<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD><TITLE></TITLE> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content=text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1106" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY text=#000000 bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=jakub@att.net href="mailto:jakub@att.net">Jacob Conrad</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=lbo-talk@lbo-talk.org href="mailto:lbo-talk@lbo-talk.org">lbo-talk@lbo-talk.org</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><STRONG></STRONG> </DIV></FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>>Scored 92%--taken in by number 3.  To be fair, I recognized the Rothko and the Mondrian.  Pretty easy, I thought.  >That software-generated stuff?  Hey, my five-year-old could do better</FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>but you admit that you mistaken one of my pictures for true masterpiece of abstract art.  </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Therefore your five year old can do better than Rothko and Mondrian as well. This is quite possible.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>>Rule of thumb for non-philistines: <BR></DIV></FONT></FONT> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><FONT face=Arial size=2>well, you may be one indeed: not to sense irony in</FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>"True Masterpieces of Abstract Art, created by Immortal Artists. They carry profound meanings ..."</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>>anything that looks kind of like a screen saver is a fake.</FONT><BR></DIV></FONT> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Is this your criteria for true art: does not look like a screensaver?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> </DIV></FONT> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>best wishes,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Mikhail Simkin<BR>---<BR><A href="http://www.ee.ucla.edu/~simkin/">http://www.ee.ucla.edu/~simkin/</A></FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><B></B> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><BR>Michael Simkin wrote:<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE cite=midLaw14-OE27VBDcXfHcW0000a459@hotmail.com type="cite"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1106" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Are you a philistine?</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Take a quiz to find out:</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A href="http://www.ee.ucla.edu/%7Esimkin/true_art_or_fake_art.html"><FONT face=Arial size=2>http://www.ee.ucla.edu/~simkin/true_art_or_fake_art.html</FONT></A></FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>You will see a dozen of images.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Some of them  </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>are True Masterpieces of Abstract Art, created by Immortal Artists. They carry profound meanings, which are, however, beyond the apprehensions of the vulgar. The rest were produced by the author of the quiz using common software (like Microsoft Word). They mean nothing.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>You are asked to decide on each of the images. Afterwards the quiz is graded automatically.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Mikhail Simkin</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>