Shakespear's Anniversary.

These photos were taken at the Shakespear Museum on his 400th anniversary.

The clouds methought would open and show riches ready to drop upon me.

I cried to dream again.

The power of apology

One example, serial burglar Callum Greenaway faced 5 years jail for stealing £200K worth of goods.
He wrote dozens of letters of apology to his victims, he then had his sentence halved.
In one he said "There was nothing personal - I didn't target you or your family. I hope this letter gives you closure."
The power of words. One of the most powerful words; sorry. But is it used to mean "full of sorrow" or as as leverage? 

Information.

The reader may well think I need something more important to worry about, but I am more than annoyed by the press and other media reporting information as the truth, when in many cases there is nothing to substantiate this information as the truth.

The question is, how much information is fact? The next question is, which information can we pick out as being trustworthy? The answer to the second question must be that there is a large percentage that we cannot be sure of trusting, unless we care to research everything we are fed, which we could never have time to do.

The problem has been excacerbated by the internet, (especially with the increasing popularity of blogs, twitters etc.) After all, anyone can post any information on the internet as fact, and this can easily be spread to other sites. A researcher, then, in an attempt to find information on an area of specialised interest, could use a small 'byte' of information that he/she believes is from a reliable source. Therefore the intention to mislead is not always present, but mislead we are.

Or maybe people in modern times have come to assume that most of what they are fed is just entertainment value, and may/may not be true. Does anyone have any opinions on this? It is a shame if we have become blase about the truth. Although these 'factoids' are not always of great importance, they must surely, by increments, mis-shape our view of the world, if they are to be believed.

An example: A reputable Sunday newspaper reported a list of historical coincidences, including the following-

On 5th Dec 1660, a ship sank in the Strait of Dover. The only survivor was noted to be Hugh Williams. On 5th Dec 1767, another ship sank in the same waters, 127 lost their lives, and the only survivor was Hugh Williams. On August 8th 1820, a picnic boat capsized on the Thames. There was one survivor. Hugh Williams. And on July10th 1940, a British trawler was destroyed by a German mine. Only 2 men survived, one man and his nephew - both were called Hugh Williams.

This is a great story. It's got the wow factor. In days before the internet, not so long ago, we could go on our merry way thinking about this great coincidence and maybe re-telling it at dinner parties!? But the internet confuses us more. A cultural historion might say that the internet gave information to the masses for the first time, but what do we have? Let me point out a few 'facts' about the above example.

Look it up. Our first instinct? If we do, we find that most references say the 1st three examples happened at the Menai Straits. A long way away from Dover. The first example could have been 1664. But some examples say all the 1st 3 happened on Dec 5th. Then again, some don't. Which example did the newspaper use? There are many different variations of what is toted as a 'fact.'

But wait, what happened at the Thames? Some say all 3 happened at the Menai Straits. If so, it's not so much a coincidence, as there were hundreds of shipwrecks in the 16th-19th centuries, just like car crashes of today, and Hugh Williams, well, just imagine the English equivalent of John Smith, it was bound to happen!

There is a Hugh Williams who heard of this when he was 17 and is still trying to verify the validity of the story. He hasn't so far. The story is most probably a myth, but imagine if it was YOUR name! would you like to know if it's true?

The internet, then, has only served, in this case, to cast more doubt on a 'factoid' that might, or might not, have began on the internet. There are records to be observed in naval historical papers etc. that someone, someday, might piece together. In the meantime, the papers continue to 'tell'us things. (By the way, there were half a dozen similar 'factoids' on the same page. Multiply this by all the pages in all the papers on every day.. a lot of misinformation)

PS, the term 'factoid' was coined by Norman Mailer when researching information about Marylin Monroes death. So there!

Libraries gave us power

As Nicky Wire of the Manics says, its hard not to feel despondent about the plight of British libraries.

Far from being outmoded, the usage of libraries actually went up in the last decade. I always felt that the death of the library would be the beginning of the end for old-fashioned values. Of course they cost money, but surely they bring good value as they are available as a source of knowledge, and inspiration, to everyone, with nothing expected in return. Closures will hit the most poorest, once again.

Nicky Wire -So often absolutely ordinary in appearance, a good library should offer escape routes down the most extraordinary avenues, pathways into different worlds from the ones you've left outside. Ridding our villages, towns and cities of libraries, which are essential in shaping a nation's consciousness, seems like a direct attack on the soul of a country.

(Seems like announcements like this always happen after a government get in power, not mentioned when they are asking for votes.)

Religion & language

Here begins a rather long blog about a train of thought, which began when I looked up on the internet the meaning of "Mithras."

Mithras is an ancient Persian religion, which was adopted by the Romans, particularly Roman soldiers. There were many mithraea, or mithric temples, stretching from Britain to Persia, the ruins of which can be found in London & Colchester among other examples. To summarise, (although details can obviously be looked up,) Mithra, one of many Persian gods, was depicted by the Romans as a figure slaying a bull, in many statues and paintings, as a good over evil symbol. The Romans that practised Mithras kept their religion as an exclusively male sect, and were very secretive, so few written details survive. (Roman emperors were also worshiped as gods at one time, and although historians claim Mithras was very popular, it was also very 'underground,' temples actually being built under ground, with severe initiation ceremonies to test the devotion of members.)

Interestingly, some scholars of Mithraism have put forward the theory that the similarities between Mithra, the god, and the life of Jesus have so many parallels as to indicate that the New Testament borrowed many ideas from the religion of Mithras. Namely:

Mithra was born on Dec 25th, of a virgin.

Mithra had 12 followers.

Mithra was buried in a tomb and after 3 days was resurrected.

Mithra performed miracles.

His resurrection was celebrated every year.

His sacred day was Sunday.

So, of course, if this is true, it has enormous implications, as it discredits the Bible completely. But no, not so simple as that. I then realised that some historians discredit this claim, although naturally, these are Christians, working in the field of Apologetics. (This is presenting a rational argument for the Christian faith. Forgive me if I am stating the obvious, but the term is new me.)

Their main agument seems to be that nearly all the evidence comes from a time after the writing of the New Testament. I emphasise nearly as it seems to me that its not good enough; if any evidence comes before, then that is sufficient evidence.

They also argue that some attributes are common to many religions, as in performing miracles, which is a valid point. Also, that Dec 25th was not mentioned in the New Testament, but was suggested by the church long after, and was anyway used by many sacred festivities as it was at the time recognised as the winter solctice.

There is far too much for and against information to discuss here. There are many conferences and books on the subject, you could say an industry! But how the two 'sides' argue the case can be analysed:

Acharya, a writer attempting to prove the virgin birth of Mithra, many years BC, says he was born of Aditi, the 'mother of the gods' or the 'inviolable or virgin dawn.' Critics say this is applying terminology illicitly, dawn=virgin. The story is that Mithra was born from a rock, so Acharya says Mithra was born of 'Prima Materia, or Primordial Matter, which could be considered First Mother, Virgin Matter, Virgin Mother, etc.' This is flimsy, using the latin Mater, mother, to connect the words matter and mother, and connecting the words first and virgin, to try to prove her case.

Also, of course, there is the problem of translation of ancient language, and it has been acknowledged that no one person has the mastery of linguistics, history, anthropology, archaeology etc. that is needed to decypher this problem. It also seems there are ulterior motives for each 'side' to propogate their beliefs.

Another word on Apologetics. The Bible states that some people of the Old Testament lived for hundreds of years, ie Noah lived for 950 years. The only answer I can find from the Apologists is that the Earth was a very different, ie healthier, place, before the flood, or that there was an envelope of water around the Earth that protected it. Not that I am making any claims about the scriptures here! Just that it is all food for thought.

Finally, and somewhat irrelevantly, these are pictures from some plaques beside the Roman wall at Noble St, London.

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My Story

There is an interesting website linked to the BBC program My Story.

Its www.bbc.co.uk/my-story and it has hundreds of submissions of true stories, which are indexed by theme. As some are quite tragic, it seems dubious to me to make a competition out of these stories. (The prize for the best was a publishing contract.) Some are stranger than fiction!

Censorship.

Donald McGill was the prolific cartoonist that gave Britain most of the 'saucy postcards' that go on sale in our beach resorts. Although a staid Victorian type character, he was master of the double entendre, which, coupled with his drawings, gave us the funny cartoons we all know and love. He created over 12,000 designs, but although these sold in excess of 200 million, he only gained 3 guineas each.

The most bizarre use of the 1857 Obscene Publications Act must be the prosecution of Donald McGill and Constance Publications. In 1954 the government saw fit to put McGill, then an 80 year old man, to trial. He was advised to plead guilty to escape jail and was fined. This lead to many of his printed designs being destroyed.

Reading between the lines, it seems to me that he was encouraged to make his designs more 'bawdy' as it was these that sold better, and his style can be seen to change from his earlier to later work. But more interestingly, his images were quite innocent, as were his captions. A jump in imagination had to be made to make the whole even remotely obscene. So in fact he was charged for projecting a thought, or even a potential thought, into the viewers mind.

I wonder if this is the one and only case where this has happened?

George Orwell wrote an essay about McGill in 1941. Sixteen years later, Big Brother had truly arrived.

Later, McGill parodied his own prosecution, as can be seen here.

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Predictions

Marcus Du Sautoy is a Professor of Maths at Oxford University, and holds the Professorship for the Public Understanding of Science. He is running a competition; predict the outcome of the Premiership at the end of next season and you win £10,000. Free to enter. Sounds quite possible, doesn't it? But wait, the odds, if the teams could be considered as purely random, are over 2 sextillion to one. This is more likely than picking one second out of the entire lifespan of the universe.

Of course it is not entirely random, ie no-one expects Chelsea to come bottom of the table. So this all has connotations. What is possible in science is not actually possible in 'real' life. Also, I think, there are psychological points of interest here. If your average football expert was given 1000 goes at getting the Premiership right, he would be pretty confident at doing so. But the Professor says that even if 100,000 fans have a go, the money will probably be safe.

So, this means, I think you will agree, that humans have an inflated belief of how well they 'know' something. This is what keeps bookies in business. This could probably be transferred to all walks of life, ie how well we think we can judge people for example. Or maybe its subjective, ie some people would have a lower 'confidence rating' and just wouldn't have a go. But I think everyone has a belief that they know about some things, and that this belief distorts their perception of how valid that knowledge is. Mind you, if I win the 10 grand I will end up eating my words!

A Spaniard In The Works

Here is a link to a website that prints all of John Lennon's second book, A Spaniard In The Works, in which he writes nonsensical prose and poetry with clever use of puns. Written in 1965. At the same time as being a Beatle? I don't know how he did it.

http://beatlesnumber9.com/spaniard.html

Weather Poetry

I went to a poetry group, the subject of the day being 'weather poetry.' The weather may affect our moods, or our moods may be conveyed by reference to the weather. I thought these poems were relevant, by Robert Graves:

MIST

Fire and Deluge, rival pretenders
To ruling the world's end: these cannot daunt us
Whom flames will never singe, nor floods drown,
While we stand guard against their murderous child
Mist, that slily catches against love's throat,
Shrouding the clear sun and clean waters
Of all green gardens everywhere-
The twitching mouths likewise and furtive eyes
Of those who speak us fair.

GOLD CLOUD

Your gold cloud, towering far above me,
From which I climb from darkness into sleep
Has the warmth of sun, rain's morning freshness
And a scent either of wood-smoke or jasmine;
Nor is the ascent steep.

Our creature, time, bends readily as willow;
We plan our own births, that at least we know,
Whether in the lovely moment of deat
Or when we first meet, here in Paradise,
As now, so years ago.