Wednesday, October 31, 2012

WEB BOHEMIAN (Wednesday, October 31, 2012)

(1)- HUMOR -- Humor and rhetoric are inextricably linked to democracy in its most ancient form. But in a democratic system, the subtleties of persuasion are both the game and the field on which it is played.

(2)- LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN -- His intellectual asceticism had a great influence on the philosophers of the English-speaking world. It narrowed the scope of philosophy by excluding ethics and aesthetics.

(3)- THE LITERARY TRANSLATORS & HUMOR -- The received wisdom that you can never translate a joke is worth examining a bit more closely. The trick to translating humor is to abandon the idea of perfect fidelity and…

(4)- THE BRAIN & ART -- Paleontologists link development of modern human cognition to the rise of our ability to express ourselves as artists and historians through cave painting, sculptures, and other prehistoric art.

(5)- WHAT IS THE LEFT? -- Is it losing? Or has it already won? Tim Barker and James Livingston, author of Against Thrift, exchange arguments on the study of history and the past, present, and future of socialism.

(6)- LAMENTING HANDWRITING PAST -- Printing did not harm handwriting, though it gradually replaced the calligraphic uncial and gothic of silent, patient monks in their scriptoria. Consider it a dying art.

(7)- IRA FLATOW -- I’d like to share a few things I’ve learned in my 40 years covering science and technology, and the accompanying politics. First, you can rarely change someone’s mind when it’s already made up.

(8)- COMMUNITY CURRENCY -- Aside from looking cool, community currencies are a grassroots answer to economic uncertainty and the high concentration of wealth amongst a very few.

(9)- PETRA -- The ruins of the ancient city of Petra lay hidden until 1812, when a Swiss explorer stumbled upon them in modern-day Jordan. Two centuries later, new light is shed on how this mysterious culture of spice traders carved a luxurious oasis into the rocks of the desert.

POLITICAL CARTOON

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