Horse whispers

You can think of this as your "one-stop shop" for an eclectic blend of media snippets. Or not. My reading varies widely these days, and certainly as one wise sage put recently, "there is no shortage of information, there is only a shortage of attention.." Amen. Somewhere in the mix below, there can be almost something for anyone:

Best sex after 40? Well, er, um, whatever. Somebody with too much time on their hands and a great gift of getting funded, has this to pronounce on their survey. Then there is the recent call for more use of psychedelic drugs in battling mental illness here and again here in New Scientist, a great magazine with just about everything for the seriously curious. Let's see, that takes care of drugs and sex, all I need now is some rock n roll, and I will consider myself to be waving the Baby Boomer flag proudly. Not. Anyway, I already had a natter about the Rolling Stones on a previous post, and well, I liked the 70's, but hello? Can we all move along? No wait, here it is, Neil Young has a quick chat about his new album, and why impeachment of the U.S. president is necessaryand patriotic. OK then. Not to spoil the party on a beautful morning in Godzone by going all geopolitical or anything like that, but there does seem to be some prominent writers and historians here and here talking about this. Didn't the last president get impeached as well for something? Oh yea, now I remember, something about a dress stain and a cigar. Certainly W is not that bad?

Then there is this guy who visits Starbucks all over the world, and reports on the cultural impact of the insidious geen logo. Some people get all the good jobs. I like my beans roasted delicately thank you, from Kona preferably, and for the farmers to get paid fairly. Full stop. Cultural impact? Most likely. Visual pollution? Definitely. One more Little Nugget for the curiously disenfranchised browser today, is this on the blogging phenomena, or as the digitally sophisticated say, User Generated Content. Me? Just enjoying my writing in the 21st century...

Back on the island, the dew had not yet dried in the early morning vineyard yesterday when a newish SUV (which in itself is enough for a second glance around here) came racing down the gravel road leading to my little patch, with a visibly distraught young woman asking bluntly to use my phone. It seems her horse in the paddock next door had injured itself in the night, and she needed the vet to come out quickly. There was a flurry of activity, consultation and vehicles over next couple of hours. Broken leg. Had to be put down. Buried on the spot. I felt for her, as I travelled the rows inside my tractor glancing over at the commotion. How difficult to have a loss so sudden to start the day. At the risk of sounding existentially morose, we all might do well to prepare more for it. Loss that is. Seems somewhat prevalent. Still, it doesn't make it any easier. All this while I was listening to a book review on an NPR podcast about two great philosophers of the Enlightenment Era arguing on the true nature of reality. How would we ever know?

Speaking of which, (podcasts that is, not reality) if you are so inclined, and like audio/ radio without the ads, here are some links to The Guardian and NPR sites that offer free subscriptions to some good programmes that cover a great deal of territory, but then in this new ecology of media, one can simply choose the subjects that interest, and "off you go", as they say...

I believe I mentioned this author previously, as he certainly rates as an enjoyable science writer. With great wit and delightful stories woven into the book I am reading now, called the Biology of Desire, he is able to take complex subjects and make riveting reading. Michael Pollan is his name, and a quick overview of some of his research on the state of the food industry (a drumbeat of mine, I suppose) is found here. Although I don't agree in principle with his conclusions in all examples, his arguments are compelling and well thought out.

Market Day on the island, so I'm off to support local, while thinking global, and well, try to cover what's in between as best I can.