Pax Nortona – A Blog by Joel Sax
From the Land of the Lost Blunderbuss
Month: October 2007
Sunset Crater
Posted on October 8, 2007 in Photos Vacation Fall 2007
Sunset Crater is hardly active: it blew up somewhere between [[1040]] and [[1100]] AD. So we were in no danger when we explored the [[lava]] beds that spewed forth to the southeast and the southwest of it. It was our first day of cool weather and there was no sign of the rain which haunted us the next day when we went to Petrified Forest National Park.
We hiked two trails, one up a cinder cone called Lenox Crater and the other around the lava beds. The crater on Lenox Crater has been filled in: it’s more of a flat-topped butte. Big round pieces of cinder cover the slopes which made the short climb a bit tricky. I steered so that there was always a tree or a stump to catch me should I fall. The trail opened up to a fabulous view of the San Francisco Peaks to the west and miles of ponderosa and aspen forests that spilled off the cinder cone and into a wide valley.
Despite signs forbidding off-trail travel, I caught a long-haired, young Native American acting as if he could ignore both NPS protection and Hopi reverence of the area. He climbed a cinder slope just off the Lava Beds Trail, set up a camera, and then scurried off when I gave him a dirty look.
I photographed the plants above growing out of the lava flow. I have no idea what they are, but they seem to show that fire has been replaced by the slower combustion of Life.
Here’s the album at my gallery site (8 pics).
Click on more to see important notes.
Yes, It Was a Condor
Posted on October 7, 2007 in Creatures Vacation Fall 2007
If you saw my Twitterings, you would know that I had my photo taken with a [[California Condor]] at Mather Point, Grand Canyon National Park. Lynn took the picture.
Amen! — Er — Right!
Posted on October 7, 2007 in Spirituality and Being
Absconded from Nullifidian:
P.S. I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!
Study: Treating depression a good business move
Posted on October 7, 2007 in Depression Guest Blogger
Guest post by Maggs
From CNN…
Study: Treating depression a good business move
How many of YOU have used your EAP “Employee Assistance Program”? I was always afraid I’d be found-out…
Don Juan
Posted on October 5, 2007 in Reading Scoundrels Sexuality
From Carlos Fuentes The Buried Mirror:
The king, it was widely believed, was the model for [[Don Juan]], the rake of Seville, as depicted in [[El_burlador_de_Sevilla_y_convidado_de_piedra|the seminal play]] published in 1634 by the friar [[Gabriel Tellez]], whose nom de plume was Tirso de Molina (though the model for Don Juan could have been another libertine, Don Miguel de Manara, known for his seductions of cloistered nuns.) [[Philip_IV_of_Spain|Philip IV]] was more tempted by actresses than by handmaidens to the Lord. He had thirty bastard children, only one of which he officially recognized: [[John_of_Austria_the_Younger|Don Juan]], his son by the actress Maria Calderon. Once he had cast off a mistress, however, Philip did send her to a nunnery, thus assuring that no one would have her after he had. A lady of the court, when refusing the king’s enticement, once told him, “Sire, I do not have a vocation for the convent. His fame as a libertine was indeed stupendous, and only comparable to his bouts of religious repentance and his attachment to the abbess of Agreda, who was his most steadfast friend and counselor.
No, I am not here. I am still on vacation. Check my Twitterings for the latest details.
Friday Xenartha Blogging – Tulsa Sloth
Posted on October 5, 2007 in Xenartha
While we’re off in Arizona, you should know that we haven’t forgotten to leave you with a Xenarthan video, in this case a sloth in the Tulsa Zoo:
The Five Second Rule
Posted on October 4, 2007 in Nature
Drop a piece of toast on the floor. Grab it up within five seconds, no problem, right?
…while the 5-second rule remains a popular rule of thumb, there is no hard science to support it, says Glenn Chambliss, a bacteriologist at UW-Madison. In fact, if you dropped food in places harboring nasties like E. Coli bacteria, any contamination would happen instantaneously, the scientist says.
I’m not here. I’m in Arizona, still. Maggs and Bill the Lawyer should be running the show here. Treat them nicely until I get back, OK? In the meantime, check my Twitter.
Today is International Dadaism Month
Posted on October 1, 2007 in Festivals
DADA!
See [[International Dadaism Month]] and [[Dada]].
