"Spurning all honours for himself, Faraday disparaged inventors with mercenary aims, declaring that the pursuit of truth should be a reward in itself."
- Patricia Fara, Entertainment for Angels: Electricity in the Enlightenment

It seems to me that the open source community is filled with Faraday romantics.

Today, it was beautiful here. Perfect flying weather. Light cirrus, high high high. All the mountains crisp on each horizon - the Olympics, the Cascades, Mt. Rainier. My friend John, the one who trains Cirrus pilots, grabbed me and my buddy Sloane, stuffed us in a friend’s Cirrus SR-22 and we played in the sky for awhile (smoothest stall ( Read more... )

Have you ever planted or tended an olive tree ( Read more... )

I sometimes daydream that the speakers of all modern Romantic-derived languages start using the synonyms which have the nearest phonetic similarity to all of the other Romantic languages. As we do this, we begin to move backwards towards a more universal language. Year by year, we take the language back through a modern Romantic derivative of ( Read more... )

atavism n. recurrence of or reversion to a past style, manner, outlook, approach, or activity

romantic adj. marked by the imaginative or emotional appeal of what is heroic, adventurous, remote, mysterious, or idealized

Ever felt sane and sated hand-stitching something that could've been machine sewn ( Read more... )

I have a mad love for second cities.

What is a Second City?

It's the underground tunnel city in the TV show Beauty & the Beast. It's Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman and King Rat by China Mieville. It's the cyber realm in William Gibson novels. It's the network of rooftops in Amsterdam, the network of churches, convents and monasteries in Brugge, ( Read more... )

The most tender place in my heart is for strangers
I know it's unkind but my own blood (love) is much too dangerous ( Read more... )

I am the woman who lights the darkness ( Read more... )

Over the next 4 months, the European Space Agency (ESA) will be adding a laboratory to the International Space Station (ISS).

I hope that once the Japanese Space Agency (JSA) Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has grown a bit, it too can contribute to the ISS ( Read more... )

Many Taoists eat and drink seasonally. It's one way to stay connected to the Tao, the Earth, the natural cycle of things.

I read this passage yesterday in Kushiel's Avatar by Jacqueline Carey, wherein she waxed romantic and poetic about a glass of wine, and I thought it was a stunningly beautiful example of a simple way we can connect with the ( Read more... )