Thursday, November 23, 2006

The Metaphysics of Quality


"Nature is a unity in diversity"

-Alexander Von Humboldt

Summer is slowly making its way down under.

One of the more stunning shows put on by the nature divas are the huge icebergs floating around just a few hundred kms off the southern tip of the country. People are flying out to see them and exclaiming their beauty in all manner. This couple decided they wanted to get married on one, but apparently the helicopter tours are not so sure. It seems they break up quite easily. Oh well. It may be global warming, it may be just normal chunks of Antarctica. In any case, it does not happen often

An amazing interview with the author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance from the Guardian. Such a fine line between brilliance and insanity. Perception, I believe it is called.
Robert Pirsig has flirted with that line gracefully. Well worth a read.

I enjoyed the Seinfield Show immensely, and although not one to go out and own all the episodes, I am sure that I have seen every one. Jerry Seinfield was on the Letterman Show the other night, and has not lost any of his quick wit or amicable nature. Unfortunately it would appear that Michael Richards, the actor who took eccentric to a new level with his character Cosmo Kramer, has. This clip of his prolonged racist rant at a comedy club and apology via satellite a few days later has been the rounds on the net, and his career will no doubt never be the same.

Anger is a strong emotion, and often creeps up when one least expects it. There is so much power locked up in this kind of thing, one has to wonder what all that energy could produce if it were not addicted to negativity and intolerance.

I posted recently on a conference in La Jolla, California with the leading non-theists in the scientific community, and this NY Times article sums up the mood quite clearly. An excerpt form the article titled A Free for All on Science and Religion:

Somewhere along the way, a forum this month at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., which might have been one more polite dialogue between science and religion, began to resemble the founding convention for a political party built on a single plank: in a world dangerously charged with ideology, science needs to take on an evangelical role, vying with religion as teller of the greatest story ever told.

Whew. I gather the scientists are on a mission of their own.

And not to miss out on any 60's nostalgia, this NPR article on guitar legend Jimi Hendrix covers some new ground on a man that was going places himself. Hope he got there..




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