Some Days We Don't Feel So Well . . .

Human beings go to amazing lengths to convince themselves that they are special, that they are sensitive souls, that unlike the unlettered masses, they, the highly educated, the 'elite' actually do care -- like, for example, the way scholars read books written by William Faulkner and struggle to 'empathize' with the disgusting characters therein depicted.

Even after years of sporadic reading of Faulkner's stories I too feel that my mind is special, that I am one of those natural persons who is able to see through the widespread social scam that declares those impenetrable writings as being superior to the clear and directly written stories of lesser non-genius authors, that I am not fooled by the conditioning administered by the minions of higher education.

But I know, of course, that I am not special at all. I am an habitual cynic who believes in nothing.

I do not believe in the conventional perception of a personal god. Yet I do not loudly declare, as do the militant gnu-atheists, that there is no god.

I believe in nothing.

It seems that almost all people, nearly every living person, believes that human beings are more than biological entities, more than just an animal, better than only an upright-walking mammal possessing a complex brain -- that people have a mysterious soul that distinguishes them from all the other animals that roam the planet.

I do not.

I believe in nothing.

This does not make me a happy person. But yet it does not make me especially unhappy, either. One thing it does do, though, is to spur me on to continue searching for that elusive answer to the question: "Why am I here?" -- always hoping that eventually I will suddenly 'see the light' and then I will know...

The only reason I am publishing the above drivel instead of deleting it as I usually do is because I am not feeling so well this morning... -- neither physically nor mentally. But I've found through experience, that "this too shall pass."

I'll feel better in a few hours. And I can always come back later and delete the entire entry.

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Anetta Pirinen says she knew something significant had happened in her mind the day the word "Homer" stopped being a Greek poet and took on the meaning of a cartoon character.

"Doh!"

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Be careful about reading health books.
You may die of a misprint.
--Mark Twain

The Month Of March . . .

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On March 9 . . .

In 1862 -- During the American Civil War, The USS Monitor and CSS Virginia fought to a draw in the Battle of Hampton Roads, the first battle between two ironclad warships.

In 1959 -- The beloved Barbie doll made its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York.

In 1961 -- Sputnik 9 successfully launched, carrying a human dummy nicknamed Ivan Ivanovich, and demonstrating that Soviet Union was ready to begin human spaceflight.

And, in 2010 -- The first same-sex marriages in Washington, D.C. took place.

March 9 is the birthday of:

Amerigo Vespucci
Will Geer
Mickey Spillane
Yuri Gagarin
Mickey Gilley

Note:
You can listen to Mickey Gilley sing at lost.fm if you have a mind to.
Note 2:
I often play music from the lost.fm site while I do computer related stuff.

My goodness gracious... it's simply amazing what can be discovered out there... using Google?

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I read in a tweet from my old hometown newspaper that: "On Sunday March 13 at 2 a.m., Daylight Saving Time begins in the United States. Don't forget to Spring Ahead!"

Of course, here in Tucson we (being inimical to convention) neither move our clocks forward nor backward... ever. But since much of the rest of the country does so it's nice to know when the changes occur. For example: when Daylight Saving Time kicks in, the East coast will be three hours ahead of the folks in Tucson instead of the two hours differential during Standard Time. Also, we will share the same time as denizens of California instead of being an hour ahead of them.


inimical
-adjective
1. adverse in tendency or effect; unfavorable; harmful

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The descent of man? Our species is still evolving, but future humans might be more like Danny DeVito than Stuart Broad. Olly Bootle explains why. Below is his opening...

Ever since Charles Darwin formulated his theory of evolution by natural selection 150 years ago, scientists have wondered whether the process still applies to humans. Evolution may have made us, but at some point, did we stop evolving? There's no question that we're unique in the animal world. While a bear which found itself stranded in the arctic would, over millennia, evolve thick blubber to keep itself warm, humans could make clothes and light fires. Or we could just build a boat and leave. And so scientists suspected that by adapting to environmental change – the driver of natural selection – using our ingenuity, we might have stopped ourselves evolving. The late Stephen Jay Gould, one of the most respected of evolutionary biologists, once said: "There has been no biological change in humans in 40,000 or 50,000 years. Everything we call culture and civilisation we've built with the same body and brain." It turns out that he, and many others, were wrong.

The above link will take you to this truly fascinating short article.

Danny DeVito

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The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf is the latest of my FREE KindlePC downloads. I read the first two pages immediately but then had to tend to some pesky chores, but I intend to get back to it later this evening.

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RELEASE: 11-067

NASA ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FROM 'INSPIRED' HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

WASHINGTON -- U.S. high school students are invited to participate in NASA's Interdisciplinary National Science Program Incorporating Research Experience, or INSPIRE, through an online learning community. INSPIRE is designed to encourage students in ninth through 12th grades to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

Applications are being accepted through June 30. NASA will make selections for the program in September. The selected students and their parents will participate in an online learning community with opportunities to interact with peers, NASA engineers and scientists. The online community also provides appropriate grade level educational activities, discussion boards and chat rooms for participants to gain exposure to careers and opportunities available at NASA.

Students selected for the program also will have the option to compete for unique grade-appropriate experiences during the summer of 2012 at NASA facilities and participating universities. The summer experience provides students with a hands-on opportunity to investigate education and careers in the STEM disciplines.

INSPIRE is part of NASA's education strategy to attract and retain students in the STEM disciplines critical to NASA's missions. For more information about INSPIRE, visit this website

http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/programs/descriptions/INSPIRE_Project.html

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It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
--Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

Poetry, Civil War, Whitman, Lincoln, etc.

I read a reference to a Top Ten list of the 10 Greatest Poets, so curiosity compelled me to take a look at it.

List of The 10 Greatest Poets --
(In the opinion of Dean Rader)

Dean Rader is a Professor of English at the University of San Francisco. He has published widely in the fields of poetry, American Indian studies, and popular culture. His debut collection of poems, Works & Days, won the 2010 T. S. Eliot Poetry Prize, judged by Claudia Keelan and was published in September. In addition, he's the recipient of both the Sow's Ear Poetry Prize and the Crab Creek Poetry Prize.

I have, of course, heard of the poets on Mr. Rader's list... many, many times, but I have never before heard of Dean Rader. And I don't agree with his list. Not at all. And I don't think I'm the only one. The first comment following his article was: "God, this list is embarrassing."

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It was Walt Whitman, celebrated poet and ardent admirer of Abraham Lincoln, who said:

"I would be much pleased to see some heroic, shrewd, fully-informed, healthy-bodied, middle-aged, beard-faced American blacksmith or boatman come down from the West across the Alleghanies, and walk into the Presidency, dressed in a clean suit of working attire, and with the tan all over his face, breast, and arms; I would certainly vote for that sort of man, possessing the due requirements, before any other candidate."

I'm pretty sure that Abe Lincoln fit that description.

Abraham Lincoln. Gore Vidal wrote a book, a novel, titled: Lincoln. I am reading it now, a chapter or so each night before I turn off the light and fall asleep.

Although I'm not by any stretch of the imagination a scholar or a (an?) historian, nor even a mild Civil War buff... I have been interested in reading about Abraham Lincoln for most of my life.

1861 is a new book written by Adam Goodheart and is scheduled for release by Amazon.com in April.

A Novel by Adam Goodheart

Adam Goodheart is a historian, journalist, and travel writer. His articles have appeared in National Geographic, Outside, Smithsonian, The Atlantic, and The New York Times Magazine, among others, and he is a regular columnist for The New York Times’s acclaimed Civil War blog, Disunion. He lives in Washington, D.C., and on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where he is the Hodson Trust-Griswold Director of Washington College’s C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience.

Adam Goodheart

Tony Horwitz said, "1861 is the best book I have ever read on the start of the Civil War. Sumter, secession, and Lincoln appear in a wonderfully fresh and illuminating light, supported by a cast of extraordinary players that few Americans know about. Penetrating, eloquent, and deeply moving, this is a classic introduction to the nation’s greatest conflict."

Yes, if all goes well I will be buying (or borrowing) this book in the near future.

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I listened online yesterday to Ben Zimmer when he was a guest on NPR's Patt Morrison Show (KPCC in Southern California) -- Ben Zimmer is the man who took over for the late William Safire at the New York Times Magazine column On Language. Sadly, that column has now been discontinued. I recorded the interview with my little portable Sony recorder, so I can save it for later, for re-listening.

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Space shuttle Discovery is scheduled to return to Earth for the final time on Wednesday, March 9, completing a 13-day mission to outfit the International Space Station. If Discovery lands Wednesday, it will have spent a total of 365 days in space and traveled more than 148 million miles during 39 flights. It launched on its first mission on Aug. 30, 1984.

The future is begun . . .

Gort! Klaatu barada nikto . . .

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cynic
noun:
1. One who believes people are motivated by self-interest only.
2. A person with a negative outlook, one disposed to find fault.

Without a doubt, I am a cynic . . .

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"Let us remember that the automatic machine is the precise economic equivalent of slave labor. Any labor which competes with slave labor must accept the economic consequences of slave labor."
--Norbert Weiner

A Title Is Such A Tiresome Necessity

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Attention!

My weight today is 155.2 pound.

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My new word for today is phrop and I'll bet it's new to you, too.

In one of his most excellent entries, Michael Quinion wrote:

Sir Arnold Lunn invented the name "phrops" for these euphemistic phrases that do not wear their true meaning on their face. Examples of phrops are "we must have lunch sometime", and "we must keep in touch", both of which actually mean "my life’s ambition is never to meet you again".

Now I am constantly on the lookout as I read news reports, blog entries, and even novels for more examples of these phrops.

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ASH WEDNESDAY

Ash Wednesday is a day of repentance and it marks the beginning of Lent --

From Wikipedia:

Ash Wednesday, in the Western Christian calendar, is the first day of Lent and occurs 46 days (40 days not counting Sundays) before Easter. It is a moveable fast, falling on a different date each year because it is dependent on the date of Easter. It can occur as early as February 4 (February 5 on leap years) or as late as March 10. Ash Wednesday derives its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of adherents as a sign of repentance.


The ashes used are typically gathered after the Palm Crosses from the previous year's Palm Sunday are burned. In the liturgical practice of some churches, the ashes are mixed with the Oil of the Catechumens (one of the sacred oils used to anoint those about to be baptized), though some churches use ordinary oil. This paste is used by the minister who presides at the service to make the sign of the cross, first upon his or her own forehead and then on those of congregants.

Good Grief! I don't know what more to say about that.

But eventually I'll think of something.

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The Poetry Radio Project offers audio recordings of poems and famous people speaking their thoughts about poems and poets.

I found Godzilla's Avocado by Thomas Sayers Ellis to be fascinating.

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What is the difference between freedom and liberty is one of those annoyingly recurring questions I have asked myself. Finally, I decided to look it up and see what others have to say about it.

According to Merriam-Webster:

FREEDOM

1 the quality or state of being free: as a: the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action b: liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another: INDEPENDENCE c: the quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous d: EASE, FACILITY e: the quality of being frank, open, or outspoken f: improper familiarity g: boldness of conception or execution h: unrestricted use

2 a: political right b: FRANCHISE, PRIVILEGE synonyms FREEDOM, LIBERTY, LICENSE mean the power or condition of acting without compulsion. FREEDOM has a broad range of application from total absence of restraint to merely a sense of not being unduly hampered or frustrated. LIBERTY suggests release from former restraint or compulsion . LICENSE implies freedom specially granted or conceded and may connote an abuse of freedom.


The attempt by Merriam-Webster is not enough. I still don't see the difference. So, I guess that my best choice is to give this question some more thought.

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It seems that I never get tired of reading or listening to certain poems. And this is one of them:


Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.


No, I did not get formal permission to reproduce the above poem.

If the copyright owner asks me to, I will immediately remove it.

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A poem is "never a put-up job.... It begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a loneliness. It is never a thought to begin with. It is at its best when it is a tantalizing vagueness."
--Robert Frost

Laugh And The World Laughs At You

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The Simple Things In Life . . .
Delightful Youtube videos --

Watch, listen. and love it . . .

And this one too . . .

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Today's New Word

diktat
noun:
1. An order or decree imposed without popular consent.
2. A harsh settlement imposed upon a defeated party.

Note:
DIKTAT!

That would make a grand title for a novel, perhaps with a cover illustration of a hobnail boot stomping a victim's head. (1984?)

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The opening sentence of Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is:
"As Gregor Samsa awoke that morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect"

If Kafka could write, have published, and gain fame from such an outlandish line, then it seems to me that nothing is impossible in the creation of literature if the writer has sufficient courage...

...and is gifted with great talent, of course.


And, William Faulkner wrote about his childhood surroundings.

So why can't I?

I can.

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I AM THAT I AM

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"Ultimately literature is nothing but carpentry. Both are very hard work. Writing something is almost as hard as making a table. With both you are working with reality, a material just as hard as wood. Both are full of tricks and techniques. Basically very little magic and a lot of hard work involved."
--Gabriel Garcia Marquez

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A Biennium Is A Two-Year Period

This is Saturday and The Ides Of March is (are?) fast approaching. A time to beware -- or so I've been led to believe(if your name's Julius).

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Today's New Word

fomite:An inanimate object or substance, such as clothing, furniture, or soap, that is capable of transmitting infectious organisms from one individual to another.

Somewhere (I can't remember where) I read:

This word reminded me of the years I taught health both at the high school level and more recently at the university level. When considering communicable diseases we always addressed the 3Fs of transmission: Food, Feces, and Fomites! Most students understood infectious transmission via spoiled or infected food and, of course, through feces via sewage contaminated/polluted water or improper sanitation and lack of personal hygiene, but I always had to explain Fomites as being door knobs, unwashed plates, glasses, and utensils, etc. that can carry viral/bacterial particles and transmit them to unsuspecting recipients.

--Don Williams
Professor of Biology, Kansas City, Missouri

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Self Help Books, Tapes, DVDs, etc.

I was reading a blog entry regarding the subject of Self Help and in the appended 'comments' section, I found the following:

Finally, someone came forward and spoke on a topic that has bothered me for years. The self-help genre is the biggest money-scam out there. Writers of self-help realize the way to a best-seller dollar making big-time pay day is to write a book that over-sells and under-delivers. Every generation alive today, from the aging baby-boomer to the 20-somethings want instant fixes to whatever their own problem is.

EVERY problem is fixed by the same common thread: behavioral change. I hear people ask me all the time, "Why can't I.....? and I tell them it's because they look at the problem from a position of someone who has already lost: "Why can't I lose 10, 15, 20, pounds?, when they should be asking themselves, "How can I lose this weight?" We do not need books, CD, or DVD, with the title, "How to." We need only look in the mirror, and ask How can I...." and this is true of any problem we come up against. This is true in my own life, and it can be for you as well!

Just send me $9.99 and I'll tell you my secret. But if you act now, call within the next ten minutes and I'll tell you my secret a SECOND time for $16.99. That's right! Free, unsolicited advice told to you TWICE for only 16.99. Act now! Call Now: 1-800-555-0000. What are you waiting for? Call NOW!

That comment was supposed to be both informative and witty at the same time. In my opinion, it was.

And further . . .

"How many of you have self-help books?
Okay, that's your first problem.
You can't help yourself, because yourself sucks!"
--Billy Bob Thornton
School for Scoundrels

Hm. I wonder if I could sit down and write a successful Self-Help book. Why not? After all:

Life Is . . . A throw of the

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Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
--John Lennon

Do Turtles Blow It Out Their A**es?

This morning at 7 A.M. Tuscon Time my scale reported that, at that exact instant, I weighed 157.2 pounds.

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Have you ever heard the word Desertification? I first encountered the word yesterday when I opened my new copy of Desert Leaf Magazine, which is distributed free here in East Tucson, and read a story about desertification.

Desert Leaf Magazine

Desert Leaf Magazine has an article that says desertification is a global problem caused in large part by overpopulation, water scarcity (now exacerbated by climate change) and poor land-use planning and agricultural practices. And the United States is not immune, as the severe dust storms of the 1930s made clear.


A farmer and two little boys run for shelter during a dust storm in Oklahoma in 1936.

Desert Leaf also has an online edition. And it contains many more interesting items regarding the desert area. If you would like to read some (or all) of it and you missed the link above, it is repeated below.

http://www.desertleaf.com/

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WASHINGTON -- NASA's Glory mission ended Friday after the space craft failed to reach orbit following its launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.


NASA has begun the process of creating a Mishap Investigation Board to evaluate the cause of the failure. Telemetry indicated the fairing, a protective shell atop the satellite's Taurus XL rocket, did not separate as expected.

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Did you know that:

Turtles have been living on the earth for more than 200 million years.
They evolved before mammals, birds, crocodiles, snakes, and lizards.

Question: Do turtles breathe through their butts?

The answer, according to WikiAnswers is...

"Yes... maybe..."

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