The posts on Haiti connections from fdmts have been moving to me. A personal connection from a visit of his and redmed's.

Also, photos of some of the missing, sent to the NYTimes. That is a good bit of humanizing technology. I am struck by how many of the people I could easily imagine knowing in another time and place. You can see in the faces that the ( Read more... )

I am traveling now (in the airport, returning from PAG), but am heartsick about Haiti. Making a donation was easy; I encourage anyone who stumbles across this post to do the same. The organization I chose is one that we often give to anyway; their primary bases in Haiti are two hours outside of Port-au-Prince. Word from Partners in Health today:

" ( Read more... )

I am proud to see Dad's name in this award. And to know E's significant role in the software too.

A group award in science education is also being given to the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives (NLVM) who created computer applications for use in K-12 mathematics education. At a time when mathematics and science education are being ( Read more... )

The air temperature is -4 F now. When I biked home at dusk (well-bundled, wearing some other creature's down), I saw three deer and three rabbits. Friday, we saw many fox tracks on the river; also probably mouse or vole, and deer again, and hawks and crows. By Friday, we're due for -19 again. And we're not getting above single digits any time this ( Read more... )

article at WSJ by Jonah Lehrer

... Unloading some more thoughts from this holiday break ...

Dec 26, I noted this quote, from Charles Darwin. This is from the close of The Origin of Species, first edition (changed in subsequent editions). "There is grandeur in this view of life .... from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are ( Read more... )

Back from service. It was a good one. Clay and Jamie Gurganus talked about their experience, each of them, of becoming blind while in college; and about the lives they have made together since them: Jamie as a social worker, and Clay as a financial aid counselor at the university. About having a child, and then being foster parents ( Read more... )

http://www.gratefulness.org
... the work of a long-time Benedictine monk and zen practitioner, Br. David Steindl-Rast. I much enjoyed the three-part documentary here.
I went looking for something like this because I thought we spend so much of our lives now in front of the computer. There ( Read more... )

For my Detroit friends ( Read more... )

Written two weeks ago, mostly by Ethy (during our blizzard-enforced quiet time), is our end-of-year letter. It's a little large (4 Mb), so it is posted hereToday, Christmas Eve, we're in the midst of another storm. Not exactly the storm we'd like: two days of light rain and freezing rain so far; but fortunately, with snow supposedly on the way this ( Read more... )