This Just In

October 10, 2007 – 12:41 am

My friend Wayne Krantz has sent along a link to an item in the New York Times about the social perils of email.

The article, by psychologist and author Daniel Goleman, is entitled E-Mail Is Easy to Write (and to Misread). In it, we learn that:

In contrast to a phone call or talking in person, e-mail can be emotionally impoverished when it comes to nonverbal messages that add nuance and valence to our words. The typed words are denuded of the rich emotional context we convey in person or over the phone.

We are not, of course, startled to hear this. What is interesting, though, is that it should rise to the level of newsworthiness.

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By Malcolm | Posted in Society and Culture, Technology | Comments (1)

No Big Thing

October 9, 2007 – 10:50 am

Here’s a pretty picture:

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By Malcolm | Posted in Technology, Shameless Filler | Comments (0)

Grumpy

October 8, 2007 – 11:03 pm

I must say this is certainly NOT how I imagined that the early days of October would be. Five weeks ago I scribbled a post in which I gave thanks that the summer’s sticky warmth was soon to give way to the clear cool days of autumn. “The most beautiful months of all”, I said. The skies would be “swept clear of summer’s viscous murk”. The air was going to “sparkle and invigorate”.

Yeah, well, I’m still waiting. Here we are in the second week of October, and it might as well be July. The temperature was hovering somewhere in the upper 80’s this evening when I left the office. The air is damp and greasy. The subway platforms are still sweltering, and the tunnel rats are capering in midseason form in the moldering filth. The leaves on the trees — yes, those would be the ones that I predicted would by now have begun to “flare once again with impossible, incandescent beauty” — are not exactly flaring so much as hanging limply and starting to rot.

To make matters far worse, the Yankees, facing elimination at the hands of the Cleveland Indians, are trailing 6-3 in the top of the 8th.

Feh.

By Malcolm | Posted in Marginalia | Comments (5)

Just Doesn’t Click

October 7, 2007 – 11:05 pm

I ran across an odd website the other day. Its purpose is to demonstrate what a completely click-free browsing environment would be like. The authors clearly think it’s better, somehow, but I don’t think I like it at all. How about you? See for yourself here.

By Malcolm | Posted in Technology | Comments (3)

Wild Weekend

October 7, 2007 – 12:30 am

I’m sorry to have been off the air yesterday; it’s been a busy couple of days.

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By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (5)

Back To The Old Drawing Board

October 4, 2007 – 4:43 pm

Well, enough politics for now. I’ve dwelt on the topic overmuch lately anyway; folks might get the idea it was something I’m actually interested in. I’m gratified, at least, not to have received the cataract of vitriol that I might reasonably have expected to follow that previous post, though it might be too soon to tell.

So, on to lighter fare. Here’s something nobody saw coming, so to speak: the newest hybrid and electric cars are so quiet, apparently, that they pose a risk to blind people, who rely on their hearing to know when it’s safe to cross the street. Story here.

By Malcolm | Posted in Society and Culture, Technology | Comments (1)

Neoconservatism Reexamined

October 4, 2007 – 12:09 am

Neoconservatism takes a terrible pounding these days. The term “neoconservative” itself, and its common abbreviation, “necon”, are more often spat out in fury than with any understanding of what the word actually refers to, which is a coherent and morally informed school of thought that sees the traditional American ideals of liberty and democracy as fundamentally desirable anchors for our foreign policy.

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By Malcolm | Posted in Foreign Affairs | Comments (10)

Richard Dawkins, 1996

October 2, 2007 – 11:19 pm

My son Nick has sent along a link to a video, in four parts, of a marvelous lecture by Richard Dawkins on the topic of Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder. Dawkins is, of course, a controversial figure nowadays for his staunch criticism of religion, but like him or not he is a brilliant communicator, and we see him here at his very best.

By Malcolm | Posted in Science | Comments (8)

Star-Crossed

October 2, 2007 – 2:57 pm

The latest NASA newsletter contained an unusual item: it’s a video clip of Comet Encke (looking for all the world like a plucky little spermatozoon), which, having passed too close to the Sun, has its tail ripped off by a “coronal mass ejection”. Have a look here.

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (1)

Fit To Print?

October 2, 2007 – 10:35 am

Violence declined sharply in Iraq last month. This was such unwelcome news at the New York Times that the story, which opened with the sentence “The number of violent civilian deaths in Iraq dropped precipitously in September compared with the previous month”, was presented “below the fold” on page 10, having been knocked off the front page by a fast-breaking story about how girls in their early teens have become an attractive demographic target for Broadway producers.

One must imagine that gladder tidings, such as a massive flareup in sectarian violence, preferably with heavy coalition casualties, would have been featured more prominently.

By Malcolm | Posted in Politics, Foreign Affairs | Comments (8)

See Ya!

October 1, 2007 – 11:12 pm

Well, it looks like John McCain is done. I don’t suppose that he had much of a shot at the Republican nomination anyway, but now he’s being roasted alive for some candid remarks he made during an interview at Beliefnet.org.

What was McCain’s unpardonable offense? Being a Christian himself, he expressed a wish to have a Christian president. Wasting no time, and with depressing predictability, the Muslims, the Jews, and presumably everyone else on down to the Jains and the Zoroastrians have queued up to bastinado him for his effrontery.

It’s a fine line a candidate has to walk; strait is the gate, and narrow the path. On the one hand, he is required to appear on CNN specials to bawl like a carnival barker about the vital role his “faith” plays in his life, because American voters would sooner elect a carjacking crack addict than a Godless heathen. But if he actually goes so far as to believe the teachings of his religion, and to consider them to be of sufficient worth that he would prefer to see the leader of the free world informed by them — and is honest enough to say so — he is promptly assailed as a bigot.

What appears to be required, then, is a deep and abiding religious faith, with an unshakeable and fortifying reliance upon the guidance and wisdom of the Almighty, but also untainted by any content specific enough to differentiate a Calvinist from a Yazidi.

Small wonder the Europeans think we’re a bunch of lunatics.

By Malcolm | Posted in Politics, Religion | Comments (6)

Religion of Peace

October 1, 2007 – 12:10 pm

Since 9/11, there has been a steady drone of voices from the Left asking “why do they hate us?” ((No, it’s not for the reason this wag suggests.)), and supplying, lest we might be tempted to assign any blame whatsoever to our enemies, a litany of reasons why U.S. influence in the world is toxic and malevolent. They assume that jihadist assaults on the West are purely reactive; that if we had only somehow been nicer, our virulent Islamist foes would instead view us with benign indifference. The truth, however, is that fundamentalist Islam is not, and has never been, a passive agency in the world, but has always had a clear and proactive agenda: the creation of a worldwide Ummah, to be achieved by the elimination of infidels, through conversion or slaughter.

Horace Jeffery Hodges, the Gypsy Scholar, has just written an incisive post on this topic, with a number of illuminating links. Required reading.

By Malcolm | Posted in Foreign Affairs, Religion | Comments (7)

Same Old Story

September 30, 2007 – 1:45 pm

Well, as we feared would happen, it appears that the peaceful uprising in Burma has been tamped down by ruthless violence. The UN has sent an envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, to speak with the ruling junta, and we can be sure that he will, at the very least, administer a stern finger-wagging — and if that proves ineffective, he may have to resort to more extreme measures, such as a baleful scowl, or perhaps even harrumphing. After all, these are pretty rough customers he’s dealing with, and this is no time for pussy-footing.

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By Malcolm | Posted in Foreign Affairs | Comments (1)

Today I Metablog…

September 29, 2007 – 10:48 pm

I expect things to settle down a bit as of tomorrow, but writing at any length requires, for me at least, quiet time alone, which has been in short supply all week. So for tonight, I find myself reduced not just to “meta-blogging”, which is simply pointing readers to the work done by others, but to meta-meta-blogging. In this case, following a link from our friend Kevin Kim — which in turn was based on a tip from his pal, and our occasional visitor, The Maven — we direct you to some wonderful little Flash animations, by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, of brief talks by the late Zen practitioner and autodidact Alan Watts. They are charming, and you can find them here. I particularly like “Prickles and Goo”.

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (1)

Low Life

September 27, 2007 – 11:34 pm

I do apologize for the paucity of content around here this week. But don’t go away mad: here, with a hat tip to my friend Greg Estren, is some fabulous video footage of the exotic fauna of the ocean’s abyssal depths. Do have a look.

By Malcolm | Posted in Shameless Filler | Comments (4)

More Good News

September 27, 2007 – 10:20 am

Here.

By Malcolm | Posted in Science | Comments (3)

Gigapan

September 26, 2007 – 11:35 pm

Not having the time this evening for any long-winded jibber-jabber, I’ll share with you something nifty I’ve just run across: a new system that enables ordinary digital cameras to take multi-gigpixel panoramas. Have a look here, and zoom in all you like.

By Malcolm | Posted in Technology | Comments (1)

What Was Said

September 26, 2007 – 11:04 pm

For those of you who are interested, here is a transcript of the events at Columbia University on Monday.

Looking back, I suppose little was gained, and perhaps something lost, by Mr. Bollinger’s caustic introduction, although for those of you who have only heard about it, it is worth reading, because it is much more than just taunting and name-calling; Bollinger makes it quite clear why a civilized world should have contempt for this regime.

But for Ahmadinejad’s admirers, it simply made him look brave to stand and take it. And for the rest of us, there was no need; we already know what the man is.

By Malcolm | Posted in Foreign Affairs | Comments (15)

Critical Mass

September 25, 2007 – 11:10 pm

We note with considerable interest the goings-on in Burma these days, where the military junta that runs the country — one of the most repressive governments in the world today — is finding itself in a bit of a cleft stick as Buddhist monks are waging an ever-bolder campaign of civil disobedience.

Were any other group attempting such defiance of the ruling committee, they would be crushed by the armed forces, but such is the popular allegiance to these monks that the army, so far, has not dared, and so they are being pushed ever deeper into a very difficult corner.

Science-fiction readers, of which I was one myself in my youth, may note some similarity in this situation to one that the late Isaac Asimov described in his Foundation series. In that story, when a credulous agricultural populace was forced to choose sides between the technological priesthood of the Foundation and the mighty army of the Galactic Empire, they sided with the priests — the stewards of their immortal souls.

It certainly would be wonderful to see this awful regime driven from power in a bloodless revolution, but it is not in the nature of those who have gained absolute power by force to surrender it peacefully. Something has to give way soon. The world is watching.

By Malcolm | Posted in Foreign Affairs, Religion | Comments (4)

Little By Little

September 25, 2007 – 10:42 pm

Today’s Physorg newsletter (which, as always, I recommend to those of you who like to keep up with science news) contained a story about what looks to me like an important piece of medical research, involving the role played by tryptophan in cancer and other diseases. Have a look here.

By Malcolm | Posted in Science | Comments (1)

In lumine Tuo videbimus creperum

September 24, 2007 – 11:32 pm

There was a predictable ruction about whether or not Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should have been allowed to speak at Columbia today, and I must say that at the very least it was gratifying to see that he was given a chilly greeting. It was nice to see the academic community turning out to express their disapproval of America’s enemies for a change.

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By Malcolm | Posted in Society and Culture, Foreign Affairs | Comments (12)

Nota Bene

September 22, 2007 – 9:52 pm

I have been busy this weekend with a two-day Iron Wire seminar (which is turning out to be one of the most interesting and esoteric experiences I’ve had in 32 years of kung-fu training), so for tonight I’ll just leave you with an engaging little diversion. It’s an online test of your ability to perceive and remember musical tones.

A tip: pay attention! Here it is.

By Malcolm | Posted in Mind and Brain, Music and Recording | Comments (6)

More from Mencken

September 21, 2007 – 11:09 am

Further wisdom from the Sage of Baltimore.

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By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (4)

Rot In Filth, and Call Me In The Morning

September 20, 2007 – 10:41 pm

Ask anyone these days, and they’ll tell you that health-care services in Cuba are second to none. Despite the island nation’s having been so thoroughly beggared by almost half a century of totalitarian Marxist rule that people drown themselves in rickety boats in desperate attempts to flee, even the humblest son of the soil, when troubled by the least infirmity, need go no farther than the nearest village to be seen to by world-class specialists working in gleaming state-of-the-art facilites. And it’s all free, free, free! Eat your heart out, imperialist running dog lackeys.

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By Malcolm | Posted in Society and Culture, Foreign Affairs | Comments (3)

Rights And Wrongs

September 19, 2007 – 5:23 pm

One hears a lot these days about a “right” to health care. I bristle at this, because I think the notion of “rights” as anything other than matters of human convention is rubbish. We may, as a society, choose to define our laws such that they include a “right” to those things we deem appropriate: health care, broadband Internet access, full pirate regalia for all adults, or whatever else we like — and of course we have already done exactly that in the case of freedom of the press, bearing arms, and so forth. But until we have made such formal arrangements, any talk of axiomatic “rights” is weightless froth. So while we may yet decide that it is in our nation’s interest to establish a universal health-care arrangement of some sort — and there are good arguments on both sides of the issue — to claim, as matters stand today, a “right” to such a government-supported service is to gabble nonsense.

I mention all of this because Bill Vallicella has just posted a pungent little essay on this very topic. Have a look here.

By Malcolm | Posted in Society and Culture, Politics | Comments (10)

Has Stick, Speaks Softly

September 18, 2007 – 1:25 pm

On September 6th, Israel did something in Syria, something about which they have been rather uncharacteristically mum. In today’s Wall Street Journal, Bret Stephens, ex-editor of the Jerusalem Post, considers what it might have been.

By Malcolm | Posted in Foreign Affairs | Comments (5)

Down On The Farm

September 18, 2007 – 10:33 am

Our pal The Stiletto takes a pointed look at farm subsidies. Here.

By Malcolm | Posted in Politics | Comments (8)

Out Of The Pool

September 17, 2007 – 11:45 pm

I’ve been swamped, and have had no time for the sort of brooding and omphaloskepsis required for gestating these posts. But today my friend Louis Franzetti sent along a copy of some recent Darwin Awards, and to keep you occupied this evening I offer a link that pops up a randomly chosen example every time you click it.

We’ll be back soon.

By Malcolm | Posted in Shameless Filler | Comments (0)

Our Public Servants

September 15, 2007 – 9:21 pm

I’ve been spending a few days in our seaside shack, reading a little H. L. Mencken. The collection I have in hand is The Vintage Mencken: Gathered by Alistair Cooke (at a mere $11.96, you should go right ahead and buy it).

In an essay entitled Mr. Justice Holmes, Mencken pauses briefly to assess our legislators:

The typical lawmaker of today is a man wholly devoid of principle — a mere counter in a grotesque and knavish game. If the right pressure could be applied to him he would be cheerfully in favor of polygamy, astrology, or cannibalism.

He also rates our jurists:

The average American judge as everyone knows, is a mere rabbinical automaton, with no more give and take in his mind that you will find in the mind of a terrier watching a rathole.

If you haven’t read any Mencken, your life is the poorer: he is one of America’s greatest writers and sharpest wits.

The great tragedy, and supreme irony, of Mencken’s life is that he spent his last eight years rendered aphasic by a cerebral thrombosis, unable to read or write.

By Malcolm | Posted in Books | Comments (2)

Shatz Hits the Fan

September 15, 2007 – 4:34 pm

Our friend Kevin Kim has recently begun and ended a storm-tossed relationship with a fellow by the name of Zach Shatz, who has written a slim book in which he attempts to explain Ultimate Reality through the prism of, well, prisms. Kevin did an interview with Shatz about the book (which, judging by this interview, is nothing more than foaming New Age poppycock), in which the author came up far short of impressing me with the coherence of his thinking, or the profundity of his insights.

Kevin has lots of readers, and one of them wrote him a witheringly scornful email about the interview, which Kevin promptly posted. Finally, Kevin, having had an increasingly frustrating behind-the-scenes email exchange with Shatz, has lost all patience with the man, and has posted the whole correspondence online.

Lesson to be learned: don’t expect Kevin Kim to help you disseminate your bullshit.

You can follow the whole exchange as linked below:

The interview.

The letter from Kevin’s reader.

Kevin applies the final smackdown.

By Malcolm | Posted in Rubbish | Comments (8)

Separate Cages

September 14, 2007 – 11:07 pm

It startles me how differently people can see things. We all like to flatter ourselves that our opinions are guided by naught but sweet reason, but we overlook that reasoning is in general terms simply a manufacturing process, and like all such processes its output depends sensitively upon its input. That input, however, depends in turn upon a constellation of evaluative judgments, unquestioned assumptions, intuitions, and cultural preferences that vary across so many dimensions, and which are sensitive to perturbation by so many contingent influences, that in fact, although the machinery of reason itself may function similarly in us all, the finished product may vary enormously among people who seem outwardly to be as similar as two peas in a pod.

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By Malcolm | Posted in General, Pretty Good Posts | Comments (1)

Man of the Worlds

September 14, 2007 – 10:11 pm

From my son Nick, a splendid young man, restless Internet spelunker, and the prop of my dotage, comes a link to what looks like an worthwhile website: The Worlds of David Darling. I’d never heard of the fellow, but according to Wikipedia he is a well-known British astronomer who has written scads of books.

Anyway, his site is glossy and professional, and the premier attraction therein is a promising resource called The Internet Encyclopedia of Science. Do have a look.

By Malcolm | Posted in Science | Comments (1)

Mass Confusion

September 13, 2007 – 11:35 am

To do physical science, one needs uniform references for fundamental quantities: length, duration, mass, and so forth. Over time, as the need for accuracy has increased, attempts have been made to place the fundamental units on ever more precise footing. For example, the reference meter, which was declared in 1791 by the French Academy of Sciences to be one ten-millionth of the distance between the North Pole and the Equator along a meridian running through Paris ((By the way, the measurement of this distance by a seven-year surveying expedition undertaken by Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre and Pierre François André Méchain is a fascinating story, and is told in the recent book The Measure of All Things, by Ken Alder.)), is now taken to be “the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299,792,458 of a second.”

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By Malcolm | Posted in Science, Technology | Comments (8)

Today’s Homework

September 12, 2007 – 11:39 pm

Here is some interesting reading for you all, courtesy of Edge.org.

First up is an essay called Moral Psychology and the Misunderstanding of Religion, by Jonathan Haidt, in which he takes the “new atheists” to task for failing to develop a subtle enough appreciation of the adaptive underpinnings of religion, and of morality. He draws on recent shifts in how the notion of group selection is understood, and introduces some non-traditional functional concepts about morality.

Next, read responses by Michael Shermer, David Sloan Wilson, and Sam Harris, here.

I haven’t had time to digest all of this myself yet. Have a look, and let’s talk about it a little later.

By Malcolm | Posted in Darwin and Biology, Reason and Philosophy, Religion | Comments (1)

Joe Zawinul, 1932-2007

September 11, 2007 – 11:53 pm

I was saddened to see in today’s news that the great Joe Zawinul has died, of cancer, at the age of 75.

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By Malcolm | Posted in Music and Recording | Comments (1)

Really Good

September 10, 2007 – 10:27 am

As a software engineer, and a techie all my life, I don’t get all that excited about most of the products that come down the pipe. But this could really be the Next Big Thing: Windows RG. Have a look here.

By Malcolm | Posted in Technology | Comments (1)

Clothes Make The Man

September 9, 2007 – 10:45 pm

Well, enough already, for now at least, with the religious stuff. I’m sure that readers are running for the hills after all that swooning about “numinous beauty and harmony”, etc. I had to make what I think is an important point, and I will return to it, I’m sure, before long, but for now, back to shallow-minded drivel, and lowbrow japery.

It’s Fashion Week here in Gotham, and every morning on the way to the midtown skyscraper where I arrange ones and zeroes for pennies a day, I pass by the big white tents in Bryant Park. West 40th Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues, is a buzzing hive of activity: news trucks, electrical equipment, reporters, caterers, fashion groupies, menials in various dusky shades, and of course the models, who are easy to spot: they’re the ones whose tuberculosis is apparently so advanced that they’ve been unable to eat for weeks.

Anyway, each morning as I pass by I gaze in wonderment at these elaborate temporary structures, which for a few magical days turn our charming little park into the Olympus of couture, knowing that within this temple of style — a venue that, for a homely schlub like me, is as inaccessible as the seraglio of Suleiman the Magnificent — the Illuminati are gathered to give the sacred codex of Fashion its equinoctical update.

As I trudge past this glittering palace to spend another day shackled to my oar, my heart is aflutter with curiosity. What will be on the runway today? What delicious flights of fancy are taking wing, to the delighted gasps of the fortunate few?

And the most important question of all: what will I be wearing this fall?

Well, wait no longer, friends. Have a look.

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By Malcolm | Posted in Rubbish | Comments (6)

No Praise, No Blame

September 8, 2007 – 10:17 pm

In last night’s post I tried to make clear that disbelief in God need not be correlated with the sort of spritual tone-deafness that Dr. William Vallicella argued for in a recent essay.

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By Malcolm | Posted in Religion | Comments (2)

Sweet Soul Music

September 7, 2007 – 11:55 pm

We have just passed the 10th anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa, and much is being made of letters, recently publicized, that indicate that she had grave doubts about the existence of God, and was deeply tormented by her own lack of faith.

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By Malcolm | Posted in Religion, Pretty Good Posts | Comments (11)

Don’t Get Up

September 7, 2007 – 12:20 am

I am not, nor have I ever been, a “morning person”. I enjoy the peace and solitude of the nighttime; it’s my only opportunity to think long, slow thoughts without interruption.

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By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (9)

That Oughta Do It

September 5, 2007 – 1:45 pm

From Reuters, by way of our friend Jess Kaplan, comes a reassuring item about airline safety. Have a look here.

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (6)

Tempest in a Teapot

September 5, 2007 – 12:29 am

We note with grave concern that the legendary Shaolin Monks, the state-sponsored Chinese “wushu” outfit, have got their saffron-hued knickers in a knot over some incendiary remarks made by an anonymous commenter in an online forum of some sort.

Read More »

By Malcolm | Posted in Martial Arts, Pretty Good Posts | Comments (0)

This Magic Moment

September 2, 2007 – 10:52 pm

In Kevin Kim’s excellent book Water from a Skull (which I will be commenting on in greater detail as time permits — meanwhile, follow this link and buy a copy), he quotes Mark Salzman’s book Iron and Silk, in which kung fu master Pan Qingfu says “live each moment as if it were your last.”

Kevin’s book is fascinating, and I have already learned a great deal from it, but this aphorism, while not without a certain dashing appeal, is simply not good advice. If nothing else, you’d never have any groceries in the house.

I offer this instead:

“Live each moment with a conscious awareness of its proper context.”

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (7)

In Startling Development, World Ends

September 1, 2007 – 10:02 pm

I realize, to use an apt metaphor, that when it comes to sports reporting lately here at waka waka waka, we’ve dropped the ball. Sure, we’ve covered some important events from time to time (see here, here, and even here), but when the deadline arrives each day, we usually find ourselves running other material: a narrow-minded and insensitive screed about religion, some sort of reactionary and poorly researched political polemic, or other twaddle. But today, we’re going with a story that is clearly on a par with the Hindenburg disaster, the wreck of the Titanic, or any other of history’s most depressing calamities:

The Michigan Wolverines ((Disclosure: I am a Wolverines fan.)), the number-5-ranked team in the nation — considered by many to be serious contenders for the national championship, and a virtual lock for the Big Ten title — were defeated today, in their season opener, by Appalachian State University, 34-32.

At home.

By “Appalachian State University”.

At home. That’s the Big House, friends. In Ann Arbor.

Appalachian State. Have you ever even heard of “Appalachian State”? Not me. They are from North Carolina, or someplace, apparently.

Want to learn more? Whaddya want from me, a link? Go ask your search engine. I’ll be in the kitchen, with my head in the oven.

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (1)

Happy Birthday Kevin!

September 1, 2007 – 12:46 am

It’s been a long day of work and travel, so we won’t be going to press tonight.

However, please join all of us here at waka waka waka in wishing our friend Kevin Kim a very happy 38th birthday!

By Malcolm | Posted in General | Comments (2)

September Song

August 30, 2007 – 11:07 pm

Labor Day weekend is here, and while a lot of folks are moping about summer coming to an end, you won’t hear any griping from me. Just as the advancing weeks of May and June fill me with a gathering dread each year as the heat and fetor approach, when I get to the end of August I begin to realize — with woozy incomprehension at first, but then with a growing sense of elation — that deliverance is at hand, and that against all the odds I have staggered and sweated through another summer in New York without taking my own life (or anyone else’s).

Now come the most beautiful months of all: September and October, when a reliable succession of Canadian fronts will drape, in graceful catenary arcs, across the weather maps in the Times, sweeping the skies clear of summer’s viscous murk. The air will sparkle and invigorate, the gentle harvest sun will bathe the countryside in its golden radiance, and our mighty city will rouse itself from its sweltering torpor and get about its important business once again. The days, clear and mild at first, will turn cool, then crisp, and the leaves will flare again with impossible, incandescent beauty.

Above all, though, as I’ve said before, what I love the most about the fall is the gathering rush of change, as the massive pendulum of the seasons, having rested briefly in the summer’s heat, turns and begins its ancient transit once again, taking us all along for the ride.

By Malcolm | Posted in General, Pretty Good Posts | Comments (1)

Growth Potential

August 29, 2007 – 10:28 pm

As one who has taken, shall we say, a rather nonstandard path through life, I’m always gratified to see mavericks and autodidacts come through with the goods, and I’ve just run across a particularly noteworthy example. Inventor John Kanzius, of Erie, PA, who is battling leukemia, has developed a technique, using nanoparticles and radio waves, that may be a powerful new weapon against cancer. Learn more here.

By Malcolm | Posted in Science | Comments (1)

Nasty By Design

August 28, 2007 – 1:18 pm

In a rather heated post a little while back, I railed against the notion that a merciful God would permit suffering such as that of little Abigail Taylor, the six-year-old girl who was recently disemboweled in a horrifying accident. The universal, reciprocal cruelty of the natural world also offers bountiful evidence that even if some sort of God exists, He cares not a fig for the torment of the living beings for whose existence He is reponsible.

In yesterday’s mail, correspondent Edward Babinski sent along a link to a website that extends this line of reasoning even farther than I had thought to take it; arguing that God is not indifferent, or nonexistent, but malicious. Have a look here.

By Malcolm | Posted in Religion | Comments (8)

Wafa Sultan

August 26, 2007 – 8:37 pm

With a hat tip to our friend the Big Hominid, we direct you to a remarkable video clip, of the apostate Muslim gadfly Wafa Sultan engaging in a heated debate on al-Jazeera television.

Sultan characterizes the struggle between jihadis and the West:

The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions, or a clash of civilizations. It is a clash between two opposites, between two eras. It is a clash between a mentality that belongs to the Middle Ages and another mentality that belongs to the 21st century. It is a clash between civilization and backwardness, between the civilized and the primitive, between barbarity and rationality. It is a clash between freedom and oppression, between democracy and dictatorship. It is a clash between human rights, on the one hand, and the violation of these rights, on other hand. It is a clash between those who treat women like beasts, and those who treat them like human beings. What we see today is not a clash of civilizations. Civilizations do not clash, but compete.

This is a brave woman. Apparently this clip has been making the rounds for a while, but I hadn’t run acroos it before, and perhaps you haven’t either. See it here.

By Malcolm | Posted in Society and Culture, Foreign Affairs, Religion | Comments (5)

Weather’s Fine, Wish You Were Here

August 25, 2007 – 10:40 pm

We are still more occupied with sun and surf than the glowing screen, but will be back in town, with nose reapplied to grindstone, this week.

Meanwhile, a rather odd item from the frontiers of astrophysical research: it appears that there is an enormous hole in the visible universe, a billion light-years across. Lately it seems that the more we see of the cosmos, the less we know. Learn (a little bit) more here.

By Malcolm | Posted in Science, Shameless Filler | Comments (3)