Category: English

Unanimiter et constanter

Today, there are no roses to be had in Oslo, for love nor money.

* * *

I am standing by the fountain outside the City Hall. With me around the fountain are hundreds of others. Around them are thousands more, and beyond those, tens of thousands. I do not know precisely how many, and to be honest, I do not think anyone does. A hundred thousand? Two hundred thousand? Three hundred thousand? Most of them with a rose in their hand, many with two or more.

This is our finest hour. Continue reading “Unanimiter et constanter”

Pi

More-or-less aimless surfing brought me to an old blog post about math in movies, which mentions Pi and Contact. This mostly coincidental juxtaposition reminded me of the conclusion of the novel behind the latter.

When I first read the book, a zillion years ago, I thought the ending was pretty clever. Then I realized that it was incredibly dumb. It later occurred to me that it might actually be intentionally dumb, and therefore incredibly clever, because Carl Sagan really ought to have known better, but… I don’t know. I think he either genuinely goofed or assumed (probably correctly, in most cases) that his readers wouldn’t notice. Continue reading “Pi”

Banana banana banana

I stumbled upon the banana argument today. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. A bit of both, I guess.

Laugh: Pardon me for resorting to such crude humor, but nearly every argument Ray Comfort presents as “proof” that the banana was designed by God for human consumption can also be used to “prove” that the human penis was designed by God for fellatio. Continue reading “Banana banana banana”

Objectively subjective

What is truth?

This question is being asked with increasingly frequency these days, and I’m sure some of you winced when you read it. However, it was very much on my mind when I stepped out of the shower this morning, owing to the fact that my 50 l water heater does not allow me to shower long enough to get warm after a night in a chilly room.

What does that have to do with epistemology? Well, it led me to reflect on the semantics of the following statements:

  1. I am cold.
  2. I feel cold.

Setting aside their truthfulness, which of these statements is objective, and which is subjective? Continue reading “Objectively subjective”

Three things

you need to watch now if you haven’t seen them already. None of them are new, they just happen to speak strongly to me right now.

1. Easy A. The actual movie is at least as funny as and far more serious than the trailer.

After you’ve watched it, go rent (or buy) all the classics Olive references: Say Anything, Can’t Buy Me Love, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (sorry, can’t be bothered to add links). Did I miss any? Then put this on repeat on the stereo:

2. P!nk: Fuckin’ perfect. The original version, not the “family-friendly” shit they show on VH1.

3. It Gets Better. There are hundreds of clips, but you can start with Barack Obama:

Compare and contrast with whoever that guy was that P!nk sings about here:

Don’t read too much into this, I’m not coming out or anything.