Feb

2016

Banning books, good or bad

These days, anyone can publish anything. Before e-publishing, books had to pass through the filter of a publishing house. It wasn’t a perfect system. A lot of good books didn’t get published, but at least a lot of bad ones didn’t get published either. Not so today. Anyone can put anything out on the Internet. And if you want something a little more prestigious than a passing blog, hundreds of outfits will help you produce something that has a cover, an ISBN, and a price tag. Every copy shop can be a publisher And Amazon will probably sell the book they produce, whether it deserves exposure or not. That’s roughly what happened with Robert Picton’s book.

Comments (0) Number of views (1354)

Categories: Sharp Edges

Tags: banning books

Feb

2016

Talking to a toad about talking

Author: Jim Taylor

I talk to the dog. I talk to the cat. Sometimes, when I’m out for a walk, I talk to a crow or a magpie.
I’ve never talked to a toad. But apparently Mary Oliver does. She wrote a short reflection, a kind of prose poem, about her conversation with a toad: “He was just sitting there. It was full morning, so the heat was heavy on is sand-coloured head and his webbed feet. I squatted beside him… He didn’t move. I began to talk…”

Comments (0) Number of views (1563)

Categories: Soft Edges

Tags: toad, talking

Feb

2016

Zika virus, contraception, and mortal sin

Author: Jim Taylor

A new word has entered our vocabularies – “Zika” -- the mosquito-borne virus first identified in the Zika forest in Uganda in 1947, that has since spread across southern Asia to the Pacific islands, and now to the Americas. What do we actually know about this virus? First, it is carried by the same tropical mosquitoes that carry dengue fever, yellow fever, and the West Nile virus. Second, it is a virus, a primitive form of RNA that can only replicate inside living cells. It is not a germ or a parasite, therefore it is not susceptible to antibiotics. When the virus gets inside living cells, it alters their function. Although there’s no conclusive proof yet, the World Health Organization accepts a link between the Zika virus and microcephaly.

Comments (0) Number of views (1411)

Categories: Sharp Edges

Tags: Zika virus, contraception, mortal sin

Feb

2016

Either/or thinking, or both/and thinking

Author: Jim Taylor

You’ve heard the old question: “If a tree falls in a forest, and there’s no one there to hear it fall, does it make a sound?”
It’s a kind of koan -- a question designed to make the hearer think.
Yet most of us persist in offering our own versions of an answer.

Comments (0) Number of views (1381)

Categories: Soft Edges

Tags: either/or, both/and, thinking

Feb

2016

Random chance matters in real life

Author: Jim Taylor

In the closing days of January, five snowmobilers died when an avalanche roared down the slopes of Mt. Renshaw, east of Prince George. Ordinarily, when I hear of these accidents, I tend to rant about human stupidity. About overgrown boys with too much horsepower and too little common sense, testing the limits of their machines’ performance on unstable slopes, failing to take reasonable precautions… Not in this case, apparently. Although some early reports called the avalanche “human caused,” later reports didn’t repeat that allegation. Later reports also described the snowmobilers – 17 people, in four separate groups – as well prepared and experienced back country sledders. Indeed, their safety equipment saved most of them. Two GPS tracking devices indicated their location instantly when the slide hit. Search and Rescue teams already in the area were able to reach the disaster site in minutes. A helicopter was on its way soon after. The survivors were already digging out their buried friends. Even so, they were too late for five people.

Comments (0) Number of views (1490)

Categories: Sharp Edges

Tags: chance, real life

Jim Taylor's Columns - 'Soft Edges' and 'Sharp Edges'

Banning books, good or bad

Talking to a toad about talking

Zika virus, contraception, and mortal sin

Either/or thinking, or both/and thinking

Random chance matters in real life

Categories

Archive