Hey, check it out, the Decimal Classification Editorial Policy Committee is updating DDC again. "Transsexuality" is being kicked out in favor of "Transgenderism and intersexuality".

Nicely done, Dewey.

Full story here. You can comment if you wish.

Edge magazine asked this question of a whole bunch of scientists and smartypants, and their answers are really making me think hard. Take a look, samples are pasted below.

There is just so much of this feature, I have only digested a quarter of it before I decided I had to talk about it in my livejrnal

Douglas Rushkoff, The Internet

I thought that it would change people. I thought it would allow us to build a new world through which we could model new behaviors, values, and relationships. In the 90's, I thought the experience of going online for the first time would change a person's consciousness as much as if they had dropped acid in the 60's.
 . . .
Sadly, cyberspace has become just another place to do business. The question is no longer how browsing the Internet changes the way we look at the world; it's which browser we'll be using to buy and sell stuff in the same old world.

Stewart Brand (of Whole Earth Catalog fame):

Remodeling an old farmhouse two years ago and replacing its sash windows, I discovered the current state of window technology. A standard Andersen window, factory-made exactly to the dimensions you want, has superb insulation qualities; superb hinges, crank, and lock; a flick-in, flick-out screen; and it looks great. The same goes for the new kinds of doors, kitchen cabinetry, and even furniture feet that are available — all drastically improved.
. . .
The Precautionary Principle tells me I should worry about everything new because it might have hidden dangers. The handwringers should worry more about the old stuff. It's mostly crap.

Judith Rich Harris:

I now believe that generalization is the exception, not the rule. Careful research has shown that babies arrive in the world with a bias against generalizing. This is true for learned motor skills and it is also true for expectations about people. Babies are born with the desire to learn about the beings who populate their world and the ability to store information about each individual separately. They do not expect all adults to behave like their mother or all children to behave like their siblings. Children who quarrel incessantly with their brothers and sisters generally get along much better with their peers. A firstborn who is accustomed to dominating his younger siblings at home is no more likely than a laterborn to try to dominate his schoolmates on the playground. A boy's relationship with his father does not form the template for his later relationship with his boss.

I'm a Dorky Nerd God. ( Image behind here )

I just made it through the 4-hour version of Heaven's Gate. I think the only thing that kept me going was playing spot the actor. I liked the John Locke cameo.

Man, I feel like I deserve a medal. At least I don't have to do that again.

the cat is constantly suggesting that it's naptime.

Nefarious.

But this video you seriously have to watch if you're a San Francisco fan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfZX-4iQOgQ

Description: This is public domain footage of San Francisco's Market Street in 1905 before the earthquake and fire of 1906. Accompanying this footage is music from the live recording of "Ennio After Dark", recorded at Eyedrum in Atlanta, Georgia by the Atlanta band "dp3".

When I was gettin' my BA at MSU, I took poetry classes a lot. Poetry is very easy for me to critique. It takes a burst of intense concentration, but not prolonged concentration. I always got very good grades in my poetry classes, not so much in the others. It's probably a good thing I wasn't very good at writing poetry, or I might have ended up in a much less lucrative field.

I took a couple of classes from this very nice and smart old southern man. I hope he's still around, Emeritusing somewhere. He talked of classes that Theodore Roethke used to teach at Michigan State, when he started to plunge into a deep depression. Roethke would let himself out of the big windows in Morrill hall and pace back and forth on the second floor ledge, lecturing his classes. This was, apparently, a great way to keep the attention of undergraduates.

I just had the memory of that full story come back, full-force, after years of not thinking of it. Probably a lot to do with having the Norton Anthology of Poetry in place for bathroom reading.

The farmer's market is finally open again:



I think I will probably end up eating these tomatoes raw, without even washing them. They call to me.

Bear in mind, my mother is an artist. I have a pathological fear of ever drawing anything "typical."

( Sometimes a tree is just a tree! )

But here's something that bugs me every time. The streets go like this:

Interstate
Maryland
Montana
Missouri
Michigan
Mississippi

That is neither alphabetical nor in the order of admission to the union!

I call cruelty to librarians.

Also: As I am no longer employed by The Man, I will henceforth have occasional unlocked posts.