Cavity Waves

Vacuity propagates faster than the speed of light.

What Has Been Going On

It was really bitter to be disliked that much. But after a time I was getting a certain wry satisfaction out of it, because I got so contemptuous at what was going on. It hardened my resolution….

 — Frances Ames - Recipient of the Star of Africa from Nelson Mandela

Dimensions

A thing is a phallic symbol if it's longer than it's wide
 — Melanie Safka 'Psychotherapy'

The Mask Of Politeness

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funny_Games_(1997_film)

Lest We Forget

And, lest we forget, My aunt, the Duke gave this teapot.

 — Tom Bartlett

Are You Game?

http://www.lexulous.com/newgame/with/?u=Crimson_Avenger

The Name of the Rose

What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
 — William Shakespeare 'Romeo And Juliet'

Playing The Game

Tit for tat is a highly effective strategy in game theory for the iterated prisoner's dilemma. It was first introduced by Anatol Rapoport in Robert Axelrod's two tournaments, held around 1980. An agent using this strategy will initially co-operate, then respond in kind to an opponent's previous action. If the opponent previously was co-operative, the agent is cooperative. If not, the agent is not.

NiTwitter

The infinite monkey theorem states that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare.

The Rhetorical Use Of Obscurity

The rhetorical use of obscurity is, however, a vice. It is often said … that the purpose of obscure or difficult writing is to create the illusion of profundity … in its more subtle usages, obscurity can be used to create the illusion of deeply reasoned discourse.

— Peter Medawar

… no-one who has something original or important to say will run the risk of being misunderstood; people who write obscurely are either unskilled in writing or up to mischief. The writers I am speaking of are, however, in a purely literary sense, extremely skilled.

— Peter Medawar

Style Without Substance

Style has now become an object of first importance, and what a style it is! For me it has a prancing, high-stepping quality, full of self-importance; elevated indeed, but in a balletic manner, and stopping from time to time in studied attitudes, as if awaiting an outburst of applause. It has had a deplorable influence on the quality of modern thought in philosophy and in the behavioural and ‘human’ sciences.

 — Peter Medawar

Oops!

But suppose there is no argument; suppose that the text is asseverative in manner, perhaps because analytical reasoning has been repudiated in favour of reasoning of some higher kind. If now the text is made hard to follow because of non sequiturs, digressions, paradoxes, impressive-sounding references to Gödel, Wittgenstein, and topology, ‘in’ jokes, trollopy metaphors, and a general determination to keep all vulgar sensibilities at bay, then again we shall have great difficulty in finding out what the author intends us to understand.

— Peter Medawar

The Arm-Chair Revolution

Make trouble.
 — Jay Lemke

Dullness

Egotism is the anæsthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.
 — Frank Leahy

Low & Behold

Imagine the Creator as a low comedian,

and at once the world becomes explicable.

 — HL Mencken

Club Members

I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.
 — Groucho Marx

Vendre Des Canard À Moitié

The Candle Of Enlightenment

Slipping

Duck The Resolution!

Moving

Work begins when you don't like what you're doing. 

Tension, a lack of honesty, and a sense of unreality come from following the wrong force in your life. 

As an adult, you must rediscover the moving power of your life!
 — Joseph Campbell 'Reflections on the Art of Living'

We

It is in love that we are made;
In love we disappear.

 — Leonard Cohen

Killed By James Hardie (Amaca) Asbestos This Morning

My Mum

Mum

I see your picture

as though it were a mirror 

but there's no part of you 

outside the frame 

except the change that you gave to me: 

this will never come again. 

You are gone 

and I am with you: 

this will never come again.

 — Peter Hammill 'Again'

Look at the sky, but it's empty now; 

look at the sea, it holds nothing but despair. 

I raise my eyes, but my head stays bowed... 

I look to my side, but you're not there. 

And I can't get you out of my mind, 

no, no, no, no, I just can't get you from my mind.

 — Peter Hammill 'The Shingle Song'


I can't get used to living here,
While my heart is broke, my tears I cried for you.
But all I got is a photograph
And I realise you're not coming back anymore.
 — Richard Starkey 'Photograph'

Mirror Neurons

A physicist is just an atom's way of looking at itself.
 — Niels Bohr

Virtual Selection

Idiot Grin

behind the smirk of the macho man 

is the quivering lip of the little boy.

 — Peter Hammill

Navigational Aid

I see a twinkle in your eye,

so this shall be my Christmas star 

and I will travel to your heart: 

the manger where the real things are.

 — Michæl Leunig 'Christmas'

Throw Of The Die

All persons living and dead are purely coincidental.

 — Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Timequake

What Counts

It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting.
 — Tom Stoppard