Year: 2012

 

Exodus Lost by S.S.Compton is easier to describe by saying what it isn’t than what it is.  Despite having a lot about the Bible in it, it isn’t a book with any particular angle on religion.  It isn’t a conventional history book.  And it isn’t a crazy ‘Chariots of the Gods’ style fairy story.  So what is it?  It is a very good read, and because it has a sort of detective story feel to it, I don’t really want to talk about the contents.  You don’t often have to worry about spoilers reviewing history books.  But in this case the fun is seeing the case being built up. Let’s just say it covers the question of whether or not there was communication between Ancient Egypt and the civilisations of South America.

 

The early years of the reign of Gratian, who came to the throne at the age of 19 were very promising. He defeated the Lentienses at the battle of Colmar freeing Gaul from the threat of German invasion. He also solved the problem of who should rule the Eastern empire by the canny appointment of the very able Theodosius. If that was the measure of the youthful Gratian,things seemed set for a glorious reign as he matured. But it soon turned out that the early successes were down to good advice from the people placed around him by his father. They didn’t reflect the character of Gratian himself.

With the emperor dead and two thirds of his army destroyed Adrianople was one of the major setbacks in Roman history.  In fact it has often been regarded as one of the decisive battles in the decline and fall of the Roman empire. It was certainly regarded as extremely serious by the people at the time.  Accounts of the battle and its aftermath take on apocalyptic tones, almost literally so in the case of Saint Jerome.  Jerome is recognised as one of the founding fathers of both the Catholic and Orthodox churches.  His writing on the issue comes with a rather biblical tone.  He describes the entire area of the Balkans being depopulated, not just human beings but animals as well and even the fish in the rivers leaving nothing between the Earth and the sky but barren wasteland.  Serious and harrowing stuff indeed.

I was shocked to hear the news that women will not be allowed to become bishops in the Church of England.  I had no idea that they were banned in the first place.  I had thought that when they were allowed to join the clergy in the first place, that opened up the whole hierarchy.  Oh well, it is only the C of E.  It is not as if it is anything that important.  In fact, I should have realised that if there was a crazy option to take on the subject of gender, the established church was likely to take it.

I only have to look at some of the curious arrangements in the churches in the little bit of the patchwork of the English countryside where I happen to live.   The local Catholic priest lives with his wife.  He can only do that on the basis of a special dispensation from the Pope.  He used to be an Anglican vicar who went over to the Catholics over the issue of women priests.  The Catholics were flexible enough to allow married ex-Anglican clergy to sign up even if they were married.  Not too far away a former Catholic priest has turned Anglican.  He was obliged to make the switch when he fell in love and got married.  Not all local clergy have such problems I should point out.  The previous vicar in the Church nearest to me was a confirmed bachelor, who was happy to make do with the companionship of a good friend who lived in with him.  So that was alright.

The opening lines of Henry V, the ‘Oh for a muse of fire’ ones, are justly famous for their beauty and literary flare.  But at the end of the day, they are basically an excuse for poor staging.  We are being told that the actors are doing their best but you’ll have to use your imagination to fill in the dots.

Since the time of the first emperor. Augustus, there had been a rough equilibrium between the empire and the German tribes.  The empire had been too big for the Germans to defeat, but too overextended to threaten their independence.  But with the Huns now about to wipe out the Germans the position had changed.  The equilibrium was wrecked.  The Goths understood the change in the situation sooner than anyone else.

The origin of the Huns is obscure.  Gibbon traces it back to early first century when they were known as the Tanjou and lived on the borders of China just north of the Great Wall. This was not a coincidence. The Tanjou were a force to be reckoned with.  They had put together a vast coalition of steppe peoples via diplomacy, war and straight forward intimidation.  They had become powerful enough that they threatened to overthrow the ruling dynasty in China itself.  The first wall built by the Chinese was a specific response to this threat.

“If a thing can be said in ten words, I may be relied upon to take a hundred to say it. I ought to apologize for that. I ought to prune, pare and extirpate excess growth, but I will not. I like words – strike that, I love words.” – The Fry Chronicles

 

A celebrity autobiography can be the story of the persons life, with a narrative arc leading to their final success.  Or it can be an exploration of what makes the person tick.  Or it can be an amusing collection of anecdotes about the famous.  Or if you are Stephen Fry with a love of words and seemingly endless stock of clever turns of phrase, you can mix all three.  The result, the Fry Chronicles, is like a big pile of sweets – the sort some people do for Christmas with lots of different treats in a big bowl.  And as it happens, big piles of sweets feature prominently in the early chapters as we hear in huge detail just how addicted the young Fry was to sugar in all its forms and just how much trouble that got him into.

I was saddened, like many others, to hear of the death of Eric Hobsbawm today.  What I didn't expect was that it would make it as a trending topic on…

The Misbehavior of Markets: A Fractal View of Financial Turbulence

Benoit Mandelbrot was one of the great innovators of the twentieth century and will be forever linked with the science he named, fractal geometry.  Fractals pop up all over the place, but one place that they can be found is in economic data.  Could you use this insight to make money?