Spaceshots

Spirit is climing the Columbia Hills and what a sight!.

Cassini has entered orbit and is returning fine views of Saturn's rings, Rhea, Iapetus, Titan's clouds, and even Titan's surface

A Greek Bronze in Cleveland

Lo! and behond, the Cleveland Museum of Art has acquired one fantastic (and pretty important) Greek bronze. The Apollo Sauroktonos is unique in being attributed to Praxiteles and is, to my knowledge pretty unique in North America. The CMA's stock has really gone up in my book!

Entre JFK

The speech was more effective than I had expected, and did have its moments. Funny how those moments seemed to resemble something out of a Ronald Reagan speech. And then there were other moments . . . How does "one of the oldest commandments"—Honour your father and mother—translate into the imperative to maintain a Social Security program which ended children's obligation to support their aged parents? Listening to the speech on NPR audio, I was struck too by the fact that Kerry seemed to unable simply to stand back and bask in applause.

Take a cough drop . .

Marsha and my mother were talking the other day when the senior Mrs. Wiley said to the junior Mrs. Wiley, "You know, we're the only two who don't work at Wiley Bros. Cough Drops!"

Avicenna!

It appears that Michael Marmura's long-awaited edition and translation of Avicenna's Metaphysics from the Shifa' is available from BYU as the latest installment in their METI series. 846 p.?

Farenheit 911 points

1. Honestly, the film made me a bit hesitant about voting for Bush. Of course, the prospect of voting for Kerry isn't highly appetizing either. Still, the film did give me pause.

2. The best moments in the film were when it constrasted the interests of the elites and the uses of the lower classes by those elites, and also when it drew Orwellian conclusions as to the political purposes of a war on terror.

3. The film reminded me that, in 1990, at the tender age of 16, I was violently opposed to the Gulf War and feared being drafted to be mercenary for some emir.

4. It struck me that a similar film coudl easily have been made about the Balkan conflicts of the late 1990s, although there the humanitarian situation would have been more compelling than the WMD situation can now be made to appear. Also, one could easily get footage of Democratic politicians cuddling with Chinese businessmen.

5. I am going to urge all of my comparatively right-wing friends and family to see this film, if for no other reason than that they get slapped by a perspective outside of the CNN-Fox News-World Magazine-Wal Mart-local church bubble.

6. The film is very graphic at points and pushes all of the sentimental buttons.

I am reading lots of Averroes and loving it. He is where it's at--duh demonstrations either/or duh revelations. More to come on the falasifa! Just let me get me mind around that Active Intellect thing . . .

Brant Luther Country

Every time I stop for gas in Canton, I see little stickers reminding me that I went to school with this political animal. :)