In Praise of Backward Compatibility

...n’t work in our neighborhood (thanks for not letting me know that ahead of time!). In the end I was forced to switch to Time Warner for slightly better and equally expensive service. Our overseas readers should know this is common in the U.S., that we pay a lot of money for poor telecommunications services. But the electromechanical geek in me had a delightful surprise. Either Time Warner or the folks who designed the modem Time Warner provides ha...

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Root Simple Reader Survey Results

...t on the blog in a positive way. Unfortunately, the podcast takes a lot of time. We have to book guests, conduct the interview and spend, on average, four to five hours editing. It looks like we could step back to one podcast every other week instead of every week. That will give us more time for the blog. It would be a lot easier for the Root Simple PR department if we just stuck to one topic like, say, chicken health or DIY lotion making. That’s...

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Acedia, iPhone Addiction and the Noonday Devil

...ditation, manual work, contemplating of the shortness of our lives, taking time for work and time for leisure uninterrupted by work (something developed in Josef Pieper’s book Leisure the Basis of Culture which also mentions acedia specifically). Philosophy professor Brandon Dahm has a detailed explication of acedia and some practical solutions in an article Correcting Acedia through Wonder and Gratitude that’s well worth reading. In short, wonder...

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Harvest TIme

...Despite a terrible infestation of corn earworm (Helicoverpa zea) Homegrown Revolution harvested our first ear of corn from our illegal street garden. It’s a variety from Seeds of Change but the package is lost in the appalling mess of our office. More on the corn when we get back from a junket to Houston Texas later this week....

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Weekend Linkages: Time for a Change in LA

...In leaked audio, LA City Councilmembers Nury Martinez, Gil Cedillo, and Kevin de León discuss redistricting, are extremely racist Make a metric clock William Shatner: My Trip to Space Filled Me With ‘Overwhelming Sadness’ Yet another gender reveal party disaster Denver destroyed by cars A fight over worms and moats San Francisco’s crosstown trail What the year 2000 was really like...

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