"Education should not be fun. You are being brought up into society and society has a way of doing things. It may not be pleasant but sooner or later you are going to have to do it anyway."

from here: http://robertpirsig.org/Observer Interview.htm

(could someone please tell me how to do links, without the url??)

as a tutor / Nachhilfelehrer, as well as a member of society myself, i find this interesting. i do believe education can be interesting and fun, but, socially speaking, education is an important means of ...integration, and as such it is not always pleasant. on the other hand, societies change, often thanks to outsiders such as pirsig.

and yes, i am a huge fan of pirsig, who i consider one of my most important teachers, possibly the most important one. (thanks, again, to my cousin S. for introducing me to his first book, "zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance".)

(edit: link fixed: http://robertpirsig.org/Observer%20Interview.htm)

Why do the few fuck it up for the many?
Because the many
let them.

A lot of things that we have never heard of make sense nevertheless.

"From the earliest recorded thoughts about physics and philosophy, beginning in ancient times, theories about the constitution of nature have been divided into two opposing conceptual frameworks, one based on the idea of a continuum of substance permeating all space, and the other based on the idea of isolated entities moving through a void of empty space. Although one view or the other has sometimes been predominant, neither view has ever won unanimous assent, and the “mainstream” view has alternated back and forth between the two frameworks many times throughout the history of science."

from http://www.mathpages.com/home/kmath613/kmath613.htm

"Die neue Theorie beleuchtet (...) sowohl die Vorzüge als auch die Schwächen der alten Theorie, und sie gibt uns die Möglichkeit, unsere alten Begriffe von einer höheren Warte aus neu zu formulieren. (...) Wir kommen nach wie vor mit der alten Theorie aus, solange es sich um Gesetzmäßigkeiten handelt, die in ihrem Geltungsbereich liegen, doch ist es uns auch in diesen Fällen nicht verwehrt, die neue Theorie anzuwenden, da sie sich ja auf alle bekannten Gesetzmäßigkeiten erstreckt."

(aus dem Kapitel "III. Kraftfeld und Relativitätstheorie"; dort im Abschnitt "Feld und Äther")

"Okubo Doko is said to have remarked:

Everyone says that no masters of the arts will appear as the world comes to an end. This is something that I cannot claim to understand. Plants such as peonies, azaleas and camellias will be able to produce beautiful flowers, end of the world or not. If men would give some thought to this fact, they would understand. And if people took notice of the masters of even these times, they would be able to say that there are masters in the various arts. But people become imbued with the idea that the world has come to an end and no longer put forth any effort. This is a shame. There is no fault in the times."


After I had seen the film "Ghost Dog" by Jim Jarmusch, I bought a copy of the book and found it very interesting.

In the above quote, I especially like the idea that if people stop making an effort because of the doomed times (as they believe), the effect will be that the times are doomed indeed. Like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Things will be as good as we make them.

http://www.mathpages.com/rr/rrtoc.htm

ebenso:

http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/La_Science_et_l'hypothèse
http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/La_Valeur_de_la_Science

ein herzliches dankeschön an die verantwortlichen! ;-)

merke:

familie: gut
hitler: schlecht
autobahnen: na ja

and: as a german journalist you should know: "don´t mention the war, i mean, nazi-deutschland, evar!!"


as an aside: why isn´t anyone blowing their heads over VOLKS-wagen? (i ask you!) WOLFS!! BURG!!!
you do realize those were favourites of the fuehrer??!!

ich versteh´s nicht. :-/

http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/ianknot.htm

by way of http://www.manufactum.de


:-)

Dumbledore is gay.

From http://mugglenet.com:

The most notable news of the night was the revelation of Dumbledore's sexuality. Jo says Dumbledore was gay and in love with Gellert Grindelwald. JK, in response to the audience's reaction, said "If I had known this would have made you so happy, I would have told you years ago."


I´m fine with that.

"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men."

So: who said it, and when?

From http://phanatic.livejournal.com/

"(...) experiment trumps theory."


From http://ernunnos.livejournal.com/

"Freedom, like power, comes from the barrel of a gun."

http://www.bademeister.com

new single: "Junge"
new album: "Jazz ist anders"


this band makes me happy.


:-)

way to go, girls!!

I would like to express my sincere and heartfelt gratitude to the author of http://www.mathpages.com, whoever you are.
Thank you!

i have started using youtube recently.

some of my favourites (search by yourself in case of interest. please.):

* mitchell & webb (esp. ss soldiers and admiral dönitz scetches)

* atheist tapes (steven weinberg, richard dawkins)

* assorted slayer clips


sunny day today. mood slightly optimistic.

nachdem ich jetzt einige designvarianten ausprobiert habe, ...bin ich wieder zur standardversion zurückgekehrt. einstweilen...

Ein neuer Stern am Livejournal-Himmel (oder Blume auf der Livejournal-Wiese, oder...)!

I think we will be good friends.