Last Published Jan 23?

If you thought I had given this space up, well, so did I. Not that you're reading it any more.

But, 'tis the time when papers are due, and that means nervous energy, and that means curious thoughts that have to go somewhere. And, like most things I don't know what to do with, this is filed under "Global Warming".

Item: Alchemy is everywhere. I'm pretty sure about this. I'm trying to determine for myself that Shakespeare and Jonson couldn't avoid it. Or Milton. Or Lewis. 

Item: A good use for a defunct blog is to post words together that currently have unsatisfactory Google search results. See next post.

Item: Move over Sudoku. Or is that Pseudo-Ku? Ken-Ken thinks he's better than you. Hmm. That almost scans. Again:

Move, move over Sudoku

Ken-Ken's now the thing to do.

The artist lives.

This space is only mostly dead. I actually got palpaple recognition for the days of yore when I took photographs at Nashotah House. See a reference to a publication where I have a credit below.

The post on Stand Firm

The online edition of the 2008 Pentecost Missioner

At least technology is getting warm

I'm a professed agnostic about global warming. I affirm our duty to be pious stewards of creation. I wish the consequences of technology weren't so often ugliness and corruption. My unstudied opinion is that cracks are getting deeper in the science that demonstrates an overheating planet. But I'm not a scientist.

One thing I haven't read anything about is the psychological and religious dimensions (dimentia?) of those on both sides of the disagreement. My perception is that a lot of religious/apocalyptic fervor is being displaced into predictions that make the whole flock look a little Chicken Little. The concerm seems beyond rational and beyond environmental conscienciousness. I suspect secularizing tendencies result in less respect for the eternal/immaterial which result in excessive devotion of the temporal/material. But those devotions would only be faulty by way of excess.* I would like to know more about the psychical human dynamics of this phenomenon.

It's also worth noting that radical environmentalism is an elitist game. The rich are the most concerned and the least affected by drastically expensive policy change. The poor (people and nations) have the least say and are most adversely affected by costs, sanctions, etc. The rich, always having the most say, often show consideriable inconsideration in their idealism.

My favorite aspect of all the hoopla is the technological innovation that is resulting. In the long term it is in our best interests to become less dependent on dirty energy. I wonder how much progress would result if, instead of civic penalties and UN sanctions, an enormous foundation was established to dole out rewards for cost-effective advancement of solutions. Think how much award money could be given in "Glo-bel" prizes if we spent a tithe of current enviro-budgets.

All of the above was supposed to be a really short precursor to links on several articles I've read the last few days that make the whole issue fascinating. Here are the links:

• An environmental minister sez, "Go minister to sick, thirsty, illiterates first."
• A Portland gym admits that myst gyms waste kinetic and potential energy. And taps the gym rat's wheels for the potential.
  
• Toyota puts new meaning in "sun-roof".
• Tulane astronomer decries the new inquisition.

*According to this (admittedly old) article the counter-productivity of recycling paper has been admitted for years, even by the New York Times. But the religion of recycling demands sacrifices, and good luck finding green enterprises that renounce any form of recycling, even when it's more expensive and harmful than new paper.

Works cited a citable work

I'm pretty sure I post on this subject every paper season. So far no publisher has apologized to me personally or made the changes I want as far as I can see.

I don't mind doing bibliographical citations. I really don't. They're like a puzzle. But surely there must be a better way. I propose a 4-fold solution.

1. Publishers should be forcibly compelled to print in their books exactly what the citation for that book should look like. I'm a Turabian adherent so I'd be happy to concede all other formats can be left out. But it should be there in Turabian or the publisher should have to buy triple carbon offsets for killing trees and not honoring their deaths with citatory directions.

2. Typewriters are dead. Bibliographical cites should take advantage of word processors' ability to align on tabs. I have suggestions for how this could look and we'd all be better for it but I won't try and make it work in a web browser.

3. Any citation should be considered valid if it has an ISBN in it. What else do we really use any more to find sources?

4. End notes are anathema. If anyone cares enough to make a note they think I should care enough to read they should put it on the page so I don't have to flip for it.

It's rarely a good sign when I start having totalitarian thoughts. But in these cases I would exercise a will to power if I had any such thing. 

Rant over.

Why Penguins are better than Killer Whales

http://failblog.org/2008/12/09/pengwin/

Turabian Nights

Some nights you got to stay up until you get the citations down.

Weighing question: How do you cite a text (*cough* Phaedrus) where it's published (as a translation no less) but what you really care about is the introduction to that particular edition? Credit is due to the author (Plato), translator (X) and introductor (X again). My best guess based on Turabian 11.25:

Nichols, James H., Jr. Introduction to Phaedrus, by Plato, translated by James H. Nichols Jr. 

Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998.

I don't ever get tired of doing bibliographical cites, it just seems the books I use never fit neatly into one Turabian category. Ottobib's citation looks dubiously truncated:

Plato, and James Nichols. Phaedrus. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998.

By the way, the citation for Turabian herself (shout out to the Armenians who are here tonight) must the about as boring as citations can get, with the possible exception of the "et. al.":

Turabian, Kate et.al. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

QE2: World's fastest retirement home

Really?

I'm not surprised that someone with the means and disposition would choose to live on a cruise ship, let alone the QE2.

The amazing thing to me is that it only costs GBP 3700 per month to realize such an existence.