Signs Taken for Wonders

Currently a tech writer. 1972. Music, Photography, Theory, Literature, Pedagogy, Linux, Open Source, Open Education, Critical Pedagogy..."You're one microscopic cog in his catastrophic plan / Designed and directed by his red right hand"

[planetsedge]

Open Syllabus: Galaxy

The citation graph of the ~1M most-assigned books and articles (node2vec -> UMAP).

Woolf's Flush on Open Syllabus

[planetsedge]

Open Syllabus: Galaxy

The citation graph of the ~1M most-assigned books and articles (node2vec -> UMAP).

I'm a big geek. Search text. See what other texts are commonly assigned with it. Actual syllabi are now behind paywall.

E.g. Virginia Woolf's Flush, which was unavailable during my Woolf studies years is not being assigned - in business class?

https://analytics.opensyllabus.org/singleton/works?id=489626301520

[planetsedge]

wondered what adjective would best describe the Wikipedia page for the Ship of Theseus paradox. As a reminder, the paradox asks whether it’s the same ship if every single component has been replaced, and the Wiki page for it has been edited so much that nothing of the original remains, making it an exemplar of the thing it describes...it seems there may be a correct answer….it is “autological”. An autological word “expresses a property that it also possesses”, according to Wikipedia. Peter Thomson offers some examples of autological words: “‘noun’ is a noun, ‘sesquipedalian’ is sesquipedalian”….

There is some question as to whether autological can be used to describe only individual words, in which case…

Excerpt From

“Is there a word for the Wiki page for the Ship of Theseus paradox?”

New Scientist (May 30, 2026)

[planetsedge]

Touching on issues of power, authority, and domination, Manhunts takes an in-depth look at the hunting of humans in the West, from ancient Sparta, through the Middle Ages, to the modern practices of chasing undocumented migrants. Incorporating historical events and philosophical reflection, Grégoire Chamayou examines the systematic and organized search for individuals and small groups on the run because they have defied authority, committed crimes, seemed dangerous simply for existing, or been categorized as subhuman or dispensable.

He investigates the psychology of manhunting, noting that many people, from bounty hunters to Balzac, have written about the thrill of hunting when the prey is equally intelligent and cunning. An unconventional history on an unconventional subject, Manhunts is an in-depth consideration of the dynamics of an age-old form of violence.

[funeral]

Everything which once aspired to transcendence, to discovery, to the infinite, has subtly altered its aim so that it can go into orbit: learning, technology, knowledge, having lost any transcendent aspect to their projects, have begun planning orbital trajectories for themselves. 'Information' is orbital, for example—a form of knowledge which will never again go beyond itself, never again achieve transcendence or self-reflection in its aspiration towards the infinite; yet which, for all that, never sets its feet on the ground, for it has no true purchase on, nor referent in, reality. Information circulates, moves around, makes its circuits (which are sometimes perfectly useless—but that is the whole point: the question of usefulness cannot be raised)—and with each spiral, each revolution, it accumulates.

Jean Baudrillard, The Transparency of Evil

[yama-bito]

The 12th century Andalusian polymath Ibn Tufayl describing a similar preceding problem:

“ [ecstatic transcendental] states, as Avicenna describes them, are reached not by theorising, syllogistic deductions, postulating premisses and drawing inferences, but solely by intuition.

But on the other hand you may desire a discursive, intellectualised introduction […] but it is rarer than red sulphur, especially in our part of the world. For the experience is so arcane that only one lone individual and then another can master the most trifling part of it. 

Do not suppose the philosophy which has reached us in the books of Aristotle and Farabi or in Avicenna’s Healing will satisfy you if this is what you need, or that any Andalusian has written anything adequate on this subject. The reason is that before the spread of philosophy and formal logic to the West all native Andalusians of any ability devoted their lives to mathematics. They achieved a high level in that field but could do no more. The next generation surpassed them in that they knew a little logic. But study logic they may, they could not find in it the way to fulfilment. It was one of them who wrote: 

‘How can it be that life’s so small. Two sciences we have - that’s all. One is truth beyond attaining; The other vain and not worth gaining’ ”

— Ibn Tufayl’s Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, A Philosophical Tale, tr. Lenn Evan Goodman

[tall]

[natnormalatall]

roald dahl was antisemitic and misogynistic. george orwell was openly homophobic. edgar allan poe married his 13 year old cousin. dr seuss cheated on his wife (and was racist as well as antisemitic!). hp lovecraft was racist as fuck. anyways they’re fucking dead it’s not like you’re enabling their behaviors in the afterlife or something. then again I think they bleed into the books so uh keep an eye out for that

the difference between these old white guys and jk rowling is that the former group is all dead. jk rowling is alive and using your money to oppress trans people

[planetsedge]

What the hell are people thinking?

In a capitalist world, violent debates about truth — whether they concern questions of religion and virtue or questions about the nature of humanity — interfere with the productive conduct of commerce. It is therefore best for such questions to be eliminated or obscured.

Peter Thiel (Palintir, PayPal)

[planetsedge]

[saisons-en-enfer]

[planetsedge]

Maybe you stopped looking: Rasputina will tour this year.

[planetsedge]

"These subjects did not discriminate in who they hated."

White nationalists with guns and manifestos prosecute a deadly assault on an Islamic center. Rhetorically outside the scope of "white supremacist terrorism" and "hate crimes," and categorized as "random pathological violence."

When San Diego FBI Special Agent in charge says this in an update on investigation of a hate crime against America’s muslim community:

Is it a language fail?

Is it a competency fail?

I wonder whether it matters, when it is also a semantic pivot, a rhetorical slight of hand that allows a president’s agenda (NSPM-7) to focus attention, resources, and popular anxiety (fantasies) on domestic terrorism as

violent conduct relates to views associated with anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the U.S. Government (USG); extremism on migration, race, and gender. and for the overthrow of the U.S. Government (USG); extremism on migration, race, and gender. and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality. (FY 2027 FBI Budget Request to Congress)

"These subjects did not discriminate in who they hated” de-politicizes the crime. It frames it as pathological, as criminal.

Hate everyone equally? Not targeted. Not political? Not terrorism. Disconnected from the politics of racial and religious hate that motivates it.

It this new or even somewhat recent? No. But it is codified.

(September 2025, Trump signed National Security Presidential Memorandum-7. NSPM-7 directs the FBI and terrorism task forces to coordinate a comprehensive national strategy to disrupt entities engaged in political violence and intimidation to designed to suppress “lawful” political activity or obstruct the rule of law.)

[planetsedge]

Bravo! Encore! You; you may live.

[jessebloom]

>book described online as full of perversion and shock

>open book

>stuff that’s understandable or explainable in the context of the narrative

[planetsedge]

What the hell are people thinking?

In a capitalist world, violent debates about truth — whether they concern questions of religion and virtue or questions about the nature of humanity — interfere with the productive conduct of commerce. It is therefore best for such questions to be eliminated or obscured.

Peter Thiel (Palintir, PayPal)

[worldsandemanations]

Francis Bacon Study for Portrait, 1966

[anickapise]

amy miret (nausea), 1991

[stylized-corpse]

Municipal Waste is gonna...