Did someone ask for flying cars? Let’s drive to Timbuktu, baby!
UPDATE: A much better link here with video of an interview with the inventor and of the car flying on the beach.
Parable
Here’s a little story which explains everything. I’m hiding it behind the fold because it contains some bl**ped profanity. Continue reading Parable
Rapture delayed
Tonight, for reasons I won’t bore you with, I used a snowblower for the first time in my life. (We got about three inches of snow today. I’m aware some of you got more than that. No need to tell me about it. I feel your pain, as you will no doubt feel mine when it’s our turn.) The experience was pretty much what I expected. It’s less work than my dad’s way, but it’s still work.
Here’s something from my new publisher’s website that impressed me. I’m doubtless motivated to apple-polish a bit, but I’m pretty sure I honestly think it’s exceptionally good. It’s an article arguing that one major reason for the decline in Christian influence in American has been the widespread acceptance of the Pre-Tribulation Rapture interpretation of Revelation. The author argues that holding to this idea (that the whole world is about to slide into war, famine, devastation and tyranny, but that Christians are going to be evacuated before things get bad) has prevented us from engaging the culture. Continue reading Rapture delayed
Closeted Away
Who needs an MFA anyway? Alan Ackmann confesses:
It was easy, for me at least, to lose perspective on the real world—the world of non-writers, with their various struggles, joys, and fears—and this distance made it difficult to write about that world. Part of it was the fact that I started my program when I was twenty-two. My real life experience was limited, and it wasn’t getting wider in graduate school, and for a time this made me both self-conscious and defensive. The best writers in my program, I felt, were the ones with ample real-life experience on which to draw, and their stories seemed rich in character and emotional depth, their styles matched perfectly with their subjects. The weaker writers, by contrast, hid behind surface level stereotypes and artistic hijinks, cloaking simple thoughts in pretty words. And as much as I tried to be in the former category, I’m afraid I spent (and, regrettably, still spend) too much of my time in the latter.
Super Storefront
A non-profit organization dedicated to working with children, ages 6-18, on their writing skills presents a dramatic storefront to the public. Of course, readers of this blog will spot this instantly as a ruse for Norwegian propaganda, but let’s admit it is a creative ruse. From their website:
What is the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co.?
The Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co. sells capes, grappling hooks, antimatter, and more. All the proceeds from the store go directly to 826NYC. The store also gives passersby a reason to walk in and see what’s going on in the writing center.
What happened at 826NYC today?
This morning, we had a field trip. We hosted 20 sixth-graders from the Secondary School for Research in Park Slope, who entered the writing center with science and math on their minds. In class, they’ve been watching mold grow on bread and working in fractions. At 826, these scientists transformed into budding journalists capable of turning anything “even mold and fungus” into riveting news. Thanks to these students, today’s issue of The Daily Mildew features some incredible articles, including “Mold Lives!” and “Mold Attacks Manhattan.”
(hat tip: Page Plane)
What We Know About Ourselves
For we always seem to ourselves righteous and upright and wise and holy — this pride is innate in all of us — unless by clear proofs we stand convinced of our own unrighteousness, foulness, folly, and impurity (The Institutes of the Christian Religion, p. 37)
From a new blog of Puritan Quotations
New Winnie the Pooh Book Coming
“Return to the Hundred Acre Wood, penned by author David Benedictus, is to be released in Britain and the United States on October 5.”
Safety Law Could Close Bookseller, Library Kids Sections
The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), signed into law last August, calls for third party lead testing of all products for children under age 12. According to reporter Alissa Harris, “On February 10, . . . all products for children under 12 — books, games, toys, sports equipment, furniture, clothes, DVDs, and just about every other conceivable children’s gadget and gewgaw — must be tested for lead, and fall below a new 600 part-per-million limit, or face the landfill. Thanks to a September 12 memo from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the lead limit applies not only to new products, but also to inventory already on store shelves.”
Testing for each item can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars, and somehow each retailer is responsible for its current stock–no overlap from certified publishers. Libraries appear to be on the hook for certifying that their children’s books are lead-free, even if the process for making the books uses no lead. From the same article in The Phoenix:
Historically, books have been considered more dangerous to read than to eat. Regardless, a memo from the CPSC, issued the day before Christmas Eve, explicitly quashed any hope that books might escape the new law. To make matters worse, even publishers that have already had their products tested for lead will be forced to retest. In the same memo, existing test results based on “soluble lead” — a measure of whether lead will migrate out of a product — were rejected by the CPSC because they did not measure “total lead content.”
The CPSC has not issued any ruling on whether libraries, schools, and other institutions that loan — rather than sell — books will be subject to the law. Without such clear guidance, says Adler, schools and libraries should assume they have to comply.
It appears thrift stores and other second-hand shops will be exempt, so maybe libraries will be spared as well. The safety act is intended to stop poor quality imported toys, like those recalled several times in the last couple years. How can the Feds follow through with this gnat-straining law and actually put several booksellers, educational material retailers, and toy-makers out of business? If I’ve read the news aright, they won’t force anyone to close down. They will only threaten to sue them into the ground if one of their products has a lead problem. That’s modern day mercy for you.
“Freakishly Fast” Reading
Sarah Weinman read 462 books last year and talks about it with the LA Times. She said most of those books were “mediocre or forgettable, and if I hadn’t been on a subway or captive on a plane or a train, I might not have finished them.”
I can’t read anywhere near this fast. I’m pretty slow at it, which is why I’ve begun to claim that I don’t read books at all, I only read about books.
I think my sister knows a woman who can read like Sarah. She said watching her read is like watching someone turn the pages. How she can take in a whole page at once must have something to do with ancient secrets or Aztec technology. Maybe she’s immortal. Wait, we’re all immortal, so maybe she’s … something else …
The Internet is for Gossip
No, the Internet is not for that thing–I don’t even want to type it–but as you’re aware, there is a lot of it out there. That’s at least one reason, maybe the biggest reason, the Playboy company is showing reduced profits. The company produces more than just the magazine, but to focus on that part of it, subscriptions are down to 2.7 million now. Similar magazine appear to be down as well, though there numbers are only in the thousands. As Carl Trueman points out, Playboy’s decline isn’t a reason for cheer. It is only the decline of our popular culture.
Our decline isn’t only that photos from indecent to raunchy are available online for free. It’s also the abundance of celebrity gossip. The other day I was thinking of writing Fox News in an effort to make the case against their celebrity news coverage. Why does it call for so much media attention? I don’t want to see any more headlines about the Pitt-Jolie-Aniston thing. I don’t want to be aware that some actor said something revealing in some interview I would have missed had it not been for news flashes and clumps of headlines on a web page. I saw something about Hugh Hefner losing and regaining a girl to sleep with–that’s nasty. Why is that news?
Most people (87%) appear to agree that we see and hear too much of it, and I think it contributes to the sexualization or maybe the pornographizing of the exposed. Continue reading The Internet is for Gossip