David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.


29 September 2011

when one becomes one hundred

.
Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia, turns 5o today.
Happy Birthday, we say. Joyeux anniversaire, slightly different.
(Does one still receive a telegram from The Queen when one becomes one hundred?)

1oo is regarded as important, by some. Ten to the power of ten.
Alternative bases to the decimal/base-ten system

Some cultures do, or did, use other numeral systems, most notably pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures such as the Maya used a base 20 system (using all twenty fingers and toes) and the Babylonians used base 60.

In addition, it has been suggested that many other cultures developed alternative numeral systems (although the extent is debated):
Many or all of the Chumashan languages originally used a base 4 counting system, in which the names for numbers were structured according to multiples of 4 and 16.
Many languages use quinary number systems, including Gumatj, Nunggubuyu, Kuurn Kopan Noot and Saraveca. Of these, Gumatj is the only true "5-25" language known, in which 25 is the higher group of 5.
Some Nigerians use base 12 systems[citation needed]
The Huli language of Papua New Guinea is reported to have base 15 numerals. Ngui means 15, ngui ki means 15×2 = 30, and ngui ngui means 15×15 = 225.
Umbu-Ungu, also known as Kakoli, is reported to have base-24 numerals. Tokapu means 24, tokapu talu means 24×2 = 48, and tokapu tokapu means 24×24 = 576.
Base 27 is used in two natural languages, the Telefol language and the Oksapmin language of Papua New Guinea.[citation needed]
Ngiti is reported to have a base 32 numeral system with base 4 cycles.

from wikipedia : Decimal
108 is regarded as sacred, by some

64 is the number your correspondent has long imagined as cause for octopus celebration

5772 is the Jewish calendar year. It begins today.
Rosh Hashanah (Hebrew: ראש השנה‎), (literally "head of the year"), is the Jewish New Year. It is the first of the High Holidays or Yamim Noraim ("Days of Awe"), celebrated ten days before Yom Kippur. Rosh Hashanah is observed on the first two days of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar. It is described in the Torah as יום תרועה (Yom Teru'ah, a day of sounding [the Shofar]).

from wikipedia : Rosh Hashanah
Meantime the boats of Visa seekers continue en mass towards the Australia(n) Processing Facility~Offshore in the Giardini Pubblici, Venice.



The Gillard Government's Venice Solution still has many critics.

Happy Birthday, Prime Minister!

Herald SUN_Gillard's 100th Boat_400
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ...

LOGOS/HA HA