[Conflectualism]*˚

Korea = land of LSD trips.

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:21:58 -0400

Korea = land of LSD trips.

Unsolicited Analysis: The Average American

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 06:52:41 -0400

Unsolicited Analysis: The Average American:

We often speak in terms of the average American. This is particularly relevant to financial analysis. Do we know who that is?

The census gives us invaluable insight into household incomes. Your median household income? $67,609. There are 116,783,000 households. Employment of those households…

QWERTY concerto. This is how I imagine newspapers ran in the...

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:01:17 -0400

QWERTY concerto. This is how I imagine newspapers ran in the 1920s.

This sentence contains four words. This sentence contains five words. Exactly one sentence in this...

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 13:30:02 -0400

This sentence contains four words.
This sentence contains five words.
Exactly one sentence in this list is true.

…first you’re annoyed, then you giggle. Gotta love the Futility Closet.

I love art nouveau. LOVE it.

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 13:26:36 -0400

I love art nouveau. LOVE it.

I much prefer this to the alternative: “My goat is in a...

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 13:22:51 -0400

I much prefer this to the alternative: “My goat is in a pen.”

Via

What's your Tumblr's personality?

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 12:19:26 -0400

What's your Tumblr's personality?

fuckyeahowls: ajumptotheleft: omg (via rowan-willow) OH HELL...

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 15:55:00 -0400

fuckyeahowls:

ajumptotheleft:

omg

(via rowan-willow)

OH HELL YES!

Yes, owls are the coolest birds of all time. (via fuckyeahowls)

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 03:36:15 -0400

Yes, owls are the coolest birds of all time.

(via fuckyeahowls)

I am LOVING this Internet meme.

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 03:35:05 -0400

I am LOVING this Internet meme.

More honest movies titles here.

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:01:43 -0400

More honest movies titles here.

The Rise of the Chinese Ghost Town

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 11:00:42 -0400

From the World Bank’s blog:

In February this year, Geoff Dyer wrote an article for the Financial Times, “China: No One Home”, in which he chronicled the eerie emptiness of this new town development near the city of Kunming, in southwestern China. He wrote:“Construction started in 2003 and the results are now apparent in 13 immaculate local government buildings, each clad in marble tiles. A high school boasts an impressive indoor swimming pool and several of the region’s main universities have built large campuses. Pristine high-rise apartment blocks stand in rows, their new windows glinting in the subtropical sun.The one drawback: at the moment, Chenggong is almost completely empty. Its wide streets are all but bereft of traffic, a bank branch has no customers and leaves collect in the foyers of the municipal offices.”In June, I accompanied a World Bank mission to Kunming, where the Bank is supporting the development of a new light rail system. Upon learning that two stations had already been built in Chenggong, my colleagues and I just had to go see for ourselves — just what does a modern Chinese ghost town really look like? Well, here it is.

Click the link to see the photos. It’s apocalyptic.

Apparently I write like David Foster Wallace. Who do you write...

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 08:00:45 -0400

Apparently I write like David Foster Wallace. Who do you write like?

"I believe in compulsory cannibalism. If people were forced to eat what they killed, there would be..."

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 03:41:37 -0400

“I believe in compulsory cannibalism. If people were forced to eat what they killed, there would be no more wars.”

- Abbie Hoffman

"That’s a journalistic trick which you can also apply to literature. If you say that there are..."

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 03:03:12 -0400

“That’s a journalistic trick which you can also apply to literature. If you say that there are elephants flying in the sky, people are not going to believe you. But if you say that there are four hundred and twenty-five elephants in the sky, people will probably believe you.”

- Gabriel García Márquez

Via LaughingSquid.com

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 06:00:19 -0400

Via LaughingSquid.com

#BPfail

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 05:59:18 -0400

#BPfail

There are benefits to an intellectual market with low barriers to entry

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 05:48:23 -0400

There are benefits to an intellectual market with low barriers to entry

thelocococo: (via exhale-smoke, stiffinifty) DYING. What a...

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 02:17:44 -0400

thelocococo:

(via exhale-smoke, stiffinifty)

DYING.

What a sight to see when you’ve got a cup of morning coffee in your hand.

From today's David Brooks article

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 13:48:10 -0400

A worthwhile thought about the advent of Internet reading on our learning curve:

The Internet-versus-books debate is conducted on the supposition that the medium is the message. But sometimes the medium is just the medium. What matters is the way people think about themselves while engaged in the two activities. A person who becomes a citizen of the literary world enters a hierarchical universe. There are classic works of literature at the top and beach reading at the bottom.

A person enters this world as a novice, and slowly studies the works of great writers and scholars. Readers immerse themselves in deep, alternative worlds and hope to gain some lasting wisdom. Respect is paid to the writers who transmit that wisdom.

A citizen of the Internet has a very different experience. The Internet smashes hierarchy and is not marked by deference. Maybe it would be different if it had been invented in Victorian England, but Internet culture is set in contemporary America. Internet culture is egalitarian. The young are more accomplished than the old. The new media is supposedly savvier than the old media. The dominant activity is free-wheeling, disrespectful, antiauthority disputation.

These different cultures foster different types of learning. The great essayist Joseph Epstein once distinguished between being well informed, being hip and being cultivated. The Internet helps you become well informed — knowledgeable about current events, the latest controversies and important trends. The Internet also helps you become hip — to learn about what’s going on, as Epstein writes, “in those lively waters outside the boring mainstream.”

But the literary world is still better at helping you become cultivated, mastering significant things of lasting import. To learn these sorts of things, you have to defer to greater minds than your own. You have to take the time to immerse yourself in a great writer’s world. You have to respect the authority of the teacher.

Right now, the literary world is better at encouraging this kind of identity. The Internet culture may produce better conversationalists, but the literary culture still produces better students.