This story about Britain’s last WW1 soldier has a key them: reconciliation is possible: To the strains of the “Last Post,” and in the presence of soldiers from armies that had fought as both friend and foe, the funeral was held here Thursday for Harry Patch, the last British survivor of World War I living in this country. Pallbearers carried the coffin of Harry Patch from Wells Cathedral on Thursday in Wells, England. Born in June 1898, Mr. Patch died last month at the age of 111 at a nursing home in this southwestern cathedral city, where thousands of …
Obama has a birthday, and here are some wishes for him: Obama’s failure would be unthinkable. And yet the best indications now are that he will fail, because he will be unable–indeed he will refuse–to seize the radical moment at hand. Every instinct the president has honed, every voice he hears in Washington, every inclination of our political culture urges incrementalism, urges deliberation, if any significant change is to be brought about. The trouble is that we are at one of those rare moments in history when the radical becomes pragmatic, when deliberation and compromise foster disaster. The question is …
Fresh from the feed garden: Ria Baeck on collaborative classroom design. George Por on his contemplative co-tweeting experiement, Parts 1 and 2 Geoff Brown continues the holding questions thread. Euan Semple on what constitutes radical action. Mushin on living social fields. Johnnie Moore on Dave Snowdon and complexity in government Rob Paterson has a TED talk from Stewart Brand on environmental heresies.
My friend Adam Yukelson took up rock balancing after hanging out with us at the ALIA Institute last month. He made this sculpture on the shores of the Dead Sea a couple of weeks ago. Beautiful.