Sunday 12 April 2020

Physics - Oxford World's Classics Aristotle, Robin Waterfield, David Bostock Paperback (08 May 2008) | English


 "[...] there are two senses in which length and time [...] are called ‘infinite’: they are called so either in respect of divisibility or in respect of their extremities. [...] So while a thing in a finite time cannot come in contact with things quantitatively infinite, it can come in contact with things infinite in respect of divisibility: [...]."

"Hence Zeno’s argument makes a false assumption in asserting that it is impossible for a thing [...] to come in contact with infinite things in a finite time." 

"[...] to the question whether it is possible to pass through an infinite number of units either of time or of distance we must reply that in a sense it is and in a sense it is not. If the units are actual, it is not possible: if they are potential, it is possible. [...] for though it is an accidental characteristic of the distance to be an infinite number of half-distances, this is not its real and essential character."

Sunday 20 October 2019

Siddhartha - Modern Classics Hermann Hesse, Hilda Rosner |Reprint Paperback (07 Aug 2008) | English


 Siddhartha smiled silently, quietly, and softly. It was perhaps benevolent, perhaps mocking, and was precisely like the exalted one used to smile.

Friday 16 August 2019

The Box How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger Marc Levinson (author) Second Edition Paperback (22 Apr 2016) | English


 "Containerization cannot be considered just another means of transportation,” Besson told Congress in 1970. “The full benefits of containerization can only be derived from logistic systems designed with full use of containers in mind.” [...] These possibilities first drew notice in the early 1980s, when the world discovered just-in-time manufacturing.

[...] Containerization did not create geographical disadvantage, but it has arguably made it a more serious problem. [...] In 2004, the World Bank estimated that if Peru were as effective at port management as Australia, that alone would increase its foreign trade by one-quarter. The Peruvian government took that warning seriously, arranging $2 billion in port investments over the ensuing decade, which made possible a very large increase in foreign trade.

[...] The total capacity of pure containerships more than doubled between 2005 and 2015, [...] And ships themselves reached unprecedented size. In 2005, a ship able to carry 4,000 40-foot containers—8,000 TEUs—was considered unusually large. Ten years later, ships of 20,000 TEUs had joined the world’s fleet, ships so large that a single one could carry 144 million bottles of wine. Even larger ones were on order.

Friday 12 July 2019

The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway Paperback (17 Oct 2006)


 The bull who killed Vicente Gironés was named Bocanegra, was Number 118 of the bull-breeding establishment of Sanchez Taberno, and was killed by Pedro Romero as the third bull of that same afternoon. His ear was cut by popular acclamation and given to Pedro Romero, who, in turn, gave it to Brett, who wrapped it in a handkerchief belonging to myself, and left both ear and handkerchief, along with a number of Muratti cigarettestubs, shoved far back in the drawer of the bed-table that stood beside her bed in the Hotel Montoya, in Pamplona.

Wednesday 26 June 2019

A Brief History of Time From the Big Bang to Black Holes Stephen Hawking New Edition Paperback (18 Aug 2011) | English

 

According to some accounts, a journalist told Eddington in the early 1920s that he had heard there were only three people in the world who understood general relativity. Eddington paused, then replied, ‘I am trying to think who the third person is.’

[...] the laws of science do not distinguish between the forward and backward directions of time. However, there are at least three arrows of time that do distinguish the past from the future. They are the thermodynamic arrow, the direction of time in which disorder increases; the psychological arrow, the direction of time in which we remember the past and not the future; and the cosmological arrow, the direction of time in which the universe expands rather than contracts. [...] And the reason we observe this thermodynamic arrow to agree with the cosmological arrow is that intelligent beings can exist only in the expanding phase.

Up to now, most scientists have been too occupied with the development of new theories that describe what the universe is to ask the question why. On the other hand, the people whose business it is to ask why, the philosophers, have not been able to keep up with the advance of scientific theories. [...] However, if we do discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist.

Monday 10 June 2019

Animal Farm A Fairy Story - Penguin Modern Classics George Orwell (author) New edition Paperback (24 Feb 2000) | English

 

But a few days later Muriel, reading over the Seven Commandments to herself, noticed that there was yet another of them which the animals had remembered wrong. They had thought that the Fifth Commandment was ‘No animal shall drink alcohol’, but there were two words that they had forgotten. Actually the Commandment read: ‘No animal shall drink alcohol to excess.’

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