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Rumpus Articles
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Morning Coffee
Dan and Stephen are both going to be out of town next week. It’s ok, we’ll make it through this. A little hometown pride: San Francisco turning toxic site into UN Global Warming Center. These things are sort of lame,…
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Some Buildings on the Skyline of the Past
It’s funny how memory works. Budd Schulberg’s death yesterday got me thinking about On the Waterfront and The Harder They Fall, which got me thinking about Hollywood, and Schulberg’s collaboration, when he was 24, with the down-on-his-luck F. Scott Fitzgerald. This…
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The Joys Of Overland Travel
In my opinion, the worst part about travelling is flying. It’s expensive, it’s boring, the food is awful, the people are usually not that interesting, the environmental and financial impact is profound and it takes a long, long time, especially…
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An Agrarian Revolution In Detroit (And Oakland)
“Were I an aspiring farmer in search of fertile land to buy and plow, I would seriously consider moving to Detroit. There is open land, fertile soil, ample water, willing labor, and a desperate demand for decent food. And there…
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“Lying has to be verbal. Do I believe that?”
“Ricky Jay is an actor, bibliophile, historian of magic, arguably the greatest living sleight-of-hand artist, and a master of the art of deception. He seemed to be the perfect person to consult on the relationship between deception and lying. After…
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Random Media Notes
Rupert Murdoch has vowed to charge for all online content. Partial-birther Lou Dobbs brags about support from CNN. HuffPo blogger slams HuffPo for headline: “What were you thinking?” (via Mediabistro) The O’Reilly, Olberman “truce” is in shambles: O’Reilly strikes back.…
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The Cost of a Thing
A couple months ago, we wrote about Matthew Crawford’s book Shop Class as Soulcraft, and around the same time I read another interesting review of the book, by Caleb Crain. (I refrained from posting about it at the time to…
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“Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus”
Bobby McFerrin (yes, as in “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” Bobby McFerrin) demonstrates how the pentatonic scale is hard wired in all of us at the 2009 World Science Festival. (via @karllong)
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Searching the Library of Babel
About six months ago, as I was nearing the end of Jorge Luis Borges’ Selected Non-Fictions, I came across the chapter titled “Prologues to The Library of Babel.” The chapter began with a list of authors whose works were selected…
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Diagnosing the Mad Cat Artist
This week the Rumpus will be in Yorkshire, England. Or at least the triumvirate will be. On exhibit there at the Chris Beetles gallery until September 13 will be the work of “cat artist” Louis Wain, who died in 1939.…
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Morning Coffee
Is your time too valuable to spend doing errands and chores (obviously if you are reading this it is)? Might we suggest “instead men?” “How Is America Going to End?“ The inside scoop from the world’s leading futurologists. Plus “Choose…