Photography

Inspiration

“No matter how you feel inside, you’re not alone.”

 “Some people are like a patch of blue sky every day. Their voices soothe secret hurts. Their smiles absorb harsh words. Their touch heals mortal wounds. Their souls are thick and can cushion the most force-felt blow.” 

- Anonymous
“Every hour focus your mind attentively on the performance of the task in hand, with dignity, human sympathy, benevolence and freedom, and leave aside all other thoughts. You will achieve this, if you perform each action as if it were your last.”

- Marcus Aurelius

Tim Minchin giving awesome advice!

AOC denouncing misogyny

Liberal Democracy

Protect democracy!

Extract on the fall of rule of law from “The History of the Peloponnesian War”, Thucydides

Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given them. Reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice; moderation was held to be a cloak for unmanliness; ability to see all sides of a question, inaptness to act on any. [..]

In fine, to forestall an intending criminal, or to suggest the idea of a crime where it was wanting, was equally commended until even blood became a weaker tie than party, from the superior readiness of those united by the latter to dare everything without reserve; for such associations had not in view the blessings derivable from established institutions but were formed by ambition for their overthrow; and the confidence of their members in each other rested less on any religious sanction than upon complicity in crime. [..]

The ancient simplicity into which honour so largely entered was laughed down and disappeared; and society became divided into camps in which no man trusted his fellow. [..]

In this contest the blunter wits were most successful. Apprehensive of their own deficiencies and of the cleverness of their antagonists, they feared to be worsted in debate and to be surprised by the combinations of their more versatile opponents, and so at once boldly had recourse to action: while their adversaries, arrogantly thinking that they should know in time, and that it was unnecessary to secure by action what policy afforded, often fell victims to their want of precaution. [..]

In the confusion into which life was now thrown in the cities, human nature, always rebelling against the law and now its master, gladly showed itself ungoverned in passion, above respect for justice, and the enemy of all superiority; since revenge would not have been set above religion, and gain above justice, had it not been for the fatal power of envy. Indeed men too often take upon themselves in the prosecution of their revenge to set the example of doing away with those general laws to which all alike can look for salvation in adversity, instead of allowing them to subsist against the day of danger when their aid may be required.”

Inspiring India to rise above sectarian conflict

Extract on the shared origins of science and democracy
from “The Story of Civilization”, Will Durant

The wealth and luxury of [Miletus] became a proverb and a scandal throughout Greece. Milesian merchants, overflowing with profits, lent money to enterprises far and wide, and to the municipality itself. They were the Medici of the Ionian Renaissance.

It was in this stimulating environment that Greece first developed two of its most characteristic gifts to the world – science and philosophy. The crossroads of trade are the meeting place of ideas, the attrition ground of rival customs and beliefs; diversities beget conflict, comparison, and thought; superstitions cancel one another, and reason begins.

Here in Miletus, as later in Athens, were men from a hundred scattered states; mentally active through competitive commerce, and freed from the bondage of tradition by long absences from their native alters and homes. Milesians themselves traveled to distant cities, and had their eyes opened by the civilization of Lydia, Babylonia, Phoenicia, and Egypt; in this way among others, Egyptian geometry and Babylonian astronomy entered the Greek mind. Trade and mathematics, foreign commerce and geography, navigation and astronomy, developed hand in hand. Meanwhile wealth had created leisure,; an aristocracy of culture was growing up in which freedom of through was tolerated […] No powerful priesthood, no ancient and inspired text limited men’s thinking. Here for the first time thought became secular, and sought rational and consistent answers to the problems of the world and man. […]

Greek religion itself had paved the way by talking of Moira, or Fate, as ruler of both gods and men: here was that idea of law, as superior to incalculable personal decree, which would mark the essential difference between science and mythology, as well as between despotism and democracy. Man became free when he recognized that he was subject to law [be it the natural law of physics or the man-made law of democracy].

“What have we to do with walking corpses who can only be held in their grave by stakes driven through their hearts? It’s pure lunacy. [..] This agency stands flat-footed upon the ground, and there it must remain. The world is big enough for us. No ghosts need apply.”

- Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire

A brilliant examination of what democracy and liberalism means, and as technologists what should our inventions promote?

“We often use the terms democracy and liberal democracy interchangeably, but they’re not the same thing. Democracy means majority rule and public participation. Liberal democracy means democracy plus minority rights. There’s no guarantee that democracy will be liberal. And in fact, some of the same things that enable democracy can also undermine its liberal commitments.”

Visual Art

The gorgeous city of Rome

“The main thing is to be moved, to love, to hope, to tremble, to live.” 

– Auguste Rodin

Mesmerizing streams of colors

“The works must be conceived with fire in the soul but executed with clinical coolness.” 

– Joan Miró

Beautiful animation about human foibles

Compelling portrayals of the perils of plastic and little acts of hope

Pop Sci

An important and timely essay on the 'The Ethical Challenges of Connecting Our Brains to Computers' by Dario Gil, IBM Research.

The Overview Effect – A new kind of self-awareness

“I did not ask. Later I felt bad about this. I knew, even then, that whenever I nodded along in ignorance, I lost an opportunity, betrayed the wonder in me by privileging the appearance of knowing over the work of finding out.” 

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

Eye opening model of the solar system

Do animals have self-awareness?

Wonderful story of the Crab Nebula!