Category: Linky
Science and Technology June 27th
Tech Tuesday starts in two weeks, not two days ago, as expected, because Will & I have lives.
Science and Technology Links – June 15th – Micro Magnets Edition
Just finished a two day Hackathon, and this will be the last Tech Thursday, since we are moving it to Tuesday (where, let’s be honest, it rightfully belongs – Tech Tuesday just reads better).
Morning Ed: Person and Beyond Person
This week: Body, Mind, Education, Science, Gender, and Religion!
Linky Friday: Everything Is Political
This week: Government, Family, Media, Transportation, and Politics
Linky Friday: Here, There, Everywhere
For about 36 hours this week, it looked like we were relocating to Alaska. This week: Home, School, Work, Earth, and Space.
Technology and Science Links – May The Fourth Be With You Edition
I’m in Hawaii on vacation, but I still wanted you all to have something.
French Hovels, Slave Cabins, and the limits of Thomas Jefferson’s Eyes
Jefferson’s powerful eyes constantly dissected and analyzed: especially for scientific reasons, Jefferson spied on people’s lives. He always wanted to see, and to see firsthand. During his famous tour of southern France and northern Italy in the spring of 1787, he saw examples of misery and wretchedness—especially where lower classes were concerned. He had entered the shacks of French peasants incognito. To peep into people’s dwellings was for Jefferson the best method to assess their identity and evaluate their circumstances. “You must ferret the people out of their hovels as I have done,” Jefferson wrote to his friend Lafayette, “look into their kettles, eat their bread, loll on their beds under pretence of resting yourself, but in fact to find if they are soft.”
Most likely, this Jeffersonian method of spying did more than just provide reliable sociological data: it enhanced his empathy. Reading this letter to Lafayette, the reader gets the impression that Jefferson drew himself closer to these hapless human beings, pitying them and caring for their conditions, seeing them for who they actually were. But in other ways, Jefferson’s eyes were blind: did he ever actually see his slaves’ cabins? Did he ever ferret slaves out of their shackles to observe and meditate about their condition?