Word of the day. Misologist. Hatred of reason, argument, or enlightenment. In clearer terms, a person who wants to win an argument more than learn the truth. I deal with these people regularly. [Paul Thurrott's Internet Nexus]

I deal with too many of these people myself. All the more reason to appreciate AKMA and the quest for truth that drives his work. While misologists generate quite a bit of heat and noise, you can find those who seek truth if you look.

11:24:38 PM •  • comment  

Come On In.

Today’s my second blogiversary, and all day friends have been virtually wandering through, helping themselves to drinks at one of the bars (there’s an ample supply of juices and sodas in one of the rooms, for friends who don’t drink), making pizzas for themselves and eating other people’s pizzas, gobbling up lots of fruit and vegetables, and especially having lots of chips with one of Margaret’s spectacular dips (she makes superb pesto, luscious hummus, and excellent guacamole). Wireless all over the place. Interested employers in casual, but animated, conversation with opportunity-seeking blog-neighbors. A stealthy philanthropist and an alert VC listen intently to impassioned descriptions of projects, visions, plans, and ventures. Every now and then, raucous laughter erupts. Furious arguments flare with conflicting certainties, then dissipate in respectful acknowledgment of deeply-felt, well-thought-out divergent convictions. Children of all sorts of ages run among our legs,, and I look out for Si to make sure everyone’s having a good time.

The party’s so big that not everyone would get along well if they had to hang out in the same close quarters, but that’s one of the beauties of digital media: no one has to cross anyone’s path if they don’t want to. There’s plenty of invigorating conversation where you want to find it, and you can just not go where you don’t want.

...

Thank you all so very much. Stay as long as you like. It’s a privilege to have a chance to visit with you.

[AKMA’s Random Thoughts]

Congratulations to AKMA on his second blogiversary.

A wonderful soul who makes the blogosphere a better place and the quintessential example of the wonderful serendipity that the net makes possible. AKMA and I crossed paths initially by way of one of my rude comments which he answered in his characteristically gracious way. Today I count among the many fascinating people I've come to know through the net.

11:19:44 PM •  • comment  

change of EDdress. heartfelt thanks to the team at Blogger.com, who helped me set up my first blog (blush), but I have now moved the blog to my own site: .

Happy New Year!

Esther
[Release 4.0]

Will someone let me know when Esther adds an RSS feed?

UPDATE: Roland tells me the feed can be found at http://weblog.edventure.com/blog/index.xml. Thanks!

10:54:33 PM •  • comment  

The Oldest Weblog. A standard definition of a weblog is a series of posts in "reverse chronologic order". I can't give you a reference here because the standard online reference sites don't have a definition for "weblog"

But, as a geologist, I understand "reverse chronologic order". Reverse chronologic order is youngest on top and older as you go down. This is a stratigraphic order. Younger deposits bury older deposits, so you get progressively older as you dig down. So weblogs view the world in a stratigraphic order.

It would be nice if the weblog folks acknowledge those who have gone before them. The Earth has been recording events in reverse chronologic order for over 3.8 billion years. The oldest weblog is the Earth. [Fluid Flow]

Sometimes the earliest ideas are the best.

10:46:41 PM •  • comment  

Math and physics visualizers. This is a great collection of Java applets for visualizing physics and math concepts. Link (via Oblomovka) [Boing Boing Blog]

I keep hoping that I'll have time to learn where science has gone since I last had a chance to study it. And to relearn some of the math I've forgotten over the years. At the very least, this will come in handy as my boys continue to take harder courses in school and high school. Sure wish I'd had access to these kinds of tools when I was in school.

5:35:29 PM •  • comment