"…we come astonishingly close to the mystical beliefs of Pythagoras and his followers who attempted to submit all of life to the sovereignty of numbers. Many of our psychologists, sociologists, economists and other latter-day cabalists will have numbers to tell them the truth or they will have nothing. Can you imagine, for example, a modem economist articulating truths about our standard of living by reciting a poem? Or by telling what happened to him during a late-night walk through East St. Louis? Or by offering a series of proverbs and parables, beginning with the saying about a rich man, a camel, and the eye of a needle? The first would be regarded as irrelevant, the second merely anecdotal, the last childish. […] We must remember that Galileo merely said that the language of nature is written in mathematics. He did not say everything is. And even the truth about nature need not be expressed in mathematics. For most of human history, the language of nature has been the language of myth and ritual. These forms, one might add, had the virtues of leaving nature unthreatened and of encouraging the belief that human beings are part of it. It hardly befits a people who stand ready to blow up the planet to praise themselves too vigorously for having found the true way to talk about nature.
—Neil Postman
—from Amusing Ourselves to Death
agnotology / agnatology /ag-nə-TAHL-ə-jee/. noun. The study of cultural ignorance or doubt, particularly relating to scientific research and data. A recent coinage by Robert N. Proctor and Iain Boal combining Latin agnosia (ignorance) + ology (from Latin logy, the study of). See also misology (the fear or hatred of knowledge) and the earlier philosophical area of agnoiology. Thanks, Reader S.
“We need a political agnatology to complement our political epistemologies.” (Robert N. Proctor)
“Agnotology serves as a counterweight to traditional concerns for epistemology, refocusing questions about ”how we know“ to include questions about what we do not know, and why not. Ignorance is often not merely the absence of knowledge but an outcome of cultural and political struggle.” (Londa Schiebinger)
“Another element of agnotology consists in contending that the dismissal of science is supported by public opinion because people have a poor level of education and training.” (ed. Matthias Gross, Linsey McGoey)
I’ve never been a particular fan of his acting, but Hanks sure seems like a good guy… → Tom Hanks is coming out with short fiction anthology revolving around typewriters
The Forked Tongue Map is an interactive graphic that lets you explore—with graphics, video and text—59 endangered languages spoken in Queens, NY (in which there are an astonishing 500+ languages spoken in total).
Library Hand, the Fastidiously Neat Penmanship Style Made for Card Catalogs | Atlas Obscura [before you complain about “another Atlas Obscura link,” read the comments below].
In the longest such study ever conducted, what some might consider common sense is confirmed…our personalities when we are “old” are basically nothing like when we are teens. → Personality Stability From Age 14 to Age 77 Years
Every Noise at Once is an “an algorithmically-generated, readability-adjusted scatter-plot of the musical genre-space.” In other words, a massive, interactive map of musical genres from opera to deep tech house…and seemingly everywhere else.
Turns out, there’s more to the Mall of America than meets the eye. → Writer-in-Residence - Mall of America
Speaking of quintessentially American writing → Walt Whitman’s lost novel The Life and Adventures of Jack Engle found
Today in 1616, Galileo Galilei is officially banned by the Roman Catholic Church from promoting, teaching or defending his heretical view that the Earth orbits the Sun. Officially, he is to “abstain completely from teaching or defending this doctrine and opinion or from discussing it… to abandon completely… the opinion that the sun stands still at the center of the world and the earth moves, and henceforth not to hold, teach, or defend it in any way whatever, either orally or in writing.” Galileo didn’t relent and in 1633 was put on trial for heresy, threatened with torture and finally sentenced to indefinite house arrest, which he remained under until his death in 1642. Pope John Paul II officially “rehabilitated” Galileo in 1992. Fortunately, the Flat Earth Society is still fighting the good fight.
Powerful acting by a favorite in this short piece → Michael K. Williams Asks: Am I Typecast?
Squid speak a unique, undeciphered language using their skin
Reader M. has a gentle complaint: “The Nüshu link would have been more interesting if I hadn’t seen it already because…Atlas Obscura! Doesn’t everyone read their site anyway?” — I do worry about featuring aggregators or other ‘must read’ sites too often. FYI: of 4228 links shared in Katexic Clippings so far, only 21 have been from the rightly venerated Atlas Obscura.
Reader C. is happy: "I was delighted to see George MacDonald Fraser’s words in Katexic. I’m agog each time I discover a friend who hasn’t read any of the deliriously funny Flashman novels.
So is Reader G.: “So much to stir up the imagination with this posting! Loved the WORK, I was not aware of the ‘tjukurpa’ and found the information interesting and curious. What a pity more is not known about it now. I also appreciated the list from other readers of more apocalyptic writing. One of my favorite subjects to indulge in, I’m always looking for good suggestions. Thank you!”
Reader B. knows his post offices: “I had not yet read your entry about Winifred Gallagher tells the story of how The Post Office Created America. Did I not just send you an envelope postmarked from the B. Free Franklin post office? If not, I’ll do it tomorrow. It is the only post office in the USA that does not fly the nation’s flag.”
The same Reader B. muses on willpower: "With regards to this subject, when I think of willpower, I think of Leni Riefenstahl’s propaganda film for Hitler, Triumph of the Will. I then console myself with a quote from Dashiell Hammett’s novelette, This King Business:
“Mentally, he wasn’t a heavy-weight. His revolution was crude stuff. It would get over chiefly because there wasn’t much opposition. He had plenty of will-power, I imagined, but i didn’t put a big number on that. People who haven’t much brains have to develop will-power to get anywhere.”
I welcome comments, suggestions, thoughts, feedback and all manner of what-have-you. Just press ‘Reply’ or email to: clippings@katexic.com.
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