Persistent Opinions

Whenever we take up a new political opinion, it is good to think about for how long we intend to keep it.

Clearly, there are no political opinions that are absolute truths. Whatever we call an opinion must represent a position that at least some other people don't share. Otherwise, it would be called a "truth."

Knowing that our opinions are not absolute, do we think about for how long we intend to keep them? What facts that might swing us to another opinion? Whose authority could reinforce or discard the opinion?

Or do we take our opinions so lightly that we do not even think about how long they will last?

Fessis Membris Dulcis Quies

In the little Italian town of Bordighera, there are a few Latin inscriptions above stone benches. The inscriptions do not contain any particularly useful information. They do not say "no smoking" or "it is dangerous to lean out."

Instead they are different ways to pay homage to rest and idleness.

Fessis membris dulcis quies

The meaning of fessīs membrīs dulcis quiēs is "sweet repose for weary limbs."

As far as I can tell, the complete phrase is not a quote from any Latin writer, but the people who put up the bench simply wanted to say that here was sweet repose for weary limbs, and they said it in Latin because that sounded good.

Seneca used the the expression of sweet repose, dulcis quiēs in his drama Thyestes, but not in the context of tired limbs.

Fessīs membrīs means "weary limbs." The expression uses dative plural of fessus and membrum to express "for."

Dulcis quiēs means "sweet repose." It is in nominative singular.

Honesto otio

The expression honestō ōtiō means "for honourable idleness (or retirement)".

It is a little too short to be considered a "quote," but Cicero uses it a few times in letters.

The expression is in dative singular to express "for," similar to membrīs dulcis.

Quid ultra tendis? 

This expression finally is a real quote, and its meaning is a little less obvious, as is often the case with real quotes. It means "why stretch further?"

The context is Horace's Ode 18 in Book II of his Carmina. The poet asks why one should aim for more than is necessary in life. The linked page contains both translation and comments if you click on the links to the right.

Well, now that's sorted out, and I hope you can relax even more next time you go on holiday to Bordighera.

Wodehouse, Jellyfish and Lord Emsworth

There is a quote that goes around the internet: “Lord Emsworth, whose IQ may be some thirty points below that of an absent minded jellyfish...”

It appears over and over in the context of P. G. Wodehouse's book Lord Emsworth Acts for the Best, also published as Blandings Castle and Elsewhere (1935). 

The confusing matter is that the quote only appears on the cover of that otherwise excellent collection of short stories. Inside there is not a single jellyfish. It is a spectacularly jellyfish free book. If you ever wanted a book without any mention jellyfish, this is the book for you.


However, Wodehouse really has a comparison of Lord Emsworth and jellyfish, but that appears in his novel Full Moon (1947). In this book, Lord Emsworth's brother, the Hon. Galahad describes the lord:

‘I have been closely associated with my brother Clarence for more than half a century, and I know him from caviare to nuts. His I.Q. is about thirty points lower than that of a not too agile-minded jellyfish.'

Later on in the book, the narrator describes their sister, Lady Hermione Wedge:

But the formidable woman seated behind the teapot was a different proposition. Here, beyond a question, danger lurked. You might not admire Lady Hermione Wedge as you would admire Helen of Troy, or the current Miss America, but there was no gainsaying her intelligence. It would have to be an exceptionally up-and-coming jellyfish which could even contemplate challenging her I.Q.

I hope this has settled the question for everyone who is a fan of Wodehouse, Lord Emsworth and jellyfish.

Vargtimmen

Vargtimmen, English title, Hour of the Wolf, is a 1968 film by the Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman.

He explains the title in the following words:

The hour between night and dawn. The hour when most people die, when sleep is deepest, when nightmares are most real. It is the hour when the sleepless are haunted by their deepest fears, when ghost and demons are most powerful, the hour of the wolf is also the hour when most children are born.

Or in his original Swedish:

Vargtimmen är timmen mellan natt och gryning, det är timmen då de flesta människor dör, då sömnen är djupast, då mardrömmarna är verkligast. Den är timmen då den sömnlöse jagas av sin svåraste ångest, då spöken och demoner är mäktigast. Vargtimmen är också den timme då de flesta barn föds.

Most of those statements are not scientifically true, but they make artistic sense for the film. Nevertheless, nothing comes from nothing, and there are certain things that may have inspired him.

The Hour of the Day

There is a very old French expression, "entre chien et loup", "between dog and wolf." The most common explanation is that it is the early morning hours when both wolves and dogs can be out, but the eye is unable to tell which is which in the limited light. However, it was originally used not only for the morning, but for the evening as well.

Infra horam vespertinam, inter canem et lupum.

This was written by Marculfe, abbot of Saint-Denis around the 7th century. He wrote in Latin, not in French, which did not exist as a written language at the time. He uses the expression to write about the evening.

Postea vix summos Aurora rubescere montes
Fecerat, & valles nondum primordia lucis
Attigerant : interque canem distare lupumque
Nullus adhuc poterat aliquid discernere visu.

Guillaume le Breton (1165-1225), poet, cleric and historian wrote the lines above. This is also Latin, but le Breton talks about the difficulty of telling dog from wolf in the morning, not the evening.

Comme le simple oiseau qui cherche sa pasture
Lors qui il ne est, ne iour ne nuit
Quand le veillant Berger
Si i’ est ou Chien, ou Loup,
Ne peut au vrai juger.

Jean-Antoine de Baïf (1532-1589), poet. Here is finally an example in French, even if it is not the kind of French we see today. Baïf also talks about the difficulty of distinguishing dogs from wolves. As he mentions this in the context of a bird looking for pasture, one has to assume that he talks about the early morning hour.

So far, the quotes have only talked about the time of day, not about the anxieties Bergman talks about.

However, considering the limited light, some worry has been expressed by people like the French aristocrat Madame de Sévigné (1626–1696). The expression occurs in several of her letters to her daughter, la comtesse de Grignan. In most cases she talks about the evening, not the morning.

Je n’ose me livrer à l’entre chien et loup, de peur d’éclater en cris et en pleurs; l’obscurité me seroit mauvaise dans l’état où je suis.

Here de Sévigné fears that the darkness of "dog and wolf" will cause her to burst out crying. However, it is mainly a time of day:

On soupe pendant le chien et le loup.

In the short sentence above de Sévigné simply tells her daughter that she has dinner during the "dog and wolf." It is as if she tried to find any excuse to use an expression she clearly is fond of, and I don't blame her.

The simple fact that wolves are active during the night has of course been mentioned since antiquity.

Ac veluti pleno lupus insidiatus ovili
cum fremit ad caulas, ventos perpessus et imbris,nocte super media;

Virgil, Vergilius (70-19 BCE). In the lines from his Aeneid above, he talks about a wolf prowling near the sheep all through the night.

ἄλλος δ᾽ αὖ μέγεθος μὲν ὑπέρτερος, ἅψεα δ᾽ αὖτε
μηκεδανός, πάντεσσι θοώτερος ὦκα λύκοισι:
τὸν μέροπες κίρκον τε καὶ ἅρπαγα κικλήσκουσι. πολλῷ σὺν ῥοίζῳ δὲ μάλ᾽ ὄρθριος εἶσιν ἐπ᾽ ἄγρην
πρώτῃ ὑπ᾽ ἀμφιλύκῃ.

Oppian of Cilicia, a 2nd century author, wrote instructive texts in Greek hexameter. In the quote above from his hunting book Κυνηγετικά (Cynegetica), he writes about a wolf who seeks its prey in the first morning light.

An even more precise time is given by the Chinese, but with a different animal. The Chinese have a system to divide the hours of the day with two hours for each of the animals of the zodiac. The hours 3:00-5:00 a.m. which arguably are closest to Bergman's hour of the wolf, are allocated to 寅虎, yín hǔ, the tiger. Like the wolf, the tiger has a reputation of being particularly dangerous during these hours.

Anxieties

There are some possible scientific reasons for Bergman's wolf hour anxieties.

The hormone melatonin (not to be confused with the melanin pigments in skin and hair) makes sleep easier. The levels of melatonin are typically at their highest in the early morning hours. Blood pressure becomes low in the early morning. Our body temperature is low. The metabolism and heartbeats are slow.

Someone who has problems with their melatonin level can get the body rhythm out of order and that may cause sleep problems and anxiety.

The theme of morning anxieties has been written about in fiction several times the past.

On atteignait l'heure entre loup et chien où les gens sensibles se confient, où les criminels avouent, où les plus silencieux eux-mêmes luttent contre le sommeil à coup d'histoires ou de souvenirs.

Marguerite Yourcenar (1903-1987), French author. In the quote above from Le Coup de grâce (1939), Yourcenar uses the French expression entre "loup et chien" to talk about the hour when sensitive people confide, criminals confess, when the most silent people fight against their sleep.

In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning, day after day. At that hour the tendency is to refuse to face things as long as possible by retiring into an infantile dream - but one is continually startled out of this by various contacts with the world.

Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940). The Crack-Up part 2, “Pasting It Together.” Fitzgerald does not need to mention wolves, but this is likely one of the most famous quotes about morning anxiety.

Bergman's Inspiration

It is impossible to tell which of the above authors Bergman had read. He may very well have got inspiration from other sources. It is not known how much he was aware of the physiological aspects of the human body in the morning.

However, the expression "hour of the wolf" to describe morning anxiety hardly existed before the 1968 film, and if Bergman did not coin the phrase, he at least popularised it.

Prediction for Britain

The recent referendum will lead to several things.

1. Scotland will become independent.
2. Scotland will join the EU, Schengen and take up the Euro as currency.
3. Northern Ireland will join the Republic of Ireland with far reaching autonomy. They will adopt the Euro and join Schengen.
4. The "Leave" side in the referendum will realise that what they left was all rhyme and reason and realism. There will either be a new referendum, or everyone will simply agree that the outcome last week was a silly mistake.
5. The UK will stay in the EU.
6. Once the English realise that they need to show passports and change currency to go go to places on even their own island, they will scrap the pound, join the Euro and join Schengen.

In other words, by voting Leave, the UK will get tighter integration into Europe.

My foundation for those claims? I have none, whatsoever. But show me any analyst of the referendum who seems to have any clue what is going on.

Electronic Peace of Mind

Sometimes it becomes really important to avoid distractions when using computers. Things like animations can be disruptive for your work and concentration. These are some things one can try to make the computer or other devices less intrusive.

• Disable JavaScript in the settings of your web browser. Some sites will become useless without JavaScript, but many of those sites were useless even with JavaScript on. In the cases where you really need to use a site that depends on JavaScript, activate JavaScript temporarily, or use a different browser with JavaScript enabled. (Yes, I realise the irony in the fact that this blog uses JavaScript.)
• Disable Flash. This is a good idea for security reasons as well.
• Mute sound.
• Disable all notifications you can think of.
• Go into private mode. This makes it less of a worry that sites leave permanent traces on your computer.
• Avoid all news sites, or at least access them only once a day.
• If you use social forums, mute people who 
• Are of completely opposite political opinions. 
• Promote your own political opinions with stupid fervour. 
• Set the screen to black and white. (“Accessibility” section and then "Grayscale" on Apple devices.) Note: If your reason to make the computer less intrusive is that you are depressed, it may not be a good idea to set the screen to black and white. Depending on what kind of depression you have, colours could cheer you up.

Ship Disappears under Horizon - the Earth is Round.

In case you wonder whether the earth is flat or round, these photos show a ship disappearing under the horizon, and that is a pretty good indication that the earth is round. In the first shot, the ship is about 7 km away. In the last it is about 18 km away.

(For those who wonder about the camera: it was a Nikon 1 V3 with a 70-300mm lens. The photos are cropped.)

Which Font should I use?

Helvetica.

(I like simple answers.)

Frequently Given Answers

To avoid repeating the same conversations about this blog over and over again, here are the most frequently given answers.

• Thanks, fine.
• Yes.
• Just half a glass, thanks. 
• No.
• Maybe.
• Why?
• Milk. No sugar. 
• At the end of the road, take left.
• Or right. 
• Just a little higher, please. Yes! Right there!
• Arabidopsis thaliana.

Nyokratus

When I was a little child, I read a book called Lyckans lexikon, "The Dictionary of Happiness" by Falstaff, Fakir, pen name of Axel Wallengren.

Translated into English, the first lines of the first dialogue go like this:

- What is happiness?
Already Nyokratus asked that.
- Who was Nyokratus?
An old Greek.
- What is an old Greek?
A dead person who lived on black soup and truth.
- What is truth?
Well...
- I insist. What is truth?

From thereon, the book becomes less interesting, and Nyokratus is never mentioned again.

I read this when I was a child, but my childish curiosity never inspired me to learn more about Nyokratus. If Falstaff said he was an old Greek and stopped there, surely there was nothing more of interest? It turns out I was right. Nyokratus is not mentioned anywhere else in world literature, apart from those two lines in Lyckans lexikon. He is a made up figure and of no interest whatsoever.

Nevertheless, I ask myself, where the name comes from. Falstaff made it up, but he must have been inspired by something. One can come up with a few guesses.

Guess 1: new. In Swedish, the word for new is ny. Perhaps it is some association to a new Socrates.

Guess 2: νυός. The Greek word nyos (νυός)  means daughter in law. The word κράτος means strength, power. Perhaps there is something about the power of the daughter in law. Is a family happier when the daughter in law is strong?

Guess 3: Νικοκράτης. The name Nikokrates, which sounds somewhat like Nyokratus, was the name of a tyrant of Cyrene (Κυρήνη) in present day Libya. He killed the husband of a lady called Aretaphila (Ἀρεταφίλα), and then married her against her will. She tried to poison him, but failed. When he accused her, she claimed that she had tried to apply a love potion, and he apparently believed her - at least according to the author Polyaenus (Πoλύαινoς). The story goes on with a lot of people killing each other. However, Aretaphila survives the mayhem and then lives a long and peaceful life with family and friends. Perhaps Falstaff thought that all this had something to do with happiness. There is anyhow no record of Nikokrates asking what happiness is. Or of him eating black soup.