Edgar Degas, Self Portrait, 1863

"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you." ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

The opposite is probably also true; engaging with good, honest & smart people should make you a better person. So find and follow these people online.

The Smart List 2012: 50 people who will change the world.

Cowards die many times before their deaths,
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear,
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.

Nelson Mandela's favourite quote from Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

Computer Vision

There are open source computer algorithms which programmers can teach to recognise specific objects and shapes. Google have created an "artificial brain" which can teach itself how to recognise objects and shapes. With Google's Project Glass now a reality, how long before we have this?

Project Glass and the epic history of wearable computers.

"Therefore, for your sake, I think it wise you follow me: I will be your guide, leading you, from here, through an eternal place where you shall hear despairing cries and see those ancient souls in pain as they bewail their second death." ~ Dante

Gustav Klimt, Tod und Leben, 1915

And one by his protégé.

Egon Schiele, Girl with Green Pinafore

Dash Snow died 3 years ago today. 2007 New York Magazine profile. New York Times obituary. The infamous Polaroid gallery.

Chuck Close, Self Portrait, 1968

"One's destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things." ~ Henry Miller

"We're all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn't. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing." ~ Charles Bukowski

British Museum in Google Maps on Android.

You can see the Rem Koolhaas DNA in the work of Zaha Hadid.