Wednesday 25 January 2012

Carl Sagan's Cosmos

Τα Χριστούγεννα κατάφερα να δω μια ολόκληρη σειρά - την οποία ακόμα αναρωτιέμαι πως άργησα τόσο πολύ να ανακαλύψω. Να 'ναι καλά όμως το Internet - χωρίς αυτό μάλλον δεν θα την παρακολουθούσα ούτε στο εγγύς μέλλον.

Περί τίνος ο λόγος λοιπόν; περί μιας φανταστικής/καταπληκτικής/[εισάγετε το θαυμαστικό επίθετο της επιλογής σας] σειράς ντοκιμαντέρ, τον Cosmos του Carl Sagan. Εξαιρετικά πρωτοποριακή για την εποχή της, η σειρά αυτή αποκάλυψε στους θεατές της την ομορφιά και την μαγεία της επιστήμης και της επιστημονικής σκέψης.

Zitat des Tages


One's first step in wisdom is to question everything -
and one's last is to come to terms with everything.

Georg C. Lichtenberg



186/365 - 190/365


Monday 23 January 2012

Eine Krawatte mehr

Θυμάστε αυτήν και αυτήν; Πριν λίγο καιρό προστέθηκε και άλλη μία στην συλλογή - αυτή την φορά για τον αδερφό μου.


Zitat des Tages


You may be deceived if you trust too much, 
but you will live in torment if you don't trust enough. 

 Frank Crane



181/365 - 185/365

Thursday 5 January 2012

Zweitausend zwölf

So the evaluation about last year is over, now it's time to see what goals I can reach this year!

Zitat des Tages


Believe nothing, no matter where you read it,
or who said it, no matter if I have said it, 
unless it agrees with your own reason 
and your own common sense.

 Buddha



176/365 - 180/365


Tuesday 3 January 2012

Solitude and Leadership

"Thinking means concentrating on one thing long enough to develop an idea about it. Not learning other people’s ideas, or memorizing a body of information, however much those may sometimes be useful. Developing your own ideas. In short, thinking for yourself. You simply cannot do that in bursts of 20 seconds at a time, constantly interrupted by Facebook messages or Twitter tweets, or fiddling with your iPod, or watching something on YouTube. […]
It seems to me that Facebook and Twitter and YouTube—and just so you don’t think this is a generational thing, TV and radio and magazines and even newspapers, too—are all ultimately just an elaborate excuse to run away from yourself. To avoid the difficult and troubling questions that being human throws in your way. Am I doing the right thing with my life? Do I believe the things I was taught as a child? What do the words I live by—words like duty, honor, and country—really mean? Am I happy? […]" 

Can we know the Universe?

"[..]But the scientific cast of mind examines the world critically as if many alternative worlds might exist, as if other things might be here which are not. Then we are forced to ask why what we see is present and not something else. Why are the Sun and the Moon and the planets spheres? Why not pyramids, or cubes, or dodecahedra? Why not irregular, jumbly shapes? Why so symmetrical worlds? If you spend any time spinning hypotheses, checking to see whether they make sense, whether they conform to what else we know, thinking of tests you can pose to substantiate or deflate your hypotheses, you will find yourself doing science. And as you come to practice this habit of thought more and more you will get better and better at it. To penetrate into the heart of the thing—even a little thing, a blade of grass, as Walt Whitman said—is to experience a kind of exhilaration that, it may be, only human beings of all the beings on this planet can feel. We are an intelligent species and the use of our intelligence quite properly gives us pleasure. In this respect the brain is like a muscle. When we think well, we feel good. Understanding is a kind of ecstasy.[..]
For myself, I like a universe that includes much that is unknown and, at the same time, much that is knowable. A universe in which everything is known would be static and dull, as boring as the heaven of some weak-minded theologians. A universe that is unknowable is no fit place for a thinking being. The ideal universe for us is one very much like the universe we inhabit. And I would guess that this is not really much of a coincidence." 
 
 
 
 

Monday 2 January 2012

Themed

Πριν από έναν μήνα περίπου είχα πολύ όρεξη για πλέξιμο. Και πολλές ιδέες. Μερικές από αυτές περιλάμβαναν χριστουγεννιάτικα στολίδια. Μερικά από όσα είχα σκεφτεί τα υλοποίησα, αλλά τα περισσότερα μείνανε στην ιδέα, γιατί όσο νά 'ναι, δεν έχω τόσο χρόνο να αφιερώνω στο πλέξιμο. 

Συγκρατιέμαι λοιπόν όσο μπορώ, γιατί ούτε λίγο ούτε πολύ, άμα πάρω φόρα με κάτι δεν με σταματάει τίποτα!


The Future of Self-Improvement Part I & II

 "As the hierarchy of the traditional workplace breaks down, we are all gaining more freedom and flexibility. More and more, we can set our own long-term goals, we can determine our own work schedules, we can work at an office or at a coffee shop, we can make our own decisions about what we focus on today, and what we focus on tomorrow. But this "freedom" also brings responsibility -- a responsibility that, I would argue, demands a vastly increased capacity for self-control.

In essence, Twitter is the new marshmallow. (Or Facebook, or Foursquare. Pick your poison.) At any given moment, a host of such "treats" await us. Emails, social media messages, text messages -- discrete little bits of unexpected and novel information that activate our brain's seeking circuitry, titillating it and inciting the desire to search for more. Our ability to resist such temptations, and focus on the hard work of creative labor, is part and parcel of pushing great ideas forward."


"If we want to cultivate expertise, or "genius," or whatever you want to call it, we need to be able to step outside of ourselves, observe how we are operating, reflect on what could be better, theorize how we could change it, and then test out a solution. The problem is: This is very, very hard for most people."


Zitat des Tages


If you would be a real seeker after truth, 
it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, 
as far as possible, all things.

Rene Descartes



171/365 - 175/365