Citadel of the Blogs The Inbox of the Internet (really)

interesting opening into the american political landscape: while Bush rejected the Kyoto Protocol, over 400 city mayors have joined together to support it.

Mac users take note: if a drive gets corrupted, skip Disk Warrior altogether and go straight to Data Rescue II (PC users go here — but I haven’t tried it for PC).

As a graduation present for myself, I bought a 500 GB external harddrive (my internal is 160 gb so this was my first foray into SATA). I got tired of backing everything up to DVD. But I was editing video on Friday and I think either iMovie or Final Cut — probably the latter — fried my external drive.

Dumbfounded, mystified and at a loss — in the space of three hours, my drive crashed, my wireless keyboard went AWOL and sparks started flying from my Rogers Home Phone modem box. Calmly, I spent time re-configuring my keyboard. I couldn’t do anything without that. Next the phone: as soon as sparks came, I unplugged it and have been without phone since last night. Technician coming tomorrow night. And as for the drive, it has been an almost 24 hour project to recover my data. I had about 100 gb of files on it. And the thing is, you have to recover these files to “somewhere” other than the drive. I have 20 gb of space on my computer. You do the math.

So I picked the choicest, hardest to replace stuff. If I have the patience, I will back those up to DVD and start again. But I’m getting antsy to re-format the drive so I may just call it quits after this last 7 gb recovery.

Any my point? Disk Utility did nothing; Disk Warrior did nothing. Guess what worked wonders?

Yup: Data Rescue II. Let it be your first port of call in a disk-failure.

Canadian author and historian Margaret Visser has a wonderful book called Much Depends on Dinner. It was one of her early works and does not contain nearly as many helpful citations as her later books like The Geometry of Love. Nevertheless, the topic is a winner– hmm, “breadwinner”.

Food and meals in sacred contexts came on a discussion list I participate in. Led to this wonderful page entitled, “Food and Eating: An Anthropological Perspective”. Check out some of the chapter titles. I’m sure there is something of interest (e.g. Tables and Table Manners).

“Freud’s theory* of the “sacred meal” may appear somewhat bizarre, but his concern with it was not misplaced. The sacred meal is of crucial importance in many religions, including the “advanced” ones. We are all familiar with Seder and Holy Communion. The latter derives from an actual meal — the Last Supper — but has much older roots. It goes back to the idea of sharing a meal with God, which some scholars see as the root idea of sacrifice. This develops further into the idea of eating the god to gain his strength and virtue. The Aztecs made huge loaves in the shape of the gods, and these were thrown down the temple steps to be devoured by the multitude. Human sacrifice and cannibalism come to linked again in the idea of the sacred meal, with the supreme food being
used — human flesh.”

*The ban on eating the totem animal among primitive tribes. This, he suggested, was a memorial to the primeval sin of killing and eating the father. The totem animal came to represent the father, and so could not be killed and eaten, except once a year when it was killed and eaten ceremoniously.”

On the pretzel:
“Believe it or not, the humble pretzel is actually Lenten Food. First baked in the fourth or fifth century, the pretzel was invented partially as a result of the strict Lenten fasts of the time. Faithful Christians used to give up all milk, butter, cheese, eggs and meat during Lent. Eventually, tiny breads were baked using only flour, salt, and water to remind people that Lent was a time of fasting and penance. The small rolls of dough were lengthened and then twisted into the shape of two arms crossed over a person’s heart, because that is the way people used to pray, rather than holding their hands together like we do
today.

These breads were called “bracellea” in Latin, meaning “little arms”. The Germans adapted the recipe and the name, and thus it has come down to us in English as “pretzel”. Some families place a pretzel on each person’s plate throughout the meals of Lent while saying a short prayer, as a reminder of this ancient custom.”

For more information on this topic, be sure to check Food Notes.

unsure what “net neutrality” means? heard about the phone companies creating a user-pay “fast lane” to Internet information?

if you haven’t seen this already, here is a pretty slick Save the Internet! video.

well, gotta fight propaganda with propaganda I guess.

I’ve always been particularly puzzled — and fascinated — by cargo cults. This latest news marks the 50th anniversary of the arrival of Americans during WWII bearing cargo such as weapons, medicine and food.

Hard not to see the correspondence between this so-called cult and the Conquistadors whom Montezuma and co. took to be gods.

Hard not to see that all mythic incarnations are aspects of this same thread of looniness we call sanity.

“heaven on earth” = “ufo cult” = “angels on high” = comet ship to god