The Past

The Past
(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

The debt is paid,
The verdict said,
The Furies laid,
The plague is stayed,
All fortunes made;
Turn the key and bolt the door,
Sweet is death forevermore.
Nor haughty hope, nor swart chagrin,
Nor murdering hate, can enter in.
All is now secure and fast;
Not the gods can shake the Past;
Flies-to the adamantine door
Bolted down forevermore.
None can reenter there, -
No thief so politic,
No Satan with a royal trick
Steal in by window, chink or hole,
To bind or unbind, add what lacked
Insert a leaf, or forge a name,
New-face or finish what is packed,
Alter or mend eternal Fact.

A Outra Morte

Na Suma Teológica nega-se que Deus possa fazer com que o passado não tenha sido, mas nada se diz da intrincada concatenação de causas e efeitos, tão vasta e tão íntima que talvez não fosse possível anular um único fato remoto, por insignificante que fosse, sem invalidar o presente. Modificar o passado não é modificar um único fato; é anular suas conseqüências, que tendem a ser infinitas. Por outras palavras: é criar duas histórias universais. (...)

(A Outra Morte, O Aleph - Jorge Luis Borges)

Caprichos e Relaxos

(Caprichos & relaxos, Paulo Leminski)


Quem nasce com coração?
Coração tem que ser feito.
Já tenho uma porção
Me infernando o peito.

Com isso ninguém nasça.
Coração é coisa rara,

Coisa que a gente acha
E é melhor encher a cara.

eu
quando olho nos olhos
sei quando uma pessoa
está por dentro
ou está por fora

quem está por fora
não segura
um olhar que demora

de dentro do meu centro
este poema me olha

não sou o silêncio
que quer dizer palavras
ou bater palmas
pras performances do acaso

sou um rio de palavras
peço um minuto de silêncios
pausas valsas calmas penadas
e um pouco de esquecimento

apenas um e eu posso deixar o espaço
e estrelar este teatro
que se chama tempo

Quintal

(...) as horas que eu passava no quintal eram de treino para a poesia. Na rua, com os meninos da minha idade eu brincava ginasticamente, turbulentamente; no quintal sonhava na intimidade de mim mesmo. Aquele era o meu pequeno mundo dentro do grande mundo da vida...

(O Quintal, Andorinha, andorinha - Manuel Bandeira)

Um instante

Um instante
(Ferreira Gullar)

Aqui me tenho
Como não me
conheço
		nem me
quis
sem começo
nem fim
		aqui me
tenho
		sem mim
nada lembro
nem sei
à luz presente
sou apenas um bicho
		transparente

A Chave do Poema

Oras direis: "Mas isso não é poesia, é enigma". Eu vos direi no entanto que toda poesia é enigma. Toda palavra, antes que lhe conheçamos o significado, é um enigma formidável.

(A Chave do Poema, Flauta de Papel - Manuel Bandeira)

poeta concretista

Já se disse que o poeta é o homem que vê o mundo com olhos de criança, que quer dizer: o homem que olha as coisas como se as visse pela primeira vez; que as percepciona em sua perene virgindade. Imagino que o poeta concretista se esforça por ver as palavras despojadas de todo o seu convencional conteúdo semântico.

(Poesia Concreta II, Flauta de Papel - Manuel Bandeira)

Viola de Bolso

Mallarmé gostava de redigir em versos os endereços de suas cartas. E não desdenhava desses nadas encantadores, pois certa vez publicou alguns na revista norte-americana The Chap Book, e até pensou em editar uma plaquete mais desenvolvida e com ilustrações da esposa de Whistler. Todavia, só depois da morte do poeta saíram em letra de forma os Vers de circonstance, onde vêm, não só endereços, mas também versos escritos em leques, fotografias, ovos de Páscoa, livros, etc. Tudo isso feito "por puro sentimento estético" e, como desses breves poemas disse Jean Royère - igualando em complexidade e ironia "les morceaux classés". De fato: há tanto de Mallarmé no "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune" como nos endereços das cartas do poeta a Mme. Méri Laurent.
(...)

(Viola de Bolso, Flauta de Papel - Manuel Bandeira)

Manuelzinho

Na rua Toneleros tem um bosque, que se chama, que se chama solidão; nesse bosque, nesse bosque mora um anjo, que se chama Alexandre Manuel Tiago de Melo. É um caboclo amazonence nascido por engano em Copacabana; fez, otem, precisamente quatro anos.

Está me palpitando que dará para poeta, como o pai, e será um craque na geração de 75. Digo isso porque o meu xará já se saía com coisas estranhíssimas antes dos quatro anos. Quando foi tomar banho de mar pela primeira vez, achou a água fria demais e botou a boca no mundo. Mas o mar impressionou-o fundamente. Dias depois, deitado na praia com a tia, perguntou-lhe: "O mar fica aí de noite?" Respondeu a tia: "Fica". E Manuel: "Fazendo o quê?" A tia: "Esperando pelo Sol." Manuel: "Pra se esquentar, não é?"

(...)

Manuelzinho viu o minguante e perguntou à mãe: "Mamãe, quem foi que quebrou a lua?" Para mim, a lua de Manuelzinho vale a de Victor Hugo.

(...)

(Manuelzinho, Flauta de Papel - Manuel Bandeira)



ser poeta é ser criança,
é olhar para a natureza e ver apenas o que é singelo.
o poeta sonha e transforma a sua realidade
e viaja, como diria Galeano, sem passagem. ainda bem!
poesia é uma arte? ou uma brincadeira?
o poeta é aquele que brinca com as incertezas do universo
e faz pouco caso de acontecimentos
quando crescer não quero ser poeta,
quero ser criança.
não quero morrer nunca,
porque quero brincar sempre

Enigma da Esfinge

Um jovem chamado Édipo, a quem o oráculo de Delfos dissera que estava destinado a assassinar o pai e praticar incesto com a mãe, na estrada de Tebas, brigou com o Rei Laio e matou-o sem saber que era seu pai. Édipo desafiou a Esfinge, que lhe perguntou: "Que criatura anda de quatro de manhã, anda com dois pés ao meio-dia e com três à noite?" "O homem", respondeu Édipo, prontamente. "Na infância ele anda sobre as mãos e os pés, na idade adulta anda ereto e na velhice apóia-se num cajado." Mortificada pela resposta correta, a Esfinge jogou-se de um rochedo e morreu. Encantados, os tebanos nomearam Édipo seu rei e ele se casou com Jocasta, viúva do rei falecido, gerando quatro filhos. Os deuses enviaram uma praga e Édipo soube que tinha assassinado seu pai e casado com sua mãe.

The Fool on The Hill (Beatles)

Day after day alone on the hill,
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still,
But nobody wants to know him,
They can see that he’s just a fool,
And he never gives an answer,
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down,
And the eyes in his head,
See the world spinning around.

Well on his way his head in a cloud,
The man of a thousand voices talking percetly loud
But nobody ever hears him,
Or the sound he appears to make,
And he never seems to notice,
But the fool on the hill . . .
Nobody seems to like him
They can tell what he wants to do.
And he never shows his feelings,
But the fool on the hill . . .

how much the heart can hold?

Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold.
-- Zelda Fitzgerald --

Triunfo

Ah não me deixes nunca andar sozinho,
Mas dá-me sempre, em aflição tamanha,
Um pouco de consolo e de carinho.

Ó meu sonho de amor, tu me acompanha
Por esta vida, às vezes tão escura,
Por esta vida, às vezes tão estranha.

E embora a gente humana te não louve,
Hás de viver contente, conhecendo
Que Polímnia te inspira e Apolo te ouve.

Assim falou e a flama em que me acendo
Dentro do coração ia aumentando
Enquanto a doce voz ia gemendo.

E ela, que de Cupido segue o mando,
Cortou no bosque os ramos duradouros
E co'um sorriso milagroso e brando
Me coroou de mirtos e de louros.

(José de Abreu Albano)


"José de Abreu Albano foi um altíssimo poeta, escreveu um dos mais belos sonetos da língua portuguesa e de todas as línguas, viveu perfeitamente feliz dentro do seu sonho, na loucura que Deus lhe deu e na miséria que foi a criação de sua própria mão perdulária." (Manuel Bandeira, Flauta de Papel)

the brain imaging mania

In every lab now in the United States, in every corner, there's an fMRI being done, an EEG being done. There is this brain imaging mania. It's almost become like a voyeuristic phrenology, harking back to the 19th century, to see what lobe is doing what.

(Entrevista com Professor V.S. Ramachandran)

Humanität

Nove dias antes de sua morte, Emmanuel Kant recebeu a visita de seu médico. Velho, doente e quase cego, levantou-se da cadeira e ficou em pé, tremendo de fraqueza e murmurando palavras ininteligíveis. Finalmente, seu fiel acompanhante compreendeu que ele não se sentaria antes que sua visita o fizesse. Este assim fez e só então Kant deixou-se levar para sua cadeira e, depois de recobrar um pouco as forças, disse: "Das Gefühl für Humanität, hat mich noch nicht verlassen" - "O senso de humanidade ainda não me deixou". Os dois homens comoveram-se até às lágrimas. Pois, embora a palavra Humanität apresentasse, no século XVIII, um significado quase igual a polidez ou civilidade, tinha, para Kant, uma significação muito mais profunda, que as circunstâncias do momento serviram para enfatizar: a trágica e orgulhosa consciência no homem de princípios por ele mesmo aprovados e auto-impostos, contrastando com sua total sujeição à doença, à decadência, e a tudo o que implica o termo "mortalidade".

(Erwin Panodsky, Significado nas Artes Visuais)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of everyday's Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints!---I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life!---and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death. (Elizabeth Barrett Browning - #43, Sonnets from the Portuguese)

haicai

Faltava à minha coleção algum haicai. Acabo de achar vários agora, e estupendos, onde menos esperava: num livro de fórmulas de toilette para mulheres.
Alguns exemplos:

Água de rosas Glicerina Bórax Álcool

Que brilho verbal, que surpresa para o ouvido na sonoridade seca da palavra álcool depois da musicalidade um pouco solta dos dois primeiros versos e desfazendo num como acorde suspensivo a cadência perfeita do verso bórax.

(Manuel Bandeira - Fragmentos, Crônicas da província do Brasil)

dreams

"I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later."
-- Mitch Hedberg --

Religião Brasileira

- Como se descreve essa pintura?
- No sentido abstrato, meu caro.
Abstrato? Ah, sim! A palavra, por não explicar nada, esclarece tudo.





(Manuel Bandeira - Társila Antropófaga, Crônicas da província do Brasil)

Niilismo

niilismo
do Lat. nihil, nada

Niilismo é a crença de que todos os valores não possuem base, e que nada pode ser sabido ou cominicado. É geralmente associado ao pessimismo extremo e um cepticismo radical que condena a existência. Concebe a existência humana como desprovida de qualquer sentido.

Essa corrente foi popularizada primeiramente na Rússia do século XIX, como reação de alguns intelectuais russos, mormente socialistas e anarquistas, à lentidão dos czares em promover as desejadas reformas democráticas.

Aquele que luta contra monstros deve cuidar-se para não torna-se um monstro no processo. E quando olhar persistentemente para um abismo, o abismo olhará de volta para você. (Friedrich Nietzsche)

Doubt

"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd."
-- Voltaire --

livro

O livro de que mais gostei?
Ah! professor, na minha idade gosta-se de tudo, e gosta-se de tudo com o mesmo ardor e entusiasmo.

(Manuel Bandeira, Leituras de Mocinhas - Crônicas da província do Brasil)

lonly dance

No matter how close to yours another's steps have grown, in the end there is one dance you'll do alone.
-- Jackson Browne --

Romance do Beco

O marinheiro triste debruçou-se à janela do apartamento 54, olhou a paisagem de mares e montanhas equilibrada sobre telhados sujos e afinal, como sempre, acabou descaindo a vista na calçada do beco. Mas desta vez foi diferente, porque o homem desceu apressado os cinco lances de escadas do edifício e foi escrever no paredão do convento o "Poema do beco".

Que importa a paisagem, a Glória, a baía, a linha do horizonte? O que eu vejo é o beco.

(Manuel Bandeira, Crônicas da província do Brasil)

William Turner

instinto

INSTINTO
(Raul de Leoni Ramos)

Glória ao Instinto, a lógica fatal
Das cousas, lei eterna da criação,
Mais sábia que o ascetismo de Pascal,
Mais bela do que o sonho de Platão!

Pura sabedoria natural
Que move os seres pelo coração,
Dentro da formidável ilusão,
Da fantasmagoria universal!

És a minha verdade, e a ti entrego,
Ao teu sereno fatalismo cego,
A minha linda e trágica inocência!

Ó soberano intérprete de tudo,
Invencível Edipo, eterno e mudo,
De todas as esfinges da Existência!...

memories

Obviously the facts are never just coming at you but are incorporated by an imagination that is formed by your previous experience. Memories of the past are not memories of facts but memories of your imaginings of the facts.
-- Philip Roth --

books

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
-- Francis Bacon, Essay--Of Studies --

chauvinista

do Fr. Nicolau Chauvin
s. 2 gén., pessoa de nacionalismo e patriotismo exagerados, que os defende de uma forma agressiva.

O termo derivou de Nicolas Chauvin, o nome de um soldado de Napoleão Bonaparte, devido à sua paixão fervorosa pelo seu Imperador. Nicolas Chauvin foi ferido 17 vezes nas guerras Napoleonicas e, mesmo assim, continuou a lutar pela França.

truth

"The truth is always a compound of two half-truths, and you never reach it, because there is always something more to say."
-- Tom Stoppard --

abstract art

"There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality."
-- Pablo Picasso --

Arte

Arte, ainda que o assunto cause polêmica. O Zé Celso, um dia, disse uma frase: "Os publicitários são demônios"... Escrever um romance ou criar um anúncio são formas de poder. Fazer nascer gente e cidades, modificar ou instalar hábito e costumes... Muitas vezes, ao ler um anúncio me espanto e fico com inveja, é como estar lendo haicai, poesias concretas, textos minimalistas, axiomas, minicontos, aforismos. Mexendo com a realidade, a propaganda se assemelha à ficção. Os produtos são personagens. Há layouts que podem estar no museu, expostos em galerias, um dia vão figurar na história da arte, assim como os pôsteres de Toulouse-Lautrec.

(A Voz das Estrelas, Ignácio de Loyola Brandão)

enigma

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth."
-- Umberto Eco --

vatapá

Não comi, como os viajantes de escalam os vatapás e carurus da Petisqueira, pratarrazes comerciais afinal de contas. Godofredo levou-me com mistério à cozinha modesta onde a gorda preta Eva preparava, com a simplicidade do trivial mais fácil, as mais estupendas misturas de dendê e pimentas queimadas que já provei na minha vida. Era passar lá às nove da manhã e encomendar: peixada de moqueca, ou vatapá, ou caruru, ou efó, ou galinha de ó-xin-xin. Quando se voltava ao meio-dia encontrava-se um prato cheiroso e complicadíssimo que parecia exigir um mês ao menos de manipulação. E aparecendo de improviso era quase a mesma coisa.


(Bahia, Crônicas da província do Brasil - Manuel Bandeira)

arranha-céus

Há muita gente ingênua para quem progresso urbano é avenida e arranha-céu. Modernidade -- asfalto e cimento armado. Pois eu estou pronto a sustentar para essas sensibilidades modernas, que os tais arranha-céus cariocas não passam de casarões passadistas de muitos andares, ao passo que os velhos sobradões de duas águas da Bahia, com três, quatro andares e sotéias, obedecem à estética despojada, linear, sintética dos legítimos arranha-céus.

(Bahia, Crônicas da província do Brasil - Manuel Bandeira)

answers

At the beginning of my journey, I was naive. I didn't yet know that answers vanish as one continues to travel, that there is only further complexity, that there are still more interrelationships, and more questions.
-- Robert D. Kaplan --

cluttered desk

"If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what is the significance of a clean desk?"
-- Laurence J. Peter --

De Vila Rica de Albuquerque a Ouro Preto dos Estudantes

Crônicas da província do Brasil
De Vila Rica de Albuquerque a Ouro Preto dos Estudantes
(Manuel Bandeira)

Não se pode dizer de Ouro Preto que seja uma cidade morta. Morta é S. João d'El-Rei. Ouro Preto é a cidade que não mudou, e nisso reside o seu incomparável encanto. Passada a época ardente da mineração (em que foi de resto arraial de aventureiros, a sua idade mais bela como fenômeno da vida), e a saldo do progresso demudador pelas condições ingratas da situação topográfica, Ouro Preto conservou-se tal qual, em virtude mesmo da sua pobreza, aquela pobreza que já por volta de 1809, segundo depoimento de Mawe, fazia, por escárnio, trocarem-lhe em Vila Pobre o nome da sua fundação em 1711, que era o de Vila Rica de Albuquerque.

primeiras impressões - Os Sofrimentos do Jovem Werther

(...) Hoje fui lá afinar o cravo de Lotte, mas não pude fazê-lo porque as crianças não me deixaram por um segundo sequer, pedindo que eu lhes contasse um conto de fadas, e ela mesma pediu que atendesse. Cortei-lhes o pão da merenda, que agora aceitam receber tanto de mim quanto de Lotte; depois contei a mais linda história, a de uma princesa que era servida por mãos encantadas. Aprendo muito com isso e fico admirado da impressão que tudo isso provoca neles. Se invento algum incidente e me esqueço de repeti-lo ao contar a história uma outra vez, eles me advertem de que, antes, contei de outro modo. Assim, sou forçado a manter um ritmo invariável, sem mudar coisa alguma, como se estivesse desfiando um rosário. Isso me convence de que um autor estraga a sua obra revendo-a e corrigindo-a para um segunda edição, pois ela nada ganha quanto ao conteúdo poético. A primeira impressão nos encontra em estado passivo, a tal ponto que o homem pode aceitar as coisas mais inverossímeis; e, como se fixam fortemente no espírito, ai de quem quiser depois arrancá-las ou destruí-las.

Os sofrimentos do jovem Werther - Goethe

Que calor percorre todo o meu ser quando por acaso meu dedo toca no dela, ou nossos pés se encontram embaixo da mesa! Afasta-os como se tivesse tocado o fogo, e uma força secreta impulsiona-me de novo... uma vertigem arrebata todos os meus sentidos!... E dizer que sua alma cândida desconhece a tortura que me infligem essas pequenas intimidades! E quando, animados pela conversa, ela pousa sua mão sobre a minha, e quando, ao conversar, ela se aproxima tanto de mim que eu chego a experimentar seu hálito celestial junto dos meus lábios... então, parece que vou cair como que fulminado por um raio...

amar - Memórias do Subsolo - Dostoiévski

Durante toda a vida, eu não podia sequer conceber em meu íntimo outro amor, e cheguei a tal ponto que, agora, chego a pensar por vezes que o amor consiste justamente no direito que o objeto amado voluntariamente nos concede de exercer tirania sobre ele. Mesmo nos meus devaneios subterrâneos, nunca pude conceber o amor senão como uma luta: começava sempre pelo ódio e terminava pela subjugação moral; depois não podia sequer imaginar o que fazer com o objeto subjugado.

Dostoievski - Memórias do Subsolo - Notes from Underground

Sou um homem doente... Um homem mau. Um homem desagradável. Creio que sofro do fígado. Aliás, não entendo níquel da minha doença e não sei, ao certo, do que estou sofrendo. Não me trato e nunca me tratei, embora respeite a medicina e os médicos. Ademais, sou supersticioso ao extremo; bem, ao menos o bastante para respeitar a medicina. (...) Mas apesar de tudo, não me trato por uma questão de raiva. Se me dói o fígado, que doa ainda mais.


I am a sick man, I am a spiteful man. I am not a pleasant man at all. I believe there is something wrong with my liver. However I don't know the first thing about my liver, neither do I know what's really wrong with me. I'm not under a doctor, never have been, though it is not as if I didn't respect medicine and doctors (. . .). As a matter of fact, I refuse medical treatment out of spite (. . .). I realise full well that I can't upset the medics by refusing to receive treatment; I realise better than anyone else that this way I'm harming myself and no one else (. . .). So my liver hurts, well all right, let it hurt, let it hurt all the more.

Zur Farbenlehre. Sechste Abteilung - Totalität und Harmonie

Hier liegt also das Grundgesetz aller Harmonie der Farben, wovon sich jeder durch eigene Erfahrung überzeugen kann, indem er sich mit den Versuchen, die wir in der Abteilung der physiologischen Farben angezeigt, genau bekannt macht.

Wird nun die Farbentotalität von außen dem Auge als Objekt gebracht, so ist sie ihm erfreulich, weil ihm die Summe seiner eignen Tätigkeit als Realität entgegen kommt. Es sei also zuerst von diesen harmonischen Zusammenstellungen die Rede.
(Zur Farbenlehre. Sechste Abteilung - Totalität und Harmonie - Goethe)

Aqui reside a lei fundamental de toda harmonia cromática, a respeito da qual qualquer um poderá se
convencer por experiência própria, ao travar conhecimento dos experimentos descritos na seção das cores fisiológicas.

Se a totalidade cromática se apresenta exteriormente ao olho como objeto, torna-se agradável para ele, pois o resultado de sua própria atividade lhe parece como realidade. Trataremos em primeiro lugar dessas composições harmônicas.
(Doutrina das Cores. Sexta Seção - Totalidade e Harmonia - Goethe (tradução de Marco Giannotti))

Zur Farbenlehre. Vierte Abteilung - Allgemeine Ansichten nach Innen

Daß ein gewisses Verhältnis der Farbe zum Ton stattfinde, hat man von jeher gefühlt, wie die öftern Vergleichungen, welche teils vorübergehend, teils umständlich genug angestellt worden, beweisen. Der Fehler, den man hiebei begangen, beruhet nur auf folgendem.

Vergleichen lassen sich Farbe und Ton untereinander auf keine Weise, aber beide lassen sich auf eine höhere Formel beziehen, aus einer höhern Formel beide, jedoch jedes für sich, ableiten. Wie zwei Flüsse, die auf einem Berge entspringen, aber unter ganz verschiedenen Bedingungen in zwei ganz entgegengesetzte Weltgegenden laufen, so daß auf dem beiderseitigen ganzen Wege keine einzelne Stelle der andern verglichen werden kann, so sind auch Farbe und Ton. Beide sind allgemeine elementare Wirkungen nach dem allgemeinen Gesetz des Trennens und Zusammenstrebens, des Auf- und Abschwankens, des Hinund Wiederwägens wirkend, doch nach ganz verschiedenen Seiten, auf verschiedene Weise, auf verschiedene Zwischenelemente, für verschiedene Sinne.

Möchte jemand die Art und Weise, wie wir die Farbenlehre an die allgemeine Naturlehre angeknüpft, recht fassen und dasjenige, was uns entgangen und abgegangen, durch Glück und Genialität ersetzen, so würde die Tonlehre nach unserer Überzeugung an die allgemeine Physik vollkommen anzuschließen sein, da sie jetzt innerhalb derselben gleichsam nur historisch abgesondert steht.

Aber eben darin läge die größte Schwierigkeit, die für uns gewordene positive, auf seltsamen empirischen, zufälligen, mathematischen, ästhetischen, genialischen Wegen entsprungene Musik zugunsten einer physikalischen Behandlung zu zerstören und in ihre ersten physischen Elemente aufzulösen. Vielleicht wäre auch hierzu auf dem Punkte, wo Wissenschaft und Kunst sich befinden, nach so manchen schönen Vorarbeiten Zeit und Gelegenheit.
(Zur Farbenlehre. Vierte Abteilung - Allgemeine Ansichten nach Innen - Goethe)

Sempre se percebeu que existe certa relação entre cor e som, como demonstram as freqüentes comparações, por vezes passageiras, por vezes suficientemente pormenorizadas. O erro nelas cometido se deve ao seguinte:

Cor e som de maneira alguma podem ser comparados, embora ambos remetam a uma fórmula superior, a partir da qual é possível deduzir cada um deles. Ambos são como dois rios que nascem na mesma montanha, mas devido a circunstâncias diversas correm sobre regiões opostas, de modo que em todo o percurso não há nenhum ponto em que possam ser comparados. Ambos são efeitos gerais e elementares segundo a lei universal que tende a separar e unir, oscilar, pesando ora de um lado, ora de outro lado da balança, mas conforme aspectos, maneiras, elementos intermediários e sentidos completamente distintos.
(Doutrina das Cores. Quinta Seção - Goethe (tradução de Marco Giannotti))

Zur Farbenlehre. Vierte Abteilung - Allgemeine Ansichten nach Innen

In dieser stetigen Reihe haben wir, soviel es möglich sein wollte, die Erscheinungen zu bestimmen, zu sondern, und zu ordnen gesucht. Jetzt, da wir nicht mehr fürchten, sie zu vermischen oder zu verwirren, können wir unternehmen, erstlich das Allgemeine, was sich von diesen Erscheinungen innerhalb des geschlossenen Kreises prädizieren läßt, anzugeben, zweitens, anzudeuten, wie sich dieser besondre Kreis an die übrigen Glieder verwandter Naturerscheinungen anschließt und sich mit ihnen verkettet.
(Zur Farbenlehre. Vierte Abteilung - Allgemeine Ansichten nach Innen - Goethe)

Na medida do possível, procuramos determinar, separar e ordenar os fenômenos segundo essa série contínua. Já que agora não tememos misturá-los ou confundi-los, podemos empreender em primeiro lugar
a tarefa de julgar, no círculo, o que é universal nos fenômenos, para em seguida apontar como esse círculo particular se encadeia e se une ao resto dos fenômenos naturais afins.
(Doutrina das Cores. Quarta Seção - Goethe (tradução de Marco Giannotti))

Zur Farbenlehre. Didaktischer Teil - Einleitung

Wir betrachteten also die Farben zuerst, insofern sie dem Auge angehören und auf einer Wirkung und Gegenwirkung desselben beruhen; ferner zogen sie unsere Aufmerksamkeit an sich, indem wir sie an farblosen Mitteln oder durch deren Beihülfe gewahrten; zuletzt aber wurden sie uns merkwürdig, indem wir sie als den Gegenständen angehörig denken konnten. Die ersten nannten wir physiologische, die zweiten physische, die dritten chemische Farben. Jene sind unaufhaltsam flüchtig, die andern vorübergehend, aber allenfalls verweilend, die letzten festzuhalten bis zur spätesten Dauer.
(Zur Farbenlehre. Didaktischer Teil - Einleitung - Goethe)

Consideremos, em primeiro lugar, as cores na medida em que pertencem ao olho e dependem de sua capacidade de agir e reagir. Em seguida, despertam a atenção na medida em que as percebemos através dos meios incolores ou com o auxílio destes. Por fim, são dignas de nota na medida em que podemos pensá-las como fazendo parte do objeto. Chamamos as primeiras de fisiológicas, as segundas de físicas e as terceiras de químicas. As primeiras são constantemente fugidias, as segundas são passageiras, embora tenham uma certa permanência. As últimas têm longa duração.
(Doutrina das Cores. Esboço de uma Doutrina das Cores - Introdução - Goethe (tradução de Marco Giannotti))

Zur Farbenlehre. Didaktischer Teil - Einleitung

Die Farbe sei ein elementares Naturphänomen für den Sinn des Auges, das sich, wie die übrigen alle, durch Trennung und Gegensatz, durch Mischung und Vereinigung, durch Erhöhung und Neutralisation, durch Mitteilung und Verteilung und so weiter manifestiert und unter diesen allgemeinen Naturformeln am besten angeschaut und begriffen werden kann.
(Zur Farbenlehre. Didaktischer Teil - Einleitung - Goethe)

(...) a cor é um fenômeno elementar da natureza para sentido da visão, que, como todos os demais, se manifesta ao se dividir e opor, se misturar e fundir, se intensificar e neutralizar, ser compartilhado e repartido, podendo ser mais bem intuído e concebido nessas fórmulas gerais da natureza.
(Doutrina das Cores. Esboço de uma Doutrina das Cores - Introdução - Goethe (tradução de Marco Giannotti))

Zur Farbenlehre. Didaktischer Teil - Einleitung

Und so erbauen wir aus diesen dreien die sichtbare Welt und machen dadurch zugleich die Malerei möglich, welche auf der Tafel eine weit vollkommner sichtbare Welt, als die wirkliche sein kann, hervorzubringen vermag.
(Zur Farbenlehre. Didaktischer Teil - Einleitung - Goethe)

E assim construímos o mundo visível a partir do claro, do escuro e da cor, e com eles também tornamos possível a pintura, que é capaz de produzir, no plano, um mundo visível muito mais perfeito que o mundo real.
(Doutrina das Cores. Esboço de uma Doutrina das Cores - Introdução - Goethe (tradução de Marco Giannotti))

Zur Farbenlehre. Didaktischer Teil - Einleitung

Die Lust zum Wissen wird bei dem Menschen zuerst dadurch angeregt, daß er bedeutende Phänomene gewahr wird, die seine Aufmerksamkeit an sich ziehen. Damit nun diese dauernd bleibe, so muß sich eine innigere Teilnahme finden, die uns nach und nach mit den Gegenständen bekannter macht. Alsdann bemerken wir erst eine große Mannigfaltigkeit, die uns als Menge entgegendringt. Wir sind genötigt zu sondern, zu unterscheiden und wieder zusammenzustellen, wodurch zuletzt eine Ordnung entsteht, die sich mit mehr oder weniger Zufriedenheit übersehen läßt.
(Zur Farbenlehre. Didaktischer Teil - Einleitung - Goethe)

O homem só é levado ao desejo de conhecer se fenômenos notáveis lhe chamam a atenção. Para que esta perdure, é preciso haver um interesse mais profundo, que nos aproxime cada vez mais dos objetos. Observamos então uma grande diversidade diante de nós. Somos obrigados a separá-la, distingui-la e recompô-la, daí resultando uma ordenação que pode ser apreciada com maior ou menor satisfação.
(Doutrina das Cores. Esboço de uma Doutrina das Cores - Introdução - Goethe (tradução de Marco Giannotti))

Zur Farbenlehre. Didaktischer Teil - Vorwort

Die Farben sind Taten des Lichts, Taten und Leiden. In diesem Sinne können wir von denselben Aufschlüsse über das Licht erwarten. Farben und Licht stehen zwar untereinander in dem genausten Verhältnis, aber wir müssen uns beide als der ganzen Natur angehörig denken: denn sie ist es ganz, die sich dadurch dem Sinne des Auges besonders offenbaren will.
(Zur Farbenlehre. Didaktischer Teil - Vorwort - Goethe)

As cores são ações e paixões da luz. Nesse sentido, podemos esperar delas alguma indicação sobre a luz. Na verdade, luz e cores se relacionam perfeitamente, embora devamos pensá-las como pertencendo à natureza em seu todo: é ela inteira que assim quer se revelar ao sentido da visão.
(Doutrina das Cores. Esboço de uma Doutrina das Cores - Prefácil - Goethe (tradução de Marco Giannotti))

Zur Farbenlehre. Didaktischer Teil - Vorwort

Jedes Ansehen geht über in ein Betrachten, jedes Betrachten in ein Sinnen, jedes Sinnen in ein Verknüpfen, und so kann man sagen, daß wir schon bei jedem aufmerksamen Blick in die Welt theoretisieren. Dieses aber mit Bewußtsein, mit Selbstkenntnis, mit Freiheit, und um uns eines gewagten Wortes zu bedienen, mit Ironie zu tun und vorzunehmen, eine solche Gewandtheit ist nötig, wenn die Abstraktion, vor der wir uns fürchten, unschädlich und das Erfahrungsresultat, das wir hoffen, recht lebendig und nützlich werden soll.
(Zur Farbenlehre. Didaktischer Teil - Vorwort - Goethe)

Cada olhar envolve uma observação, cada observação uma reflexão, cada reflexão uma síntese: ao olharmos atentamente para o mundo já estamos teorizando. Devemos, porém, teorizar e proceder com consciência, autoconhecimento, liberdade e -- se for preciso usar uma palavra audaciosa -- com ironia: tal destreza é indispensável para que a abstração, que receiamos, não seja prejudicial, e o resultado empírico, que desejamos, nos seja útil e vital.
(Doutrina das Cores. Esboço de uma Doutrina das Cores - Prefácil - Goethe (tradução de Marco Giannotti))

Zur Farbenlehre

Si vera nostra sunt aus falsa, erunt talia,
licet nostra per vitam defendimus.
Post fata nostra pueri qui
nunc ludunt nostri judices erunt.

Peter Pan, James Matthew Barrie

"All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this."

"This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end."

"I don't know whether you have ever seen a map of a person's mind. Doctors sometimes draw maps of other parts of you, and your own map can become intensely interesting, but catch them trying to draw a map of a child's mind, which is not only confused, but keeps going round all the time."

"Stars are beautiful, but they may not take an active part in anything, they must just look on for ever. It is a punishment put on them for something they did so long ago that no star now knows what it was. So the older ones have become glassy-eyed and seldom speak (winking is the star language), but the little ones still wonder."

"You see, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies."


"`I think it's perfectly sweet of you,' she declared, `and I'll get up again,' and she sat with him on the side of the bed. She also said she would give him a kiss if he liked, but Peter did not know what she meant, and he held out his hand expectantly.

`Surely you know what a kiss is?' she asked, aghast.

`I shall know when you give it to me,' he replied stiffly, and not to hurt his feeling she gave him a thimble.

`Now,' said he, `shall I give you a kiss?' and she replied with a slight primness, `If you please.' She made herself rather cheap by inclining her face toward him, but he merely dropped an acorn button into her hand, so she slowly returned her face to where it had been before, and said nicely that she would wear his kiss on the chain
around her neck. It was lucky that she did put it on that chain, for it was afterwards to save her life."

"You see children know such a lot now, they soon don't believe in fairies, and every time a child says, `I don't believe in fairies,' there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead."

"I don't want ever to be a man," he said with passion. "I want always to be a little boy and to have fun. So I ran away to Kensington Gardens and lived a long long time among the fairies."

"She asked where he lived.
`Second to the right,' said Peter, `and then straight on till morning.'"

"Second to the right, and straight on till morning."

"That, Peter had told Wendy, was the way to the Neverland; but even birds, carrying maps and consulting them at windy corners, could not have sighted it with these instructions."

"John said that if the worst came to the worst, all they had to do was to go straight on, for the world was round, and so in time they must come back to their own window."

"Fairies have to be one thing or the other, because being so small they unfortunately have room for one feeling only at a time. They are, however, allowed to change, only it must be a complete change."

"The difference between him and the other boys at such a time was that they knew it was make-believe, while to him make-believe and true were exactly the same thing. This sometimes troubled them, as when they had to make-believe that they had had their dinners."

"If you shut your eyes and are a lucky one, you may see at times a shapeless pool of lovely pale colours suspended in the darkness; then if you squeeze your eyes tighter, the pool begins to take shape, and the colours become so vivid that with another squeeze they must go on fire. But just before they go on fire you see the lagoon. This is the nearest you ever get to it on the mainland, just one heavenly moment; if there could be two moments you might see the surf and hear the mermaids singing."

"It was not really Saturday night, at least it may have been, for they had long lost count of the days; but always if they wanted to do anything special they said this was Saturday night, and then they did it."

"To die would be a great adventure."

Heisenberg and the Traffic Policeman

One day Herr Doktor Heisenberg is out driving. As he rounds a curve, a policeman waves him overs. The policeman leans in the windaw and asks the famous physicist "Doktor Heisenberg, do you know how fast you were going?" Heisenberg responds "No, but I do know exactly where I was!"

Latin honors

Latin honors are Latin phrases used to indicate the level of academic distinction with which an academic degree was earned.

There are typically three types of Latin honors. In order of increasing level of honor, they are:

* cum laude ("with honor")
* magna cum laude ("with great honor")
* summa cum laude ("with highest honor")

They are awarded to those undergraduate and graduate students who have achieved academic distinction. The honor is typically indicated on the diploma.

Ada's Note

In considering any new subject, there is frequently a tendency, first, to overrate what we find to be already interesting or remarkable; and, secondly, by a sort of natural reaction, to undervalue the true state of the case, when we do discover that our notions have surpassed those that were really tenable.
-- Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace --

Fita Verde no Cabelo

(João Guimarães Rosa)

Havia uma aldeia em algum lugar, nem maior nem menor, com velhos e velhas que velhavam, homens e mulheres que esperavam, e meninos e meninas que nasciam e cresciam.

Todos com juízo, suficientemente, menos uma meninazinha, a que por enquanto. Aquela, um dia, saiu de lá, com uma fita verde inventada no cabelo.

Sua mãe mandara-a, com um cesto e um pote, à avó, que a amava, a uma outra e quase igualzinha aldeia.

Fita-Verde partiu, sobre logo, ela a linda, tudo era uma vez. O pote continha um doce em calda, e o cesto estava vazio, que para buscar framboesas.

Daí, que, indo, no atravessar o bosque, viu só os lenhadores, que por lá lenhavam; mas o lobo nenhum, desconhecido nem peludo. Pois os lenhadores tinham exterminado o lobo.

Então, ela, mesma, era quem se dizia:

– Vou à vovó, com cesto e pote, e a fita verde no cabelo, o tanto que a mamãe me mandou.

A aldeia e a casa esperando-a acolá, depois daquele moinho, que a gente pensa que vê, e das horas, que a gente não vê que não são.

E ela mesma resolveu escolher tomar este caminho de cá, louco e longo, e não o outro, encurtoso. Saiu, atrás de suas asas ligeiras, sua sombra também vinha-lhe correndo, em pós.

Divertia-se com ver as avelãs do chão não voarem, com inalcançar essas borboletas nunca em buquê nem em botão, e com ignorar se cada uma em seu lugar as plebeinhas flores, princesinhas e incomuns, quando a gente tanto por elas passa.

Vinha sobejadamente.

Demorou, para dar com a avó em casa, que assim lhe respondeu, quando ela, toque, toque, bateu:

– Quem é?

– Sou eu… – e Fita-Verde descansou a voz. – Sou sua linda netinha, com cesto e pote, com a fita verde no cabelo, que a mamãe me mandou.

Vai, a avó, difícil, disse: – Puxa o ferrolho de pau da porta, entra e abre. Deus te abençoe.

Fita-Verde assim fez, e entrou e olhou.

A avó estava na cama, rebuçada e só. Devia, para falar agagado e fraco e rouco, assim, de ter apanhado um ruim defluxo. Dizendo: – Depõe o pote e o cesto na arca, e vem para perto de mim, enquanto é tempo.

Mas agora Fita-Verde se espantava, além de entristecer-se de ver que perdera em caminho sua grande fita verde no cabelo atada; e estava suada, com enorme fome de almoço. Ela perguntou:

– Vovozinha, que braços tão magros, os seus, e que mãos tão trementes!

– É porque não vou poder nunca mais te abraçar, minha neta… – a avó murmurou.

– Vovozinha, mas que lábios, aí, tão arroxeados!

– É porque não vou nunca mais poder te beijar, minha neta… – a avó suspirou.

– Vovozinha, e que olhos tão fundos e parados, nesse rosto encovado, pálido?

– É porque já não estou te vendo, nunca mais, minha netinha… – a avó ainda gemeu.

Fita-Verde mais se assustou, como se fosse ter juízo pela primeira vez. Gritou: – Vovozinha, eu tenho medo do Lobo!…

Mas a avó não estava mais lá, sendo que demasiado ausente, a não ser pelo frio, triste e tão repentino corpo.

Sapere aude!

Sapere aude is a Latin phrase meaning "Dare to know".

Dimidium facti qui coepit habet: sapere aude!
[He who has begun is half done: dare to know!]
-- Epistle II of Horace's Epistularum liber primus --

Was ist Aufklärung?

Aufklärung ist der Ausgang des Menschen aus seiner selbstverschuldeten Unmündigkeit. Unmündigkeit ist das Unvermögen, sich seines Verstandes ohne Leitung eines anderen zu bedienen. Selbstverschuldet ist diese Unmündigkeit, wenn die Ursache derselben nicht am Mangel des Verstandes, sondern der Entschließung und des Mutes liegt, sich seiner ohne Leitung eines andern zu bedienen. Sapere aude! Habe Mut, dich deines eigenen Verstandes zu bedienen! ist also der Wahlspruch der Aufklärung.
-- Immanuel Kant --

vidit

Artis monumentum, qui unum vidit,
nullum vidit,
qui mille vidit, unum vidit.
-- Eduard Gerhard --

Aufrichtig - Goethe

aufrichtig zu sein, kann ich versprechen, unparteiisch zu sein aber nicht
[posso prometer ser sincero, mas não imparcial]
-- Goethe --

Endlichen - Goethe

Willst du ins Unendliche schreiten, geh nur im Endlichen nach allen Seiten.
--GOETHE--

The Inhibition of Simultaneous Stimuli - Békésy - Sensory Inhibition

When we look at a historical section of a sense organ with a large surface, we find nerve fibers going directly to the sensory ganglion, and in addition we find a large number of lateral fibers running parallel to the surface and connecting two or more end organs with one another. It was Held (1926) who showed that in the organ of Corti there are never fibers running from every hair cell more or less direclty to the modiolus of the cochlea, and also other fibers running perpendicular to these along the basilar membrane, often connecting the hair cells over nearly a half turn of the cochlea. Unfortunately these lateral connections often seem difficult to stain. (...) The lateral fibers of the cochlea are represented in Fig. 20. At present it is still uncertain to what extent these fibers are involved in the immediate process of hearing. (...) I am unable to understand how this retinal circuitry fails to produce constant oscillation. It is difficult to imagine what type of reduction of feedback is used to avoid this oscillation. Even a simples feedback system requires many precautions to prevent its going into oscillation and to cause it to return to its original equilibrium condition after a stimulus has ceased to act upon it.

Figure 20
Figure 23

For present purposes, a simple scheme is sufficient to illustrate the problem. The small dots near the bottom of Fig. 23 represent a system of receptors on the surface of the skin. The variations of a stimulus are indicated by the lowermost graph with a maximum in the middle. There are lateral connections between the receptors and nerve fibers that run upward to the first-order ganglion cells in a row a. Alongside each of these nerve fibers is a representation of its pulse rate: the number of spikes for a certain unit of time is shown. Adrian in 1928 found that the discharge rate of a sensory nerve fiber increases with the magnitude of the stimulus acting on its end organ. In the two fibers on the far left and right sides the stimulation is minimal and the discharges represent spontaneous activity. Toward the middle the stimulus intensity increases and so also does the discharge rate.

From the first layer of ganglion cells we go to a similar level above, shown at b, and from there to still higher level, c. As far as we can now discover, the result of the lateral interconnections is to reduce or "funnel" the laterally spreading stimulation to a progressively localized section of the neural pathway, as indicated by the sketch of the sensation at the top of the figure.

This simple scheme immediately brings up the question of the kind of frequency sensation that will be produced by a stimulus whose amplitude tapers away from a central maximum as shown in this figure. It is apparent that the lateral inhibition that occurs in sense organs is not the straightforward kind that we find in muscle systems. The lateral inhibition of sense organs is actually a funneling action that inhibits the smaller stimulus effects and collects the stronger effects into a common pathway.
(...)

In a crude way we can distinguish four types of inhibitory pathways, as illustrated in Fig. 24. As A is shown the simple form of lateral inhibition that has just been described. At B is shown a forward type of inhibition, at C a backward type, and at D a form of central inhibition. In human sense organs there is an interplay of all these types of interaction.

Figure 24

The question arises whether inhibition is the correct term for this whole series of phenomena. With our limited knowledge of inhibition phenomena in single neural pathways it is difficult to decide on the proper category. In addition to inhibition we might consider the term "sensory distortion", or even "disinhibition" - because it may happen that normally the neural pathways are blocked, and the effect of a stimulus is to remove the blockage. I prefer to call the effect "funneling", because even for central inhibition there is usually an increase in the magnitude of the sensation referred to certain places.

Adaptation and Inhibition as a Means of Suppressing an Excess of Information - Békéy - Sensory Inhibition

There are many ways in which a physical activity may be so modified as to cause a human observer's perception of it to depart widely from the indications of physical apparatus. We are all aware of the existence of sensory threshold, adaptation process, and nonlinearity, all of which represent departures of perception from the regular variations of magnitude in a physical stimulus.
A further process is inhibition, whose effects are equally unexpected and often even more profound than these objects.
(...)

The important thing in a communication network is not the output level attained but the signal-to-noise ratio, for it is the ratio that determines our ability to recognize the signal a distinct from the noise. In the nervous system also it was found that "noise" is always present, in the form of general background of spontaneous activity, and a sensory effect has to be identified in the presence of this background (Hoagland, 1932). This problem is still with us.
(...)

A decade ago there was a development of communications and information theory. Already we have too much of this theory, and it is necessary to develop an inhibition theory. We shall need to discover a way of measuring the loss of information caused by a given amount of inhibition. A possible measure is the number of bits lost when the information is passed through a system divided by the number of bits introduced at the input. Such a measure I consider more important in physiology and psychology than in communications engineering.

We know that any information that we have at hand contains a number of small disturbances. These are usually eliminated by a statistical treatment. The mean value of a series of measures represents the inhibition of many small unwanted bits of information, but this procedure does not go far enough. What we are interested in is direct from of inhibition that cancels out a whole of unwanted information. The problem is of far greater scope than statisticians have ever dreamed of.

The simplest way to get rid of information is to reduce the sensitivity of the receptors. This method s used effectively in all complex living systems. For example, we know that the organ or Corti of the ear is sensitive to displacement. This sensitivity is so great that one can almost hear the Brownian movements of molecules. (...) the organ of Corti, as living tissue, requires a constant blood supply (...) hence we should expect to hear our own heartbeat with tremendous loudness. We do not so because, for one thing, there is a factor of frequency differentiating between external sound stimuli and the sound of the heartbeat. The circulatory pulsations are of low frequency, and the solution that nature made to the problem was to reduce the sensitivity of the ear to lower frequencies while leaving the sensitivity unimpaired in the range between 1000 and 4000 cycles per second (cps).
Thus it is not surprising to find that the threshold sensitivity for frequencies around 20 cps is nearly 10,000 times less than for frequencies around 1000cps. These relations may be seen in Fig.3.

Figure 3
(...)

Adaptation is a common process in living systems for the reduction of the effect of a stimulus. It is seen mainly as a progressive loss of sensitivity during a period of stimulation.
(...)

The retina seems to lose its "pattern recognition ability" quickly if the pattern is maintained on one portion of its surface. As has been proved by Riggs and others (1953) an image that is made stationary on the retina disappears partly or completely in a few seconds.
(...)

That the transients of a stimulus are of utmost importance in vision was shown in an objective way in experiments on the eye of the horseshoe crab, Limulus, by Ratliff, Hartline, and Miller (1963). Even a moderate change in the stimulus intensity, such as doubling or halving, produced an immediate change in the discharge rate of a single unit of the optic nerve, as seen in Fig. 10. This figure shows the effect of a doubling of the light stimulus, and then a return of the stimulus to its former level. The response frequency increases rapidly to more than twice its original value when the light is increased, and in about 0.5 sec returns to the base line. Then when the light intensity is dropped to its initial level, the frequency falls abruptly and soon rises to the base level once more.
Figure 10

illusion

Perception

Since the most ancient days mankind has been intrigued by the way human beings perceive the world surrounding them. That's through our sensitive mechanisms that we feel the world and makes us aware of our own existence. Aristotle made an attempt to explain all the perceptions mechanisms (seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting) in his work "De Anima". He explained all those senses rather in purely physiological terms.

According to Aristotle the objects of senses might be divided into the following groups: the special (such as color which is the special object of sight, and sound of hearing), the common, or apprehended by several senses in combination (such as motion or figure), or the incidental or inferential (from immediate sensation of white we know the object we see is white). Among the five special senses, touch is the must rudimentary, hearing the most instructive, and sight the most ennobling. The organs of those senses never act directly, but rather through some sort of medium such as air. Even touch, which seems to act by direct contact, probably involves some vehicle of communication.

Aristotle believed the head to be the central organ of all senses. It recognizes the common qualities which are involved in all particular objects of sensation. At first there is a sense which brings us a consciousness of sensation, and then, in an act before the mind, it holds up the objects of our knowledge and enables us to distinguish and gather the different information reported by different senses.

The word Perception has its origin in the Latin language, it comes from the addition of the prefix 'per' to 'conceptum'. 'Conceptum' is the Latin word for concept, what is something conceived in mind, a mental image. The addiction of the prefix 'per' brings the meaning of through or complete. That's makes perception, a complete mental image, something conceived in our mind through our sensitive organs. From this statement we may infer that only animals provided with sensitive organs or human beings are able of something like perception.

nickel

What this country needs is a good five-cent nickel.
-- Frank Adams --

ethics

Relativity applies to physics, not ethics.
--Albert Einstein--

a little about Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark, on April 2, 1805, so that's makes 2005 it's 200th birthday anniversary.
Still as a child Andersen showed great imagination, he built himself a little toy-theatre and sat at home making clothes for his puppets, and reading all the plays that he could borrow; among them were those of Ludvig Holberg and William Shakespeare. Andersen, throughout his childhood, had a passionate love for literature. He was known to memorize entire Shakespeare plays and recite them using his wooden dolls as the characters.
At age 14, Andersen moved to Copenhagen to look for work in show business. He had a pleasant soprano voice and succeeded in getting into the Royal Danish Theatre but had to leave when his voice changed.
King Frederick VI became interested in the strange boy after a chance meeting and sent him for some years, free of charge, to the grammar-school at Slagelse. Before he started for school, Andersen published his first volume, The Ghost at Palnatoke's Grave (1822).
Some hold that his works express the sorrow of being different. One of the most telling stories in that respect is the tale of the Little Mermaid, who takes her own life since she cannot be loved by her beautiful prince. It is thought to exemplify his love for the young Edward Collin, to whom he wrote: "I languish for you as for a pretty Calabrian wench . . . my sentiments for you are those of a woman. The femininity of my nature and our friendship must remain a mystery." Collin, who was not erotically attracted to men, wrote in his own Memoirs: "I found myself unable to respond to this love", and this caused the author much suffering. Likewise, the infatuations of the author for the Danish dancer Harlod Scharf and the young duke of Weimar probably remained on a Platonic level. Andersen's private journal records his refusal to have sexual relations with either men or women and his release through masturbation. Today he would have been considered asexual.
In the spring of 1872, Andersen fell out of bed and severely hurt himself. He was never again quite well, but he lived until the August 4, 1875, when he died very peacefully in the house called Rolighed, near Copenhagen. He is buried in the Assistens Cemetery, in Copenhagen, Denmark.

His best-known fairy tales include:
* The Angel
* The Bell
* The Emperor's New Clothes
* The Emperor's Nightingale
* The Fir Tree
* The Little Match Girl
* The Little Mermaid
* The Real Princess
* Red Shoes
* The Snow Queen
* The Steadfast Tin Soldier
* The Swineherd
* Thumbelina
* The Ugly Duckling
* The Old House
* The Happy Family
* The Story of a Mother
* The Shadow
* The Dream of Little Tuk
* Wild Swans

words and music

Where words fail, music speaks.
--Hans Christian Andersen--

The Steadfast Tin Soldier

"I cannot bear it!" said the pewter soldier. "I have shed pewter tears! It is too melancholy! Rather let me go to the wars and lose arms and legs! It would at least be a change. I cannot bear it longer! Now, I know what it is to have a visit from one's old thoughts, with what they may bring with them! I have had a visit from mine, and you may be sure it is no pleasant thing in the end; I was at last about to jump down from the drawers."
--Hans Christian Andersen--

Life's Melody

Life is like a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up.
--Hans Christian Andersen--

fairy-tale

Every man's life is a fairy-tale written by God's fingers.
-- Hans Christian Andersen --

genius

All genius is a conquering of chaos and mystery.
--Otto Weininger--

madness

I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies but not the madness of people.
-- Isaac Newton --

multitudes

Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.
-- Walt Whitman --

Being With You (In Paris)

In the music Being With You (In Paris) from Steve Vai there's a poem he declaims during the show. It was in French and it was translated by a fan called John Pusztai. I could not find the poem in the internet... so I asked a friend of mine to transcribe it... and the another to translate into portuguese... and finally I did translate it into english! Bellow follow the result.

"Je n'oublierai jamais ces jours merveilleux qui sont si clairs dans mon coeur et ma mémoire. Les choses simples semblent si profondes. Puis il y a cette photo, le soleil brille au dessus de la Seine, et le ciel rempli de couleurs que des artistes ont tenté de capturer pendant des siècles. Tu es debout sur le pont, la tour Eiffel à ta gauche faisait figure d'un vieille ami parlant des amoureux avec lesquels elle a posé dans le passe. Cette ville appelle le respect. Elle a pris au fil du temps avec ses victoires. La richesse de son art et de sa culture sentit dans les huiles heureuses... Pendant que nous mémorisons les bruits et les saveurs des rues piétonnes. Et si nous ne pouvons plus nous voir et nous embrasser dans la magie de cette ville, la mélodie ne changera jamais et me rappellera toujours pareil avec toi."


"I will never forget those wonderful days which are still so bright in my heart and memory. The simplest things seems so deep... and then there is this photo. The Sun shines over the Sena and the sky, full of colors, which the artists try go catch over the centuries. You're standing on the bridge, the Eiffel tower is on your left playing an old friend character, talking about loves gone on steps. This city claims for respect. It claims time line with its victories. Its fortune held in its arts and culture laid on those happy oils... While we memorize the noise and flavor of the picturesque streets. And I can not see ourselves and embrace ourselves under the magic of this city. The melody will always sound the same, and it will always make me remember you."

Eternal Sunshine

[Mary reads to Dr. Mierzwiak out of "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations"; the lines are from Alexander Pope's poem "Eloisa to Abelard"]
Mary: How happy is the blameless Vestal's lot! / The world forgetting, by the world forgot / Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! / Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd.

metaphor

The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. It is the one thing that cannot be learned from others; and it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars.
-- Aristotle --

Grouping by similarity

Grouping by similarity occurs in time as well as in space. Aristotle thought of similarity as one of the qualities creating mental associations, a condition of memory linking the past with the present.
-- Art and Visual Perception - Rudolf Arnheim --

ways of seeing

Ways of Seeing
(John Berger)

Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.



But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but words can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled. Each evening we see the sun set. We know that the earth is turning away from it. Yet the knowledge, the explanation, never quite fits the sight. The Surrealist painter Margritte commented on this always-present gap between words and seeing in a painting called The Key of Dreams.



The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe. In the Middle Ages when men believed in the physical existence of Hell the sight of fire must have meant something different from what it means today. Nevertheless their idea of Hell owed a lot to the sight of fire consuming and the ashes remaining - as well as to their experience of the pain of burns.


When in love, the sight of the beloved has a completeness which no words and no embrace can match : a completeness which only the act of making love can temporarily accommodate.

Yet this seeing which comes before words, and can never be quite covered by them, is not a question of mechanically reacting to stimuli. (It can only be thought of in this way if one isolates the small part of the process which concerns the eye's retina). We only see what we look at. To look is an act of choice. As a result of this act, what we see is brought within our reach - thought not necessarily within arm's reach. To touch something is to situate oneself in relation to it. (Close your eyes, move round the room and notice how the faculty of touch is like a static, limited form of sight.) We never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves. Our vision is continually active, continually moving, continually holding things in a circle around itself, constituting what is
present to us as we are.

Dois Animais Metafísicos

Dois Animais Metafísicos
(O Livro dos Seres Imaginários, Jorge Luis Borges)

O problema da origem das idéias acrescenta duas curiosas criaturas à zoologia fantástica. Uma foi imaginada em meados do século XVIII; a outra, um século depois.

A primeira é a "estátua sensível" de Condillac. Descartes professou a doutrina das idéias inatas; Etienne Bonmot de Condillac, para refutá-lo, imaginou uma estátua de mármore, organizada e proporcionada como o corpo de um homem e habitada por uma alma que nunca houvesse percebido ou pensado. Condillac começa por conferir um único sentido à estátua: o olfativo, talvez o menos complexo de todos. Um cheiro de jasmim é o princípio da biografia da estátua; por um instante não haverá senão esse
aroma no universo, que, um instante depois, será cheiro de rosa e, depois, de cravo. Se houver na consciência da estátua um único perfume, já teremos a atenção; se perdurar um perfume quando houver cessado o estímulo, teremos a memória; se uma impressão atual e uma do passado ocuparem a atenção da estátua, teremos a comparação; se a estátua perceber analogias e diferenças, teremos o juízo; se a comparação e o juízo voltarem a ocorrer, teremos a reflexão; se uma lembrança agradável for mais vívida que uma impressão desagradável, teremos a imaginação. Engendradas as faculdades do entendimento, as da vontade surgirão depois: amor e ódio (atração e aversão), esperança e medo. A consciência de ter atravessado muitos estados dará à estátua a noção abstrata de número; a de ser perfume de cravo e ter sido perfume de jasmim, a noção do eu.

O autor conferirá depois a seu homem hipotético a audição, a gustação, a visão e por fim o tato. Este último sentido lhe revelará que existe o espaço e que, no espaço, ele existe em um corpo; os sons, os cheiros e as cores tinham-lhe parecido, antes dessa etapa, simples variações ou modificações de sua consciência.

A alegoria que acabamos de relatar se intitula 'Traité des Sensations' e data de 1754; para esta notícia utilizamos o segundo volume de 'Histoire de la Philosophie', de Bréhier.

A outra criatura suscitada pelo problema do conhecimento é o "animal hipotético" de Lotze. Mais solitário que a estátua que cheira rosas e que, por fim, é um homem, esse animal não tem pele senão um ponto sensível e móvel, na extremidade de uma antena. Sua conformação lhe proíbe, como se vê, as percepções simultâneas. Lotze pensa que a capacidade de retrair ou projetar sua antena sensível bastará para que o quase incomunicável animal descubra o mundo exterior (sem o auxílio das categorias kantianas) e distinga um objeto estacionário de um objeto móvel. Esta ficção foi elogiada por Vaihinger; está registrada na obra 'Medizinische Psychologie', que é de 1852.

computing

The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers.
-- Richard Hamming --

Christmas

At Christmas I no more desire a rose, Than wish a snow in May's
new-fangled shows; But like of each thing that in season grows.
-- William Shakespeare --

eternity

To see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hands, and eternity in an hour.

-- William Blake --

Speech recognition

"Human beings' recognition of speech consists of many tasks, ranging from the detection of phonemes from speech waveforms to the high-level understanding of messages. We do not actually hear all speech elements; we realize this easily when we try to decipher foreign or uncommon utterances. Instead, we continuously relate fragmentary sensory stimuli to context familiar from various experiences, and we unconsciously test and reiterate our perceptions at different levels of abstraction. In other words, what we believe we hear, we in fact reconstruct in our minds from pieces of received information.
Even in clear speech from the same speaker, distributions of the spectral samples of different phonemes overlap. Their statistical density function are not Gaussian, so they cannot be approximated analytically. The same phonemes spoken by different persons can be confused too; for example, the /ε/ of one speaker might sound like the /n/ of another. For this reason, absolutely speaker-independent detection of phonemes is possible only with relative low accuracy."

(The Neural Phonetic Typewriter, Teuvo Kohonen - IEEE 1988)

optoelectrical speech transcriber

"In 1930 a Hungarian scientist, Tihamer Nemes, filed a patent application in Germany for the principle of making an optoelectrical system automatically transcribe speech. His idea was to use the optical sound track on a movie film as a grating to produce diffraction patterns (corresponding to speech spectra), which then could be identified and typed out. The application was turned down as “unrealistic.” Since then the problem of automatic speech recognition has occupied the minds of scientists and engineers, both amateur and professional."

(Teuvo Kohonen, IEEE March 1988)

Long hair

Long on hair, short on brains.
- French Proverb -

Balzac

Love is the poetry of the senses.
-- Honoré de Balzac --

Most people of action are inclined to fatalism and most of thought believe in providence.
-- Honore De Balzac --

It is easier to be a lover than a husband for the simple reason that it is more difficult to be witty every day than to say pretty things from time to time.
-- Honore De Balzac --

The Role of Phidippides

Phidippides a professional runner of the Athen's army is the one whose tale was immortalized by the Olympic Marathon.
The Athens were fighting the Persas and they were outnumbered, so the Athenian generals send Phidippides to call for Sparta's help. He run 140 miles and another 140 miles back with the disappointing news that the Sparta agreed to help but said they would not take the field until the moon was full due to religious laws. They fought in disadvantage, but they launched a surprise offensive thrust which at the time appeared suicidal and won the battle. Phidippides was again called upon to run from the battlefield in Marathon to Athens (26 miles away) to carry the news of victory and warning about the approaching Persians ships. He reached Athens in 3 hours delivering the message and died thereafter from exhaustion.
When the modern Olympics began in 1896, the tale of Pheidippides' feat was immortalized: A 24.8-mile race would serve as the final event of the Games, covering the route from Marathon Bridge to the Olympic Stadium in Athens.

Critique of Practical Reason

Zwei Dinge erfüllen das Gemüt mit immer neuer und zunehmender Bewunderung und Ehrfurcht, je öfter und anhaltender sich das Nachdenken damit beschäftigt: Der bestirnte Himmel über mir und das moralische Gesetz in mir.
[Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing wonder and awe, the more often and the more seriously reflection concentrates upon them: the starry heaven above me and the moral law within me.]
-- Immanuel Kant --

words, thoughts and reality

As words miss when they want to express any thought, thoughts also miss when they want to express any reality.
-- Fernando Pessoa --

night and silence

Il ne voit que la nuit, n'entend que le silence.
[He sees only night, and hears only silence.]
-- Jacques Delille --

Conversation between Achilles and Tortoise

"Tortoise: (...) But it is beautiful anyway, is it not?
Achilles: Oh, yes, there is no doubt of its beauty.
Tortoise: I wonder if its beauty is related to its impossibility. (...)"

Introduction - Gödel, Escher, Bach - Douglas Hofstadter - pq. 29

Juana's Dream

Juana's Dream - Eduardo Galeano

She strolled through the market of dreams. The saleswomen settled various dreams over big clothes on the ground.

There arrives Juana's grandfather, deeply sad as it's a long time he doesn't dream. Juana takes him by the hand and helps him to choose dreams, dreams of marzipan or cotton, wings to fly while sleeping, and they go away, both, so full of dreams that there won't be enough night.

(translated by me)

Justice

A personification of the four cardinal virtues (Justice, Prudence, Fortitude and Temperance) represented usually by the scale, the sword, the blindfold and the law books. She symbolizes the fair and equal administration of the law, without corruption, greed, prejudice, or favor.
This figure dates back to the ancient history. The Ancient Egyptians referred to Ma'at, a woman carrying a sword with an ostrich feather in her hair to symbolize truth and justice. The Ancient Greeks believed in Themis, the goddess of divine justice and law. She held a pair of scales upon which she weighs the claims of disputing parties. She was daughter to Uranus and Gaia and was a partner and advisor to Zeus. Themis was a Titan who believed in and taught obedience to laws and peace. "She became known as a goddess of divine justice." The Roman goddess of justice was called Justitia. She’s represented by the constellation Libra, shaped like a heavenly pair of scales.

mortals

"We are all mortal until the first kiss and the second glass of wine."
-- Eduardo Galeano --

Measure

"Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so."
-- Galileo Galilei --

Fourier

"Fourier is a mathematical poem."
-- Lord kelvin --

Möbius Strip

In the eighteenth century, Euler observed that for polyhedra the number of vertices minus the number of edges plus the number of faces equals two. But this relations does not states for all polyhedra, as for example, for a polyhedron with a hole. The astronomer and mathematician August Ferdinand Möbius (1790-1868) studied the geometrical theory of polyhedra and identified surfaces in terms of flat polygonal joined pieces. The Möbius strip, a continuous surface named after him, has only one side and one edge. Starting in any point in its surface, one can reach every point on the strip without even crossing an edge. The Möbius strip is a mathematical construction that shows an evolution from a two-dimensional space into a three-dimensional one, by merging inner and outer spaces it creates a single continuously curved surface. The Möbius strip is also a non oriented surface. In order to be an oriented surface it should, for any point on the surface, have normal vectors with opposite directions.

The torus has a parametric equation:
1. x = (R + L*Cos(Alpha)) * Cos(Theta)
2. y = (R + L*Cos(Alpha)) * Sin(Theta)
3. z = L*Sin(Alpha)
Alpha and Theta ranging from 0 to 360 degrees

The strip of Möbius has a very similar parametric equation:
1. x = (R + L*Cos(Alpha/2)) * Cos(Alpha)
2. y = (R + L*Cos(Alpha/2)) * Sin(Alpha)
3. z = L*Sin(Alpha/2)
Alpha ranging from 0 to 360 degrees, L ranging from -Lmax to +Lmax

The Möbius strip has provided inspiration both for sculptures and for graphical art. Maurits C. Escher is one of the artists who was especially fond of it and based several of his lithographs on this mathematical object. It is also a recurrent feature in science fiction stories, such as Arthur C. Clarke's The Wall of Darkness. Science fiction stories sometimes suggest that our universe might be some kind of generalised Möbius strip.
In the short story "A Subway Named Moebius", by A.J. Deutsch, the Boston subway authority builds a new line; the system becomes so tangled that it turns into a Möbius strip, and trains start to disappear.
There have been technical applications; giant Möbius strips have been used as conveyor belts that last longer because the entire surface area of the belt gets the same amount of wear, and as continuous-loop recording tapes (to double the playing time).