A nice bed under which to collect the dustbunnies of random realization.

I don’t read as much as I’d like to, but now and again, when I do, I get a clue of some kind that’s worth remembering. And often, if it’s worth remembering, it’s potentially worth sharing.

So, here goes: a miscellaneous tour through some old clues.

Monday, July 15

Read the Wahlberg article in Wired, and learned why Richard Allen Davis made his infamous two-fingered gesture… he was pressing the knife to his throat.

On and around Monday, July 15

Elsewhere in my pages I talk about the coming acceptance of Darwin’s theory of evolution. This theme is developed most definitively in Darwin’s Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennett . I’m enjoying the dizzying philosophical critique to which the book compels any thoughtful reader.

Monday Evening, July 15

While websurfing in a spree commenced by the search for the above links, I ran across a theory of hedonism. At first blush it seems absurd: suffering is any non-optimal state, and relative suffering can be profound. There’s more to say about how avoiding suffering can be a nonproductive goal, but not just yet.