Eventyr

Mailing Lists

I have now sorted out all my subscriptions to the current relevant mailing lists (that I am aware of) for my research.  These are all listed here.  If you can think of any others please let me know.

Elie Wiesel

When the great Rabbi Israel Baal Shem-Tov saw misfortune threatening the Jews it was his custom to go into a certain part of the forest to meditate. There he would light a fire, say a special prayer, and the miracle would be accomplished and the misfortune averted.

Later, when his disciple, the celebrated Magid of Mezritch, had occasion, for the same reason, to intercede with heaven, he would go to the same place in the forest and say: "Master of the Universe, listen! I do not know how to light the fire, but I am still able to say the prayer," and again the miracle would be accomplished.

Still later, Rabbi Moshe-Leib of Sasov, in order to save his people once more, would go into the forest and say: "I do not know how to light the fire, I do not know the prayer, but I know the place and this must be sufficient." It was sufficient and the miracle was accomplished.

Then it fell to Rabbi Israel of Rizhyn to overcome misfortune. Sitting in his armchair, his head in his hands, he spoke to God: "I am unable to light the fire and I do not know the prayer; I cannot even find the place in the forest. All I can do is to tell the story, and this must be sufficient." And it was sufficient.

God made man because he loves stories.

  -- Elie Wiesel, The Gates of the Forest

Stories of the World

The stories of the world are sung
In places that were never young
I have counted every one
All the clouds will come to you
So the sun never comes through
And we will hide
From twenty years of winter sky
...
Still it turns and says to me
In words that come uneasily
Answers are not meant to be
Winter Sky - Big Country song lyrics

Robots and Water

Viewing robotic art* followed by a good sauna and swim is a grand way to spend a Friday afternoon.

Just in case you hadn't realised.

Which was a fine way to end a couple of days of solid productiveness (as I waded my way through funding-, banking-, disability-, medical-, postal-, library-issues and everything else on top).

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

* I am now a big fan of mini-birds...

Keywords

On the advice of the Research Methods course tutor I have set up a list of keywords (see right).

Hopefully these should help me when I am ploughing through the Scopus, Inspec and Zetoc abstract database searches...

On the stair

I saw a mouse!
Where?
There on the stair!
Where on the stair?
Right there!
A little mouse with clogs on
Well I declare!
Going clip-clippety-clop on the stair
Oh yeah
--A Windmill In Old Amsterdam

Judge the Burn

While doing my annual B&H Virtual Festival judging I came across this film of the Death of the West Pier.

Ah, those were the days...

(I also stumbled onto Damp Flat Books which certainly has some items worthy of further investigation when I have time to breathe again...)

Douglas Coupland

It's not healthy to live life as a succession of isolated little cool moments. Either our lives become stories, or there's just no way to get through them.

   -- Douglas Coupland, "Generation X"

The Cardinal

Although a dossier on Cardinal Newman’s beatification was first opened in 1958, no miracles had, until now, been attributed to his intercession. “I had to tell John Paul that the English are not very good at miracles,” Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor said. “It’s not that we are not pious, but the English tend to think of God as a gentleman who should not be bullied.”
Yesterday, however, the cleric responsible for arguing Newman’s cause, Father Paul Chavasse, the Provost of Birmingham Oratory, which was founded by Newman in 1848, said that a deacon in the Diocese of Boston in the United States had testified that he had recovered from a spinal disease after praying to Cardinal Newman. “At last we have a miracle cure,” he said.
Cardinal Newman

It shall be interesting to see how my old school responds to this...

(Thanks to James for the link.)

Zeitgeist

Hmm.

And then I had this sneaking suspicion that if I were fixing the Interloping Comments I may as well revive my old bluejoh zeitgeist.

So, on revising my knowlege of perl to get it to work with my new logs, here is my new created metaphors zeitgeist.

I'm timewasting.

But at least it is done now.