Category Archives: thoughts

textolatry

Posted on February 29, 2016 by blaise
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rape culture

Posted on November 30, 2014 by blaise

This recent Rolling Stone arti­cle about rape at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Vir­ginia is pret­ty upset­ting. It’s just the lat­est in a string of hor­ror sto­ries over the past year about rape cul­ture, lack of empa­thy and denial, both gen­er­al­ly and … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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snowden

Posted on April 3, 2014 by blaise

A let­ter to Wash­ing­ton. The Hon­or­able Eric Hold­er Depart­ment of Jus­tice Robert F. Kennedy Build­ing Tenth Street and Con­sti­tu­tion Avenue, N.W. Wash­ing­ton, D.C. 20530     Dear Attor­ney Gen­er­al Hold­er: I recent­ly attend­ed the TED2014 con­fer­ence, where I had occa­sion … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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30 years of TED

Posted on March 27, 2014 by blaise

Through­out most of last week I was wear­ing a giant badge with a met­al tag on it announc­ing that this was my 10th TED.  The con­fer­ence itself was in ret­ro­spec­tive mode, cel­e­brat­ing its 30th birth­day.  Nos­tal­gia aside though, in many … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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thickness

Posted on May 15, 2013 by blaise

“Sorel’s basic char­ac­ter flaws had all cement­ed by the age of fif­teen, a fact which fur­ther elicit­ed my sym­pa­thy.  To have all the build­ing blocks of your life in place by that age was, by any stan­dard, a tragedy.  It … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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hyperforeignism

Posted on October 13, 2012 by blaise

I drove into Boul­der, Col­orado at mid­night on Wednes­day, my impulse to eat a late din­ner near­ly over­bal­anced by my need to declare the long day over.  It turns out that, even with throngs of kids boozi­ly wan­der­ing from bar … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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kindergarten: saudade do futuro

Posted on November 8, 2011 by blaise

I hope not to get in trou­ble for post­ing, ver­ba­tim and with min­i­mal com­men­tary, an update we’ve just received from Eliot’s kinder­garten.  I find this fas­ci­nat­ing and, in its way, rather utopi­an: As you know, we have been exper­i­ment­ing in … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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minusculoyer

Posted on April 12, 2011 by blaise

minus­cule is the tutoy­er of the inter­nets. none of these are new obser­va­tions, but— i’ve been notic­ing again the “inner sig­nals” of writ­ten com­mu­ni­ca­tion by email and text.  orthog­ra­phy of course tells you loads about a per­son— like, in so-called … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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tel aviv / berlin

Posted on April 4, 2011 by blaise

It’s time to break this dry spell on the blog.  Let’s begin with some notes I jot­ted down on the plane back from a trip to Tel Aviv and Berlin a cou­ple of weeks ago. For me, the anti­sym­met­ri­cal ideas … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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backyard brains

Posted on February 8, 2011 by blaise

I’m going to make a con­fes­sion, get some­thing off my chest that has gnawed at my con­science for many years (ok, just the occa­sion­al pang these days, but still).  Elec­tro­phys­i­ol­o­gy was a bit of an obses­sion for me as a … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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