“Are there other people out there in the Universe?” the excited eyes of a primary school kid looking at her with a sparkle. Ellie smiles. “The most important thing is, that you all keep searching for your own anwsers. I'll tell you one thing about the universe, though. The universe is a pretty big place. It's bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So if it's just us... it seems like an awful waste of space. Right?”
6000 years ago in Sumer, at the roots of our present civilization, people worshipped Enlil, the god of air, wind, and thunder. Enlil was not a lone deity, the Sumerian pantheon had many other gods besides, but Enlil was one of the most important. In Sumer, gods and goddesses were closely associated with astronomy. Many deities were paired with specific stars or constellations. The most important gods were paired with planets of the solar system and Enlil's planet was Jupiter, which Sumerians new to be the largest planet in orbit around the Sun.
I understand what this book stems from. Carlo Rovelli is one of the foremost theoretical physicists of our time, pun intended. As a co-creator of the loop quantum gravity theory, his work comes close to giving us a complete, unified understanding of the physical world. Being privy to this, his human intellect compels him to share this vision with others. If you have an understanding that has given you peace from the daily suffering and ignorance, but you see others around you continue to suffer, metaphorically or literally, you want to shout the truth to them from the rooftops. This book, I suspect, is his shouting. Luckily, Rovelli is one of the not too many, who has writing and explanatory powers to complement his command of formulae.
Slavisa Pajkic can turn his body into a conductor, an insulator, a heater or an accumulator of electricity, depending on what he wants to be. He has set a Guinness World Record by allowing enough electricity to pass through his body for 1 minute 37 seconds to heat water to boiling point (97 degrees Celsius).
Valede kataloog was an entertaining read. Not entertaining in any conventional sense of the word. It's just that reading the words, written by someone you have spent long evenings drinking tea with, have prayed and meditated together with, it is impossible not to hear him speak the words. Even morbid words take on a certain playful quality when you hear Tõnu's voice speaking them. Like he means them, and he doesn't.
How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read
Pierre Bayard
A psychoanalyst and a professor of French literature at the University of Paris, Bayard advances several types of non-reading and makes the case, that non-reading is far more common than reading and that in order to talk about a book there is no need of having read it. The latter third of the book proposes strategies for discussing books you haven't read.
Silmitsege hoolega järgmisi arve – 6, 9, 23, 89, 117, 289. Kas märkate midagi? Number 6 on pisike, tühi ja mõttetu. Number 9 seisab uhkelt kõrgustesse ulatudes. Arv 23 on oma naabritest kõvasti kogukam, samas kui 89 hõljub ringi langevate lumehelvestena. Arv 117 on kena ja sihvakas, kuid 289 ebameeldivalt inetu. Ei? Tõsi, mullegi tunduvad kõik need arvud ühesuurused, ühte värvi ning emotsioonitud. Kuid kui Daniel Tammet, eesti nimega inglane ning maailma enim uuritud ajuga mees, neid arve vaatab, siis näeb ja tunneb ta neid sõna-sõnalt ülalkirjeldatud viisil.
