tisiwoota

Those laden lilacs
……………………….at the lawn’s end
Came stark, spindly,
…………………………. and in staggered file,
Like walking wounded
…………………………….from the dead of winter.
We watched them waken
………………………………..in the brusque weather
To rot and rootbreak,
……………………………to ripped branches,
And saw them shiver
…………………………..as the memory swept them
Of night and numbness
……………………………..and the taste of nothing.
Out of present pain
……………………….. and from past terror
Their bullet-shaped buds
………………………………..came quick and bursting,
As if they aimed
……………………..to be open with us!
But the sun suddenly
…………………………..settled about them,
And green and grateful
……………………………..the lilacs grew,
Healed in that hush,
………………………….that hospital quiet.
These lacquered leaves
……………………………….where the light paddles
And the big blooms
…………………………buzzing among them
Have kept their counsel,
……………………………….conveying nothing
Of their mortal message,
………………………………..unless one should measure
The depth and dumbness
………………………………..of death’s kingdom
By the pure power
………………………..of this perfume.

The Judge in the Dover trial has just ruled that Intelligent Design policy violates the establishment clause. The ACLU has a link to the full opinion. I’ve only just started reading it, but already it makes for a scintillating read:

This Court’s jurisdiction arises under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1343, and 42 U.S.C. § 1983. In addition, the power to issue declaratory judgments is expressed in 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201 and 2202. This Court has supplemental jurisdiction over Plaintiffs’ cause of action arising under the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1367. Venue is proper in this District under
28 U.S.C. § 1391(b) because one or more Defendants reside in this District, all Defendants reside in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the events or omissions giving rise to the claims at issue occurred in this District.

Okay, so maybe most people would choose to highlight other quotes from the opinion– any other quotes from the opinion. But it is nice to know what the above means now…

*~*~*

UPDATE: There’s news that the US Middle District Attorney’s office is looking into pursuing perjury charges against some of the (ex-) school board members who testified in the trial.

This clam doesn’t have the slightest idea
what’s about to hit it. Well, maybe
it does but approaches life with bemused
becalmed detachment and therefore death
is no big deal, not to be avoided or bewailed
even by boiling. Wide it slowly opens around
its secret vowel. Doubtlessly there is a grace
in resignation as there is a briny sweetness
in the clam. The delivery man rings
a second time then turns away. The bee
bounces twice against the florist’s window
then bumbles on. Baby quiets, not getting
what he wants, the rain moves out to sea,
the lava gobbles up the village, villagers
ox-carted to another island sector just as
the old ones did, it’s their cosmology.
Past and future seemingly resigned to
simultaneously, the lovers agree to see
no more each other, leaving behind drinks
undrunk and twisted napkins. The student
moves to the next blank leaving the previous
unfilled. So much life we cannot have or
find or repeat yet so much we had and found.
I’ve made this mistake a hundred times,
one thinks, preparing to make it again.
One day I’ll get rid of these expensive
painful shoes but not now, another says,
scanning her closet. Some things must resign
themselves to becoming something else,
champagne flat, the burning log ash,
after the crash the runner walks with a cane
but some must accept they’ll never change,
stained tablecloth never unstained,
mark permanent on the heart. You pick up
a clod to throw on the coffin lid but can’t
so turn away, dropping it in your pocket.

Hokusai says Look carefully.

He says pay attention, notice.

He says keep looking, stay curious.

He says there is no end to seeing.

He says Look Forward to getting old.

He says keep changing, you just get more who you really are.

He says get stuck, accept it, repeat yourself as long as it’s interesting.

He says keep doing what you love.

He says keep praying.

He says every one of us is a child, every one of us is ancient, every one of us has a body.

He says every one of us is frightened.

He says every one of us has to find a way to live with fear.

He says everything is alive –shells, buildings, people, fish,mountains, trees.

Wood is alive.

Water is alive

Everything has its own life.

Everything lives inside us.

He says live with the world inside you.

He says it doesn’t matter if you draw, or write books.

It doesn’t matter if you saw wood, or catch fish.

It doesn’t matter if you sit at home and stare at the ants on your verandah

or the shadows of the trees and grasses in your garden.

It matters that you care.

It matters that you feel.

It matters that you notice.

It matters that life lives through you.

Contentment is Life living through you.

Joy is life living through you.

Satisfaction and strength is life living through you.

Peace is life living through you.

He says don’t be afraid.

Don’t be afraid.

Look, feel, let life take you by the hand.

Let life live through you.

Ah, how one finds oneself writing such odd phrases in response to silly exam questions!

That’s really all I wanted to say, but to keep this from being a complete non-post, think I’ll dredge up my collection of Google search phrases that have led people here (besides the ever-popular “genography” query). If only I had the programming skillz of Mr. Blogwaffe, I’d put these hits up as a scrolling banner too… Well, some of them, at least:

Price of Bear Costa Rica

expiration of PCR patents

navel-gazing

flying miss ground douglas adams

definition of naughty

ninja monkey

I had forgotten my body, with all its limbs

how to make females infertile

average R&D budget in a software company

bad puns

awesomely bad puns

“One Village at a Time”

human hibernation

human interspecies breeding

villanelle technology

architect, st.lucia

Price of a Beer in Costa Rica

“podiatrists thought it was a step forward”

mutant monkey -meteors

“i don’t like wars they end up with monuments”

les torture navel

germline all toys

sex children

“how to put trust in a bottle”

define wanwood leafmeal

What.. um, interesting, things I’m apparently an authority on… And dare I imagine how this post might influence my Google presence in future? At least I know there’s one word I won’t be showing up high in the ranks for anytime soon…

More for the “human inspiration” files (good to remember there are other things going on in the world during finals!).

Russia, which has one of the fastest growing HIV populations in the world, just held a beauty pageant for HIV-positive women to raise awareness.

I think it’s a great way to change societal attitudes and combat the stigma of the disease.

As the article notes, it “will take more than just a pretty face to change” the culture, but this is an important part of building more widespread support for addressing the issue.

(Much as in the US, where society wouldn’t put serious effort into combatting AIDS until there was recognition that it was a disease that affects “normal” people “too”, not just certain maligned social groups. Now even the anti-gay Christian right has largely come to see, as Bono has put it, “that AIDS is the Leprosy of our times”).

Haven’t posted anything in the “human inspiration” category for quite a while, and while reading this I thought:

Who can resist a good human interest story about Mr. T?

[Empirically, not law students studying for finals!]

>>
[Mr. T] was so moved by what happened in New Orleans that it convinced him to give up his trademark gold chains.

He said: “I watched my people, the black people, screaming, begging and crying just for water.

“They didn’t want diamond rings or new houses, they just wanted water, and they couldn’t get any.

“I knew that soon I would be going around visiting these people in homeless shelters and it would be a sin against God and a sin against humanity to go around there wearing a million-dollars worth of gold chains, rings and diamonds.

“It would be wrong for me to say ‘it’s going to be alright buddy’ and then go about my business. That would be a lie.

“People need to see that Mr T has a heart of gold, not just the gold that drips around my neck.

“That’s my wardrobe, my uniform, but I will never wear it again.”

Today’s Boingboing features Holy Tango of Literature, an anthology of comedic poems on the theme “What if poets and playwrights wrote works whose titles were anagrams of their names?”

The one on BoingBoing is a great send up of Mamet; the below is another winner from the author’s website:

WE LONG BONY DORKS,
by GWENDOLYN BROOKS

The Mathletes.
Seven in the Computer Lab.

We long bony dorks. We
Real big on quarks. We

Quote Python lines. We
Know arcs and sines. We

Not good at sports. We
Black socks with shorts. We

Beat up at noon. We
Out-earn you soon.

What’s especially great is that this is a perfect counterpoint to the poem it’s based on.

So I gave myself a bit of a startle yesterday when, in the midst of outlining, I noticed words appearing in my word document that I had not typed. At first, being just a few spurious and’s and an’s, I chalked it up to some accidental clicking or pasting.

But then, several longer phrases (”It has been and will“, “This is the woman“) popped into the document at a point when I had not so much as touched the keyboard in minutes.

Was it delirium from working too much? (Nah, I hadn’t been working that hard!)

A ghost, then?

I’m not sure how I finally made the association– but after a bit of pondering, I was struck with aural déjà vu. Wait a minute, hadn’t I heard similar phrases a few seconds ago, before this mysterious typage?

And so I realized: I must have accidentally clicked the button to turn on my computer’s speech recognition software at some point.

Like any good former science major, I tested my hypothesis. Leaning into the keyboard, I uttered a few strongly enunciated phrases. Sure enough, there they were on the screen.

oh my god

and,

material breach
[yes, a bit sad that out of the vast combinatorial possibilities of the english language, this was what leapt to mind]

Seeing as I’d never trained the software to my voice– indeed had never tried it at all before– it’s not surprising that when I pushed further, the translation became pretty shoddy [”I am not a ghost” became the eye and not anrose].

After a bit more testing and reflection, I figured out that the original transcriptions must have come from the program catching a few refrains from the songs on my playlist (or perhaps I’d unconsciously sung along a bit). Mostly, I’ve found, the program is only able to pick “n” or “ee” sounds from recordings. And it seems to think that certain strong opening chords are in or and. Radiohead in particular comes out as a lot of in anan inn and an.

Anyway.

Good to know that studying hasn’t completely driven me out of my mind yet : )

CNN Headline: Poor countries win rules extension

This week the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreed to extend the deadline for least-developed countries to update their intellectual property laws to meet the standards of the TRIPS agreement until 2013. (All member nations of the WTO are signatories to the agreement, but deadlines for compliance were staggered according to level of development. The original deadline for LDCs was January 1, 2006).

This is good news– but only for those countries which have not yet updated their laws, since the WTO decision reportedly states:

Least-developed country Members will ensure that any changes in their laws, regulations and practice made during the additional transitional period do not result in a lesser degree of consistency with the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement.

…In other words, no backtracking. Those countries which have enacted stricter regulations will have to enforce them– regardless of the adverse affects this may have on access to medicines, and other related issues.

If you’re not reading through bloglines, you’ll notice I’ve done a bit remodeling here… thanks to some guidance from Mr. Flashes of Panic. I rather like having a photo of my own (from my own room) as the top image, rather than pre-fab wallpaper (though, er, my image is of wallpaper…).

Speaking of photos, the newest excitement in my life is that I’ve finally become the proud owner of a digital camera– which means I can bring some visual treats to the mix once in a while…

por ejemplo, this shot of the common area in the house I’m living in: