Log24

Wiener on Paley—

… he was already recognised as the ablest of the group of young English mathematicians who have been inspired by the genius of G H Hardy and J E Littlewood. In a group notable for its brilliant technique, no one had developed this technique to a higher degree than Paley. Nevertheless he should not be though of primarily as a technician, for with this ability he combined creative power of the first order. As he himself was wont to say, technique without 'rugger tactics' will not get one far, and these rugger tactics he practised to a degree that was characteristic of his forthright and vigorous nature.

The Telegraph  today on British mystery author Reginald Hill—

"After National Service between 1955 and 1957,
he went up on a scholarship to St Catherine’s College, Oxford,
where he played rugby…."

Further details—

"Unsheathe your dagger definitions." — James Joyce

Some context— St. Catherine in this journal and her feast day last year.

Quantum Logic:

A memorial to the late Alan Bullock,
founding master of St. Catherine’s College,
Oxford, and historian of the Third Reich.

Bullock died on Groundhog Day.

From an obituary:

“Hitler: a Study in Tyranny was published in 1952 with the aphorism from Aristotle: ‘Men do not become tyrants in order to keep out the cold.’  In the same year Alan Bullock took up his appointment to the oddly-named office of ‘Censor’ of St. Catherine’s Society – a male society, constitutionally part of the University, with a handful of tutors and no residential accommodation.  Ten years later it became a College….”

Explaining what these Catherine wheels symbolize seems an appropriate task for Oxford philosophers.  From the St. Catherine’s College site: “The College’s motto – Nova et Vetera (the new and the old) – sums up its unique quality among Oxford colleges.”

See also today’s previous entry, prompted by a recent MIT Press book on philosophy and quantum theory.

Command at Mount Sinai

Tuesday, Nov. 25, was the feast day of St. Catherine, patroness of a monastery at Mount Sinai. (See entries for that date.)

“In a landmark essay,* the anthropologist Bernard S. Cohn showed how the command of language† could become the language of command.‡“

— “Right formula for a nation in the making,”
     by Asad Latif

* “The Command of Language
    and the Language of Command,”
    Subaltern Studies IV, pp. 276- 329

Wheels for St. Catherine

“This java applet displays the wave functions of a particle in a three dimensional harmonic oscillator.”

See also the Chapel of the Burning Bush at St. Catherine’s Monastery.

St. Catherine’s Day

As the previous three entries indicate, I have little respect for the lies of the Bible.  Certain Christian traditions are, however, worthy of respect…. among them, the observance of Nov. 25 as St. Catherine’s Day.