Above the fold

(via sovietfrequency) Belka and Strelka.

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:20:00 +1000

(via sovietfrequency)

Belka and Strelka.

sovietfrequency: fuckyeahmotherrussia: rispostesenzadomanda: t...

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:09:46 +1000

sovietfrequency:

fuckyeahmotherrussia:

rispostesenzadomanda:

theslyestfox:(via rightclicksaveas)

rocketboom: hotmagma:Daft Punk - Technologic -...

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 11:36:24 +1000

rocketboom:

hotmagma:Daft Punk - Technologic - http://mag.ma/andrew/202721

That’s Justice, not Daft Punk.

"Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars — mere globs of gas atoms. Nothing is..."

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:28:00 +1000

“Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars — mere globs of gas atoms. Nothing is “mere”. I too can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more? The vastness of the heavens stretches my imagination — stuck on this carousel my little eye can catch one-million-year-old light. A vast pattern — of which I am a part… What is the pattern or the meaning or the why? It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little more about it. For far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined it. Why do the poets of the present not speak of it? What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?”

- Richard Feynman.

"There is an eloquence in true enthusiasm."

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:23:29 +1000

“There is an eloquence in true enthusiasm.”

- Edgar Allan Poe (via sleepydumpling)

Well you asked

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:31:00 +1000

natashavc:

blueeyeddevil:

natashavc:

Ask me why Venus spins sideways!

Why does Venus spin sideways?

Because in The Long Ago a meteor or some other huge space object (maybe a moon!) collided with Venus and literally bumped that motherfucker off its axis. So now it spins on its side! Venus also has more volcanos than any other planet! And as our sister planet it will probably be our only ally in the inevitable war against Jupiter.

It doesn’t spin “sideways”, it spins clockwise, so the sun rises in the West and sets in the East. And that retrograde rotation has more to do with tidal locking (the phenomenon that causes objects like the Moon or Mercury to rotate at the same speed as their revolution, thus meaning we only ever see one side of the Moon). The change took place over a long time and wasn’t due to a collision.

Uranus could be said to spin “sideways” because it has such an extreme axial tilt, most likely because of a collision with another body.

"It’s an entire artistic movement of, for, and about the bourgeoisie at a time when everyone in..."

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:17:00 +1000

““It’s an entire artistic movement of, for, and about the bourgeoisie at a time when everyone in America is living anything but the lifestyle of the rich, famous and bored.””

- Did Zach Braff Kill American Music? - Idea of the Day Blog - NYTimes.com (via bowfolk)

If you don’t like this kind of music, it is by no means all that music has to offer these days (despite how Milam makes it seem), and you are by no means required to listen or like it or even appreciate it. If you think it’s boring, you are more than entitled to your opinion. But please, leave off with the those-kids-are-just-a-bunch-of-spoiled-brats-style “analysis.” It’s tired.

(via robot-heart)

The line from the article that interested me the most is here: “But while Tommy NewYorkBigwig used to pimp people’s art from everywhere else, now he’s only invested in the kids down the street.”

It’s an interesting observation, and I think there is something about the sentiment that there is a burgeoning “non-threatening alt” rock market out there for white young people. But what springs to mind when I read that sentence is this: ‘twas ever thus. An establishment that focuses on marketing stuff that is more culturally palatable instead of artistically challenging is nothing new to the music industry; in fact, with very rare exceptions (early punk rock of course being the most striking example), that is the default state of affairs, ever since Elvis de-black-ified any number of great songs. The music industry is a very bourgeois concern and it has always been.

Secondly, as RH points out in full, just because someone is young and white doesn’t mean they can’t feel dislocation, heartbreak, existential angst, and (increasingly in a society that puts such a heavy value on productivity) quiet creative disenfranchisement (which you can call “boredom” if you want), which to me is what artists like the Shins represent.

An Australian just won a gold medal.

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:50:00 +1000

The world is brighter. I can now smell colours and taste imagination.

(In response to this, ripping off this).

"For those of us who believe in physics, this separation between past, present and future is only an..."

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:23:48 +1000

““For those of us who believe in physics, this separation between past, present and future is only an illusion.””

- Albert Einstein (via unburyingthelead)

jhnbrssndn: IMG_0518 (via jhnbrssndn)

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:24:45 +1000

jhnbrssndn:

IMG_0518 (via jhnbrssndn)

robot-heart-politics: complicatedshoes: How did a man that...

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:50:00 +1000

robot-heart-politics:

complicatedshoes:

How did a man that does not understand what it means to be an American get elected President of the United States?

You waste your time on bullshit like this, and you wonder why people think the right is ridiculous?

To be fair they do have a point here - it’s absolutely outrageous that Obama isn’t doing this to the families of 700 Pakistani civilians.

Seriously. 700 civilians? If that many people had died near me where I’m from, the government would be erecting memorials and holding solemn commemorations at the very least. Am I to understand that indiscriminately attacking innocent civilians is “what it means to be an American”?

Love,

A citizen of the world that is overwhelmingly militarily, politically, and economically dominated by your country in a way that puts the 19th century British Empire to shame.

The 100 Most Beautiful Words in English.

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:17:00 +1000

bowfolk:

garconniere:

treeswithleaves:

renco:

somethinglovely:mamillionzillion:songbirds:

Becoming Attractive.
Brood To think alone.
Comely Attractive.
Erstwhile At one time, for a time.
Fetching Pretty.
Forbearance Withholding response to provocation.
Gossamer The finest piece of thread, a spider’s silk.
Inglenook A cozy nook by the hearth.
Lissome Slender and graceful.
Lithe Slender and flexible.
Love Deep affection.
Mondegreen A slip of the ear.
Offing The sea between the horizon and the offshore.
Untoward Unseemly, inappropriate.
Wherewithal The means.
Woebegone Sorrowful, downcast.

so many of these words are french! and i’m sure many others were stolen from other languages. oh english, you’re such a thieving language!

I’ve reblogged to remove all the words that have non-Old-English elements. They should do a list of the “100 most beautiful native English words”.

loljkpics: (via treesandbears)

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 07:12:28 +1000

loljkpics:

(via treesandbears)

fluffynotes: via people.brandeis.edu I love this, but the...

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:34:10 +1000

fluffynotes:

via people.brandeis.edu

I love this, but the first transposition mark should stet; split infinitives are grammatical in Standard English as well as my variety.

I'm seeing "know from" everywhere these days.

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:21:00 +1000

As in: “Call Carl to fix your engine; he knows from cars”.

I can’t recall coming across it much in the past. Where did this phrase originate? Is it old?

"Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek has accused Premier Anna Bligh of being a..."

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:22:00 +1000

“Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek has accused Premier Anna Bligh of being a ‘man-hater’ while she was at university.”

- You’re joking. (Courier-mail)

"In H.R. 3962, the government is requiring at least 21 million Americans to buy private health..."

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:11:00 +1000

“In H.R. 3962, the government is requiring at least 21 million Americans to buy private health insurance”

- Dennis Kucinich, Why I Voted NO | CommonDreams.org

Wait WHAT? WHAT WHAT WHAT

(via nickdouglas

)

I love this man so much. Both because he has the courage of his convictions and because he is a perfect example of we need flexibility in Washington. Nothing would get done if everyone behaved like him. Far too much would get done if no one behaved like him.

(via mikehudack)

The problem with this is the idea that when you have two extremes of perspective, both are equally unreasonable by default. That’s exactly the sort of perspective that the absolute loonbags who get paid by the health insurance lobby to advance their interest profit by.

The fact is that the most radical, most extreme voice in the US Congress on the left is advocating nothing more or less than what would not be out of place in most liberal democracies around the world. Whereas you only have to go very slightly right of the centre position (in Congressional terms) before you’re talking about dictatorships and military coups and death panels and Hitler. If more people were like Kucinich in Congress (ie. clear enough on what the actual problem is - the incredible leverage that private for profit interests wield over the lives and deaths of citizens of the world’s richest state), a much better, much more effective, less cumbersome healthcare bill would have passed long ago. The problem is that people are valuing “centrism” over “objective reality”.

"You’re not supposed to like Betty. She represents a whole section of society that many today still..."

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:03:00 +1000

“You’re not supposed to like Betty. She represents a whole section of society that many today still (ridiculously) get all nostalgic about - “the happy 50’s housewife” - and explicates exactly what a repressive gilded cage those women lived in. Her entire personality has been flattened by the restrictions laid upon her, and she seethes with miserable resentment, and both craves and fears her freedom. It’s easy to judge from the cheap seats 45 years later, when all the work has been done that makes feminine independence seem so unforeign and attainable, but in 1963? It’s no coincidence that the women on the show who are allowed a life of their own are more personable and friendly; Betty exists to make you uncomfortable. She’s there to show you that the idolization of domesticity acts viciously and insidiously upon one’s spirit. The Feminine Mystique comes out around now on the show, and she’s supposed to represent why that book, and the Second Wave, caught on like wildfire in the coming years. If all they showed you was plucky career gals like Joan and Peggy, it would be a mystery as to why that whole “feminism” thing came about.”

- a commenter in the TWoP Mad Men forums (via piquant)

"The richest three people in the world possess a combined fortune greater than the total GDP of the..."

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:00:13 +1000

“The richest three people in the world possess a combined fortune greater than the total GDP of the forty-eight poorest countries in the world put together. Let’s suppose we want to provide the world’s total population with a quantifiable access to nutrition, say 2,700 calories a day, as well as access to drinkable water and basic health resources. This will add up, more or less, to the amount of money that the inhabitants of Europe and the United States spend every year on perfumes.”

- Alain Badiou, The Century

(via unburyingthelead)

(via langer)

"There has been much agonising about teacher training and recruitment. In the “blame the..."

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:17:38 +1000

“

There has been much agonising about teacher training and recruitment. In the “blame the teacher” mentality that seems to rule in the big end of town, the growing inequality of our education system has been partly blamed on the low quality of teachers. Much has been made of their relatively low entry marks for university and the low numbers of men who go into the profession (…)

It seems those who bemoan the quality of teachers have forgotten how you attract anyone to any profession.

The rules are simple:

1. Treat teachers with respect and listen to their perspective.

2. Make sure that there is a clear career path available to teachers as they grow and learn on the job.

3. Give teachers opportunities to increase their skills and continuously gain access to formal professional development.

4. As teachers gain mastery in their practice, give them more autonomy over how they will operate in their classroom - make them accountable but not micro-managed.

5. Protect them from abuse and bullying - from staff, line management, senior management, politicians, media, students or parents.

6. Pay teachers appropriately.

”

- Jane Caro, Teacher who spurns fame the real idol: SMH