It's Alive! "People once worried about the boundary between the living and the nonliving. Today, the boundary seems meaningless...." -- Attributed to Francis Crick Opening of "My name is David Tennant, M.D. From a public-relations newsletter
See also the previous entry, For the origin of the title GATTACA, Posted 7/31/2004 at 4:01 PM |
Advanced French
This accusation may, of course, have roots in political or religious fanaticism, even though gene therapy is less controversial than other aspects of genetic engineering. For reasons why some feel strongly about this area of research, see the remarks of Francis Crick in a Thursday Log24 entry. Posted 7/31/2004 at 5:31 AM |
For the Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola: In God's Name
Posted 7/31/2004 at 3:00 AM |
The Fullness of Time In memory of Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, who died yesterday: "Having solved one of the basic mysteries of life here on Earth, Dr. Crick seems happy to skewer any notions of a life beyond. For him, the most profound implication of an operational understanding of consciousness is that 'it will lead to the death of the soul.' -- "After the Double Helix: Unraveling the Mysteries of the State of Being," by Margaret Wertheim in The New York Times of April 13, 2004 Posted 7/29/2004 at 4:01 PM |
In loving memory of Part of a Log24 entry Southern The Agony and a mandorla, The New York Times quotes Posted 7/29/2004 at 4:09 AM |
Get Your Ticket
From a Log24 entry Well if you want to ride in Rock Island, Illinois the picture at the top of this entry. Posted 7/28/2004 at 4:31 PM |
The Freshmen, Part II From the Daily Princetonian,
Caption: Cate Edwards' Princeton friends support her and her father. "... when Sen. John Edwards, father of Cate Edwards '04, decided to run for president, the troop of 17 students sacrificed tans and theses to pile into a fleet of minivans headed to New Hampshire.... From Chuck Polisher's "It's claimed that "Goin' to Carolina in my mind..." Posted 7/28/2004 at 1:00 PM |
End of an Era? "To put it simply, in those days we had -- Carmine De Sapio Posted 7/28/2004 at 2:56 AM |
Note added on 7/28 at 5:01 AM: See also Joyce's definition of "epiphany." Posted 7/27/2004 at 4:07 AM |
Happy Birthday and Kevin Spacey From a novel, A tour guide describes "Ibrahim pointed down the cobbled street to a half circle of bricks set in the street. 'There is where Jesus began to carry the cross. Down the street is the Chapel of Flagellation, where the Roman soldiers whipped Jesus, set on him a crown of thorns, and said, "Hail, King of the Jews!" Then Pilate led him to the crowd and cried, "Ecce homo! Behold the man!"' Ibrahim delivered this information with the excitement of a man reading bingo numbers in a nursing home." In keeping with this spirit of religious fervor and with the spirit of Carl Jung, expositor of the religious significance of the mandala, Behold -- The Mandala of Abraham For the religious significance of this mandala, see an entry of May 25, 2003: Posted 7/26/2004 at 11:07 PM |
Happy Birthday,
Posted 7/26/2004 at 7:20 PM |
His Way Suggested by George Steiner's phrase in the previous entry, "as in inverse canons"--
Posted 7/25/2004 at 11:11 PM |
Richard Neuhaus on George Steiner's "... the facts of the world are not and will never be 'the end of the matter.' Music joins grammar in pointing to the possibility, the reality, of more. He thinks Schopenhauer was on to something when he said music will continue after the world ends.
"Goin' to Carolina in my mind...." Posted 7/25/2004 at 8:30 AM |
Be Afraid.
Click on picture for details. Posted 7/24/2004 at 2:56 PM |
Is Nothing Sacred "With a holy host of others -- James Taylor "The town of Mount Pleasant
The Agony and a mandorla, Posted 7/24/2004 at 3:09 AM |
Name Claim From a Google Groups search on "diamond theorem" today: -- Jim Croce Posted 7/23/2004 at 11:11 PM |
New Web Page: The Grid and the Quilt: Posted 7/18/2004 at 6:29 PM |
New Web Page: Posted 7/18/2004 at 1:22 AM |
New Web Page: Posted 7/17/2004 at 2:00 PM |
"Ready for more international espionage and intrigue? On July 23, Matt Damon At the end of 'Identity,' Bourne promised retaliation to Treadstone (the super-secret agency that created him) if it came after him." And now... Bad Will Hunting
Super-secret? You can't make this stuff up. Posted 7/15/2004 at 3:04 PM |
In memory of Frances Hansen, cruciverbalist extraordinaire: The first crossword puzzle -- For related commentary on telepathic interplay, see an entry for Aug. 29, 2002. For related material on intersecting word patterns and telepathic interplay, see The Demolished Man, by Alfred Bester, and We Are The Key, a Log24 entry for St. Lucia's Day, 2003. Here is an illustration of what might be called, as in the above puzzle, a "ten miles pit," from Forbidden Planet, a classic film, based on Shakespeare's The Tempest, discussed in the 8/29/02 entry. A quotation that somehow seems relevant:
Frances Hansen died on Friday, July 9. For more on words and The Roots of Coincidence (the subject of the previous entry), see the entries of July 8-10. Posted 7/15/2004 at 2:29 AM |
Yesterday's first entry contained a picture of the Philadelphia group The Roots: Yesterday's last entry, "Welcome to Mr.
Motley's Neighborhood," dealt with properties of social networks.
Trying to learn more about such properties, I just came across this in
the Wikipedia:
Small World Phenomenon -- "The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, based on articles originally published in The New Yorker, elaborates the 'funneling' concept. In it Gladwell argues that the six-degrees phenomenon is dependent on a few extraordinary people ('connectors') with large networks of contacts and friends: these hubs then mediate the connections between the vast majority of otherwise weakly-connected individuals." From USA Today -- Posted 7/12/2004 10:51 PM Updated 7/13/2004 4:32 AM The Roots tap urgent beat in 'Tipping Point' "The Tipping Point refers to Malcolm Gladwell's book about critical moments that touch off social phenomena, and the album certainly conveys a sense of urgency. Between the riveting beats and frontman Tariq 'Black Thought' Trotter's razor-sharp lyrics about a range of social ills, it's almost impossible to turn away." -- Steve JonesFor more on black thought, click on the picture of Willard Motley's book in the previous entry. Posted 7/15/2004 at 1:11 AM |
Will You Be My Friend?
Only On My Own Turf. By Esther Dyson, Editor at Large Special to ZDNet July 12, 2004, 3:00 AM PT On social-networking Web services: "Perhaps people will revert to private social networks--ones they manage locally.... Perhaps the law of networks--the strength of a tie degrades by the square of the number of links--would become more apparent, and perhaps that would be a good thing. I'm not sure how good that is as a business model, but it works as a social model." "the law of networks--the strength of a tie degrades by the square of the number of links...." Here are some useful references encountered while fact-checking Ms. Dyson's assertion about the "law of networks" -- Links on Graph Theory and Network Analysis The Navigability of Strong Ties: Small Worlds, Tie Strength and Network Topology (pdf) Modeling Coleman's Friendly Association Networks (pdf) The Strength of Weak Ties: A Network Theory Revisited (pdf) Scientific Collaboration Networks, II (pdf) (Deals specifically with tie-strength computation.) Dynamic Visualization of Social Networks and, finally, a diagram of social networks in Shakespeare that conclusively demonstrates that there is no simple relationship between strength of ties and number of ties: Cleopatra's Social Ties (png) Perhaps what Ms. Dyson had in mind was the following (courtesy of The Motley Fool): "Metcalfe's Law of Networks states that the value of a network grows by the square of the size of the network. Translated, this means that a network that is twice as large as another network will actually be at least four times as valuable. Why? Because four times as many interconnections are possible between participants in the larger network.
When you add
a fourth person to a group of three, you don't add just one more
networked relationship. You add several. The new individual can network
with all three of the existing persons, and vice versa. The Internet is
no different. It became more and more valuable as the numbers of
computers using it grew." For another perspective on this alleged law, from science fiction author Orson Scott Card, see The Group, a Log24 entry of Sept. 24, 2002. Elsewhere, in a discussion of social-networking software: Obviously, ties resulting from such a request will be weak, rather than strong. However, as study of the above network-theory links will reveal, weak ties can sometimes be more useful than strong ties. An example: Compare and contrast with The best response to this question "Si me deveras quieres, (See Shining Forth.) Posted 7/14/2004 at 9:00 PM |
Bright Star
From Robert A. Heinlein's
Today's birthday: Posted 7/14/2004 at 4:25 PM |
Value
American Heritage Dictionary -- val·ue NOUN: 6. Mathematics An assigned or calculated numerical quantity. Commentary -- See Boyz N the Hood: Kerry, Edwards Emphasize Values (Log24 7/11, 2004). Time Magazine, issue dated July 19, 2004 --
Movie sequels are getting raves..." Boyz N the Hood, Part II -- First Family Visits Hood: After the service, Bush spoke with the press outside the chapel.
"These incidents were basically thrust upon the innocent Iraqi people by gangs, violent gangs...." "I know this, that we're plenty tough, and we'll remain tough...." "Happy Easter to everybody. Thank you." Happy Bastille Day, Fort Hood.Posted 7/14/2004 at 1:20 PM |
Character and Values In response to this morning's Wizard-of-Id example (see 1:22 PM entry) of a political Bob-Hope-style Christian wisecrack (a style more apt to make me gag than laugh), some further quotations:
The Washington Post on the gigolo candidate in Boston Monday: "In a lunch speech to more than 1,000 women who had donated $500 to $2,000 to his campaign or the Democratic Party, Kerry was joined on stage by his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry.... He focused his comments on improving health care and creating more jobs -- notions that he said 'are not Democratic values. They're not Republican values. They are American values.' " Let us pass over Kerry's ignorance of the difference between desiderata (things considered desirable) and values (principles, standards, or qualities considered desirable). A definition of "values" in a different sense, one that might appeal to the late St. Laurance Rockefeller, dead on 7/11, who majored in philosophy at Princeton: "In an artistical composition, the character of any one part in its relation to other parts and to the whole — often used in the plural: as, the values are well given, or well maintained." -- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 Rockefeller is, I hope, now in a place where he can discuss this definition with Bach as it applies to, say, that composer's "Goldberg Variations." Here below, another sort of Goldberg Variations seems appropriate to the times we live in ... The following composition was inspired by Whoopi Goldberg's remarks at last Thursday's Radio City Music Hall Democratic Party fund-raiser. Democratic Political Art:
Motherhood and Apple Pie Sources: Posted 7/12/2004 at 10:31 PM |
Sequel
Posted 7/12/2004 at 1:29 PM |
Posted 7/12/2004 at 1:22 PM |
"J. S. Bach's 'Goldberg Variations' is a self-contained world, immersion in which is transformative.... At the end of Variation 30, Bach writes simply 'Aria da capo.' I have written it out for the convenience of the players. This recurrence of the Aria, after its long journey through thirty variations and especially coming immediately after the exuberant Quodlibet (Variation 30), is magical. It is the same Aria, yet subtly different: transformed." Posted 7/12/2004 at 4:16 AM |
Campaign Song "All things return to the One. -- Zen koan, epigraph to -- attributed to Robert Frost
Posted 7/12/2004 at 1:44 AM |
Los Angeles Times 2:38 PM PDT, July 9, 2004 -- Boyz N the Hood: Kerry, Edwards Emphasize Values By Matea Gold, Times Staff Writer BEAVER, W. Va. -- Anticipating a full-frontal attack by President Bush, Sens. John Edwards and John Kerry offered a vigorous defense of their character today, arguing they are more aligned with the concerns of the middle class as they accused the administration of having hollow values. For further details, see Ann Coulter
Posted 7/11/2004 at 3:57 PM |
Oxford Word
From today's obituary in The New York Times of R. W. Burchfield, editor of A Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary: "Robert William Burchfield was born Jan. 27, 1923, in Wanganui, New Zealand. In 1949, after earning an undergraduate degree at Victoria University College in Wellington, he accepted a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford. There, he read Medieval English literature with C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien."For more on literature and Wanganui, see my entry of Jan. 19. 2003, from which the following is taken.
Posted 7/10/2004 at 3:17 PM |
Wrestling with Words "Philosophers ponder the idea of identity: what it is to give something a name on Monday and have it respond to that name on Friday...." -- Bernard Holland, The New York Times of Monday, May 20, 1996 From today's New York Times obituaries: R. W. Burchfield died Monday. He was "an internationally renowned lexicographer who wrestled the Oxford English Dictionary into the era of 'sexploitation.' " In other news.... "Although Mr. Kerry had told the crowd at the New York fund-raiser that 'every single performer' on the bill had 'conveyed to you the heart and soul of our country,' his campaign on Friday sought to distance Mr. Kerry and his running mate, Senator John Edwards, from the anti-Bush jokes, lyrics and statements of some of the entertainers. But it declined to release a videotape of the performance at which Ms. Goldberg, a bottle of wine in hand, made an extended sexual pun out of the president's surname. [Also on Friday...] At an afternoon airport rally in Beaver, W. Va., a town of 1,378 people,
Mr. Kerry attached the word 'value' to virtually every line of his
standard stump speech...." Somehow, a different word comes to mind. Posted 7/10/2004 at 1:36 PM |
Scoop This afternoon I came across, in a briefcase I seldom use, two books I had not looked at since I bought them last month:
A Log24 entry yesterday referred to a comedic novel on the role of chance in physics, Cosmic Banditos. Today's New York Times quotes an entertainer who referred to President Bush yesterday, at a political fund-raiser, as a bandito. Another coincidence... this one related directly to the philosophy of coincidences expounded jokingly in Cosmic Banditos. I draw no conclusions from such coincidences, but they do inspire me to look a little deeper into life's details -- where, some say, God is. Free association on these details, together with a passage in Sanctuary, inspired the following collage: Related Texts Faulkner on a trinity of women in Sanctuary (Ch. 25): "Miss Reba emerged from behind the
screen with three glasses of gin. 'This'll put some heart into
us,' she said. 'We're setting here like three old sick cats.'
They bowed formally and drank, patting their lips. Then they
began to talk. They were all talking at once,* again in half-completed sentences, but without pauses for agreement or affirmation." "In Defense of the Brand":
"When I was helping Frito corn chips expand its core user group in the
mid-'90s, we didn't ask Frito-Lay to just wave the Fritos banner. The brand
was elevated to a place where it could address its core users in a way that
was relevant to their lifestyle. We took the profile of the audience and
created a campaign starring Reba McEntire. It captured the brand's essence,
and set Frito eaters amidst good music, good people, and good fun."
Song lyric, Reba McEntire:
"I might have been born just plain white trash, but Fancy was my name." Loren Eiseley, Notes of an Alchemist: I never found the hole in the wall; I never found Pancho Villa country where you see the enemy first. -- "The Invisible Horseman" * A significant phrase. See
Posted 7/9/2004 at 7:11 PM |
Bandito 12:25 PM July 8:
Personally, I prefer a blue-green star: Follow-up of 2 PM July 9, 2004 -- From today's New York Times: "Texas Bandito, how much money did you put in your pocket today?" John Mellencamp crooned in a country ballad. In a two-and-a-half hour gala that raised $7.5 million, a record for a single event, Chevy Chase poked fun at the president's pronunciation of "nuclear"... The concert brought 6,200 people, paying $250 to $25,000 each... beating the $6.8 million haul from a parallel gala last month in Los Angeles featuring Barbra Streisand, Willie Nelson, and Billy Crystal. The take will be split.... Here, Chevy, is another way to pronounce "nuclear"-- The Source: Click on picture for details. Posted 7/8/2004 at 12:25 PM |
ART WARS: Bronze Star
Recommended reading on the visual arts: Both of the above are Log24 entries for Friday, July 2, 2004. This date is notable for the following celebrity deaths:
Another name can now be added to this list of public figures to admire:
In view of the Log24 entries of the date of Murphy's death, which are in turn based on the preceding day's entry on Rocky Balboa and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I am beginning to believe there may be some truth in the saying, "God is in the details." Some details from Saxon: "He sold his first illustrations while still in high school. He drew boxers to publicize matches, sold his first cover illustration to the Knights of Columbus magazine before he was 20, and in 1940 sold a cover to the popular magazine Liberty. In World War II, Mr. Murphy served in infantry and antiaircraft units in the Pacific, rose to the rank of major and won a Bronze Star. He also drew and painted portraits of the soldiers and their commanders, as well as sketches of Japanese life, which were published in The Chicago Tribune. He then worked
as an illustrator and cover artist for magazines, including Esquire and
Collier's. In 1949, Mr. Murphy started 'Big Ben Bolt,' a comic strip
about a young boxer, which lasted almost 25 years." No Walt Kelly, perhaps, but definitely a contender. Posted 7/8/2004 at 2:00 AM |
Beyond Geometry (Title of current L. A. art exhibit)
"The greatest obstacle to discovery -- Daniel J. Boorstin, American historian, educator, writer. Source: The Washington Post, "The Six O'Clock Scholar," by Carol Krucoff (29 Jan. 1984) For the illusion of knowledge, see (for instance) The Importance of Being Nothingness, by Craig J. Hogan (American Scientist, Sept.-Oct. 2001). A bit more seriously... "These cases are neither harmless nor amusing." -- Craig J. Hogan, op. cit. For example: "Thanks to Dr. Matrix for honouring this website with the Award for Science Excellence on May 14, 2002 and selecting it for prominent display in the categories of Mathematics and Creative Minds." See also my notes On Dharwadker's Attempted Proof, November 28, 2000, and The God-Shaped Hole, February 21, 2001. Posted 7/7/2004 at 7:00 PM |
Not-So-Solemn Requiem Funeral song for Marlon Brando to sing, at long last, to the immortal Grace Kelly... "Everybody's just dying to be heard..." -- KHYI radio, Plano, Texas, 4:00 PM EDT (... followed at 4:04 PM by ... Relevant theology... "Death is not earnest in the same way the eternal
is. To the earnestness of death belongs precisely that capacity
for awakening, that resonance of a profound mockery which, detached
from the thought of the eternal, is an empty and often brash jest, but
together with the thought of the eternal is just what it should be...." -- Søren Kierkegaard, Works of Love, Posted 7/7/2004 at 4:07 PM |
Elegance Except, of course, for Posted 7/7/2004 at 2:00 PM |
Contender "Jack Nicholson has said he believes, as do many actors, that when Brando's gone, everyone moves up a place."
-- Claudia Luther and Elaine Dutka, Los Angeles Times staff writers Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront: Terry Malloy: "It wasn't him, Charley, it was you. Remember that night in the Garden you came down to my dressing room and you said, 'Kid, this ain't your night. We're going for the price on Wilson.' You remember that? 'This ain't your night'! My night! I coulda taken Wilson apart! So what happens? He gets the title shot outdoors on the ballpark and what do I get? A one-way ticket to Palookaville! You was my brother, Charley, you shoulda looked out for me a little bit. You shoulda taken care of me just a little bit so I wouldn't have to take them dives for the short-end money." Charley Malloy: "Oh, I had some bets down for you. You saw some money." Terry Malloy: "You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let's face it. It was you, Charley." Sylvester Stallone in Rocky: "I can't beat him. But that don't bother me. The only thing I want to do is to go the distance, that's all. Because if that bell rings and I'm still standing, then I'm gonna know for the first time in my life, see, that I wasn't just another bum from the neighborhood." Posted 7/2/2004 at 2:25 PM |
Is Nothing Sacred?
Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, (Click on logo for details.) The reader may determine whether the Philadelphia nothing is the sort of nothing deemed, by some, sacred in my note of March 9, 2000. I personally have a very low opinion of
Kimmelman and his "ethos of countercultural disruption." The sort
of light sculpture his words evoke is not that of the Pantheon (illustrated
in an entry for St. Peter's Day)
but that of the current Philadelphia "Big Nothing" show, which in turn
reminds me of that classic 1973 Hollywood art exhibit, The Exorcist: Posted 7/2/2004 at 2:00 AM |
Every Picture Tells a Story (ART WARS for St. Peter's Day, continued) Pictured above: The Pantheon, Rome (courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art) The Philadelphia Museum of Art Rocky Balboa For some philosophical perspective, see Peter: The Original Rocky. Posted 7/1/2004 at 7:59 PM |