The Rock

The cold war is over, but rock in a park suggests the spying game still thrives:

Electronic equipment concealed in a rock, allegedly used by four British embassy workers to receive intelligence information provided by Russian agents, in an image from a television documentary shown on Rossiya television. Photograph: RTR Russian Channel/AP
Four employees of the British Embassy have been fingered on Russian TV:

The state TV documentary broadcast on Sunday showed Christopher Pirt, 30, a secretary archivist in the embassy, walking past the rock, his eyes shifting wildly as he is secretly filmed by FSB [Federal Security Service, as the KGB is known now] counter-intelligence. Mr Crompton [third secretary (political affairs)] was also named as having repeatedly visited the rock, as did Marc Doe, 27, the second secretary (political affairs). Andy Fleming, 32, another secretary archivist, was filmed picking up the rock after kicking it with his foot. The men were dressed in tracksuits and woolly hats and carried rucksacks.

In working my way back to church, I found that even when the hymns, scripture texts, and sermons served to welcome me, the Creed that we recited each week often seemed a barrier, reminding me that I was still struggling with the feeling that I did not belong. Of all the elements in a Christian worship service, the Creed, by compressing the wide range of faith and belief into a few words, can feel like a verbal strait jacket.
--Kathleen Norris, Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith, 1998

Klein vs Ivins on US Torture

Naomi Klein [8 December 2005] has noticed that liberals, like Molly Ivins [13 November 2005], were echoing Senator McCain's talking point--that 'never before' has the United States government been involved in torture:

The principal propagator of this narrative (what Garry Wills termed "original sinlessness") is Senator John McCain. Writing recently in Newsweek on the need for a ban on torture, McCain says that when he was a prisoner of war in Hanoi, he held fast to the knowledge "that we were different from our enemies...that we, if the roles were reversed, would not disgrace ourselves by committing or approving such mistreatment of them." It is a stunning historical distortion. By the time McCain was taken captive, the CIA had already launched the Phoenix program and, as [Alfred] McCoy writes [in A Question of Torture], "its agents were operating forty interrogation centers in South Vietnam that killed more than twenty thousand suspects and tortured thousands more," a claim he backs up with pages of quotes from press reports as well as Congressional and Senate probes.

Torture has been part of American foreign policy for at least five decades. Please read Ms. Klein's article for more details.

What's new is the openess with which torture is discussed and defended by the Bush administration. My prediction: as long as the United States pursues empire, the United States will continue to use torture--not because torture has any effectiveness as an interrogation technique, but because of its effectiveness as a terror technique. Only when the United States has an explicitly anti-imperialist foreign policy, will American support for torture stop.

The enslaving nature of sin is apparent in the powers of evil, which work through both individuals and groups and in the entire created order. These powers, principalities, and elemental spirits of the universe often hold people captive and work through political, economic, social, and even religious systems to turn people away from justice and righteousness. But thanks be to God, who has not allowed the powers to reign supreme over creation or left humanity without hope.
--from Article 7, Sin
Confesion of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective, 1995.

Molly Ivens Can't Say That, Can She?

Molly Ivins:

I'd like to make it clear to the people who run the Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for president.

Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone. This is not a Dick Morris election. The senator is apparently incapable of taking a clear stand on the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough to disqualify her. Her failure to speak out on Terri Schiavo, not to mention that gross pandering on flag-burning, are just contemptible little dodges.

The recent death of Gene McCarthy reminded me of a lesson I spent a long, long time unlearning. It's about political courage and heroes, and when a country is desperate for leadership. There are times when regular politics will not do, and this is one of those times. There are times when a country is so tired of bull that only the truth can provide relief.

Amen.

Here is her advice to the so-called leadership of the Democratic Party:

Oh, come on, people -- get a grip on the concept of leadership. Look at this war -- from the lies that led us into it to the lies they continue to dump on us daily.

You sit there in Washington so frightened of the big, bad Republican machine that you have no idea what people are thinking. I'm telling you right now, Tom DeLay is going to lose in his district. If Democrats in Washington haven't got enough sense to own the issue of political reform, I give up on them entirely.

Do it all, go long, go for public campaign financing for Congress. I'm serious as a stroke about this -- that is the only reform that will work, and you know it, and so does everyone else who's ever studied this. Embrace redistricting reform, electoral reform, House rules changes, the whole package. Own this issue or let Jack Abramoff politics continue to run your town.

Bush, Cheney and Co. will continue to play the patriotic bully card just as long as you let them. I've said it before: War brings out the patriotic bullies. In World War I, they went around kicking dachshunds on the grounds that dachshunds were "German dogs." They did not, however, go around kicking German shepherds. The minute that someone impugns your patriotism for opposing this war, turn on them like a snarling dog and explain what loving your country really means.

That, or you could just blow them off elegantly, as Rep. John Murtha did. Or eviscerate them with wit (look up Mark Twain on the war in the Philippines). Or point out the latest in the endless "string of bad news."

Do not sit there cowering and pretending that the only way to win is as Republican-lite. If the Washington-based party can't get up and fight, we'll find someone who can.

I've quoted too much of Ms. Ivins article, but it bears repeating. If the Democrats are only going to offer the American people wimpiness, the American people will take the patriotic bully card every election. Take a stand against the rich and powerful, or forget about winning elections. One of the keys to Republican success has been the attack on 'out-of-touch elites' trying to run our lives; the East and West coasters supposedly sneering at 'flyover country.' Not only is Senator Clinton politically wishy-washy, she is ideal target for the right-wing smear campaign to come, since she is perceived as (gasp!) liberal. If the Democratic Party can't seize the anti-war, pro-environment, pro-raising the minimum wage, anti-oil company, pro-reform center that exists now--they don't deserve to win elections.

God our security,
who alone can defend us
against the principalities and powers
that rule this present age;
may we trust in no weapons
except the whole armor of faith,
that in dying we may live,
and, having nothing, we may own the world,
through Jesus Christ. AMEN
--Janet Morley, All desires known, 1988

Funny Stuff and Ideas

From the file called "Funny Stuff and Ideas," a selection of quotes:

One half of all human gene expression is in the brain?

4th patriarch of Zen, Tao-hsin: "What is the method of liberation?"
3rd patriarch, Seng-ts'an: "Who binds you?"
4th patriarch: "No one binds me."
3rd patriarch: "Why then should you seek liberation?"

"One of the many things nobody ever tells you about middle age is that it's such a nice change from being young." -Dorothy Canfield Fisher (1879-1958)

Freud's goal: Change psychotic depression into ordinary human unhappiness.

Q: How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Only one--but the light bulb must want to change.

Do not be "broadly ignorant", accepting by rote everything you have to and leaving the rest alone.

A narrow place seems wide to the narrow-minded.

"I am cursed with a somewhat forbidding Scandinavian manner, with a restraint that spells stuffiness to a lot of people...inside I am mush, full of a lot of almost bathetic sentimentality about this country, the Midwest, Abraham Lincoln and the English language."--Eric Sevareid, Look Magazine, 1965.

Why not harmony in music?
the picturesque in art?
heroes in literature?
beauty in poetry?
humane ideals in history and politics?
Why does "intellectual honesty" = ugliness and offensive immorality?

A handful of useless titles:

• Yen Master
• The Electric Wool Man
• Incense and Porpoises
• Mental Vomit

I now have no idea why this stuff was lumped together.

This box was left blank intentionally.

On Generation X

Although I was born at the end of the baby boom, I've always identified more with 'Generation X'--the children of television, divorce, and downward mobility.

Here are some notes from an old notebook. Alas, I did not record the source of these observations...

I don't buy things--especially if they're advertised.--Scott Lamorte

'It's the self-consciously minimalist lifestyle of the Lamorte brand of Xers, combined with the involuntary poverty of the rest, that has Madison Avenue biting its nails.

After tenderly ministering to every whim of the boomers' evolving buying frenzy--usually to the exclusion of everyone else--the marketing types are beginning to realize that their next target may not be such an easy sell. How do you appeal to a generation that sees the boomers' conspicuous consumption as one of the main roots of its own plight?'

Conformity to Christ necessarily implies nonconformity to the world. True faith in Christ means willingness to do the will of God, rather than willful pursuit of individual happiness. True faith means seeking first the reign of God in simplicity, rather than pursuing materialism. True faith means acting in peace and justice, rather than with violence or military means.
--From Article 17, Discipleship and the Christian Life
Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective, 1995

Cleaning out the files

I have found the Navy to be a fairly Godless organization [with the exception of the Naval Academy] . . . I do not enjoy the prospect of continuing to stand on the quarterdeck as Officer of the Deck in foreign ports, being subjected to drunken tales of moral emptiness, passing out penicillin pills and seeing promiscuity on the part of married men.

I have observed little in the way of a direct effort to improve a man morally while he is in the Navy or even hold him at his present moral level.

I constantly hear the Lord's name taken in vain at all levels. I find it unsatisfying to live, work and be directed in an atmosphere where taking God's name in vain is a part of the every day vocabulary.

--Ross Perot, from a 1955 letter to Rep. Wright Patman. Perot was seeking a discharge from the Navy, but it was denied, since "no hardship exists".

Mr. Perot left the Navy in 1957 with an honorable discharge.

It's by far the hardest thing I've ever done
To be so in love with you and so alone

Follow me where I go, what I do, and who I know
Make it part of you to be a part of me
Follow me up and down, all the way and all around
Take my hand and say you'll follow me.
--John Denver

A Comparison

Found at the beginning of SisterChicks Down Under! by Robin Jones Gunn:

Mostly what God does is love you.
Keep company with him and learn a life of love.
Observe how Christ loved us.
His love was not cautious but extravagant.
He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us.
Love like that.
--Ephesians 5:2--The Message

I thought I'd compare this translation with a paraphrase from down under:

Children learn by imitating the parents they love. Take a tip from them and model yourself on what you've seen of God in Christ. Or in other words, live a life of love--love that doesn't stop at anything. Christ's love for us cost him everything, and there is no more pleasing gift anyone can give to God than a love that is willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of others.
--approximately Ephesians 5:2--Nathan Nettleton www.laughingbird.net

The idea that anyone has anything to give God is theologically incorrect...

Concepts

Evolution-Completion Idea
by Donald Burgy
December 1973

[a Ghost Town Orange reproduction of a work found in "Donald Burgy: Participating in the Universe,"
by Robert Joseph Horvitz in Artforum September 1974]

Click image for a larger view for readability; the swirly, crinkly background texture is my 'artsy' addition and not part of the original work, which was deliberately left unornamented so the viewer would not be distracted by the 'artifact' itself.

Here is Robert Horwitz's perception of Evolution-Completion Idea:

Many of Burgy's works are meant to be completed by the viewer in a more literal sense. Evolution-Completion Idea (December, 1973), for instance, is a quiz-like series of historical progressions whose next stages are left blank for each viewer to complete. As the last terms given are those of the present, one must extrapolate stages that have not yet occureed. By dividing the progressions into intervals of seemingly equal magnitude, Burgy makes the unnamed future seem only a step away, even though tremendous breakthroughs and centuries of "real time" may be required in taking that step; peculiarly enough, one almost feels that in formulating responses to this questionnaire one has added to the teleological pressure that will eventually create these epochal transformations.

Dear reader, spend some time thinking about how you would fill in the blanks.

The author of the article, Robert Horvitz, is also an artist. I am sure I have seen some of his art in the past because my ballpoint pen doodlings share some of the same fascinations with pattern and symmetry. According to a five-minute long interview available at Radio Prague [about this exhibit], he has been using the same drawing technique for over 30 years, using one type of pen stroke for all his work. He describes the motion as a 'flick' of the pen which leaves a comet-like mark on the paper. He repeats the same mark 1000s of times to produce his drawings, most of which take 3 to 5 days to complete.

At another website, you can find excerpts from the catalog for the exhibit 'Revelations': Drawings by Robert Horvitz, 1970-1999. I am intrigued by the vocabulary Mr. Horvitz has developed to describe the forms he draws:

I had also begun making drawings based on grids drawn in pencil. (Grids have more ambiguous time-orders than spirals.)... Very quickly I saw that grids could be replaced by more general structures - arrays of cells, polygon tilings and froths...Geometry not only could be but, according to modern science, MUST be elastic, topological, based on similarities rather than equalities. This opened my mind to more dynamic forms: flows, decays, rips, shards, close-packings, eruptions, etc. These were more richly allegorical than the Euclidean motifs I had been using...

Arrays and tilings were terms I have used when thinking about my doodles, but froths, flows, decays, rips, shards, packings, eruptions...! My doodling will be even more inventive with this new vocabulary to work with. Here are a couple of my favorites, although this is not a representative sampling of Mr. Horvitz's work. I wish I had higher resolution images of these to look at!


Personal Domain of Freedom and Ecstasy 6
by Robert Horwitz
1975



Personal Domain of Freedom and Ecstasy 2
by Robert Horwitz
1973

Docetism is the ancient heresy that Christ did not in fact have a real body at all but only seemed to have one. This thinking remains alive and well today in the hearts and minds of many who say he was human as well as divine but in fact do not believe and cannot even imagine that he had a full-fledged human body. They cannot do so because we tend to think of the body and its functions as only a hindrance to our spiritual calling, with no positive role in our redemption or in our participation in the government of God.
--Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives, 1988

Postage Stamp Mosaics

Source: Chinanews
On 30 August 2005, Hong Kong Post unveiled a gigantic stamp mosaic to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the 'Post Office Trading Fund.'The mural portrays Victoria Harbor and the Hong Kong skyline. Over 1000 staff members of Hong Kong Post helped create the mosaic.

Source: Hong Kong Post
The mural contains over 69,000 used postage stamps. The Guiness Book of World Records has recently recognized it as the largest stamp mosaic in the world. It measures 6.45 meters [21 feet] wide and 3.97 [13 feet] meters high.

I wondered what other stamp mosaics may be on the web, and I found this photo gallery at the National Postal Museum. I have selected two images from this gallery for Ghost Town Orange. They feature my favorite postage stamp topic: the Statue of Liberty:

After me Mattheus was tortured; he named his house and the street in which we live, and said it was in a gate; however, I am of the opinion that there are no longer any gates on that street. Hence, move away altogether, if you have not done so yet; for I think the lord will find his way there. Let therefore no one who stands in any danger go into the house. He also named R. T.'s house, and the street where F. V. St. lives. Do herein immediately the best you can. He is very sorry for it.
--from the second letter of Christian Langedul to his wife, written while he was in prison in Antwerp, 12 August 1567

[The Bloody Theater; or Martyrs Mirror of the Defenseless Christians, compiled by Thieleman J. van Braght, 1660.]

None dare call it class warfare

...when the rich and powerful seize more and more control over our country. Witness President Bush's statement on Judge Alito this morning:

Sam's got the intellect necessary to bring a lot of class to that Court. He's got a judicial temperament necessary to make sure that the Court is a body that interprets the law and doesn't try to write the law.

Mr. Alito will 'bring a lot of class to that Court.' That must mean that Alito's court will give extreme deference to the imperial presidency Mr. Bush is creating. At a recent bill signing, Mr. Bush told us that he will not observe the anti-torture provisions of the law that he was signing. Apparently Congress and the courts do not write law during the reign of Bush--the President does.

Mr. Bush does not intend to follow the oath of office of the President of the United States:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.

This anecdote more accurately reflects our imperial President's attitude toward the US Constitution:

"I don't give a goddamn" Bush retorted. "I'm the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way."
"Mr. President," one aide in the meeting said. "There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution."
"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face," Bush screamed back. "It's just a goddamned piece of paper!"

Grounds for impeachment?

God our security,
who alone can defend us
against the principalities and powers
that rule this present age;
may we trust in no weapons
except the whole armor of faith,
that in dying we may live,
and, having nothing, we may own the world,
through Jesus Christ. AMEN
--Janet Morley, All desires known, 1988

Technical Difficulties

Technical difficulties over the weekend have delayed the 'Statue of Liberty on US Postage Stamps' post...

Also, I suddenly had a desire to see The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe on the big screen; a movie where Santa Claus cheerfully passes out gifts of weapons to the young heroes, with the admonition that they are 'tools, not toys.' Odd that spiritual warfare is reduced to physical battle where the good guys never really die.

The redemptive death of the lion Aslan and his magical resurrection seems to reduce Jesus' death on the cross and resurrection to a magic trick. Why did Aslan's mane grow back? Shouldn't he bear the scars of the horrible death he just suffered?

I enjoyed reading the book as a child; re-reading it with one of my sons left me feeling frustrated at the shallowness of the story. Where is the church--the community of faith--in Aslan's army? Why are four flawed children shown as the only representatives of humanity in Narnia?

Forgive us, Lord God, if we have placed fun before fulfillment;
if we have sought pleasure before purpose;
if we have sought to leave a legacy that does not include love;
if we have viewed all of life as a competition;
if we have placed ourselves before others.
Pardon us, we pray, and help us to set straight our priorities.

Hitmap changed location

...and doesn't recognize Ghost Town Orange, so the Hitmap has been removed from the template.

Fortunately, Sitemeter can show a map of the most recent visitors too.
The map is a fairly good representation of the English-speaking Web--prosperous parts of the world, with more access to the Internet.

Looking more closely at Sitemeter, I discovered that the post on the Statue of Liberty on Postage Stamps attracted visitors from Taiwan, the Netherlands, and Iran. It also was viewed by students in public schools in Illinois and Michigan, and by someone at usmc.mil! [Semper Fi!]

[A digression in honor of our Marine visitor: from what I've read [I hope it's not just propaganda] the Marines have done a much better job than the Army with winning hearts and minds in Iraq. I could be wrong, but have any Marines been implicated in torturing prisoners or shooting unarmed wounded enemies? This pacifist Christian thanks Marines [and all decent, human-rights observing American soldiers] for your service to our country--I condemn the misguided and evil civilian and military leaders [i.e. politicians and 'brass' at the Pentagon] who continue to put you in harm's way for no discernable purpose.]

In honor of this interest in the Statue of Liberty, Ghost Town Orange is preparing another big post about the Statue of Liberty on US postage stamps. I hope to post it on January 8 to commemorate the new rate change Statue of Liberty stamps.

A good thing about collecting the Statue of Liberty on US postage stamps is that most of these stamps are common, easy to find, and cheap. Everyone with an interest can have a 'complete collection' of them. The only exceptions are unused examples of the early 15 cent stamps. Ordinary letter postage was 2 cents--a 15 cent stamp would be the equivalent of a stamp costing $2.75 to $2.95 today. So not as many were used on mail; not as many were saved in unused condition. I'll have more to say about that Sunday afternoon.

In all our cares about worldly treasures, let us steadily bear in mind that riches possessed by children who do not truly serve God are likely to prove snares that more grieviously entangle them in that spirit of selfishness and exaltation which stands in opposition to real peace and happiness, and renders those who submit to the influence of it enemies to the cross of Christ.
--from the Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends, held at Philadelphia in September 1759, quoted in John Woolman's journal.

Twelfth Night

Tonight [or in some traditions, tomorrow night] is the 'Twelfth Night' of Christmas. In Shakespeare's day,

this holiday was celebrated as a festival in which everything was turned upside down--much like the upside-down, chaotic world of Illyria in the play.

More from Wikipedia on Twelfth Night:

In Tudor England, the Twelfth Night marked the end of a winter festival that started on All Hallows Eve--which some now celebrate as Halloween. A King or Lord of Misrule would be appointed to run the Christmas festivities, and the Twelfth Night was the end of his period of rule. The common theme was that the normal order of things was reversed. This Lord of Misrule tradition can be traced back to pre-Christian European festivals such as the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia.

Celebrate Twelfth Night by downloading a copy of the Shakespeare's play from Project Gutenberg--4 English versions available:

• First Folio [public domain, with old-style spelling]
• Collins edition [public domain]
• Hudson edition [public domain]
• World Library edition [copyrighted]

and 1 German:

• translation by Christoph Martin Wieland [public domain]

Tobacco, banjo playing, and dominoes do not figure in the Decalogue as recorded in the Book of Exodus. But particularly in nineteenth- and twentieth-century America, Christians have been adept, and remarkably inventive, at interpreting God's commandments to cover just about anything they don't approve of. The effect, of course, is to make the surpassingly large God of the scriptures into a petty Cosmic Patrolman. Addictions are not pretty, but for Christians, fretting over them as exclusively moral issues can be a convenient way of ignoring Jesus' admonition that it isn't what we ingest into our bodies that is at the root of our troubles, but what comes out of our hearts and minds.

--Kathleen Norris, Amazing Grace, 1998

Perihelion

At this time of the year, earth is at perihelion. Follow the link to find out what that means

HINT: it is not the reason for earth's seasons.

O God! who giv'st the winter's cold,
As well as summer's joyous rays,
Us warmly in Thy love enfold,
And keep us through life's wintry days.

--Samuel Longfellow
[the Unitarian minister, not his brother Henry Wadsworth Longfellow the poet],
"'Tis Winter Now" from Hymns of the Spirit, 1864.

Overcome evil with good

Christian Peacemaker Teams--committed to reducing violence by getting in the way.

What would happen if Christians devoted the same discipline and self-sacrifice to nonviolent peacemaking that armies devote to war?

CPT photo: Jim Loney passes off a peace dove to a friend for release at a multi-faith walk for the release of Iraqi captives.

[found here: Missing in Iraq: Pictures Related to the Developing Crisis]

You must guard aginst further indulging in hateful thoughts and feelings--even repressed ones--and pray for good for those who hurt or oppose you. You see examples of what can happen to a soul who did not restrain feelings of hate and vengeance. Not a pretty sight, is it? Hatred and ill will are never pretty when fully unmasked. The pleasure you derive in them cannot be compared to the joy you will have when you put them away.
--Hal M. Helms, Echoes of Eternity: Listening to the Father, 1996

More Statue of Liberty Postage Stamps

Click image for larger view
Some of the most popular posts at Ghost Town Orange have been ones about the Statue of Liberty and postage stamps. For those new to Ghost Town Orange, here are a few posts that continue to attract visitors and may be worth a second look:

• The Statue of Liberty on Postage Stamps [May 2004]
• Even More Statue of Liberty Images [June 2004]
• New 'Old Bridge' at Mostar, Bosnia [July 2004]

The new rate change postage stamps will add another page to my collection. The stamps will be available in a variety of formats: coil, panes, and booklets. The most difficult to find on mail will be the lick-'em-stick-'em gummed ones. Self-adhesive stamps are understandably more popular.

The US Postal Service will probably issue the same design denominated '39 cents.' So I will be checking my mail after January 8 to see how many different varieties I can identify.

In other Ghost Town Orange news, Sitemeter statistics report that recent visitors have come from the following countries:

• 80% United States
• 3% United Kingdom
• 3% Germany
• 3% Canada
• 2% Netherlands
• 1% Taiwan
• 1% Islamic Republic of Iran
• 1% Ireland
• 1% Hungary
• 1% Greece
• 1% France
• 1% Switzerland
• 1% Bulgaria
• 1% Australia

I have started stamp albums for many of these countries: United States, Germany, Canada, Netherlands, Greece, and France. It's only a matter of time until I add Hungary and Switzerland. My wife and sons have albums for Australia and the United Kingdom. Ghost Town Orange has not attracted many visitors from Latin America, but I collect several Latin American countries too. I'll probably never have a visitor from St. Pierre et Miquelon, but I collect stamps from there. My wife collects Israel, and one of my sons collects Arab Trucial States.

A little man in black, an officer of the Inquisition, who was sitting beside Pangloss, turned to him and politely said:

'It appears, Sir, that you do not believe in original sin; for if all is for the best, there can be no such thing as the fall of Man and eternal punishment.'

'I most humbly beg your Excellency's pardon,' replied Pangloss, still more politely, 'but I must point out that the fall of Man and eternal punishment enter, of Necessity, into the scheme of the best of all possible worlds.'

--Voltaire, Candide, or Optimism, 1759. [Translated by John Butt]

On this day

On 2 January 1905, astronomer Charles Dillon Perrine observed the seventh moon of Jupiter for the first time. It was called Jupiter VII until 1975; it has been re-named Elara.

Here are the 1905 journal articles reporting the discovery:

The first--Harvard College Observatory Bulletin, number 178, page 1:

27 February 1905
[Click image for larger view]

The next--Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, volume 17, pages 62-3:

30 March 1905
[Click image for larger view]

The last--Astronomische Nachrichten, volume 169, pages 43/4:

28 May 1905
[Click image for larger view]

Be content that you are not yet a saint, even though you realize that the only thing worth living for is sanctity.
--Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, 1949

Resolution

Japanese New Year's Stamps for 2006
50 yen Akita dog postage stamp designed by Hoshiyama Ayaka
80 yen Sadowara clay doll 'dog' postage stamp designed by Kaifuchi Junko
I hereby resolve to update my blog frequently spend more time with my stamp collection in 2006.

A year ago, I purchased a nice lot of postally used stamps from Japan but I have not created an album for them yet. I print out pages from the CD-ROM disc I obtained from Stamp Albums Web. I'll be able to identify most of the stamps with the help of a used 1992 Scott catalog I recently found at a thrift store and the New Issues of Japan website for stamps after 1997. That may leave a big chunk of the 1990s a mystery unless I buy a more recent catalog.

Things to do at Ghost Town Orange:

• Summer vacation series needs to be continued for another 2 1/2 weeks worth of entries.
  
• Template needs to be tinkered with--why link to the NYT editorial writers who are behind the subscription wall?
  
• The archive needs to be tested for dead links, missing pictures, etc.
  

The soul in this body has two principal impediments.

First, it is drawn into many activities and much agitation, and its different activities weaken and obstruct each other, for it is very hard to apply the mind to different things at the same time.

Secondly, the soul is engaged in inferior activites much earlier, more attentively, and more often than in higher ones, not only because of the condition of its abysmal dwelling but also because of the corporeal service assigned to men for a time by God. . .

But whenever the actions of eating, accumulating, feeling, or imagining either entirely cease or are greatly reduced, then the vision of the mind will be correspondingly sharpened, so that whatever is observed by the mind is observed more clearly under the power of this light.

--Marsilio Ficino [1433-1499], from Meditations on the Soul: Selected Letters of Marsilio Ficino, translated by members of the Language Department of the School of Economic Science, London.