"..."

The state is of the evil rather than of the good, a necessary evil, in a certain sense a useful, expedient evil, rather than a good.

The state is human egotism on a large scale and in great dimensions--so far off was Plato when he said that in order to become aware of the virtues we should study them from the state.

The state is human egotism in great dimensions, very expediently and cunningly composed so that the egotisms of individuals intersect each other correctively. To this extent the state is no doubt a safeguard against egotism by manifesting a higher egotism that copes with all the individual egotisms so that these must egotistically understand that egotistically it is the most prudent thing to live in the state.

—Søren Kierkegaard, JP IV 4238

A jumble of links...

Just as the title says:

1. Imagining the Tenth Dimension	An interesting flash presentation on hypothetical dimensions.
2. Bush's trash talk is heard	Bush said 'shit' during a private discussion with Tony Blair. Who cares?
3. Cheating rife in Vietnamese exams	"There is almost an epidemic of cheating in Vietnam."
4. iPodLinux	Linux on iPods!
5. DR Congo backs 'bikes for guns'	Bikes-for-guns program is successful in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
6. LRA victim: 'I cannot forget and forgive'	A Ugandan man's personal response to Joseph Kony's denial of the LRA's involvement in child abduction, deliberate mutilation, and other human rights violations.
7. UK 108th in new ‘Happy Planet Index’	An index among countries considering environmental practice and general happiness. The UK ranked 108th, the US ranked 150th.
8. What is the best way to deal with North Korea?	Perspectives of eight "every-day" Japanese citizens on the situation with North Korea.
9. China to test its 'artificial sun'	"...a successful test will mean the world's first nuclear fusion device of its kind will be ready to go into actual operation..."
10. Clinton: Only Gay When It Comes To Evil, Crazy Bitches	A humorous rebuttal on The Late Show to Ann Coulter's calling Bill Clinton 'gay'.

What's left of metaphysics

"The philosophical I is not the man, not the human body or the human soul of which psychology treats, but the metaphysical subject, the limit--not part of the world."
--Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Take Descarte's methodological skepticism and acknowledge that your world is comprised entirely of sensory perceptions (ideas are external to it). Next, recognize that the existence of God--defined as an infinite-eternal being, unmoved mover, or originator, sentient or not--cannot be proven by a priori logic, nor by observation. Causal regression in logic, distinctions between finite and infinite particulars, substances and extensions, monads, and the like are incapable of espousing an understanding of ontology greater than "I am", which is itself not a priori.

The understanding of I, the "I am", is inherently a posteriori: it is dependent on your perceptions and thus empirical. The seemingly metaphysical "space" occupied by your mind is outside of the world (see quote at top), yet ostensibly dependent on it. In light of this, one may suspect that the door is left open for the possibility of immortality of the Mind, as we would not be able to apply laws of this world-reality to it. This is probably false. The mind's constitution is independent of subjectivity. Two things lead me to believe this: (1) a law is present in both the world and pure Mind: time; (2) the world of waking reality (think constant, non-crazy reality) is capable of altering one's capacity to think.

That the condition of the psyche can be affected by worldly things external to the psyche (e.g. instinct, appetitive desires, drugs) without its assent, suggests that its physical constitution (e.g. the brain) is being affected. In a false reality, such as a dream or hallucination, the physical constitution of the thinker would remain unaltered. While the perceptions of someone in a dream-state would be radically different from someone in a waking state, the physical constitution of the mind cannot be affected by actions in those states--thereby one could not get a lobotomy in a dream and properly experience its effects.

(Then again, all of this relies on the assumption that there is a true "objective" world-reality that is experienced by the senses in a waking state and that other world-experiences are products of subjective psychology. The question of subjective versus objective reality is a noumenal and ontological one; its answer is beyond our capacity to observe. The arguments set forth on this subject are merely observational hypotheses for the sake of intellectual curiosity. Their practical application is non-existent, ethically or otherwise.)

Hapless poetry 8

Drifting
Slowly
Past

Downstream and sleeping


On a boat, sails cast,
Wind swelling, racing.

Down the river,
Downstream,
Disappearing...


Gliding

Gently past
Winding
Breaths


Gently. Sleeping.

BBC climate change experiment

The BBC has a distributed computing climate change project underway led by Oxford University:

1. BBC - Science & Nature - Climate Change

Check it out. It's worth looking into.


6/23 Update:

Also:

The Earth is the hottest it has been in at least four centuries and perhaps in thousands of years, according to a new report released in U.S.

The report also claimed that human activities are responsible for it.

The National Academy of Sciences, US, reaching the conclusion in a broad review of scientific work requested by Congress, reported Wednesday that the "recent warmth is unprecedented for at least the last 400 years and potentially the last several millennia."

1. Earth is hottest now in 400 years: Study