Antikythera Mechanism

Amazing machine from over 100 years B.C...because you thought that the best the ancients could do was the abacus. Enjoy!

Straw Poll for Obamas running mate?

My Choices are: John Edwards
Va. Senator Jim Webb
Former Tennessee Congressman Harold Ford Jr.
Check out these websites for the lesser known Jim Webb and Harold Ford Jr.
http://www.fordfortennessee.com
http://webb.senate.gov

Anyone have other candidate ideas for Barack or selections for John McCain? Does the vice presidential candidate really matter or not in your vote?

Lastly, for those who haven't seen Lions To Lambs and Charlie Wilson's War, I would recommend both for excellent political themes that will inform and provoke your thoughts.

Let Freedom Ring on this Independence Day Weekend!
Tom

Bumming on Obama

Anyone else bummed with Obama recently?  Specifically turning down public financing, his ridiculous attempt to rationalize it, and his probable vote for the FISA bill?

***UPDATE*** And now this? He's going to support Bush's faith-based initiatives and continue allowing them to discriminate based on religion?!  WTF.

So, that's what fatherhood is about?

Around 1:10 or so in this video of Obama speaking about fatherhood in 2007, he reveals that William was not the only man with a notion of what it means to be a good father.

As you all may recall, this feat of fatherhood was Part II of what was actually William's treatise on marriage. Now, all that's left is for Obama to reveal the all-important Part I. Since he's already married (whereas William, shockingly, was not), Obama's revision would go something like, "Man, I wanted to get married..."

Rebekah and I are doing well out here in Haverhill (pronounced HAY-vrull...to make it easy). Busy busy. Painting, landscaping, renovating, gardening, etc. Work is going well. This past Friday, we attended a workshop on Trauma and Attachment. It was very good.

Some weekend, we won't have any projects (YEAH RIGHT!!!), and I'll take a bunch of photos and do a slideshow on Kodak.com.

Take care, all. Happy father's day, Dad, Mr. T., Chris, Adam, and Vic!

Alanis

As most females in my generation , I've been a huge fan of Alanis' music.... I didn't know she was also funny ....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W91sqAs-_-g

Survey Monkey

Hi All - Matt is doing a project for one of his classes. He has created a survey and needs respondents. If you have a chance, please click on this link and take his survey. Thanks!


From: Matthew Olliges [mailto:olligesm@yahoo.com] Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2008 10:30 PMTo: matto@tp1.com; olligesm@xavier.eduCc: Olliges, Kelly A.Subject: survey


http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=lberatt6J2AQrHvULfQFaA_3d_3d

The Clock, the Clock, the Clock is on Fire!

Looks like it's already too late to "Save the Clock Tower!" Perhaps Doc Brown and Marty could go back in time and team up with Governor Arnie to put the freeze on those flames as soon as they started...

Crude Awakening

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or-TyPACK-g

Great Essay

Just found an essay I love--it's on the Templeton Foundation's website, posted in a series of responses to the question, "Does science make belief in God obsolete?"  Steven Pinker's is spot-on, I think, and I'd like to hear anyone else's take.

100th Post

Hi, all:

Just back from Florida, and I come bearing technological good news.  I've discovered, as some of you may have already, Thunderbird, Mozilla's email client.  Why is it awesome?  Because I have all of my email accounts in one place now--for free.  This means my AU email, my .Mac email, and my two Yahoo email accounts are all in one place, so I don't need to spend a few minutes checking various webpages and programs.  Also, I have it set up to view this blog, so I know when new posts arrive.  If you're interested in doing all this for yourself, I'll be happy to walk you through it all (it took me a bit of time to track down the various how-tos around the web, but now I feel pretty comfortable with it all).

I'm looking forward to watching that vid from the post below and responding.

UPS deliver for Pandora?

David Brooks has an intersting op-ed in the NY Times about religion, brain-science, and the ways we perceive of ourselves and our place in the universe. His opinion is that science won't trump a belief in God, but will rather provide a strong challenge to the belief in the Bible as the word of God. Perhaps along somewhat similar lines, 'Lis sent a really great link to Bri with a short talk about a neurologist's enlightened Stroke of Insight. How does all of this relate? What do you guys think about all this?

Also, I've been wondering about the Christian "mystery of faith" as a means of explaning several"'why?'s" of the world. Admitedly and maybe a bit ironically, faith in Christianity has become a bit of a mystery for me. But I still cling to a spiritual notion of what I would call God (energy, the universe, something bigger than us, etc.) I can't explain why. It's just something I feel and think. I suppose that's the mystery of faith. But, why must the constant mystery that is the universe as I experience it include a God? Can't the mystery also be that God doesn't exist? After all, if God caused the Big Bang, what caused God? Can't the answer just be that its the mystery of existence without an answer? Very mysterious.

Hooding

Here's a photo from the hooding ceremony for the MFT program. The woman in the middle is my supervisor, Jamie. The man on the right is Kevin, one of my professors. The man and woman on the left need no introduction.


This photo needs a short explanation. Music has been an important part of my cohort's experience at Antioch. So, I rewrote the words from the Thompson Twins' song "Hold Me Now" to express my version of "our" experience and as a thank you to Antioch and to our fams and friends. The other folks standing with me are some of my fellow graduates: Simone, Christian, I, Betty Anne, and Bunny. It was good stuff, and Dad E. hopefully got it on video. If you're interested, here are the lyrics I made up...

I can remember -- way back, two years
Twenty-some strangers and Janie and Bateson and Bertalanffy
A systemic perspective -- How do you see the world?
Do you see pieces or do you see parts of a much larger whole?

Hood me now
Woah-oh! Master of Arts
M F T
Let homework stop -- Let income start

So many changes -- old faces and new
Full-time or part-time or one-time, you each deserve our gratitude
A word to the first-years -- Before we eject
Beyond all the models and theories, do not forget to just connect

Hood me now
Woah-oh! Master of Arts
M F T
Let homework stop -- Let income start

Hood me now
Woah-oh! Master of Arts
M F T (A licensed MFT)
Let homework stop -- Let income start

No more reflections -- No more critiques
One more Basic Skills Evaluation, and I think I'd have freaked
Does it sound like we're ready -- Did we want these hoods?
Well, let us be honest -- The question is 'Does a bear crap in the woods?' (Yes, it does! Yes, it does!)

Hood me now
Woah-oh! Master of Arts
M F T (A licensed MFT)
Let homework stop -- Let income start

Hood me now
Woah-oh! Master of Arts
M F T (A licensed MFT)
Let homework stop -- Let income start

Emilys 30th B'day

Good morning.

Kelly I know you got the evite already - but wanted to throw this nugget out there. We're having a birthday party for Emily's 30th on June 7 - and while those who read this blog live scattered throughout the continental US, just in case anyone will be in or around columbus on that date, you are more than welcome to come by.

It's not a surprise party (Emily knows when her birthday is).

And as if you needed another reason to come, I will be there, so that's pretty kick ass. And Kelly will be too, shaking that thang up, down, and BAD.

Should She Stay or Should She Go?

How do people feel about whether and how long Hillary should stay in the race?

GreenFears, Then and Now?

Much of the recent history I’ve become interested in lately deals with the rise of environmentalism in the 1960s and 1970s, and I’m fascinated by its broad similarities with today’s heightened discourse on environmental issues.

The late 1960s/early 1970s was rife with apocalyptic environmental sentiments, like Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring or Paul Erlich’s Population Bomb, that called for a drastic shift in our resource-exploitative and consumer-oriented American Way of Life. American globalization was (and still is) fueled by this consumption ethic, and a remarkably diverse collection of people and groups in the 60s/70s rose to speak about alternative paths and issue warnings about what was (and still is?) our trajectory if we maintained the consumerist path. The environmental concerns of those days intersected deeply with ecological scientists who railed against the misuse of chemicals, with anti-war activists who were bitter about American imperialism fighting wars on the other side of the world against an “evil” force that was diametrically opposed to American Way of Life, and it found support amongst a contingent of youths who challenged the dominant culture and created a diverse and often contradictory movement inclusively labeled “counterculture.” The oil shocks and energy crises of the 1970s only seemed to elevate the importance of environmental concerns with other, negative aspects of the American Way of Life.

Today’s news and commentary is once again filled with such similar themes that it makes me wonder if someone simply cut-and-paste discussions from those years into today’s world. I’m especially interested in discussions about how overpopulation, the role oil plays in lubricating the cogs of the modern world, and climate change are all interrelated. (Speaking of which, this 6-part documentary by ABC Science called The End of Oil is amazing.)

It all makes me wonder: are we talking about all this stuff all over again because history is cyclical or because they are relevant issues that won’t go away? If they are issues that won’t go away, then what explains why the dire predictions about overpopulation and climate change from 30-40 years ago were crushed by the an expanding American economy, increased abundance in food supplies, and an earth that still seems to be able to maintain another doubling in the world population? Any thoughts?

Dad E. just found a nugget...

Mom and Dad E. are out here in NH for my graduation this wkd.

Dad E. just found this crazy story from late Feb/early Mar about a team-building exercise gone awry.

Did anyone else hear about this?

Philippines Thriller

Okay. Scratch my last post. The coolest and craziest thing I've seen in, perhaps, forever is found on YouTube if you type in Philippines Thriller. I highly suggest you blast the speakers as loud as you can, and put this on a large screen.

This video just made my brain explode. If you don't remember the original Thirller video, it is more than worthwhile to watch again. In picking up the pieces, I've thought about connecting this to a bunch of other stuff. I'd love ya'lls suggestions and help, even it random and just for fun!
Now, regardless of whether the Phillipines Thriller vid is real or not, I'm thinking of linking this to a history course syllabus where we discuss the role of patriarchy and American foriegn relations at the onset of the 20th century, it's connection with torture in the Phillipines over 100 years ago, and the connection to modern day torture in the so-called global and never-ending "War on Terror" (particularly Abu Ghraib), and finally bringing it all together with Foucaultian notions of Discipline and Punish.

Connected to that Abu Ghraib blib, and also connected to people following orders so much that they become zombies, I thought we could watch the movie 28 Weeks Later, and then read parts of the book Imperial Life in the Emerald City:Inside Iraq’s Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran to talk about the Green Zone in Baghdad (and, if needed, to try and link that to the American notions of fantasy, myth, story-telling, and the Wizard of Oz in early 20th century American culture.)

Hopefully there is some fund out there that might pay me to put something like this together. If you know of one, please let me know! I love you guys. Love, rog

Breakfast Club

This is the coolest thing I've seen in a long time.

Keep rockin' the suger crisps, ya'll.

Love rog

Better than Chupa Chups?

Lollipops with Chile peppers are delicious. God bless our Latino neighbors for sharing at a recent birthday party.

Sharing...

This made me giggle... (it's old so you may have already seen it).

Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters

I am in love with Jack Johnson (you can tell Matt, he is in love too).

http://www.jackjohnsonmusic.com/home

I just bought his new album a week or so ago and have been listening to it nonstop. LOVE IT.