Interstellar - the science and the movie

I recently read through 'The Science of Interstellar', a book rich in scientific concepts made accessible through the context of the movie.

I went back to re-watched a few selected scenes and still find myself captivated by the fidelity, realism, and interactions playing out on different scales: the silence of space, filled to suspense by the powerful, atmospheric music; the delicacy of the orbital maneuvers and docking sequences in which everything is decided by a couple of degrees and meters; time dilation that stretch hours into decades; gravity that shape tidal forces on Miller's planet; gravitational lensing on approaching Gargantua.

I wouldn't find a person interesting if he or she simply brush the movie off without even considering the possibilities. The movie is a good litmus test on people's ability to accept and work with abstract ideas. And I believe the more abstract concepts that we are able to hold in our minds, the broader our bandwidth for understanding.

Twin Elms

What would John Rawls say about... the GPL?

I sometimes wondered about how Rawl's philosophy would apply to certain contemporary issues and how the general approach can be reconcile with the specificity of the concern.

I say sometimes, because I didn't think about Rawls at all when reading about permissive licensing versus copyleft. But then, I found a most cogent argument in favor of copyleft, and it used the exact argument that Rawls made: "what is the better option for EVERYONE?":

"People who really care about freedom care about it for EVERYONE, and licensing that maximizes freedom for everyone trumps the "strings attached" in that regard, that is such a simple thing to see that it challenges credulity to think that someone who cares about freedom could say otherwise."

Reflections on the writings in a quest

Her mirthless laughter sounds like water breaking on rocks:

"What is a god that his voice should carry so far? And what are you that you should so eagerly obey?

The gods only have dominion over what we cede. And you would cede matters of life and death to them."

I'm quite taken by this memorable moment in "A Servant of Death", especially in the way that it questions agency and choice.

Resettling the entire 5.5m residents of Hong Kong in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles

“You have raised some important considerations to which we shall want to give careful thought."

UK officials discussed resettling 5.5m Hong Kong Chinese in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles

Council of Stars

Live every note of life's song