Ringoes, New Jersey, where the Black River & Western keeps its shops and some fine old equipment and a lot of forlorn junk. One of my favorite places in the world.
Summer, Eastern Washington.
Spring, Eastern Washington.
Waiting to die, June 2010. Also here.
Kamiak Butte, Washington.
“The topic was sexual identity, which Dr. Joos defined as “a determination made through the application of socially agreed-upon biological criteria for classifying persons as females and males.”
She asked students for their own definitions. One, bringing an online-chat sensibility to an academic discussion, typed: “If someone looks like a chick and wants to be called a chick even though they’re not, now they can be one.”
”
On the Staten Island Ferry in New York Harbor.
“The dismal performance of the experts inspired Mr. Tetlock to turn his case study into an epic experimental project. He picked 284 people who made their living ‘commenting or offering advice on political and economic trends,’ including journalists, foreign policy specialists, economists and intelligence analysts, and began asking them to make predictions. Over the next two decades, he peppered them with questions: Would George Bush be re-elected? Would apartheid in South Africa end peacefully? Would Quebec secede from Canada? Would the dot-com bubble burst? In each case, the pundits rated the probability of several possible outcomes. By the end of the study, Mr. Tetlock had quantified 82,361 predictions.
How did the experts do? When it came to predicting the likelihood of an outcome, the vast majority performed worse than random chance. In other words, they would have done better picking their answers blindly out of a hat. Liberals, moderates and conservatives were all equally ineffective. Although 96% of the subjects had post-graduate training, Mr. Tetlock found, the fancy degrees were mostly useless when it came to forecasting.
”
Jonah Lehrer’s Head Case Column on Punditry - WSJ.com (via ayjay)
And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If Yahweh is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word. Then Elijah said to the people, “I alone am left a prophet of Yahweh; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Therefore let them give us two bulls; and let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it; and I will prepare the other bull, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it. Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of Yahweh; and the God who answers by fire, He is God.”
So all the people answered and said, “It is well spoken.”
Now Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first, for you are many; and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it.”
So they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even till noon, saying, “O Baal, hear us!” But there was no voice; no one answered. Then they leaped about the altar which they had made.
And so it was, at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, “Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.” So they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them. And when midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention.
Copper railroading in Peru’s Atacama Desert, the driest place on Earth.
The fine, fine Portland band Horse Feathers performing Thistled Spring, from the album of the same name, in Pullman, Washington’s BellTower. They did this for Stereopathic Music’s Birds on a Wire Folk Festival last March; they’re returning to the BellTower on December 7th.
Polyface Farms, near Swoope, Virginia.
“Objectives New to Healthy People 2020
FS HP2020–9:
(Developmental) Increase the number of States that have prohibited sale or distribution of unpasteurized dairy products. (as defined by FDA, unpasteurized liquid milk and cheeses aged less than 60 days).”
From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. According to this objective, by 2020, the number of healthy people will have increased as a result of outlawing raw milk.
This objective affects 0% of big dairy producers. It will only affect small, local (and usually family-owned-and-operated) dairies; those are the only dairies doing this sort of thing.
It’s incompetent, corrupt, and destructive. If anyone’s reading this, find a local raw-milk producer, and start buying milk from them.
(via theeconomist)…
Daily Chart: War deaths in Iraq. Wikileaks data provides new statistics on the estimated death toll of the Iraq conflict, divided between soldiers, insurgents and civilians. It is likely that even this source underestimates the true number of civilian casualties.
Civilian deaths: the consistent leader.
“A plot, if there is to be one, must be a secret. A secret that, if only we knew it, would dispel our frustration, lead us to salvation; or else the knowing of it in itself would be salvation. Does such a luminous secret exist?
Yes, provided it is never known. Known, it will only disappoint us. Hadn’t Aglie spoken of the yearning of mystery that stirred the age of the Antonines? Yet someone had just arrived and declared himself the Son of God, the Son of God made flesh, to redeem the sins of the world. Was that a run-of-the-mill mystery? And he promised salvation to all: you only had to love your neighbor. Was that a trivial secret? And he bequeathed the idea that whoever uttered the right words at the right time could turn a chunk of bread and a half-glass of wine into the body and blood of the Son of God, and be nourished by it. Was that a paltry riddle? And then he led the Church fathers to ponder and proclaim that God was one and Triune and that the Spirit proceeded from the Father and the Son, but that the Son did not proceed from the Father and the Spirit. Was that some easy formula for hylics? And yet they, who now had salvation within their grasp — do-it-yourself salvation — turned deaf ears. Is that all there is to it? How trite. And they kept scouring the Mediterranean in their boats, looking for a lost knowledge, of which those thirty-denarii dogmas were but the superficial veil, the parable for the poor in spirit, the allusive hieroglyph, the wink of the eye at the pneumatics. The mystery of the Trinity? Too simple: there had to be more to it.
”
One of Josquin’s takes on the liturgical Nicene Creed, from his Misse Pange Lingua. What’s often missed when the creeds are spoken in church is that these are joyful words. This is evident in the setting of the Et resurrexit tertia die. At the very least, these words ought to be SHOUTED during worship! Given that this Credo takes some liturgical cues (the hushed homophony of the et incarnatus est… corresponds to when the higher liturgies kneel or bow the head), I do wonder if there are some liturgical traditions that are more sprightly in their recitation of the Creed. I hope that there are; and if not, that these words would get to us to the point that we would say/shout/sing this thing like we really meant it.
Prescription for Good Whiskey
“Sheriff Oswald, Leprington,
This is to certify that Mr. Joe Hinnant is ill and needs some good whiskey. Please send him the best you have.
Yours Truly,
A.L. Ballenger M.D.
11/1/28”Turns out prescriptions for whiskey were fairly common during Prohibition.
Via the incredible, interesting and booze-nerdy chanticleersociety.org
The biography I wrote for my boss, @isaacgrauke. http://bit.ly/9ftG5G
The New York City Subway system in dozens and dozens of photographs →
The graffiti and trash from the 1980’s are what I grew up with. The police presence of the 2000’s is something I’m happy to have missed.
Richard Steinheimer ascends the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho behind one of the Milwaukee Road’s Little Joe electrics. It’s 1973. Only bicycles roll here now.