Intellectual mastery of nature

A colleague helped me move flats in Liverpool. As he was helping me carry bags of books out to his car he asked the very strange question: "if you buy books, shouldn't you actually read them." He was in particular referring to the two volume set: Intellectual mastery of nature by Jungnickel and McCormmach. These two books are about the history of physics in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in the nineteenth century.

Now that I am living in Germany (until August at least), I felt that it was time to read the books. Last weekend I finished volunme I "The Torch of mathematics 1800-1870).

Although the two books are a scholarly study, the first volume was full of stories about how physics developed in Germany. At first there was very little research, but by persistence of the Profs managed to increase the funding of labs and get more students. The job market was even harder than today. The astronomers were always well funded because of their miltary applications, rather than for producing pretty pictures for the masses, as they do today (bastards).

another old post

So how did i spend my holiday in Portugal? I mostly wandered around the beach area and read books. There would be breaks for food and coffee of course. (Beer in the late evening of course).

The first book I read was "The Ultimate Good luck", by Richard Ford. This has been on my bookshelves for many years. It was a story about a man and his wife trying to get the wife's brother out of a Mexican jail. There was quite a big body count. Smoking a lot of dope clouded and distorted their minds

Next I moved onto reading the hanging garden by by Ian Rankin. I must have read most of the Rebus novels, but I had been saving this story for a special occasion. There was a gang land war and Rebus's daughter was run over.

I picked up a collection of three early Philip K Dick novels, that I not read before. The books were: the man who japed, Dr. Futurity, and Vulcan's hammer. The stories were not as confusing and paranoid as much of Dick's later work. The Dr Futurity novel reminded me a of stories by A E Van Got, because there was a lot of time travel. The book called Vulcan's hammer was the most paranoid of the books, with conspiracies inside conspiracies.

Last week I listened to a radio program about Thomas Paine. This motivated me to actually read my copy of "Rights of Man". This was Paine's book defense of the french revolution (with a bit about the American revolution as well). It was a vigorous argument, and gave the best argument for abolishment of the House of Lords.

Trouble is, with all that reading I didn't fully relax, even after a full week away.

sony book reader

Another old post just uploaded.

Every time I go on holiday I worry about the amount of books I have. What if I have nothing to read? As a result I always end up with a heavy bag. I then panic on day three of the holiday, that I am going to run out, so I try to buy yet more books. I now own a Sony E-reader. I had only read one book with it before, but I really fell in love with it on this holiday.

The books I read were: Dracula by Bram Stoker, The Chemical History of a Candle by Michael Faraday, A princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

It the size of a thin paperback book. It is much easier to read than a laptop screen. I had no problem reading it in sunlight.

It can be used to read PDF and word documents. I read about 20% of a PDF bokk on data intensive computing (4th paradim) that was a tribute to james Grey (the famous SQL guy, who was lost at sea recently). It is not very good at graphs. The paper I downloaded from thbe physics archive was a bit mangled, because most of the figures were trashed.

The e-reader stores the last page that was read. It makes reading a book cool, because it does looks as though you are playing a video game.

My main problem with it is the price of the e-books. There are special on-line stores, but the books always seem expensive. I get most of my books from amazon second hand market sellers. I am sure the price will come down. At the moment I pay a lot more in postage.

On the books I read, I have seen many versions of Dracula, so it was interesting to read the original. I liked the way it was made up of journal entries of the different characters.

The book by Faraday on the candle was a transcription of some lectures he had given. He used an explanation of a candle burnt to introduce some ideas about chemistry and the scientific method. he made it exciting, especially when you think that what he talking about was new knowledge, rather than textbook stuff.

old Portugal post

I found some old blog postings from holiday around March 18th of this year. Enjoy....

Last week I was feeling tired and burnt out. I had not had a proper holiday for over a year, so I decided that it was time for some R and R. After some investigation on the Ryanair web site, I decided to fly to Faro in Portugal from the Dusseldorf-Weeze airport.

I am still slightly confused as to whether the Dusseldorf-Weeze airport is even in Germany. It is not that close to Dusseldorf. It takes over an hour to get from Dusseldorf to Weeze. Still a holiday is about the process of changing routines and not working. My flight was at 7:00 in the morning I so spent the night in a small hotel next to Weeze railway station (this losing any savings from booking via Ryanair)

Weeze is a small town. Somehow it seemed cuter than most German cities i have been to. The use of concrete was more elegant. I arrived in Weeze after 8:00, so most shops were closed. I decided that I should do a quick tour of Weeze, partly for my own education and to provide new fresh information for this blog, and definitely not as a quest to find beer. Eventually I found an open supermarket. As I looked at the alcohol section I though "this is what hell must be like". There were many bottles of beer, but no can or bottle openers. This is very green, but kind of annoying when you don't have a bottle opener back in the hotel. The clerks in the store were surprised to see me shaking my fist in the air and shouting "why me God", after I found plastic bottles of alcohol free beer on the shelves. After further inspection I found real beer in plastic bottles close by, so my holiday could start.

Birthstone

I wanted to spend the weekend learning hypnosis, but instead I spent a lot of time reading Birthstone by DM Thomas. This is a book I have carried around with me for many a long year. First off it was a very well written by someone who knows how to how to float sentences onto the page. It was a strange mix of realism and magic. The book was written from the perspective of a woman, but since the author was a man, the female perspective involved liking a lot of kiny sex.

CKM dreams

I had a dream about the CKM matrix last night. And not in a good way! A good dream about the CKM matrix would be me at some kind or orgy. As I watched the flowing of the flesh, suddenly I would see a pattern emerge and I would understand why the matrix has the form it has.

I am thinking about the guy who discovered the structure of the benzene molecule. He had a dream about a snake. The snake tried to bites its tale, so when he woke up he came up with the idea that the benzene molecule was a ring.

The dream I had was me sitting in meeting, trying to explain my interest in a CKM matrix so that I would get my name on a paper. The other authors on the paper were skeptical, and I was humiliated. That is why it was not a good creative dream. I was just being a careerist. (And no orgy either).

Philip K Dick

I am a big fan of the author of Philip K Dick, so I picked up a copy of "Selected literary and philosophical writings" in a UK bookshop sometime ago. The book was a collections of essays, book reviews, and other nonfiction writings. Dick was a novelist, so his most important work is contained in his stories. It was, however, interesting to read his essays. He was always very interested in philosophy as well as all forms od science fiction.

He had a plot idea for the TV series of "mission impossible", that made me think he would have been a great script writer for the prisoner TV series. He didn't make much money until near the end of his life -- which was a shame.

In 1974 Dick had some kind of religous vision. After that his writing got even weirder and many people thought that he had gone insane. Reading his later essays, I did think that I wanted to see the work of the old Dick. Of course in 1971, when he got burgled, he made up a list of suspects that included the FBI and himself, so sanity was never one of his strong points.

I see that his later journal of crazy writings (The Exegesis) is going to be published next year. But will it help me tame this reality.

letters to a young contrarian

I seem to be going through a phase of reading a lot of Christopher Hitchen books. I have just read his book "letters to a young contrarian". I will show my lack of understanding of his book by saying it is about how to live a radical life. I now understand Hitchens support for the second war in Iraq. He is not one to flinch from unpopular decisions. His prose style is very classical.

I really enjoyed the book. His main flaw is on the cover of the book a cigarette burnt down and his second rate writing buddies: Martin Amis and Salmon Rushdie.

On death

There is double glazing in my front windows. Yesterday a bee got stuck in between the two panes of the double glazing. I don't know how it got there. I was disturbed because the bee was trapped and I would have to watch it try to survive. I watched it search in vain for an exit. I didn't have the tools to open the windows to let it out. What could I do. Was this some kind of sign from God?

Anyway I went back to thinking about glueballs and completely forgot about the bee, until I started writing this post.

nuts

When I told people I was going to live in Germany for a bit they were worried that I would indulge in too much Bier and sausages. I hardly eat Wurst, so one out of two is not bad. What I do eat a lot of is peanuts. I am almost at the addict stage. Well I actually only eat 3 or 4 tins per week. My favourite brand is "Ja", because it is cheap and salty. "Ja" is some supercheap brand in Germany. I also drink a brand of "Ja" tea that is 2 Euro cheaper than other types of tea.

Anyway I will be OK as long as salt is not bad for me.

Mars bar paranoid

I was watching German TV. There was an advert that showed some Germans watching or listening to their national team play in the football world cup final, through the years. The advert claimed that there was always one tradition that Germans held to when they watched the world cup final. Apparently they all liked eating a Marsbar. This seemed a bit unlikely to me. Perhaps this is a subtle dig against the English national football team. The only reason they could be enjoying a mars bar, because that think that England football team will never reach a cup final.

Long German train journey

I was at a meeting in Regensburg yesterday I took a train from Regensburg to Wuppertal today. The journey took about 7 hours. On the plus side there is more room on a German train. However there was a delay of 40 minutes. It seemed just like a journey on an English train, because we stopped for about an hour, because of some problem with the track.

On the train there was a group of attractive young women in matching t-shirts who had a box of things to sell. Although I could have confused the situation, because of my bad German. At some stage a packet of Durex's landed on me, and the women made some kind of funny speech to her friends. Terribly exciting. I am now much more motivated to learn German, so I can understand, and respond better to situations like this.

On the train I finally read "The museum of doubt" by James Meek. This book has been in my pile of unread books for many years. It was a surrealist set of stories. It suited my mood, because I was feeling weary because of only getting 4 hours of sleep.

The Cameron Delusion

On the long train journey from Wuppertal to Regensburg I read "The Cameron Delusion" by Peter Hitchens. Peter is the brother of Christopher Hitchens who is currently trying to get the Pope arrested.

I enjoyed the book, but I don't agree with many of the things that Peter believes. He is very keen on the Monarchy and the house of Lords and fan of this nasty christainity business. He wants to leave the EU and keep nuclear weapons. Perhaps typically he gave up Marxism, and then transferred his affections to the church.

However, I did agree with much of what he says.

Peter really hates the conservatives and Cameron.

spring

Below is an another exciting picture of the view from my window. When I first moved in all the trees had leaves and I felt at one with mother nature. I used to like to watch the wind play with the trees. As winter came, the trees lost all their leaves and I was left with a view of a road and maybe some allotments.

But the cycle of life continues, the picture shows the first sprouting of buds that will give me back my ocean of green leaves. I will be able to dance naked on my balcony again.

a short walk

unday is pretty boring in Germany. Nothing is open. During the long winter I stopped going out of my flat for the entire weekend. Now that spring is here, I thought I might go for a short walk.

There is long road that leads into the building where I live. There is a turn off, that I only see on the rare times I get a Taxi home. Today I thought I would investigate the road. I just found that 50 yards after the turn off the road ended at a large sinister house

I did learn that the painter Hans Von Marées lived close to where I live because there was a sign. If I had know who he was I might have been able to guess that because his second name is close to the street name.

A history of modern Britain

The few people who read this blog must think I am terribly homesick because I keep reading about English history, while I live in Germany. The way things are going however, I will be back in the UK in August to sign on the dole.

I have just finished reading "A history of modern Britain" by Andrew Marr. The book was about the history of the UK from 1945 to about 2007. Great stuff. I did wonder what I was doing when some of the events happened -- probably writing code. Marr doesn't like shopping for some reason. Also I was surprised to see a reference to the Velvet Underground band in the book -- perhaps Marr was trying to be cool.

I actually got the book because I had WH Smiths vouchers, and there wasn't that much bigger choice of books in the Burnley store.

German politics today

I am slowly reading A History of Modern Britain by Andrew Marr. I feel slightly guilty about learning about Britain when I a living in Germany.

However, I have read the book German politics today by Geoffrey Roberts. This books gives a good overview of all aspects of politics in Germany. So now I know a little bit about "the basic law".

I also learnt a new German word: politikverdrossenheit That means alienation from politics. That's me, vote evil Tory or failed new labour.

Bad Science

I was given some WH Smiths tokens for Christmas. One of the books I purchased with the token was "Bad Science" by Ben Goldacre. Goldacre writes a column in the Guardian that debunks the poor and misleading use of scientific arguments. All the examples are in medicine or nutrition, not surprising because Goldacre is a doctor.

The book made me very angry. In particular what happened in South Africa, where people were told to take vitamins rather than anti-AIDS drugs. There is a also a chapter on the MMR hoax, where the Blairs as usual show they are too stupid to understand evidence, but clever enough to exploit their children in an autobiography.

On a similar theme I was happy to see that Simon Singh had won a libel case brought against him by the British Chiropractic Association.

On Suicide

I pulled a bunch of unread books from a crate in my office and took them home. On top of a pile of books was a book by the philosopher David Hume called "On Suicide". The front cover had the quote: "I believe that no man ever threw away life while it was worth keeping". Thanks Penguin, I was unhappy and depressed, so having this book stare at me didn't really cheer me up.

However, when I read this short book, I found that only one short chapter was about suicide. The other chapters were on ethics and aesthetics. The chapter on sucide was all about whether God minds whether a person kills themselves. Frankly not something I would worry about.

Easter in Germany is boring. Most of the shops close and everything is pretty dead. Given that they close the shops on Sunday it is a long weekend.

I usually work for 2 hours on Sunday morning. I then eat and watch the A-team (in German) on the TV. Today, there was no A-team, just some film about some dude called "Moses". This was some kind of sword and sandals film. Of course there are other channels. I could have switched over to watch Black beauty. Grrr. Anyway the A-team came on later, so all was well.

Indestructable Euro notes

This past six months I have washed my hands more than any peroid in my life. This was partly because of all the concerns about bird flu, but also I felt a bit dirty, because I have to handle Euros all day.

There has been a lot of talk recently about the fate of the Euro. This is based on the problems of Greece's debt. However, I am pleased to report I have some evidence that the Euro is stronger than many people think.

I pulled a clean pair of jeans from the wardrobe. I found a 10 Euro note in the pocket. The note had survived being washed. The occasions I have left British money in the pockets of trousers that have been washed, I stare at a crumbled up piece of paper and think of what type of lager I could have got with this money.

Given the strength of Euro I feel much more European. Perhaps I will start wearing a beret. Also perhaps I should start to learn how to usa a bidet. I have been too embarrassed to ask anyone how to use one, but thanks to youtube, I can get all the facts.