Month: February 2007

  • Parts of a Whole:

    Elements
    of Geometry

    The title of Euclid's Elements is, in Greek, Stoicheia

    From Lectures on the Science of Language, by Max Muller, fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1890, pp. 88-90 --


    Stoicheia

    "The question is, why were the elements, or the component primary parts of things, called stoicheia
    by the Greeks?  It is a word which has had a long history, and has
    passed from Greece to almost every part of the civilized world, and
    deserves, therefore, some attention at the hand of the etymological
    genealogist.

    Stoichos, from which stoicheion, means a row or file, like stix and stiches in Homer.  The suffix eios is the same as the Latin eius, and expresses what belongs to or has the quality of something.  Therefore, as stoichos means a row, stoicheion would be what belongs to or constitutes a row....

    Hence stoichos presupposes a root stich, and this root would account in Greek for the following derivations:--

    1. stix, gen. stichos, a row, a line of soldiers
    2. stichos, a row, a line; distich, a couplet
    3. steicho, estichon, to march in order, step by step; to mount
    4. stoichos, a row, a file; stoichein, to march in a line

    In German, the same root yields steigen, to step, to mount, and in Sanskrit we find stigh, to mount....

    Stoicheia are the degrees or steps from one end to the other,
    the constituent parts of a whole, forming a complete series, whether as
    hours, or letters, or numbers, or parts of speech, or physical
    elements, provided always that such elements are held together by a
    systematic order."

  • Harvard Design, continued

    Suggested by today's 
    New York Times story
    on a Harvard student's
    research on pattern in
    Islamic art --

    and in memory of
    George Sadek --


    From Log24 in July 2005:

    Intersections

    A Trinity Sunday sermon
    quotes T. S. Eliot:

    "... to apprehend
    The point of intersection of the timeless
    With time, is an occupation for the saint."

    See also The Diamond Project.

    Related material:

                                     
    "
    ... an alphabet

    By which to spell out holy doom and end,

    A bee for the remembering of happiness."

    -- Wallace Stevens,
    "The Owl in the Sarcophagus"

    The image “http://www.log24.com/theory/images/HeathI47A-Illustrations.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

    Some context for these figures:
    The Diamond Theory of Truth

  • ART WARS: Time and Chance

    Continued from 2/06:

    The Poetics of Space

    Log24 yesterday:

    "Imprimatur.
    +John Cardinal Farley,
    Archbishop of New York"

    Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon in The Da Vinci Code

    Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon
    in "The Da Vinci Code"

    "... and by '+' I mean
    artistic vision."

    New York State Lottery
    yesterday, Feb. 26, 2007:

    Mid-day 206
    Evening 888


    For more on the artistic
    significance of 206,
    see 2/06.

    For more on the artistic
    significance of 888, see
    St. Bonaventure on the
    Trinity at math16.com.

    A trinity:

    Click on picture for further details.

  • From the Academy:

    Synaxis

    The image “http://www.log24.com/log/pix07/070226-Scorsese.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
    Monica Almeida/The New York Times
    Martin Scorsese won the best-director
    Oscar last night for "The Departed."
    From left, Francis Ford Coppola, Scorsese,
    George Lucas and Steven
    Spielberg.

    "Synaxis (synaxis from synago) means gathering, assembly, reunion. It is exactly equivalent to the Latin collecta (from colligere), and corresponds to synagogue (synagoge), the place of reunion."

    -- The Catholic Encyclopedia,
    Volume XIV. Published 1912. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Nihil
    Obstat, July 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John
    Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York

    Related material:
    Yesterday's entries.

  • For Oscar Night

    Between Two Worlds

    Nicolas Cage as Ghost Rider
    Nicolas Cage as Ghost Rider

    "I'm the only one who can
    walk in both worlds.
    I'm T. S. Eliot."


    I caught the sudden look of some dead master

    Whom I had known, forgotten, half recalled

         Both one and many; in the brown baked features

         The eyes of a familiar compound ghost

    Both intimate and unidentifiable.

         So I assumed a double part, and cried

         And heard another's voice cry: 'What! are you here?'

    Although we were not. I was still the same,

         Knowing myself yet being someone other—

         And he a face still forming; yet the words sufficed

    To compel the recognition they preceded.

         And so, compliant to the common wind,

         Too strange to each other for misunderstanding,

    In concord at this intersection time

         Of meeting nowhere, no before and after,

         We trod the pavement in a dead patrol.

    I said: 'The wonder that I feel is easy,

         Yet ease is cause of wonder. Therefore speak:

         I may not comprehend, may not remember.'

    And he: 'I am not eager to rehearse

         My thoughts and theory which you have forgotten.

         These things have served their purpose: let them be.

    So with your own, and pray they be forgiven

         By others, as I pray you to forgive

         Both bad and good. Last season's fruit is eaten

    And the fullfed beast shall kick the empty pail.

         For last year's words belong to last year's language

         And next year's words await another voice.

    But, as the passage now presents no hindrance

         To the spirit unappeased and peregrine

         Between two worlds become much like each other,

    So I find words I never thought to speak

         In streets I never thought I should revisit

         When I left my body on a distant shore.

    Since our concern was speech, and speech impelled us

         To purify the dialect of the tribe

         And urge the mind to aftersight and foresight,

    Let me disclose the gifts reserved for age

         To set a crown upon your lifetime's effort.

         First, the cold friction of expiring sense

    Without enchantment, offering no promise

         But bitter tastelessness of shadow fruit

         As body and soul begin to fall asunder.

    Second, the conscious impotence of rage

         At human folly, and the laceration

         Of laughter at what ceases to amuse.

    And last, the rending pain of re-enactment

         Of all that you have done, and been; the shame

         Of motives late revealed, and the awareness

    Of things ill done and done to others' harm

         Which once you took for exercise of virtue.

         Then fools' approval stings, and honour stains.

    From wrong to wrong the exasperated spirit

         Proceeds, unless restored by that refining fire

         Where you must move in measure, like a dancer.'

  • Hollywood Sermon

    On the night of October 30-31, 1993, also known as Devil's
    Night, there was a full Hunter's Moon and the Pennsylvania Lottery
    number was 666.

    -- Steven H. Cullinane, 03/20/01

    "Mystery surrounds the death of young actor River Phoenix.... The
    actor... was declared dead at 1:51 a.m. PT Sunday [Oct. 31, 1993]. Phoenix died about
    50 minutes after collapsing in front of the Viper Room, a new club on
    the Sunset Strip...."

    -- Karen Thomas, USA Today, Monday, November 1, 1993

    Related material:

    The five Log24 entries
    ending on Yom Kippur, 2006.

  • For Mardi Gras:

    Anniversary

    On this, the second anniversary of Hunter Thompson's death, two Xanga footprints from Texas furnish appropriate links:

    Texas /514659186/item.html 2/20/2007 7:47 AM

    Texas /534740724/item.html 2/20/2007 9:39 AM.

    The first link is to Highway 1 Revisited (8/1/06).

    The second link is to Serious (10/3/06).
    (See also today's previous entry.)

    Related material:

    The Crimson Passion: A Drama at Mardi Gras.

  • The Practical Cat, or...

    Further Adventures
    in Harvard Iconology

    The image “http://www.log24.com/log/pix06A/061001-Langdon2.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

    The next novel starring
    Robert Langdon, Harvard author
    of "the renowned collegiate
    texbook Religious Iconology"
    is said to be titled
    The Solomon Key.

    Related material--


    The Harvard Crimson
    online:

    Fishburne To Receive Honors at Cultural Rhythms

    Acclaimed actor and humanitarian chosen as the Harvard Foundation's Artist of the Year




    Friday, February 16, 2007
    9:37 PM

    Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor Laurence Fishburne
    will take the stage later this month as the 2007 Artist of the Year
    during the 22nd annual Cultural Rhythms festival, the Harvard
    Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations announced Friday
    afternoon.

    The image “http://www.log24.com/log/pix07/070218-Morpheus.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
    Fishburne
    as Morpheus

    "Metaphor for Morphean morphosis,
    Dreams that wake, transform, and die,
    Calm and lucid this psychosis,
    Joyce's nightmare in Escher's eye....

    Dabo claves regni caelorum.  By silent shore
    Ripples spread from castle rock.  The metaphor
    For metamorphosis no keys unlock."

    -- Steven H. Cullinane,
      November 7, 1986,
    "Endgame"

    More on metamorphosis--

    Cat's Yarn
    (Log24, June 20, 2006):

    "The end is where
       we start from."

    -- T. S. Eliot


    The image “http://www.log24.com/log/pix06A/060620-Garfield156w.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.The image “http://www.log24.com/log/pix06A/060620-Donut-Cup.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.The image “http://www.log24.com/log/pix06A/060620-Garfield144w.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

    plus.maths.org
    and
    Garfield 2003-06-24

    See also:

    Zen
    Koan

    and
     
    Blue
    Dream
    .

    Update of 5:24 PM
    Feb. 18, 2007:

    A Xanga footprint from France
    this afternoon (3:47 PM EST)
    indicates that someone there
    may be interested in the above
    poem's "claves regni caelorum."

    The visitor from France viewed
    "Windmills" (Nov. 15, 2005).
    Material related to that entry
    may be found in various places
    at Log24.com.  See particularly
    "Shine On, Hermann Weyl," and
    entries for Women's History
    Month
    last year that include
    "Christ at the Lapin Agile."

  • O O O O that Shakespeherian Rag...

    Lady of Situations

    The image “http://www.log24.com/log/pix07/070216-Eyes2.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

    "Many dreams have been brought to your doorstep

    They just lie there and they die there

    Are you warm, are you real, Mona Lisa?

    Or just a cold and lonely lovely work of art?"

    -- Ray Evans, who died at 92
       on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2007

    For the source of the above illustration, see "Dear Dan Brown, All Eyes Are on You," a New York Times piece linked to in a Log24 entry from the day after Evans died. That entry concludes as follows:

    "And what the dead had no speech for, when living, they can tell you, being dead: the communication of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living."


    -- T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets

  • The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of:

    Zen Mind, Empty Mind

    Introduction:

    A mathematician hopes for more exciting vulgarizations of his subject--

    "I would hope that clever writers might point out how mathematics is
    altering our lifestyles and do it in a manner that would not lead
    Garfield the Cat to say 'ho hum.'"

    -- Philip J. Davis, "The Media and Mathematics Look at Each Other" (pdf), Notices of the American Mathematical Society, March 2006

    Part I:

    "Our mathematical
    skills are assumed to derive from a special 'mental vacuum state,' whose
    origin is explained on the basis of anthropic and biological arguments, taking
    into account the need for the informational processes associated with such
    a state to be of a life-supporting character.  ESP is then explained
    in terms of shared 'thought bubbles' generated by the participants out of
    the mental vacuum state."

    -- Nobel laureate Brian D. Josephson, Department of Physics, University of Cambridge, "String Theory, Universal Mind, and the Paranormal" (Dec. 2003)

    Part II:

    The image “http://www.log24.com/log/pix07/070217-Garfield2.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

    Thanks to "Q" at Peter Woit's weblog
    for the link to Josephson.