Blumer argued that public opinion does not exist absent its measurement. Pollsters created it. "Public opinion consists of what public opinion polls poll."
— Jill Lepore, These Truths: A History of the United States
(The car dealer, in mid-transaction, wonders aloud how he can stand here telling me all of these lies, and I respond to his honesty with a renewed burst of trust and end up buying the car.)
— George Saunders, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
Orange cake.
— Emily
"Upton was beaten" Whitaker later said, "because he had written books." The Los Angeles Times began running on its front page, a box with an Upton Sinclair quotation in it, a practice the paper continued every day for six weeks right up to election day.
— Jill Lepore, These Truths: A History of the United States
It looks fake. That's how you know it's real... The images are too lame to be fake.
— Elon Musk, "The Joe Rogan Experience #1609 - Elon Musk"
With enough money and with the tools of mass communication, deployed efficiency, the propagandist can turn a political majority into a truth... Efficiency could not solve this problem, efficiency was part of the problem.
— Jill Lepore, These Truths: A History of the United States
The first lesson was that you're really not peanalized for making below average posts, and that sometimes the things you think are below average, people turn out to really like, so you might as well just post everything as frequently as possible in the hopes that something takes off and you can gain a few new followers.
— Brad Troemel, "13 Years at The Intersection of Art and Technology"
Their hands over their ears and their mouths wide open, to blunt the force of the shock wave.
— Jill Lepore, These Truths: A History of the United States
Tampa Bay has the same initials as Tom Brady.
— David
The former president is considering launching his own social media platform in the not-too-distant future.
— Matthew Boyle, "Exclusive – Adviser: Trump Considers Launching His Own Social Media Platform," Breitbart
But the delegation had pledge to keep their deliberations secret—for a term of fifty years—a pledge that worked in favor of men like Madison. And within the hall, it allowed for a full and frank airing of views.
— Jill Lepore, These Truths: A History of the United States
Into the footnotes, which I've kept clipped and short, like a baby's fingernails.
— Jill Lepore, These Truths: A History of the United States
It's not really in my wheelhouse.
— Lily on the Cuban Missile Crisis
The only things that can ever be universal, in a sense, are scaling things.
— James Gleick, Chaos: Making a New Science
Infinite length in a finite space.
— James Gleick, Chaos: Making a New Science
It just goes to show--be careful what you put out into the world.
— David on Lily still practicing tapping her fingers together with each hand one finger off
To Mandelbrot, art that satisfies lacks scale, in the sense that it contains important elements at all sizes... A Beaux-Arts paragon like the Paris Opera has no scale because it has every scale.
— James Gleick, Chaos: Making a New Science
If one scientist announces that a thing is probably true, and another demonstrates it with rigor, which one has done more to advance science? Is the naming of a conjecture an act of discovery or is it just a cold-blooded staking of a claim?
— James Gleick, Chaos: Making a New Science
i like to free associate and ask ben random 'would you rather' questions and today i asked
"would you rather be chrissy teigen, or me"
and he said chrissy teigen
— @lilyhadabird
"If it has a sign that has a menu with a speaker that you talk into, a window whre you give your money to a person, and a window where you pik up food." - Liz Diller, on what makes a building Architecture
— @dank.lloyd.wright