If a theory is a palette,
then its canvas is not a blank slate.
Monday, 31 January 2011
Sunday, 30 January 2011
Saturday, 29 January 2011
Earthmoving
Yet such is oft the course of deeds
that move the wheels of the world:
small hands do them because they must,
while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.
that move the wheels of the world:
small hands do them because they must,
while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.
Labels:
JRR Tolkien
Friday, 28 January 2011
Thursday, 27 January 2011
Tuesday, 25 January 2011
Human
Pity is the feeling which arrests the mind in the presence of
whatsoever is grave and constant in human suffering
and unites it with the human sufferer.
— James Joyce 'A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man'
whatsoever is grave and constant in human suffering
and unites it with the human sufferer.
— James Joyce 'A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man'
Labels:
James Joyce
Monday, 24 January 2011
And Vice Versa
I am a part of all that I have met.
— Alfred Tennyson 'Ulysses'
— Alfred Tennyson 'Ulysses'
Labels:
Alfred Tennyson,
Poems
Performativity
And he said: Hey!
Are you talking to me?
Or are you just practising
For one of those performances of yours?
— Laurie Anderson 'Language Is A Virus'
Are you talking to me?
Or are you just practising
For one of those performances of yours?
— Laurie Anderson 'Language Is A Virus'
Labels:
Laurie Anderson,
Lyrics
Sunday, 23 January 2011
Undone
yeah it's broken,
the wheel's still turning
it's turning slowly in the sky
we go out searching,
we go out climbing
we give everything a try
everybody needs some beauty
some reassurance,
reassurance
you can tell so much about a place
by the way they treat their own
the way they treat their own deserters
undone
thinking this way
undone
— David Bridie 'The Deserters'
the wheel's still turning
it's turning slowly in the sky
we go out searching,
we go out climbing
we give everything a try
everybody needs some beauty
some reassurance,
reassurance
you can tell so much about a place
by the way they treat their own
the way they treat their own deserters
undone
thinking this way
undone
— David Bridie 'The Deserters'
Labels:
David Bridie,
Lyrics
Saturday, 22 January 2011
For Awhile
I choose the rooms that I live in with care,
the windows are small and the walls almost bare,
there's only one bed and there's only one prayer;
I listen all night for your step on the stair.
But I know from your eyes
and I know from your smile
that tonight will be fine,
will be fine, will be fine, will be fine
for a while.
— Leonard Cohen 'Tonight Will Be Fine'
the windows are small and the walls almost bare,
there's only one bed and there's only one prayer;
I listen all night for your step on the stair.
But I know from your eyes
and I know from your smile
that tonight will be fine,
will be fine, will be fine, will be fine
for a while.
Labels:
Leonard Cohen,
Lyrics
Friday, 21 January 2011
Far From Perfect
No we never met before
I'm very happy to say
Far from perfect strangers
I'd like to keep it that way
I'm not your psychoanalyst
I'd rather talk to mice
You're so easy to resist
I don't want to be nice
— John Cooper Clarke 'I Don't Want To Be Nice'
I'm very happy to say
Far from perfect strangers
I'd like to keep it that way
I'm not your psychoanalyst
I'd rather talk to mice
You're so easy to resist
I don't want to be nice
— John Cooper Clarke 'I Don't Want To Be Nice'
Labels:
John Cooper Clarke,
Lyrics
Thursday, 20 January 2011
Hi Brasil
Brazil, also known as Hy-Brazil or several other variants, is a phantom island which features in many Irish myths. It was said to be cloaked in mist, except for one day each seven years, when it became visible but still could not be reached. It probably has similar roots to St. Brendan's Island. Old Irish:
í: island;
bres: beauty, worth; great, mighty
í: island;
bres: beauty, worth; great, mighty
Hy-Brasil is also spelled Hy-Breasal, Hy-Brazil, Hy-Breasil, Brazir and related variations. It may be the reason that the South American country, Brazil, was so named. The central image on the Brazilian flag, a circle with a channel across the center, is the symbol for Hy-Brasil on early maps.
Labels:
Etymology
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
Reality
Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.
— Philip K Dick
— Philip K Dick
Labels:
Definitions
Monday, 17 January 2011
People Are People
No more heroes any more
No more heroes any more
— The Stranglers 'No More Heroes'
No more heroes any more
— The Stranglers 'No More Heroes'
Labels:
Lyrics,
Mythology,
Social Insects
The Law Of Conservation Of Mass
We cannot conceive of matter being formed of nothing,
since things require a seed to start from...
Therefore there is not anything which returns to nothing,
but all things return dissolved into their elements.
— Lucretius 'De Rerum Natura'
Full fathom five thy father lies:
Of his bones are coral made:
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
— William Shakespeare 'The Tempest'
since things require a seed to start from...
Therefore there is not anything which returns to nothing,
but all things return dissolved into their elements.
— Lucretius 'De Rerum Natura'
Full fathom five thy father lies:
Of his bones are coral made:
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
— William Shakespeare 'The Tempest'
Labels:
Lucretius,
Poems,
Science,
William Shakespeare
Sunday, 16 January 2011
Just The Best We Have
Science is far from a perfect instrument of knowledge.
It's just the best we have.
In this respect, as in many others, it's like democracy.
— Carl Sagan 'The Demon-Haunted World'
It's just the best we have.
In this respect, as in many others, it's like democracy.
— Carl Sagan 'The Demon-Haunted World'
Labels:
Carl Sagan,
Philosophy,
Science
Eternal Dilemma Of Exispencilism
Said Hamlet to Ophelia:
'I'll draw a sketch of thee.
What kind of pencil shall I use?
2B or not 2B?'
— Spike Milligan 'A Silly Poem'
'I'll draw a sketch of thee.
What kind of pencil shall I use?
2B or not 2B?'
— Spike Milligan 'A Silly Poem'
Labels:
Poems,
Spike Milligan
Saturday, 15 January 2011
Chasing Shadows
The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
— William Shakespeare 'Hamlet'
— William Shakespeare 'Hamlet'
Labels:
William Shakespeare
The Husband Of Necessity
Doubt is the father of invention.
— Ambrose Bierce
— Ambrose Bierce
Contrariwise
A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.
— David Hume
— David Hume
Labels:
David Hume,
Philosophy
One Certainty Principle
It is certainly true that principles cannot be more securely founded than on experience and consciously clear thinking.
— Albert Einstein
— Albert Einstein
Thinking
If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think they'll hate you.
— Don Marquis
A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
— William James
Logic: The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding.
— Ambrose Bierce
— Don Marquis
A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
— William James
Logic: The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding.
— Ambrose Bierce
Education
Education, n, That which discloses to the wise, and disguises from the foolish, their lack of understanding.
— Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.
Education is what’s left when you’ve forgotten everything you ever learned.
— Alan Bennett ‘Forty Years On’
'A' Levels are credentials, qualifications, the footings of your CV, your Cheat's Visa …
— Alan Bennett 'The History Boys'
I count exams, even for Oxford and Cambridge, as the enemy of education.
— Alan Bennett 'The History Boys'
The chief enemy of culture, in any school, is always the headmaster.
— Alan Bennett 'The History Boys'
Everybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching.
— Oscar Wilde
Learning, n. The kind of ignorance distinguishing the studious.
— Ambrose Bierce
— Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.
Education is what’s left when you’ve forgotten everything you ever learned.
— Alan Bennett ‘Forty Years On’
'A' Levels are credentials, qualifications, the footings of your CV, your Cheat's Visa …
— Alan Bennett 'The History Boys'
I count exams, even for Oxford and Cambridge, as the enemy of education.
— Alan Bennett 'The History Boys'
The chief enemy of culture, in any school, is always the headmaster.
— Alan Bennett 'The History Boys'
Everybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching.
— Oscar Wilde
Learning, n. The kind of ignorance distinguishing the studious.
— Ambrose Bierce
Labels:
Alan Bennett,
Ambrose Bierce,
Definitions,
Oscar Wilde
Faith Is Inversely Proportional To Knowledge
Researchers polled nearly 3,500 Americans and asked them 32 basic questions about world religions, their texts, main figures, and tenets. Most respondents got about half the questions wrong.
For example, 45 percent of Catholics polled did not know that the Catholic church teaches that the consecrated bread and wine in holy communion are said to actually and literally become the body and blood of Christ. About as many Americans did not know that the Dalai Lama is Buddhist.
In fact the poll found that atheists and agnostics knew more about religion than religious people. Among religious groups, Jews and Mormons scored highest.
Sociologists have long known that religious people are no more honest or trustworthy than the non-religious, and the new poll suggests that atheists and other non-believers are actually better informed about the religious world than the faithful themselves.
Labels:
Mythology,
Social Insects
Imagination & Responsibility
To be an atheist you have to have ten thousand times more imagination than if you are a religious fundamentalist. You must take the responsibility to acquire information, digest and use it to understand what you can.
— Peter Greenaway
— Peter Greenaway
Labels:
Peter Greenaway
With Respect …
We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.
— HL Mencken
— HL Mencken
The Selfishness Of Faith
Being a Humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead.
— Kurt Vonnegut
— Kurt Vonnegut
Friday, 14 January 2011
Thursday, 13 January 2011
The Vanishing Dollar
Three guys go to a restaurant and the bill ends up being $30.
They each pay $10.
The waiter takes the money to the cashier
who says that it should have been $25 instead of $30.
The waiter takes $5 back to the three guys
and gives them each $1 and keeps $2 for himself.
They have each now paid $10 minus $1 = $9.
3 x 9 = 27
+ 2 (that the waiter kept) = $29.
But they paid $30.
Where is the missing dollar?
They each pay $10.
The waiter takes the money to the cashier
who says that it should have been $25 instead of $30.
The waiter takes $5 back to the three guys
and gives them each $1 and keeps $2 for himself.
They have each now paid $10 minus $1 = $9.
3 x 9 = 27
+ 2 (that the waiter kept) = $29.
But they paid $30.
Where is the missing dollar?
Useful Latin Phrases
Salvé! (Hello!)
Nómen mihí est Quinctílió. (My name is Quinctilius.)
Quid nómen tibí est? (What is your name?)
Ut valés? (How are you?)
Valeó, et tú? (I'm well, and you?)
Aegrótó. (I'm ill.)
Ubí latrína est? (Where is the toilet?)
Ubí habitás? (Where do you live?)
Habitó Rómae. (I live in Rome.)
Liceatne mihí numerum telephonicum tuum habére? (May I have your phone number?)
Labóró capite. (I have a headache.)
Nunc est mihí domum féstínandum. (Now I have to go home.)
Valé! (Good bye!)
Nómen mihí est Quinctílió. (My name is Quinctilius.)
Quid nómen tibí est? (What is your name?)
Ut valés? (How are you?)
Valeó, et tú? (I'm well, and you?)
Aegrótó. (I'm ill.)
Ubí latrína est? (Where is the toilet?)
Ubí habitás? (Where do you live?)
Habitó Rómae. (I live in Rome.)
Liceatne mihí numerum telephonicum tuum habére? (May I have your phone number?)
Labóró capite. (I have a headache.)
Nunc est mihí domum féstínandum. (Now I have to go home.)
Valé! (Good bye!)
Spectacles
It is the theory which decides what we can observe.
— Albert Einstein
You see what your knowledge tells you you're seeing.
— James Burke 'The Day The Universe Changed: The Way We Are'
— Albert Einstein
You see what your knowledge tells you you're seeing.
— James Burke 'The Day The Universe Changed: The Way We Are'
Concepts Vs The External World
Physical concepts are the free creations of the human mind and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world.
— Albert Einstein 'The Evolution of Physics'
— Albert Einstein 'The Evolution of Physics'
One More World Lost …
It is not only species of animal that die out, but whole species of feeling. And if you are wise you will never pity the past for what it did not know, but pity yourself for what it did.
— John Fowles 'The Magus'
— John Fowles 'The Magus'
Creating Images
When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as poetry. The poet, too, is not so nearly concerned with describing facts, but creating images.
— Niels Bohr to Werner Heisenberg
— Niels Bohr to Werner Heisenberg
Peripheral Vision
I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over.
Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the centre.
— Kurt Vonnegut
In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion.
— Albert Camus
Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the centre.
— Kurt Vonnegut
In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion.
— Albert Camus
Widely Held Beliefs
The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.
— Bertrand Russell
Observing Relations
Physics is not events, but observations; relativity is the understanding of the world, not as events, but as relations.
— Jacob Bronowski 'The Ascent Of Man'
— Jacob Bronowski 'The Ascent Of Man'
Inverse Proportions
As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.
— Albert Einstein
— Albert Einstein
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
Pomo Sapiens
We don't understand
he must be clever
— Peter Hammill 'The Jargon King'
Those who write clearly have readers, those who write obscurely have commentators.
— Albert Camus
Tuesday, 11 January 2011
Monday, 10 January 2011
Sunday, 9 January 2011
An Age Of Surfaces
The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing.
If you can fake that, you've got it made.
— Groucho Marx
If you can fake that, you've got it made.
— Groucho Marx
Labels:
Groucho Marx,
Oscar Wilde
A Remedy Of Errors
Politics is the art of looking for trouble,
finding it everywhere,
diagnosing it incorrectly
and applying the wrong remedies.
— Groucho Marx
finding it everywhere,
diagnosing it incorrectly
and applying the wrong remedies.
— Groucho Marx
Labels:
Groucho Marx,
William Shakespeare
The Opposite Of Espionage
Create all the happiness you are able to create;
remove all the misery you are able to remove.
— Jeremy Bentham
remove all the misery you are able to remove.
— Jeremy Bentham
Labels:
Jeremy Bentham,
Philosophy
Climate Change
Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another.
— Juvenal
— Juvenal
Labels:
Juvenal,
Philosophy
Saturday, 8 January 2011
Fancy Tickling
knismesis — light tickling
gargalesis — heavy tickling
gargalesthesia — the sensation caused by tickling
gargalesis — heavy tickling
gargalesthesia — the sensation caused by tickling
Labels:
Definitions
Metaphors
Every religion is true one way or another.
It is true when understood metaphorically.
But when it gets stuck in its own metaphors,
interpreting them as facts,
then you are in trouble.
— Joseph Campbell
God is a metaphor
for that which trancends all levels of intellectual thought.
— Joseph Campbell
It is true when understood metaphorically.
But when it gets stuck in its own metaphors,
interpreting them as facts,
then you are in trouble.
— Joseph Campbell
God is a metaphor
for that which trancends all levels of intellectual thought.
— Joseph Campbell
Labels:
Joseph Campbell,
Mythology
Friday, 7 January 2011
Mental Lexicon
apodyopsis — the act of mentally undressing someone
gymnophoria — the sensation that someone is mentally undressing you
gymnophoria — the sensation that someone is mentally undressing you
Labels:
Definitions
Thursday, 6 January 2011
Consumerism
In 1987, the number of shopping centres in the US surpassed the number of high schools.
Dwindling education budgets have seen advertising introduced into classrooms, exposing 7 million students — a third of them teenagers — to two minutes of commercials every morning on Channel One. The advertisers pay for computers, video monitors and other electronic stuff the government can't afford. Not surprising then that consumerism is ingrained from an early age in a headspace where education should be permitted to prevail.
— Doug Anderson
Labels:
Doug Anderson
The Self-Made Man
No man was ever wise by chance.
— Lucius Annaeus Seneca
— Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Labels:
Philosophy,
Seneca
Rehears All
If you've heard this story before, don't stop me,
because I'd like to hear it again.
— Groucho Marx
because I'd like to hear it again.
— Groucho Marx
Labels:
Groucho Marx
Sophilia
By three methods we may learn wisdom:
First, by reflection, which is noblest;
Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and
third by experience, which is the bitterest.
— Confucius
First, by reflection, which is noblest;
Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and
third by experience, which is the bitterest.
— Confucius
Labels:
Confucius,
Philosophy
Wednesday, 5 January 2011
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Double Bind
The only thing that binds me to the turning world below
and to all the people and noise and sounds and shouts.
This tightrope made of sound.
This long thin line made of my own blood.
— Laurie Anderson 'Tightrope'
and to all the people and noise and sounds and shouts.
This tightrope made of sound.
This long thin line made of my own blood.
— Laurie Anderson 'Tightrope'
Monday, 3 January 2011
Sunday, 2 January 2011
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