The new US congress is still voting for its next speaker. From former speaker John Boehner, “What they’re really interested in is chaos. …They want to throw sand in the gears of the hated federal government until it fails and they’ve finally proved that it’s beyond saving. Every time they vote down a bill, they get another invitation to go on Fox News or talk radio. It’s a narcissistic – and dangerous – feedback loop.” ...

Start to read the condensed biography of Dostoevsky by Joseph Frank. This is to understand Dostoevsky’s works correctly with its political context of 19th century Russia. To read Dostoevsky, you have to understand the context. Two nice tweets from Steve Stewart-Williams. One is the brain. The other Physics is weird. Another thing is geometry in p5js in this github repo. Beautiful geometric shapes generated by code.

There are a few writers I love. Betrand Russell is one of them. “The idea that the poor should have leisure has always been shocking to the rich. In the early nineteenth century, fifteen hours was the ordinary day’s work for a man; children sometimes did as much, and very commonly did twelve hours a day. When meddlesome busybodies suggested that perhaps these hours were rather long, they were told that work kept adults from drink and children from mischief. ...

Perception illusions Perceptual illusions show us in a clear and unambiguous way that we don’t directly perceive the world around us. Perceptual experience is a simulation—a mental model—that doesn’t always correspond to the reality it aims to depict. human centered Whereas all the other animals have their heads low, eyes fixed upon the ground, the gods desired to give to man a sublime face, a face that could raise its eyes to the heavens above, contemplating the very stars in the sky. ...

I whispered in his ear “I love you” he said delighted: “repeat it in my other ear so I regain my balance…” If I had more time I would written a shorter letter. – Cicero I always feel that a man and a woman who do not like the same films will eventually divorce. – Jean-luc Godard

Green Koan by Rita Dove That the mind can go wherever it wishes is a kindness we’ve come to rely on; that it returns unbidden to the soul it could not banish and learns to thrive there is life’s stubborn mercy – given to soften or harden us, as we choose. Code is the biggest lever humanity has ever invented From Amjad Masad: Code is the biggest lever humanity has ever invented. Yet it’s still constrained by how fast you can learn and type. Imagine how the world changes when these bottlenecks are solved. ...

One chinese book on Math and Programming Both math and programming are useful for data science and machine learning. This is the future of digital world. Unique 2-in-1 calculator app in swift Twin-Calc is available for iPhone and iPad. Vocaloid 6 This is a tool powered by AI tech from Yamaha. It can sing according to music and lyrics. Very powerful.

“I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they’re going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind of plumbing there’s going to be. They have the whole thing designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up. The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it. They kind of know what seed it is, they know if planted a fantasy seed or mystery seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don’t know how many branches it’s going to have, they find out as it grows. And I’m much more a gardener than an architect.” ...

It is easy to forget how mysterious and mighty stories are. They do their work in silence, invisibly. They work with all the internal meterials of your mind and self. They become part of you while changing you. Beware the stories you read or tell; subtly, at night, beneath the waters of consciousness, they are altering your world. – Ben Okri Ben Okri was born in 1959. In 1991, he won the Booker Prize with his novel The Famished Road. His answer to the question of what reality is could be summarized as follows: ...

Mayakovsky BY FRANK O'HARA 1 My heart’s aflutter! I am standing in the bath tub crying. Mother, mother who am I? If he will just come back once and kiss me on the face his coarse hair brush my temple, it’s throbbing! then I can put on my clothes I guess, and walk the streets. 2 I love you. I love you, but I’m turning to my verses and my heart is closing like a fist. Words! be sick as I am sick, swoon, roll back your eyes, a pool, and I’ll stare down at my wounded beauty which at best is only a talent for poetry. Cannot please, cannot charm or win what a poet! and the clear water is thick with bloody blows on its head. I embrace a cloud, but when I soared it rained. 3 That’s funny! there’s blood on my chest oh yes, I’ve been carrying bricks what a funny place to rupture! and now it is raining on the ailanthus as I step out onto the window ledge the tracks below me are smoky and glistening with a passion for running I leap into the leaves, green like the sea 4 Now I am quietly waiting for the catastrophe of my personality to seem beautiful again, and interesting, and modern. The country is grey and brown and white in trees, snows and skies of laughter always diminishing, less funny not just darker, not just grey. It may be the coldest day of the year, what does he think of that? I mean, what do I? And if I do, perhaps I am myself again.