tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52566972009-07-20T15:24:58.958Ztoward the efficient pursuit of wisdom ...Tenebrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167974739904832229noreply@blogger.comBlogger594125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256697.post-77175679161664933262009-07-23T01:25:00.000Z2009-07-20T14:04:51.607Z

A test:Virtually everything I have read, virtually everyone to whom I have spoken, always describes a teacher in grade 4, 5, or 6 as the formative teacher, the one which made all the difference. It makes me wonder whether these are actually the formative grades, and the lucky students are the ones who get the exceptional teachers at this time. Any earlier, and it blurs into the first

Tenebrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167974739904832229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256697.post-57399210875216039802009-07-19T14:09:00.002Z2009-07-20T15:24:58.971Z

For a while, after Mr. Rogers and Mr. Dressup died, their children's shows were aired in indefinite repeats. I always found this a bit ghoulish. The aim was to protect children from this particular reality by keeping it seamless; and the children never did learn -- at first -- that they were being enthralled by a dead man. We never did think to ask what effect this way of finding out might have

Tenebrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167974739904832229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256697.post-6614571991647934092009-07-17T00:10:00.000Z2009-07-18T03:15:37.098Z

The first manned mission to land on the moon had an Australian connection. The 64-metre Parkes Radiothermal Telescope, still the largest steerable dish in Australia, had only been in existence for eight years when Apollo 11 was launched. It was one of three tracking antennas to receive the original television signals from the lunar module, the other two being the 64-metre Goldstone antenna in

Tenebrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167974739904832229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256697.post-13954528299831186022009-07-16T11:51:00.003Z2009-07-18T12:15:05.652Z

Starbucks has joined the list of large companies that have adopted the corporate version of stealth technology, by renaming one of its Seattle stores "15th Avenue Coffee & Tea" and otherwise giving it the appearance of a neighbourhood pub. It won't be the first large company to have rebranded part or all of its goods and services to create the feeling of an independent, and it won't be the

Tenebrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167974739904832229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256697.post-74865352575636438672009-07-14T00:32:00.003Z2009-07-17T03:13:33.958Z

Isolated into our individual corners of the world, buried under daily concerns: how often can we take the time to look around at the world outside and see what is happening? We catch the headlines of the local newsfeed but rarely even our own weather. I laugh whenever someone in my presence yearns for hot weather, beach weather: "You work in an office, don't you?" Air-conditioned house to

Tenebrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167974739904832229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256697.post-82099349062486317672009-07-12T14:36:00.002Z2009-07-16T15:33:08.521Z

Few sources are better than the popular media to express the current acceptabilities of the viewing public. In a bottom-line superficial world, nothing can survive on the airwaves unless it reflects either actuality or hidden desire.Many years ago, I drew from such an illustrative example while I was discussing the topic of modern marriage with a former professor of mine. I did not then

Tenebrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167974739904832229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256697.post-37729261714709848472009-07-09T22:47:00.005Z2009-07-11T03:42:17.395Z

Judging from the enormous number of airline complaints, customer service has not been the top priority for most airlines of late. Indeed, the same could be said for most companies. Whenever the bottom line is being reviewed, customer service is always one of the easiest sectors to cut back. After all, the sale has already been made. As to the classic question of customers going elsewhere: of

Tenebrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167974739904832229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256697.post-85338559418390408322009-07-06T14:19:00.002Z2009-07-16T14:33:22.137Z

There is no need to drive with any level of any intoxicating or impairing substance, from alcohol to medications to cellphones. Nothing is that urgent. Our ability to control our vehicles is far from perfect to begin with, but for now that is a risk society as a whole seems willing to accept: so long as the risk is not unnecessarily magnified.Impaired driving is preventable. You were capable of

Tenebrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167974739904832229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256697.post-60750575062915670152009-07-03T13:26:00.000Z2009-07-10T22:47:20.659Z

Practical jokes usually demonstrate little more than the greater knowledge of one person over another, and a more or less vicious willingness to exploit the other person's ignorance for laughter at their expense. Simple scatalogical jokes are by far the most common, although sometimes there may be a glint of subtlety. Occasionally, however, the joke exposes a deeper truth. All the following jokes

Tenebrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167974739904832229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256697.post-45952528215031473252009-07-01T18:47:00.004Z2009-07-18T17:04:19.936Z

For the first time in my life, I am grateful that I have purchased a book on publisher's clearance. I would not have regretted the money paid for the book. I just don't think this author merits a single penny of royalty money for this book.I picked up Think! by Michael LeGault because, on the surface of it, it would seem to be one of the few books arguing for genuine independence of thought and

Tenebrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167974739904832229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256697.post-44594165700910096762009-06-27T16:35:00.000Z2009-07-11T17:44:55.019Z

I learned about menorrhagia and other female reproductive oddities and abnormalities in the esoteric world of the fertility clinic. It is a strange environment, staffed by female nurses, counsellors, and secretaries, but headed entirely by male doctors. Mine was not even an exception to the general rule: this pattern remains common among fertility clinics everywhere except the Middle East, where

Tenebrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167974739904832229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256697.post-68070014183884886712009-06-22T16:09:00.003Z2009-07-16T11:44:25.449Z

No matter which economics analysis I read, the consensus is the same: the economy has mostly bottomed out, and by the end of the next two quarters, we should start seeing a turnaround. It is a very solid consensus. That six-month just-beyond-the-horizon has held firm through the past two years.Sometimes it seems almost as though there are two different recessions: the one measured by the

Tenebrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167974739904832229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256697.post-12507623007704287872009-06-20T23:32:00.003Z2009-07-10T20:41:37.208Z

Caught without child care, Australian senator Sarah Hanson-Young took her two-year-old daughter Kora to work with her on Thursday. She stayed with her daughter just outside the legislative chambers until the bells rang for a vote, at which point she brought her inside. Kora continued to play quietly until Senate president John Hogg ordered Hanson-Young to take the toddler outside.We cannot allow

Tenebrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167974739904832229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256697.post-41185561947159762792009-06-17T06:51:00.002Z2009-06-25T16:32:33.731Z

The results of Iran's presidential election are in. Mir Hossein Mousavi is claiming ballot fraud and wants an investigation. If that doesn't work, he's planning on making a documentary about global warming.- Jimmy FallonDemonstrations in the streets are a curious thing, especially when they appear to be in favour of a media-popular goal. We never can resist an underdog story where the right

Tenebrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167974739904832229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256697.post-14896871132504789112009-06-12T12:25:00.004Z2009-06-22T19:47:23.156Z

Comedians make inappropriate jokes all the time. This time, it was David Letterman who overstepped when his Top Ten list mocked Sarah Palin's family situation. Possibly due to a misunderstanding over which of Palin's daughters was at a particular baseball game, the 14-year-old or the 18-year-old, Letterman ended up using terminology which implies rape (due to sex with a minor, who cannot legally

Tenebrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167974739904832229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256697.post-3743028525835450762009-06-05T21:31:00.004Z2009-06-06T03:51:26.417Z

As soon as the media released the detail that David Carradine was found hanging naked in a closet, I knew what had happened. Like masturbation itself, it is one of those sexual practices which is far, far more common than most people believe: mostly because so many of us learn sexuality in secret, and in the determined quest for childhood innocence most parents are determined to keep it so,

Tenebrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167974739904832229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256697.post-20966386425856769322009-06-03T00:58:00.003Z2009-06-06T04:04:43.574Z

So pervasive is the current trend toward labelling any unwanted behaviour as deviant and then finding a drug to "fix" it, one has no fears for the future of pharmacology.This is not a new thing. Without going into a whole history of mankind, one needs only look to the Victorian age and what was labelled hysteria, as well as some of the treatments prescribed for hysteria before Sigmund Freud's

Tenebrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167974739904832229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256697.post-35698811594598294532009-05-30T07:55:00.000Z2009-05-30T08:20:02.632Z

I try to be careful in my statistics. It is so very easy to pull numbers out of the air and make them sound official, but I am trying to learn, not to argue one side of an issue: so what would be the point? Whenever possible, I try to go back to the original study. Where there is none, I try at least to verify from two or three distinct sources. There is no such thing as truly objective --

Tenebrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167974739904832229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256697.post-39329292307215623992009-05-21T20:35:00.000Z2009-05-22T02:29:33.747Z

I hope it has to do with your talent and the performance that you give and the package that you have. It's not about religion and all that kind of stuff. It's about music. That's really important to keep in mind.- Adam LambertI suppose I anticipated the American Idol upset yesterday, when I wrote about how a tie in the judge's scores unveiled a percentage of the American voting public which votes

Tenebrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167974739904832229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256697.post-46049580038967247672009-05-20T03:56:00.005Z2009-05-20T14:08:33.418Z

Many years ago when I was still in university, I first discovered strategy games. I already knew how to play chess, I have known how since around the same time I discovered how to read, which places it before true memory: and so I took to the new discovery like a duck to water.It took me somewhat longer to discover that my gaming group had a three-person in-group, a few hangers-on (number

Tenebrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167974739904832229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256697.post-38013459255890156052009-05-16T02:51:00.002Z2009-05-16T14:13:44.619Z

There once lived a young king who was beloved by his subjects for his dedication, his care, and his wisdom. He valued knowledge, but it seemed sad to him that all the discovered truths of previous ages should be inaccessible to all but a few erudite students. So he directed that texts should be gathered together from all the corners of the earth, to be housed in a great library. From these texts,

Tenebrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167974739904832229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256697.post-46274224707275223712009-05-11T19:15:00.003Z2009-05-12T01:38:46.733Z

Mrs. Higgins: You certainly are a pretty pair of babies, playing with your live doll.- PygmalionIt is sometimes said that a storyteller only ever has one great story of his own to tell, and that all his creations reach toward that single goal.Joss Whedon's creative independence began with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the story of a girl who exists to protect humanity against the forces of evil. To

Tenebrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167974739904832229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256697.post-2237722472237144902009-05-07T20:56:00.000Z2009-05-08T11:31:49.867Z

Warning! Independent thought alarm!The true independents of society are few and far between. It takes a certain callousness to be able to weigh what is seen without automatically fitting it into prior constraints, be they of societal norms or of how we wish to be seen in the eyes of others or even of self-image.Hardest of all, that last. Once we have come to see in a certain way, we will bend

Tenebrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167974739904832229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256697.post-11669280144406628562009-05-01T01:45:00.002Z2009-07-11T01:56:23.141Z

According to Christian teachings, Christ is male, and His Church, female. Priests are the worldly representatives of that divine marriage: representatives of the church.Once priests were also forbidden to marry: what kind of culture did they think this was going to create?

Tenebrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167974739904832229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256697.post-24242275034440822802009-04-25T02:39:00.002Z2009-04-25T03:14:22.569Z

O Zeno, what a pretty kettle of fish your arrow has opened!The thought experiment is deceptively simple. Shoot an arrow at a target. Now stop it, mentally, in mid-air. Don't interrupt its flight, just imagine that split second when the arrow is exactly here and nowhere else.Now take another arrow, completely motionless. Set it into exactly the same surroundings and in the same attitude: but this

Tenebrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00167974739904832229noreply@blogger.com0