tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-324191522024-03-13T00:52:20.195-07:00The Morning OilUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger387125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32419152.post-3960232978876743602011-03-12T16:30:00.001-08:002011-03-27T20:36:46.972-07:00The Immanence of God<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ALX7o6zZ7L0/SbcYGObzhUI/AAAAAAAACrA/JCzoCTnQCU4/s400/Miguel_Pro_praying+1927.gif" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 294px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ALX7o6zZ7L0/SbcYGObzhUI/AAAAAAAACrA/JCzoCTnQCU4/s400/Miguel_Pro_praying+1927.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" >This semester marked my first foray into the novels of Graham Greene. Although his books have been recommended to me for some time, I believe my delay in reading <i>The End of the Affair </i>and <i>The Power and the Glory </i>worked in his favor.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >There are elements in both novels that are (and of a right should be) repellent and to which an imagination in formation ought not be exposed. Greene, along with most other authors of his century, walks a shadowy line between degradation that does not bear speaking of and the agonizing truths of the human condition and our own age in particular. After rumination on both the aforementioned novels, it seems clear to me that Greene's portrayal of human frailty, vivid and harrowing as it is, more powerfully drives home the need and reality of God's grace. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><i>The End of the Affair</i> follows the sordidly mundane adultery of Sarah and the narrator as they find solace in each other and in their daily sin. Their situation is posed in such a way that the reader might almost sympathize; after all, Sarah's husband is dull and oblivious, while her lover understands her and needs her as much as she him. Greene is able to turn this on its head by Sarah's abrupt ending of the affair. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >
</span></div><div><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; color: black; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >Greene's craftsmanship is marvelous as he follows the narrator's journey through confusion and sorrow to the full recognition that Sarah has chosen someone else over him. Just who that Someone is remains murky for him up to the end, as he continues to tempt Sarah to lapse back to their comfortable debauchery. The grace that saves her at the end is as sudden and difficult for him to understand as that grace which pulled her out of the relationship in the first place. In both instances, Greene manages to convey the jarring reality and harrowing nature of miracles and our unavoidable need for grace.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; color: black; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >
</span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; color: black; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >Grace glimmers through the entirety of <span style="font-style: italic; ">The Power and the Glory</span> as well. Disturbing in its portrayal of priests as drunkards and cowards, the novel reinforces the reality of <span style="font-style: italic; ">ex opere operato</span>. As a human being, the priest at the center of the story is perhaps even more flawed and sinful than the average Catholic Mexican. But the true importance of his role as a priest in the ravages of persecution in 1930's Mexico comes across with clarity, force, and beauty. This weakling somehow manages to stumble from village to village, confessing, baptizing and saying Mass; in spite of his worst vices, he understands that he is still "able to put God into their mouths." In the manner of a true classic, this message remains incredibly pertinent in the current age. This generation has more cause than many to understand the all too human frailty of our clergy, and it has never been more necessary to understand that the reality of the Blessed Sacrament is not predicated on the sanctity of the priest, thank God, thank God. </span></p> <p style="margin:0in;font-family:Georgia;font-size:12.0pt;color:black"> </p></div>Catherine_Creaganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10540489813336428811noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32419152.post-86330983370919726112011-03-11T17:57:00.000-08:002011-03-15T07:55:56.915-07:00deep magicWendell Berry, that romantic, controversial, novel distiller of very old truths, set my mental cogs a-turning today. In <i>Life Is a Miracle</i> he offered a definition of a "classic": a work whose themes resonate with a sort of eternal freshness from age to age, one whose meaning does not grow old with the volume itself. <div>
</div><div>This definition has significant merit to it and especially recalls the task those in the Academy engage and pursue. Berry rightly (and in harmony with a multitude of prior essayists) condemns the mindless, obsessive demand for originality in current scholarly work, with the ever persistent cry for new discoveries in an arena whose proper field is truth, not novelty. Such a warning of course does not preclude man's perennial desire to know, identified by Aristotle as a basic human characteristic. However, it does illuminate a difference between those who view colleges or universities as institutions for data transferral or instruction and those who understand education as the cultivation of those particular mental habits which make humans the beings they are. </div><div>
</div><div>What a world it would be if college professors understood their vocation; that is to say, actually stood under their discipline and looked up in awe at the knowledge handed down to them, willing to be mastered by that truth so that they could actually lead their students out of the multitudinous caves of ignorance. As it is, the modern research university is dominated by those who prefer to stand in arrogance atop their discipline, looking down upon it as so much material to be dissected, mastered, and handed to their unfortunate pupils as discrete, unappealing bundles of information which neither enlarge their souls nor order their loves. </div><div>
</div><div>I believe there once was an ideal of liberal learning largely held by most civilizations which knew that there were things that it behooved a free person to know. After hearing Crassus expostulate on the need for an orator to be well educated and thus combine learning with eloquence, his interlocutor bursts out "But you have led me straight to the heart of the Academy!" In a flash of rhetorical brilliance, Cicero makes clear the goals of education: both to find the truth and express it well. Thus is <i>De Oratore </i>a classic, making apparent as it does the eternal verity of human education and the role of the Academy. We must "sing a new song to the Lord," releasing anew the intelligibility of the created world with our own particular song--a unique expression using an ancient medium, freshly communicating the permanent things.</div><div>
</div><div>If we accept that to be is to be intelligible, then in truth there are things to be discovered and known. But the hysteria for unique discovery has unleashed a tendency to focus on newness to the fatal exclusion of an entire inheritance of knowledge and wisdom that civilization has accumulated across the centuries. Knowledge is to adequate one's intellect to reality, not to divorce man's individuality from the integrated created order. </div>Catherine_Creaganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10540489813336428811noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32419152.post-53390505379169751542011-03-09T18:07:00.000-08:002011-03-09T18:36:28.452-08:00I will show you fear...All over the world today, millions upon millions of Christians received Eliot's handful of dust upon their foreheads, reminded yet again of their inescapable mortality.<div>
</div><div>Ash Wednesday was a little different for me this year, since I put together and directed the music for tonight's Mass, the first time I've ever conducted a Mass like this. Mr. Applegate, my beloved choir director of ten years, was very much in my mind as I waved my arms about in an unconscious echo of his conducting style. Despite my own schedule and the various schedules of the students in my intrepid band of choristers, we were able to rehearse some Lenten gems on three different occasions. College students having their own idea of what constitutes sufficient notice of absences, there was a moment earlier in the week when I felt sure that I was going to pull together this program through sheer will power alone. But from the moment those haunting chords of Allegri's <i>Miserere</i> thrilled through the church, I knew Providence had sanctified our efforts. </div><div>
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Miserere domine, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>
</i></div><div style="text-align: left;">So many of the treasures in the Church's storehouse of liturgical music have that uncanny ability to trap the meaning of the words in unforgettable phrases and chords that inevitably re-echo in your head once you happen upon the prayer in a different context. Measured, sad, inexorable, and shot through with just a hint of supernatural beauty, Allegri's <i>Miserere</i> encapsulates the cry of the penitent throwing himself upon the unfathomable mercy of his Creator. The repetitive nature of the verses captures the essence of persistence in prayer, while the soprano solo (the one facet of the piece that defies any listener's apathy) seems almost to leap from the church itself to the gates of Heaven, begging admittance with its unexpected and agonizing beauty. When the notes of the final resolution fade from the sacred space which suspends them, one ineluctable thought takes hold of every mind in the congregation:</div><div style="text-align: center;">
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Memento homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris</i></div>Catherine_Creaganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10540489813336428811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32419152.post-2006407233290727622010-10-30T21:57:00.000-07:002010-10-30T22:17:22.560-07:00Wrath<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.fantasygallery.net/sweet/achilles.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 354px; height: 480px;" src="http://www.fantasygallery.net/sweet/achilles.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>I was in the throes of writing a paper on Sophocles' magnificent tragedy <span style="font-style: italic;">Ajax</span> when I stumbled on this comment from one of my sources:
<div style="text-align: center;"> <p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">Menis, famous as the first word of the Iliad--indeed one can say it is the first word in European literature--generally implies sustained, enduring wrath with a desire for revenge.</p><p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: courier new;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></span></span>
</p><p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">This struck me powerfully. I'm not sure why entirely, but I think it has interesting implications for Man's motives in the larger sense. Anger is such an interesting and puzzling emotion; why spurs it and where does it lead? Aristotle was more sympathetic to overwhelming anger than to other, baser desires: in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Ethics</span> he stated that those who are swept away by anger still somehow have control over their reason.</span></span></p><p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">It also made me think about the glory of those opening lines of the Iliad! "Sing, goddess, the rage of Achilles! The baneful wrath that wrought much sorrow for the Achaeans..."</span></span></p><p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Of course it loses rather a lot in translation. 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mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Μηνιν άείδε θεά Πηληίαδεω Άχιληος...</p><p style="text-align: left;" class="MsoNormal">There is something in those opening lines which exudes the terrible wrath that accompanies terrible pride; the pride of a civilization that would go to war for a slight and take up arms for honor, not security. The men of the Iliad are larger than life, more full of personality and insanity and glory than any other characters from any other work in the Western Canon of Literature. Their names, first uttered thousands of years ago, still resound on college campuses across the world. And somehow those names still conjure up such concrete images: Achilles, fuming by the wine-dark sea; Diomedes, lord of the war cry, driving back the god Ares into the fray; Ajax, standing as the lone bulwark against the Trojan tide as he protected the ships; Odysseus, the wily one, planning the most famous strategic move in military history...
</p> </div>Catherine_Creaganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10540489813336428811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32419152.post-24312469791537570622010-06-16T11:51:00.000-07:002010-06-16T12:36:08.365-07:00dead men tell no tales<a href="http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/00/17/d9/5b/the-valley-of-the-fallen.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 550px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 377px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/00/17/d9/5b/the-valley-of-the-fallen.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<div><a href="http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.28279b7ba79c884729b62f00efcaeff8.7e1&show_article=1">THIS</a> article caught my eye for a number of reasons. The Spanish Civil War, always fascinating and frustrating, defies historical accuracy as few other conflicts in Western society do. Passions still run high when discussing the war and its aftermath and the accusations predictably pile up quickly. Generalissimo Franco is sometimes (although not in this article) accused of killing 75,000 Spaniards, sometimes of slaughtering 150,000. The difference in quantity may not matter to an inflamed commentator, but then it might matter to the spare 75,000 who were or were not killed. </div>
<div></div>
<div>One particular claim in this article captures a striking difference in perspective on The Valley of the Fallen:
<blockquote>
<p>"But lacking enough bodies of his own supporters to fill it, his regime ordered
that remains from the mass graves of Republican soldiers and sympathisers should
be transferred there."</p></blockquote></div>
<div>That's an interesting departure from the story I took from Warren Carroll's <em>The Last Crusade, </em>where Carroll reported that Franco had "allowed" the family members of fallen soldiers on both sides to bury their dead under the mountain. In such a scenario, Franco's decision has all the qualities of Christian mercy to the enemy and paternal concern for any slain Spaniard.</div>
<div></div>
<div>So which story is true? </div>
<div></div>
<div>Unfortunately, there is no Edvard Radzinsky of the Spanish world, there are no first hand accounts or letters available to the casual investigator. But the headline of the article is telling: "Spain to rebury Franco victims". <em>Franco's</em> victims, as though he personally executed them. Last I checked, casualties are a common side effect of wars, so I'm disinclined to attribute the deaths of these Republican soldiers to Franco's personal whimsy.</div>
<div></div>
<div>Here is another instance of varying interpretation: </div>
<div></div><blockquote>
<p>"Some 15,000 prisoners from the losing left-wing Republican side in the war were
made to work on the construction of the mausoleum, often under harsh and
dangerous conditions."</p></blockquote>
<div>Call me medieval, but I think constructing a church that will be staffed by monks and priests ceaselessly praying for the souls of the victims of a recently concluded bloody conflict is actually peculiarly appropriate for prisoners of war. True, modern standards of imprisonment would include internet access and a wide screen TV. However, I find church-building a more fitting occupation for a group of compulsive church-razers. </div>
<div></div>
<div>The truth about the Spanish Civil War may remain murky still, but it is not difficult to find the shade of bias coloring any given speculator. The fact is that I am a Catholic who believes in temporal punishment, prayers for the dead, and just war. Of course this affects my take on the situation. However, it might also make me a more qualified observer of Catholic Spain than the average secular journalist.</div>
<div></div>Catherine_Creaganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10540489813336428811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32419152.post-10307258227633038162010-05-20T10:36:00.000-07:002010-05-20T10:36:14.972-07:00My Brightest DiamondThanks to <a href="http://storestump.blogspot.com/">Sophie </a>for pointing this out.<br />
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<object height="337" width="600"><param name="movie" value="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/xeioh_16-3-my-brightest-diamond-hymne_music"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/xeioh_16-3-my-brightest-diamond-hymne_music" width="480" height="270" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32419152.post-67055749991180526012010-05-11T20:53:00.000-07:002010-05-11T20:54:39.021-07:00Sports Type Redesign<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_NRDiji8PC-A/S-omDcV2mdI/AAAAAAAABVU/B3Rslyprs5A/s1600/01_lowerthirdscrorecard_09c-Converted.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_NRDiji8PC-A/S-omDcV2mdI/AAAAAAAABVU/B3Rslyprs5A/s640/01_lowerthirdscrorecard_09c-Converted.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
This would make me watch sports more. As it is now, I often have a lot of trouble figuring out where the information I want is. The swooshing, whirling effects don't help any either. In fact, those really make it feel like they're trying to make things more exciting than they are. Too bad this proposal didn't get implemented. Not "dynamic" enough, I suppose.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://motionographer.com/nfl-on-fox-sports-redesign-by-michael-cina-qa/">Interview here</a><br />
<a href="http://michaelcinaassociates.com/#350138/Fox-Sports">More examples here</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32419152.post-58345731953248476662010-05-09T22:26:00.000-07:002010-05-09T22:26:16.922-07:00Albert Khan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_NRDiji8PC-A/S-eYwnJDAQI/AAAAAAAABVM/8g7sU9MaTBs/s1600/WW1_2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_NRDiji8PC-A/S-eYwnJDAQI/AAAAAAAABVM/8g7sU9MaTBs/s640/WW1_2.JPG" width="475" /></a></div><br />
Beautiful. A collection of some of the first color photographs ever taken, from as early as 1909, by a man named Albert Khan, who set out to create "a photographic inventory of human life on Earth." It appears the world was not black and white before 1930.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.albertkahn.co.uk/photos.html">Link</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32419152.post-63413488700710476592010-05-09T22:12:00.001-07:002010-05-09T22:13:49.546-07:00Lego Robot Solves Rubix Cube!Drooooool.<br />
<br />
<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0v8pJSGi4CA&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0v8pJSGi4CA&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="600" height="385"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32419152.post-84402622313887454222010-04-26T13:30:00.001-07:002010-04-27T08:06:19.883-07:00Men Without War Cries<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi57_FQMDB0A92wwEUYcwuy8Ib1pxTtZ70BraUVVW_F9qNpXGiuJQLsIUoiR9NMHuM6GyNGIladijGyqQ6MHhjVUCaY6s_4eTF6yCyvy2LpNr16Dts-mdbZu3Jbn70yb-WacBkj/s1600/MARV_ILL_ILIAD_7.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 316px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi57_FQMDB0A92wwEUYcwuy8Ib1pxTtZ70BraUVVW_F9qNpXGiuJQLsIUoiR9NMHuM6GyNGIladijGyqQ6MHhjVUCaY6s_4eTF6yCyvy2LpNr16Dts-mdbZu3Jbn70yb-WacBkj/s400/MARV_ILL_ILIAD_7.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5464546474351188738" border="0" /></a>
Having recently finished a very dry and technical linguistic paper on the noun-epithets of one of Homer's most gloriously awesome characters--Diomedes--I feel called to wax rather more poetical about him than the boundaries of my research paper allowed.
This is also influenced by our reading of C. S. Lewis' <span style="font-style: italic;">The Abolition of Man</span> in Philosophy last week. But more on that later.
As anyone who has gotten through the <span style="font-style: italic;">Iliad </span>is well aware, Diomedes is generally known to the enraptured audience as "Diomedes, Lord of the War Cry" (which is more literally, but in a less cool fashion, translated as "good at the war cry"). Presumably this means he scared the living daylights out of his victims by screaming like a banshee before dispatching them. Besides apparently terrifying the Trojans more successfully than Achilles (see the prayer of the Trojan women to Athena in Book 6. It's actually hilarious) he also did something Achilles never dared to do: attacked not one, not two, but three gods in the course of a single book.
As I look up from Homer's epic poetry and cast my gaze across campus, I realize that it's not exactly fair to begin comparing the average male college student with Diomedes, Son of Tydeus, Lord of the War Cry, Shepherd of His People, Horse Tamer, Spear-famed, the Staunch in Battle, best by far of the Achaeans.
But I'm going to do it anyway.
The first deity Diomedes confronts is Aphrodite. The goddess of love doesn't fair too well at his hands (she irritated him by removing his opponent from view) and retreats in panic after he gouges her arm with his spear. Would that we lived in a culture that made it easier for today's young men to deal thus with the lies that are so widely promulgated about the status of chastity. I have noticed that for whatever reason, it can be tentatively accepted that a girl might want to remain a virgin until marriage. Strange, but acceptable. But for men, to remain a virgin is somehow a sign of incompetence and weakness, a stigma to be mocked and a condition to escape at the earliest possible convenience. Tragically, for the herd of jocks (and their number is legion) that swaggers across today's college campuses, the realization that chastity requires far more strength and manhood than succumbing to animal instincts does not compute. This might have to do with the cranial capacity of guys who spend more time in the gym than in intelligible (not even asking for intelligent here) conversation. But I suspect it has more to do with popular culture, the sickening music and vile television shows that are given as entertainment and taken as gospel truth.
After Aphrodite flees the scene, Diomedes turns his attention to Apollo (who caught the guy that Diomedes was originally trying to kill after Aphrodite dropped him...the situation gets a little out of hand). And here we have a situation I think I can relate more to my experience at this particular school than the problem with Aphrodite. I choose (for reasons having to with his job as Sun god) to associate him with badly formed philosophical minds. I am no philosopher; but my moral imagination is solid enough at this point to detect really bad taste. So when an ill-advised young man fishes a copy of Hegel out of his backpack and proceeds to expound upon the wonders to be found therein; or if another individual calmly tells me that he has found a fallacy in Thomas Aquinas' argument for Natural Law that dismantles the whole thing, I generally turn away and marvel in silence at the peculiar predilection in young men to philosophical posturing.
This kind of posturing causes the young men I'm thinking of to defend everything from James Joyce to Rothko to Fight Club, not because they have any rational basis on which to ground these opinions, but because they want to seem on top of things. On the topic of literature, art, or film, the examples above will elicit an immediate reaction: the head tilts back, the eyes narrow, the back straightens, the hands come together, and in an unintentionally dramatic tone of voice, the young man will say something to the effect of "Ah, yes. Genius."
I don't hear much else anymore; usually my head is buried in my arms at that point.
The third god Diomedes meets and then causes to flee in terror is one which I hope in particular to best in battle, although its flight is no more likely than that of profligate jocks or pretentious sophists. Ares, although once the god of war, resembles to me nothing so much as the kind of politically minded students who are intent on crafting their GPA's and extracurricular activities for purposes of resume building rather than education. I have met young men who use the rhetoric of the Western Tradition without the slightest conception of the thought or real ideals behind it. Young men who understand America and their very lives as economic functions, and who hope to plunge into the Beltway directly after college with a shiny GPA and experience as president of the College Republicans as their ticket to fame and glory. This is the kind of young man who will read Plato's Republic because it is "the done thing" and is only another brick in his path to conservative power. This kind of person reads Plato without understanding that the worthiest to lead do not wish to lead, so that if ever he has the misfortune to be placed in a position of power, he will have absolutely nothing to offer her. He will have instructed rather than educated himself; and because he has a resume instead of an intellect, he will remain a politician and never amount to a statesman.
There are those who have fought these evils, to be sure. But to be Lord of the War Cry you must be good at it. In a world of livejournals, blogs, online forums, and publications innumerable, your War Cry must stand out, preferably in such a way as to drive your enemies to "thoughts of terror".
My hope is that as I progress through college, graduate school, and my doctorate, I will be able to hone my writing and rhetoric so that one day I will give the kind of War Cry that will inspire and animate the apathetic and silence Aphrodite, Apollo, and Ares.Catherine_Creaganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10540489813336428811noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32419152.post-62169856292738656932010-03-09T16:58:00.000-08:002010-03-09T16:58:39.127-08:00Ironing Techniques<object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IeA9gH_iWXY&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IeA9gH_iWXY&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="600" height="458"></embed></object><br />
<br />
Strangely beautiful and mesmerizing. Watching professional craftsmen do their job is something I rarely pass up. The sound is what really makes it.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32419152.post-27854710633687652782010-03-03T11:42:00.000-08:002010-03-03T11:42:30.992-08:00Lego - The Force Unleashed<object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ijpH6an-JIQ&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ijpH6an-JIQ&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="600" height="486"></embed></object><br />
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Smoothest, best-animated Lego short I've seen yet.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32419152.post-75533529382216767202010-03-03T10:38:00.000-08:002010-03-03T10:40:28.772-08:00Analog and Digital Magnification<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_NRDiji8PC-A/S46rxjRms-I/AAAAAAAABU4/Q7nTakrZgKg/s1600-h/cd_pits.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="499" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_NRDiji8PC-A/S46rxjRms-I/AAAAAAAABU4/Q7nTakrZgKg/s640/cd_pits.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_NRDiji8PC-A/S46sGyQbpII/AAAAAAAABVA/yLtB8jXF80I/s1600-h/record_groove.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="500" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_NRDiji8PC-A/S46sGyQbpII/AAAAAAAABVA/yLtB8jXF80I/s640/record_groove.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
Look at the difference in data density between a CD and a record. A CD is a series of on/off directives, while a record has a directly analogous wave form carved into matter. See more at <a href="http://www.synthgear.com/2010/audio-gear/record-grooves-electron-microscope/">synthgear</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32419152.post-25166315110582049672010-02-26T17:40:00.001-08:002010-02-26T17:40:12.156-08:00Clips from The Illusionist<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" height="316" id="player_1267233326" name="player_1267233326" width="500"><param name="movie" value="http://www.arte.tv/flash/mediaplayer/mediaplayer.swf" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="flashvars" value="file=http://download.www.arte.tv/permanent/u3/berlinale2010/artejournal/20100217_illusionist_fr.mp4&skin=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.arte.tv%2Fflash%2Fmediaplayer%2Fmodieus.swf&dock=true&plugins=sharing,gapro-1&gapro.accountid=UA-3014771-1&gapro.trackstarts=true&gapro.trackpercentage=true&gapro.tracktime=true&sharing.link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.arte.tv%2Ffr%2Ftoutes-les-videos%2F3072704.html%230&abouttext=The Illusionist - Jacques Tati vu par Sylvain Chomet&aboutlink=http://www.arte.tv/fr/toutes-les-videos/3072704.html#0&stretching=uniform&autostart=true&logo=http://www.arte.tv/i18n/content/tv/00__Templates/share_20module/logo__video__arte.png/2790722,property=imageData,v=1,CmPart=com.arte-tv.www.png" /><embed src="http://www.arte.tv/flash/mediaplayer/mediaplayer.swf" width="500" height="316" bgcolor="#ffffff" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="file=http://download.www.arte.tv/permanent/u3/berlinale2010/artejournal/20100217_illusionist_fr.mp4&skin=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.arte.tv%2Fflash%2Fmediaplayer%2Fmodieus.swf&dock=true&plugins=sharing,gapro-1&gapro.accountid=UA-3014771-1&gapro.trackstarts=true&gapro.trackpercentage=true&gapro.tracktime=true&sharing.link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.arte.tv%2Ffr%2Ftoutes-les-videos%2F3072704.html%230&abouttext=The Illusionist - Jacques Tati vu par Sylvain Chomet&aboutlink=http://www.arte.tv/fr/toutes-les-videos/3072704.html#0&stretching=uniform&autostart=true&logo=http://www.arte.tv/i18n/content/tv/00__Templates/share_20module/logo__video__arte.png/2790722,property=imageData,v=1,CmPart=com.arte-tv.www.png"/></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32419152.post-90418881064606190162010-02-25T16:50:00.000-08:002010-02-25T16:55:42.950-08:00Hot Pockets!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_NRDiji8PC-A/S4cb4b_yiYI/AAAAAAAABUw/F8Eh95Kcxlc/s1600-h/4364760317_fa93fa5f53_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_NRDiji8PC-A/S4cb4b_yiYI/AAAAAAAABUw/F8Eh95Kcxlc/s640/4364760317_fa93fa5f53_b.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br />
via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/getjustin/4364760317/">GetJustin</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32419152.post-34894090750581954102010-02-23T18:18:00.000-08:002010-02-23T18:20:13.773-08:00Necktie Mathematics<div style="text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_NRDiji8PC-A/S4SL1wBBAFI/AAAAAAAABUg/FLghPtBqN60/s1600-h/van_huesen_ties.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_NRDiji8PC-A/S4SL1wBBAFI/AAAAAAAABUg/FLghPtBqN60/s640/van_huesen_ties.jpg" width="260" /></a></div><br />
About a week ago, I realized that I didn't know how to tie a tie. I mean, I did something to the tie when I put it on, but I'm not sure what. It ended up looking alright though. Anyhow, I decided enough was enough, so I went online to learn for myself the full range of tie knots, expecting maybe three or four. I soon discovered that two physicists, Yong Mao and Thomas Fink, had set out in 2001 to unravel a mathematical model for understanding tie knots. Based on the supposition that there are three different moves one can make with a tie (cross to the left, right or go down through the top) and the two possible directions a tie can face, they figured out that there are exactly 85 different ways to tie a tie, about a dozen of which are really aesthetically pleasing.<br />
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I take a weird delight in seeing an element of fashion reduced down to mathematical principles to be dissected. By denoting each move by a pair of letters (Li, for instance, means go to the Left, facing In) Mao and Fink are able to set out the instructions for a tie knot simply and concisely. For instance, the Windsor knot is Li Co Ri Lo Ci Ro Li Co T, which translates to:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_NRDiji8PC-A/S4SJUauYlLI/AAAAAAAABUY/b4yGyN_QhGI/s1600-h/tie_sequence_31.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_NRDiji8PC-A/S4SJUauYlLI/AAAAAAAABUY/b4yGyN_QhGI/s320/tie_sequence_31.jpg" /></a></div><br />
For a full explanation, plus how to tie all 85 knots, go to <a href="http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/%7Etmf20/tieknots.shtml">Fink's homepage,</a> or buy his book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/85-Ways-Tie-Science-Aesthetics/dp/1841155683/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266977240&sr=8-1">The 85 Ways to Tie a Tie</a> (not cheap; I recommend looking for it used). If you are further intrigued, read his summary <a href="http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/%7Etmf20/TIES/PAPERS/paper_nature.pdf">Designing Tie Knots by Random Walks</a>, or the full paper that inspired the book, <a href="http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/%7Etmf20/TIES/PAPERS/paper_physica_a.pdf">Tie Knots, Random Walks, and Topology</a>.<br />
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(I do not endorse the ad at top in any way, other than that I think it's funny.)<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32419152.post-90733008367085860852010-02-18T09:16:00.001-08:002010-02-25T16:53:05.219-08:00Hell of SandA strangely addicting sandbox-type <a href="http://themorningoil.blogspot.com/2010/02/hell-of-sand.html">game</a>. Play around with it to get the idea. To start out with, try making a line of "Spout" all along the top, and then a line of "Plant" all along the bottom. Wait and see what happens.<br />
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Thanks to Kate for the tip.<br />
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<applet archive="http://www.andyslife.org/games/sand.app" code="Falling_Sand_Game" height="460" width="520"> <param name="width" value="520" /><param name="height" value="460" /></applet><a class="aamcxebbntyelfofbdmh" href="http://www.blogger.com/Falling_Sand_Game"></a><a class="aamcxebbntyelfofbdmh" href="http://www.blogger.com/Falling_Sand_Game"></a><a class="aamcxebbntyelfofbdmh" href="http://www.blogger.com/Falling_Sand_Game"></a><a class="aamcxebbntyelfofbdmh" href="http://www.blogger.com/Falling_Sand_Game"></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32419152.post-28203156942206207892010-02-17T10:25:00.000-08:002010-02-21T12:37:43.518-08:00Visual Poetics<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_NRDiji8PC-A/S3wy7UKmK1I/AAAAAAAABTo/yAYc4Jon_G0/s1600-h/New-York-Dada-first-page_1921.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_NRDiji8PC-A/S3wy7UKmK1I/AAAAAAAABTo/yAYc4Jon_G0/s400/New-York-Dada-first-page_1921.jpg" width="340" /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_NRDiji8PC-A/S3wzH0FTQ9I/AAAAAAAABTw/GTmh-Ca1Xmw/s1600-h/Ardengo-Soffici_Al-Buffet-Della-Stazione_1914.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_NRDiji8PC-A/S3wzH0FTQ9I/AAAAAAAABTw/GTmh-Ca1Xmw/s400/Ardengo-Soffici_Al-Buffet-Della-Stazione_1914.jpg" width="318" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_NRDiji8PC-A/S3wzQ_1ezFI/AAAAAAAABT4/aQbm_4adI3s/s1600-h/El-Lissitzky-and-Hans-Arp_Kunstimen_1925.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_NRDiji8PC-A/S3wzQ_1ezFI/AAAAAAAABT4/aQbm_4adI3s/s320/El-Lissitzky-and-Hans-Arp_Kunstimen_1925.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Some beautiful examples of typographic expression from the late 1800s and early 1900s can be found in the essay <a href="http://www.metaphorical.org/poetics/page1.html">Typographic Innovation in Visual Poetry and Advertising</a> by Vicki Litvinov. Just seeing the tricks typographer and advertisers came up with back in the days of text-only printing is stunning and inspiring.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Via <a href="http://www.uppercasegallery.ca/uppercase-journal/2010/2/16/type-tuesday-visual-poetry-advertising.html">Uppercase</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32419152.post-43836743691894061862010-02-16T11:57:00.000-08:002010-02-21T12:51:25.296-08:00Magazine Titles<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_NRDiji8PC-A/S3r2aO1V56I/AAAAAAAABTg/_3Z-Zowet-g/s1600-h/4294415044_283c721c16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_NRDiji8PC-A/S3r2aO1V56I/AAAAAAAABTg/_3Z-Zowet-g/s400/4294415044_283c721c16.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
People still say that print magazines will be dead within a decade. These people are wrong. Print magazines will be around probably forever, for the same reason that books will be. People like carefully-made, individual instances of things, even things that could be abstracted to their forms. What this will mean, of course, is that any magazine people were buying just for its content will be moved online. This has been happening for a while. On the other hand, the magazines (and books) that survive will do so with an increased attention to design and tactile beauty.<br />
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A few of the magazines that especially intrigue me are the culture magazine <a href="http://www.believermag.com/"><i>The Believer</i></a>, the literary magazine <span class="sidetxt1"><i><a href="http://store.mcsweeneys.net/index.cfm/fuseaction/catalog.list/object_id/9772B00C-B37F-4915-88F8-8ED96E79EBF1/Journals.cfm">McSweeney's Quarterly Concern</a>, </i></span>and the just-founded culinary journal <a href="http://fireandknives.com/"><i>Fire and Knives</i></a>. This last has an amazing name, by the way. Superbly concrete and expressive. Instead of calling it <i>Food </i>or <i>Kitchen</i>, or some such, it simply names two of the most ancient and essential implements for <i>making </i>food. From reading the title, you know that it must concern food, but the way that it moves around the subject hints that it will be about more than just recipes. And it is. Plus, it's fun and dangerous to say. Try it. Fire and Knives. Awesome.<br />
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<i>The Believer</i> and <i>McSweeney's</i>, of course, boast catchy and memorably names as well, and are distinguished by excellent, highly varied writing and gorgeous, ever shifting covers. <i>The Believer</i>'s cover art is done by illustrator and graphic novelist Charles Burns, and <i>McSweeney's</i> changes entirely with each publication. They're all certainly worth a look. I especially love that the page for ordering <a href="http://shop.presentjoys.com/product/fire-knives-magazine">the first issue</a> of <i>Fire and Knives</i> informs its audience that the magazine is set in Perpetua and Gill Sans. Who does that? A magazine that knows its audience.<br />
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Via <a href="http://magculture.com/blog/?p=5452#more-5452">Magculture</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32419152.post-85969168840105386032010-02-16T10:58:00.000-08:002010-02-21T12:39:11.001-08:00Old Spice Manmercial<object height="295" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0ZOm2YhOI4c&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0ZOm2YhOI4c&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="600" height="369" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object><br />
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Genius. Sheer sidesplitting genius. Don't smell like sunsets and baby powder. Smell like jet fighters and punching. Ad by Portland agency <a href="http://www.wk.com/">Weiden and Kennedy</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32419152.post-62279887520869024922010-02-16T10:18:00.000-08:002010-02-21T12:39:32.698-08:00FedEx<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_NRDiji8PC-A/S3rgwx2qMOI/AAAAAAAABTY/2scniFZk6iI/s1600-h/fedex_2arabic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_NRDiji8PC-A/S3rgwx2qMOI/AAAAAAAABTY/2scniFZk6iI/s400/fedex_2arabic.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Most people have noticed by now that the FedEx logo has a negative space arrow tucked between the E and X. This is a neat touch, and one that would seem unique to the Roman alphabet. I was amused to notice, however, that the Arabic version of the logo also had the same symbol, going from right to left of course. I don't enough about the Arabic alphabet to know if they had to mangle the letters to get it in there, but it looks as if they did, which is too bad. It ought to be natural or not used at all. Now let's see them do it in Japanese kanji!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32419152.post-48553869247979888772010-02-16T10:01:00.000-08:002010-02-21T12:42:06.264-08:00T-Shirt War<object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/DKWdSCt4jGE&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/DKWdSCt4jGE&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="600" height="364"></embed></object><br />
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Fun!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32419152.post-91293849990294703402010-02-15T08:49:00.000-08:002010-02-21T12:41:45.282-08:00Out of a Forest<object height="225" width="400"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9335203&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9335203&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="600" height="339"></embed></object><br />
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A magical stop-motion short by Tobias Gundorff Boesen. Music by The National - "Slow Show."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32419152.post-71418493743359223372010-02-12T10:43:00.000-08:002010-02-21T12:42:45.287-08:00Sylvain Chomet - La Vieille Dame Et Les Pigeons<object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/srODm62kBAw&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/srODm62kBAw&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="600" height="486"></embed></object><br />
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Sylvain Chomet's trademark blend of humor, absurdity, and the grotesque is in full swing in this 1998 short. The attention to detail in environment and character approaches Miyazaki.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32419152.post-65419850412097574332010-02-12T10:31:00.000-08:002010-02-21T12:42:25.456-08:00The Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello<object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vORsKyopHyM&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vORsKyopHyM&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="600" height="364"></embed></object><br />
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Adventure, skyships, evil scientists, Lovecraftian monsters...what more could you ask for?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0