November 30, 2003
Unified Theory
Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?
Stephen Hawking
--A Brief History of Time
November 24, 2003
Government and Tyranny
The freest form of government is only the least objectionable form. The rule of the many by the few we call tyranny: the rule of the few by the many is tyranny also; only of a less intense kind.
Herbert Spencer
--Social Statics
Buying does not equal Reading
Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.
Arthur Schopenhauer
--Parerga and Paralipomena
November 23, 2003
Opera at the movies
Opera's presence in popular cinema usually goes unnoticed. Here is an initial list of cameo appearances.
Philadelphia – Andrea Chénier
Moonstruck – La Bohème
The Witches of Eastwick – Turandot
Pretty Woman – La Traviata
A Room with a View – Gianni Schicchi
Fatal Attraction – Madama Butterfly
Bend it Like Beckham - Turandot
Family Man - Overture to the opera 'La Scala di Seta'
November 22, 2003
Service
I slept and dreamt that life was joy; I awoke and saw that life was service; I acted, and behold, service was joy.
--Rabindranath Tagore
State and Man
Only in the state does man have a rational existence...Man owes his entire existence to the state, and has his being within it alone. Whatever worth and spiritual reality he possesses are his solely by virtue of the state.Georg Hegel --Philosophy of History
November 21, 2003
November 17, 2003
Life - a comedy
What a fine comedy this world would be if one did not play a part in it!Denis Diderot --Letters to Sophie Volland
November 10, 2003
Chartreuse, Ochre, Crimson
The right mix of hues and shades lend great expressive power to your words.
amber
bisque
brownish yellow
carbuncle
citrine
cream
gold
mustard
peach
reddish yellow
straw
tawny
topaz
apricot
blond
buff
chartreuse
citron
crocus
golden
ochre
primrose
rust orange
sunflower
tea rose
wheat aurulent
brimstone
canary
chrome
citrus
greenish yellow
lemon
olive
raw umber
saffron
sulphur
titian
BLUE
aquamarine
beryl
cobalt
eggshell
hyacinth
jouvence
madder
mulberry
pavonian
powder
sapphire
steel
ultramarine
azure
cadet
cyanic
French
indigo
lapis
marine
navy
peacock
robin's egg
sea
teal
wisteria baby
cerulean
damson
glaucous
Italian
lazuli
midnight
Nile
periwinkle
royal
slate
turquoise
RED
apricot
brownish red
carmine
cherry
coral
fire engine
incarnadine
maroon
peach
rose
scarlet
terra-cotta
vermilion blood
burgundy
carnation
claret
crimson
flamingo
magenta
minium
pink
ruby
strawberry
titian
wine brick
cardinal
cerise
copper
dahlia
fuchsia
mandarin
murrey
puce
salmon
tea rose
tomato
GREEN
apple
bird's egg
fern
hunter
lime
manganese
mousse
olive
peacock
turquoise aquamarine
chartreuse
forest
jade
louat
mignonette
myrtle
Paris
sea avocado
emerald
grass
kelly
malachite
moss
Nile
pea
shamrock
ORANGE
apricot
carrot
peach
reddish orange
yellowish orange burnt
flame
persimmon
rust cadmium
flesh
pumpkin
tangerine
PURPLE
amethyst
heliotrope
magenta
orchid
violet damson
lavender
mauve
plum grape
lilac
mulberry
puce
BLACK
carbon
ink
nightshade
raven
sloe coal
jet
obsidian
sable
soot ebony
lampblack
pitch
slate
GRAY
ash-gray
dapple
oyster white
pewter
slate
taupe battleship
dove
Paine's gray
pumice
smoke
twilight charcoal
gun-metal
pearl
silver
steel
BROWN
amber
biscuit
buff
cinnamon
copper
fawn
khaki
ochre
rust
sienna
tan
topaz
walnut auburn
bister
chestnut
cocoa
dun
hazel
Lovat
punce
sand
spice
titian
umber
beige
bronze
chocolate
coffee
ecru
henna
mahogany
russet
sepia
sorrel
toast
Vandyke brown
WHITE
alabaster
bone
eggshell
frosty
leucocyte
off-white
snow albescent
chalk
ecru
hoar
marble
pearl
winter bleach
cream
fleece
ivory
milk
silver-white
zinc
November 09, 2003
Midnight's Children
Notable quotes from Midnight's Children
How we made the revolution: General Zulfikar described troop movements; I moved pepperpots symbolically while he spoke. In the clutches of the active-metaphorical mode of connection, I shifted salt-cellars, bowls of chutney: This mustard jar is Company A occupying Head Post Office; there are two pepperpots surrounding a serving spoon, which means Company B has seized the airport. With the fate of the nation in my hands, I shifted condiments and cutlery, capturing empty biriani-dishes with water-glasses, stationing salt-cellars, on guard around water-jugs. And when General Zulfiqar stopped talking, the march of the table-service also came to an end. Ayub Khan seemed to settle down in his chair; was the wink he gave me just my imagination? - at any rate the Commander-in-Chief said, "Very good, Zulfiqar; good show."
He wa born in Old Delhi .. once upon a time. No, that won't do, there's no getting away from the date: Aadam Sinai arrived at a night-shadowed slum on June 25th, 1975. And the time? The time matters, too. As I said: at night. No, its more important to be more... On the stroke of midnight, as a matter of fact. Clock-hands joined palms. Oh, spell it out, spell it out: at the precise instant of India's arrival at Emergency, he emerged. There were gasps; and, across the country, silences and fears. And owing to the occult tyrannies of that benighted hour, he was mysteriously handcuffed to history, his destinies indissolubly chaines to those of his country. Unprophesied, uncelebrated, he came; no prime ministers wrote him letters; but just the same, as my time of connection neared its end, his began. He, of course, was left entirely without a say in the matter; after all he couldn't even wipe his nose at the time.He was the child of a father who was not his father, but also the child of a time which damaged reality so badly that noboy ever managed to put it together again;
He was the true great-grandson of his great grandfather but elephantiasis attacked him in the ears instead of the nose because he was also the the true son of Shiva-and-Parvati; he was elephant-headed Ganesh;
A guide through wasteland
T.S.Eliot's long 1922 poem The Waste Land was a departure from traditional rhyming schemes as much as it was a foray into the world of cultural hopelessnes.
The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot as hypertext
November 06, 2003
November 05, 2003
Intellectual Isolation
As regards intellectual work, it remains a fact, indeed, that great decisions in the realms of thought and momentous discoveries and solutions of problems are only possible to an individual working in solitude.-Sigmund Freud, neurologist, founder of psychoanalysis (1856-1939)
November 04, 2003
Tocqueville's America
Alex Tocqueville toured America in the late nineteenth century.
In Search of Tocqueville's Democracy in America - notable excertps
November 03, 2003
Imprescision
It occurred to me that much of life is dominated by imprecision. Those of us involved in the pursuit of science (that wily escapee evades us at every turn) tend to have a more exact view of the world. People are gauged in the scientific world by their accomplishments, their ability to analyze and measure. Measurements are often objective and precise. In the soft world of business this is hardly ever the case. People are gauged by what they say or how they say it. The measure is highly subjective and therein lies the rub. It is impossible to compare except through the prism of subjectivity. If a person makes a good impression on the right person then the job is done. Its not like rationality and logic fails to exist in this world. Its just that all of this is superceded by the most important concept of all - communication. People who relate, communicate, appeal and emote do best in this world. Apparently I suffer from a debilitating illness in this respect for I will abruptly terminate this thought. Derail this train and end this post.
fin.
November 02, 2003
Appendix from the Western Canon
LiteraryCritic.com -- Harold Bloom's "Western Canon"