� March 2006 | Main | May 2006 �
April 14, 2006
"Our Daily Bread" by Cesar Vallejo
Our Daily Bread
From the Spanish of Cesar Vallejo
for Alejandro Gamboa
Breakfast is drunk down ... Damp earth
of the cemetery gives off the fragrance of the precious blood.
City of winter ... the mordant crusade
of a cart that seems to pull behind it
an emotion of fasting that cannot get free!
1 wish I could beat on all the doors,
and ask for somebody; and then
look at the poor, and, while they wept softly,
give bits of fresh bread to them.
And plunder the rich of their vineyards
with those two blessed hands
which blasted the nails with one blow of light,
and flew away from the Cross!
Eyelash of morning, you cannot lift yourselves!
Give us our daily bread,
Lord ... !
Every bone in me belongs to others;
and maybe I robbed them.
I came to take something for myself that maybe
was meant for some other man;
and I start thinking that, if I had not been born,
another poor man could have drunk this coffee.
I feel like a dirty thief ... Where will I end?
And in this frigid hour, when the earth
has the odor of human dust and is so sad,
I wish I could beat on all the doors
and beg pardon from someone,
and make bits of fresh bread for him
here, in the oven of my heart ... !
In a Dark Time … The Eye Begins to See
Posted by thdyck at April 14, 2006 | Comments (0)
Planning the US 'Long War' on terror
It sounds eerily like the Cold War - and that is no mistake.
The "Long War" is the name Washington is using to rebrand the new world conflict, this time against terrorism.
Now the US military is revealing details of how it is planning to fight this very different type of war.
It is also preparing the public for a global conflict which it believes will dominate the next 20 years.
BBC NEWS | Americas | Planning the US 'Long War' on terror
Posted by thdyck at April 14, 2006 | Comments (0)
April 6, 2006
Caveman crooners may have aided early human life
In Steven Mithen's imagination, the small band of Neanderthals gathered 50,000 years ago around the caves of Le Moustier, in what is now the Dordogne region of France, were butchering carcasses, scraping skins, shaping ax heads -- and singing.
One of the fur-clad men started it, a rhythmic sound with rising and falling pitch, and others picked it up, indicating their willingness to cooperate both in the moment and in the future, when the group would have to hunt or fend off predators. The music promoted "a sense of we-ness, of being together in the same situation facing the same problems," suggests Prof. Mithen, an archaeologist at England's Reading University. Music, he says, creates "a social rather than a merely individual identity." And that may solve a longstanding mystery.
Science Journal: Caveman crooners may have aided early human life
Posted by thdyck at April 6, 2006 | Comments (0)
April 5, 2006
Going to church may extend life
However, such benefits do not come for free. The study estimated the cost of each year of life apparently gained by each method.
The costs were based on average gym fees, medical costs and household donations to religious institutions:
The approximate cost per life-year gained was:
* $2,000 to $6,000 for regular exercise
* $3,000 to $10,000 for regular religious attendance
* $4,000 and $14,000 for cholesterol-lowering drugs.
BBC NEWS | Health | Going to church may extend life
Posted by thdyck at April 5, 2006 | Comments (0)
April 2, 2006
Ned's list of dreamlike movies
I find the movies I enjoy most are films that most closely resemble dreams. The short list: The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, James and the Giant Peach, Fanny & Alexander, Moulin Rouge, Brazil, Delicatessen, City of Lost Children, etc. etc. Well, here’s another one for the list. Last month I watched the movie Tuvalu. I would have told you about it sooner, but I really didn’t feel like writing some damned clever review. And, quite frankly, I still don’t.
Posted by thdyck at April 2, 2006 | Comments (0)