Posts

(plas)Ticked Off

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     Finally, this overdue post on plastics arrives.  I had started writing it months ago but other things came up: reflections, politics, cleaning up, laziness.  All that, and I think I must add the almost-depressing state of what is happening in our world and how much we seem to be in denial.  Not only in the wars and the income inequality, but in the sheer number of us and our urge to be somewhere,  whether for fun or work.  And so we drive, or fly, or cruise, and we check our workstations or laptops or phones, and we want information, and quickly.  And now AI.  All of that means power, and water, and often war, because we're running out of what we have.  So we burn all sorts of junk to make that power --from coal to nuclear to plastics (more petroleum)-- and we wonder why or how the planet could be re-entering a phase of changing climate...surely it isn't us, because we're doing our best: driving electric cars and scooters and b...
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Chthonic

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     What on Earth?  Or what on the under-earth?  Not only was I being introduced to new words ( chthonic /coeval?) but also to new visions of life and music, even the cardiac blues (actual condition, that: postoperative cardiac depression).  Not that it affects me mind you, that cardiac stuff (knock wood), but those blues are well known in surgical circles.  To make matters more complicated, the author who underwent the procedure wrote this: I entered the literature when they touched my heart and changed the prosody of my body.  Wait, the what?  So I looked the word up and found this definition in Wikipedia :  Often, prosody specifically refers to such elements, known as suprasegmentals when they extend across more than one phonetic segment.  Well, that explains a lot (not)...     That cardiac surgery was but one story in an issue of the New York Review , with others topics including music and art criticism.  One art...
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Book (Ends)

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      Everyday I Read was the title of the recent book by Korean author, Hwang Bo-Reum.  It was her third book, a very short collection of her answers to why she read, with her observations reading closer to a school paper or diary, each "chapter" being only a few pages long: ... some things haven't changed.  I'm still an unknown author and still reading, of course.  I can't imagine otherwise.  When I'm feeling a little down, or when I'm trying to understand something, whether it's about the bigger world out there, everyday life, about myself, or you, I turn to my shelves.  Books may not give me answers, but they nudge me towards the right directions.  I keep their words close to my heart.  Knowing that I'm not navigating life alone makes me feel a little more courageous, a little less unsure.  Sure sounds good, and many reviewers, perhaps because reading and reviewing is their job, gushed over the "wisdom" of her words as if wanti...
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Eat, Bug, Bother...

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     One has to ask, what on Earth do those title words have in common?  Turns out that only 2% of the world's population is considered "smart" enough to join Mensa by passing their qualifying test (sample question to start you out: what does "mensa" even mean?).  But anyone can join (for a fee).  Instead of AI consider it AI-Q.  But how many of us really know our IQ?  As with age, it may be just a number, something assigned to you by a series of tests or whatever, but something assigned to you by someone or something else.  No matter, the question of "smarts" can only be answered by yourself.  And there are many ways to be smart.  Take street smarts, a field which I would fare poorly at.  Some people simply have it, an ability to adapt quickly to a situation, a quick comeback or an immediate reaction; such people seem to have a different way of looking at things, a common sense and one that comes without panic or hesitation....
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