We are the miracle of force and matter making itself over into imagination and will. Incredible. The Life Force experimenting with forms. You for one. Me for another. The Universe has shouted itself alive. We are one of the shouts.
Ray BradburyYour Weekend Dose of Wonderful
Flying Rhinos from Green Renaissance on...Read more“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
— Steve Jobs, 2005 Commencement, Stanford University
Goodbye, Steve Jobs
Read morePerhaps it’s my Internet Attention Disorder showing, but lately I despair of links that lead to The Atlantic. It would seem their essayists have little more to say than writers anywhere else, and yet they possess so many more words with which to say it.
In so many words…
— deCadmusRead more“I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air.”
— Nathaniel Hawthorne
It’s Autumn!
Happy Birthday, Jim Henson
On the event of what would have been his 75th birthday I had intended to write a tribute to Jim Henson and the profound and imaginative contributions he’s made in places you know, and places you might never suspect… and then I found this piece by Bridget...Read moreI have reached the conviction that the abolition of the death penalty is desirable. Reasons: 1) Irreparability in the event of an error of justice, 2) Detrimental moral influence of the execution procedure on those who, whether directly or indirectly, have to do with the procedure.
— Albert Einstein
Let’s please abolish our barbaric death penalty.
It’s Science!
I find this news — a waypoint in the progression of our environment — more than a little poignant: Researchers at Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon have spent the past two years documenting the park’s natural sound. Often, microphones will...A Visit from the Tree Guy
The single sugar maple tree in my back yard — for some weeks clearly stressed — is a lost cause, says the tree guy, and is soon to be a pile of wood for autumn bonfires. Acer S., the tree guy notes… Acer saccharum. We have other maples… Red...Raise a Glass to Michael S. Hart, Founder of Project Gutenberg
This week Project Gutenberg announced that its founder, Michael S. Hart, had died at the age of 64. You may not know the name… but you are probably familiar with Michael’s work, particularly if you’ve ever read an eBook. Michael believed that the...Idled by Cancer Cure, Researchers Grope for Purpose
I guess I missed the news. Surely there’s been a spate of headlines about the discovery of a cure for cancer? For Autism? Alzheimer’s? For male pattern baldness?
Read more“All that serves labor serves the nation. All that harms is treason. If a man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool. There is no America without labor, and to fleece the one is to rob the other.”
— Abraham Lincoln
Labor Day, 2011
Your Weekend Dose of Wonderful
The Unseen Sea from Simon Christen on Vimeo.
Science, Fiction & Fantasy Notes
It’s Friday and there’s a long, holiday weekend ahead. To see you through, here’s some leftovers bits and pieces from all over… From Phil Plait’s awesome Bad Astronomy blog, Bill Nye (The Science Guy) contrives a sundial at Cornell...Read more“If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery, it is that, in the long run — and often in the short one — the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative.”
— Arthur C. Clarke, The Exploration of Space, 1951