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laine Scarry
For the past year, we have spoken unceasingly about the events of September 11, 2001 . But one aspect of that day has not yet been the topic of open discussion: the difficulty we had as a country defending ourselves; as it happened, the only successful defense was carried out not by our professional defense apparatus but by the passengers on Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania . The purpose of this essay is to examine that difficulty, and the one success, and ask if they suggest that something in our defense arrangements needs to be changed. Whatever the ultimate answer to that question, we at least need to ask it since defending the country is an obligation we all share.
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"saint phil"
Benjamen Walker talks with authors Jonathan Lethem and Josh Glenn about the Science Fiction genius Philip K Dick. He also gets the cover of the book UBIK tattooed on his arm. LISTEN
from a book thread
mello kitty
toys in the attic
this scruffy guy has been coming around for food lately. he (i suppose he could very well be a she, but i've taken to calling him claude) climbs up the tree in the back of the house and comes onto the deck. mike started feeding him, so he's only got himself to blame if we soon have two cats again. i haven't been able to get near him yet, he's very skittish, but i'd like to somehow get him to a vet. anyone need a mouser?
Spent last weekend in Seattle, the Public Library was one of the hightlights. Amazing, worth the trip from Portland. Roaming the deep red undulations of the Meeting Floor reminded me of hours spend as a kid walking through the giant heart exhibitat the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.
Darwin, The expression of the emotions in man and animals, London, John Murray, 1872
if google maps (now with satellite photos) is accurate, then its possible that if i left my apartment and went perfectly northward for 20 miles, i might nearly pass directly through the house i grew up in. definitely within a half-mile.
The "architectural eyesore of the month" guy has a blog .
This is a debka link, so salt to taste, but I found this article very interesting
The most signal achievement of Brzezhinski’s career was predetermined a year before he took office by one of his last experiences as an academic. In 1976, a Polish Archbishop, Karol Wojtyla, came to Harvard to deliver a lecture. So impressed was Professor Brzezinski, a churchgoer, that he invited the visitor for tea, during which they found much in common. The regular correspondence they embarked on, in Polish, continued for years after Wojtyla’s investiture as Pope John Paul II on October 22, 1978.
i wish people would quit dying for a little while.
Silent rave with wireless headphones. I remember Steve had this idea at least 5 years ago.
(Also, since that link is to boing-boing: someone - I can't remember who - was complaining recently that boing-boing now has so many ads they have become the NASCAR of blogs. LOL. So true.)
Krugman readers have probably seen it but here's his latest.
teaser for the upcoming edition of Scientific American:
There's no easy way to admit this. For years, helpful letter writers told us to stick to science. They pointed out that science and politics don't mix. They said we should be more balanced in our presentation of such issues as creationism, missile defense and global warming. We resisted their advice and pretended not to be stung by the accusations that the magazine should be renamed Unscientific American, or Scientific Unamerican, or even Unscientific Unamerican. But spring is in the air, and all of nature is turning over a new leaf, so there's no better time to say: you were right, and we were wrong.
In retrospect, this magazine's coverage of so-called evolution has been hideously one-sided. For decades, we published articles in every issue that endorsed the ideas of Charles Darwin and his cronies. True, the theory of common descent through natural selection has been called the unifying concept for all of biology and one of the greatest scientific ideas of all time, but that was no excuse to be fanatics about it. Where were the answering articles presenting the powerful case for scientific creationism? Why were we so unwilling to suggest that dinosaurs lived 6,000 years ago or that a cataclysmic flood carved the Grand Canyon? Blame the scientists. They dazzled us with their fancy fossils, their radiocarbon dating and their tens of thousands of peer-reviewed journal articles. As editors, we had no business being persuaded by mountains of evidence.
Mnftiu takes on the insanity surrounding Terri Schiavo.
the best piece i ever read in index magazine was a reprint of a dialog between burroughs and terry southern. they are both sitting at a table riflng through a "mixed bag" of pills that terry brought. a great discussion that included bills observations on some of the pills from the baggie and southern providing some details on the writing credits for the film easy rider. unfortunately that meeting is not included in the index magazine interview archive.
Bill, where is the thread on the shipping container space with the big nature photos that Roberta slammed?
from bruno:
My OED lists popinjay as
i) first refering to the parrot (probably from "jay")
(c 1320, from French),
ii) then to representation of a parrot in tapestry or
signage (1420) and later a target shaped like a parrot
used in archery practice (1548);
iii) approbatively for a person in fine clothes (1310)
iv) lastly pejoratively for a person showing "vanity
conceit...and mechanical repetition of another's words"
(1528).
The earliest citation for sense iv) is William Tindale
in Obedience of the Christian Man: "The priest ought to
christen them in the English tongue and not play the
popinjay with a Credo save ye."
I would guess the echo of "Pope" (i.e. priest parrots
the words of the popish church?) is intentional in
Tindale, but the word had been around for two
centuries...
William Tindale, first translator of the Bible into
English, (also an ancestor of [a certain person we know --tm]) was arrested in Antwerp as a heretic and burned
at the stake by the Holy Roman Imperial authorities in
1536.
The Onion's Irish Heritage timeline.
ANWAR drilling vote results
yo la tengo streaming live video cover song requests on wfmu right now for a couple of hours.
hosts tom scharpling and gaylord fields - go to main page and click wm stream