revenge of the chirophobic
finally managed to see the final installment of star wars (“uh, well, ahem, actually, the film in theaters now is technically the third installment, you most likely saw the ‘final’ way back in” -fuck you) and it was enjoyable. while sitting there in the theater, mid lightsaber battle, i had an epiphany about this epic which changed my conception of it completely and suddenly cast a new light on the proceedings. what dawned on me was this: george lucas has a raging, shivering in the corner, sweating and whimpering case of chirophobia.
what is chirophobia you ask? well, it is a rare medical condition characterized by the fear of hands.
People suffering from chirophobia will experience some or all of the following to different degrees:
-a deep sense of physical revulsion at the sight thumbs.
-energy drying up at the thought of fingernails
-dry mouth upon seeing meaty fingertips
-abnormal emotional reactions upon passing a palm reader’s or glove store.
-palpitations on seeing or even imagining knuckle hair
-a crippling sense of helplessness on seeing a wrist and in extreme cases even emotional paralysis at the sight of a forearm.
-crying
-a bit of jowliness
having now seen this epic through and in such having noticed the mind boggling amount of hands chopped off, the conclusion seems obvious. star wars was a decades long document of lucas’ battle with chirophobia. all that hand chopping lucas visited on his creations was a cry for help. it all fits.
after some research i’ve found that this true, secret, wellspring of the star wars mythology has been hidden in plain sight all this time. one need only glance over the list of jedi fighting techniques to see a pattern forming…
Cho mai- The term cho mai is used to describe the action of cutting off an opponent’s weapon hand. This move shows that the Jedi using it has the honor to cause the opponent minimal physical damage; it also shows the skill and mastery of the Jedi performing the move to the opponent.
Cho mak- A cho mak is the act of cutting off an opponent’s limb.
Cho sun- The term cho sun is used to describe the move used to cut off an opponent’s weapon arm.
and so on.
by way of illustrating my theory i’ve created a small gallery of relevant moments within the star wars saga for your consideration. in that i could not hunt down all the proper screen shots (how convenient! a conspiracy certainly! someone get me oliver stone on the horn…) i’ve instead drawn upon the fantastic figures featured at the star wars collectors site, rebel scum. in some cases a bit of creative license was employed in order to recreate the original events, but as you will see the undercurrent is undeniable. what is the saga’s true legacy when seen in the glaring light of human reality?! will full disclosure help one of our most beloved storytellers?
i expect a current affair will be contacting me shortly for the rights on my forthcoming expose´. stay tuned. (by the way if i missed any important arm or hand chopping let me know. i’m sure i must have missed some.)
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the science service
“the purpose of the science service, founded in 1921, was to bridge the chasm between scientific achievement and the public’s knowledge of such achievement. from the beginning, the challenge for science service was to convince the scientific community that a news syndication service could successfully popularize science by presenting unsensationalized, accurate, and fascinating scientific news to the american public, and to convince news editors that science was newsworthy. during this period much fake science was published, and scientific news of real importance seldom reached the public.”
in the 84 years since the services inception it would seem huge strides have been made in the reportage of real science, then again, the amount of sensationalized or fake news has grown in similar proportion… anyhow, the smithsonian has a really great site up showcasing some of the science services work over the years in the form of period images accompanied by their original captions. fascinating and sometimes funny considering how much (and in some cases how little) progress we’ve made. i’ve excerpted some of my favorites below.
Computer Art. June 29, 1968
There isn’t a curved line in this 23-point polygon. Utilizing the step and repeat feature, BMAPS completed this figure in 15 minutes. It would take most draftsmen six hours. Traditional? Surrealism? Avant garde? For lack of a better word, it’s called computer/plotter art, a little known but increasingly important art form which was demonstrated at an informal showing held at the New York room of the Statler Hilton, Los Angeles. In each case the pictures exhibited at the showing were the product of countless mathematical computations fed into computers and then placed on tape which was run through a CalComp Plotter and created visually into a work of art. Computer/plotter art has been hitherto little known except within the technical world. Increasing refinements, however, have produced beautiful pictures, so much so that the drawings, both originals and reproductions, are now being sought by collectors.
Stratovision. June 23 1948?
Zanesville, Ohio, June 23 - Television broadcasts of the Republican Convention beamed the world’s first Stratovision airborne station to this rural community tonight make technically possible coast-to-coast television and frequency modulation broadcasting even to remote and isolated farm homes. Stratovision - a joint development of Westinghouse and the Glenn L. Martin Company - successfully rebroadcast from the east coast television network the Convention and Lois-Walcott fight over an estimated area of 525 miles diameter covering nine states. In the network system, illustrated, programs originated in ground studios are beamed to the planes which relay it (dotted lines) from plane to plane. Meanwhile each plane in the network would receive and broadcast nine simultaneously available programs in an area of about 500 miles diameter (shaded circles).
Electroluminescence. March 20, 1961
An electronic panel less than one-half inch thick that utilizes a new principle to produce a moving, lighted image was described here today by a scientist of General Telephone & Electronics Laboratories Incorporated at the international meeting of the Institute of Radio Engineers. One of the major advantages of the device is its ability to display an image on a thin, flat panel. Conventional electronic display devices use a cathode ray tube to produce an image. Electroluminescence involves the excitation of a phosphor coating on a thin, flat panel through the application of an electric field, thus causing the phosphor coating to give off light.
In its present stage the device appears to have its earliest potential uses in military and laboratory devices where the production of illuminated lines and dots is needed in electronic systems and equipment.
Voice Communications. 19 April 1964
NASA has developed a new system of voice communication via a light beam. The Retrometer is so-called because the light beam over which voice signals are sent is returned directly to its source by a corner reflector. It consists of three major functional parts: a light source, a corner reflector, and a light-collection system. The light source and light-collection system are in one unit, left. The corner reflector—which acts as a microphone—is a passive modulator, requiring no power except the human voice. The system differs from previous ones in that the originating station requires no power other than the human voice. And the NASA Retrometer is believed to be alone among light beam communications systems in offering a simple, convenient, and inexpensive device at one terminal. The complete Retrometer system consists of a battery case, the source/receiver unit and the corner reflector. Immediate commercial use of this invention, which is owned by the Space agency is encouraged by NASA under royalty-free, non-exclusive licenses.
Smoke Screens. 1941-42
Here is a closeup of the business end of the Army’s new M-1 smoke generator as it spurts smoke at a rate far faster than is possible by any previous equipment.
Integrated Circuits. March 23, 1967
A group of researchers of International Business Machines Corporation has overcome a major difficulty in making complex arrangements of integrated circuits.They have largely automated the design and fabrication of the circuit masks, cutting the time of these operations by more than a factor of ten. In the photograph IBM technician David Baron examines a small photographic plate, which is the end product of the automated process. The plate contains on of the mask patterns (10X), which was drawn by a light beam in an automated “light table.” With traditional preparation methods, the pattern for each mask is cut by hand from opaque material at 200 or 500 times final size. The system has been used to generate sets of masks for complex integrated circuit chips containing over 100 NOR circuits. An example is shown in the background. Manual preparation is a tedious, time-consuming process subject to many errors.
Electric Lamps. January 15, 1939
Lighting engineers this month welcomed a new type of glare-free electric light bulb, called the most revolutionary improvement in incandescent lamps since the appearance in 1925 of the common inside frosted bulb. The new bulb is specially designed to act as its own diffuser in changing ordinary harsh filament light into soft restful illumination, without losing any light in doing so, and with complete elimination of glare. Contrary to popular conception the glare problem during the last decade has been getting worse instead of better, because lamp engineers have paid too much attention to lamp efficiencies and not enough to lamp glare.
Electric Speech. Jan. 1939
The young lady striking keys is creating a man-like voice. This new synthetic orator will “lecture” with his “electrical accent” at the New York and San Francisco world fairs. It is a compact machine resting on a small table, plus as many loudspeakers as are necessary to reach the audience.VODER, THE MACHINE THAT TALKS. No recording of any kind is used in this latest addition to the anatomy of the Mechanical Man. A girl at a keyboard controlling varying electrical currents does the trick. It has a pair of keyboard units, more than a dozen other controls and an electrical circuit featuring a vaccum (sic) tube and a gas-filled discharge tube. Seated at the keyboard of the Voder, this young lady can carry on an ordinary conversation by pressing keys. A pedal operated by her right foot enables the operator to make voice inflection, and synthesized speech is heard from a loudspeaker.
Electric Appliances & Apparatus. April 30, 1932
To assist in lectures and blackboard demonstrations, Westinghouse research engineers have devised a novel and effective aid consisting of a lighted pointer. By placing this spot of light at the center of interest of the diagram, the speaker is able to focus the attention of his audience on the point of interest emphasizing in relief the area being discussed. Also, when used with a colored light, it may be used with lanter slides. The pointer is easily made and may be built by anyone having the need of a similar device.
Semiconductors. January 19, 1967
Granules of ordinary superfine sugar appear large alongside experimental semiconductor devices under development at Bell Telephone Laboratories. The tiny devices, bulk-effect oscillators made from gallium arsenide, are being studied as sources of microwave and millimeter power for communications systems. Solid-state devices such as these may someday replace medium-power vacuum tubes as microwave oscillators in many applications.
Electronic Devices. April 1, 1964
You do not have to be an Italian to set this thermostat. The Honeywell device carries both Fahrenheit and Centigrade scales for the convenience of American and continental passengers on board the Italian luxury liner Michelangelo.
great stuff huh? one final note, the site also contains a small gallery of original science news letters spanning the years 1928 - 1979, fully digitized for your reading pleasure.
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downloads section open
just wanted to let everyone know i’ve finally gotten around to opening up the downloads section of the site. it’s a modest begining. as of now we’ve got 11 original desktop wallpapers available, each in 3 sizes (800x600, 1024x768, and 1280x1024) as well as the old testament activity book. expect many more goodies in the future. hope you enjoy.
green aliens and cunningham
last tuesday I went to see the most recent res show at the egyptian theatre in los angeles. featured were 16 or 17 short films, mostly music videos, for artists like amon tobin, aesop rock, quasimoto and mad lib. the most anticipated piece was the newest short by famed video director chris cunningham. named “rubber johnny” it is his first film in over three years, and apparently he picked up where he left off. creepy, jarring, and occultish, johnny had many of the audience members laughing at its onset, but there was no sound in the theatre by the end save that of the aphex twin soundtrack and the uncomfortable shuffling of feet and flyers. this film is maybe his wierdest yet. another piece that caught my eye was a wickidly sharp video from the UK featuring a group of cars labelled the “petrol crime bureau”, who chase a gas-guzzling SUV through a series of turns and tricks. The next res show is in june 28th, which unfortunately i won’t be around to see, but it’s good to know that cunningham hasn’t decided to pack it in just yet.
hermetically unsealed
If you’re of a mind to read Aleister Crowley, his writings can be hard to find. The biggest repository of his writings on the internet, as far as I know, may be found at the hermetic library. There’s also a good chunk of Hakim Bey there, and some other oddities (well, odd depends on the observer). They even have a few recipes, like this one which I gather is used in gnostic ritual:
Cakes of Light
Ingredients:
Half a gallon (2 litres) of port wine
One & half cups of wholewheat flour
Honey (to taste)
One & a half tablespoons of olive oil
Abramelin oil (to taste - not much!)
Other ingredient (see AL III, 23 & 24)
Procedure:
Heat the wine at the lowest heat possible. Steam should be rising, but it should never boil. It takes approximately five hours. At the end you should have about a quarter of an inch (half a centimetre) of goo at the bottom of the pot.
Preheat the oven to 300º F (150º Celsius). In a mixing bowl add the flour, honey, wine goo, olive oil, Abramelin oil, and other ingredient. Knead until it becomes cookie dough - this takes a while. Add more flour if it’s too sticky.
Roll out the dough on to a floured surface. Flour the rolling pin and your hands too. When the dough has been flattened out, cut into cakes using a small circular cutter - a pill bottle top or lipstick top is ideal.
Place cakes on floured sheet and bake them in the oven for no more than five minutes. Usually 3 - 4 minutes is enough. The cakes won’t look done when you take them out - just let them cool for a while.
Notice the “Other ingredient (see AL III, 23 & 24)” which presumes that you have read the text in question to know what it is that they don’t want to come right out and tell you to use. No, kids, I doubt that it’s the toenails of a crosseyed menstruating dwarf clipped with silver shears under a new moon. Probably it’s just good healthy ganja.
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clever wax related title here
hot wax? wax that ass? puttin’ it on wax? wax poetic? house of wax? wax works? i was stone and he was wax, so he could scream and still relax? whatever… came across this sweet collection of rare early wax cylinder recordings from around the world (Africa, South Asia, Australia and the Pacific Islands, China, Eastern Europe, south America, England and Scotland) aptly titled: ethographic wax cylinders. interetsting. for some mo’ wax try cyberbee, the percussive arts society, edigraph, and the edison n.j. site (very near my birth place btw). for cylinders of the month and mo’ info check out tinfoil.com.
doc, it’s my narcolepsy, doc, you got to fix me up
From New Scientist: 11 steps to a better brain. Found the link on slashdot; I do some of this stuff, but not enough. I especially like the narcolepsy medicine, which I think I must see the man about: “A few drugs that might do the job, known as “cognitive enhancement”, are already on the market, and a few dozen others are on the way. Perhaps the best-known is modafinil. Licensed to treat narcolepsy, the condition that causes people to suddenly fall asleep, it has notable effects in healthy people too. Modafinil can keep a person awake and alert for 90 hours straight, with none of the jitteriness and bad concentration that amphetamines or even coffee seem to produce. (see bolow for more)
In fact, with the help of modafinil, sleep-deprived people can perform even better than their well-rested, unmedicated selves. The forfeited rest doesn’t even need to be made good. Military research is finding that people can stay awake for 40 hours, sleep the normal 8 hours, and then pull a few more all-nighters with no ill effects. It’s an open secret that many, perhaps most, prescriptions for modafinil are written not for people who suffer from narcolepsy, but for those who simply want to stay awake. Similarly, many people are using Ritalin not because they suffer from attention deficit or any other disorder, but because they want superior concentration during exams or heavy-duty negotiations.
The pharmaceutical pipeline is clogged with promising compounds - drugs that act on the nicotinic receptors that smokers have long exploited, drugs that work on the cannabinoid system to block pot-smoking-type effects. Some drugs have also been specially designed to augment memory. Many of these look genuinely plausible: they seem to work, and without any major side effects.
So why aren’t we all on cognitive enhancers already? “We need to be careful what we wish for,” says Daniele Piomelli at the University of California at Irvine. He is studying the body’s cannabinoid system with a view to making memories less emotionally charged in people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Tinkering with memory may have unwanted effects, he warns. “Ultimately we may end up remembering things we don’t want to.” End quote.
It would sure beat frying your brain on speed, woodnit? Philip K. Dick did that, by way of cranking out novels for low bux, and after about twenty years of that he was seeing sinister faces in the clouds. When I think of how much modafinil would have helped me a few years ago, well, damn. and i’m beating my brain against a novel that, if done right, would be a lot more complicated than that one, and my brain is frayed. so, yeah, I think I’ll see the man.
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2004: good times
“during 2004, the human rights of ordinary men, women and children were disregarded or grossly abused in every corner of the globe. economic interests, political hypocrisy and socially orchestrated discrimination continued to fan the flames of conflict around the world. the ‘war on terror’ appeared more effective in eroding international human rights principles than in countering international ‘terrorism’. the 2005 amnesty international report which covers 149 countries, highlights the failure of national governments and international organizations to deal with human rights violations, and calls for greater international accountability.” aint the world grand?
science is boring, art is stupid
that was the all caps tagline put together by princeton university for it’s first annual art of science competition, with the adendum, “prove us wrong.” i suppose it was meant to be an eliciter of double takes and perhaps a professor farnsworth-esque “uh-whaaauh?” they may have unintentionally gotten it half right though. anyhow, quote: “this spring we asked the princeton university community to submit imagery produced in the course of research or incorporating tools and concepts from science. the resulting assembly of images celebrate the aesthetics of research and the ways in which science and art inform each other.” the results are pretty cool. love the ants! some of you may notice bukowski’s mug in mooney faces by aaron schurger. reminds me of the faces in the old nonist before the redesign. anyone remember those? whish i’d known i was engaged in testing cognitive “perceptual closure?” i’d have charged by the hour.
rest your brain for a minute.
A beautiful young New York woman was so depressed that she decided to end her life by throwing herself into the ocean. But just before she could throw herself from the docks, a handsome young sailor stopped her.
“You have so much to live for,” said the sailor. “Look, I’m off to Europe tomorrow and I can stow you away on my ship. I’ll take care of you, bring you food every day, and keep you happy.”
With nothing to lose, the woman accepted. That night the sailor brought her aboard and hid her in a lifeboat. From then on, every night he would bring her three sandwiches and make love to her until dawn.
Three weeks later she was discovered by the captain during a routine inspection.
“What are you doing here?” asked the captain.
“I have an arrangement with one of the sailors,” she replied. “He brings me food and I get a free trip to Europe. Plus he’s screwing me.”
“He certainly is,” replied the captain. “This is the Staten Island Ferry.”
Go over here for much more lowbrow, unenlightening entertainment.
I know this is very late, but…
Scientific American hammered the crap out of the creationists in its april editorial. perhaps you saw it, perhaps not. it’s worth a second look; one does not often see sarcasm elevated to this level.
famous trials from 339 b.c. to 1999
came across this site of famous trials put together by a fella by the name of douglas o. linder. quote: “my vision was to create the web’s largest collection of primary documents, images, essays, and other materials relating to famous trials available in an easily digestible form, for everyone from junior high students to law professors.” he seems to have been pretty successful too. some of the many trials laid out in impressive detail are those of socrates, gallileo, wilde, and lenny bruce, as well as the salem witchcraft trial, nuremberg, and the scopes “monkey” trial. to quote arte johnson veddy intallesting.
dime novels & penny dreadfuls
came across stanford’s dime novel and story paper collection which purportedly consists of over 8,000 individual items. quote: “both genres flourished from the middle to the close of the 19th century in america and england (where the novels were known as penny dreadfuls), and benefited from three mutually reinforcing trends: the vastly increased mechanization of printing, the growth of efficient rail and canal shipping, and ever-growing rates of literacy.” take the guided tour, browse their giant image archive, or read some of the dreadfuls straight through. a huge amount of goodies with many high res images for your inspirational and/or pilfering needs.
the happy listeners guide to mind control
a while back ken over at wfmu’s beware of the blog posted mp3s of a cassette mix he’d made 15 years years ago called the happy listener’s guide to mind control. it contains aural propaganda of all sorts to please all types: advocacy of low-cost travel through the time-space continuum, pre-reaganomic trickle-down theory, creative bible interpretations, scientology, white hyperpatriotism, tidbits from radio moscow, anti-semitic swing music, anti-churchill swing music, toe tappin’ japan-bashing, advice on how to pick up girls at the museum, and of course some soundtrack excerpts from u.s. government training films. a nice free for the taking collection for all your retro brainwashing needs. (via j-walk)
casual numismatics
it’s sunday morning and far from expelling the money changers from our temple, i’ve decided to celebrate the one and only omni-denominational abstraction which all humanity agrees to place its faith in, our favorite diety, cash. now i for one am not a high priest in the church of money, nor a pecuni-logian, nor even an alter boy really. in point of fact if i can be considered in the flock at all i am closest to being the guy on line at the church of money’s soup kitchen. but from the filthy layman’s perspective, all functional realities aside, i think money is aesthetically gorgeous and culturally fascinating. with that in mind let’s do some casual web-based numismatics. presenting: a currency related hodgepodge for your pleasure…
one of the evils of money is that it tempts us to look at it rather than at the things that it buys. -E.M. Forster
Money is like sex. Some people believe that the more sexual experiences they have, with as many different people as possible, the more fulfilled they will be. But even great quantities of money and sex may not satisfy the craving. The problem lies not in having too much or too little, but in taking money literally, as a fetish rather than as a medium. If wealth is found by rejecting the experience of poverty, then it will never be complete. The soul is nurtured by want as much as by plenty. -Thomas Moore
The money complex is the demonic, and the demonic is God’s ape; the money complex is therefore the heir to and substitute for the religious complex, an attempt to find God in things. -Norman O. Brown
Money is human happiness in the abstract: he, then, who is no longer capable of enjoying human happiness in the concrete devotes his heart entirely to money. -Arthur Schopenhauer
Money is the worst currency that ever grew among mankind. This sacks cities, this drives men from their homes, this teaches and corrupts the worthiest minds to turn base deeds. -Sophocles
Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons. -Woody Allen
Money doesn’t mind if we say it’s evil, it goes from strength to strength. It’s a fiction, an addiction, and a tacit conspiracy. -Martin Amis
Money, which represents the prose of life, and which is hardly spoken of in parlors without an apology, is, in its effects and laws, as beautiful as roses. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Having money is just the best thing in the world. -Madonna
Liking money like I like it, is nothing less than mysticism. Money is a glory. -Salvador Dali
Unlike art and sex, money always arouses interest. -Mason Cooley
If you’ve ever been without money, or food, something very strange happens when you get a bit of money, a kind of madness. You don’t care. You can’t remember that you had no money before, that the money will be gone. You can remember nothing but that there is the money for which you have been suffering. Now here it is. A lust takes hold of you. You see food in the windows. In imagination you eat hugely; you taste a thousand meals. You look in windows. Colors are brighter; you buy something to dress up in. An excitement takes hold of you. You know it is suicide but you can’t help it. You must have food, dainty, splendid food and a bright hat so once again you feel blithe, rid of that ratty gnawing shame. -Meridel Le Sueur
We’re in the money,
the skies are sunny;
old man depression,
you are through,
you done us wrong!
-Al Dubin (the gold digger’s song)
In any country where talent and virtue produce no advancement, money will be the national god. Its inhabitants will either have to possess money or make others believe that they do. Wealth will be the highest virtue, poverty the greatest vice. Those who have money will display it in every imaginable way. If their ostentation does not exceed their fortune, all will be well. But if their ostentation does exceed their fortune they will ruin themselves. In such a country, the greatest fortunes will vanish in the twinkling of an eye. Those who don’t have money will ruin themselves with vain efforts to conceal their poverty. That is one kind of affluence: the outward sign of wealth for a small number, the mask of poverty for the majority, and a source of corruption for all. -Denis Diderot
But it takes a lot of money to live freely by the sea. -Albert Camu
To cook a pig, apply heat; to win a lawsuit, apply money. -Chinese proverb.
if you can actually count your money, then you are not really a rich man. -J. Paul Getty
cash rules everything around me.
cream, get the money,
dolla dolla bill yall.
-the wu tang clan
just a tiny taste but gorgeous stuff huh? anyhow, now for some heavy linkage.
galleries
the american currency exhibit, where many of the paper money images above were culled from, has many interesting things to see. l
likewise the u.s. bureau of engraving and printing’s moneyfactory site has some interesting stuff, like the fractional currency bills which i didn’t even know existed.
to expand beyond the greenback into the incredible currencies of the world check out ron wise’s world of paper money, tom chao’s world banknote collection, or banknote.com, all three of which offer a staggering amount of the gorgeous, foreign, and out of circulation. really beautiful stuff.
as for antique coins check out the roman numismatic gallery (which also offers some earlier greek stuff), doug smith’s ancient greek and roman coins, edgar l. owen’s early world coins, or the smithsonian’s national numismatic collection which offers a host of digital galleries.
for a breakdown of modern bill making check out nova’s anatomy of a bill.
and finally, for all things money stroll through either the money museum or the fantastic museum of money and financial institutions.
history
a very interesting outline of paper money history. which though translated a bit strangely includes many tidbits like this technically pre-money tale: in china, in 120 A.D., under the reign of Wu Ti, the Princes gave the Emperor, to honour him, some squares of deer skin of approximately 30 cm. in length, with embroidered borders. When the noble men went to court, the Emperor gave them these embroidered pieces of leather. in this way they became honorific signs. In the ancient Chinese history texts, it is written that these pieces of deer leather, strongly desired by the Chinese notables, circulated like money, following well defined quoted values. it would take 687 years and a copper shortage to precipitate a return to “flying money.”
a comparative chronology of money from 9,000 b.c. to 2002 a.d.
the origins of money and banking. addressing such questions as what is money? what is its function? and what are the causes for its development?
sovereignty and money past, present, and future.
the very interesting, illustrated, history of money and religion.
a nice bite sized short history of money.
benjamin franklin’s paper a modest enquiry into the nature and necessity of paper currency from 1729.
carl menger’s on the origin of money from 1892.
adam smith’s of the origin and use of money from, the wealth of nations circa 1776.
the origin of world currency names. (Dollar, from 16th century German: “Thaler” a short for of Joahimsthaler, coin made from metal mined in Joahimsthal, a town now in Czech Republic) or if you’d like to brush up first currencies of the world via the university of british columbia.
origins, history and geography the word dollar and the dollar sign.
and finally a global history of world currencies from global financial data, inc.
dolla dolla bill yall.
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What Kinda Universe We Running Here, Anyway?
Jaime asked me if I would do a post or two yesterday while he was away. Instead, I fell asleep early. On a Saturday. How square is that?
Here are a couple of links linked only by the fact that they were both penned by deep thinkers thinking deep thoughts about their place in the scheme.
We’ve all heard of Philip K. Dick; this is a piece from 1978: How to Build a Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later. It’s on deoxy.org, a website which rewards searching.
Meanwhile, over at subgenius.com I found a remarkable piece among the archived newsgroup posts. Now, the mask of the subgenii is that of false religion and low humor, but a peek behind the mask reveals something very real and stirring: travels of the zion froptic, a long rant that just gets better and better, and in my opinion is a great spiritual document. find me a church where this might get read, and maybe I’ll go. His own website has the same rant, a blog, and a bit of bio: Orthodox Anarchist (was the44.net).
national archives of japan
in april of of this year japan launched a website for it’s national archives. since then they’ve been slowly digitizing the holdings and putting them online. they offer a huge amount of government documents which might be of interest for researchers, but more interestingly for the rest of us, they’ve also made some of their visual materials available. categories include documents, maps, photographs, drawings, scrolls, and posters. the last two of which were most interesting to me. the galleries are modest thus far but as time goes on this ought to become a great resource especially considering the high resolution of the images available. check it out. (via octopusdropkick)
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