Opposable Thumbs

Matt asks an interesting question:

This ultimately comes down to how one views the human race: Are we the inheriters of the Earth, free to do with it as we will? Or, are we the stewards of the Earth, responsible for looking out for others species? Or, are we just a cog in the wheel, our actions no more or less unplanned or unintented by Mother Nature?

Personally, I think we are stewards. At least I would say that we have taken on that role through our actions. If we decide to cut down a forest in order to build our homes and businesses then we have the responsibility to handle the consequences.

You are a GRAMMAR GOD!

If your mission in life is not already to
preserve the English tongue, it should be.
Congratulations and thank you!

How grammatically sound are you?
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This sort of thing makes me really wonder why we're not packing our bags for Australia this very moment. Tim is a very lucky man.

Wikiquote is a really cool site I just happened upon. If you're looking for a cool quote for any occasion, chances are you can find it there.

Bucky would be proud of these environmentally friendly, self-built dome house kits.

John Perry Barlow writes about the disappearance of his close friend Spalding Gray. It's a rather sad piece and I hope the eulogistic tone is not foreshadowing the final outcome. He quotes a wonderful piece by T.S. Eliot:

We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. Through the unknown, unremembered gate When the last of earth left to discover Is that which was the beginning; At the source of the longest river The voice of the hidden waterfall And the children in the apple-tree Not known, because not looked for But heard, half-heard, in the stillness Between two waves of the sea. Quick now, here, now, always%u2014 A condition of complete simplicity (Costing not less than everything) And all shall be well and All manner of thing shall be well When the tongues of flame are in-folded Into the crowned knot of fire And the fire and the rose are one.

that my good friend and occasional coconspirator Justin has decided to join this motley crew of blogging fools. San Benito All Stars is where you will find his acerbic witticisms. Based on his first few entries, not only am I feeling like quite a slacker (five posts in one day! must be the new found excitement.) but also damn near solemn in my tone. Oh well, I must be what I am. Go read what he has to say.

Some of you may know what tomorrow is. Of course, the perfectly pedantic among would insists that what's special about tomorrow is actually special about Wednesday, but midnight is still tomorrow as far as I'm concerned. For the uninitiated, tomorrow at midnight is the release of the final installment of Peter Jackson's take on JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Some theaters are having an all day event that involves showings of the extended versions of The Fellowship of the Rings and The Two Towers followed by the premiere of The Return of the King. Talk about a marathon screening. Anyway, tickets for those showing sold out pretty much as the second they went on sale. So we decided to have our own screening at our house. Thankfully we already have a pretty killer TV to watch it on and the sound system ain't too bad either. Best of all, we don't have to pay movie theater prices for our food. In fact, we're making tacos. Try getting that at just any old theater. You see tomorrow is also a very important anniversary for Nicole and I. It's one year ago (and a day -- the Two Towers premiered on the 18th last year) that we really met for the first time. We had encountered each other before, but the first real conversation where we got to know each other was at the Two Towers screening last year. So it's something of a party for us. I'm leaving work early to begin the viewing. We're planning on starting the movies around 2. If any of you have the day off and feel like stopping by, give us a call. We've got plenty of fixin's for the tacos. By the way, Nicole, if you're reading this, I love you more than ever. Every day is better than the last.

Well, as usual, it's been a while. The biggest news I can come up with at the moment is that we've expanded the list of choices for our move next year. After some serious discussion about which schools Nicole's applying to, we decided that we should probably look a little more abroad. Not that we have any problem with Boston, it's just that certain decisions she had made about the schools there and the line of reasoning we had used to choose the right schools for her had eliminated all but two schools from the list: Harvard and Boston University (at least at that point). It's not easy to compare these two schools, but I am of the opinion that Harvard, though probably the most recognized law school in the country, may not be the best school for everyone. Which is not to say that I thought it wouldn't be the best for Nicole, just that maybe that wasn't necessarily such an obvious fact. But resigning to this realization made Nicole feel like maybe she was in some sense giving up on Harvard. It is reasonable to think that if you don't write your application with the serious conviction that Harvard is the place for you, you might not make as convincing of an argument. I had to concede this, but what I tried to explain was that maybe it wasn't so much a matter of having a hierarchy of choices as having a broad enough selection to encourage more of lateral perspective. It seems to me that having a variety of schools in mind that all have their particular strong points would make the most sense. Then each school can be thought of as the best possible places for certain criteria. For instance, the current list now includes Lewis and Clark in Portland, Oregon. Now, the school itself doesn't rank all that high overall. However, it's perhaps the best school in the country for studying environmental law, which is one of Nicole's top interests. Similarly, Boston University is considered one of the best schools for the quality of it's teachers. So, to make an already long story shorter, we've added the aforementioned Lewis and Clark and the University of Colorado to the list.

To know now what we could never have know before 1969 -- that we now have an option for all humanity to "make it" successfully on this planet in this lifetime -- is not to be optimistic. It is only a validation of hope, a hope that had no operationally forseeable validity before 1969. Whether it is to be Utopian or Oblivion will be a touch-and-go relay race right up to the final moment. The race is between a better-informed, hopefully inspired young world versus a running-scared, misinformed brain-conditioned, older world. Humanity is in "final exam" as to whether or not it qualifies for continuance in Universe as mind, with the latter's access to the design laws -- called by science "the generalized priniciples" -- governing eternally regenerative Universe.

R. Buckminster Fuller, Critical Path

So, this weekend Nicole, my sister and I were talking about the way and at one point I said something along the lines of, "what next? Syria?" Then I got to work this morning and saw this article:

Powell Says U.S. Considering Sanctions Against Syria The U.S. will examine possible diplomatic or economic measures against Syria, which the United States suspects of developing chemical weapons.

The really disturbing part is this quote, "With respect to Syria, of course we will examine possible measures of a diplomatic, economic or other nature as we move forward."

This really makes me want to fly through Detroit (never really wanted to go there for any other reason, though). Nicole and I are going to visit my Dad over Easter weekend in Minneapolis. Maybe I should try to find a flight that takes us a bit furthur east for our layover....

Here's a little snippet from Douglas Adam's speech given at Digital Biota 2 that I think everyone should think about for a bit:

‘This is an interesting world I find myself in—an interesting hole I find myself in—fits me rather neatly, doesn’t it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!’

Although I had read this before I just stumbled on it once again in The Salmon of Doubt.

So tonight, while waiting for the beginning of the Two Towers (more about that later), I got started talking to this girl Nicole (a friend of a friend). It turns out that both of our fathers went to Harvard law school at one point. I couldn't remember the exact details, but I knew my Dad was there sometime around when I was born (1974). Realizing that I was sorely lacking on details and since I was still way to wound up from the movie to try and get any sleep, I got on the web to look for clues (it's the middle of the night so calling him wouldn't be a good idea and email would take too long). Here's a nice little mini-bio I found at this site:

Tom Lockney, Professor of Law, UND School of Law Professor Lockney received his law degree from the University of Texas School of Law in 1970 and his LL.M. from Harvard Law School in 1974. He was a Law and Humanities Fellow while at Harvard. Prior to joining the law faculty in 1971, Professor Lockney was in the Appellate Section of the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice. He has also served as consultant to the North Dakota Legislative Council. Professor Lockney teaches criminal law, criminal procedure, comparative law, and law and psychiatry. He lectures and publishes on criminal law and procedure.