Red beeds.
Showing posts with label Inconsistencies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Inconsistencies. Show all posts
Back out of all this now too much for us
I have been thinking a lot lately about the incredible waste of time represented by "social media". While I have not yet reached the ultimate goal of no cellphone or perhaps a "dumb" phone, a return to the old blog and a more mindful online interaction is perhaps a good first step. I have finally been able to divest myself of the burden of Facebook (I may still forward posts there and maintain desktop interaction with friends and family that I would not otherwise be able to stay in touch with) and am planning further online self-emancipations. But this old blog has always been a source of enjoyment and a meaningful way of sharing thoughts, experiences, information, and intellectually stimulating stories, etc. from the internet. The internet does, after all, provide an incredible resource when used responsibly. As always, this is more a series of spontaneous, informal pensées than a polished essay, but at least it won't be a "status update" (thinking about it, what a ridiculous term that is). So, there it is. In the words of Frost, "back out of all this now too much for us"...
Reading the Intelligible City
Come by @blankspacegoshen this evening for a series of presentations by local designers. Oddly, I won't be talking about motorcycles! The event is free and starts at 5:00. #design #urbanism #morphology #blankspace #goshenindiana
Letter to a Renaissance Humanist
I seem to be a bit slow to agree with with the idea that a piazza must be an irregular and varied composition. I would still prefer it to be as well ordered and unified as the architect can make it.
Where does one make such a distinction? Wasn't the goal of the great Renaissance and Baroque architects to create rational and ordered buildings and public spaces? It doesn't seem to make sense to compose ensembles that merely please us in a picturesque way. This would seems to subvert the ordering role of the architect in the cause of the chaotic and in many cases disorderly and irrational effects of time and human error.
Also, I have it ingrained in me not to like the "American" street grid, but I have this nagging feeling that it is really something that, as a classicist, I should like. I'm thinking here of Miletus, of Roman town planning, of Ferrara and the Renaissance gridded plan. Perhaps, like the regular, unified "boring" piazza, the regular uniform "boring" street grid can hold great possibilities?
The praiseworthiness of an overt architectural demonstration of the disconnect between the ideal and the real seems ridiculous in the face of the awesome impossibility of the ideal ever really being approached.
Best wishes,
Clipstock
Where does one make such a distinction? Wasn't the goal of the great Renaissance and Baroque architects to create rational and ordered buildings and public spaces? It doesn't seem to make sense to compose ensembles that merely please us in a picturesque way. This would seems to subvert the ordering role of the architect in the cause of the chaotic and in many cases disorderly and irrational effects of time and human error.
Also, I have it ingrained in me not to like the "American" street grid, but I have this nagging feeling that it is really something that, as a classicist, I should like. I'm thinking here of Miletus, of Roman town planning, of Ferrara and the Renaissance gridded plan. Perhaps, like the regular, unified "boring" piazza, the regular uniform "boring" street grid can hold great possibilities?
The praiseworthiness of an overt architectural demonstration of the disconnect between the ideal and the real seems ridiculous in the face of the awesome impossibility of the ideal ever really being approached.
Best wishes,
Clipstock
Abated Breath
I recently discovered that I did not know how to spell "bated" and in the process of looking up its correct spelling found this verse explaining the difference in Geoffrey Taylor's poem Cruel Clever Cat:
Sally, having swallowed cheese,
Directs down holes the scented breeze,
Enticing thus with baited breath
Nice mice to an untimely death.
Sally, having swallowed cheese,
Directs down holes the scented breeze,
Enticing thus with baited breath
Nice mice to an untimely death.
Spoonerisms I
I give you the second Torrible Zone series: Spoonerisms. The majority of these spoonerisms are the products of my own genius, however, I plan to intersperse them with spoonerisms I have been a witness to with friends or acquaintances.
And so to begin, one of my all time favorite spoonerisms and a sentiment I still hold:
And so to begin, one of my all time favorite spoonerisms and a sentiment I still hold:
There is nothing worse than samp docks.
To The Faculty of the Erasmus Institute of Liberal Arts
Dear faculty of the Erasmus Institute,
The United States cannot afford to lose the education that I was fortunate enough to experience at Thomas More College. That you all believe this is affirmed in the recent founding of The Erasmus Institute. There is no shortage of Catholic liberal arts colleges in this country, yet amongst all these bastions of revivalism what is lacking is a subtle continuity with the past--something for which these institutions seem to yearn so much. Instead, these colleges reject or combat the world of here and now; the world that allows us even to begin to wonder. The Cowan program, however, reaches toward the truth of necessity through that of contingent reality. It participates in and builds on the living tradition of American and Classical thought in a communal joy in proximity to truth.
The fact that we studied William Faulkner in Literature, or Heidegger in Philosophy, or Voegelin in Political Science helped to define our school, but what was more essential and far more potent was the way students and faculty engaged their studies; the daily encounter on the part of everyone with poetry, tragedy and comedy, and most importantly, the idea of communitas. Communitas lay at the heart of the education and tied it in a unique way with the great community of philosophers throughout the ages. When I am asked what was so wonderful about my education I can only describe the liberating joy of understanding a part of a poem for the first or fifth time, of reveling in a philosophical debate, or of reading one of the greatest thinkers of all time, but most importantly, of knowing that we were all pursuing truth together in a community as free human beings. It was this shared joy in a community of such wildly different people that opened up the world of truth to me and to my classmates and changed all of us forever.
That the Erasmus Institute of Liberal Arts may continue this tradition is essential to all education today. Thank you for everything that you have given to all of us--your students--over the years, and know that it is with the deepest gratitude that we think of the hardships you have endured to continue the best education in America. With this vision and attitude toward truth there exists so much promise, possibility and happiness, that for it to disappear would be a an unthinkable loss to the world.
Sincerely,
Clipstock
Emulation
I just stumbled on the blog of Emulatio, a professor of architecture at the University of Notre Dame. He extols the virtue of "emulation" in contrast to imitation. In his own words:
"EMULATION is a word that sums up our culture's missing link with the beauty of the past: neither humble imitation nor adventurous invention (although both have their place), emulatio means a competitive desire to equal or surpass previous achievements on their own terms. If there is an understanding of the past for which popular caricatures of servile imitators or romantic "creators" ill-prepare us, it is this, and laying out how we can recover its balance of respect and aspiration will be a lot of what I aim to address. I hope you'll find it rewarding reading."
I'm not so sure imitation is quite so "humble."
Replacing the Replaced Crank Seal, Again
I mentioned in an earlier post that I was rebuilding my Honda PA50II engine as it was showing signs of a bad seal: no idle, overheating, and other inconsistencies. While your replacing a seal it's usually a good idea to replace the bearings, especially if your running a kit. Honda cranks are pretty tough and I don't think performance versions are readily available, so I'm sticking with the stock crank. I ordered new bearings and bought a set of seals off a friend who also has a kitted PA50II. When I opened the cases (for which I had to make a special clutch-puller out of a Honda axle nut welded to a pipe with a M14 nut a bolt at the other end), I found the magneto side seal had completely worn through and that the seal spring was in contact with the crank. This was definitely the problem.
Here is the bad magneto-side seal:
The split cases with existing bearings and seals:
I removed the old bearings, cleaned the cases inside and out and installed new bearings by heating the cases in a toaster and placing the crank (with bearings installed in a freezer) and then lightly hammering them together with an added layer of Yamabond.
After I had installed the new bearings and seals and almost reassembled the entire engine I realized that the stator plate has a little lip which requires that the magneto side seal be recessed in the cases about 1/4 inch. I hadn't realized this when I installed the seal, so I tried pressing the seal further into the cases.
Well, I pushed it too far... Needless to say, I had a much worse case leak on my hands.
This was all in October. I took a break... and about three weeks ago I cracked the cases again to reposition the seal only to find that the seal had been destroyed by the inexplicable PA50I worm gear on the crank (don't ask me why I have a PA50I crank in PA50II cases because I don't know).
The destroyed seal:
Regardless, the seal was done, so not wanting to leave my cases open for too long, I put the old seal that I thought wasn't bad back in.
Apparently that seal was bad too...
So, I ordered another seal, and fresh cases gaskets from Treats along with a Malossi 21mm intake so I can run my 21mm PHBG carburator (off the Puchavus) as soon as I find it... I cracked the cases again, replaced the seal at the correct depth and reassembled the engine.
Variated cases are beautifully simple:
While I had the cylinder head off I noticed the piston was wearing around the edge, probably only at quite high RPM's because the damage was very light. I took a Dremel and cut a deeper squish band into the head.
Here's the damage, I'll try posting pictures of the modified squish band later:
My current setup is a 70cc Polini cylinder with stock 12mm carburator and stock exhaust with notched stock variator. If I can get the overheating issues cleared up I expect to see 45mph at The Bourbon Bandit's Whiskey Business.
Next up 21mm PHBG carb and Motion Left exhaust.
The Architecture of Humanism
After a reading of Geoffrey Scott's seminal book, The Architecture of Humanism, an analysis of modern architectural criticism, I have condensed the six fallacies attending the assessment of buildings that he posits, as well as his own: the fallacy of empathy. Though published almost one hundred years ago, they are still as relevant today, if not even more so in the current debate of traditional architecture. The essential error of all of these fallacies is that they make those under their thrall take for granted the fallacy’s most essential qualities. Critics and architects have been so caught up in the frenzy of of whatever trend is popular at the time that they do not notice the weakness and oversimplification of its argument.
Romantic (Poetic) – In regarding architecture as symbolic the romantic fallacy takes a detail from an era and spins it into a complete vision of that era. This is accomplished through the essentially literary association of significant experiences which can be different for every viewer in every age, rather than the necessarily direct and sensuous experience which Scott claims architecture requires.
Romantic (Naturalism and the Picturesque) – Here, as in the poetic fallacy, architecture is increasingly judged on moral grounds. The degree to which architecture conforms to the literary ideal of nature demonstrates its sanctity and thereby its worth to the romantic. However, nature is not an absence of rule. Architecture without rules is nothing more than “slovenly art.” As such, the result of following Nature is simply to justify the artist’s caprice.
Mechanical – Following the growing trend of specialization demanded of the arts in order for their successful subservience to the new god of Science, the most beautiful architecture is seen as that in which the structure is the best and in which it is most truthfully displayed. Once again the facts contradict the assertion. Neither Doric or Gothic architecture—the architecture praised by this fallacy’s advocates—use “good construction truthfully expressed,” but rather construction that is based in an aesthetic demand.
Ethical – Once the romantic interest in what architecture indirectly signified was established, it was a natural progression to seek for a moral reference in architecture. Architecture which was insincere “signified” a corrupt era or regime and was inimical to the morals of its viewer. To say this is, however, to confuse a moral failure with an aesthetic judgment. An artist’s moral rectitude does not dictate the aesthetic value of the product of his skill.
Biological – With the advent of the theory of evolution came the corollary dominance of the desire not to appreciate, but to explain. Thus, the focus of a biological criticism is no longer on the worthy events or terms of a historical sequence, but on the uniformity and gradual progression of the sequence itself. This places all parts of the sequence on an equal footing, the best with the worst, the mediocre with the excellent. More importantly, it focuses, with an intellectual interest, attention on the insignificant moments since these serve to complete the sequence. When a given moment in the sequence refuses to fit it is ignored or skirted over because it fails to illustrate the idea of artistic development within the more important concept of the sequence itself.
Academic Tradition - Simply put, this is the idea that the imposition of rule and order, specifically the five canonical orders, is accompanied by a stultification of the discipline. But this is not the case in any worthy building until the Romantic movement. “Architecture requires a principle of permanence.” It requires, like all art, a cannon against which it can judge itself. The rules and orders of ancient Rome served to ground art in truth, through the example of the past. In the Renaissance the rules of Vitruvius are “quoted illustrated, venerated, praised” and entirely disregarded.
Empathy (Scott’s Fallacy) – Through the transcription of architecture into terms of ourselves we are able to identify ourselves with its apparent state. What this means, however, is that in the projection of human functions on the outside world the viewer is simply imbuing the object with qualities which he, the subject, desires it to have. Once again, there is an attempt to alter reality to fit the requirements of our caprice.
Additional Fallacies that may be added to the the list:
The Zeitgeist
Functionalism
Sincerity
Utopianism
Decadence
Relativism
Romantic (Poetic) – In regarding architecture as symbolic the romantic fallacy takes a detail from an era and spins it into a complete vision of that era. This is accomplished through the essentially literary association of significant experiences which can be different for every viewer in every age, rather than the necessarily direct and sensuous experience which Scott claims architecture requires.
Romantic (Naturalism and the Picturesque) – Here, as in the poetic fallacy, architecture is increasingly judged on moral grounds. The degree to which architecture conforms to the literary ideal of nature demonstrates its sanctity and thereby its worth to the romantic. However, nature is not an absence of rule. Architecture without rules is nothing more than “slovenly art.” As such, the result of following Nature is simply to justify the artist’s caprice.
Mechanical – Following the growing trend of specialization demanded of the arts in order for their successful subservience to the new god of Science, the most beautiful architecture is seen as that in which the structure is the best and in which it is most truthfully displayed. Once again the facts contradict the assertion. Neither Doric or Gothic architecture—the architecture praised by this fallacy’s advocates—use “good construction truthfully expressed,” but rather construction that is based in an aesthetic demand.
Ethical – Once the romantic interest in what architecture indirectly signified was established, it was a natural progression to seek for a moral reference in architecture. Architecture which was insincere “signified” a corrupt era or regime and was inimical to the morals of its viewer. To say this is, however, to confuse a moral failure with an aesthetic judgment. An artist’s moral rectitude does not dictate the aesthetic value of the product of his skill.
Biological – With the advent of the theory of evolution came the corollary dominance of the desire not to appreciate, but to explain. Thus, the focus of a biological criticism is no longer on the worthy events or terms of a historical sequence, but on the uniformity and gradual progression of the sequence itself. This places all parts of the sequence on an equal footing, the best with the worst, the mediocre with the excellent. More importantly, it focuses, with an intellectual interest, attention on the insignificant moments since these serve to complete the sequence. When a given moment in the sequence refuses to fit it is ignored or skirted over because it fails to illustrate the idea of artistic development within the more important concept of the sequence itself.
Academic Tradition - Simply put, this is the idea that the imposition of rule and order, specifically the five canonical orders, is accompanied by a stultification of the discipline. But this is not the case in any worthy building until the Romantic movement. “Architecture requires a principle of permanence.” It requires, like all art, a cannon against which it can judge itself. The rules and orders of ancient Rome served to ground art in truth, through the example of the past. In the Renaissance the rules of Vitruvius are “quoted illustrated, venerated, praised” and entirely disregarded.
Empathy (Scott’s Fallacy) – Through the transcription of architecture into terms of ourselves we are able to identify ourselves with its apparent state. What this means, however, is that in the projection of human functions on the outside world the viewer is simply imbuing the object with qualities which he, the subject, desires it to have. Once again, there is an attempt to alter reality to fit the requirements of our caprice.
Additional Fallacies that may be added to the the list:
The Zeitgeist
Functionalism
Sincerity
Utopianism
Decadence
Relativism
The Wicked Bible
Gandalf's resent penchant for defacing Bibles pointed me in the direction of the "Wicked Bible," now a valuable book published (for a short period) in 1631. It was intended to be a reprint of the King James, but owing to a crucial error in the composition of the type, omitted the "not" from the seventh commandment. Ooops... The error so outraged Charles I that he had the printers summoned to the Star Chamber where they were fined and lost their printing licenses.
King Charles's disgust with the event is made abundantly clear in this wonderfully nostalgic statement regarding the decline of the art of printing : "I knew the tyme when great care was had about printing, the Bibles especially, good compositors and the best correctors were gotten being grave and learned men, the paper and the letter rare, and faire every way of the beste, but now the paper is nought, the composers boyes, and the correctors unlearned." Oh what sad times are these...
And You Thought It Couldn't Get Any Worse...
Fahey's new advertisement for TMC in Human Events:
At what point do I start lying about where I went to college?
Mother: "We'd understand each other better if you'd studied some philosophy in college."
Daughter: "You mean dead white guys like Aeropostale
Don't laugh: that girl's probably the product of some nearby Cliff's Notes College, where all it takes to graduate is half-an-hour a day with Cliff's Notes.
Contrast her sorry education with that of our friend and patron, Robert Novak, who passed away just last week.
In his memoirs, he fondly recalls the values that were instilled in him by his liberal arts education from the very first day he stepped on campus:
"It was a golden moment for a 17-year-old boy from Joliet, leading to four years of exploration in the riches of our heritage: Plato, Aristotle, Chaucer, Machiavelli, Shakespeare, Milton, John Donne, Hawthorne, Melville, T.S. Eliot --- dead white men all. How barren would be my life without that background!"
In subsequent decades, armed with his classical Western education, Robert Novak battled --- and defeated --- many formidable, well-educated thinkers. But much of his time was spent swatting lightweight lawmakers who learned pygmy philosophy, politics, history, and foreign policy at their local equivalent of Cliff's Notes College.
Answer me this:
Would you let a Med School Lite surgeon operate on you?
Would you trust a Cliff's Notes Captain to lead your son into battle?
Are you comfortable with congressmen who can't tell Aristotle from Aeropostale deciding whether we legalize gay marriage, fight in Iraq, or let the government take over health care?
Robert Novak never was.
Not for a second.
Which is why, when he gave large sums of his own money to colleges to carry on his legacy, he turned his back on the Cliff's Notes Colleges that clutter our nation and instead established a scholarship here at Thomas More College . . . . . . the school that provides the kind of education that, so many years ago, laid the foundation for Robert Novak's many strengths and his great wisdom.
As he told our graduates in his Commencement speech here just three short years ago, "You are entering the world as something rare today: educated men and women."
He saw that on our modest campus of less than ten acres, we've created a gracious community of faculty and students rooted in the virtues that alone make civilization possible and give it the strength to endure.
Students walking around campus
He knew that for four years, we require each of our students to dwell in the Great Books that built Western Civilization in the first place, authors whose study nurtured him, and will once again make our nation a shining city on a hill: Plato, Aristotle, the Bible, Cicero, Plutarch, St. Augustine, Dante, St. Thomas Aquinas, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Jefferson, Madison, de Tocqueville, Hawthorne, Melville, T.S. Eliot, and the other great men and women whose wisdom gives courage its meaning.
He recognized that Thomas More College provides the education our nation needs today --- and countless respected conservatives agree.
Says Patrick Buchanan: "Excellence in every respect is what Thomas More College offers young people. I do not exaggerate when I say that Thomas More College is exactly the kind of college you want your children and your children's children to attend."
And National Review: "In all the hundreds of letters National Review received about scores of different schools, none brought with them an eloquence or a passion the equal of the ones from the friends of Thomas More."
Unfortunately, praise doesn't pay the plumber, Great Books don't win big grants, and we've been slammed by the market's collapse, as have the parents of most of our students.
To help our beleagured students continue their education, we've slashed all non-essential expenses, and last Fall some of our professors even went without pay.
Those cuts have not been enough, and now, with just two weeks left before classes start, we need to raise a final $150,000 to provide our students the aid they need this fall.
You know, our graduates don't merely know the difference between Aeropostale and Aristotle: they understand and value Aristotle, and the other great thinkers whose wisdom undergirds all that is great about our nation.
What Robert Novak said about our students a few years ago at Commencement remains true today:
They are entering the world as something rare today: educated men and women.
Consider what that means: consider the impact that just one such educated man --- Robert Novak --- had these past decades, the young boy who recalled with joy his own entry into such a school: "It was a golden moment for a 17-year-old boy from Joliet, leading to four years of exploration in the riches of our heritage: how barren would be my life without that background!"
Suppose lack of money had exiled the young Robert Novak to a Cliff Note's College.
How barren all our lives would have been!
Please help now, so that not one of our students will have to leave here and enroll somewhere in College Lite.
$50 would be very helpful; $100 even better; but we need to raise $150,000 immediately.
No contribution is too small --- or too large!
And please remember to say a prayer for Robert Novak! He was a good and faithful man, and a good friend to all of us here, and to our students.
William Fahey,
President Thomas More College of Liberal Arts
Six Manchester Street
Merrimack, New Hampshire 03054
Recent accolades for Thomas More College
Ranked as one of the top 50 schools in the country by All-American Colleges: Top Schools for Conservatives, Old-Fashioned Liberals, and People of Faith.
Ranked as one of the nation's top 100 schools in the Intercollegiate Studies Institute's best-selling college guide, Choosing the Right College: The Whole Truth About America's Top Schools.
Featured by Time Magazine in a cover story titled "Who Needs Harvard?" as a unique alternative to large, ivy-league schools for those seeking a rigorous education in the Western tradition.
Included in The National Review College Guide: America's Top Liberal Arts Schools and Cool Colleges, and recommended by the Young America's Foundation.
Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company Resignation Letter
Matthew Freidberger
Was employed to sell new model ornithopters
to the various Continental Kingdoms
for General Oceanic Telegraph
as a sideline. My commission was half.
I must have seemed a sight when we first were together,
to say nothing of yourself — your boots of Brazilian leather!
But it wasn't for the worst, I'd swear to Heaven or Nether.
September sun and the ablative case:
you're tutoring Timmy by the Finger Lakes.
I'd assumed it's you when I was paged;
I'd assumed that we were still engaged.
What is it boy? A message, Sir, was read here via private line.
It's marked received at railroad table 15:13:09.
Well hand it here. I started reading before I said Go, now, fine.
The Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company,
as oozing and black as the holdings of,
if you were resigned from loving me,
would in fairness then insulted by be?
I back and forth and put it to myself from your side;
it's dangerous and difficult but now I do decide:
I certain absolutely never will then be your bride.
I started writing back at once,
but then I stopped.
Later that night I read some of the Two Admirals
then picked up — my sister got it — Modern Flirtations.
Random page, I sat down on the bed:
come across something I've already read.
I back and forth and put it to myself from your side;
it's dangerous and difficult but now I do decide:
I certain absolutely never will then be your bride.
Listen to the song at the bottom of the page...
Was employed to sell new model ornithopters
to the various Continental Kingdoms
for General Oceanic Telegraph
as a sideline. My commission was half.
I must have seemed a sight when we first were together,
to say nothing of yourself — your boots of Brazilian leather!
But it wasn't for the worst, I'd swear to Heaven or Nether.
September sun and the ablative case:
you're tutoring Timmy by the Finger Lakes.
I'd assumed it's you when I was paged;
I'd assumed that we were still engaged.
What is it boy? A message, Sir, was read here via private line.
It's marked received at railroad table 15:13:09.
Well hand it here. I started reading before I said Go, now, fine.
The Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company,
as oozing and black as the holdings of,
if you were resigned from loving me,
would in fairness then insulted by be?
I back and forth and put it to myself from your side;
it's dangerous and difficult but now I do decide:
I certain absolutely never will then be your bride.
I started writing back at once,
but then I stopped.
Later that night I read some of the Two Admirals
then picked up — my sister got it — Modern Flirtations.
Random page, I sat down on the bed:
come across something I've already read.
I back and forth and put it to myself from your side;
it's dangerous and difficult but now I do decide:
I certain absolutely never will then be your bride.
Listen to the song at the bottom of the page...
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