‘Living abroad facilitates treating life as a spectacle…’

That’s from the last novel I read, ‘The volcano lover’ by Susan Sontag. The volcano here is the Vesuvio, in Naples, not the Etna. By the way, the Etna is getting nasty…

--"It is useful to know something of the manners of different nations, that we may be enabled to form a more correct judgment regarding our own, and be prevented from thinking that everything contrary to our customs is ridiculous and irrational…On the other hand, when too much time is occupied in travelling, we become strangers to our native country."---
René Descartes (1596–1650). From ‘Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking the Truth in the Sciences’.

Back to Nijmegen! Last week I was first in S. Cruz, for a conference, then S. Francisco and finally in Boston, to meet my old friends. I didn’t have the chance to meet all of them, because I stayed there only for a couple of days.
Anyway, Doug, Edgar, Hide, Mike and Sasha, thanks so much for let me stay at 53 Brentwood, I just love that place and the people who live and lived there.

The sentence of the day is: Love is all we need.

P.S. Nijmegen is in The Netherlands.

it tells me one thing: that you should get the hell out of Belgium. Oh wait - are the girls dumb?

This tells you something about Belgian people:

Top joke in Belgium

Why do ducks have webbed feet?
To stamp out fires.
Why do elephants have flat feet?
To stamp out burning ducks.

‘And still today one seldom finds that people come to great things without they first go somewhat astray…’ Meister Eckhart.

So… we (myself and few friends I know) have a lot of potential to do great things, as we went astray for a long time! The trick is to live long enough, in order to be able to do great things after gone astray. And in this respect today we are pretty limited. In the old days, on the other hand, things were easier. You could go astray for a couple of hundred years and still have time to get your shit together and do great things.
In fact, we read in the Bible always things like: “When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he became the father of Jared. And after he became the father of Jared, Mahalalel lived 830 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Mahalalel lived 895 years, and then he died.”
If I’m lucky, I don’t have more than fifty years left !

About the Universe and being somewhere in the Universe. This is Meister Eckhart (1260-1340), one of the great Christian mystics. “He who is right in his feeling is right in any place and in any company, but if he is wrong, he finds nothing right wherever or with whom he may be.”

And now Meister Eckhart politically correct. “He or she who is right in his or her feeling is right in any place and in any company, but if he or she is wrong, he or she finds nothing right wherever or with whom he or she may be.” … doesn’t sound that good…

Marcus Aurelius never won the Nobel, but probably he knew about the Universe more than our Nobel Laureate Giacconi.

'The Universe is in love with making whatever has to be.' (Marcus Aurelius)

‘The universe is popping all over the place.’ Riccardo Giacconi, 1984.

Riccardo Giacconi just got the Nobel Prize in Physics "for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, which have led to the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources". In the ‘60s he discovered the first known x-ray source outside the solar system (by using X-ray telescopes launched on rockets).

...wow! Did you find it on eBay ?

.....wow! what a coincidence! in the foyer of my house in Somerville, I have a lifesize wooden sculpture of Maiko!

Maybe most of you don't know that here, in this little gem in the center of Europe where I live, and to be more precise in the lobby of the hospital where I work, there is a huge, huge wooden elephant. Huge, I mean just as big as real elephant. A Loxodonta Africana. I haven't understood why they put it there. I have asked around, they said that they liked it, so they put it in the lobby of the hospital. Elephant lovers. If you are an elephant lover, you should really really come and see this. By now I know Loxodonta pretty well, I can tell you everything about her. It's a little bit like the Pinocchio's story, however reversed.

among these photos, you can find a familiar face (maybe)

http://www.cmbi.kun.nl/~bettler/mirto/

Mike is funny, as always...

Most funny joke in US ( according http://www.laughlab.co.uk )

A man and a friend are playing golf one day at their local golf course. One of the guys is about to chip onto the green when he sees a long funeral procession on the road next to the course. He stops in mid-swing, takes off his golf cap, closes his eyes, and bows down in prayer. His friend says: “Wow, that is the most thoughtful and touching thing I have ever seen. You truly are a kind man.” The man then replies: “Yeah, well we were married 35 years.”

Neither can I. I have to work, I meant to say the 22nd.

And G, you'll be in Europe anyway.

Sorry, can't make it October 15th

I am thinking that I need to eat at Pho. How about October 15th?

Too bad you can't make it G. Anyone else? email me.

What?? My point was that with a TV they would have the option to do something else, the issue is not about birth control...
Anyway ….

Humor is serious stuff, check this out

http://www.degruyter.de/journals/humor/

http://www.uni-duesseldorf.de/WWW/MathNat/Ruch/humor.html

here's the joke which won the prize for best joke (in the world, ever, since Adam and Eve) :

A couple of New Jersey hunters are out in the woods when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn't seem to be breathing, his eyes are rolled back in his head. The other guy whips out his cell phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps to the operator: “My friend is dead! What can I do?” The operator, in a calm soothing voice says: “Just take it easy. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead.” There is a silence, then a shot is heard. The guy's voice comes back on the line. He says: “OK, NOW WHAT?"
http://www.laughlab.co.uk/winner.html

(edited by Michael Cutillo 10/5/02 6:55pm)

You could save more money if you just buy some condoms.

Again, again, again a first-time thing…. It’s the first time that we announce something like this on this web site… hope you are ready for this …. SUJATA IS PREGNANT AGAIN !!!! Yes, my friends Shaju and Sujata are expecting their second baby!
Years ago, at our parties, I would play the joke of saying that Sujata was pregnant, everybody would congratulate her, when it actually wasn’t true; well this time it’s true, congratulations. I’m going to buy them a television, or a radio or something like that, so in the long evenings they’ll have the option to do something else….

Again a first-time thing…. today the Dutch Queen came to inagurate the Institute where I work and… I found myself in the wrong place at the wrong moment, i.e. on the Queen’s way in a very narrow hallway (just enough for two people!). Everybody saw her coming, so they moved away … while I found myself still, face to face with her… the security people were a bit embarrassed and probably scared, about the fact that the Queen had to pass by me…