A mixed bag of entries, offered with little comment.
Mind Work: How a Ph.D. Affects Black Women, by Trudier Harris We’ve never had it so good - and it’s all thanks to science, by Matt Ridley Why we may never regain the liberties that we’ve lost, by Dan Gillmor
I just finished watching two intriguing programs on television that
mix, at least in my mind, notions about religion and politics. The
first was tonight’s Charlie Rose. This was the most pessimistic
assessment of the Iraq war I’ve seen so far on Charlie Rose. Last
week’s episode with William Kristol was the complete opposite - oh how
things have changed in a week, how the propaganda of a decapitating
victory and the cheering crowds of Iraqi’s seems to have disappeared
Ty Burr, film critic for the Boston Globe, has a lengthy essay about the changing perceptions of what makes a film a classic. He contrasts the deciennial poll of Sight and Sound, which when last conducted in 2002 didn’t contain any movies made in the last 30 years, with an informal poll of young movie students. The informal poll results start with Pulp Fiction and end with The Matrix.
Still, if there’s one thing a kid in 2003 knows about, it’s navigating a universe of images: Our children have grown up in a world more purely mediated than most of us can even begin to grasp.
So I avoid commenting on the war by commenting on religion, in particular the points of view of Richard Dawkins and Fred Clark of Slactivist.
Dawkins opines thus:
Bush seems sincerely to see the world as a battleground between Good and Evil, St Michael’s angels against the forces of Lucifer. We’re gonna smoke out the Amalekites, send a posse after the Midianites, smite them all and let God deal with their souls.
Interesting report on the strident atheism of Francis Crick and James Watson the discoverers of DNA. My favorite anecdote is this:
The antipathy to religion of the DNA pioneers is long standing. In 1961 Crick resigned as a fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, when it proposed to build a chapel.
When Sir Winston Churchill wrote to him pointing out that “none need enter [the chapel] unless they wish”, Crick replied that on those grounds, the college should build a brothel, and enclosed a cheque for 10 guineas.
Lee Harris and Robert Dreyfuss have written intriguing articles about the world historical gamble that George Bush and his neoconservative, hawkish advisers are taking with Iraq.
Robert Dreyfuss, “Just the Beginning,” The American Prospect vol. 14 no. 3, March 1, 2003 Lee Harris, Our World-Historical Gamble, Tech Central Station Although the gamble is huge and the downsides could be massive I find the arguments for reshaping the world more persuasive than the pallid arguments made by the Bush administration up to this point.
I was at my local philosophy club last night for a discussion of ‘the meaning of power.’ One of the common descriptions of power that seemed to come up in our discussions was the ‘power’ of defiance or renunciation. Examples were given from the Holocaust of Jews surviving no matter what happened to them phyisically because of their mental refusal to surrender their personal dignity. Despite how appealing this picture of internal power and dignity seems I now think this morning that there is something flawed in the whole logic.
Up early this morning, before the dawn, and unable to get back to sleep. By inclination I’m a night person. On weekends I sleep in late, sometimes into the afternoon. Today I was to bed early and up early as well. And the dawn was beautiful.
I’ve often thought that an essay or book in praise of the dark would be interesting to write. Most of the synonyms and connotations of the dark are bad, but to me the night seems like the best time of the day.
Can’t sleep, mind is working overtime on some work thoughts. Technical support shop talk ahead.
One of the major problems we face at work is getting information out of the call tracking system we use. In two years we’ve generated almost 60,000 tickets but trying to find trends or related incidents inside of that lump is almost impossible. In part it may be because of the system we are using, Magic.
I was at volunteer training for the Experiment Gallery at the Science Museum of Minnesota tonight. We went through a series of demonstrations and experiments about optics. To cap it off I thought I might collect some links on optics for future reference.
Google Directory on Physics and Optics Optics topic at Wikipedia. This has some nice diagrams and outlines of all the common lens shapes. Physics Web Education Resources on Optics Optics.