No better place for critter-watching than the beach. This one was on Captiva island in 2021, one year before the big hurricane. I hope it made it.
Always great to see a treatment mature from the lab to clinical trials to a write-up in The Atlantic. This is about post-transplant cyclophosphamide, initially developed at Hopkins for haploidentical (“half-matched”) stem cell transplants, now used even for full matches as it works so well in preventing graft versus host disease. Cheap as chips too, if you can get it (but of course low price and short supply are closely related).
Exhibited at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, on loan from Angola: a Mosasaurus skull, leg and spine.
I don’t think we knew about these when I was a kid, but my own children knew all about it. From YouTube, where else.
The same pond as yesterday, with more light but alas without the heron.
🍿 Finding Dory (2016) was a disappointment. For perspective, I have seen Wall-E and Ratatouille dozens of times beginning-to-end, but it took me 8 years to finish this over-plotted under-baked mess which managed to omit everything that made the original Finding Nemo so brilliant. Quo vadis, Pixar?
Zoom in to the center of this dreamy Brookside Gardens landscape and you will see… another blue heron, holding on to an indecently large goldfish.
A blue heron in a sea of blue, as seen at the Calvert Cliffs beach.
Thomas Jefferson built this plantation and called it Monticello — “little mountain”. Note the difference in size, proportion and style between this, a real mansion, and a McMansion.
📚 Finished reading: On Great Writing (On the Sublime) by Longinus, fragments of a 2,000-year-old book which are as relevant as ever:
One should realize, my friend, that, as in everyday life, nothing is noble which is noble to despise.
And also, bringing to mind Nassim Taleb’s stance on nitpickers):
Preciseness in every detail incurs the risk of pettiness, whereas with the very great, as with the very rich, something must inevitably be neglected.
And many more!
🍿 Casino Royale (2006) is one of the better Bond movies but has a little too much fun shooting on location and ultimately, at 144 minute run-time, overstays its welcome. Still, not having every scene be obviously green screened was refreshing. It’s strange to think that Daniel Craig may become our kids' idea of 007 but hey, it could be worse.