Carl Sagan on (why we should save kids from) central government's educational system

“…my experience, my experience is… you go, talk to kindergarten kids or first grade kids… you find a class full of science enthusiasts and they ask deep questions… What is a dream? Why do we have toes? Why is the moon round? What's the birthday of the world? Why is grass green?... These are profound important questions they just bubble right out of them... You go and talk to 12th grade students and there's none of that, they've become leaden and incurious… Something terrible has happened between kindergarten and 12th grade and that's not just puberty…”

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Drawing the Line: The Life, Ink, and Cheeky Revelations of late Joe Matt's 'Peepshow

Joe Matt, the trailblazing American cartoonist renowned for his series "Peepshow," died of a heart attack on September 18, 2023, while channeling his life onto paper at his drawing desk. More than just a series of doodles, "Peepshow" was a diary in ink that delved into the dark recesses of Matt's psyche—addressing taboo topics like pornography and masturbation, while artfully exploring the complexities of mental health and sexuality. In "Peepshow," Matt offered a masterclass in vulnerability, serving up raw introspections and existential conundrums that made readers both squirm and resonate. And he did it all with an artistic panache characterised by meticulous lines, vivacious characters, and innovative panel layouts that would've made even the most prudish reader take a second glance. But Matt's work was more than self-absorbed introspection—it was a sociocultural critique wrapped in comic form. Born from the cultural currents of the 1980s a...

Lexical Lunacy: The Enigmatic Minds Behind the Oxford English Dictionary

In "The Dictionary People: The Unsung Heroes Who Created the Oxford English Dictionary", author Sarah Ogilvie found “an above average number of ‘lunatics’” among the Dictionary People. “Was it their madness that drove them to do so much Dictionary work, or was it the Dictionary work that drove them mad?” In the Oxford English Dictionary, a "Dr WC Minor"is referred to as a contributor only to be discovered later that, while he was an American surgeon, he was also a paranoid schizophrenic probable sex addict who had been committed to Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum after shooting a man dead. Another subeditor and reader, John Dormer – who seems from his quotations (“humbug”, “minx”, “hanky panky”) to have been rather fun – was admitted to Croydon Mental Hospital aged 35 in 1907, hearing voices. Eustace Frederick Bright, who started contributing as an 18-year-old medical student, was addicted to cocaine and morphine, and died of an overdose, aged 29, on the toilet fl...

Multidisciplinary Musings: Law, Culture, and the Mind in the Digital Era

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