February 2012
20 posts
“A well-ordered humanism does not begin with itself, but puts things back in...”
– Claude Lévi-Strauss (via stoweboyd)
“There is no other way to put this without resorting to demographic bluntness:...”
– Timothy Egan, The Electoral Wasteland (via syntheticpubes)
“For the last two decades the world powers have been spending 200 billion...”
– 2025, If… - Buckminster Fuller - Tools Ideas Environment - Whole Earth Catalog
“As of the closing of 1974, muscle and power are in complete dominance over world...”
– 2025, If… - Buckminster Fuller - Tools Ideas Environment - Whole Earth Catalog
Henry Miller's Writing Commandments →
youmightfindyourself:
Work on one thing at a time until finished.
Start no more new books, add no more new material to “Black Spring.”
Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.
Work according to Program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!
When you can’t create you can work.
Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilizers.
Keep...
“fruit is sex you can eat.”
“There may be no better way to achieve lasting happiness — as opposed to mere...”
– Guitar Zero - a neuroscientist debunks the myth of a “music talent” and learns to play. (via curiositycounts)
Beyond the Seas I’ll put up a boat, and set it free off the shore. I’ll let it take me away-from this eerie land, where nobody calls up the sleeping heroes- from their long, lonely trance.
I’ll put up a boat, and set it free off the shore; a boat with no net, a boat with no seine, with my heart cleansed of wish for pearl.
I’ll sail away on the tides. I’ll sing all along the ride.
Neither the...
Smart People Ask Questions →
tmac721:
Not only do smart people ask questions when they don’t understand something, but they also ask questions when the world thinks it understands something. Smart people challenge the very limit of human understanding, and push the envelope of what’s possible farther than many people would argue it’s meant to be pushed. Smart people don’t take claims at face value, and smart people don’t...
“Q. What ideals have you embraced from Steve Jobs? A. The importance of doing...”
– Business & Technology | AP Interview: JC Penney CEO talks about the chain | Seattle Times Newspaper (via tywillis)
“The corruption of this government is a cancer. And you don’t launch an attack on...”
– The tyranny of tiny minds and big money - Salon.com
It Is Safe to Resume Ignoring the Prophets of Doom... →
Adam Davidson via The NY Times
For nearly a decade, it turns out, the most accurate forecasts have come from the fringe. So it’s upsetting to learn that many of those same Cassandras now believe, for different reasons, that we are on the brink of another catastrophe that may be far worse. Wolff, the Marxist, fears that China may be entering a significant slowdown, which, combined with Europe’s...
Watch(via Lawrence Lessig: How Money Corrupts Congress and a Plan to Stop It - The Long Now)
1) Because of the costs of running a campaign for office and our current campaign finance rules, corporate interests effectively run the government, in many cases creating outcomes that are completely at odds with what is good for the people regardless of political view. Our democracy is corrupt.
2) Campaign...
“Emails, tweets, notifications, text and instant messages, Facebook status...”
– Over Notified | Om Malik
(via tedr)
“The secret of success is concentrating interest in life, interest in sports and...”
– Excerpt from an altogether beautiful 1928 letter to 16-year-old Jackson Pollock from his dad (via curiositycounts)
“So what would our mornings look like if we re-engineered them in the interest of...”
– New neurosciences studies show most morning routines kill creativity, but there might be something we can do about it. (via curiositycounts)
January 2012
28 posts
“The top-level goal for most people is to convince others they are the...”
– Mark Hendrickson on social networks | The Uphill Battle Of Social Event Sharing: A Post-Mortem for Plancast (via courtenaybird)
Whoa, that’s something to chew on. (via tedr)
“I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye...”
– - Theodore Parker
Often misattributed to Martin Luther King, who often quoted this. (via underpaidgenius)
“The big question for universities going forward is this: Can control of...”
– The Great Unbundling of the University - Alan Jacobs - Technology - The Atlantic (via infoneer-pulse)
“He’s [Romney’s] not going to pay more than the law requires, and I don’t fault...”
– Buffett Blames Congress for Romney’s 15% Rate - Bloomberg (via tedr)
Social Cities of Tomorrow conference text. By... →
radarqnet:
Excerpts from Social Cities of Tomorrow conference text by Michiel de Lange & Martijn de Waal.
Note: The bolds are mine.
—
Can digital technologies enable citizens to act on collectively shared issues?
(…)
We see three promising interrelated developments where urban technologies may be used to create livable and lively cities.
1. Data-commons
Sensing technologies and...
“I feel like there’s a red pill and a blue pill, and you can take the blue pill...”
– Tenured Professor Departs Stanford, Hoping to Teach 500,000 Students at Online Start-Up - The Chronicle of Higher Education (via davemorin)
Watch(via The Saxifrage School)
A college education is only worth your time and money if, at the end of four years, you are actually capable of doing because you have been doing, not just studying, all this time.
Students should be recognized as sovereign learners capable of education and success even without attending an institution. Some are all the better for having not spent four years and...
John Steinbeck on Falling in Love: A 1958 Letter... →
youmightfindyourself:
New York November 10, 1958
Dear Thom:
We had your letter this morning. I will answer it from my point of view and of course Elaine will from hers.
First — if you are in love — that’s a good thing — that’s about the best thing that can happen to anyone. Don’t let anyone make it small or light to you.
Second — There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean,...
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant....”
– Albert Einstein
“Godot for Wii is the latest in a series of hugely successful gaming adaptations...”
– Waiting for Godot for Wii breaks first-week sales records | NewsBiscuit (via wreckandsalvage)
Whoa! (via tedr)
Watch7 Train Happening - Katie Mullins (by The 78 Project)
“The biggest barrier to an artist is self-confidence. The artist always battles...”
– Francis Ford Coppola (via brycedotvc)
Watch(via Karma Kitchen: A Taste of the Gift Economy — YES! Magazine)
“Henry David Thoreau reminded us that “the man whose horse trots a mile in a...”
– The Joy of Quiet - NYTimes.com
What Louis CK is doing with the $1m he made on the... →
I’ve never had a million dollars all of a sudden. and since we’re all sharing this experience and since it’s really your money, I wanted to let you know what I’m doing with it. People are paying attention to what’s going on with this thing. So I guess I want to set an example of what you can do if you all of a sudden have a million dollars that people just gave to you...
Narratives and ontologies | Opencollaboration's... →
“…Our current cultural stories are a curious mix of hierarchical stories around government and corporations – presidents and CEOS are managing those below them, and non-hierarchical stories about the market – money and property self-organizes society to function best. What is dearly missing from our government and corporation stories are the non-hiearchical narrative stories for...
“At the end of the day, the convulsion to come won’t really be about Wall...”
– The Big Lie - The Daily Beast
Deficit-worriers portray a future in which we’re impoverished by the need to pay back money we’ve been borrowing. They see America as being like a family that took out too large a mortgage, and will have a hard time making the monthly payments. This is, however, a really bad analogy in at least two ways…
Nobody Understands Debt - NYTimes.com
December 2011
13 posts
Louis CK's Shameful Dirty Comedy
viafrank:
I’ve been thinking about Louis CK lately. I’m a fan of his show on FX, and I’m so happy his recent adventure in distributing his newest comedy special himself has been a rousing success. But my thoughts are going elsewhere to wonder why he has blown up in popularity in the past couple years, and why his comedy seems to resonate with these times. It always feels like there’s a...
