Clarksburg: What Were They Thinking?, No Little Plans, Casey Anderson, June 13, 2023

The central tension in the plan that emerged was the desire to encourage just enough development to support a transit- and pedestrian-oriented town center but not so much that the rural character of its surroundings or the quality of area streams would be harmed.

There’s a lot in here, on the development of Clarksburg, Maryland, the northernmost city along I-270 in Montgomery County. If any of this interests you, give this a close read. It’s very interesting.

Freight Expectations, Age of Invention, Anton Howes, June 23, 2023

Steam locomotives were used commercially on the Middleton Railway from as early as 1812, to transport coal to Leeds. And the Stockton and Darlington Railway, albeit famous for being the first public passenger railway to use steam power from 1825, initially only used the steam locomotive for its freight — bringing coal from the mines of south-west County Durham to Stockton on the River Tees, where it could be shipped on to London. Passenger services between Darlington and Stockton were instead, until 1833, largely leased out to the drivers of horse-drawn coaches. (A public railway was one enabled by Act of Parliament to form a joint-stock corporation able to build and manage the line, with powers to cross other people’s land, though it typically had to conform to certain conditions like allowing others to use the line so long as they used appropriate carriages and paid the specified tolls. The Stockton and Darlington Railway Company’s motto, Periculum Privatum Utilitas Publica, translated to At Private Risk for Public Service.)

The first public passenger railway to exclusively use steam locomotives — the 1830 Liverpool and Manchester Railway — was likewise largely built with freight in mind, as a means of undermining the monopoly of the canals.

This is a fascinating bit of somewhat technical but also social and economic history. Give it a read.

How Did Birds First Take Off?, New York Times, Carl Zimmer, June 3, 2023

Paleontologists now suspect that the ancestor of all dinosaurs had feathers. And recent discoveries hint that feathers preceded dinosaurs.

Feathered dinosaurs were more than just intermediates on the path to birds as we know them. They survived for tens of millions of years. “They were clearly good at whatever they were doing,” Dr. Clarke said.

The TLDR here is that it might be more correct to say that dinosaurs are birds than that birds are dinosaurs. I think!

Paul Simon Finds the Lord, Current, Timothy Larsen, May 31, 2023

It’s harder than it looks to keep on the straight and narrow path of secularity. Making it yet more difficult, like the biblical Joseph, Simon is also a dreamer of dreams. On January 15, 2019—the anniversary of his father’s death—he had a dream in which he was informed, “You are writing, or are meant to write, a piece called Seven Psalms.”

Even in the face of such a prompt, Simon is still trying to keep faith with his secular self. He has explained reassuringly that he decided that the album, though indeed titled Seven Psalms, would not draw on the Bible. Don’t believe him.

Interesting piece about the person who might be America’s greatest songwriter. But it overstates the case a little. In 2012 there was this piece about Simon:

Paul Simon says there’s always been a spiritual dimension to his music.

But the overt religious references in his most recent album, “So Beautiful or So What,” surprised even him. There are songs about God, angels, creation, pilgrimage, prayer and the afterlife.

Simon says the religious themes were not intentional — he does not describe himself as religious. But in an interview with the PBS program “Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly,” he said the spiritual realm fascinates him.

“I think it’s a part of my thoughts on a fairly regular basis,” he said. “I think of it more as spiritual feeling. It’s something that I recognize in myself and that I enjoy, and I don’t quite understand it.”…

Now at 70, he said he has many questions about God. In his song, “The Afterlife,” he speculates about what happens after death. He imagines waiting in line, like at the Department of Motor Vehicles….

“By the time you get up to speak to God, and you actually get there, there’s no question that you could possibly have that could have any relevance,” Simon explained.

Related Reading:

New and Old #77

New and Old #78

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