Posted by Jerry on July 30th, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Technology
Toyota have come up with a novel concept for a car – cars with emotion – want to reflect surprise at the ‘creative’ driving style of other road users? Suppose you could narrow your headlights, or wink, or raise eyebrow components. It seems that that time may not be too far away! Imagine a funeral procession in which the cars were crying, or if you could make your car smile when someone finally lets you into the traffic flow. Toyota has patented the idea of expressive cars so the jingle “oh what a feeling” takes on new meaning – on-road smilies – complete with a tail wagging aerial 🙂
But this will be a car with a mind of its own – an on-board computer will note degrees of aggressive braking and accelerating and will then react when a certain style of driving appears to reflect what it perceives as the drivers attitude… hmmm could be room for some serious misunderstanding here – and what of the embarrassing potential of a flacid antenna at the wrong moment – could send the wrong signals here!
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on July 27th, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Writing
The world is _precisely_ as it seems: an illusion of the most persistent kind. And our understanding of it constrained and limited by the language in which we express its terms – the terms being themselves metaphors sliding on metaphors throughout the great sedimentation of stories and narratives told about the way the world is. There are no spirits, just stories of spirits, no hidden crevices, gods or godesses, no souls no afterlives heavens or hells, just surfaces caressing other surfaces – what you see is what you get. The world is simply that which impinges on our senses – howsoever extended or enhanced by technologies of self…
… a response to a good friend’s WYSIWYG view of the world.
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on July 9th, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Music
Amazing violinists
I guess one of my favourite violinists is Vanessa Mae – an incredibly talented Thai/Chinese violinist who made (and continues to make) a huge impression on rock violin. Her site also has links to many many other violinist sites – one of whom is the similarly amazing Midori – for those who also enjoy the classical side of the instrument.
And then there’s Ashley McIsaacs – a cape Breton fiddle player of extraordinary power – the punk folk enfant terrible noted for his stage dress of tee-shirt, kilt and bovver boots. He is a player in my own style: folk with attitude! I was introduced to his music by a late dear friend – now deceased – called Rose Mulvale. I had described my playing style to her, and next thing, this CD arrives in the mail… and I’ve been hooked on Ashley McIsaacs’ music ever since!
While I don’t wear a kilt on stage, I have been known to play in formal tails, tee-shirt, bow tie and jeans 😉
One other tale I should relate is when I was a young novice fiddler, busking with the Celtic Music Club in Adelaide on North Terrace – just down from the Festival Centre. It must have been mid-late 1970s (perhaps 1978?) – A group of about 15 of us were playing Irish tunes to the passers by. Then this bloke strolls up – late in the evening – and stops to listen for a while. He is dressed in formal evening wear and leant on his walking stick. We played for a while and decided to have a little break. The bloke came up to me – he had a somewhat foreign accent that I couldn’t quite place. And he asked if he could have a go at my fiddle. I shrugged and said ‘sure… do you know how to play?’ he was non committal, but asked if I had anything to sit on. The only thing I had to hand was my square fiddle case and invited him to sit on that. He grasped the bow by the wrong end, and I said, ‘you might find a better balance if you hold it at the other end’. Well he sat and gripped the bow between his knees with the point upward facing towards him. He then proceeded to play the most amazing gypsy-Hungarian style music by running the violin up and down the stationary bow. He kept us spell-bound for about 20 minutes, and when he finally stopped, he stood up and thanked me while handing back my fiddle, we shook hands and he walked off. It was only later as I headed home past the Festival Centre that I saw his face plastered over the posters – Was it Itzhak Perlman? I was stunned! I think he got a kick out appearing from nowhere as a mystery person and totally spinning out a young musician, but doing so with real warmth and humour. I hope he got some inkling of the joy his spontaneous action brought to me!
cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on July 8th, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Writing
Someone got wrapped up talking about “after 9/11, what’s the next big world event?” And he was thinking of all these negative things… so I said: “what if the next big thing were POSITIVE?” and in quick succession came up with three:
1. next big world event: viral song gets loose from the Eurovision song contest and gets stuck in 400 million heads at once. Police called to ensure massed joggers crossing the Brooklyn bridge don’t jog in synch with each other…
2. crazed moped riders swarm onto the freeways making a mockery of speed limits…
3. Bio-terrorists release a cure for the common cold – western
economies stagger under the weight of increased productivity…
Of course we all know that the next big world event will be the Olympic Games in Athens – May this one be just about sports and spectacle
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on July 7th, 2004 — Posted in History, Journal, Travel
Herodotus writes of the disappearance of some 10,000 members of the Persian Army in the Western Sahara around 2,500 years ago. According to Herodotus a fierce sandstorm engulfed the army and they disappeared without trace.
I was drawn to this story by a TV program on the ABC last night called “The Lost Army of King Cambyses” It would seem that three years ago an Egyptian archaeologist named Aly Barakat found ancient arrowheads and a dagger in an isolated spot near Siwa. The arrow heads and dagger were consistent with ancient Persian design – yielding the tantalising possibility that the remains of the lost army might be nearby.
The story remained tantalising, however, but there were plausible explanations as to why it is reasonably likely that the remains of straggler groups from the army might yet be uncovered. The arrowheads, and some human remains were found near the oasis town of Siwa, which appears to be the site to which hey were heading when they ran out of luck – and food – and water.
Other campaigns of King Cambyses suggest that logistics was not his strong point – as his aborted attack on Ethiopia proved. So it is reasonable that, in an effort to travel light and fast, the Persians carried insufficient supplies – sacrificing logistics for mobility, perhaps hoping to find provisions along the way. (source: http://nefertiti.iwebland.com/herodotus/cambyses.htm).
The Western Sahara is forbidding country, and with food running short it is likely that the troops first ate the pack animals and then perhaps started on each other – driven progressively mad by thirst and hunger. Fatigued and confused and with little sense of where they were heading, it is likely they began to split into smaller groups, and then were overwhelmed with a ferocious sand storm.
Groups may have huddled close to the base of the great butte formations in a last effort to find shelter, and there became buried. However they died, it was almost certainly not as a massed army – not with a bang but a whimper.
But the finding of a dagger and some arrow heads lends weight to the view that Herodotus was not so unreliable an historian as some would suppose. He almost certainly relied on dubious sources such as travelers which may or may not have been corroborated by independent multiple sources, but it now appears that – in the case of the disappearance of Cambyses’ army – the source had some credibility.
A fascinating, if tragic story.
Download Herodotus’ history of Egypt from project Gutenberg here
Cheers
Jerry
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