Bertrand Russell shows deep understanding of Epicuranism and Epicurus as a philosopher in his “History of Western Philosophy”.

Yet in “The Conquest of Happiness” – a wonderful litlle book of Epicurean inspiration – he ignores Epicurus almost totally. (He does NOT disparage him, though, as Epicurus did Nausiphanes.)

Does anybody have a clue why the basically Epicurean Russell ignored Epicurus in this work?

This is the question I have just ported on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=14290&uid=86711477873#!/topic.php?uid=86711477873&topic=14290

My aunt sent us from Melbourne a clock that has the shape of Australia. My daughter was very happy because she could tell me the time without having to refer to boring digits: “it’s long Darwin short Sydney”

I must admit that it took me some time (and a walk to the map) until I grasped the deeper meaning of this announcement. (Yes, it was 5 p.m.)

He thought I would prize the scientific benefits of his addiction, and I almost did.  But then I remembered that I am his homeschooling teacher so I gave him the assignment to write a report on raccoons and how to keep them out of garbage cans.

Who are the winners – excepting the cardio-vascular and the watch-maker industries?

 http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,596705,00.html#ref=rss

PIED PIPER PROPOSAL

Berlin’s Poor Should Catch Rats, Says Politician

A Berlin politician has come under fire for suggesting that poor people should be encouraged to catch rats by offering them €1 per dead rodent. The intriguing idea entails some gnawing practical problems and has been called “inhuman and cynical”.

Picture the scene — hundreds of poor people armed with clubs chasing rats through the streets of Berlin.

There’s something Dickensian about the notion, but it has been proposed by a Berlin politician who is now being criticized for suggesting that the city’s poor should be enlisted to tackle the growing rat infestation in the center of the German capital.

———–

The proposition could be made Swiftian by requiring the poor not only to catch and kill the rodents but to cook and eat them as well. This version would have considerable

• economic effects: the food needs requirements of the poor would go down dramatically, saving the city council millions of euros
• ecologic effects: recycling of the rodents would shorten the food chain and lower the energy costs necessary for finding, transporting and preparing non-rodent food
• stress-FREEDOM effects: the rodent hunters and eaters would not have to worry about their next meal

For the above reasons we support the politician’s sagaciously modest  proposal and hope that other politicians and CEOs (especially of banks) will follow our advice in adopting the extended version.

It has taken two months and a half for the American politicians to realize that the Georgian politicians are no exception:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,578273,00.html

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,579013,00.html

 My suggestions for making the German Autobahn safer and stress-FREE are:

1. Germany should adopt finally a speed limit – like every other single state. In order to preserve the spirit of adventure the limit should be fixed at

• 200 km/h (124 mph)for cars and
• 100 km/h (62 mph) for skateboarders.

 2. The traffic should change from the right to the left side of the roads. This transitions should be made gradually:

• first the heavy trucks
• then the skateboarders
• at last the rest

 2,500 red haired people attended the Redhead Day in Breda, the Netherlands, on Sept. 7, 2008 The festival gathers natural redheads and their “non-redhaired partners, children and admirers” every year:.http://www.roodharigen.nl/ . The American http://realmofredheads.com/ counts almost  3000 members.

I wonder when will the stress-FREEDOM adepts be willing to come out of their Epicurean closets. After 800 years of flourishing (roughly from 300 BCE till 500 CE) they were forced to go underground, their clear ideas were partly stolen, distorted and ridiculed, and congruent practice of simple life forgotten.  

In the last 30 years there is a rising consciousness of sustainability issues and people might just discover that Epicurean simplicity might be the medicine for lots of physical and mental diseases caused by stress. Communication specialists will have to deliver the message backed by scientific research so that more and more people can realize that Epicurean simplicity can guarantee not only happiness for its practitioners but also sustainability for the globe.

Being a friend of wisdom – a practicing philosopher and active supporter of global sustainability – might just become presentable and even acceptable so that the seekers of stress-FREEDOM for themselves and for our planet can come out and come together!

As a starter, we might paint our hair green and organize a festival every year!

• no nagging questions about your whereabouts
• no nagging questions about the whereabouts of your money
• no instructions about taking out the garbage or the dog
• no instructions about what to put on and what not to put on
• no recaps of your sins
•  … you may continue this list according to your personal experience of cohabitation

All you have to do is to get your room-mate to steal something and while she is doing the job you call the police. The results can be really rewarding.

Do you doubt the efficacy of this method?

I haven’t invented it: It has been tested and found true – in real life! (see excerpt and link below)

After you try it out, please let me know the results.

Here is the proof of this method:

JAILED MATE

Man Leaves Girlfriend Behind Bars to Save Money

A frugal man has declined an invitation from police to pay a €225 ($320) fine that would get his girlfriend out of jail. The woman is serving a 15-day sentence for fraud.

A man has opted to let his live-in girlfriend stay in jail rather than pay a €225 ($320) fine that would spare her from serving a 15-day sentence after she was caught stealing a bottle of shampoo, police said on Monday.

[...]

“On Saturday morning a police officer telephoned her partner and asked if he could come and pay the fine. But he didn’t feel like coming to the police station,” police said in a statement.

The man still hadn’t shown up on Monday, police said, noting that he may have been influenced by the fact that the fine falls by €15 for each day spent in jail. “One has to make savings wherever one can these days,” police said.

You can read the whole story here: http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,576967,00.html

For physical orientation we can use a simple bovine compass orientated on the North-South axis:

BOVINE INTUITION - Cows Demonstrate Mysterious Inner Compass

Red deer and cows orient themselves on a North-South axis, showing a previously undocumented feel for points of the compass. German scientists discovered the strange alignment by analyzing Google Earth images of 308 pastures.

 http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,574482,00.html

 I have always felt that there was something human about cows. Now, why is the term “bovine” mostly used disparagingly e.g. by Nietzsche?