Recent Blog Posts
Night of the Gun
post a comment | posted 1 week ago
Personal narrative is not simply opening up a vein
and letting the blood flow toward anyone willing to stare.
The historical self is created to keep dissonance at bay
and render the subject palatable in the present.
-David Carr-
Not-So-Recent Blog Posts
Benjamin Barber
post a comment | posted Jul 27
"Capitalism has put democracy in trouble.
Because capitalism has tried to persuade us
that being a private consumer is enough.
That a citizen is nothing more than a consumer.
That voting means spending your dollars spreading
around your private prejudices, your private preferences.
Not reaching public judgments.
Not finding common ground.
Not making decisions about the social consequences of
private judgments, but just making the private judgments.
And letting it fall where it will."
A. Schiller
post a comment | posted Jul 11
Convicted forger A. Schiller was serving time in Sing Sing prison
in the late 1800s when guards found him dead in his cell.
On his body they found seven regular straight pins whose heads
measured the typical 47/1000ths of an inch or 1.17 millimeters
in diameter. Under 500 magnification it was found that the tiny
etchings seen on the heads of the pins were the words to The
Lord's Prayer, which is 65 words and 254 letters long.
Of the seven pins, six were silver and one was gold - the gold pin's
prayer was flawless and a true masterpiece. Schiller had spent the
last 25 years of his life creating the pins, using a tool too small to
be seen by the naked eye. It is estimated that it took 1,863 separate
carving strokes to make it. Schiller went blind because of his artwork.
today in history....
post a comment | posted Jul 4
Jul 4 1054
A supernova suddenly appears in the constellation Taurus.
It is so bright that for the first 23 days it is visible during the day.
Then it gradually fades away, finally disappearing after a year or so.
Today the remnants of this star are the Crab Nebula.