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Kahlil Gibran The Prophet

emmineb — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 11:59:12 GMT

Comprehensive site about Kahlil Gibran.

Psychology of Cyberspace - Article Index

emmineb — Wed, 09 May 2007 19:31:35 GMT

Listed below is a list of links to all the articles and pages in the hypertext book (web site) The Psychology of Cyberspace.The articles are arranged chronologically, with the most recently written or revised ones appearing near the top. The most recent date of the article, its version number, and its approximate size are indicated. Unless otherwise stated, the author of the article is John Suler, Ph.D. There also is a subject index and search engine for this book. Links on this page will produce a new window placed on top of this window.

Rebecca West Quotes

emmineb — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 02:28:17 GMT

Sokushinbutsu: The Self-Mummified Monks of Japan

emmineb — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 13:10:28 GMT

For three years the priests would eat a special diet consisting only of nuts and seeds, while taking part in a regimen of rigorous physical activity that stripped them of their body fat. They then ate only bark and roots for another three years and began drinking a poisonous tea made from the sap of the Urushi tree, normally used to lacquer bowls.

The Ten Coolest Numbers

emmineb — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 13:50:42 GMT

<> This is an attempt to give a count-down of the top ten coolest numbers. Let's first concede that this is a highly subjective ordering -- one person's 14.38 is another's $ \frac{\pi^2}{6}$ . The astute (or probably simply ``awake'') reader will notice, for example, a definite bias toward numbers interesting to a number theorist in the below list. (On the other hand, who better to gauge the coolness of numbers than a number-theorist...) But who knows? Maybe I can be convinced that I've left something out, or that my ordering should be switched in some cases. But let's first set down some ground rules. What's in the list? What makes a number cool? I think a word that sums up the key characteristic of cool numbers is ``canonicality.''

Nymphs - www.paleothea.com

emmineb — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 12:34:08 GMT

So the most obvious metaphor is the Fairy metaphor. Nymphs are like fairies in that they were unpredictable, a little scary, and often showed up in folktales. But, seeing as they are from a different culture, they are also entirely different. For one thing, the nymphs are all women. This is definitely significant in the way they were scary. One of the things you might (and should) notice is the common theme of women's sexuality = scary and women's chastity = good. Noticing that, it should not shock you that these somewhat scary spirits are at their scariest to mortal men when sex enters the picture (Hylas is a lovely example). It should also be noted without surprise that these nymphs are spirits often personifying nature. (See below for the groups of nymph

The New York Times Book Review > 'Incompleteness': Waiting for Gödel

emmineb — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 07:17:10 GMT

... science seemed to be tidying the mess of the real world into an eternal order beautiful and pure -- a heavenly file cabinet labeled mathematics. Then, Einstein published his relativity theory, Werner Heisenberg his uncertainty principle and Gödel his incompleteness theorem. Many thinkers -from the logical positivists with whom Gödel drank coffee in the Viennese cafes of the 1920's to existentialists, postmodernists and annoying people at cocktail parties - have taken those three results as proof that reality is subjective and we can't see beyond our noses. You can hardly blame them. But she makes a persuasive case that Gödel and Einstein understood their work to prove the opposite: reality exists, whether or not we can ever touch it

The Office of Assertion by John Leo

emmineb — Wed, 30 May 2007 06:45:07 GMT

So how should we write and restore the integrity of good English? Candor, clarity and sincerity are important keys. All of us are weary of writers who dance around their subjects, protecting friends, bending facts to push a cause. “The great enemy of clear language is insincerity,” Orwell wrote. “When there is a gap between one’s real and declared aims, one turns instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms.”

“Iron and the Soul” by Henry Rollins

emmineb — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 04:33:27 GMT

I believe that the definition of definition is reinvention. To not be like you parents. To not be like your friends. To be yourself. Completely.

Against Intellectual Monopoly (boldrin & levine)

emmineb — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 14:29:40 GMT

It is common to argue that intellectual property in the form of copyright and patent is necessary for the innovation and creation of ideas and inventions such as machines, drugs, computer software, books, music, literature and movies. In fact intellectual property is not like ordinary property at all, but constitutes a government grant of a costly and dangerous private monopoly over ideas. We show through theory and example that intellectual monopoly is not neccesary for innovation and as a practical matter is damaging to growth, prosperity and liberty.