https://twitter.com/naanking/status/1391802359890599937?s=20 Probably the best thing about the Internet is it enables you to get a glimpse of what life is like for people different from you. I rarely have an occasion to contemplate having to wear clothing that isn't functional in the way I want it to be functional, such as having my breasts spill … Continue reading Summer Dresses for People That Wear Bras
Category: lessons
Principles of Democratic Structuring
"Once the movement [grows to the point of needing structure and/or] no longer clings tenaciously to the ideology of "structurelessness," it is free to develop those forms of organization best suited to its healthy functioning. This does not mean that we should go to the other extreme and blindly imitate the traditional forms of organization. … Continue reading Principles of Democratic Structuring
Remembering Boro Mashi
"The neighbors want to know, “Who will give mukhagni?” — only menfolk are allowed to go with the dead to the cremation grounds. Only sons or designated male family members are allowed to light the pyre, mukhagni (adding fire to the mouth of the dead). Women are second-class, not permitted. Women are to bear children … Continue reading Remembering Boro Mashi
Immortality Potions
"Poisoned potions of immortality caused the death of up to seven Chinese emperors – the last less than three centuries ago."-"Death by immortality potion." The Generalist Academy. May 4, 2021. It occurs to me that the modern equivalent of the immortality potion is nutritional supplements, which offers extended or healthier life but are more likely … Continue reading Immortality Potions
Colette
"Colette has won the Academy Award in the category of best documentary short...90-year-old Colette Marin-Catherine confronts her past by visiting the German concentration camp Mittelbau-Dora where her brother was killed. As a young girl, she fought Hitler's Nazis as a member of the French Resistance. For 74 years, she has refused to step foot in … Continue reading Colette
Zuihitsu: 2021-04
Collecting these little ideas has become a major focus. Here's this month's installment. Social media turns life into episodes.When money exchanges hands, something is being bought.Constraints liberate, liberties constrain. —Runar BjarnsonSoftware is eating the world.Never forget that society can go balls-up at any moment.Pleasures deferred can be pleasures foregone."A compromise is an agreement between two … Continue reading Zuihitsu: 2021-04
How to Make Enemies and Influence People
"This essay outlines the characteristics of what I call the ‘totalitarian mindset’. Under certain circumstances, human beings engage in patterns of thinking and behavior that are extremely closed and intolerant of difference and pluralism. These patterns of thinking and behaving lead us towards totalitarian, anti-pluralistic futures. An awareness of how these patterns arise, how individuals … Continue reading How to Make Enemies and Influence People
Imagination as the Path of the Spirit by John O’Donohue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=RkXRaFm33Eg I got about half way through this and wanted to return to it when I could give it my full attention. Figured I'd bookmark it here as a memory aid.
Preferring Pain to High Cognitive Effort
"Cognitive effort is described as aversive, and people will generally avoid it when possible. This aversion to effort is believed to arise from a cost–benefit analysis of the actions available. The comparison of cognitive effort against other primary aversive experiences, however, remains relatively unexplored. Here, we offered participants choices between performing a cognitively demanding task … Continue reading Preferring Pain to High Cognitive Effort
The Star Chamber, Cancel Culture and Living for the Bench
"By all accounts intense and single-minded, Dr. Kariko lives for “the bench” — the spot in the lab where she works. She cares little for fame. “The bench is there, the science is good,” she shrugged in a recent interview. “Who cares?” ......Dr. Kariko’s struggles to stay afloat in academia have a familiar ring to … Continue reading The Star Chamber, Cancel Culture and Living for the Bench
No. 1 Rule: Keep Your Shit to Yourself
"A day before I sent Malcolm the email saying I wanted to break up, I came across a term online: solo polyamory. It described a person who is romantically involved with many people but is not seeking a committed relationship with anyone. What makes this different from casual dating is that they’re not looking for … Continue reading No. 1 Rule: Keep Your Shit to Yourself
Life is a Series of Empty Tombs
On Easter Sunday, several years ago now, the Pastor of the Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago was giving his last homily before he moved on to a new assignment, after years spent at the cathedral. It was a beautiful sermon. I can not hope to replicate it, but I can give you the gist: Each … Continue reading Life is a Series of Empty Tombs
Zuihitsu: 2021-03
Collecting these little ideas has become a major focus. Here's this month's installment. You can’t be what you can’t imagine, and imagination is often limited by our sight, or vision.He who cannot howl will not find his pack.—Charles SimicMost deliberate misinformation from authorities—especially in places that are mid-range in terms of institutional trust and strict … Continue reading Zuihitsu: 2021-03
Our Cults Become Our Culture
"A false theory of culture is worse than a false theory of the heavens. The planets stick to their orbits no matter what we think, but culture becomes what we believe it is. Conditioned by the prophets of data and nostalgia to imagine no further than the evidence of the past, we forget that people … Continue reading Our Cults Become Our Culture
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