Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with kossacks who are caring and supportive of one another. So bring your stories, jokes, photos, funny pics, music, and interesting videos, as well as links—that you think this community would appreciate. Readers may notice that most who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but newcomers should not feel excluded. We welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.
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Climate Action Hub
The Inoculation Project: Science and Math in Red State Schools
KosAbility
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Connect! Unite! Act!
Musings from The New Yorker
I have subscribed to The New Yorker for many years and enjoy the cartoons very much. And I do read the articles. Often I'm taken aback by the disparities between New York and east coast life vs. life as I experience it. From reading the cartoons, for instance, I realize that "cement overshoe" executions are so common that the harbors must have to be dredged from time to time. Also fashion is the most important thing. But the overall liberal slant and excellent reporting gives me peace.
The newest issue has two stories which were fascinating, each in their own way. The first is Lighting the Brain, which describes the work of Karl Deisseroth in rendering individual neurons photosensitive, for research into how the brain processes information.
The technical aspects of the article are well described but way beyond my technical expertise. But what stood out for me was the biographical story of Karl himself. He is described as a genius in Galileo's league, and yet humble and driven by discovery and the good that flows from it. One of his most profound ideas occurred to him as he was helping his wife change diapers on their three year old.
The other story of note was a portrait of Marc Andreessen, the inventor of Mosaic, the first web browser, and the spirit behind Netscape. This article is titled Tomorrow's Advance Man. The main thrust of the article, entwined with his biographical data, is the world of venture capitalism (VC). Now this world is populated with very smart people, the money folks and the entrepreneurs who court them for funds. The amounts of money are staggering. As an example of that was Yahoo's offer to 23 year old Mark Zuckerberg for one billion dollars for Facebook. Mark Andreessen advised him not to sell; Facebook is now worth 218 billion. The whole article is about people attempting to get in on "the next big thing" and make tons of money. It seems an exciting but rather sterile world. I was struck by the ending of the article.
"But when you want to impact the world you need one hundred people, then one thousand, then ten thousand—and people have all these people issues.”
Things are moving fast in this world. I think only the very young are able to apprehend it with certainty, and hasn't certainty always been a characteristic of youth? Much of the world's turmoil seems to me involved with the desire to turn back the clock. But the clock is running full speed, like it or not.
Ramping up to today's frenetic speed has certainly been a gradual process. For a picture of just how gradual I highly recommend Ojibwa's wonderful diary Ancient Africa-A-Short-Overview-of-Homo-Habilis. Somewhere along the line some kid introduced Arrowhead 2.1 (It's better!).
I myself am still ensconced in the old ways ("Chop wood, carry water") so I will include photos of tomato progress. Well, that's progress in my world.
April 26.
May 17
As you can see, they are growing fast. Every day I go out and tuck the branches into the cages, or use plant ties to direct the main stem to where I wish them to grow.
I hope the world slows sufficiently to allow folks to join in at the Kitchen Table. Slow is better than a complete stop, however.