In The Shadow Of The Trylon, New York World’s Fair, 1939, Stanley Rayfield

“Two centuries ago, a former European colony took it into its head to catch up with Europe. It has been so successful that the United States of America has become a monster where the flaws, sickness, and inhumanity of Europe have reached frightening proportions.”

— Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth

Elif Shafak on multiculturalism, the power of stories and making the pol...

Miriam Makeba interview, 1969

Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 – 10 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a Grammy Award winning South African singer and civil rights activist. She actively campaigned against the South African system of apartheid. As a result, the South African government revoked her citizenship and right of return. After the end of apartheid she returned home.

'अमृत' काल में विष

‘अमृत’ काल में विष प्रसन्न कुमार चौधरी 1. हिसाब-किताब की हिंसा सभी समुदाय इतिहास में अपने ऊपर हुए कथित अन्याय-अत्याचार का हिसाब-किताब चुकता करने लगे तो उसका अन्त मानवजाति की सामूहिक तबाही में होगा । इतिहास के विभिन्न कालखण्डों में और अलग-अलग क्षेत्रों में हम इस सामूहिक तबाही का साक्षात् कर चुके हैं, और आज भी कर रहे हैं । हजारो वर्षों के मानवजाति के इतिहास में प्रत्येक मानव-समुदाय के पास अपनी…

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Many highly creative people [display] personal behavior [that] sometimes strikes others as odd. Albert Einstein picked up cigarette butts off the street to get tobacco for his pipe; Howard Hughes spent entire days on a chair in the middle of the supposedly germ-free zone of his Beverly Hills Hotel suite; the composer Robert Schumann believed that his musical compositions were dictated to him by Beethoven and other deceased luminaries from their tombs; and Charles Dickens is said to have fended off imaginary urchins with his umbrella as he walked the streets of London. […] In fact, creativity and eccentricity often go hand in hand, and researchers now believe that both traits may be a result of how the brain filters incoming information. Even in the business world, there is a growing appreciation of the link between creative thinking and unconventional behavior, with increased acceptance of the latter. … In the past few decades psychologists and other scientists have explored the connection using empirically validated measures of both creativity and eccentricity. [The latter is measured] using scales that assess schizotypal personality … which is among a cluster of personality disorders labeled ‘odd or eccentric’ in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. […] A brain-imaging study, done in 2010 by investigators at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, suggests the propensity for both creative insights and schizotypal experiences may result from a specific configuration of neurotransmitter receptors in the brain. Using positron-emission tomography, Örjan de Manzano, Fredrik Ullén and their colleagues examined the density of dopamine D2 receptors in the subcortical region of the thalamus in 14 subjects who were tested for divergent-thinking skills. The results indicate that thalamic D2 receptor densities are diminished in subjects with high divergent-thinking abilities, similar to patterns found in schizophrenic subjects in previous studies. The researchers believe that reduced dopamine binding in the thalamus, found in both creative and schizophrenic subjects, may decrease cognitive filtering and allow more information into conscious awareness.

Fascinating Scientific American article on why creative people tend to be eccentric. For real-life case studies, look no further than the odd habits and eccentric behaviors of famous writers. (via explore-blog)

Egalite for All. Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution (PBS) PBS documentary on Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution.  It was the only successful slave insurrection in history. It grasped the full meaning of French revolutionary ideas — liberté, eqalité, fraternité — and used them to create the world’s first Black republic. It changed the trajectory of colonial economics…and led to America’s acquisition of the Louisiana territory from France. “It” was the Haitian Revolution, a movement that’s been called the true birth moment of universal human rights. Vaguely remembered today, the Haitian Revolution was a hurricane at the turn of the nineteenth century — traumatizing Southern planters and inspiring slaves and abolitionists, worldwide.

Isis, the Mother of Apis

Associated with fertility, generation, and resurrection, the Apis bull was prominent throughout the long history of ancient Egyptian religion. Originally the bull, as all other animals, was revered as the manifestation of certain divine powers and was not itself a deity. Later, however, the Apis was in fact worshiped. Through its connotations of potency and renewal, it was associated with the gods Ptah and Osiris and with royal ritual. Isis, the wife of Osiris, is shown here in her role as mother of Apis. She is identified by her long cow’s horns, distinct from the Apis’s shorter set. This bronze item may have been a finial or fitting for the end of a carrying pole that bore a portable shrine of the Apis.

Medium: Bronze

Place Made: Egypt

Dates: ca. 670-332 B.C.E.

Dynasty: late XXV Dynasty to early XXVI Dynasty

Period: Third Intermediate Period to Late Period

Brooklyn Museum

The Digital is Political

The Digital is Political

The political ideas we have held for centuries are ill-equipped to respond to today’s challenges.

Source: The Digital is Political

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“A long project is like a secret houseguest, hidden in your study, waiting to be fed and visited.”

John Hollander (via theparisreview)