Last Night and Today

[rfmcdonald]

It went decently. I spent time in the Robertson Library for the evening and spent the time reading an encyclopedia of Satanism. It was interesting to see how Satanists, although they claim to profess the dark arts and be aligned with Satan, say that they just want to unleash human creativity; their demons are more akin to the Classical or Blakean conception of the demon (as a sort of anarchic free-spirited entity) than to the traditionally Christian conception (demons as emissaries of evil). Of course, that doesn't mean that conservative Christians are any less hostile to these Satanists; the cattle-mutilation and satanic-cult-abuse memes have been active since the 1970s, the latter meme in particular causing harm.

I linked up with teridian at the Wave. He was helping a friend prepare for a job-related presentation; I think and hope that he did well. Afterwards, to the That's Entertainment where I took out the movies Momento (on teridian's recommendation and The Shipping News, then we walked back to East Royalty along the St. Peter's Road. It was fun, talking and walking; it reminds me of why I liked biking. I got back home at 11:55.

I've done nothing all day, just sat and read and caught up on the news and listened to a 2-disc sampler of Verdi.

Some web highlights:

• Matt Ridley has an interesting article on why it's a good idea forthe world to embrace advanced technologies post-haste.


• There's two space-related weblogs I know about: A Voyage to Arcturus is much better than Transterrestrial Musings, which seems content to be an annex of Little Green Footballs.


• Outpost Terra is an interesting site if you're into near-future interstellar SF.