How thought occurs

I was thinking about that optical illusion where the ballerina spins either clockwise or counterclockwise, depending on your perspective or supposed handedness. I think I have figured out how the brain processes it. It's a committee..

"It's a ballerina!"
"No, it's just a girl"
"Well, actually it's a drawing of a girl"
"Yes, but is it spinning clockwise or counter clockwise?"
"I say clockwise"
"Looks more like a kick than a spin"
"SHUT UP, DOUG!"
"Ok, who votes for clockwise? Remember we can always change it if we want
to."
...and so on.

I have a related suspicion about seeing things in general. A tree for instance. Light hits a tree, reflects back to the eye, and then your brain has to make a prediction based on that data.

"Well," it says smugly, "this pattern bears a striking resemblance to the pattern we have cataloged as 'tree', so I will wager a guess that this is also a 'tree'." And then it goes on enjoying it's morning bagel and coffee.

This works better if your inner dialogue sounds a bit like Stephen Fry, which mine often does.

The Earth as seen from Mars

This photo stuns me into a state of quiet awe. To see our world form this perspective drives home how small and fragile it is, and how utterly foolish we all are with our ideologies and petty hates. It makes me think of Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot speech. This planet, floating in the depths of a great void, this small rock that we can traverse the breadth of in a single day, is our only home. So small. yet we miss the fundamental truth: all of humanity, everywhere, is our ingroup. To divide us in the name of politics, religions, and race is to risk calamity. We only have each other.

Just do it

The great thing about the arts is that you can only learn to do it by doing it. And if a child gets that idea early, that that's how you learn things, by doing it, that may be the most important thing you can give them. You can't learn to play the piano by reading a book about how to play the piano. You can't learn to paint without painting. You have to do it. And in doing it you suddenly begin to see "My God, I can do this!", and then after awhile "I can not only do this, I'm getting better!"
~ David McCullough

RAW Wisdom

“People are afraid of anything that makes them aware of the game element in human behavior. They don’t want to know it’s a game. It’s like the old Sufi legend about Allah. He decided to drive everybody crazy so he changed the water so that everybody who drank it would go crazy. And then he decided there was one man he liked a lot so he told him ‘Don’t drink the water for the next month!’ And after the first couple of days of living among all these lunatics the guy couldn’t stand it any more and he went and drank the water too. It happens every day. Every day people become aware we’re living in a crazy world and then they realize they can’t live with that insight so they go crazy themselves so they can fit into that world.”
~ Robert Anton Wilson

Hard Substrate, Possibly Ice, Uncovered Under the Mars Lander

Very exiting...

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/images/press/20080531.html

"The Robotic Arm Camera on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander captured this image underneath the lander on the fifth Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Descent thrusters on the bottom of the lander are visible at the top of the image.

This view from the north side of the lander toward the southern leg shows smooth surfaces cleared from overlying soil by the rocket exhaust during landing. One exposed edge of the underlying material was seen in Sol 4 images, but the newer image reveals a greater extent of it. The abundance of excavated smooth and level surfaces adds evidence to a hypothesis that the underlying material is an ice table covered by a thin blanket of soil.

The bright-looking surface material in the center, where the image is partly overexposed may not be inherently brighter than the foreground material in shadow.

The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver."

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech//University of Arizona/Max Planck Institute

The Good Life Formula

I have finally stumbled upon the perfect forumula for the good life. I'd lke to live in a shire-like country town, within reasonable walking distance of a really good pub and a couple of repectable restaurants, with a solid public transit system. Bonus if there is a small, private college nearby so I can sit in an open air cafe during the spring, watchng co-eds in short skirts and bare mid-driffs walk by while I enjoy my morning tea.

The pub should have a colorful country gent amongst it's patrons who tells the most amusing stories with a twinkle in his ancient eyes, and also a lady bartender who is delightful to look at at - but not too young - who you can always count on for some lively banter full of inuendos neither of you ever really intends to follow through on. Oh, and I will be needing a TARDIS and an insanely attractive assistant.

Dowdism

"Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, "In this world, Elwood, you must be" - she always called me Elwood - "In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant." Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."
~ Elwood P. Dowd

Like Elwood, I spent a long time just being smart. When I finally learned to be pleasant, well, everything was pleasant, and I can't recommend that highly enough.