September 2010
25 posts
This is a news website article about a scientific... →
mrgan:
This paragraph describes the link in cautiously optimistic words, perhaps ending with a personal anecdote or hope that explains my interest in the subject matter.
Calvin College & The New Pornographers
Andy Whitman reflects on the recent kerfluffle where Calvin College cancelled a concert by the (quite good) band The New Pornographers, out of controversy that developed over the name of the band. Here’s his conclusion:
But Christians, of all people, should be willing to look beyond the surface to discover the true meaning. We serve a Lord who, at the most superficial level, was an abject...
“There are two kinds of fear: The Bible talks a lot about fear of God—fear in the...”
– Win Butler
“Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved...”
– Maurice Sendak
More on the IDEO Video
Remember how I wanted to write an essay about the video I posted on “The Future of Books”? Well, that essay hasn’t been written, but a really good one has been:
Information delivery needs innovation, learning needs innovation, playing needs innovation. But books… The IDEO trio is a bad answer to a wrong question. Book reading is a good experience, it’s been...
“The proper response to a stupid technology is to make a better one, just as the...”
– Kevin Kelly (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/magazine/19FOB-WWLN-Kelly-t.html) (via Instapaper)
“Read, read, read, read, read, read, read. Read. Read. Or else you will never...”
– Werner Herzog
The more truth and beauty I glimpse, the more I am poisoned against American culture.
I often get attacked for making generic statements about American Culture or The Modern Church because surely there are good parts and good people in them and how dare I make such an accusation, who do I think I am?
And so, surely it is true, there are good people doing good things in America. And I...
“And he clings to the naïve hope that the legitimate news media will get its act...”
– Jon Stewart, as profiled in NY Mag, articulating a hope that I too have.
After World War II, the Nuremberg Code was put in place to ensure that all studies involving human subjects were ethical and served the purpose of producing scientific knowledge without creating more risk than the results could hope to create. But, this Mother Jones article asks,
But what if a research study is not really aimed at producing genuine scientific knowledge at all? The documents...
“When a project is finished – last week I finished editing this film I shot in...”
– Woody Allen on how he ends up making a film a year.
The Crane Wife 3.
Once I hear this, I’m fully over summer.
(click through to play the song)
Frank Chimero: There is a Horse in the Apple Store →
viafrank:
Since then, John and I have a term called a “tiny pony.” It is a thing that is exceptional that no one, for whatever reason, notices. Or, conversely, it is an exceptional thing that everyone notices, but quickly grows acclimated to despite the brilliance of it all.
Cell phones and the ability to make a phone call to anyone from anywhere is a tiny pony. The instant gratification...
A letter of Van Gogh to his brother Theo, April...
The thing for me is to learn to draw well, to be master of my pencil or my crayon or my brush; this gained, I shall make good things anywhere, and the Borinage is just as picturesque as old Venice, Arabia, Brittany, Normandy, Picardy or Brie.
Wait, perhaps some day you will see that I too am an artist; I do not know what I can do, but I hope I shall be able to make some drawings with something...
Robert Krulwich, of the highly entertaining and thought-provoking podcast RadioLab, is developing a new “Sciencey” blog on NPR. He wants to examine things that make him wonder, cause him to wonder, that are worth wondering about. His purpose, as he puts it:
So, bowing deeply to Lewis Thomas, it seems to me that near the heart of wonder is the simple act of noticing. I plan to pause,...
