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John Dickie on the Italian Mafia | FiveBooks | The Browser
The Godfather is a “three bears” story about the three sons – Sonny, Michael and Fredo. Sonny is too macho and too violent, and Fredo is too wimpy. Michael is just right – he’s the calculating family man. The book makes uncomfortable reading because it uses sex and sexuality as a metaphor for all of this. Fredo is dissipated and a bit of an aesthete, while Michael only ever has sex in the missionary position. Sonny is basically a walking male member – the novel talks an awful lot about the dimensions of his virilia. So The Godfather has that kind of comic aspect to it. It’s a really strange novel and it seems extraordinary that it has managed to sell 21 million copies, given how clunky and weird it is.
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BLDGBLOG: Various forms of lithic disguise
the Swiss military has, in effect, wired the entire country to blow in the event of foreign invasion. To keep enemy armies out, bridges will be dynamited, and, when possible, deliberately collapsed onto any roads and bridges below; hills have been weaponized to be activated as valley-sweeping artificial landslides; mountain tunnels will be sealed from within to act as nuclear-proof air raid shelters; and much more.
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In his time, the Doctor has brought down oppressive regimes (often within 24 hours, without even breaking into a sweat) yet he’s also supported absolute monarchies against revolution. He’s thwarted the machinations of despots, military leaders, free-market businessmen and self-described freedom fighters with equal vigour. Although religious belief is usually dismissed as primitive superstition, he has equally opposed the most perverse extrapolations of science. The Doctor is no one-trick pony, imposing the same solution on every situation.
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Breathtaking landscapes and monuments carved from books
If you can overcome the sacrilege of carving up big, heavy reference books, Guy Laramee’s paper and binding sculptures are nothing short of stunning. He transforms heavy tomes into mountains, waves, and rock-face monuments.
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A Tokyo property built round a really big and ugly pipe — Tokyo Times
Land is not only expensive in Tokyo, but also scarce, so invariably every single plot is used as much as is humanly possible. And that also means used no matter how solid said land is, or even what architectural problems it may present.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.