Author: Crist Inman

Selective Pantheon

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The Guardian, more than most newspapers, investigates and reports stories of historical-scientific “cabinet of curiosities” value that match our interests on this site.  This slide show below is an example, and is worth a visit.

It is a side show, actually, from a story the paper covered titled “How a book about fish nearly sank Isaac Newton’s Principia” (also worth a visit) and had the subtitle “Poor sales of lavishly illustrated book forced Royal Society to go back on promise to finance publication of Newton’s Principia;” so if pictures intrigue you visit their site and read the captions for each image.

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Gold’s Glitter Illuminated

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Back at about the time when Michael and Seth had posted their first reflections on this site, and Michael had just encountered his own first truly unusual finding in southern India, the newspapers across India were starting to report on this.  It took me months to be sure it was a true story.  And finally, about Thanksgiving time (USA holiday calendar) I took a moment to reflect on it.  I could not be happier to find that The New Yorker has done the kind of homework I had not had time to do.  If you are not yet a subscriber, now might be a good time to reconsider. Continue reading →

The Swerve, Prized Again

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File photo by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

I have already said how surprising I found it that writing about the influence of classical literature on modern thought can be so effectively illuminated; in fact I could not help but say it a couple of times.  On this site we like to celebrate the success of our favored visionaries, writers, producers, educators, artists, thinkers, doers.  One of the publications at the university where he teaches had special reason today to put his name in visible circulation (click the image above to go to the story) with the announcement mentioned here:

Greenblatt’s book, which describes how an ancient Roman philosophical epic helped pave the way for modern thought, was awarded the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction.

In its citation, the Pulitzer board described “The Swerve” as “a provocative book arguing that an obscure work of philosophy, discovered nearly 600 years ago, changed the course of history by anticipating the science and sensibilities of today.”

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Do You Remember These Dates?

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On July 20-22, 2007 all these people attended a workshop of sorts.  On those exact dates I was with my family on a small island in the Adriatic sea, watching off in the distance as fire fighters in airplanes performed their heroics in the forests surrounding Dubrovnik.  Little did I know that Daniel Kahneman was leading a master class for Edge (and those attendees) titled “A SHORT COURSE IN THINKING ABOUT THINKING.” Continue reading →

Yoga & Evolution

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A few months ago there was an article in The New York Times that apparently caused a ruckus (click the image to the left to read The Guardian‘s coverage of that aftermath) in the Western yoga community.  Maybe it is because I am not a member of the Western yoga community that, when I read the article originally I thought:   Brilliant.  Eastern tradition meets Western science.  Evolution.  Improvement.

Today I had a reminder about that article, and my response to it, while listening to this podcast.  The journalist (a Pulitzer-toting science writer who also has practiced yoga for more than 40 years and recently published The Science Of Yoga) writing that article says something about half way through that rings true: Continue reading →

Happy 150th, Oswego

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For a school not widely known outside its region and professional focus, it is interesting to note a bit about the man who founded a school in upstate New York in the 19th Century that has recently been quietly celebrated for things that we care deeply about on this site:

The Carnegie Foundation awarded Oswego State a prestigious Community Engagement Classification in January 2011… Then in May 2011, Oswego was named to the U.S. President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll “with Distinction,” an equally distinguished recognition for the college’s commitment to volunteerism, service learning and civic engagement.

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The Little Things Matter

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I appreciate the sentiment, if not all the implications, of the professor who commented for this amazing story in today’s New York Times story (in the “N.Y. /Region” section, for reasons you need to click through to understand): Continue reading →

Real Rural California

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In India, the migration from rural to urban areas is one of the most dynamic changes to the economy, the environment, the landscapes, the urbanscapes (just as in China and other rapidly developing agrarian economies) so it is refreshing to see and hear the stories that writer and photographer Lisa Hamilton shares on this site (click the image to go to one of those stories):

In February/March 2012, an ad-art campaign on trains throughout the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system will feature select portraits of people and places from rural California. In fall 2012, photographs from Real Rural will comprise a show at the California Historical Society Museum, and there will be a concurrent ad-art campaign on billboards in Los Angeles and Sacramento. Continue reading →

Happy Birthday, Douglas

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Amie, she-er than she, was a bit late on noting the birthday of one favored writer, and I, me-er than me, will be a bit early noting another.  Click on the image to the left and you will find a fun opportunity to celebrate this birthday and at the same time support conservation for these creatures, which I still have not seen in the wild but hope to one day do so, or at least participate in something like this; anyway, take a look:

11 March 2012 would have been Douglas Adams’ 60th Birthday. To celebrate this event, Douglas’ family and friends, in association with ‘Save The Rhino’ (one of Douglas’ favourite charities) are holding a very special birthday celebration in his honour at the Hammersmith Apollo in London. An evening’s entertainment from some of the finest names in the world of science, comedy, entertainment and music, with a very special premiere performance of Douglas’ material, this is one event that is definitely not to be missed. Continue reading →

Holi Trifecta

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Our last in a series of three tributes to The Guardian for their photographic prowess at capturing and educating about Holi.  Go visit their site to see larger versions of these amazing photos.  Meanwhile, stay tuned tomorrow. Continue reading →

Holier Than Holi?

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After noting several reasons, big and small, that we trust The Guardian, I kept looking at those photos.  When I showed Milo, as usual he already knew much more about the topic of Holi than I (not a major feat in this case because until seeing those photos in The Guardian I knew precisely zero about Holi), so today when those photos caught my eye again it occurred to me that The Guardian might just have some more.  Continue reading →

Guardians

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A trusted source of information, ideas, news, and more — the website of The Guardian is always worth a visit.  Today is no exception, but above (click here to go to the original) is an exceptional example of its visual contribution to our sense of wonder about India’s diverse communities and how they worship.

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Our Gang, Thevara (February Favorites)

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The passerby, known as a neighbor by now, aka something like “perambulating portrait person,” senses a few patterns: one youngster, perhaps four years old, is a gigglebox at all times; another, same age, is the village notification siren (SAIPE!); and a few always mix their moves like karate chop Bollywood extras. Continue reading →

Lucretian Illumination

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In a post some months ago I described the unexpected, but seemingly preordained, encounter with the concept of “swerve” in an article this man had written. Then today, this reference to Moby Dick and in particular the words “high time” triggered an interest in hearing The Swerve‘s author speak about those ideas.  The five minute wonder above hit the spot. Continue reading →

Connecting The Madeleines

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The young man working his way through the kitchen brought to mind a young man of about the same age, three decades earlier. I had the good fortune, in my early adulthood, to work in a restaurant owned and operated by a man who is one of the great chefs of his generation.  I did not work in the kitchen, but in the dining room, from 1983-1985. It provided the most important education of my life, which is saying a lot because I eventually earned a Ph.D. and even that did not top the learning earned in Guy Savoy’s restaurant.

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Not Your Average Madeleine

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One of the most effortless pastimes is visually-cued memory.  Out of nowhere you see something that reminds you of something and you are off to the races.  Or you hear something.  Whether the trigger is visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, or olfactory–or any combination of those–if you have the fortune of a stock of pleasant memories then something may take you to the kind of place linked in the image above.

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Our Gang, Thevara (Sunday Shuttle)

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The friendliest fellows to be found.  Any passerby will get a smile.  Any passerby who tries to click a snapshot will get the royal treatment: a split second shift from the middle of a game (which was the point of the snapshot) to the most spectacular improvised pose that could be mustered. Continue reading →

Perspective’s The Thing

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The first day of the Chinese new year offered the opportunity to reflect on commitment and the second offers something randomly different from the same source.  Click the image to the left for the bio of Douglas Coupland, an artist whose work seems worth seeking out:

What’s both eerie and interesting to me about déja vus is that they occur almost like metronomes throughout our lives, about one every six months, a poetic timekeeping device that, at the very least, reminds us we are alive. I can safely assume that my thirteen year old niece, Stephen Hawking and someone working in a Beijing luggage-making factory each experience two déja vus a year. Not one. Not three. Two. Continue reading →

Happy New Year, China

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Today marks the start of another year of the dragon, according to Chinese tradition.  I was just about to go find out what that might mean, but decided better of it.  That decision was influenced by the man in the picture to the right (click it for his bio) and what he said in this brief but moving response to the Annual Question that Edge puts to very smart folks (his response is the second one, so scroll down to that).

It is a fundamental principle of economics that a person is always better off if they have more alternatives to choose from. But this principle is wrong. There are cases when I can make myself better off by restricting my future choices and commit myself to a specific course of action. Continue reading →