Friday, October 16, 2020

Thursday, October 15, 2020

Quick Look

 


By The Word

I was reading a very good novelist last night and then, at one point, felt as if he were being paid by the word.

The novels that made his reputation are much shorter.

Less can definitely be more.

Man's Search for Meaning



Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's account of his experience in a Nazi death camp deserves periodic study. An excerpt:

"What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life - daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual."

"The Stars Go Over The Lonely Ocean"


 

A poem by Robinson Jeffers.


[Photo by Robson Hatsukami Morgan at Unsplash]

Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Social Media Games

 The definition of "The Streisand Effect."

First Paragraph

Until recently, it was easy to define our most widely known corporations. Any third grader could describe their essence. Exxon sells oil; McDonald's makes hamburgers; Walmart is a place to buy stuff. This is no longer so. The ascendant monopolies of today aspire to encompass all of existence. Some of these companies have named themselves for their limitless aspirations. Amazon, as in the most voluminous river on the planet, has a logo that points from A to Z; Google derives from googol, a number (1 followed by 100 zeros) that mathematicians use as shorthand for unimaginably large quantities.

- From World Without End: The Existential Threat of Big Tech by Franklin Foer

Based on the J.D. Vance Book

 


Sci Fi Fix