Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere. - G.K. Chesterton

These drawings were from prisoners' art classes, the soldier explained. Prisoners were allowed to take art classes as a reward for good behavior. Some of the drawings and paintings were quite impressive. The prisoners had a lot of time to practice, he admitted.
Until recently, taking photos of these drawings was forbidden. But in the weeks before a planeload of journalists arrived in Gitmo to cover the trial of Omar Khadr, the 23-year-old prisoner whose case is being heard by a tribunal court after nearly eight years in detention, that rule changed. The drawings were deemed safe for public consumption.

Slate | Still Life With Enemy Combatant

"I envy paranoids; they actually feel people are paying attention to them." - Susan Sontag

58 Lungomare 9 Maggio, Bari, Puglia, Italy

412 US-9W, Bethlehem, New York

Via Valassa, Rho, Lombardy, Italy

24 Rue Neyron, Saint Bienne, France

2368 IA-141, Dodge, Iowa

Art Fag City | The Nine Eyes of Google Street View

creativity is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status

TED Talks | Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity

"Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art." - Susan Sontag

Story from North America from Kirsten Lepore on Vimeo.

Buffy: What is it with those guys? Willow: They're obnoxious. Professionally.

Over the course of the film Edward is in turns patronizing, condescending and just downright creepy. He spies on Bella, he stalks her (for “her own good”), he sneaks into her room to watch her sleep (without her consent) and even confesses to a deep, overpowering desire to kill her. We marveled at how the film attempted to present this behavior as sweet and deeply romantic – and how the larger pop culture discussion continued that framing for millions of young Twilight fans. At several points during the film Anita and I found ourselves asking each other: “What Would Buffy Do?”

What Would Buffy Do? Notes on Dusting Edward Cullen

"To understand the things that are at our door is the best preparation for understanding those that lie beyond." - Hypatia of Alexandria

Margaret Wertheim leads a project to re-create the creatures of the coral reefs using a crochet technique invented by a mathematician -- celebrating the amazements of the reef, and deep-diving into the hyperbolic geometry underlying coral creation.

who are we in the way we can see ourselves

"A civilization is destroyed only when its gods are destroyed." - Cioran

who wouldn't do that, do that

Wound Man is an illustration which first appeared in European surgical texts in the Middle Ages. It laid out schematically the various wounds a person might suffer in battle or in accidents, often with surrounding or accompanying text stating treatments for the various different injuries.

WIkipedia | Wound Man

Look out honey, 'cause I'm using technology, ain't got time to make no apology

Hockey open w/ Polar Bear from Fairbanks, Alaska for the UAF Nanooks AKA "The Alaska Nanooks". This is the intended directors cut with the original music choice, rejected by the UAF people for being "too '80s" as if there is such a thing.

la la la la lalala

111,111,111 x 111,111,111=12,345,678,987,654,321

The defining feature of a Gömböc is the fact that it's got just two points of equilibrium: one is stable and the other is unstable. If you put a Gömböc down on a flat surface, resting on its stable equilibrium point, it will stay as it is. "Even if you kick it a little, it will come back to its resting position at the stable equilibrium point," says Domokos, a mathematician at Budapest University of Technology and Economics. "The other equilibrium point is unstable. You can balance the Gömböc at this point a bit like you can balance a pencil on its tip: the slightest push will make it fall over." It's impossible to balance a Gömböc on any other point: if you try, it will move off in a specific direction. That's why the Gömböc seems to have a life on its own: put it down at a non-equilibrium point, and it will start rolling around in a systematic way until it has reached the stable equilibrium position. In other words, the Gömböc is self-righting.

Plus Magazine | The Story of the Gömböc

Taking a break--I'll be back Wednesday.

our home is our rocket ship

Astronaut Dale A. Gardner, holds up a “For Sale” sign refering to the two satellites, Palapa B-2 and Westar 6 that he retrieved from orbit after their Payload Assist Modules (PAM) failed to fire.

Flickr | Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee

when i'm walking through the city, i only think of myself

such a clever little brain

"By all evidence we are in the world to do nothing." - Cioran

Designer Florian Kräutli is working on this rug with embedded conductive threads that, when walked upon, use the stepper's body as an antenna for a connected radio.

Our eyes see just a small fraction of the light in the world.

Tokyo Undressed [NSFW]

"Chastity––the most unnatural of all the sexual perversions." - Aldous Huxley

Gawno.com | Erotic Movie Posters from the Past

As long as you can laugh at yourself you will never cease to be amused.

So why don’t I have any tattoos?

It’s not that I don’t like them. Nope, I love ‘em. I’ve always loved ‘em. I think they’re romantic, unreasonable, thoughtless and eternal all at the same time. Therefore, I love them.

It’s just that with tattoos, I treat them like pricey jewelry. If I ever get a desire to get one, I say to myself okay, take a year to think about it and if you still want it next year, go ahead and get it. One year, that’s short for something that will last a lifetime.

Garance Dore | Sang Bleu (Blue Blood)