Language Game

The Logical Mystic

Peter Salmon | New Humanist | 7th February 2022

Notes on the centenary of Wittgenstein's Tractatus, drafted on the battlefields of World War One and completed in a prison camp where Wittgenstein acquired a faith in God. Bertrand Russell said of him: “He has penetrated deep into mystical ways of thought and feeling, but I think (though he wouldn’t agree) that what he likes best in mysticism is its power to make him stop thinking” (2,600 words)

The Roaring Game

Laurie Winkless | North & South | 1st September 2021

A New Zealand physicist investigates the finer points of curling. How does the curler set the trajectory of the stone across the ice? What's with all those brooms? The interaction of stone and ice is still a matter of scientific disagreement. Some argue for a “pivot-slide model” in which the texture of the stone dominates; others for “scratch-guiding”, in which the texture of the ice is crucial (3,900 words)

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Ecléctico Music Selection: The Black Square Quartet, a contemporary classical ensemble from Brisbane, Australia, performing composer Thomas Green's Five Quick-Tempered Dances.

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