Voltaire by Houdon
Hic segetes, illic veniunt felicius uvae;
arborae foetus alibi, atque insuffa virafeunt
Gramina. Non vides, croceos ut Timolus odores,
India mittit ebur, molles fua thura Sabeai?
Ut Chalybes nudi ferrum, virofaque Pontus
Castorea, Eliadum palmas Epirum equaorum?
Here we will use the translation of Abbe Dellisle, of which the elegance is worthy of its difficulty.
Back in December, 2016, the US Government officially punished Russia by closing down their beautiful love-shack on the Chesapeake Bay. [stderr] [Read more…]
Military high explosives are pretty stable, except for when they start to break down. Any of you who’ve read any Derek Lowe [lowe] are aware that most high explosives involve nitrogen and oxygen that want to change state and release lots of energy very fast: the more nitrogen and oxygen, the bigger the bang. It’s never “safe” to work with, though, even the more stable formulations – once the reaction starts, it’s going to finish.
Apparently an artist came up with the idea of making shoes that look like pigeons, in order to get closer to pigeons.
This book is one of the first that I added to my list of recommended reading, for very good reasons. [list]
Today is the day when the nation pauses to say stupid things about the victims of its pointless imperial wars. A small minority of them, actually.
We’ve recently been treated to a round of Sokal-style hoax papers that were declared to invalidate (or at least severely damage) parts of a field, because they were accepted by publications within that field. [pharyngula]
Jean Meslier
We are assured that the dogma of another life is of the greatest importance to the peace of society; it is imagined that without it men would have no motives for doing good. Why do we need terrors and fables to teach any reasonable man how he ought to conduct himself upon earth?
Content Warning: Torture
After this, I am going to stop posting about torture, and resume being my usual fake happy soap-making, nihilist, anarchist, technology strategy-loving self. I promise.
I periodically post this in comments on other blogs when the topic comes up. A lot of Americans are ignorant of the law regarding torture, and are kept that way, deliberately. Let me clear that up a bit for us all.