June 2012
67 posts
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“The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the...”
– Albert Einstein, 1930
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“We would be a lot safer if the government would take its money out of science...”
– Kurt Vonnegut, 1970, from our latest issue MAGIC SHOWS
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Talking Death, Magic, and Hoboes with Lapham's...
picadorbookroom:
Lapham’s Quarterly is a journal of big ideas. It takes its lead from Cicero’s observation that “to know our history is to know ourselves” and, with writings from the past, proves “that valuable observations of the human character and predicament don’t become obsolete”. Each issue explores a single theme using archival material, newly commissioned essays, and “history’s...
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“It’s pretty much like the matrix in cinema’s The Matrix, except that we have a...”
– Wonder what it’s like to work for LQ? WONDER NO LONGER.
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“The secret of success is concentrating interest in life, interest in sports and...”
– In 1928, Jackson Pollock’s dad wrote a letter to his son.
The Oldest Recording of a President is.... →
Benjamin Harrison! He was recorded on an Edison wax cylinder around 1889. (via @NYPL_Labs)
Our favorite thing about President Harrison? His pet opossums: Mr. Reciprocity and Mr. Protection.
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“Released on June 7 on iTunes, the new Frankenstein Biblion gives users the...”
– “NYPL Launches Frankenstein Biblion App” from The Library Journal
Try the new Biblion out now for free! It’s fantastic (and we’re not just saying it because we have to because we don’t have to).
(via livefromthenypl)
11 Wars People Forgot to Actually End
Never forget, Berwick-upon-Tweed vs. Russia. Never forget.
mentalflossr:
Thanks to lost paperwork, diplomatic technicalities, or just plain forgetting they had declared war in the first place, many countries remained in a state of war long after the actual fighting had stopped.
1. Roman Republic vs. Carthaginian Republic – 2,134 years
After two Punic wars, Rome decided they needed one more...
Civil War museum seeks help in identifying... →
“The photograph of one girl was found between the bodies of two soldiers — one Union, one Confederate, at Port Royal, Va., 150 years ago this June. The other was retrieved from a slain Union soldier’s haversack in 1865 on a Virginia farm field days before a half-decade of blood-letting would end with a surrender signed not far away at Appomattox. Though photography was in its infancy...
Issac Newton: ACTION HERO →
Hmmm…looks like Sir Issac Newton is getting the Sherlock Holmes / Edgar Allan Poe / Abraham Lincoln treatment.
I mean, we all know that he liked to stick needles in his own eye, but what about in the eyes of his enemies?
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“At sea a fellow comes out. Salt water is like wine, in that respect.”
– Herman Mellville
Today is World Oceans Day
(via penamerican) 