Would you drive this car for dating with ur girl?
- kurtster - Apr 19, 2024 - 10:41pm
Wordle - daily game
- NoEnzLefttoSplit - Apr 19, 2024 - 9:29pm
Vinyl Only Spin List
- kurtster - Apr 19, 2024 - 9:21pm
TV shows you watch
- kcar - Apr 19, 2024 - 9:10pm
The Abortion Wars
- Red_Dragon - Apr 19, 2024 - 9:07pm
The Obituary Page
- R_P - Apr 19, 2024 - 8:22pm
Words I didn't know...yrs ago
- Bill_J - Apr 19, 2024 - 7:06pm
Things that make you go Hmmmm.....
- Bill_J - Apr 19, 2024 - 6:59pm
Baseball, anyone?
- Red_Dragon - Apr 19, 2024 - 6:51pm
MILESTONES: Famous People, Dead Today, Born Today, Etc.
- Bill_J - Apr 19, 2024 - 6:44pm
2024 Elections!
- steeler - Apr 19, 2024 - 5:49pm
What Did You See Today?
- Antigone - Apr 19, 2024 - 4:42pm
Song of the Day
- buddy - Apr 19, 2024 - 4:21pm
Radio Paradise Comments
- Isabeau - Apr 19, 2024 - 3:21pm
• • • The Once-a-Day • • •
- Isabeau - Apr 19, 2024 - 3:15pm
Ask an Atheist
- R_P - Apr 19, 2024 - 3:04pm
Trump
- rgio - Apr 19, 2024 - 11:10am
NYTimes Connections
- Bill_J - Apr 19, 2024 - 9:34am
Joe Biden
- oldviolin - Apr 19, 2024 - 8:55am
NY Times Strands
- geoff_morphini - Apr 19, 2024 - 8:39am
Country Up The Bumpkin
- KurtfromLaQuinta - Apr 19, 2024 - 7:55am
how do you feel right now?
- miamizsun - Apr 19, 2024 - 6:02am
When I need a Laugh I ...
- miamizsun - Apr 19, 2024 - 5:43am
Remembering the Good Old Days
- miamizsun - Apr 19, 2024 - 5:41am
Today in History
- DaveInSaoMiguel - Apr 19, 2024 - 4:43am
Israel
- R_P - Apr 18, 2024 - 8:25pm
Live Music
- oldviolin - Apr 18, 2024 - 3:24pm
What Makes You Laugh?
- oldviolin - Apr 18, 2024 - 2:49pm
Robots
- miamizsun - Apr 18, 2024 - 2:18pm
Museum Of Bad Album Covers
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April 2024 Photo Theme - Happenstance
- haresfur - Apr 17, 2024 - 7:04pm
Europe
- haresfur - Apr 17, 2024 - 6:47pm
Name My Band
- GeneP59 - Apr 17, 2024 - 3:27pm
What's that smell?
- Isabeau - Apr 17, 2024 - 2:50pm
USA! USA! USA!
- R_P - Apr 17, 2024 - 1:48pm
Business as Usual
- black321 - Apr 17, 2024 - 1:48pm
Talk Behind Their Backs Forum
- VV - Apr 17, 2024 - 1:26pm
Russia
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Science in the News
- Red_Dragon - Apr 17, 2024 - 11:14am
Magic Eye optical Illusions
- Proclivities - Apr 17, 2024 - 10:08am
Ukraine
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Photography Forum - Your Own Photos
- Alchemist - Apr 17, 2024 - 9:38am
Just for the Haiku of it. . .
- oldviolin - Apr 17, 2024 - 9:01am
HALF A WORLD
- oldviolin - Apr 17, 2024 - 8:52am
Little known information... maybe even facts
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songs that ROCK!
- thisbody - Apr 16, 2024 - 10:56am
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Australia has Disappeared
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Earthquake
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It's the economy stupid.
- miamizsun - Apr 16, 2024 - 4:28am
Republican Party
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Eclectic Sound-Drops
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Synchronization
- ReggieDXB - Apr 13, 2024 - 11:40pm
Other Medical Stuff
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Photos you have taken of your walks or hikes.
- KurtfromLaQuinta - Apr 12, 2024 - 3:50pm
Things You Thought Today
- Red_Dragon - Apr 12, 2024 - 3:05pm
Poetry Forum
- oldviolin - Apr 12, 2024 - 8:45am
Dear Bill
- oldviolin - Apr 12, 2024 - 8:16am
Radio Paradise in Foobar2000
- gvajda - Apr 11, 2024 - 6:53pm
Mixtape Culture Club
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New Song Submissions system
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No TuneIn Stream Lately
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Caching to Apple watch quit working
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April 8th Partial Solar Eclipse
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Bug Reports & Feature Requests
- orrinc - Apr 10, 2024 - 10:48am
NPR Listeners: Is There Liberal Bias In Its Reporting?
- black321 - Apr 9, 2024 - 2:11pm
Sonos
- rnstory - Apr 9, 2024 - 10:43am
RP Windows Desktop Notification Applet
- gvajda - Apr 9, 2024 - 9:55am
If not RP, what are you listening to right now?
- kurtster - Apr 8, 2024 - 10:34am
And the good news is....
- thisbody - Apr 8, 2024 - 3:57am
How do I get songs into My Favorites
- Huey - Apr 7, 2024 - 11:29pm
Pernicious Pious Proclivities Particularized Prodigiously
- R_P - Apr 7, 2024 - 5:14pm
Lyrics that strike a chord today...
- Isabeau - Apr 7, 2024 - 12:50pm
Dialing 1-800-Manbird
- oldviolin - Apr 7, 2024 - 11:18am
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Index »
Entertainment »
Books »
Oliver Sacks on Learning He Has Terminal Cancer
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R_P
Gender:
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Posted:
Feb 26, 2015 - 7:32am |
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meower
Location: i believe, i believe, it's silly, but I believe Gender:
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Posted:
Feb 23, 2015 - 5:02am |
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A most amazing man.
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R_P
Gender:
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Posted:
Feb 21, 2015 - 1:04pm |
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ScottN
Location: Half inch above the K/T boundary Gender:
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Posted:
Feb 21, 2015 - 11:07am |
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I too learned of Sacks' condition a few days ago. Sad. Yet...
This man who was such a fine example of the the richness of living may now be an exemplar of the dignity of one's dying. Nevertheless: sad, very sad.
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R_P
Gender:
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Posted:
Feb 21, 2015 - 10:46am |
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Sad news from one of my favourite authors... (...) It is up to me now to choose how to live out the months that remain to me. I have to live in the richest, deepest, most productive way I can. In this I am encouraged by the words of one of my favorite philosophers, David Hume, who, upon learning that he was mortally ill at age 65, wrote a short autobiography in a single day in April of 1776. He titled it “My Own Life.” “I now reckon upon a speedy dissolution,” he wrote. “I have suffered very little pain from my disorder; and what is more strange, have, notwithstanding the great decline of my person, never suffered a moment’s abatement of my spirits. I possess the same ardour as ever in study, and the same gaiety in company.” I have been lucky enough to live past 80, and the 15 years allotted to me beyond Hume’s three score and five have been equally rich in work and love. In that time, I have published five books and completed an autobiography (rather longer than Hume’s few pages) to be published this spring; I have several other books nearly finished. Hume continued, “I am ... a man of mild dispositions, of command of temper, of an open, social, and cheerful humour, capable of attachment, but little susceptible of enmity, and of great moderation in all my passions.” Here I depart from Hume. While I have enjoyed loving relationships and friendships and have no real enmities, I cannot say (nor would anyone who knows me say) that I am a man of mild dispositions. On the contrary, I am a man of vehement disposition, with violent enthusiasms, and extreme immoderation in all my passions. And yet, one line from Hume’s essay strikes me as especially true: “It is difficult,” he wrote, “to be more detached from life than I am at present.” Over the last few days, I have been able to see my life as from a great altitude, as a sort of landscape, and with a deepening sense of the connection of all its parts. This does not mean I am finished with life. On the contrary, I feel intensely alive, and I want and hope in the time that remains to deepen my friendships, to say farewell to those I love, to write more, to travel if I have the strength, to achieve new levels of understanding and insight. This will involve audacity, clarity and plain speaking; trying to straighten my accounts with the world. But there will be time, too, for some fun (and even some silliness, as well). I feel a sudden clear focus and perspective. There is no time for anything inessential. I must focus on myself, my work and my friends. I shall no longer look at “NewsHour” every night. I shall no longer pay any attention to politics or arguments about global warming. This is not indifference but detachment — I still care deeply about the Middle East, about global warming, about growing inequality, but these are no longer my business; they belong to the future. I rejoice when I meet gifted young people — even the one who biopsied and diagnosed my metastases. I feel the future is in good hands. (...)
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