I quickly got back two nearly identical responses telling me to go to a library. Obviously this doesn’t kill another tree, but what it does do is indirectly perpetuate demand for paper books over electronic publishing, and as I said, I want to vote with my wallet for electronic editions, which I prefer not only because of their convenience (I always have an iBooks- and Kindle-capable device on me, unless I expect to get wet), but also because I perceive them to be a more environmentally conscious choice.

Another response I got, though, calls that perception into question, linking to an article that maintains that electronic media are just as polluting as paper publishing, because of the environmental damage done by coal mining and other ingredients (such as toxic computer parts) of electronic publishing.

My reaction to this, though, is that these environmental impacts, though real now, reflect the infancy of the information-based age. While it may be true now that buying one Kindle or ePub book and reading it (and considering the amortized impact of it’s production) incurs environmental costs that may be on par with the incremental and amortized costs of a paper book (a point which I do not concede), I believe that the environmental costs of electronic publishing are falling faster than the costs of paper publishing are, and that my gut tells me this trend is likely to continue.

So, fortunately for me, this is a case where my convenience and my conscience are aligned.

What do you think? Tell me via Twitter or Facebook, or by a post on your own blog that links back here.

But I am here to tell you that this is not a natural ability; it is an acquired skill, and you can learn it too.

Here is my secret for falling asleep at will:

1. Get comfortable, that is, get in a position and situation where you don’t need to shift around to stay comfy. You won’t fall asleep if you have to turn over every few minutes. This might require some body awareness.

2. Turn out the lights and close your eyes. Eye-closing is not optional.

3. Stop thinking.

Step 3 might be the hard part. Meditation might help to learn this. I just started reading Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power Of Now” and so far he’s doing a good job of talking about this.

Sweet Dreams.

This reminded me of a piece I posted on talk.bizarre back in 1995:

Step back and take a look one level bigger. Fly over your city in an airplane and look at it. Sit quietly in the woods or in a park on a clear day. Think about your job. What do you do? No, what exactly is it that you really do, and why? Detach yourself from it and have another look. Take a day off and go for a ride. Insert this day between all the other days; this day doesn’t exist.

I used to swim in high school. My two main events were 100m butterfly and 200m individual medley. In the hundred fly, breathing is a bad thing to do. If you do it too often, you lose. You want to breathe? Except at the turns, you do it once, maybe twice per leg in a 50m pool, and probably not at all, max once, in a 25m pool. When you do breathe, you make the most of it.

Every once in a while, at work or at school, I notice that I haven’t breathed in six or eight weeks. This happened to me a lot as an undergrad, less as a grad student. I try to make sure it doesn’t happen at all anymore, but occasionally it still does. When it does, I don’t do anything for anyone. I might go to the zoo. I might go out to Fallingwater. I might go to the park or the woods and sit quietly for a while. This day doesn’t exist. And I can breathe.

What do I do for a living? I don’t remember; ask me again tomorrow.

Originally posted 17 April 1995 to usenet talk.bizarre.

(Post script: As a parent of two small children, I now expect to get to breathe again next sometime in June of 2023. If I’m still alive then.)

If anyone knows what this book might have been, please let me know via @twitter message or email or something.

Thanks!

Washington: If the Capitals beat the Rangers and the Hurricanes beat the Devils. (And the Bruins would play the Canes. 1 vs 6; 2 vs 4.)

New Jersey: If the Rangers beat the Capitals and the Devils beat the Hurricanes. (And the Bruins would play the Rangers. 1 vs 7; 3 vs 4.)

Carolina: If the Rangers beat the Capitals and the Hurricanes beat the Devils. (And the Bruins would play the Rangers. 1 vs 7; 4 vs 6.)

(Notice that it’s not possible for the Penguins to meet the Rangers next. If the Rangers beat the Caps, they’ll face the Bruins and the Pens will play the Canes-Devils winner.)