lever

the blue danube waltz

via youtube.com

Posted via email from flavourcountry

at the taco bell drive-thru

via youtube.com

little honda

the geometry of pasta

from a review of the geometry of pasta:

[Included in this book are recipes detailing] the ingredients needed for over 200 sauce preparations that run the gamut from obscure (Lumace alla Lumache, or Snails with Snails) to the near pedestrian, like Frankfurters and Fontina, a recommended pairing with the wheel shaped Rotelline, "a complex, arguably uninspired shape that was only possible with the advancement of the pasta industries mechanization," an advancement that was apparently "much lauded by the Fascists."

via feasting never stops

a tolerable existence

on which, also see this.

individuals and the species

Men are to be viewed as the organs of their century, which operate mainly unconsciously.

goethe, maxims and reflections #957

what i did this weekend

the people at the environmental studies program at lake forest are real nice. the fragment up there is a piece of the forma urbis romae, a giant marble map of ancient rome. the presentation is here.

chicago, il

portland, me

boston, ma

falsehoods, lies, prevarications

the flavour of tea

ritual, sweet tooth "la orquidea." apparently, a single shot gibraltar at hirise is now known as a vaughn.

when desks are too high

we take a hacksaw to their legs. an hour later, the desk is finally at the correct height for me (25.75"). it feels great.

use

To show how a fact is useful is not to explain how it was created or why it is as it is. The uses it serves presuppose the specific properties characterising it, but do not create them. The need we have of things cannot give them their specific nature, or cause them to come into being. It is to causes of another sort that they owe their existence. The idea we have of their utility may indeed motivate us to put these forces to work and to elicit from them their characteristic effects, but it will not enable us to produce these effects out of nothing. This proposition is evident so long as it is a question only of material, or even psychological, phenomena. It would be equally undisputed in sociology if social facts, because of their extreme intangibility, did not—mistakenly—appear to us without all intrinsic reality.

emile durkheim, the rules of sociological method

twitternet

this, apparently, is my twitter network. [thx tali]

spring may be imminent

the sense of dissonance

Dissonance
(if you are interested)
leads to discovery

william carlos williams, paterson iv

[found in the sense of dissonance, courtesy of the pragmatism reading group]

the sky

coffee club

archaeology

less, but better

more of us must learn the art of living better with less that lasts longer.

vitsœ

madison, nh

the big time

they take simple things and make them special … extraordinary even. in this instance, a few moments during your day when you can sit down to a slice of cake and a little nip of madeira. isn’t that the good life?

[thx bferry]

flat objects

a man for all seasons

To a customer, a custom frame can mean 'I pay you money and you let me design the bike,' but that's not what custom means here. We've turned down 'custom' orders when it's meant all we do is collect the money and facilitate the customer's own design. It can be seen as not customer-friendly, but in the end it means I know that every custom has the qualities I value and a certain amount of integrity. If you stand for something and are committed to it, then you dilute it if you introduce something that's less pure or hard-core.

grant petersen, rivendell (thx 37signals)

chaos vs complexity

Chaos deals with situations such as turbulence that rapidly become highly disordered and unmanageable. On the other hand, complexity deals with systems composed of many interacting agents. While complex systems may be hard to predict, they may also have a good deal of structure and permit improvement by thoughtful intervention.

robert axelrod and michael cohen

inside

Artists have always focused on their passions. The Greeks created images of the body, the Egyptians of their Pharaohs, the medieval painters of the Crucifixion, and the Impressionists of nature, color, and light. Modern artists do this, too, but their passions are no longer external. In this age we care about what is inside us.

jackson pollock

also see: arthur ganson, on getting the idea out of the head and into the world; and lawrence weschler, reporting robert irwin and frank stella.

a just balance

Fortunate indeed, is the man who takes exactly the right measure of himself, and holds a just balance between what he can acquire and what he can use.

peter mere latham

mutatoes

168 non-standard tomatoes, by uli westphal.