Greece at the Beginning of the Peloponnesian War (431 BCE).
Perry-Castañeda Library Historical Atlas by William R. Shepherd http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/
“
The greatest satisfaction you can obtain from life is your pleasure in producing, in your own individual way, something of value to your fellowmen. That is creative living!
When we consider that each of us has only one life to live, isn’t it rather tragic to find men and women, with brains capable of comprehending the stars and the planets, talking about the weather; men and women, with hands capable of creating works of art, using those hands only for routine tasks; men and women, capable of independent thought, using their minds as a bowling-alley for popular ideas; men and women, capable of greatness, wallowing in mediocrity; men and women, capable of self-expression, slowly dying a mental death while they babble the confused monotone of the mob?
” — How to Avoid Work – lovely 1949 guide to doing what you love (via explore-blog)(Source: , via explore-blog)
“Eric Cornell, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001, told Reuters: ‘I attribute essentially all my success to the very large amount of chocolate that I consume. Personally I feel that milk chocolate makes you stupid… dark chocolate is the way to go. It’s one thing if you want a medicine or chemistry Nobel Prize but if you want a physics Nobel Prize it pretty much has got to be dark chocolate.’
But when More or Less contacted him to elaborate on this comment, he changed his tune.
‘I deeply regret the rash remarks I made to the media. We scientists should strive to maintain objective neutrality and refrain from declaring our affiliation either with milk chocolate or with dark chocolate,’ he said.
‘Now I ask that the media kindly respect my family’s privacy in this difficult time.’”
- from an article about a study investigating the correlation between chocolate consumption and winning the Nobel Prize by Franz Messerli of Colombia University
[video]
About suffering they were never wrong,
The old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer’s horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Breughel’s Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.
Discusses various aspects of writing with a group of students.
The crowd in Times Square watching the Curiosity landing. It’s amazing to see so many people come together for such a phenomenal moment.
(via @bluemilker on Twitter)
London’s Chap Olympiad describes itself as a celebration of eccentricity and athletic ineptitude with the emphasis on panache and style over sporting prowess.
Events include:
ironing board surfing:
ironing board surfing again:
umbrella jousting (of course, what else?):
[video]
[video]