Macro Photographs of Dew-Covered Dragonflies and Other Insects by David Chambon Over the past few months photographer David Chambon has been working on a phenomenal series of photos featuring insects covered in tiny water droplets. These are a few of my favorites but you can see dozens more over on 500px and Flickr. If you liked these also check out the dew-soaked macro photography of Sharon Johnston and Ondrej Pakan. (via faith is torment)
Behavioral Economist Dan Ariely on the Relationship Between Creativity and Dishonesty by Maria Popova “Creativity can help us tell better stories — stories that allow us to be even more dishonest but still think of ourselves as wonderfully honest people.” The first use of the U.S. Behavioral economist Dan Ariely belongs to the rare breed of scientists who are both actively engaged in empirical research, running all kinds of fascinating experiments in the lab, and keenly skilled in synthesizing those findings into equally fascinating insights into human nature, then communicating those articulately and engagingly to a non-scientist reader. Ariely writes in the introduction: In addition to exploring the forces that shape dishonesty, one of the main practical benefits of the behavioral economics approach is that it shows us the internal and environmental influences on our behavior. Particularly interesting is a chapter on the relationship between creativity and dishonesty. We may not always know exactly why we do what we do, choose what we choose, or feel what we feel.
Los nuevos argonautas By Luis Yslas (@luisyslas) In: N° 6: Published 01 Sep 2012 Visto: 760 {*style:<i>"La nave Argos no comportaba –en su larga historia– ninguna creación, sino sólo combinaciones; a pesar de estar obligada a una función inmóvil, cada pieza se renovaba infinitamente, sin que el conjunto dejara nunca de ser la nave Argos..." Roland Barthes Hace unos meses me tocó hacer una suplencia como profesor de literatura de 1er año de Humanidades, o lo que en mi época de estudiante se conocía como cuarto año. Me equivoqué. Era un grupo mixto de veinte alumnos. Admito que estuve a punto de tirar la toalla. Volvimos a leer a Poe, pero ahora escenificado por Vincent Price en una adaptación dramatizada de "El corazón delator" que encontré en YouTube. No voy a decir que las cosas mejoraron completamente y que de pronto me convertí en el Mr. No es mi intención resumir aquí un libro tan rico en ideas sobre la sociedad contemporánea. De modo que en la actualidad, el mayor reto para muchos profesores es la tolerancia.
How We Measure the Universe, Animated donating = loving Brain Pickings remains ad-free and takes hundreds of hours a month to research and write, and thousands of dollars to sustain. If you find any joy and value in it, please consider becoming a Member and supporting with a recurring monthly donation of your choosing, between a cup of tea and a good dinner: (If you don't have a PayPal account, no need to sign up for one – you can just use any credit or debit card.) You can also become a one-time patron with a single donation in any amount: labors of love María no baila reguetón By Naky Soto Parra (@naky) In: N° 6: Published 01 Sep 2012 Visto: 819 Obligado nada es bueno. La literatura no escapa de esta sentencia. Los mismos chamos que jamás pusieron objeción para devorarse todos los ejemplares de Harry Potter -a pesar de sus extensiones- me sometieron a intensas deliberaciones para tratar de orientarles sobre libros que bien vistos, no son tan complejos, ni demandan mantener Google abierto para consultar el DRAE por su vocabulario. A pesar de nuestros intensos contrastes, y de la negación del funcionamiento medianamente continuo de nuestros servicios básicos, la modernidad se instaló en nuestro imaginario colectivo, haciendo improbable la comprensión intuitiva de los aportes de una obra como "Doña Bárbara". El que enamora por pines o chats, no puede entender el valor del amor epistolar de María. ¿Quién de nosotros comprendió en 4to año ? Marcos González. Era un soberbio ejemplar de de Julio Verne, que volvió a sus manos la semana siguiente.
John Cleese on the 5 Factors to Make Your Life More Creative by Maria Popova “Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating.” Much has been said about how creativity works, its secrets, its origins, and what we can do to optimize ourselves for it. In this excerpt from his fantastic 1991 lecture, John Cleese offers a recipe for creativity, delivered with his signature blend of cultural insight and comedic genius. Space (“You can’t become playful, and therefore creative, if you’re under your usual pressures.”)Time (“It’s not enough to create space; you have to create your space for a specific period of time.”)Time (“Giving your mind as long as possible to come up with something original,” and learning to tolerate the discomfort of pondering time and indecision.)Confidence (“Nothing will stop you being creative so effectively as the fear of making a mistake.”)Humor (“The main evolutionary significance of humor is that it gets us from the closed mode to the open mode quicker than anything else.”) Creativity is not a talent. Thanks, Simon
El país de las bibliotecas sin casas: entrevista a Gisela Kozak By Anairene Asuaje In: N° 6: Published 01 Sep 2012 Visto: 747 Gisela Kozak es de la gente que uno oye hablar y quisiera haberla tenido (o tenerla) como profesora de literatura, a toda costa. "¿En cuántas casas hay bibliotecas?" Por el lado de los estudiantes, Kozak asegura que la literatura requiere de autonomía personal, que no tiene que ver con "leer para sacar una nota", pero sí es un gran instrumento para la educación desde una perspectiva amplia, con un sentido importante en nuestras vidas, y no sólo la natural pelea de hacer una tarea por la obligación de aprobar. Me quedo espantada de que todavía se estén utilizando textos con los que yo estudié hace tantos años. A diferencia del enfoque general, el mío tiene que ver con que muy pocas personas en bachillerato tienen definida una vocación, una línea, un gusto. Creo que pueden leer perfectamente . Es complacer la flojera, me parece algo terrible. Es terrible. Sí es pertinente.
The Importance of Frustration in the Creative Process, Animated by Maria Popova “Before we can find the answer — before we can even know the question — we must be immersed in disappointment.” Last week, Jonah Lehrer took us inside “the seething cauldron of ideas” with Imagine: How Creativity Works, his long-awaited (by me, at least) new book. Now, from Flash Rosenberg — Guggenheim Fellow, NYPL artist-in-residence, live-illustrator extraordinaire, and Brain Pickings darling — comes this wonderful hand-drawn teaser for the book, distilling one of Lehrer’s key ideas in Rosenberg’s signature style of simple yet visually eloquent line drawings. When we tell stories about creativity, we tend to leave out this phase. For a related treat, see Rosenberg’s live-illustration of John Lithgow reading Mark Twin at the New York Public Library. Brain Pickings has a free weekly newsletter and people say it’s cool. Share on Tumblr
Otra belleza Iliada es un monumento a la guerra que, a su vez, transmite gran amor a la paz. Una transmisión que suelen hacer las mujeres, cuyas palabras congelan el ardor de la lucha. Pero la obra de Homero contiene un canto a la hermosura de la guerra, que lleva al individuo más allá de sus límites. De ahí que una forma de alcanzar la paz consista en producir un tipo de belleza que ilumine la vida sin conflictos bélicos. El siguiente es el prólogo de la reescritura de la epopeya griega a cargo del autor de Seda. Intelec- tuales refi- nados como Wittgenstein y Gadda buscaban la primera línea del frente con la convicción de que sólo así podrían encontrarse a sí mismos Lo que sugiere la Iliada es que ningún pacifismo debe olvidar ni negar la belleza de la guerra Hoy la paz es poco más que una conveniencia política No son éstos unos años como cualquier otro para leer la Iliada. A menudo son las mujeres las que proclaman el deseo de paz, sin intermediarios. "No hay nada, para mí, que val-
The Social Network for Creatives, by Creatives The Creative Finder is a site from the creators of popular daily creativity and innovation news site, designtaxi.com. Around since 2009, the site dubs itself as a global search engine for creatives, aiming to connect people for business, networking or just collaboration. Creator Alex Goh just launched a new edition of the site, which not only integrates with existing social networks like Tumblr and Pinterest - where many creatives choose to host imagery outside of the standard Facebook and Twitter spaces - it also offers a way for users dubbed "finders" to locate creative types for commission-based work. If Facebook is a space to display the finished product in front of a willing audience, then the Creative Finder is a network for discovering the people who will help you make that product. I mostly use Facebook to network with writers, artists and people in the arts, so I curated my profile on The Creative Finder with the same imagery.
Ten Brilliant ‘Untranslatable’ Words This is a community post, untouched by our editors. In Shame, Salman Rushdie wrote, “To unlock a society, look at its untranslatable words.” The Oxford English Dictionary contains over 600, 000 entries, and English is generally regarded as the language with the most words. And yet, there are lexical gaps: Other languages have words for which English has no direct equivalence. Some of these words describe concepts or feelings which are so commonplace, beautiful or brilliant that one can’t help but wonder: Why don’t we have a word for that? Toska (Russian) Translating into English roughly as melancholia, but infused with much more than that. “No single word in English renders all the shades of toska. Photo Credit: h.koppdelaney/ Flickr Tartle (Scottish) Have you ever been out with a friend, and bumped into an acquaintance – only to forget their name, as you try to introduce them? Litost (Czech) Saudade (Portugues) The Dictionary from the Royal Galician Academy defines saudade as an Sobremesa (Spanish)