Sarah Emily Duff

Oh, man! admire and model thyself after the whale!

Limestone hand holding a phiale (libation bowl)
Cypriot, 5th–4th century BCE

Bella and Esther, 1987-1988 by Lucian Freud

Joseph Beuys.

‘Old Man in Flip Flops’: Notes from a Surprisingly Exciting Water Tasting Class Camper English’s popular water tasting course is an exercise in attention — even for us tap-lovin’ plebes.

‘Just that paying attention — to the texture, the weight, the faint mineral hum of something you’ve been gulping down thoughtlessly your whole life — is its own small reward.’

By @soleilho.com

Can AI Replace Social Science Researchers? No. No it can't. Come on, now.

‘We are instead adding these tools after decades of shredding the university system, along with a year-plus of full-frontal assault. That is basically the worst precursor for the introduction of this particular new technology!’

By @davekarpf.bsky.social

A Technology for a Low-Trust Society Polymarket and Kalshi promise the wisdom of the crowds. They deliver something very different.

‘This is the central lie of prediction markets: They claim to get us closer to the truth but, in the end, they make us less certain about the world.’

By @cwarzel.bsky.social

A great G.

The Spanish Dancer, 1888. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Oil on canvas.

Meticulously rendered macaw on a plain ground. Its talon seems to be wrapped around a branch, but none can be seen. The bird just floats on the paper. Script identifies it as Pssitacus Arauna at the bottom

Jacopo Ligozzi, Psittacus Ararauna (Blue and Gold Macaw), c. 1580-1600, 67 x 45.6 cm. Florence, Uffizi

This is sad news! What a force of life and goodness he was:

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Purchased with the aid of funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, in Washington, D.C., a federal agency; matching funds contributed by Evelyn Sharp, 1976 © 2016 Helen Frankenthaler / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Canal by Helen Frankenthaler, 1963
https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137309

American graphic designer, painter, photographer and a
Teacher at the Bauhaus Herbert Bayer.

Things to Come, c.1938
#HerbertBayer #GraphicDesign

How Mosiuoa Lekota challenged the ANC’s rule and changed the course of SA’s democracy While Mosiuoa Lekota, who died on Wednesday, will be rightly remembered for his role in the United Democratic Front and his fight against apartheid, there is a danger that his subsequent — and equally...

‘Without Lekota’s leadership of Cope… Julius Malema may never have formed the EFF.

There may even be a direct line from Lekota’s formation of Cope, and its initial success, to the proliferation of political parties in South Africa. It was this that made our politics competitive.’

Mosiuoa Lekota: South Africa's long-serving former defence minister dies Mosiuoa Lekota was imprisoned with former South African President Nelson Mandela on Robben Island.

What a life, and what a force in South African life and politics—go well, Mosiuoa Lekota:

Congratulations!

Born (possibly) on this day in 1445, in Florence, the great Sandro Botticelli. Starting off his day with his Primavera, because don't we all wish spring would arrive?

Oh amazing! And absolutely deserved success! Hugest congratulations, John.

Oh how glorious! This is such a good way to start a day—I hope it only improves!

Yay congratulations!

White Gold and Thirsty Communities The story of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) is a tale both of international diplomacy and of the ways that high politics and the antiapartheid struggle played out—and continue to play out—...

Publication Day!

'White Gold and Thirsty Communities: The Cold War, Apartheid, and the #Lesotho Highlands Water Project' is out TODAY!

Can be found at all South African bookstores!

exclusivebooks.co.za/products/978...

(and in North America/Europe: www.rienner.com/title/White_...)

If you’re local, today I’ll talk about Curious George’s 19th c precursors & their “civilizing process”—and what it means to write a literary character’s “infinite biography”, with no clear start or end. 12:15-1:45, Dartmouth Hall 106, lunch available

they all glowed

Oh amazing!

What do you call a cabbage in a bathroom?

Showerkraut.

(sorry)

Helen Frankenthaler in her studio, photographed by David Parks for Life magazine in 1956.

Pablo Picasso dans son atelier de Vallauris avec son modèle Sylvette David, 19 ans, by François Pages, août 1954.

Gaby Wood · At the Movies: ‘The Secret Agent’ Like Walter Salles’s I’m Still Here, which had a similarly successful run last year, The Secret Agent is set during...

‘It’s not that there aren’t real things to worry about. It’s that what you don’t know or can’t remember or will not face haunts you more.’

Gaby Wood on the excellent The Secret Agent for @lrb.co.uk

Baboon Raiders: In Cape Town, Can Big Primates and People Coexist? For years, baboons have roamed Cape Town suburbs, entering yards and houses in search of food. Now officials have a conservation plan aimed at reducing conflicts between the large primates and people ...

‘Cape Town is unique in Africa as it is actively trying to maintain a population of baboons… In other cities, troublesome primates are simply killed … the authorities are legally obliged to conserve baboons as part of natural heritage, but not at any cost.’

By @adamwelz.bsky.social