26 July 2010
25 July 2010
Mo' Mirro'
I'm just building up to my favorite of the bunch, promise.
By the way, some of these night shots are better viewed in a bigger size, which you can do by clicking on them (and zooming in, if so desired).
By the way, some of these night shots are better viewed in a bigger size, which you can do by clicking on them (and zooming in, if so desired).
Crime and Punishment, or Not
A friend of mine, who shall remain unnamed, recently had a brush in with the law, and it got me to thinking about the eye-for-an-eye principle that's at the heart of just about every criminal proceeding. In fact, it seems as though fines and incarcerations generally have two purposes, one of deterrence and the other of "due" punishment. Deterrence, perhaps, can be justified, albeit with a somewhat cynical view of human nature (ok, it's probably accurate). It is the idea of punishment as a necessary repercussion of wrongdoing that worries me, however. It seems evident that most people would agree that a criminal deserves to be punished, especially when the crime does serious damage to others. And my immediate reaction is the same - yeah, the murderer deserves his three lifetimes in jail - but when I think about it further I am stymied at what exactly may be the basis of that judgment. How is it that I can find it immoral (see next sentence for caveat) for a person to purposely ruin another's life, and yet agree to the same action as a punishment?
A philosophy professor in my last semester of college did a rather fine job of convincing me that free will - defined as that which gives people moral responsibility for their actions - does not exist, and so any punishment or praise is the equivalent of teaching a dog not to pee in the house or to roll over, respectively. While I'm still reeling from the implications of this idea (the subject of a subsequent post, I would venture), it does suggest that perhaps retribution is nothing but behavior correction and deterrence, a view against which, as I mentioned, I can raise fewer objections. As I'm woefully unversed in legal philosophy, I can only say that maybe Hammurabi's eye-for-an-eye system really was principally a method of keeping the peace through deterrence, but that still does not explain the deep-seeded intuition that a wrong-doer a priori deserves to be punished, and my more recent counter-intuition that this feeling is rather baseless. Although, in the end it still feels right to be happy when the purse-snatcher it pummeled by the helpless old lady, so I remain as conflicted as ever.
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In other news, I intend to have more posts such as this one along with all the photos, as I've been itching to write, partially for fear that I will have neither the time nor the assignments to do so when medical school rolls around, and partially because that is, after all, a stated purpose of this blog.
A philosophy professor in my last semester of college did a rather fine job of convincing me that free will - defined as that which gives people moral responsibility for their actions - does not exist, and so any punishment or praise is the equivalent of teaching a dog not to pee in the house or to roll over, respectively. While I'm still reeling from the implications of this idea (the subject of a subsequent post, I would venture), it does suggest that perhaps retribution is nothing but behavior correction and deterrence, a view against which, as I mentioned, I can raise fewer objections. As I'm woefully unversed in legal philosophy, I can only say that maybe Hammurabi's eye-for-an-eye system really was principally a method of keeping the peace through deterrence, but that still does not explain the deep-seeded intuition that a wrong-doer a priori deserves to be punished, and my more recent counter-intuition that this feeling is rather baseless. Although, in the end it still feels right to be happy when the purse-snatcher it pummeled by the helpless old lady, so I remain as conflicted as ever.
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In other news, I intend to have more posts such as this one along with all the photos, as I've been itching to write, partially for fear that I will have neither the time nor the assignments to do so when medical school rolls around, and partially because that is, after all, a stated purpose of this blog.
24 July 2010
23 July 2010
21 July 2010
19 July 2010
Mr. Clam
An incredibly friendly and good-hearted man. I post the second one only because the first makes him look much more annoyed than he actually is.
18 July 2010
17 July 2010
What's This Now?
Thus begins the series of photos from Grace Presbyterian Village, a retirement community in Dallas.
16 July 2010
14 July 2010
13 July 2010
12 July 2010
10 July 2010
08 July 2010
05 July 2010
28 June 2010
27 June 2010
25 June 2010
23 June 2010
21 June 2010
18 June 2010
15 June 2010
10 June 2010
Leaves at Dusk
It was darker than it seems here, which is why the colors look so saturated and unreal.
09 June 2010
08 June 2010
07 June 2010
05 June 2010
03 June 2010
02 June 2010
Howlin' at the Moon
By the time I got to where I could take this photo, the moon had gotten much less bright. But, better than nothing, anyway.
01 June 2010
31 May 2010
30 May 2010
29 May 2010
Wired
Ever since I stumbled upon Dan McCarthy's art I've been obsessed with photographing power lines (and I would do the same for underground dinosaur skeletons if I could, believe me). He really has become one of my favorites.
27 May 2010
Warhol Windows
It appears that the lofty goal of "one photo a day" has not come to fruition, but I must say that graduating from college, followed by image hosting troubles, can put a hex in even the best spur-of-the-moment daily-update plan. Here we go, anyhow:
I've been waiting for my Nikon d90 for over a year now, and since the whole family pitched in to buy it for me as a graduation gift, I can finally post more recent photos. So here is Chuy's, on Knox in Dallas:
It is almost always the case that windows in repeating arrangements are photographic gold, and this is especially true with a little Warhol magic thrown in.
I've been waiting for my Nikon d90 for over a year now, and since the whole family pitched in to buy it for me as a graduation gift, I can finally post more recent photos. So here is Chuy's, on Knox in Dallas:
It is almost always the case that windows in repeating arrangements are photographic gold, and this is especially true with a little Warhol magic thrown in.
03 May 2010
26 April 2010
State Theatre
View of State Theatre in Austin, before the Roky Erickson/Okkervil River extravaganza.
22 April 2010
21 April 2010
15 April 2010
14 April 2010
11 April 2010
SMU Flagpole
I've always liked the way flags look with the sky as background. Or at night, in this case, since SMU lighting can be pretty nice.
7 July 2009.
10 April 2010
08 April 2010
07 April 2010
2503?
Copenhagen, in front of one of the parliament building I believe. To this day I have no idea what they're doing there. 2503, though!
28 March 2010
20 March 2010
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