Comments

  1. Zarquon says

    Overhead the albatross hangs motionless upon the air
    And deep beneath the rolling waves in labyrinths of coral caves
    The echo of a distant tide comes billowing across the sand
    And everything is green the submarine

  2. G. Tingey says

    Where are you, now?
    And where in the next few days?

    Is this a business and/or a pleasure trip?
    The current wet weather is “making up” for an exceptionally dry (& hot, for us) Summer.
    Forecast says Thursday will be fine.

    As for cosmic, as I said before, try the Nat. Hist. Mus. in Kensington.
    For a view not in the guidebooks, try just to the East (downstream side) of Tower Bridge from the South bank.
    From there you see the 900-year-old fortress through the stone-and-steel of the 19th Century Gotic bridge, with the WWII cruiser HMS Belfast on the river, and behind it, rising, the spires and towers of a 21st Century city.
    You couldn’t make it up.

    If out-of-London, where are you likely to go?
    Everyone talks about Stonehenge, but Avebury is really wierd, and should be good in the Autumn.
    Oxford? Cambridge? Downe?
    Edinburgh?
    York or Durham?

    Then there are the words, for … “The Isle is full of voices”…

    From far, from eve and morning,
    And yon twelve-winded sky,
    The stuff of life to knit me
    Blew hither; here am I.

    Now – for a breath I taryy
    Nor yet disperse apart –
    Take my hand, quick, and tell me,
    What have you in your heart.

    Speak now, and I will answer,
    How shall I help you, say:
    Ere to the wind’s twelve quarters
    I take my endless way.

    (A. E. H. – Shropshire Lad, XXXII )

  3. says

    The Pogues:

    I dreamt we were standing
    By the banks of the Thames
    Where the cold grey waters ripple
    In the misty morning light
    Held a match to your cigarette
    Watched the smoke curl in the mist
    Your eyes, blue as the ocean between us
    Smiling at me

    I awoke alone and lonely
    In a faraway place
    The sun fell cold upon my face
    The cracks in the ceiling spelt hell
    Turned to the wall
    Pulled the sheets around my head
    Tried to sleep, and dream my way
    Back to you again

    Count the days
    Slowly passing by
    Step on a plane
    And fly away
    I’ll see you then
    As the dawnbirds sing
    On a cold and misty morning
    By the Albert Bridge

  4. says

    “Trip to heave and ho, up down, to and fro’
    you have no word
    trip, trip to a dream dragon
    hide your wings in a ghost tower
    sails cackling at every plate we break
    cracked by scattered needles
    the little minute gong
    coughs and clears his throat
    madam you see before you stand
    hey ho, never be still
    the old original favorite grand
    grasshoppers green Herbarian band
    and the tune they play is “In Us Confide”
    so trip to heave and ho, up down, to and fro’
    you have no word
    Please leave us here
    close our eyes to the octopus ride!

    Isn’t it good to be lost in the wood
    isn’t it bad so quiet there, in the wood
    meant even less to me than I thought
    with a honey plough of yellow prickly seeds
    clover honey pots and mystic shining feed…
    well, the madcap laughed at the man on the border
    hey ho, huff the Talbot
    “Cheat” he cried shouting kangaroo
    it’s true in their tree they cried
    Please leave us here
    close our eyes to the octopus ride!

    The madcap laughed at the man on the border
    hey ho, huff the Talbot
    the winds they blew and the leaves did wag
    they’ll never put me in their bag
    the seas will reach and always seep
    so high you go, so low you creep
    the wind it blows in tropical heat
    the drones they throng on mossy seats
    the squeaking door will always squeak
    two up, two down we’ll never meet
    so merrily trip forgo my side
    Please leave us here
    close our eyes to the octopus ride!

    Syd Barrett’s “Octopus” aka “Clowns & Jugglers”

  5. says

    Bush went to a discussion regarding school violence, whereat was read a shitty poem about needing “god” in schools, with which Bush agreed.

    This led me to write an open letter to Christians on the topics of prayer in school, “intelligent design” and politics.

    However, I don’t expect it to have much effect, since the literacy — and education — of most Christians begins at Genesis and ends at Revelation.

  6. Ryan says

    Cosmic: We are the universe thinking about itself, and the atoms we’re using are billions of years old.

  7. llewelly says

    We are the universe thinking about itself, and the atoms we’re using are billions of years old.

    So that’s what’s wrong with me! I was made from used atoms in the first place! How many of these durn things have outlasted there warranties?

  8. 386sx says

    So, according to drudgereport, the pope is bringing back the latin mass. Well I think that’s pretty nifty.

  9. Tara Mobley says

    I love early Pink Floyd, but the microphones were way too quiet in that clip. You could hardly hear the lyrics.

  10. says

    So, rumour has it that now that YouTube is a Google™ product, it will be difficult to obtain such works of entertainment as the attached one here … any thoughts?

  11. says

    Keith, with Googles deep pockets you can be sure YouTube will not remain a playground for copyright and other IPR infringement.

  12. barstoolcadaver says

    Ah, if only Syd could have kept it glued together a bit better. Visionary madness always makes this boy smile. And cold beer.

  13. Zohn Smith says

    Over at UD, Wm(a)D is gushing over Dawkins’ website, and here’s what he writes:

    “Check out this great looking website (if only the content matched in quality): http://richarddawkins.net.

    Anybody who is willing and able to upgrade the look, feel, and functionality of this site (Uncommon Descent) to match that of the Dawkins site will receive three of my books autographed. What a deal. Think it over.”

  14. bPer says

    Prof. Myers didn’t have to go all the way to England to find people who’d pronounce his initials “PeeZed”. Up here in Canada (not far from Morris after all), the natural inclination would be to pronounce it that way too. I have to constantly remind myself that when I read people call him “PZ”, it rhymes with “easy”.

    And yes, I know that ZZ Top isn’t “Zed Zed Top”. 8)

  15. says

    The desert is a place where all certainty is uncertainty, where reality is a mirage, where a mirage becomes reality, where the wind tests all that dares to challenge it, and the challengers that survive are never the same, erosion bares all with softness the first to go, hardness is the survivor, adaptability coming in a strong second. Once I came upon a biologist fingering a yucca in a weird sort of way, I offered my canteen for I already knew his plight, laboratory softness was quickly giving way to a certain reality, his mind had already retreated from the inevitable, substituting dreams and fantasies for the certainty to come. Suddenly wild-eyed, he babbled as I led him away, talk of lizards and legumes and unleaven bread, and it took three days before he returned to world of, “Thank you for saving my life.”

  16. sinned34 says

    “He had alot to say
    He had alot of nothing to say
    We’ll miss him

    So long
    We wish you well
    You told us how you weren’t afraid to die
    Well so long
    Don’t cry
    Or feel too down
    Not all martyrs see divinity
    But at least you tried.

    Standing above the crowd
    he had a voice that was strong and loud
    We’ll miss him

    Ranting and pointing his finger
    at everything but his heart
    We’ll miss him
    We’re gonna miss him

    No way to recall
    what it was that you had said to me
    like I care at al
    But he was so loud
    You sure could yell
    You took a stand on every little thing
    and so loud

    You could be the one who saves me from my own existence

    Standing above the crowd
    he had a voice that was strong and loud
    and I swallowed his facade ’cause I’m so eager to identify
    with someone above the ground
    someone who seemed to feel the same
    someone prepared to lead the way
    with someone who would die for me

    Will you?
    Will you now?
    Would you die for me?
    Don’t you fuckin’ lie
    Don’t you step out of line!
    Don’t you fucking lie!

    You’ve claimed all this time
    that you would die for me
    Why then are you so surprised
    when hear your own eulogy?

    He had alot to say
    He had alot of nothing to say

    Come down
    Get off your fucking cross
    We need the fucking space
    to nail the next fool martyr

    To ascend you must die
    You must be crucified
    for your sins and your lies
    Goodbye!”

    Eulogy
    Tool – Aenima

  17. llewelly says

    Deaths due to Iraq invasion now estimated at ~ 650,000.
    New study by Burnham et. al. of Johns Hopkins school of public and Al Mustansiriya University published in Lancet

    Findings Three misattributed clusters were excluded from the final analysis; data from 1849 households that contained
    12 801 individuals in 47 clusters was gathered. 1474 births and 629 deaths were reported during the observation
    period. Pre-invasion mortality rates were 5.5 per 1000 people per year (95% CI 4.3-7.1), compared with 13.3 per
    1000 people per year (10.9-16.1) in the 40 months post-invasion. We estimate that as of July, 2006, there have been
    654 965 (392 979-942 636) excess Iraqi deaths as a consequence of the war, which corresponds to 2.5% of the
    population in the study area. Of post-invasion deaths, 601 027 (426 369-793 663) were due to violence, the most
    common cause being gunfire.

    With respect to other studies, they have this to say:

    Our estimate of excess deaths is far higher than those
    reported in Iraq through passive surveillance measures.1,5
    This discrepancy is not unexpected. Data from passive
    surveillance are rarely complete, even in stable circum-
    stances, and are even less complete during conflict, when
    access is restricted and fatal events could be intentionally
    hidden. Aside from Bosnia,21 we can find no conflict
    situation where passive surveillance recorded more than
    20% of the deaths measured by population-based
    methods. In several outbreaks, disease and death recorded
    by facility-based methods underestimated events by a
    actor of ten or more when compared with population-
    based estimates.11,22-25 Between 1960 and 1990, newspaper
    accounts of political deaths in Guatemala correctly
    reported over 50% of deaths in years of low violence but
    ess than 5% in years of highest violence.26

  18. chris y says

    Tara upthread,

    That was probably recorded in about 1968. Nobody had live mixing boxes in those days, and the sound balance was always done on a wing and a prayer. Bands were just beginning to work with biggish (200+ watt) instrumental amps, and the PA systems for vocal mikes were often just whatever they found at the venues, so it’s a miracle you ever heard the words at all.