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.


01 March 2014

everything nothing

      
Over previous weeks we've been in wonderment at the two part UK series Everything and Nothing on SBS TV. It's an update on the research and discoveries of cosmologers and quantum physicists.
    


above and below : Professor Jim Al-Khalili 

speculate : from Latin speculātus, past participle of speculor (look out), from specula (watchtower), from specio (look at)


      
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ... 

LOGOS/HA HA
   

Nothing - In the second part of this intriguing documentary, Professor Jim Al-Khalili explores science at the very limits of human perception, where we now understand the deepest mysteries of the universe lie. 



Jim sets out to answer one very simple question - what is nothing? 



His journey ends with perhaps the most profound insight about reality that humanity has ever made. Everything came from nothing. The quantum world of the super-small shaped the vast universe we inhabit today, and Jim can prove it.
     

      
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ... 

LOGOS/HA HA