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Saturday, February 26, 2005Love Not MeLove not me for comely grace, For my pleasing eye or face, Nor for any outward part: No, nor for a constant heart! For these may fail or turn to ill: So thou and I shall sever. Keep therefore a true woman's eye, And love me still, but know not why! So hast thou the same reason still To doat upon me ever. 
posted by gbarto at 11:30 PM Happiness is... Shawn Christopher Shea The other day, I reviewed Shawn Shea's Happiness is...(review here). I once again heartily recommend this owner's manual for the human spirit, which starts with the analogy of body as machine and shows how our minds are machines of a whole different nature: happiness machines. Following Shea's guidance, you learn how your happiness machine works and how to keep it humming. I just heard from Shea, who'd like to pass along that you can check out his book in greater detail at his new site, http://www.sheahappinessis.com/, which includes the Introduction and a sample chapter. Happy reading.
posted by gbarto at 10:16 PM Friday, February 25, 2005My Love in Her AttireMy love in her attire doth show her wit, It doth so well become her: For every season she hath dressings fit, For winter, spring, and summer. No beauty she doth miss, When all her robes are on: But Beauty's self she is, When all her robes are gone.
posted by gbarto at 10:43 PM We're up and running again. Don't know how well we're blocking the pricks at nutzu.com and friends, but we're at least displaying. If we go down again, you know who to thank.
posted by gbarto at 5:43 PM If you can see this, congratulations. I can't. An online poker site hijacked our server and after I blocked its IP, I lost access myself. Still working to fix the error.
posted by gbarto at 4:24 PM Thursday, February 24, 2005Whew. Just a few days ago, I worried that they'd make Friedman the house conservative at the NYT if he didn't stop celebrating the Middle East progress and take a few shots at Bush. He must have gotten the message, because today we're hearing about "Honey, I shrunk the dollar."
posted by gbarto at 9:27 PM from Quia amore langueo (excerpt 3 of 3) I will abide till she be ready, I will her sue if she say nay; If she be retchless I will be greedy, If she be dangerous I will her pray; Is she weep, then bide I ne may: Mine arms ben spread to clip her me to. Cry once, I come: now, soul, assay! Quia amore langueo. Fair love, let us go play: Apples ben ripe in my gardayne. I shall thee clothe in a new array, Thy meat shall be milk, honey and wine. Fair love, let us go dine: Thy sustenance is in my crippe, lo! Tarry thou not, my fair spouse mine, Quia amore langueo.
posted by gbarto at 8:44 PM Wednesday, February 23, 2005from Quia amore langueo (excerpt 2 of 3)My fair love and my spouse bright! I saved her from beating, and she hath me bet; I clothed her in grace and heavenly light; This bloody shirt on me hath she set; For longing of love yet I would not let; Sweet strokes are these: lo! I have loved her ever as I her het Quia more langueo. I crowned her with bliss and she me with thorn; I led her to chamber and she me to die; I brought her to worship and she me to scorn; I did her reverence and she me villainy. To love that loveth is no maistry; Her hate made never my love her foe Ask me then no question why- Qui amore langueo. Look unto mine handes, man! These gloves were given me when I her sought; They be not white, but red and wan; Embroidered with blood my spouse them brought. They will not off; I loose hem nought: I woo her with hem wherever she go. These hands for her so friendly fought Quia amore langueo.
posted by gbarto at 5:10 PM Tuesday, February 22, 2005We're running a bit behind the curve on this specific point, but opened the day with hopes for better things for the people of Iran.That post and all our posts today - and indeed, any posts you enjoy being free to read - should be taken with thoughts for Arash Sigarchi and Mojtaba Saminejad, Iranian bloggers looking at serious prison time for their opinions. Here's a website - the committee to protect bloggers - tracking developments. TurkeyBlog joins in condemning the actions of the Iranian government and calls for the two men to be left free to write. And hopes just a little more still that the Iranian people will be able to throw off the current regime sooner rather than later.
posted by gbarto at 9:57 PM Iran Earthquake Kills at least 400 Is see the Red Cross doesn't have anything about this on their home page. Nor does WorldVision. I understand that this disaster is hardly comparable in magnitude. But (forgive my cynicism)... With Bush in Europe discussing how much longer the EU gets to play footsie with Iran before someone takes the nuke threat seriously, it would send a message to our real allies on the Iran question - the Iranian people - if it became uncomfortably clear that the people providing relief were predominantly Western and maybe even from the Great Satan. Wonder if Iran would hamper relief efforts out of fear of just that. Syria would. In any case, if you follow the two links, hopefully they'll have something up soon, allowing you to do some good not just for people now in need but perhaps toward further eroding an awful regime and bringing relative peace to a problematic region.
posted by gbarto at 10:56 AM Instapundit hasn't been able to get excited over the Larry Summers flap. Nor have I. It's been my experience that ordinarily academics are all for making provocative suggestions about things being other than we'd like them to be and sitting back to watch the bourgeois student body wrestle with having its assumptions challenged. If I had a dime for every time a prof in a literature or history - or, sadly, even science - department try to expose the shocking truth about the evil United States, the brutality of capitalism or the fundamental immorality of the Republican party, I'd... well, at least I'd have gotten paid to have my intelligence insulted. Curiously, those who were most feverish in their explanations about why my own cherished notions were flawed often were also unable to explain the subject matter they were teaching with any particular coherence. However, I have had some very good teachers, including one set that really shocked their bourgeois students. In a sociology course, we were given an article to read by the idiotic J. Philippe Rushton, one of the louder academics from the race differences movement. His article discussed the r/k ratio, which suggests that the higher the species, the fewer the offspring and the greater the care for the smaller number of offspring. We were all asked to write papers explaining the problems with his paper. Even though we students were all children of Ronald Reagan's supposedly vilely racist America, what the professors received was a collection of blasts at foul racism and inquiry into things best not talked about. I got the only A for arguing that environmental and public health factors in the Sahel were different from the United States, and that as such studying reproductive strategies in the two regions might tell you more about the realities of coping with the respective regions' challenges and opportunities than the inherent qualities of the races that predominated there. In other words, interesting if problematic hypothesis, lousy data, no conclusion possible at this time. It would be my guess that this is where we are with respect to Summers' question: we're still relatively close to a time when physical strength counted for a lot more, which affected the way the social systems worked, creating structural barriers for women's advancement. Those barriers are starting to fall, but it's too soon to tell if sex differences or lingering structural barriers are preventing greater female participation. Maybe both. Or maybe... Arnold Kling has some interesting thoughts not only on Summers' remarks, but on how "male dominance driven" organizations function. I think he is spot on in this. I remember my first semester of grad school. I had a paper to write on Rabelais and so I ambled over to the library about a month before it was due to do some research. One person in the class who just had to have his A had checked out 80% of the books on Rabelais, not, mind you, because he was going to use them all, but because if they had something useful he didn't want a different student getting the info first. This is too common practice, and fits in with exactly what Kling discusses - male dominance systems tend to emphasize who wins, not what can be accomplished. In this case, the student did get his A, but his achievement did not bring us further in our understanding of Rabelais and the Renaissance; he triumphed not by leading us as far as we could go but simply by assuring that no one could go further than he did. Academia, in my experience, is even worse than business for this sort of thing. Business does what business does; academia does what it likes to imagine business does, and with the way it views business, that means things can get pretty ugly. Which brings us back to Rushton... Rushton's paper had one critical flaw besides a lousy data set. There was not a completely solid link between its hypothesis and the factors it purported to use as a proof. One recalls Douglas Adams' musing that humans consider themselves superior to dolphins because they have cities and nations and buildings and businesses and competition and wars and dolphins just muck about in the water all day ... while the dolphins just might consider themselves superior for the very same reasons. It reminds me of Dick Gregory's remark: You gotta say this for the white race - its self-confidence knows no bounds. Who else could go to a small island in the South Pacific where there is no poverty, no crime, no unemployment, no war, and no worry - and call it a "primitive society."If women aren't succeeding in science departments, it's a result of the talents they bring, the choices they make and how these interact with the existing system. There are three possible problems here, then - the talent women bring, the choices they make, or the system. If Kling is right, the problem may not be one of discrimination against women, but that women, for whatever reason, are unwilling to make the sorts of choices that academia rewards. Could that be biology? Or conditioning? Both? Larry Summers deserves a little credit. He opened one hellua can of worms and has people talking about something they'd previously have dismissed with one of two pat remarks: "Science is tough" or "Science departments are sexist." Having been in science departments, and worked with female science students far superior to me, I suspect it's both and neither, with the academics at the top meaning well but not knowing how to let go of the system that brought them to the top, even if the lack of female participation gives them a sinking feeling that something's wrong with it. Refined hypothesis: What women are perceived to bring to the table is not congruent with what science departments perceive themselves as needing. What women really bring to the table and what science departments really need is not at present known. The relationship between the perceptions and the realities, likewise, is unknown. Whether women and/or science departments are being cheated by the current system is therefore also unknown. Given the scientist's tendancy to stick with methods he knows, things are unlikely to change other than gradually. As such, I suspect there will continue to be limited participation in science departments on the part of women. But what this all means is up in the air. Hopefully, Summers' firestorm will get us working toward understanding what's up a little more quickly.
posted by gbarto at 3:20 AM from Quia amore langueo (excerpt 1 of 3) In a valley of this restles mind I sought in mountain and in mead, Trusting a true love for to find. Upon an hill then took I heed; A voice I heard (and near I yede) In great dolour complaining tho: See, dear soul, how my sides bleed Qui amore langueo. Upon this hill I found a tree Under a tree a man sitting; From head to foot wounded was he; His hearte blood I saw bleeding: A seemly man to be a king, A gracious face to look unto. I askèd why he had paining; Quia amore langueo. I am true love that false was never; My sister, man's soul, I loved her thus. Because we would in no wise dissever I left my kingdom glorious. I purveyed her a palace full precious; She fled, I followed, I loved her so That I suffered this pain piteous Qui amore langueo.
posted by gbarto at 3:07 AM Monday, February 21, 2005Hunter S. Thompson Dead of Self-Inflicted Gunshot WoundNot quite clear how old he was - 65 or 67. Also not clear precisely why he shot himself, though it's not a totally surprising end. Walked by his picture the other day. "Hey, rube," he taunted. Didn't stop. Never have, in fact. Don't think I've read a word by the man. Maybe I'll have a look tomorrow. Liked the comments at Tim Blair's (found at Instapundit) though, particularly: Duke LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Never knew much about HST except for the speculation that he was the model for Doonesbury's Duke. For that, I feel a little loss. Anybody who inspired Duke had to have something in them. RIP
posted by gbarto at 2:07 AM from multilingua.info... Product Review: Dr. Blair's ... in no Time sets These little kits seem like an ideal approach. In lieu of the traditional listen and repeat approach, there's an effort at creating actual content. The premise of the Spanish program is that the evil James Corp. has taken over the radios and is playing annoying music with subliminal messages to buy their products. The premise, though a bit hackneyed (are there educators - even who run large businesses - who don't just write off business as evil?), isn't the problem. The problem is that while there's a light-hearted premise with deliciously stereotyped characters, there are too many exercises that are in the old-style, just with unusual introductions. Dr. Blair's main program is the Power-Glide method, which takes the ideas of the "In no time" sets a lot further. However, the cost is a bit prohibitive - certainly too much so for the multilingua.info/gbarto.com sites to investigate (they're welcome to donate a copy for us to review). As for the "In no time" sets, they strike me as a fairly good investment, cost-wise, for true beginners who want to pick up a little bit of the language. However, if you had a year in college and are just afraid you've forgotten it all, you're probably better off with Michel Thomas. Learning Spanish, French - or even Polish or Pashto? Multilingua.info has resources to get you started in a variety of languages.
posted by gbarto at 12:17 AM "A train went through a burial gate" Emily Dickinson A train went through a burial gate, A bird broke forth and sang, And trilled, and quivered, and shook his throat Till all the churchyard rang; And then adjusted his little notes, And bowed and sang again. Doubtless, he thought it meet of him To say good-by to men.
posted by gbarto at 12:04 AM Sunday, February 20, 2005Poetry excitement!Just updated the contents on the poetry page (which has links to all the poems that have run in the past month or two). And now, today (the 21st), we have Emily Dickinson! And after that, everybody's favorite, selections from "Quia amore langueo," a medieval lament upon the sad way people responded to the Christian savior. Not sure what comes next. I thought we might go through Beowulf, eight lines a night... just kidding. In any case, lots of interesting stuff out there so some of it should make its way here.
posted by gbarto at 10:46 PM Cicero says that the Gannon/Guckert saga is as weird as Bartleby the Scrivener and maybe more obscene than Rabelais. I dunno. Is anything worse than the birth of Gargantua? Or the discovery of the most fabulous torche-cul? While modern society has created its share of uglier, more vulgar and more horrifying stuff, nobody beats Rabelais for the colorfully obscene.
posted by gbarto at 10:34 PM from Ode to Apollo John Keats In thy western halls of gold When thous sittest in thy state, Bards, that erst sublimely told Heroic deeds, and sung of fate, With fervour seize their adamantine lyres, Whose chords are solid rays, and twinkle radiant fires. There Homer with his nervous arms Strikes the twanging harp of war, And even the western splendour warms, While the trumpets sound afar: But, what creates the most intense surprise, His soul looks out through renovated eyes.
posted by gbarto at 9:53 PM Nice Friedman column again. He's going to have to take a break from the Middle East beat and write something ugly and oily about the President again one of these days or when Safire leaves, they'll just make him the new conservative instead of replacing Safire's column.
posted by gbarto at 11:09 AM Taping of the President It appears that a former friend of President Bush tape-recorded W talking about politics, presidential aspirations and political points of view. Man, oh man! What's it say that this is the content of secret recordings of the President? No girlfriends, no illegal ops to wipe out political enemies. Nope, shocking revelations include that the President is deeply religious, but nervous about the zealots, uncomfortable with gay marriage but even more uncomfortable with picking on gays... In short, in the tapes released, the private Bush is said to be disturbingly similar to the public one. I like this bit: Early on, though, Mr. Bush appeared most worried that Christian conservatives would object to his determination not to criticize gay people. "I think he wants me to attack homosexuals," Mr. Bush said after meeting James Robison, a prominent evangelical minister in Texas.Forgive me, but in a world where we're always supposed to be looking for Rove's hand, the release of these tapes is perfectly suited to reassuring mainstream America, post-election, about what a civil and earnest guy this is. story (link on headline): In Secretly Taped Talks, Glimpses of Future President Author, Former Aide to Bush's Father, Disclosed Tapes' Existence By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK, The New York Times
posted by gbarto at 10:47 AM |
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