The Research Triangle Park is a strange place. It feels a little creepy with GlaxoSmithKline’s North American headquarters, a major IBM campus, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, and Eli Lilly all within half a mile of each other. The presence of these companies alone makes RTP feel like the setting of the next Michael Crighton [...]
Phillip Barron The Herald Sun December 20, 2004 8:49 am DURHAM — Building a bicycling community takes cooperation. Cooperation between drivers and cyclists. Cooperation between municipal and state governments. And, when our community grows, cooperation between the public and private spheres of development. Historically, the model that Durham used for bicycle transportation improvements focused on [...]
My brother’s not ready for childbirth. The other night A and I decided we wanted to make pizza for dinner. We decided this, however, once we were already hungry; we didn’t have the forethought to thaw the frozen dough. I don’t have a microwave, but we were committed to pizza. So, we had to figure [...]
The 2004 presidential election season was disappointing for many reasons, but not the least of which was the unprecedented public argument that one’s religion is the only source of morality and personal values. The argument is disappointing because it represents an incomplete view of morality. Because no counterargument was ever offered, pop culture in the [...]
A’s in town from Colorado. I like it when he visits because I know I get to laugh nearly non-stop for the time he’s here. In the weeks leading up to his trip, he told me he wanted me to take him mountain biking, so yesterday I finished building up a bike for him to [...]
At some point people usually ask me who Nicomachus is, or what Nicomachus means. Nicomachus is the name of both Aristotle’s father and his son. Not that his father and son were the same person, they just shared the same name. It’s the latter with whom I’m concerned. Nicomachus Jr. was one of Aristotle’s best [...]
The Herald-Sun December 8, 2004 8:17 pm DURHAM — I look forward to winter cycling all summer. The air dries and gets crisp. I feel like I can breathe again after six humid months of holding my breath. The sky is more blue than haze, and with the deciduous leaves off the trees, I can [...]
In the front yard are the ghost mums: chrysanthemums I planted two years ago that haven’t died, but they don’t fully come back each year either. Mums are annuals, so it’s unusual that they come back at all. This spring, they sprouted and grew into 2ft-tall bushes; in the summer the stalks dried out (despite [...]
I used to ride my BMX hard. Everyday, after school, I’d ride over to Keith’s house. Then we’d go back to the red clay hills. They were supposedly building a new neighborhood behind his, but we never saw anyone working. One day, the grassy meadow was carved up into red clay roads and piles of [...]