b r a c k e t [ 1 6 ] b r a c k e t

b r a c k e t [ 1 6 ] b r a c k e t an eternal hot-pink braid by Paul Smedberg

a. Consciousness is identical with, or is located within, an anatomical structure.

b. That structure is the brain or, to be more precise, the brain’s two cerebral hemispheres.

c. Each hemisphere has now been shown to have its own specialized functions.

d. Therefore, the individual possesses two consciousnesses.

--Graham Reed

Three dreams from Jack Kerouac’s Book of Dreams.
“Just a collection of dreams that I scribbled after I woke up.”

1. Brue Moore and I are at 59th St Boys Jazz Club and we’re going down to the Bowery to light fires in alleys and he’ll play his tenor horn—but it’s sad October in the night—cold, lost—

2. There’s been a tower set up in the city to show where the atom bomb is going to be laid when time comes to blast the city – announcement has been made for next month, and evacuation begun – You see the city at night now, dark, under a dim moon, low lights everywhere from the diminishing and dimming population – I’m there on a sad tenement balcony planning my departure up the northern river to the right – All the Porto Ricans linger yet in the doom’d New York trying to salvage one last month of tasting the rich leftovers of a once-rich city – trying to eat up all their Manhattan Love, their Manhattanana, before they have to leave forever – I look at the tower in the moonlight, it looks so sinister, guarded, shrouded, to die—

3. Irwin Garden – somehow always a vague aura of murder around him – a Manhattan pad – a long talk – his finger up – I had gone to bed with the first clear vision & definite message of the necessity of my death – I’m walking on a bench among crowds, it doesn’t matter that the scowling stocky muscular man of 30 should die – one of two billion on the dead bilious world – with its burden of time, tedium – Woke up realizing sex is life – sex & art – that or die —

Book of Dreams
Buy the book from Amazon
Buy the book from Barnes & Noble
Jack Kerouac

Principles for the Development of a Complete Mind
1. Study the science of art.
2. Study the art of science.
3. Develop your senses – especially learn how to see.
4. Realise that everything connects to everything else.

--Leonardo da Vinci

	Some characteristics for describing altered mind states.
1.	Produces distress
	a. for society	drug abuse
	b. for the individual	phobias
	c. for both	mental illness
2.	Produces benefits
	a. for society	perfect performances
	b. for the individual	body awareness
	c. for both	creative flashes
3.	How induced
	a. spontaneously	revelation
	b. intentionally	drugs
	c. spontaneous after intentional effort	meditation
4.	Types of mind activities dissociated
	a. emotion and intellect from consensual reality	dreams
	b. emotion from intellect	out-of-the-body experiences
	c. intellect from will	hypnosis
	d. intellect from emotions and self-image, etc.	samadhi
5.	Emotionality
	a. emotion present	dreams
	b. emotion absent	out-of-the-body experiences

--Barbara B. Brown

The following is from Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought by Douglas Hofstadter and the Fluid Analogies Research Group, in a chapter co-authored by Robert French

What, indeed, is the Bloomington of California? Readers are encouraged to take a few moments to consider their own reactions to this particular question - not just what their final answer is, but what ideas (even if silly) come to mind along the way, and in what order. The puzzle is of course a specific question of the general form "What is the A of Y?" with A being a geographical entity such as a city or mountain range, and Y being a geographical region such as a state or country. Thus a shivering Siberian contemplating emigration to the Great Plains of the United States might worriedly inquire, "But what is the Ob of Nebraska?" Knowing, of course, that the Ob is the mighty river traversing Siberia, any red-blooded Nebraskan would proudly reply, "The Platte, of course!" Because of this classic example (Belpatto, 1890), such geographical analogy questions have traditionally been called "Ob-Platte puzzles", and we shall not disrespect that worthy tradition.

It is perhaps too ambitious to deal with the vast variety of types of geographical features, such as lakes, forests, glaciers, islands, cities, airports, national parks, and so on. Thus one further domain simplification seemed reasonable: the restriction, the variety of Ob-Platte puzzles remaining enormous, as the following sampler shows:

What is the Athens of Georgia?
What is the West Point of Maryland?
What is the Hobart of India?
What is the Colombo of Australia?
What is the Colombo of Greenland?
What is the Tijuana of Texas?
What is the Calexico of California?
What is the Calexico of Mexico?
What is the Mexicali of Mexico?
What is the Mexicali of Michigan?
What is the New York City of Connecticut?
What is the New York City of New York City?
What is the Newark of Delaware?
What is the Toronto of Uruguay?
What is the Honolulu of Oklahoma?
What is the Hollywood of Africa?
What is the Carmel of Indiana?
What is the Gettysburg of Hawaii?
What is the Kansas City of Missouri?
What is the Pittsburgh of the Midwest?
What is the Pittsburgh of the East?
What is the Vatican City of Indiana?

. . . Our answer to the last of these puzzles is perhaps worth discussing briefly. The tiny country of Vatican City, seat of world Catholicism, is completely surrounded by Rome, the capital of Italy. Its main edifice and only genuine attraction is Saint Peter's cathedral, a huge construction. People refer to "Roman Catholicism" even though the Holy See is, strictly speaking, "outside" of Rome. Analogously, the small town of Speedway, Indiana, site of the world-famous Indianapolis 500, is completely surrounded by Indianapolis, the capital of Indiana. Its main edifice and only genuine attraction is the Indianapolis Racetrack, a huge construction. People refer to "the Indianapolis 500" even though the great race is, strictly speaking, "outside" of Indianapolis. One could even look upon America's love affair with cars as the counterpart of Italy's relationship with Catholicism, though this might seem a bit forced. In any case, Speedway is a very strong, if somewhat obscure, answer to the puzzle.

Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies
Review in March, 1995 Byte
Buy the book from Amazon
Buy the book from Barnes & Noble
Douglas Hofstadter
Center for Research on Concepts and Cognition

“Once I sneeze my left knee whips up to my chest – two-thirds of the time. And, sometimes I sneeze 4, 5, 6 times in a row, and I’m dancing around on my right leg, often slamming into the wall with incredible unbalanced sneeze momentum. Once at Krogers I knocked over a big display of canned vegetables as I careened back and forth on aisle 7.”

Lego Haiku

17 block Lego constructions
While a haiku poem must have a reference to one of the four seasons, a lego haiku must point to one of the four basic Lego forms: building, being, machine, vehicle

Some other Lego Haiku.

Hey, artists! Make 'em yourselves and email me a jpg. -- or -- make 'em, glue 'em and give 'em as holiday gifts!!!

Lego Worlds

Liszt of Sins A collage of Franz List tunes: Hungarian Rapsody Nos. 2 & 13, Etude Transcendentale, and the Polonaise in E; originally realized by: Don Buczenski, Robert Finley, Z. Janosy, and M. Salvi. Here edited and oesterized. Just 3 minutes and 15 seconds!

For the unmodified Liszt works see: Liszt midi files.

[Bracket Bracket] is Paul Smedberg's irregular ezine. Earlier issues (and coming soon: later issues) may be dredged up in the [bracket bracket] archive -- and boy are they a treat!

You can subscribe to [bracket bracket] by typing your e-mail address in the box below. You will receive a surreal yet informative message whenever a new issue appears. This happens every few weeks or months or so. It would be in bad taste to sell or give your address to someone else. But, we won't do it anyway.