There comes a time in each life like a point of fulcrum. At that time you must accept yourself. It is not any more what you will become. It is what you are and always will be.
When a writer needed help, only one author would do the trick: Helen Garner
The internet is designed to steal our attention, directing it to flimsy and fleeting concerns. Can anything be done? sone?
Some people come into your life as blessings. Some come into your life as lessons.
The Dying Art of Friendship
Corporate Profits are Soaring as Prices Rise: Are Corporate Greed and Profiteering Fueling Inflation? Senate Budget Committee
Humor and citations
The data are taken from ecology and evolution papers:
Self-citation data suggest that authors give funnier titles to papers they consider less important. After correction for this confound, papers with funny titles have significantly higher citation rates, suggesting that humour recruits readers. We also examined associations between citation rates and several other features of titles. Inclusion of acronyms and taxonomic names was associated with lower citation rates, while assertive-statement phrasing and presence of colons, question marks, and political regions were associated with somewhat higher citation rates. Title length had no effect on citation. Our results suggest that scientists can use creativity with titles without having their work condemned to obscurity.
The authors of this paper are , , . Via Michelle Dawson. p.s. The paper has a (modestly) funny title — “If this title is funny, will you cite me?”
1. Alan Bollard, Economists at War: How a Handful of Economists Helped Win and Lose the World Wars. A useful book on a much underrated topic. Keynes, Kantorovich, and Leontief receive the most attention, though the book also covers of Takahashi Korekiyo of Japan. My main complaint is the absence of Thomas Schelling.
2. Elizabeth Wilson, Playing with Fire: The Story of Maria Yudina, Pianist in Stalin’s Russia. She converted from Judaism to Orthodox Christianity, and her career spanned from the 1920s through 1970. She was at times out of favor, other times Stalin’s favorite pianist. Called a “holy fool” by many, this is an excellent biography that brings its subject to life. And her playing was full of depth, albeit with often creaky sound..
3. Ian Barnes, Restless Empire: A Historical Atlas of Russia. One of the very most useful books for understanding Russian history — about half of this one is maps! Changing maps over the ages. These are the maps that Putin looks at, you should too. A high quality book in all regards.
4. Sarah Weinman, Scoundrel: How a Convicted Murderer Persuaded the Women Who Loved Him, the Conservative Establishment, and the Courts to Set Him Free. The murderer is Edgar Smith and the conservative is William F. Buckley — how could anyone have been fooled by these remorseless criminals? A good look at what had been becoming a forgotten episode. A tale of self-deception to the nth degree.
5. Caroline Elkins, Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire. Yes, the empire truly was based in unacceptable levels of violence, and at its very core. This excellent book is the very best demonstration of those propositions. Historically thorough, and covers more than just a few cases.
There is a new reissue, with a new and good introduction, of Orlando Patterson, The Sociology of Slavery: Black Society in Jamaica, 1655-1838.
Ben Westhoff, Little Brother: Love, Tragedy, and my Search for the Truth is a very good narrative by a very good author.
Jeevan Vasagar, Lion City: Singapore and the Invention of Modern Asia is a decent first book to read on Singapore, although mostly it was interior to my current knowledge set.