I dreamed last night. It was unusual in brevity, in technicolor and in dynamism. I was supervising the moving of a rather large, antique, turquoise finished wooden cabinet. The beautiful cabinet was suspended by a sling, and a stout steel cable. In my dream, something happened to the cable, the antique piece of furniture…
The most distant object that most folks can see with the unaided eye is also the closest major galaxy to our own Milky Way. Although the Andromeda Galaxy lies a mind-bending 2.5 million light-years from Earth, its trillion stars are enough to emit a strong glow across the vast reaches of space. Despite the wide gap, the…
Difficult to write this morning. The weather is forecast to warm in a day or so in Illinois. We have had a week of single digit temps, which is not unusual for winter in the Midwest. In Texas, they have been besieged with severely below normal temps, and ice storms with snow. Power failure…
The world, “reality” can be cruel and dangerous. One ought always to keep that in mind. The United States is a civilized society, relatively “safe” depending on where you happen to be, upon the cash and credit cards you have in your pocket. Nonetheless, this country is a legally and administratively violent society. Today,…
Tuesday evening a few of us “gathered” via virtual video and discussed the role of “awe” or put another way, “wonder” in the scientific enterprise. Science is understood is a method of testing the reliability of a theory, our notions of the way things are/work. This is difficult at best. Scientists, all those who…
A friend asked me via email, “… just wondering why you are terrified of every angel? Even good angels?” The source of the question was the poetic assertion from Rilke, “Every angel’s terrifying” that I chose as a tagline for this blog. Her question came straight, not tongue in cheek, rhetorical. I do not…
In a speech on January 28th at Brussels’ International Privacy Day, Tim Cook CEO of Apple had this to say. Here is an excerpt from his speech: “Technology does not need vast troves of personal data stitched together across dozens of websites and apps in order to succeed. Advertising existed and thrived for decades…
A friend revealed last night that her cousin was dying. She had little to say in terms of the detail, but it was clear that she was emotionally spent. Love means grief over the torturous journey that a beloved must take, aware that debilitating bodily pain, as well as the beloved’s mental suffering cannot…
It is snowing hard. The stone buddha on the hill is shrouded with white. Nature is “what it is.” There is no mask, no screen of projection, a proffered interpretation which Nature offers to the human mind. There is no wrap of culture with regard to Nature, as is the case with human affairs. …
An interlude is a time for reflection, a brief “time out” to recall what has been written in the playbook, and to conceive a plan of attack. Momentarily it will be “game on.” The wonderful words said at the inauguration ritual will be past — difficult, improvisational work will begin. One difficulty will be…
