Finally, Dawkins has spoken out against Harry Potter. More here.
Possibly the best part of the article: "His scientific world view once led him to talk about suing astrologers under the Trade Descriptions Act".
More Reasons to Salute Richard Dawkins
Finally, Dawkins has spoken out against Harry Potter. More here.
Kurt Vonnegut Quote of the Day
Life happens too fast for you ever to think about it. If you could just persuade people of this, but they insist on amassing information.
On The Importance of Being Meta
Fiction and art are dead; only metafiction and meta-art are appropriate.
On Nihilism
I think God cast himself into oblivion.
There is no divine doctrine.
Do whatever you please, children.
Many things exist, but ultimately the sum is zero. There is no pillaging: we are all paying for it (we just cannot see it).
The way I see it, to encompass the whole is death itself; no longer are we bound to a particular dimension.
We think conspiracy exists but none are privy enough to realise that it is mere evolution.
If you were not tormented by others, you would find a way to torment yourself.
On the Human Obsession With Noise
The Laughter-Track; The requirement to "Contribute" in class; The Assumption that an absence of words suggests Deficiency;
All examples of the sick, carcinogenic human OBSESSION with meaningless, pointless noise.
And what is noise?
Noise is grooming. Noise is a more evolved (i.e., more efficient per unit energy) form of primitive, primate social conditioning. We call for a glasnost on noise.
Enjoy the silence. See: "Words are very unnecessary."
Quash your obsession with noise to free your soul from the chains of earthly desires. You have everything you need to survive. Stop the grooming. Make grooming an embarrassing vestige of thoughts I once had. Better by far that you should forget and smile than that you should remember and be sad (See: E.B. Browning).
On Micro-Aggression
We, the aforementioned, propose a new term to guide our academic inquiry: micro-aggression. By micro-aggression, we mean a deterministic, logical behavioristic account of every-day violence.
Credit to: Jaymie Paige Stein, for her ongoing work and research in this field.
On Historiographic Metafiction
History is a mere fabrication. Nothing matters. Be here now.
History is used to control people through the construction of a community mythology centered on forcibly-imagined events.
This Life is Only a Part of a Mosaic
There is writing happening
Maybe thats hard for you to understand
I am here but "I" am not here
I am writing but "I" am not writing
Inside of me in the heart cave is a
Mantra going on that reminds me
Who I really am
Over and over again
In this inner place
I am
And even as I write, where this
Mantra is going on Im just watching with
Great awe and wonder
Why I Love Richard Dawkins:
Richard Dawkins and his British Humanist Association are paying for ads like these to be posted on buses in London.Said Dawkins of the campaign:
"This campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think - and thinking is anathema to religion."
On Elevators (Lifts)
Elevators are one of the most inappropriate inventions of modern times. It is not the concept per se, but instead the execution of the elevator plan that falls so short of appropriateness. A situation in which human beings are forced into such unwanted intimacy is inherently wrong. Humans as a species were not designed to cope with other (nay, unfamiliar) humans in confined spaces. Ipso facto, elevators serve only to make the experience of existence even more painful that it has to be.
Take a journey in a peopled elevator today, and just feel the tension that suffuses the very air space into which you are confined for those torturous moments as you desperately await your destination. Unpleasant, isn't it?
My proposition? Individual elevators. (In addition to this, I would like to see isolation booths in libraries)
For other examples of inappropriate human confinement, see: underground train networks, espec. the London Tube.
Hoc est in votis
Take a journey in a peopled elevator today, and just feel the tension that suffuses the very air space into which you are confined for those torturous moments as you desperately await your destination. Unpleasant, isn't it?
My proposition? Individual elevators. (In addition to this, I would like to see isolation booths in libraries)
For other examples of inappropriate human confinement, see: underground train networks, espec. the London Tube.
Hoc est in votis
Why Text-Messaging Matters
From PopMatters.com:
[Texting]'s about escaping the hassles of reciprocity in communication. Something is certainly lost in this; much is communicated incidentally in conversation as people wend their way to what they want to say and react to the seemingly extraneous information that enters in to the exchange. But much is gained in the way of emotional efficiency when you can broadcast your intentions and proceed. This seems like a main shift in the way we communicate—social networks and cell-phones and such encourage us to broadcast information about ourselves without particular concern for reciprocity or the particular context our audience might be dealing with. It grants us the gift of impersonality, which is not the same as anonymity—it’s instead a heightened performativity; the posture of a writer toward a public. It requires us to assume a certain self-centeredness, to be sure, but it also respects the audience as well, in that it doesn’t demand their immediate attention. So I think Menand is totally wrong when he claims that “delay is the only disrespect.” The whole point of texting is that delay is your prerogative. You are not required to hold this radiation-emitting device to your ear waiting for a response.
[Texting]'s about escaping the hassles of reciprocity in communication. Something is certainly lost in this; much is communicated incidentally in conversation as people wend their way to what they want to say and react to the seemingly extraneous information that enters in to the exchange. But much is gained in the way of emotional efficiency when you can broadcast your intentions and proceed. This seems like a main shift in the way we communicate—social networks and cell-phones and such encourage us to broadcast information about ourselves without particular concern for reciprocity or the particular context our audience might be dealing with. It grants us the gift of impersonality, which is not the same as anonymity—it’s instead a heightened performativity; the posture of a writer toward a public. It requires us to assume a certain self-centeredness, to be sure, but it also respects the audience as well, in that it doesn’t demand their immediate attention. So I think Menand is totally wrong when he claims that “delay is the only disrespect.” The whole point of texting is that delay is your prerogative. You are not required to hold this radiation-emitting device to your ear waiting for a response.
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