Contrary Valley

Intelligent Design Humor

From an article in the Fall 2005 Penn Arts & Sciences Magazine by Peter Nichols entitled "Creative License:"

A cleric once asked J.B.S. Haldane (1892-1964), the British population geneticist, what he might infer about the deity, based on his lifetime of close observation of the natural world. Haldane replied that the creator seemed to have "an inordinate fondness for beetles." Entomologists have described and named more than 350,000 species of coleoptera since 1758. "One of every five species of living organisms - which includes plants, animals, bacteria, fungi and everything else - is a beetle," says Jason Weintraub, entomology collection manager at Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences.

www.copyright-free-pictures.org.uk

RSS Smackdown

I do appreciate Seth Godin's giving us amateurs another lesson in how to do RSS feeds. His instructions are pretty damn clear.  But I have to admit, the whole process is still a little daunting.  I do have a few feeds coming through on my Yahoo homepage, but I once tried to use, feedburner I think it was, and it was not very user friendly to me.  I don't have a technical background but I learn real fast.  I'm sure with more time and patience I will have it down cold.  But I know that a lot of people are just not going to put the effort into it. It is an effort.  For instance my Dad. He is a retired advertising entrepreneur with a lot of expertise in things like fly casting and fine wines.  How cool would it be if he and Hugh McCleod could have a conversation?  Or my friend Christine who moved here from Cameroon. She knows computers but I think it would be really hard to explain how to do RSS feeds.

So I issue a challenge to all you expert communicators/technophiles/change agents:  find a way to make this RSS technology accessible to a more diverse demographic.  Imagine the conversations we could have. 

Toolbox

There seem to be a lot of blogs in the 'sphere about faith.  I have to say not many are too appealing.  A quick scan of the technorati top blogs tagged "faith" bring up a lot of sites with the words Christian and reborn and such.  Even though I am a Christian I share with lots of others a reluctance to do anything that might be even remotely considered proselytizing. (Being a staid New Englander might also have something to do with it.) But I did find one interesting voice out there who had tagged his blog "faith" (among other things.) Nothing that hits you over the head, just the insights and opinions of one family man working out in the world and trying to stay true to some of those eternal values that we all try to aspire to follow.  (Cool photos too.)

 

Another Blog Hook

Clamblogger cites a recent post by Darren Rowse about essential "hooks" to draw readers to your blog.  One of the 7 hooks is thought leading content, another is personality of the blogger.  I'm going to add another hook that doesn't necessarily fall into any of these thoughtful categories: Change Agent.

Why I Read the National Enquirer

If you follow popular culture as do (I subscribe to the National Enquirer afer all) you will be interested in an article in today's New York Times about celebrity publicists.  Seems that their jobs are becoming much more difficult these (the article talks about Tom Cruise's summer of love and Russell Crowe's legal troubles.)   

Feeling the Fear and Doing it Anyway

My very first post on my very first blog. Title sums it up.  Have been reading blogs and reading blogs for months now (I guess you'd call that lurking?) and have been at various times inspired, overwhelmed, scared and fascinated.  Where I finally ended up is supremely optimistic and excited about bloggings' potential to help more people have a good life.  I have to overcome my inclinations to introversion and worry (will I have anything to say?  what if I get nasty comments? will I lose my beloved privacy?) because I do believe that by doing this I might help someone on their journey.  How? By being a connector of good people to other good people. 

So if you haven't met these good people yet, let me introduce you:  Michael Pollock is a wonderful coach and blogging guru who has some big ideas for helping solopreneurs.  I am very excited and grateful to be a part of his team. 

I think the folks at Brains on Fire have my very favorite blog in the universe.  These folks will reaffirm your faith in humanity in case you were doubting.  Check out especially their Courageous President Robbin Phillips' posting on apologizing.  Now that takes Courage.  If I had any kind of budget for marketing I would hire these folks at any price.  And do consider joining their Curiousity Team. 

Well that's all for today. Good day.