Saturday 27 September 2014

Men of Yore: Robert Hooke

This is another in a series of posts about men from history who have either achieved great things in one form or another by pushing boundaries: either in themselves or in society or science or exploration of some form. Boundary pushing and growth is what men do, it's their nature: to grow and push outwards. We, as men, are the frontiers men, the first to discover/uncover new territory, in a metaphysical sense (i.e. including both material and the immaterial) that is later colonised and 'civilised' by the rest of humanity.



An artists impression of Robert Hooke.  (There is no known image of him.)


The British natural philosopher, architect and polymath, Robert Hooke is perhaps the most neglected natural philosophers of all time despite the significant role he played in the scientific revolution. His prominent contributions include: the iris diaphragm in cameras, the universal joint used in motor vehicles, the balance wheel in a watch, the origination of the word ‘cell’ in biology, he was Surveyor of the City of London after the Great Fire of 1666, architect, experimenter, worked in astronomy – yet is acknowledged mostly for Hooke’s Law.

His name is somewhat obscure today, due in part to the hostility of his well-known and dominant colleague, Sir Isaac Newton.


Early Life:
Robert was born on the 18th of July 1635 at Freshwater, in the Isle of Wight, England. He was the last of the four children of John Hooke and Mirena Blazer. His father was the minister of the Church of England. Most of his early life, Robert had a poor health due to which he received most of his early education at home from his father, who was also in charge of a local school. As a youth, Robert had a natural curiosity in his surroundings and interest in mechanical works and drawing that he pursued in various ways all through his life.

At the age of thirteen young Hooke was able to enter Westminster School, and from there went to Oxford, where some of the finest scientists in England were working at the time. There he built a good impression with his skills at designing experiments and building equipment. He was appointed as a chemical assistant to Dr Thomas Willis and later met the natural philosopher Robert Boyle, and gained a position as his assistant from about 1655 to 1662.


Contributions and Achievements:
During November 1661 he was appointed curator of experiments to the Royal Society after a proposition made by Sir Robert Murray. In 1664 Sir John Cutler settled an annual gratuity of fifty pounds on the Society for mechanical lectureship and in the following year Robert was nominated professor of geometry in Gresham College, where he later resided. After the Great Fire of 1666 he constructed a model for the rebuilding of the city, which was highly approved, although the design of Sir Christopher Wren was preferred.

Hooke’s contribution to biology is mainly his book Micrographia which was published in 1665. He developed the compound microscope and illumination system (one of the best such microscopes of his time) and used it in his demonstrations at the Royal Society’s meetings. Using it he also observed organisms as varied as insects, sponges, bryozoans, foraminifera, and bird feathers. This was a best-seller during his time.

His other contributions include: the law of elasticity, attracting principle of gravity, he resolved the problem of the measurement of the distance to a star, it was him who actually created the air pump on which Boyle’s experiments could be conducted, etc.


Death:
This inspirational founder of modern science passed away on March 3, 1703 in London, England.

Source: http://www.famousscientists.org/robert-hooke/

An example of a polymath, whose interests ranged from urban planning (re-designing a whole capital city no less!), to astronomy, to micro-biology.  Some mens lives tend towards focussing on one particular field while other men (like Robert Hooke) take interest in many fields.  No one particular path is the 'right way' and is thus superior to the other.  Both paths are equally valid and should be equally valued.  Which means that the men who choose one path instead of the other should also be valued: the high-IQ, high-earning polymath working in the university who studies many things is equally as valuable as the moderate-IQ, moderate-earning paper-make who repetitively performs the same task over and over again (and supplies the scientist with the paper he needs to do his will).  Both perform a taks that is beneficial to themselves and to the other man.


[End.]

Saturday 20 September 2014

Men of Yore: Jean Piaget

This is another in a series of posts about men from history who have either achieved great things in one form or another by pushing boundaries: either in themselves or in society or science or exploration of some form. Boundary pushing and growth is what men do, it's their nature: to grow and push outwards. We, as men, are the frontiers men, the first to discover/uncover new territory, in a metaphysical sense (i.e. including both material and the immaterial) that is later colonised and 'civilised' by the rest of humanity.

Jean Piaget


Jean Piaget was born on August 9, 1896, in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Over the course of his career in child psychology, he identified four stages of mental development, called “schema.” He also developed new fields of scientific study, including cognitive theory and developmental psychology. Piaget received the Erasmus Prize in 1972 and the Balzan Prize in 1978. He died on September 16, 1980, in Geneva, Switzerland.  

Early Life
Biologist and psychologist Jean Piaget was born on August 9, 1896, in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He was his parents’ first child. Piaget’s mother, Rebecca Jackson, attributed his intense early interest in the sciences to his own neurotic tendencies. Yet Piaget’s father, a medieval literature professor named Arthur, modeled a passionate dedication to his studies—a trait that Jean Piaget began to emulate from an early age. At just 10 years old, Piaget’s fascination with mollusks drew him to the local museum of natural history, where he stared at specimens for hours on end. When he was 11 and attending Neuchâtel Latin High School, Piaget wrote a short scientific paper on the albino sparrow. By the time he was a teen, his papers on mollusks were being widely published. Piaget’s readers were unaware of his age and considered him an expert on the topic.

After high school, Piaget went on to study zoology at the University of Neuchâtel, receiving his Ph.D. in the natural sciences in 1918. In 1918, Piaget spent a semester studying psychology under Carl Jung and Paul Eugen Bleuler at the University of Zürich, where Piaget developed a deeper interest in psychoanalysis. Over the course of the next year, he studied abnormal psychology at the Sorbonne in Paris.
 
Psychological Studies
In 1920, working in collaboration with Théodore Simon at the Alfred Binet Laboratory in Paris, Piaget evaluated the results of standardized reasoning tests that Simon had designed. The tests were meant to measure child intelligence and draw connections between a child’s age and the nature of his errors. For Piaget it raised new questions about the way that children learn. Piaget ultimately decided that the test was too rigid. In a revised version, he allowed children to explain the logic of their "incorrect" answers. In reading the children’s explanations, he realized that children’s power of reasoning was not flawed after all. In areas where children lacked life experience as a point of reference, they logically used their imagination to compensate. He additionally concluded that factual knowledge should not be equated with intelligence or understanding.

Over the course of his six-decade career in child psychology, Piaget also identified four stages of mental development, called Schema. The first is the "sensorimotor stage," which involves learning through motor actions, and takes place when children are 0–2 years old. During the "preoperation stage," children aged 3–7 develop intelligence by using their natural intuition. During the "concrete operational stage," children 8–11 develop cognitively through the use of logic that is based on concrete evidence. "Formal operations," the fourth and final stage, involves 12-to-15-year-olds forming the ability to think abstractly. Piaget called his collective theories on child development "Piaget’s Genetic Epistemology."
 
Death and Legacy
Jean Piaget died of unknown causes on September 16, 1980, in Geneva, Switzerland. He was 84 years old. His body rests at the Cimetière des Plainpalais.

Piaget is responsible for developing entirely new fields of scientific study, including cognitive theory and developmental psychology. The recipient of the prestigious Erasmus (1972) and Balzan (1978) prizes, he summed up his passion for the ongoing pursuit of scientific knowledge with these words: "The current state of knowledge is a moment in history, changing just as rapidly as the state of knowledge in the past has ever changed and, in many instances, more rapidly."

Source: http://www.biography.com/#!/people/jean-piaget-9439915#synopsis

Empathising with children is something that I think we can all agree is, on the whole, a good thing as it allows us to make there lives on planet Earth more pleasant than they otherwise might be.  If we didn't empathise with them and see the world from their perspective then we would see them as more like other material possessions.  Material possessions which could either be good, like economic resources (e.g. child labour) or pets (e.g. child-pageants), or material possessions which could be bad inconvenient (e.g. abortions) or an annoyance (e.g. corporal punishment).  None of these perspectives are human/humane ones.

Thankfully though we see, or are beginning to see, children as more than material possessions and as (relatively) autonomous human beings who have thoughts and feelings of their own.  Jean Piaget was one of the men who was responsible for this change in perspective, to viewing children in a more positive light and treating them as human beings rather than possessions who can be filled with data, or dressed up and put on a stage, or whatever.


[End.]

Monday 15 September 2014

Alternative Lyrics to Well Known Songs 30 - Bream

(Based on the song 'Dream' by the Everly Brothers)

As promised last week, here's a light-hearted post for you.  It's an alternative lyrics post based on a sedate hobby which is popular among many men: fishing.


Play the music video above and sing along with the alternative lyrics provided below.


# Bream # 
Brea-ea-ea-ea-eam
Bream, bream, bream, brea-ea-ea-ea-eam
bream, bream, bream how I want you
in my pond's where I want you
on my hook and fishing net too
All I want to catch is brea-ea-ea-ea-eam
Bream, bream, bream's what I need to
to bite my fly, I really want to
to feel the bite and reel you right in.
All I want to catch is Brea-ea-ea-ea-eam.

I want you on my line
Biting on my fly.
Sunday,
afternoon.
All this means is,
oh yes,
I'm fishin' my Sunday's away.

I need you so
no fish compares to you oh no.
And that is why
Whenever I want fish, all I strive to catch
is Brea-ea-ea-ea-eam.
Bream, bream, bream, brea-ea-ea-ea-eam

I want you on my line
Biting on my fly.
Sunday,
afternoon.
All this means is,
oh yes,
I'm fishin' my Sunday's away.

I need you so
no fish compares to you oh no.
And that is why
Whenever I want fish, all I strive to catch
is Brea-ea-ea-ea-eam.
Bream, bream, bream, brea-ea-ea-ea-eam
[Fade out.]


[End of Lyrics.]

Wednesday 10 September 2014

Alternative Lyrics to Well Known Songs 29 - There are People in Ukraine

(based on the song 'Hanging on a Rope' by Rocket from the Crypt)
(Foreword: I'm not totally happy with the lyrics in this one, they're a tad rough 'n' ready, and are lacking in something, but I can't quite pin it down.  I'll post them anyway and update them if some inspiration comes to me at a later date.)

As I'm sure you're all aware by now media outlets are mouthpieces of the Empires they are employed by.  In the case of the West we have media outlets which are employed by an Empire which is misandric, anti-Russian, anti-white, pro-Israel, pro-multiculturalism and so on.  What this means, amongst other things, is that people (human beings like thee and me) presented in news programmes are treated as little more than political pawns used to further the Empire's agenda.  Whether it's Cliff Richard being used to portray old White men as paedophiles, or Jessica Ennis being used to portay mixed-race women as super-human, or the murder of Alexander Litvinenko being used to portray Russia as evil, one tactic is always the same: using people as tools to further the Empire's agenda.  In the process the people being used are de-humanized and treated as nothing more than 'things'.  The media doesn't engage with them on a human level, nor does it want you to engage with them on a human level.  This tactic is evident in the Summer of 2014 in the reporting of the Ukrainian Civil War, which is used by Western media as a vehicle to peddle the Wests hatred of Russia and it's particular hatred of Putin.  The plight of the Ukrainian people is of no consequence to the media in the West.  The Ukrainian people are used like children in a custody battle between two bitter divorcees who are merely using the children to get back at their partner for some minor offence.  It's disgusting, really disgusting.

A corrupt media de-humanizing people and using them to further their own Imperialistic, anti-human agenda, that about sums it up.  It's pretty depressing really.  Sorry there's no positive vibe to end on.  I'll make sure to have a lighter post next week.

Play the song in the video above and sing along with the alternative lyrics given below.


# There are People in Ukraine # You switch on the TV and you watch the news and you hear what they do say:
The presenter speaks about Ukraine and how it's the fault of Vlad Putin.

(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)
Ukraine.
(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)
Ukraine.
(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)
Ukraine.
(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)
Ukraine.
(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)
(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)
(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)

It's the same old story that the mainstream media tries to peddle to you again:
About the 'Evil Putin' is about to enlargen the scarey 'Russian Empire'.
The mainstream media totally forgets about the people of the Ukraine.
About the bombs, and the shells and the razed tower blocks of people like you and me.

(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)
Ukraine.
(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)
Ukraine.
(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)
Ukraine.
(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)
Ukraine.
(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)
Ukraine.
(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)
Ukraine.
(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)
Ukraine.
(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)
(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)

Here me now as I say,
the media is not interested in people.
All it's interested in,
is spewing it's filthy propaganda.

No!
No!
No!
Please No!

(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)
Ukraine.
(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)
Ukraine.
(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)
Ukraine.
(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)
Ukraine.
(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)
Ukraine.
(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)
Ukraine.
(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)
Ukraine.
(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)
(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)
(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)
(in Ukraine, in Ukraine, there are people in Ukraine.)

[End of lyrics.]

Friday 5 September 2014

Men of Yore: John Fitch

This is another in a series of posts about men from history who have either achieved great things in one form or another by pushing boundaries: either in themselves or in society or science or exploration of some form. Boundary pushing and growth is what men do, it's their nature: to grow and push outwards. We, as men, are the frontiers men, the first to discover/uncover new territory, in a metaphysical sense (i.e. including both material and the immaterial) that is later colonised and 'civilised' by the rest of humanity.

John Fitch
 

John Fitch; (1743-1798), American inventor, who designed and built the first operable steamboat. He was born in East Windsor, Conn., on Jan. 21, 1743, the younger son of a farmer. Fitch left school at the age of eight, proved to be physically unfit for farm work, and after unsatisfactory apprenticeships to two clockmakers, set up a brass shop. He failed in this business, and after serving in the Revolutionary War (during which he had charge of a gun factory), he invested his money with little success in the Northwest Territory. 
In 1785, Fitch turned his attention to a steamcoach project and later in the same year tried vainly to get congressional support for operating steamboats on the Mississippi River. During 1786 and 1787 he secured 14-year steamboat monopolies, first in New Jersey and then in Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Helped by Henry Voight, a clockmaker, he built a boat with rows of side paddles that were powered by a steam engine, and demonstrated it at Philadelphia before members of the Constitutional Convention in 1787. It moved at a speed of about 4 miles (6.4 km) per hour. 
In 1790, Fitch built a larger boat with a more powerful steam engine and a stern paddle wheel. This steamboat traveled at a speed of 6 miles (9.6 km) per hour in regular service on the Delaware River. Fitch obtained a patent for the steamboat in 1791, but the passenger and freight business was insufficient for commercial success. 
In 1793, Fitch went to France, and although he had a French patent, he was unable to secure backing for his ideas. After his return to the United States he exhibited a small steamboat with a screw propeller, for which he failed to get backing. Lacking the ability to make his inventions pay, he died disappointed and destitute in Bardstown, Ky., on July 2, 1798. 
Source: http://www.rugusavay.com/john-fitch-biography-and-inventions 
 
Steam Locomotive
While living in Kentucky, Fitch continued to work on steam engine ideas. He built two models, one of which was lost in a fire in Bardstown. The other was found in the attic of his daughter's house in Ohio in 1849. The model still exists at the Ohio Historical Society Museum in Columbus.[7] In the 1950s, experts from the Smithsonian Museum examined it and concluded that it was "the prototype of a practical land-operating steam engine," meant to operate on tracks – in other words, a steam locomotive.[8]
In 1802, the Englishman Richard Trevithick invented a full-size steam locomotive that, in 1804, hauled the world's first locomotive-hauled railway train, and within a short time the British invention led to the development of actual railways. Americans began importing English locomotives and copying them.[9] 
Legacy
His legal dispute over state monopoly rights with fellow steamboat inventor James Rumsey and others helped bring about the enactment of the first Patent Act of 1790. He is mentioned in the personal letters of several historical figures including George Washington,[10] Benjamin Franklin,[11] Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison.[12] 
 
 
John Fitch, proving that well known old saying: 'If first you don't succeed, then try, try, try something else...'.  He was unsuccessful as a farmer, unsuccessful as a clockmaker, unsuccessfully working in a brass shop, and then unsuccessful as an investor.  Eventually, aged 42, he stopped copying/imitating other peoples devices/occupations and tried inventing and making his own contraptions, and became successful at it.  Some people (innovators, inventors and that kind of ilk) are better suited to making what they want to make rather than making what other people want.  In the case of John Fitch he excerised his creative spark, his Will, in the form of steam engine powered vehicles: the steam-powered boat and the steam-powered locomotive/railway engine.
 
 
[End.]