Oscar Peterson - "Body and Soul"

Boosted

Right on the Winter solstice I got my Pfizer booster shot. Here I am back in my office. Below, an eerie image from Ada, the night before.

Brains as prediction machines - Quanta Magazine

To Be Energy-Efficient, Brains Predict Their Perceptions

QUANTA MAGAZINE - November 15

`Results from neural networks support the idea that brains are “prediction machines” — and that they work that way to conserve energy.'

Epitome of cool - Ringo Starr at 81 - Rock Around The Clock

One more week of school - fall 2021

 

3 români

Wildlife in Ada, Ohio

Picture taken on November 6, 2021

© Mihai Caragiu

Not Fade Away - Grateful Dead / Buddy Holly cover

Mary Reichelderfer Chair 2021-2022: my diploma

 

Dōgen Zenji (1200 - 1253) Soto Zen

 

'

Dōgen Zenji (1200 - 1253) was a Japanese Buddhist priest, writer, poet, philosopher, and founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan. 

Originally ordained as a monk in the Tendai School in Kyoto, he was ultimately dissatisfied with its teaching and traveled to China to seek out what he believed to be a more authentic Buddhism. Upon his return to Japan, he began promoting the practice of zazen (sitting meditation) through literary works. He eventually left Kyoto for the mountainous countryside where he founded the monastery Eihei-ji, which remains the head temple of the Sōtō school today. 

Art - Zen Circle by John Rossi 
Music: Zen Shakuhachi - Kyotaku 
Daylight - Shakuhachi, Hang and Gongs

 

"Sitting is the gateway of truth to total liberation" ~Dogen Zenji 

Tot Zbor (IRIS)

IRIS - Tot zbor (Vol.2 - 1987)

 

 

Outstanding reporting from Romania (RECORDER): "The Great White Clan"

From the RECORDER investigative journalist:

"after 8 months of undercover investigation I discovered a secret network in which businessmen, politicians and prelates from the top of the Church work hand in hand in a mega-business: the construction and rehabilitation of churches with public money. All this network operates with the blessing of the most powerful person in the Romanian Orthodox Church, whom his people call the Great White"

Somewhere in Bluffton Nature Preserve...

A paradise of insects...  

September 19, 2021

© Mihai Caragiu

Fixing the trouble with phenomenology

“Not finding one who observes, your view is exhausted. This is the beginning of your lucidly clear Awareness.” 

Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche)

Linkin Park / Jay-Z - Numb

Felix The Cat's Zen

 

My book - among the 100 Best Number Theory Books of All Time

Sequential Experiments with Primes made it to the 100 Best Number Theory Books of All Time @ https://bookauthority.org/books/best-number-theory-books. At least, an undergraduate math professor has been there! Thank you! :-)

 

"not everything that counts can be counted..."

`Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.'  ~William Bruce Cameron... that's an appropriate motto for this most interesting opinion piece, indeed food for thought from The Conversation:  

Our obsession with metrics is corrupting science

The final paragraph poses a good question and points out to the emergence of an opposition to the "h-index" hysteria, built on the idea that content is more important than metrics. As it should be!

"Does the h-index indicate anything other than a high citation rate, whatever that may mean otherwise? Ironically, science and hypothesis testing is needed. For example: do researchers with high h-indices contribute anything of more significance than those with lower ones? Internationally, opposition has taken the form of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). Institutions are urged to acknowledge that the scientific content of a paper is more important than publication metrics or the identity of the journal in which it was published. Content rather than metrics is what ought to count."

 

 

"SEQUENTIAL EXPERIMENTS WITH PRIMES" - past its 4th anniversary

 

My book Sequential Experiments with Primes got past its 4th anniversary (it was released on July 3, 2017). This is a news story from the local (Ada OH) newspaper "Ada Icon" on 8/28/2017

Chalkboard picture - to remember

Local problem group (ONU-SOLVE) working on a problem proposed by M. Tetiva (problem 12126, American Mathematical Monthly). That was a very nice evening!

© Mihai Caragiu

 

Memories: math summer camps for the gifted (SAHI at Ohio Northern, 2015)

 

 

Beautiful minds: gifted students participating in the 2015 ONU Summer Academic Honors Institute - Cryptography Camp

© Mihai Caragiu

 

Om si leustean

 

© Mihai Caragiu

Ograda minunata

Un fragment din ograda noii mele case (curtea are 1 hectar si jumatate).

© Mihai Caragiu

 

Dusty in memoriam

 

One year since Dusty passed away!

Until we meet again, my dear friend

© Mihai Caragiu

 

Being a professor from the heart

Written and Performed By: Arthur Benjamin, Mike Orrison, Francis Su, and Heather Zinn-Brooks 

Edited By: Ariel Benjamin 

Harvey Mudd College 

Consultation

Photo © Mihai Caragiu

 

Stirring the pot

 

$29.00 - Tom Waits

From the 1978 Blue Valentine album - 

Don Shewey of Rolling Stone found that Blue Valentine "is as solid a record as Waits has made", and that its best songs "rank high among the sentimental sagas that contain Tom Waits' strongest writing."

My 2021 teaching award

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© Mihai Caragiu

 

A human archaeology attempt - rediscovering my sister (4) on art and gender fluidity - Februarie 17, 2014

On February 17, 2014, commenting on Visconti's Ludwig, Carmen wrote on how...

• art and gender fluidity have potentiated the typical aesthetic fascination with gender transgression (trans-gender)
• the religious moral dogma of gender purity somewhat severed the spontaneity of artistic inspiration
• in art you can talk about anything, since in art everything is understood differently
• seriously ignorant on the mysteries of art, ideologue preachers caught in a moralizing mania put out diluted discourses about love, sex and marriage and place art in bed of Procrustes, demonizing gender fluidity on the grounds that the force of ambivalent suggestion can tempt man (yet the Gospel's spirit of implies that he who is not tempted will not live)
• as beauty gets closer to the ineffable essence of art, it gets accompanied by the phenomena of transgression seen as trans-gender horizon.
  

"Filmul Ludwig este o capodopera a lui Visconti si o mare reusita interpretativa a lui Helmut Berger, in rolul principal. Homosexualitatea lui Visconti si bisexualitatea lui Berger n-au nimic de-a face cu judecata de valoare artistica. In nici un caz nu o infirma. Dimpotriva, as zice, a potentat fascinatia tipic estetica a transgresiunii genurilor. Lectura biologica a transgresiunii poate potenta, dar nu este identica cu lectura suprabiologica a transgresiunii, tipic estetica. Mutatiile ,,tropice'', definitorii pentru figurile de stil, sunt un arhetip imaginar vag al mutatiei de gen sau al ambiguizarii genului. Crestinismul cu dogma sa morala a puritatii genurilor a cam retezat din temelii spontaneitatea inspiratiei artistice, asta-i sigur. Realitatea este ca in arta poti sa vorbesti despre orice, pentru ca aici totul se lasa inteles ALTFEL. Ideologia crestina grav ignoranta in ceea ce priveste misterele artei interzice acest lucru, pe motiv ca...FORTA SUGESTIEI AMBIVALENTE poate ispiti omul. Nimic mai penibil . Cine nu va fi ispitit nu va trai, afirma pe de alta parte Evanghelia. Cele mai diluate discursuri despre iubire, sex, casatorie le intilnim la prostii predicatori crestini, cei care schingiuiesc arta asezind-o in Patul lui Procust care e mania moralizatoare. Dezambiguizarea morala devenita un TIC MALADIV actioneaza aici ca o caracatita ucigasa ce a prins in tentaculele ei fiinta vie si fecunda a ambiguitatii estetice."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My "hattrick year" as a professor

When my student advisees won 3 awards (out of 36) at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in New Orleans

Carlos Santana - Blues for Salvador

Our Norwegian forest cat - a rare sighting

 © Mihai Caragiu

Our Norwegian forest cat - that's a rare sighting, about half a mile away from home, on a field, probably hunting some rodents...

Our entrance to the Math & Stat programs main office

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© Mihai Caragiu

Just before the pandemic lockdowns...

 

 

Yayoi Kusama: Fireflies on the Water - exhibition at Toledo Museum of Art (and me in the middle of it - March 15, 2020, just before the first pandemic lockdown orders in US were issued)...

 

Pi Day

Memories... 

Pi Day 2003

 

A human archaeology attempt - rediscovering my sister (3) Februarie 7, 2014

``Deci. Dl.Ravi ma provoaca la o discutie filozofica. De la ce porneste totul? De la faptul ca un mutual friend, nu importa numele, o persoana cu talente si cu o inteligenta deosebite, a indraznit sa critice sistematic matrapazlicurile clericilor, cunoscute de toata lumea. Aceeasi persoana, probabil exasperata de atitudinea fariseilor noi, a comis un gest retoric si si-a autoaplicat eticheta de antiteist.Altfel spus, a calcat cu stingul apasat si ce-i drept,a facut sa sara citiva stropi pe cei ce s-au nimerit sa-i fie in preajma,indivizi cam simandicosi...Colegul meu Ravi stia bine ca prietenul nostru comun e o fiinta deschisa la minte,cu o viziune superioara asupra transcendentei, si ca aceasta eticheta pe care si-a pus-o singur e doar un consemn,o licenta de stil, un mod mai strident de a atrage atentia asupra deraparilor grave ale institutiei bisericesti. Bineinteles, antiteismul e in sine un termen nepotrivit, pentru ca nu Dumnezeu e de vina pentru scaderile oamenilor. El e VICTIMA, ca de obicei. Asadar, Ravi vine si il invoca pe Jaspers numai pentru a-l pune la punct pe amicul comun. Aduce in discutie ideea de dialog constructiv,elaborata de filozoful german. Acesta a spus,insa :Dialogul e ceva sacru. Nu se poate dialoga pe un substrat de ipocrizie. Apoi, acelasi Ravi trimite, in mod tendentios,spre ideea de transcendenta imbratisata de Jaspers. Uitind sa mentioneze, insa, ca Jaspers s-a pronuntat categoric impotriva ideii de conditionare a credintei de ritual. A fost impotriva bisericii ca institutie de localizare si garantare a transcendentei, cum insusi a spus. Adica, i s-a parut o nerozie sa afirme cineva ca daca nu mergi la biserica si nu te impartasesti nu te mintuiesti. Ar insemna, de aici, ca 99 la suta din oameni sa mearga in iad. De aceea am refuzat categoric orice dialog filozofic pe acest substrat aluziv si ipocrit. Multi dintre barbati vor sa-si manifeste superioritatea si puterea in orice conditii. Din nefericire pentru ei, mai exista si intuitia femeii...Gata.'' (7 Februarie 2014)

© Mihai Caragiu

LMV PLoiesti Clasa XII C 1982

A human archaeology attempt - rediscovering my sister (2)

On February 25, 2015, Carmen shared a link pertaining to another central (albeit, sadly, her best kept secret from the public for various reasons, on which I will elaborate later), interest of her - Indian Philosophy (after all her Thesis was basically at the interface between Esthetics and Indian thought).

A reader loved this particular passage:

'Shiva’s trishul represents the three fundamental aspects of life. These are the three fundamental dimensions of life that are symbolized in many ways. They can also be calledIda, Pingala and Sushumna. These are the three basic nadis – the left, the right and the central – in the pranamaya kosha, or the energy body of the human system. Nadis are pathways or channels of prana in the system. There are 72,000 nadis that spring from the three fundamental ones.

 

The Pingala and Ida represent the basic duality in the existence. It is this duality which we traditionally personify as Shiva and Shakti. You can simply call it masculine and feminine. When I say masculine and feminine, I am not talking in terms of sex – about being male or female – but in terms of certain qualities in nature. You could say the logical and the intuitive aspect of you.'

Further in discussion: "Fiziologia mistica indiana, fundamentul practicii yoga,dar si al tantrismului sivait."

Freedom

"Leave alone whatever arises in the mind. Do not seek to change or alter anything. It is all perfect as it stands" ~Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche (ཆོས་རྒྱལ་ནམ་མཁའི་ནོར་བུ་ 1938-2018)

That could make sense in retrospect, after the fact (of practicing meditation/mindfulness). The practice (sometimes easy, sometimes hard) is illuminated and made meaningful precisely in the evanescent moment of its dissolution, that is the moment when it suddenly evaporates itself in satori, refreshing the meaning of the term the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind (i.e. yoga as featured in Patanjali's Sutra). To leave (the mind) alone is hard (and easy). Real freedom is paradoxical, hard and easy.

Below: Tibetan letter "A", the symbol of body of light (rainbow body).

 

Enjoying a coffe

At Barnes and Noble (Maumee, OH), 1/30/2021

© Mihai Caragiu

Multiverse?

In the news:  

"Did Scientists Actually Spot Evidence Of Another Universe?" (see here, and a recent arXiv paper)

There is a problem with that view, what does "other" really means. Since there are traces of "others" that can be detected, this suggests at least a "scheme" of laws that applies to "this" and all the "others" as well. Like a moduli space? In which case there is only one (albeit "generalized" of sorts) Universe.

The two university swans

In their winter retreat barn

© Mihai Caragiu

Sunset

ONU campus (that's where I live for 20+ years): a beautiful sunset, on the Green Track.

© Mihai Caragiu