tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101074962026-04-30T05:10:24.616-03:00The Mumbling Jack precursor. Occasional thoughts on Baseball, Poetry, Art, Music, and other Obsessions real or imagined. Follow my new Mumbling Jack blog at the link below.Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821143429836966690noreply@blogger.comBlogger270125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10107496.post-18634957229566729612013-02-08T16:48:00.000-04:002013-02-08T16:48:23.465-04:00

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821143429836966690noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10107496.post-92186854494612576932013-01-31T16:15:00.003-04:002013-01-31T16:15:44.756-04:00

There's a lot of silly Christian shit to wade through in this but it's worth it, I think (and necessary, of course, because the poem wouldn't exist if silly Christian shit didn't), to get lines likes these: "The men who lived upon the moor Would waken to the scratch Of hounds' claws digging at the door Or scraping at the latch. ... Men let the hay crop run to seed And the corn crop sprout in

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821143429836966690noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10107496.post-80235751556249806182009-09-27T10:32:00.001-03:002009-09-27T10:40:01.542-03:00

A great sketch about homeopathy.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821143429836966690noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10107496.post-56905089585268986662009-09-25T15:50:00.001-03:002009-09-25T15:57:33.296-03:00

A booklet -- not a tablet, not a notebook-- this is what I've been waiting for. I hope the end product is as good as I'm dreaming. "Courier is a real device, and we've heard that it's in the "late prototype" stage of development. It's not a tablet, it's a booklet. The dual 7-inch (or so) screens are multitouch, and designed for writing, flicking and drawing with a stylus, in addition to

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821143429836966690noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10107496.post-52959890095967081932008-01-04T12:18:00.000-04:002008-01-04T12:26:28.495-04:00

I'm not blogging much these days, but the 2007 International Privacy Rankings are enough to wake me up, at least momentarily. Without privacy, freedom is a myth. Is this really the world we want? Do we, as Canadians, want to continue to allow our freedom to be eroded? If not, what can we do to prevent it? What will we do to prevent it?

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821143429836966690noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10107496.post-52123386699278230252007-11-13T13:23:00.000-04:002007-11-13T13:23:42.001-04:00

the tagline for the TED website. And it's good to see a tagline with truth.TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821143429836966690noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10107496.post-74754484582247092202007-10-26T18:36:00.000-03:002007-10-27T03:45:27.311-03:00

Find out at FreeRice.* Here is a litte quote from the site's About page:FreeRice is a sister site of the world poverty site, Poverty.com.FreeRice has two goals: 1. Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free. 2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.They may be optimistic — who can say? But it's an addictive little exercise. Give it a go.*The link arrived in an

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821143429836966690noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10107496.post-81916399707234482972007-10-25T14:22:00.000-03:002007-10-25T14:33:57.395-03:00

Okay, I made the 99 part up -- but seriously, a balloon carrying a solar telescope reached an altitude of almost 23 miles above the earth:*The Sunrise project has presented engineers with a number of extraordinary challenges. The balloon is designed to carry 6,000 pounds of equipment, including a 1-meter (39-inch) solar telescope, additional observing instruments, communications equipment,

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821143429836966690noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10107496.post-41097177432243387842007-10-25T12:57:00.000-03:002007-10-25T14:08:55.596-03:00

Update: To get a feel for the direction in which lawful access legislation points us, watch PBS Frontline's "Cheney's Law." (Synopsis here.)Michael Geist, author of the weekly column 'Law Bytes,' made the concluding remarks at the recent (end of September, 2007) International Data Protection and Privacy Commissioner's conference in Montreal. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821143429836966690noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10107496.post-82336940116437869282007-07-15T18:54:00.000-03:002007-07-15T19:01:00.827-03:00

And why won't he heal them? Any believer in the christian god as a supreme being is helpless to answer that last question without resorting to self-delusion and intellectual dishonesty.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821143429836966690noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10107496.post-63157087512853940532007-06-19T11:42:00.000-03:002007-06-19T13:25:11.502-03:00

JC Bradbury of Sabernomics looks at the Baltimore Orioles' firing of manager Sam Perlozzo.Bradbury makes some good points. Personally, I think that the best thing that could happen to the Orioles would be for owner Peter Angelos to take a long walk off a short Baltimore pier, or at least sell the club to someone who is interested in fielding a winning team.Why pick on Angelos?Well, first of all

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821143429836966690noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10107496.post-50065915501028407832007-05-29T15:33:00.000-03:002007-05-29T15:45:22.795-03:00

Here's a poem I wrote last Friday. Anyone who is familiar with my stuff will probably notice that this one tumbles among my apparent obsessions like a pebble in a streambed.Frost-Damaged Sonnet (near the end of a long, cold May)Some June when lilacs aren't in bloomand willows are bare of bark,when there's no chickadee, no bumblebee,no baseball’s parabolic arc,when lips and tongues aren't

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821143429836966690noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10107496.post-62957388917595800062007-05-04T15:20:00.000-03:002007-05-04T15:26:09.726-03:00

A month into the 2007 baseball season the most interesting story to me is that of the injury-wracked Oakland Athletics team. So far this year, they've suffered injuries of various sorts to Rich Harden (their best starting pitcher), Mark Kotsay (their best center fielder), Milton Bradley (their best right fielder), Dan Johnson (their second-best first baseman -- though he's back now), Nick Swisher

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821143429836966690noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10107496.post-53298250767166928442007-03-20T13:52:00.000-03:002007-03-20T14:33:56.514-03:00

Bouncing around today, I found How To Catch a Lion in the Sahara Desert.I'd call its original form an unintentional prose poem, but I've taken the liberty of inserting line breaks and doing some editing to turn it into the following (which I may attempt to record sometime in the next few days):Found Poem (How To Catch a Lion in the Sahara Desert)1. Theoretical Physics MethodsThe Dirac

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821143429836966690noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10107496.post-21539022804288139612007-03-18T14:47:00.000-03:002007-03-18T14:45:16.660-03:00

Always in the vanguard where death is concerned. An Irish funeral parlour now offers, um, live streaming of funerals for people unable to attend in, er, body. They do seem to be using a tasteful and considerate approach (which is more than can be said for me)Just last week, he said, the funeral home negotiated with an internet service provider in New Zealand to upgrade one woman's connection

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821143429836966690noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10107496.post-24210418449158008832007-03-07T14:08:00.000-04:002007-03-07T14:07:03.149-04:00

Call me a geek if you like, but I think this is a seriously cool DIY project. Though if I were to attempt it, I'd probably not even bother looking for an old typewriter to salvage keys from. I'd simply go with the brass-edged buttons for all the keys. Also, while it would be much more work (all those holes!), I think I might at least attempt to make a thin brass or wooden face to lay over or in

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821143429836966690noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10107496.post-88255225348780037352007-03-04T01:58:00.000-04:002007-03-04T11:43:27.568-04:00

Even before I found the Chicago Homer tonight (more on it below, with a link) there were many things to like about Chicago — even for me, who has never been there. And probably never will be.For instance, in the middle of the 19th-century she became the livestock centre of America, butchering and shipping delicious beef and pork all over the USA.There is Wrigley Field, which opened in 1914.And

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821143429836966690noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10107496.post-46760575799140572492007-02-20T15:28:00.000-04:002007-02-20T15:28:31.648-04:00

Here is a list of cognitive biases at Wikipedia. I, of course, don't suffer from any of them because I am not your average person.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821143429836966690noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10107496.post-85344983485050244852007-02-11T14:25:00.000-04:002007-02-10T03:43:04.647-04:00

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind is a fascinating book written by Julian Jaynes, and published by Houghton Mifflin in 1976. Maybe many of you folks have read this book already. And if you haven't, maybe you should (I find Jaynes' writing very accessible). I managed to borrow a copy a little while ago (but it's apparent to me that I am going to have to acquire

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821143429836966690noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10107496.post-18391780147231547282007-01-31T15:37:00.000-04:002007-01-31T15:36:51.562-04:00

Whatever You Say Say Nothing audiofile (6:06). Today I felt like reading a Heaney poem. The text of Whatever You Say Say Nothing. It's a powerful poem and requires no explanation from me.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821143429836966690noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10107496.post-80154993781498474532007-01-27T13:58:00.000-04:002007-01-27T14:05:04.568-04:00

(A comment by Rob L on this post at Alone On A Boreal Stage led me to write this post.)"He [Richard Dawkins] does not quietly acknowledge the etherial [sic] quality of religion, but instead scorns it as an escape from the earthly responsibility of being a human being in the here and now (sounds a lot like Marx, actually...and Freud...)."The ethereal quality of religion." If the emphasis there is

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821143429836966690noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10107496.post-63249760250411943382007-01-15T15:15:00.001-04:002007-01-15T15:17:49.617-04:00

That Silent Evening audiofile (2:38).As requested in the comments to a previous post, here is Galway Kinnell's That Silent Evening. Text here.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821143429836966690noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10107496.post-18876264799507911232007-01-14T12:09:00.000-04:002007-01-14T12:11:53.795-04:00

I ran into a small technical difficulty (misplaced the 1/4 inch to 1/8 inch adaptor for my input jack). I won't be able to record until I get a new one tomorrow. My apologies.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821143429836966690noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10107496.post-27410245688628849762007-01-12T13:17:00.001-04:002007-01-12T13:17:52.503-04:00

I'll be able to get back to posting audio renditions of poems this weekend. If anyone has any requests, let me know.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821143429836966690noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10107496.post-40844709398379388522007-01-09T01:36:00.001-04:002007-01-09T13:35:38.480-04:00

"Pequeno Vals Vienes" is the poem on which Leonard Cohen based the song "Take This Waltz." I have long wanted to do my own translation of the piece. So I have. It's below. The original, Spanish text can be found here.update: I've done another version and posted it in the comments.Little Viennese Waltz In Vienna there are ten girls waitingfor death to sob on their shoulders;there's a forest

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08821143429836966690noreply@blogger.com5