The Winsome Scholar

NPR: World Cafe’s David Dye interviews Chris Walla about his newest album, Field Manual.  Have any of you heard it?  NPR: World Cafe Story

This is really amazing.  Dan Phillips creates homes using 85% recycled or reused materials, which is incredible in itself, but Phillips works with the working poor to…  Just watch. 

via Treehugger Article check out Phillips’s website.

Anyone looking to major in geology?  Something to think about: NPR Story.

Domingo Martin plays a song using his Moleskine journal as his only instrument.  Video at Moleskinerie.com Article.

Interesting commentary on the current election slogans.  In These Times Article

Library WII.  Gothamist Article

John Marks writes about Stoker’s Dracula and how it reminds him of . . . Easter.  Just check it out: NPR Story.

with some sad news.

Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, has died.  I’m not sure how many of you are familiar with his works, but there are many eulogies and tributes available online (Christian Science Monitor, The New York Times, NPR, Google Search) for you to check out.  Much has been made of his most famous work, 2001: A Space Odyssey (first a book then a movie with Kubrick), but I am most familiar with him though his World of Strange Powers miniseries.

We have lost four brilliant minds in less than a year (Clarke, Ingmar Bergman, Madeline L’Engle, and of course, Kurt Vonnegut).  I’m not sure why this has caught me so off guard, but I can’t help but imagine what my world would be like if I hadn’t read A Wrinkle in Time when I was in elementary school, if Clarke’s World of Strange Powers hadn’t scared the pants off me when I was younger, or if I hadn’t watched The Seventh Seal in college.  I won’t attempt to explain the impact Vonnegut’s oeuvre has had on my love of reading, because I’m not sufficiently talented to explain that in a blog entry.  It seems to me, though, that when an author goes beyond simply keeping the reader’s attention, beyond entertainment, and is able to impact the reader’s perception of the world, the author has tapped into the true power of the written word.  That is, I believe, the point of most (if not all) writing.  Just something to think about.

For your journal (perhaps), here are Clarke’s Three Laws of Prediction:

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

What authors, artists, musicians, inventors, magicians, scientists, politicians, philosophers, or saints have had an impact on your life?

Per aspera ad Astra.

We all get a song stuck in our heads every once in a while, but Robert Krulwich interviews a deaf woman who has had music playing in her head for years.  NPR Story

Scientists claim to have discovered, using mitochondrial DNA, a link between 95 percent of Native Americans and six women that lived around 20,000 years ago.  NPR Story

Remember the ballroom dancing documentary?  Bronx students learn Irish jigs (with video!): The Gothamist

There has been a mild uproar in the media over Fred Armisen (a white/Asian actor) playing Obama on SNL.  Is this an important discussion?  Newsweek Story

Mastadon skeleton for sale: $115,000.  Reuters Story

I’m going to try to get into the habit of posting the articles in the main blog body instead of the news feed to the right (thanks KO, for the idea).  The pickings are sparse today, but since I should be doing a daily feed (and we only do articles twice per week), there should be more to look at in the future.

Obama’s rhetoric.  Author’s pulling at the reminiscent heartstrings hardcore here.  Does her argument work?  Popmatters Story

More rhetoric in the blogosphere: Treehugger Story

This is the piece of art? game? I was describing in class: game, game, game, and again game via Popmatters

Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle incited a mass overhaul of the American meat processing industry in  the early 20th century.  Is video a more effective means of persuasion? NYT: Dining & Wine Story

More to come later tonight; I’m headed to look at more houses!