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An Assortment

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Lernings has been on a bit of a hiatus, as life has gotten in the way of regular postings. But a a few items of note, HT to Scott Alexander:

Wind Map

Elon Musk’s Starship:

Nativity of Christ Cathedral, the largest Christian cathedral in the Middle East:

Bolivian Architecture:

 

Army ants:

These aggressive insects have a dangerous tendency to commit mass suicide just because they’re following the leader.

This bizarre phenomenon — in which ants circle around and around until they all drop dead of exhaustion — is called an “ant mill.” More colloquially, it’s often referred to as an “ant death spiral.” You can see it in action in the video above.
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“This Japanese edition [of Pilgrim’s Progress] was given to Spurgeon by W. J. White with the inscription “Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, with the Christian love of the Translator, Tokyo, Japan, May 5th, 1886″. This page reveals an illustration of Christian, depicted as a samurai, battling Apollyon.”

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From the Spurgeon Library

Meteoroid Meets Moon

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“Craters produced by ancient impacts on the airless Moon have long been a familiar sight. But only since the 1990s have observers began to regularly record and study optical flashes on the lunar surface, likely explosions resulting from impacting meteoroids. Of course, the flashes are difficult to see against a bright, sunlit lunar surface. But during the January 21 total eclipse many imagers serendipitously captured a meteoroid impact flash against the dim red Moon. Found while examining images taken shortly before the total eclipse phase began, the flash is indicated in the inset above, near the Moon’s darkened western limb. Estimates based on the flash duration recorded by the Moon Impact Detection and Analysis System (MIDAS) telescopes in southern Spain indicate the impactor’s mass was about 10 kilograms and created a crater between seven and ten meters in diameter.”

HT: Prufrock

“We found it already in existence, and we shall leave it to exist for ever among those who come after us.”

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“[I]n the final pages Lamprias gets the chance to develop the argument that he has been hinting at all along. In brief, he contends that oracles are always situated in or near caves because from those caves issue “exhalations of the earth”; and that certain people with natural gifts and excellent training of those gifts may be sensitized to the character of those exhalations, and in that way come to some intuitive and not-easily-verbalized awareness of what the world has in store for people. It’s almost a Gaia hypothesis, this idea that the world as a whole acts in certain fixed ways, and those “exhalations” attest to the more general movements of the planet. But these processes are, like all processes in Nature, subject to change over time. As a spring might dry up, or a river after flooding alter its course, so too the conditions for such exhalations might change so that there is nothing for even the most exquisitely sensitive and perfectly trained priestess to respond to.

The first and overwhelming response to Lamprias’s explanation is: Impiety! One of the interlocutors comments that first we rejected the gods in favor of daimons, and now we’re rejecting daimons in favor of a purely natural process. That is, Lamprias’s position is fundamentally disenchanting. To this Lamprias replies that his position is not impious at all, because they had all agreed earlier that in addition to humans and daimons and gods, none of whom create anything, we also have, abobe and beyond all, The God, “the Lord and Father of All,” and He is he first cause of all things, including exhalations of the earth and priestesses.

But whether it’s impious or not, Lamprias’s account is disenchanting, because it removes power from spirits and gods and concentrates them in a single transcendent Monad. His monotheism is a big step towards the religion of Israel, which tells us in the very first words of its Scriptures that the sun and moon and stars are not deities at all, but rather things made by YHWH, who alone merits our worship. Lamprias’s position, like that of the Jews, looks to those accustomed to polytheism as a kind of atheism. And by their standards that’s just what it is.”

-Alan Jacobs

The idea that “the world as a whole acts in certain fixed ways”, that there are clear, distinct laws of nature (in this case the law of power, to “to rule whatever one can”) that precede or transcend the gods made me think of a scene we just read in the TCA book club.

A few hundred years earlier, Thucydides, in his History of the Peloponnesian War, reproduces a dialogue (self-consciously dramatized) between the Athenians and the Melians. The Athenians had invaded the neutral island of Melos and demanded surrender or death. The Melians appeal to hope, fate, the gods, and eventually the aid of their relatives the Spartans:

“Melians: Yet we know that in war fortune sometimes makes the odds more level than could be expected from the difference in numbers of the two sides. And if we surrender, then all our hope is lost at once, whereas, so long as we remain in action, there is still a hope that we may yet stand upright.

Athenians: Hope, that comforter in danger! If one already has solid advantage to fall back upon, one can indulge in hope. It may do harm, but will not destroy one. But hope is an expensive commodity, and those who are risking their all on one cast find out what it means only when they are already ruined; it never fails them in the period when such a knowledge would enable them to take precautions. Do not let this happen to you, you who are weak and whose fate depends on a single movement of the scale. And do not be like those people who, as so commonly happens, miss the chance of saving themselves in a human and practical way, and, when every clear and distinct hope has left them in their adversity, turn to what is blind and vague, to prophecies and oracles and such things which by encouraging hope lead men to ruin. 

Melians: It is difficult, and you may be sure that we know it, for us to oppose your power and fortune, unless the terms be equal. Nevertheless we trust that the gods will give us fortune as good as yours, because we are standing for what is right against what is wrong; and as for what we lack in power, we trust that it will be made up for by our alliance with the Spartans, who are bound, if for no other reason, then for honor’s sake, and because we are their kinsmen, to come to our help. Our confidence, therefore, is not so entirely irrational as you may think.

Athenians: So far as the favor of the gods is concerned, we think we have as much right to that as you have. Our aims and our actions are perfectly consistent with the beliefs men hold about the gods and with the principles which govern their own conduct. Our opinion of the gods and our knowledge of men lead us to conclude that it is a general and necessary law of nature to rule whatever one can. This is not a law that we made ourselves, nor were we the first to act upon it when it was made. We found it already in existence, and we shall leave it to exist for ever among those who come after us. We are merely acting in accordance with it, and we know that you or anyone else with the same power as ours would be acting in precisely the same way. “

 

 

I Suppose So

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“I’ve been hearing things about that pig,” said Dr. Dorian, opening his eyes. “They say he’s quite a pig.”

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“Have you heard about the words that appeared in the spider’s web?” asked Mrs. Arable nervously.

“Yes,” replied the doctor.

“Well, do you understand it?” asked Mrs. Arable.

“Understand what?”

“Do you understand how there could be any writing in a spider’s web?”

“Oh, no,” said Dr. Dorian. “I don’t understand it. But for that matter I don’t understand how a spider learned to spin a web in the first place. When the words appeared, everyone said they were a miracle. But nobody pointed out that the web itself is a miracle.”

“What’s miraculous about a spider’s web?” said Mrs. Arable. “I don’t see why you say a web is a miracle–it’s just a web.”

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“Ever try to spin one?” asked Dr. Dorian.

Mrs. Arable shifted uneasily in her chair. “No,” she replied. “But I can crochet a doily and I can knit a sock.”

“Sure,” said the doctor. “But somebody taught you, didn’t they?”

“My mother taught me.”

“Well, who taught the spider? A young spider knows how to spin a web without any instructions from anybody. Don’t you regard that as a miracle?”

“I suppose so,” said Mrs. Arable. “I never looked at it that way before. Still, I don’t understand how those words got into the web. I don’t understand it, and I don’t like what I can’t understand.”

“None of us do,” said Dr. Dorian, sighing. “I’m a doctor. Doctors are supposed to understand everything. But I don’t understand everything, I don’t intend to let it worry me.”

Mrs. Arable fidgeted. “Fern says the animals talk to each other. Dr. Dorian, do you believe animals talk?”

“I never heard one say anything,” he replied. “But that proves nothing. It is quite possible that an animal has spoken civilly to me and that I didn’t catch the remark because I wasn’t paying attention. Children pay better attention than grownups. If Fern says that the animals in Zuckerman’s barn talk, I’m quite ready to believe her. Perhaps if people talked less, animals would talk more. People are incessant talkers–I can give you my word on that.”

Form, Content, Words, Images

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I remember seeing these a few years ago and love them.

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From a 1993 Russian edition. Guessing the scene depicted is part of the fun!

Why are they distinctive?

-Tolkien’s prose is unusually descriptive and visually rich, which means the leap from word to image is shorter than average. It’s part of the reason why the movies were successful — Peter Jackson had less work to do in convincing the viewer of what hobbits, wizards, elves, etc. actually look like. It’s also the reason most LOTR art is highly realistic rather than stylized, looks like Thomas Kincaid, and comes across as super dorky and derivative.

-the flatness of the icons cuts against this, plus it evokes the mythological nature of the stories themselves.

Not all of the Russian illustrations are in the same vein, though. A few are just weird and funky and kind of haunting.

Here are Tolkien’s personal designs for the book covers:

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the-two-towers-book-cover-by-jrr-tolkien_1-480

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More info here

Good and Evil

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In 1 Samuel 24-26, after David has fled into the wilderness with his guerrilla band, a curious scene occurs. Twice, within the span of three chapters, David has the opportunity to kill Saul, his pursuer. Twice, David:

-catches Saul unawares (the first time in a cave while Saul relieves himself, the second raiding Saul’s camp while he sleeps)

-refuses to “put out his hand against the Lord’s anointed”.

-is commended for his righteousness by Saul, who sees his own mistake in pursuing David (spoiler alert: the contrition doesn’t last long).

Saul in chapter 24:

“He said to David, “You are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. And you have declared this day how you have dealt well with me, in that you did not kill me when the Lord put me into your hands. For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safe? So may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day.”

And in chapter 26

“Then Saul said, “I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Behold, I have acted foolishly, and have made a great mistake.” And David answered and said, “Here is the spear, O king! Let one of the young men come over and take it. The Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness, for the Lord gave you into my hand today, and I would not put out my hand against the Lord‘s anointed. Behold, as your life was precious this day in my sight, so may my life be precious in the sight of the Lord, and may he deliver me out of all tribulation.””

Saul is repaying evil for good against his righteous servant; David is repaying good for evil to the wicked king. Why? Because David is obeying a higher order, knowing that, as he will later sing (2 Samuel 22): “With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless; with the purified you deal purely, and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.”

So here we see David showing mercy, letting the Lord fight his battles, trusting in his future vindication and victory, i.e. doing everything Israel and her king is supposed to do (and that Saul manifestly is not doing).

But sandwiched in between these two passages is a curious reversal: a glimpse of David the vengeful, the quick-tempered, the “worker of his own salvation”. While traveling in Carmel, David is offended by the lack of hospitality shown by a man named Nabal. Nabal, described as “very rich”, “harsh, and badly behaved”, is a new Saul figure. David’s men had guarded Nabal’s shepherds during a sheep-shearing festival and naturally expected repayment. But, no repayment from the new Saul, who of course repays evil for good.

David’s reaction?

“Now David had said, “Surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him, and he has returned me evil for good. God do so to the enemies of David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.””

David’s hand is stayed by Nabal’s wife Abigail (“discerning and beautiful”), who secretly comes to David, both flattering and restraining him,  and gently reminding him that the Lord’s promise means nothing if he has “cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause or for my lord working salvation himself.”

What’s striking about this? In the midst of the story of David’s ascension, in between displays of restraint, his rashness and near failure is highlighted. The near-miss foreshadows the future disastrous sin with Bathsheba, a minor chord which will grow into a dominant theme. We also have a subtle hint that without Abigail’s intervention, David would have become another Saul and the kingdom would have passed him by.  From covenant to covenant to covenant to covenant: it’s grace all the way through.