Wednesday 19 June, 2024
Eagle eye
Bath Abbey
Quote of the Day
”Life breaks all of us but some of us get stronger in the broken places.”
Ernest Hemingway
Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news
Bruce Springsteen | The Rising
Rise and shine.
Long Read of the Day
Why I write the Common Reader
Lovely essay by Henry Oliver which explains why he produces his remarkable blog.
Why do I write The Common Reader?
I was asked this question in an interview the other day, and gave rather a weak answer. Let me expand.
tl;dr. Most of us die without writing a great novel, but we can all read Anna Karenina.
The aim is simple: I want to understand great literature, how it works, whence it derives. The same is true of the other topics I write about (talent, genius, education, wisdom, and so on). Literature is the focus, but the principles are general.
I am bored by mediocrity, including my own. I believe philistinism is a moral failure at the social level…
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
My commonplace booklet
Akiro Endo RIP
We’re all in his debt. His research into the relationship between fungi and cholesterol biosynthesis led to the development of statin drugs, which are some of the best-selling pharmaceuticals in history. The number of deaths from heart disease and strokes prevented by his invention must be countless. If anyone deserved a Nobel prize, he did. May he rest in peace. The BBC had a nice obit of him. As did the New York Times, though behind its paywall.
Linkblog
Something I noticed, while drinking from the Internet firehose.
Trump’s view of AI Yeah, you guessed it, it’s alarming and incredible and he’s gonna fix it. Link