Oh, lay my ashes on the wind That blows across the sea. And I shall meet a fisherman Out of Capri, And he will say, seeing me, “What a Strange Thing! Like a fish’s scale or a Butterfly’s wing.” — Edna St. Vincent Milay
A couple of weeks ago, in my little rant about leaving the war to the warbloggers I mentioned something about wanting to pursue to purposeful exploration of beauty as my gesture of peace in the world. Since then, I have really been looking for some kind of manifesto to hang a renewed blog practice on, and today I found it, serendipitously, as always. In this article in today’s Globe and Mail [link rot warning], the architects Frank Gehry and Daniel Libeskind visit the University of Toronto to provide advice to graduate students. In dispensing advice, the sages held nothing back, …
From a talk given by Palden Gyatso, the second-longest serving political prisoner in Tibet: Despite the torture while in prison, Gyatso said he does not hold any grudges against the Chinese, even those who tortured him. “According to Buddhist philosophy, it behooves me to control my anger. Being angry will not return my 33 years; they are spent. To educate in a nonviolent, constructive manner, that might bring a peaceful end,” he said. Gyatso said advocates for a free Tibet hope for constructive negotiations with Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao in June when they will ask for Tibet to become …
The Physics of Space Gardens A tiny bubble of air hangs suspended inside a droplet of water. The droplet rests in the cup of a delicate green leaf, yet the stalk doesn’t bend at all. Courtesy of NASA
Missing: A Vase, a Book, a Bird and 10,000 Years of History From the NY Times, on the destruction of Iraq’s cultural legacy: Above all, scholars reacted as mourners struggling with an overwhelming loss. In Boston, Dr. Russell fought back tears as he described a sculpture from the museum he had seen in the 1980’s: a small carving of a bird, one of the earliest stone sculptures in existence, from around 8,000 B.C. “The archaeologists had found it literally in the hand of its ancient owner, who had been crushed to death when the roof of his burning house fell …