Engines of our Ingenuity

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The Engines of Our Ingenuity is a radio program that tells the story of how our culture is formed by human creativity. Written and hosted by John Lienhard, it is heard nationally on Public Radio and produced by KUHF-FM Houston. Among other features, this web site houses the transcripts for every episode heard since the show's inception in 1988.

I'm having fun CTRL+F-ing around the full episode titles with keywords page. Clicking the episode number gets you the transcript, supplementary media (photos, links, etc.), and a link to the Real Audio file of the episode. There are over 2,400 episodes, with topics ranging from Colonial America's amateur innovators to The Kronos Quartet to Mendel as the father of modern genetics. Sweet.

Oh!, how you inflict me with wounds of paranoia and desire.

Complimentary Surrealism
on the Surrealism Server

You mutter such objects of equine delight that the mind's ability to sew slices of mordant ivory becomes tamed with visions of Tamils in Constantinople.

‮˙ʇoɹ pıp ɹǝʇsuoɯ ƃuıʎp ʎuɐ ɹǝʌǝ sɐ 'ʎןsnoıɔɐɹƃ ʇuǝɯoɟ noʎ‬

More to come...check back.

Fractals

Perhaps my favorite form.

It is easy to lose myself, staring at a fractal. Or thinking of an endless coast, a mountain's infinite altitude, and then Zeno's paradox. They are like a calendar of days, each piece of a week the same part of a whole, itself a part of a whole composed of like bits, and on into the infinity of time. But each day (supposedly) has its own rough edge, a unique swirl that is potentially repeated forever—identical one and all save time. Fractals to me represent individual experience, the infinity and continuity of perspectives on this one rather large universe.

Figures for impossible fractals

An impossible fern (balanced 30° Pythagorean tree).

Mystery of the REAL 3D Mandelbrot Fractal


I have these two images layered on my desktop:



click for larger

Loving Cinema Lovers

Early Visual Media
"[A]n online Media_Museum explaining intriguing and mostly forgotten Early Vintage Visual Media and their history. The aim is not to bring a complete overview of the history of Visual Media but rather a personal selection."


The History of the Discovery of Cinema

This chronology is presented in fifteen chapters, and represents an exhaustive and historical overview on the subject of cinematography. It encompasses among others, the works of Layard, Sophocles, Herodotus, Empodocles, Mo Ti, Plato, Aristotle, Democritus, Euclid, Archimedes, Shao Ong, Vitruvius, Lucretius, Pablius Statius, Pliny, Seneca, Heron, Ptolemy, Ting Huan, Galen, Boethius, Geber, Chao-Lung, Kuang-Hsien, Alhazen, Avicena, Shen Kua, Averroes, Grosseteste, Bacon, Magnus, Witelo, Peckham, Saint-Cloud, Villeneuve, Gershon, Fontana, Alberti, Gainsborough, Vinci, Maurolycus, Caesariano, Durer, Reinhold, Gemma-Frisius, Cardano, Porta, Barbaro, Fabricius, Diggs, Risner, Danti, Benedetti, Casciorolo, Kepler, Scheiner, Sala, Snell, D'Aguilon, Drebbel, Gassendro, Schwenter, Leurechon, Bate, Kircher, Descartes, Horrocks, Herigone, Martini, De Chales, Zahn, Niceron, Huygens, Schott, Walgensten, Vermeer, Reeves, Hooke, Boyle, D'Orleans, Balduin, Kohlans, Cellio, Homberg, Molyneux, Sturm, John Harris, Van Gravensande, Van Musschenbroek, Schulze, Bion, Cheselden, Guyot, Smith, Cuff, Caneletto, Costa, Nollet, Parrat, Dollond, De la Roche , Ledermuller, Martin, Van Loo , Brander, Sheraton, Schropfer, Priestley, Seraphin, Lambert, Boulton, Scheele, Joseph Harris, Storer, Charles, Wedgewood, Balsamo, Chretien, Guinard, Harrup, Robertson, Hare, Davy, Philipsthal, Wollaston, Niepce, Brewster, Chevalier, Talbot, Herschel, Dageurre, Gurney, Birckbeck, Roget, Ritchie, Fitton, Paris, Drummond, Barker, Farraday, Wheatstone, Plateau, Stampfer, Marey, Janssen, Anschutz, Muybridge, Horner, Donisthorpe, Lumiere's, Goodwin, Eastman, Dickson, Casler, Friese-Greene, Carbutt, LePrince, Edison and others.

Why do we spend so many precious hours of our lives watching films? What is it about cinema that it should occupy a place of such prominence in our lives? And why do we even need movies? It is as though we are trying to fill a gap in our lives - a void, an emptiness within ourselves. So to even begin on the path of our Truth Quest, we have to see the broader picture of how film correlates to life, and life to film. To find this higher perspective, it is helpful to look towards the other arts, as well as philosophy.

Cinema Seekers: Searching for truth in cinema and in life.

Dictionaries!

In no particular order:

1736 Canting Dictionary
A Collection of the Canting Words and Terms, both ancient and modern, used by Beggars, Gypsies, Cheats, House-Breakers, Shop-Lifters, Foot-Pads, Highway-Men, &c. Taken from The Universal Etymological English Dictionary, by N. Bailey, London, 1737, Vol. II, and transcrib'd into XML Most Diligently by Liam Quin.

The ABCs of Diplomacy (PDF!)
Compiled by The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA)

ASCII Art Dictionary

Ballet Dictionary
Dover Publications has graciously allowed the use of 170 terms from the Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet, which are then demonstrated by ABT Company dancers.

The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce
DICTIONARY, n. A malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic. This dictionary, however, is a most useful work.

Dictionary of All-Consonant Words
Dictionary of All-Vowel Words

Dictionary of Difficult Words
Do you aim to become a member of the literati, or do you wish to be a savant? Do you want to avoid being verbigerative and be succinct instead?

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (Google Book!)
I knew that the work in which I engaged is generally considered as drudgery for the blind, as the proper toil of artless industry; a task that requires neither the light of learning, nor the activity of genius, but may be successfully performed without any higher quality than that of bearing burdens with dull patience, and beating the track of the alphabet with sluggish resolution. From The Plan of an English Dictionary

Bartleby's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable
...over 18,000 entries that reveal the etymologies, trace the origins and otherwise catalog "words with a tale to tell."

Flaubert's Dictionary of Received Ideas
DICTIONARY Say of it: 'It's only for ignoramuses!' A rhyming dictionary?-- 'I'd rather die than use one!'

The Difference Dictionary
Dr. Gunn's Organic History Supplement for The Difference Engine, a novel by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling.

DoD Dictionary of Military Terms
PEACEMAKING (DOD) The process of diplomacy, mediation, negotiation, or other forms of peaceful settlements that arranges an end to a dispute and resolves issues that led to it.

The Double-Tongued Dictionary
A lexicon of fringe English, focusing on slang, jargon, and new words.

Field Guide to Identifying Unicorns by Sound
Not exactly a dictionary, but definitely a good reference to keep handy.

The Foolish Dictionary
An exhausting work of reference to un-certain English words, their origin, meaning, legitimate and illegitimate use, confused by A FEW PICTURES

The Grandiloquent Dictionary
This is the result of an ongoing project to collect and distribute the most obscure and rare words in the English language. It also contains a few words which do not have equivalent words in English.

Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary
Some six years ago I compiled the first glossary of words, expressions, and the general patois employed by musicians and entertainers in New York’s teeming Harlem. That the general public agreed with me is amply evidenced by the fact that the present issue is the sixth edition since 1938 and is the official jive language reference book of the New York Public Library.

The Nonverbal Dictionary of Gestures, Signs, & Body Language Cues
From Adam's-Apple-Jump to Zygomatic Smile

The Not-So-Correct Dictionary

OEDILF - The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form

The Online Etymology Dictionary
...a map of the wheel-ruts of modern English.

Online Dictionary of Symbolism
This symbolism dictionary endeavors to provide some possible cultural significances of various symbols, and suggest ways in which those symbols may have been used in context.

Kate Monk's Onomastikon
(Dictionary of Names)