rattus rattus’ blog

One should respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways.

What if this actually were public opinion? Or is it? Respect respect. I do not know whether I would want my opinion to become public. Or, as Bertrand Russell is quoted:

I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.

A conversation of Calvin with his cartoon fellow Hobbes from 1995-08-05.

Calvin:

When a person pauses in mid-sentence to choose a word, that’s the best time to jump in and change the subject!
It’s like an interception in football! You grab the other guy’s idea and run the opposite way with it!
The more sentences you complete, the higher is your score! The idea is to block the other guy’s thoughts and express your own! That’s how you win!

Hobbes:

Conversations aren’t contests!

Calvin:

OK. A point for you, but I’m still ahead.

[*] [WP]

Truth and knowledge often enter the arena hand in hand. Knowledge being honored if true, truth being more valued if known.

Imagine Socrates were living in Crete. Say, being Epimenides‘ brother. A liar saying he knows nothing but the fact of his ignorance. The Honorable Chief Judge Aristotle, as yesterday so today, might have had him burn at the stake much earlier.

In some languages a double negative resolves to a negative, while in others it resolves to a positive. (Wikipedia, as of 2006-08-06)

Let’s try this. Do the following resolve to a negative or to a positive?

• I can’t get no satisfaction.
• But never do what you are not told.
• He doesn’t know nothing ’bout no knowin.
• Though, she does not know her ignorance.
• Anyway, no words ought not to be trusted.

It’s a weird thing.

I am glad I am a liar who knows nothing save that there is more to know than knowledge. Now, go ahead, sue me!

Hoax websites are the WWW’s optical illusions. As of today, Wikipedia’s entry on Hoax begins:

A hoax is an attempt to trick an audience into believing that something false is real.

Imagine a liar’s website about a hoax. How do you tell right from wrong? Is this blog a hoax? Yes, in some way it probably is. As there is more to it than its trueness.

We have been featuring the World Jump Day, recently. Here are some more hoaxes:

• Clones-R-Us by Dream Technologies International, the world’s “largest reproductive cloning provider”: Buy your clone child on-line.
• Bonsai Kitten: preserving the long lost art of body modification in housepets (Wikipedia’s entry, Web.archive version)
• Dihydrogen Monoxide Info about controversies surrounding DHMO. “Yes, you [really] should be concerned about DHMO!”
• GenoChoice: “Create your own genetically healthy child online!”
• PetsOrFood: “The best place for pet and food products on the Web!”

The Museum of Hoaxes maintains a weblog about hoax websites.

Cartoon by hugh macleod

The annoying thing about people like you is the expectation to be taken seriously by people like me.

When I read you and I I am always wondering who is addressed. The author, the writer, the reader, me, you, or the story’s fictional characters? And what if I read a text to someone? Or, when I quote some text?

Maybe, I should just try to annoy myself less.

Philosophy of science is about as useful to scientists as ornithology is to birds.

A quote attributed to Richard Feynman, though published by Steven Weinberg in Nature 330 (1987): p433-. My lying heart likes it as much as it is written from a philosophy of science’s point of view.

This coat my royal gown
A stolen hand-me-down
No need to scrape and bow
We can be heroes now
For more than just one day
Here’s how
Look both ways when crossing roads
Don’t wear slippers till you’re old
Never do what you are told

Lyrics of “Never do what you are told” by Chumbawamba. The song appeared on their 1994/1998 album “Anarchy” (amg).

WORLD JUMP DAY 20 JULY 2006 11:39:13 GMT
This is 20 July 2006 13:39:13 CEST in e.g. Vienna.

Join us in the attempt to drive planet Earth into a new orbit, by letting millions of people jump!

Let’s jump!

Let us trust in the power of the human community.

[R]