Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Cosmological fragments:

1. The ancient astronomer Hipparchus compiled a sky catalog which has never been seen.

Recently, however, it was discovered that the Universe of Hipparchus has been in front of us all along. A statue known as The Famese Atlas which sits in a museum in Naples, has held it in its arms.

2. I've always liked this short poem that the Mexican poet Octavio Paz wrote as a homage to Claudius Ptolemy:

I am a man: little do I last
and the night is enormous.
But I look up:
the stars write.
Unknowing I understand:
I too am written,
and at this very moment
someone spells me out.

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