Author: Mark

Crystal Boyle — By Robert Boyle (Harper’s Magazine)

~ Mark

This is so wonderful. We’re all living even further in the future than other people’s crazy dreams.

From a wish list of scientific advancements compiled by chemist and inventor Robert Boyle, who in 1662 discovered that the pressure and volume of a gas are inversely proportional, a property now known as Boyle’s Law. The list, which dates from the 1660s, is on display this month at the Royal Society of London, as part of the institution’s 350th anniversary celebration.

  • The Prolongation of Life
  • The Recovery of Youth, or at Least Some of the Marks of It, as New Teeth, New Hair Colour’d as in Youth
  • The Art of Flying
  • The Art of Continuing Long Under Water, and Exercising Functions Freely There
  • The Cure of Wounds at a Distance
  • The Cure of Diseases at a Distance or at Least by Transplantation
  • The Attaining Gigantick Dimensions
  • The Acceleration of the Production of Things out of Seed
  • The Transmutation of Metalls
  • The Making of Glass Malleable
  • The Making Armor Light and Extremely Hard
  • The Transmutation of Species in Mineralls, Animals, and Vegetables
  • The Emulating of Fish Without Engines by Custome and Education Only
  • The Practicable and Certain Way of Finding Longitudes
  • The Use of Pendulums at Sea and in Journeys, and the Application of It to Watches
  • A Ship to Saile with All Winds, and a Ship Not to Be Sunk
  • Freedom from Necessity of Much Sleeping Exemplify’d by the Operations of Tea and What Happens in Mad-men
  • Pleasing Dreams and Physicall Exercises Exemplify’d by the Egyptian Electuary and by the Fungus Mentioned by the French Author
  • Great Strength and Agility of Body Exemplify’d by That of Frantick Epileptick and Hystericall Persons
  • Varnishes Perfumable by Rubbing
  • A Perpetuall Light

Crystal Boyle — By Robert Boyle (Harper’s Magazine)

Gran Torino

~ Mark

Gran Torino. Weaknesses up front: there’s some lazy writing, some bad acting, and Eastwood’s estranged family seems excessively caricatured. BUT, I thought the overall story arc here (themes: growing old; American confronting the Other; reluctantly becoming a better person) was really interesting and I never thought of switching it off. It had some good food-for-thought staying power after it ended. And Clint Eastwood gets a co-writing credit for the movie’s theme song.

The Tyranny of Things by Edward Sandford Martin – The Oxford Book of American Essays

~ Mark

[$10,000] wouldn’t go so far now, and yet most of the reasonable necessaries of life cost less to-day than they did two generations ago. The difference is that we need so very many comforts that were not invented in our grandfather’s time.

And also:

It is man’s peculiarity that nature has filled him with impulses to do things, and left it to his discretion when to stop. She never tells him when he has finished. And perhaps we ought not to be surprised that in so many cases it happens that he doesn’t know, but just goes ahead as long as the materials last.

The Tyranny of Things by Edward Sandford Martin – The Oxford Book of American Essays

~ Mark

slaughterhouse90210:

“Flirting is a woman’s trade, one must keep in practice.”
— Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

I’m 1/3 of the way into Jane Eyre at the moment, and I’m pretty sure this is the mental image I’ll have from now on.

In which I become old and sappy

~ Mark ~ 2 Comments

Berlin, North Dakota
Berlin, North Dakota. A Google Maps view of the small town where my father’s father grew up, and where my grandfather’s father is buried. I remember stopping by here on a family road trip out West a couple decades ago. I thought it was cool. Big land, big sky. And it was also awkward. The town had, as I recall, a population of 38 or so. Nothing happening. Dad was getting all sappy and wistful about this place, where he’d never spent much time anyway. It was nice for a bit, seeing Grandpa’s old stomping grounds, the school, the gym where he played basketball. But I eventually I got to thinking, come’on, y’know, let’s get to the Tetons already. At least Mount Rushmore or something. This place is windy and tired. And now I’ve gotten to an age where I want to go back and sort of wander around. Walk through some fields and daydream about where I came from and the generations that got me here.

A few weeks with my iPad

~ Mark ~ 4 Comments

To fill the void in my soul, etc.
I wrote this a long time ago, it seems, and never got around to pushing the publish button. Just a few notes I typed while I was using it…

  • I can position it without worrying about how the page catches the light.
  • Very bright. Usually use it at half-brightness or less.
  • A pleasure to use at night with brightness dimmed, especially in reverse light-on-dark text.
  • Super-awesome to eat with — no smoothing or holding pages, etc. It just sits there giving me text.
  • I use my iMac less often, which also means I’ve been listening to music much less than before.
  • RSS browsing is more difficult. It’s not great with Google Reader. The upside is that I’m more picky about what I open and send to Instapaper.
  • Speaking of which, Instapaper so completely rules. Indispensable.
  • Best travel device ever?
  • Typing is much easier than I expected, especially with the autofix in place.
  • I love being able to email myself my notes really easily. I should have been doing this all along.
  • It’s also great for work stuff because it’s a reliable backstop that I *want* to use, unlike the craptop I was assigned.
  • It’s not a fixture or a centerpiece. Enter the room and it’s just lying in there with the pile of books or lost in the blankets somewhere. No biggie, very low impact on the surroundings. It doesn’t take over a space like computer or a TV does.
  • Everything is a hot zone. I wish there were a way to desensitize it sometimes.
  • The iPad has near-silent operation. This is a HUGE plus for me. No fans, no drives spinning. No clicking mouse. No mechanical tap tappity tappa on the keyboard. No paper rustling. This is a very peaceful experience.

I liked these three articles related to the iPad:

The Happiness Hypothesis (review: 5/5)

~ Mark ~ 2 Comments

The Happiness Hypothesis
Awesome book. I thank Justin for the recommendation. What you have in The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom is a perfect balance between nerdy science/philosophy and distilled layman’s explanations. Jonathan Haidt is so efficient with this book. It’s an impressive balance of general theory and immediately useful information. Below lie a bunch of quotes or scraps I found particularly worthwhile. You can find a lot more in Derek Sivers’ notes for the book, which I recommend very much for a solid overview. Read this book, y’all.
—

Scandal is great entertainment because it allows people to feel contempt, a moral emotion that gives feelings of moral superiority while asking nothing in return. With contempt you don’t need to right the wrong (as with anger) or flee the scene (as with fear or disgust). And best of all, contempt is made to share. Stories about the moral failings of others are among the most common kinds of gossip.

Set for yourself any goal you want. Most of the pleasure will be had along the way, with every step that takes you closer. The final moment of success is often no more thrilling than the relief of taking off a heavy backpack at the end of a long hike. If you went on the hike only to feel that pleasure, you are a fool.***

“Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing.” -Shakespeare

The human mind is extraordinarily sensitive to changes in conditions, but not so sensitive to absolute levels.

Conditions include facts about your life that you can’t change (race, sex, age, disability) as well as things that you can (wealth, marital status, where you live). Conditions are constant over time, at least during a period in your life, and so they are the sorts of things that you are likely to adapt to. Voluntary activities, on the other hand, are the things that you choose to do, such as meditation, exercise, learning a new skill, or taking a vacation. Because such activities must be chosen, and because most of them take effort and attention, they can’t just disappear from your awareness the way conditions can. Voluntary activities, therefore, offer much greater promise for increasing happiness while avoiding adaptation effects.

“Happiness formula”: H = S + C + V (set point, conditions, voluntary activities)

External conditions with significant impact on your happiness, that you can never fully adapt to: Noise. Commuting. Lack of control. Shame. Interpersonal conflict.

Variety is the spice of life because it is the natural enemy of adaptation.

The extensive regulation of sex in many cultures, the attempt to link love to God and then to cut away the sex, is part of an elaborate defense against the gnawing fear of mortality.

Our life is the creation of our minds, and we do much of that creating with metaphor. We see new things in terms of things we already understand: Life is a journey, an argument is a war, the mind is a rider on an elephant. With the wrong metaphor we are deluded; with no metaphor we are blind.

Religious experiences are real and common, whether or not God exists, and these experiences often make people feel whole and at peace.

Life is much like a movie we walk into well after its opening scene, and we will have to step out long before most of the story lines reach their conclusions.

—
***This reminds me of one of Chris Willett’s rules for long-distance hiking. #1: If you’re not enjoying yourself, you’re doing something wrong. [I construe broadly the term “enjoying” here]. To round out the list, Rule #2: Never leave good trail for bad. Rule #3: Only a great fool leaves a dry place.

Death is Not the End – David Foster Wallace: His Legacy and his Critics – The Point Magazine

~ Mark

Man, The Point seems like a fantastic magazine (see also). This is one of the better DFW appreciations I’ve read, looking past the form and into the function, his mission, if we may call it that. Special focus is given to E Unibus Pluram and Infinite Jest. It’s one of those articles that makes me want to read more. Great, great stuff.

Death is Not the End – David Foster Wallace: His Legacy and his Critics – The Point Magazine

Love in the Age of the Pickup Artist: Stendhal Among the Seducers – The Point Magazine

~ Mark

One of the best things I’ve read this summer. Great writing. Well worth the time. (via)

The essence of passionate love, what grants it the nobility that the others do not possess, is what Stendhal calls crystallization. Just as the naked branch of a tree will gather diamond-like crystals if it is dropped into a salt mine, a lover will gather perfections about the crooked timber of his beloved.

Love in the Age of the Pickup Artist: Stendhal Among the Seducers – The Point Magazine