Today I Am Out

In the end , i did not go to Faversham yesterday. Much done here of course , including that lengthy music meme, listening to some Chopin, doing some reading , listening to the latest Doctor Who audio drama on BBC Radio 4 Extra, and some reading.

Yes, as always, three books on the go and an electronic one on the tablet.

However, i will be out today as i have in my diary a oub food and drink visit to do.

Meanwhile, continuing my overview of English composers, here is another less well known craftsman of that orchestral sound.

Gerald Finzi - Romance For String Orchestra

Romance for String Orchestra Op.25 by Gerald Finzi (1901-1956). London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult.

Absolutely gorgeous music.

More Finzi Music

More English music from Gerald Finzi. Finzi's feelings for the Arcadian English landscape speak just speak eloquently here.

Gerald Finzi - A Severn Rhapsody - Op.3

The person that posted this on You Tube took these pics in the Derbyshire Peak District, and although the title of Finzi's music here refers to the Valley of the River Severn in a different part of England, the feeling of Arcadian bucolic delight for the countryside is the same.

Gerald Finzi - Nocturne, Op. 7

Gobsmackingly beautiful music once again.

The Germans once accused us of being a land without music. With these blog entires of post-romantic English music they should think again.

Come On ...

Come on weather, i need the sunshine,
the rays of happiness,
not this grey murky slate coloured sky.

I want the blue and the yellow,
I want it warm and fine,
as i am going out to my Sunday lunch,
and once satiated with food and beer
will feel all mellow.
That will be clear!

I need my dose of sunshine!
Not rain,nor thunder , but dry.
Or i will fall into a deep melancholic sigh.

Puccini, Jenny , Giles and Passion

Thinking back to the music meme for Q16 i could have chosen this one as it is used quite devastatingly in a TV series that i love.

Puccini - O Soave Fanciulla (La Boheme)
by Anna Netrebko & Rolando Villazón

I am talking of course about BtVS Season 2 "Passion" where Angelus kills Miss Calendar and puts her in Giles bed, with roses going down the staircase. Giles discovers that, instead of a night of passion, she has been placed there by the sadistic vampire whom became de-souled,due to a Gypsy curse, when Buffy had sex with Angel.

Hers is a montage to remember the eventual untimely death of Jenny Calendar -

Oh and this is where Angelus snaps her neck -

Monologues are rare in Buffy,and generally controversial , but this was most affecting. Hankies out time guys and gals.

Dru and Spike are always fun to watch.

The episode still chokes me up, even now.

PS. A brilliant choice by Joss Whedon to include such a powerful aria from an opera in essentially a teen culture based TV series.

Magna Carta Celebrations In Faversham

Whilst i was in Faversham today getting some pipe tobacco i heard some music as i walked to the newsagent. it was a celebration day of Magna Carta. The musical troupe were playing medieval music from the period.










I also took a short video of the music, and then some idiot barged in to the back of me, hence the shaky ending.

The Philosophy of the Large Hadron Collider

This article is from the Guardian and as i am into both science and philosophy i thought it was appropriate to paste it here -

The Philosophy of the Large Hadron Collider


The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research CERN in Geneva is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator and possibly the most complex scientific instrument ever built. The LHC has just begun its second three-year run, at the record-breaking collision energy of 13 TeV. About 10,000 scientists from 60 countries will search for new phenomena beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, in pursuit of a simple, beautiful and all-encompassing theory of nature.

The sheer complexity of the LHC experiments, and of LHC data acquisition and processing, poses tremendous challenges and affects the way knowledge is acquired. Since any analysis and interpretation of LHC data involves theoretical models and computer simulations, can one still consider such experimental results indisputable facts of nature? And given the strong theoretical bias in data selection, can the LHC explore unknown territory, or are we limited to search for the “known unknowns”? And what if we look in the wrong places? Maybe our idea of a simple and yet all-encompassing is flawed, and new physics could show up in some unexpected way? Could one not perform searches for new physics at the LHC in a model-independent way?

The relationship between computer simulations and experiment, between theories and data, and the role of models in modern particle physics are scientific issues. But they are also key questions of philosophy of science, and they have been debated at the recent interdisciplinary workshop on ‘Models, simulations and data at LHC’, organised by Michela Massimi at Edinburgh University.

Jon Butterworth from UCL set the stage for the workshop by outlining the quantity and nature of the data acquired by the LHC. Jon discussed the use of simulations - both of the detectors and of the unknown or known underlying physics - in defining and making measurements. Given the importance of simulations and theory in LHC data taking and analysis, should we still consider the LHC an exploratory experiment? Koray Karaca from Wuppertal argued that even though the physics program of the LHC and the set-up of the experiments is not independent of theory, there is a significant element of exploration at the LHC, an exploration that is strategy – rather than theory – driven.

The challenge of dealing with “really big data” and computer simulations at the LHC has been addressed by Margaret Morrison from the University of Toronto. Margaret argued that the enormous amount of data collected and analysed at the LHC has transformed the notion of validation for computer simulations and introduced methodological changes which raise various new epistemological issues.

I have been exploring so-called simplified models for new physics searches at the LHC. Such models focus on specific experimental signatures that could reveal physics beyond the Standard Model, and they characterise these signatures with a minimal set of new particles and interactions in a more model-independent way. Simplified models are thus some kind of mediator between experiment and theory, and they allow physicists to (learn to!) explore the space of viable theories and experimental signatures. However, the use of simplified models also raises various epistemological questions: How do we choose the right simplified models? How do simplified models connect to theory? And what does a simplified model actually explain and how?

There have been many tedious and futile discussions about the value of philosophy for modern science. I find it much more interesting and fruitful to ask if and in what way modern science can advance philosophy. The complexity, the new challenges and the new methods that arise in modern science in general - and at the LHC in particular - raise a number of questions that concern core issues of philosophy of science: what are the methods of acquiring knowledge, what is the role of models, and how does the intricate relationship between theory, computer simulations and experimental data work? The LHC has been built for fundamental physics, but it will also challenge and advance the philosophy, sociology and history of science!

Michael Krämer is a theoretical particle physicist at the RWTH Aachen University and member of a research collaboration on the Epistemology of the LHC. He is grateful to Margaret Morrison for many enlightening discussions on models, football and whisky.