fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative
estimate, though I keep this from my children.
For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird.
For every loved child, a child broken, bagged,
sunk in a lake. Life is short and the world
is at least half terrible, and for every kind
stranger, there is one who would break you, though I keep this from my children.
Byelections have a
particular place in political folklore. Anyone involved in politics at the time
remembers Flinders, Canberra, Lindsay, Ryan, Aston and how they transformed the
politics of the day, either by "rocking" the government, or giving a
government often beset by woes a huge shot in the arm. Long after we all forget
how both sides of politics were claiming the Bennelong byelection as a win, it
will go down in political folklore as Malcolm Turnbull's "recalled to
life" moment - a result most notable for the fact that the alternative
would have blown up politics.
Almanac: Tom Stoppard on the theater business
A Study Says Reading Aloud Usually Helps Humans Remember Better
Bennelong: Malcolm Turnbull's 'recalled to life' moment | afr.com
Almanac: Tom Stoppard on the theater business
Welcome To The News Paywall 2.0
from The Atlantic
Good Readers Versus Bad Readers
from Boston Review
James Salter: Why I Became A Writer
from Lithub
How Dana Gioia Composes His Poems (Very Physically)
from BBC
A Whole New Variety Of English Has Developed In The Lesvos Refugee Camp
from New Statesman
You Know How People Start Reading Books And Don’t Finish? They’re No Better About Audiobooks
from The Guardian
Why Hearing The Sounds Of Nature Make Us Feel Physically Better…
"A study published in March demonstrated that natural sounds have the ability to relieve psychological and physiological stress. Using fMRI and heart-rate monitoring, researchers Gould van Praag, et al, of the University of Sussex found that listening to natural sounds improved parasympathetic activity, whereas listening to artificial sounds prompted sympathetic arousal." … [Read More]
Involving more senses probably helps. "The authors suggest that reading things aloud involves different types of processing, which makes it more active and engages us more than reading silently." … [Read More]
One Perfect Way To Describe Our Experiences Of 2017
We all need a way to de-stress and unwind from, let's say, things in the outside world that are troubling or flat-out terrifying. But don't try to take our phones away! … [Read More]