Another Google Fail

I am no longer able to post images.  The image upload tool have been broken for some time.  For a short time, I was able to use the old interface to upload images successfully.  After they retired the old interface completely, I was able to post images indirectly through Picasaweb.  Not the Google Plus Photos tool, which seems inferior in every way to Picasa.  (You can use the 'noredirect=1' flag when accessing Picasaweb to not get redirected to Google Plus.)  Even though it was a bit cumbersome if I had to post several images, I could make it work.  They must have changed something in the Blogger API, though, and failed to update Picasa, because I can no longer post images that way.  I'm not sure what else to do and may have to switch blogger platform.

Grook for Today

Piet Hein is famous for his Grooks. Here is a timeless grook pertinent to me these days.

T. T. T.

Put up in a place
where it's easy to see
the cryptic admonishment
T. T. T.

When you feel how depressingly
slowly you climb,
it's well to remember that
Things Take Time.

China Pictures and Great Pop

I want to write more about China, but in the meantime, I put a Picasaweb album together with about a dozen select China pictures for your enjoyment.

Magnificent China

As a bonus, I want to share a link to David Brin's essay on Tolkien: Enemy of Progress. Tolkien's seminal work, Lord of the Rings, is one of my favorite books of all time. I hold The Enlightenment to be the foundation of modern progress, freedom and prosperity. Thus, I enjoyed Brin's juxtaposition of the two. Plus, having your most cherished works and authors subjected to sage critique is a healthy excercise.

In general, there is a lot of Great Pop out there. A lot of junk, but many gems as well. I have found that I enjoy blogging, so when I am not traveling, I will point to more good stuff. I created a "Great Pop" tag for that purpose. I hope you enjoy.

Sweet Boulder Creek

I am back in Boulder Creek, where the sun is shining and the flowers are blooming. I hope to post some more pictures and comments on the Asia trip, in between catching up, so stay tuned.

Blocked Equals Gagged

I am back in censorship land. Right now, all Google blogs are blocked, and posting is hard. I am using vtunnel to post these few lines, but it is a little dicy and I cannot post pictures. Email has also been slow and inconsistent.

Once I'll be able to post normally again, things will be out of order, or at least out of chronology. I will do my best to get back to the regularly scheduled program.

Length of Posts

My aim is to keep blog entries short.

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Atomism Underrated

The classical Atomists are known for accurately describing chemical processes over two thousand years before empirical evidence corroborated their account. Given their limited starting point, this accomplishment is impressive.

There is something else, and more important, that distinguishes the Atomists from their contemporary philosophers. Their approach anticipated much of what we now know about science and knowledge. They were content with describing mechanical processes, instead of pursuing teleological dead-ends.

Bertrand Russell writes:

"[...] experience has shown that the mechanistic question leads to scientific knowledge, while the teleological question does not. The atomists asked the mechanistic question, and gave a mechanistic answer. Their successors, until the Renaissance, were more interested in the teleological question, and thus led science up a blind alley."

The curse of teleology is not confined to the natural sciences. In the social sciences, the undying quest for a desired result, without a full understanding of the processes and structures involved, has led to much disaster.

I named my blog after the Atomists, partly in honor of these insights -- and also because the mirthful Democritus was known as the laughing philosopher.