January 2010
210 posts
BBC: Iran tries 16 people over Ashura Day protests... →
seaofgreen:
Iran’s state news agency said five defendants were accused of “waging war against God” and being “corrupt on earth” - both crimes punishable by death under the Iranian legal system.
The others, the agency reported, were accused of “gathering and conspiring against security, propaganda against the system and seeking to harm security by inciting unrest and riot”.
Why Philadelphia Really is an Incredible City →
Alas, nobody there will let me live there.
“Arrivando a ogni nuova città il viaggiatore ritrova un suo passato che non...”
– Italo Calvino, Le città invisibili (via apertevirgolette) (via untemporale)
“Se comprendere è impossibile, conoscere è necessario.”
– Primo Levi (via combinazionialeatorie) (via 3n0m15) (via curiositasmundi) (via cinemanu) (via thisissoweird) (via lorettamagnolia) (via untemporale)
Il dilemma fondamentale.
Remember how Whole Foods CEO John Mackey is crazy?
ewilcox:
skybarn:
fatmanatee:
stephenfalk:
katherinespiers:
He has just announced a new program whereby skinny Whole Foods employees will enjoy bigger discounts at work than their fat colleagues. Nope, not making it up. BMI-based benefits, people. Can we stop shopping there now?
Okay, I was off on Mackey. WAY off. Hand me a dunce cap and I’ll go sit in a corner now.
A lot of...
“I like the scientific spirit—the holding off, the being sure but not too sure,...”
– Walt Whitman in Walt Whitman’s Camden Conversations by Traubel (via mnemonia)
Watchsoupsoup:
The glorious Jon Stewart takedown of Keith Olbermann.
Glorious indeed. Personally, I think he looks good in the blue glasses.
Guardian: Iran's Republic of Fear →
seaofgreen:
Iran’s clerical regime governs by a simple formula: he who is the most frightening, wins. “Victory by terrifying” is a trope that is present in many of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s speeches. Indeed, it is a reliable guide to his political philosophy.
This view was not invented by Khamenei, but rather is drawn from the Qur’an and the Shia tradition. The Iranian...
Re: Any intelligent fool can make things bigger,...
enormousair:
Mills writes:
Yo-yo-yo! It’s highly unlikely that these are Einstein’s words. They don’t sound like him -particularly in tone- and a quick search suggests that they in fact belong to John Dryden, although I can’t verify that beyond a citation on one of those execrable “quotes” sites, which claims this comes from “Epistle X—To Congreve (l. 60).” I could be wrong, but I’ve read a...
A weird amount of books essentially entitled "The...
enormousair:
ironstring:
Okay so I’ve mentioned before that I work at a bookstore. It’s a Borders. Borders Express, to be exact, which means that it’s much smaller than a normal Borders and located in a mall. When they bought out Waldenbooks, it become us. So it’s a big box bookstore, but it’s pretty small.
I noticed something over the summer, and my weirdness with it was shared with one of...
If You Are Old Like Me, Prepare For a Smackdown →
I will add one more:
To watch Top Gun today is like watching To Kill a Mockingbird the year Top Gun came out.
Danger zone indeed.
Reporters Without Borders Accuses the Iranian... →
seaofgreen:
“Following arrest, journalists are held in secret locations in extremely harsh conditions and with long periods of solitary confinement, in flagrant violation of their most fundamental rights,” said the Paris-based press freedom watchdog. “These incommunicado detentions, which can be regarded as forced disappearances and crimes against humanity, are violations of international law....
anger at ne'er-do-well politicos
caille:
Today we all need beauty more than ever and so I’m trying to regroup and come up with some great things to share with you, but I’ve got to be honest: it’s not easy. None of the photographs I’ve been looking at feel right. Nothing’s quite capturing the mood.
There should be a word for “feelings of ire and towards those who have managed to completely cock-up a good situation.” Hope you...
“Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which...”
– Plato: The Republic (via fuckyeahphilosophy)
If only Plato were right!
Say it out loud, part 1
tristn:
nsomn:
When I have to wait for late students (which is every day), I usually kill time by making lists. Here is a list of onomatopoeia in Spanish. Read them out loud, and remember to roll your Rs.
to lisp: cecear (pronounced with a soft Spanish th, a one-word joke)
to babble: balbucear
to whisper: susurrar
to grumble: refunfuñar*
to purr: ronronear
to hoot: ulular
to cackle:...
byronic asked: What do you do for a living?
ragbag asked: should the guillotine be substituted for the gallows?
superfluidity asked: Do you write in your books?
Between the Here and Then
I think I’ve come to a realization that I’d guess has been a commonplace for most people since they were preteens. I am slow.
It seems that I can in no way resolve the tension between my sometimes forced, sometimes natural, but always sporadic attempts to imagine my way into the present tense and my equally sporadic attempts to form a narrative of my life that makes any sense at all....
Watchsoupsoup:
Must see: Jon Stewart rips Democrats for mismanaging the Massachusetts special election and health care reform.
I must admit: it’s not often you see a scrotum-glue metaphor used as effectively as it is here.
“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society.”
– Mark Twain (via thedrollhouse) (via enormousair)
I knew I was forgetting something.
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist...”
– Alexander Fraser Tytler, from The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic, published in 1776 (via jeralyndwile) (via biteofpythias)
Elvis Costello, Steve Earle to Guest on David... →
Soul Tunes
If one were to be mired in highly thanatotic work requiring little thought but much endurance, what song would most effectively restore the fortitude and pliancy of one’s soul?
On the Occasion of My 1000th Post
I am a newcomer to this universe, not having entered the Tumblr realm until a mere several months ago. Normally, I am too old and bemused to understand the newfangled ways of the young and pioneering. Twitter, for example, remains an unyielding mystery, a powerful veil behind which the wizard maintains his deep bassed ominousness.
Tumblr has been a remarkable exception. You are all far too...
peterfeld:
“We Shall Overcome” speech by Martin...
