Reflections On Our Ephemeral Time and Place
Today is the birthday of philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell, born in 1872. He was raised by his grandparents who knew Napoleon, and he died at 97-years-old, 4 years before I was born, not long after he protested the Vietnam War. Quite a breadth of insight.
Tell me that this isn't an all-time quote for the modern world:
"The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt."
I think Bukowski stole that line.
He is endlessly quotable. When asked how he'd explain his disbelief to God, if he found himself at the Pearly Gates after he died, he responded, "'Sir, why did you not give me better evidence?"
There might not be a better line in all of philosophy.
In his seminal mathematical work, Mathematica Principia, he attempted to prove all of mathematics from the ground up. On page 360, he proved beyond no doubt that... wait for it... 1+1=2. Comprehensive! (After 360 pages, was he cocksure, or still full of doubt?)
In his autobiography, Apropos of Nothing, Woody Allen wrote, “Like Bertrand Russell, I feel a great sadness for the human race. Unlike Bertrand Russell, I can’t do long division.”
Another favorite Russell quote:
"Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid ... Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man."
Bertrand Russell... a thinking person's thinking person. If you ever find yourself in a position that you are able to publish a book entitled Unpopular Essays, you've done something right.
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The Japanese artist Hasui Kawase, famous for his woodblock prints, was born on this day in 1883.
The bottom one is Spring Moon at Ninomiya Beach, 1932
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It crossed my mind that I've been laughing at the Pinky the Cat video since the very beginning of the internet. I bet I have laughed at it for a solid hour of my life. It's the progression from, "he's a very loving cat," to "we've got a wildcat on our hands," to a primal scream of pain.
https://youtu.be/okZW3_5Gr4s
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Does this epitaph make sense?
Battista Innella Piro
Born May 18, 1885
Died February 8, 1909
"MY BELOVED WIFE AND OUR MOTHER"
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I was talking to our lawyer today about a very sloppy and frivolous lawsuit that someone filed against us. He asked me if I ever read The Art of War, said the sloppiness could be a tactic, that although it's filed in a very sloppy manner, that might be their intent. One who disseminates chaos gives others the perception that they are weak, yet they are the ones in control. They are the ones controlling the chaos and the perception of weakness, therefore gaining the upper hand.
We have a good lawyer.
May 18, 2021
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Wait... this might sound crazy, but hear me out. Maybe we just... destroy all test results, and mission accomplished??? Maybe none of this even happened.
Trump lamenting tests, "When you test, you have a case."
May 18, 2020
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Gretel and Zuzu at the grave of their seventh great-grandfather Alexander Zartman who fought in the Revolutionary War.
May 18, 2020
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I understand a lot of the nuance surrounding the abortion debate, and each side has valid points. There's one thing that's never made sense to me though. Before a fetus even has brainwaves and the ability to feel pain, it seems as equally non-existent as the infinite humans who were never even conceived.
The ability of thought seems more fundamental to humanity than the simple combination of your parents DNA. I don't see how this is even up for debate.
To take it a step further, if the soul is the issue, and God cares about the souls of beings that don't even know they exist, why would he sit idly by with the power to prevent miscarriages of the children who are wanted? Why refuse to save them?
So to sum up- a being that has never been aware of its existence is no being at all, and if God cares about fetuses becoming people, he doesn't act like it. If you worship him, feel free to follow his lead.
May 18, 2019
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Mass Shooting Tradition, from The Onion: 'No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens
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Whataboutism- the technique or practice of avoiding an accusation or difficult question by making a counteraccusation or raising a different issue.
Examples:
1.
"Bill Clinton is a womanizer."
"Well what about Trump?"
2.
"Trump is a womanizer."
"Well what about Bill Clinton?"
The right answer is, "Yeah, that's bad." Why deflect?
May 18, 2019
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I believe the president wants to be impeached. I believe that he wants to be the victim and fight. I believe wants to be pitied and whine about supposed injustices toward him that he created. If it was possible to prove any of this I'd bet the bank on it. There's no other way to explain all the self-sabotage. Two weeks ago he seemed to really miss his old life, and since then a bunch of disastrous pointless interviews, constant contradiction of his media people after they speak, getting mad at his media people for exactly that reason, all these allusions to Nixon (meeting Kissinger the day after firing Comey, his mention of tapes), admissions of obstruction of justice, etc, etc, ad infinitum. Will he resign and outline the way the "establishment" has made it impossible to govern? Week or two left? News is moving too fast for comprehension. He's leaving the country for 10 days... what is going to happen???
May 18, 2017
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I'd never cheer anybody's death, or find any enjoyment in it, no matter who it was. We're all equal in death. Huxley said it's the only thing we haven't succeeded in vulgarizing... so I won't vulgarize it. But I will say that I'm pleased that Roger Ailes will not get to spend the $40 million payout he received for harassing women.
May 18, 2017
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Vonnegut- "One of the few good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vain. You will have entertained us."
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A bipartisan investigation isn't a witch hunt. The president seems to be conceding that he's guilty, but unlike a witch hunt, guilt or innocence will be determined by actual facts.
May 18, 2017
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Neil deGrasse Tyson dropped a bombshell on Cosmos- Noah's flood story was first told many years before in the Epic of Gilgamesh! Additionally, the heroes of all stories are immortal, in a sense, because they live again each time their stories are told. (Does that mean I'm immortal, in a sense, if I communicate with my great-great-great children through writing? Maybe, but we could wipe ourselves out by then...which I think is likely.)
May 18, 2014
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On Ancestry.com I found the names of 26 of my 32 great-great-great grandparents. I only ever met one of my great-grandparents that I remember. All of those people... just a name, birth date, and death date. Funny thing is... if they had Facebook profiles I'd read every last update. And if any of my great-great-great grandchildren are reading this sometime around 2150- hi there!
May 18, 2014
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I'll bet someday the moon will be a giant advertisement. Hey, that would be a great way for Mad Men to end... a 100 year-old Don writes the pitch for the first advertisement that takes up the whole moon, then he jumps out his window.
May 18, 2014
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Today would have been Mad Men's Robert Morse's 91st birthday, who famously taught us that the moon belongs to everyone, the best things in life are free.
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Can't stop thinking about the last episode of The Office. It ended with perhaps the best line in television history- "There's a lot of beauty in ordinary things. Isn't that kind of the point?" If you think you know a better line, what is it?
May 18, 2013
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Emerson- "The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common."
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Kant- "Look closely. The beautiful may be small."
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It's Omar Khayyam's birthday, born on this day in 1048.
"Drink wine. This is life eternal. This is all that youth will give you. It is the season for wine, roses and drunken friends. Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life."
It's as if Pam was paraphrasing him in a way.
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On this day in 1896, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that the "separate but equal" doctrine is constitutional. Who says we haven't progressed since then?
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On this day in 1943, Anne Frank wrote in her diary that she saw an aerial battle between a British and German planes causing the British pilot to parachute out. Imagine being stuck in an attic for a couple years. That would probably be the most exciting thing you could remember ever seeing.
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India successfully detonated its first nuclear weapon on this day in 1974, while I was learning to sit up on my own. They became the sixth nation to do so. The name of the project represents the absolute height of irony: Project Smiling Buddha.
Or is it the height of irony? Yuval Noah Harari believes the reason for the long peace between the most powerful nations is the fact that we've had nuclear weapons as a deterrent. The long peace started in 1945, the year we dropped the bombs. If that's not the reason, what is it? If Harari is right, does that mean Project Smiling Buddha was actually the height of sincerity?
Nuclear weapons do seem more likely to be used again with each passing day. Maybe they will be, but at least all of us who were born after 1945 are here to wonder if it will happen.
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Mount St Helens erupted on this day in 1980.
For some, life went on as normal.
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Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai was released on this day in 1999. From the Hagakure:
"Meditation on inevitable death should be performed daily. Every day when one's body and mind are at peace, one should meditate upon being ripped apart by arrows, rifles, spears and swords, being carried away by surging waves, being thrown into the midst of a great fire, being struck by lightning, being shaken to death by a great earthquake, falling from thousand-foot cliffs, dying of disease or committing seppuku at the death of one's master. And every day without fail one should consider himself as dead."
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Frank Capra was born this day in 1897, the director of It's a Wonderful Life, It Happened One Night, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, Lost Horizon, and more.
"A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something."
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Dwayne Hickman was born on this day in 1934. The summer after I graduated high school I was a bit aimless, and obsessed with watching Dobie Gillis on Nickelodeon at midnight.
Dobie Gillis, opening monologue of Baby Shoes:
"Just a few days ago I was an unworried civilian. Today I'm still a civilian, but I worry a good deal. And all because of this letter. And it started off so friendly, too. "Greetings: Your enlistment in the United States Army has been processed, and...". From that point on it gets to painful to read."
I can't explain it, but I actually considered joining the army at that point.
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Brooks Robinson was born on this day in 1937. Watching highlights of his best plays gives me the same feeling I get when I watch Federer play his best points. They each seem otherworldly, like what they're doing is impossible.
Pete Rose- "Brooks Robinson belongs in a higher league."
Gordon Beard- "Brooks never asked anyone to name a candy bar after him. In Baltimore, people named their children after him."
Brooks Robinson- "Fifty years from now I'll be just three inches of type in a record book."
https://youtu.be/1vPn8f5swdk
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Reggie Jackson was born on this day in 1946. I love this footage of him barreling through the crowd after they stormed the field when the Yankees won the 1977 World Series.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/664115749094077
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Edward Rulloff, the medical doctor, lawyer, schoolmaster, photographer, inventor, carpet designer, phrenologist, philologist and... serial killer... was put to death on this day in 1871.
He was known as "The Genius Killer." His brain is said to be the second largest on record. And you can see it. It's on display in the psychology department of Cornell University.
His was the last public execution in New York.
His last words were quite memorable:
"Hurry it up! I want to be in hell in time for dinner."
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Ian Curtis left us on this day in 1980, on the eve of Joy Division coming to the United States for a tour, seemingly on the cusp of super-stardom. I make a point to listen to Disorder every year on this day. I think about him every time I hear New Order's Age of Consent, which is often. It certainly would not exist if it were not for him, or for his death.
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Novelist, playwright, and short story writer, William Saroyan, said, “Everybody has got to die, but I have always believed an exception would be made in my case.” On this day in 1981 that exception was not made.
"When you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough."
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Jerry Maren left us on this day in 2018. He was the last living munchkin. For many, many years I would wonder when that day would come.
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Other notable birthdays- Mark Mothersbaugh (1950), Tina Fey (1970)
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Other notable deathdays- Gustav Mahler (1911), Elisha Cook, Jr. (1995)
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Two weeks ago we interviewed a prospective driver. He mentioned that he's a certain kind of Buddhism, I can't remember which kind. I asked him what it meant, and he explained it. I laughed, telling him that I don't normally discuss religion during interviews.
Of course, who would? That would be crazy.
Well... we hired him and he totally sucked. He came in 45 minutes late one day nonchalantly. People said that they couldn't get through to him, it was almost like he wasn't there. Multiple trainers said that he seemed kind of out of it, he had to go to the bathroom like every hour, and one even said that if we have him drive a truck, "It will be the worst mistake we ever made."
Harsh criticism! So I decided that we had no option but to fire him, and I was trying to think what the rationale would be. How could I simplify it. I decided that we should just tell him that during his training he seemed totally detached.
Rats! It hit me that I'd be firing him for his religion. That's discrimination! Haha, yes well, when you got to go, you got to go.
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I'd never cheer anybody's death, or find any enjoyment in it, no matter who it was. We're all equal in death. Huxley said it's the only thing we haven't succeeded in vulgarizing... so I won't vulgarize it. But I will say that I'm pleased that Roger Ailes will not get to spend the $40 million payout he received for harassing women.
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Saroyan again, from My Heart's in the Highlands- "The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness."
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I walked into my kids room and there was an Operation game on the floor, with a coat hanger laying on it. I don't really want to know what the hell was going on in there. Maybe these kids have been watching the news too much.
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I'm guessing it's been too long since you've seen this.
https://youtu.be/dR_LHlFwlhk
May 18, 2010
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Beautiful Harry Clarke illustrations for Edgar Allan Poe stories.
http://50watts.com/Harry-Clarke-Illustrations-for-E-A-Poe
May 18, 2012
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Mind Tricks to Get What You Want
https://youtu.be/K2MrzXPlt8o
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IFLScience- Advertising's Gone To The Moon
I'll bet someday the moon will be a giant advertisement. Hey, that would be a great way for Mad Men to end... a 100 year-old Don writes the pitch for the first advertisement that takes up the whole moon, then he jumps out his window.
http://bit.ly/1n7um23
May 18, 2014
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Tim Urban, Wait But Why
Q- What is happiness? – Frank P. (Tokyo, Japan)
A- Reality minus expectations.
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Kurt Vonnegut- "For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes (Matthew 5). But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course, that's Moses, not Jesus. I haven't heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere. "Blessed are the merciful" in a courtroom? "Blessed are the peacemakers" in the Pentagon? Give me a break!"
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Lloyd Alexander, The Chronicles of Prydain- "Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it."
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Einstein- "If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed."
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Ralph Waldo Emerson- "Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence and nothing too much."
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Hume- "Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them."
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James Agee- "The camera seems to me, next to unassisted and weaponless consciousness, the central instrument of our time."
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Henry David Thoreau- "You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this."
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