Todays Thought

We understand death for the first time when he puts his hand upon one whom we love. 

-Madame De Stael, writer (22 Apr 1766-1817)

How Did You Die?

How Did You Die?

Edmund Vance Cooke

                  

Did you tackle that trouble that came your way

    With a resolute heart and cheerful?

Or hide your face from the light of day

    With a craven soul and fearful?

Oh, a trouble's a ton, or a trouble's an ounce,

    Or a trouble is what you make it,

And it isn't the fact that you're hurt that counts,

    But only how did you take it?

You are beaten to earth? Well, well, what's that?

    Come up with a smiling face.

It's nothing against you to fall down flat,

    But to lie there -- that's disgrace.

The harder you're thrown, why the higher you bounce;

    Be proud of your blackened eye!

It isn't the fact that you're licked that counts,

    It's how did you fight -- and why?

And though you be done to the death, what then?

    If you battled the best you could,

If you played your part in the world of men,

    Why, the Critic will call it good.

Death comes with a crawl, or comes with a pounce,

    And whether he's slow or spry,

It isn't the fact that you're dead that counts,

    But only how did you die?

Todays Thought

There is a beauty in discovery. There is mathematics in music, a kinship of science and poetry in the description of nature, and exquisite form in a molecule. Attempts to place different disciplines in different camps are revealed as artificial in the face of the unity of knowledge. All literate men are sustained by the philosopher, the historian, the political analyst, the economist, the scientist, the poet, the artisan, and the musician. 

-Glenn T. Seaborg, scientist, Nobel laureate (19 Apr 1912-1999)

Todays Thought

The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions. 

-Robert Lynd, writer (20 Apr 1879-1949)

Today's Thought

The life you have led doesn't need to be the only life you have. 

- Anna Quindlen

• 

• Amanda Silberling

Thousands of rare concert recordings are landing on the Internet Archive — listen now

Chicago-based music superfan Aadam Jacobs has been recording the concerts he attends since the 1980s, amassing an archive of over 10,000 tapes. Now 59, Jacobs knows that these cassettes are going to degrade over time, so he agreed to let volunteers from the Internet Archive, the nonprofit digital library, digitize the tapes.

So far, about 2,500 of these tapes have been posted on the Internet Archive, including some rare gems like a Nirvana performance from 1989. (The group wouldn’t break through to mainstream audiences until they released the single “Smells Like Teen Spirit” in 1991.) Within the collection, you can also find previously unknown recordings from influential artists like Sonic Youth, R.E.M., Phish, Liz Phair, Pavement, Neutral Milk Hotel, and a whole bunch of other punk groups.

For many of these recordings, Jacobs was using pretty mediocre equipment, but the volunteer audio engineers working with the Internet Archive have made these tapes sound great.

One volunteer, Brian Emerick, drives to Jacobs’ house once a month to pick up more boxes of tapes — he has to use anachronistic cassette decks to play the tapes, which get converted into digital files. From there, other volunteers clean up, organize, and label the recordings, even tracking down song names from forgotten punk bands.

Sometimes, the internet is good. And so is this Tracy Chapman recording from 1988.

Todays Word

Slopulence

A situation of great material prosperity, but only for superfluous consumer goods and entertainment content that do not bring happiness or meaning to one's life.

 More specifically, it refers to the post-covid American economy–wherein real incomes are the highest they've ever been, food and material goods are available in incredible abundance and are unimaginaby cheap by the standards of any other time in human history, there is utterly limitless choice in immediately-accessible entertainment for free or very low cost, travel to nearly anywhere in the world is possible with for only a few days' pay, all the world's knowledge is accessible at one's fingertips, algorithms can instantaneously produce entire books, videos, games, programs, etc....but all the most truly meaningful and significant aspects of life (housing, healthcare, education, childcare) are unprecedentedly unaffordable.

 

Despite incredible prosperity in vapid material goods, society suffers from widespread unhappiness and perceptions of unbearable indigence due to the inaccessibility of the core building blocks of life. We possess opulence, but only for slop.

 Slopulence.

Tubi, Xbox Game Pass, Spotify, particleboard furniture, disposable fast-fashion clothing, $1 Tortino's pizzas–all are peak examples of slopulence

by Milton Douglass February 10, 2026