I see no reason to segregate scientific and technical posts from humanistic ones. In my life, scientific concerns mix with ethical ones, and they shade into a philosophical interest in the nature of cognition and the nature of people. Doing science is as creative as writing fiction, and I get inspiration for both from the same gods.
You will find little here on current politics. I'm activist, but in causes not symptoms. Experience in martial arts shows me that the sure way to lose is reactivity; but if you stay cool and remember your training and what you're there for then you achieve goals and, when conflict is unavoidable, you fight and win. The idea of the liberal arts I was brought up in is that broad understanding of cultures and ideas gives you deeper, better goals -- making success more likely and more satisfying. Negatively, the hysteria since 9/11 shows how a country frightened and reactive can destroy itself more than an enemy can. I'm trying to contribute by changing the terms of discourse. See 
One fact shouldn't require special mention; but -- given the nature of the society in which I've grown up and lived -- it often does: namely that I'm gay. You'll see it in some posts and in some links below. I'm proud of being gay and do not hide; more about this on the 
On my About page, I present quotations and images that—like the ones at the top of the sidebar to the left—suggest the importance of imagination, inspiration, imagery, art.
There is some dialogue in the film of The Hound of the Baskervilles that, for me, also expresses this perfectly.
Holmes: Well, if you’ve had enough to eat, Watson, and you’re feeling in better spirits I think we’d better be getting along.
Watson: Getting along where, if I’m not prying?
Holmes: I’m returning with you to Baskerville Hall. There are still some gaps to be filled in, but all in all things are becoming a little clearer.
Watson: Not to me, I assure you. Still a hopeless jumble: Mister Frankland, Doctor Mortimer, the Barrymans. Put it all together and what have you got?
Holmes: Murder, my dear Watson: refined, cold-blooded murder.
Watson: Murder?
Holmes: There’s no doubt about it, in my mind—or perhaps I should say “in my imagination,” for that’s where crimes are conceived and where they’re solved: in the imagination.
Watson: But there’s been no murder, unless you mean Sir Charles and the facts clearly indicated that he died from heart failure.
Holmes: That’s why so many murders remain unsolved, Watson: people will stick to facts even though they prove nothing. Now, if we go beyond facts, use our imagination as the criminal does, imagine what might have happened, act upon it—as I’ve been trying to do in this case—we usually find ourselves justified.
Watson: Then you know?
Holmes: Another day or two at the most and I will know. My one fear is the murderer will strike before we’re ready. In that case . . .—Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce,
as Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson
It’s not just crimes that can be solved that way, but other things.
The Hound of the Baskervilles,
by Sidney Paget
Tags: Doctor Watson, Imagination, life, Movies, quotation, Sherlock Holmes, Sidney Paget, The Hound of the Baskervilles, thoughts
17 November 2007 at 6:28 pm
looks good! I love old movies!
19 July 2009 at 3:14 am
i love stories particularly of suspense .i like this novel alote because of it’s tremendous fiction.send me names of some few novels which involve much suspense.thank you