A thought for a Sunday

Prohibit the taking of omens, and do away with superstitious doubts. Then, until death itself comes, no calamity need be feared.

Sun Tzu - The Art of War - 6th century BCE Grow into these trousers... >>

The Most Astounding Fact

I realise that I've not been active round here for a while. Sorry to the world and thanks to NobblySan for the nudge.

What is the most astounding fact about the Universe? A deep question which has tied up philosophers, theologians and scientists for millennia. The astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson was asked this in an interview for TIME Magazine in 2008 (I think).

I would have said 'the direction of the arrow of time'. But thinking of the reverse: atoms and molecules converging through the soil to produce a corpse which is then animated as you, to exist for an undefined period gradually getting younger until doctors or midwives push you inside another person who then has inverse copulation...

Well it's no more strange then what we do by living 'forwards'. You'd be used to it because that's how it was. How would you tell the difference? I prefer it our way though.

DeGrasse Tyson chooses a different fact:

The Most Astounding Fact (Neil deGrasse Tyson)


We are stardust indeed.

Woodstock ~ Joni Mitchell
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A thought for a Sunday - only moments late

"It may not be said that there is no god.
It may be said that there is no reason to think that there is one."

Christopher Eric Hitchens (1949 – 2011)

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Merry Christmas To All

Have a great weekend!

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This is how I want to remember Hitch

Christopher Hitchens has died and the world has lost one of the greatesat speakers in the debates for rationality and human rights. May the spirit of his words endure...

This, I think, is Hitch at his best Debating free speech laws at the University of Toronto in 2006. The motion is: 'Be It Resolved: Freedom of Speech Includes the Freedom to Hate.'



"Stay cool" Grow into these trousers... >>

A thought for a Sunday

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A bit of music

Sometimes it just hits the right spot!

Steeleye Span - Drink Down The Moon (1974)
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Oh! So this is why we have 'small clothes'

Lawrence Ferlinghetti reads Underwear

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A thought for a Sunday

"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any."

Alice Walker (b. 1944)


(Found at the start of this film trailer) Grow into these trousers... >>

A thought for a Sunday

"People get the wrong idea. If you're a scientist the two most exciting things you can be are wrong or confused, because that means there's a lot left to learn, and we are living in very exciting times. We're just like the early map makers in a sense. Just a lifetime ago we knew of one galaxy in the entire universe, now we know there are 400 billion galaxies. In a single human lifetime our picture of the universe has changed so much it's not surprising that we are continually surprised".


Lawrence M. Krauss (b. 1954)
Speaking on BBC Radio 4 - Material World - 13/10/2011 Grow into these trousers... >>