Archive for March, 2004

subtle tools

Saturday, March 27th, 2004

“The world has surely become unhinged, and only violent movements can put it back together. But it may be that among the instruments for doing so, there is one — tiny, fragile — which requires to be wielded delicately.”
Bertolt Brecht, cited by Roland Barthes in Roland Barthes on Roland Barthes

values, laws, culture

Thursday, March 25th, 2004

Is law a greater force than culture?
Law: can be said to transcend activities within society — no matter what your specialization, you are still subject to the law. Culture: can be said to envelop or encompass activities within society.
Culture: varies according to class, career or area of endeavour, geography, ethnicity. Law: one law for everyone [...]

our glorious future

Monday, March 15th, 2004

“Nothing is idiotic if you use your imagination. That’s what being a scientist is all about!”
Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth

stock, page 87

Sunday, March 14th, 2004

Next Friday’s issue of Science, “a respected journal”, has been anticipated for a very long time now. It will continue to be anticipated, as long as next Friday looms before us — the near future, with the promise of novelty-almost-coming-in-to-being, is even more exciting than the new. The new, after all, is only new once. [...]

are nazis people

Tuesday, March 9th, 2004

Nussbaum, 451: “When we see Nazis depicted without disgust, as human beings who share common characteristics with us — whether the emphasis is on the capacity of all human beings for evil or on a universal submissiveness to distorting ideologies — this is alarming, because it requires self-scrutiny, warning us that we might well have [...]

nussbaum should have written a chapter about these fine canadian musicians

Sunday, March 7th, 2004

geddy lee, alex lifeson, neil peart