Cephalopods & Co.

Wait, what? Yes, that was the original phrase Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence. But it was his editor, Benjamin Franklin, who changed the last three words to read: “self-evident.”

From Walter Isaacson’s biography on Franklin:

The idea of “self-evident” truths was one that drew less on John Locke, who was Jefferson’s favorite philosopher, than on the scientific determinism espoused by Isaac Newton and on the analytic empiricism of Franklin’s close friend David Hume. In what became known as “Hume’s fork,” the great Scottish philosopher, along with Leibniz and others, had developed a theory that distinguished between synthetic truths that describe matters of fact (such as “London is bigger than Philadelphia”) and analytic truths that are self-evident by virtue of reason and definition (“The angles of a triangle equal 180 degrees”; “All bachelors are unmarried”). By using the word “sacred,” Jefferson had asserted, intentionally or not, that the principle in question — the equality of men and their endowment by their creator with inalienable rights — was an assertion of religion. Franklin’s edit turned it instead into an assertion of rationality. (Issacson, page 312.)

Imagine having Ben Franklin as your editor, changing your philosophical approach in what would become one of the most important documents the world has seen.

(via joshsternberg)

↵ Originally from joshsternberg

↵ Reblogged from brooklynmutt

# history

# United States

The New Yorker: Film Festival Mad Libs

newyorker:

Shouts & Murmurs: In the interest of brevity, the International Film Festival has issued a single press release to introduce all of this year’s films:

U.S. Films in Competition
105 minutes, English

In this ________ (stunningly forceful / wryly sardonic / charmingly intimate) film, a…

↵ Reblogged from newyorker

# film

# hipster

laughingsquid:

‘The Matrix’ Condensed into 60 Animated Seconds

↵ Reblogged from laughingsquid

# animation

# movies

The poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus five percentage points, showed that ninety-seven per cent of those surveyed “strongly agreed” with the statement, “I personally do not want to be killed by a drone,” with three per cent responding, “Don’t know/No opinion.

Poll: Majority of Americans Opposed to Being Killed by Drone : The New Yorker (via brooklynmutt)

↵ Reblogged from brooklynmutt

# politics

# humor

whitewhine:

The program that increases your chances of doing well in America is called being white

↵ Reblogged from whitewhine

# affirmative action

lifeonfoot:

Designer: Sungwoo Park, Yoonha Paick, Jongdeuk Son, Banseok Yoon, Eunbi Cho & Minjung Sim

Read more at http://www.yankodesign.com/2008/01/31/the-dry-side/#QHvzEXleJFTwVrzV.99

↵ Originally from lifeonfoot

↵ Reblogged from secretrepublic

# design

valentoms:

i made more historical (political) figure valentines

(x)

(Source: twhiddleston)

↵ Originally from twhiddleston

↵ Reblogged from historythings

# holidays

↵ Originally from bluedogeyes

↵ Reblogged from menorahtheexplorer

# literature

jtotheizzoe:

sciencecenter:

jtotheizzoe:

sciencecenter:

I think this would make an excellent single-serving tumblr.

(SMBC)

“The female human melodic vocalization delivery vehicle known as ‘Taylor Swift’ continues to make questionable choices in potential mates, although she has recently made it known that she has excluded, excluded, excluded a fellow member of her vocalization pack previously in the running for genetic reproduction via a widely-heard mourning/mating call. Like, ever.”

During a large gathering of carbon-based metazoan life forms for the purpose of the stimulation of aural sensory apparatuses, a high status vertebrate announced through his voice amplification system that one or more of his gametes had successfully fertilized the egg of a female chordate of the same species, who is notable for appearing on trashy reality tv.

I like where this is headed.

“During an interrogative communication session recorded on a photonic motion-capture device beamed via long-wave electromagnetic waves to near-Earth satellites reflecting their signals to millions of pixelated image-reproduction screens, a terrestrial carbon-based life form of exceptional aerobic fitness admitted to injections of synthetic erythropoietin in order to obtain a performance advantage via increased maximum oxygen solubility during competitive displays upon dual-wheeled, mechanically-cranked transportation devices, notably in France. This multicellular organism is particularly well-regarded among his species for his fondness of yellow and overcoming metastatic neoplasia of the testicle and lungs.”