Archive for the ‘Link Banana’ category
Visions of Muhammad
It feels a little silly, but I’d never thought much about the similarity between the current heat surrounding images of Muhammad and the idol breaking that played a role both in the “Great schism” and reformation. The logic of the offended believers is similar:
“The prohibition is intended to protect the faithful from that sin [of polytheism]. The fear was that intense reverence for the prophet might if unrestrained cross over into worship. In the 8th and the 9th centuries a general consensus banning such depictions arose among the clerics, but not all Muslims knew of it, paid attention, or obeyed.”
(via Big Contrarian, who also links an internet exhibit of images of the prophet)
Ayn Rand Considered
I’ve never been a Randian, or done much study of the stuff, but I quite enjoyed this review of the author and the merits of her work:
Finally, there was the cult surrounding Rand that developed during the 1960s. Reasoned discourse with Rand became impossible unless you began by accepting her pronouncements about everything—then you could argue the logic of your position. What had been lively back-and-forth explorations of ideas in the early 1950s became sessions at which the students sat at the feet of the master, “shivering, scared children who dared not say the wrong thing lest they incur her wrath,” in the words of John Hospers.
(via ALD)
Why We Do What We Do
Shirky: Right—because television crowded out other forms of social engagement. Look, behavior is motivation filtered through opportunity. So if you see people behaving in new ways, like with Wikipedia and whatnot, it’s very unlikely that their motivations have changed, because human nature doesn’t change that quickly. It’s quite likely that the opportunities have changed.?
The emphasized sentence was a new frame for me. There’s other good stuff is this conversation between Clay Shirkey and Dan Pink, but that sentence was a mini-revelation.
(via Idea of the Day)
No Good News Today
This is a potent point:
One of the themes in my forthcoming book is that there are huge vested interests trying to prevent good news reaching the public. That is to say, in the ruthless free-market struggle that goes on between pressure groups for media attention and funds, nobody likes to have it said that `their’ problem is not urgent and getting worse.
(via Lone Gunman)
Mapping Tourism
The Bechdel Test
To pass, a movie (or any work of fiction, really) has to have three things:
- At least two women
- Who talk to each other
- About something besides a man
The title link is of a site that tests movies against the Bechdel, also an explanatory video and the full story of it’s origin (and name).
(all via Mark Larson)
Sayre’s Law
It’s not perfect, but this one of those things worth noting for posterity:
“In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the stakes at issue”
(indirectly via This column will change your life, which talks about Parkinson’s Law of Triviality)
The Kinds of People There Are
How Humans Spread
I liked this animated map of the spread of paleolithic man, but it probably won’t change your life.
(via Reddit)
Text Playlists
This doesn’t help with my feeling that all I’ve been doing recently is sharing stuff Liz Danzico liked or made, but it’s too good an idea to ignore. Frank Chimero says:
I keep what I perceive to be a more valuable, important morgue file: one made of the best writing on the web I come across. … Most revolve around what it’s like to be making things in 2010, and a lot of the people that I respect the most have pieces in it. It’s almost a pep talk in text form. I visit it when I’m down, when I’m lazy, when I’m feeling the inertia take over.
(via Bobulate, who shares her own playlist)