Fermat's Last Theorem

I like the video so much that I have kept it but put it in my sidebar under 'Other things I like'

Fermat on his Plinth and the rest.........

Watch this video, if you haven't already, and feel good about life. (The good lady of the house recommends watching it again even if you have seen it before.)

This is some plinth........

Man on a Plinth

The good lady of the house is back (after what seems to be an interminable silence) from the dark side of the Tarn and Garonne.

To celebrate this fact she has sent me this picture of a man on a plinth. He must be important because, as I am practicing talking, I would suppose that he is worth talking about. I know that one of my followers will know who he is, but he's been asked not to say, so I was wondering if the rest of you had any idea?

He looks quite scholarly and, judging by the hair, clothes and chair, must be from the 17th century, or thereabouts. (I notice with some little jealousy that the sky appears to have been very blue and sunny when this photo was taken. Not so in my neck of the woods!)

The Good Lady of the House

The good lady of the house
is as quiet as a mouse
(I suppose that is because she is away)

So I sit here on my own
in my rural village home
feeling sad because I really had to stay

She is traveling by herself
like a jolly English elf
to her sister who she'll see just everyday

Hence I sit around and wait
like a lonely garden gate
for her coming back up here so we can play

A crunch too far

I've decided to take a bit of a break from all this crunching stuff. What with the crunching clock and our skewed perception of time; the credit crunch (a lot of which is now being exacerbated by people's perceptions of things, as opposed to the things themselves). Then there's the Hadron Collider with its particles and atoms and holes and hiding boson and peoples' perception that the world will disappear into one of the holes............ It's all a bit much for a poor sheep's brain.

When I first set out on this journey of sheep-development, I had the idea that I would write a bit here and there and pen a few sentences about my house mate and it would all be a bit of a gentle breeze. However, I have been subjected to all manner of highly educated and articulate visitors talking about stuff that makes my brain fizz. Then there's been my recent researches finding Sheldon, the turtle, retrofitting himself into various guises; an artist making lampshades out of sheep's stomachs, and all the crunching posts...... This isn't sheep-development. This is a sheep on the verge of a nervous breakdown. (Good title for a film, that, don't you think?)

Said the Kettle to the Clock

You are sitting very pretty, said the kettle to the clock
And I like the way you interfere with time
We are bound by complex thinking
and some nifty engineering
And our purposes are truly quite divine

For me, I like to boil and then I turn myself straight off
And I do it in a quiet sort of way
But for you, you go a crunching
and a scraping and a graunching
through the minutes and the hours of every day

Now if I could look as scary as your chronophagic top
I would boil, then make a fuss and then a din
But my role is one of service
And my users might get nervous
Thus I couldn't bare to carry that chagrin

So I'm very pleased to meet you, Mr Corpus Crunching Clock
With your patents and your Latin turn of phrase
You are really very stunning
And I know that you'll stay running
for two hundred years, all crunched up into days

Chronophage Conspiracy: An Ovine Exploration

Those of you who have been following my pennings will remember that two of my recent posts included the Chrononphage, or Corpus Clock. The first discussed the clock itself, and the second (a poem) linked it with the credit crunch.

Now here's the thing. There may be more to this 'ere clock than meets the Eye of Horus, as they say. Just as the Eye of Horus is more than just an eye, it seems that this Chronophage Clock might have more than one story to tell. I can't say too much at the moment, because I don't know that much. What I do know, is that there is a dedicated team looking into it.

So how has it come to pass, I hear you ask, that a sheep living in France, would know anything about the Corpus Clock Conspiracy; for conspiracy it is deemed to be. How, indeed. Well, I was contacted! And No, I wasn't beamed-up into an alien spaceship. This is France and aliens can't be doing with all that bureaucracy.

I was contacted directly by the team itself, because my poem, linking the credit crunch and the chronophage, strays somewhat into the conspiracy team's area of interest. They note that the unveiling of the clock, the banning of 'short selling' in the US, and the problems with the CERN Hadron Collider were oddly concurrent. Also, they draw attention to the fact that the clock has "...strange occult symbolism in its design", mysterious "undisclosed" patents and a Latin inscription on it. (The latter, "Mundus transit et Concupiscentiaeius" must, I feel sure, be the Vitruvian Man (or Vitruvian Mouton) equivalent of the first clue to the supposed conspiracy.)

So, if you like the idea of conspiracy theories or just conspiracies, or theory, or clocks or time, or mysterious patents, (the Particle Zoo), or me: please visit Corpus Clock Conspiracy and ask yourself the following questions:

1) Do we have an extraordinarily beautiful clock which (in an ontological sense) is just that.
2) Are we looking at, like Lacus Curtius, an emerging mystery of epic proportions?
3) Should we prepare ourselves for the next big blockbuster: The Da Crunchy Code?

Retrofitting

I think I'm on a bit of a roll with my thinking and posts this week: creative juices and all that. In addition, I've come to realise that I don't always need the good lady of the house for my talking practice, either. So as I seem to be doing just fine on my own, I'll press on unhindered and unbowed, as they say.

I've selected from my 'Biological Imperatives' post, (in a kind of tag-system of subject selection) the idea of 'retrofitting'. From the many definitions that seem to be about cars and houses and plumbing and things like that, I've gone down the 'noun' route with " the act of adding a component or accessory to something that did not have it when it was manufactured."

This seems pretty straightforward. When Lisbeth mended my legs, for example, she gave me more hoof-like feet than I had had, originally. Hence, I have 'retrofitted' hooves.

If you look around Mr Google's sweety shop, you can find all kinds of interesting things to do with retrofitting. Try this on for size......... a jumper. (Ha ha...) Yes, I found a zip-up jumper (that YOU could actually knit, if you had a mind to), using the pattern entitled 'Retrofit'. It's on a site called Knitty "with purls of wisdom". (Nice touch, that.)

On this same site there is a 'featured promotion'. Although it doesn't say that this promoted site is concerned with retrofitting, I am very sure that it is. So before you go whizzing off to take a look, let me explain why I think this is the case. OK.......... Sheldon is a knitted turtle. (Stay with me on this!) Sheldon's creator likes to make accessories for him, in order to turn him into other animals or human creatures. (It's American) He doesn't actually turn into other creatures, you understand, because he is turtle-shaped (albeit a bit odd-looking) and his head (which is somewhat large) remains that of a turtle.

Now - and I'm sure you're ahead of me here - this is where we can apply the term 'retrofit'. He was created (or manufactured) a turtle. When accessories - like wings or hats or a woolly coat - are 'retrofitted', he takes on aspects of other animals or human creatures. E.G. sheep, bat, lion, policeman, cowboy etc.

If you can bear it, visit the 'featured promotion' to get the idea. Then, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have very great pleasure in presenting to you: 'Sheldon', the video...........

Calling Occasional Stirrings

I was hoping for a comment from you on my Biological Imperatives post. I suppose I just assumed you would have a take on it; you being so deft with words and certainly more knowledgeable on the subject. Not to worry, if you're busy. I hope all is well with you. I enjoyed your last stirring. Keep it real and keep it stirring.

Biological Imperative

Biological Imperatives. Now there's a thought. So what are these imperatives? Clearly they're not something that you drink before a meal, because not all those are Organic. Of course, the good lady of the house is out (again) so I am left to my own research devices.

So what have I discovered? Well, these imperative thingies are to do with living. Things like 'survival' (Dhhh! Even a sheep of small (but burgeoning) brain can see that!) 'Territorialism', 'competition', 'reproduction' and 'quality of life-seeking'. Territorialism will be about me liking it on the veranda and my not liking other sheep to come and muscle in on my 'sheep-in-residence' position. Competition. I'm reasonably competitive, so that's OK. Reproduction. If only............ Least said soon is mended, as they say. Reminds me of Emo Phillips: "People come up to me" he said "and they're worried I'll reproduce."

So where was I? Oh yes............ Quality of life(hyphen)seeking. Now that's a bit more difficult. Does that mean that if you have, or do, all the other things in the list, then you have 'quality of life'? Or is it that you have to seek QofL as a thing, separate from the other things? "Today, I are mostly seeking the quality of life"? And how would I know if I'd got it? Lisbeth (just back) has thrown in that it sounds a bit like Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs. Women!

I did find an essay by someone called Babette Francis. She wrote a whole essay entitled "Is gender a social construct OR a biological imperative?" I'm not sure about constructing things in society. Unless it is big enough for Babette to have her feast in. That's a possibility, I suppose.

Then I found a site (with a really nice background of stars, while it loads) which asks: "Is intelligence a biological imperative?" Part 4!! That means that there have bean 3 parts already. What is it with this imperative?

A real blog on blogspot, entitled Scientific Integrity (One for you, Mr Occasional Stirrings.), challenges somebody's notion that "...human sensibility can be "retro-fitted" into the biological imperative." I don't think I like the idea of this retro-fit idea. Well, only if it involves wolves in 50s sheep's clothing. You know, just for fun at a party.

So there you have it: A cornucopia of imperatives that have been created wholly biologically; and that has to be good for the environment which, in turn, enhances my quality of life. Hyphen-free, of course!