Brilliant. Drawings of the Large Hadron Collider in the style of Leonardo da Vinci.
THE PULSE, THE HUM AND SWELL, THE SONG BENEATH THE SKIN, IT CALLS TO ME!
OW, FUCK! RANDY, WHAT THE HELL?
“DRINK!” IT CRIES, “DRINK OF ME AND LIVE FOREVER!”
GET OFF ME! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? ARE YOU LARPING?
We tell stories to continue ourselves. We all think an exception is going to be made in our case, and we’re going to live forever. And being a human is actually arriving at the understanding that that’s not going to be. Story is there to just remind us that it’s just okay.
—Legendary PBS filmmaker Ken Burns on what makes a great story (via explore-blog)
(Source: , via explore-blog)
Color-mapping the outcome of every American presidential election ever. Also see 88 years of red-blue divide animated in one minute.
The kernel, the soul — let us go further and say the substance, the bulk, the actual and valuable material of all human utterances — is plagiarism.
—In 1903, Mark Twain sent his friend Helen Keller a letter, addressing plagiarism charges that had been made against her a decade earlier.
(Source: , via explore-blog)
The more deeply we are cast under a story’s spell, the more potent its influence. In fact, fiction seems to be more effective at changing beliefs than nonfiction, which is designed to persuade through argument and evidence. Studies show that when we read nonfiction, we read with our shields up. We are critical and skeptical. But when we are absorbed in a story, we drop our intellectual guard. We are moved emotionally, and this seems to make us rubbery and easy to shape.
But perhaps the most impressive finding is just how fiction shapes us: mainly for the better, not for the worse. Fiction enhances our ability to understand other people; it promotes a deep morality that cuts across religious and political creeds. More peculiarly, fiction’s happy endings seem to warp our sense of reality. They make us believe in a lie: that the world is more just than it actually is. But believing that lie has important effects for society — and it may even help explain why humans tell stories in the first place.
—Jonathan Gottschall, author of the excellent The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human, on why fiction is good for you.
(Source: explore-blog)
It’s awesome that Palmer’s Kickstarter has done so well — but look at what it’s entailed. It’s entailed time, effort, planning and work both backward and forward in time. That currently $439,000 isn’t a windfall for her; it’s a marker of what all that commitment to the work has earned.
If you’re one of the people looking at her Kickstarter money with stars in your eyes and awesome plans of your own in your head, ask yourself first: Have you put in the time? Earned the credibility? Scoped out the financial balance sheet? Made the commitment to fulfill every single thing you have promised?
Palmer has. If you haven’t — on any of this — be aware that your results, shall we say, may vary.
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John Scalzi explains the ups and downs and behind-the-scenes of how you do a successful Kickstarter and what the money means. Whether you’re interested in Amanda’s Kickstarter or not, this one should be required reading for anybody interested in how it works, what it is, and what you want to do if you want the same results… (via neil-gaiman)
Yes, yes, and yes. The woman has put in her dues, crafting a rabid fan base from the ground up. She responds to every email, reads every comment, etc. Deserved, and earned.
(via neil-gaiman)
