A timeless quote from Tolstoy: “The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him.”
via Arts and Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Mass-produced images cheapen what they portray. You doubt that? Consider pornography and the corruption of desire... more
The Best Astronomy Websites via Ask Bob Rankin
Attention Stargazers…
If you’re an amateur astronomer, or you just enjoy looking up into the night sky, the Internet is full of resources for you. For the best star pictures, astronomy websites, user groups and telescope reviews, read on.
Harnessing the Tides to Make Electricity via Big Think by Big Think Editors
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via Arts and Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Hugh Trevor-Roper was many things – social climber, political intriguer, intellectual bomb thrower – and in none of them was he ever boring... more
Video of a river rock balancer via Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder
I was in my hometown of Boulder, Colorado over the weekend for a family reunion. On Friday afternoon we had a picnic at Eben G. Fine Park, which is bordered on one side by Boulder Creek. I noticed some stone sculptures coming out of the water and walked over to snap a photo.
I thought they were a permanent fixture, and that the rocks had been cemented together, because they looked impossibly balanced.
But a couple of days later I was looking in the Boulder Daily Camera, and I discovered that the rock sculptures were not cemented together. They had just been placed there earlier in the day by a man named Mike Grab. He has a website with photos of his sculptures, called Gravity Glue.
Video Link
HowStuffWorks
This has to be one of the most fascinating, intriguing and time-wasting Internet resources I have yet to come across!
Love it.
via Arts and Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Think of Winston Churchill, what comes to mind? Jowly war hero, stirring orator, acidic wit. How about father of the British welfare state?… more
Worth taking the time to read every word of this!
The Neuroscience of Success via Big Think by Jason Gots
“Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners.”
Shakespeare’s Othello, I.iii
Admittedly, the messenger quoted above is Shakespeare’s arch-villain Iago. But when the message is right, it’s right. Neuroscience and psychology have identified willpower, largely a co-production …
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Nice work if you can get it via Prospero by P.W. | CAMBRIDGE
It is small – it’s a ring, after all. It is also surprising and breathtaking. The purity of the stone and the shield-like shape that forms its front give the sapphire ring the kind of cool elegance that can be reproduced in photographs. But its hot halo of shooting blue, purple and pink lights is visible only in person. The entire ring is carved from a single, unbroken hunk of the precious gem (pictured). There is nothing quite like it anywhere. Made in 1400, the ring is the earliest of the 60 treasures on view in “Splendour and Power” which just opened at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.
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