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Herbert Pfostl is an artist we’d like to know more about. His work combines found images and text with figural notions of animals and herbs, half-finished rubbings, and archetypal blots and smudges. Pfostl’s drawings and […]
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The concept of the Uncanny Valley was proposed by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori, author of Buddha in the Machine (in which Mori asserts that a robot can achieve enlightenment). Mori noted the revulsion many observers […]
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National Geographic News reports that the skull of a plague victim unearthed near Venice exhibits an unmistakable hallmark of treatment for vampirism. The woman’s mouth was forced open by a brick — a measure that […]
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Atlantic correspondent James Parker is the hilobrow critic par excellence. Whether reviewing a biography of G. K. Chesterton or musing on the meaning of slasher films (as he does in the forthcoming issue of the […]
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1. Life is suffering; 2. The cause of suffering is craving; 3. The end of suffering is possible; 4. The way to suffering is found through right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right […]
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Hardcore anti-legend and bibliophile Glenn Danzig talks about his library, which seems to be located in a grotto bathed in the glow of bioluminescent aquatic creatures. His bookishness calls to mind Jorge Luis Borges, who […]
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The hilo grip on culture may be esoteric, but it’s intimate and comprehensive. It’s a storied jazz combo from the mid-twentieth century — featuring Grammy winner Gene Puerling! It’s a high-concept, low-budget film festival ( […]
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YouTube channel of the week: poetryanimations, where portraits and photographs of the likes of Baudelaire, Dickinson, and Tennyson are moved to recite their works, often in the poets’ own voices. My attention was captured by […]
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Julian Dibbell, anthropologist of the tribes of technology, has written an entertaining and useful consideration of kittens. Specifically, he’s writing about the viral video Kittens Inspired by Kittens, in which a young girl re-enchants the […]
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Harry Houdini was not only the storied illusionist of memory; in his time he was famous as a debunker of mediums and psychics and as a prolific author as well. In his book The Miracle-Mongers […]
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Wong Fei Hung (played by the great Kwan Tak Hing) gives Master Ko a writing lesson. From The Magnificent Butcher (1979), directed by Sammo Hung.
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We’d like to think the L and the B signify Low Brow. But they more likely represent the initials of engraver M. Lucas Brunn, who made this memento mori in Germany around 1600. From the […]
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Among the photos making the social-media rounds in the aftermath of the Turkish Airlines crash in Amsterdam yesterday was this haunting image: It was posted on Twitter by @Serguei with a caption (in French): “It” […]
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Among the radio transmissions winging its way to other galaxies from Earth is “Are We Alone,” a program hosted by Seth Shostak of the SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Life) Project. Recent topics include “The Emergence […]
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