Friday, February 25, 2022
Its technology is how a society copes with physical reality: how people get and keep and cook food, how they clothe themselves, what their power sources are (animal? human? water? wind? electricity? other?) what they build with and what they build, their medicine - and so on and on.
— Ursula K. Le Guin, "A Rant About "Technology"," via Kelli Anerson's presentation at Multiple Formats
Thursday, February 24, 2022
"The first cultural device was probably a recipient.... Many theorizers feel that the earliest cultural inventions must have been a container to hold gathered products and some kind of sling or net carrier." So says Elizabeth Fisher in Women’s Creation (McGraw-Hill, 1975).
— Ursula K. Le Guin, "The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction"
Wednesday, February 23, 2022
Too many times do I hear a fiber artist talk about their work being about labor because their artwork took a really long time to make. This does not make one’s work about labor. Rather, I argue that oftentimes it is about leisure—that one has the choice to commit a large amount of time to making one’s art.
— Aram Han Sifuentes, "Steps Towards Decolonizing Craft"
Tuesday, February 22, 2022
At the same time, coveting the prestige of a temporary cabinet position, Washburne advanced a bizarre proposal: he wanted to serve briefly as a cabinet secretary so he could forever claim the title... Washburne would hold the post for only five days, leading one senator to wisecrack, “Who ever heard before of a man nominated [as] Secretary of State merely as a compliment?”
— Ron Chernow, Grant
Monday, February 21, 2022
Years ago, I was really stupid: In the book “Arthur’s Thanksgiving,” I put our home phone number in a little illustration of a bulletin board that says “Call Arthur at 749-7978.” Every Thanksgiving, the phone began to ring and ring and ring.
— Marc Brown, "Marc Brown on the End of ‘Arthur’ and His Favorite Fan Theories," The New York Times
Sunday, February 20, 2022
Without the booster data for 18- to 49-year-olds, the outside experts whom federal health agencies look to for advice had to rely on numbers from Israel to make their recommendations on the shots. (After several inquiries from The New York Times about the booster data for that age group, the agency posted it on its website Thursday night.)
Kristen Nordlund, a spokeswoman for the C.D.C., said the agency has been slow to release the different streams of data “because basically, at the end of the day, it’s not yet ready for prime time.” She said the agency’s “priority when gathering any data is to ensure that it’s accurate and actionable.”
Another reason is fear that the information might be misinterpreted, Ms. Nordlund said.
— Apoorva Mandavilli, "The C.D.C. Isn’t Publishing Large Portions of the Covid Data It Collects," The New York Times
Saturday, February 19, 2022
It's all good stuff.
— Henry*
Friday, February 18, 2022
Boy, that was a sick one. Let me write that down. "If their toes are strong enough they will not break."
— Love Island
Thursday, February 17, 2022
It's no more weird than a negative one.
— Donald Thornton on irrational numbers
Wednesday, February 16, 2022
Once Lee had disappeared, Grant's officers stooped to a rapacious frenzy as they snapped up every conceivable memento of the meeting. Wilmer McLean pocketed $20 from Sheridan for the table on which Grant composed the surrender agreement; the next day, Sheridan gave it as a gift to Libbie Custer, wife of George Armstrong Custer, who, legend says, flew off with the prize on horseback... One journalist left a vignette of this crazed hunt for sacred relics: "Cane bottomed chairs were ruthlessly cut to pieces... Haircloth upholstery was cut from chairs, and sofas was [sic] also cut into strips and patches and carried away."
— Ron Chernow, Grant
Tuesday, February 15, 2022
He could not possibly have expressed what he was feeling. For he was introducing the era of precreated experience. His launching was an utterly novel event in American history, and yet he could feel none of its novelty. He could not feel "the awesome power" of the rocket beneath him, as the broadcasters kept referring to it. He could only compare it to the hundreds of rides he had taken on the centrifuge at Johnsville.
— Tom Wolfe, The Right Stuff
Monday, February 14, 2022
His colonoscopy preparation may have helped the bug to escape from digestive enzymes in the stomach and upper small intestine.
— Veysel Tahan, MD, FACP, FACG, FESBGH, Ky-Dieu Tran, MD, Mohamad A. Yousef, MD, Francis E. Dailey, MD, and Suleyman Uraz, MD, "An Unusual Finding of a Ladybug on Screening Colonoscopy," ACG Case Rep J. 2019 Aug; 6(8): e00174.
Sunday, February 13, 2022
Prosecutors say they found evidence that Mr. Lichtenstein and Ms. Morgan were sophisticated criminals, including encrypted devices, false identities and books with secret compartments cut into the pages.
— Image caption, Ali Watkins and Benjamin Weiser, "Inside the Bitcoin Laundering Case That Confounded the Internet," The New York Times
Saturday, February 12, 2022
It exemplifies the craftsmanship lavished on machinery during the late 1800s.
— Descriptive text on the Leavitt-Riedler Pumping Engine at the Metropolitan Waterworks Museum
Friday, February 11, 2022
I’m pretty confident I have the most comprehensive knowledge of pitchers hitting on baseball cards in the world.
— Matt*
Thursday, February 10, 2022
He could no more turn back than time.
— Whitman on Grant via Ron Chernow, Grant
Wednesday, February 9, 2022
I should comment "makes sense since they have no place to store their backpacks"
— Jonathan on #lockergate
Tuesday, February 8, 2022
By adopting the incentives of the algoritihm as our own, what M.S.I. has done is invert the relationships between humans and the technological tools we're meant to use. We have now become a tool used by the algorithm to perpetuate itself. It's not just that the algorithm is nudging us towards sharing more articles or posting more hot takes, we now enforce that logic on one another. The idea that digital silence equals violence is a perfect illustration of this dynamic, becuase it equates the life you share through the algorithm as being equivalent to your material existence. You are what you post, so you can never stop posting.
— Brad Troemel, "THE CULTURE WAR REPORT"
Monday, February 7, 2022
he's doing ok! finishing up his post-doc at upenn in philadelphia and applying to academic jobs/professorships around the country. hoping to visit him next month!
this past week was a bit of a roller coaster for both of us: last tuesday we learned we have four half-siblings, so we've been digesting the news together, slowly. it's been an emotional ride spanning shock, confusion, anger, sadness, excitement, anticipation, and joy.
— @sara.haven Instagram story reply to an ask me anything question "How's your brother doing?"
Sunday, February 6, 2022
The patient should not talk or chew gum for 30 minutes.
— Something Lily was reading
