BlackHat's Journal: ...majestic past homes of men/ Who care not or gaze with joy

Time and Tide. The hills grow white. The sheep ever wanting, tucked into a nice leg of highlander. As mentioned in the last JE we move our view on to the Jacobites. We're still on the topic of soco-biology [ideas and the progression of thought and the people who play their part] . These quotes today frame the background for some of the people we will touch on in the next few JEs. I noted 'How the Scots invented the modern world',Arthur Herman, and picked it up today. After I had selected these quotes [/:-). I'll post a mini-review if it is interesting after I read it.

Quote(1) :
In the 1727 the Chief of the Clan macdonnell of Glengarry entered the iron smelting business. He leased the forest of Invergarry to a Quaker forgemaster from Barrow in Lancashire, Thomas Rawlinson, and raised the workforce to cut the timber and man the furnace. Rawlinson, who visited regularly, noticed that the clansmen's traditional attire, the long breacon or belted plaid, was hampering their labour. So, consulting the garrison tailor at inverness, he designed a shorter, pleated, knee-length garment, which would soon be known as the felie-beg, the philibeg or small kilt. In this way, the central item of Scotland's supposedly ancient Highland costume was invented by an Englishman. --Norman Davies

In the section quoted above the author also says "In the late nineteenth century, 'invented tradition' was mass-produced all over Europe." In regard to the somewhat created 'Highlander' of the late 18th century revisionists-- 'Ossian' etc. I might suggest, in this case, it's more of an outgrowth or manifestation of the nature of the scottish people themselves. A sturdy people, vastly more adaptable to change than many critics would like. Ruins the joke. It is much like what likely happened when he presented it. All the boys by the firepit looking at what the sou'git came up with and grinning en'mass at the thought of them all wearing them. Quick little thinkers allways with an eye for the main chance.

Quote(2):
Euler wrote to [James] Stirling on 8 June 1736 from St Petersburg. We quote from his letter where he gives his opinion on Stirling's work ...the more I have learned from your excellent articles, which I have seen here and there in your Transactions, concerning the nature of series, a study in which I have indeed expended much effort, the more I have wished to become acquainted with you in order that I could receive more from you yourself and also submit my own deliberations to your judgement. But before I wrote to you, I searched all over with great eagerness for your excellent book on the method of differences, a review of which I had seen a short time before in the Acta Lipsiensis, until I achieved my desire. Now that I have read through it diligently, I am truly astonished at the great abundance of excellent methods contained in such a small volume, by means of which you show how to sum slowly converging series with ease and how to interpolate progressions which are very difficult to deal with. But especially pleasing to me was proposition XIV of part 1 in which you give a method by which series, whose law of progression is not even established, may be summed with great ease using only the relation of the last terms, certainly this method extends very widely and is of the greatest use. In fact the proof of this proposition, which you seem to have deliberately withheld, caused me enormous difficulty, until at last I succeeded with very great pleasure in deriving it from the preceding results, which is the reason why I have not yet been able to examine in detail all the subsequent propositions --The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

It may seem odd to hit on math at this point, but I shall illustrate the links that tie it back to biology in the next JE. Until then.

News:
Tens of thousands of police officers and troops have been deployed across Nigeria to prevent violence ahead of Saturday's nationwide vote.

Zvezda And then you ask for medication/ Who cares for medication/ When you've worn away the cure.

Duh! Jehovah's Witnesses say a court bar on its work was the result of Orthodox Church pressure.

Rattle the cage and the tigers will eat themselves? "To safeguard our nation and our people, it has been decided to get rid of Karuna from our soil," the group said in on a pro-Tiger website.

Chen in again.

A Chinese newspaper regarded as the mouthpiece of official policy, has warned Hong Kong to expect chaos if it persists with demands for democracy. The paper, the China Daily, points to the uncertainty surrounding the recent election in Taiwan. It says that it is an example of the chaos which democracy can bring. While I would agree the shooting is a little out of the !chaos pool the rest is a little too far of a stretch. Nice try.

Afghan fun continues to be more difficult than expected by the 'flower throwing' idealistic views of the USA.

Made to be found and they found them.

Venezuelan ombudsman German Mundarain has said security forces tortured some protesters who were detained during recent anti-government demonstrations. Mr Mundarain, known as the Human Rights Defender, accused troops of a "disproportionate use of force" and the "cruel treatment" of detainees.

This causing you to pull your pretty locks in fury? Just repeat Ann, Ann

Martha Stewart ...as a defendant in another corporate corruption trial [Martha Stewart] was sentenced to a long jail term[Martha Stewart]. Jamie Olis, a tax executive at [Martha Stewart]Texas energy firm [Martha Stewart]Dynegy, is facing 24 years in jail for his part in a complex set of transactions dubbed "Project Alpha". The [Martha Stewart]scheme was designed to disguise a [Martha Stewart!!!!]$300m debt.

The squadron assembled what senses they had and this is the sound that they heard.

Texttoon:
Fumetti : Video capture of Dennis Miller with Clarence Thomas's image on the backscreen. "That's why I should give up this shit!"

Fifteen was chosen because he was dumb...

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

Seven because he was blind
I got the job
because I was so mean,
While somehow appearing so kind...