November 2010
58 posts
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“If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.”
– Giuseppe di Lampedusa, Il Gattopardo (via hlewisallways)
“Se vogliamo che tutto rimanga come è, bisogna che tutto cambi.”
— Il Gattopardo, 1958, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
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Dante and Goats En Route to Heaven
Like swift wild goats graze
quick and wild along the peaks
before they eat,
hushed in shadows as the sun burns,
watched by a herdsman leaning on his staff
as he safeguards peace;
and like the shepherd sleeps outdoors,
and spends the night beside his quiet flock,
thwarting the beasts who’d scatter the prey:
We all, we three, were like them at that point,
I like the goat, and they...
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what i learned today: why is a turkey a turkey →
noraleah:
dihard:
Today I learned how turkey got its name, thanks to the newsletter to which I am newly subscribed, Now I Know. Now I Know was recommended to me by a w.i.l.t. reader who sends out a daily dose of something he finds interesting.
So turkey. It’s actually indigenous to the US and Mexico. The bird, considered a delicacy, was brought to Europe via merchants in the East. It...
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“… the structure of Dante’s world, in which only the northern hemisphere is...”
– W.G. Sebald, On the Natural History of Destruction, “The Remorse of the Heart: On Memory and Cruelty in the Work of Peter Weiss”, tr. Anthea Bell, Random House, 2004, p. 189. (via msodradek)
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L i l i u m: Sobre los clásicos →
voxlilium:
“Escasas disciplinas habrá de mayor interés que la etimología; ello se debe a las imprevisibles transformaciones del sentido primitivo de las palabras, a lo largo del tiempo. Dadas tales transformaciones, que pueden lindar con lo paradójico, de nada o de muy poco nos servirá para la aclaración de…
“Few disciplines hold more interest than etymology. This is due to the...
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National Geographic Magazine: My thoughts on... →
nationalgeographicmagazine:
It nearly breaks my heart when I see a beautiful photograph/piece of art on Tumblr that has no source. Not even saying it doesn’t have a “content source” link, but no links or words that indicate who has created the work of art or where to find the original work. I pride myself in linking all…
Excuse me while I adjust my schoolmarm’s glasses and clear my...
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Listen up...
noraleah:
‘Cause I’m only gonna tell you this once.
The best pistachios I’ve ever eaten come from the Dual Specialty Store at 91 1st Ave. between 5th & 6th.* They’re Turkish, smaller and much more intensely flavored than their Californian brethren. The pistachios in, say, Ankara are probably better but the East Village is closer and these are very, very good.
How good?
This good:
*...
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“La música, los estados de felicidad, la mitología, las caras trabajadas por el...”
– Jorge Luis Borges - Otras inquisiciones (1052)
Other inquisitions (1952) Translated by Ruth L. C. Simms
(via voxlilium)
(via ratak-monodosico)
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What Was That You Were Saying? →
psychotherapy:
A wandering mind often stumbles downhill emotionally. People spend nearly half their waking lives thinking about stuff other than what they’re actually doing, and these imaginary rambles frequently feel bad, according to a new study that surveyed volunteers at random times via their iPhones.
People’s minds wander at least 30 percent of the time during all activities except sex,...
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A Short Message (For Reasons That Will Soon Be...
Anybody looking for a brief, convenient definition of stupidity?
After returning to the place where Mrs. Tragos and I are staying in Toronto, I decided to get the blood flowing a little bit. For me, this usually means some jump roping and a few push-ups.
I noticed it was raining outside. And maybe 45 degrees or so. Not so bad.
So I went out into the rain, with no gloves, and did my jump roping,...
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getao:
Arioso: Adagio Cantabile from Henryk...
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L i l i u m: El inmortal - Jorge Luis Borges →
voxlilium:
” (…) La humildad y miseria del troglodita me trajeron a la memoria la imagen de Argos, el viejo perro moribundo de la Odisea. Y así le puse el nombre de Argos y traté de enseñárselo. Fracasé y volví a fracasar. Los arbitrios, el rigor y la obstinación fueron del todo vanos. Inmóvil, con los…
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Friends with cognitive benefits →
You can improve your mental function simply by having conversations…but the tenor of the talking makes a difference. Turns out a friendly conversation helps, but once you turn competitive, the benefits dissolve.
Do you think the same is true on social networking sites?
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“My desire is to speak not about myself but to track down the age, the noise, and...”
– Osip Mandelstam: The Noise of Time (via letatetmoi)
Mandelstam called himself a raznochinets, that curious Russian word; plural, raznochintsy. In poem number 260, Burton Raffel translates it as “middle-class intellectuals,” but no single phrase is altogether adequate. It means literally, “people...
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Shared interests trump friendships in “social... →
There isn’t a silver bullet for monetizing digital news, but if there were, it would likely involve centralization: the creation of a single space where the frenzied aspects of our online lives — information sharing, social networking, exploration, recommendation — live together in one conveniently streamlined platform. A Boston-based startup called Pinyadda wants to be that space: to make news...
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Why Facebook Browsing Annihilates Web Browsing →
soupsoup:
infoneer-pulse:
Recent research suggests that Facebook is overtaking search engines in terms of “time spent” on the web. Want to see where the trendline is heading? Take a look at young female Facebook users, who spend as much as 5 hours on the site per day—and almost no time on the wider web. You’d better get your brand’s Facebook page in order. Here’s how and why.
» via Fast...
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“When the soul speaks, alas, it is no longer the soul that speaks.”
– Friedrich Schiller
(Image by Joseph Cornell)
“Spricht die Seele, so spricht ach! schon die Seele nicht mehr.” Tabulae Votivae, 1796
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Watchnationalgeographicmagazine:
A troop of gigantic hornets wipes out a hive of honey bees in a matter of minutes.
Read more: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/wild/community/blogs/inside-wild/_insect-wars#ixzz13ajgNncc
Do not watch this. By no means should you watch this.
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“I think you will recognise that it was necessary to get rid of Brunetto for two...”
– via
A letter from T.S. Eliot to John Hayward, 27 August 1942, in which Eliot explains the reasons why the identity of the “ghost” who appears in his poem ‘Little Gidding’ was changed from Brunetto Latini (serving an eternity-long sentence for ‘sodomy’ in Dante’s Inferno) to a generic...
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“…those of us who turn in disgust from what we consider an overinflated...”
– From Zadie Smith’s “Generation Why?” reviewing The Social Network, Facebook, and two Zuckerbergs.
Smith makes an interesting move here. She sets Sorkin’s Zuckerberg over and against the real Zuckerberg in order to understand not—as is typical of recent...
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“The world is a higgledy-piggledy place, containing things pleasant and...”
– Bertrand Russell, from The Conquest of Happiness 