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What Hath Lenoir Wrought?

Sep 10, 2010

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What Hath Lenoir Wrought?

The internal combustion engine reflects a persistent problem with technology: we consistently underestimate its potential impact—on the environment, on our culture, and on our lives.

Sep 1, 2010 Making the most of college (fifth annual)

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The Stories of Scientists

“Suppose,” the Gospel says, “one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'” Darn good advice.

Sep 1, 2010 Making the most of college (fifth annual)

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“Ut pictura poesis”?

There was a prolonged period recently when the words “traditional” and “craftsy” were the kiss of death for an artist’s career. One result is that in the past several decades, artists of every discipline have been trained with the primary expectation that they shall produce new and sometimes shocking objects; choreograph daring dance movements; compose provocative musical pieces or poems—and in many cases, skill has been moved to the margins or completely off-stage. But in recent decades the centrality of novelty and the demand for an art centred primarily on ideas and issues has lessened a bit—a pendulum swing away from experimentalism.