Chapbook
Freedom of speech in general and academic freedom in particular have always been placed under pressure or even active assault because they are, by design, uncomfortable. After all, no one needs the freedom or protection to utter comfortable pablum or to make statements which flatter the rich and powerful. Those
Libraries
§1 Lunar Days “As the summer turns / I seem to fall away / Gaps in the light / The Lunar Days…” §2 The Lion Sleeps Tonight Which cover version is better? Anne Reburn's five-part self-a capella? Or They Might Be Giants' rock re-intepretation (featuring Laura Cantrell)
Music
§1 Python A habit I'm working on breaking as I learn Python: Skimming lightly through the introductory material because “I already know that.” No harm is done by remaining open to the possibility that I don't. §2 “Skilljacking” “Will Truman” is the pseudonym of an ordinary
Humor
§1 Python Hello, World! My home computer now has the default Python 3.11.4 package. I'm using the IDLE shell for now, and plan to switch later to Nova, which I have been using as an html editor for years. §2 Philip Agre When I was in
Economics
Copying an idea from Mita Williams... §1 Python At 12, I taught myself BASIC programming. Can I repeat the trick at 52 with Python? My plan: Work through Allen B. Downey's Think Python, letting each section sink in before moving on. Once I've finished that book,
History
At Harvard Law School in the 1950s, I noticed the case books on property and contract law did not include commercial cases over slave 'ownership.' In pre-Civil War generations, the courts were full of litigation--slave families were valuable 'property' whose exploitation led to contractual
Chapbook
...some of the academics want to write like they're writing for The New Yorker, and The New Yorker does so many wonderful things, but I think The New Yorker has also convinced us all that we need to find one perfect avatar that embodies the complex story we
History
The view that the great cathedral of history is being built brick by brick by historians, some of them filling gaps and forming pillars, while the majority of them add their small bricks in the form of monographs […] is not entirely a wrong one–but we must recognize that the
Chapbook
[K-]72. There is no greater impediment to progress in the sciences than the desire to see it take place too quickly. This is very characteristic of brisk and lively people, which is why they seldom achieve very much: for they are cast down and give up as soon as
History
Yet what any individual in the Frankish Empire [of the 8th century AD] got to read was often a matter of chance. The full range of classical literature was by no means still available in its entirety. Much had disappeared and had been lost forever. Because of lack of knowledge
History
The most impressive application of Ibn Khaldun's approach is his historical and sociological elaboration of the cyclical pattern of rise, peak, and decline. If a society becomes a leading civilization or even the dominant culture in a region, according to Ibn Khaldun the peak of this civilization is
History
"Before cameras, educated, well-to-do travelers had learned to sketch so that they could draw what they saw on their trips, in the same way that, before phonograph recordings, bourgeois families listened to music by making it themselves at home, playing the piano and singing in the parlor.