Author | Lightnews

Jonathan Goodwin @joncgoodwin.bsky.social · 11h

I collect inspirational footnotes and share them from time to time:

Here's the OCR transcription of the text in the image:

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*The Making of Victorian England* (London, 1962), 14. In fact I tried to count and failed. Some time ago I spent the better part of two years coding the evaluative language used in thousands of historians' book reviews, punching IBM cards, and attempting to correlate the language employed with dozens of other variables having to do with historians' generation, field, status, etc. It was a total waste of time, producing nothing intelligible and permanently dampening my enthusiasm for introducing quantitative rigor into intellectual history.

Jonathan Goodwin @joncgoodwin.bsky.social · 22h

Perhaps it is not as understudied or unremarked as I imagine, but psychometrician types who become convinced of their own extraordinary ability through high performance on tests they design are worthy of sustained reflection of the "but for the grace" type.

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Jonathan Goodwin @joncgoodwin.bsky.social · 1d

Help me summarize my key wins this quarter!

Jonathan Goodwin @joncgoodwin.bsky.social · 2d

I support all Codex Sera.-related content.

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Jonathan Goodwin @joncgoodwin.bsky.social · 3d

A New Yorker piece from the 1930s mentions it, citing a World Almanac from around the turn of the century as the source. Didn't save the link, alas.

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Jonathan Goodwin @joncgoodwin.bsky.social · 3d

Got a little confused by the news, so I was looking up "plato tattoo," and it turns out there are several philosophical commentaries on the ethics and aesthetics of bodily adornment footnoting that doughty (not doughy, despite his name) figure.

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Jonathan Goodwin @joncgoodwin.bsky.social · 3d

He seemed like he had a strong naturalist interest, so I can't tell if he believed it, a kind of joke, etc.

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Jonathan Goodwin @joncgoodwin.bsky.social · 3d

I know it was in the almanac, but still it's a little credulous of Davenport to claim that geese lived for centuries.

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Jonathan Goodwin @joncgoodwin.bsky.social · 4d

Reading a book with my good Dutch, Letters from an Earthapple Eater.

Jonathan Goodwin @joncgoodwin.bsky.social · 10d

Putting The Conchologist's First Book (1839) as an id item on exam.

Jonathan Goodwin @joncgoodwin.bsky.social · 12d

To an impressive degree, it's all already in Lem.

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Jonathan Goodwin @joncgoodwin.bsky.social · 12d

It's a theory-of-mind thing. Arrows pass harmlessly through their rib cages, so they assume others will enjoy the thrill. Don't blame---educate!

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Jonathan Goodwin @joncgoodwin.bsky.social · 12d

For certain basic researches in literary science, I'm currently reading through every JSTOR entry for "marie roget" OR "marie rogêt" (trust but verify), and I came across "The Symbol of the Archaic" again, which I had to re-read, even though it's a cursory reference. It's just that damn good.

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Jonathan Goodwin @joncgoodwin.bsky.social · 13d

Ooh, a minor update to biblatex-swiss-legal!

Jonathan Goodwin @joncgoodwin.bsky.social · 13d

I enjoy Slow Horses, but I'd like it even more if it were a pure office comedy, perhaps with a subtle bit of The Prisoner ‘vibe.’

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Jonathan Goodwin @joncgoodwin.bsky.social · 16d

Why is The Pound Era on that list? I should be well equipped to answer that question but have no idea.

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Jonathan Goodwin @joncgoodwin.bsky.social · 16d

It definitely seems like it is colonizing some lifeworlds.

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Jonathan Goodwin @joncgoodwin.bsky.social · 19d

I remember a long, fan-fiction style excursus on the subjects of rationalism, AI dangers, consciousness-uploading, Russian cosmism, the computer, and such topics called "The Canons of Joffrey." I can't find it anywhere.

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Jonathan Goodwin @joncgoodwin.bsky.social · 20d

Digimon is real? Does that imply the same for Digimon Otis?

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Jonathan Goodwin @joncgoodwin.bsky.social · 20d

I continue to experience this with John from Cincinnati, so I know what it's like.

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Jonathan Goodwin @joncgoodwin.bsky.social · 21d

Just typed my favorite publishers' location: Yonkers-on-Hudson. What, you're going to omit this? That's how you want to live?

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Jonathan Goodwin @joncgoodwin.bsky.social · 22d

Smiley has a Callot admired by Bill Haydon, as I remember. Probably not this one (?)

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Jonathan Goodwin @joncgoodwin.bsky.social · 23d

A chuck roast I tend to buy at Costco has increased in price by about 5/3s over the last month or so. I just saw another post wondering about levels of media coverage of this sort of thing between now and a couple of years ago.

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Jonathan Goodwin @joncgoodwin.bsky.social · 23d

you told them there were kobolds in the abandoned moathouse, and now you act surprised?

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Jonathan Goodwin @joncgoodwin.bsky.social · 23d

For intellectual arrogance, I don't think even the economists can match physicists. Literary scholars are also vicious, just lacking the solid methodological footing to land blows on each other.

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