Every morning we put a few cups of bird seed out on our deck railing. The word must have gotten around because much to early in the morning we have quite a diverse flock of impatient birds hopping in the trees, demanding their free breakfast.

This is the season of Platonic Green. In the forests, in the hills, in the gardens,
everywhere you look, is the color of alive green. I can't help but think
if plato's world of ideal forms does exist then this is the green that would
be there.

In http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994572
they talk about what constructs monkeys can understand:

For example, the monkeys could master simple word structures,
analogous to realising that "the" and "a" are always followed by
another word. But they were unable to grasp phrase patterns
analogous to "if... then..." constructions.
...
Premack argues that although recursive ability is not absolutely
necessary for language - non-recursive sentences are possible - being
unable to master recursion may have been a stumbling block that

It is exciting to see China enter the space race and for the
US to propose new ventures to the moon and Mars. Yet there
is a lack of vision behind human space projects which has
prevented sustained support and progress.

We have a motivating purpose behind a sustained drive into
space: the purpose of space research should be to secure human
destiny by moving off Earth, beyond our solar system, and into
other galaxies.

It's clear large portions of life on earth have been destroyed
by meteorite strikes and possibly even gamma ray bursts from dying

I was reading that in the 1850s people in the United States were
very afraid of Nat Turner and his slave rebellion. People could
never be sure if a black person was part of the rebellion or
not. Killing a slave owner was considered like killing the british
during the revolution. Kind of like Star Wars too.

Wikipedia mentions: The freedoms of all black people in Virginia were tightly
curtailed, and an official policy was instated that forebade questioning the slave system,
on the grounds that any discussion might encourage similar slave revolts.

Seen On The Freeway: An attractive woman in a newish red convertible mercedes was
shaving her armpits while driving on the freeway. Her technique was classic. Her long auburn hair
was pulled back so as not to get in the way. By wearing a black tank she thoughtfully
made the whole process easy to see. One arm was over her head and the other hand
was making quick shaving motions. Somehow she was managed to keep a straight steady
line. And for some reason she was in the slow lane, but i think was probably just
an oversight.

The history of the US is a Robinsonian tale. Written in the same era as the birth of America, Robinson Crusoe and the US follow a similar historical arrow. Both struggled successfully for survival in a new land. And interestingly both succeeded practicing the philosophy of "when in rome do as when at home."

Soft warm sunshine took the chill out of a usually bone chilling 58 degree temperature. Trees are changing en masse from deep greens to rich yellows and reds. The sky was blue with streaks of high white clouds. It smells of earth and water from all the rain. But today was dry.

Just perfect.

Mike Spille has a great article on Inversion of Control at http://www.pyrasun.com/mike/mt/archives/2004/11/06/15.46.14/index.html . I really enjoy his take no shit with humor writing style. Plus it is a really good introduction to IoC and the different IoC packages.

Personally i have never understood IoC. IoC reminds of Kiss, the Prince song that says:
U got to not talk dirty, baby
If u wanna impress me
U can't be 2 flirty, mama
I know how 2 undress me (Yeah)

In the early days of email, which for me was in the early 80s, email was unreliable because the networks and the computers were unreliable. You could never be quite sure your email would get there. Then as the networks became more reliable email was hardly ever dropped. This period marked one of those golden ages that acutally happened. The net was mostly civilized, interesting, and the email always got through.

Now in this modern age of ultra spiffy everything, email has become even more unreliable than it ever was. New email preditors have evolved at a voracious rate.

They confirmed what we Californians already knew about or "energy crisis." We
were screwed. If anyone thinks the patrons of the oil industry aren't
capable of larger scale screwings then you are wishing for a world different
than the one we live in. The big lie has amazing power. If people don't
want to believe something, they won't. The enronians were salivating for bush
to get in power. These rational tools of the invisible hand wouldn't think
that way unless there was a rational reason, would they?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/01/eveningnews/main620626.shtml

In only one short half hour of must see TV, Frosty The Snowman manages to embody the deepest themes of human experience under a deceptively cute and entertaining cartoon facade. Frosty subtly illustrates answers to the great questions that have puzzled sages through all the ages.

What is our purpose for being here?

Some jars are really hard to open. It's not just you. Lifting weights won't help. They have monster machines to tighten the jars so you'll never get enough mechanical advantage with just your hands.

* Take a butter knife and tap around lid every couple of inches. Tap hard enough to make a dent in the lid.
* Smack the bottom of the jar with your hand a couple of times. If your hand is precious to you, smack the jar on a counter.

Either one may get the lid off. Together you have an unstoppable lid-getting-off strategy.

The idea is you dress up as your favorite email scam and everyone has to guess which one you are by questioning you during the party. Whoever gets the most right wins.

Everyone doesn' t need to fight over the nigerian scam, there are so many to select from these days.

Because of all the email i'm getting on this one lately, classic conditioning, i think i would go as a rolex sales scam. I could strap lots of watches all over my body and then every 1.3 seconds pitch you with a new miracle offer.

Our tragedy and triumph twine together vines of reason and destiny with shoots of hubris and consequence.