HELIOLITH

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What A Smile Can Mean Between Men: The Seeds of War and Peace
I am driving the Ford south on the freeway, heading south to visit family, but stopping first back in town at the 76 to fill the tank. Now I’m stepping around to the passenger side, going through […]

I found this video; downloadable version via Dean’s Sluyter’s Question of the Month page, which he posted in response to the question, “Is enlightenment a scientific reality?*” This neuroscientist, Jill Bolte Taylor, had a stroke. She explains the experience of losing her analytical brain functions, and being plunged into the immediate, holistic perceptual […]

Dear Hu Jintao and Zhang Qingli,
I am writing to respectfully share my opinion with you on the situation in the Tibet Autonomous Region. While I understand that the official view is that no external persons or countries should meddle with the internal affairs of China, I request that you listen, for I speak not […]

Is burning property violence? Did Tibetan monks actually do it? Should the short term events of the last week, and possible crimes committed shape the dialogue around the movement to free Tibet? Did the Chinese use infiltrators to foment violence? There may currently be no proof, but there it seems very […]

It has always been interesting to me that the German word for ‘monument’ is ‘denkmal’, which simply means ‘Think!” in the imperative form.
In today’s New York Times online, Nicholas Kulish has written an article about modern Germany’s promotion of Holocaust memorials. Though this topic could easily be the work of a […]

Schwarzenegger wants to slice $4.8 Billion from CA Schools Mid-year.
So the governor wants to take away money that we had planned to receive - and in some cases have already spent… this while EdVoice.org reports that California (”CA”) was ranked 46th in per-pupil funding!
When I search the publication they referenced (Education Week), all I […]

(Scroll down for an English translation)
„Wenn Dir was gefällt, warum kämpfst Du nicht dafür?“
Gestern Abend habe ich den Film “Im Juli” gesehen. Ich hatte zuerst eine Kurzfassung gelesen, und deshalb wußte ich mehr oder weniger was wir erwarten könnten. Ich habe mir eine romantische Aktionskomödie vorgestellt, und genauso spielte sie sich raus. […]

(English translation to come later below!… I did this for a German class I just dropped in on, and thought I’d post it… )
Wenn Du ein Film sehen möchtest, dass gar keine spannende Handlung vorlegt, und sehr wenige interessante Persönlichkeiten entwickelt, jedoch eine abgelöste Perspektive fördert, und eine beharrliche Gefühl der Melancholie bei […]

I stumbled on this while reading last Thursday’s headlines from the Deutsche-Welle “Langsam Gesprochene Nachrichten” The article mentioned that, “Eine Sprecherin bezeichnete den Akt als eklatante Einmischung in die inneren Angelegenheiten des Landes.” or that, “a spokeswoman signaled that the act was blatant meddling in the internal affairs of their country.” Pretty pathetic […]

Josh Marshall sums up my own thoughts quite well on Gore’s winning of the Nobel Peace Prize.

There are several layers of irony and poetic justice wrapped into this honor. The first is that the greatest step for world peace would simply have been for Gore not to have had the presidency stolen from him in […]