Excerpt from The Problem of the Puer Aeternus: As you know, Christ is the shepherd and we are the sheep. This is a paramount image in our religious tradition and one which has created something very destructive, namely, that because Christ is the shepherd and we are the sheep, we have been taught by the […]
Archives for January 2006
January 22, 2006
Birdsong
All I know she sang a little while Logistically, you couldn’t ask for a better day to move household stuff. Mid-30s, sunny, t-shirt and light jacket carrying boxes and bookcases and computer cables and cat hair. Clear crisp blue skies with bright yellow sunshine, where the stunning beauty of nature, or anything else, could make […]
January 20, 2006
Another Opportunity for Weird Fear: Toxoplasma gondii
Are brain parasites altering the personalities of three billion people? The Oxford scientists knew that humans can be hosts to Toxoplasma, too. People can become infected by its eggs by handling soil or kitty litter. For most people, the infection causes no harm. Only if a person’s immune system is weak does Toxoplasma grow uncontrollably. […]
January 19, 2006
Change vs. the Unresolved
I thrive on change. I count on change to create the new. I love the new. Puer aeternus, baby. I can even deal with “bad” change – because if you’re counting on change, it means the current badness won’t last long. But what slows me down is the unresolved. Not ambiguity, something with which I’m […]
January 18, 2006
Internet as Meme Machine
There are a few key websites to track if you want to find all the weird, unusual, cool, and bizarre links. Then people like me forward them to people who are not tracking the master-meta sites (as if I have time, heh). You can find pointers in my archive. In the meantime, check out these […]
January 17, 2006
You’re a Big Girl Now
Time is a jet plane, it moves too fast. Notio is going through a phase right now. I have a big project that’s taking a lot of time, I have a lot of small projects or obligations that are swamping my free time, there are a lot of life changes afoot, and relevant songs are […]
January 17, 2006
Path Finder and Web Inspector
We interrupt this stream of musical sub-texts to recommend some Mac power-user software. Path Finder 4 is a fantastic Finder replacement, providing a more intuitive and powerful file management and navigation application. For starters, tabs in the Finder window – how cool is that? If you want the gory details on what’s wrong with the […]
January 15, 2006
Days Between
How much we’ll never know. So the temperature dropped from 49 to 9 overnight, the rain turned to snow, and the skiers rejoiced. The hundreds of northbound SUVs placed their bets and lucked out. We got around a foot of the fluffy stuff here, beautifying the deep-rutted dirt road and reminding us that winter still […]
January 14, 2006
Looks Like Rain
Brave the storm to come. It’s January in northern New England, and it’s 49 degrees (F) and pouring rain outside. The dirt road is having a mini-mud season, and we have stuff to move tomorrow. I’ve heard of January thaw, but *come on!* Yesterday I was in Boston (indoors all day) and when I left […]
January 6, 2006
70 Years Ago Today
Terry Appleby, General Manager of the Hanover Co-op, of which I am proud to be the current board president, wrote: On January 6th, 1936, in the middle of the Great Depression, 17 families from Hanover, New Hampshire and Norwich, Vermont gathered to discuss the creation of a society of cooperation to meet their common needs. […]
January 6, 2006
Purpose of Therapy
Yesterday someone said, “The purpose of therapy is to turn mild anxiety into cold, hard, fear – so then you know what you’re dealing with.” Discuss.
January 5, 2006
Data Mining 101
Finding Subversives with Amazon Wishlists by Tom Owad. A little geeky, but worth reading to see how authorities might infer intentions. About six years ago, I used similar techniques to scrape auto sites on the web to find inventory on a new VW Golf TDI diesel (indigo blue, standard shift) within 500 miles of my […]
January 4, 2006
Crossing a Car with a Motorcycle
Volkswagen introduces the GX3 – the first new idea in cars or motorcycles in years, if not decades. A two-seater, three-wheeled “motorcycle” that drives like a high-performance car, and gets 46 mpg in the city. The photos are amazing. Seems to be designed for commuters. Not sure if you can get winter wheels for the […]