Man and Superman

None of the dogmas of modern science are immutable. Gigantic factories, office buildings rising to the sky, inhuman cities, industrial morals, faith in mass production, are not indispensable to civilization. Other modes of existence and of thought are possible. Culture without comfort, beauty without luxury, machines without enslaving factories, science without the worship of matter, would restore to man his intelligence, his moral sense, his virility, and lead him to the summit of his development.

                                       – Alexis Carrel

History of Japanese Woodblock Prints

By period and artist, please click HERE.

Katsukawa Shuncho, "No. 5, from the series
Twelve Months in Six Sheets 
(Jûni kô rokumai tsuzuki)", 1789-95

Formae Luminis

Soon as the force of that fallacious Fruit,
That with exhilerating vapour bland
About thir spirits had plaid, and inmost powers
Made erre, was now exhal'd, and grosser sleep
Bred of unkindly fumes, with conscious dreams
Encumberd, now had left them, up they rose
As from unrest, and each the other viewing,
Soon found thir Eyes how op'nd, and thir minds
How dark'nd; innocence, that as a veile
Had shadow'd them from knowing ill, was gon,
Just confidence, and native righteousness
And honour from about them, naked left
To guiltie shame hee cover'd, but his Robe
Uncover'd more, so rose the Danite strong
Herculean Samson from the Harlot-lap
Of Philistean Dalilah, and wak'd
Shorn of his strength…

         --John Milton, Paradise Lost, 9.1046-1062

Voyage

Geopolitical Levity

Cui bono?

The Whispering Moirai

"When silence is prolonged over a certain period of time, it takes on new meaning."                        
                                                               — Yukio Mishima

Jolly Roger Symbols

Please click HERE for an article on submarines flying the Jolly Roger.

Cassini, final images and archive

As we all know, yesterday the Cassini spacecraft plunged into the clouds of Saturn, ending its twenty year mission (launched 1997, inserted into orbit 2004).

The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory has published the final images of Cassini's descent into Saturn's atmosphere, as well as an archive of Cassini images.  Please click HERE.

Cassini's final image.  JPL.

Virginia Woolf on the Meaning of Life

What is the meaning of life? That was all--a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years, the great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead, there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one.

                               ― Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse

superfluous and not superfluous, ephemeral and not ephemeral, significant and not significant, relevant and not relevant, banal and not banal

Irma Live Tracking

Conversations with Philip K. Dick by Tessa B. Dick

I just received a copy of Ms. Dick's new book. An excerpt was published in Emanations: I Am Not a Number, and I have been looking forward to the appearance of this book since.  Please click HERE to view the Amazon description.

Emanations: I Am Not a Number reviewed

Emanations: I Am Not a Number has received a favorable review on Amazon-Canada.  Please click HERE.

The Postmodern Antaeus

The Modern Antaeus

Brian Aldiss

British author Brian Aldiss passed away last Saturday.

At 10:00 p.m. last Monday BBC Radio 4 The World Tonight done featured a short piece on Mr. Aldiss, and includes an interview with Michael Moorcock talking about him. It's the final piece in the program. Please click HERE. It begins at 39:15.

Conversations with Philip K. Dick

Emanations: I am Not a Number readers are familiar with extracts from Tessa B. Dick's new book about her late husband, Philip K. Dick, which is now available on Amazon.  Considering the insightful and prophetic novels of Philip K. Dick, and the contemporary scientific, social, and political political developments which he foresaw, this is a significant volume.

To view the Amazon page for Conversations with Philip K. Dick, please click HERE.

Postmodern Science in Theory and Practice

Apropos

Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.

                                             --George Orwell, 1984