The Hydrogen Economy

Apparently one of the reasons that hydrogen will not replace gasoline as a fuel is due to storage issues. You have to carry around a lot more liquid hydrogen as compared to gasoline.

Tea Tree Shampoo

This ain't exactly particularly "manly" of me to admit, but I sure do love tea tree shampoo.

Injured Toe

I was working on the bathroom wallpaper (ripping off that mess in other words) when I lost my footing and hurt my toe. It is black and blue. I don't plan on seeing a doctor about it though; I've had broken toes before and all they did was put a simple splint on it. Which is all I am going to do.

Anyway, the improvements on the townhouse proceed apace. My office is finished (except for the crown molding and a few odds and ends). We now have a new washer and dryer in the laundry room and I'm obviously working on remodeling the bathroom. I hope to have the tile down by Sunday.

Posters

The Hoover Institution apparently has one of the world's largest collections of posters. Click here to see some of that collection.

I myself have been a fan of pre-WWI aviation posters for many years, particularly those advertising French airshows. They are of course beautiful pieces of art, but perhaps more importantly they communicate the fascination (and optimism) associated with pre-war aviation in France. In that way they are also reminders of what might have become of Europe without a "Great War."

Addendum: Apparently the webpage I have linked doesn't work for everyone. I don't know what the exact problem is.

Smacky

Assuming that you read my blog, I thought that you'd like to listen to this discussion about Lolita between Monica Greenleaf and Robert Harrison (two professors at Stanford).

Russia's Demographic Crisis

Sobering paper by Nicholas Eberstadt on the demographic situation in Russia. It is approximately fifty pages long.

Recent Acquisitions

Steven B. Smith, Reading Leo Strauss: Politics, Philosophy, Judaism

Donald Kagan, The Peloponnesian War

Bruce Ackerman, The Failure of the Founding Fathers: Jefferson, Marshall, and the Rise of Presidential Democracy

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I've been meaning to buy and read Kagan's work for some time now. It is - as far as I know - a distillation of his four volume series on the era in question for a more popular readership. I've read sections of that original series, but never the whole thing.

Climate Change Questions

I wrote the following in the context of another blog conversation (note that here I've both edited that langage as well as added to it):

(A) Is the Earth experiencing climate change (I really do not like the term "global warming")?

Yes. But that is hardly surprising given the history of this planet's climate.

(B) Is the change rapid in nature?

Probably no more rapid than some periods in the planet's history. How rapid were the were the changes in the past that occurred with the greatest alacrity and what did these changes add up to re: overall climate, etc.?

(C) Is it at least in part a result of man-made processes?

Probably. Though there are also likely other factors involved.

(D) What future problems (or benefits) can we expect from these changes?

This is where scientists seem to be all over the map.

Radicals?

This is something of an indication of the "radical" nature (for its time) of the process which lead to the creation of the U.S. Constitution. Akihil Reed Amar notes - in his masterful work America's Constitution - that some states, when voting for ratification convention delegates, did away with one of the most common restrictions on voting:

"For instance, New York temporarily set aside its usual property qualifications and, for the time its history, invited all free adult males to vote." - pg. 7

My first question is, does this mean that free blacks were voting? Well, as I sift through my mind I do seem to recall reading that some states in the early republic did allow for such. I can't recall a specific citation however.

Anyway, the notion of the radical nature of this development should be tempered with the knowledge that traditional notions regarding the role of the gentry, etc. remained alive and well into the 19th century. In other words, many people continued to think that the role of the citizen was at best to speak on officially designated days (e.g., election day) or through official channels, and to do so respectfully, while the role of their betters was to paternalistically fulfill these desires if they were appropriate and otherwise regulate society for its own good. One can see some of the clash between the gentry worldview and a worldview based on more "popular" notions in William Alan Taylor's Cooper's Town.

On Fearing Death

These are Lucretius' thoughts on dispelling religious belief (which is - according to Lucretius - chiefly caused by the fear of of what follows death):

This terror, then, this darkness of the mind,
Not sunrise with its flaring spokes of light,
Nor glittering arrows of morning can disperse,
But only Nature's aspect and her law,
Which, teaching us, hath this exordium:
Nothing from nothing ever yet was born.

-- Lucretius, Of The Nature Of Things (trans. William Ellery Leonard)

In other words, since no soul exists we need not worry about what we will encounter after death; we will encounter nothing because we will no longer exist.

A Very Good Year

Shatner Sings!

Care Of The Gods

Your fathers' guilt you still must pay,
Till, Roman, you restore each shrine,
Each temple, mouldering in decay,
And smoke-grimed statue, scarce divine.
Revering Heaven, you rule below;
Be that your base, your coping still;
'Tis Heaven neglected bids o'erflow
The measure of Italian ill.

-- Horace, Odes, Book III

Spinoza

Click here to watch a lecture by Prof. Nadler on Spinoza. Though I know something of Spinoza I know little about how he is viewed in the Jewish community, and this video provides some insight into the latter. I have to admit that the more I know about Jewish intellectual life the more fascinating I find it. I hope that doesn't sound too patronizing.

End Times & The Bush Administration

I think that there is some concern that some elements of the "End Times", movement (?), have a lot of influence in the Bush administration's foreign policy. Ira Chernus has some thoughts on this subject here.

Sam Harris and Reza Aslan Debate

I do think that Sam Harris is right in arguing that moderate religious believers often provide cover for their less moderate co-adherants.

Addendum: I just realized that I forgot to provide a link to the debate. Many apologies.