Evanston: Copernicus revisited
Evanston: Copernicus revisited
I was surprised to learn yesterday through ‘This Day in Tech’ at Wired.com that, although Nicoloas Copernicus first postulated that the Earth is not the center of the universe almost five hundred years ago, it was only 84 years ago, on December 30, 1924, that Edwin Hubble proved that our galaxy, The Milky Way, is not the only one in the universe. It is easy to forget that the Age of Science is still in its infancy.
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There are five college football bowl games on television today, and five more tomorrow. In all there are thirty-four bowl games, which means that more than half of the 119 teams that play Division 1 NCAA football make it into the post season. Some do so with 6 win, 6 loss regular season records. This is a ridiculous consequence of local boosterism and television revenue.
I will watch one or two of the games today and one or two tomorrow, but five? Many of them match-ups that only alumnae of the schools could care about? I think not.
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Although there is no cricket on television in the United States, I am aware that the sports news of real importance to many of you is Australia’s first test series loss at home in sixteen years, which has been described as ‘a debacle’ and ‘a seismic shift.’ My condolences to my Australia fiends; my congratulations to my South African.
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2008 was 5/6ths of a good year for me, but I am very glad that it is over and am looking forward to 2009.
At the moment I would like about equally to be a thousand miles at sea or walking up and down New Zealand’s green hills from Opua to Pahia.
By working out four times in the last five days of the year, I brought my total to 70, far below the 100 standard. Sailing more than 9,000 miles cut into my routine. If I sail next year’s planned 15,000 miles, I’ll do even worse in 2009.
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Let me close the year with the inscription on a small painting known as ‘A Lover’s Picnic’ which has been called “the most romantic painting in all of Persian art.”
It was donated to Harvard by Cary Welch, who died this past August at age 80 of a heart attack while running to catch a train in Japan. That is going out while going forward, one of my own few remaining ambitions.
Mr. Welch is described as a collector, author and lecturer, but not an academic. “He once wrote to a fellow connoisseur, “I know, from experience, that you are too alive for the academic world...Don’t sign yourself up for the dreary years of academia. Leave that stuff to the eunuchs.”
To their perhaps bemused credit, this comes from Harvard’s own magazine. (Carol went there; not I.)
The inscription:
A rose without the glow of a lover bears no joy;
Without wine to drink the spring brings no joy.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008