Beale Street Blues

...'And he picked up a saxophone, grunting and rasping,
The red-hot horn in his hot hands clasping,
And he played a typical radio jazz;
He started an earthquake, he knew what for,
And at last he started the late World War.
Our nerves all razzed, and our thoughts all jazzed,
Booth and his saxophone started the war!'...

Carol of The Bells

Always on the Mark

His journalism, in which he championed the victims of tyranny and stupidity and “Islamofascism” (his coinage), takes its rightful place on the shelf along with that of his paradigm, Orwell. As for the wit … one day we were talking about Stalin. I observed that Stalin, eventual murderer of twenty, thirty—forty?—million, had trained as a priest. Not skipping a beat, Christopher remarked, “Indeed, was he not among the more promising of the Tbilisi ordinands?” I thought—as I did perhaps one thousand times over the course of our three-decade long tutorial—Wow. A few days later, at a dinner, the subject of Stalin having come up, I ventured to my dinner partner, “Indeed, was he not among the more promising of the Tbilisi ordinands?” The lady to whom I had proferred this thieved aperçu stopped chewing her salmon, repeated the line I had so casually tossed off, and said with frank admiration, “That’s brilliant.” I was tempted, but couldn’t quite bear to continue the imposture, and told her that the author of this nacreous witticism was in fact none other than Christopher. She laughed and said, “Well, everything he says is brilliant.” Yes, everything he said was brilliant. It was a feast of reason and a flow of soul, and, if the author of “God Is Not Great” did not himself believe in the concept of soul, he sure had one, and it was a great soul.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/12/postscript-christopher-hitchens.html#ixzz1goufB9gU

Chrysostom of unbelievers

...Hitchens made his living as an impolite but often persuasive contrarian whose amusing performances, in person and in writing, were designed to reduce even the most ancient and imaginative hopes and dreams to the size of a pragmatically hopeless six-foot man who proclaimed proudly God Is Not Great–and Mother Teresa wasn’t much better. After all, what could an angry so-called Deity do? Strike him dead at 62?

Of course: The word “Eeyorish” comes from “Eeyor,” the eternally pessimistic donkey in Winnie the Pooh. Only Hitchens would have used this neologism in casual conversation, and only Hitchens would have put it in the context of Balkan conflict. And that was his genius. He had a profound knowledge of English literature, from A.A. Milne to Virginia Woolf.

And what was extraordinary about his late work, given the circumstances, was not so much its content (illuminating as that was) but its quality of consistency, as well as the consistency of its quality. Throughout his ordeal his prose remained lucid, his self-pity absent, and his deadlines met. He never abandoned his convictions or lost his sense of humor, which in its ironic restraint was nearly worthy of the masters (Jane Austen, Dorothy Parker, Grace Paley, et al.).

Declaring

Find them a conscience declared in
an absolute casual
sun, find them a feat
declared by the happy
things
Absolute windows, absolute little lives
Always tell a wall, letter throne
stone desk-life, as it may
That which through
a cautious power dwells, accidental and passing

ça passe ou ça casse

Face aux rumeurs de mésentente qui courent, stigmatisant leur antagonisme ­supposé, elle a riposté : « Seuls lui et moi savons la qualité de notre relation. Ce qui est écrit ne reflète absolument pas la réalité. Nous travaillons harmonieusement ensemble. » Après des débuts houleux, en 2007, l’énergique et volubile Français semble avoir trouvé un registre commun avec cette Allemande calme et sérieuse. « Il suffit de les voir dans l’intimité d’une réunion pour ne pas douter une seconde de leur complicité », soulignent deux proches du président. Au G20 de Cannes, réduit à un champ de ruines pour cause de psychodrame grec, le couple joue de cette connaissance ­mutuelle : « C’est Angela qui va vous expliquer comment je fonctionne », sourit Nicolas Sarkozy devant des chefs d’Etat non européens. Elle, amusée, commence : « Voilà ce qu’il faut savoir de Nicolas… »

shade of reflections

The fish in the fishbowl and the bird in the cage.
You refuse to invent them in the sea or the air.
You stylize or copy once you have seen
their small, agile bodies with your honest eyes.

You love a matter definite and exact,
where the toadstool cannot pitch its camp.
You love the architecture that builds on the absent
and admit the flag simply as a joke.

The steel compass tells its short, elastic verse.
Unknown clouds rise to deny the sphere exists.
The straight line tells of its upward struggle

and the learned crystals sing their geometries.

notwithstanding

The duty lies on us to choose the idea which seems truest, or rather the only one which seems true; for I decline to believe that we can sincerely hesitate between the truth that is only apparent and the one that is real. The moment must always come when we feel that one of these two is possessed of more truth than the other. And to this truth we should cling: in our actions, our words, and our thoughts; in our art, in our science, in the life of our feelings and intellect. Its definition, perhaps, may elude us. It may possibly bring not one grain of reassuring conviction. Nay, essentially, perhaps, it may be but the merest impression, though profounder and more sincere than any previous impression.<

Risk Perception

Seemingly smart people can make patently dumb choices because the brain is only the organ with which we think we think. Most of our risk perception decision making happens subconsciously, and relies on instinctive psychological cues and subconscious mental shortcuts we have evolved to help us quickly turn the few facts we have into a judgment about what feels safe and what feels dangerous. This instinctive system works wonderfully in many cases. It has, after all, gotten us this far through evolution’s challenging gantlet.

everyday life

“ Nature’s law says that the strong must prevent the weak from living, but only in a newspaper article or textbook can this be packaged into a comprehensible thought. In the soup of everyday life, in the mixture of minutia from which human relations are woven, it is not a law. It is a logical incongruity when both strong and weak fall victim to their mutual relations, unconsciously subservient to some unknown guiding power that stands outside of life, irrelevant to man. ”

Le long duquel

The study of past times and uncivilized races makes it clear beyond question that the customary beliefs of tribes or nations are almost invariably false. It is difficult to divest ourselves completely of the customary beliefs of our own age and nation, but it is not very difficult to achieve a certain degree of doubt in regard to them. The Inquisitor who burnt men at the stake was acting with true humanity if all his beliefs were correct; but if they were in error at any point, he was inflicting a wholly unnecessary cruelty. A good working maxim in such matters is this - Do not trust customary beliefs so far as to perform actions which must be disastrous unless the beliefs in question are wholly true. The world would be utterly bad, in the opinion of the average Englishman, unless he could say “Britannia rules the waves”; in the opinion of the average German, unless he could say “Deutschland ueber alles.” For the sake of these beliefs, they are willing to destroy European civilization. If the beliefs should happen to be false, their action is regrettable.

Competition.

'Liberty is associated, in the minds of reformers, with laissez-faire, the Manchester School, and the exploitation of women and children which resulted from what was euphemistically called “free competition.” All these things were evil, and required state interference; in fact, there is need of an immense increase of state action in regard to cognate evils which still exist. In everything that concerns the economic life of the community, as regards both distribution and conditions of production, what is required is more public control, not less ­how much more, I do not profess to know. Another direction in which there is urgent need of the substitution of law and order for anarchy is international relations. At present, each sovereign state has complete individual freedom, subject only to the sanction of war. This individual freedom will have to be curtailed in regard to external relations if wars are ever to cease. But when we pass outside the sphere of material possessions, we find that the arguments in favor of public control almost entirely disappear.'

Leadership

Getting people to follow you is not about charisma. It’s about total commitment to your mission. People are infinitely more complicated than lemmings, but we share a tendency to follow leaders who are completely devoted to a cause greater than themselves. They may or may not be naturally charismatic, but their passion is magnetic – it draws us in and inspires us to pick up hammer, saw, or pen, roll up our sleeves and get to work alongside them.

half-formed

Courage is a virtue that actualizes in a crisis, that actualizes –or fails to actualize–when a person realizes that courage is called for, summoned by the state of the world. A courageous person is able to call forth courage from within herself, from within her inner world, where, I think she must feel the courage of others, internalized in herself by identification. A courageous person must have, in herself, both the latent virtue and the inner company and companionship of courageous individuals. If she is lucky, she will have these companions as comrades in the present as well. To say the same thing in cultural terms: a person being courageous must have the virtue of courage ready and must have examples of courage in others to draw upon as part of her culture, existing in her memory and in the legacy she has internally. Otherwise, there is only fear in a frightening situation. There is only fright or flight.

emphasise

"...consider two theories of economic destruction, which can be labeled the domino theory and the popcorn theory. Everyone knows the domino theory; it is the analogy that is commonly used to denote contagion. If one domino falls, it will topple the others, and conversely, if the first domino remains upright, the others will not fall. It is this logic that underlies most bailout strategies. The popcorn theory emphasizes a different mechanism. When popcorn is made (the old fashioned way), oil and corn kernels are placed in the bottom of a pan, heat is applied and the kernels pop. Were the first kernel to pop removed from the pan, there would be no noticeable difference. The other kernels would pop anyway because of the heat. The fundamental structural cause is the heat, not the fact that one kernel popped, triggering others to follow."

Suspáns

"Oricât i se dădea, mult, puțin, omul lua. De la bacșișul mizer de 125 de lei, la 4.000 de lei, jumătate de costul unui voiaj în vest. I-au fost decontate chiar și fleacurile artizanale dăruite celor vizitați și turnați. A fost primit, la cererea lui, de Vlad Georgescu, directorul al secției românești de la Europa Liberă. Vizita s-a soldat cu o schița detaliată a apartamentului gazdei, îndosariată în arhivele securității. În schimbul serviciilor făcute securității a cerut avansare profesională și științifică. Nu din arivism, ci pentru a-și spori credibilitatea în străinătate. Cot la cot cu securitatea, a combinat datoria patriotică cu plăcerea turnătoriei."

En voyage

"Il est difficile en effet à chacun de nous de calculer exactement à quelle échelle ses paroles ou ses mouvements apparaissent à autrui; par peur de nous exagérer notre importance et en grandissant dans des proportions énormes le champ sur lequel sont obligés de s’étendre les souvenirs des autres au cours de leur vie, nous nous imaginons que les parties accessoires de notre discours, de nos attitudes, pénètrent à peine dans la conscience, à plus forte raison ne demeurent pas dans la mémoire de ceux avec qui nous causons."

Predicat pragmatic

"Cele mai importante lucruri de dobândit, după libertate și democrație, sunt identitatea și demnitatea. Elita românească are aici o mare răspundere. Democrația trebuie să îmbogățească arta cârmuirii, nu să o sărăcească. România, ca și toate țările din Europa, are nevoie de cârmuitori respectați și pricepuți."

Analytical solution

Those attempting a mathematical pilgrimage to Kaliningrad’s Seven Bridges will be sorely disappointed. Two bridges were destroyed by bombing at the end of the Second World War, two more were demolished and replaced by a Soviet highway. Of the other three originals, one other had been rebuilt in 1935. So of the remaining five, only two date from Euler’s time. Ironically, this reduced number of bridges now does make an Eulerian path possible…

Meanings packed up

There is not past, no future; everything flows in an eternal present.(James Joyce)

Puzzled air

Alice didn't want to begin another argument, so she said nothing. `Seven years and six months!' Humpty Dumpty repeated thoughtfully. `An uncomfortable sort of age. Now if you'd asked my advice, I'd have said "Leave off at seven" -- but it's too late now.' `I never ask advice about growing,' Alice said Indignantly. `Too proud?' the other inquired. Alice felt even more indignant at this suggestion. `I mean,' she said, `that one can't help growing older.' `One can't, perhaps,' said Humpty Dumpty, `but two can. With proper assistance, you might have left off at seven.' `What a beautiful belt you've got on!' Alice suddenly remarked. (They had had quite enough of the subject of age, she thought: and if they really were to take turns in choosing subjects, it was her turn now.) `At least,' she corrected herself on second thoughts, `a beautiful cravat, I should have said -- no, a belt, I mean -- I beg your pardon!' she added in dismay, for Humpty Dumpty looked thoroughly offended, and she began to wish she hadn't chosen that subject. `If I only knew,' the thought to herself, 'which was neck and which was waist!'

Ed’s dilemma

Yet graduate programs have been achingly reluctant to see the world as it is. For all the innovation in the subjects and methods of history, the goal of the training remains the same: to produce more professors. The unchanged language of supervisors and students reflects that. We tell students that there are “alternatives” to academic careers. We warn them to develop a “Plan B” in case they do not find a teaching post. And the very words in which we couch this useful advice make clear how much we hope they will not have to follow it—and suggest, to many of them, that if they do have to settle for employment outside of academe, they should crawl off home and gnaw their arms off.

Latest Development

The question remains, however, whether such extensive damage can be reversed after abstaining from alcohol. Researchers have studied the effects of abstinence on the brains of alcohol-dependent individuals by comparing subjects recovering from years of alcohol abuse with those who do not drink or drink minimally. Scientists have also investigated changes in brain volume in initial versus sustained abstinence in one set of subjects. Although the effects of abstinence on the alcohol-abused brain vary, it appears that we display at least some ability to recover from the effects of excessive drinking. Future neuroimaging studies should clarify the full extent and potential for recuperation.

baladeur numérique

3 Pommes ont changé le Monde, la première a séduit Eve, la 2e est tombée sur Newton et la 3e a été offerte à la moitié du monde mordue par Steve Jobs…

tourism & fashion

Hindsight suggests that the best characterization of Germany's approach to occupied France was "Give me your watch and I'll tell you the time." But if the Germans looted with all the enthusiasm once shown by Napoleon's armies, they also struck deals that could serve both sides. The new order was European. With French and German bankers, industrialists, and other businessmen meeting regularly, the idea of a United States of Europe was making its way, along with visions of a single customs zone and a single European currency. The European Union, its attendant bureaucracy, even the euro, all appear to stem from the Berlin-Vichy collaboration. Bureaucratic controls proliferated, administrative and business elites interpenetrated, postwar economic planning took shape—as did that greater Europe in which France's Hitler-allotted role would be one of a bigger Switzerland, "a country of tourism ... and fashion."

Spleen

Rien n'égale en longueur les boiteuses journées,

Quand sous les lourds flocons des neigeuses années
L'ennui, fruit de la morne incuriosité
Prend les proportions de l'immortalité.
-Désormais tu n'es plus, ô matière vivante!
Qu'un granit entouré d'une vague épouvante,
Assoupi dans le fond d'un Sahara brumeux
Un vieux sphinx ignoré du monde insoucieux,
Oublié sur la carte, et dont l'humeur farouche
Ne chante qu'aux rayons du soleil qui se couche.

Correspondances

'En cause, les molécules présentes dans les médicaments très couramment vendus en France, que sont le valium, le Lexomil, le Xanax, le Tenesta, le Stylnox, le Mogadon, le Myolastan, l’Imovane ou le Tranxène. Elles augmenteraient de 50% le risque de contracter la maladie neuro-dégénérative, toujours incurable. Or, près d’un Français sur dix; soit 6 millions de personnes: consomme ces produits, vendus sur ordonnance, de manière régulière.'

Státic

'Europe’s deepest problem is bad ideas. Unpleasant price movements represent “illiquidity", ”speculators" ,”market manipulation", ”lack of confidence” and “contagion,” not the hard reality of looming default. The point of policy is to “calm markets” and “provide confidence”, not to solve financial problems. When the price of bread rose in their revolution, the French took bakers to the guillotine. They got more inflation, and less bread. When their descendants saw bond prices falling, they passed restrictions on short sales. They got lower prices, and less liquidity. This is not a temporary market dislocation. This debt will not be paid back. Greece and the others might well rather default.'...

Par-delà

'L’autodestruction –la capacité des cellules à se « sacrifier » au profit de la collectivité du corps –a été considérée à la fois comme un prix payé par le vivant à l’émergence de cette complexité et comme une réponse apportée aux problèmes posés par cette complexité. C’est une vision naïve, mais fréquente de l’évolution du vivant, qui consiste à penser que la « solution » à un problème nouveau apparaît au moment même où surgit le problème. Au début des années 1990, il fut découvert que l’autodestruction cellulaire était à l’œuvre non seulement dans la sculpture des corps des animaux, mais aussi des plantes. Et c’est la mort des cellules qui constituent une partie de leur tige qui provoque, à l’automne, la chute des feuilles. Ainsi, de manière inattendue, la métaphore choisie vingt ans plus tôt pour décrire le suicide cellulaire – l’apoptose –rejoignait la réalité : c’est l’apoptose des cellules végétales qui cause « la chute des feuilles des arbres en automne ». Mais, parce que les premières plantes étaient aussi apparues il y a environ un milliard d’années, cela ne changea rien à ce dogme qui évoquait implicitement les mythes anciens d’un « âge d’or originel » : au début, pendant les trois premiers milliards d’années de la vie, durant lesquelles le vivant s’était uniquement propagé sous la forme d’organismes unicellulaires, régnaient la simplicité et une immortalité potentielle.'

Contemplatív

'Tot aşa, o societate sau istoria unei culturi pare a fi separată de alte societăţi sau de alte culturi; putem să considerăm aşadar că avem a face cu organisme distincte. Dar la fel ca şi indivizii, aceste organisme ale culturii sînt înglobate într-o unitate superioară din care fac parte: Istoria universală, comună tuturor „culturilor", unifică civilizaţiile, sau societăţile, aşa după cum fiecare societate este comună indivizilor care o compun. Nu se pot nega particularismele. Nu se poate nega nici Istoria generală a umanităţii, universalitatea. Nenumărate note aparţin aceleiaşi simfonii. Două stări de conştiinţă, sau două vîrste diferite sînt constitutive aceluiaşi om. Civilizaţiile se unifică în Istoria universală care ne dă identitatea.'

Controvérse

'O epocă se caracterizează prin unitatea stilului ei —sinteză a diversităţilor— care face să existe corespondenţe evidente, între arhitectură şi poezie, matematici şi muzică. O unitate esenţială există între castelul de la Versailles şi gîndirea carteziană, de exemplu. Literatura şi teatrul, de la Andre Breton la Maiakovski, de la Marinetti la Tristan Tzara sau Apollinaire, de la teatrul expresionist la suprarealism, pînă la romanele recente ale lui Faulkner şi Dos Passos şi, foarte recent, la cele ale Nathaliei Sarraute şi ale lui Michel Butor, au participat la această înnoire. Dar nu toată literatura a urmat mişcarea şi, pentru teatru, ea pare să se fi oprit la 1930. Teatrul este cel .mai întîrziat. Avangarda a fost stopată în teatru, dacă nu în literatură. Războaiele, revoluţiile, nazismul şi celelalte forme ale tiraniei, dogmatismul, scleroza burgheză de asemenea în alte ţări, l-au împiedicat să se dezvolte, pentru moment. '

Innocents Abroad

'But we love the Old Travelers. We love to hear them prate and drivel and lie. We can tell them the moment we see them. They always throw out a few feelers; they never cast themselves adrift till they have sounded every individual and know that he has not traveled. Then they open their throttle valves, and how they do brag, and sneer, and swell, and soar, and blaspheme the sacred name of Truth! Their central idea, their grand aim, is to subjugate you, keep you down, make you feel insignificant and humble in the blaze of their cosmopolitan glory! They will not let you know anything. They sneer at your most inoffensive suggestions; they laugh unfeelingly at your treasured dreams of foreign lands; they brand the statements of your traveled aunts and uncles as the stupidest absurdities; they deride your most trusted authors and demolish the fair images they have set up for your willing worship with the pitiless ferocity of the fanatic iconoclast! But still I love the Old Travelers. I love them for their witless platitudes, for their supernatural ability to bore, for their delightful asinine vanity, for their luxuriant fertility of imagination, for their startling, their brilliant, their overwhelming mendacity!'

utterly

'The complexity really lies in the fact that there are hundreds or maybe even thousands of different types of neurons, which are arranged in highly-organised patterns, and which connect to each other in very specific ways. Now, a new technique is emerging that enables neuroscientists to trace these kinds of connections by enlisting help from an unlikely source – viruses. To understand why this approach is so exciting, we need to consider the scope of the problem it can help solve. This begins with individual neurons themselves. Neurons are polarised – they have an end for inputs and an end for outputs. Each of these may be branched to give thousands of independent sites of input and output. For any given neuron, there are other neurons that connect to it (information flows from all those neurons into our subject neuron) and other neurons that it connects to (information flows from our subject neuron out to all these neurons). But neurons are not all the same...'

disheartened

'All was bustle and confusion. [I have seen that remark before somewhere.] The pier was crowded with carriages and men; passengers were arriving and hurrying on board; the vessel's decks were encumbered with trunks and valises; groups of excursionists, arrayed in unattractive traveling costumes, were moping about in a drizzling rain and looking as droopy and woebegone as so many molting chickens. The gallant flag was up, but it was under the spell, too, and hung limp and disheartened by the mast. Altogether, it was the bluest, bluest spectacle! It was a pleasure excursion -- there was no gainsaying that, because the program said so -- it was so nominated in the bond -- but it surely hadn't the general aspect of one. Finally, above the banging, and rumbling, and shouting, and hissing of steam rang the order to "cast off!" -- a sudden rush to the gangways -- a scampering ashore of visitors-a revolution of the wheels, and we were off -- the pic-nic was begun! Two very mild cheers went up from the dripping crowd on the pier; we answered them gently from the slippery decks; the flag made an effort to wave, and failed; the "battery of guns" spake not -- the ammunition was out. We steamed down to the foot of the harbor and came to anchor. It was still raining. And not only raining, but storming. "Outside" we could see, ourselves, that there was a tremendous sea on. We must lie still, in the calm harbor, till the storm should abate. Our passengers hailed from fifteen states; only a few of them had ever been to sea before; manifestly it would not do to pit them against a full-blown tempest until they had got their sea-legs on. Toward evening the two steam tugs that had accompanied us with a rollicking champagne-party of young New Yorkers on board who wished to bid farewell to one of our number in due and ancient form departed, and we were alone on the deep. On deep five fathoms, and anchored fast to the bottom. And out in the solemn rain, at that.'

Time Cloaking

They've even designed illusion cloaks that can make one object look like another.

Time cloaking is possible because of a kind of duality between space and time in electromagnetic theory. In particular, the diffraction of a beam of light in space is mathematically equivalent to the temporal propagation of light through a dispersive medium. In other words, diffraction and dispersion are symmetric in spacetime. That immediately leads to an interesting idea. Just as its easy to make a lens that focuses light in space using diffraction, so it is possible to use dispersion to make a lens that focuses in time. Such a time-lens can be made using an electro-optic modulator, for example, and has a variety of familiar properties. "This time-lens can, for example, magnify or compress in time,"

à l'égard

Une mesure d’éloignement « prise localement et dans une situation d’urgence » afin de « minimiser le trouble et le retard pour les voyageurs », souligne la RATP qui précise avec insistance que « la décision n’a pas été prise en amont » par la Régie. « Il n’y a pas eu de réquisition par le préfet, confirme la préfecture. Il a fallu gérer un trouble à l’ordre public comme lorsque l’on prend en charge des supporteurs turbulents. »
«Cette opération, faite hors de tout cadre juridique, constitue une voie de fait»

Euripides may not have been surprised

Once unleashed, almost any pretext can serve as cover (so the observation that the people we saw trying on and looting trainers and HD televisions may not have been personally inconvenienced by the curtailment of public library hours or the raising of student fees, while amusing, is slightly beside the point). We are not all responsible for the English riots (sorry, criminality) of August 2011. But their roots are in us all, as Euripides showed us long ago, deny it as we will. And in The Bacchae it was precisely when right-thinking and enlightened people tried to deny the destructive aspects of our nature that havoc and murder ensued. Broken society, perhaps, but underlying that, a broken nature we find so hard to come to terms with. And in reflecting on what it needs to keep our broken nature in check, we might also ask ourselves about a striking difference between riots in American cities and those in Britain.

Nonetheless significant

Were not Marx's ideas responsible for despotism, mass murder, labor camps, economic catastrophe, and the loss of liberty for millions of men and women? Was not one of his devoted disciples a paranoid Georgian peasant by the name of Stalin, and another a brutal Chinese dictator who may well have had the blood of some 30 million of his people on his hands? The truth is that Marx was no more responsible for the monstrous oppression of the communist world than Jesus was responsible for the Inquisition. For one thing, Marx would have scorned the idea that socialism could take root in desperately impoverished, chronically backward societies like Russia and China. If it did, then the result would simply be what he called "generalized scarcity," by which he means that everyone would now be deprived, not just the poor. It would mean a recycling of "the old filthy business".

Transfinít

”Despre ce vor vorbi azi? Nu ştiu, poate că aş putea sugera vreo temă. Totuşi, ei vorbesc deja, fără să mai aştepte. Gravă şi sonoră, vocea lui Sábato. Stinsă şi slabă, vocea lui Borges. Închid ochii fără ca ei să-şi dea seama şi-mi închipui un teatru unde sînt singur în faţa scenei. În fund sînt un oraş şi alte multe oraşe, iar Sábato şi Borges le privesc. (Borges, în realitate, şi le aminteşte).”

“Barone: Şi ce crezi Domnia Ta despre Dumnezeu, Borges? Borges: (cu ironie solemnă) El e creaţia maximă a literaturii fantastice! Ce-au imaginat Wells, Kafka sau Poe e zero faţă de ce-a imaginat teologia. Ideea unei fiinţe perfecte, omnipotente, atotputernice e cu adevărat fantastică.

Sábato: Da, dar ar putea fi vorba şi de un Dumnezeu imperfect. Unul care să nu poată manevra bine afacerea sau împiedica seismele. Sau de unul care doarme şi are coşmaruri sau accese de nebunie: cum ar fi ciumele sau catastrofele… Borges: Sau noi doi. (Rîd.) Nu ştiu dacă Bernard Shaw e cel care a spus: <>

Sun's Wooing

The morning fluttered, staggered,
Felt feebly for her crown, --
Her unanointed forehead

Henceforth her only one.

Hypertext

A power of butterfly must be

The aptitude to fly,
Meadows of majesty concedes
And easy sweeps of sky.

Antigéni

'Neuroscience and psychology have identified willpower, largely a co-production of genetics and early childhood training, as essential to success in school and beyond. And while overall levels of willpower vary from person to person, there’s only so much of it any of us can expend over a given time period; like a battery, willpower gets depleted, and needs time to recharge. We tend to think of willpower as the drive to achieve. The more willpower you have, the more productive you can be...Willpower, as neuroscience understands it, is mainly a matter of self-restraint, or effortful self-control. At the most basic level, it’s the ability to resist a slice of quadruple chocolate mousse cake with buttercream frosting, or to avoid quittingin the middle of a tiring workout. The better able you are to resist your own natural impulses, the more effectively you can focus your mental energy on the task at hand, however pleasant or irritating it may be. The net result: getting more things done, and doing each thing better. Because no matter how cool your job is, no matter how much fun your friends are, no matter how cushy your financial reserves, life demands discipline.
Willpower is Like a Muscle . . . it can be developed through exercise, and exhausted through overwork. The preschool years, up to about age 6, are a crucial period for developing willpower. While Tiger Mothering may actually cause counterproductive stress in developing brains, structured play, second language learning, and music lessons have all been shown to help children build this essential habit of mind. So what if you’re an adult whose parents allowed you to run amok, feasting on ice cream sundaes at will?