Categories
Archives
Recent Comments
- HOW BANKS PREPARED FOR A U.S. DEFAULT. (2)
- GREECE’S ADVANTAGE IN THE CHICKEN GAME. (2)
- Nick: That makes sense. It reminds me of the stories Pater Familias would tell me about how in Boston the person with...
- Dick Weisfelder: Greece seems to me to be playing a game that Karl Deutsch called “underdog.” While one...
- FOOTBALL PLAYERS DELIBERATELY CAUSING CONCUSSIONS? (3)
- Nick: It was my understanding that boxing gloves were to protect the puncher’s hands and not the...
- Dick Weisfelder: Remember the Roman arenas? Bare knuckled boxing? Such injuries were taken as natural and accepted in...
- Mary Jane Schaefer: This isn’t about football. Or even sportsmanship. Well, it is about sportsmanship. But what...
- A 25 % CHANCE OF A EURO DEFAULT? (1)
- Nick: The fact that this has gone on for so long is pretty perplexing. The Economist is referring back to articles it...
- DECIDING WHAT KIND OF PATIENT YOU ARE. (1)
- Dick Weisfelder: One can be very open to new technology, but also risk averse. The recent debates about how to...
- THE EUROZONE—A CHICKEN GAME WHERE EVERY MEMBER CAN BLOW IT UP? (1)
- Mary Jane Schaefer: This is not a matter of chicken. These are all turkeys.
- PLAYING WITH MATCHES NEAR A GASOLINE TANK. (1)
- Mary Jane Schaefer: Why would the French care? As long as they take down Britain?
- NORWAY’S CHRISTMAS BUTTER SHORTAGE. (1)
- Mary Jane Schaefer: Christmas with a butter cookie shortage–in Scandinavia. This isn’t even Scrooge. This...
Meta
Monthly Archives: January 2009
ART WITH BAGGIES.
ART WITH BAGGIES. Bruce Cayard sent me this link to the work of Joshua Allen Harris, which features sculptures made from garbage bags. They are inflated by the exhaust from subways, which also creates motion. One of the appeals for … Continue reading
Posted in art, Uncategorized
Leave a comment
EICHMAN AND HEIDEGGER.
EICHMANN AND HEIDEGGER. Hannah Arendt famously used the phrase “the banality of evil” in the title of her book about Adolf Eichmann’s trial for war crimes, EICHMANN IN JERUSALEM: A REPORT ON THE BANALITY OF EVIL. Eichman claimed that he … Continue reading
Posted in History, Politics
Leave a comment
THE STRANGE LOVE STORY OF HEIDEGGER AND HANNAH ARENDT.
THE STRANGE LOVE STORY OF HEIDEGGER AND HANNAH ARENDT. As Adam Kirsch tells the story in the article I linked to yesterday, Martin Heidegger was Hannah Arendt’s teacher in the twenties and they became lovers. Arendt, who was Jewish, escaped … Continue reading
Posted in History
Leave a comment
PHILOSOPHERS WHO ARE BAD PEOPLE.
PHILOSOPHERS WHO ARE BAD PEOPLE. . Philosophers are thought to have some idea of ethics and of how to live the good life. Reading this article about Hannah Arendt by Adam Kirsch in the January 12 New Yorker reminded me … Continue reading
Posted in Literature
Leave a comment
KITCHEN SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS.
KITCHEN SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS. Annalisa and Lee Bryant sent me this link to a series of experiments exploring what happens when various items are placed in a microwave. It answers some questions I’ve wondered about. I found myself inexplicably saddened by … Continue reading
Posted in Science
Leave a comment
CHRISTINA’S WORLD—A CONCEPT, BUT NOT “CONCEPTUAL ART.”
CHRISTINA’S WORLD—A CONCEPT, BUT NOT “CONCEPTUAL ART.” One of the important trends in contemporary art is conceptual art, which this wikipedia article defines as: “art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic … Continue reading
Posted in art, Uncategorized
1 Comment
ANDREW WYETH AND THE DEATH OF LANDSCAPE.
ANDREW WYETH AND THE DEATH OF LANDSCAPE. This obituary for Andrew Wyeth, who died on January 16, reflects what has happened to landscape and other forms of realistic art. In his comments on Wyeth in the obituary, the dean of … Continue reading
Posted in art, Uncategorized
Leave a comment
TWO SUGGESTIONS AS TO WHY LANDSCAPE IS DEAD.
TWO SUGGESTIONS AS TO WHY LANDSCAPE IS DEAD. This article (link via Arts & Letters Daily) suggests an answer to Jackie Wullschlager’s question about the death of landscape (the question was “Why?”). Theodore Dalrymple gives two reasons for the abandonment … Continue reading
Posted in art, History, Science
Leave a comment
DOES EVOLUTION LEAD US TO LOVE LANDSCAPES?
DOES EVOLUTION LEAD US TO LOVE LANDSCAPES? Jonah Lehrer reviews Dennis Dutton’s new book, THE ART INSTINCT, which argues that our instinct for art and desire for beauty are the result of the evolutionary process. Lehrer describes how Dutton takes … Continue reading
Posted in art, Science
Leave a comment
THE DEATH OF LANDSCAPE?
THE DEATH OF LANDSCAPE? Jackie Wullschlager wrote in this article in the Financial Times that “Landscape in 20th and 21st century art is less than unfashionable – it has dropped off the radar screen. Why?” She notes that in a … Continue reading
Posted in art, History, Uncategorized
4 Comments