Sunday, September 08, 2002

On September 30 MIT will release first courses on the Internet as part of their OpenCourseWare initiative. [Krzysztof Kowalczyk's Weblog] 10:31:06 AM    trackback []     Articulate []

Knowledge as the most reliable foundation for generous behaviour. Groundhog Day.. I keep seeing the movie Groundhog Day. In reruns. Over and over. I can't help it. Every time I see it I learn something new. And I am changed by it. I hope to grow up enough to get out of this cycle. And figure out what that means. imdb. Plumbing the Depths of Groundhog Day. [aka life] [a klog apart] » I've always loved this movie and when I saw the IMDB link I wanted to go see what other people said about it.  I'm glad I did because I read this: "The other thing I noticed, while reflecting on this movie, is how uncertainty can keep us from charitable acts. We use our ignorance like a crutch: we don't give to charity because it may be a scam, we don't offer to help someone because they may not need help anyway, and so on. But Phil doesn't have the luxury of ignorance. He knows...he knows with absolute certainty that if he doesn't buy the old man a bowl of soup, that man will die in the streets within a few hours. He knows that if he isn't on hand at the right time, a boy will fall from a tree and break his neck. Faced with such knowledge, even Phil, self-absorbed as he is, cannot stand by idly. Nor could we, in his position. This is a powerful argument for knowledge as the most reliable foundation for generous behavior. What other movie can offer an insight half so profound?" [Curiouser and curiouser!] 8:22:26 AM    trackback []     Articulate []