You are here: Home / civilization Because I always do exactly as I am instructed to do, I am sharing this (cough) crappy old book with you today, Mass Formation Psychosis Day. Mass Formation Psychosis is nothing new. (How arrogant we are, thinking that after all these many years we in the 21st century have come up with a new behavior?)
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Just to give you some perspective, in the first picture– looking down into the excavation– I’m standing near the pedestal (second) with the map of the project (third).
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Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. “The United States Postal Service isn’t immune to the effects of the winter storm in Mississippi. “In a news release, the USPS announced that operations at the post offices, including mail delivery and retail
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Yesterday was Day Two of the annual book cleaning project. Day One was the foyer. The foyer does not have the most exciting selection of books, and nothing much changes.1 But I did discover that the back of the Bible that’s on the foyer table, open to something seasonal, has a selection of verses corresponding
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Last evening we watched The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. The Italian post-doc leaves in just one month and this film was on the must watch list. I laughed when I received an email from Mr. Big Food with the subject line: reading before we watch “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” From time to
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“Perhaps it is not generally known that we get the idea of some of our best military maneuvers from the turkey. The deploying of the skirmish-line in advance of an army is one of them. The drum-major of our holiday militia companies is copied exactly from the turkey gobbler; he has the same splendid appearance,
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10/8/2018: Here’s the first of a series from 2013. Bigfoodetc.com was still on the Blogger platform so I’ve cleaned it up a bit. At the time, I captioned this thusly: “No. It’s not an obsession. It’s a mission.” Michael H. Hart’s The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History has good ole’ Christopher Columbus as the ninth most
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Just a reminder, if you are curious to know what Toynbee had to say about Roman History, hit the tip jar so we can explore A Study of History together.
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A Study of History is, by any measure, a stupendous achievement. There is really nothing comparable to it in any other language or society. Even its severest critics, such as Pieter Geyl, remark on its “miraculous learning,” the “wealth of its examples,” “its splendid, full and supple style.” They commend it for the range of disciplines
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I spent the better part of an hour combing through H.L. Mencken’s crappy old book, The American Language: An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States Fourth Edition AND both Supplements searching for an explanation for Z vs. S as in civilization vs. civilisation but could not really find it. Not saying
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“History,” Dr. Durant and his wife once remarked, ”is above all else the creation and recording of the intellectual, moral and aesthetic heritage of mankind; progress is the increasing abundance, use, preservation and transmission of that heritage.” “To those of us who study history not merely as a warning reminder of man’s follies and crimes
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“when it’s leveled and paved?” Something SueK said over in the comments led me to remember this about the Hill Country of Texas. The hills of Cow Gap stood rugged and awesomeBut you have to have fill dirt when you’re building a roadThe hills of Cow Gap man they weathered the agesGot wiped off the
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The state of Western Civilization notwithstanding, today will be even gloriouser than yesterday. Pax vobiscum.
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I noted that I hate casinos– and SueK responded that they are pretty easy to avoid. That’s true, unless your in-laws have invited to to spend the weekend at a casino. Mr. Big Food’s Father & Mr. Big Food’s Mother celebrated 60 years of wedded bliss this past weekend. As they frequently do, they invited
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Sistine Chapel Ceiling: Creation of Adam— Michelangelo Buonarroti 1510 (from Wikiart.org) Michelangelo was born this date in 1475. He began planning the ceiling in 1508. He finished it in 1512. I cannot think of words to describe the work, or the work. Others try: The Creation of Adam is so famous that it is almost
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I was looking for something and came across this. Nice picture. You should check it out. Here’s the somewhat different take on civilized society: A civilized society is one that exhibits the five qualities of truth, beauty, adventure, art and peace. –Alfred North Whitehead
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You may recall I did some hard core serious research on civilization the other day. I learned that engaging in science is a necessary condition for civilization. Everybody knows you can’t do science without math. We like math here on the Farm. In fact, we like math so much that we often do it in
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It’s a busy but quiet Saturday here on the Farm. Mr. Big Food is busy taking a post-lunch nap so as to be well rested for the playoff game later this afternoon. Miss M is … . Not quite sure what busywork engages Miss M– she’s been so busy we’ve hardly seen her! I myself
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