7 for Sunday

The Wrights’ story shows something more common than we realize: There’s often a big gap between changing the world and convincing people that you changed the world. ~ Morgan Housel from, http://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/when-you-change-the-world-and-no-one-notices/ On one hand, we could simply define “changed the world” to be when people have actually noticed, or when the change is wide-spread. On the…

As Marcus stood upon the Stoa Poikile, he would have gazed across the Agora where Socrates once discussed philosophy, and where he was later put on trial, imprisoned, and executed. Beyond the Agora, Marcus would have seen the Temple of Athena known as the Parthenon. At that time a colossal statue of the goddess of…

In recent years I’ve been choosing a touch phrase. The phrases are reminders, intended to cue up a larger train of thought. For 2023 the phrase is “Choose today”. It is inspired by two different quotes, both having withstood the test of time: Stick to what’s in front of you—idea, action, utterance. This is what…

Thank you for reading! I appreciate your time and attention, and I don’t take it for granted. In years past I’ve posted some links to things which I pay for—if I’m not paying for something, then I’m probably the product being sold. So I prefer to pay for things when I can (when I’m able and…

Almost fifty years after it was detected, the Wow! Signal continues to tantalize and defy explanation. […] In 2020, interest in this candidate [extra-terrestrial intelligence] signal was revitalized when Cabellaro identified a Sun-like star in the vicinity of the sky where the Wow! Signal was detected. If the analysis is correct, this famous signal may…

The future of functional fitness is an evolution into functional movement. We see this already in the explosion of more complex movement practices like parkour happening all over the world and being adopted slowly by the mainstream fitness world. Organisms are not machines, and the era of training them like machines will give way to…

The truth is that New York is in the throes of creation. With infinite travail it is taking on a body adequate to its needs, — a feat Paris long ago accomplished. The operation necessarily involves disagreeable surprises, and the immediate result, viewed in its entirety, is, it must be confessed, much more grotesque than…

Under one square metre of undisturbed ground in the Earth’s mid-latitudes there might live several hundred thousand small animals. Roughly 90% of the species to which they belong have yet to be named. One gram of this soil – less than a teaspoonful – contains around a kilometre of fungal filaments. ~ George Monbiot from, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/07/secret-world-beneath-our-feet-mind-blowing-key-to-planets-future There’s…

The third reason is that looking at new things, even if they’re just new streetcorners or deer trails, helps me recover a certain uncomplicated way of looking at things that used to be automatic when I was a kid. ~ David Cain from, https://www.raptitude.com/2022/05/how-to-get-the-magic-back/ Just as I read this, it occurred to me that a…

Contribute your suggestion without having built a body of work, without evidence of significant expertise and without being willing to take responsibility for what happens next. It’s a form of yelling from the bleachers. ~ Seth Godin from, https://seths.blog/2022/05/the-grandstanders/ I was totally this person. Once I saw what was going on and I could work…