On Floating Bodies
On Floating Bodies (Greek: Περὶ τῶν ἐπιπλεόντων σωμάτων) is a Greek-language work consisting of two books written by Archimedes of Syracuse (287 – c. 212 BC), one of the most important mathematicians, physicists, and engineers of antiquity. On Floating Bodies, which is thought to have been written around 250 BC, survives only partly in Greek, the rest in medieval Latin translation from the Greek. It is the first known work on hydrostatics, of which Archimedes is recognized as the founder.
The purpose of On Floating Bodies was to determine the positions that various solids will assume when floating in a fluid, according to their form and the variation in their specific gravities. It contains the first statement of what is now known as Archimedes' principle.
History
Archimedes lived in the Greek city-state of Syracuse, Sicily. He is credited with laying the foundations of hydrostatics (which he established in On Floating Bodies), statics and calculating the underlying mathematics of the lever. A leading scientist of classical antiquity, Archimedes also developed elaborate systems of pulleys to move large objects with a minimum of effort. The Archimedes' screw underpins modern hydroengineering, and his machines of war helped to hold back the armies of Rome in the First Punic War. Archimedes opposed the arguments of Aristotle, pointing out that it was impossible to separate mathematics and nature and proved it by converting mathematical theories into practical inventions.
Floating (Jape song)
"Floating" is a 2004 single by the Irish band Jape, taken from the second studio album, The Monkeys in the Zoo Have More Fun Than Me and described as "Jape's trademark song". Co-produced by David Kitt, the single was the first release from the album and was generally viewed by critics as the standout track on the album. In 2007, it featured on the EP, Jape is Grape, for which a video was made. Brendan Benson of The Raconteurs is a known admirer of the song and has performed a cover version during live shows.
Reception
"Floating" was a popular single on late night alternative music radio shows in Ireland. The national broadcaster RTÉ described the song as "part drugs story and part love song" and noted its "quirky instrumentation and Gregorian chanting". It described the lyrics as having "a definite feel of amateur philosophy at 5am" but it said that that was "not necessarily a bad thing".
Cover versions
The song was famously overheard being played in Whelan's in Dublin by the musician Brendan Benson who immediately requested a copy of the album. A friend at the venue informed the band of this development following a show at The Bloom Festival during The Rose of Tralee festival in County Kerry. Benson then praised Jape in The Guardian (however, the newspaper spelt it "Jabe") and rang the song's writer to inform him he would be covering "Floating" with his band The Raconteurs. Benson did not actually receive permission to cover the track although it has been said that he would have been allowed to had he asked. Jape witnessed the cover live at the Olympia Theatre and was later to describe it as "a great moment". "Floating" is also covered by the Belgian bastard pop duo Soulwax during their DJ sets.
Damping
Damping is an influence within or upon an oscillatory system that has the effect of reducing, restricting or preventing its oscillations. In physical systems, damping is produced by processes that dissipate the energy stored in the oscillation. Examples include viscous drag in mechanical systems, resistance in electronic oscillators, and absorption and scattering of light in optical oscillators. Damping not based on energy loss can be important in other oscillating systems such as those that occur in biological systems.
The damping of a system can be described as being one of the following:
For example, consider a door that uses a spring to close the door once open. This can lead to any of the above types of damping depending on the strength of the damping. If the door is undamped it will swing back and forth forever at a particular resonant frequency. If it is underdamped it will swing back and forth with decreasing size of the swing until it comes to a stop. If it is critically damped then it will return to closed as quickly as possible without oscillating. Finally, if it is overdamped it will return to closed without oscillating but more slowly depending on how overdamped it is. Different levels of damping are desired for different types of systems.
Floating (The Moody Blues song)
"Floating" is a song on The Moody Blues' November 1969 album To Our Children's Children's Children, a concept album about space travel dedicated to NASA and the Apollo 11 astronauts. Written by band flautist Ray Thomas, "Floating" is a jaunty, semi-children's song about a future in which advances in space travel have enabled the Moon to become a family vacation spot. The song's lyrics describe the experience of "Floating" from weightlessness due to the microgravity experienced in space flight.
The third verse sparked some concern in the United States shortly after the album's release. The lines in question are:
Bouncing about on the Moon;
Guess you'll all be up here soon!
The candy stores will be brand new,
And you'll buy rock with the Moon right through!
Ray Thomas's previous outspoken sympathy for LSD advocate Timothy Leary, along with coincidental drug-related slang terms current at the time involving words such as "candy" and "rock," led some Americans to see in "Floating" a coded encouragement to use drugs.
The Lady Killer (album)
The Lady Killer is the third studio album by American recording artist CeeLo Green, released November 5, 2010, on Elektra Records. Production for the album was handled by Salaam Remi, Element, The Smeezingtons, Fraser T Smith, Paul Epworth, and Jack Splash.
The album debuted at number nine on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 41,000 copies in its first week. It achieved respectable chart success elsewhere and produced three singles, including the international hit "Fuck You". The album has sold 498,000 copies in the United States as of October 2012, and it has been certified double platinum in the United Kingdom. Upon its release, The Lady Killer received generally positive reviews from music critics, who praised its production, classicist soul music approach, and Green's singing.
Recording
Green reportedly "spent three years on The Lady Killer, recording close to 70 songs". Thirteen tracks that didn't make the final selection for The Lady Killer were leaked online in June 2010 as an album titled Stray Bullets including the song "You Don't Shock Me Anymore", and collaborations with The B-52's ("Cho Cho The Cat"), Soko (a remix of "I'll Kill Her"), and Goodie Mob ("Night Train").
Bodies (Sex Pistols song)
"Bodies" is a Sex Pistols song about the shock of abortion from the 1977 album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. The lyrics contain very graphic imagery about a terminated fetus and feature a great deal of profanity for the time: the third and final verse begins with a couplet in which the word fuck is repeated five times in rapid succession. Along with the later "Belsen Was a Gas," it is probably the most graphic and controversial Sex Pistols song in both its subject matter and style. Musically, it is also the fastest and heaviest song in the Sex Pistols canon — characterized by thudding drums, droning buzzsaw guitar, and shouted vocals. As such, it can be considered a significant antecedent to the genres of hardcore, thrash, and speed metal that was to emerge in the mid-to-late-1980s.
"Bodies" is one of two songs on Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols which original Pistols bassist Glen Matlock did not co-write. It is also the only song on the album on which Sid Vicious actually plays bass, although his part was later overdubbed. The song was, like all other Sex Pistols songs, credited to the entire band, though Vicious was in the hospital with hepatitis when the band wrote it. It is mostly about a fan named Pauline, who was (as the song states) from Birmingham. She had been in a mental institution, where she apparently lived in a tree house, in the garden of the institution. This was where the line 'Her name was Pauline, she lived in a tree' comes from. The institution was also where she seems to have been raped by one of the male nurses. When she was released, she travelled to London, where she became a punk rock fan. She had several abortions. According to legend, she showed up once at John Lydon's door wearing nothing but a clear plastic bag and holding an aborted fetus in a clear plastic bag.
Bodies (Law & Order)
"Bodies" is the first episode of the 14th season of Law & Order, and 302nd episode overall.
Plot
A teenage girl is found murdered in an alley, having been brutally assaulted and raped. Detectives Briscoe and Green later find a connection to an unsolved Brooklyn homicide from five years earlier, featuring a similar victim and modus operandi. The detectives are able to link several unsolved homicides and missing persons reports and believe them all to be the work of a serial killer. After speaking to some of the victims' families, they realize the victims were all abducted or found far from their homes, meaning they likely summoned a taxi. An investigation of the cab company leads them to the apartment of Mark Bruner, whose unsettling demeanor and evasion of the detectives' questions quickly make him a suspect. He is eventually held and charged with two counts of murder, and DNA evidence points to his irrefutable guilt.
