‘Forever is one thing born from another; life is given to none to own, but to all to use.’ Lucretius
via Dead and Alive: Essays, Zadie Smith
AG2026_1178190a or to all to use
Author: dig
Archimedes of Syracuse
Archimedes of Syracuse (c. 287 BC – c. 212 BC) was a Greek mathematician, philosopher, scientist and engineer.
??? ??? ?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??????. [Dôs moi pâ stô, kaì tàn gân kinás?.]
- Give me the place to stand, and I shall move the earth.
- Said to be his assertion in demonstrating the principle of the lever; as quoted by Pappus of Alexandria, Synagoge, Book VIII, c. AD 340; also found in Chiliades (12th century) by John Tzetzes, II.130. This and “Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the world” are the most commonly quoted translations.
- Variant translations:
- Give me a place to stand and with a lever I will move the whole world.
- This variant derives from an earlier source than Pappus: The Library of History of Diodorus Siculus, Fragments of Book XXVI, as translated by F. R. Walton, in Loeb Classical Library (1957) Vol. XI. In Doric Greek this may have originally been ?? ??, ??? ?????????? ??? ??? ?????? ????? [P? b?, kai kharisti?ni tan g?n kin?s? [variant kinas?] p?san].
- Give me a lever and a place to stand and I will move the earth.
- Give me a fulcrum, and I shall move the world.
- Give me a firm spot on which to stand, and I shall move the earth.
Archimedes said, “Give to me a fulcrum on which to plant my lever, and I will move the world.” And I say, give to woman the ballot, the political fulcrum, on which to plant her moral lever, and she will lift the world into a nobler purer atmosphere.
- Susan B. Anthony from here 1870s
Archimedean point : a reliably certain position or starting point that serves as the basis for argument or reasoning (Merriam-Webster)
Serve God, love me, and mend.
Gray Catbird Dumetella carolinensis. (ebird)
Serve God, love me, and mend.
Much Ado About Nothing – Act 5, scene 2
SMU Symposium on Poetic Form 2026.
The second biannual SMU Symposium on Poetic Form will be held on the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas on February 23 and 24, 2026. Once again, we look forward to a gathering of poets and scholars from around the world to discuss aspects of poetics such as rhyme, poetry and big data, sonnets, and newly invented forms. The 2026 Symposium will feature keynote poet Ada Limón and keynote scholar Anahid Nersessian. Plenary speakers will include Patience Agbabi, Stephanie Burt, Camille Dungy, Virginia Jackson, and Jahan Ramazani.
[Looking up at the stars, I know quite well]
Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.
How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.
Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.
Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime
Though this might take me a little time.
The More Loving One, W. H. Auden
Architectonic
That [science] which treats of those conditions of knowledge which lie in the nature, not of thought itself, but of that which we think about?…?has been called?…?Architectonic, in so far as it treats of the method of building up our observations into system.
—Sir William Hamilton
…?one of which systems is a poem.
via Ed Roberson
i must be careful about such things as these.
the thin-grained oak. the quiet grizzlies scared
into the hills by the constant tracks squeezing
in behind them closer in the snow. the snared
rigidity of the winter lake. deer after deer
crossing on the spines of fish who look up and stare
with their eyes pressed to the ice. in a sleep. hearing
the thin taps leading away to collapse like the bear
in the high quiet. i must be careful not to shake
anything in too wild an elation. not to jar
the fragile mountains against the paper far-
ness. nor avalanche the fog or the eagle from the air.
of the gentle wilderness i must set the precarious
words. like rocks. without one snowcapped mistake.
be careful, Ed Roberson
My heaven deserting for another sphere
How like a star you rose upon my life,
Shedding fair radiance o’er my darkened hour!
At your uprise swift fled the turbid strife
Of grief and fear,—so mighty was your power!
And I must weep that you now disappear,
Casting eclipse upon my cheerless night—
My heaven deserting for another sphere,
Shedding elsewhere your aye-regretted light.
An Hesperus no more to gild my eve,
You glad the morning of another heart;
And my fond soul must mutely learn to grieve,
While thus from every joy it swells apart.
Yet I may worship still those gentle beams,
Though not on me they shed their silver rain;
And thought of you may linger in my dreams,
And Memory pour balm upon my pain.
Stanzas [How like a star you rose upon my life,], Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
The lunar Gateway will be the first international space station around the Moon and will support the most distant human space missions ever attempted. The lunar outpost is being assembled for operation around the Moon, providing a place to live and work in lunar orbit. Whereas the International Space Station orbits Earth, the Gateway will orbit the Moon, acting as a base for scientific research of the deep space environment, a host for technology development and demonstration experiments, as well as a staging post supporting exploration missions to the lunar surface and beyond.
In addition to payloads that will fly to this new space station, ESA is contributing three key elements to the Gateway: Lunar I-Hab, Lunar View and Lunar Link. Together, these provide a habitable space for astronauts, refuelling, storage and telecommunication capabilities, and windows to view space and the Moon. The Gateway will be assembled this decade, built as part of the Artemis programme in an international collaboration between ESA, NASA and the space agencies of Canada (CSA), Japan (JAXA) and the United Arab Emirates (MBRSC).
Credits: ESA–A. Brancaccio
What’s just beyond
Charlayne Hunter-Gault interviewed Toni Morrison, 1987.
Being on the surface of a spherical planet, we find flatness conflates scale, distance, and time. Our relations to what is just beyond are illusionary, continually unfolding, and expansive. The horizon holds the counterpart to our here–real, ongoing, and seemingly determined. From there will emerge all utopian promises for justice, imaginaries for the enrichment of humanity, fully formed structures in the support a life, good fortune, and knowledge, and futures to be written. As we belong there, in equal parts to the here we find ourselves; we move about and maneuver in ways to reach for the enchanted from the complement realm.
