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Jan. 30th, 2012
Coco and Sammy
Jan. 30th, 2012 09:48 amThis is different. It's nearly ten o'clock, and Coco and Sammy have preferred to stay outside on the patio, dozing on the chaise lounge. I prefer that to having them running around the neighborhood, but it is a striking turn nonetheless. It is not a particularly beautiful morning, with temperatures in the mid-fifties and the skies overcast and grey, but I guess the air doesn't have a bite to it at least. Ash prefers to be indoors and commanding my attentions.
Rushing out to check the mail on the off, off chance "Police Woman" has come in, I can feel that it has started drizzling. Coco is already inside, and Ash readily comes back in, and I have to step out to carry Sammy in. But we are all good now for a cozy day indoors.
1984 (2,5) Preparations for Hate Week
Jan. 30th, 2012 03:59 pmIt is an even grimmer time than usual in Oceania, as preparations are now well underway for the big Hate Week, and you wouldn’t want to miss out on your share of that, not in front of the omnipresent eyes of Big Brother.
_ _ _
The weather was baking hot. In the labyrinthine Ministry the windowless, air-conditioned rooms kept their normal temperature, but outside the pavements scorched one's feet and the stench of the Tubes at the rush hours was a horror. The preparations for Hate Week were in full swing, and the staffs of all the Ministries were working overtime. Processions, meetings, military parades, lectures, waxworks, displays, film shows, telescreen programmes all had to be organized; stands had to be erected, effigies built, slogans coined, songs written, rumours circulated, photographs faked. Julia's unit in the Fiction Department had been taken off the production of novels and was rushing out a series of atrocity pamphlets. Winston, in addition to his regular work, spent long periods every day in going through back files of The Times and altering and embellishing news items which were to be quoted in speeches. Late at night, when crowds of rowdy proles roamed the streets, the town had a curiously febrile air. The rocket bombs crashed oftener than ever, and sometimes in the far distance there were enormous explosions which no one could explain and about which there were wild rumours.
( Read more... )
_ _ _
The weather was baking hot. In the labyrinthine Ministry the windowless, air-conditioned rooms kept their normal temperature, but outside the pavements scorched one's feet and the stench of the Tubes at the rush hours was a horror. The preparations for Hate Week were in full swing, and the staffs of all the Ministries were working overtime. Processions, meetings, military parades, lectures, waxworks, displays, film shows, telescreen programmes all had to be organized; stands had to be erected, effigies built, slogans coined, songs written, rumours circulated, photographs faked. Julia's unit in the Fiction Department had been taken off the production of novels and was rushing out a series of atrocity pamphlets. Winston, in addition to his regular work, spent long periods every day in going through back files of The Times and altering and embellishing news items which were to be quoted in speeches. Late at night, when crowds of rowdy proles roamed the streets, the town had a curiously febrile air. The rocket bombs crashed oftener than ever, and sometimes in the far distance there were enormous explosions which no one could explain and about which there were wild rumours.
( Read more... )
Rats and Empathy
Jan. 30th, 2012 06:02 pmIn a column about moral behavior, I came across a study that surprised me, which demonstrated that rats have a rather impressive degree of empathy, at least with respect to each other. I would not have expected the result.
_ _ _
Researchers there took two rats who shared a cage and trapped one of them in a tube that could be opened only from the outside. The free rat usually tried to open the door, eventually succeeding. Even when the free rats could eat up all of a quantity of chocolate before freeing the trapped rat, they mostly preferred to free their cage-mate. The experimenters interpret their findings as demonstrating empathy in rats.
-- PETER SINGER and AGATA SAGAN at The New York Times
_ _ _
Researchers there took two rats who shared a cage and trapped one of them in a tube that could be opened only from the outside. The free rat usually tried to open the door, eventually succeeding. Even when the free rats could eat up all of a quantity of chocolate before freeing the trapped rat, they mostly preferred to free their cage-mate. The experimenters interpret their findings as demonstrating empathy in rats.
-- PETER SINGER and AGATA SAGAN at The New York Times
We took a good hard rain in the late afternoon. Not a thunderstorm, but a solid rain nonetheless. Good enough to leave surface water near the patio, again. I am glad the cats stayed out last night; maybe it will be easier for them to stay inside for the next couple of nights.
active friends
Jan. 30th, 2012 08:23 pmI'm still trying to get over the fact that I have more active friends on Blurty than I do on LiveJournal, by a score of two to zero.
I know it is not realistic to think that I am going to quit blogging, but I have these strong feelings that I should end the illusion that I have an e-life. But, of course, I like the exercise of this writing. It is the only thing that makes me feel awake and smart. The book-blogging is good for my reading life too.
I know it is not realistic to think that I am going to quit blogging, but I have these strong feelings that I should end the illusion that I have an e-life. But, of course, I like the exercise of this writing. It is the only thing that makes me feel awake and smart. The book-blogging is good for my reading life too.
