Finished reading: On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt 📚
A timeless masterpiece that takes less than an hour to read, much longer to digest. What reminded me of Frankfurt’s essay was an article about the age of the bullshitter which, alas, ended up being its own kind of bullshit.
Adam Mastroianni’s Experimental History newsletter has enabled paid subscriptions today, and if there is one science-oriented Substack worth paying for, it’s Adam’s. I’m sold.
Finished reading: The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by M. John Harrison 📚
A story of damp decay. I didn’t know enough about English geography to fully appreciate the intricacies, but Harrison is the master of the uneasy atmosphere and he got that one just right.
🍿 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is on the regular re-watch list. Think what you will of Tim Burton’s style — and I don’t think it fits this particular story — the movie works almost as well as the book in being a didactic tool for toddlers and pre-teens.
It is hard to watch an animation like this (a plot of England’s population versus GDP from 1270 onwards) without a sense of awe, followed by slight discomfort for what could come next.
Old (1999), but still good. [Note: Even when I first wrote this, and even older now. ]
When I was a house officer and installing one of the first right-heart catheters, the machine that showed intrapulmonic arterial pressures was enormous and was equipped with strain gauges rather than computer chips. Making it work was difficult. After the line was in, the attending, the nurse, and I tried desperately to adjust the machine to show the pulmonary arterial pressure waves. We could not get them. The line on the screen remained flat. We manipulated toggle switches and strain gauges for about 15 minutes. Nothing. Finally, I glanced at the patient: He was dead.
The story after that is even better.
Things that the Arc browser does well:
The one thing keeping me from using it full-time:
Posting yearly reading lists has become risky as of late, but that won’t stop me. As with last year’s this is more of a guide than a mandate: I may — but probably won’t — read all of them. Odds are, my favorite book of the year won’t even be one on the list.
The downside of living in a city others come to visit is that it never feels like a good time to be a tourist. Yes, D.C. is lovely just walking around — flaneuring, if you will — but all those buildings around the National Mall are still worth visiting.
Which is to say, our tickets for a tour of the Capitol are booked. It was now or never, since this year will probably be our last in Washington proper.
I have seen many people sharing links to Maciej Cegłowski’s (excellent!) case against colonizing Mars.
Of course, Werner Herzog said it first, and more succinctly. Good luck with that, indeed.