thescian | April 10, 2010Self portrait
The american poet E. E. Cummings' poems usually have mashed-up capitalization, punctuation and are constructed on the page with words as visual art. Consider the below poems where he presents his (typical early 20th century) views on science and technology as having a rather callous effect on earth. His expression of that sentiment is a delicious mix of metaphors wonderfully painted. Very enjoyable.
O sweet spontaneous
by: E.E. Cummings (1894-1962)
sweet spontaneous
earth how often have
the
doting
fingers of
prurient philosophers pinched
and
poked
thee
, has the…
thescian | April 1, 2010From The Four Quartets:
The whole earth is our hospital
Endowed by the ruined millionaire,
Wherein, if we do well, we shall
Die of the absolute paternal care
That will not leave us, but prevents us everywhere.
The chill ascends from feet to knees,
The fever sings in mental wires.
If to be warmed, then I must freeze
And quake in frigid purgatorial fires
Of which the flame is roses, and the smoke is briars.
The dripping blood our only drink,
The bloody flesh our only food:
In spite of which we like to think
That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood-
Again, in spite of that, we call this…
thescian | April 1, 2010A fascinating presentation. The logical conclusion of a world singing to the tune of commerce. Life as a game. A gloriusly simplified abstraction over the complexities of real life. What's gonna stop it? You and me? Cue in uproarious laughter.
Well, Mr. Schell does throw in a bit of optimism in the end. If we think all our actions are recorded and left behind as our legacy, maybe we'll change our behavior. Maybe, but probably not. The optimism seems contrived.
In any case, all the world will not become a game. The world is too complex a place for us (acting as corporations and government)…
thescian | March 27, 2010Jesus survived the crucifixion and spent his remaining years in Kashmir. Yes, he did. I don't doubt it for a moment.
thescian | March 26, 2010Perelman quit the world of mathematics in disgust four years ago. His decision to spurn the Fields Medal may have been driven by a sense that his fellow mathematicians were not worthy to award it. -Reported in Guardian
"his fellow mathematicians were not worthy to award it" Ah. If so, you go, Perelman, I say.
An excellent 2006 article on Perelman at New Yorker here that may offer a scant scent of this remarkable man's convictions and motivations.
What Perelman solved - Poincare Conjecture. It's a conjecture no more.
thescian | March 25, 2010As you may know, we are publishing a Science fiction anthology with the stories from the yearly SF contest. In latest news on that, Proof copy has arrived from both CreateSpace and Lulu. I like the CreateSpace copy better because the dimensions look right. Lulu has done good job as well.
thescian | March 18, 2010In The Hindu.
NL: But in a society like India, how can we ignore the divisiveness, the poverty?
Pamuk: You don't ignore it. It is part of the picture, but it's not the only thing. That's how I see it. My kind of novel is about balancing of the whole picture. I think... I always argue that living in a country with political and economic problems doesn't mean that you have to write cheap and journalistic fiction. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky wrote their fiction in a country where there were such problems but they wrote their fiction well. It's not the job of fiction to solve political problems. That…
thescian | March 18, 2010Fished from the internets for printing and framing.
Larger size at TheScian Photos
Larger size at TheScian Photos
thescian | March 16, 2010I had been a apple computer user for the past 5 years and immensely enjoyed the hardware and the software. But, all good things come at a price. Apple's price for a polished user experience has lately turned out to be user freedom. The inability to take out and use the content stored in apple's walled garden is stultifying. I understand that those who are not too keen to learn the innards of computer hardware and software may find apple's products liberating (that is why, Ramya still uses the mac for all her needs and I am fine with it). However, apple has broken faith with those who promoted…
thescian | March 12, 2010Lack of understanding [is] called stupidity; deficiency in the application of the faculty of reason to what is practical we [recognize] as foolishness; deficiency in power of judgement as silliness; finally, partial or even complete lack of memory as madness... That which is correctly known through the faculty of reason is truth. -From The World as Will and Representation, First Book, Section 6.
As moralizing as it sounds, Schopenhauer is not being so here. This is his way of defining the terms of discussion. As I continue reading, it is remarkable to notice how he uses the Principle of…
thescian | March 12, 2010A poo bag that can make a difference to a lot of people in need, especially women and children. The PeePoo site.
[via NDTV, thanks Ramya.]
thescian | March 4, 2010Is there a difference between thinking and thinking hard? I mean, thinking is thinking. How can you say if someone is thinking hard or not?
Well, I am going to first call on Newton to tell you what that difference is. Newton said, `If others would think as hard as I did, then they would get similar results.'
What does Newton mean? Let that question throw sparks in your mind, meanwhile let me call Einstein, or more accurately Abraham Pais who wrote a great deal about Einstein with much insight. In his book Suble is the Lord, Pais often insists that Einstein thought long and hard about certain…
thescian | March 4, 2010Life is short and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth
Schopenhauer in the introduction to "The World as Will and Representation". The introduction is quite remarkable and lucid for a heavyweight philosophical book. If you are wondering what the book's obscure title means, first few pages should clarify.
thescian | March 4, 20104 March 2010: BBC News. At least 60 people have died in a stampede after the gate of a Hindu temple collapsed in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
Previous Stampedes
14 Jan 2010. Seven die in India temple festival stampede
Sep 30, 2008. Atleast 100 dead at Chamunda Devi temple in the city of Jodhpur.
August 3. 140 dead. 40 children. Stampede at the Nainadevi temple, Himachal Pradesh.
July. 6 dead. Stampede at Jagannath temple, Orissa.
March. 10 dead. Stampede at temple, Madhya Pradesh.
January. 5 dead. Stampede at Durga Malleswara temple, Andra Pradesh.
thescian | March 3, 2010The finest explanation I've read so far. In Margaret Atwood's post-climate-catastrophic novel Oryx and Crake. Snowman, a battered survivor is slowly losing his mind and memories.
"What is toast?" says Snowman to himself, once they've run off. Toast is when you take a piece of bread - What is bread? Bread is when you take some flour - What is flour? We'll skip that part, it's too complicated. Bread is something you can eat, made from a ground-up plant and shaped like a stone. You cook it . . . Please, why do you cook it? Why don't you just eat the plant? Never mind that part - Pay attention.…
thescian | March 2, 2010An important ruling on data retention by German Federal court that sets the politicians and beaurocrats straight.
Germany's highest court on Tuesday overturned a law allowing authorities to retain data on telephone calls and e-mail traffic to help fight terrorism and crime. The Federal Constitution Court ruled that major changes needed to be made to a 2008 law ordering data on calls made from mobile or fixed-line telephones and e-mail traffic to be kept for six months for possible access by law enforcement agencies.
The judges said the data storage was not secure enough and that it was not…
thescian | February 26, 2010The aspiration to truth is more precious than its assured possession. -German playwright and philosopher Gotthold Lessing.
From TheScian Photos
Einstein noted this quote in an autobiographical note he wrote a month before he died [Chapter 26, Subtle is the Lord, Abraham Pias]. The later part of his life was spent in search of a deterministic unified theory to replace the probabilistic quantum theory which he was convinced was incomplete. He did not succeed in his quest.
An old post about the picture.
thescian | February 17, 2010G H Hardy once said numbers would exist even if the universe did not. The zoom below takes us into that alternate mathethematical reality which appears to be more richer and deeper than our physical one.
Mandelbrot Fractal Set Trip To e214 HD from teamfresh on Vimeo.
Via kottke
thescian | February 14, 2010Conversation with my two year old daughter this morning.
Daughter: [looks at a picture book involving tigers] Where is the mummy tiger, daddy?
Me: It has gone for hunting, Nidhi.
Daughter: No, daddy. It has gone to a shop to buy baby-corn.