Arthur Schopenhauer's Principle of Sufficient Reason

• June 1, 2005
• James Skemp

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The Man Born on the Day of God's Rest - Marciello Punto, Domingo

• May 19, 2005
• James Skemp

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Is Volunteering Equal to Donating, and Vice Versa?

• May 6, 2005
• James Skemp

While reading a past news item regarding the Young Lawyers Division of the State Bar of Wisconsin, I asked myself if donating was equal to volunteering. The Young Lawyers Division (YLD) collects business clothing from lawyers to give to lawyers who cannot afford business clothing. If lawyer X donates clothing to the YLD, is lawyer X volunteering? To get to the answer to this question, I have to proof that volunteering implies, or suggests, donating, and that donating implies volunteering. If either is not the case, or if both are not the case, then volunteering is not the same as donating.

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Can we blame hosts for their poor HTML editors?

• April 30, 2005
• James Skemp

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Nasty, Murderous, Clowns -or- Why children should never cross the street alone, and/or without looking both ways twice

• April 28, 2005
• James Skemp

On a cold sunny day in March, little Billy Ann and little Bobby Jo happened upon a street. Billy Ann and Bobby Jo had happened upon this street before, but never on a Sunday, and never when alone. Of course, they had each other, and that is truly what usually matters. Yet our story does not end like this, for Billy Ann and Bobby Jo were about to cross the line and be the little naughty children that every child dreads that they will one day become.

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On the Saying 'Is it better to live a lie, or know the truth and cry?'

• April 27, 2005
• James Skemp

Back on the second of February 2002, I first, as far as I can recall or prove, wrote down the question “Is it better to live a lie, or know the truth and cry?” The item that this was written in was an item called Guide to One Philosophy of Life: Revision 1, and consisted of twelve pages of material from January 30, 2002 to September 29, 2002. While I kept saying that I was going to get back to it and revise it, I never did.

A recent item on a LiveJournal journal, along with something I had read earlier in the day on the same area, reminded me of this quote that I had written so long ago. After some searching, I found it in the item mentioned above.

My task here is to discuss this question that I have raised. Of course, it being April 27 2005, I should point out that I do not have an answer to this question as of yet. Perhaps that suggests that I am doing more of the former than the latter, or perhaps it is because the latter has gotten me no closer to the answer of this question.

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Raymond Smullyan's Knight and Knave Word Problem

• April 24, 2005
• James Skemp

According to David Gries (via his site), logician Raymond Smullyan stated the following word problem in one of his many books, which regards lying knaves and truthful knights.

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Natalie Portman

• April 5, 2005
• James Skemp

Is it your brown hair
that makes me need more air?

Is your tense face
the reason I'm lost in space?

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What can the birth places of the United States Presidents tell us?

• March 15, 2005
• James Skemp

There is an old saying that says something to the effect of “if you try hard enough, you can become anything, even president” (the President of the United States is usually implied, but the general idea is the ruler of a country/government). I was thinking one day that there must be certain states in which certain individuals have little chance of actually becoming President of the United States, so I undertook to find out what states Presidents have come from, and look at what states Presidents have not come from.

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Fractal Explorer: Creating Your Own Fractals

• March 6, 2005
• James Skemp

Learning a program can be quite fun and rewarding, but can also be somewhat disarming. While there were a number of guides on the Internet that discussed Fractal Explorer, I felt that none of them did any great service to this great program. So, I set out to create my own guide, in a format that did not force a user to view only a small amount of information at a time.

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