me...

Once upon a time, the most powerful nations of the world were engaged in enormous military buildup. On June 28, 1914, in Sarajevo, a Slavic nationalist fired a small pistol at Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand. This event began World War I, which left Germany war-ravaged, whilst ridiculous reparations kept the country impoverished. Sorely in need of any hope, many Germans put their faith in Adolf Hitler, who attempted genocide. Worldwide sympathy for Jewish peoples led to the establishment of Israel in Palestine, and subsequent U.S. support. This continuing support angered the Arab world for decades, culminating in thousands of civilian deaths on September 11, 2001. How is President Bush responding to the situation? See beginning. posted by Arthur @ 2/13/2002 11:32:00 PM	Wednesday, February 13, 2002
Up close, she said i was even more attractive than usual, just when i felt my appearance in wane. Beauty is an angle, a lighting - a moment. And if appreciation requires loss, when did we all have beauty? posted by Arthur @ 2/12/2002 11:56:00 PM	Tuesday, February 12, 2002
Today is the 42nd day of 2002. For you unhoopy froods, The Hitchhiker's Trilogy cites 42 as The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. i've been pondering my affinity for this notion, and i think i've finally found a personal emotional model of truth. Knowledge takes two forms: the rational and the emotional. i can recognize something as a rational truth and still not believe it. Conversely, i can feel something to be true without a rational foundation. Extending this beyond the realm of absolutism, there are certainly rational models of truth (i.e. light as particles or waves), so i conjectured there must also be emotional models of truth - hypotheses we engage not for a rational benefit, but for an emotional one. Unfortunately, i had no experience in what seemed the most obvious candidate, God. However, i realize now that 42 provides me a purely emotional reward; i am rationally aware of its absurdity, but the presence of a final answer is undeniably comforting. Additionally, the paper i should be writing for my Science Fiction class will be based on my presumption of the genre's lost function, of which i think 42 a clever reworking. It is my belief that early "Scientifiction" eased anxieties over the ever-looming branches of Science and their possible encroachments on everday life. In presenting fictional extremes, these stories defined realistic limits for Science. i feel that Douglas Adams has used this same tactic to tackle Philosophy. 42, for example, embodies the rational pursuit of knowledge (think Einstein's mythic Universal Field Theory) at an impossible extreme, thus foretelling the inevitable failure of The Answer as a method of understanding. posted by Arthur @ 2/11/2002 11:40:00 PM	Monday, February 11, 2002
BRACK: Eilert Lovborg meant more to you than you might admit - even to yourself. Or am I wrong? HEDDA: I don't answer questions like that. All i know is that Eilert Lovborg had the courage to live life his own way, and now - his last great act - bathed in beauty. A-ha! he said. True Love is quantifiably different from Love, we've just been looking in the wrong place. The distinction is not a function of the pairing, but of the individuals. Love as most know it is a negation of differences, a coming together of hearts around similarities and familiarities. However, True Love is an inner knowledge of another's heart across the inevitable isolations of individual existence. A-ha! he said. That is what i had and lost... posted by Arthur @ 2/10/2002 10:16:00 PM	Sunday, February 10, 2002