Hat tip: HNWith apologies to subscribers who received post 14 of this series out of order due to my enthusiasm for the subject matter… …… Read More »Writing and Reading as Technology (13): Erik Engheim on Gutenberg vs earlier Asian printing technologies
We often have convenience now because someone did the maths before. Ben Sparks With apologies to subscribers who received this out of order due to… Read More »Writing and Reading as Technology (14): Magical Paper Sizes; or, The Golden Non-Ratio
While there is a shared understanding [about what constitutes a particular dish], that isn’t absolute compliance. If we had to argue that there is only… Read More »Whose Dhansak? Food and Authenticity
Paul Graham on Heresy and Truth In his excellent biography of Newton, Richard Westfall writes about the moment when he was elected a fellow of… Read More »Heresy; Bambi
Aux armes, citoyens,To arms, citizens, Formez vos bataillons,Form your battalions, Marchons, marchons !March, march! Qu’un sang impurAbreuve nos sillons !Let an impure bloodWater our furrows!… Read More »Blood, Bones and Building; or, Love’s Labours
This image we know and love – the classic ukiyo-e woodblock print, as Japanese as Tsunamis and Mount Fuji, one of the launchpads of Japonisme,… Read More »New Wave: the Hybrid Hokusai
Here’s Eisenstein again. There’s a lot at work: The combinatorial innovation that was the printing press created further opportunities for cross-pollination by breaking down old… Read More »Technology (23): Elizabeth Eisenstein on how the printing press created new networks and sparked further innovation
I’m working my way through Elizabeth Eisenstein’s excellent The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, an abridged version of her two-volume The Printing Press as… Read More »Writing and Reading as Technology (12): Elizabeth Eisenstein on How the Printing Press Changed Books
The technology of writing isn’t simply the infrastructure of thought: it’s the enabling infrastructure of most of the complex activities we think of as government.… Read More »Writing and Reading as Technology (11): Writing Rules