Yes, is. To readers, the greats can actually speak. Of course it's true that Emerson wrote this down on a piece of paper: Men cease to interest us as soon as we find their limitations. As soon as you come up with a man's limitations, it is all over with him. Has he talents? Has heContinue reading “Sylvia Plath is funny, too”
Category Archives: thinking out loud
Ray Bradbury the environmental activist
In a lovely tribute to the late great writer Ray Bradbury, Felicity Barringer of the inevitable New York Times shows us how much he cared for our planetary home, and how little he trusted our species: Unlike classic environmental writing that focuses largely on the good that nature does for the soul or mankindContinue reading “Ray Bradbury the environmental activist”
Soon to be a major motion picture: Shodan
The story is astonishing/alarming, but the background mythology is downright scary: The idea for Shodan came to John Matherly in 2003, when he was a teenager attending community college in California. Obsessed with the digital world, he named his project after a malevolent character in a video game called System Shock II. The character, Sentient Hyper-Optimized DataContinue reading “Soon to be a major motion picture: Shodan”
Is climate change impacting real estate in the Southwest?
In the United States today, according to the real estate site Zillow, the two cities in the most trouble are Phoenix, where a little more than half than half of all homeowners are underwater — where debt outweighs the equity — and Las Vegas, where an astounding 70% of homeowners are underwater. Is it aContinue reading “Is climate change impacting real estate in the Southwest?”
The sexiness of a stupid woman, according to science
In Slate, a science reporter specializing in sex, Jesse Bering, reports on a new study that finds that women who look drunk and/or stupid are especially attractive to straight men. The study has problems — for one, a lack of a good control sample. For another, the hypothesis (that men find women who appearContinue reading “The sexiness of a stupid woman, according to science”
The Way: A Catholic movie for non-Catholics
My old friend and equaintance Lance Mannion wonderfully appreciates that small but touching movie, The Way, which came out last year. He captures so many aspects of the film, from Martin Sheen's ability to carry a movie with sheer grumpiness, to the underlying beauty of the story. The Way is a sweet, sad, funny, joyful movieContinue reading “The Way: A Catholic movie for non-Catholics”
The Last Myth: the problem with apocalyptic warnings
From a new book about the perils of apocalyptic thinking called The Last Myth. To understand why fewer people believe in climate change even as evidence mounts, we must look beyond the industry-funded movement to deny the reality and effects of climate change. Perhaps equally important — if not quite equally culpable — has beenContinue reading “The Last Myth: the problem with apocalyptic warnings”
Mitt Romney: Worse than George W. Bush?
One of this country's lesser-known great writers, Edmund White, writes for The New Yorker about the Cranbrook School, where Romney and a gang of followers ritually humiliated a gay classmate in l965. White attended the school, just as Mitt Romney did, but a few years earlier, and as a gay person. He speculates about Romney's motivationsContinue reading “Mitt Romney: Worse than George W. Bush?”
Andrew Revkin: on climate change in a post-media world
Covered a talk by the dean of climate reporters, Andrew Revkin, last week at UCSB, for the Santa Barbara Independent. In part because he got so sick of "the yelling" around climate, a couple of years ago Revkin gave up traditional reporting to teach at Pace University, and to run the great Dot Earth blogContinue reading “Andrew Revkin: on climate change in a post-media world”
Eulogy for a watershed: Tam Valley in Marin County
My good friend David Healy sends along a touching/troubling essay about the development of his Marin County town, Tam Valley, in the days of his and my youth, approximately fifty years ago. When I was a kid in the valley, we didn't need "facilities." We had the hills to hike in and the fields to playContinue reading “Eulogy for a watershed: Tam Valley in Marin County”
Kit Stolz 