In 1960, David Latimer put some compost, water, and plant seeds into a large glass jar and sealed it up. And it’s been growing like that ever since, save for when Latimer opened the bottle to water it in 1972.
The nations will fall. The old kingdoms. The old empires. The governments will fall. There’ll be no more progress, expansion or growth. The gypsies will take what they always took – the rubbish, the ruins, the alms. Nothing else mattered to them. Centuries of thrift and tradition. The gypsies will win. They’ll outlast us. They’ll know how to live. They’ve been practising all these years for the apocalypse.
Andrej Stasiuk, Road to Barbadag
“Friend” and “free” in English, and “Freund” and “frei” in German come from the same Indo-European root, which conveys the idea of a shared power that grows. Being free and having ties was one and the same thing. I am free because I have ties, because I am linked to a reality greater than me.
To the question, “Your idea of happiness?” Marx replied, “To fight.” To the question, “Why do you fight?” we reply that our idea of happiness requires it.
Writing is a vanity, unless it's for the friend. Including the friend one doesn’t know yet.
Life and the city have been broken down into functions, corresponding to “social needs.” The office district, the factory district, the residential district, the spaces for relaxation, the entertainment district, the place where one eats, the place where one works, the place where one cruises, and the car or bus for tying all that together are the result of a prolonged reconfiguration of life that devastated every form of life. It was carried out methodically, for more than a century, by a whole caste of organizers, a whole grey armada of managers. Life and humanity were dissected into a set of needs; then a synthesis of these elements was organized. It doesn’t really matter whether this synthesis was given the name of “socialist planning” or “market planning.” It doesn’t really matter that it resulted in the failure of new towns or the success of trendy districts. The outcome is the same: a desert and existential anemia. Nothing is left of a form of life once it has been partitioned into organs. Conversely, this explains the palpable joy that overflowed the occupied squares of the Puerta del Sol, Tahrir, Gezi or the attraction exerted, despite the infernal muds of the Nantes countryside, by the land occupation at Notre-Dame-des-Landes. It is the joy that attaches to every commune. Suddenly, life ceases being sliced up into connected segments. Sleeping, fighting, eating, taking care of oneself, partying, conspiring, discussing all belong to the same vital movement. Not everything is organized, everything organizes itself. The difference is meaningful. One requires management, the other attention—dispositions that are incompatible in every respect.
From The Invisible Committee's magnificent To Our Friends
ANALOG DRIVING EXPERIENCES ARE NOW A LUXURY FOR WHICH YOU PAY EXTRA. “We have arrived at the tipping point. That moment in time when all things digital has become all things ordinary. Today you’re vastly more likely to tap an app than to nudge a gearshift into the next gear. Ones and zeros mediate most of what we hear, see, and touch. Digital is boring. And now analog is exotic, romantic, and glamorous. Physical, often mechanical, engagement has become a luxury for the rich. . . . As analog experiences become rarer, they develop a mystique: the allure that comes with the difficulty of acquisition. They become glamorous.”
Plus: “Horses were ordinary beasts of burden for centuries. Now they’re, for the most part, the playthings of the wealthy. Same thing.”
City trees reduce daytime heat. But to curb sweltering nights, minimize pavement.
Ravens Spread Negative Emotions to Their Friends, Study Finds Motherboard
5G networks could throw weather forecasting into chaos Grist
Revealed: air pollution may be damaging ‘every organ in the body’ Guardian
City trees reduce daytime heat. But to curb sweltering nights, minimize pavement.
Ravens Spread Negative Emotions to Their Friends, Study Finds Motherboard
5G networks could throw weather forecasting into chaos Grist
Revealed: air pollution may be damaging ‘every organ in the body’ Guardian
Popular books beat an unnovel path to Hollywood
The line between popular novels and film and television is diminishing, according to the latest index of Australia's book reading habits.
In Defense Of Throwing Food On People Current Affairs (UserFriendly). Much kinder and gentler than tarring and feathering!
21st CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Ask Anna: How do I help my boyfriend have an orgasm?
In Defense Of Throwing Food On People Current Affairs (UserFriendly). Much kinder and gentler than tarring and feathering!
21st CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Ask Anna: How do I help my boyfriend have an orgasm?
