Uncategorized Archives

Culture is to society as style is to the individual

An answer to the sterile ends of pure utility and the cold-heartedness of a survival mindset.

Relearning how to think according to David Foster Wallace

I have come gradually to understand that the liberal arts cliché about “teaching you how to think” is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea:

Do you remember when we talked about…?

Now Greif does not grieve as much as I about the warning sign he nailed onto the hedonist storeroom of memories that live rent-free in my mind. He insists this habit of happiness-by-experience results in “a life of permanent dissatisfaction and a compulsion to frenetic activity.”

The past woven into the present

Our lives are made up of so many people who become parts of our lives and like lines from your favorite book, some parts of them remain long after they leave. And in the same exact way, it’s comforting to know there are so many lives you’re still a part of that you have noContinue reading “The past woven into the present”

How to lose a nuclear weapon

Over the course of the Cold War, the United States lost nuclear materials and weapons all. the. time. There’s even a term that refers to the loss of a nuclear weapon: “Broken Arrow.” How, you might ask while you’re sipping your scalding morning coffee, does anyone lose something so important? Well, chances are, that you’dContinue reading “How to lose a nuclear weapon”

Do you know about the nuclear exercise “Snowball” or Снежок?

In the days after, Soviet scientists’ reports detailed the impact of the nuclear blast on everything: vegetation, animals, shelters, vehicles, houses. And a small part on human lives.

Oak Ridge’s radioactive mist

Swim naked in the local lake with Oak Ridge native Megan Fox, the mist caressing both of their faces would be radioactive.

Yeltsin’s close nuclear call

It’s January 25, 1995 and you’re President Boris Yeltsin activating the “nuclear briefcase”.

Billy Collins on the arbitrary distinction between revision and writing

And when I revise, I’m writing, aren’t I?

Carry on: an epitaph to a bag

Epitaph to a bag with a face.

Pythagoras and Hepatia

Pythagoras vs. beans and Hepatia vs oyster shells.

Weeklinks – Edition 3

This week’s links on creativity, social media, distractions, tips on writing and drawing, art, Lady Lilith, and Max Ernst. PLUS! Unusual inspiration for unusual times.

Sunday Showcase: Expansion by Paige Bradley

The Sunday Showcase, not to be confused with “The Sunday Scaries”, literally zooms in on a piece of artwork and shares videos and/or quotes from the artist.

Happy Birthday Lou Doillon

Life is a very challenging project.

Merriam-Webster’s Words of the Day Quiz for August

11 new words, brought to you by Merriam-Webster

Harvest

It’s harvest and I ask for more time without pressure.

Vespers (End of August)

selective focus photography of red fruits

And some things have the nerve to be getting started…

Yordi As Seen By Yordi: #1 in an interview series

This is the first “interview” (it’s very short, only a few quotes from each conversation) with friends and family members who are Deaf. My 25 year-old brother, Yordi, is using photography as a way to escape from his three other roommates, not counting the kitten and the Dalmatian, all of which are Deaf, except forContinue reading “Yordi As Seen By Yordi: #1 in an interview series”

What I love is blue

What I love about you is blue.

Weather to vaccinate, or not.

Whether the weather weathers the whether.

The Marriage of Romeo & Juliet by Death (1967-1975) by Salvador Dali

The Great Mathematician Paul Erdős on Possessions and Coffee

Between scientific conferences, universities, and the homes of colleagues all over the world.

Van Morrison’s Into the Mystic

Now hear the sailors cry

The only difference between the Surrealists and me is that I am a Surrealist – Salvador Dalí

The Temptation of St. Anthony (detail), 1946 Oil on Canvas, 89.5 x 119.5 cm (35 1/4 x 47 in.) Brussels, Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique

Henry Miller on the mystery of attention

Indescribably magnificent

What Charles Bukowski didn’t say

Charles Bukowski didn’t say you should find what you love and let it kill you.

Daniel J. Levitin on Organization: Chapter 1

Categorize to save yourself.

If you inherently long

Become it first.

All of Life is Practice

All of life is practice.

August 29 News Download: Pacific Light Undersea Cable

A data pitstop on the way to China.

Don Draper’s Brand

Change the conversation and you control the brand.

Fear and Circumstance in Las Vegas

I came home to a cat, her white paws delicately dancing past the typewriter, mine. Tucked inside the typewriter was a sheet, long dead, with the words I wrote by hand: “Place yourself in circumstances of want, and ask yourself, “is this what I fear?”

Wages in Cuba and a quote from my former Professor of Latin American Politics

Cuba announces increase in wages as part of economic reform by Associated Press Thursday, June 27th 2019 The beginning: “Every Cuban has the right to a salary increase,” said Dariel Tejeda, a 28-year-old tour guide. “The country and all the state workers have needed this for a long time.” and the end: Ending the dual-currencyContinue reading “Wages in Cuba and a quote from my former Professor of Latin American Politics”

The Gallery Inn

San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Frame control on why gun control is political in the U.S.A

You were on your own.

I’ve decided on Tolstoy’s Decision Making Matrix

You’re never at the beginning of some event.

How do the Chinese get calcium when they barely eat dairy?

What to eat after giving birth. Oh, and also your calcium intake.

I’m alright. Sometimes I’m wrong.

Why didn’t I learn this number, earlier? Why do I still know nothing about anything?

Nuclear incidents in the 1950s

Excerpts below from the Nuclear Files Org. Update on 4/27/2021: inexplicably, this link is broken. I can access other decades, but for some reason I cannot pull the file on nuclear accidents in the 1950s from the archived nuclearfiles.org 13 February 1950U.S.A., Pacific Ocean- A B-36 which developed serious mechanical difficulties on a simulated combatContinue reading “Nuclear incidents in the 1950s”