Beauty

Why is nature so beautiful? or Why do I appreciate it so much.. much more than anything else?

I took this picture in July'09 in Changi airport (Singapore).

History

There is something visceral about learning history. Whenever I visit old forts or dilapidated structures and relate them to the things I learnt from history, I get strange sense of satisfaction.

Here are two quotes about history:

History is the study of dead people- Jill Lepore

We learn from history that we don't learn from history- G.W.F. Hegel

Imagination vs Information

I had trouble grappling Einstein's famous quote "Imagination is more important than information". I used to think that information (or truth) is the only thing we can really hold onto while imagination is just an artifact of our limited brains.

After thinking little bit more, it was clear that information too is an artifact of the brain and not as solid as I would like. In fact, information is almost always corrupted by noise while imagination has the potential to be pure.

The experimental set-ups, measurements, data that make up the information are all constrained by the world around us while imagination is, in a way, limitless. In fact, the prefrontal cortex is what makes us more "able" than other species.. isn't it?

Olema, Fall colors

I took this picture in October'08.

Ain't no grave can hold my body down