Table turning (table tipping)

Table Turning or "Table Tipping" is a type of seance in which participants sit around a table, place their hands on it, and wait for rotations. The table was purportedly made to serve as a means of communicating with the spirits; the alphabet would be slowly called over and the table would tilt at the appropriate letter, thus spelling out words and sentences.

(Spirituality, New Age, Astrology & Self-help / Alternative Belief Systems) the movement of a table attributed by spiritualists to the power of spirits working through a group of persons placing their hands or fingers on the table top.

The Scottish surgeon James Braid, the English physiologist W. B. Carpenter and others pointed out, however, that the phenomena could depend upon the expectation of the sitters, and could be stopped altogether by appropriate suggestion.

English performer Derren Brown recreated this with four random audience members being asked to place their hands on a table and then using the power of suggestion to have them move the table around and across the stage even though individually they all said they were not moving the table.

This was effected by repeatedly telling those with their hands on the table that if the table started to move (to the back of the stage, for example) then they shouldn't try to stop it. If it starts to move just let it move don't try to stop it.


This reflects the movement being based on unconscious muscular action caused by an expectation of where and how the table would move.

Mise en abyme

Mural incorporating an image of the Hagia Sophia on a wall inside the actual Hagia Sophia

Mise en abyme (French pronunciation: [miz‿ɑ̃n‿abim]; also mise en abîme) is a term originally from the French and means "placed into abyss".

Droste Effect

Also knows as the "Droste Effect" from its popularisation on the packaging of the Dutch brand of Droste cocoa powder showing a recursive image of a nurse holding a tray on which is another package of Droste.

Hamlet Example

Shakespeare's Hamlet is a literal example of a mise-en-abyme with the play including a troupe of performers staging plays within the play.

This device has been used in other plays such as the British play ‘The Dresser’ by Ronald Harwood which revolves around a Shakespearean troupe during WW2 who are putting on a season of King Lear (not Hamlet).

The Animals Stricken with The Plague - La Fontaine

 The Animals Stricken with The Plague

A sickness that sows frightful seeds,
Sickness that heaven's anger framed
To be fit punishment for earth's immense misdeeds:
The plague (for evils must at last be named),
With power in one day to flood deep Acheron,
Now struck the animals full force.
And though not all would die, all will to live was gone—
When death is nigh, why struggle to delay its course?
The usual snarling over morsels ceased,
The foxes and the wolves no longer chased
The innocent and curly-fleeced,
The turtle doves flew off in mutual distaste:
If love is gone, joy is erased.
At last the Lion called a meeting. "My dear friends,"
He said, "I think these trials show that heaven intends
To tell us that our sins have made us all accursed.
So let us find the one of us whose crimes are worst
To draw the lightning on his head alone
And, hopefully, at one stroke atone
For all. For history teaches that in times of crisis
One often makes these sacrifices.
So search your consciences, look deep inside,
Reveal the ugly thing you always thought to hide.
Hold nothing back, wipe clean the slate:
A public confession is good for the state!
My awful appetite, for example, has made me prey
To gluttony. I've eaten flocks of sheep. Had they
Harmed me at all? No, not in any way.
So that was wrong, of course. But wait—
There is more. I must admit that sometimes it occurred
That, inadvertently, besides the sheep, I also ate
The shepherd.
So I will be your victim—if that proves necessary.
But each must first confess as honestly as I,
For in the name of Justice, the guiltiest must die."
"Oh, Sire," said the Fox, "We have the best of kings,
Whose scruples show his noble soul. But, I ask, why
Is eating mutton a sin? Those low, retarded things
Were honored when you ate them. And, I observe,
Those shepherds got what such imperialists deserve,
The human race, exploiters all." To huge applause,
The Fox sat down. Nor did one soul dare criticize
The Tiger or the Bear or such high-ranking jaws
As having broken even the tiniest, little laws.
And the ferocious mastiffs were just friendly guys
Who'd never bitten a soul, without good cause.
It came the Ass's turn. "I recollect," he said,
"That once in spring I crossed a field
Of grass so sweet and tender I commenced to yield
To devilish desires that popped into my head
And took a bite broad as my tongue of that good hay.
I had no right. My conscience warned me to say nay!"
At that, the assembly shouted, "Shame upon the Ass!"
And then a Wolf, a preacher of the saintly class,
Declaimed that nothing less sufficed
Than that this curséd beast posthaste be sacrificed,
This scabby, scurvy object, source of these bad events.
His minor tort became a capital offense.
How gross a crime it was to eat another's grass!
No penalty short of death could pay
For such a sin—and that is just what came to pass
Without appreciable delay.

Depending on your social height,
The law will see your crime as black—or else as white.

Jean de La Fontaine, 1621-1695

Gresham's Law of Coinage

Gresham's law is an economic principle that states: "When a government compulsorily overvalues one type of money and undervalues another, the undervalued money will leave the country or disappear from circulation into hoards, while the overvalued money will flood into circulation." It is commonly stated as: "Bad money drives out good", but is more accurately stated: "Bad money drives out good if their exchange rate is set by law."

It can also be applied to the consequences of government price controls for example a possible outcome of setting a maximum price for tomatoes might be that only poor quality tomatoes are offered for sale at that maximum price while good quality tomatoes are sold on the black market at whatever price the market will bear.

Eminent Domain

Eminent domain (United States, the Philippines), compulsory purchase (United Kingdom, New Zealand, Ireland), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Australia), or expropriation (South Africa and Canada) is "the power to take private property for public use by a state, municipality, or private person or corporation authorized to exercise functions of public character, following the payment of just compensation to the owner of that property."

New York 1940s 

 

  Built in the 1940s to house returning WWII veterans, with the help of eminent domain and public subsidies, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village are remarkable for remaining an affordable, middle-class community amid Manhattan's spiraling luxury housing market. The residents who live there perceived that the sale put their community at risk and that the stakes were even higher for them than for the bidders. "The future for the lives of 25,000 people is at stake," Nanette Ross, a 20-year resident, told the New York Times.  

 China 

Luo had just completed his house at a cost of about 600,000 yuan ($95,000) when the government first approached him with their standard offer of 220,000 ($35,000) to move out — which he refused, Chen said. The offer has since gone up to 260,000 yuan ($41,000).

What is unusual in Luo's case is that his house has been allowed to stand for so long. It is common for local authorities in China to take extreme measures, such as cutting off utilities or moving in to demolish when residents are out for the day.

Luo told local reporters his electricity and water are still flowing, and that he and his wife sleep in separate parts of the home to deter any partial demolition.

NSW 

THE state government's plan to set up a development authority with powers to compulsorily acquire private property for resale to developers is anathema to elected representatives of local government, but not necessarily to the professional planners who work for councils.
The elected councillors view another planning authority as a further dilution of their powers and responsibilities. But many council planners see it as the ultimate outcome of the failure of current development processes.

Potential sites to house Sydney's burgeoning population are disappearing fast and the government's plan is to increase density in established suburbs. This is cheaper than greenfield development on the city fringe which requires huge expenditure on new infrastructure.

A prime target for compulsory purchase would be small apartment blocks in strategic locations that could accommodate larger developments. At present a single apartment owner can frustrate efforts to amalgamate such sites.

Cronulla is one location that developers would target because existing buildings do not make the most of available potential.

The director of environmental services at Sutherland council, John Brunton, agrees that development in the beachside suburb has been frustrated by current planning processes and says worse could be around the corner.

Throughout North Cronulla there are numerous sites that are developed with small apartment buildings which have a floor space well below the potential that could be achieved.

Imperial overreach / Imperial overstrech

Imperial overreach or overstretch is a hypothesis which suggests that an empire can extend itself beyond its ability to maintain or expand its military and economic commitments. The idea was popularised by Yale University historian Paul Kennedy in his 1987 book The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers.

Laffer Curve

The Laffer Curve is one of the main theoretical constructs of supply-side economics, and is often used as a shorthand to sum up the entire pro-growth world view of supply-side economics.  However, the Laffer Curve itself simply illustrates the tradeoff between tax rates and the total tax revenues actually collected by the government.

If the revenue point is on the left-hand side of the parabola then a decreased tax rate will result in decreased revenue.  However if the revenue point is on the right-hand side of the parabola then a decreased tax rate will increase revenue.

Conversely, if the revenue point is on the left-hand side of the parabola then an increased tax rate will result in increased revenue.  However if the revenue point is on the right-hand side of the parabola then an increased tax rate will decrease revenue. 

Changes to the tax rate can affect taxpayer behaviour with ranges of tax rates giving more or less incentive to work or more or less reason to find ways to avoid paying tax.

A recent practical example of the Laffer Curve in action can be seen in the case of Gerard Depardieu's decision to renounce his French citizenship and become a Russian citizen after France increased the high earner income tax rate to 75% of income.

In this case the French government attempted to increase revenue by increasing the tax rate but instead encouraged taxpayer behaviour to avoid contributing to this increased revenue with Depardieu reducing his contribution to zero by leaving the tax zone. The French government therefore ends up with less revenue after raising the tax rate (in this particular example anyway).

Pygmalion

The key features of the Pygmalion story from Greek mythology are:

• Pygmalion was a sculptor who had never found a woman worthy of his love
• He used ivory to carve a life-size statue of his ideal woman (he called her Galatea)
• He fell in love with the statue of Galatea and prayed to the goddess Aphrodite to bring them together
• Aphrodite brought the statue of Galatea to life
• Pygmalion and Galatea loved each other and were soon married

There are different versions of this story from Greek mythology and later from Roman mythology such as recounted by Ovid.

There are also variations of the theme such as George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion (1912) which was later made into the film 'My Fair Lady' involving phonetics professor Henry Higgins transforming the working-class flower-girl Eliza Doolittle by refining her accent and conversational skills for polite society.

Shaw's version drew on on the work of W. S. Gilbert, one of his influences, who wrote a successful play based on the story in 1871, called Pygmalion and Galatea.

Leisure With Dignity - Otium Cum Dignitate

Otium Cum Dignitate

Otium cum dignitate is Latin for 'dignified leisure' or 'leisure with dignity'

“Otium cum dignitate” was the advice Cicero gave for how an honest person should live. The word “otium” does not mean 'idleness' ('dolcefarniente') instead the advice was to pursue an ensemble of non-political and non-remunerable activities that allow for the “humanistic” development of an individual.

In other words, Cicero advised that a vir bonus (good man) should dedicate himself to study, writing, intimate and erudite conversation, meditation, finding time for family and friends, and of course some time in the countryside. Together with “otium”, Cicero also recommended a strong dose of “dignitas” which was very important to people of his time. Everything was to be done with a sense of measure and moderation. It’s a lovely philosophy of living to try to pursue especially when put in the context of today’s hustle and bustle.

Neck Verse - Benefit of the Clergy

Neck Verse - Refers to the first lines of a Latin version of the 51st psalm formerly set before an accused person claiming benefit of clergy so that the person might vindicate his claim by an intelligent reading aloud of the verse before examiner.

This verse was so called because it was the trial-verse of those who claimed benefit of clergy; and if they could read it, the ordinary of Newgate said, “Legit ut clericus, ” and the convict saved his neck, being only burnt in the hand and set at liberty.

The Latin sentence, “Miserere mei, Deus,” was so called, because the reading of it was made a test for those who claimed benefit of clergy.

(Psalm 51.1). Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

Also known as the Miserere: Miserere mei, Deus: secundum magnam misericordiam tuam. Et secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum, dele iniquitatem meam.

If a clerk had been taken
For stealing of bacon.
For burglary, murder, or rape.
If he could but rehearse
(Well prompt) his neck-verse,
He never could fail to escape.

British Apollo (1710).