what what

Corruption is the responsibility of the user.

Sun, 19 May 2013 11:34:51 +1200

Corruption is the responsibility of the user.

rigor samsa

Sun, 19 May 2013 11:32:53 +1200

n. a kind of psychological exoskeleton that can protect you from pain and contain your anxieties, but always ends up cracking under pressure or hollowed out by time—and will keep growing back again and again, until you develop a more sophisticated emotional structure, held up by a strong and flexible spine, built less like a fortress than a cluster of treehouses.

"The difference is this: a market economy is a valuable and effective tool for organising productive..."

Sun, 19 May 2013 11:29:36 +1200

“The difference is this: a market economy is a valuable and effective tool for organising productive activity. But a market society is a place where everything is up for sale. It’s a way of life in which market values reach into every domain, from family life and personal relations to health, education, criminal justice, military service and civic life. That’s my worry. Market thinking has a hold on the public imagination because markets seem to be a neutral way of deciding ethically fraught questions in public life. But that’s a spurious appeal, I don’t think markets truly are neutral ways of deciding contested questions in public life that involve conflicted values.”

- Michel Sandel

Morozov, Graeber’s “diversity of tactics”, and Technological Justice

Tue, 14 May 2013 21:23:39 +1200

Morozov, Graeber’s “diversity of tactics”, and Technological Justice :

“We’re so far down the rabbit hole that we are doing monumentally terrible acts to both ourselves and the ecosystems that support us, all in the name of technology, progress, economic growth, and a reasonable rate of return. That’s why I’m unwilling to join in the choruses of ‘Morozov is unhinged,’ and ‘Morozov is mentally ill,’ or whatever – at least he’s doing something and not even in a particularly violent way (except in a more abstract, verbally abusive way). He’s still working, I believe, for technological justice and I still think he’s trying to do good.”

David Foster Wallace - This is Water

Sat, 11 May 2013 19:28:07 +1200

David Foster Wallace - This is Water

"I am a frayed and nibbled survivor in a fallen world, and I am getting along. I am aging and eaten..."

Sat, 11 May 2013 19:14:15 +1200

“I am a frayed and nibbled survivor in a fallen world, and I am getting along. I am aging and eaten and have done my share of eating too. I am not washed and beautiful, in control of a shining world in which everything fits, but instead am wandering awed about on a splintered wreck I’ve come to care for, whose gnawed trees breathe a delicate air, whose bloodied and scarred creatures are my dearest companions, and whose beauty beats and shines not in its imperfections but overwhelmingly in spite of them, under the wind-rent clouds, upstream and down.”

- Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

via Literary Jukebox

nevver: Joan Cornellà

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 17:01:32 +1200

nevver:

Joan Cornellà

k-w-lski: Mitch Griffiths

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:57:24 +1200

k-w-lski:

Mitch Griffiths

theanimalblog: Friends. Photo by Scott Cromwell

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:51:49 +1200

theanimalblog:

Friends. Photo by Scott Cromwell

questionableadvice: ~ Seagram’s V.O. Canadian Whisky, 1944via...

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:48:38 +1200

questionableadvice:

~ Seagram’s V.O. Canadian Whisky, 1944
via Flickr

“Your Facsimile Newspaper of Tomorrow!
Ready for you when you wake up, your newspaper of the future will be printed through the night - in tabloid size, on a continuous roll. You will bring yourself up-to-the-minute on the highlights of the news…by seeing what is happening on the television screen of the same machine.”

"In the empirical sciences, almost everything is a matter of weighing evidence; outside of geometry,..."

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 13:52:42 +1200

“In the empirical sciences, almost everything is a matter of weighing evidence; outside of geometry, it is rare for scientists to literally prove anything. Rather, the more typical trajectory is to rule out competing theories, and accumulate more and more evidence in favor of particular hypotheses. At some level, all scientists are agnostics, and not just about religion, but about virtually everything. I can see with my own two eyes that you have two feet, but for most things that most scientists have observed, I allow that the evidence is indirect; I believe in black holes not because I have seen one, but because, ultimately, I trust that the authorities who have most carefully thought about these things have reached a consensus that black holes provide the best available explanation for a wide range of phenomena, about the distribution of stars and quasars and other matter throughout the universe. I always allow that some other data could become available, but I take the combined evidence in favor of black holes to be very strong.”

- Can Science Lead to Faith?

Fair enough.

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 09:04:17 +1200

Fair enough.

"I’m not a big fan of the “he said”-“she said” model of journalism,..."

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 08:35:30 +1200

“

I’m not a big fan of the “he said”-“she said” model of journalism, which often superficially passes as something objective. And I think it can be intellectually dishonest. We’ve certainly seen this with global climate change reporting in which reporters felt that they had to report both sides and would often end up going to industry-funded scientists for the “other” side of the story. The result was that the stories often inaccurately conveyed that the industry’s rather political position against climate change findings carried exactly the same weight as a scientific consensus for them. And the result of that was, I’m afraid, to enable some of the denialism that goes on today.

So I’m not a big fan of the traditional model of “objectivity”. I try to think more about telling an honest story. To me that means doing enough research that you understand what the important points in your story might be. And then - absolutely - providing the reader with the evidence that underscores why you think those points matter.

”

- This, and other excellent story-telling advice, from Deborah Blum.

Tim Wise » Terrorism and Privilege: Understanding the Power of Whiteness

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 16:13:05 +1200

Tim Wise » Terrorism and Privilege: Understanding the Power of Whiteness:

“White privilege is knowing that if the Boston bomber turns out to be white, we will not be asked to denounce him or her, so as to prove our own loyalties to the common national good.

[…]

White privilege is knowing that if you are a white student from Nebraska — as opposed to, say, a student from Saudi Arabia — that no one, and I mean no one would think it important to detain and question you in the wake of a bombing such as the one at the Boston Marathon.

And white privilege is knowing that if this bomber turns out to be white, the United States government will not bomb whatever corn field or mountain town or stale suburb from which said bomber came, just to ensure that others like him or her don’t get any ideas. And if he turns out to be a member of the Irish Republican Army we won’t bomb Belfast. And if he’s an Italian American Catholic we won’t bomb the Vatican.”

Louder Than Words

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 18:53:24 +1200

Louder Than Words:

“In the tenth century BC, the priests of India devised the Brahmodya competition, which would become a model of authentic theological discourse. The object was to find a verbal formula to define the Brahman, the ultimate and inexpressible reality beyond human understanding. The idea was to push language as far as it would go, until participants became aware of the ineffable. The challenger, drawing on his immense erudition, began the process by asking an enigmatic question and his opponents had to reply in a way that was apt but equally inscrutable. The winner was the contestant who reduced the others to silence. In that moment of silence, the Brahman was present - not in the ingenious verbal declarations but in the stunning realisation of the impotence of speech. Nearly all religious traditions have devised their own versions of this exercise. It was not a frustrating experience; the finale can, perhaps, be compared to the moment at the end of the symphony, when there is a full and pregnant beat of silence in the concert hall before the applause begins. The aim of good theology is to help the audience to live for a while in that silence.”

“Compromises should be avoided.” Or, power and...

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 09:04:00 +1200

“Compromises should be avoided.” Or, power and creativity.

Take notes, ladies: “‘Sandwich Girl’ who puts herself in midst...

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 08:58:51 +1200

Take notes, ladies: “‘Sandwich Girl’ who puts herself in midst of crowd of boys is considered a real crumb. Girls will not invite her to hen parties and will try to act cool toward boys who formed sandwich.”

LIFE and teenagers.

( Nina Leen—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

(Pictured: Butler reading a book in 1975) “In order to riseFrom...

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 08:56:33 +1200

_{(Pictured: Butler reading a book in 1975)}

“In order to rise
From its own ashes
A phoenix
First
Must
Burn.”

—Octavia Butler, Parable of the Talents

Tattoo You

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 08:51:02 +1200

Tattoo You

Where are my pencil crayons?

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 08:50:21 +1200

Where are my pencil crayons?