![npr:
If you said the “s” word in the ninth century, you probably wouldn’t have shocked or offended anyone. Back then, the “s” word was just the everyday word that was used to refer to excrement.
That’s one of many surprising, foul-mouthed facts Melissa Mohr reveals in her new book, Holy S- - -: A Brief History of Swearing. Though the curse words themselves change over time, the category remains constant — we always have a set of words that are off-limits.
“We need some category of swear words,” Mohr says. “[These] words really fulfill a function that people have found necessary for thousands of years.”
Mohr joined NPR’s David Greene to talk about curses through the ages and how the words that offend us reveal a lot about society and its values.
— Interview: Melissa Mohr, Author Of ‘Holy Sh*t’](http://25.media.tumblr.com/6041787e1badc2ad9c55ec4b026c2193/tumblr_mmqwunL0Rw1qdkv8qo1_1280.jpg)
npr:
If you said the “s” word in the ninth century, you probably wouldn’t have shocked or offended anyone. Back then, the “s” word was just the everyday word that was used to refer to excrement.
That’s one of many surprising, foul-mouthed facts Melissa Mohr reveals in her new book, Holy S- - -: A Brief History of Swearing. Though the curse words themselves change over time, the category remains constant — we always have a set of words that are off-limits.
“We need some category of swear words,” Mohr says. “[These] words really fulfill a function that people have found necessary for thousands of years.”
Mohr joined NPR’s David Greene to talk about curses through the ages and how the words that offend us reveal a lot about society and its values.
"Ideas? My head is full of them, one after the other, but they serve no purpose there. They must be put down on paper, one after the other."
- Camilo José Cela (via theparisreview)
This 1653 engraving by Rembrandt inspired composer Frank Martin to write his oratorio Golgotha in 1945. For the Holy Week, we’ve picked a few of our favorite musical Passions.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
"Insight comes, more often than not, from looking at what’s been on the table all along."
- David McCullough (via theparisreview)
"Most of us don’t just hide our heartbreak — worse, we hide from heartbreak. And so we end up something like mute and mapless orphans in the human world; unable to speak the language of mattering; our vocabulary of life itself forever stunted."
- Umair Haque (more here)
![fastcodesign:
4 Things Obama Could Do To Foster America’s Creativity
When President Barack Obama takes the stage on Tuesday night to deliver his State of the Union address, he’ll attempt to take the pulse of the nation and prescribe a cure. His message is going to focus on the economy and helping the middle class. But his prescriptions, as leaked to the media, appear to be standard political fare—boost R&D, build infrastructure, more clean energy, and better schools.
That’s all good, standard stuff but familiar stuff. The problem is that Obama isn’t a very creative president. He’s progressive (which is great by me) but not creative in the sense of sharply reframing our national narrative and offering dramatically different solutions to our challenges.
Creativity is the source of economic value. Creativity takes what money can’t buy and transforms it into what money can buy. We have spent decades focusing on efficiency, and it has brought us stagnating incomes and falling mobility for the middle class. It’s time to focus on creativity.
How could the president amplify the nation’s creativity? Here are four major reframes of our national economic narrative, Mr. President.
1. MAKE ENTREPRENEURSHIP, NOT BIG BUSINESS, THE CENTERPIECE OF ECONOMIC POLICY.
2. MAKE MANUFACTURING, NOT BIOSCIENCE, THE MAJOR RECIPIENT OF FEDERAL R&D SPENDING.
3. PROMOTE CROWDSOURCING. RELEASE THE JOBS ACT FROM THE SEC.
4. MAKE ART AND SHOP COURSES CENTRAL TO EDUCATION.
Here’s the full story.
[Image: Obama]
Interesting thoughts. Really like the idea of putting “making things” at the center of education.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/9833db6b2c8c9efead2655d70f14f7df/tumblr_mi47o1TwVX1r2idzvo1_1280.jpg)
4 Things Obama Could Do To Foster America’s Creativity
When President Barack Obama takes the stage on Tuesday night to deliver his State of the Union address, he’ll attempt to take the pulse of the nation and prescribe a cure. His message is going to focus on the economy and helping the middle class. But his prescriptions, as leaked to the media, appear to be standard political fare—boost R&D, build infrastructure, more clean energy, and better schools.
That’s all good, standard stuff but familiar stuff. The problem is that Obama isn’t a very creative president. He’s progressive (which is great by me) but not creative in the sense of sharply reframing our national narrative and offering dramatically different solutions to our challenges.
Creativity is the source of economic value. Creativity takes what money can’t buy and transforms it into what money can buy. We have spent decades focusing on efficiency, and it has brought us stagnating incomes and falling mobility for the middle class. It’s time to focus on creativity.
How could the president amplify the nation’s creativity? Here are four major reframes of our national economic narrative, Mr. President.
1. MAKE ENTREPRENEURSHIP, NOT BIG BUSINESS, THE CENTERPIECE OF ECONOMIC POLICY.
2. MAKE MANUFACTURING, NOT BIOSCIENCE, THE MAJOR RECIPIENT OF FEDERAL R&D SPENDING.
3. PROMOTE CROWDSOURCING. RELEASE THE JOBS ACT FROM THE SEC.
4. MAKE ART AND SHOP COURSES CENTRAL TO EDUCATION.
[Image: Obama]
Interesting thoughts. Really like the idea of putting “making things” at the center of education.
(via fastcompany)
