Ivan lays it down

This is from the book I'm reading now, The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It is a conversation between the pious and idealistic Alyosha and his older, rational, and desperate brother Ivan. It's great- it's got the question of God and Euclidean geometry in it ftw.

"Well, tell me where to begin, give your orders. The existence
of God, eh?"
"Begin where you like. You declared yesterday at father's that
there was no God." Alyosha looked searchingly at his brother.
"I said that yesterday at dinner on purpose to tease you and I saw
your eyes glow. But now I've no objection to discussing with you,
and I say so very seriously. I want to be friends with you, Alyosha,
for I have no friends and want to try it. Well, only fancy, perhaps
I too accept God," laughed Ivan; "that's a surprise for you, isn't
it?"
"Yes of course, if you are not joking now."
"Joking? I was told at the elder's yesterday that I was joking.
You know, dear boy, there was an old sinner in the eighteenth
century who declared that, if there were no God, he would have to be
invented. S'il n'existait pas Dieu, il faudrait l'inventer. And man
has actually invented God. And what's strange, what would be
marvellous, is not that God should really exist; the marvel is that
such an idea, the idea of the necessity of God, could enter the head
of such a savage, vicious beast as man. So holy it is, so touching, so
wise and so great a credit it does to man. As for me, I've long
resolved not to think whether man created God or God man. And I
won't go through all the axioms laid down by Russian boys on that
subject, all derived from European hypotheses; for what's a hypothesis
there is an axiom with the Russian boy, and not only with the boys but
with their teachers too, for our Russian professors are often just the
same boys themselves. And so I omit all the hypotheses. For what are
we aiming at now? I am trying to explain as quickly as possible my
essential nature, that is what manner of man I am, what I believe
in, and for what I hope, that's it, isn't it? And therefore I tell you
that I accept God simply. But you must note this: if God exists and if
He really did create the world, then, as we all know, He created it
according to the geometry of Euclid and the human mind with the
conception of only three dimensions in space. Yet there have been
and still are geometricians and philosophers, and even some of the
most distinguished, who doubt whether the whole universe, or to
speak more widely, the whole of being, was only created in Euclid's
geometry; they even dare to dream that two parallel lines, which
according to Euclid can never meet on earth, may meet somewhere in
infinity. I have come to the conclusion that, since I can't understand
even that, I can't expect to understand about God. I acknowledge
humbly that I have no faculty for settling such questions, I have a
Euclidian earthly mind, and how could I solve problems that are not of
this world? And I advise you never to think about it either, my dear
Alyosha, especially about God, whether He exists or not. All such
questions are utterly inappropriate for a mind created with an idea of
only three dimensions. And so I accept God and am glad to, and
what's more, I accept His wisdom, His purpose which are utterly beyond
our ken; I believe in the underlying order and the meaning of life;
I believe in the eternal harmony in which they say we shall one day be
blended. I believe in the Word to Which the universe is striving,
and Which Itself was 'with God,' and Which Itself is God and so on,
and so on, to infinity. There are all sorts of phrases for it. I
seem to be on the right path, don't I'? Yet would you believe it, in
the final result I don't accept this world of God's, and, although I
know it exists, I don't accept it at all. It's not that I don't accept
God, you must understand, it's the world created by Him I don't and
cannot accept. Let me make it plain. I believe like a child that
suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating
absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage,
like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small
Euclidian mind of man, that in the world's finale, at the moment of
eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it
will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments,
for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood
they've shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to
justify all that has happened with men- but thought all that may
come to pass, I don't accept it. I won't accept it. Even if parallel
lines do meet and I see it myself, I shall see it and say that they've
met, but still I won't accept it. That's what's at the root of me,
Alyosha; that's my creed. I am in earnest in what I say. I began our
talk as stupidly as I could on purpose, but I've led up to my
confession, for that's all you want. You didn't want to hear about
God, but only to know what the brother you love lives by. And so
I've told you."
Ivan concluded his long tirade with marked and unexpected feeling.
"And why did you begin 'as stupidly as you could'?" asked Alyosha,
looking dreamily at him.
"To begin with, for the sake of being Russian. Russian
conversations on such subjects are always carried on inconceivably
stupidly. And secondly, the stupider one is, the closer one is to
reality. The stupider one is, the clearer one is. Stupidity is brief
and artless, while intelligence wriggles and hides itself.
Intelligence is a knave, but stupidity is honest and straight forward.
I've led the conversation to my despair, and the more stupidly I
have presented it, the better for me."
"You will explain why you don't accept the world?" said Alyosha.
"To be sure I will, it's not a secret, that's what I've been
leading up to. Dear little brother, I don't want to corrupt you or
to turn you from your stronghold, perhaps I want to be healed by you."
Ivan smiled suddenly quite like a little gentle child. Alyosha had
never seen such a smile on his face before.

The Serial Comma

Perhaps you are interested in grammar. The serial comma occurs in lists of three or more words. We use it in situations like listing body parts: head, shoulders, knees, and toes. The last comma separating 'knees' and 'and' is called the serial comma. While there is no official ruling on its inclusion or exclusion, in most technical or formal usage it is included. To my sense, it ought to be excluded. Observe.

1. John, Paul, George, and Ringo had phenomenal luck.

2. John, Paul, George and Ringo had a phenomenal lunch.

Perfect Songs

Seriously what will it take to get you jerks to post?  I'm considering making this a drunk-post-only blog (I'm sure it is to some degree already, but we could make it official).  Instead of drunk-post-only, I'll try to generate some participation.

There are songs out there that I consider "Perfect Songs".  I don't know what criteria result in a perfect song, but I will do my best to illustrate with examples.  I encourage all you 225 folk to do the same either in individual posts or the comments for this post (just try to keep it consistent).

I will give my examples for what I consider to be "Perfect Songs" and rationale.  Hopefully from this I (perhaps with your help, faithful readers) can generate a definition or a list of criterion for a perfect song.  On with the show:

- "Here Come the Warm Jets" by Brian Eno

Eno does a lot with this album, but I think what he really captures with this song is the most basic enjoyment of rock and roll.  Every teenager with a guitar has found one riff that s/he can play over and over without stopping.  From this he adds: rythm guitar chugging in the background, drums that are introduced offbeat and softly yet crescendo into a banging beat, and vocals that perfectly sing what you want to hear with this sound, but they don't need to say anything in particular.  This is you rocking out in your bedroom at 15 realizing just what song your riff could eventually become.

- "Teenage Riot" by Sonic Youth

I can't think of any example where the guitar had been played the way it was in this song before.  Rock music was changed forever after this song.  I'm constantly amazed at how intricate yet simple the play between the two guitar parts sounds.  I don't know if I'll ever fully figure this song out, but it sounds fucking great.  Every. Single. Time.

- "Come in Alone" by My Bloody Valentine

The term "shoegaze" is kind of stupid, but it is applied to a kind of music that I find very enjoyable.  I really like layered, dense, heavily effected guitar sounds and this song delivers it in spades.  I feel that this song is the definition of the "shoegaze" sound and Belinda Butcher's beautiful vocals on top of Kevin Shields' awesome production of the album create a song that can only be described as beautiful.

- "In the Nervous Light of Sunday" by Circle Takes the Square

This song may not be the best song on either album it's featured on, but it holds so much promise that the band explored it on two separate albums.  Frankly, the production values on the self titled album pale in comparison to "As the Roots Undo" and this song was just good enough to warrant further exploration on the band's most recent album.  I feel that this track is a band trying to define itself and it just straight up works.  The CTTS sound is fully defined in "As the Roots Undo" (I mean the album overall) and this song just shows it in comparison to their previous work.  This is a very young band who everyone should look forward to.  They're amazing and though some may scoff as the "screamo" label, this band shows a serious thoughtfulness to their craft that any band should use in their approach to music.  Give them a chance because these guys are fucking meticulous.

- "Street Hassle" by Lou Reed

I will preface this with the following statement:  I love rock music appropriately orchestrated with string instruments.  Reed adds to this sweet organ sounds, his typical cool persona and guest vocals from Bruce Springsteen.  This song is basically an anthem to being an awesome dude and banging chicks in the typical cool Loud Reed style.  It's a pretty song, it works and it uses Reed's typical cool dude style.  On top of all this, it's the best song that I have personally heard from his solo career.  Please prove me wrong.

Please friends I beg you to add to this.  My reasoning is only that of one drunk music fan and I have grown weary of trying to come up with more examples.  I will add to this if you will.  Help me define what makes a perfect song and enlighten me (and others) as to what other perfect music is out there.

Bionic eye gives blind man sight

So check this out

So some coughryancough may think I'm a bit idealistic with my opinions on science, but this shit is ridiculous.

Let's seriously step back and consider this for a second.  My last post was about lasers on the battlefield.  Now we're talking about a man who has not seen anything for 30 years can now (albeit in a very limited fashion) see.  That's fucking ridiculous.

Hopefully with increased spending in science and research, plus the ability to somehow avoid a depression, we will continue to see more of this stuff.  While we've had the discussion that we haven't necessarily created any "new" technologies since the internet and we're still using the same tools we've had since the 80s and 90s, I think this is an example of how we haven't done all we can yet with the technologies we do have.  

If you disagree that's fine, but all I'm going to say to you is "HOLY FUCKING SHIT THIS GUY WAS BLIND AND NOW HE CAN SEE DUDE" and end the discussion there.

Also, I think it's kind of funny that this guy is seeing things for the first time in 30 years and his wife has him doing laundry.