29 Matching Annotations
  1. Jan 2023
  2. Jul 2022
  3. Jan 2022
    1. ike Jungius, Boyle made use of loose folio sheets that he called memorials or adversaria; yet he did not worry too much about a system of self-referential relationships that enabled intentional knowl-edge retrieval. When he realized that he was no longer able to get his bearings in an ocean of paper slips, he looked for a way out, testing several devices, such as colored strings or labels made of letters and numeral codes. Unfortunately, it was too late. As Richard Yeo clearly noted, ‘this failure to develop an effective indexing system resulted from years of trusting in memory in tandem with notes’.69

      69 Yeo, ‘Loose Notes’, 336

      Robert Boyle kept loose sheets of notes, which he called memorials or adversaria. He didn't have a system of organization for them and tried out variations of colored strings, labels made of letters, and numerical codes. Ultimately his scrap heap failed him for lack of any order and his trust in memory to hold them together failed.


      I love the idea of calling one's notes adversaria. The idea calls one to compare one note to another as if they were combatants in a fight (for truth).


      Are working with one's ideas able to fit into the idea of adversarial interoperability?

  4. Oct 2021
    1. Today it comes to life in the form a new section called Future Perfect. As Klein describes it, the coverage is “inspired by the idea of what’s important.”

      The power of editorial is its ability to focus attention on what the editors deem to be important.

    1. Using evidence and reason to find the most promising causes to work on. Taking action, by using our time and money to do the most good we can.

      I think I learned about effective altruism through Ezra Klein and the Future Perfect podcast.

    1. human beings started to take control of human evolution; that we stood on the brink of eliminating immeasurable levels of suffering on factory farms; and that for the first time the average American might become financially comfortable and unemployed simultaneously

      Effective Altruism

      The shift from an attention economy to an intention economy

    1. If I could get policymakers, and citizens, everywhere to read just one book this year, it would be Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future.

      Quoted on the Amazon product page for the book, The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson.

      The book was recommended by Raphaelle Moatti in the Design Science Studio coheART2.

  5. www.hylo.com www.hylo.com
    1. Ministry for the Future

      The Amazon product page for the book, Ministry for the Future, quotes Ezra Klein.

      If I could get policymakers, and citizens, everywhere to read just one book this year, it would be Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future.

  6. Jul 2021
    1. A charming letter!

      One writing style of Ezra Jennings I noticed it that he likes to use exclamation mark.

    2. the vengeance of yesterday’s opium, pursuing me through a series of frightful dreams. At one time I was whirling through empty space with the phantoms of the dead, friends and enemies together. At another, the one beloved face which I shall never see again, rose at my bedside, hideously phosphorescent in the black darkness, and glared and grinned at me

      This description seems like that Ezra Jennings also use opium. Does he?

    3. Ezra Jennings.

      Ezra comes form Hebrew word "azar," means "help", "aid" and "protect. [Jennings] (http://www.irishsurnames.com/cgi-bin/gallery.pl?name=jennings&capname=Jennings&letter=j) is a baptismal name means "son of John."

    4. His nose presented the fine shape and modelling so often found among the ancient people of the East, so seldom visible among the newer races of the West. His forehead rose high and straight from the brow. His marks and wrinkles were innumerable.

      Here is a whole paragraph physical appearance description of Mr. Candy's assistant - Mr. Ezra

    5. His assistant–a certain Mr. Ezra Jennings–was at our disposal, to be sure. But nobody knew much about him in our parts. He had been engaged by Mr. Candy under rather peculiar circumstances; and, right or wrong, we none of us liked him or trusted him.

      Mr. Ezra is the assistant to the doctor, Mr. Candy. However, Mr. Ezra is not trustworthy to anyone in the house

  7. May 2021
    1. An interesting take from a significant modern researcher/writer about commonplaces in the digital era. He's particularly enamoured of the fact that Evernote dovetails with Google searches to show details from his own notebooks which he's saved in the past.

      Search in commonplace books is definitely a must have feature.

  8. Oct 2020
    1. At two this morning, he confesses that he opened the drawer in which his cigars are put away. He only succeeded in locking it up again by a violent effort. His next proceeding, in case of temptation, was to throw the key out of window.

      The Moonstone was also put away in a drawer. This parallel highlights the use of the Moonstone as a symbol for addiction, and its effects on personal relationships. The insidious temptation of addiction can only be resisted by violent effort and self-denial. Addicts become pariahs of society, represented here by the 'foreignness' of Ezra and Franklin. No good Englishman would be an addict, no sir.

    2. Time would show; and Mr. Bruff was willing to wait for time.

      Given his physical condition, Ezra does not have the luxury of waiting for time. Same goes for Franklin, who is the accused. There is a certain distinction of privilege between those who are able to wait for time and those who aren't. It should be pointed out that those of English disposition are willing to wait patiently, while the 'foreign' characters are taking an active approach to the investigation. Is this a critique of passivity in Victorian English society - that people had become all too content to "wait for time" in times of urgency?

    3. The pages of my poor friend’s Journal are waiting for you at my house–sealed up, with your name on the wrapper

      It's interesting to read Ezra's narrative with the idea in mind that it really was his personal diary and he did not really intend for it to be read. It definitely felt that way with a lot of the like super person and super emotional passages, but still, every other section was written with the intention that someone else reads it, so it's interesting to see how his style changed with that in mind.

    4. Mr. Jennings, do you happen to be acquainted with Robinson Crusoe?

      Hahahaha this is Betteredge's missionary moment. Earlier I thought Robinson Crusoe was a good metaphor for the difference between personal religion and organized religion, with Clack and her tracts representing the hypocrisy of that, but now Betteredge is attempting his own little conversion to steer Ezra down the right path. At least it seems less like Betteredge thinks he's better than Ezra and more that he is worried about what Ezra wants to do.

    5. Speaking as a servant, I am deeply indebted to you. Speaking as a man, I consider you to be a person whose head is full of maggots, and I take up my testimony against your experiment as a delusion and a snare

      Hahahahahahahha. Loyalty to the Verinder family really is Betteredge's primary motivation at all times, even when he completely disagrees with what he's being asked to do. It also makes me wonder that like, Ezra based this experiment off of his personal experience with opium as well as a medical book right? Why is everyone taking it as some kind of superstitious magic? Like Betteredge himself here says something along the lines of he can't approve of this as he's a good Christian.

    6. It was quite unintelligible to his mind, except that it looked like a piece of trickery, akin to the trickery of mesmerism, clairvoyance, and the like

      It's interesting to compare Ezra's test with clairvoyance here considering the people who use that sort of magic are the Indians. Ezra himself mentioned earlier that one of his parents was born in the colonies, and Franklin describes his appearance as being striking and causing him to stand out. I wonder if this is a case of a sort of "respectable" othered person, or if its only the case that Ezra is a good guy in the book because he's half English.

    7. Is it possible (I ask myself, in reading this delightful letter) that I, of all men in the world, am chosen to be the means of bringing these two young people together again

      Awww this passage is really sweet. It's weird how quickly Ezra changed from being this strange looking character that stood out to Franklin as being sketchy, to this sweet character who wants to help reunite the lovers. Before I asked if he was doing this out of duty to Mr. Candy or a friendship with Franklin, but now it's clearly not the former, and is both out of friendship to Franklin and his own want to play cupid in a sense. How cute.

    8. Or is there really something in him which answers to the yearning that I have for a little human sympathy–the yearning, which has survived the solitude and persecution of many years; which seems to grow keener and keener, as the time comes nearer and nearer when I shall endure and feel no more

      Awww, poor Ezra. I wonder if Ezra is doing all this as a favor to Mr. Candy, or because he genuinely wants to help Franklin as the first person besides Mr. Candy to be nice to him in a long time. It seems like it started as the former but is definitely at least partially the latter if he's having these thoughts.

    9. Ezra Jennings

      Interesting that he refers to Ezra by his full name (as opposed to the pretty servant). Even though he doesn't know anything about the person but the way he looks, Franklin appears to admire him. On the other hand, perhaps so as to subdue his admiration/jealousy for him, he pities Ezra for "being unpopular everywhere," implicitly preening himself for being so well-known.

  9. Jul 2020
    1. He whispered, “It’s coming!” Then he said, “Kiss me!” I kissed his forehead. On a sudden he lifted his head. The sunlight touched his face. A beautiful expression, an angelic expression, came over it. He cried out three times, “Peace! peace! peace!” His head sank back again on my shoulder, and the long trouble of his life was at an end.

      Ezra has been the saving grace for many of the main characters and for the doctor, mending either life or relationships or innocence. This is a really fitting description yet horribly sad ending for Ezra.

  10. Feb 2020
    1. All of these styles, however different from each other, arc comparable in this: each is quite unmistakable; once one is learned, it is not likely to be confused with something else.

      Modernism = "Make it new." Pound

  11. Jul 2018
  12. course-computational-literary-analysis.netlify.com course-computational-literary-analysis.netlify.com
    1. which seems to grow keener and keener, as the time comes nearer and nearer when I shall endure and feel no more? How useless to ask these questions! Mr. Blake has given me a new interest in life. Let that be enough, without seeking to know what the new interest is.

      Ezra Jennings expressed his yearning for human sympathy and his admiration for Mr.Franklin here. It appeared to me that nearly every character of the novel had some reason to adore Mr.Franklin. The peculiarity of Jennings is that he had long been plagued by distrust and dwelt in solitude. This and the impending death painted his affection towards Franklin rather melancholy, since this affection was intertwined with his crave for youth, riches, health, etc., all of which he had never, and probably would never have, an opportunity, to possess.

  13. Nov 2015
    1. profligate

      recklessly extravagant or wasteful in the use of resources.

    2. “Moreover, it would allow farmers to make a decent living while giving consumers access to healthy, fresh food at affordable prices.”

      Local foods are affordable to consumers and benefit farmers.