Monday, January 8, 2024
These and all the other artful fictive shades which give to a recited tale the captivating naturalness of an impromptu narration, can be attempted by a book reader, and are attempted, but they are easily detectable as artifice, and although the audience may admire their cleverness and their ingenuity as artifice, they only get at the intellect of the house, they don't get at its heart; and so the reader's success lacks a good deal of being complete.
— Mark Twain, Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 3
Sunday, January 7, 2024
Because at least to me, I don’t think stagnation or slowing down is actually an option. Fundamentally life and the whole system, our whole civilization wants to grow. And there’s just far more cooperation when the system is growing rather than when it’s declining and you have to decide how to split the pie.
— Guillaume Verdon, "Guillaume Verdon: Beff Jezos, E/acc Movement, Physics, Computation & AGI | Lex Fridman Podcast #407"
Saturday, January 6, 2024
In 1928, the New York Daily News enlisted Thomas Howard from the Chicago Tribune to secretly photograph the electrocution of convicted killer Ruth Snyder. Howard made the photo by strapping a pre-focused miniature glass plate camera to his left ankle with a cable release snaking up his pant leg into his pocket.
— @patrickwitty
Friday, January 5, 2024
I know how to do it now. There are nearly 13 million people in the world. I mean, can you imagine that many people? And none of those people is an extra.
— Philip Seymour Hoffman, Synecdoche, New York
Thursday, January 4, 2024
I suppose you have read about this man. I had a chance to hear him make a speach.
— Postcard about Joe Mikulec potmarked Erie, PA Jun 16, 8:30pm, 1908
Wednesday, January 3, 2024
One big difference is that, since I fancy myself a writer, I am trying to avoid, wherever possible, the statistically most common solution.
— Louis Menard, "Is A.I. the Death of I.P.?," The New Yorker
Tuesday, January 2, 2024
Things were real to Alexander. He had his social and political ideas and his gods. He undoubtedly looked upon them as important enough to be permanent. To us these things are little more than names.
— Mark G. McElhinney, "The Broader View," via Mark Twain, Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 3
Monday, January 1, 2024
Rem once told me "gold leaf is a surprisingly economical cladding material."
— @phillipdenny
Sunday, December 31, 2023
Linnaeus himself was fooled into naming non-existent species at least twice. In 1702, a peculiar yellow butterfly collected by William Charlton ended up in the British Museum of Natural History. Charlton's butterfly resembled the common English brimstone butterfly, but had a series of black spots and blue crescents upon its wings. Linnaeus thus gave it the new scientific name "Papilio ecclipsis". Thirty years passed before it was recognized as a forgery.
— "Counterfeit Sepcies" wall text in Monsters and Mermaids: Unraveling Natural History’s Greatest Hoaxes at The Bruce Museum
Saturday, December 30, 2023
It's like a really good screensaver but real life.
— Lily on works in Aki Sasamoto's Point Reflection at the Queens Museum
Friday, December 29, 2023
God doesn't give refunds.
— Lily
Thursday, December 28, 2023
In a century we have produced two hundred and twenty thousand books; not a bathtub-full of them are still alive and marketable.
— Mark Twain, Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2
Wednesday, December 27, 2023
The suit does not include an exact monetary demand. But it says the defendants should be held responsible for “billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages” related to the “unlawful copying and use of The Times’s uniquely valuable works.” It also calls for the companies to destroy any chatbot models and training data that use copyrighted material from The Times.
— Michael M. Grynbaum and Ryan Mac, "The Times Sues OpenAI and Microsoft Over A.I. Use of Copyrighted Work," The New York Times
Tuesday, December 26, 2023
In the future everyone will be famous to 15 people.
— @jerrysaltz
Monday, December 25, 2023
I am careful, I am economical of my time and labor. For my family's sake I've got to be. So I never write 'metropolis' for seven cents, because I can get the same money for 'city.' I never write 'policeman,' because I can get the same price for 'cop.'
— Mark Twain, Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2
Sunday, December 24, 2023
The board, the smaller and more powerful of two governing boards at Harvard, dates back to 1650, making it the oldest corporation in the Western Hemisphere, according to the university.
— Colbi Edmonds, "Who Are the Members of the Harvard Corporation?," The New York Times
Saturday, December 23, 2023
In competition with Henry Ford's Blacksmith Shop which had 4 sides and 4 corners, David Boothe designed this Blacksmith Shop with 44 sides and 44 corners. He offered $5.00 to anyone who found something missing and he never had to pay up. It houses blacksmithing tools.
— Plaque, "BLACKSMITH SHOP circa 1935"
Friday, December 22, 2023
Dr. Gay appeared to borrow exact phrases from the acknowledgments section of another author’s book to thank her mentor and family in the acknowledgments section of her own dissertation.
— Sarah Mervosh, Dana Goldstein, Jennifer Schuessler and Anemona Hartocollis," Debate Over Plagiarism Allegations Against Claudine Gay Adds to Pressures at Harvard," The New York Times
Thursday, December 21, 2023
The joy of the find. Does it ever cease?
— Label in Rutgers Geology Museum
Wednesday, December 20, 2023
I have a defect of a sort which I think is not common; certainly I hope it isn't: it is rare that I can call before my mind's eye the form and face of either friend or enemy.
— Mark Twain, Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2
