The summer is at an end. It's time to roll out the Keats and reflect back on the last month.
This was a slower month at chez Todd than intended. As I wrote a few days ago allergies returned with a vengeance and slowed down my toils.
The month began warm and sultry but is ending up rather cool. I doubt this summer has broken any records for heat in Southeast Michigan, but what do I know, I've only been here a year. The weather service has the real data if you want it.
August is a reminder for me of the foolishness of man and the oftentimes silly hopes that we embody in our fictions.
More thoughts on education continued to burble up. Including some thought on building new learning communities and the possibility of an academic utopia.
The big political story of the month, the foiled terrorist attacks on airplanes crossing the Atlantic, prompted an intemperate burst of outrage over the stupidity of the media. Luckily I quickly recovered and found some things to laugh about.
Philosophically I was concerned with reflection, the density of the other, and a pocketful of -archies. I had hoped to extend my ideas about reflection into a longer form, but that project will have to wait.
A grab bag of external stimuli made an impression over the month, prompting some thoughts on the legacy of Carl Sagan, visualizations of income distributions, the evolution, or lack thereof, in groups, autocratic personalities, metaphors for librarians, the sources for Wikipedia