and I hadn't slept at all well. I had a moment of vertigo that comes to every heavy drinker at one time or another, the moment when you wake up in alien surroundings with no memory of how you got there. This was one of those times, times a thousand. To begin with, the woman sleeping next to me was covered in silvery blue fish scales and, well, to be brutally honest, I'm not even sure if she was human. I'm not sure it was a she . . .
We who look to the stars
or the machines, or to each other
seek the sensations of childhood
mother's perfect embrace
Forthright and stalwart
stomping for striding, like horses
dressed splendidly for battle
Density tempts each
"Contract. Harden,"
it sings softly,
"you will find harbor."
A dangerous edge dance:
a slower, easier target for the world
but one that's harder to kill.
Every measurement
reports limits,
edges of cliffs,
the stepping off point
for belief.
Assumptive feast,
foundational, unavoidable,
blinding.
Some of the symptom's here that I believe I showed evidence of as a child:
- Not pick up on social cues and lack inborn social skills, such as being able to read others' body language, start or maintain a conversation, and take turns talking.
- Dislike any changes in routines.
- Appear to lack empathy.
- Be unable to recognize subtle differences in speech tone, pitch, and accent that alter the meaning of others’ speech. Thus, your child may not understand a joke or may take a sarcastic comment literally. Likewise, his or her speech may be flat and difficult to understand because it lacks tone, pitch, and accent.
- Have a formal style of speaking that is advanced for his or her age. For example, the child may use the term “beckon” instead of “call,” or “return” instead of “come back.”
- Avoid eye contact.
- Be preoccupied with only one or few interests, which he or she may be very knowledgeable about. Many children with Asperger's syndrome are overly interested in parts of a whole or in unusual activities, such as doing intricate jigsaw puzzles, designing houses, drawing highly detailed scenes, or astronomy.2
- Talk a lot, usually about a favorite subject. One-sided conversations are common. Internal thoughts are often verbalized.
- Have delayed motor development. Your child may be late in learning to use a fork or spoon, ride a bike, or catch a ball. He or she may have an awkward walk. Handwriting is often poor.
- continue to have difficulty "reading" others' behavior.
- want friends but may feel shy or intimidated when approaching other teens.
- He or she may feel "different" from others.
- Teens with Asperger's are typically uninterested in following social norms, fads, or conventional thinking, allowing creative thinking and the pursuit of original interests and goals.
- Their preference for rules and honesty may lead them to excel in the classroom and as citizens.
The tablet text
[edit] Newton's translation
One translation, by Isaac Newton, found among his alchemical papers:
- 1. Tis true without lying, certain & most true.
- 2. That which is below is like that which is above & that which is above is like that which is below to do the miracles of one only thing.
- 3. And as all things have been & arose from one by the meditation of one: so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation.
- 4. The Sun is its father, the moon its mother,
- 5. The wind hath carried it in its belly, the earth its nurse.
- 6. The father of all perfection in the whole world is here.
- 7. Its force or power is entire if it be converted into earth.
- 7a. Separate thou the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross sweetly with great industry.
- 8. It ascends from the earth to the heaven & again it desends to the earth and receives the force of things superior & inferior.
- 9. By this means you shall have the glory of the whole world & thereby all obscurity shall fly from you.
- 10. Its force is above all force, for it vanquishes every subtle thing & penetrates every solid thing.
- 11a. So was the world created.
- 12. From this are & do come admirable adaptations where of the means (or process) is here in this.
- 13. Hence I am called Hermes Trismegist, having the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world.
- 14. That which I have said of the operation of the Sun is accomplished & ended.
[edit] Beato translation
Another translation from Aurelium Occultae Philosophorum by Georgio Beato:
- 1) This is true and remote from all cover of falsehood.
- 2) Whatever is below is similar to that which is above. Through this the marvels of the work of one thing are procured and perfected.
- 3) Also, as all things are made from one, by the consideration of one, so all things were made from this one, by conjunction.
- 4) The father of it is the sun, the mother the moon.
- 5) The wind bore it in the womb. Its nurse is the earth, the mother of all perfection.
- 6) Its power is perfected.
- 7) If it is turned into earth,
- 7) Separate the earth from the fire, the subtle and thin from the crude and coarse, prudently, with modesty and wisdom.
- 8) This ascends from the earth into the sky and again descends from the sky to the earth, and receives the power and efficacy of things above and of things below.
- 9) By this means you will acquire the glory of the whole world, and so you will drive away all shadows and blindness.
- 10) For this by its fortitude snatches the palm from all other fortitude and power. For it is able to penetrate and subdue everything subtle and everything crude and hard.
- 11) By this means the world was founded
- 12) And hence the marvelous cojunctions of it and admirable effects, since this is the way by which these marvels may be brought about.
- 13) And because of this they have called me Hermes Tristmegistus since I have the three parts of the wisdom and Philosophy of the whole universe.
- 14) My speech is finished which I have spoken concerning the solar work.
[edit] Latin text
Original edition of the Latin text. (Chrysogonus Polydorus, Nuremberg 1541): Verum, sine mendacio, certum et verissimum: Quod est inferius est sicut quod est superius, et quod est superius est sicut quod est inferius, ad perpetranda miracula rei unius. Et sicut res omnes fuerunt ab uno, meditatione unius, sic omnes res natae ab hac una re, adaptatione. Pater eius est Sol. Mater eius est Luna. Portavit illud Ventus in ventre suo. Nutrix eius terra est. Pater omnis telesmi[1] totius mundi est hic. Virtus eius integra est si versa fuerit in terram. Separabis terram ab igne, subtile ab spisso, suaviter, magno cum ingenio. Ascendit a terra in coelum, iterumque descendit in terram, et recipit vim superiorum et inferiorum. Sic habebis Gloriam totius mundi. Ideo fugiet a te omnis obscuritas. Haec est totius fortitudinis fortitudo fortis, quia vincet omnem rem subtilem, omnemque solidam penetrabit. Sic mundus creatus est. Hinc erunt adaptationes mirabiles, quarum modus est hic. Itaque vocatus sum Hermes Trismegistus, habens tres partes philosophiae totius mundi. Completum est quod dixi de operatione Solis.
[edit] Contemporary rendering of Latin text
- 1. True, without error, certain and most true
- 2. That which is above is as that which is below, and that which is below is as that which is above, to perform the miracles of the one thing.
- 3. And as all things were from [the] one, by [means of] the meditation of [the] one, thus all things of the daughter from [the] one, by [means of] adaptation.
- 4. Its father is the sun, its mother[,]the moon, the wind carried it in its belly, its nurse is the earth.
- 5. The father of all the looms of the whole world is here.
- 6. Its power is integrating if it be turned into earth.
- 7. Separate the earth from the fire, the fine from the dense, delicately, by [means of/to] the great [together] with capacity.
- 8. It ascends by [means of] earth into heaven and again it descends into the earth, and retakes the power of the superior[s] and of the inferior[s].
- 9. Thus[,] you have the glory of the whole world.
- 10. Therefore[,] may it drive-out by [means of] you of all the obscurity.
- 11. This is the whole of the strength of the strong force, because it overcomes all fine things, and penetrates all the complete.
- 12. Thus[,] the world has been created.
- 13. Hence they were wonderful adaptations, of which this is the manner.
- 14. Therefore[,] I am Hermes the Thrice Great, having the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world.
- 15. What I have said concerning the operation of the Sun has been completed.
This is exactly the sort of thing to build a trail around. I'm always running across little tidbits such as this on the web. I'm noting it here.
I'll note others as I come across them or find them.
I thought this would be a good reference point to begin with, and a good reference point to return to.
Typically, when a new marker is added to the page, it's placed in the upper right hand corner of the window. If you scroll up this page you should see a marker with a "T" in it . . . that one was put there by Trailfire, it's part of a "Getting started" tour. I put a new marker on the same page and then dragged it down to sit next to the "create new trail" link (to the left).
So, while it isn't possible to directly build links to or from a specific lexia on a page, it is possible to place commentary such as this next to the text block to which we may wish to draw a reader. In a classroom application this could mean that the teacher sets the mark next to text that he wishes the student to read and makes a brief comment as to what he wishes the student to read.
Also, note that it is possible to have many markers on a single page. It would be possible for a teacher to send all students to a single online text and instruct the students to build their own trails from that central page, out into the web. The students could see the trails and research of others and see the way that different students investigated a topic! The teacher could even instruct the students to not put marks on the same page after the first page, thus creating diverse lines of investigation, as well as providing some impetus to get started sooner rather than later (after all, the "easy" pages will come earlier if searched for on google). I've set up a little mock "hub" of what I'm talking about here.
