I hope your Christmas is filled with wonder and joy.
A tree near my apartment. Merry Christmas!
December 22, 2010
On this date in 1864, in the last year of the Civil War, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman, for whom I am named, sent a message from Georgia to President Lincoln that said, "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah."
December 18, 2010
The legal affiliate of a designated “hate group” provided assistance for Rep. Stephen Sandstrom’s enforcement-only Arizona-style immigration bill for Utah. The Immigration Reform Law Institute is the legal arm of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, commonly referred to as FAIR. FAIR is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center on the strength of writings, quotes, and correspondence by FAIR’s founder and board member, John Tanton. For example, in one of his letters from 1996, housed in the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan, Tanton states that “for American society and culture to persist requires a European-American majority and a clear one at that”, 
December 6, 2010
The LDS Church's position on the “sanctity of marriage” is outlined in its 2008 document, "The Divine Institution of Marriage." So, it is not surprising that the Church joined a diversity of faiths in signing "The Protection of Marriage: A Shared Commitment," an open letter affirming a commitment to preserve marriage as the union between one man and one woman. The document has 26 signatures of leaders representing a wide range of major religions and faith communities in the United States, from Catholic to Jewish, from Anglican to Lutheran, from Pentecostal to Evangelical, and from Sikh to Southern Baptist. Signing on behalf of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was Presiding Bishop H. David Burton. The three-paragraph text reads: 
December 4, 2010
The Salt Lake Valley is again suffering with a dirty, smelly, gray shroud of aerial gunk — air deemed bad enough that the Utah Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ) issued red or “unhealthy” air warnings for Saturday through Sunday because of another winter air inversion and the automobile and industrial emissions it is trapping over the region’s valleys. Until possibly early Monday, when the National Weather Service predicts a low pressure front from the Pacific via California and Nevada may bring rain and snow, we will just have to hold our breath and live with it.
Usually you can see the mountains.
December 2, 2010
BMI 6' 0", 250 lb
Computed by Wolfram|Alpha
Input Interpretation
Body mass index
33.9
International weight classification 
BMI prime
BMI map 
Comparison to USA population
Half way there, but still a very long way to go to 175.
November 28, 2010
Gas locked inside Siberia's frozen soil and under its lakes has been seeping out since the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago. But in the past few decades, as the Earth has warmed, the icy ground has begun thawing more rapidly, accelerating the release of methane — a greenhouse gas 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide — at a perilous rate. The thawing of permafrost could become the epicenter of climate change. 1.5 trillion tons of carbon, locked inside icebound earth since the age of mammoths, is a climate time bomb waiting to explode if released into the atmosphere. Total carbon storage here is like all the rain forests of our planet put together. Global warming is amplified in the polar regions. What feels like a modest temperature rise is enough to induce Greenland glaciers to retreat, 
Arctic sea ice to thin and contract in summer, and permafrost to thaw faster, both on land and under the seabed. Yet awareness of methane leaks from permafrost is so new that it was not even mentioned in the seminal 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which warned of rising sea levels inundating coastal cities, dramatic shifts in rainfall disrupting agriculture and drinking water, the spread of diseases, and the extinction of species. Studies indicate that cold-country dynamics on climate change are complex. The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, a scientific body set up by the eight Arctic rim countries, says overall the Arctic is absorbing more carbon dioxide than it releases. But Methane is a different story according to their 2009 report. The Arctic is responsible for up to 9 percent of global methane emissions. Other methane sources include landfills, livestock, and fossil fuel production. In some places, so much methane is leaking from holes in the sediment at the bottom of one lake that “on some days it looked like the lake is boiling," according to Katey Walter Anthony of the University of Alaska Fairbanks who has been measuring methane seeps in Arctic lakes in Alaska, Canada, and Russia for 10 years. More than 50 billion tons could be unleashed from Siberian lakes alone, more than 10 times the amount now in the atmosphere.
November 21, 2010
An analysis by the Salt Lake Tribune of campaign-disclosure forms shows that 33 of the 100 incoming legislators who reported raising money this year (four did not report any donations) did not collect any money from their local constituents. Instead, it all came from corporations, PACs, lobbyists, other politicians, parties, or people outside their districts. An additional 17 lawmakers received less than 1 percent of their money from constituents, essentially a pittance. The most that any lawmaker received from constituents was 22 percent, meaning that 78 percent of contributions still came from outside interests.
No question about who is really being represented. I wonder why I didn’t vote.
No question about who is really being represented. I wonder why I didn’t vote.
November 20, 2010
There’s been a big stink out here in true and only Family Land about the “nude scene” in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I. But, as usual, it has been blown way out of proportion. Imagine that. Turns out the nudity is implied. 
Daniel Radcliffe is shirtless, and Emma Watson wears a strapless bra. Both also wear silver paint to create a nightmare effect for Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint). They are seen in this state for about 3 seconds, with enough mist, smoke, and special-effects additions that any flashes of skin are obscured. And, while the movie is rated PG-13, "for some sequences of intense action violence, frightening images and brief sensuality", Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix also received that same rating. Those films, however, earned their ratings for violence and frightening images, so you couldn’t really get all in a lather to proclaim your self-righteousness for that. Too bad. Can’t have too many opportunities to show how righteous you are.
November 19, 2010
Former president W. came to a suburb of Salt Lake City today to sign copies of his “memoirs.” He didn’t appear at a bookstore, but at a Costco. About 60 of us got together in Pioneer Park in downtown Salt Lake City, about two blocks from my apartment and 15 miles from where he appeared, to protest the visit of the war criminal. Utah is very much a police state, and there’s no way any protesters would have been allowed within blocks of the signing. So, he didn’t get to see the signs saying 
"Torture Stains Everyone", "Worst President Ever", and "Arrest Bush." Some of the cars heading for the freeway honked. Rocky Anderson, former mayor of Salt Lake, was the main speaker. He said, among other things, that we and the entire world know that George Bush is a war criminal, that the stench of his presidency will hang over the country, wondered how soldiers can get prosecuted for torture while Bush can be warmly received in Sandy bragging about having said "damn right" when asked if he authorized torture, and said that since Obama has not acted to prosecute Bush, all Americans are complicit in his crimes. I’m not much for chanting and fist pumping, but I agree with all these things. However, no one mentioned his equally horrific crimes of destroying the American middle class, funneling tax dollars to his rich friends, creating the largest budget deficits in history, and enlarging the American security state to a size that will never be reduced. Makes me sick to even think about the damage his presidency has done. And it was depressing to see the pathetically small group of us.
November 18, 2010
It was a wonderful meal at Michaud’s after we got in; but when we had finished and there was no question of hunger any more the feeling that had been like hunger when we were on the bridge was still there when we caught the bus home. It was there when we came in the room and after we had gone to bed and made love in the dark, it was there. When I woke with the windows open and the moonlight on the roofs of the tall houses, it was there. I put my face away from the moonlight into the shadow but could not sleep and lay awake thinking about it. We had both wakened twice in the night and my wife slept sweetly now with the moonlight on her face. I had to try to think it out and I was too stupid. Life had seemed so simple that morning when I had wakened and found the false spring and heard the pipes of the man with his herd of goats and gone out and bought the racing paper. But Paris was a very old city and we were young and nothing was simple there, not even poverty, nor sudden money, nor moonlight, nor right and wrong nor the breathing of someone who lay beside you in the moonlight.
Ernest Hemingway
”A False Spring”
November 12, 2010
In 1991, Goldman Sachs decided that food might make an excellent investment. By then, nearly everything else had been recast as a financial abstraction that could generate wealth without risk, so the analysts transformed food. They selected eighteen commodifiable ingredients and contrived a financial elixir that included cattle, coffee, cocoa, corn, hogs, and a variety or two of wheat. They weighted the investment value of each element, blended and commingled the parts into sums, then reduced what had been a complicated collection of real things into a mathematical formula that could be expressed as a single manifestation known as the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index, and began to offer shares. This was a new form of commodities investment that eliminated the complexities of the commodities themselves. It allowed investors to park a great deal of money somewhere, then sit back and watch it grow, without any of the risk that the bankers themselves had introduced into the market. 
In fact, the mechanism of long and short selling, that had been created to stabilize food prices, now had been reassembled into a mechanism to inflate those prices. If the price of a commodity went up, Goldman made money, not only from management fees, but from the profits the bank pulled down by investing 95% of its clients money in less risky ventures. They even made money from the roll into each new contract, every instance of which required clients to pay a new set of transaction costs. As a result, the prices of all these “elements”, cattle, coffee, corn, wheat, etc., began to rise. And because it was successful, other bankers created their own food indexes as well. So, by the first quarter of 2008 transnational wheat giant Cargill attributed its 86% jump in annual profits to commodity trading. In fact, this global speculative frenzy in food commodities raised prices of food so dramatically that it sparked riots in more than thirty countries and drove the number of the world’s “food insecure” to more than a billion people. The ranks of the hungry had increased by more than 250 million in a single year, the most in all of human history. In reality, more than a billion people could no longer afford bread. 
November 2, 2010
Today is election day. I have voted in every election since 1974, the first for which I was eligible (in those days when 18-year-old guys were being drafted to die in Vietnam, you had to be 21 years old to vote). I could have voted in 1972, but I was out of the country and had no concept of absentee balloting. Also, since I was a Mormon 
November 1, 2010
Lewis Lapham on reading history and writing:
I soon discovered that I had as much to learn from the counsel of the dead as I did from the advice and consent of the living. The reading of history damps down the impulse to slander the trend and tenor of the times, instills a sense of humor, lessens our fear about what might happen tomorrow. On listening to President Barack Obama preach the doctrine of freedom-loving military invasion to the cadets at West Point, I'm reminded of the speeches that sent the Athenian army to its destruction in Sicily in 415 B.C., and I don't have to wait for dispatches from Afghanistan to suspect that the shooting script for the Pax Americana is a tale told by an idiot.
The common store of our shared history is what Goethe had in mind when he said that 
the inability to "draw on three thousand years is living hand to mouth." It isn't with symbolic icons that men make their immortality. They do so with what they've learned on their travels across the frontiers of the millennia, salvaging from the wreck of time what they find to be useful or beautiful or true. What preserves the voices of the great authors from one century to the next is not the recording device (the clay tablet, the scroll, the codex, the book, the computer, the iPad) but the force of imagination and the power of expression. It is the strength of the words themselves, not their product placement, that invites the play of mind and induces a change of heart.
Acknowledgment of the fact lightens the burden of mournful prophecy currently making the rounds of the media trade fairs. I listen to anguished publishers tell sad stories about the disappearance of books and the death of Western civilization, about bookstores selling cat toys and teddy bears, but I don't find myself moved to tears. On the sorrows of Grub Street the sun never sets, but it is an agony of Mammon, not a hymn to Apollo. The renders of garments mistake the container for the thing contained, the book for the words, the iPod for the music. The questions in hand have to do with where the profit, not the meaning, is to be found, who collects what tolls from which streams of revenue or consciousness. The same questions accompanied the loss of the typewriter and the 
The more interesting questions are epistemological. How do we know what we think we know? Why is it that the more information we collect the less likely we are to grasp what it means? Possibly because a montage is not a narrative, the ear is not the eye, a pattern recognition is not a figure or a form of speech. The surfeit of new and newer news comes so quickly to hand that within the wind tunnels of the "innovative delivery strategies" the data blow away and shred. The time is always now, and what gets lost is all thought of what happened yesterday, last week, three months or three years ago. Unlike moths and fruit flies, human beings bereft of memory, even as poor a memory as Montaigne's or my own, tend to become disoriented and confused. I know no other way out of what is both the maze of the eternal present and the prison of the self except with a string of words.
October 28, 2010
Now that Favre is injured, here’s the new Vikings starting quarterback, Gavin Russell:
October 21, 2010
Top Corporations are helping the U.S. Chamber of Commerce influence election campaigns. Prudential Financial sent in a $2 million donation last year as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce launched a national advertising campaign to weaken the historic re-write of the nation's financial regulations. Dow Chemical delivered $1.7 million to the chamber last year as the group took a leading role in aggressively fighting proposed new rules to tighten security requirements 
October 6, 2010
Ah, but what can we take along
into that other realm? Not the art of looking,
which is learned so slowly, and nothing that happened here. Nothing.
The sufferings, then. And, above all, the heaviness,
and the long experience of love...
Rainer Maria Rilke
"The Ninth Elegy"
October 3, 2010
In a qualitative escalation, the Obama administration has for the first time used the “war on terror” against socialists in the United States. On September 24, the FBI conducted a series of coordinated early-morning raids at homes and offices in Minneapolis, Chicago, Michigan, and North Carolina. The political police seized computers, passports, books, documents, cell phones, photos, financial records, diaries, maps, and other materials. In one case, children’s artwork was confiscated. The warrants were issued under a 1996 statute signed into law by President Clinton making it a crime for U.S. citizens to provide “material assistance” to any organization designated by the government as “terrorist.” 
in a case where pacifists wanted to persuade such groups to adopt non-violence. Those whose homes were raided have been active in many groups, including the Twin Cities [Minneapolis and St, Paul] Antiwar Committee, whose offices also were raided. This committee participated in a national antiwar conference in July, attended by 800 activists, which formed the United National Antiwar Committee and called for antiwar demonstrations next spring. Some of those targeted helped organize demonstrations at the Republican national convention in 2008 in Saint Paul, and were among many arrested in a police riot against the demonstrators. Charges were later dropped, but these new attacks give the authorities another bite at the apple. By targeting socialists, the Obama administration hopes to intimidate wider circles. Tom Burke, one of those whose home was raided, said, “The goal of these raids is to harass and try to intimidate the movement against U.S. wars and occupations, and those who oppose U.S. support for repressive regimes. They are designed to suppress dissent and free speech, to divide the antiwar movement, and pave the way for more U.S. military intervention in the Middle East and Latin America.” Things are just getting better and better. Guess I won’t be wearing my Obama t-shirts any time soon.
September 22-30, 2010
Drove out to Rockford, Illinois for the annual John Whitmer Historical Association conference. Had a good drive out and really enjoyed the conference. Met some great people, connected with a good friend, and learned interesting things.
Then drove up to Stillwater (no, not Backwater), Minnesota to visit my son and family, and meet my new grandson. 
He’s very interested in what’s going on around him. He loved it when I walked around the back yard with him. We got along well, and I loved being able to hold him and get to know him a little. The whole time, I was enjoying holding Gavin and talking to them and just being together. They have made a great life together. It’s hard work having a new child with both of them working, but they are doing a great job. Here’s a brief video of Gavin and Josh:
And another of Gavin:
The trip was absolutely great for the things it was intended for, the conference and especially seeing Josh and Gavin. Really glad I did it.
September 17, 2010
A planet orbiting a star causes a slight disturbance in the star’s rotation, the effect of the gravitational tug between the star and the planet. Astronomers have been studying the wobbling of stars for a couple of decades, in hopes of finding a planet outside our solar system (exoplanet) that might offer the possibility of sustaining human life. Now, after 11 years of searching with specialized instruments in Chile and Hawaii, a team of American astronomers has announced in the Astrophysical Journal that it has found the first likely candidate. The planet is called Gliese 581g after its sun, Gliese 581, 
a red dwarf vastly dimmer than our sun and about 20 light-years from Earth. Potentially habitable does not mean Earthlike. It means that Gliese 581g is the right distance from its sun to be in the habitable zone, able to sustain liquid water and with enough gravity to retain an atmosphere. Gliese 581g orbits its sun in a bit more than 36 days and is almost certainly tidally locked, meaning the same side of the planet always faces the sun. That probably means wide extremes in temperature and a permanent twilight zone between night and day where the climates are more moderate. What makes this discovery so important is that it happened so early in the search for exoplanets and after examining only a tiny sample of small candidate stars as close to Earth as Gliese 581. In the paper reporting their discovery, the astronomers discuss the probable implications with carefully calibrated language that still doesn’t hide their excitement. “If the local stellar neighborhood,” they write, “is a representative sample of the galaxy as a whole, our Milky Way could be teeming with potentially habitable planets.” Way cool.
August 26, 2010
On this date in 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote, was declared in effect. Mary Ann Freeze, whose diaries I am editing, was very involved in working for Utah women to get the vote.
Here is an entry from her diary:
January 1889
Thurs 10th Attended a meeting held for the purpose of organizing a Woman’s Suffrage Association of Utah. All went off smoothly the organization completed with some of our noblest women as officers. Sisters Caine & Emily Richards were nominated & sustained as delegates to go back to Washington & plead in our defense,
Mary died in 1912. Too bad it took eight more years for women to get the vote, though as we know, there’s been nothing but trouble ever since. Wish she could have seen it.
August 23, 2010
Cellphones, which in the last few years have become full-fledged computers with high-speed Internet connections, let people relieve the tedium of exercising, the grocery store line, stoplights or lulls in the dinner conversation. The technology makes the tiniest windows of time entertaining, and potentially productive. But scientists point to an unanticipated side effect: when people keep their brains busy with digital input, they are forfeiting downtime that could allow them to better learn and remember information, or come up with new ideas. 
At the University of California, San Francisco, scientists have found that when rats have a new experience, like exploring an unfamiliar area, their brains show new patterns of activity. But only when the rats take a break from their exploration do they process those patterns in a way that seems to create a persistent memory of the experience. The researchers suspect that the findings also apply to how humans learn. At the University of Michigan, a study found that people learned significantly better after a walk in nature than after a walk in a dense urban environment, suggesting that processing a barrage of information leaves people fatigued. Even though people feel entertained, even relaxed, when they multitask while exercising, or pass a moment at the bus stop by catching a quick video clip, they might be taxing their brains, scientists say. Almost certainly, downtime lets the brain go over experiences it’s had, solidify them and turn them into permanent long-term memories. When you constantly stimulate the brain, it doesn’t experience this learning process.
August 18, 2010
For months, it has been clear that Republican Congressional candidates would benefit from independent voters’ dissatisfaction with President Obama because he has completely mismanaged the mandate he was given. The Republican party has nominated so many at the whacko far right, as well as some other unusual choices — Linda McMahon, the candidate for the United States Senate in Connecticut made millions running the sex-and-violence spectacle known as World Wrestling Entertainment — that the Republican brand is barely recognizable. Consider:
Ken Buck, the United States Senate nominee in Colorado. A former district attorney, he has said that the separation of church and state is too strictly enforced and wants to eliminate the Energy and Education Departments. Until recently, he supported repealing the 17th Amendment, which provides for direct election of senators. In the primary, he said he should win because “I do not wear high heels” — his opponent was a woman. As a federal prosecutor, he was reprimanded by a United States attorney after he gave information about the weakness of a case against gun dealers to the defense. 
Sharron Angle, the United States Senate candidate in Nevada, believes that same-sex couples should not be allowed to adopt children, that the United States should pull out of the United Nations, and that Medicare and Social Security should be phased out in favor of a privatized system. In May, she suggested to The Reno Gazette-Journal that if she failed to defeat her Democratic opponent, Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, then conservatives might have no choice but to turn to violence. “I look at this as almost an imperative. If we don’t win at the ballot box, what will be the next step?” she said.
Mike Lee, the United States Senate candidate here in Utah, said he favors repealing the progressive income tax and supports a low cap on liability for oil companies that cause extensive environmental damage. He is one of the many Republicans who support changing the 14th Amendment to prohibit American-born children of illegal immigrants from being granted citizenship.
These people are out of touch with mainstream American values of tolerance and pretty much everything else, especially what passes for human reason. Is this a great country, or what?
August 9, 2010
According to recent research, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), global warming is cutting rice yields in many parts of Asia, with more declines to come. Yields have fallen by 10-20% over the last 25 years in some locations. The scientists studied records from 227 farms in six important rice- producing countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, India, and China. 
This is the latest in a line of studies to suggest that climate change will make it harder to feed the world's growing population by cutting yields. In 2004, other researchers found that rice yields in the Philippines were dropping by 10% for every 1C increase in night-time temperature. That finding, like others, came from experiments on a research station. The latest data, by contrast, comes from working, fully-irrigated farms that grow "green revolution" crops, and span the rice-growing lands of Asia from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu to the outskirts of Shanghai. Specifically they found that as the daily minimum temperature increases, or as nights get hotter, rice yields drop. The mechanism involved is not clear but may involve rice plants having to respire more during warm nights, so they expend more energy, without being able to photosynthesize.
August 4, 2010
Until today, the thousands of same-sex couples who have married did so because a state judge or Legislature allowed them to. The nation’s most fundamental guarantees of freedom, set out in the Constitution, were not part of the equation. That has changed with the historic decision by federal judge Vaughn Walker that said California’s ban on same-sex marriage violated the 14th Amendment’s rights to equal protection and due process of law. The decision is a stirring and eloquently reasoned denunciation of all forms of irrational discrimination, the latest link in a chain of pathbreaking decisions that permitted interracial marriages and decriminalized gay sex between consenting adults. As the case heads toward appeals at the circuit level and probably the Supreme Court, Judge Walker’s opinion will provide a firm legal foundation that will be difficult for appellate judges to assail. The case was brought by two gay couples who said California’s Proposition 8, which passed in 2008 with 52 percent of the vote, discriminated against them by prohibiting same-sex marriage and relegating them to domestic partnerships. The judge easily dismissed the idea that discrimination is permissible if a majority of voters approve it; the referendum’s outcome was “irrelevant,” he said, quoting a 1943 case, because “fundamental rights may not be submitted to a vote.” He then dismantled, brick by crumbling brick, the weak case made by supporters of Proposition 8 and laid out the facts presented in testimony. 
July 29, 2010
I just finished reading another book by Noam Chomsky, Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy . It is a provocative and deeply troubling analysis of U. S. state power, foreign policy, and the work to undermine democracy at home. But, it is also extremely well researched and documented. He sees the current state of internal U. S. politics and the American hegemony the way I do, and he makes a great case. The first half of the book covers much the same ground as Hegemony or Survival, but the second half really gets at what is going on to undermine democracy around the world, as well as here at home. A very, very valuable book. Here is a brief suggestion he makes for what could change things for the better:
“The persistence of the strong line of continuity to the present again reveals that the United States is very much like other powerful states. It pursues the strategic and economic interests of dominant sectors of the domestic population, to the accompaniment of rhetorical flourishes about its dedication to the highest values. That is practically a historical universal, and the reason why sensible people pay scant attention to declarations of noble intent by leaders, or accolades by their followers. In addition to the proposals that should be familiar about dealing with the crises that reach to the level of survival, a few simple suggestions for the United States have already been mentioned: (1) accept the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court and the World Court; (2) sign and carry forward the Kyoto protocols; (3) let the UN take the lead in international crises; (4) rely on diplomatic and economic measures rather than military ones in confronting terror; (5) keep to the traditional interpretation of the UN Charter; (6) give up the Security Council veto and have "a decent respect for the opinion of mankind," as the Declaration of Independence advises, even if power centers disagree; (7) cut back sharply on military spending and sharply increase social spending. For people who believe in democracy, these are very conservative suggestions: they appear to be the opinions of the majority of the US population, in most cases the overwhelming majority. They are in radical opposition to public policy. To be sure, we cannot be very confident about the state of public opinion on such matters because of another feature of the democratic deficit: the topics scarcely enter into public discussion and the basic facts are little known. In a highly atomized society, the public is therefore largely deprived of the opportunity to form considered opinions. Another conservative suggestion is that facts, logic, and elementary moral principles should matter.” I couldn’t agree more.
July 28, 2010
But man’s life is short, at any moment
it can be snapped, like a reed in a canebrake.
The handsome young man, the lovely young woman—
in their prime, death comes and drags them away.
Though no one has seen death’s face or heard
death’s voice, suddenly, savagely, death
destroys us, all of us, old or young.
And yet we build houses, make contracts, brothers
divide their inheritance, conflicts occur—
as though this human life lasted forever.
The river rises, flows over its banks
and carries us all away, like mayflies
floating downstream: they stare at the sun,
then all at once there is nothing.
But until the end comes, enjoy your life,
spend it in happiness, not despair.
Savor your food, make each of your days
a delight, bathe and anoint yourself,
wear bright clothes that are sparkling clean,
let music and dancing fill your house,
love the child who holds you by the hand,
and give your wife pleasure in your embrace.
That is the best way for a man to live.
Gilgamesh
July 27, 2010
Since the early 1990s, both medievalists and electronic media theorists have pointed to the hypertexted quality of medieval illuminated manuscripts in making complementary claims: medievalists to continuing cultural relevancy and electronic media theorists in continuity to literary tradition. The medieval books we admire so much today are distinguished by the remarkable visual images, in the body of a text and in the margins, that scholars have frequently compared to hypertexted images on internet “pages.” 
The function of these images in illuminated manuscripts has no small bearing on the hypertext analogy. These “miniatures” (so named not because they were small—often they were not—but because they used red ink, or vermillion, the Latin word for which is minium) did not generally function as illustrations of something in the written text, but in reference to something beyond it. The patron of the volume might be shown receiving the completed book or supervising its writing. Or, a scene related to a saint might accompany a biblical text read on that saint’s day in the liturgical calendar without otherwise having anything to do with the scripture passage. Of particular delight to us today, much of the marginalia in illuminated books expressed the opinions and feelings of the illuminator about all manner of things—his demanding wife, the debauched monks in his neighborhood, or his own bacchanalian exploits. Books of commentary, known as “glosses,” included conversations among different commentators across time that surrounded a central text, such as a Bible passage. The wisdom of the rabbis or Christian sages would be preserved through decades and centuries, with new commentators sometimes being added as successive copies were produced. 
Over time, the original contexts for these comments were forgotten and their relevance to the central text became obscure, so they became part of the interpretive project of reading a book. Often, the commentary became more significant than the central text itself. In addition, medieval books were very often not the single-author volumes familiar to us today. A binding might include a bit of Chaucer—something from the life of St. Bridget, perhaps—and part of an almanac, or a treatise on herbal remedies. They were, to borrow terminology from George P. Landow, “dispersed texts,” unburdened by the modern fiction of sequential ordering of thought as “natural” or unitary authorship as normative that contributed to Enlightenment understandings of the “focused” mind of the individual thinker. Engaged by brilliant illuminations; challenged by reading in Latin, without spacing between words, capitalization, or punctuation; and invited into the commentary of past readers of the text, medieval readers of Augustine, Dante, Virgil, or the Bible would surely be able to give today’s digitally-distracted multitaskers a run for our money. The physical form of the bound book brought together all of these various “links” into one “platform” so that the diverse perspectives of a blended contemporary and historical community of thinkers could be more easily accessed.
July 24, 2010
One year ago today was my last day at a job. On July 16, 2009 I gave my notice. This is the email I was going to send:
As we have discussed previously, since the death of my mother at the end of April, and the subsequent tasks of dismantling the life my parents had made, I have found it increasingly difficult to summon the energy and focus needed to complete my required tasks. In the last week, that has become even more of a problem. As a result, unfortunately this is my two-week notice that my last day will be Thursday July 30, 2009. Working for you has been one of my best professional experiences. I felt we had created a working situation that was productive and beneficial for both of us. Thank you.
Prior to sending the email to Steve Swenson at ProVation and Eleanor at CDI, I talked to Steve. He said wait before sending the email, consulted with the F&C people, then told me that all the F&C work had to be done by 7/24. He asked me if I could finish the online help by then. If I could, 7/24 would be my last day. If I couldn’t, they would walk me out the door right then. I told him I could get the online help done by the 24th. I’m kind of a dope about these things. I tried to do this in a way that wouldn’t leave Steve hanging, but they seem always unable to think about anything other than their own interests, though in general, Steve has been good to work with. I thought there was some personal regard, but it’s just that I was doing really good work for them, and they wanted to maximize that. So, I got a week less pay, and still did the work for them. So, when I sent the email, I modified it to say “my last day will be Friday July 24, 2009 as you requested.”
So, July 24, 2009, one year ago today, was my last real day at Wolters Kluwer/ProVation. I got all the work done, did a really nice job on the online help, as they indicated. I guess I’m glad that I went out that way, finishing everything that needed to be done for the Q2 release and doing it well, rather than just walking away. Steve wanted me to come in Monday to show him WebWorks. I asked if that was really necessary, and he said yes, though I’m sure I could just have said I wouldn’t. I’m always too nice about these things. So, I went in Monday July 27 for 30 minutes, or so, walked Steve through how I had used WebWorks to generate the help, showed him where all the files were, gave him my keys and badge, and was out of there by 11:15. I put too much of myself into those stupid jobs, and so I always felt overly nostalgic when I left, even though they had killed me and I was glad to be going. So, I felt a little sad when I pulled out of the ramp for the last time, even though I was really overjoyed that I didn’t have to go back ever again. One of the really good things about the ProVation job was the commute. I went by Cedar Lake and along Theodore Wirth Parkway to 55. This is a scene I drove by every morning in that summer:
Surprisingly, I felt very comfortable about the decision and very happy to be done. Wasn’t worried about the closing anymore. Don’t know why, but ever since I left work that Friday, for what was really the last time, I have been very peaceful about all of it. And it has been a good year. A lot of changes, new city, new state, new apartment, new grandson, new outlook. And kind of an adventure. However things turn out, I’m very glad I got the chance to have this year.
July 17, 2010
Photos taken by a mountaineer on Mt. Everest, from the same spot where similar pictures were taken in 1921, reveal alarming ice loss. The Asia Society arranged for the pictures to be taken in exactly the same place where British climber George Mallory took photos in 1921. The photographs reveal that the ice of the Himalaya is disappearing, and that there is an alarming loss in ice mass over the 89-year period. The photos taken by Mallory from the north face of Everest reveal a powerful, white, S-shaped sweep of ice. Experts say that the evidence is incontrovertible. Images taken from the same spot in 2010 by mountaineer 
David Breashears show that the main Rongbuk Glacier is shrunken and withered. "Returning to the exact same vantage points, Breashears has meticulously recreated their shots, pixel for pixel. The photographs illustrate the severity of the loss of ice mass among the glaciers surrounding Mount Everest," an Asia Society statement said. The findings are vitally important because the Himalaya is home to the world's largest sub-polar ice reserves. The melt waters of these high altitude glaciers supply crucial seasonal flows to the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Salween, Irrawaddy, Mekong, Yangtze and Yellow rivers, which hundreds of millions of people downstream depend on for their livelihoods. If the present rate of melting continues, many of these glaciers will be severely diminished by the middle of this century.
July 15, 2010
Mary Jensen
Thurs May 7 1891 Mary Jensen walked home with me & stayed a short time.
Tues July 14, 1891 Went calling on the sick found Sister Arump much improved, but Mary Jensen worse, Lillie & I anointed & blessed her.
Wed Sept 2, 1891 Dr Ellis & I went to see Mary Jensen, administered to her and comforted her as best we could, I still have faith that she will be healed. I also had a private consultation with the Doctor about my health.
Thurs Dec 24, 1891 I went to see poor sick Mary Jensen, found her very much wasted She seemed much pleased to see me, I gave her a blessing & felt well in so doing
Sat Dec 26, 1891 I went around the 6th block to invite the people to come to the Meeting house to our New Year dinner, found many sick people, besides other troubles.
Mon Dec 28, 1891 By Sister Mary Jensen’s request, a number of the sisters met together and held a prayer meeting, asked the Lord to heal her if it were his will, if not to take her home out of her sufferings, she being perfectly reconciled to the Lord’s will either way, only desiring to be released from pain, We met at Lillie’s and many beautiful prayers were offered up, We all enjoyed the good Spirit & came away feeling blessed,
Tues Dec 29, 1891 Went up in the evening to see Mary Jensen, found her very low, but had rested all day, was asleep so I did not speak to her,
Thurs Dec 31, 1891 At 1, p, m I attended the funeral of sister Mary Taylor, Frank’s mother’s sister, It was a touching sight to see the motherless children, a baby 14 month old, The speakers were bro J. H. Felt, Chas. Livingston, bishop R. Morris & Pres. J. E. Taylor, She looked very much like Sopha as she lay in her coffin, Mary Jensen died today.
July 7, 2010
U.S. airline flights stuck for at least three hours on airport tarmacs fell 86 percent in May, the first full month of a regulation that subjects carriers to fines for such delays. Five flights were delayed in May, down from 35 in the same month a year earlier, the Transportation Department said in a report posted on its website. A regulation pushed by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood that began April 29 imposes fines as high as $27,500 for each customer when an airline fails to free passengers on domestic flights after three hours on an aircraft. So, do you think it’s a good idea to regulate corporations and their business practices?
July 3, 2010
It takes longer to read books on a Kindle 2 or an iPad than as a printed book. These results are derived from a recent usability survey conducted by product development consultancy Nielsen Norman Group.
Participants were given short stories to read by Ernest Hemingway in print and on iPads, Kindles, and desktop PCs. Hemingway was chosen because his work utilizes simple language and is "pleasant and engaging to read." The narratives took an average of 17 minutes and 20 seconds from start to finish, enough time to get readers fully "immersed" in the stories. After reading, participants filled out a brief comprehension questionnaire to make sure no one had skimmed through a story. The study found that reading speeds declined by 6.2 percent on the iPad and 10.7 percent on the Kindle compared to print. Participants also complained about the weight of the iPad and the Kindle's weak contrast.
July 2, 2010
I prefer even numbers. I don’t know why exactly. It’s just that all those other numbers seem so… well, odd. My favorite number is 12. The multipliers, 3 and 4, fine numbers in their own right, represent the divine (3) because it is the number of the trinity, or what Mormons refer to as the Godhead, and the 4 corners of the earth. So, 12 is the joining of heaven and earth, a worthy goal, if I do say so myself. That’s why 7 is often thought of as a lucky number, because it adds 3 and 4. 
But as we all know, multiplying is much more powerful than mere adding, so 12 is a greater number. And, it’s even! Two other really good numbers are 4 and 8. Not only are they very even numbers, their multipliers are all even as well. Can’t get any better than that. My current phone number has almost no even numbers in it, which is disappointing, but there wasn’t anything I could o about it, so I try not to let it bother me too much. My previous apartment number, 312 was very good because, of course, it had 12 in it, and the other number, 3, is a multiplier of 12. So, 312 has a unity about it that was quite appealing. Same thing with my current apartment number, 728. 28 is an even number, and everyone knows that if you can score that many points, and you don’t have a totally useless defense, you have a good chance of winning. Also, as before, 7 is a multiplier of 28, so there is that internal unity we all strive for and appreciate so much. Nice to have at least some things squared away.
June 26, 2010
I feel like I’m swimming in the ocean. The water looked so inviting, and I had wanted to do this for so many years, that I just dove in and started swimming. The white sunlight is warm on my head and back, 
the blue water running down my sides and on my arms and legs is cool and refreshing. And I’m enjoying being here. But I’m out here alone. I can’t see the shore, and I know I’m too far out to turn back. There’s only water. I hope there’s an island somewhere just over the horizon in the direction I’m swimming, but I don’t know if there is. If I stop to rest, I’ll sink. So, I’m swimming along, enjoying myself, but worried that the further I go, the more isolated I become, with no tangible evidence that I will get to the place I set out for. We’ll see what happens.
June 20, 2010
Tried to drive the Alpine Loop today. When I got to the mouth of American Fork Canyon, it was blocked by an accident or something, the line of cars stopped as far up as I could see. 
So, I drove down to 800 North in Orem and over to Provo Canyon instead, out the other side through Heber, up over Summit where it was 10 degrees cooler, past Park City, and back down I-80 into SLC. Took less time than I thought it would. Very green up in the mountains. Not the really lush dark green of MN, but very green for here. And beautiful all the way. Have to do the loop another day.
Got a very nice Father’s Day gift of a MegaPlex gift card from Josh, Gavin, and Sarah, and when I got back from my drive they had called. Sorry I missed them!
June 19, 2010
The Federal Communications Commission has voted to start the process of re-classifying high-speed Internet access as a telecommunications service, which could pave the way for adopting rules that prevent service providers from giving priority to some types of content traveling through their networks. The five-person commission voted to collect public comments about a new framework that will make Internet service providers subject to some of the same non-discrimination rules as telephone companies. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has been a vocal supporter of 
requiring Internet providers to treat all similar Web traffic equally, an issue known as net neutrality. Such rules would prevent telecommunications companies from charging websites for speedier delivery of their content. By re-classifying broadband, the FCC would have direct authority to enforce net neutrality. The FCC ruled in 2008 that Comcast, the nation's largest cable and Internet service provider, had improperly discriminated against Internet content by blocking customers from using a file-sharing program. Signaling support for broadband service providers, the supreme court ruled this year that the FCC lacked authority from Congress to make such a ruling. Republican opponents said "the proposed new regime will place the heavy thumb of government on the scale of a free market" and stunt innovation and investment. Those concerns were echoed by Internet service provider trade groups and other Republicans. The debate over net neutrality has pitted broadband service providers, including Comcast and AT&T, against Internet companies that extol the value of free-flowing Web traffic and an open Internet.
June 18, 2010
At 17 minutes past midnight this morning, Utah Department of Corrections officials counted down from five, then fired four bullets into the chest of a hooded Ronny Lee Gardner, murdering him just as he had murdered two other people. 
No matter how official it was and no matter how heinous his crimes, this was a despicable, unjustified act. No government has the right to kill its own citizens. And the glee with which it was done, and the posturing, hypocritical self-righteousness with which Utahans defend it, makes it even more despicable. I am sickened to my core, and deeply ashamed of the state in which I live.
No matter how official it was and no matter how heinous his crimes, this was a despicable, unjustified act. No government has the right to kill its own citizens. And the glee with which it was done, and the posturing, hypocritical self-righteousness with which Utahans defend it, makes it even more despicable. I am sickened to my core, and deeply ashamed of the state in which I live.
June 16, 2010
Can’t believe it’s been 10 days since the last post. Been a little slack in keeping this blog up. Focused on the book and articles I’m trying to get done while I still have a little money to live on, so that takes pretty much all my attention.
From July 1884:
Sun 6th
Attended the Funeral of Elder D. [O.] Calder Bishop Atwood. A. M. & G. Q. Cannon spoke. the latter at length. most beautifully. Also attended evening meeting after which the Bishop came down and performed the ceremony which made Fredrick Atkins & Alice husband & wife, There was no one invited except our own folks,
Mon 7th
--- As Alice was going to give a party in the eve, we all worked hard to make it a success, Al. looked lovely and the party would have been a success, but for the absence of the bride groom, who was compelled to go out to the Lake and play for the officers to dance, He came a few moments after the company had dispersed,
June 7, 2010
This is your brain on computers. Scientists say juggling e-mail, phone calls, and other incoming information can change how people think and behave. They say our ability to focus is being undermined by bursts of information. These play to a primitive impulse to respond to immediate opportunities and threats. The stimulation provokes excitement — a dopamine squirt — that researchers say can be addictive. In its absence, people feel bored. The resulting distractions can have deadly consequences, as when cell phone-wielding drivers and train engineers cause wrecks. And for millions of people, these urges can inflict nicks and cuts on creativity and deep thought, interrupting work and family life. While many people say multitasking makes them more productive, research shows otherwise. Heavy multi-taskers actually have more trouble focusing and shutting out irrelevant information, scientists say, and they experience more stress. And scientists are discovering that even after the multitasking ends, fractured thinking and lack of focus persist. In other words, this is also your brain off computers.
Even at home, people consume 12 hours of media a day on average, when an hour spent with, say, the Internet and TV simultaneously counts as two hours. That compares with five hours in 1960, say researchers at the University of California, San Diego. Computer users visit an average of 40 Web sites a day, according to research by RescueTime, which offers time-management tools. As computers have changed, so has the understanding of the human brain. Until 15 years ago, scientists thought the brain stopped developing after childhood. Now they understand that its neural networks continue to develop, influenced by things like learning skills. And the idea that information overload causes distraction was supported by more and more research. Researchers worry that constant digital stimulation creates attention problems for children with brains that are still developing, who already struggle to set priorities and resist impulses. The ultimate risk of heavy technology use is that it diminishes empathy by limiting how much people engage with one another, even in the same room. The way we become more human is by paying attention to each other. It shows how much you care. Empathy is essential to the human condition. But research indicates we are at an inflection point. A significant fraction of people’s experiences are now fragmented.
June 6, 2010
From November 1884:
Wed 12th
Have been riding this afternoon, called on Rie Dougall, Mrs Emily Richards, Sister Mira, Amy Burnham, & Louie White. My dear little boy Lou was with me and seemed to enjoy the ride very much.
Thurs 13th
Wrote a letter, My little boy seemed poorly and feverish, a not unusual occurrence with him but we did not consider he was in any danger, until evening when he took with Croup, which worried me some, but I never dreamed but I could break it up as I had always been successful before, in handling that disease, so I took him to bed by my side and watched, and waited upon him through the night,
Friday 14th
Lou was worse, His Father administered to him, I worked with him as well as he would let me, being very averse to taking anything, but he constantly grew worse, At noon I sent for the elders, Bro George Coulam came and administered to him. but with out any apparent relief following, Dr Pratt came in the evening and thought it might be his lungs, but he would not allow her to get near enough to him to tell much, When his Father came home at night, he could see that the child was very bad, and as he told me afterwards, had some misgivings concerning him, We two sat up all night slept but little, could not see any improvement, Toward morning he asked me to sing a little song he had heard a little boy sing at the Primary Conference the week before, which pleased him greatly and he had sung it all the week until taken sick, I sang it repeatedly, as he seemed to enjoy it so well, and would keep asking me to sing it again, In the morning we sent up and got Bro’s Macmaster & Brighton to come and administer to him, This seemed to annoy him, Afterward he coughed up two or three mouthfulls of yellow phlegm, which seemed to relieve him for a time, but he soon breathed as hard as ever, Through the persuasions of Sister Mira, who was greatly worried I sent for Dr S. B. Young, but before he came Dr Pratt had recommended lime for him to breathe which we got and made a tent of quilts, in which I stayed and steamed with him,
When Seymour Carnehe said he was a “sick boy” which fact I well knew, but still thought he must be healed, We kept up the lime at intervals, all day, and night, I also kept giving something to sicken and loosen the phlegm He would vomit once in a while but did not get any permanent relief, In the evening, he began to breathe still harder. which alarmed me, I sent for the Bishop who came and administered but apparently without much faith,
We, His Father and I sat up again, could see that he was growing worse, I never spent such a night of agony in my life, and would lkie to be spared ever suffering so again, if it was agreable to the will of God, The thought of having to give up that noble spirit in whom I had made myself such promises of future pride and happiness, seemed more than, I could do, and more bitter still, was the terrible fear, that should he die, he would grow worse and worse until he would strangle to death, It seemed to me that my nature could not bear so great an agony, and Oh, how I plead with my Father, to let him die in peace if he must go, During the night he asked me over & over again to sing that same little song, “Old Robin is dead and in his grave’, which I did although my heart was bursting with grief, I said to him “Louie you think that is the prettiest little song you ever heard dont you” He bowed his head yes, At 4, A, M, I called all the folks up to request them to pray to the Lord that he might die easy and not strangle, then sent Maggie & Carline after Dr S. B. Young. to see if he could do any thing to relieve him, In the mean time, Mother & I ran up to bro, Felt to see if he had any tar thinking. the smoke of tar might relive him, He came down and administered to him, and seemed to have faith, Dr Young came about 5 oclock, From that time he began to breathe easier, asked for a drink of water about 6, and took good drink, from that time on he continued to breathe easier, and at or near 7 he passed away without a struggle, and although, it seemed as all light and happiness went out of my life with him, yet I was grateful to God that he had answered our paryers and let him die so sweetly, After he died he looked as if he were only sleeping, I washed his precious little body myself, feeling that I could not give up that last sacred right to another, Dr Young would take hold and help me a little, What a sad, sad Sabbath that was to me; the saddest I ever knew, It seemed so hard to have to put anything so lively in the earth, out of sight, to decay, That lovely boy that had been the joy of my life since ever he was born, yet I must submit,
Mon 17th
It stormed, as it did the day before, but that was nothing to me, If there had been two suns shining, it could not have made the earth cheerful to me, for was not my Son, the light of my life, lying cold and still, The funeral took place at 2. p. m. Bro J. E. Taylor delivered one of the most beautiful, and comforting sermons, it was ever my lot to hear. The Bishop, and Cou’s J. H. Felt & R, Morris, each made a few kind and comforting remarks. I did feel comforted to a great degree, and felt that I would be Sinning to nurse my grief, after the things of God had been so beautifully portrayed, There was a large number of sympathising friends in attendance, and the choir sang beautifully. The last piece hymn, “There is sweet rest in heaven”, was one that was always a great favorate with him, he sang it often himself, and would ask me to sing it for him, I wondered that I could hear it without my heart being wrung with anguish, but I believe he was near me and rejoiced so much in his deliverance and rest, that I was not permitted to grieve while hearing it, The rest of the week until Friday I remained close at home reading and reflecting
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