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Oct. 22nd, 2012
John Robeck
Oct. 22nd, 2012 02:16 pmMr. Alvarez begins the third chapter, titled “Feelings”, with his conclusions from the last chapter on the inscrutable underpinnings of the act of suicide. Although he pleasantly allows for the possibility that the Roman stoics may have had the culture that made such cold calculation possible, Alvarez clearly dismisses the idea of the rational suicide.
Personally, I disagree with this position. I regard it as part of the dark mystery of suicide that a person can coolly consider his life circumstances and his prospects and conclude that suicide is his best option and then act upon it. I am not saying that most suicides are of this nature, nor even very many of them, but I doubt that it is so incredibly rare a phenomenon among the suicides as Mr. Alvarez would have us believe.
In any case, in this excerpt, Alvarez gives us the example of John Robeck for the idea that rational suicides are truly bizarre.
_ _ _
In 1735 John Robeck, a Swedish philosopher living in Germany, completed a long stoic defense of suicide as a just, right and desirable act; he then carefully put his principles into practice by giving away his property and drowning himself in the Weser. His death was the sensation of the day. It provoked Voltaire to comment through one of the characters in Candide: “... I have seen a prodigious number of people who hold their existence in execration, but I have only seen a dozen who voluntarily put an end to their misery: three Negroes, four Englishmen, four Genevois, and a German professor called Robeck.” Even for Voltaire, the supreme rationalist, a purely rational suicide was something prodigious and slightly grotesque, like a comet or a two-headed sheep.
-- A. Alvarez, “The Savage God”
Personally, I disagree with this position. I regard it as part of the dark mystery of suicide that a person can coolly consider his life circumstances and his prospects and conclude that suicide is his best option and then act upon it. I am not saying that most suicides are of this nature, nor even very many of them, but I doubt that it is so incredibly rare a phenomenon among the suicides as Mr. Alvarez would have us believe.
In any case, in this excerpt, Alvarez gives us the example of John Robeck for the idea that rational suicides are truly bizarre.
_ _ _
In 1735 John Robeck, a Swedish philosopher living in Germany, completed a long stoic defense of suicide as a just, right and desirable act; he then carefully put his principles into practice by giving away his property and drowning himself in the Weser. His death was the sensation of the day. It provoked Voltaire to comment through one of the characters in Candide: “... I have seen a prodigious number of people who hold their existence in execration, but I have only seen a dozen who voluntarily put an end to their misery: three Negroes, four Englishmen, four Genevois, and a German professor called Robeck.” Even for Voltaire, the supreme rationalist, a purely rational suicide was something prodigious and slightly grotesque, like a comet or a two-headed sheep.
-- A. Alvarez, “The Savage God”
John Robeck
Oct. 22nd, 2012 02:16 pmMr. Alvarez begins the third chapter, titled “Feelings”, with his conclusions from the last chapter on the inscrutable underpinnings of the act of suicide. Although he pleasantly allows for the possibility that the Roman stoics may have had the culture that made such cold calculation possible, Alvarez clearly dismisses the idea of the rational suicide.
Personally, I disagree with this position. I regard it as part of the dark mystery of suicide that a person can coolly consider his life circumstances and his prospects and conclude that suicide is his best option and then act upon it. I am not saying that most suicides are of this nature, nor even very many of them, but I doubt that it is so incredibly rare a phenomenon among the suicides as Mr. Alvarez would have us believe.
In any case, in this excerpt, Alvarez gives us the example of John Robeck for the idea that rational suicides are truly bizarre.
_ _ _
In 1735 John Robeck, a Swedish philosopher living in Germany, completed a long stoic defense of suicide as a just, right and desirable act; he then carefully put his principles into practice by giving away his property and drowning himself in the Weser. His death was the sensation of the day. It provoked Voltaire to comment through one of the characters in Candide: “... I have seen a prodigious number of people who hold their existence in execration, but I have only seen a dozen who voluntarily put an end to their misery: three Negroes, four Englishmen, four Genevois, and a German professor called Robeck.” Even for Voltaire, the supreme rationalist, a purely rational suicide was something prodigious and slightly grotesque, like a comet or a two-headed sheep.
-- A. Alvarez, “The Savage God”
Personally, I disagree with this position. I regard it as part of the dark mystery of suicide that a person can coolly consider his life circumstances and his prospects and conclude that suicide is his best option and then act upon it. I am not saying that most suicides are of this nature, nor even very many of them, but I doubt that it is so incredibly rare a phenomenon among the suicides as Mr. Alvarez would have us believe.
In any case, in this excerpt, Alvarez gives us the example of John Robeck for the idea that rational suicides are truly bizarre.
_ _ _
In 1735 John Robeck, a Swedish philosopher living in Germany, completed a long stoic defense of suicide as a just, right and desirable act; he then carefully put his principles into practice by giving away his property and drowning himself in the Weser. His death was the sensation of the day. It provoked Voltaire to comment through one of the characters in Candide: “... I have seen a prodigious number of people who hold their existence in execration, but I have only seen a dozen who voluntarily put an end to their misery: three Negroes, four Englishmen, four Genevois, and a German professor called Robeck.” Even for Voltaire, the supreme rationalist, a purely rational suicide was something prodigious and slightly grotesque, like a comet or a two-headed sheep.
-- A. Alvarez, “The Savage God”
Spiders on Drugs
Oct. 22nd, 2012 04:38 pmApparently, drug-use affects the way spiders spin their webs.
Different drugs had different effects on the shapes of the web. In high doses, almost every drug resulted in highly irregular webs. But at carefully chosen lower doses, there were some interesting differences. For example, under the influence of caffeine, the webs were vertically shorter but horizontally wider, as spiders made larger angles between the radial spokes of the web. The most striking was the effect of LSD-25. Yes, LSD. This is the only drug which resulted in webs being more carefully weaved and more perfect than the controls.
-- Bora Zivkovic
And thus spiders and their webs are used to see what kind of pesticides are being used in partiuclar fields and orchards. Funny thing about that LSD though, huh?
Different drugs had different effects on the shapes of the web. In high doses, almost every drug resulted in highly irregular webs. But at carefully chosen lower doses, there were some interesting differences. For example, under the influence of caffeine, the webs were vertically shorter but horizontally wider, as spiders made larger angles between the radial spokes of the web. The most striking was the effect of LSD-25. Yes, LSD. This is the only drug which resulted in webs being more carefully weaved and more perfect than the controls.
-- Bora Zivkovic
And thus spiders and their webs are used to see what kind of pesticides are being used in partiuclar fields and orchards. Funny thing about that LSD though, huh?
Spiders on Drugs
Oct. 22nd, 2012 04:38 pmApparently, drug-use affects the way spiders spin their webs.
Different drugs had different effects on the shapes of the web. In high doses, almost every drug resulted in highly irregular webs. But at carefully chosen lower doses, there were some interesting differences. For example, under the influence of caffeine, the webs were vertically shorter but horizontally wider, as spiders made larger angles between the radial spokes of the web. The most striking was the effect of LSD-25. Yes, LSD. This is the only drug which resulted in webs being more carefully weaved and more perfect than the controls.
-- Bora Zivkovic
And thus spiders and their webs are used to see what kind of pesticides are being used in partiuclar fields and orchards. Funny thing about that LSD though, huh?
Different drugs had different effects on the shapes of the web. In high doses, almost every drug resulted in highly irregular webs. But at carefully chosen lower doses, there were some interesting differences. For example, under the influence of caffeine, the webs were vertically shorter but horizontally wider, as spiders made larger angles between the radial spokes of the web. The most striking was the effect of LSD-25. Yes, LSD. This is the only drug which resulted in webs being more carefully weaved and more perfect than the controls.
-- Bora Zivkovic
And thus spiders and their webs are used to see what kind of pesticides are being used in partiuclar fields and orchards. Funny thing about that LSD though, huh?
Sully Panic
Oct. 22nd, 2012 05:39 pmKessler looks at the latest post-modern Romney ad: post-modern because truth is completely immaterial to this propagandist dreck. It's one thing to broadcast untruths, or misleading half-facts as obvious truths; it's another to be called out on them, refuse to change them, and intensify their reach.
But it's working.
Obama is now fighting for his political life. And right now, to my genuine horror, he's losing to a fraud, a war-monger, a liar and a budget-buster.
-- Andrew Sullivan
There is so much cross-information out there that one does not feel sure-footed in calling the race. It looks to me like Obama may have a nominal lead, but that Romney has the momentum going into these last two weeks. I'm afraid that the race will be so close that it will come down to how well the Republicans can push/cheat the system, and that this race may be a lot like the 2000 Bush-Gore contest.
But it's working.
Obama is now fighting for his political life. And right now, to my genuine horror, he's losing to a fraud, a war-monger, a liar and a budget-buster.
-- Andrew Sullivan
There is so much cross-information out there that one does not feel sure-footed in calling the race. It looks to me like Obama may have a nominal lead, but that Romney has the momentum going into these last two weeks. I'm afraid that the race will be so close that it will come down to how well the Republicans can push/cheat the system, and that this race may be a lot like the 2000 Bush-Gore contest.
Sully Panic
Oct. 22nd, 2012 05:39 pmKessler looks at the latest post-modern Romney ad: post-modern because truth is completely immaterial to this propagandist dreck. It's one thing to broadcast untruths, or misleading half-facts as obvious truths; it's another to be called out on them, refuse to change them, and intensify their reach.
But it's working.
Obama is now fighting for his political life. And right now, to my genuine horror, he's losing to a fraud, a war-monger, a liar and a budget-buster.
-- Andrew Sullivan
There is so much cross-information out there that one does not feel sure-footed in calling the race. It looks to me like Obama may have a nominal lead, but that Romney has the momentum going into these last two weeks. I'm afraid that the race will be so close that it will come down to how well the Republicans can push/cheat the system, and that this race may be a lot like the 2000 Bush-Gore contest.
But it's working.
Obama is now fighting for his political life. And right now, to my genuine horror, he's losing to a fraud, a war-monger, a liar and a budget-buster.
-- Andrew Sullivan
There is so much cross-information out there that one does not feel sure-footed in calling the race. It looks to me like Obama may have a nominal lead, but that Romney has the momentum going into these last two weeks. I'm afraid that the race will be so close that it will come down to how well the Republicans can push/cheat the system, and that this race may be a lot like the 2000 Bush-Gore contest.
e-Mail Is Going Out of Style??
Oct. 22nd, 2012 06:02 pmColor me shocked! I have heard of the growing popularity of Facebook messaging, but I could not believe that it is this big a deal. You may as well have told me that Google was dying, and I would have found that more believable. Wow! I guess you really miss out on the trends when you are no longer young.
(Sourc: Sully's Dish)
e-Mail Is Going Out of Style??
Oct. 22nd, 2012 06:02 pmColor me shocked! I have heard of the growing popularity of Facebook messaging, but I could not believe that it is this big a deal. You may as well have told me that Google was dying, and I would have found that more believable. Wow! I guess you really miss out on the trends when you are no longer young.
(Sourc: Sully's Dish)
The Last Debate
Oct. 22nd, 2012 09:59 pmThat is the last debate, and as it was on foreign policy, the temperature was a bit cooler being at some remove from the hot-button social topics. Obama did not lapse into his first-debate passivity but held his ground tough. The problem remains, though, that he already allowed Romney to show himself as a viable alternative, and as much as Obama tried to fact-check him, he did not succeed in coloring Romeny as the right-wing extemist that he was happy to show himself as during the Republican primaries (Mr. Severe Conservative!). Romney has been able to play as a moderate to the general American population in these debates and in these last weeks. In short, this is going to be a scary election day. God, the idea of getting another Scalia or Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court is enough to break your liberal heart.
The Last Debate
Oct. 22nd, 2012 09:59 pmThat is the last debate, and as it was on foreign policy, the temperature was a bit cooler being at some remove from the hot-button social topics. Obama did not lapse into his first-debate passivity but held his ground tough. The problem remains, though, that he already allowed Romney to show himself as a viable alternative, and as much as Obama tried to fact-check him, he did not succeed in coloring Romeny as the right-wing extemist that he was happy to show himself as during the Republican primaries (Mr. Severe Conservative!). Romney has been able to play as a moderate to the general American population in these debates and in these last weeks. In short, this is going to be a scary election day. God, the idea of getting another Scalia or Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court is enough to break your liberal heart.
