On the Nature of Things | Forum

Our king has died. We are a nation where everyone has lost their father. I cannot talk or write about him without crying.

An, watch the snakes, don't step on them. ;) Enjoy the trip. Thank you, Parodite, I certainly will. Stepping with my foot on such a creature would indeed be deeply disrespectful to them. I really could not blame them for attacking me if I committed such an insult. Thank you for the warning, but as ...

A thread for participants to share their lives, their challenges, their plans, as well as news items in their world they wish to share with others. To begin: My husband and I will be leaving this week for the Buddhist Pilgrimage to the “Middle Land” of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in India and up into th...

An, in my readings of your posts over the last year or two, I regard you as an aesthetic treasure. A joy to read and a pleasure to contemplate, your thoughts have been as sunbeams on flowers, even as you discuss the recent work of Penrose or what it's like to suspect ill intentions in others - I im...

Are you saying I have insulted An? How? Should I apologize to An, or to you for not valuing her words as much as herself or the people under her roof? I spoke truth. Her words do not have the power over me they do with her children, in your example. And the authority of the life experience of a wel...

Hello An - MY experience, arguably longer and of greater breadth than yours, suggests my words have more effect on those who want or expect something from me, and no effect whatsoever on water flow. Your experience may be different though. Indeed, so may everyone else's. With 6 billion stories of e...

Hello feck, What I say are understandings I have discovered from my own experience and not ideas or attitudes I simply presume. I am expressing understandings that I hope will be helpful to some and provoke thought in others, but I also recognise that they may often be simply ignored or dismissed. H...

ส้มตำ “Som Tam,” Papaya Salad. A personal favourite. First, secure green papaya, not the ripe ones that will just turn into mush in your hands. In the West, Asian grocers are probably your best bet but you might luck out and find these at your more generic grocery stores. With a good, very sharp Tha...

An, macroeconomic theory that suggests loose monetary policy will create dangerous asset bubbles is eye rolling in what way exactly? I apologise, Mr. Perfect, that was quite thoughtless of me. I know you are passionate about Representative Paul's positions and candidacy, and, as an American, that i...

Hopefully, this belongs on this thread. The Adam Smith Lecture presented at the European Economic Association annual Congress in 2010 by Columbia’s Joseph Stiglitz finally published this past June. An intelligent, thought provoking critique of standard macroeconomic models in light of the challengin...

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" Confessions of a Bangkok Private Eye " by Warren Olson has been fun, but the Sonchai Jitpleecheep Series by John Burdett is much better. Farangs always do have their excellent adventures. :D I have always found the tabloids revealing the lives of celebrities are enjoyable. Famous people ...

. Classic quotes. Evidence that the track record of experts in predicting the future in their or related fields is no better than that of anyone else. . scientist no visionary Vision need phantasy, dream and chance for reality all, with very few exception (maybe Einstein exception), scientist had a...

Mathematical Embarrassments Mathematical embarrassments are problems that should be solved already What is it like to have an understanding of very advanced mathematics? Thanks Typhoon. Great thread by Dick Lipton. 8-) Terry Tao's great blog for the interested is here . Much of his blog is directed...

What did the Buddhist say to the American Hot Dog vendor? "I want one with everything!" Why did the Buddhist coroner get the sack? Answer:: because he’d always record the cause of death as ‘birth’. Dukkha, Anicca and Anatta walk into a bar. Dukkha says, “Life sucks!” Anicca says, “This wil...

IF..... IF you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give...

Since it is nice, comforting, calming to know people are thinking, praying, empathizing... it should help. When you are unable to help yourself, you look for help. Somebody or something to pull you out of the pit. The presence of other people trying to help you physically, or just even wishing/want...

Last year came across this splendid little Masud and Scovazzi paper in Wiley that presents a mechanism for bridging information between disparate scales that are induced by multiscale source terms. Even though I am not a climate modeler, it has stimulated my further study and consideration. Modeling...

Sorry about this, everyone, but the world's memory is far to short...

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Hello Azari :) The Guest House This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they're a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its fur...

Good is what preserves the species, evil is what harms it. For that reason evolution will promote good over evil, but this should be seen on an eon's scale. That's why it seems that there is a natural moral law. Forget about revelation. All the "revelations" put together may have influenc...

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Circe's Power I never turned anyone into a pig. Some people are pigs; I make them Look like pigs. I'm sick of your world That lets the outside disguise the inside. Your men weren't bad men; Undisciplined life Did that to them. As pigs, Under the care of Me and my ladies, they Sweetened right up. Th...