April 8, 2017

When I sat down with the guitar a few hours later, that feeling of renew came back to me, and I started with a line talking about what I'd done earlier that day. Read more

April 7, 2017

And so what is currently thought to be 68% of the universe may suddenly disappear, if these calculations hold up. Science can indeed be destructive! Read more

March 30, 2017

The idea of "cultural appropriation" has once again provoked violence from someone who decided they have the right to police the personal choices of others. (If you're new here, cultural appropriation is something we've discussed before.) Read more

March 29, 2017

Where do songs come from? In this case, from 1. Seeing a big black cat in my back yard, 2. Tweeting about it, and 3. Noticing the nice rhythm of the phase "Big black cat in my backyard". Read more

March 27, 2017

To some extent, “stability” means “resistance to change". To change an unjust system you may need to create some instability -- some holy chaos. Read more

March 23, 2017

Our usual mid-week selection of quick takes. Bad Maps: Gall-Peters is no cartographic hero Breathless news stories this week described how Boston’s adoption of the Gall-Peters projection of the world map over the Mercator one would correct “500 years of distortion” [The Guardian] and how its introduction was “blowing [student’s] minds”. [Boing Boing] Please. Yes, the Mercator grossly distorts the sizes of nations, making those farther from the equator (the US, Canada, Europe, Russia) seem bigger than those nearer (e.g.,... Read more

March 20, 2017

I'm going to try to show something about revision, and how a rough bunch of words can start to be formed into something poetic. So you're going to get two versions of some equinox reflections. Read more

March 19, 2017

Every close relationship has moments of magic. They might be soap bubble fragile, so ephemeral that they can't be spoken of, and you might wonder if you're the only one carrying them in your heart. But still, they are there, part of the warp and woof of your life. Read more

March 16, 2017

Presented for your consideration, our usual Wednesday round of three stories I found interesting this past week. Read more

March 13, 2017

By controlling focus and illumination -- and aren't those very words suggestive -- photography can help remind us of the "suchness" of things. Read more


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