26 September 2009

Humans Glow in Visible Light

Scientists in Japan using special high-sensitivity cameras have found that the human body emits a tiny quantity of visible light which varies throughout the day. Unlike the body's usual infrared (heat) radiation which is already well known, this visible light is believed to be a product of various biochemical reactions in the body which can fluctuate based upon changes in the body's metabolism. Future research may investigate the effect that the mind or meditation could have on controlling this light output.

(LiveScience.com, 22 Jul 2009)

20 September 2009

Action of the whole (Buber)

An action of the whole being must approach passivity, for it does away with all partial actions, and thus with any sense of action, which always depends on limited exertions.

-- Martin Buber, from I and You (trans. Kaufmann)

12 September 2009

Approaches to Infinity (Escher)

When one dives into endlessness, in both time and space, farther and farther without stopping, one needs fixed points or milestones past which one speeds. Without these, one’s movement does not differ from standing still. There must be stars along which one shoots, beacons from which one can measure the road covered. One must divide one’s universe in distances of a specific length, in compartments that repeat themselves in endless series. At every border crossing between one compartment and the next, one’s clock ticks. . . . When one is finished, however, and looks at what he has done, then one sees something that is static and timeless. In his representation, no clock ticks. Only a flat, motionless expanse is revealed.

There is something breathtaking in such laws. They are not inventions or creations of the human mind, but “are” or “exist” independently of us. During a moment of clarity one can at the most discover their existence or become aware of them.

– M.C. Escher (1898-1972) , from “Approaches to Infinity”

05 September 2009

Three sorts of being

"Tell me what you do with the food you eat, and I'll tell you who you are. Some turn their food into fat and manure, some into work and good humor, and some, I'm told, into God. So there must be three sorts of men."

-- Kazantzakis, from Zorba the Greek