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Every year of this blog’s existence, I wrote a 10 October post, marking the day’s significance for me. Today we added to its significance. This post marks the day, let’s leave it in silence – we can talk more tomorrow.

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Grim, a question you might have come across before: Would you rather lose a loved one in a sudden unexpected accident, or through a long-running terminal disease? Unlike a philosopher’s dilemma, this is not a quandary that one considers in order to develop some understanding of ethical or moral considerations. Personally I think it is [...]

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A 2009 article on The Guardian presents arguments against saving the panda as well as arguments in favour: TV naturalist Chris Packham said pandas might not be worth saving. Mark Wright from the World Wide Fund for Nature is one of the many who disagree. What do you think? Read the whole article: Should pandas [...]

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Today was Pluralism Sunday. Initiated by the Center for Progressive Christianity, Pluralism Sunday is an interfaith effort celebrating religious pluralism, a term used to describe the acceptance of all religious paths and promoting their coexistence (some words borrowed from wikipedia as usual). A part of the first paragraph from the Pluralism Sunday website: On the [...]

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Two weekends ago I went to see The Adjustment Bureau, starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt. To be honest, I found it rather too fantastical. Not the sci-fi aspect mind you, the love story! I am not a big fan of the stereotypical love story, as they usually seem very far removed from reality to [...]

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This blog hasn’t touched on racism much, if I recall correctly. Given that I was pointed at an Academy Award winning short film from 1993 (won Best Short Subject in 1994) on the topic of racism in Germany, I thought I’d share it. The German title, “Schwarzfahrer”, means either “fare-dodger” or “black traveler”: A penny [...]

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Nick Kristof’s Sunday column, When Donations Go Astray, is entirely on the topic I started with my previous post. He warns about inefficient charities, for some only 21% of your donation actually reaches the needy. (For convenience, click through to it via a Google search. Go read the column.) In particular Nick warns religious givers, [...]

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2010. I’ve decided this is the year I start giving — my charitable contributions until now have not been significant. There were a couple of things encouraging me lately, I must confess the thing that finally pushed me over the threshold was a silly little tax thing, i.e. selfishly motivated. The tax form I had [...]

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Brandon of the blog named Siris wrote a post on Immanuel Kant’s guide to a good dinner party. On Kant’s view dining alone is bad for a philosopher: it encourages ‘intellectual self-gnawing’ that leads to a lack of vitality. Eating with at least one other companion, on the other hand, allows for a good interchange [...]

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I will always remember going for runs with my father. I don’t remember how often we did that, it was simply one of those activities you do, as a human, to take good care of yourself. Consequently I didn’t think of myself as a runner — I was actually in the process of becoming a [...]

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