Page 2 of 2

Posted on

Intent on the Internet: The Intellectual Divide Between Knowledge and Information

Over 50 years ago, C.P. Snow set the educational and cultural and political worlds afire as he argued in his ovaric book — “The Two Cultures” — that there was a growing divide between the Arts/Humanities and Science in explaining how the world worked and he warned us against the perils of getting caught in the crossfire of that ashen division.

Continue reading → Intent on the Internet: The Intellectual Divide Between Knowledge and Information

Posted on

Lion in the Snow: The Untimely Death of James Kim

James Kim was found dead yesterday. Lion in the Snow

His life, and his untimely death, were generally overshadowed by the harrowing Baker-Hamilton report on Iraq that, while intriguing, will go nowhere fast because the president and his policy henchmen refuse to confess a mistake or do the right thing.

James Kim was found alone and frozen in the backwoods of Southern Oregon by a search and rescue effort that had previously found his wife and two young children alive in their car.

James Kim set out on his own — like a lion in the snow, uncertain and unaware, but brave in an element that was not his own and strong in the face of nature as he sank into the teeth of the unknown — to seek help for his family.

The Kim family had all been stranded together in their car without much food since Thanksgiving. His wife breastfed the children.

Continue reading → Lion in the Snow: The Untimely Death of James Kim

Posted on

How Different the Snow is Now

by Nancy McDaniel

Why is it that so many things that delighted us as children now just frustrate and infuriate us as adults?

Like Snow.

Just when we Chicagoans foolishly thought it was safe to start thinking about spring, we recently received the quintessential end-of-the-winter blizzard.

We had ample warning. In fact, we had so much warning that the airlines, who must have been Boy Scouts, overdid their “Be Prepared” credo. They cancelled many flights hours before the first flake ever fell. Just in case. Now that was annoying, I’m sure, to all the people who were stranded at the airport.

Continue reading → How Different the Snow is Now

Posted on

When It Rains, New Yorkers Melt

As a child of the Midwest, I’m used to heavy rain and snow. In Iowa, where I was born and raised, eight foot tall snow drifts were not uncommon and every man, woman and child was expected to help shovel that heavy snow from the driveways and sidewalks of our neighborhoods.

Mother Nature
School was never called off because of heavy rain. Falling snow only called off school or work in the most extreme cases — perhaps only once every two years for the first 24 years I lived in Iowa. The weather builds character and facing Mother Nature head-on is a Midwestern rite of passage that everyone must face.

To give in to the cold, wind or fog is to admit defeat at the hands of the elements. If Midwesterners were paused by the weather, no fields would be tilled, no crops would be harvested. The food the nation eats would not be harvested and processed. Schools and stores would close in Iowa only when the snow got so deep that the snow plows couldn’t keep the roads clear. The farmers, on the other hand, never had the luxury of closing due to the fickle weather.

Washington, D.C.
Now let’s talk about Easterners and their relationship with the weather. It was a big surprise when my husband and I moved to Washington, D.C. and discovered that just the threat of rain would close the schools because no one in D.C. knew how to drive in inclement weather! They don’t know enough to slow down, drive slowly, be cautious. D.C.-ers confess to this and don’t find this behavior shameful or strange at all! D.C.-ers drive at all times as if it’s sunny and 60 degrees even when ice sheets pave the road.

Continue reading → When It Rains, New Yorkers Melt