Jack Leahy: There are probably fewer greater illustrations of the alienation from our true human situation than the loss of the night sky. The more our technical civilization grows the brighter its artificial illumination shelters us from knowing where we truly reside. We navigate our brief lives by its lights rather than navigating by the stars. We are obscured from the cosmic situation in which we find ourselves and are befuddled and lost.
Jack Leahy: The entire canyon had become blanketed in by fog. No, not fog. Up here it isn’t fog. Up here we are in the clouds. The evening sky had been crystal clear the evening before so this caught me by surprise. There was only the slight hiss of misting rain. A bit of wind. The nocturnal song of insects now hushed. I could hardly even make out the other buildings a few hundred feet beyond me.
I had a great time with a friend at the HorrorHound convention yesterday. We watched one feature film and several shorts. The feature “They Wait in the Dark” was pretty good. One of the shorts was called “Tunnel Rat”, about a Vietnam vet with PTSD. Real life horror ending with the phone number for veteran suicide prevention. It was a small convention space but they packed a lot in. Cool vendors.
The British royal family owns a considerable chunk of British land. If you want to preserve that land from commercial development, maintain the monarchy. How’s that for a weird position to be in? (Incidentally, I am the farthest thing from a monarchist.)
Brewed a Belgian tripel from a kit today. Haven’t brewed beer in a few years so I had some re-learning to do. Original gravity was a bit too low because I added too much water to the bucket. Hopefully the only consequence will be that the ABV is lower than planned.
Alan Moore:
I worship a second century human headed snake god called Glycon, who was exposed as a ventriloquist’s dummy nearly 2000 years ago.
I baked a Pennsylvania Dutch funeral pie. Definitely has a mincemeat vibe.
Done!
Just as earlier writers would cite scripture to prove their arguments, modern writers cite science. And there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that. Science often makes claims that intersect in intriguing ways with religion. Nevertheless, I am suspicious of supporting religious claims with scientific findings—and not for the usual reasons given by those influenced by the New Atheists, i.e., science is “true” and religion is “false” or, at best, pre-scientific attempts to explain the world.
Charles Eisenstein: Today I saw a monarch butterfly. It was the only one I have seen this summer, and I am sad. I have been preserving all the milkweed that has been coming up as a weed in my gardens. An insignificant gesture, but for me it is a little prayer. I’ve loved these butterflies ever since I was a boy and my father told me about their migratory journey.