The savage ritual of the whipping-block would remind a batch of whimpering children that, though sins against man and God might be forgiven them, a false quantity could only be expiated in tears and blood.
PEG 2.0: Mini-pseudo-théologie de l'"usure" et de l'économie financiarisée
PEG 2.0: Mini-pseudo-théologie de l’“usure” et de l’économie financiarisée
PEG writes clearly and vividly, in French as in English;
PEG’s Frech style is influenced by his fluency in and daily use of English, which has the effect of making it more accessible to a native English speaker;
Having read a good deal of PEG’s writing, I am familiar with his thought, which helps me to anticipate where his arguments are likely to go and read accordingly.
Which seems more likely?
The Castle of Perseverance. Perhaps the earliest stage diagram in English theater, from the wonderful Collation at the Folger Library, curated by the fabulous Sarah Werner.
Conventional wisdom sets up two distinct experiences of Shakespeare’s plays: readers encountering a text, and audiences encountering a performance. The Folger recently acquired a 1995 version of The Tempest by London book artist Sue Doggett that complicates the distinction. Readers of this one-of-a-kind book encounter Shakespeare’s text through Doggett’s artistry, where her choices of paper, lettering, imagery, texture, and color help interpret the selected scenes. The book is not an edition of The Tempest, but rather an artist’s encounter with it, entitled The Tempest, a sketchbook from the play by William Shakespeare. Shelved as ART Vol. d108 (see Hamnet entry), a custom clamshell box hints that something special is inside. (here)
always on
NYT: What’s the solution for being on our phones too much? Brian Chen: I think that people need to recognize that they do have a problem. They need to take control of their digital lifestyle. For example, I have started to turn my phone off when I’m at dinner or a bar with friends so that I can be courteous to them. NYT: Do smartphone makers have a responsibly to solve this problem too? BC:In the book, I do urge manufacturers to be sensitive to the behavior they have enabled with these devices. I ask that these companies make tools that can help people regulate themselves and curb those addictive tendencies. An example: parents should have the ability to disable their kids’ cell phones at dinnertime. NYT: How long do you think it will be before society comes up with digital boundaries? BC: I’m optimistic. I give it maybe two more years before we find the right balance. We’ll start to see more studies about addictions and digital devices in that time too.
The larger story here is about the surprising benefits of negative moods. While sad subjects in this new study underperformed on the creative generation task, previous research has demonstrated that sadness increases creative persistence, allowing subjects to work harder for extended periods of time. (In other words, melancholy is bad in the short-term, but good for the long haul.)Consider a recent paper, “The Dark Side of Creativity,” led by Modupe Akinola. The setup was very c clever: she asked subjects to give a short speech about their dream job. The students were randomly assigned to either a positive or negative feedback condition, in which their speech was greeted with smiles and vertical nods (positive) or frowns and horizontal shakes (negative). After the speech was over, the subjects were given glue, paper and colored felt and told to make a collage using the materials. Professional artists then evaluated each collage according to various metrics of creativity. Not surprisingly, the feedback impacted the mood of the subjects: Those who received smiles during their speeches reported feeling better than before, while frowns had the opposite effect. What’s interesting is what happened next: Subjects in the negative feedback condition created much prettier collages. Their angst led to better art. As Akinola notes, this is largely because the sadness improved their focus, and made them more likely to persist with the creative challenge.
Hey forces of evil — here’s what’s in store for you! (There’s much that’s wonderful at Coventry Cathedral, but this is near the top of my list.)
The New Yorker and Francis Schaeffer - NYTimes.com
The New Yorker and Francis Schaeffer - NYTimes.com
Ross is bringing some crucial facts to the table here, but when considering the fearsome topic of Evangelicals in Politics The New Yorker is not exactly interested in facts. Thanks to people like Kevin Phillips and Jeff Sharlet, most left-leaning journalists are deeply committed to the belief that the major intellectual figures among evangelicals are Schaeffer (who hasn’t been influential in thirty years) and Rushdoony and his ilk (who have never been influential at all).
Tim Cook is not a media guy. He’s not a humanities and liberal arts guy. He’s an engineer, and a businessman, and extraordinarily talented at both. But while he can easily translate between design, engineering, business and product development, he doesn’t have a proven track record translating between technology and the creative industries. In fact, now that Jobs has stepped down, nobody in Apple’s top-level executive team does. That is, at least not anyone with nearly the same force and visibility Jobs was able to bring to bear… .Without a Steve Jobs to drive innovation in those markets, and without someone who’s better than Steve Jobs at anticipating and reacting to the new media markets still emerging, Apple’s going to find that battle very tough to win. Apple needs more than just an advocate for media, creativity and the liberal arts now; it needs a champion. We all do.
Or maybe we could just throw our garbage in here!