August 2009
24 posts
I read on Cioran. I discuss the esthétique and the moral with a French woman. I discuss various aspects of Talmudic interpretation with a scholar. I read a novel about Julian the apostate. I taste local microbrews. I read a few other things. But mostly I code.
“I would argue that most strategic communication problems are not communication...”
– Mike Mullen (via the NYTimes)
“A land without a people for a people without a land” is one of the most...”
– Diana Muir, Middle East Quarterly
“In spite of Bolingbroke and Voltaire, I will insist that the Hebrews have done...”
– John Adams (as quoted by Adam Garfinkle)
Why Google Wave will succeed in spite of itself →
from this site.
“All men will hate you because of me”
– Yeshua
“What we are seeing now in the global economy is a pure liquidity bubble. …...”
– Andy Xie
S reponds to the Edupunks piece:
It’s true the price should be going down, but going to an MIT you are not buying education itself, nor a “quartet”. You are buying a selective name, and the singular purpose of accredited education today is to make an individual more selective to others (usually employers). It does not need to be unique, only selective. This can be...
“The air above Jerusalem is saturated with prayers and dreams.
Like the air...”
– Yehuda Amichai
Fast Company | How Edupunks are Transforming... →
S responds to Enki:
HTML is not an “application platform”. The browser is the application platform - it marries the protocol traffic, document model, Javascript, and display elements in a presentation that appears as HTML. The analogy with graphics and hardware fails for this reason - developers generally do not mess with the browser internals. I think I understand the...
WSJ | Death pangs of traditional telecom →
Yerusalem, a copper in a poor man’s hand placed by our lady of tourism, of pilgrimage. Here I am with everyone And we are all together. A great union of flesh Standing before the shroud. But where is the sacrifice? There is color on my cloak. Gray, dappled, a spot. Syllogisms, Sweeney, and seminal waste mixed with pontifical utterances, anathemas, and calcified drool.
Essence of the Political
I turn to a study of differences between American and Israeli military culture including societal responses to that culture (with a possible comparison to Germany). While an aside difficult to explain from the general trajectory of my studies to date, it appears to me a necessary part of an inquiry into the essence of political union. While ‘sustainability’ as a watchword may be...
Who is this god who hangs from a tree? Whole god-like race pursues its end. A species which returns to dust forever unless a prayer a refrain
The internet came. Too slow, however, to keep up with reading and writing all of the things I usually do. While I wait for a speed upgrade, you must also wait for me.
Brad Setser finishes his run, reflects on blogging vs. other forms of exchange, reminding me how few academic articles I have read lately. My posting may also be reduced in the near future.
Enki | Wave is the new X-Windows →
“I am not sure that all Chinese policy can [b]e characterized as “careful,...”
– Brad Setser
Jerusalem I
To Yehuda Amichai Other is form and formless. I am wearing a hat. I walk down Rabbi Kook street carrying a bed. I was alone between her legs. Alone alone with the Almighty, ever obedient. Desire desire. A choke hold. A broken hand. I believed. And was broken. I do not believe and now I see the brokenness, the sea, the surroundings, the foam.
“So also is there love among the Goyim,” stated as I leave the airport, helped by strangers. Others attempt to cheat me. There has been little preparation. My roomate rises. A a two hour prayer service greets the morning. I have more zeal at the moment for memorizing German romantic poetry than Hebrew script, the word. I wander the city with a non-practicing Russian Jew from Germany....
Holiday in a hospital and hospice; family gathered then dispersed. Fatigue and chaos. Decisions made and unmade. Spoken then entered into web of medical care, where the care administered may not always be that which you want. This is the law.
Beer in Brussels and a conversation about statute destroying Calvinists at the Cathedral. “Good riddance,’ was the opinion of the man preparing...