God’s own latency
This is from an amazing explanation of the airfoil by Bartosz Ciechanowski – one of many physics / engineering demonstrations on his (highly recommended) website.… Read More »God’s own latency
Art and Culture
Oliver Burkeman on reading, forgetting, and shaping your sensibility
Burkeman, insightful as ever (his third reason is the important one): These days, in the world of productivity and personal development, you can’t throw a… Read More »Oliver Burkeman on reading, forgetting, and shaping your sensibility
Can art corrupt?; or, Changing the subject
Can art corrupt? Well, can art transform us? Is it art if it doesn’t? Is the object art, or is art what happens in the… Read More »Can art corrupt?; or, Changing the subject
Splendour and Horror: Agnes Callard on shopping, Zola, and the birth of consumerism
I hope this snippet makes you go and read the whole thing. In his Theory of the Leisure Class … Thorstein Veblen explains that “conspicuous… Read More »Splendour and Horror: Agnes Callard on shopping, Zola, and the birth of consumerism
Niels Bohr [via Werner Heisenberg] on breaking with Newton and the poetry of atoms
Heisenberg prefaces Physics and Beyond with the note that “needless to say, conversations cannot be reconstructed literally after several decades….” [Niels Bohr, as recalled Heisenberg]:… Read More »Niels Bohr [via Werner Heisenberg] on breaking with Newton and the poetry of atoms
James Carse on culture as art
Not necessarily entirely true, but generative. Since culture is itself a poiesis, all of its participants are poietai—inventors, makers, artists, storytellers, mythologists. They are not,… Read More »James Carse on culture as art
The Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night
The Heroic Vision Over shadowy spires and gleaming towers lay the ghostly darkness and silence that runs before dawn. Into a dim alley, one of… Read More »The Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night
Richard Hamming on working with the door open
… what you consider to be good working conditions may not be good for you. There are many illustrations of this point. For example, working… Read More »Richard Hamming on working with the door open
Walking to the West in the Morning
when I walk to the west in the morningthe sun follows me from behindI walk following my own shadowwhich stretches out in front. me and… Read More »Walking to the West in the Morning
David Fincher on the labour of direction
Despite being one of the most renowned and distinctive film-makers in the business, Fincher is not comfortable with being described as an “auteur”, or even… Read More »David Fincher on the labour of direction