Woody Guthrie Versus the One Percent
via Big Think by Daniel Honan
100 years ago today [14 July], folk legend Woody Guthrie was born. In the popular imagination, Guthrie tends to epitomize the notion of authenticity. He travelled widely during the years of the Great Depression and wrote songs about migrants living along the Columbia River, dreaming about owning the land they toiled on.
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My excuse to go into You Tube and pick something!
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Psychology is too inward-looking - genes, brains, pharmaceuticals - for answers to our problems. But what about clues to culture and class?... more
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Love vs. Lust (and the Brain)
via Big Think by Kayt Sukel
One of the most common questions I’m asked when I give lectures is how the brain differentiates love and lust. It’s an interesting question – and as most of us have confused love and lust a time or two (or sixteen), it’s an important one. After all, how many of us have been burned by confusing love and lust?
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Top 5 – The World’s Deadliest Flowers
via Flowers...uncut by Sammy T
As we know here are Arena Flowers, blooms are often given as part of emotional gestures between humans. However, some blooms have a darker side. Many may be fooled by their aesthetically pleasing exterior and enchanting fragrance, yet their innocuous charm can hide a deadly secret. Here we count down, in reverse order, some of the flowery world’s deadliest blooms (top tip: don't eat any of the flowers on this list, ever):
5. English Broom or Cytisus Scoparius
Effect on humans: Gastrointestinal distress
Deadly? Yes
Time from ingestion until death: Slow and painful
4. Milkweeds
Effect on humans: Hypothermia
Deadly? Certain species
Time from ingestion until death: One to three days
3. Bloodroot or Sanguinaria Canadensis
Effect on humans: Kills human cells
Deadly? Yes
Time from ingestion until death: Depends on the dosage
2. Atropa Belladonna or Deadly Nightshade
Effect on humans: Hallucinations
Deadly: Yes
Time from ingestion until death: Two hours
1. Aconitum
Effect on humans: Paralysis
Deadly? Yes
Time from ingestion until death: Less than 60 mins
That concludes our list of deadly flowers. If you would like to know which flowers you can eat, head to our Top Ten Edible Flowers post (just PLEASE do NOT confuse the two lists – we take no responsibility if you do!).
There are some pictures of these beautiful flowers here together with a description of the effect that ingestion (or in the case of the aconitum simply touching it) will have on the human body.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Percy Bysshe Shelley had good looks and a belief in his own genius. He also had a knack for inspiring suicide among the women in his life... more
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The New Elitists
via 3quarksdaily by Abbas Raza
Shamus Rahman Khan in the New York Times: You can tell a lot about people by looking at their music collections. Some have narrow tastes, mostly owning single genres like rap or heavy metal. Others are far more eclectic, their collections filled with hip-hop and jazz, country and classical, blues and rock. We often think of such differences as a matter of individual choice and expression. But to a great degree, they are explained by social background. Poorer people are likely to have singular or “limited” tastes. The rich have the most expansive.
We see a similar pattern in other kinds of consumption. Think of the restaurants cherished by very wealthy New Yorkers. Masa, where a meal for two can cost $1,500, is on the list, but so is a cheap Sichuan spot in Queens, a Papaya Dog and a favorite place for a slice. Sociologists have a name for this. Today’s elites are not “highbrow snobs”. They are “cultural omnivores”.
Omnivorousness is part of a much broader trend in the behaviour of our elite, one that embraces diversity. Barriers that were once a mainstay of elite cultural and educational institutions have been demolished. Gone are the quotas that kept Jews out of elite high schools and colleges; inclusion is now the norm. Diverse and populist programming is a mainstay of every museum. Elites seem more likely to confront snobbish exclusion than they are to embrace it.
More here.
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What it Costs to be a Well Dressed Flapper, 1926
via Retronaut by Chris
I tried to work out what the sterling equivalent was in 1926 and then what that would equate to in 2012. Didn’t really get a definite answer but it seemed that you could probably buy a small house, even at today’s prices!
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Go ahead, call Will Self sesquipedalian. He's proud of his affinity for obscure words, and dismayed at the decline of intellectually difficult art...more
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Smoke and Mirrors: 1912
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive - Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave
Toledo, Ohio, circa 1912 “White Star steamer Owana leaving for Detroit”
8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company
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The Case for Certainty
via Big Think by Andrew Cohen
People with deep spiritual conviction – from religious fundamentalists to high Himalayan mystics – possess the greatest existential gift of all: certainty. But these days, it’s not a gift that we find it easy to appreciate. And for good reason.
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