James Ensor

Self-portrait with Masks (detail)

Read the article on 3 Quarks Daily on the life and works of the brilliant Belgian painter, James Ensor.

Mine

(After a psychotherapy session)
Dr. Linus Wagner: Everything you told me is total fiction, isn't it?.
Patrick Jane: Yes
Dr. Linus Wagner: Why? I can tell you're in real pain. Why not tell the truth?
Patrick Jane: The truth is mine.

The Mentalist

Dating

Dating is just acting like you're somebody you're not until the person likes you enough so you can show 'em who you really are.

Scrubs, Episode 4.16

Tracy Chapman - The Promise

A medley of various artistic works set to the beautiful and enchanting song by Tracy Chapman. Must see and hear. Enjoy.

Funny

Aati: Been feeling wierd. What about you?
Me: Uncomfy? Umm. Not unusually. Anything happen?
Aati: Not really. Actually things have been pretty good.
Me: I have been kind of good too, lately.
Aati: Haha! It's funny when life gives us nothing to complain about :P

Story

A story never ends; it is abandoned.

Inspired by a post by Mayhem.

Parents

X: Sometimes i feel that i have got too much of my parents in me; habits and traits that i have somehow inherited against my will. And it scares me.

Russell's Ten Commandments

Osho's ten commandments made me remember Bertrand Russell's ten commandments (or A Liberal Decalogue, as he called it) given in his autobiography, volume 3.

"Perhaps the essence of the Liberal outlook could be summed up in a new decalogue, not intended to replace the old one but only to supplement it. The Ten Commandments that, as a teacher, I should wish to promulgate, might be set forth as follows:

1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.

2. Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.

3. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.

4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.

5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.

6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.

7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.

9. Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.

10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness."

Osho's Ten Commandments

The ten commandments of Osho, the Indian mystic, who was against any commandments but wrote them just for fun.

1. Never obey anyone's command unless it is coming from within you also.
2. There is no God other than life itself.
3. Truth is within you, do not search for it elsewhere.
4. Love is prayer.
5. To become a nothingness is the door to truth. Nothingness itself is the means, the goal and attainment.
6. Life is now and here.
7. Live wakefully.
8. Do not swim – float.
9. Die each moment so that you can be new each moment.
10. Do not search. That which is, is. Stop and see.

Source

0.999...

A random fun-fact for the math buffs: the repeating decimal 0.999... is actually exactly equal (not approximately, please note, exactly) to the real number 1. For the rather simple proof, see wikipedia. And it seems that a lot of math students are confused about this matter.

At Some Point

"I keep waiting for it to happen."
"For what to happen? "
"I know at some point, something I tell you or something you see is going to be too much. And then you'll run away from me, screaming as you go. I won't stop you. I want this to happen, because i want you to be safe. And yet I want to be with you. The two desires are impossible to reconcile..."

Twilight (the novel)

Wittgenstein's Paradox

Professor: Calman found in practice what Wittgenstein discovered decades before, the series 2, 4, 8 can be followed by 16 but also by 10 or 7004. It's always possible to find a rule or justification that allows a series to continue by any number, it all depends on how complicated the rule is.

The Oxford Murders

I have been pondering over Wittgenstein's Rule-Following paradox since a couple of days, such a splendid thought-inducer it is. Wikipedia's entry is good, but pretty technical. The above quote from the movie The Oxford Murders is an easily understandable version of the paradox. A logical series in a series of numbers governed by a rule. 1, 2, 3... what comes next? 4, you would say. Yes, it could be 4, but if we are to believe Wittgenstein, it could be ANY number at all, because it would be possible to find a logical rule justifying whatever number it would be. [It could be, for instance, be 5 (2+3=5), as well as 8 (2 x 1 + 1= 3, 3 x 2 + 2=8). It could be any number at all, provided you are intelligent enough to think up a justification for that.]

What is an illogical series? An illogical series would be a series of numbers which is following no rule. But, if we are to accept Wittgenstein, it would always be possible to think up of a rule (sufficiently complex, of course) that would be able to explain those numbers in a series which was apparently following no rule. Hence, any illogical series can potentially be converted into a logical one according to this paradox.

Moments

"I think relationships can be defined by big moments that don't happen - or by the little ones that do."

Scrubs, 2.21

Coldplay - Life in Technicolor II

The Afternoon of a Faun

L'après-midi d'un faune (The Afternoon of a Faun)

by Yuma Touko
Source

Slaves of another kind

Aati: That's the one thing that makes me sad for the male children born into male dominated societies. If women are the slaves, they are the unhappy heirs to throne, locked into their position and never given a chance to be themselves. Slaves of another kind.

The Options

Why things are the way they are? Why can't life be different, simple and easy?

Let's see the options:

1) Maybe there is some hidden purpose/reason that we are not aware of underneath the events that take place in our life.

2) Maybe the universe just doesn't care. Life is meaningless, brutal, and indifferent.

3) It is the fault of the society. It's the people around us that make life hard for us.

4) It is the individual's fault. One aims and desires for things that are out of one's reach and capability

Option 3 and 4 can easily co-exist. Are option 1 and 2 compatible? Not apparently, but maybe so. Maybe the so-called 'higher force' of the universe is in a delirious state of consciousness, in which instances of purpose are as intermittent as moments of lucidity in an Alzheimer's patient? Maybe the gods that create the underlying reason beneath the events of our life are subject to a chaotic fate that exists higher than them?

So, possibly, it could be all four options. These were the ones i could think of. If anyone has an option which isn't listed here, please do share.

Greatest Philosopher

Here you can see the result of BBC's Greatest Philosopher voting. Karl Marx won the first place, receiving 27.93% votes. No surprises. And here is BBC's wonderfully succinct philosopher timeline.