This week I read and watched: The Death of Ivan Ilyich, by Leo Tolstoy: I loved the movie Ikiru, which I watched a month or two ago. It was was inspired by this novella. The friend who recommended Ikiru also recommended this book. It’s one of the best I’ve read. It’s thoughtful, funny with biting satire, and a joy to read or listen to. It’s also in the public domain[…] Keep reading →

I mostly post about lost nature, but here’s a post on its resilience: a blue jay that visits my rooftop. I’m not a bird watcher, but who doesn’t love colorful birds? Growing up in Philadelphia, I saw blue jays all the time. Blue birds were less common and disappeared over the course of my childhood. In Manhattan, pigeons and house sparrows comprise nearly all bird species. Sometimes I’ll see a[…] Keep reading →

Bill McKibben wrote about economic growth yesterday in the New Yorker, asking “To Save the Planet, Should We Really Be Moving Slower? The degrowth movement makes a comeback.” He referred to a 2020 New Yorker piece “Can We Have Prosperity Without Growth?.” The latter piece nearly exclusively looked at how economists looked at growth. Why should we listen to economists? Is it a science? Consider physics. In 1896, the renowned[…] Keep reading →

Chris is a Professor in the Biological Sciences department at Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute. In his words: My lab studies the folding of proteins via structural bioinformatics, molecular simulations, and protein design. We are focused on the folding of green fluorescent protein and its application as a computationally programmable peptide biosensor. We use Hidden Markov models, kinetic simulations, data mining, machine learning, whole gene assembly and other molecular biology techniques, and[…] Keep reading →

I read this week: The Fate Of Empires And Search For Survival, by Sir John Glubb: I started this book expecting irrelevance. The preface describes the author as a British veteran of World War One. The book is twenty-five pages, talking about imperialism. What could he know? I figured, of course he’s viewing the world as an imperialist, likely racist and unsophisticated. Early on, he lists some empires and how[…] Keep reading →

I’ve heard parents say about the environment “I want to be able to look my child in the eye and say ‘I did my best.’” I think it means something darker than they mean, and that they know it, but won’t acknowledge it consciously. I will. When do you say such a thing? Not when things are fine. If the problem is solved, you don’t have to say something like[…] Keep reading →

Among what I read and watched this week: The Life You Can Save, by Peter Singer: I confess I hadn’t read the book before recording our podcast episode (not yet edited, but will update when posted), but I wrote about his drowning child analogy recently. This book blew me away. I expected dry philosophy I would argue against, but found it compelling. I will donate more to charity with enthusiasm.[…] Keep reading →