Letters Remain

Month: September 2008

  • Maps of Great Journeys: From Magellan to Kerouac

    Interactive maps of history’s greatest journeys, with details. Some fictional; others not. There’s Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe, Kerouac’s Sal Paradise traversing the US, Livingstone’s explorations in Africa, and many more. via Kottke

  • Reminiscence and La JetĂ©e

    La JetĂ©e: Next weekend (Saturday 13th, 2pm) my alma mater, Cardiff University, is screening the classic French film La JetĂ©e (The Pier).  This 28-minute, 1960s sci-fi inspired Gilliam’s excellent Twelve Monkeys and has a rather respectable score of 8.3 on IMDB. Come along! Reminiscence: This piece of ‘total theatre’ is inspired by a famous case…

  • Children Can’t Differentiate Between Toys and Nutritional Items

    “Children can’t differentiate between toys and nutritional items” No, it’s not a classic piece of ‘Onion‘ reportage; it’s a quote from Miriam Gruß, a member of the German parliamentary children’s committee, on why the Germans plan on banning Kinder Eggs (are these available in the US?). Charlie Brooker’s characteristically hilarious retort is best placed here.…

  • Harder Choices Matter Less

    Advice on choosing between two difficult choices, from Overcoming Bias. Well
 if you can’t decide between them, they must be around equally appealing, right? Equally balanced pros and cons? So the choice must matter very little – you may as well flip a coin. The alternative is that the pros and cons aren’t equally balanced,…

  • Classic Books of the Ages

    Ryan Holiday asks, What is the ‘classic’ book of the 80s and 90s? Ryan starts by listing the classics from previous eras and decades
 The Scarlet Letter (colonial America) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (slavery) The Red Badge of Courage (sometimes for civil war) The Jungle (turn of the century) All Quiet on the Western…

  • The Ambition Defect

    Scott Adams—the author famous for his Dilbert comic—has an interesting take on ambition: I think ambition is a genetic defect. You can’t have ambition unless you think there is something wrong with the way you are. Ambition is a state of feeling perpetually flawed.

  • Days with My Father

    Phillip Toledano documents his struggle dealing with his father’s dementia following the death of his mother in his touching and beautifully crafted photo-series, Days with My Father. This quote from Shape and Colour says what I’m thinking more eloquently than I ever could. It takes a real artist to know when something is special enough…

  • Top 10 Philosophy Papers of the Year

    Every year The Philosopher’s Annual attempts to pick the ten best philosophy articles of the year. This year’s results are now out and I’ll soon be delving into the archives to peruse the previous 26 volumes. via Mind Hacks

  • Top 10 Online Psychology Experiments

    PsychCentral has compiled a list of the top 10 online psychology experiments. Thoughtfully, the list is of the top 10 long term experiments, meaning that they will be online for a long time to come. Here’s the list, but check PsychCentral’s original as each experiment is described in some depth: You Just Get Me Bad…

  • A List of How-To Sites

    Last month an article appeared in The New York Times Magazine praising how-to websites. Now it’s acting as my personal list of how-to websites, helping teach me everything from Chinese dining etiquette to surviving zombie attacks and plating fettuccine Alfredo. Howcast eHow WonderHowTo Instructables SuTree VideoJug ExpertVillage Get Rid of Things How to Clean Things How…