Our Common Life
I’ve been taking part in a weekly discussion course called “Choices for Sustainable Living.” The workbook is filled with essays on environmental sustainability, organized under …
Creepy Presidential Graphics
Filling Our Backgrounds With Slogans How many of our tax dollars are used to create those slogan backdrops that sit behind the president’s every public appearance? It’s downright creepy. …
That Wonderful Hypertext Experience
Hypertext\—the format that allows you to click on links and create your own path through information—is wonderful to experience. I often take it for granted. It’s like channel-surfing while …
Rang Dream
Last night I dreamt that I walked into a room in my parent’s old house and bumped into my grandfather, who was all dressed up for St. Patrick’s Day with dark green sportcoat and a kelly …
The True Story of Adam and Eve
What if Adam was a virus and Eve was a bacterium? That seems to be a growing consensus of the scientific community about the origins of the nucleus. A great article in Discover magazine takes up the …
The Word Bail
Consider the word “bail.” It is a container used to empty the water from a boat, and it’s the act of emptying water from a boat. “Bailing out” is the act of jumping out …
Scale
This is a photo of the Sombrero galaxy, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. It’s tempting to look at this as a star surrounded by clouds of dust, but according to NASA, the glow in the center …
Each Death an Opportunity
Here’s a hand-addressed personal letter I received last week: Dear Mr. Hall First, let me take a moment to offer my condolences on the passing of your loved one; Wendy Hall. While I know this …
First Buds of Spring
First Buds of Spring Originally uploaded by Poor Yorick. I was in the hot tub when I noticed this tree budding. I looked around at all the other trees nearby, but none of them, not even the same …
What's at Stake with Domestic Spying
My hat is off to Congresswoman Heather Wilson (R, New Mexico), who is calling for full investigations into the NSA domestic wiretapping scandal. She is chairwoman of the House Intelligence …