This is from today's office of readings and really struck me. I tried to trim it down for quick reading but there's so much greatness in it that in the end I left it alone.
From a commentary on the Diatessaron by Saint Ephraem, deacon |
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... who'd like to be a philosopher poet.
This is from today's office of readings and really struck me. I tried to trim it down for quick reading but there's so much greatness in it that in the end I left it alone.
From a commentary on the Diatessaron by Saint Ephraem, deacon |
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Posted by John at 10:30 AM 0 comments
It may not be good but at least it's short.
Robin
Soft though she sits on her four teal treasures
my gaze of interest and care sets her heart beating
first to freeze
then to flee.
I am sad that my tender attention disturbs her.
Posted by John at 3:42 PM 0 comments
I like this. Maybe this new extreme will have a good moderating effect on the mainstream movies and shows that have gotten more and more fast paced - action every second - unrealistic. I know I like this because it's just the sort of thing that I liked in Brideshead, Pride and Prejudice and some other movies. They had a few seconds or even a whole scene where no one talked or moved much. (Don't even get me started on the camera swirls!)
I think that this shows that there is power in slowness and silence. And I think it's precisely because it's real. The one thing that worries me is this comment: "So we have to push the boundaries for each show, I think." said Moklebust. You don't ALWAYS have to push the boundaries. I think that misses the point of the realness.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/norways-slow-tv-fascinating-viewers-for-hours-or-days-at-a-time/
Norway's Slow TV: Fascinating viewers for hours or days at a time
One axiom rarely observed on television nowadays is to "take it slow." And if you think that can't make for gripping TV, Seth Doane wants to tell you there's an entire country that would pointedly disagree:It's television's version of taking a deep breath … a very long, very slow, deep breath.It's called "Slow TV," and it's a surprising smash-hit in Norway.It began with the broadcast of a train journey from the coastal city of Bergen to the capital, Oslo. The formula was simple: put a few cameras on a train and watch the scenery go by -- for seven hours.
Rune Moklebust and Thomas Hellum are the brains behind the whole thing."Did you know where this journey would lead, how successful it would be?" asked Doane."No idea at all," said Moklebust. "It's normally one of those ideas you get late night after a couple of beers in the bar, and when you wake up the next day, Ahh, it's not a good idea after all."But much to their surprise, there was a green light from their bosses at Norway's public broadcaster NRK2."We actually like it being a bit strange and a bit crazy, because then it's more fun," said Moklebust.Hellum added, "If the viewers laugh, or think, Wow, this is too crazy, that's basically the kind of reaction you really want from the viewers."About a quarter of all Norwegians tuned in to watch some part of that train trip.They ran historical clips when the train went through a tunnel, but other than some music, there was no narration, no plot, and -- thanks to public broadcasting -- no commercials.Hellum admits his own show is boring. "Yes!" he laughed. "Much of life itself is boring. But in-between, there are some exciting moments, and you just have to wait for them."
Since the train, in 2009, they've experimented with other slow ideas, and folks at all levels have taken notice."I understand that in Norway, for example, one of the big hits on TV is National Firewood Night!" President Obama said at a State Dinner for the heads of five Nordic countries in May 2016. "This is true! Video of logs burning for hours."Twelve hours in all!A "National Knitting Night" started, of course, with shearing the sheep; knitting the sweater came much later in the 13-hour broadcast.The shows, Doane noted, "get slower, and slower, and slower."
"Well, it has to be unique -- not a copy of the last one," said Moklebust. "So we have to push the boundaries for each show, I think."The show titled "Salmon Swimming Upstream" ran 18 hours -- and afterward, the head of the station said it felt "too short."
So, is there a recipe for the perfect "Slow TV"? "It's important that it's an unbroken timeline, that you don't take away anything," said Hellum. "It's all the boring stuff in there, all the exciting things in there, so you as a viewer has to find out what's boring and what's interesting.""It kind of requires you precisely to slow down, to kind of twist your head in a little bit of a different direction," said Espen Ytreberg, a professor of media studies at the University of Oslo.Ytreberg said when he first heard about "Slow TV," he thought "the whole notion was weird, to tell you the truth. But it turned out that at least some of it I found surprisingly appealing."Ytreberg likens Slow TV to opening a sort of window -- an escape valve -- from what he calls fast-paced, "eye-candy" TV. "When did we come to accept that television should be this accelerated, busy, intense, in-your-face-thing?" he said. "At some point, that became the norm."Rune Moklebust thinks one image sums up their approach: "Once we passed a cow on one of our journeys, and we put a camera on it. And the camera just kept rolling, and we didn't cut away. And then you keep it, and you keep it, and then you keep it, and then, suddenly a story evolves: What is this cow doing? Why is it walking there? Where is it heading? Why is the cow alone?"So suddenly, there comes a story out of it, and you have to see what happens."There was plenty of time to follow that cow, because they came across it while shooting an episode, which followed a cruise along Norway's coast.
That cruise? Well, it was five-and-a-half-days long. Slow TV broadcast all 134 hours of it … live.At one point almost half of Norway was watching.Norwegians lined the ship's route, often waving flags or welcoming it in port.
And there were unexpected cameos: A water skier in a mankini, for instance … even the Queen of Norway made a surprise appearance.
And the trip revealed some unexpected talent: Anna Bildstein-Hagberg, the purser on board, remembered how one night seemed a little quiet. "I just felt that, we need to rock 'n' roll a little bit."So she picked up a microphone -- and became a breakout star! "Well, it wasn't meant like that!" she laughed."Slow TV" has been syndicated around the world and, since then, Bildstein-Hagberg gets recognized: "People from Australia come and just, 'It's you!'""Slow TV" episodes are special events; they're not on all the time. The creators want them to stand apart from regular programming.All of this got us to thinking:Doane showed Moklebust and Hellum one of "Sunday Morning"'s Moments of Nature which close each broadcast."And how many seconds do you dare to keep it?" Hellum laughed."Slow TV in the making?" Doane asked."Compared to other things, yes, definitely. And I guess you get a lot of good reaction on this one?""The audience loves the Moment of Nature, and they always want it to be longer.""Exactly. So make it longer!" laughed Moklebust."That means this piece has to be shorter, so watch it!" Doane laughed.Well then, Moklebust said, "Stop this piece now!"
Posted by John at 1:41 PM 0 comments
Posted by John at 8:27 AM 0 comments
On a single day last week year (forgot to publish this), St. Nicholas' feast day in fact, we were awed by getting close looks at some originals...
We had a little homeschool viewing of a handful of items from Marquette University's J.R.R. Tolkien collection. Then we headed over to the Milwaukee Art museum and were pleasantly surprised by their temporary exhibit of paintings on loan from Kenwood House. That includes Gainsborough's, Rembrants, and more. In fact, so much of the day running to my tastes that I can't find the right words.
They wouldn't let us photograph either of them so these web results will have to suffice while I describe the experiences.
http://www.marquette.edu/library/archives/tolkien.shtml
Chapter 1 - An Unexpected Party. <-- We saw this!!! Typwritten by J himself. Did you know Thorin Oakenshield was originally called Gandalf?
Chapter 5 - Riddles in the Dark <-- We saw this too! This one in his own handwritting. His writing, with a fountain pen, was oddly elegant and hard to read at the same time. Actually, looking around you could see his frame of mind... when he was being precise he would slow down and the script was beautiful. And when the muse was pelting his mind he would scrawl.
We also saw the original of the map that would eventually appear in the Hobbit.
And then we saw the Gainsboroughs, Sir Thomas Lawrences and Sir Joshua Reynolds ... and more!
http://mam.org/rembrandt-van-dyck-gainsborough/
Posted by John at 8:50 PM 0 comments
Energy is important. When energy becomes "free" imagination takes over about what is possible...
Posted by John at 12:52 PM 1 comments
Sandy is the storm out on the east coast. Around 700 miles away it is causing havoc in Hoboken. But that's about 700 miles away. Here in Milwaukee we are seeing amazing waves in Lake Michigan caused by the very, very long arms of Sandy. If I try, with all my might, to blow out a match at my feet - I can't do it. Lifting and tossing thousands of gallons of water in each wave - across a 1400 mile radius!?!?! In-con-cievable.
Posted by John at 1:40 PM 1 comments
Alas, I don't think that the Dr. is hanging around here right now. Even when it's bigger on the inside than on the outside you have to be able to squeeze through a door. It is, however, a police call box. It is the right color. And it even has the nice light on top.
Posted by John at 1:09 PM 0 comments
I am driving back and forth to work through a BOUQUET! I think these are tree sized flowers. And who arranged them?
Posted by John at 5:47 PM 0 comments
Award nominated video.
But please... don't watch only half!! As it goes between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth
"I could wish, Miss Bennet, that you were not to sketch my character at the present moment, as there is reason to fear that the performance would reflect no credit on either [you or me]."
And watching only half the video will leave you with very confused ideas that will reflect no credit on either you or me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSI8docYcfA
Posted by John at 10:34 AM 0 comments
We gave Bernie an art set for her birthday.
Alicia read to all the kids for a while that morning.
Bernie glanced across the room and did this with the new art set!!!!
Posted by John at 11:57 AM 0 comments
Just a note for travellers. Hot springs are a wonderful gift from mother nature. However, in order to soak in them we (i.e. people) sometimes need to tweak them - - - we want water that is not too deep, too hot, too narrow etc.
When I went to Taiwan's Taroko gorge there was a hot spring next to a river called Wenshan Hot Springs. The Taiwanese brilliantly made 3 pools for the water.
The hot water was captured in the first pool at full temperature. The pool was big enough for at least a dozen people and outfitted with a ledge to sit on so you could be immersed just up to your neck. Then a portion of the water flowed into another, bigger pool. It could hold about 40 people comfortably. The pool was shallow enough that you could sit in any part of it and be comfortably immersed. The brilliant part is that they mixed this water with some of the cold river water so that the temperature was "just right".
The third pool was again mixed for a more tepid temperature which appealed to people who preferred that. All three pools were situated on the river's edge - overlooking the torrent and some of the most amazing canyons and tropical vegitation I have ever seen and the blue skies and sun of Taiwan (OK the picture proves I didn't see blue skies and sun that day). They were sheltered just a bit by the cliff that had been cut by the river but basically open to the world. A delightful experience.
The hot springs on the north side of the island are a different experience. My friend Andrew tipped us off that the public ones tend to have some contamination (bodily fluids) and that the clean ones are almost all indoors. They are private affairs. Virtually all of them are piped into hot-tubs in confined, individual hotel-sized rooms for privacy. Even the one we saw that was open to the outside was a pool on a hotel rooftop. As such they are also done sans-stiches, aka clothing-non-grata, aka (ironically) au natural.
Thanks Andrew for saving us from ourselves!
I am wondering in retrospect whether the Taroko springs were also contaminated. If so I'd like to put in a retroactive "ick".
Posted by John at 1:38 PM 2 comments
When you think about it doesn't it seem strange that a 10W LED light bulb needs a heavy heatsink with fancy fins when a 100W incandescent doesn't?
Here's what I have found.
A 100W incandescent light is too hot to touch - about 90-130C (200-270F). But that is using the surface of that glass bulb as the heatsink. The filament that actually gives the light is 2000-2500C (3600-4500F)!!! The gasses inside of the bulb actually don't carry heat to the surface of the glass at all. That's an advantage in this bulb since the heat is key for getting the light.
LEDs are semiconductors. Like most semiconductors (like all the ones that drive your cell phone, PC, iPod, etc.) in order to survive at all they need to keep their temperature (Tj) below 150C (300F). In order to have a decent lifetime and keep other parameters within control it needs to be closer to 85C (185F - a good temperature to brew coffee at). That's thousands of degrees cooler than the filament!!
The the actual light producing part, the LED junction, is tiny (less than 10 square mm). Since it is small it doesn't have enough surface area to get rid of the 10W* and still maintain this temperature. So it needs to have more surface area - which is the heatsink. The heatsink is made out of Aluminum since the metal carries the heat to its own surface pretty efficiently. Without the heatsink the LED would get too hot for a semiconductor (not too hot if it was a filament).
*10W is actually not used only by the LED. There are some other electronics inside an LED bulb that convert AC down to the low DC voltage that the LED needs. These parts are not perfectly efficient so they use some of the 10W themselves - which is as much as to say they generate heat too.
Posted by John at 12:06 PM 0 comments
Posted by electroblogster at 12:57 PM 4 comments
Posted by electroblogster at 8:12 PM 0 comments
As we were out walking this afternoon I mentioned that a 9 year old from Canada had recently found a maple leaf that he had certified as the LARGEST MAPLE LEAF IN THE WORLD!
A few moments later Bernie casually picked up a leaf from a leafpile laying out in the street for pickup. Since I hadn't heard how big the world record was I offered her no encouragement as she proceeded to carefully carry it all the way back home.
This is that leaf (and Bernie) (more technical pictures at the bottom)
Posted by electroblogster at 3:04 PM 0 comments
What is that? A bird? A plane? A zeppelin?
Posted by electroblogster at 9:23 AM 0 comments
You Can't Take it With You
We love this old 1938 Jimmy Stewart movie around this house. So you should see it!
If you see it you may be intrigued by this optimistic scene:
I remember in college another guy and I had an idea [....] We wanted to find out what made the grass grow green. Now that sounds silly and everything, but it’s the biggest research problem in the world today and I’ll tell you why. Because…there’s a tiny little engine in the green of this grass and the green of the trees that has the mysterious gift of being able to take energy from the rays of the sun and store it up. You see that’s how the heat and power and coal and oil and wood is stored up. Well, we thought if we could find the secret of all those millions of little engines in this green stuff, we could make big ones. And then we could take all the power we could ever need right from the sun’s rays. (Thanks http://1morefilmblog.com/wordpress/you-cant-take-it-with-you-capra-1938/ for transcribing it!)Now that sounds pretty fresh in light of all the solar cell hubbub that's all the rage. In fact someone is going right for the green:
A North Carolina State University-led team has created 'artificial leaves – water-gel-based solar devices which can act like solar cells to generate electricity.
The devices show it's possible to make solar cells that more closely mimic nature, and could also be less expensive and more environmentally friendly than current silicon-based solar cells. (Read more here: http://www.tgdaily.com/sustainability-features/51728-artificial-leaves-produce-electricity )The world is a wonderful place.
Posted by electroblogster at 9:19 PM 0 comments
A friend recently asked if I knew how to recover his pictures from his crashed (Macintosh) hard drive. The "genius" store geeks had tried to read it by booting from another drive and just looking at this one. That didn't work. My friend wasn't ready to pony up for a level-2 recovery attempt - $750 whether or not the procedure was successful!!
Now, I have been pretty tuned into hard drives for years because of my profession. I have seen hard drives crash. I have used both manufacturer's and open source tools to read and interpret SMART data on drives. I have opened and examined hard drives that have suffered from shock, vibration, thermal torture and customer abuse. I have watched hard drives spin topless. I have painted them with Omegalaq and used thermocouples as thin as a hair to check internal temperatures. In addition I have read articles about the various degrees of data recovery possible (from freeware on up to thousand$). I thought I could offer some assistance.
Knowing that the drive didn't even work inside his laptop with an external boot I figured I would try to find a similar drive on ebay and swap in the disks. Yes there's a risk of contamination but I just wanted 1 pass to grab those files - just a few minutes of operation was all I asked. There was one in Australia with a datecode a few days away. But before I spend the $70 (plus who-knows-how-much shipping) I did just a little extra homework.
I found a guy talking about getting those few extra minutes by putting the drive in the freezer overnight and then using it. My young, geek cube-neighbor at work said he had heard about this but always worried about the condensation killing it too fast. He also said that Apple formats its drives in such a way that I would probably need a Linux OS to properly see it.
Since this was a SATA drive I was in luck. I have access to a little USB connected pod that can accommodate a SATA drive. So I put the whole thing in the freezer for a couple days and just ran the cables out to the host laptop (i.e. my work laptop with an Ubuntu install on it). After getting some advice about how to navigate around the command line (not my specialty - yet necessary due to the permissions issues on the Mac drive) we were able to run the drive for hours and recover all the pictures!
Posted by electroblogster at 9:12 AM 0 comments
So who doesn't love and admire St. Francis of Assisi? (Rhetorical question! Everyone who knows him loves him). I learned in a sermon this morning that St. Francis of Assisi actually shares my name. So I get to add to my extensive list of patron saints:
John the Baptist, preacher, ascetic, and reported baptizer of Jesus Christ
John the Evangelist, speculated author of the Fourth Gospel, traditionally identified with the John the Apostle
John of Patmos, author of the Book of Revelation, traditionally identified with John the Apostle and Evangelist
St. Francis of Assisi (baptized: Giovanni di Pietro Bernardone)
John the Wonderworking Unmercenary (d. ca. 304), Egyptian or Mesopotamian healer
John Chrysostom (347-407), Antiochene Archbishop of Constantinople
John Cassian (ca. 360-435), probably Scythia-Minor priest and abbot
John of Egypt (d. 394), Egyptian hermit
Pope John I (d. 526), Italian pope
John Climacus (ca. 525-606), Syrian or Byzantine monk and abbot
John the Merciful (d. ca. 620), Cyprian Patriarch of Alexandria
John of Damascus (ca. 676-749), Syrian monk and priest, also known as John Damascene
John of Beverley (d. 721), Angle bishop
John of Pavia (d. 813), Bishop of Pavia
John of Rila (876-ca. 946), Bulgarian priest and hermit
John of Matha (1154-1213), French priest; founder of the Trinitarian Order
John of Meda (d. 1159), Italian priest
John of Nepomuk (ca. 1345-1393), Bohemian vicar general of Jan of Jenštejn
Giovanni da Capistrano (1386-1456), Italian friar; summoner of European troops for the 1456 siege of Belgrade
John Fisher (ca. 1469-1535), English cardinal and martyr
John Houghton (martyr) (ca. 1486-1535), English abbot and martyr (one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales)
John Stone (martyr) (d. 1538/1539), English friar and martyr (one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales)
John of God (1495-1550), Portuguese friar; founder of the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God
John of Avila (1500-1569), Spanish Jewish converso priest, missionary and mystic
John Payne (martyr) (1532-1582), English priest and martyr (one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales)
John Leonardi (1541-1609), Italian priest; founder of the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God of Lucca
John of the Cross (1542-1591), Spanish Jewish converso friar, priest and mystic; joint founder of the Discalced Carmelites
John Boste (ca. 1544-1594), English priest and martyr (one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales)
John Rigby (martyr) (ca. 1570-1600), English martyr (one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales)
John Roberts (martyr) (1575/1576-1610), Welsh priest, Prior of St. Gregory's (one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales)
John Sarkander (1576-1620), Polish priest and martyr
John Ogilvie (saint) (1579-1615), Scottish priest and martyr
John Jones (martyr) (d. 1598), Welsh priest and martyr (one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales)
John Southworth (martyr) (1592-1654), English priest and martyr (one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales)
Jean de Brébeuf (1593-1649), French missionary and martyr (one of the North American Martyrs)
John Kemble (martyr) (1599-1679), English priest and martyr (one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales)
John Wall (priest) (1620-1679), English priest and martyr (one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales)
John Plessington (ca. 1637-1679), English priest and martyr (one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales)
Jean-Baptiste de la Salle (1651-1719), French priest; founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools
John Joseph of the Cross (1654-1739), Ischian friar, priest and Vicar Provincial of the Alcantarine Reform in Italy
John Lloyd (d. 1679), Welsh priest and martyr (one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales)
John Dat (ca. 1765-1798), Vietnamese priest and martyr
Jean Vianney (1786-1859), French priest
John Hoan Trinh Doan (ca. 1789/1798-1861), Vietnamese priest and martyr
John Thanh Van Dinh (1796-1840), Vietnamese martyr
John Baptist Con (1805-1840), Vietnamese martyr
John Neumann (1811-1860), Bohemian missionary, Bishop of Philadelphia, founder of the first American Catholic diocesan school system
John Baptist Y (ca. 1800-1839), one of the Korean Martyrs
John Bosco (1815-1888), Italian priest and educator; founder of the Salesians of Don Bosco and the Salesian Cooperators
John of Kronstadt (1829-1908), Russian archpriest and synod member
... orate pro nobis!
Posted by electroblogster at 12:53 PM 1 comments
One would think it's not going too far out on a ledge to suggest that Einstein may have been right. But when he said (and it seems to be a paraphrase) "God does not play dice with the universe." He was talking about quantum mechanics. And the quantum guys probably grimaced and thought to themselves: "Yeah, I'd like to believe the old guy but it seems he's wrong on this one." Maybe the two "sides" are finally coming together as we better understand the unity of the truth. Here's a geeky article that is exciting in that it seems to suggest that there's a more understandable order (indeed a 'harmony") to that quantum mechanical world that we are just now starting to discover.
http://www.physorg.com/news182095224.html
(The highlights are mine)
Posted by electroblogster at 12:56 PM 0 comments
Posted by electroblogster at 8:14 PM 1 comments
Here is my little math guy at work... He explained to ME "Here's 1. And two 1's is 2. And two 2's is 4. ..."
I wrote the powers on the top of the board. But only some of them. I let him tell me what I should put above the 32.
Now for the "penmanship".
Posted by electroblogster at 9:17 PM 1 comments
I had to pass this one along because it made me laugh. You've heard that you can't please everyone. Well someone demonstrates this by rounding up the 1-star reviews on Amazon for classic movies and books. (Actually, they are not all classics.)
Samples of ACTUAL reviews:
This is the worst book I have ever read!!! I started it with an interest toward the Holocaust. Anne Frank never talked about anything even relating to this major historical event in her short life.
Re: The Odyssey
This book sucks. I dont care if Homer was blind or not this book is like 900 pages too long. I could tell this story in about 10 pages. Homer taking all long to say stupid stuff. Teens if you are reading this all I have to say is CLIFF NOTES CLIFF NOTES you will pass the test, unless you are in AP classes. The teachers expect kids to read cliff notes trust me my moms a teacher. P.S this book SUCKS.
Re: The Sound of Music
This movie should be called the Sound of Mucus. The only redeeming quality is that the family has to run from nazis.
and
This movie was made in the sixties, we live in the 21st century, GET OVER IT!
Warning: I would like for this site to do only that - keep it focused. However,
it seems they have to use it to push political stuff as well. Too bad.
Posted by electroblogster at 8:09 AM 0 comments
Posted by electroblogster at 9:03 AM 2 comments