Blake was a Blogger

Almost finished reading Bronowski’s “Man Without a Mask”, about the life and works of William Blake, and was struck, by this summary … “We find [Blake’s life] eccentric, only if we miss it’s context, which is made by his writings and his times together [American and French and Industrial revolutions] … the context of a … Continue reading “Blake was a Blogger”

Words as Idols

Read Owen Barfield’s “Poetic Diction” and “History in English Words” a year or so ago, and blogged several items. [here][here][here]. I was doing a search on Barfield today in preparation for reading more of his work and came across two interesting sites. This review of Barfield’s “Saving the Appearances – A Study in Idolatry” on … Continue reading “Words as Idols”

Emergent Management

I thought emergence was going to be last year’s word, but it looks like it’s going to arrive this year at last. It’s been a thread on MoQ Discuss recently and I find this post from Seb Paquet too. Recipes for success are always doomed, in management just as anywhere else in life. Success is … Continue reading “Emergent Management”

Good Taste is Always in Fashion

Taste ? Quality ? Interesting article from Paul Graham about the subjectivity, but rightness, of taste. His students are clever but do they have taste ? Would they recognise the “strange beauty” in the design of an SR71 Blackbird ? Couldn’t help thinking of Pirsig’s quality.(Interesting reference also to form folowing functon.) [via Rivets]

Scientific American interviews

One of Martin Rees (Astronomer Royal) on the end of the world (again) Another of Ernst Mayr (of Pirsig interest) Just read most of the Mayr interview. Interesting. A bit of a sales pitch for Biology as a distinct subject (motivated by some round of budgeting somewhere I’ll wager). His point that biology is not … Continue reading “Scientific American interviews”

Embedded Software

Met one Alex Lennon last night (in the Pickerell, where else). He has his own personal www.embeddedsoftware.co.uk website and works for Organix in Cambridge. He spotted I was reading Anthony Gottlieb’s “The Dream of Reason – a History of Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance” [QUOTE] Already a classic in its first year of … Continue reading “Embedded Software”

30th Anniversary ZMM Rides

This year is 30 years since Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was published. To mark the event …. Fritz Schabmuller and Gregor Schleicher are doing the ZMM route (on Harley’s) to raise money for charities (Medicin sans Frontieres & The White Ring). They leave Ingolstadt on 1st July then starting in … Continue reading “30th Anniversary ZMM Rides”