He’s Forgotten About Drugs And Rock ‘N Roll

In a culture where the aesthetic experience is denied and atrophied, genuine religious ecstasy rare, intellectual pleasure scorned, it is only natural that sex should become the only personal epiphany of most people.
—   Gary Snyder
.
On This Day In:
2019	I Still Walk Daily
	A Windy Monday
2018	No Religious Test, Yes Religious Ban
2017	Looking At #DumbDonald
2016	No Great Thing
2015	Happy Memory
	Of Two Minds
2014	Sums
2013	Memories & Binging
	Admiration Due
2012	Choices Matter
2011	Acceptance Is The Key
2010	Just A Permanent Crease…
	Bodily Functions

Read Full Post »

Or To Destroy Democracy

You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture.  Just get people to stop reading them.
–   Ray Bradbury
[You don’t have to revoke FCC licenses to destroy the Fourth Estate (a free press).  Just get people to believe legitimate news organizations are “Fake News”.  —  KMAB]
.
On This Day In:
2019	A Defense Of Liberty
2018	And Blog To Word Up To The Universe
	The Irony Of Greed
2017	Or Revisiting A Blog Site
2016	Alas, Too Often The Latter
2015	Either / Or
2014	Memorial Day – 2014
	Perfection
2013	Memorial Day Video
	Equal = Equal
2012	Congrats, Nephew!!
	Doggie Vision Networks
	The Flash: Omnibus
	JLI: vol 1
	Flash: Rebirth
	Burning Images
	What Do You Believe?
2011	Are We Still At War With The Poor?

Read Full Post »

Möbius

“Circles” (2000©)  —  book review
Today’s book review is for one of the many books written by James Burke, who’s claim to fame is his ability to popularize science / technology with history and biography to “create” linkages which make the world (and history) appear to be interconnected.  I believe his most well known work is the book and the BBC series “Connections“.  At least this is how I first came to know Burke (and enjoy his work).
“Circles” is sub-titled “50 Round Trips through History, Technology, Science, Culture“.  The book is a collection of essays which have been gathered into this form.  Each “essay” / “trip” is about four pages and they are each fairly self-contained, so there is no inherent requirement to read them in order – or all of them for that matter.  Each starts with some action in his life: a trip to the library, beach, coffee shop, etc; winds through the “circle” of people / history / discovery he is hi-lighting and then gets wrapped up with another reference to the initial action / place.
The stories are mildly interesting.  The links are tenuous.  The author occasionally breaks the fourth wall.  But, most frequently, the author writes in a peculiar conversational form which struck me as not using full sentences or proper sentence structure.  I found it hard to discern if this was more conversational, breaking of the fourth wall or simply lazy writing.  In the end, I just found it frustrating to try to figure out the subject of a sentence by having to re-read sentences (or paragraphs).
Final recommendation: poor to moderate recommendation.  I admit to being pretty disappointed.  I was a big fan of his “Connections” series and watched it on my local Public Broadcasting Station (PBS) many years ago.  I think I also read the book (way back when), but I can’t swear to it.  I was, therefore, looking forward to more of the same.  This book mostly was “just” the same, but (surprisingly) much less interesting or amusing.  Now I think I have to go back and find the original book (“Connections“) to see if the author has changed or if it’s the reader (me) who has changed.
.
On This Day In:
2019	Eureka!
2018	Learning About My Humanity
2017	Laugh Or Shake Your Head
2016	The Expected Cure
2015	Of Two Minds
2014	Pride And Remembrance
2013	Repeating Bad Memories
2012	No Sooner
2011	Just Cheesy!
	Are You Illin’?

Read Full Post »

Committed To Thinking

You’ve said this album is your last recording of Bach.  Is this tour a victory lap?
I don’t have any plans for immediate demise.  I’m not suffering from an illness that is fatal, other than being alive.  I’m committed to thinking about cultural and social impact because that’s what I feel we need in the world at this time: to make sure that culture has an equal seat at the table as politics and economics.  I don’t think there’s anything more important I can do, and I will devote the rest of my life to thinking in this way.
—  Yo-Yo Ma
Quoted in an interview by: Raisa Bruner
The interview: “7 Questions“
Time Magazine
Dated: 24 September 2018
.
On This Day In:
2017	More Pictures From My (Family) Retirement Party
	A Fondness For Sins
2016	Are You Waiting?
2015	The Future Myth
2014	Hands
2013	Because You Have Lived
2012	47%
2011	Conservative Values: Low And Lax
2010	A Non-Zero Sum Game
	What If “c” Isn’t A Constant?
2009	Pictures from UCLA trip…

Read Full Post »

Seeking Cultured Leadership

Culture is activity of thought, and receptiveness to beauty and humane feeling.  Scraps of information have nothing to do with it.  A merely well-informed man is the most useless bore on God’s earth.  What we should aim at producing is men who possess both the culture and expert knowledge in some special direction.  Their expert knowledge will give them the ground to start from, and their culture will lead them as deep as philosophy and as high as art.
—    Alfred North Whitehead
From his book:  “The Aims of Education“
.
On This Day In:
2014	Examining Failure
2013	Driving Passion
2012	Cannibal, n.
2011	Moments Of Truth

Read Full Post »

Trying To Capture Serenity

Character is of the first importance, but intelligence is nevertheless essential.  It is desirable for a leader to have a broad education.  History and poetry increase his knowledge of human passions.  Culture offers the man of action opportunities now and then to capture his serenity; it puts at his disposal models of order and clarity.  It is, in a sense, a work of art to reconstruct a country or to lead an army, and the man who has acquired a sense of beauty from his studies will be the more successful for it.
—    André Maurois
.
On This Day In:
2012	Above The Vaulted Sky
2011	Active Learning

Read Full Post »