Birthday

causality

The truth is that monogamy and alcohol consumption are merely correlated and that some third factor, most likely industrialization, is independently driving both the transition to monogamy and the increased alcohol consumption. Correlation without causality doesn’t usually make for very good economic literature, but the authors get full marks for creativity. We have discussed the argument for why industrialization leads to monogamy before here at Dollars and Sex so I won’t go into that other than to say that industrialization shifts wealth generation away from land ownership towards skilled labor increasing the demand for skilled wives (who produce skilled children) and reducing the number of wives in a household. Alcohol consumption also increases following industrialization, perhaps because technological innovation increases the profitability of producing cheap alcohol or because a household’s income needs to increase above the subsistence level before alcohol is consumed in any large quantities.

Taboo-Style Games

For the game “Psychiatrist,” one member of the group volunteers to be the psychiatrist and leaves the room while the remaining revelers decide on an ailment. The ailment isn’t an illness in the traditional sense. For instance, you may decide that you will all act as if you are the person to your right. Then the psychiatrist returns and asks questions until he or she successfully diagnoses the group. This last one risks creating some contrived conversation, but it can be fun. The host of the party pens some outlandish phrases (i.e. “I am loose as a goose” or “It tastes like pickled peppers”) on strips of paper and hides one (or perhaps three, ranging from easy to medium to hard) under each dinner plate. Guests read the phrases to themselves when they sit down to dinner, and then the object is to work them into the conversation as naturally as possible. Try to call out when you think others are using their assigned phrases, and the person able to slip in the most, unnoticed, wins.

cut branches

Putting up a live Christmas tree can be a lot of work. You have to make sure that the tree has plenty of water, sometimes having to crawl beneath the branches while trying not to dislodge any of the breakable ornaments. And then there’s the clean-up. No matter what you do, the tree is going to shed needles destined to become lodged in the bottom of your foot. Now scientists from Canada, reporting in the journal Trees, have figured out why those needles fall off, and they’ve come up with a couple of solutions that could keep needles on longer.

Dream of Europe

One can understand how many Europeans might suffer anxiety and even panic as they seek to preserve Europe’s great cultural traditions, profit from the riches it covets in the non-Western world, and retain the advantages gained over so many centuries of class conflict, colonialism, and internecine war. But if Europe is to protect itself, would it be better for it to turn inward, or should it perhaps remember its fundamental values, which once made it the center of gravity for all the world’s intellectuals?

orânduieli

desideratum

B 612

Heureusement pour la réputation de l'astéroïde B 612 un dictateur turc imposa à son peuple, sous peine de mort, de s'habiller à l'Européenne. L'astronome refit sa démonstration en 1920, dans un habit très élégant. Et cette fois-ci tout le monde fut de son avis. Si je vous ai raconté ces détails sur l'astéroïde B 612 et si je vous ai confié son numéro, c'est à cause des grandes personnes. Les grandes personnes aiment les chiffres. Quand vous leur parlez d'un nouvel ami, elles ne vous questionnent jamais sur l'essentiel. Elles ne vous disent jamais: "Quel est le son de sa voix ? Quels sont les jeux qu'il préfère ? Est-ce qu'il collectionne les papillons ?" Elles vous demandent: "Quel âge a-t-il ? Combien a-t-il de frères ? Combien pèse-t-il ? Combien gagne son père ?" Alors seulement elles croient le connaître.

While Queen

...Alice carefully released the brush, and did her best to get the hair into order. `Come, you look rather better now!' she said, after altering most of the pins. `But really you should have a lady's maid!' `I'm sure I'll take you with pleasure!' the Queen said. `Twopence a week, and jam every other day.' Alice couldn't help laughing, as she said, `I don't want you to hire me -- and I don't care for jam.' `It's very good jam,' said the Queen. `Well, I don't want any to-day, at any rate.' `You couldn't have it if you did want it,' the Queen said. `The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday -- but never jam to-day.' `It must come sometimes to "jam do-day,"' Alice objected. `No, it can't,' said the Queen. `It's jam every other day: to-day isn't any other day, you know.' `I don't understand you,' said Alice. `It's dreadfully confusing!' `That's the effect of living backwards,' the Queen said kindly: `it always makes one a little giddy at first -- `Living backwards!' Alice repeated in great astonishment. `I never heard of such a thing!' ` -- but there's one great advantage in it, that one's memory works both ways.' `I'm sure mine only works one way.' Alice remarked.

`I can't remember things before they happen.'

`It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards,' the Queen remarked. `What sort of things do you remember best?' Alice ventured to ask. `Oh, things that happened the week after next,' the Queen replied in a careless tone...

A Morning.

By William Stafford.

From high tide in the night a dead
sea lion explains itself on the wide beach –
folded back arms, drooping petals of feet,
one loud little rifle hole back of the mild
sleeping head. The world tilts back;
the sea returns. When stars pull their wires
tonight those dead eyes will move, and waves
make the deep song. Dunes will come
whispering back. Feathery grass will try
its long dim roots, a new version.

aesthetic imperative

..."Women of Algiers" is also about colour, richly deployed. Throughout the 19th century, oriental themes licensed romantic colourists from Géricault – his "Pasha", on a golden seat in a brilliant crimson robe, is here – to Théodore Chassériau, who was haunted by his visit to Algeria in 1846. His strange, tormented pictures attempt a synthesis between Ingres' classical rigour and Delacroix's vehemence, notably in "Combat of Arab Cavaliers", lit with yellow and red notes for the brightly costumed horsemen, and the theatrical oval panel, "The Death of Cleopatra". Forty years later, Renoir, seeking fresh impetus and greater luminosity to further impressionist experiments, landed at Algiers and in intense, spontaneous, short strokes depicted the over-heated "Arab Fete", a packed musical festival seen against scorched white domes and towers. Within a decade, Henri Evenepoel, young Belgian friend and fellow-traveller of Matisse, made the same journey and painted his own light-drenched crowd scene, "Orange Market at Blidah", whose flattened forms and chromatic daring anticipate fauvism.

Time is not absolute

“we adopt the idea that individuals ‘experience’ time.” A big part of that experience is emotions, and the researchers theorize that the more positive an anticipated emotion, the slower that time will pass.

hereinafter QM

When an observer interacts with this wave function by taking a measurement, the wave function suddenly manifests as a particle with a position and speed to which numbers can be assigned. It ceases to be a quantum-mechanical phenomenon and becomes a “classical” one. This seems to give the observer’s consciousness a privileged position in our description of the world.
The fact that observer A takes measurement M is nothing to do with interaction between A and the universal wave function. They are already, and for ever, interacting — “entangled.” All that happened was that the universe split in two at the instant of observation (as it is always doing, observed or not) and the version of A that we know about was carried off willy-nilly on the branch associated with co-ordinate M. A copy of him, A2, was carried off on a different branch, with a different measurement. So were innumerable other copies. The universal wave function governs them all. Actually, it is them.

• This was the germ of what later became known as the Many Worlds Interpretation of QM.

There is also the small matter of evidence for the existence of these other universes. Are they in fact physically real? Everett, an atheist and a materialist, was as little inclined to metaphysics as his nemesis Bohr, though for different reasons

Changed Writing

We can’t talk about America today without feeling that the ghost of Whitman is sitting next to us, particularly when you are dealing with so-called minority or ethnic literature. In the 19th century, Whitman was receptive to the idea of multitudes—a country that is made of many countries. He looks at New York City as a metaphor for the rest of the country, and that New York City is a symphony of voices, of backgrounds. In particular, when it comes to poetry, there are a lot of Latino writers that view him as a godfather, or even as a compadre. William Carlos Williams, Martín Espada, and Jimmy Santíago Baca, for instance. Whitman is in writers who want not only to produce aesthetic artifacts but also use those cultural and literary artifacts as tools or weapons for change.

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/What-Defines-Latino-Literature.html#ixzz17avcJqyX

Ler de ler

Research

Victorians were enamored of the new science of statistics, so it seems fitting that these pioneering data hounds are now the subject of an unusual experiment in statistical analysis. The titles of every British book published in English in and around the 19th century — 1,681,161, to be exact — are being electronically scoured for key words and phrases that might offer fresh insight into the minds of the Victorians. This research, which has only recently become possible, thanks to a new generation of powerful digital tools and databases, represents one of the many ways that technology is transforming the study of literature, philosophy and other humanistic fields that haven’t necessarily embraced large-scale quantitative analysis.

Thirty years later

For Italian columnist Giacomo Papi, the essence of contemporary society has been revealed once and for all in the way we eat. It all started, he maintains, in the 1980s, when bow tie pasta with salmon in cream sauce began to appear on Italian menus. Cooking began to be an aesthetic experience. Thirty years later, the salmon has been replaced by tuna (tartare, seared, with ginger), risotto is triumphant, the cream has disappeared, and every ingredient comes mysteriously supplied with its own geography…Thirty years later, it is impossible to eat and discuss some other subject.

2/5 dialog

Umbrele şi-au părăsit lucrurile cărora le aparţin. Ele nu mai aparţin decât după-amiezii târzii care a trecut.

Cautiously

Everything was happening so oddly that she didn't feel a bit surprised at finding the Red Queen and the White Queen sitting close to her, one on each side: she would have like very much to ask them how they came there, but she feared it would not be quite civil. However, there would be no harm, she thought, in asking if the game was over. `Please, would you tell me -- ' she began, looking timidly at the Red Queen. -`Speak when you're spoken to!' The Queen sharply interrupted her. -`But if everybody obeyed that rule,' said Alice, who was always ready for a little argument, `and if you only spoke when you were spoken to, and the other person always waited for you to begin, you see nobody would ever say anything, so that -- ' -`Ridiculous!' cried the Queen. `Why, don't you see, child -- ' here she broke off with a frown, and, after thinking for a minute, suddenly changed the subject of the conversation. `What do you mean by `If you really are a Queen"? What right have you to all yourself so? You can't be a Queen, you know, till you've passed the proper examination. And the sooner we begin it, the better.' -`I only said "if"!' poor Alice pleaded in a piteous tone. The two Queens looked at each other, and the Red Queen remarked, with a little shudder, `She says she only said "if" - ' -`But she said a great deal more than that!' the White Queen moaned, wringing her hands. `Oh, ever so much more than that!' `So you did, you know,' the Red Queen said to Alice. `Always speak the truth -- think before you speak -- and write it down afterwards.'

“nuclear option”

Amazingly, some voices within the art establishment call for going with this “nuclear option.” British art critic Brian Sewell struck a blow for the sell outs in a recent BBC interview responding to the Cimam statement. “The art world is not sacred,” Sewell declaimed. If the choice is between selling off some art and cutting public services, then Sewell will take selling the art. Ever the critic, Sewell claimed that up to 800 paintings in the National Gallery of London alone “aren’t up to scratch”—just the tip of the iceberg of the vast storehouse of unseen art kept in museums around the world. “Why have a museum full of rubbish?” Sewell concludes. Of course, one man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure. Aside from the question of just how plentiful the art market would be for critically condemned “rubbish,” there lingers the question of who gets to label and then take out the trash.

Mistral Gagnant

Imaginea dihotomică

.."Desigur, înainte de 1989 Gabriel Liiceanu nu a pretins explicit că este aşa ceva, dar a acceptat recunoaşterea publică arătată unui scriitor de nonficţiune care era atît de „social” şi „politic” cît permitea Partidul; adică aproape deloc, dar suficient ca, în context, asta să îl califice pe delfinul regelui filozofic în viaţă (Noica) drept „conştiinţă publică”. Or, o astfel de relaţie nu se construieşte decît bilateral. Nu cred că un astfel de mit civic se poate construi fără participarea „zeului”. În cadrul întîlnirii cu Herta Müller, Gabriel Liiceanu a ratat semnificaţia cea mai importantă a discuţiei: dincolo de valoarea literară în sine, valoarea excepţională a traseului existenţial al Hertei Müller (ca şi al tuturor celorlalţi disidenţi reali ai regimului) este că nu a făcut jocuri de putere în timpul comunismului. Sigur, jocul de putere al lui Liiceanu nu avea indecenţa politică explicită a jocului lui Păunescu; pe de altă parte, nu avea nici un fel de dimensiune politică. Jocul de putere al lui Păunescu era, într-un fel, mai pe faţă, mai puţin insidios decît jocul de putere al lui Liiceanu. Dar ceea ce relativizează cu adevărat dihotomia construită dintre Liiceanu şi Păunescu nu este doar statutul primului de conştiinţă publică tolerată de regimul comunist şi care, desigur, nu era nici un fel de conştiinţă. Este, mai ales, eşecul lui de a deveni o conştiinţă publică după Revoluţie, cînd pretenţia de a ocupa forul public a devenit mult mai explicită. "

• Fără îndoială, trecerea timpului a amestecat lucrurile....

Nuanțáre

Dacă lumea fenomenală, procesuală nu este realul, există totuşi real în această lume. Gustul, care "merge de la materialitatea fiziologică pînă-n zona ideală a valorilor spirituale" este legat în mod natural de nuanţă, care exprimă aceeaşi unitate a materialului cu spiritualul. Gustul trece de la obiect la valoare datorită nuanţelor, prin care ceea ce este spiritual informează ceea ce este material. A nuanţa înseamna, în această optică, tocmai a valoriza, a scoate la iveală valoarea, esenţa, "forma simplă, ireductibilă" a cărei expresie este nuanţa. În contextul scepticismului creator, nuanţarea înseamna cernerea continuă a reziduului epistemologic, a deşeului ontologic, dis-cernerea valorii; scepticismul creator este mişcarea prin care năzuinţa cunoaşterii lumii este suprimată şi conservată (aufgehoben) în râvna pentru cunoaşterea realului. Este o mişcare prin care se trece, în sensul lui Blaga, de la luciferic la paradiziac. Gustul revelează prin nuanţare realul, care devine în trăire ceva concret, personal.

Immanens

"Informaţiile - scrie Nicolae Manolescu - şi declaraţiile turnătorilor - în majoritate, scriitori - sunt de o bogăţie - dacă nu şi de o calitate - literară remarcabilă. Ele nu se mai fac vinovate de realismul plat al notelor informative. Sunt pătrunse de emoţie, sincere, pătimaşe uneori şi îndeajuns de transparente de obicei spre a lăsa să se vadă, întregi, invidia sau ura cu care au fost aşternute pe hârtie."

...More Words

Do you ever have one of those off-handed conversations with a friend that reminds you once again why you so love books and literature, but more particularly words. (Even the everyday words are worth thinking about. Then when you really start delving into the history of words, you find the really obscure, wonderfully antique words--the ones you can use without repercussions (or those that might make others stare blankly)... But, the conversation involved a study of Language and Literacy, which links academic success with the "number of words and encouragements and the breadth of vocabulary" a child hears in early life. It's an interesting (and very basic) concept. Words have power. And, exposing ourselves to lots of the little buggers is a good thing. Hopefully, it means that we've immersed ourselves in language and literature--reading, discussion, and responding. To that end, how many words are you exposed to every day? In these contemporary times--bombarded as we are with a profusion of images and sounds--how many words do you consume in a day? How many books, poems, stories or plays do you read? Is the word count anywhere near to the 11 million/year the study mentions?

Particulár

Istodor: Sînt tone de prozatori, de critici literari pe Facebook, pe net, pe twitter? Dispare scriitorul?

• Nicolae Manolescu: Sper că nu. Limba franceză face deosebirea dintre écrivains și écrivants. Pe net nu există deocamdată decât cei din urmă.

Istodor: Ce mai înseamnă cultură astăzi? Cui folosește?

• Nicolae Manolescu : Cultura este singura rațiune de a fi a omului pe pământ și tot ceea ce omul lasă urmașilor lui. Civilizația supraviețuiește prin cultură.

Istodor: Realitatea nu a înebunit, compromis ficțiunea?I

• Nicolae Manolescu: Realitatea întrece uneori ficțiunea. Ficțiunea întrece uneori realitatea. Dar de obicei se copiază una pe alta.

Weekenduri

Délégitimation

Dans un pays où les véritables décisions se prennent à Bruxelles, au niveau de cénacles de notables incontrôlables. Dans un pays donc où « la nation » a cessé d'être prise en compte, on a essayé de jouer les « Gaulois » contre les « racailles », voire les « vieux immigrés » contre les « Rroms », les Bleus contre les Noirs, etc. Sur fond de démantèlement constant des acquis sociaux obtenus de longues luttes après 1945, dans la foulée du programme du Conseil national de la Résistance, alors que le pays était pourtant ruiné et sans les immenses richesses qu'il possède aujourd'hui. Comment le peuple de France aurait-il pu croire que « les caisses étaient vides » devant un tel étalage de richesses par ses nouveaux riches ? Comment aurait-il pu croire qu'on ne pouvait payer les retraites sans travailler plus tout en gagnant moins ? Alors que tant de jeunes font la queue devant les agences pour l'emploi ? Où est-on aller trouver les milliards pour renflouer les banquiers irresponsables qui avaient dilapidé l'argent fourni par le travail de petites gens ? Le mouvement actuel, qui ne s'arrête pas mais se prolonge dans la durée sous la forme d'une guérilla protestataire innovante, a sonné le signal de la délégitimation des élites.

Le G20

Le programme identifie neuf domaines où une action s'impose, notamment celui de la formation, et dans l'amélioration des structures matérielles des pays en développement. Selon un projet du communiqué qui doit être publié vendredi à l'issue du somme, le principe des prêts bonifiés sera confirmé, ainsi que les engagements des pays membres du G20 concernant l'aide au développement. Une avancée significative ? Que nenni. Pour Ben Phillips, de Save the Children, ONG britannique, le projet de communiqué oublie l'engagement du Groupe des Huit (G8) de 2005, qui annonçait le doublement de l'aide au développement à 50 milliards de dollars d'ici 2010. «C'est maintenant qu'on a besoin d'aide. Les pays se cherchent des excuses pour ne pas tenir leurs promesses», souligne-t-il. La crise financière est passée par là, pourraient lui répondre les chefs d’Etat du G20, et il vaut mieux sauver les banques que les pauvres…

1. Security officials placed six goldfish inside a tank supplying toilet water to the conference, the Mirror of London, England, reported. The officials will watch the fish for signs of illness or poisoning in an effort to protect the conferees, according to the Mirror. An animal rights group is up in arms over the use of the finned defenders.

linia continuă

"Mă gîndesc la arta combinatorie a lui Leibniz întemeiată pe trei termeni: infinitul, continuul şi limita, cum s-a spus. Răspunsul lui Brâncuşi, gnoseologic şi moral, exprimă limitele artei, un artist, chiar excepţional, neputînd depăşi mărginirea impusă de condiţiile lumii de aici. Brâncuşi este neliniştit de realul intangibil, ca orice mare artist care nu poate fi mulţumit de jocul ipotezelor".
Petre Ţuţea

, pe pământ nu în gând

"Prea târziu am ajuns, prea bătrân, la Paris,
amintirea s-a şters, în memorie-i gol,
era bine să-l gust, cât mi-a fost inetrzis,
de pe oricare loc, azi, abia mă mai scol.

Şi mi-e dor de Brâncuşi, cel mai mult de Brâncuşi,
dacă nu-ntârziam, într-un straniu pariu,
îi umblam la fereşti, îi dormeam pe la uşi,
pentru opera lui, măcar piatră să-i fiu."
(1995-Adrian Paunescu)

Impersonál

Analfabeţi,

"Şi lumea nu se poate cuceri
Umflând la cifre şi mimind tumulturi
Cu aroganţi şi trindavi doctoranzi,
Cu papagali care ţin loc de vulturi.

V-am spus şi am puterea să mai spun
Ca nu încape muntele în seră
Ca prea-i scurt drumul de la rai la iad
Şi de la căprioară la panteră."
1979 ( Adrian Păunescu )

Refléxe

Descríeri

Humpty

Alice felt that in that case she really ought to listen to it, so she sat down, and said `Thank you' rather sadly.

`In winter, when the fields are white,
I sing this song for your delight --

only I don't sing it,' he added, as an explanation.

`I see you don't,' said Alice.

`If you can see whether I'm singing or not, you're sharper eyes than most.' Humpty Dumpty remarked severely. Alice was silent.

`In spring, when woods are getting green,
I'll try and tell you what I mean.'

`Thank you very much,' said Alice.

`In summer, when the days are long,
Perhaps you'll understand the song:

In autumn, when the leaves are brown,
Take pen and ink, and write it down.'

`I will, if I can remember it so long,' said Alice.

`You needn't go on making remarks like that,' Humpty Dumpty said: `they're not sensible, and they put me out.'

`I sent a message to the fish:
I told them "This is what I wish."

The little fishes of the sea,
They sent an answer back to me.

The little fishes' answer was
"We cannot do it, Sir, because -- "'

`I'm afraid I don't quite understand,' said Alice.

`It gets easier further on,' Humpty Dumpty replied.

The Silver Spoon

Time has been compared with a stream, but it differs — you cannot cross it, grey and even-flowing, wide as the world itself, having neither ford nor bridge; and though, according to philosophers, it may flow both up and down, the calendar as yet follows it but one way. November, then, became December, but December did not become November. Except for a cold snap or two the weather remained mild. Unemployment decreased; the adverse balance of trade increased; seven foxes escaped for every one killed; the papers fluttered from the storms in their tea-cups; a great deal of income tax was paid; still more was not; the question: “Why has prosperity gone to pot?” continued to bewilder every mind; the pound went up, the pound went down. In short, time flowed, but the conundrum of existence remained unsolved.

At Condaford the bakery scheme was dropped. Every penny that could be raised was to be put into pigs, poultry and potatoes.

Cup of Tea

First of all, one should use Indian or Ceylonese tea. China tea has virtues which are not to be despised nowadays — it is economical, and one can drink it without milk — but there is not much stimulation in it. One does not feel wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking it. Anyone who has used that comforting phrase ‘a nice cup oftea’ invariably means Indian tea. Secondly, tea should be made in small quantities — that is, in a teapot. Tea out of an urn is always tasteless, while army tea, made in a cauldron, tastes of grease and whitewash. The teapot should be made of china or earthenware. Silver or Britanniaware teapots produce inferior tea and enamel pots are worse; though curiously enough apewter teapot (a rarity nowadays) is not so bad. Thirdly, the pot should be warmed before hand. This is better done by placing it on the hob than by the usual method of swilling it out with hot water. Fourthly, the tea should be strong. For a pot holding a quart, if you are going to fill it nearly to the brim, six heaped teaspoons would be about right. In a time of rationing, this is not an idea that can be realized on every day of the week, but I maintain that one strong cup of tea is better than twenty weak ones. All true tea lovers not only like their tea strong, but like it a little stronger with each year that passes — a fact which is recognized in the extra rationissued to old-age pensioners. Fifthly, the tea should be put straight into the pot..

Arbor invers

 

Arbor invers, cu rădăcinile-n vânt,

cu tălpile late ca frunza platanului,
aproape plutind, abia atingând
anotimpurile anului.
Cu mâinile crestate ca frunza de stejar,
cu trunchiul cu scorbură-adâncă
în care dorm urşii cu capul în jos, în zadar
spre-un cer de pământ vrând s-ajungă.
Mereu cu creirul gol, cu ideile
răsfirate ca pe-un deal pomii rotaţi,
dus în nori, în scâteile
celor neluminaţi.
Văzut ca în apă, mereu,
şi foşnind de un vânt de pământ,
cu rădăcinile înfipte în curcubeu
şi-n culori ce nu sunt.
Arbor invers am rămas, rupt din sferă
cu sfera aceasta aidoma, geamănă...
Şi totul îmi pare ştiut, dar nimica
din ce ştiu cu ce este nu se aseamănă.

Nichita Stănescu

Hereafter

“It’s about the afterlife, about Hades and the underworld and being saved from them,” a computer scientist said, riding the No. 6 train at rush hour. “That’s why we’re obsessed with it. It recalls our deepest mythical images of rebirth and renewal.” “You know what it is?” a novelist, seated nearby, said. “The miners don’t want anything. They just want to get out.”

Chilean miner madness: it has been the condition of the past week in New York City, despite the fact that it is, in essence, a small story involving a country that no one has paid much attention to, and with no obvious ripples affecting us here in the United States. Doubtless the Shock Doctrinites could find an American to blame (we forced them down there to extract the resources), and the Wall Street Journal an American entrepreneur to credit—we made the drill bit that drilled the hole for the capsule thingy (and, in an op-ed on Thursday, the paper really did). And yet who wouldn’t be moved by hearing the Chilean national anthem, sung by proud Chileans as the miners rose to the surface. Chilean exceptionalism! It’s a beautiful thing.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2010/10/25/101025ta_talk_gopnik#ixzz13Cnhw0kT

Réforme

«L'âge de 60 ans, ce n'est pas parce qu'il est rond qu'il est symbolique ou tabou»

«Le moment est solennel, parce qu'il est celui de la lucidité, de la responsabilité, du courage»
«une fois la loi votée, elle devait s'appliquer»
«Ce n'est pas en nous accrochant aux symboles d'hier que nous demeurerons une grande nation»

Smoke

On the 10th of August, 1862, at four o’clock in the afternoon, a great number of people were thronging before the well-known Konversation in Baden-Baden. The weather was lovely; everything around — the green trees, the bright houses of the gay city, and the undulating outline of the mountains — everything was in holiday mood, basking in the rays of the kindly sun shine; everything seemed smiling with a sort of blind, confiding delight; and the same glad, vague smile strayed over the human faces, too, old and young, ugly and beautiful alike. Even the blackened and whitened visages of the Parisian demi-monde could not destroy the general impression of bright content and elation, while their many-colored ribbons and feathers and the sparks of gold and steel on their hats and veils in voluntarily recalled the intensified brilliance and light fluttering of birds in spring, with their rainbow-tinted wings. But the dry, guttural snapping of the French jargon, heard on all sides could not equal the song of birds, nor be compared with it.

Infinite nature

If we turn from contemplating the world as a whole, and, in particular, the generations of men as they live their little hour of mock-existence and then are swept away in rapid succession; if we turn from this, and look at life in its small details, as presented, say, in a comedy, how ridiculous it all seems! It is like a drop of water seen through a microscope, a single drop teeming with infusoria ; or a speck of cheese full of mites invisible to the naked eye. How we laugh as they bustle about so eagerly, and struggle with one another in so tiny a space! And whether here, or in the little span of human life, this terrible activity produces a comic effect. It is only in the microscope that our life looks so big. It is an indivisible point, drawn out and magnified by the powerful lenses of Time and Space.

Project

We have long wanted to create a neuron-by-neuron map of the brain's circuitry to give us a 3-D glimpse into its connections are, how they work and how the different parts of the brain talk to one another. This is called "reverse engineering the brain" and is one of the Holy Grails of artificial intelligence and brain research. Unfortunately, we are many decades from being able to understand the entire brain at the neural level. With all our medical advances, it is proving difficult to understand all the neural hook-ups of a fruit fly brain, let alone a human brain. But recently, a new promising step is being taken, compliments of MRI research.

Auto-povestea

...Aici nu mai e lecţie de scris. E o lecţie despre cum să te mai şi opreşti din scris, din “literaturizat”, cînd ai de spus un adevăr. Cîteva pagini mai încolo sînt reproduse rînduri din portretul pe care fetiţa lui MT, Susy, i-l face tatălui său: “Tata fumează enorm, aproape fără încetare. Are o minte de scriitor şi nu poate să priceapă unele lucruri foarte simple”. Puterea poveştii autobiografice nu stă doar în şoc. Stă în rînduri incredibile care fac uneori cîte 10 vrafuri de observaţie ştiinţifică a societăţii. Iată cum descrie construcţiile din micul său sătuc (unde sporise prin naşterea sa cu 1% populaţia – pentru că erau cam 100 de suflete în toată localitatea, nu ştiu dacă a pus sclavii):

Mai toate casele erau din bîrne – aproape toate, cu excepţia a trei sau patru care erau din scînduri. Nu exista casă de cărămidă sau de piatră. Pînă şi biserica era făcută din bîrne. Crăpăturile dintre bîrne nu erau astupate; şi cum podeaua n-avea nici un covor pe ea, orice obiect mai mic decît o pară pe care l-ai fi scăpat din mînă s-ar fi pierdut pentru totdeauna.

A maverick mathematician

"Everybody in mathematics had given up for 100 years or 200 years the idea that you could ... from looking at pictures, find new ideas. That was the case long ago in the Middle Ages, in the Renaissance, in later periods, but by then mathematicians had become very abstract." By contrast, the complex mathematical shapes called fractals were not only available to the senses, they were downright beautiful

Holding the mirror up to nature

Theatrical art begins as the holding up to Nature of a distorting mirror. In this phase it pleases people who are childish enough to believe that they can see what they look like and what they are when they look at a true mirror. Naturally they think that a true mirror can teach them nothing. Only by giving them back some monstrous image can the mirror amuse them or terrify them. It is not until they grow up to the point at which they learn that they know very little about themselves, and that they do not see themselves in a true mirror as other people see them, that they become consumed with curiosity as to what they really are like, and begin to demand that the stage shall be a mirror of such accuracy and intensity of illumination that they shall be able to get glimpses of their real selves in it, and also learn a little how they appear to other people.

Jeff Hart

Natif de Denver, dans le Colorado, Jeff Hart travaille depuis 24 ans pour la compagnie de forage Layne Christensen. Engagée par les autorités de Santiago pour creuser un des trois puits de secours, l’entreprise chilienne Geotec Boyles Bros a immédiatement débauché le spécialiste. Jeff ne savait rien du Chili avant ce jour. Alors en plein forage en Afghanistan pour les ressources en eau des forces armées américaines, il n’a pas hésité. Comment refuser de sauver ces miraculés, que l’on avait cru mort durant 17 jours ? Pendant des semaines, Jeff et la cinquantaine de personnes qui ont œuvré pour le «plan B», ont travaillé comme des forcenés pour mener leur machine, l'excavatrice Schramm T-130. Puis vint ce samedi. Jeff était au commande de la «T-130» lors de ces intenses derniers instants, avant de parvenir aux séquestrés.

«Nous y sommes finalement parvenus, nous nous sommes battus pendant tout ce temps. Aujourd'hui, nous avons la possibilité de sauver ces mineurs», s’était écrié Jeff. Le camp de l’espoir a alors rencontré celui qui venait de le transformer en camp de la joie. Lui et son équipe étaient restés invisible pendant ces semaines d’attente, trop occupé à travailler.

Inténție

I'm sure the woods look sleepy in the autumn, when the leaves are getting brown.