M&D - Chapter 19 - albedo
Elisabeth Romberg
eromberg at mac.com
Fri Apr 10 15:23:41 CDT 2015
«Eyelids fluttering over Eyeballs of increased Albedo»
What a great use of the word Albedo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo>
Albedo (/ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English>æ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key>l <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key>ˈ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key>b <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key>iː <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key>d <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key>oʊ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key>/ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English>), or reflection coefficient, derived from Latin <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin> albedo "whiteness" (or reflected sunlight) in turn from albus "white", is the diffuse reflectivity <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffuse_reflection> or reflecting power of a surface.
It is the ratio of reflected radiation from the surface to incident radiation upon it. Its dimensionless <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimensionless_number> nature lets it be expressed as a percentage and is measured on a scale from zero for no reflection of a perfectly black surface to 1 for perfect reflection of a white surface.
The chapter ends on a dismal note. Mason is actually looking forwards to meeting his relations again.
Dismal:
adjective
1.
causing gloom or dejection; gloomy; dreary; cheerless; melancholy:
dismal weather.
2.
characterized by ineptness or lack of skill, competence, effectiveness,imagination, or interest; pitiful:
Our team played a dismal game.
3.
Obsolete.
disastrous; calamitous.
unlucky; sinister.
> 10. apr. 2015 kl. 22.11 skrev Elisabeth Romberg <eromberg at mac.com>:
>
> After that there is a paragraph about Death, the Dead, about Rebekah - the many-Lens’d, Marriage, vows and faithfulness. But I really want to jump ahead to the next page, partly because I don’t really get what this passage is about other than Mason pining for Rebekah again (sorry), (or possibly to set up the great hilarity of the next page), partly because on the top of the next page it says Druids!
>
> Mason is seriously off on one, talking about these alien servants coming to work at the castle at Glouster. «Nothing like it since the Druids.» Playing on «Chimes of Crystal Anitimony (anti-money, Jerome?) A lustrous gray metalloid <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metalloid>, according to wiki. And the tunes are not linear but repetitive, circular, sort of like house-music?
>
> This whole bit about them come to colonize the eleven days is hilarious. Page 196 is one of my favorite pages so far. Mason is really going for it! Good lad.
>
>
>> 10. apr. 2015 kl. 21.34 skrev Elisabeth Romberg <eromberg at mac.com <mailto:eromberg at mac.com>>:
>>
>> This is made more sinister when we return to the point of view of the pub, that there was something, a frightening Presence, at Shirburn Castle. What was it?
>>
>> The Earl and «The Presence" required servants who lived in another relation to Time - as far east as Stepney Green! *shudder*
>>
>> ---
>>
>> Here is a great article from the Guardian on Macclesfield’s main helpers and the equipment at the observatory at the castle:
>> http://www.theguardian.com/science/the-h-word/2013/apr/23/picture-science-astronomy-history-observatory <http://www.theguardian.com/science/the-h-word/2013/apr/23/picture-science-astronomy-history-observatory>
>>
>> Macclesfield was a remarkable individual. He was instructed in mathematics by Abraham De Moivre <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Moivre> and William Jones <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jones_(mathematician)>, and the sciences became his passion. Under Jones's influence he formed an exceptionally important collection of 17th-century mathematical manuscripts <http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0012%2FMS%20Add.9597> and books <http://rsnr.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/60/1/5.full>. He erected his observatory with the assistance of James Bradley <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bradley>, then Savilian Professor of astronomy at Oxford and later Astronomer Royal.
>>
>> —
>>
>> The castle is empty today and in need of substantial repair. These photos of the castle in its current state are haunting and beautiful.
>> https://www.flickr.com/photos/truebritishmetal/sets/72157630713571448/ <https://www.flickr.com/photos/truebritishmetal/sets/72157630713571448/>
>> ——
>>
>> The current Earl of Macclesfield just made a bomb selling off the library in 2004.
>> http://www.standard.co.uk/news/whos-laughing-now-7298779.html <http://www.standard.co.uk/news/whos-laughing-now-7298779.html>
>> His totally unknown family library, which in November reaches the fourth of what will be up to 13 auctions at Sotheby's, has turned out to be one of the most important ever sold - comparable, though very different, to the famed book collections of the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth, the Duke of Roxburghe at St James's Square and Earl Spencer at Althorp.
>>
>> The trophy of trophies in November, at the auction of science books by authors D to H, will be Galileo's Sidereus Nuncius, in which he announced his discovery of the moons of Jupiter. It is estimated at £250,000-£350,000. Books by Isaac Newton are to come in 2005. Sotheby's is keeping details up its sleeve.
>>
>> —
>>
>>
>>
>>> 10. apr. 2015 kl. 21.09 skrev Elisabeth Romberg <eromberg at mac.com <mailto:eromberg at mac.com>>:
>>>
>>> noblesse oblige (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noblesse_oblige <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noblesse_oblige>)
>>>
>>> Noblesse oblige is a French <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language> phrase literally meaning "obligation of Nobility". It is the concept that nobility extends beyond mere entitlements and requires the person with such status to fulfill social responsibilities, particularly in leadership roles.
>>>
>>> Macclesfield held the honorary position as vice president at the Foundling hospital, but as it turns out on page 194, there is much, much more to being part of the ruling elite… This includes, in Macclesfield’s words, big lying, feelings of Remorse (doubt it), sacrifices… (so we’ve heard).
>>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20150410/e299682e/attachment.html>
More information about the Pynchon-l
mailing list