crooked indifference: David Foster Wallace Commencement Speech
There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys, how’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What the hell is…
Ahhhhh.
Source: crookedindifference
Vermont first state to ban fracking - CNN.com
I love Vermont.
Source: paxmachina
May 10, 1869, the ceremonial Golden Spike was struck, connecting the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad. The 2000 miles of transcontinental track reduced the overland trip from four to six months to six days.
Photograph of Golden Spike Ceremony at Promontory, Utah, 05/10/1869
Source: research.archives.gov
npr:
My father, world-renowned virtuoso violinist and teacher Roman Totenberg, whose professional career spanned nine decades and four continents, died early Tuesday morning at the age of 101.
His death was as remarkable as his life. He made his debut as a soloist with the Warsaw Philharmonic at age 11, performed his last concert when he was in his mid-90s, and was still teaching, literally, on his deathbed. This week, as word flew around the musical world that he was in renal failure, former students flocked to his home in Newton, Mass., to see the beloved “maestro.”
Mainly, he wanted to hear them play, and several of the sessions turned into long lessons, with my father, eyes closed, conducting with one hand to keep the tempo, slowing the phrasing here and there, and at one point, asking Daniel Han, now a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra, to hand over his violin so my dad could show him some fingering.
Letitia Hom, who has a class of students of her own now, wanted a lesson on the Brahms violin concerto, so on Saturday, she stood at his bedside playing beautifully for him. At one stopping point, though, he spoke so softly, she had to bend her ear to his lips. His words: “The D was flat.”
Solo violinist Mira Wang, who came from China decades ago to study with him, played for hours on Sunday. Every time she would stop, he had just one word: “More.” And still they came, one after another, describing how he had changed their lives. So widespread was the outpouring, that one former student in Poland had to be dissuaded from jumping on a plane to the United States.
He was a caring and wise father not just to us, his three daughters, but to literally thousands of students around the world who had studied with him. I dare say there is not a major orchestra in Europe or the U.S. that does not have at least one student who studied with him. When Wang, who is 40-something with a husband and two children of her own, left our house on Sunday, she said to my brother-in-law Ralph, “Now, I finally have to be a grown-up.”
(via Roman Totenberg’s Remarkable Life And Death by Nina Totenberg)
Photo courtesy of Nina Totenberg
Source: NPR
Sherry Turkle’s TED talk about tech, and why it’s important that we start to re engage with each other:
“The feeling that ‘no one is listening to me’ make us want to spend time with machines that seem to care about us.” (Sherry Turkle)
Love this, wonderful. Thanks @oliverames @swissmiss
Space Shuttle Launch Audio - play LOUD (no music) HD 1080p
Wonderful short video with Discovery’s audio…
(via evangotlib)
Source: youtube.com
[O]ne can never emphasize enough how the U.S., through the policies undertaken in the name of the Terorrist Threat, is principally responsible for sustaining and continuously increasing that threat. In February, Jeremy Schaill returned from Yemen and documented how U.S. drone attacks are the primary source of Al Qaeda’s strength in that country. In March, David Rohde — the former New York Times reporter who was kidnapped and held in Pakistan by the Taliban for seven months — documented how Obama’s “signature strikes” in Pakistan are also “backfiring”:
From Pakistan to Yemen to post-American Iraq, drones often spark deep resentment where they operate. When they do attack, they kill as brutally as any weapon of war. The administration’s practice of classifying the strikes as secret only exacerbates local anger and suspicion. Under Obama, drone strikes have become too frequent, too unilateral, and too much associated with the heavy-handed use of American power.
Rohde also noted: “after promising to make counterterrorism operations more transparent and rein in executive power, Obama has arguably done the opposite, maintaining secrecy and expanding presidential authority.” Last night, in response to this Post article, Yemen expert Gregory Johnsen wrote: “At some point – as the bombs continues to fall – people are going to come to the conclusion that Yemen is under western military attack” and “signature strikes in Yemen could easily expand the war well beyond one the US could ever kill its way out of.” He observed that “signature strikes” are likely to kill far more civilians since “in Yemen just because it has a beard, carries a gun, and talks about Islamic law doesn’t mean its al-Qaeda” and then asked: “If US has been carrying out strikes in Yemen since Dec. 2009 then why does AQAP keep getting stronger?”
Source: mohandasgandhi
The River Arts Center
Yes, we did have the GREAT UP AND OVER, but we didn’t even have to put on a snowshoe!! We totally hiked. (And certainly skiing was a pipe dream) I have to personally thank the 4 kids and 4 adults that made the hike a sweet memory…. and raised some basic funds for GOOD FUN-D. We did have some good fun, and separated in the end into the daredevils and the explorers…. the daredevils jumped the river, oh my! and the explorers negotiated the woods, and found their way out… even though our younger member was convinced we were lost…. we all did end up at the matterhorn. We will be in touch with my Maasai buddies to contribute to their efforts in their school building, and we will have a mountain biking GREAT UP AND OVER this summer, August 11, SO GET READY TO ROCK, I MEAN BIKE (or hike)….
Go Jan! Vermont Author and adventurer Jan Reynolds…
Source: janreynolds
Maryland.
Aw shit
FUCKYEAH, MARYLAND!
Yeah home!
(via evangotlib)
Source: purns
