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Fri, 25 Jan 2013 09:20:14 +0100

“Whether you understand it or not, those characters, those...

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 14:40:06 +0100

“Whether you understand it or not, those characters, those lines, those curves throw open the horizon all the way to eternity in your brain.” (via Turkish Airlines)

"the number of U.S. adults who die from too much medicine is now higher than the number who die for..."

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 19:49:20 +0100

“the number of U.S. adults who die from too much medicine is now higher than the number who die for lack of it”

- Forget the Placebo Effect: It’s the ‘Care Effect’ That Matters | Wired Opinion | Wired.com

100 million sadhu on the Ganges this week!

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 18:26:40 +0100

100 million sadhu on the Ganges this week!

This is what it looks like when galaxies collide!

Sun, 13 Jan 2013 11:29:43 +0100

This is what it looks like when galaxies collide!

"House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) assailed the fiscal-cliff legislation today, calling..."

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 09:02:33 +0100

“House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) assailed the fiscal-cliff legislation today, calling it “a classic example of putting 98.5 per cent of the American people ahead of the rest of the country.””

- Republicans Apologize to Top 1.5 Per Cent : The New Yorker

"Self-help is steeped in “that painful, self-congratulatory aspect that American success has. It’s..."

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 12:20:00 +0100

“Self-help is steeped in “that painful, self-congratulatory aspect that American success has. It’s not enough to be successful, you get to take full individual credit for it,” as if no one had helped you along the way. “Our indebtedness to each other is erased in this literature,” McGee says.”

- The Paperback Quest for Joy by Laura Vanderkam, City Journal Autumn 2012

"We have economic fear combined with everybody joined together on these instant twitchy social..."

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 16:48:51 +0100

“We have economic fear combined with everybody joined together on these instant twitchy social networks which are designed to create mass action. What does it sound like to you? It sounds to me like the prequel to potential social catastrophe. I’d rather take the risk of being wrong than not be talking about that.””

- What Turned Jaron Lanier Against the Web? | Arts & Culture | Smithsonian Magazine

"Before being monopolized by a single person working in tandem with a corporation, Monopoly had in..."

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 16:22:34 +0100

“Before being monopolized by a single person working in tandem with a corporation, Monopoly had in fact been “invented” by many people—not just Magie and the Raifords but also the unknown player who gave the game its moniker and the unsung Ardenite who had perhaps aided Magie in advancing its rules. The game that today stresses the ruthlessness of the individual and defines victory as the impoverishment of others was the product of communal labor.”

- Monopoly Is Theft | Harper’s Magazine

"A study from the Brookings Institute says that it will soon be within the reach of the government..."

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 21:11:17 +0100

“A study from the Brookings Institute says that it will soon be within the reach of the government — and other organizations — to keep a digital record everything that everyone in the country says or does, and the NSA is clearly on the cutting edge of large-scale data storage.”

- 7 Technologies That Will Make It Easier for the Next President to Hunt and Kill You | Danger Room | Wired.com

"Very little of the inter-group hatred we observe in the world today is based on knowledge of the..."

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 11:32:21 +0100

“Very little of the inter-group hatred we observe in the world today is based on knowledge of the enemy as real people. And the groups with which we identify are made up, for the most part, of people we’ll never meet. Still, we haven’t forgotten our prehistoric ways of being bound together in groups. In times of desperation, we remember it best: for example, when the guns of a dictator are turned against us.”

- Harvey Whitehouse – On ritual

"No show has captured China’s heart the way the Super Girl Contest has. When it debuted in 2004, few..."

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 14:14:35 +0200

“No show has captured China’s heart the way the Super Girl Contest has. When it debuted in 2004, few would have predicted that the all-female American Idol knockoff would draw 400 million viewers. But while the Chinese people couldn’t get enough of the show, the Chinese government viewed it as a threat. The most popular contestants wore Western-style clothes and gave emotional performances that flew in the face of China’s usual stoicism. What really scared the government, however, was how viewers chose the winner by text message. In a nation where citizens have no say in who will lead them, that sort of exposure to the democratic process seemed dangerous.Government mandarins led by culture minister Liu Zhongde blasted the show as “poison for our youth.” And even after regulators stripped the program of its text voting, the venom continued. “We can’t have working people reveling all day in low culture,” Liu said.This being China, you can probably guess how the story ends. Government censors gave the show the ax following the 2011 season finale. Still, Super Girl managed to give China a real taste of democracy. Not even Simon Cowell could find fault there.”

- The 25 Most Powerful TV Shows of the Last 25 Years - Mental Floss

“The Koch political machine is the most elaborate, comprehensive...

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 11:30:13 +0200

“The Koch political machine is the most elaborate, comprehensive financial dip into American politics since Standard Oil and the robber barons a century ago,” said Larry Jacobs, a political scientist at the University of Minnesota. “This is the 21st century version of how you buy yourself a government in America.” Their motive, Jacobs suspects, is wealth. “The rest of this may well be the means to an end.” (via The Kochs’ quest to save America | McClatchy)

allmesopotamia: The Calendar as a Meme: A Brief History of...

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 17:53:45 +0200

allmesopotamia:

The Calendar as a Meme: A Brief History of Timekeeping

“

Any calendar system that uses the phases of the moon to track the months but also attempts to reconcile those months with the cycle of the seasons is called a luni-solar calendar. The Babylonians adopted one such system. A new month was determined by the first sighting of the crescent moon in the western sky — a practice that continues in Muslim nations to this day (notice how many Muslim nations feature the crescent moon on their flag). To keep the months in step with the solar year, the Babylonians employed a cycle in which seven 13-month years alternated with 12 years of just 12 months. The result was a 19-year cycle known as the Metonic cycle, after the Greek astronomer Meton of Athens, who lived in the fifth century B.C. (Meton discovered that 235 lunar months amount to almost exactly the same interval as 19 solar years; a calendar based on this cycle would deviate from the true solar year by just 1 day every 219 years.) Beginning in the second millennium B.C., the extra month would be added — “intercalated” — following either the sixth month (Ululu) or the twelfth month (Addaru) of the Babylonian calendar. We have a record dating from the nineteenth century B.C. of King Hammurabi’s decree on just such an adjustment:

This year has an additional month. The coming month should be designated as the second month Ululu, and wherever the annual tax has been ordered to be brought in to Babylon on the 24th of the month of Tashritu it should now be brought to Babylon on the 24th of the second month of Ululu.”

"A bicycle made almost entirely of cardboard has the potential to change transportation habits from..."

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 14:39:00 +0200

“A bicycle made almost entirely of cardboard has the potential to change transportation habits from the world’s most congested cities to the poorest reaches of Africa, its Israeli inventor says.”

- Cardboard bicycle can change the world, says Israeli inventor - Yahoo! News

"Imagine an authoritarian nation where everyone has a phone running a government-customized version..."

Sun, 14 Oct 2012 01:05:35 +0200

“Imagine an authoritarian nation where everyone has a phone running a government-customized version of Android — indeed, is required to have one, because every phone is an eye and ear of the national surveillance network.”

- Selling Software That Kills | TechCrunch

"In 2010, Hungary was clearly demanding a dramatic change. However, in exchange for two years of..."

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 12:03:09 +0200

“In 2010, Hungary was clearly demanding a dramatic change. However, in exchange for two years of sweeping reforms and stringent cutbacks, they have not said goodbye to hard times, merely their right to demand better.”

- “Hungary is being held hostage by an outdated tyrant”

"We have been informed that we cannot have two bottles of the same spirit open behind the bar and..."

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 11:35:45 +0200

““We have been informed that we cannot have two bottles of the same spirit open behind the bar and that we cannot have alcohol in the kitchen area, even though we use whisky for cooking”, explained Zsuzsanna. “We weren’t even aware of the law that prevents bars having two bottles of the same spirit open and ready to serve. For us that seems like a business decision that helps improve customer service. We don’t see why this would be illegal.””

- Update: Caledonia Budapest Expat Pub Faces Shocking Closure - Xpatloop.com - Expat Life In Budapest, Hungary - Entertainment

It is now being suggested that the above… thing somewhere out in...

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 08:57:54 +0200

It is now being suggested that the above… thing somewhere out in Zugló (District XIV) is the ugliest house in Budapest. Meanwhile, in a musty basement somewhere a cowardly racist comment troll lifts his stubby hands from the keyboard and pauses in ecstasy at the prospect of now informing us that that house was obviously built by Gypsies. (via Budapest Now So Rich Our Peasants Have Mega-Mansions - Pestiside.hu)

"What does it feel like to have a billion users? It feels like an honor. We get the honor of building..."

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 07:55:08 +0200

“What does it feel like to have a billion users? It feels like an honor. We get the honor of building things that a billion people use. I mean, there’s no core need. It isn’t a core human need to use Facebook. It’s a core human need to stay connected with the people you care about.”

- Coca Cola, McDonald’s, and… Facebook