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Pan's mantle, or clothing, is with great ingenuity made of a leopard's skin, because of the spots it has; for in like manner the heavens. are sprinkled with stars, the sea with islands, the earth with flowers, and almost each particular thing is variegated, or wears a mottled coat.

--- Francis Bacon, The Wisdom of the Ancients.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_the_Ancients/2#Chapter_VI

This would be a good illustration of the principle that a difference against a background is a precursor to data.

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Watch on YouTube

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Watch on YouTube

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Watch on YouTube

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This is a really neat example of a quotient.

Back into the future

Coronavirus quarantine in Philippines sounds so 16th century:

"It is getting worse. So once again I'm telling you the seriousness of the problem and that you must listen," Duterte said late on Wednesday (April 1). "My orders to the police and military ... if there is trouble and there's an occasion that they fight back and your lives are in danger, shoot them dead."

"Is that understood? Dead. Instead of causing trouble, I will bury you," he warned.

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/shoot-them-dead-duterte-says-he-wont-tolerate-violators-of-lockdown-against-coronavirus

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I get a completely different level of comprehension of a philosophical work, depending on whether I listen to it or read it myself. That is, listening to somebody else read the text aloud and, more importantly, slowly helps me understand the meaning of words and sentences as they convey concepts and thoughts. Maybe this is because I myself can't unlearn speed reading techniques that are extremely useful in skimming most modern books, but are quite harmful to the process of extracting high density ideas from a philosophical text written centuries or decades ago. The classical university lecture format, where the professor reads from the book in front of their students, was designed for teaching philosophy. It's old, slow and deliberate. And it seems to be the right way to do it.

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7 And the LORD said: 'I have surely seen the affliction of My people that are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their pains;

8 and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey;

Exodus: 7-8.

Deliverance is not a matter of hope. Rather, it's a matter of faith.