Alan Jacobs

Sep 9, 2014 ∞

If history matters – and I think it does just like sentiment and family matter – then whatever this place’s shortcomings and mistakes it’s worth recalling that it’s also the country of William Wilberforce and Alan Turing as well as Adam Smith and Thomas Paine. That should count for something. We are different but not separate. I think of it as being like the relationship between Boswell and Johnson. They complement one another. You may even think they complete one another. There’d be a smaller Johnson without Boswell but a lesser Boswell without Johnson. They improved each other.
Most of all, I like that when you get the train to Scotland from London or Peterborough or Newcastle north and you cross the border in the gloaming you feel your heart soar and you cry hurrah and yippee because you know you’re home now without having been abroad. I like that and think it matters. I don’t know if I know why it does or why it suddenly seems so valuable but I know I do. But that’s the Britain I know and like; a place in which I’m always Scottish but also, when it suits, British too. A country where you travel to very different places and still always come home without having been abroad.

Why I am voting No » Alex Massie

Sep 9, 2014 ∞

[gallery] pearl-nautilus:

Emma Kunz (1892 - 1963) - Artist & Researcher - Geometric Visionary
“My art is destined for the 21st Century.” - Emma Kunz

Sep 9, 2014 ∞

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rindertjagersma: Onderwĳsinge in de perspective const | Hondius. The Hague, 1622.

Sep 8, 2014 ∞

If Reddit wants to be thought of as a government, we’ll call it what it is: a failed state, unable to control what happens within its borders. At minimum, Reddit is a kleptocracy that speaks to lofty virtues while profiting from vice. It might be forgivable if we were talking about taxing cigarettes and booze, but we’re not talking about that. What we’re talking about is more like sexual assault, condoned by a state that earns revenue from it. “Reddit doesn’t have much of an interest in banning questionable content,” Wong wrote last year. “‘Family-friendly’ is out, 'edgy’ is in.” Are those the words of a president, or a pimp?

Reddit is a failed state | The Verge. Agreed — But it’s a failed state that thinks of itself as a model and pattern for all other states. That’s the scary part.

Sep 8, 2014 ∞

[gallery] drawingarchitecture: