Tuesday, May 07, 2024

One Place to Begin

You can't live in this world 
 but there's nowhere else to go.  
~ Jack Kerouac

Profoundly disturbing pattern of aggression  😳 as Soviet like bullying behaviour has moved from Central Europe to Australian landscapes… 
This is not the first major bullying incident between Australian and Chinese forces in internationalg waters. In November, Australian navy divers were injured after a Chinese warship emitted sonar pulses during an operation.
Australia has lodged a formal complaint with Beijing following the incident, which saw a People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLA-AF) aircraft deploy flares across the flight path of the Royal Australian Navy’s MH-60R helicopter.

On May 4th, HMAS Hobart was conducting routine surveillance operations in international waters as part of Operation Argos, which supports the enforcement of United Nations Security Council sanctions against North Korea.



Twitch app moves into news coverage, redefining journalism (press release) University of Oregon


X launches Stories, delivering news summarized by Grok AI TechCrunch. The creators will, naturally, be compensated?


One Place to Begin

by John Daniel

You need a reason, any reason—skiing, a job in movies,
      the Golden Gate Bridge.
Take your reason and drive west, past the Rockies.
When you're bored with bare hills, dry flats, and distance,
      stop anywhere.
Forget where you thought you were going.

Rattle through the beer cans in the ditch.
If there's a fence, try your luck—they don't stop cows.
Follow the first hawk you see, and when the sagebrush
      trips you, take a good look before you get up.
The desert gets by without government.

Crush juniper berries, breathe the smell, smear your face.
When you wonder why you're here, yell as loud
      as you can and don't look behind.
Walk. Your feet are learning.

Admit you're afraid of the dark.
Soak the warmth from scabrock, cheek to lichen.
The wind isn't talking to you. Listen anyway.
Let the cries of coyotes light a fire in your heart.
Remember the terrible song of stars—you knew it once,
      before you were born.

Tell a story about why the sun comes back.
Sit still until the itches give up, lizards ignore you,
      a mule deer holds you in her eyes.
Explain yourself over and over. Forget it all
      when a scrub jay shrieks.
Imagine sun, sky, and wind the same, over your
      scattered white bones.

"One Place to Begin" by John Daniel, from Of Earth. © Lost Horse Press, 2012

A World of Pure Imagination The Gauntlet


Two lifeforms merge into one organism for first time in a billion years The Independent


How Whales Could Help Us Speak to Aliens Nautilus


Sierra Nevada wins $13B contract to build Air Force ‘doomsday plane’ Defense News



How Did Ötzi the Iceman Get His Tattoos? Archaeologists and Tattoo Artists Unravel the MysterySmithsonian Magazine


Swimming and spinning aquatic spiders use slick survival strategies Ars Technica


Bodies Don’t Decompose as Normal in This Colombian Town, And Nobody Knows Why Science Alert


Essays & Opinions

As you navigate the cul-de-sacs of modern coupledom, Laura Kipnis has some advice: Don’t divorce a memoirist... more »


I’ve Been Thinking by Daniel C. Dennett is reviewed by Nigel Warburton at The Times Literary Supplement. 


Previous Edition

BONUS: Batman and aggregation


“Goldman Sachs’ chief information officer, Marco Argenti, recently encouraged his daughter, a college student, to concentrate her education on philosophy if she wants to pursue a career in engineering” — on why “some of Wall Street’s top tech execs and recruiters” are recommending software engineering students study philosophy, English, psychology, etc.

Why is it good for a life to be “well-rounded”? And what does “well-rounded” mean, anyway? — an interesting interview with Amy Berg (Oberlin, soon Rice)


“Goldman Sachs’ chief information officer, Marco Argenti, recently encouraged his daughter, a college student, to concentrate her education on philosophy if she wants to pursue a career in engineering” — on why “some of Wall Street’s top tech execs and recruiters” are recommending software engineering students study philosophy, English, psychology, etc.

Why is it good for a life to be “well-rounded”? And what does “well-rounded” mean, anyway? — an interesting interview with Amy Berg (Oberlin, soon Rice)


Despite what heated discussions on social media might suggest, “none of our disputes in political and social life are actually about the nature of truth” — Liam Kofi Bright (LSE) tries to trick us into accepting his postmodern relativistic poppycock