December 2001  *  Web version

 

It keeps surprising me, how mysteriously things happen sometimes. "...Everyone thought the story was uncommercial. Then the screenplay got into the hands of a literary agent in New York. ... She showed it to everyone ... but no one was interested ...", so that it became the task of Mad Max to shoot what is one of the most interesting films in the humble history of the cinema. ...

M. Gibson & M. MacRury : The man without a face

Audio excerpts from Mel Gibson's movie
Selected and introduced for ELLOPOS by Nat Gerrs

 

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Karl Jaspers: Truth is in communication

... Communication remains original and unrestricted only where reason is dependably present, a reason which as a source can not be objectified nor directly perceived in any argumentation. It is truth itself, the total will-to-communicate. ... In existential and rational communication, it is the existing man who speaks decisively - the man who is not merely living vitality, nor merely an abstract understanding, but who is himself in all of these. ... Existenz finds itself in a realm of mind which can not be closed, of Existenz open before Transcendence. ...

From this situation of Existenz in time, it follows first that, if truth is bound up with communication, truth itself can only become - that in its depths, it is not dogmatic but communicative. Out of the consciousness of a becoming truth, first springs the possibility of a radical openness of the will to communicate in actuality - a will, however, that can never fulfill itself except in an historical moment which, precisely as such, becomes incommunicable.

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... On one hand, we are told to search deep within ourselves to find out who we are and to know ourselves; on the other hand we are constantly to examine every step of our life to make sure it is not in contradiction of any laws, conventions or customs of the society. How does one know whether they are acting in a certain way because of their innerself or due to a certain convention. It seems to me that we are doomed either way. If we follow our innerself, we leave ourselves open to the criticism of the society which can at times be unbearable. The flip side is to follow what the society says and then we never get to find out the right answers to my beginning questions in relation to major decisions in life.

... I will arrive at a place, the name of which I thought it was different when I sailed. This is how I understand Rilke's warning, that "above all you must never stop having wishes". Any obstacle to our wish, for example, a social custom or a convention, is an opportunity for us to explore the strength and the origin of our will. And sometimes, what seems like just "conventional people", are door keepers waiting precisely for us to enter the inside.

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YO-YO MA & BOBBY MCFERRIN: HUSH

I've heard that this is music for children, a charming album in a way that a joke can be charming.

I don't know if kids are just kidding and, in any case I don't see here just a joke. There are more interesting questions, like, "do we need to listen to Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee", or "how much time does it take for the Air of Bach's 3rd suite to become unbreathable". You have to answer personally, but if I am to listen to the Bumblebee, this is the only way I can do it, by Yo-Yo Ma's cello and McFerrin's voice. As for the Air - maybe there is no cure for this. The disk is most of all a celebration of the human voice, which I wouldn't like to be without. Works by McFerrin, Gounod, Vivaldi, Rimsky-Korsakov [28'' excerpt], Bach, Rachmaninov, Barriere.

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Robert Burns, Comin thro' the Rye. The poem that inspired Salinger's Catcher. ||| KMozart radio ||| G. Eliot vs Dickens - social class and morality

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Freeware downloads  /Internet

HTTrack is an easy-to-use offline browser utility. It allows you to download a World Wide website from the Internet to a local directory, building recursively all directories, getting html, images, and other files from the server to your computer. HTTrack arranges the original site's relative link-structure. Simply open a page of the "mirrored" website in your browser, and you can browse the site from link to link, as if you were viewing it online. HTTrack can also update an existing mirrored site, and resume interrupted downloads. The user interface is somehow complicated.

Freeware downloads  /System tools

As you use your computer, your hard disk becomes cluttered with "junk files" that take up space and serve no purpose. For example, many programs save the previous version of a document with the extension .BAK. ScanDisk can leave files with the .CHK extension in the root folder of any drive, and these are rarely useful. Cache directories are often filled with files meant to speed access to sites you will never revisit. It's time-consuming to delete these files manually. HDValet automates the process. Just select the junk file types you want to eliminate and click the "Clean up" button. Junk file types are configurable, and you can add them as needed. A confirmation process protects against mistakes.

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(Endless) Internet Explorer vulnerabilities: Exposure and altering of data in cookies 13 November 2001 Cumulative Patch | Windows Media Player .ASF Processor Contains Unchecked Buffer

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Nowadays not even a suicide kills himself in desperation. Before taking the step he deliberates so long and so carefully that he literally chokes with thought. It is even questionable whether he ought to be called a suicide, since it is really thought which takes his life. He does not die with deliberation but from deliberation. -Søren Kierkegaard, The Present Age

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Matthew M. Arthur writes: 

... The inevitable question is how. Indeed, how has the European Union managed to cope with so much? The answer resides in the fact that the EU was conceived and implemented as a communal effort; it was, and still is, an endeavor anchored in the art of reconciliation and deference. 

Scott Rains writes:

... Nice look & feel - ambitious project. Congratulations. Seems like we share similar values. Good luck! - Thank you Scott. Congratulations on your Benedictine studies!

 

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