Jean Baudrillard

How fatherhood and grief have shaped the work of graphic novelist Daniel Clowes No cartoonist alive devotes as much effort as Daniel Clowes to mapping the differences between the way people see themselves and the way they really are. “Whenever you meet somebody you know just as an online presence, the only response I’ve ever had is overwhelming empathy and sadness,” Clowes says over iced tea and soup in Manhattan. “Because you see at once. Often people come off very combative and sort of aggressive, and then you see them and think: ‘You are just so not a vital presence in the physical world.’ I don’t think I’ve ever met somebody for the first time that way and thought, ‘They’re exactly what I pictured!’” Clowes’s work is characterised by such a devotion to technical perfection and a well-calibrated acidity about the depressing consistency of human nature that it seems as if the man himself ought to be just like one of his own perpetually angry, thwarted oddballs.

10 Things You Didn't Know George Harrison Did - Rolling Stone "I play a little guitar, write a few tunes, make a few movies, but none of that's really me," George Harrison once said. "The real me is something else." Harrison was many things – including a master of understatement. But he was right to point out that his true character remains elusive. He was one of the most famous men in the world, but he loathed superstardom. A surprising number of great composers were fond of the bottle – but can you hear it? ‘Brahms and Liszt’ is a lovely bit of rhyming slang, but it doesn’t have the ring of authenticity. Can you really imagine cockney barrow boys whistling tunes from the Tragic Overture and the Transcendental Études? Also, the Oxford English Dictionary reckons it only dates back to the 1930s. It always made me snigger, though, because it conjured up an implausible vision of pompous beardy Johannes and the social-climbing Abbé rolling around legless.

Gregory Bateson Gregory Bateson (9 May 1904 – 4 July 1980) was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician, and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. In the 1940s, he helped extend systems theory and cybernetics to the social and behavioral sciences. He spent the last decade of his life developing a "meta-science" of epistemology to bring together the various early forms of systems theory developing in different fields of science.[2] His writings include Steps to an Ecology of Mind (1972) and Mind and Nature (1979). Angels Fear (published posthumously in 1987) was co-authored by his daughter Mary Catherine Bateson. Bateson was born in Grantchester in Cambridgeshire, England, on 9 May 1904.

15 Things You Should Know About Ruth Bader Ginsburg “She has this soft little tiny voice, and she can say really devastating things in that quiet voice.” —NPR's Nina Totenberg In the middle of one especially eventful Supreme Court session three years ago—June 24, 2013, to be exact—Ruth Bader Ginsburg opened her mouth and began to speak. In two separate dissents, RBG excoriated the outcomes of three cases: Fisher v. University of Texas and two employment discrimination decisions, Vance v. Ball State and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Troops sour on Mattis nomination after he releases 6,000-book reading list WASHINGTON, D.C. — A large number of active-duty troops once enthusiastic about the choice of James Mattis for Defense Secretary have since soured on the pick after the retired general released a 6000-book reading list he plans to implement for the entire DoD after he is confirmed, Duffel Blog has learned. Referred to by some as the “Warrior Monk,” the 66-year-old sent his reading list to the military’s entire email distribution list over the weekend. Most service members who received the 200-page email reported they were still in the process of reading it well into Monday morning. “For our current fights, the Pentagon Reading List provides a collection of readings to be read dependent on your grade and how long you have before deploying,” Mattis wrote in the email. “This reading list is not all inclusive, and some commands may add additional books if they feel that 6,000 is not enough.”

Murder, Marriage and the Pony Express: Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Buffalo Bill Soldier, cowboy, showman, celebrity—William “Buffalo Bill” Cody wore many hats throughout his long life. In the century since Cody’s death, his Wild West show, which traveled the world for 30 years and featured sharp-shooting, rope tricks, buffalo hunting and reenactments of historical events like Custer’s Last Stand at Little Big Horn, has continued to influence how we view the West and the country’s past. “This isn’t a simple case of a backwoodsman becoming a celebrity,” says Jeremy Johnston, the Hal and Naoma Tate Endowed Chair and curator of Western history at the Smithsonian-affiliated Buffalo Bill Center of the West.

Frantic John Kerry Looks On As Teresa Slowly Lowered Into Kim Jong-Un’s Electric Eel Tank PYONGYANG—Bursting into the North Korean dictator’s central control room to find his wife suspended from a rope 40 feet in the air, a frantic Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly looked on in horror Friday as Teresa Heinz was slowly lowered into Kim Jong-un’s electric eel tank. “Well, well, well, how nice of you to join us, Mr. Kerry—as you can see, I’m about to serve dinner, and my electrified little friends here are quite hungry,” said Kim, who ordered his henchmen to seize the U.S. cabinet official and make sure he had a close, unobstructed view of his beloved wife’s final moments. “You may have been able to escape my chamber of horrors, Mr. Kerry, but there is nothing you can do to help her now.

Shackled Kerry Looks On As Chechen Terror Leader Removes Mask To Reveal Scarred Face Of Former Mentor GROZNY, RUSSIA—Coming eye to eye with the mysterious guerrilla mastermind he had been hunting for the past several years, a shackled Secretary of State John Kerry looked on Thursday as a notorious and brutal Chechen terror leader removed his mask to reveal the scarred face of Kerry’s former mentor. “No, it can’t be—the explosion in Iran, the fire—you’ve been dead 15 years,” said the bruised and bloodied U.S. cabinet official, staring in disbelief at the former black-ops expert who had taken Kerry under his wing and spent years training him in espionage, explosives, and martial arts before his apparent death while sabotaging an Iranian oil pipeline. “It’s been you this whole time, hasn’t it? You were behind the kidnapping of the Russian attaché, the uranium stolen from Seversk—all of it. How could you turn your back on everything we fought for?

Relatively Interesting Controversial 21st Century Philosophers - Relatively Interesting When people think of philosophers, their minds often turn to the likes of Aristotle, Plato and Rene Descartes. However, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any philosophers that have been and are still around in the 21st century, who have an equal weighting when it comes to the science of modern philosophy. There are a number of philosophical museums across Europe in particular that you can visit, featuring the puzzles and problems of philosophers from both the 21st century and prior. Coleman Francis - Wikipedia Coleman C. Francis (January 24, 1919 – January 15, 1973) was an American actor, writer, producer, and director. He was best known for his film trilogy consisting of The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961), The Skydivers (1963), Red Zone Cuba (1966), all three of which were filmed in the general Santa Clarita, California area and used preoccupation with light aircraft and parachuting, coffee or cigarettes serving as a prop or a center of conversation, and a vigilante-style gunning down of suspects without a trial to conclude the film as frequent motifs. All three films have gained notoriety as a result of their appearances on Mystery Science Theater 3000, and have been often criticized for their abysmal production values, repetitive plot devices, murky picture quality, and stilted acting. Some critics have characterized Francis' films among the all-time worst, even suggesting that he may surpass Ed Wood in terms of ineptitude.[1]