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Nothingness = a closed spherical spacetime of zero radius
Can you imagine nothingness? Right now I am reading a book titled, Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective story. About halfway through the book, I came across a wonderful passage. The author, Jim Holt, speaks with...
I have put together a collection of my writings on atheism. Download PDF by clicking attachment at bottom of page.
Author Martin Amis on coping with the loss of his best friend Christopher Hitchens...
When Christopher Hitchens died in December, Martin Amis lost his best friend. The British author says his immediate desolation gave way to a much greater love of life, something Amis believes Hitchens had...
Intimacy. Someone once told me that intimacy is in-to-me-you-see. You would think a blog is by it's very nature a platform for sharing intimate feelings and thoughts. But more often than not, it is actually a wall that separates self from world. It is a carefully controlled construct, a barrier...
*Update September 24, 2012 ~ Just finished Mortality. It is a short book... can be read in one or two sittings. I highly recommend it to all Hitchens fans and anyone else interested in the personal dialogue that goes on in one's head when dealing with cancer and terminal illness.
The...
*Update ~ After a hiatus, I returned to the site and have been welcomed back with warmth and kindness. I realized that in many ways, the posters there were simply responding to my gangbusters approach. I learned that less ego and more humility works wonders... at least in this case, it did...
*Update September 29, 2012 ~ The Overheated, Oversexed Cult of Bikram Choudhury
It's been a long time since I've poked fun at a group or subculture. Oh wait, I did just write a snarky piece about pretentious philosophers. Anyhow, it feels like a long time. And it has been a while since I...
Take This Waltz, Sarah Polly, 2012
We Need To Talk About Kevin, Lynne Ramsay, 2011
Winter's Bone, Debra Granik, 2010
Morven Callar, Lynne Ramsay, 2002
The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow, 2008
The Kids Are Alright, Lisa Cholodenko,
2010...
Why do philosophers use abstract words to describe abstract concepts? I'm not absolutely certain, but I have some theories.
Here is an example of writing by philosopher, Michel Bitbol:
"The metaphysical translation of this process of isolation of certain “subjective” statements with...
Videos:
Charlie Rose Brain Series
Recommended episodes:
Consciousness
Depression
Alzheimers Disease
Neurological, Psychiatric and Addictive Disorders
The Great Mysteries of the Human Brain
Podcasts:
Brain Science Podcast
Recommended episodes:
Dave...
After my seriously brain-draining last blog post about consciousness and other metaphysical stuff, I aim to keep this post light and ridiculously irrelevant.
So, the London 2012 Olympics have come to a close. I can't provide much commentary on the games themselves as I only tuned into the...
Ontological questions: What is my world and what is it made of? What is consciousness? What is it made of?
First and foremost, I am an atheist, which simply means that I deny that a god or gods exist. Secondly, I am a metaphysical naturalist. I believe that there is nothing but natural...
Grey Gardens, Albert and David Maysles, 1976
Albert and David Maysles, pioneers in the cinéma vérité movement of documentary filmmaking, chose for their subjects of this film a mother and daughter with celebrity connections. Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter, Edie (or, as they are...
These are the television shows I watch--always on my PC. Looking forward to the new seasons this fall.
Girls
Veep
Mad Men
The Good Wife
Top Chef
Flipping Out
Gossip Girl
Downton Abbey
No Reservations
The Real Housewives of Beverly...
I really went on a tirade in my previous blog entry--slamming Sight & Sound's Fifty Greatest Films of all time 2012 list.
But should I really be stirring up a storm if I have not actually seen all the movies in their list? Perhaps I shouldn't. Of course, no one has seen all movies made. And...
Sight & Sound has just released its list of the Fifty Greatest Films of all time. Since 1952, it has been producing this list every ten years. For this year's list, "...more than 1,000 critics, programmers, academics, distributors, writers and other cinephiles, and received (in time for the...
I'm watching a prerecorded taping of the Opening Ceremony in HD.
View Complete Set of Companion Photos of Opening Ceremony
Part I
I'm about twenty-five minutes into the program. The Olympic circles are coming together overhead as workers of the industrial revolution beat their drum...
Here are some amusing quotes/statements that I shoplifted from The Skeptic's Dictionary online:
You're codependent for sure if, when you die,
someone else's life flashes in front of your eyes.
Seventy-two percent of people think that we use only 10 percent of our brain capacity, which...
Police log for Flagstaff AZ, July 14, 2012.: "A 49-year-old homeless man was arrested for panhandling on Thursday and booked into the Coconino County Detention Facility.
An officer in plainclothes was walking in the area of Humphreys Street and Butler Avenue when he was approached by a...
**7/21/12 ~ Update at bottom of post...
*7/10/12 ~Update near bottom of post...
Just as the temperatures outside reach their highs, my cultural pursuits hit all-time lows. Can it get any worse than consuming all three books in the Fifty Shades of Grey series in less than a week’s time? And...
