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I've slept late this morning (Christine put the kettle on for me around 6 and i made tea around 6:15) and then i skimmed the news headlines and the blog posts and FB/LJ/DW. I won't claim i'm "caught up" on the world, as i only read back a little bit in time on Facebook and Twitter. I am ready for a more reasonable intensity.
Links of interest this morning:
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26258/?ref=rss
The Puzzling Evolution of Guns Versus Bows In Western Europe, military bows became obsolete during the C16th as firearms evolved. But in China, guns and bows coexisted for almost a millennium. Now one scientist thinks he knows why
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9359000/9359075.stm
It is the most extreme example yet known of a single plant's ability to colonise sites spanning a huge region. Across northwestern North America, every example of a common peat moss called Sphagnum subnitens is genetically identical, researchers have discovered.
I find myself uninterested in reading the President's speech. His oratory has impressed me during his campaign, but i am so disheartened with the politics in this country. My hope remains in the friend-to-friend, neighbor-to-neighbor changes that can be affected in the world. I know it's important to continue and try to change the direction of global and national and state policy, but i don't believe healing comes that way. This article (Religious diversity in the US is more a force for tolerance than for discord, argues scholar Robert Putnam) presents the "Aunt Susan" argument. As friends and family become more diverse our acceptance of difference increases. I know how powerful it's been for me to be able to describe my insight into my brother's family's Muslim observances to others. Being Out in as may dimensions as possible, advocating conversation to conversation, does make a change in the world. (Even if it seems an impossible, interminable uphill climb.) I think there's a strong thread in human nature to be contrary to those who inform us, yet turn around though and carry that lesson forward.
By the way, the gist of the article is that people in the US choose their faith communities based on their politics (I'd say values), not that one's faith determines one's politics (again, values). Thus while the US appears polarized, the evidence points to the political polarization as the primary, and people changing their religious affiliation so that it meets their stance on the spectrum.
Influenced by cognitive scientist/linguist Lakoff, i'd argue that it's the underlying "parental" frame that is where the division lies, and that people choose both political and religious affiliation to match their understanding of that underlying frame for human relationships and community.
--==∞==--
A settlement on the fair use of the AP's photo for Shepard Fairey's Obama painting.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12170620
Charming, that will leave the question hanging there.
--==∞==--
The days of planning have been good, and i hope i can keep some momentum going. I know that sometimes i just collapse after such intensity.
We did celebrate with a dinner in Half Moon Bay at Sam's Chowder House: everyone ordered the Crab Louie salad which was prepared with a much lighter dressing than i've had in San Francisco. Apples were included instead of tomatoes (a good seasonal shift), and it was utterly delightful. The Ohio folks were game to sit on the deck, but we weren't offered that opportunity. DH did take a photo of the boats in the Princeton-by-the-Sea harbor with the last of the sunset behind them to send off to his wife. The return message was, i think, somewhat unprintable. He had reported their morning exchange as his glowing weather report of San Mateo, and her terse reply of "It's snowing."
It was glorious to have sun yesterday.
Links of interest this morning:
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26258/?ref=rss
The Puzzling Evolution of Guns Versus Bows In Western Europe, military bows became obsolete during the C16th as firearms evolved. But in China, guns and bows coexisted for almost a millennium. Now one scientist thinks he knows why
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9359000/9359075.stm
It is the most extreme example yet known of a single plant's ability to colonise sites spanning a huge region. Across northwestern North America, every example of a common peat moss called Sphagnum subnitens is genetically identical, researchers have discovered.
I find myself uninterested in reading the President's speech. His oratory has impressed me during his campaign, but i am so disheartened with the politics in this country. My hope remains in the friend-to-friend, neighbor-to-neighbor changes that can be affected in the world. I know it's important to continue and try to change the direction of global and national and state policy, but i don't believe healing comes that way. This article (Religious diversity in the US is more a force for tolerance than for discord, argues scholar Robert Putnam) presents the "Aunt Susan" argument. As friends and family become more diverse our acceptance of difference increases. I know how powerful it's been for me to be able to describe my insight into my brother's family's Muslim observances to others. Being Out in as may dimensions as possible, advocating conversation to conversation, does make a change in the world. (Even if it seems an impossible, interminable uphill climb.) I think there's a strong thread in human nature to be contrary to those who inform us, yet turn around though and carry that lesson forward.
By the way, the gist of the article is that people in the US choose their faith communities based on their politics (I'd say values), not that one's faith determines one's politics (again, values). Thus while the US appears polarized, the evidence points to the political polarization as the primary, and people changing their religious affiliation so that it meets their stance on the spectrum.
Influenced by cognitive scientist/linguist Lakoff, i'd argue that it's the underlying "parental" frame that is where the division lies, and that people choose both political and religious affiliation to match their understanding of that underlying frame for human relationships and community.
--==∞==--
A settlement on the fair use of the AP's photo for Shepard Fairey's Obama painting.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12170620
Charming, that will leave the question hanging there.
--==∞==--
The days of planning have been good, and i hope i can keep some momentum going. I know that sometimes i just collapse after such intensity.
We did celebrate with a dinner in Half Moon Bay at Sam's Chowder House: everyone ordered the Crab Louie salad which was prepared with a much lighter dressing than i've had in San Francisco. Apples were included instead of tomatoes (a good seasonal shift), and it was utterly delightful. The Ohio folks were game to sit on the deck, but we weren't offered that opportunity. DH did take a photo of the boats in the Princeton-by-the-Sea harbor with the last of the sunset behind them to send off to his wife. The return message was, i think, somewhat unprintable. He had reported their morning exchange as his glowing weather report of San Mateo, and her terse reply of "It's snowing."
It was glorious to have sun yesterday.
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