We should be properly skeptical of any image I suppose, especially in these days of Photoshop, and when an image purports to describe a before and after in colors demand to know even how the the satellite data was visualized, the colors chosen…but wow, this image knocks me off my feet, and at a gutContinue reading “Why the experts think the boy child will come this year”
Category Archives: thinking out loud
On (almost) the same page: Virginia Woolf and Carl Jung
Great minds think alike, the nine zillionth example:
Virginia Woolf, from To the Lighthouse:
"She felt…how life, from being made up of little separate incidents which one lived one by one, became curled and whole like a wave which bore one up with it and threw one down with it, there, with a dash on the beach."
Why are we having Santa Ana conditions in May?
Just got another Santa Ana winds warning via phone app. Winds expected through Monday. The umpteenth such warning in the last few weeks. National meteorologist Dr. Jeff Masters laid out the harsh weather experienced in Southern California this week already: Record May heat sent temperatures soaring above 100° in much of Southern California on Wednesday,Continue reading “Why are we having Santa Ana conditions in May?”
The freedom in walking lies in being no one: Philosopher
A delightfully light (but thoughtful) interview focuses on a new book — A Philosophy of Walking — written by a French professor who takes the subject so seriously he's nervous about answering questions from a reporter. From The Guardian: It is a sunny spring Sunday and – joy! – I am off to Paris toContinue reading “The freedom in walking lies in being no one: Philosopher”
Between every two tall cacti is a door to a new way of life
On the PCT, in the Anza-Borrego desert, seeing two ocotillo beside the trail like gate posts reminded me of a famous quote of John Muir's. (Okay, I'm a nerd, I admit it.) The quote, from a note Muir made in a margin, goes something like this: Between every two pine trees is a door leadingContinue reading “Between every two tall cacti is a door to a new way of life”
Kingsnorth: Environmental activism doesn’t work
Because the scientific news about climate change continues to cast a gloomy shadow over our future, and perhaps because the press is bored with the usual happy Earth Day talk, two prominent magazines featured this week scathing denunciations of climate activism.
In Pacific Standard, James McWilliams of Texas State University calls for a Kafka-esque "narrative of complete and utter ruin," as opposed to the false hope offered by the likes of activist Bill McKibben:
…the problem with climate change discourse isn’t the skeptic. It’s the true believer—and the fact that, for him, the slow burn of global warming obviates radical action despite knowing that nothing else will do. This paradox leaves many of us who take climate change seriously more or less speechless—or merely talking about building codes—while the planet cooks due to our hyper-charged consumerism.
Meanwhile The New York Times Magazine features the journey in thought of Paul Kingsnorth, formerly a British environmental activist, now a man who has now simply had it with efforts to slow or halt climate change and environmental degradation. He thinks it's useless.
“Everything had gotten worse,” Kingsnorth said. “You look at every trend that environmentalists like me have been trying to stop for 50 years, and every single thing had gotten worse. And I thought: I can’t do this anymore. I can’t sit here saying: ‘Yes, comrades, we must act! We only need one more push, and we’ll save the world!’ I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it! So what do I do?”
At such times I knew I was worthy of myself: Jung
From C.J. Jung's "Memories, Dreams, Reflections," chapter two ("School Years"):
Nothing could persuade me that "in the image of God" applied only to man. In fact it seemed to me that the high mountains, the rivers, lakes, trees, flowers, and animals far better exemplified the essence of God than men with their ridiculous clothes, their meanness, vanity, mendacity, and abhorrent egotism — all qualities with which I was only too familiar from myself, that is, from personality No. 1, the schoolboy of 1890. Besides his world there existed another realm, like a temple in which anyone who entered was transformed and suddenly overpowered by a vision of the whole cosmos, so that he could only marvel and admire, forgetful of himself.
Pulitzer Prize-winner on Shakespeare: What the hell?
From a great and wonderfully long interview with Tracy Letts, who won a Pulitzer for his knock-out play "August Osage County": I like Shakespeare, but I never know what the hell is going on. The actor David Pasquesi is a dear friend of mine, and we’ve talked about this before. He says, “I don’t knowContinue reading “Pulitzer Prize-winner on Shakespeare: What the hell?”
Pain can lead to growth: Geoff Dyer (and the research)
Geoff Dyer writes so well it seems somehow demeaning to call him a critic, but that's how the world slots him, pretty much, and in books like "Out of Sheer Rage" — his admiring account of D.H. Lawrence's battles — he helps redefine the form. At only 56, last week Dyer suffered a stroke, while livingContinue reading “Pain can lead to growth: Geoff Dyer (and the research)”
Rolling the dice on El Nino: Too soon to predict?
Given that this is the worst drought on record in California, it's natural for people to hope for El Niño and all the rain that a good strong El Niño can bring. As the San Francisco Chronicle reported: …even as hope dims for a March miracle storm, climatologists say weather conditions could change this year ifContinue reading “Rolling the dice on El Nino: Too soon to predict?”
Kit Stolz 