A Myth in Creation

Self-portrait with Masks (detail) Read the article on 3 Quarks Daily on the life and works of the brilliant Belgian painter, James Ensor.

(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 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

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

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

A story never ends; it is abandoned. Inspired by a post by Mayhem .

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.

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 opin

The ten commandments of Osho, the Indian mystic, who was against any commandments but wrote them just for fun. Never obey anyone's command unless it is coming from within you also. There is no God other than life itself. Truth is within you, do not search for it elsewhere. Love is prayer. To become a nothingness is the door to truth. Nothingness itself is the means, the goal and attainment. Life is now and here. Live wakefully. Do not swim – float. Die each moment so that you can be new each moment. Do not search. That which is, is. Stop and see. Source

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.

"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)

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

"I think relationships can be defined by big moments that don't happen - or by the little ones that do." Scrubs, 2.21

L'après - midi d'un faune (The Afternoon of a Faun) by Yuma Touko Source

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.

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

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.