Berfrois

June 2011

Gerardo Aldana: Behind Astronomical Patterns

Gerardo Aldana: Behind Astronomical Patterns

Kan B’ahlam as warrior, depicted on the Palenque Temple XVII Tablet by Gerardo Aldana One of the real challenges facing the interpretation of ancient astronomies—from non-academic ‘2012’ prophecies to the most traditional scholarship on the Dresden Codex Venus Table—is that presented by ‘patterns in randomness.’ In my opinion, the...

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Four Interactions

Four Interactions

Bhubaneshwar, India by Satyabrata Mitra Interaction I: Worker in Atos Origin India Pvt Ltd. The following is the reflection of a worker (software developer) in Atos Origin India Private Limited (Mumbai), a part of Atos Origin Global, an European MNC. The worker desired to share certain things with other...

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“But I like eBay pictures”

“But I like eBay pictures”

Receivers, Moyra Davey,  2003 From Triple Canopy: Matthew Porter: In the 2006 essay “Notes on Photography and Accident,” from Long Life Cool White: Photographs & Essays by Moyra Davey, you characterize your practice as suffering from a period of lassitude, or fatigue. The date of this photograph, Receivers, is 2003....

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Notes from a Literary Apprenticeship

Notes from a Literary Apprenticeship

Trading Stories | by Jhumpa Lahiri

The New Yorker

Books, and the stories they contained, were the only things I felt I was able to possess as a child. Even then, the possession was not literal; my father is...

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Amanda Sigler: Scandalous Ulysses

Amanda Sigler: Scandalous Ulysses

Boasting a scandalous history, Joyce’s novel is famous for the controversy it caused when it was serialized in the Little Review...

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The Bishop-Hemingway Connection by Thomas Travisano

The Bishop-Hemingway Connection by Thomas Travisano

by Thomas Travisano The poet Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) was once considered a comparatively isolated figure. Because she shunned labels and avoided becoming identified with well-publicized literary movements, she was once considered—as David Kalstone wrote in 1977— a “hard to ‘place.’” However, as her posthumous fame has grown and...

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David A. Kirby: Hulk Smash Accurate Science!

David A. Kirby: Hulk Smash Accurate Science!

Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman as Thor and Jane Foster, Thor, Paramount Pictures, 2011 by David A. Kirby For most people, the start of the summer blockbuster season would not be an ideal time to be examining movies for their scientific verisimilitude. Big, silly popcorn flicks are about explosions, muscled...

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What to do when a student hands in crap?

What to do when a student hands in crap?

From The Chronicle Review: Not long ago, Michael Winerip, of The New York Times, visited Ursinus College to see the room where J.D. Salinger lived for one semester. He chatted with some of the students who had lived there in recent years, winners of the college’s creative-writing scholarship. Winerip...

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