Lughnasa                                                                   Honey Moon

As I installed the CD changer and cleaned up the clutter of wires, I removed all the wires no longer needed.  To my surprise among them was the coaxial cable linking our television to Comcast.  Not necessary.  We now get all of our television content from DVD, Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Video.

Until I set all those extra wires aside, I’d forgotten that the coax no longer hooked up to anything TV related.  It looks lonely now.  I might have to bring it a computer.  Oh, wait.  Wi-fi.  Don’t need it for that either.  Still need the one downstairs with the modem and the router though.

Lughnasa                                                        Honey Moon

Kate’s at a sewing circle all day today so I decided to surprise her and hook up the 300 CD player we filled up a while back.  While doing that, I eliminated all the old cords and connectors, tied like ones together with colored plastic-wire ties and dusted the whole area. It all works.  This is the kind of household maintenance I know how to do. (not that it’s hard.)

Lughnasa                                                                  Honey Moon

Darwin has a clear, strong voice in On the Origin of Species and the Descent of Man.  After reading three chapters of his work, I came away with my jaws far apart in amazement at this guy’s mind.  He looks at things to which we all have access, but he sees them.  In this quote he does fall prey to a bias of his British Imperial time, but the point is brilliant:  “He who is not content to look, like a savage, at the phenomena of nature as disconnected, cannot any longer believe that man is the work of a separate act of creation.” (Chapter xxi, p.1, Descent of Man)

(Punch, 1882)

Also, I loved this from a couple of pages further along:  “I am aware that the conclusions arrived at in this work will be denounced by some as highly irreligious; but he who denounces them is bound to shew why it is more irreligious to explain the origin of man as a distinct species by descent from some lower form, through the laws of variation and natural selection, than to explain the birth of the individual through the laws of ordinary reproduction. The birth both of the species and of the individual are equally parts of that grand sequence of events, which our minds refuse to accept as the result of blind chance.”

(Editorial Cartoon, 1871)

When on the voyage around South America, I read some of Darwin’s journal entries from the voyage of the Beagle.  The more I learn about him the more he seems to belong to the category of inexplicable genius, a quantum step forward in human understanding: Newton, Einstein, Aristotle, Confucius, Siddhartha Gautama, the early Vedic thinkers, those sorts of folks.

Lughnasa                                                                Honey Moon

The age of MOOCS.  A fine age for folks like me for whom learning has become a lifelong habit.  I finished my New History for a New China a couple of weeks ago and am about half way through Modern/Post-Modern.  Later in September I’ll pick up Online Gaming and Literature and Modern Poetry.

Each class I’ve taken so far puts another foundational element under certain current projects.  The Greek Mythology class and the Online Gaming classes support the Tailte Trilogy.  The Modern/Post-Modern strengthens the bones of Reimagining Faith.  New History fits my ongoing interest in China both ancient and modern.  Modern Poetry, well, that’s just for fun, but I do write poetry so it will help there and with my work on the Metamorphoses.

Lughnasa                                                                Honey Moon

“For decades, scientists were at a loss to explain the source of the so-called Magellanic Stream, a long ribbon of gas discovered in the early 1970s that extends nearly halfway around the Milky Way.

But new data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have helped astronomers crack the case. The observations show that the stream did not form all at once; instead, the ribbon is a combination of material stripped at different times from both the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud, two satellite galaxies that hover around the Milky Way less than 200,000 light years away.” (accuweather)  artificial color

8/14/2013  Lughnasa                                                     Honey Moon

As you have no doubt observed, ancientrail’s migration to the larger bucket of unlimited service in 1&1’s hosting has encountered technical difficulties.  Bill Schmidt has worked away at this for how many hours I don’t know, but I know he works with a clear eye toward a goal and a lifetime of computer experience, which is saying something since he is now 75.  A resolution will take place soon, I’m sure.  It might mean a new beginning, which is alright with me.  The old Ancientrail’s material will not be lost, but it may no longer be online.  I write along anyhow, as you can see by these entries, so we’ll move on into the future.

These are the kind of prices we pay for access to this astonishing ability to communicate with anyone in the world who has an internet connection.  Anyone in the world!  Think of that.  A glitch here and there?  So what.