Mount Wilson Observatory – wildfire photos and info. (I flagged this when the Observatory was under threat from the wildfire but forgot to move the autopost out of drafts. The threat is past now—hurray!—but the Observatory site and webcam are worth a look in themselves.)
Coin-tosses aren’t fair – Boing Boing – “Many statistics examples start with “assuming a fair coin-toss…” But it turns out that coin-tosses aren’t fair; depending on your toss, there’s a small-to-alarming bias in the result.
“A peach tree grows near Brooklyn « Farm School — “40 years ago, Michael Goldstein, then a young dad, rented the top floor of a building on the corner of Broome and Mercer Streets, and plunked a sandbox and kiddie pool on the roof. Such was the humble beginning of what would eventually become an elaborate, fantasyland garden”
Thanks for the mention, Lissa — I do hope he gets to keep that lovely roof garden…
And thanks too for the Boing Boing links. I can’t keep up with BB no matter how hard I try, so it’s nice to have another chance at the *really* good stuff!
Thank you for the Philosophy link. I believe my daughter will like that, too She’s about a year older than Jane, I think. Often, it’s difficult to find short summaries of things. I’ve been looking for an accessible introduction to the major psychological theorists for her for years now.
(A roundup post with links to my notes and reviews)
Hey, what happened to all those booklists you used to have in your sidebars at the old blog?
They're still accessible at melissawiley.typepad.com, where this blog lived from January 2005-March 2008. You can also find all my Lilting House posts there, or try the search bar here. All my previous Bonny Glen and Lilting House posts have been imported to this site.
Every day is complicated, messy, and full of friction. And every day has glorious or cozy moments worth celebrating. I seldom bother to chronicle the friction and the mess because writing time is fleeting and precious—and childhood even more so. I’d rather capture the small joys that I might forget—or take for granted—if I don’t take time to set them down in words.
(Excerpt from this post about Real Life, quoted here because I don't want anyone to be under the impression that things are always perfect around here! Heaven knows we are anything but. Perfect, frictionless, orderly? Nope. Happy? Most of the time!)
Be like the bird
Who, pausing in flight
On limb too slight,
Feels it give way beneath her,
Yet sings,
Knowing she has wings.
—Victor Hugo
Twitter Updates
“Exploration,” says John Stilgoe, author of Outside Lies Magic, “is a liberal art, because it is an art that liberates, that frees, that opens away from narrowness. And it is fun.”
Yes: it is so, so much fun, and that is why I write these posts all chattery with excitement over this or that connection the kids made today. (Or that I made myself!) I know I get carried away, but that’s the point, isn’t it, that way leading on to way has carried me away?
And yet—and yet—I think we are at once ‘carried away’ and made more fully present in the now, more rooted, by these relationships between ideas about things past and future. The joy of connection makes me want to celebrate this moment, this brief encounter with wild-haired child and broad-trunked tree, bus going by, sign on church wall, Scottish warlord creeping over the tower wall and startling the English soldier’s wife who has just put her babe in arms to sleep by crooning that the Black Douglas won’t get him. Child, laughing, shouting “Dinna ye be sae sure aboot that!” across the courtyard outside the library. How can I not celebrate this freedom?
Thanks for the mention, Lissa — I do hope he gets to keep that lovely roof garden…
And thanks too for the Boing Boing links. I can’t keep up with BB no matter how hard I try, so it’s nice to have another chance at the *really* good stuff!
Posted on September 15th, 2009 at 2:54 pmI wonder if you have read Mathematicians are People Too. http://www.amazon.com/Mathematicians-Are-People-Too-Stories/dp/0866515097 My kids are currently enthralled with the stories. Thanks for the new math book suggestion.
Posted on September 16th, 2009 at 5:03 amThank you for the Philosophy link. I believe my daughter will like that, too She’s about a year older than Jane, I think. Often, it’s difficult to find short summaries of things. I’ve been looking for an accessible introduction to the major psychological theorists for her for years now.
Posted on September 21st, 2009 at 7:57 am