History & Literature

Mead

Posted on 31/05/201112/02/2019 by Jinavie

Both human beings and ants know how to make mead, also called honey wine. Ants use aphid honeydew, we use bee honey. The ancient Greeks called this drinkhydromeli (hydro(water) + meli(honey)). It is the same drink that the gods of Olympus and the priests of Galia all enjoyed.

Here is an introduction to how to brew mead:

Boil 6 kilograms of honey and clear away the foam. Add 15 litres of water, 25 grams of ginger powder, 15 grams of amomum seeds and 15 grams ofcinnamon to the honey. Simmer until about a quarter has boiled away, then take off the fire to cool.
When the mixture is warm, add three tablespoons of yeast and let the solids settle over about 12 hours.
Then, pour the liquid into a small wooden barrel while filtering out the residue. Seal the barrel tight and leave in a cold place for 2 weeks.
Lastly, pour the mead in a bottle, seal with a cork and wire, then let it mature in the basement cellar.

It is best to open it about two months later, maybe in time for a wild party just like the ancient Greek bacchanalia (a wild, mystic festival in honour of Dionysus/Bacchus, the god of wine, through uncontrolled drinking and orgies).

(from The Encyclopaedia of Relative and Absolute Knowledge by Bernard Werber)

History & Literature

Playing Cards

Posted on 29/05/201112/02/2019 by Jinavie

Playing cards are the basis of so many games due to their diversity and adaptability. It can be used for any game from poker to the Eleusis game, from house of cards to magic tricks.
One thing that is often overlooked is the long history of cards and the various symbolisms hidden within. For example, the suits may have the following symbolism:

Spades Nobility, swords, war
Hearts Church, cups, love and romance
Diamonds Merchants, coins, wealth
Clubs Peasants, clubs/batons, agriculture

Although there are many debates regarding this issue, there is substantial evidence that the court cards (Kings, Queens and Jacks/Knaves) are based on historical or mythical heroes and heroines, at least for the French deck that is commonly used nowadays. The following is the list of presumed models for each card:

King of Spades   David (biblical hero)
King of Hearts   Charlemagne (great king of Franks)
King of Diamonds   Julius Caesar (great Roman emperor)
King of Clubs Alexander the Great (the king of Macedon)

Queen of Spades Joan of Arc (the French heroine) or Athena (the goddess of war)
Queen of Hearts Judith (either the biblical heroine or the tragic queen of Bavaria)
Queen of Diamonds Rachel (wife of Jacob in the bible – he waited 14 years for her)
Queen of Clubs Argine (anagram of regina, Latin for queen) or Hera (queen of gods)

Jack of Spades   Holger Le Danois (knight of Charlemagne)
Jack of Hearts   La Hire (comrade of Joan of Arc, member of Charles VII’s court)
Jack of Diamonds    Hector (the hero of the Trojan War or the knight of Charlemagne)
Jack of Clubs   Lancelot (King Arthur’s most trusted knight)

Although the models for the Kings and Jacks are quite clear, the Queens are still subject to many discussions. As modern playing cards originate from France circa 15th century, the above models (official names for each card back then) appearto be valid.
This also explains the ordering of suits (spades/nobility first, clubs/peasants last, hearts/church second and diamonds/merchants third) and how the Ace sometimes trumps the King (possibly symbolising how peasant hold the power, as in the French Revolution).

Sometimes, knowing the history behind a game can make it even more fun.

History & Literature

Crime And Punishment

Posted on 28/05/201112/02/2019 by Jinavie

Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine praevia lege poenali.
No crime or punishment without a previous penal law.

This is the backbone of modern criminal law, stating that the law defines what a crime is, and without the law, there can be no crime. Ergo, a crime in the past cannot be punished with the law of the present.

The principle has allowed for many loopholes where past crimes went unpunished as they were not subjected to new laws. An example is The Homicide Act of 1957 in English law, which never gave a statutory definition of murder. This led to no less than six appeals challenging the definition, using it as a defence.
It also protects criminals by allowing them to use a defence (e.g. provocation) even after it is outlawed, as long as the crime was committed before the law came in place.

If Wonderland’s legal system was based around nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege, then the King of Hearts would not have been able to impose his Rule #42: “all persons more than a mile high must leave the court immediately”, as he created the rule after Alice ate the mushrooms and grew in size.

History & Literature

Eskimo Pie

Posted on 25/05/201125/06/2019 by Jinavie

In 1920, a candy store owner by the name of Christian Kent Nelson had a customer. The customer was a young boy who was torn between buying ice cream or chocolate, with only enough money to buy one. Nelson noticed this and decided there was only way to solve this conundrum.

He created a bar of ice cream coated by melted chocolate, which he called “I-Scream Bars”, now known as Eskimo Pies. It was an instant hit as children could buy both chocolate and ice cream for the same amount of money.

1 + 1 = 3

History & Literature

The Lamb And The Tyger

Posted on 21/05/201112/02/2019 by Jinavie

The creator made the Lamb, but he also made the Tyger.
In this world, there is no light without darkness. No good without evil. No life without death. The Lamb represents innocence, Christ and aesthetic beauty, while the Tyger represents evil, the Devil and primal ferocity.
An all-powerful deity that created the world; if he exists, then all rules of this universe were devised by his design. So why did he – the supposedly loving, benevolent maker – create these dualities? What god would make such a monstrosity, as beautiful as it is, that is the Tyger?
And how is it that we are both a Lamb and a Tyger at the same time?

(Both The Lamb and The Tyger by William Blake after the break)

The Lamb

Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Gave thee life, and bid thee feed
By the stream and o’er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing, woolly, bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice?
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?

Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee,
Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee:
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb.
He is meek, and he is mild;
He became a little child.
I a child, and thou a lamb.
We are called by his name.
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
Little Lamb, God bless thee!

~ William Blake

The Tyger

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies,
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!

When the stars threw down their spears
And water’d heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

~ William Blake

History & Literature

Population

Posted on 17/05/201112/02/2019 by Jinavie

The following is a list, based on 2011 standards (world population 6.9 billion), of the most populous countries in the world:

China (1.3 billion)
India (1.2 billion)
United States of America (311 million)
Indonesia (238 million)
Brazil (191 million)
Pakistan (176 million)
Nigeria (158 million)
Bangladesh (151 million)
Russia (143 million)
Japan (128 million)

History & Literature

Pakistan

Posted on 15/05/201112/02/2019 by Jinavie

Pakistan is a country founded in 1933 and is located west of India and China. It formed from the unification of some of the upper regions of India, where the ruling power of Britain had weakened from Gandhi’s independence movements (in fact, Pakistan was still under British rule until 1947 when it gained independence). The people in this area were mostly Muslim and Pakistan was formed amid fears that the Muslim would be neglected in politics by Hindus.

The etymology of the country’s name is quite peculiar. Pakistan is an acronym of the five regions that formed it: Punjab (P), Afghan (A), Kashmir (K), Sind (S), and Baluchistan (TAN), combined with I for Islam. Also, the word “Pakistan” is a portmanteau of Pak, which means “clean/pure” in Hindustani, and –stan, which stands for a country in Turkish.

Interestingly, the word Pakistan was devised by British students at Cambridge University.

History & Literature

War Of The Currents

Posted on 13/05/201112/02/2019 by Jinavie

In the late 1880s, a war raged on in the United States – one that is not commonly known by the public. It was a war between two wizards: Nikola “The Wizard of the West” Tesla and Thomas “The Wizard of Menlo Park” Edison.
This war involved no guns or explosives, but centred on something so commonplace that people take it for granted nowadays – electricity. The two scientists/wizards fought to determine whose form of electricity transmission was better.

There are two types of electric currents used for transmission.
Direct current (DC) was used by Thomas Edison, a pioneer of electricity distribution. Before him, electricity was more of a scientific curiosity and was not widely available to the public. DC is a unidirectional flow of electric charge.
Alternating current (AC) was later developed by Nikola Tesla, also a pioneer in the field of electricity. AC is the alternating movement of electric charge as it periodically reverses direction from + to -.

When electricity first became public, the industry standard was DC, as Edison started his company, General Electric. This was incredibly profitable for Edison, whose inventions relied on the usage of DC. For example, his incandescent light bulb was the principal electrical device during the time. Edison further advanced DC technology and heavily advocated it.
Tesla claimed that AC was a much more efficient mode of electricity transmission and tried to convince Edison while working for him. However, Edison ignored him and stated that it was an insane, useless idea. Edison was more an inventor than a mathematician, so he did not understand the theoretical benefits of AC over DC.

AC has the advantage of being able to use a transformer to gain much higher voltage than DC, while losing less power when transmitted. It also allowed easy conversion from low-voltage use, such as lamps, to high-voltage use, such as motors.
Despite this, Edison refused to accept the system and continued to lobby against it. The most famous case is his drastic attempt to defame AC by showing the public how “dangerous” it is.

In 1890, Edison and his company developed the electric chair, which used AC to demonstrate the safety hazards of Tesla’s invention. He did this by arranging the first capital punishment by electrocution. Unfortunately, due to calculation errors, the first shock was insufficient to kill the convict, William Kemmler. The procedure was repeated for 8 minutes, during which the convict was screaming in agony, seizing due to electrocution, and at one point, caught fire. This horrible image is portrayed quite accurately in the film The Green Mile.

Despite this unpleasant event, AC became the standard over time and DC is now only used in labs on certain special applications. Also, the electric chair was adopted as an official method of execution.

History & Literature

Black Death

Posted on 07/05/201112/02/2019 by Jinavie

This disease, also known as Pest or the bubonic plague, was a vicious infectious disease that decimated medieval Europe. It is caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, usually transmitted by fleas. The symptoms vary from high fever, malaise, nausea and vomiting, headaches, muscle cramps, seizures, red rashes, coughing and swollen lymph nodes, and causes death within four or five days without treatment.
People did not know about the existence of bacteria back then (it would be 200 more years until Louis Pasteur would suggest germs as the cause of infections). Back then, they considered diseases to transmit through miasma, or bad air. Also, they believed that to prevent transmission, they required a stronger smell to counter it.

Plague doctors, who treated according to the miasma theory of disease, wore a special set of equipments that were known as beak doctor costumes. They wore an overcoat, hat, gloves and boots made from waxed leather, carried a cane to assess the patient and point things out, and a peculiar mask. The mask had a long beak like a bird’s, giving the doctors the nickname beak doctors. The masks had round, glass windows to see through, and two small nostrils at the end of the beak.

Why did they wear this strange mask? The beak was hollow and doctors filled it with flowers, herbs, vinegar and incense that produce a strong smell, so as to “purify” the air coming through the nostrils.
Although the miasma theory has been falsified by germ theory, this gear was the first hazmat suit in history.

There is another fascinating fact regarding the Plague, miasma theory and beak doctors. It regards the nursery rhyme, Ring a Ring o’ Roses:

Ring-a-ring-a-roses,
A pocket full of posies;
Atishoo! Atishoo!
We all fall down.

This nursery rhyme actually describes the Plague. The ring of roses refers to the red rashes and swelling of lymph nodes – a symptom of the Plague; the posies were herbs used to counter the miasma; coughing and sneezing were end-stage symptoms before death, which is shown in the final line.

History & Literature

En Passant

Posted on 04/05/201112/02/2019 by Jinavie

In chess, there are three special moves: castling, pawn promotion and en passant. The first two are quite well known, but the third is less recognised by amateurs and is more of a “secret move” for more experienced players. Thus, many beginners complain their opponent is cheating, when they are using a perfectly legal move.

En passant is French for in passing – the etymology becomes clear once one understands how the move works.
Although a pawn can usually only move one space forwards, it can move up to two spaces on its first move. En passant only applies to a pawn that has moved two spaces. For example, if a white pawn moves two spaces forward and a black pawn is positioned to its left or right, the black pawn can move diagonally behind the white pawn to take it. This is because if the white pawn had moved one space, it would have been in the normal attacking range of the black pawn. Ergo, en passant is a technique that can stop a pawn from penetrating the defensive line and charging forwards.

This move must be used the turn after the pawn moves two spaces. Otherwise, the right to en passant disappears (i.e. cannot wait a turn to use it). In chess, this is the only move where the attacking piece lands on a space other than the taken piece.

Why was the en passant created? The reason being, the two-space first move rule came into place around then, so the en passant was devised to balance it, while complementing the pawn’s short attack range and inability to move backwards.