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Classical Wisdom
How To Eat: An Ancient Guide to Healthy Living Registration *NOW* Open
7 months ago
Patterns in Humanity
Immigration and crime: Norway Are immigrants overrepresented in crime in Norway? And why?
7 months ago
Flashbak
How John Steinbeck Harnessed Desire and Self-Doubt To Write The Grapes of Wrath “This is the longest diary I ever kept. Not a diary of course but an attempt to map the actual...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
“This is the longest diary I ever kept. Not a diary of course but an attempt to map the actual working days and hours of a novel. If a day is skipped it will show glaringly on this record and there will be some reason given for the slip.” – John Steinbeck, Working Days, The …...
Open Culture
Revisit Pop-Up Video: The VH1 Series That Reinvented Music Videos & Pop Culture In the eighties, people lamented the attention-span-shortening “MTV-ization” of visual culture. By...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
In the eighties, people lamented the attention-span-shortening “MTV-ization” of visual culture. By the mid-nineties, networks were trying to figure out how to get viewers to sit through music videos at all. A solution arrived in the form of Pop-Up Video, a program pitched by...
Res Obscura
The leading AI models are now very good historians Three case studies with GPT-4o, o1, and Claude Sonnet 3.5, and what they mean
7 months ago
Wrong Side of...
Wandsworth Prison Blues It's certain that fine women eat/A crazy salad with their meat
7 months ago
Trying to Understand...
The Sword Is Mightier... ...than the pen. In Ukraine anyway.
7 months ago
Open Culture
Watch 950 Weather Reports Presented by David Lynch, Straight from His Los Angeles Home Los Angeles is hardly a city known for its varied weather, but if one lives there long enough, one...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
Los Angeles is hardly a city known for its varied weather, but if one lives there long enough, one does become highly attuned to its many subtleties. (Granted, some of the local phenomena involved, like the notorious Santa Ana winds, can produce far-from-subtle effects.) The late...
Hidden History
The 1968 Utah Sheep Kill In 1968, a malfunctioning nerve gas test at the Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah killed several...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
In 1968, a malfunctioning nerve gas test at the Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah killed several thousand sheep and provoked an outcry. In March 1968, researchers at the Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah were scheduled to perform three experiments involving a lethal nerve gas known as...
Open Culture
The Story of How Quentin Tarantino Became a Filmmaker and Created Pulp Fiction, as Told by Quentin... For a film, explained a young Quentin Tarantino in one interview, “the real test of time isn’t the...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
For a film, explained a young Quentin Tarantino in one interview, “the real test of time isn’t the Friday that it opens. It’s how the film is thought of thirty years from now.” It just so happens that Pulp Fiction, which made Tarantino the most celebrated director in America...
Flashbak
Momoyogusa (A World of Things) by Kamisaka Sekka (1909-1910) Kamisaka Sekka (Japanese 1866 – 1942) produced his woodblock print masterpiece Momoyogusa (A World...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
Kamisaka Sekka (Japanese 1866 – 1942) produced his woodblock print masterpiece Momoyogusa (A World of Things) between 1909 and 1910. The three-volume set of 60 images, commissioned by the publishing firm Unsōdō of Kyoto, borrows its name from the eighth-century poetic text...
Open Culture
Download a 417-Megapixel Panorama of the Andromeda Galaxy—A Decade-Long NASA Project in the Making Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have created a majestic 417-megapixel panorama of the...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have created a majestic 417-megapixel panorama of the Andromeda galaxy, located some 2.5 million light-years away from our planet. Taking more than a decade to complete, the photomosaic captures 200 million stars, which is only a...
Overcoming Bias
Gender Norms Are Complex, Opaque Wondering how to make clear our cultural drift problem, it occurred to me that historical fiction,...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
Wondering how to make clear our cultural drift problem, it occurred to me that historical fiction, especially using time travel, could make vivid how key norms and values have actually changed greatly over time, and not always in obviously good ways.
Classical Wisdom
Martin Luther King and LOVE How Dr. King was inspired by the Classics...
7 months ago
Open Culture
Why David Lynch’s Dune Went Wrong: A Comparison with Denis Villeneuve’s Hit Adaptation Denis Villeneuve’s recent film adaptation of Dune is generally considered to be superior to the late...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
Denis Villeneuve’s recent film adaptation of Dune is generally considered to be superior to the late David Lynch’s, from 1984 — though even according to many of Lynch’s fans, it could hardly have been worse. In a 1996 piece for Premiere magazine, David Foster Wallace described...
Wrong Side of...
The Worst Year Ever The Year of the Plague #1
7 months ago
CrimethInc.
Reports from the Festivals of Resistance / Day of the Forest Defender January 18 is the Day of the Forest Defender, honoring the life of Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán, who...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
January 18 is the Day of the Forest Defender, honoring the life of Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán, who was murdered by Georgia State Troopers two years ago while protesting the construction of Cop City in Atlanta, and everyone else who has given their lives in the fight against those...
Classical Wisdom
Weekend Roundup The MUST-READ Classics
7 months ago
African History...
The forts and castles of Africa: a brief architectural history. For much of African history, the construction of fortresses and fortified structures was a mostly...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
For much of African history, the construction of fortresses and fortified structures was a mostly urban phenomenon associated with large states.
Flashbak
People of London’s Maida Vale the 1970s and early 1980s Bristol Gardens runs between Formosa Street and Clifton Villas and in London’s Maida Vale. Artist...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
Bristol Gardens runs between Formosa Street and Clifton Villas and in London’s Maida Vale. Artist and photographer Sheila Burnett has not longed moved to the area when she began to take pictures of the people who lived and worked there.     In the 1970s, Sheila arrived in London...
Overcoming Bias
Beware Shared Basic Value Changes Most of our activities can be seen as nested plans, to achieve nested goals.
7 months ago
Flashbak
Watch The Alphabet, David Lynch’s horrific 1968 short, “There’s a connection between music, film, painting, writing, everything, you’re into, the more...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
“There’s a connection between music, film, painting, writing, everything, you’re into, the more they’re going to help each other” – David Lynch     David Lynch’s 1968 short The Alphabet was inspired by his first wife Peggy’s niece reciting her ABCs during a nightmare then waking...
Dreams of Space -...
The Eager Beaver Space Book (1962) As I keep digging in my collection I have found Space Beavers! This was a promotional comic book...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
As I keep digging in my collection I have found Space Beavers! This was a promotional comic book from Cities Service gasoline. It probably was a give-away with purchase. It reflects the early 60s where the Mercury launches had taken place and we were looking ahead to the future....
A Collection of...
Collections: On the Gracchi, Part I: Tiberius Gracchus This week, we’re going to talk a bit about the brothers Tiberius (trib. 133) and Gaius (trib. 123-2)...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
This week, we’re going to talk a bit about the brothers Tiberius (trib. 133) and Gaius (trib. 123-2) Gracchus, the famous Roman reformers of the late second century. There’s actually a fair bit to say about both of them, so we’re going to split this treatment over two weeks,...
Classical Wisdom
The First Greek Philosopher Beyond Mythology
7 months ago
Flashbak
The Handwriting of 12 Famous Authors “My spelling is Wobbly. It’s good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places.”...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
“My spelling is Wobbly. It’s good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places.” ― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh   In The Handwriting of 12 Famous Authors we look at writers who communicated in long hand, and sometimes wrote their books in the same manner. For...
Wrong Side of...
Britain is institutionally 'anti-racist' The road from Macpherson to Rotherham
7 months ago
Open Culture
The Creative Genius of David Lynch (RIP): Discover His Films, Music Videos, Cartoons, Commercials,... Image by Sasha Kargaltsev via Wikimedia Commons As every cinephile has by now heard, and lamented,...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
Image by Sasha Kargaltsev via Wikimedia Commons As every cinephile has by now heard, and lamented, we’ve just lost a great American filmmaker. From Eraserhead to Blue Velvet to Mulholland Drive to Inland Empire, David Lynch’s features will surely continue to bewilder and inspire...
Overcoming Bias
What Would Socrates Do? Christians often ask themselves, as a guide to living, “What would Jesus do?” In her new book Open...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
Christians often ask themselves, as a guide to living, “What would Jesus do?” In her new book Open Socrates, my podcast-cohost Agnes Callard suggests we instead ask “What would Socrates do?”
Flashbak
Cynthia The Celebrity Mannequin (1932) Cynthia was a mannequin who looked remarkably human, in a sort of unusual way before extreme...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
Cynthia was a mannequin who looked remarkably human, in a sort of unusual way before extreme cosmetic surgery became a fashion choice. Created in 1932 by sculptor and retail display designer Lester Gaba (1907-1987) for Saks Fifth Avenue, New York, Cynthia caused a stir.     When...
Open Culture
Freddie Mercury & David Bowie’s Isolated Vocals for Queen’s “Under Pressure” (1981) In the summer of 1981, the British band Queen was recording tracks for their tenth studio album, Hot...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
In the summer of 1981, the British band Queen was recording tracks for their tenth studio album, Hot Space, at Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland. As it happened, David Bowie had scheduled time at the same studio to record the title song for the movie Cat People. Before...
Res Obscura
2,000-year-old wine and the uncanny immediacy of the past Why artifacts like the Carmona Wine Urn, the Pazyryk Rug, and the Sword of Goujian are so important
7 months ago
Wrong Side of...
The Terrible Loneliness of Genius The Canon Club: Vincent van Gogh
7 months ago
Trying to Understand...
When Ukraine Is Over ... How will they turn out the lights?
7 months ago
Open Culture
Watch Bob Ross’ The Joy of Painting from Start to Finish: Every Episode from 31 Seasons in... Bob Ross the man died nearly thirty years ago, but Bob Ross the archetypal TV painter has never been...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
Bob Ross the man died nearly thirty years ago, but Bob Ross the archetypal TV painter has never been more widely known. “With his distinctive hair, gentle voice, and signature expressions such as ‘happy little trees,’ he’s an enduring icon,” writes Michael J. Mooney in an...
Classical Wisdom
[Last Chance] The Essential Greeks Starting TOMORROW - January 15th, 2025
7 months ago
Flashbak
A Kodachrome Trip To Lord Howe Island in 1961 in 1961, a groud of freinds took a flight to Lord Howe Island, an irregularly crescent-shaped...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
in 1961, a groud of freinds took a flight to Lord Howe Island, an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, part of the Australian state of New South Wales. Many decades later the album of kodachrome photos they took were...
Hidden History
The Marco Polo Bridge Incident For Europeans, the Second World War started on September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland. For...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
For Europeans, the Second World War started on September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland. For the United States, it began with the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. But for Asians, the war began on June 7, 1937, at the Marco Polo Bridge in China. The Second...
Open Culture
Watch Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo and Gertie the Dinosaur, and Witness the Birth of Modern Animation... “Considering that, in a cartoon, anything can happen that the mind can imagine, the comics have...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
“Considering that, in a cartoon, anything can happen that the mind can imagine, the comics have generally depicted pretty mundane worlds,” writes Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson. “Sure, there have been talking animals, a few spaceships and whatnot, but the comics have...
Classical Wisdom
How To Beat Brain Rot Combat the Word of the Year
8 months ago
Flashbak
Der Struwwelpeter: Heinrich Hoffmann’s Deadly Book For Naughty Children Just look at him! There he stands, With his nasty hair and hands. See! His nails are never cut; They...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
Just look at him! There he stands, With his nasty hair and hands. See! His nails are never cut; They are grim’d as black as soot; And the sloven, I declare, Never once has combed his hair; Anything to me is sweeter Than to see this Struwwelpeter. – Der Struwwelpeter (Shaggy-Peter...
Open Culture
Everything You Need to Know About Saturday Night Live: A Deep Dive into Every Season of the Iconic... Saturday Night Live began its 50th season last fall, around the same time as the premiere of Jason...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
Saturday Night Live began its 50th season last fall, around the same time as the premiere of Jason Reitman’s film Saturday Night, which dramatizes the program’s 1975 debut. All of this has put fans into something of a retrospective mood, especially if they happen to have been...
Wrong Side of...
Britain's Chernobyl? How bad will the fallout be?
8 months ago
African History...
A complete history of the Sudano-Sahelian architecture of west Africa: from antiquity to the 20th... The westernmost region of Africa which forms the watershed of the great rivers of the Senegal, the...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
The westernmost region of Africa which forms the watershed of the great rivers of the Senegal, the Volta and the Niger, is home to one of the world's oldest surviving building traditions, called the ‘Sudano-Sahelian’ architecture.
Flashbak
A Trip To Butlin’s In 1982 ‘Our true intent is all for your delight’… – Butlin’s holiday camp motto     Photographer Barry...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
‘Our true intent is all for your delight’… – Butlin’s holiday camp motto     Photographer Barry Lewis takes us on a holiday to Butlin’s Skegness in 1982. This was first ever Billy Butlin holiday camp. It opened at Skegness in 1936 – and still exists today. Lewis had worked for...
Classical Wisdom
Weekend Roundup Stoicism and Buddhism
8 months ago
Flashbak
Far Out Images from Johann Zahn’s Oculus Artificialis (1685) “A complete treatment of the construction and use of lensed optical instruments. Presented in three...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
“A complete treatment of the construction and use of lensed optical instruments. Presented in three fundamentals, that is, bases: the physical, the mathematical, and the practical or mechanical” – Oculus Artificialis Teledioptricus sive Telescopium     The German student of light...
A Collection of...
Fireside Friday, January 10, 2025 Hey folks, Fireside this week! I’m currently working on a post “On the Gracchi” taking a somewhat...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
Hey folks, Fireside this week! I’m currently working on a post “On the Gracchi” taking a somewhat darker look at everyone’s favorite Roman reformers (though hardly the same black takedowns Alexander and Cleopatra got) , which will hopefully be ready for next week. Before we dive...
Overcoming Bias
Toward More Direct Signals As I’ve attributed a large fraction of human behaviors to signaling incentives, I feel I should...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
As I’ve attributed a large fraction of human behaviors to signaling incentives, I feel I should address a key signaling question, about which I was recently reminded.
Classical Wisdom
Secrets of the Odyssey Homer's Homecoming
8 months ago