About the Nick Timaeus

I've got the strange nickname of Timaeus.  Where did that come from?

In part is was from the fact that in the earliest years of the blogosphere, from about 2002 onward, there were lots of classical nicks, like Atrios.

But more than that, it was based on my reading of the character Timaeus in the Dialogues of Plato, the great philosopher.  See this (from "The Timaeus"):

Socrates: Excellent, Timaeus; and we will do precisely as you bid us. The prelude is charming, and is already accepted by us-may we beg of you to proceed to the strain?

Timaeus: Let me tell you then why the creator made this world of generation. He was good, and the good can never have any jealousy of anything. And being free from jealousy, he desired that all things should be as like himself as they could be. This is in the truest sense the origin of creation and of the world, as we shall do well in believing on the testimony of wise men: God desired that all things should be good and nothing bad, so far as this was attainable. Wherefore also finding the whole visible sphere not at rest, but moving in an irregular and disorderly fashion, out of disorder he brought order, considering that this was in every way better than the other. Now the deeds of the best could never be or have been other than the fairest; and the creator, reflecting on the things which are by nature visible, found that no unintelligent creature taken as a whole was fairer than the intelligent taken as a whole; and that intelligence could not be present in anything which was devoid of soul. For which reason, when he was framing the universe, he put intelligence in soul, and soul in body, that he might be the creator of a work which was by nature fairest and best. Wherefore, using the language of probability, we may say that the world became a living creature truly endowed with soul and intelligence by the providence of God. This being supposed, let us proceed to the next stage: In the likeness of what animal did the Creator make the world?

Here's a more reputable link to the same passage:  http://classics.mit.edu/...