, mnemonic devices






Friday, April 3, 2015

Vasari’s Lives of the Artists, BBC Radio 4 Broadcast




Humanities and the Sciences:





Vasari’s Lives of the Artists, BBC Radio 4 Broadcast



http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sg2y4


“Melvyn Bragg discusses ‘Lives of the Artists’ – the great biographer Giorgio Vasari’s study of Renaissance painters, sculptors and architects. In 1550 a little known Italian artist, Giorgio Vasari, published a revolutionary book entitled ‘Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, from Cimabue to Our Times’.” (Quote from BBC Radio 4, linked above)


Tagged: Art, Audio media, BBC, Cultural Studies, Italian Renaissance, Medicis