Media Dragon: Fragments Gudinski charter 707

       'Encounters with Polish Literature'

       The Polish Cultural Institute New York is presenting a monthly series of Encounters with Polish Literature this year, hosted by David A. Goldfarb, with the first two episodes already available for viewing. Each episode has him: "in conversation with an expert on that author or book or movement in Polish literature", and it's a great line-up -- both of subject-matter and experts.
       At A&S News Sarah MacFarlane now reports on how A&S alumnus David Goldfarb explores Polish literature in talk-show style video series.

Australia’s youngest billionaire Nick Molnar and his wife Gabrielle, both 31, had not long settled into their $27 million home on the clifftop at North Bondi’s Ben Buckler when word spread on the street that the 1970s block of six apartments next door was to be redeveloped.

No doubt most of the neighbours reconciled themselves to a few years of early morning construction work, but not the co-founder of buy-now-pay-after juggernaut Afterpay. Instead, the couple bought up the entire block for their personal use.

Afterpay’s Nick Molnar makes like a billionaire, buys block next door for $18.5m

Liars are more likely to believe other lies: study.

Invitations went out for the service, which will be held at Rod Laver Arena. Doors open at 5.30pm, but the service commences at 7.07pm. What’s with that highly unusual start time?

The answer is pure Gudinski. It is in honour of his favourite tipple, Penfolds Bin 707. The cabernet sauvignon is described as a Grange equivalent: “Powerful, black, smoky, dense aromas followed by a loose knit blackcurrant, meaty, chocolaty palate. Not a shy wine.” Sound like anyone you know?

Secret of Michael Gudinski’s wine time

Spain to plant thousands of trees to help feed bears, as climate change forces them from hibernation early inews

YouTube Star Tim Pool’s News Site Collapses Amid Allegations He Took a Cat Hostage Daily Beast

Prehistoric women were successful big-game hunters, challenging beliefs about ancient gender roles The Conversation

New Kind of Space Explosion Reveals the Birth of a Black Hole Quanta. Anthony L: “On being eaten from the inside by a Black Hole.” Moi: Eeew!

Countries Tried to Curb Trade in Plastic Waste. The U.S. Is Shipping More New York Times

BEHOLD, THE RARE DRUG THAT FIGHTS THE TERRIFYING VIRUS: Israeli Study: Aspirin Helps Protect against Covid-19.

On the Case for Meanness in Fiction

What is good for you as a person is often bad for you as a writer. People will tell you that this not true, and some of the people who will tell you that are also writers, but they are bad writers, at least when they try to convince you, and themselves, that the most important thing for a fiction writer to have is compassion. Flannery O’Connor suggested in her essay “Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction” (1960) that compassion was perhaps the most overrated of all the fiction writer’s supposed imperatives: “It’s considered an absolute necessity these days for writers to have compassion. Compassion is a word that sounds good in anybody’s mouth and which no book jacket can do without. It is a quality which no one can put his finger on in any exactly critical sense, so it is always safe for anybody to use.” In other words, O’Connor suggests that compassion—as shown by a writer by way of her fiction—is important only to nitwits and cowards.

Book Sales Are Up 20 Percent In Australia. And Book Subscriptions Are Booming

Among the winners of this literary resurgence is a micro-industry: book subscription services, which curate a selection for you and deliver them to your home. In an era of information overload and a crowded literary market with an often debilitating degree of choice, it isn’t hard to see the attraction of professionals highly attuned to the market – or algorithms catered to your tastes – making the decisions for you. – The Guardian

A Critic Reviews 125 Years Of The NYT’s Book Reviews

To wander through 125 years of book reviews is to endure assault by adjective. All the fatuous books, the frequently brilliant, the disappointing, the essential. The adjectives one only ever encounters in a review (indelible, risible), the archaic descriptors (sumptuous). So many masterpieces, so many duds — now enjoying quiet anonymity. – The New York Times

How To Write A Second Novel When Your First Wins The Pulitzer

Viet Thanh Nguyen says it wasn’t as easy as writing The Sympathizer, his 2016 Pulitzer-winning novel: “I would write in 50-page chunks – I wrote 50 pages before the Pulitzer. Then my life got really messy for a couple of years while I wrote the middle of the book. Towards the end, I finally figured out how to balance everything that was making demands on me and felt like I was back in the groove again.” – The Guardian (UK)

These Fragments Were Dismissed As Fake 140 Years Ago. Were They Actually The Oldest Surviving Biblical Manuscript?

An antiquities dealer in Jerusalem came forward in 1883 with what he claimed were fragments of the original book of Deuteronomy. After scholars at the time pronounced them forgeries, the dealer committed suicide and the fragments eventually disappeared. Now a scholar, working with old photos and transcriptions of the fragments, argues that they are an early (and somewhat different) version of the last book of Moses and that they date from before the Babylonian Exile. – The New York Times