Last night, to celebrate my father-in-law’s birthday, we built a fire on the beach & drummed.

There was food & drink, some close friends, and some strangers. We switched off which drum each of us had whenever it seemed appropriate to do so. One guy brought his guitar (which stayed in its case) and his Tibetan flute. The flute got passed around, but no one could play it except him. And we drummed.

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025: Red Shirts for Burma.

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When I was in high school, if I wanted to do anything on a Sunday (missing church), I’d have to go to Saturday evening mass. Since the English Community only had one service a week, and since it was 50k away, I’d walk down to the local Catholic Church and sit in the way back (eventually it did occur to me that I didn’t have to go there, just be gone for the right general amount of time, but I still usually hung out around there). I found it much easier to tune out mass in German, so I often spent the hour or so thinking Deep Thoughts. One of the major Deep Thoughts was of chaos & order.

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Just a recipe recommendation this afternoon folks–but what a recommendation! I whipped this tarragon-spiked Lady Grey Iced Tea as an afterthought for a dinner party last month and got more suprised ooohs and aaahs than anything else I prepared that night. The first trick is to not skimp on the tarragon–use fresh leaves! The second secret is to not tell your guests about the herb. It’s unusual but a great pairing with the other flavors.

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The above image was posted by Fran-cis-ca on flickr.com and is used here under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Thomas Huxley gave himself the title of “Darwin’s Bulldog;” the public seems to have bequeathed a similar mantle to Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens seem to have taken on a similar mantle.

As an atheist living in a religion-dominated society (at least in demographic terms), I’m glad to have these intellectual guard dogs–veritable hounds of hell–in my philosophical yard. Sometimes, however, I wonder if their barking has been too effective.

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This week, make something to replace a disposable item you use. A fabric bag, a coffee/tea sleeve, or a sandwich holder. It doesn’t have to be cloth; that is, you don’t have to sew it. Just create something to replace a disposable thing. And share!

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Caffeine is a naturally-occurring chemical that plants use as both an herb- and a pesticide. Caffeine in the soil around a tea plant (from leaf-litter) will inhibit the growth of other plants that may compete for resources. Additionally, some non-beneficial insects are affected by the caffeine in such a way as to keep them from nibbling in the future. In humans, caffeine is a mood-elevator and a stimulant (both mentally and metabolically). Caffeine’s effectiveness is increased by steeping its naturally-occurring element (leaf, bean) in water.

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Yesterday was Talk Like a Pirate Day and so I did And got much of my coworkers in on it. If you have an iPhone, you, too can take a picture like this:

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Puritan Gothic., originally uploaded by mind on fire.

The lives of the early Puritan colonists were full of fear. Starvation and damnation, natives and witches, disorder and disease weighed heavy on their minds. Nights, even in bustling Boston, were black with darkness, and that was when the devil reigned, thieves crept about and fire was a great fear. For these followers of John Calvin, death was always just around the corner and

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For those who have not seen this, Sally Fields won an Emmy & took the time to acknowledge “the mothers who stand with an open heart & wait. Wait for their children to come home from danger, from harm’s way, and from war.” She continued, and Fox didn’t like what she had to say, injecting a giant disco ball and cutting the sound:

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