Noise and Nuisance; Bronzino to Babbage

Left to Right: Arthur Schopenhauer, Charles Babbage, Luca Martini


Recently, I've been thinking a lot about Charles Babbage. First, in the context of reading the book The Philosophical Breakfast Club: Four Remarkable Friends Who Transformed Science and Changed the World by Laura J. Synder. The four men are Charles Babbage, John Herschel, William Whewell, and Richard Jones. Synder discusses their lives and contributions during the time when science changed from hobby to profession. I encountered Babbage again at the Computer History Museum where I saw the Babbage Difference Engine #2 in action. What kind of person conceived this big mechanical calculator?

Obviously, Babbage was a visionary genus who was able to see the need for automated calculations and designed machines that could do them. Among other qualities often used describe Babbage are irascible, cranky, prone to bitterness (mostly later in his life), and apt to not forgive or forget perceived insults. It is this darker side that caught my attention in the last chapter of Synder’s book. Synder mentions a chapter from Babbage's Passages from the Life of a Philosopher [1864], which was based on a pamphlet he published called Street Nuisances. As Synder describes it:

Babbage’s difficulties in concentrating led him to believe that his work was being sabotaged by street musicians, especially “organ grinders,” men who went from house to house making music and hoping for some coins in return. These men— many of them immigrants from Italy— would travel through neighborhoods holding large barrel organs.

Babbage lashed out, yelling at the offenders from his window, prosecuting the organ grinders in the courts, and finally publishing a pamphlet on “Street Nuisances,” which he reprinted in his Passages from the Life of a Philosopher. Retaliatory mobs began to follow him about, sometimes one hundred people at a time, shouting and banging on tin drums and blowing horns; dead cats were left on his doorstep, windows were broken, threats on his life were made. 82 Children from the local schools would shout out his name “coupled with offensive adjuncts” whenever they passed the windows of his house.

[Snyder, Laura J. (2011-02-22). The Philosophical Breakfast Club: Four Remarkable Friends Who Transformed Science and Changed the World (pp. 356-357). Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]

Ironically, organ grinders turn a crank to produce a result (noise for Babbage) and the difference engine works by turning a crank to produce a result (a calculation, music to Babbage’s ears likely).

Left to Right: Babbage Difference Engine #2, Organ Grinder, Babbage’s List of Street Nuisances

In the chapter Street Nuisances, in Passages, Babbage comes across as inflexible and crotchety, filled with rancor. His solution to only use public roads for traveling and not for business or amusement doesn’t seem practical even if it might reduce his dreaded street nuisances. And, his disdain for anybody who enjoys music is a perhaps a bit too general: “Those whose thoughts are chiefly occupied with frivolous pursuits or with any other pursuits requiring but little attention from the reasoning or the reflective powers, readily attend to occasional street music.”

These nits aside, I could not help but feel empathy for Babbage and his war against street nuisances. You can sense the frustration and anger in his tone when he writes about noise. He calls the chapter Street Nuisances, but, he could just as well have called it On Noise; he probably would not have included a chapter about street pantomimes.

Cue Schopenhauer

The Babbage chapter reminds me of the essay from Arthur Schopenhauer, On noise, discussed in a previous post, Schopenhauer, On Noise. At the time we wrote that entry, we were living in Florence, and a certain lady and her brood slammed a certain green door with seemingly gleeful abandon that drove me crazy. (We lived above the door. Couldn’t they just quietly close it?) Schopenhauer said in the essay:

There are people, it is true—nay, a great many people—who smile at such things, because they are not sensitive to noise; but they are just the very people who are also not sensitive to argument, or thought, or poetry, or art, in a word, to any kind of intellectual influence. The reason of it is that the tissue of their brains is of a very rough and coarse quality. On the other hand, noise is a torture to intellectual people.

Why are some people more sensitive to noise and others not? I'm writing this as I sit in an apartment (a rented room on a business trip) where the noise from the floor above is merciless. Does anybody else hear it? Am I going crazy?

 

L’angolo italiano

Babbage singles out Italian organ grinders in Street Nuisances. They are the start of a list of musical performers he finds annoying. Schopenhauer mentions a poem by the Italian painter and poet Bronzino (see child sprezzatura) which describes how noisy a small Italian town can be. The poem Schopenhauer refers to is: Il terzo libro delle opere burlesche aggiunto a quelle di m.Francesco Berni, page 288. The title is De’ Romori, A Messer Luca Martini and it starts:

Poichè, l’infermità vostra, e la mia
   N’impedisce il vederli, e’l ragionare,
   La penna invece d’occhi, e lingua sia
Ogni mattina il nostro singulare
   Maestro mi dà nuove, o Luca mio,
   Come la fate, e la siete per fare.

Luca Martini was a Renaissance engineer and friend of Bronzino. My Renaissance Italian translation capabilities are a bit rusty, but the verse doesn’t seem to have quite the same anger that Schopenhauer or Babbage project, but noise or “romor/romori” (in modern Italian it’s rumore) is mentioned many times. The noise of children (romor de’ fanciulli), bells (de le campane, e da i romor discosto), pots and pans that wreck the sleep (sento di piatti, tegami, e scodelle che m'ha per tutta notte il sonno gausto) and even normally “graceful” cats making noise at night (Anche le gatte o che leggiadra usanza trovò natura, arrabbiando la notte, Fanno tanto rumori). What’s not clear is whether the noises bothered Bronzino, Martini, both, or neither and if this was just a mediation on a noisy town. And, Bronzino didn’t mention the green door (la porta verde). Now that would have been cool (fantastico)!

Ballard Grill & Alehouse Mural

Ballard Grill & Alehouse Mural


We drive by this mural a few times a week and never quite get a good glimpse of it. So, early one  Sunday morning walk, we take a closer look. No cars and or people, just a lot of cigarette butts. 

The mural? Kind of an Northwest-Indian themed, Puget Sound, funky city view.  Bonus points for working the gas meter into the scene.

Ballard Grill and Alehouse: A Sunday Morning, a mural, and cigarette butts.

Solar in Seattle – One Year of Data

One Year of Solar Production Data for a Residential House in Seattle (Green = consumption, Yellow = production, Orange = net)


The graph attached to this post describes one year (2013) of data with our solar panels (in the "center of the universe" Fremont). At the beginning of 2013, we brought 14 panels on line, on the roof of our house. Each panel is a SolarWorld Sunmodule SW 255 W Mono Panel (rated for 255 Watts). Now, at the beginning of 2014, we are looking back and are surprised at the following:

• 78% of our electricity for 2013 came from our solar panels. It is the ratio between the yellow and green line in the graph. Or, totally, we generated 4074 kWh over the year and consumed 5,253 kWh.
• On average, we consume 14.4 kWh/day and generate 11.1 kWh/day.
• Our gross usage kWh/day decreased during the year. We think this is because of our increased awareness of energy usage. This is the green line in the graph.
• You really notice when you have guests! Note the points on the graph on 10/1/13 when we had guests and our energy usage spiked.

The graph has three colors:

• Green: our gross KWh/day consumption.
• Yellow: our KWh/day solar production.
• Orange: the net between consumption and production.

Interpretation of the graph:

• The points on the graph are data measurements. They are not equally spaced, i.e., there is a variable amount of days between points. 
• When an orange data point (net) goes below zero, it means we were generating more than we were consuming.
• A colored line reflects the average of the values up to given date.

In the post, Working with Your Solar Array data Using the Enphase API, we describe how we programmatically work with our solar data.

Here’s to a sunny 2014!

System details from Enphase Web Site. Selected Day, June 12 2013, was maximum production day.

Casa Taller Delfin - Lima, Peru

Casa Taller Delfin Sculptures

We were kicking around the Barranco District for our last few days in Peru, staying at the 3B – Barranco’s Bed & Breadkfast. We picked up a map of the district (Descubra Ruta Turística) at the Tourism Information Center inside the Biblioteca Manuel Beingolea in the Parque de Barranco. On the map is the first time we saw a mention of Casa Taller Delfin. When we walked up the entrance on a lazy Sunday afternoon, it seemed closed. The web site is cryptic in that it just prompts you to send an email and gives no further information, but don’t be afraid to send an email to schedule a visit. We ended up going two days later and were led on a pleasant 45 minute tour. Casa Taller Delfin is a B&B (www.secondhomeperu.com), and home to Delfin (“casa”), his studio (“taller” - see the Facebook page for photos), and a gallery. The property is perched on the edge of the cliff overlooking the ocean. As you enter from the street, Jr. Domeyer 366, you immediately encounter the main house which is formal and stately. As you make toward the ocean, you realize that many of the interesting parts of the property, like the studio and gallery are out of sight, clinging to the side of the cliff. Scattered all around the property are interesting sculptures by Delfin.

Victor Delfin (1927 - ) is a Peruvian sculptor and painter who is the creator of the popular and large El Beso (“the kiss) sculpture in the El Parque del Amor (Love Park) in the Miraflores district of Lima. If you visit Casa Taller Delfin, you’ll get a good sampling of his work and likely get to see him working in his studio. When we were there we was working on a large canvas, and he took a break to chat with us for a few minutes. It’s amazing how open Delfin is to visitors and sharing his house.

Left: Victor Delfin at Work in His Studio; Right: Hands Holding Lights (made by Delfin)


Sculptures at Casa Taller Delfin


El Beso (The Kiss) in El Parque del Amor (love Park), Miraflores

Church + Lie Stencil

We saw a few of these stenciled images while walking around the Miraflores and Barranco districts of Peru.

Church + Lie and Hand Shadow (a gallinazo?)

Larco Museum, Lima Peru

Left: View of Larco Museum Entrance from Garden;
Middle: Chimu Idol - Imperial Epoch;
Right: Shelves in the Pottery Storeroom

After our trek to Machu Picchu, we spent a few days in Lima. One of the places we were eager to visit was the Museo Larco and we were not disappointed. We spent about five hours there which included a leisurely lunch in the museum café.

The museum setting, a 18^th century vice-royal building and a central garden area, is just the kind of ambiance you might need to take a break from the hustle and bustle of Lima. The museum was founded in 1926 by Rafael Larco Hoyle (1901 – 1966), who is considered as one of the founders of Peruvian archaeology.

A cool fact: Before radiocarbon dating was invented (1949), Larco Hoyle proposed a chronology of pre-Columbian cultures based on the El Niño phenomenon, which occurs every 18 to 25 years. With the phenomenon, the Peru coast get torrential rains that lead to a distinctive alluvial deposit for each event. Counting the layers, he developed a way to place the different Peruvian cultures in time. This chronology is the starting point for you visit in the museum (also here on online). It’s a grid with locations in Peru (north, central, coast, mountains) for the columns, and “Peruvian Epochs” for the rows. Note that the Inca are in the second row, the Imperial Epoch.

Left: Peruvian Pre-Columbian Cultures; Right: Three Pitchers (Urpus)

In one sense, the museum isn’t large, but in another sense, there is a lot to engage visitors interested in learning more about ancient Peruvian cultures. The explanations in the permanent exhibition space are excellent and are provided in six languages (Spanish, English, French, Italian, German, and Japanese). One of the rooms of the exhibition spaces is a reference room where you can relax for a few moments, review one of many reference books, or use a computer to view the online catalog.

Speaking of online catalog, kudos to the museum’s website, which is one of the best I’ve encountered. It’s informative and allows you to get details (images included) of pieces you might have seen. The interactive map of the permanent exhibit lets you choose a room and a location in the room to view the items there. (For information wonks like us who want to reconstruct the details of what we saw, this is heaven.) The museum’s pieces can also be viewed in Google’s Art Project, which provides a compelling way to browse the collection.

Other parts of the museum to not miss: the erotic gallery and the pottery storeroom. The erotic gallery is located near the café in two rooms, separate from the main gallery. The pottery storeroom, is just off the main reception courtyard, and is mind-boggling in that you are allowed to visit it and for its orderly shelves of 35,000 pieces of pottery.

Left: Chimu Metal Work; Right: Gold Headdresses Moche, Florescent Epoch (1 AD - 800 AD)

Left: View of Central Garden in the Larco Museum; Right: Pottery Storeroom - Mochica Portrait Ceramics



The Storeroom, the Other 95% of the Collection

The Gallinazo of the Barranco District

Iglesia La Ermita de Barranco with Gallinazo (Black Vultures)

It’s the little things that stick in your mind, like why would all these vulture-like birds be perched on a church in the Barranco district of Lima? Yeah, the Bridge of Sighs (Puente de los Suspiros) and the walkway to the sea (Bajada de los Baños) are cool, but those birds are much cooler.

The church in question is the Iglesia La Ermita. It has a nice, ochre-colored front, but on closer inspection, the church is abandoned, with the ceiling barely holding together. When we asked at the information center in the nearby Parque de Barranco and showed the women the picture of the church with the birds (flapping our arms for emphasis), she said the word “gallinazo” which would be a Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus).

According to the Wikipedia entry for the Barranco District, “[t]he cliffs of Chorrillos shield Barranco from colder and more humid winds coming from the South. As a result, Barranco has a micro-climate that is warmer and drier than many of the other districts of Lima, which are generally more humid, especially between May and October.” We are wondering if this micro-climate is why the vultures congregate here. Or, it could just a convenient (abandoned) location near the coast that they can easily ride the thermals or scavenge fish. We never saw them eating anything, so perhaps they dine in other Lima districts and just sleep in the Barranco?  We noticed that while the vultures perch on the church during the day, they seem to go to the trees in a nearby park to roost for the evening. 

Left: The Chorrillos District as Viewed from the Barranco District; Center and Right: More Views of the Iglesia La Ermita

Birds on Crosses – Symbolic?

The Ice Cream Man Cometh

We spent a few days recently in Lima, specifically the Barranco and Miraflores districts. What struck me immediately were the ever-present D’Onofrio Ice Cream vendors. They pedal around on their three-wheeled bikes with a bright yellow cooler of goodies. Their alert call – made on something like a kazoo – sounds like a strange duck. The vendors are both men and women, usually older in age. They ride up and down the malecons (esplanades) that run along the cliffs of these two districts.

(The title of this post is a play on the title of the play, The Iceman Cometh.)

D’Onofrio Vendors in the Miraflores District of Lima, Peru 2013
 

Peru: Kingdoms of the Sun and the Moon @ the Seattle Art Museum

Left: Exhibition Brochure; Right: Ceramic Ceremonial Stirrup Bottle Representing Duality (from the Larco Museum Collection)


The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) exhibit, Peru: Kingdoms of the Sun and the Moon (Oct 17, 2013 – Jan 5, 2014), presents objects spanning 3,000 years of ancient Peruvian culture. We went to the exhibit just a few days before leaving for Peru on a trek to Machu Picchu. While in Peru, we visited the Inca Museum (Museo Inka) in Cusco, the Museo Convento de Santo Domingo Qorikancha in Cusco, a few key archeological sites – including Machu Picchu and Llaqtapata, and the beautiful Museo Larco in Lima. After returning from Peru and pondering what we saw, we can say that the SAM exhibition was a very good overview. Okay, there may be a touch of nostalgia here.

In the SAM exhibition, the emphasis on the Inca did not dominate, because the Incas period was part of a much longer and richer history. The Spanish conquered the Incas. In the process, they simultaneously extirpated Inca beliefs and blended them, syncretically, into a palatable Christian formula for the conquered people. The conquest and subjugation, combined with the relative closeness in time of the Incas, 15 and 16^th centuries, gave rise to the idea that the Incas were the only culture that existed in ancient Peru. This idea continues to dominate even today. When you quiz friends about ancient Peruvian cultures, they are likely, maybe, to just come up with “Inca”. Few will mention “Moche”, “Chimu”, “Nasca”, or “Lambayeque” to name a few.

Archaeology in Peru began to blossom in the early 20^th century under Rafael Hoyle Larco (the Museo Larco founder). Today, it seems that archaeological investigation is very much a hot topic for at least two reasons. The first reason is that what they are finding in Peru is recasting the idea of cradles of civilization. Peru has now been added to the list of places where civilization arose independently. The second reason is that there is a lot of money at stake. Developing the sites and the recognition of Peru’s archaeological heritage means a lot of potential future money, be it tourist-related, science, or otherwise.

One other thing we appreciated about the SAM exhibit was the emphasis on understanding ancient Peruvian culture through the concept of opposing forces, dualities like light/dark, sun/moon, life/death, and sky/earth. This idea was reinforced time and time again while we were in Peru. The ceramic artifacts at the Museo Larco show the concept clearly, in particular the stirrup bottles, like the Moche style ceramic ceremonial vessel (1 AD – 800 AD) shown here.

Left: Representation of Peruvian Cultures – Information from the Larco Museum; Right: SAM Exhibit: machu picchu after dark by William Cordova

Resources for Understanding the Plants of Peru and Machu Picchu

In this post we list resources we found useful for understanding the plants of Peru, and in particular, ones you might see in and around Machu Picchu. Some of the resources we used to help identify plants while in Peru. Other resources we discovered after we returned.

In Peru, we did the Machu Picchu: 10-Day Lodge Trek sponsored by REI. (Our route was from Mollepata to Machu Picchu using the Salkantay route. From Mollepata we headed north, then west around the west side of Salkantay mountain, over the Salkantay Pass. We stayed at each of the four Mountain Lodges of Peru locations. At the Central Hidroelectrica Machu Picchu project, we took a train to Aguas Calientes, at the base of Machu Picchu. For more information, see our post Machu Picchu 10-Day Lodge Trek, Salcantay Route. 

Ten Resources About Plants of Machu Picchu

1. Flowers of Machu Picchu, Including orchids (Flores de Machu Picchu, Incluye orquídeas) by Gino Cassinelli Del Sante and Daniel Huamán Chang. We did not know about this book before leaving on the trip, but once in Cusco, the book seemed to be everywhere. We bought our copy in the Museo de Plantas Sagradas, Magicas y Medicinales. This book is the most helpful for identifying flowers in and around Machu Picchu. For the approach to Machu Picchu on the Salkantay route, it was less useful.

2. Presenting Peru & Machupicchu by Lic. Saydí M. Negrón Romero.
We purchased this book on the steps of the Quorikancha in Peru, from the author herself, nonetheless! It is a handy book that covers many aspects of Peru and Machu Picchu. While it’s not a comprehensive guide for plants (there are a few pages dedicated to plants), it is still a great little book to carry with you.

Front and Back Covers of Flowers of Machu Picchu (left) and Presenting Peru & Machupicchu (Right)

3. Trees and Bushes from the Sacred Valley of the Incas (Árboles y Arbustos del Valle Sagrado de los Incas) by Gino Cassinelli Del Sante. This is one of the three books we purchased before leaving on the trip. Even though we did not spend any time in the Sacred Valley, the information in the book was still useful for identifying plants on our trek. The information in the book is in both English and Spanish.

Front and Back Covers of Arboles y Arbustos del Valle Sagrado de los Incas

4. Flowers of the Inca Trail by Oscar Olazábal Castillo. This was a book loaned to us by our guide. It was very useful for identifying flowers we were seeing on the trail during our trek from Mollepata to Machu Picchu.

5. Flores Silvestres de la Cordillera Blanca (Wildflowers of the Cordillera Blanca) by Helen and Kees Kolff. Published by the Mountain Institute, this book was also loaned to us by our guide. Note that it covers the Cordillera Blanca region in the Ancach Region of Peru and Machu Picchu and the Salkantay trek are in the Cusco Region, which is south and east. See Regions of Peru.

Front and Back Covers of Flowers of the Inca Trail (left) and Wildflowers of the Cordillera Blanca(Right)

6. Peru: Travellers’ Wildlife Guides by David L. Pearson and Les Beletsky. This guide is a bit overwhelming at first glance, especially if you are travelling to just one part of Peru (like Machu Picchu). It’s strength is that you can keep coming back to it to build your general understanding of ecosystems and common plants and animals. The section on plants contains illustrations of some common plants found throughout Peru and is of limited use if you are just visiting Machu Picchu. This is the second of the three books we purchased before the trip.

7. Biogeographica: Plants, Man and the Land in the Vilcanota Valley of Peru by Daniel W. Gade. This is the third of the three books we purchased before the trip. From the preface: “The content of this book goes beyond the realm of most treaties on ethnobotany, and is better described as a ‘cultural biogeography’.” While definitely not a field guide, it has a lot of useful information. For example, while near the town of La Playa, we saw the tamarillo or tree tomato (Solanum betaceum) and wakatay (Tagetes minuta) as a seasoning herb. Both are described in Biogeographica (page 70) under the section Plant Use in Peasant Life. However, it’s the kind of information you might read ahead of time, but would not retain. It took the walking, the heat, the awe of seeing the plants, and the asking of the question “What’s that!?” to really make it real. That said, this book (like Traveller’s Wildlife Guide) is the kind of book you can pick up to validate something you saw and go deeper.

Front and Back Covers of Peru Travellers’ Wildlife Guides (left) and Biogeographica: Plants, Man and the Land in the Vilcanota Valley of Peru (right)

8. Field Musem Plant Guides > Rapid Color Guides (plants/Peru) from the Field Museum, Chicago contains many very helpful guides. You might consider printing this out and/or taking them electronically. Some particular helpful guides include:

• Conspicuous Plants of Machu Picchu
• Ericaceae of Machu Picchu
• Orchids of Machu Picchu
• Medicinal Plants of Peru
  

9. Inkaterra Hotel Field Guides. The Inkaterra Hotel in Machu Picchu Pueblo (where we stayed) has guided bird watching and plant discovery tours. Their orchid guide [PDF] lists orchids in their gardens.

10. Peruvian Wildlife: A Visitor's Guide to the Central Andes.

Plantas Medicinales del Peru / Field Museum

Other Resources

1. Catalogue of the Flowering Plants And Gymnosperms of Peru / Catalogo De Las Angiospermas Y Gimnospermas Del Peru

2. A Field Guide to the Families and Genera of Woody Plants of North west South America

3. Biodiversity Heritage Library – Flora of Peru. These are resources for specialists.

4. The Museo di Sitio Machupicchu, Jardín Botánico has lists of what’s in the garden that includes common names for plants.

5. Videos of medicinal plants: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oyJKt1w2Q8 (part 1 - 4). They are a little hard to understand, but there is some useful information.

6. Blogs and web sites:

• The v e r d e c h a c o blog is about plants that seem to be specific to South America.
• Inca Trailz has a few common flowers. A summit post entry has some Andean flowers.
• Some South Amerianc Plant and Nature pictures information.
• A flickr stream of nice photos (but with little identifying info).
• One account of the a hike on an Inca Trail to Machu Picchu with emphasis at flora.
• One internal ministry report that discusses forests. This section of the report talks about families of plants and specific species. While this section has lists of plants with common tree names like “toroq” (my favorite).

7. Translations and Dictionaries. Diccionario: Quechua-Espanol-Quechua - http://www.illa-a.org/cd/ (look for “Bot.” botanical references) and this site which has some Quechua words.

8. Ethnobotany of Chinchero, an Andean Community in Southern Peru. Fieldiana Botany, New Series No. 24, 1-126. Chinchero is Just north of Cusco. This ethnobotany study contains good information about common uses for plants and meanings of some plant common names, among other things.