…apparently, Discussing the Divine Comedy with Dante. [with Wikipedia Links & Mouse-over Tags]

It’s got 103 of the most interesting figures of history juxtaposed together, and in some cases, interacting with each other, in a timeless image. From Bill Gates to Plato, Bruce Lee to the Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II, Margaret Thatcher to Audrey Hepburn, Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein, Sigmund Freud to Jack Kevorkian, Albert Einstein to Che Guevara, Charles Darwin dressed as Noah, to Osama Bin Laden and the 72 Houris. Check it out!

Originally painted by three Chinese artists: Dai Dudu, Li Tiezi, and Zhang An, in 2006; oil on canvas.

The latest evolution of web searches and contextualizing structure (dubbed “web 3.0″) is about the relationships between the trillions of bit of data floating around on the ‘net. Fascinating stuff.

Here’s an interesting way to look up how the web is feeling: We Feel Fine

From their mission page:

Since August 2005, We Feel Fine has been harvesting human feelings from a large number of weblogs. Every few minutes, the system searches the world’s newly posted blog entries for occurrences of the phrases “I feel” and “I am feeling”. When it finds such a phrase, it records the full sentence, up to the period, and identifies the “feeling” expressed in that sentence (e.g. sad, happy, depressed, etc.). Because blogs are structured in largely standard ways, the age, gender, and geographical location of the author can often be extracted and saved along with the sentence, as can the local weather conditions at the time the sentence was written. All of this information is saved.

The result is a database of several million human feelings, increasing by 15,000 – 20,000 new feelings per day. Using a series of playful interfaces, the feelings can be searched and sorted across a number of demographic slices, offering responses to specific questions like: do Europeans feel sad more often than Americans? Do women feel fat more often than men? Does rainy weather affect how we feel? What are the most representative feelings of female New Yorkers in their 20s? What do people feel right now in Baghdad? What were people feeling on Valentine’s Day? Which are the happiest cities in the world? The saddest? And so on.

The interface to this data is a self-organizing particle system, where each particle represents a single feeling posted by a single individual. The particles’ properties – color, size, shape, opacity – indicate the nature of the feeling inside, and any particle can be clicked to reveal the full sentence or photograph it contains. The particles careen wildly around the screen until asked to self-organize along any number of axes, expressing various pictures of human emotion. We Feel Fine paints these pictures in six formal movements titled: Madness, Murmurs, Montage, Mobs, Metrics, and Mounds.

Fascinating stuff, actually. You just might get that addicting feeling using this search applet…

(yes I missed 1 day of the NaBloPoMo… sue me )

In the interest of embracing optimism, I decided to look up some quotes by famous and not-so-famous people that inspire me to approach life in a positive, light-hearted manner. Yes, I know, quotes are sometimes looked down upon, and quotes are not the only way to learn anything, the context matters more in most cases. But a good quote is like a good song, a small morsel of wisdom or wit that can inspire great things in the observer’s mind. Here are some juicy ones from my ever-growing collection:

“Snatching the eternal out of the desperately fleeting is the great magical trick of human existence.” ~Tennessee Williams

“When you perceive that an act done to another is done to yourself, you have understood the great truth.” ~Taoist saying

“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” ~Buddha

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.” ~Albert Einstein

“To the outside world we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other’s hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time.” ~Clara Ortega

“Nothing is so strong as gentleness, and nothing is so gentle as real strength.” ~Ralph Stockman

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” ~T. Roosevelt

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” ~Albert Einstein

“Genius is the ability to put into effect what is on your mind.” ~F. Scott Fitzgerald

“He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.” ~Voltaire

“True love stories never have endings.” ~Richard Bach

“Anyone can be passionate, but it takes real lovers to be silly.” ~Rose Franken

“What the world really needs is more love and less paper work.” ~Pearl Bailey

“To all of us the thought of heaven is dear–
Why not be sure of it and make it here?
No doubt there is a heaven yonder too,
But ’tis so far away–and you are near.”
~Omar Khayyam

“For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.” ~Lily Tomlin

I’ve decided I’m going to participate in the National Blog Posting Month exercise. It’s been a long time since I’ve posted on my blog, and I have missed it. I’ve been dealing with a very hectic schedule in my real life, between taking a full load of courses at the university, and working, and home life, social life etc., I’ve ignored my blog for too long. I get these email alerts for NaBloPoMo, an offshot of NaNoWriMo, and I always look at the monthly theme and think to myself, “oh that sounds interesting, I should write something about that.” Then I forget all about it till the next email alert. But this time, I’ll make it a point to stick to it.

“Look up” invokes three basic concepts in my mind:

1: Optimism.

As in, looking up at the bright side of life… trying to find ways to look at things from a positive perspective as much as possible. This is hard for those of us who pay attention to the news, to politics, and the state of affairs in many, I’d say most, parts of the world. But as a wonderful visiting Professor told our Equity Studies class recently, “the greatest challenge for those of us aware of the problems of the world, is to learn how to love the world.” This really is the greatest challenge and one I’m learning slowly how to handle. I will blog about some of the people and organizations that have inspired me and are motivating me in the world today. I’m not sure if optimism is something I really understand, on a bigger scale, but I will make a honest effort at it. More on this as the month progresses, I’m sure.

2: Searching.

As in, searching for/looking up information, or a person, or a resource, group, or anything else that isn’t readily or easily available. It could also mean searching for answers, or at least, better ways of articulating the questions. This month, I’ll blog about some uncanny, off-the-wall, and interesting bits of information that I find, and also about how to search for things on the internet.

3: The Sky.

Halley's Comet 1986

One of my earliest memories is of my dad taking us out near the airport to watch for Halley’s Comet as it came within viewing range from Earth in early 1986. He explained to me what a comet was, and that the next time this ancient one came around I’d be in my 80′s. It was a mind-blowing thing for a 7 year old to discover. It made me appreciate from a very early age, the expanse of space and time, and how insignificant we really are in this grand, beautiful universe. Since then, my love for astronomy and cosmology has only increased. Some of my blog posts this month will revolve around this enduring passion of mine.

So, if you’re reading this and you’d like to comment, please do so, and let me know what “Look up” means to you.

I’ve loved this song for a long time, just saw the video for the first time today. Amazing…

So many things to occupy time, so little time for them to occupy.

Here’s an interesting interview I came across with author Salman Rushdie

For the other geeks among us, you might find PC World’s list of the Top 50 Tech Visionaries inspiring.

Here, you can listen to an audio version of a Q&A between Stephen Colbert, Steve Carrell and Ann Hathaway (listen to the audio online by clicking on the link in the middle there).

Lastly, but definitely not leastly, here’s a tribute to the funniest guy who ever lived who died this past weekend, George Carlin. The world was funnier with ya, George, we’ll miss your sick, twisted, brilliant brain. Here he is, in his own words…

My dad forwarded me this pic that just says it all…

I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said “Stop! don’t do it!”

“Why shouldn’t I?” he said.

I said, “Well, there’s so much to live for!”

He said, “Like what?”

I said, “Well…are you religious or atheist?”

He said, “Religious.”

I said, “Me too! Are you Christian or Buddhist?”

He said, “Christian.”

I said, “Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?”

He said, “Protestant.”

I said, “Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?”

He said, “Baptist!”

I said,”Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?”

He said, “Baptist Church of God!”

I said, “Me too! Are you original Baptist Church of God, or are you reformed Baptist Church of God?”

He said,”Reformed Baptist Church of God!”

I said, “Me too! Are you reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1879, or reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?”

He said, “Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915!”

I said, “Die, heretic scum”, and pushed him off.

By Emo Phillips

I stumbled across this little brain candy in Wired.com’s archives.

One of my favourites:

TIME MACHINE REACHES FUTURE!!! … nobody there …
- Harry Harrison