Recently, a friend sent me a quote by George Bernard Shaw (see image below). That quote puzzled me. Something felt wrong. Then I realized it's an oxymoron: "a figure of speech that juxtaposes concepts with opposing meanings within a word or phrase that creates an ostensible self-contradiction." source Snopes and Quote Investigator both confirm that George Bernard...
Arrogance vs ignorance
“I Have to Admit, I Have a Very Low Opinion of Human Beings”
26 May, 2022
A 2020 Science alert mentions a 2020 study published in the Frontiers of Physics mapping the "odd structural similarities between the human brain and the Universe". This is the most spectacular example of a recent concept that I call macro vs micro. To some extent, we may be living in a Droste-effect (eg, my 2021 blog). Recently, a strange thought entered my mind:...
Criticism
24 May, 2022
There's a new US debate whether Republicans are accountable or responsible for the Great Replacement "theory" (see my recent blog). Democrats and/or liberals were eager to blame the Republican party. The conservatives and/or Republicans were eager to deny that criticism. This pattern seems universal. Why do liberals typically blame others (and each other)? Why do...
Love, Knowledge & Power and zero-sum
18 May, 2022
My Thursday night was restless due to the upcoming full moon of 16 May. My mind kept wondering about zero-sum outcomes within the Love, Knowledge & Power domains of the 7 Belief systems. The Power domain always has a zero-sum outcome: one man's loss is another man's gain. How about the other two? The Love domain has various outcomes. For some, there is synergy...
Ohlala, the sighs of French relief
27 Apr, 2022
The media claim that the French president comfortably won his re-election by about 16 points (58 vs 42). In and of itself, this is true. A conspiracy site claims that the election was stolen by vote tampering and by the EU. Both sides fail to recognise or appreciate how close Le Pen was from winning this election. The media like to paint Le Pen and her party as...
Mind your step
17 Feb, 2022
At Schiphol Airport, the loudspeakers near the treadmills keep repeating: "Mind your step". This analogy came to mind when thinking about the Third Law of Motion by Isaac Newton: for every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction (source). In other words: what goes around, comes around. Nowadays, it's common practice to propose to forbid,...
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