Genres
We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane. Kilgore Trout -Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions, Ch 1.
The world is complicated and full of grays, but there's still truth there to be found. -Barack Obama
Family.
Philosophy and wine, or modern critical theory for the (inebriated) million
In which, my brother Craig provides me with an introduction to deconstruction, by way of formalism, structuralism, and semiotics, while sharing several bottles of good wine. Derrida never made more sense.Louise Watson – In Memoriam
Louise Watson passed away last week; I attended her memorial service yesterday, and the sanctuary was filled to overflowing; Louise was involved with many throughout the community.
Watson family.
Family.
The promise of new life
In the face of my grand-niece, Sophia Catherine Wiebe, shines all of the promise of new life. She inspires me every day. I look forward to the day when Cindy and I have our own grandchildren.
Mother Teresa’s advice
Many years ago, my wife gave me a copy of some simple advice Mother Teresa had written regarding how to live well. I love the sentiments, although I find them personally very challenging to follow on a daily basis; I don't always live up to them, but I keep them visible as gentle reminders of how to be a good human being. An example:
"People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; Forgive them anyway.
Evensong
In campanili carillons ring out,
perpetually pealing on the hour;
a life is lived from lauds into matins.haiku
Hummingbird sips from
fount made as for pleasure’s eye;
beauty brings beauty!haiku
Hummingbird hovers,
supping in fluted flower. . .
oh, pollen bearer!haiku
Old leaves drifting down,
vermilion and ochre,
resplendent in death.haiku
Star glows in the void,
pin point in the firmament:
quintessential!
Attrib: W. Burt Ferguson, Family.
Burt Ferguson Remembered: passions
My father-in-law Burt died recently, and before he died, we, Cindy, Scot and I, had some conversations with him about his passions. Cindy and Scot sat up through the night during Burt's last days, and reminisced about their Dad's many pastimes and loves. Aside from words and reading, Burt had many other passions. When he became interested in a pastime, he became “obsessed” with it. His greatest sporting passions were probably tennis, chess, and bicycling.
Oregon Scribbler.
Burt Ferguson Remembered: words, words, words
My father-in-law Burt died recently, and before he died, Burt and I spent many hours talking about language, history and philosophy, his great passions. Burt spent more time reading than any other of his pastimes. He was a serious reader, meaning both that he read carefully, and that he read very little fiction or humor, but focused on more sober subjects. One of the most powerful and recurring memories that his children have of him is Burt sitting in his den, reading and taking notes. This habit continued into his last days; Burt spent much of his retirement hours in his den engrossed in reading about his favorite subjects.Burt Ferguson Remembered: WWII
My father-in-law Burt died recently, and before he died, we, Cindy, Scot and I, had some conversations with him about his service in the U.S. Navy during World War II.
Taken prior to Operation Anvil, per Burt.. Attrib: W. Burt Ferguson, Family.
Attrib: W. Burt Ferguson, Family.
Burt Ferguson Remembered: early life
My father-in-law Burt died recently, and before he died, we, Cindy, Scot and I, had some conversations with him about his early life. William Burton Ferguson was born on January 12, 1925, in Portland, Oregon. His father and mother, Mel and Stella Wood Ferguson . . .Burt Ferguson: in memoriam
Burt Ferguson died last Thursday morning of heart failure; he was 85 years old. Burt's four children were with him at the end; one from afar, in spirit, even at that moment en route to him, and the rest around his bedside.
Family.
Burt is my father-in-law, my wife Cindy's father. He brought Cindy into this world, and for that alone I am deeply grateful to him.
In the mood for a sweet scientific joke? Biology meets chemistry
I saw a restaurant called The True Taste, and I thought, well, okay, what is the true taste? So I went inside and looked at the menu, which had several sections. They were labeled "Brown Sugars," "Honeys," "Molasses" and "Artificials." I thought this was really weird, and I went over to the waiter and I said, "What's going on? Don't you guys serve food?" The waiter was actually the owner of the restaurant as well, and he explained to me that this was a tasting bar for sweeteners. He said that he had no background in the food industry, he'd never worked in a restaurant, but he was a Ph.D. biologist who worked on chemical sensing, and ...
Healthcare and the last days – Letting go
The surgeon Atal Gawande asks, "What should medicine do when it can’t save your life?" In the U.S., terminally ill patients are most often given aggressive cure-at-all-costs treatment rather than palliative, or comfort care. But while patients live about the same amount of time whichever choice is made, for aggressive treatment the quality-of-life is much lower, and the economic costs are enormously higher. Gawande suggests that, for terminally ill patients, by changing the focus of their care to quality-of-life rather than aggressive treatment, the economic problem itself will be significantly lessened as a result.Martin Gardner – Thanks for many hours of delight
Martin Gardner, a serious thinker and polymath, most famous for his mathematical puzzles and his Annotated Alice, died recently at the ripe old age of 95. Martin was at his most public during the years that he wrote the famous Mathematical Games column for Scientific American. I will miss him very much, not so much for his puzzles, which held little interest to me, but for his wide ranging essays and expositions on science, mathematics, philosophy and even poetry.
The Mosque near Ground Zero, continued – Britt Towery
Britt Towery weighs in on the mosque near Ground Zero, in his post entitled All religions subject to U.S. Constitution. Here is a highlight : The center is not at Ground Zero but two blocks away. It is not designed as a local mosque but to serve the wider community. It also is meant to improve interfaith relationships among people of every faith. In a nutshell it is promoting tolerance.
The Mosque near Ground Zero, continued – Leonard Pitts
Leonard Pitts asks:
... One wonders how far from Ground Zero ... [is it] proper for Muslims to build? A mile? Twenty? A hundred? Or maybe nowhere within the borders of these United States.
The Mosque near Ground Zero – Uniting Americans Against Terrorism
"Build the mosque near ground zero! Families of the Christian and Muslim victims can share common grief, and Christians and Muslims, together as Americans, can show common cause in the fight against global terrorism." -Thomas A. Wiebe, The Oregonian, Short Takes, Aug 1, 2010The Bard of Wasilla
Sarah Palin is now the self-styled Shakespeare of Twitter, and has stimulated a twitter-based exchange of wit; however, the humor only served to obscure the fear-mongering of Palin's initial message.
Iraq as a Failed Anti-Terrorism Policy
The Bush administration has seriously hurt America’s anti-terrorism efforts with a failed policy in Iraq. For the past 18 months, the Bush administration has focused America's military almost exclusively on Iraq, spending precious lives and money to fight internal Iraqi terrorism that was created by invading Iraq. Over 600 US troops and a half a trillion dollars have been lost on Iraq, tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed, with no end in sight.
Our vital Microbiome: bacteria cure diseases too!
Recently, normal bacteria from a human gut were transplanted into another person who was suffering from a terrible gastrointestinal disease, and the disease was eradicated! The New York Times recently published an article noting this feat, and summarizing our current understanding of the human microbiome, as the microbial species that inhabit our body are collectively known.
Toyota Prius’s not so "sudden acceleration"
Do Toyotas suddenly accelerate? The Department of Transportation isn't having any of it; it appears to be pretty much just driver error.
Examining race and innocence
Here is a thoughtful article regarding race and innocence, entitled "I'm black, you're white, who's innocent? Race and power in an era of blame", by Shelby Steele. It was published first in the Atlantic Monthly in June of 1988, and it is still relevant.
Is the International Baccelaureate program anti-American?
The International Baccelaureate (IB) program has slowly been catching on in U.S. high schools as a college preparatory alternative to the more typical Advanced Placement (AP) program. Some opponents to its introduction have labeled it 'anti-American'.
Watch USA v England . . . in Lego-motion!
A Lego reenactment of the goals scored in the USA vs. England 2010 World Cup group match.
For my brother Peter.
The bigotry of "judicial activism"
Stephanie Jone's Washington Post article, entitled "Thurgood Marshall's legacy deserves cheers, not sneers", is a solid response to the GOP flogging of Thurgood Marshall during the Kagan Supreme Court confirmation hearings last week; Marshall was accused repeatedly of being an "activist" judge. "Activist" is a term which is often used by conservatives to define a judge who goes beyond the Constitution to make law, rather than interpret it.David Brooks over-reacts to McChrystal’s firing
David Brook's opinion piece in the New York Times, The Culture of Exposure, was written in response to the article in Rolling Stone about General Stanley McChrystal, which precipitated McChrystal's loss of his Afghanistan military command. While I generally agree with Mr. Brook's sentiments regarding sensationalism from the media (of which he is part), some of which serves to over-expose poor private behavior, I find his response to Gen. McChrystal's dismissal from command incomplete and inadequate.
Oregon Scribbler.
Congratulations to Dr. Jon! Woohoo!
Our son Jonathan Wiebe graduated from the University of Virginia medical school recently, and just started his residency at Cedars Sinai hospital in Los Angeles. Congratulations, Jon!
"Superman violates the laws of physics!" (I will never live that down.)
Many years ago, my wife and I viewed the Superman movie with Christopher Reeve, which featured a scene wherein Superman sees Lois Lane being crushed in an earthquake, and so he flies around the earth faster than the speed of light so that he can go back in time and rescue Lois just before she is crushed.
My immediate response to this was "That couldn't happen; nothing can move faster than the speed of light." My wife's response was to start giggling without pause.
Listen to an Internet choir: lush!
A choir as big as the Internet! Eric Whitacre directs a virtual choir.
Take a listen!
Craig Venter is utterly amazing!
Craig Venter and his team have taken a large step in synthetic biology: They have created a full bacterial chromosome starting from a computer model of the chromosome! Enter, Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn1.0.
Book review, Title The Pacific, Author Hugh Ambrose, Rating 2.5,
The Pacific
Hugh Ambrose
Book review
Too pacific
I picked this book up on whim, to fill the hours of a long plane ride, mostly because of my admiration of the The Band of Brothers HBO series. I had read that the new HBO Spielberg-Hanks production The Pacific was also excellent, but I do not have access to HBO and was waiting for the series to be published in blue-ray. So I thought, the book The Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose, upon which the HBO series was based, was very good, so why not just read The Pacific in anticipation of that TV series?
Book review, Title Angler, Author Barton Gellman, Rating 3.0,
Angler
Barton Gellman
Book review
The historic Cheney Vice-Presidency
Bart Gellman's book Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency is a competent and sometimes surprising look at Dick Cheney's vice-presidency. The most surprising revelation? Cheney's fall from W.'s grace.
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