Life is like Batman. It doesn't to kill you, just keeps hitting you until you're too weak to move or do anything about it.
Louis Andriessen, RIP (NYT): “Mr. Andriessen wrote that in Mr. Greenaway’s films, “I recognize something of my own work, namely the combination of intellectual material and vulgar directness.””
Why Writers Need Agents
Writers need agents more than agents need writers. They have needed them since the late 19th century, when an increasingly literate public fed by the magazines and single-volume prints made possible by the invention of Linotype printing created a lucrative industry. – The Guardian
The Bright Side of Bad Choices: Evidence from Restaurant Exploration
“Given these results, we show that it may be optimal to visit restaurants in a zigzag that alternates between high- and low-quality choices.” I am not endorsing that one …
New youngest chess grandmaster in history is 12 years old and lives in New Jersey. Father is a software engineer, Indian background.
Obviously, getting the AstraZeneca shot isn’t going to be the right choice for everyone, but after hours of research (including writing quite literally 2,000 words on the situation on Wednesday) and consulting my doctor, I decided I was willing to take the risk.
My AstraZeneca Symptoms Felt Like The Doctor Injected Tequila Directly Into My Veins
How high’s the water, mama?
Aqua Aesthetica, ‘Visual Research on Sea Level Rise’ by artist Marijn Achternaam. See also, ‘Stories to save the world: the new wave of climate fiction. Still sort of related, a house in a water tower / Inventive Vents: A Gazetteer of London’s Ventilation Shafts, found via this Guardian review, which also points us to the amazing Layers of London mapping website / a Bonhamsauction, Aeropittura: Italian Futurism in Flight, using art to storyboard the next wave of horror, which presumably gave the Futurists tingles of transgressive joy / interactive musical sculptures by Bichopalo. More on YouTube / related, a new version of the TAL noisemaker VST synth / illustration by Dominika Lipniewska / cars that got cancelled, in the old sense of the word / a profile of Joe Rush, one of the founders of the legendary Mutoid Waste Company.
Different takes on the future
Photographs by Thibaut Derien (via El tiempo en cucharitas de café) / so what problem does this solve exactly? The Aska flying car-roadable helicopter / The Story of the MiniDisc, ‘Sony’s 1990s Audio Format That’s Gone But Not Forgotten’ / Rosemary Hill, former things contributor, on Edward Gorey (both via Daniel Benneworth-Gray) / go with the flow: sheep and drones/ Die of D.I.Y?, slightly illicit music downloads / Peter Zinovieff has died, one of the pioneers of sampling, and the founder of Electronic Music Studios, ‘The World’s Longest Established Synthesizer Manufacturer‘. Zinovieff also appears in the highly recommended Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes / an episode of the Reasonably Sound podcast about climate change, as well ‘as the ecological impact of vinyl records and digital music streaming’ (via MeFi, which has an interesting digression into the virtues of relative vinyl weights) / you do it to yourself, part 26. If ‘Twitter is the Stasi for the Angry Birds generation‘ (according to Stewart Lee), then are smart doorbells creating a global surveillance network? / Don’t believe the alien hype, for Aliens Wouldn’t Need Warp Drives to Take Over an Entire Galaxy, Simulation Suggests. So where are they? / a selection of long-form pieces about scams and con-artists.