[tiwesdæg] the day of single combat

Don’t you try it – leave it to Tyr or Tiw or Tew or Tiu to take care of all the combat today, on this Sumerian Gugulanna’s, this Babylonian Nergal’s, this Greek Ares’ and Roman dies Martis. Happy French Mardi and careful not to sacrifice your arm to Fenrir, the wolf, while you’re at it. May you come through today's battles unscathed and may your entry to Valhalla be on another day.

[writing] feeding the blogmonster

DK said it long ago: In that time, I have seen good new blogs flare up, burn brightly and then die after only a few months; some because their writers found that they had said everything that they wanted to say, some because of time pressures and some because of official or family pressure. There are sometimes those who pop up again in a different guise, but they rarely last for long. Lady Ellee, of Ely, said: I am too tired to blog tonight and have lots of studying to do for my PR diploma course on Saturday, I am way behind thanks to blogging. Deogolwulf said: My boss, however, has begun to notice my less than enthusiastic undertaking of the job for which I am employed, and has understandably suggested that I stay offline. AJD said: Took some time off blogging - life got too complicated. Basically, either you’re a professional and blogging fits into your micro-economic plan or else you’re an amateur, like me and the stresses are enormous to keep the blogmonster fed and take care of your other life. Something has to give. Even my Minister, in a veiled criticism, said, ‘You’re quite attached to that webpage, aren’t you?’ Attached? As in a narcotic?

[economics] the science of greed

[Erle Stanley Gardner: The Case of the Perjured Parrot, pp 187-189, Iris Press ed., 2002] Gardner was a lawyer who wrote mystery stories, his best known character being Perry Mason, who used the courtroom for the solution of the mystery; this story was written in the late 40s and reflected on the depression era. An entrepreneur is murdered while away on a fishing trip, Mason is called in and this is a conversation between Mason and the businessman’s grown son. Of interest is that it is a different take on the depression, written closer to the time itself:

‘After Dad returned, he said that we were all too greedy; that we worshipped the dollar as the goal of our success; that it was a false goal; that man should concentrate more on trying to develop his character. You might be interested in his economic philosophy, Mr. Mason. He believed men attached too much importance to money as such. He believed a dollar represented a token of work performed, that men were given these tokens to hold until they needed the product of work performed by some other man, that anyone who tried to get a token without giving his best work in return was an economic counterfeiter. Concluded …

[astronomy] mercury crossing sun on wednesday

Mercury will spend five-hours trekking across the sun starting at 2:12 p.m. EST in America. People in Western time zones of the United States should be able to see the entire trip and it will also be visible in North and South America, Australia and Asia, but not in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and India, where it will be nighttime. The last "transit of Mercury," as it's called, was in 2003. These events occur about 13 times a century, with the next one happening in 2016, according to NASA. That's more frequent than the transit of Venus, which happens in pairs, roughly twice in each century. (The next one is 2012). Just so you know.

[civility] please skip over this post if it offends you

Australian Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop has called for good manners to be taught in schools, saying there has been a "decline in civility in Australia". Of course there has - not only in Australia - and the blame is fairly and squarely laid at the feet of two generations of godless humanists who have hijacked education, the arts and music, stamped out the Christian ethic in favour of self-fulfilment and the pursuit of the dollar and left youth in a spiritual void which they’re trying to fill but with no guidance from their elders. They’re essentially alone but being young, don’t know it yet. Why are narcotics so rampant in the young, for example? Because humanistic values fulfil them? Give me a break! Where Ms Bishop loses the plot though, is in saying "if we are to institutionalise civility we must ensure that schools are reinforcing community standards and common values." As can be seen from the many blogcomments around the sphere, there is strong resistance in the community to decency and a return to Christian values. It’s the old adage – you can lead a horse to water…

[indignity] and the old gray lady refuses to budge

I’m a sailor and we’re known for being a pretty eccentric bunch, ascribing all sorts of human qualities to our craft and coaxing and loving the ladies as we would do our women. Except for Pacific Proas, which are boys, ships are ladies, after all. So when I read this in the NY Times about Intrepid refusing to budge from its home, I had to chuckle. “Old gray lady Intrepid did not want to heave her home in New York,” Bill White, president of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, said in a televised interview. “She does have to go,” he said. Ha! And ha again! Obviously not a seaman, our Mr. White.