Tristan und Isolde
Jul 27, 2013 21:43:51 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2013 21:43:51 GMT -5
Good morning, once again, to you all! To all those who survived 'Tristan und Isolde', they drank what they thought was poison aboard a boat. It was, it seems, a love potion! From a philosophical perspective, the relationship between love and death is an interesting one for all of us, for we are all ultimately vagrants on this piece of stardust called Earth. Enjoy what remains!
BBC - Prom 19: Wagner – Tristan and Isolde
Known as The Tristan Stone, or The Longstone (Cornish: Menhir, meaning long stone), is a 2.7 metre tall granite pillar near Fowey, Cornwall, originally situated at Four Turnings, Fowey. The stone has a mid 6th century AD two line inscription which has been interpreted as reading DRVSTANVS HIC IACIT CVNOWORI FILIV'S ('Drustan lies here, of Cunomorus the son'). A now missing third line was described by the 16th century antiquarian John Leland as reading CVM DOMINA OUSILLA ('with the lady Ousilla'). Ousilla is a Latinisation of the Cornish female name Eselt, otherwise known as Isolde. The disappearance of this third line may be as a result of the stone being moved several times.
In Wrmonoc of Landévennec's Life of St. Pol de Leon, he refers to a "King Marc whose other name is Quonomorus". Also rendered Cunomorus, this name means literally the 'Hound-of-the-sea.' An inscription on a 6th-century gravestone near the Cornish town of Fowey memorializes (in Latin) a certain "Drustanus son of Cunomorus" and it has been conjectured that this is the "Tristan son of Mark (alias 'Quonomorus')" of legend. There is a monument believed by some to refer to Tristan "Drustanus) at grid reference SX112521.
However, in most versions of the story, Mark is Tristan's uncle. His sister is Tristan's mother, Blancheflor alias Elizabeth/Isabelle, or, in some later versions, he is related to Tristan's father, Meliadus. Some identify King Mark with King Conomor of Dumnonia. However, it is also thought that Wrmonoc may have made a mistake with his recorded alias. In Old Welsh records, Mark is recorded as "March son of Meirchion" and is variously associated with North Wales, South Wales or South-West Scotland. The stone led to Mark's association with Castle Dore. Dr Ralegh Radford's excavations revealed the traces of a rectangular timber hall consistent with a 5th–6th century use.
Wikipedia - Mark of Cornwall
Of course, housing has improved, in many ways, since King Mark's Dark Age wooden palace near Fowey, or King Arthur's Dark Age stone bathhouse at Tintagel, also in Cornwall, although during the twenty-first century, we rarely build constructions which are likely to last centuries, let alone millennia.
'The Sunday Times' leads this week with some editorial comment on Gorgeous George Osborne’s moment in the sun. This is a good moment for the coalition, probably its best since the rose garden euphoria of 2010 faded with the summer flowers. For some weeks the government has avoided the unforced errors that characterised much of its first three years. It has had popular wins, including the extradition of Abu Qatada and falling crime despite lower police numbers. Even problems in the National Heath Service, highlighted by this newspaper, appear systemic rather than this government’s fault.
Most of all, leaving aside temporary mood-lifters such as the summer heat and the royal baby, the coalition presides over an improving economy. The 0.6% rise in gross domestic product in the second quarter was unexceptional by normal standards but it meant, for once, that the government could claim the economy is on the mend without too much fear of contradiction.
'The Sunday Times' also leads out of the mouth of babes. Prince George of Cambridge is just six days old, but what an eventful life it has been. His picture has appeared in newspapers across the world. He has been presented to the Queen. He is already the owner of a pet crocodile, a gift from Australia’s Northern Territory.
Given the great media interest in young George, it would be no surprise to learn that Nicholas Witchell, the BBC’s royal correspondent, already has a glass pressed against the nursery wall in the hope of catching the baby’s first words. Most children just pick up what they hear most frequently: mama, dadda, Queens Park Rangers nil. But according to Gyles Brandreth we can expect something a little more sophisticated.
On Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday, the broadcaster and royal biographer told how Princess Margaret had visited Lord Olivier just as the great actor’s son had managed to say “Daddy”. What sort of palace will Prince George of Cambridge inhabit during the twenty-first and perhaps even the twenty-second centuries? Of course, our children are likely to live in small if increasingly high-technology flats, particularly in megacities, a little like Jason and his wife on the Isle of Dogs. Even Jason, however, is moving, if not to Sissinghurst Castle itself, at least he can enjoy its extensive gardens.
National Trust - Sissinghurst Castle
Writing in 'FT Weekend', Izabella Kaminska interviews Cern physicist Fabiola Gianotti on hunting for the ‘God particle’: the Italian scientist on how her work on the Higgs boson can be linked to a love of nature and music. Fabiola's flat is dominated by contemporary furniture, arranged throughout an open-plan sitting room and adjoining dining area, but there is an eclectic range of objects on display: a small metal elephant, statues and pots from her grandmother, antique opera glasses, a backgammon set. A large Japanese screen painting is positioned on the wall of the dining room and a number of other Japanese-themed boxes, cabinets and curios are scattered throughout the living space.
The interiors reflect her love of art, literature and music. For while Gianotti may have made a name for herself in physics, her schooling in Italy was focused almost exclusively on the classical humanities. It is a cliché, she says, that scientists are only interested in data and hard facts.
“There are many links between physics and art,” Gianotti says. “For me, physics and nature have very nice foundations from an aesthetic point of view, and at the same time art is based on physics and mathematical principle. If you build a nice building, you have to build it with some criteria because otherwise it collapses.”
An accomplished pianist, Gianotti would not be happy if she could not indulge in her love of music. Back in Italy she used to own a mini grand piano but here in she has had to settle for a modern upright. Playing it, often late at night on a mute setting, is, she says, her favourite pastime.
In Gianotti’s mind musical harmonies are just another manifestation of physics. The musical notes of her favourite composers – Beethoven, Bach and Schubert – are in that sense, she says, just another type of equation. “There is clearly an underlying physics and mathematics. The artist then puts his or her inventiveness, fantasy and artistic feeling on top of this. So there is a very strong connection, which is why many scientists are also excellent painters and musicians,” she adds.
In fact, it is fair to say that Gianotti sees a connection to physics in almost everything around her. A modern triptych painting featuring a collection of chaotic golden squiggles and bands hangs on the wall of her sitting room. She says she bought the piece because it reminded her of string theory.
Meanwhile, the small kitchen, adjacent to the dining room, is more of a lab for biochemical experimentation than the process otherwise known as cooking. “You cannot just put ingredients together in a random way,” she says. “There is a minimum of mathematics. You have to follow a recipe.”
Cern, of course, is a cultural melting pot crammed with some of the world’s brightest and most creative minds. And to some degree the facility, with its gigantic scientific instruments, is just as much Gianotti’s home as anywhere else. “There is nothing more exciting than having a life devoted to fundamental knowledge and to contributing to advance the borders of knowledge,” she says.
On that front she has been impressed by the overwhelming public interest in her work and that of her colleagues – something she suggests may be connected to the economic crisis and a wider shift in what humanity perceives as valuable. “In some sense the values of society are being revalued,” she says. “We are moving to an economy which is more human-aware.” Unsurprisingly, for Gianotti, a scientist who spends her day searching for matter, real value does not necessarily lie in materiality at all. “It’s our knowledge, our soul, our spirit and our intelligence which for me represents value,” she says. “These are things that are native and belong to us, whatever our job or realisation in life, and which nobody can take away.”
Gianotti is continuing to push the bounds of knowledge, reviewing the huge amounts of data the first phase produced while overseeing a proposed upgrade. The quest for new physics, new particles and new phenomena will resume at Cern when the Large Hadron Collider is restarted at a higher energy and sensitivity in 2015.
I propose some toast: to Gorgeous George, Tristan and Isolde! Three cheers from kleines c and the gang (whatever you are drinking)!
BBC - Prom 19: Wagner – Tristan and Isolde
Known as The Tristan Stone, or The Longstone (Cornish: Menhir, meaning long stone), is a 2.7 metre tall granite pillar near Fowey, Cornwall, originally situated at Four Turnings, Fowey. The stone has a mid 6th century AD two line inscription which has been interpreted as reading DRVSTANVS HIC IACIT CVNOWORI FILIV'S ('Drustan lies here, of Cunomorus the son'). A now missing third line was described by the 16th century antiquarian John Leland as reading CVM DOMINA OUSILLA ('with the lady Ousilla'). Ousilla is a Latinisation of the Cornish female name Eselt, otherwise known as Isolde. The disappearance of this third line may be as a result of the stone being moved several times.
In Wrmonoc of Landévennec's Life of St. Pol de Leon, he refers to a "King Marc whose other name is Quonomorus". Also rendered Cunomorus, this name means literally the 'Hound-of-the-sea.' An inscription on a 6th-century gravestone near the Cornish town of Fowey memorializes (in Latin) a certain "Drustanus son of Cunomorus" and it has been conjectured that this is the "Tristan son of Mark (alias 'Quonomorus')" of legend. There is a monument believed by some to refer to Tristan "Drustanus) at grid reference SX112521.
However, in most versions of the story, Mark is Tristan's uncle. His sister is Tristan's mother, Blancheflor alias Elizabeth/Isabelle, or, in some later versions, he is related to Tristan's father, Meliadus. Some identify King Mark with King Conomor of Dumnonia. However, it is also thought that Wrmonoc may have made a mistake with his recorded alias. In Old Welsh records, Mark is recorded as "March son of Meirchion" and is variously associated with North Wales, South Wales or South-West Scotland. The stone led to Mark's association with Castle Dore. Dr Ralegh Radford's excavations revealed the traces of a rectangular timber hall consistent with a 5th–6th century use.
Wikipedia - Mark of Cornwall
Of course, housing has improved, in many ways, since King Mark's Dark Age wooden palace near Fowey, or King Arthur's Dark Age stone bathhouse at Tintagel, also in Cornwall, although during the twenty-first century, we rarely build constructions which are likely to last centuries, let alone millennia.
'The Sunday Times' leads this week with some editorial comment on Gorgeous George Osborne’s moment in the sun. This is a good moment for the coalition, probably its best since the rose garden euphoria of 2010 faded with the summer flowers. For some weeks the government has avoided the unforced errors that characterised much of its first three years. It has had popular wins, including the extradition of Abu Qatada and falling crime despite lower police numbers. Even problems in the National Heath Service, highlighted by this newspaper, appear systemic rather than this government’s fault.
Most of all, leaving aside temporary mood-lifters such as the summer heat and the royal baby, the coalition presides over an improving economy. The 0.6% rise in gross domestic product in the second quarter was unexceptional by normal standards but it meant, for once, that the government could claim the economy is on the mend without too much fear of contradiction.
'The Sunday Times' also leads out of the mouth of babes. Prince George of Cambridge is just six days old, but what an eventful life it has been. His picture has appeared in newspapers across the world. He has been presented to the Queen. He is already the owner of a pet crocodile, a gift from Australia’s Northern Territory.
Given the great media interest in young George, it would be no surprise to learn that Nicholas Witchell, the BBC’s royal correspondent, already has a glass pressed against the nursery wall in the hope of catching the baby’s first words. Most children just pick up what they hear most frequently: mama, dadda, Queens Park Rangers nil. But according to Gyles Brandreth we can expect something a little more sophisticated.
On Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday, the broadcaster and royal biographer told how Princess Margaret had visited Lord Olivier just as the great actor’s son had managed to say “Daddy”. What sort of palace will Prince George of Cambridge inhabit during the twenty-first and perhaps even the twenty-second centuries? Of course, our children are likely to live in small if increasingly high-technology flats, particularly in megacities, a little like Jason and his wife on the Isle of Dogs. Even Jason, however, is moving, if not to Sissinghurst Castle itself, at least he can enjoy its extensive gardens.
National Trust - Sissinghurst Castle
Writing in 'FT Weekend', Izabella Kaminska interviews Cern physicist Fabiola Gianotti on hunting for the ‘God particle’: the Italian scientist on how her work on the Higgs boson can be linked to a love of nature and music. Fabiola's flat is dominated by contemporary furniture, arranged throughout an open-plan sitting room and adjoining dining area, but there is an eclectic range of objects on display: a small metal elephant, statues and pots from her grandmother, antique opera glasses, a backgammon set. A large Japanese screen painting is positioned on the wall of the dining room and a number of other Japanese-themed boxes, cabinets and curios are scattered throughout the living space.
The interiors reflect her love of art, literature and music. For while Gianotti may have made a name for herself in physics, her schooling in Italy was focused almost exclusively on the classical humanities. It is a cliché, she says, that scientists are only interested in data and hard facts.
“There are many links between physics and art,” Gianotti says. “For me, physics and nature have very nice foundations from an aesthetic point of view, and at the same time art is based on physics and mathematical principle. If you build a nice building, you have to build it with some criteria because otherwise it collapses.”
An accomplished pianist, Gianotti would not be happy if she could not indulge in her love of music. Back in Italy she used to own a mini grand piano but here in she has had to settle for a modern upright. Playing it, often late at night on a mute setting, is, she says, her favourite pastime.
In Gianotti’s mind musical harmonies are just another manifestation of physics. The musical notes of her favourite composers – Beethoven, Bach and Schubert – are in that sense, she says, just another type of equation. “There is clearly an underlying physics and mathematics. The artist then puts his or her inventiveness, fantasy and artistic feeling on top of this. So there is a very strong connection, which is why many scientists are also excellent painters and musicians,” she adds.
In fact, it is fair to say that Gianotti sees a connection to physics in almost everything around her. A modern triptych painting featuring a collection of chaotic golden squiggles and bands hangs on the wall of her sitting room. She says she bought the piece because it reminded her of string theory.
Meanwhile, the small kitchen, adjacent to the dining room, is more of a lab for biochemical experimentation than the process otherwise known as cooking. “You cannot just put ingredients together in a random way,” she says. “There is a minimum of mathematics. You have to follow a recipe.”
Cern, of course, is a cultural melting pot crammed with some of the world’s brightest and most creative minds. And to some degree the facility, with its gigantic scientific instruments, is just as much Gianotti’s home as anywhere else. “There is nothing more exciting than having a life devoted to fundamental knowledge and to contributing to advance the borders of knowledge,” she says.
On that front she has been impressed by the overwhelming public interest in her work and that of her colleagues – something she suggests may be connected to the economic crisis and a wider shift in what humanity perceives as valuable. “In some sense the values of society are being revalued,” she says. “We are moving to an economy which is more human-aware.” Unsurprisingly, for Gianotti, a scientist who spends her day searching for matter, real value does not necessarily lie in materiality at all. “It’s our knowledge, our soul, our spirit and our intelligence which for me represents value,” she says. “These are things that are native and belong to us, whatever our job or realisation in life, and which nobody can take away.”
Gianotti is continuing to push the bounds of knowledge, reviewing the huge amounts of data the first phase produced while overseeing a proposed upgrade. The quest for new physics, new particles and new phenomena will resume at Cern when the Large Hadron Collider is restarted at a higher energy and sensitivity in 2015.
I propose some toast: to Gorgeous George, Tristan and Isolde! Three cheers from kleines c and the gang (whatever you are drinking)!