“The Solomon Islander ornaments everything he can, spares no pains about it, and has an excellent eye for proportion.” (J. Barnard Davis, “A Few Notes Upon the Hair, and Some Other Peculiarities of Oceanic Races.” The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 2 [1873]: 98) “I heard the prime minister of [...]
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1931, London. Philip Snowden and Montagu Norman (“two duelling tychomancers“). Sue Rapture (“they want to romance her“).
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La la la la. The difference between an island and a continent is of degree, not of kind. “And is it really an ‘impossibility’ for developing-world living standards to reach the Western level? A century ago, rationalists would have called global consumption of 78 million barrels per day of petroleum an impossibility, and that’s the [...]
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I’m sympathetically disposed towards the author of this article because of the endless hours of amusement Borat has given me over the last few months. But who could have thought up an experiment that involved having infant children look at a mechanical mobile? How can you reasonably draw conclusions about a male preference for systematicity [...]
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And a right worthy cause that is. But why, I wonder, doesn’t anyone ever suggest having an Essentials of Stochastic Finance-athon?
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As long-time readers know, I taught a course last semester called “The Rhetoric of Evolution in America.” This course was organized into three sections, with last two focusing on debates without and within evolutionary theory. As you might expect, in the fomer I taught selections from intelligent designers along with even YECs. One of the [...]
The US television network that recently broadcast a passing glimpse at Janet Jackson’s anatomy was excoriated for its wanton lapse of taste; but the avalanche of accompanying commercials for products designed to enhance male potency passed quite without comment. The female breast, it seems, can rot a nation’s moral core; but malfunctioning penises are wholesome [...]
“It is easier to explain what is meant by economic nationalism in German than English.” Gregory, T.E. “Economic Nationalism.” International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1931-1939) 10. 3 (May 1931): 289. Also, on a different but still fascinating topic, note “the argument that you have to keep agriculture going as a type of economic [...]
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Several folks have commented that the Manu Ginobli’s dunk in overtime last night in the Suns game over Stoudemire and Marion was positively Goodwinian. While not disputing the essence of this claim, I should remind everyone that his dunk a) occurred during a game and b) was executed on a 10-ft. rim. I should also [...]
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Available here. What the hell is that, you may wonder. That’s a very good question, and I’m glad you asked. Here’s a starter article. And here’s a discussion board at the Fortean Times. One and two Metafilter threads. An unfiction forum (site apparently devoted to large-area role-playing games). The most important depository of information about [...]
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The climate here is rather humid, but it must, at the same time, be very healthy, because the people who inhabit the mountains are very healthy and well built. In my opinion, they may be considered the purest type of the race called the Papuan, which, I may say here en passant, has no claims [...]
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From Barb, A.A. “Three Elusive Amulets.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 27 (1964): 3: There are few Graeco-Roman deities of such protean significance as Hermes-Mercurius. He is the divine messenger and the psychopompos as well as the god of business success—both honest and dishonest. When I write my Dan Brown parody, it will [...]
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I love how whenever someone sneezes under a power line, the traffic light at the intersection of Ponce and Clifton starts blinking an ineffectual red, backing traffic up for miles.
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I suspect that everyone with a blog has linked to this astounding Seymour Hersh story, about which I hope to have more to say later, but for right now I will note that I saw Howard Hart, who’s quoted therein, on CSPAN a while ago; and he suggested that the CIA could no longer recruit [...]
Behold! Philosophical works among [the Solipsists] are more or less of this sort: “Does the scarab roll dung into a ball paradigmatically?” “If a mouse urinates in the sea, is there a risk of shipwreck?” “Are mathematical points receptacles for spirits?” “Is a belch an exhalation of the soul?” “Does the barking of a dog [...]
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I was watching a program on Fox News last evening where the CEO of Walmart was being interviewed. He suggested that not all of the company’s critics were motivated by personal gain. Both the host and I sat in stunned silence.
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From the “DNA of Literature” series of digitized Paris Review interviews (and why hasn’t Denis Johnson gotten one of these yet?), I was pleased to read the following from Aldous Huxley: Maybe an immensely gifted artist–someone like Odilon Redon (who probably saw the world like this all the time, anyhow)–maybe such a man could profit [...]
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