Posts in ‘2003’

Cash sang a lot about jail
the long term kind without bail
Those paying for sins part theirs part ours
men and women at extremes
under the American dream
fermented and left out to go sour
But is not America
in itself a chimera?
What fools thought they could tame what God made
on the backs of Africans
and by theft of Indians
pretending men are [...]

Cheers to Katharine Milton (”Something to Howl About,” 10/03) for illuminating the importance of two critical facts about population ecology — that “prudent” parasites do not kill their hosts, and that population size fluctuates in response to the availability of food.
Jeers to Marc J. Cohen (”Crop Circles”, 10/03) and Laurence A. Marschall (Review, “Space, the [...]

Your recent special issue on neuroscience (September 2003) shows, unsurprisingly and with few exceptions, a striking uniformtiy of voice and vision about the topic. The cover declares the issue to be about “Better Brains: How Neuroscience Will Enhance You” (emphasis added). The articles adopt your usual tone of inevitability and mostly-desirability, and the culmination is [...]

Leave it to the likes of Shell Oil and The Economist Magazine to pose this inanity: “Do we need nature?” This question was the topic of their annual essay writing contest this summer.
The question is one children are too clever to ask. “Daddy, do we need nature?” just doesn’t fit with the other big ones [...]

I recently read a paper by John H. Little of Troy State University called ‘Autopoietic Social Systems And Self-Referential Government: How Unlikely Is Democracy?’.
It’s too bad the paper was so laden with complicated jargon, because from what I could follow it was quite an interesting topic: How Unlikely is Democracy? Is democracy possible? The debate [...]

I hate the man who appreciates the hatred
Can’t stand the one who tolerates them all
Least of all can I abide the ones
who set them up just to watch them fall
I love the woman who deals with my anger
I envy those she talks to in the hall
I ponder on those who think they own her
wonder why [...]

The Friends of Ishmael Society is an organization focused on publicizing systems thinking through the works of Daniel Quinn. Mark S. Meritt serves as a board member.
Visit the Friends of Ishmael Society website.

Read the Woolly Visions .pdf.

At long last, with a new name (formerly Sostenuto, formerly permaCulture) that we think is going to stick this time, and with a new address to match, we’re proud to announce the launch of Mosaic: A Magazine of Arts, Sciences & Everything in Between.
You’ll always be able to find our current issue at http://www.mosaic.permaculture.net/common/current.htm. Visit [...]

Or email the author directly.

This piece was included in Pieces of War: A Mosaic of Views on the War in Iraq, a special section that appeared in the first and only issue of Mosaic: A Magazine of Arts, Sciences & Everything in Between, which evolved into this website.
An increasing volume of media coverage paints a [...]