Monday, April 26, 2010

Links of Linkable Thinking

* Japanese Madonnas

* How old was Anne Boleyn at her death?

* Five classic cocktails

* A fascinating comments-thread discussion about women in philosophy

* The U.S. Supreme Court has some difficulty with the idea of texting. Still, better that they ask if they don't know, and in matters of law it's always best to be clear.

* GameStation inserted a gag clause into its online shopping terms and conditions in which those who did not click a certain box agreed to give GameStation their immortal souls. Most people did not opt out.

* Unable to fly because of volcanic dust, John Cleese paid over $5000 for a taxi trip (fifteen hours) from Oslo to Brussels.

* Eduardo Palacio-Perez, Cave Art and the Theory of Art: The Origins of the Religious Interpretation of Palaeolithic Graphic Expression

* A famous Chinese poetry tour de force. It tells a short story about a lion-eating poet in a cave. Chinese meaning, of course, depends heavily on tone, and in the poem it is carried entirely by tone. The author, Chao Yuen Ren, may have written it in part to show the limits of the practice of romanizing Chinese, i.e., writing Chinese in Roman characters rather than proper Chinese ones. You can read the translation at Wikipedia.

* The Bible in 66 verses (ht)

* John Gray reviews Grayling's Ideas that Matter:

This tirade against Kierkegaard is a good example of that silliness that marks so much of Grayling’s oeuvre. The notion that irrationalist philosophers are responsible for the crimes of history smacks of Monty Python.

[ADDED LATER: And Grayling's response, which is surprisingly weak. I expected more bite and less bluster.]